ARC Raiders Review (So Far) - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Summary

Kinda Funny Gamescast – ARC Raiders Review (So Far)

Date: November 3, 2025
Episode Theme:
A roundtable “first impressions” review of ARC Raiders, the new multiplayer extraction shooter from Embark Studios. Hosts Greg Miller, Mike “Snowbike Mike” Mahardy, Andy Cortez, and Nick Scarpino break down their early experiences, dissect the extraction shooter genre, share wild stories from in-game, discuss design strengths and room for improvement, and question the game's staying power.

---

Episode Overview

This episode is dedicated to discussing the panel’s early experiences with ARC Raiders, a newly released extraction shooter that’s garnering strong player interest and positive critical reception. The crew dives into what makes the game compelling, relives emergent stories and betrayals, analyzes the genre, and speculates on ARC Raiders’ lasting allure and issues. Audience questions and super chats fuel a candid, thorough “review-in-progress.”

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. ARC Raiders – Setup and Hype

• Game Info:
  • Extraction shooter set on a ravaged future Earth with mechanized threats ("ARCs").
  • Released October 30, 2025; $40 on Steam.
  • Developer: Embark Studios; current Metacritic: 78 (limited reviews, review-in-progress meta).
  • Hit 355,000+ concurrent players on Steam at peak.
• Disclosure:
  • Kinda Funny previously ran a sponsored segment for ARC Raiders; hosts encourage listeners to take these impressions with a grain of salt ([10:35]).

Notable Quotes:

• “This was the first big weekend that all the jabronis and all my friends were jumping into it and I missed it… Am I so far behind?” — Nick Scarpino ([11:39])
• "Every run feels so different..." — Andy Cortez ([14:48])

2. Early Impressions & Gameplay Loop

Nick’s Experience ([11:21]):

• Only played on-stream, but the experience of squad play and emergent moments is a huge draw.
• Expresses FOMO for missing group sessions but loves the social, unpredictable player encounters.

Andy’s Experience ([12:18]):

• 16+ hours, plus multiple playtests/betas.
• Likes: unpredictable runs, moment-to-moment chaos, the "number go up" progression, player choice between cooperation and betrayal.
  • "It's a great time so far. I'm really, really enjoying myself."
• Minor gripes: Detail could be ironed out in progression, quest tracking.

Greg’s Experience ([16:21]):

• Sporadic play due to adult life; stresses the “FOMO” of missing out on group hijinks.
• Has fun even playing solo, encounters new and unpredictable player interactions (emotes to signal peace, alliances that form and break, memorable escapes).
  • “Every one of those [sessions] feels different… I’m still so early getting my sea legs.”

Mike’s Experience ([19:59]):

• 24+ hours in since Friday; describes rare pull to “drop everything and play.”
• Highlights: smooth launch, great audio design, satisfying skill trees and progression, and the thrill of player interaction.
  • "Haven't had this much excitement and desire to drop everything and play a game for a long time."
• Enjoys hunting other players and “trolling,” toggles between aiding players and betraying them at extraction.

Emergent Player Stories:

• The Hammer Clip:
  • Andy, Mike, and Washburn run out of ammo; Andy resorts to melee (hammer) to down another player ([14:49]-[15:39]).
  • "Enjoy the no loot we have. We don't got [anything] on us."

3. Game Design & Systems

Onboarding & Accessibility ([20:57]):

• Welcoming to new players, with free loadout systems and generous early experience.
• "Most welcoming" of the extraction subgenre according to Mike.
• Plucky the Rooster system ensures you always have basic gear, incentivizing risk.

PvE vs. PvP Balance ([37:13]):

• Andy praises balance between PvE loot-hunting and the always-present PvP threat.
• Trios mode = "always be on alert," Solo mode brings out more cooperation and friendliness.
  • "The solo experience has by far been the friendliest... you'll still get shot every now and then…"

Compulsion Loop and Progression ([38:05]):

• Crafting, gear upgrades, steady mission expansion, generous skill tree all reward play time.
• Free loadout system encourages both risk-taking and approachability for new and casual players.

Mission Variety:

• Mission structure is primarily “go here, loot this, kill that,” not heavily narrative-driven or setpiece-based ([46:59]-[47:39]).
• Andy: Missions are excitement catalysts but rarely “exciting” themselves—thrill comes from encounters along the way, not the tasks.

4. World Building & Audio

Audio Praise ([21:53]):

• Mike and Andy rave about environmental sound design—bullets, footsteps, robot noises, tension-shifting ambiances.
• Battlefields’ audio referenced as a benchmark, but ARC Raiders “very close”.
• "The shield break... feels so satisfying. It sounds great. This game is amazing." — Andy ([23:04])

Atmosphere and Visuals:

• Night raids, weather effects (e.g., rain, lightning), promised future snow—contribute to changing gameplay feel.
• Emergent moments: spooky maps, tense showdowns in “dead silent” environments.

5. Social Dynamics and Ethics

Emergent Betrayal and Trust ([25:39], [26:55]):

• Tales of Mike befriending, then betraying, other players—central to the fun and unpredictability.
  • "For the past six hours... camping extraction points and murdering people for fun."
• Andy: Sometimes this crosses a line—“That would have been permanent damage to, like, a permanent, like, I don't want to play with you in the future.”

Friend Group Dynamics:

• Contrasts between playing with Mike (chaotic, competitive) vs. with Andy or Blessing (more measured, co-op focused).
  • "Playing with Mike is like Greg, if you want to hang out with me... we're going to get into heroin. We're going to be ruined forever and never want to come back to this. But it's going to be really fun in that moment." — Andy ([67:15])

6. Endgame, Longevity, and Roadmap

Replayability Concerns ([43:30]):

• Mike questions how long the compulsion loop lasts: After onboarding friends and replaying early missions, will veteran players have enough new content?
• Soloing is the fastest way to “catch up” and enable group endgame play without repetition ([45:30]).
• Missions can get repetitive; some burnout after prolonged sessions.

Roadmap Discussion ([53:53], [55:01]):

• Season plan: New maps monthly, snow/holiday events, new arcs/enemy types, new gameplay features, with community responding well so far.
• "If a team has so many players and people are excited… you have to keep feeding that beast." — Mike
• For heavy players, the novelty can wear off quickly; for “regular” gamers, the progression and updates promise a healthy lifespan.

7. Critiques & Quality-of-Life Requests

Inventory/UI:

• Wishes for better inventory management, custom tabs, improved menu sorting ([62:07]).

Quest Pins:

• Desire for ability to pin mission objectives on UI instead of only accessing via map ([40:44]).

AI Voice Acting:

• Strong criticisms of text-to-speech AI for quest givers and NPCs—flat delivery and worker equity concerns ([62:58]-[64:04]).
  • Real actors are used in cutscenes, but most quest lines are generated via AI-trained voices "It just sounds bad... I'd almost rather not have that there because it is kind of just bad, you know, in multiple ways." - Andy

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments (with Timestamps)

• “This is without question the most hooked I found myself on an Extraction shooter and I've played a lot of them with clean, tense gunplay, a progression system that's been incredibly satisfying so far, and a loot game that has me sweating over what to put in my backpack and what to leave behind.” — Quoting IGN’s review ([10:54])
• “Enjoy the no loot we have. We don't got [anything] on us.” — Andy post-melee kill ([15:27])
• "I'm out hunting for you... you are the most dangerous game." — Mike ([57:11])
• "The solo experience has by far been the friendliest... you'll still get shot every now and then..." — Andy ([34:24])
• “Playing with Mike is like... we're going to get into heroin. We're going to be ruined forever and never want to come back to this.” — Andy ([67:15])
• “The missions aren't exciting. They are just... it's a checklist ... the idea of just going out and doing, just being out there, getting some stuff, coming back, being able to upgrade and seeing that very small progression payoff…” — Greg ([47:54])

---

Segment Timestamps for Reference

• 00:01–07:16: Banter, staff intros, Halloween recaps
• 07:16–11:21: Show topic intro, ARC Raiders setup, reviews elsewhere
• 11:21–19:59: Each host’s time played, first impressions, group vs. solo, FOMO
• 19:59–23:14: Snowbike Mike’s deep-dive, “moment to moment” hooks, launch impressions, audio design
• 23:14–30:12: Stories of betrayal, emergent moments, how group play and solos differ
• 30:12–37:13: Super chats—squad vs. solo experiences, how lobbies are handled, friendliness in solo
• 37:13–41:47: PvE vs. PvP, mission structure and progression loop, crafting/shop systems
• 41:47–47:51: Replayability, main/side missions, progression advice
• 47:51–53:17: Upgrading weapons, learning curve, stories about trust, “running with Mike”
• 53:17–64:55: Roadmap analysis, longevity, content needs for hardcore/veteran vs. casual players, AI voice critiques, QOL brainstorm
• 64:55–68:37: Wrap-up, future streams teased, group dynamics, outlandish analogies

---

Summary and Next Steps

Consensus: The panel is highly positive on ARC Raiders’ early days. The game excels thanks to:

• Unpredictable, emergent storytelling every session
• A forgiving and inviting onboarding/progression system
• Well-designed map/mission structure for PvP/PvE balance
• Audio/atmosphere that enhances tension and fun

Concerns:
Core missions lack excitement; potential for burnout if future updates stall. Quality-of-life requests include improved inventory, mission tracking, and less reliance on AI-generated voice lines.

Outlook:
With new maps and features promised, ARC Raiders could enjoy long legs—provided Embark Studios maintains pace with content and quality-of-life updates.

Final Thoughts

• For genre fans: ARC Raiders is off to an incredibly promising start—play now while community energy is high and update momentum is strong.
• For solo players: The game currently offers the friendliest solo extraction shooter environment.
• For “jabronis”: Prepare for both awesome betrayals and emergent alliances; the real fun is in the stories you’ll tell afterward.

---

Upcoming Streams:

• Tuesday: Jabroni boys (sponsored stream)
• Wednesday: Greg, Andy, Blessing
• Friday: Mike, Nick, Greg

Tune in for more wild runs and betrayals, and keep eyes on Kinda Funny as ARC Raiders’ saga continues.

---

For Listeners: Key Takeaways

• ARC Raiders is a must-try for anyone curious about extraction shooters, especially while the community is welcoming and new content is coming.
• Play solo to learn and progress, squad up for chaos and laughs.
• Don’t get too attached to your loot—trust is optional, betrayal is fun, and the stories will be legendary.

---

(End of summary. Skip ahead to [66:37] for closing banter and future plans.)

Transcript

[Mike Mahardy]

This episode is brought to you by White Claw Surge. Nice choice hitting up this podcast. No surprises. You're all about diving into tastes everyone in the room can enjoy. Just like White Claw Surge. It's for celebrating those moments when connections have been made and the night's just begun. With bold flavors and 8% alcohol by volume. Unleash the night. Unleash White Claw Surge. Please drink responsibly. Hard seltzer with flavors, 8% alcohol by volume. White cloth seltzer works, Chicago, Illinois.

[Depop Sponsor Voice]

You said you were over him, but his hoodie's still in your rotation. It's time. Grab your phone, snap a few pics and sell it on Depop. Listed in minutes with no selling fees. And just like that, a guy 500 miles away just paid full price for your closure. And right on cue.

[Mike Mahardy]

Hey, still got my hoodie?

[Depop Sponsor Voice]

Nope. But I've got tonight's dinner paid for. Start selling on Depop. Where taste recognizes taste list. Now with no selling fees, payment processing fees and boosting fees still apply. See website for details.

[Kinda Funny Spotify Host]

Today's episode is brought to you by Kinda Funny on Spotify. Did you know that our shows are in video on Spotify now?

[Mike Mahardy]

You do?

[Kinda Funny Spotify Host]

Please go follow all of our shows. Kinda Funny podcast in review, Games Daily and Gamescast. It'll really help us out.

[Mike Mahardy]

And it's free.

[Greg Miller]

Let's just start at the top. All right. It can't be all of it. I'm watching the live chat over there and people, somebody was like, wait, does Greg actually. Has Greg been playing arc raiders? And one person said, yeah, Andy was making fun of him for being too loud at his desk. And then the other person said, yeah, Blessing was making fun of for whispering to people on the microphone at his desk. All right, am I too loud or am I whispering?

[Andy Cortez]

I said you were scared about disrupting the office.

[Greg Miller]

Okay.

[Andy Cortez]

That you were worried about being too loud.

[Greg Miller]

I just don't want to interrupt. You know that's right.

[Andy Cortez]

No, it makes sense. It makes sense.

[Greg Miller]

What's up, everybody? Welcome to the kind of funny games cast for Monday, November 3rd. Nick, can you believe it's November?

[Nick Scarpino]

This year's gone. Write it off.

[Greg Miller]

It's a write off.

[Nick Scarpino]

It's a quick slide down to Thanksgiving and then we're in Christmas. That's it.

[Andy Cortez]

Turbotax going, we. That's not allowed.

[Greg Miller]

You can spend all the money here. Write it all up. Of course, I'm one of your host, Greg Miller, alongside the master of hype, Snowbike, Mike Greggy.

[Mike Mahardy]

Great to see you. Hope you had a Fantastic Halloween weekend with the family.

[Greg Miller]

I did. You did too, with your family. Yeah, I know.

[Mike Mahardy]

Big Mike came down. We had a good little father son time. We watch the Buffalo Bills beat the Kansas City Chiefs.

[Greg Miller]

There you go.

[Andy Cortez]

Wow.

[Greg Miller]

It sucks, man. You know what I mean?

[Andy Cortez]

I. The Bears are dominating.

[Greg Miller]

Taylor Swift can't catch a break. I know, but I just, you know, got to worry about Taylor Swift now.

[Andy Cortez]

Of course you got to her. Well being. Exactly. Exactly.

[Greg Miller]

He's the Hispanic heartthrop Texas street Latino heat clicking heads and ripping them to shreds. The globe trotting head shot and three point shooting rooting tootin nitro rifle from Twitch tv, Andy Cortez.

[Andy Cortez]

Hello, Greg.

[Greg Miller]

Hey. How are you?

[Andy Cortez]

I'm.

[Greg Miller]

I'm good.

[Andy Cortez]

I'm not sick, everybody. I just have a band aid on my lips. A lot of people, a lot of concern.

[Greg Miller]

I thought you wouldn't. I thought.

[Mike Mahardy]

Huh?

[Andy Cortez]

A lot of concern.

[Greg Miller]

I thought you'd wear the mask and let people think you were sick rather than just call out the band aid on the lip because now, now, now it's content. I need to see it.

[Andy Cortez]

Okay.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, okay. What happened? Did you bite yourself?

[Andy Cortez]

No, I got fever blister. I got that Abreva abbreviation jlc.

[Greg Miller]

And round the quartet, the producer SL seducer Nick Scarpino.

[Nick Scarpino]

I'll tell you what, Greg. I never watched baseball. I don't even understand the sport much, but I got tied up in this. In this game set.

[Greg Miller]

Course you did.

[Nick Scarpino]

You love. I'm just. I'm such an Andy get ready.

[Andy Cortez]

But it's only if you're at a bar with people like I.

[Nick Scarpino]

Well, I'm at a comedy show. I'm at a venue called Lost Church and we're in the green room. And a comic that I from la, but he's from San Diego originally, puts it up. He just puts the game on and we're all, you know, slow but surely, you know, you can't not get invested in. This is a great game seven. And he's super hard. He's from San Diego, so he hates the Dodgers. And he's like, the Dodgers don't win. And it's tied 4, 4. And we go into like the B. And then he goes up on stage as the Dodgers win and I'm like,

[Andy Cortez]

oh, oh, I got to break the

[Nick Scarpino]

hard news to this guy when he comes back off. But it was a. It was a hype ass series.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Nick Scarpino]

And Halloween was good too.

[Greg Miller]

Finally got Ben to sleep. It wasn't finally, but I got, you know, Ben's asleep And I come out and I finally make it to the couch. And Jen's like, what? How can. Baseball's not streaming anywhere. I'm like, what the fuck? Why do you all. I'm like, it's game seven tonight. She's like, yeah, I think so. I'm like. She's like, it's a Canadian.

[Mike Mahardy]

Canadian.

[Greg Miller]

I had a giant sweat drop of, like. It was like, what would turn out to be like, five minutes before the end of this game. And I knew we were close. And I'm like, all right. Fox Sports app went up. And then it was like, all right, you're free. Oh, my God. Jesus. And Jen's like, what? Just forget. I'm like, no, Jen. Welcome to trying to watch wrestling in different time zones. We're just going to Twitch. We're going to go to Twitch and put in World Series. And sure as shit, there was a guy speaking Spanish.

[Andy Cortez]

Nice.

[Greg Miller]

Here we go. This is how we watch this happen. We watch that and then jump to a spooky movie.

[Andy Cortez]

So damn annoying, by the way, that ESPN off of YouTube TV, Mike.

[Nick Scarpino]

Oh, really?

[Andy Cortez]

Come on.

[Greg Miller]

They got their own app now, right? They want you to go get that thing.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, it's annoying. WWE stuff I like.

[Mike Mahardy]

I won't address what just happened there.

[Nick Scarpino]

Oh, yeah.

[Mike Mahardy]

I'm gonna focus on the issue, but I won't address what just happened there.

[Nick Scarpino]

Your chai's over there. I don't know why. He only has two hands, man. What do you want?

[Mike Mahardy]

He gets. I won't.

[Greg Miller]

I won't address what.

[Andy Cortez]

Look at how uptight he got.

[Mike Mahardy]

I won't.

[Greg Miller]

I won't address what just happened.

[Andy Cortez]

I won't address it. But I will definitely bring it up.

[Greg Miller]

I will derail the entire show. But I won't address what just happened.

[Mike Mahardy]

I won't address that.

[Andy Cortez]

He was going to be so mad at you, Nick, and.

[Nick Scarpino]

I mean, he was prepped to be

[Andy Cortez]

angry the whole day.

[Mike Mahardy]

And you. What just took place in front of me? Well, I got Starbucks. It's a great day.

[Andy Cortez]

I told him I've never. I don't really drink black coffee, but I wanted to. Yeah. And I also brought Nick a little gift.

[Nick Scarpino]

Oh, wow.

[Greg Miller]

What a fun games cat.

[Nick Scarpino]

Oh, is it Oreo?

[Andy Cortez]

It's the Reese's Oreo.

[Greg Miller]

Thanks, man.

[Nick Scarpino]

I did want to try these.

[Andy Cortez]

You can tell the packaging kind of. It looks like it was maybe half open because it was. Maybe the person who was holding it was contemplating eating it. Then they closed it back up.

[Nick Scarpino]

Yeah, it does look like an Amazon return where you get it and you go, someone used this for sure. But I don't have the wherewithal.

[Andy Cortez]

It was. It was barely like, I was like, no, I can't. I got tayo for Nick.

[Nick Scarpino]

Thank you. And you know what's funny is like, you, Kevin ran out and got a bunch when we were streaming. I think I was on Friday, got you one, and then got me one.

[Mike Mahardy]

But he was like, I don't want

[Nick Scarpino]

to give it to Nick. Because Nick maybe might be uptight about the candy situation right now because I've been eating a lot of the candy on the table. He puts it on cool Greg's desk. And this is how much wherewithal Cougar has. It's just been sitting there for three days.

[Andy Cortez]

That's insane.

[Nick Scarpino]

He hasn't opened it, he hasn't touched it. I don't think he's acknowledged that. And I've clocked it every single time I walk by his desk. I'm like, there's a packet of Reese's peanut butter cups with Oreos in them right there. And he's not eating them.

[Andy Cortez]

Give it to us.

[Nick Scarpino]

Now I have it.

[Greg Miller]

Now you have the power. Oh, it's monocle.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah.

[Nick Scarpino]

Good job.

[Greg Miller]

Good job, buddy. If you didn't know everybody, this is the kind of Funny Games cast. Each and every weekday we come to you to talk about the biggest topics in video games. Whether they be reviews, previews, or just things we need to talk about. We cover it all live on YouTube.com kinda funnygames, twitch tv, kindafunnygames and podcast services around the globe.

[Andy Cortez]

Oh, different timing.

[Greg Miller]

You like that? I thought I'd switch it up today. It's a new month. I've only been doing it one way for 10 years. 20 almost. Whatever, it doesn't matter. Of course, if you love what we do here, we'd love you to pick up a Kinda Funny membership. It keeps the likes and the mics on patreon.com kinda funny YouTube.com kinda funnygames, Apple Spotify, you can get it there. Get all of our content ad free, of course. Get your daily dose of me, Greg Miller in a 15 to 20 minute podcast series and get good karma.

[Nick Scarpino]

He took one sip, but I just hear him whisper awful.

[Greg Miller]

I just. It's so surprising. You wanted a coffee today. You never drink coffee.

[Andy Cortez]

Well be okay. So new Andy, because the intermittent fasting thing is like, yeah, you can drink no calorie stuff if you want, but the artificial sweeteners still, like power up the blah, blah, blah. And so I was like, well, black coffee doesn't have that and it's just awful.

[Mike Mahardy]

Let us make the the coffee that we have at home. Maybe take a cup tomorrow, see if you like that.

[Andy Cortez]

But is there a sweetness factor to it?

[Nick Scarpino]

No, this is black coffee. You know, if you want a good

[Andy Cortez]

iced coffee, I just think it's black coffee period.

[Greg Miller]

You know, if you want to be part of the show live as we go, you can super chat on YouTube.com kind of funny games I knew bringing all three of you in here with that. Yeah, I try to keep it straight and narrow. I try to keep these shows honest. Delaney Twine the already super chat. It said Mike's so uptight his face looks like his jack.

[Andy Cortez]

He's so pissed off.

[Nick Scarpino]

He's still mad at me by the way.

[Andy Cortez]

And I got him the coffee. Still mad at me.

[Greg Miller]

We're an 11 person business all about live talk shows. Kind of funny. Games Daily already tackled the Simpsons in Fortnite and after this you get nothing. We're doing our annual content conference where we take the afternoon off to talk about what we're doing next year, what worked this year, et cetera and so on. However, if you're a Kind of Funny member, you can pop over and get today's Greg way. It's 21 minutes that culminates in me almost hitting Barrett with my car. Thank you to our Patreon producers Carl Jacobs, Omega Buster and Delaney. The Song Twining for now, let's start with what is and forever will be topic of the show. Dots, dots, dots dots dots dots dots. Gentlemen, ladies and beasts. The topic of the show of course is our Arc Raiders review so far. Of course this is an extraction shooter. Steam description says Arc Raiders is a multiplayer extraction adventure set in the lethal future Earth ravaged by mysterious mechanized threat known as Arkansas. It of course came out Thursday, October 30th, 2025 for $40. Publisher and developer were embark studios sitting at a 78 at the moment on Metacritic. That's off of three reviews though, so two very positive ones, one very low. You've got reviews in progress, but before we even get into that, I do want to call out. Of course you might have remembered and seen it. Last week we did an Arc Raider sponsorship where we were sponsored by Arc Raiders, so if you need to take our upcoming thoughts with a grain of salt, you do so. However, over at Game Informer Alex Van Aken's review in progress read. While I'm not ready to share a full review yet, as I still need to sink many more hours into various progression systems and maps. I can confidently say developer Embark Studios sophomore release is an impressive foray into the growing sub genre. Meanwhile, [e-mail] Travis Northup wrote I thought I was only going to play five or six hours of Arc Raiders on launch day before sitting down to write this initial review in progress. But after just a handful of matches I suddenly couldn't pull myself away and before I realized it, I had been playing for 10 hours. This is without question the most hooked I found myself on an Extraction shooter and I've played a lot of them with clean, tense gunplay, a progression system that's been incredibly satisfying so far, and a loot game that has me sweating over what to put in my backpack and what to leave behind. I've still got loads more to do and see before I can draw any final conclusions, but what I have played has made an incredibly good first impress. It seems to be doing well across the board. 22 hours ago it did hit its peak concurrent over on Steam, about 355,000 today. Gentlemen, we're here to talk about what we've played and what we've liked about it. So I'd like to know, starting with you Nick, how much of this game have you played?

[Nick Scarpino]

I've played just what you've seen me play on stream.

[Andy Cortez]

Okay.

[Nick Scarpino]

So this was always my fear with this game, and this is going to be very telling for me as time goes on, is that this was the first big weekend that all the jabronis and all my friends were jumping into it and I missed it because it was Halloween and I had shows all weekend. So now the question is, am I

[Greg Miller]

going to so far behind?

[Nick Scarpino]

Am I so far behind or is the game going to catch fire and I can catch up? Or is it going to basically just lose steam for everyone as we move on? Inevitably, the other games that are coming out this holiday season, what I have played, I have loved. I can't wait to stream again with you guys. That experience to me is one of my it's my favorite experience, being able to jump in with a bunch of friends, clash with real people, loot a little bit, learn some stuff about the games. I love the upgrade system so far and I'm looking forward to it.

[Greg Miller]

Andy Cortez, the Nitro Rifle I saw you out there streaming. I've been enjoying your clips over on the Andy Channel. Talk to me, how much Arc Raiders have you played and what's your top level thought?

[Andy Cortez]

Oh, that's a good question. I mean aside from all, pretty much all of the playtests and you include that in there if you want all the betas. Sessions. I do know. Okay. It says 16 hours.

[Greg Miller]

Okay.

[Andy Cortez]

But I don't think that's including all the other play tests. I think those are.

[Greg Miller]

If you have a new file. Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

They'll just separate library entry, little Steam entries.

[Nick Scarpino]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

I've played a decent amount of this video game, both with Mike and Nick and all the Jabroni boys, along with playing a lot solo over the weekend, and am really, really enjoying the loop of this game.

[Nick Scarpino]

Okay.

[Andy Cortez]

I, I. Although whenever a question pops in the chat and says, so what are you doing all this for? I don't, I don't deny that I'm like to get better and to make the number go up and progress. I make my character stronger with, you know, leveling up and things of that nature. But I really enjoy the progression. I, I do think that some things can be kind of ironed out here and there, but it is such a. It's such a fun and exciting adventure every time you go out.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

And you don't know what you're going to experience and you don't know if you are suddenly going to befriend that one group that was trying to shoot you or you're gonna stab them in the back or they're gonna stab you in the back. Or Having a. Had a great moment the other day where me, Mike and Washburn start getting shot at in a building and we're all out of bullets. We went in with just the free loadouts and we're. We have nothing on us. Team starts shooting us. Washburn's like, I don't have anything. I have no bullets either. And Mike is down and he's like, the hammer. Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

And Mike, can we show the hammer clip? I pulled this and put it into clips on the dock.

[Mike Mahardy]

You're so quick on. I'm so proud of you. Because I was gonna be real mad. But you did real. I did.

[Andy Cortez]

I did my best in this moment. But this is this the, you know, the level of improv?

[Greg Miller]

You know, FOMO is such a real thing. And similar to you, Nick, where it's like, I've been gassed up for this game since we did the interview. And then I really started paying attention. And so I played a bunch Thursday at my desk. And then Thursday night was date night. We did some felt. We did some felting. We made some felt dinosaurs. Pretty cool. Oh, then it was Halloween. Then it was the weekend I'm playing games in bed. This is what it went. Blah Blah, blah. I have not played at even close to what I want to play of our graders. So whenever I would see an Andy clip go up and it's him and Mike do us, I'm like, oh, it's like such a. Oh, they're having so much fun.

[Mike Mahardy]

Please don't.

[Andy Cortez]

Please don't. Please don't.

[Nick Scarpino]

Please.

[Greg Miller]

We don't have any.

[Andy Cortez]

We have nothing, dude. We have nothing.

[Kinda Funny Spotify Host]

Please.

[Greg Miller]

Is that Washburn?

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Mike Mahardy]

Hit him with your hammer now. Hit him with your hammer. Oh, my God. Pull out your hammer and hit him. Oh, you. You got him.

[Nick Scarpino]

Did you just slide

[Andy Cortez]

under a shotgun?

[Mike Mahardy]

If you didn't get stuck that day, you would have got and so low

[Andy Cortez]

stamina at this point. But keep on. This is the funny part right here.

[Mike Mahardy]

Oh, my God. I almost got you, you son of a.

[Andy Cortez]

Enjoy the no loot we have. We don't got on us.

[Mike Mahardy]

Oh, that's what you get.

[Andy Cortez]

Stopped by another team.

[Greg Miller]

That's what you get.

[Mike Mahardy]

Ye.

[Greg Miller]

Way to go.

[Andy Cortez]

Thank you, guys. Thank you. It's just like that this game is filled with moments like this where almost every run you are having something weird and wild happening. And yeah, it's. It's a great time so far. And I'm really, really enjoying myself. And it's definitely problematic with another game I'm reviewing right now that it's like that I'm not enjoying as much by far. Like, not even close. And I'm like, I just want to play arc raiders right now. And it's really making me feel that. But aside with along with Battlefield sixes Red sec. Like, man, it is. There is an abundance of amazing quality experiences out there.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, I know. I have an idea of how much Mike's played and I know it's quite a bit. So for me, yeah, like I said, I really. It's that Thursday afternoon last night I jumped in bed exhausted, but I still played a bunch on my rogue my Xbox rock. Ally shocked at how well it ran. It was my first time booting nice runs really nicely on it, and so I'll be doing more of that. But I think what speaks to it for me, Andy, is similar to what you're talking about of like, every run feels so different where when I was doing the Thursday stuff, that was when I did the open call on bs. That's a blue sky tune over on my threads. Hey, here's my friend code. Come friend me. It's still open. Hit me up if you want to be there. I'm trying not to break it like I often do or I get too many and I can't do anything but send them in if you want to. Kind of funny best friends. And I was just running with random people, and that's where I was, at my desk. And I, like, I didn't want to talk because I'm in the middle of the office. And so then I was like, signing off, like, I have to go to a meeting. I have to go to a meeting right now. Sorry. But thank you for playing. Like, no problem. Like, every one of those feels different and I'm still so early getting my sea legs and doing it. But last night, you know, jumping in on the handheld and like, okay, these are really garbage. This is just garbage, right? Because I'm not, like, I'm not going to be able to talk with Jenna, sleep next to me. I'm not. I'm just. I want to play and I'm going to feel it out and how it goes. And I had, I think, like, that perfect example of back to back where I got in. I'm so excited to finally be playing again. Dropped in, come out, sniped. There's a dude, for some reason just camping on the spawn zone here, shooting people as they shooting me. At least I came out. It's like, all right, that's fun. What are you. You're getting nothing off of me. I not, you know, it's my total Garbo Luda. You do this Mike, is this you?

[Mike Mahardy]

I get a lot of joy out of that, actually.

[Andy Cortez]

That's become Mike recently.

[Greg Miller]

So then the next one, I spawn, and I don't. And I'm like, you know what? I've so far been going to, like, high value places looking for stuff. I'm not gonna do that. Let's just do some bullshit. I did some bullshit. And then I was like, all right, I'm actually falling asleep now already. Let's just. And I went to extract. And as I. As I was on approach. No, no, I was on approach. Like, I was like, maybe 100 off. I hear the standard, you know, the emote of like, don't shoot me, don't shoot me. And this guy came running over, and I put my gun away. And he put his gun away. And we stood there and I was like, okay. And then another. Don't shoot me, don't shoot me. As another person came. And it's like all of a sudden, we weren't a team, because you can't team up that way. But we were. We're this trio running. And so we ran the extraction, punched it in we're waiting. And then I was like, there's three of us. I don't really give a fuck. And there was like, one of those giant, you know, the black crabs or spiders or whatever they are. Yeah, yeah. And I was like, fuck it. And I started shooting this thing, and I'm like, there's three of us. We'll do it. They comes over, it's chasing me around. They're there, some shoots. The elevators come, they run inside, they shut the doors. I don't make it. So I get closed off on the outside. And so then I'm trying to rope a dope, this thing, seeing if I can get it. It jumps. It knocks me down, but I go. It loses interest when you're down. I go over there. I call for the elevator. I hang on, elevator, get in the elevator, hit the button, doors. I extract. And I'm like, damn, that was cool. That felt good. Even, like the fun stuff you're doing. Yeah, Like, I can't wait to. I think there's two streaming days right now for me this week with it. Very excited to get in there. And last night, you know, I had my friend Sean over who's. And we were talking about him, like, have you. Please. Like, I. I bought it, but I haven't. I'm like, for as much as you and I miss our Avengers nights, like, this would be that. Let's just get in and go fuck around and do whatever and run into it.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah, that. I'm so happy that when you are downed, you can still hit the button and also pull it down, which is great. That's awesome.

[Andy Cortez]

This. This meme was posted by Maddox.

[Greg Miller]

So if you're an audio listener. Yeah, it's the famous Michael Scott meme here of him when he got originally hired. And so the boss one says raider behind me saying, don't shoot. And Michael Scott, me having no idea they were there and being scared of fighting. Michael, how much arc raiders have you played this week?

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah, Greg, I put in 24 hours since Friday, so I've been playing a lot. I had Big Mike in town, or else I probably would have put a lot in. I haven't had this much excitement and desire to drop everything and play a game for a long time. I've been really into Kingdom Come, Deliverance too. I think Battlefield 6 is BR. Really hit it for me. And I have been in this zone of, like, I have games to play. And then our creators came out on Friday, and I didn't want to play anything else but arc raiders. And so that's just telling you how well, how good I think this game is. I really, really enjoy it. I've put in about four hours on the Rog Ally X. Very good. Haven't messed with any of the settings, but the draw distance isn't capturing it. I'll get sniped.

[Andy Cortez]

Bring that sucker.

[Mike Mahardy]

I can't see it, but I'll check it out.

[Andy Cortez]

Let me get under the hood, try

[Mike Mahardy]

to kick it out on my Steam deck. It never turned on. I did that twice. That was day one. So I don't know if something's out for it now, but it was not running on my Steam deck.

[Andy Cortez]

Probably one of the pro experimental builds, you know.

[Mike Mahardy]

And so, yeah, for me, I really, really like this game. I think this is a very good game. This is a game. If you have been on the fence about extraction shooters, if you've said to yourself, I don't like battle royales, I don't like Extraction shooters. This is the most welcoming. This has a great onboarding experience. I think it has a really good community right now. Week one, where a lot of people are taking advantage of the prox chat. They're having fun, exploring together, laughing and making these moments. I think moment to moment. As Andy has said, this game has so many opportunities to create fun and to just have fun that it's just special right now. It is a really well done game. I can't wait to go deep into it. But all in all, I think this game is great. Visuals and audio is fantastic too. This will be up there on my top audio.

[Andy Cortez]

Right?

[Mike Mahardy]

I. I thought Battlefield had the best audio, but this is like a close 1.2.

[Greg Miller]

What makes the audio so good?

[Mike Mahardy]

Just the whiz of the bullets, the robot noises, the ambiance of being in this world and it being dead silent and then immediately clicking on with so much sound. There's something special to it, honestly.

[Nick Scarpino]

They also nailed the footsteps.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah. That's all you got to know, I think.

[Nick Scarpino]

Get the footsteps right.

[Andy Cortez]

I think the. I think the sound design of both, like Battlefield and Arc Raiders are really, really impressive. I think what it comes down to is that you don't really have a whole lot of dead periods in Battlefield where you're able to kind of like, all right, I'm stealth in here. I'm being very battlefield.

[Nick Scarpino]

There's always something happening.

[Andy Cortez]

There's always like always a fire or an explosion.

[Nick Scarpino]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

But I do love those moments of when you are just. It's. It's the solitude. It's sitting in a hallway and it's like I am so scared because I hear some footsteps above me with some looting here and there. The directional audio is fantastic. In addition to just to the way things sound. I at first didn't love I'm shooting these metal things with my metal bullets. It just wasn't appealing to me. Like it just. It just. I don't know, it. It sounded like I'm not doing much to this, but then it kind of won me over. But I. I think like one of my favorite sound effects of the year. And it'll be a Smileys.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, wow. Okay.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, it'll be a nominee for the smileys. 2025 is the shield break. When you break a shieldness, it feels so satisfying. It sounds great. Yeah. This game is amazing.

[Mike Mahardy]

I want to commend them for a smooth launch. I was only put in a queue once. That was actually last night, oddly enough. So I mean. And they also broke their player, you know, based on Steam last night. So yeah, it's one of those of like, I am impressed that we've had the server slam into this. And on Friday I was in and playing on Saturday I was in and playing on Sunday. It was about a 15 minute wait and I did get uptight because I really wanted to play this game, but they got me back in and I was playing with no problem. So a great smooth launch. A lot of offerings on the map side of things, especially when you talk about missions and maps and keeping you moving instead of just kind of being like, all right, well, I guess I'll go look for another rubber band aid and another, you know, whatever it is. It's like you have things that keep you moving on the map, which is nice. I enjoy. And the skill tree is definitely fun to explore and try to think about where I want to be next in the next couple of levels. I feel rewarded for my time playing, whether it be with crafting supplies, whether it be completing missions, whether it be just my overall level with the skill trees. I feel rewarded every time I play. And especially for me, I think Nick and I will have a conversation very similar of like, I get kind of bored of the hey, let's just go loot and let's just slowly look around these corners where I want to clash. And so for me, the past five hours has been nothing but camping outside of extraction points and murdering people for fun.

[Nick Scarpino]

Did you. Did you happen to kill someone the other day called Game Over, Greggy?

[Mike Mahardy]

I have some great stories of like, there is the 5050 Mike, as Andy knows, right? So I jump into this map on dam. I'm on the far east side, and I go down into the wetlands. And I see this kid right in front of me. I got a free loadout. I have a sniper rifle. I immediately murder him. I proceed to take all of his stuff. He never saw me. He didn't know. I'm like Batman coming out of the shadows. It felt great, right? Then I find using his gun from the shadows. Well, not proceed to walk to the dam with a giant robot is. And I see a kid trying to complete the mission where you got to get on its head and loot its body. And he's. He's lost. And I got free shots on him. And I walk up like, what up, homie? How can I help you? He's like, oh man, I'm trying to get this. Like, here's what you do. Get up on top of that and that's where you'll get the loop. But first, you're getting shot up from this turret. Let's take it down together. So me and him, co op, we take down the turret. He's smiling, happy. He's like, thanks, Mike. Now the whole time I'm thinking, you're

[Nick Scarpino]

gonna kill this kid.

[Mike Mahardy]

You're in the web.

[Nick Scarpino]

Yeah, I know.

[Andy Cortez]

You gotta get him in the way.

[Mike Mahardy]

I get up on top of him and I'm looking at. And I'm going, do I murder this kid? And I say, you know what, Mike? You did a good deed today. Not that. So then I run to the extraction point. And now for the next six hours, I am loading into games with free loads. Sitting at the extraction point. The kid will run up and press the button. I'll watch you. I'll go, okay, where's he gonna go? And then when you go in, I go, oh my God, I'm so injured. I need help. Like, let's get in for free. He's like, totally cool. And the moment he turns, I just gun him down. And there are words exchanged. I'm giggling, laughing. I like to yell. I'm a bad person. I'm sorry. And I take all their stuff. And I've done that for the past six hours in this game. Kind of brings me a solid. Toxic. Toxic. So toxic.

[Andy Cortez]

We must protect them at all costs, everybody.

[Mike Mahardy]

And so, yeah, that's. It's just been fun. It's a really good game and I'm excited to talk more. But the stories that we could tell have been great.

[Greg Miller]

I know I want to hear more of those stories. And I know the audience, of course, always wants to see Mike get his comeuppance. Can we see the other clip I put in from Andy's clip channel? Bear it in there, because that. That'll make. If you. If your stomach is turned to hear Mike screwing people over this way. This one always makes me happy. I've watched it a few times on repeat.

[Andy Cortez]

I also got a.

[Greg Miller]

Get what?

[Andy Cortez]

I got a comment recently on my VOD real quick that just said, man, that that last game would make me never want to play with Mike ever again.

[Mike Mahardy]

Which one was that?

[Andy Cortez]

It was the. It was. It was the one where you were like, you were just not come into the extraction.

[Mike Mahardy]

Oh, get this. We got high value loot up. I was getting mad. I can try to go. I'm like, chill out. I said.

[Andy Cortez]

I said. I said. He kept like, I need help. I need help. And by the end of it, Nick, I said, mike, if we didn't extract safely, that would have been permanent damage to, like, a permanent. Like, I don't want to play with this with you in the future. You know what I mean? Like, I would have considered that moment.

[Mike Mahardy]

You got to get the loot.

[Greg Miller]

This would have damaged the friendship.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, I'm gonna make it. I'm gonna make it.

[Mike Mahardy]

Come get me.

[Andy Cortez]

Come get me.

[Mike Mahardy]

Don't leave me. Don't leave me. Oh,

[Andy Cortez]

A big shot. Mike.

[Nick Scarpino]

We cannot.

[Andy Cortez]

Dude, get to me.

[Mike Mahardy]

We can't do it.

[Andy Cortez]

We can't get to you, Mike. Don't leave me.

[Mike Mahardy]

I'm right here. You left me. Y' all remember this? You made it to me tonight. Captain Sunburn will remember this.

[Andy Cortez]

Made an enemy.

[Greg Miller]

You made an enemy tonight. So good.

[Nick Scarpino]

And I wouldn't have left you following.

[Andy Cortez]

That was. Well, here's the thing. That's a great story. That's a great thing. You mentioned that, Nick. I'm so glad you mentioned that. That you wouldn't have left.

[Nick Scarpino]

I wouldn't left you, buddy.

[Andy Cortez]

Because as we are in the lobby, I was like, man, like, I'm so glad that you made the. The adult decision to just hit the button, because if you didn't, I would have gone out there, like, in. Like an idiot. And Mike said, that's why I need Nick in this lobby.

[Nick Scarpino]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

Because he would have made the dumb play to come get me, and he would have died, too. And then what happened two runs later? Mike going, I. I need. I need help. I'm getting some jokes. It's like, oh, let's try. He's like, no, no, I'm good. I'm good. You guys go towards the extraction and then Mike proceeds to hit that deafen button on Discord. Go silent for about six minutes. We're running, we're sneaking. Suddenly I'm down. Mike, what the fuck? I told you I was fighting Mike. That was six minutes ago. You've been silent the whole fucking time. And he goes down. And I'm like, I'm gonna come get you, Mike. Yeah, go get him. I pick him up. This thing's aiming at me. Mike's like, be ready to dodge roll. I pick him up. I dodge roll to the right. I'm trying to dodge another shot. I dodge to the left. He's like, don't dodge in front of me.

[Mike Mahardy]

And I'm like, he has a meat shield.

[Andy Cortez]

Trying to like. I'm just trying to get out of here alive. Now we're going down. And he goes down again. And then it's like, you better come get me. I'm like, no, I can't.

[Nick Scarpino]

I already did it once.

[Andy Cortez]

I already did it once. I'm not going to do that again.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, awesome stuff.

[Andy Cortez]

You live and you look so many

[Greg Miller]

people calling out Hell Divers that this sounds like Hell Divers. And I definitely get that vibe. A lot more to talk about when it comes to arc Raiders. But first, let me talk about Kind of Funny. We have a Kind of Funny membership. You can give us $10. You can get all of our shows ad free. That's more than 80amonth. And of course, your daily dose of me, Greg Miller in a series we call Greg Way each and every weekday. And on top of all that, you'd get good karma for supporting a small independent business. But right now, you're not using your benefits. So here's a word from our sponsors.

[Kinda Funny Spotify Host]

This episode is brought to you by a absolutely amazing and free way that you could support Kinda Funny. Very often y' all ask, what's the best way to support Kinda Funny, not with money, but with our love and our support. And right now, the best way you can do that is by supporting us on Spotify. We've been getting a lot of really good energy, good juice going with the support we've been getting on Spotify. And Spotify are starting to notice. So if y' all could do me a favor. Even if you don't normally listen to us on Spotify, it would go such a long way. If you can go to the pages for the Kind of Funny podcast, Kind of Funny Games Daily Kind of Funny Games cast and Kind of Funny in review and follow them on Spotify, go rate them as high as you want. To rate them as accurately as you want to. But if I'm being real, I'd really prefer if you just did as high as you're willing to go. It would go such a long way for us. We have video on Spotify now, and that's an amazing opportunity for kind of funny to get in front of an entire new audience. YouTube, been there, done that. We, you know, are kind of where we're probably going to be forever. But on Spotify, the potential is limitless. And that is all up to you and your support. So thank you very much. Wherever you listen to us, wherever you watch us, wherever you put your hard earned dollars, we really, really appreciate you. But we always want to be here for you, whether it's free or not. We love you. Thank you so much.

[Depop Sponsor Voice]

This episode is brought to you by Redfin. You're listening to a podcast, which means you're probably multitasking, maybe even scrolling home listings on Redfin, saving homes without expecting to get them. But Redfin isn't just built for endless browsing. It's built to help you find and own a home with agents who close twice as many deals. When you find the one, you've got a real shot at getting it. Get [e-mail], own the dream. Spring is here, and there's a whole new way to chai at Starbucks that's made perfect for you. Choose your sweetness. Dial it up or keep things light. Add a touch of pistachio, a hint of strawberry or vanilla, or make it a spring classic with lavender. Because this season, there's endless ways to chai at Starbucks.

[Greg Miller]

Let's get into a few super chats that we have here. Dane Sta says. I love how. I love how when you go into a solo run, most everyone is down to work together. But with the squad, everyone is trying to kill each other. 9.5 out of 10 game. And has that been your experience, too?

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, 100%. The. The squad experience is usually like. Like, have your guard up, have your guns out. You're gonna fight. Most likely.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

Unless, you know, Captain Sunburn and I, you know, or Nick try to talk everybody down. Oh, I also realize my mic hasn't been working this whole time.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah, I had a feeling because, yeah, the whole time, a lot of Mike yelling.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, I. So that's like the squad experience is people are ready to fight. People want to fight. If we see some people sneak in, we're like, all right, ready? There was an awesome moment where I think you, me and Maddock were playing and it was like, like, all right, that guy's standing still right now. Everybody shoot. Three, two, one. Just immediately goes down. It was awesome. It felt great to, like, take on those squads and kill them. But the solo experience, after deciding to hop in solo and finding out that that's the kind of real way to progress and do missions and go out there and complete these tasks. Because when you go out there solo, it is you going out there. I didn't know that. I thought I would have had to have hit a solo mode. I didn't know that you could just hop in, click, no fill, and that it's going to put you in with other solos. So I thought I was going into a squads match just solo. I wasn't sure how it worked. And I see two dudes kind of walking and they're talking, and I see their little prox microphones popping up. And then another guy on a roof fires him. They're like, oh, he's firing at us. He's firing. Oh, he's on the roof. They take him down. So I walk up with my no microphone working ass, and I'm walking up there trying to talk to him. They're like, are you friendly? And I'm just, like, standing there. They're like, you good? Does your mic work? And they're like, it's G for the communications. And then they kind of tell me, no, we're all solo. We're in a solo lobby. That's cool.

[Nick Scarpino]

I realized that. I just thought you'd walk in because I think when I played the Cycle, which is the last time I tried to hop into an extraction shooter solo, I was just getting destroyed by. By trios.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Nick Scarpino]

Every single time. Just like, you couldn't get five feet without people just dogging.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah. So then it became us and two other dudes running around, and they're telling me, like. And I finally got my microphone working. It was at the wavelength monitor. That's a problem, you know? So I said, it's a mic in. And we're just talking. We're all shooting the shit and we're fighting arc. And then somebody's. We see fire out in the distance. We're like, oh. And we just see, like, Raider flares going up. We're like, oh, a lot of people are dying. Let's go, like, take their. Or whatever. The solo experience has by far been the friendliest. And you'll still get shot every now and then. Don't expect everybody to be friendly because I. I've shot at people if they, like Start firing or whatever. But there was another awesome moment on one of the really cool maps called the Blue Gate, where we're all looking for these goddamn apricots and lemons. And I'm looking for these apricots. I see a guy with a cowboy hat. I see his name is Odin. When he pops up like, Odin, son of. I forget what the. And so I'm like, yo, what up, Odin? We're just, like, shooting the shit, trying to get these apricots arc start coming. We start firing them all off, and we're all kind of fighting against these squads or against these arc. And then eventually, it's like four or five of us just all kind of like chilling and randomly hear gunshots. And then some person's like, shit, there's a dude here. He's firing at us. What does he look like? He's got a red top. All right, let's all fucking shoot him. Like, the dude put down a smoke grenade in the house. And all of us, we just laser focus on. We're not letting you out of this house. We kill the dude.

[Nick Scarpino]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

And it felt awesome. And then we all extracted alive. Got all of our. Together. Another moment with me and Maddock yesterday, which we selected. No fill.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

And then it put us in with a bunch of duos, which I didn't know was gonna do that. So me and Maddock and a bunch of other duos are out there. And there's like. We ran into several duos of, like, don't shoot. Don't shoot. When they hit the little. Like, they don't have microphones, the little emote. And we're like, yeah, we're not. We're just getting, like, this info or whatever. So running around, we see the same duo we just met a little while ago. Then we see duos coming up at us. They shoot Maddock, and he's like, whoa. And I get on the mic, hey, chill, chill, chill.

[Mike Mahardy]

Don't you.

[Andy Cortez]

Don't shoot. And then the guy does the emote. No. And so, like, all right, it's fucking on. So we start fighting. The duo that we met earlier goes, hey, we're going to help you guys. Fuck yeah, dude. So they're laying fire. I jump on the roof. Fucking sniper. That didn't kill it. And it just feels awesome to have those little moments. Yeah. And once, you know, maybe one out of every five times or one out of every ten times, they may try have some. Some Snowback Mike fuckery and try to kill you at the end. But that's part of the game. And. And it's awesome.

[Greg Miller]

I'm not a PvP guy, but this feels like there's enough PvE in there that I'm not like. I obviously. As one does when you're Greg. I immediately followed the subreddit when I was, like, interested in this game. And so I've seen there was for a while there. This should just be PvE.

[Mike Mahardy]

PvE.

[Greg Miller]

Pv. And then now there's the backlight and it's like. I think it's a good balance of what it is.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

And I like that I'm going in with the free build because whatever. I'm still figuring it out. And I like that there's this. Are you gonna. You're gonna be cool or I'm gonna be cool? Let's be cool and try to just get the battery. I'm trying to get.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah. The amount of times just Mike looking for these damn antiseptics.

[Mike Mahardy]

Oh, man. Yeah. All the different crafting.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, the antiseptics were very, very tough to find. But yeah, the, like. Mike, do you want to talk, like, mission variety?

[Mike Mahardy]

I mean, I want to talk about everything is right. I. I mean, there's just so much from the free loadouts, as Greg says.

[Andy Cortez]

Right.

[Mike Mahardy]

When you're talking about, like, new players,

[Greg Miller]

free loadout is something to explain if you don't know. Right. So in this game, obviously, you're extracting with your stuff and then using it to build stuff or buy stuff or whatever. So you can make your loadout when you come, and you could come with the best gun in your arsenal and the coolest thing or whatever, but if you die in the field, you lose that thing you brought in. So a free loadout isn't free in terms of, like, you're paying for the other loadout. It's the game just gives you a random ass loadout so you can run out there. And if you get killed, who cares if you lose the stuff?

[Mike Mahardy]

Like when we were scavs back in the skate from Tarkov, you are, you know, so we were open for some good. Yeah, I think they do a great job with the free loadout system. Plucky the Rooster, always supplying you with free crafting supplies. Right. That you can put in your back pocket and then just start using that to, hey, what can I craft? What's the basics? All right. Am I getting to the point where I can upgrade my workbench to two, My gunsmith to level two? Those are kind of starting to get into the mid to late game is where you want to Be I really do enjoy the storefronts. As someone who sold their entire inventory and then proceeded to upgrade their stash all the way up to the 2000s level and then proceed to go on a buying spree as well. It's like, I like that there's the crafting side of things, which is the game, right? Drop in, find your crafting supplies come out, build better stuff that you need from weapon upgrades to weapon, you know, weapons themselves and more. And to, hey, if I don't want to do that right, I can just sell all this stuff, go to the store, buy that, right? And they're selling decent enough guns in there that will like keep you in the fight. They sell level two guns and beyond up there, down at the bottom of your screen so you'll be able to get some higher stuff.

[Nick Scarpino]

Is there a marketplace?

[Mike Mahardy]

Not like, not Tarkov Marketplace? Well, yeah, there's a store marketplace with npc. Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

No, no, no, no. No peer to peer stuff. But the. I think that the, like, if I were to add some quality of life improvements, I would love to be able to just. And maybe it's in the game and I just haven't found it. But I would love to pin tasks on the left side of my screen or somewhere just to tell me, like,

[Nick Scarpino]

right now I'm looking for these two

[Andy Cortez]

things and I can only really see it when I go to the map, which is only one button. But it's. It's kind of annoying enough.

[Nick Scarpino]

And I remind yourself I'm very out

[Andy Cortez]

of sight, out of mind and if. If that thing isn't there, that I'm just not really focused. I'm just focused on trying to get out alive.

[Mike Mahardy]

I kind of like that though. On the flip side of like the immersion, right? It's like I like the idea of like you're in a panic or you're just running around in this scary world. Like you have to bring up a map. Like you would bring out like a real life map and look around, right? It's like the whole goal is to try to get you to stop and really think or like, like stop in safer places. Like I feel like if we did the World of Warcraft, it's up on your taskbar all the time. It's a nice feature, but it kind of starts to. You're never slowing down. You're never worried about like, am I safe to loot here? Or bring up this map here, which I like. The hunt of it all, I guess.

[Greg Miller]

Let me bring this Super Chat applies Alex AP Super Chats and says this game is definitely about the journey and it's beautiful. It's living for a brief moment in a world filled with people in arcs and just immersing yourself.

[Andy Cortez]

I guess I could just put a post it note. I'm not. Yeah, yeah, I like, I do like stopping to open up the map. Like I understand that part of it.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

But it's more of just after a

[Nick Scarpino]

while it become when you're really on the grind. And that. That's the other thing too is. I mean I've only done a few of the. The first entry missions, but I do, I. I want more tasks to do. I want like five things to be doing at any given time. And I think with. To go back to like, like Dune, for instance, they have like a main story mission that you're doing and then like the other missions that you could be doing. So any given time you're knocking out three or you could. You could have potential to knock out three or four different things if you're going back out. And I think for something where I understand that they're just short little runs, but I always feel like if we're here, let's go to Trader Joe's and target. We're already out.

[Mike Mahardy]

Let me tell you. You'll get that because later on, of course, you'll start to juggle four missions.

[Nick Scarpino]

Okay, so that's. That's what I was wondering.

[Mike Mahardy]

Missions that share the same map locations, they do a really good job at like giving you missions from the different NPC traders at the marketplace that will say, hey, go to X, Y and Z map. And they have four right now out and then one coming soon, I believe is the number that I have off the top of my head. Blue Arch, spaceport, Dam, Buried City. And then one coming soon, I believe is what I have. And then night raids on top of that.

[Andy Cortez]

But the one coming soon part of the roadmap. Or is it. Or is that a different one?

[Mike Mahardy]

I think this is different. I might be wrong. I don't know what the tube map is called that they have up there. That one looks cool, but I like that the. You will have four to five different missions going on at once and you will start to juggle. And I do like that threat of like, I hate spending time in my map, but I gotta go here to look at it.

[Nick Scarpino]

Yeah.

[Mike Mahardy]

But I don't know who's around. I always get panicked because Nick. Nick's got heavy feet in this game. He loves to stomp around and sprint just like real life, pretty much all my teammates, I won't put it just on Nick, Andy. Okay? But like, here I am looking at the map and you'll have your friend run up on you and there's that threat of like, oh my God, is this my teammate or not? Right? Because I am now immersed in the map, looking at it, and I don't know who's around me. And like your teammates, hey, I'm coming to you or I'm not. But like, I like that thrill. I love that excitement. And then the, the missions, I'm getting a little burnt out after 24 hours of certain missions right now because it is, hey, go here, find this one box, right? Find that box, find the clue that will take you over there and then it ends and there's not much, like, excitement. I'm looking for more. Kill that giant drone.

[Nick Scarpino]

That's the question I have for you, Mike, because you're 24 hours in now. What, what is the likelihood that you hit 30? What's likelihood you hit 40? Like, obviously for a game like this, they want you 100 hours in, I would imagine, right? 102 hours in for a game like this. How do you think the average player gets past where you're at right now without going, like, I need more.

[Mike Mahardy]

I think the average player right now out of this 300,000 plus on Steam and way more out there, I think the average player because of how well the game is done with the onboarding process, how great the world is from audio and visuals, how much fun the prox chat and moment to moment is with the community. I do think they will get a pretty good push where I think the average player will spend at least 30 hours minimum in this. I think you're going to get a good push on this.

[Nick Scarpino]

But we hit this weekend, right? We have another week and I imagine you'll play with the Jabronis. We hit Friday. Daddy doesn't have a show. I go, mike, I'm down to play something tonight. I give you the two choices, this game or battlefield. What are we hopping into if I

[Mike Mahardy]

have to redo all the missions with you? Probably battlefield.

[Nick Scarpino]

Fair enough.

[Mike Mahardy]

I am currently experiencing the Diablo 4 situation where we've onboarded four different people and we run back to do the same five missions. And I love that. And at the same time, I should be grabbing different supplies for my crafting things. I love that there's 30 minutes on there. So it is, hey, Andy, let's go do your three missions. We can spend 10 more minutes doing mine or killing people. There's A good balance there. I am very bored of like, hey, Kevin, a sex needs to be brought on. Okay, let's run the same five missions. We've already. That's not. That's not a problem in the next one.

[Nick Scarpino]

That's a fault of the fact that our friend. We have some friends. We're blessed with this many.

[Mike Mahardy]

But, like, after that, you would think all of you would be up there where it is like me, Andy and Maddock where it's like, we're on quest nine of the chain right now. We're deep in the sauce.

[Nick Scarpino]

So how do I then. How do I get myself to a place where I can roll with you guys and we can go hunt?

[Andy Cortez]

Well, if I were you, I would play a lot solo. I think I have to because you're not going to experience as much.

[Nick Scarpino]

Because I don't want to have to lean on Washy and Maddock and Kevin

[Mike Mahardy]

Ax because it's not going to take me after.

[Andy Cortez]

Well, you'll. You'll also just be able to get a lot the focus on your.

[Nick Scarpino]

I'm definitely. I'm definitely going to. And I think. I think one of the things I've learned specifically for games like this is that I need to go in solo and learn at my own pace.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Nick Scarpino]

And I need to learn the map and I need to learn a lot of things. Otherwise I'm just constantly being the younger brother of like, where's this thing? What am I doing again? And it's not fun for me. It's not fun for me to try to catch up with a lot of groups.

[Greg Miller]

Nor is it fun. I personally feel when I join a game late to be pulled through the experience.

[Andy Cortez]

Experience.

[Greg Miller]

This should take me hours and I should be getting a feel and you should be running through in 45 minutes. So at the end of 45 minutes, I'm superpower, but I don't know how I got there.

[Nick Scarpino]

Why.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah. Or whatever.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Nick Scarpino]

You've lost the progression and you've lost the actual learning curve that allows you to progress later in the game, which is what you don't want.

[Greg Miller]

Run with me, daddy.

[Nick Scarpino]

I'll run with you.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Nick Scarpino]

I've still got. I still got a dune server up

[Andy Cortez]

if you want to come.

[Mike Mahardy]

I have the challenges, which is fight other arc raiders. But I'm not getting missions like that. Right. Like as Washy says in the live chat, like. Like the missions are very gathering focused and there's not much hunting missions. Right. There's been a couple kill the smaller arcs, but I haven't Got a mission where it's like, you see that giant arc over there, figure out how to take it down.

[Andy Cortez]

Like, I, I like people got to understand these missions are not. This isn't a division experience where the

[Nick Scarpino]

mission, go, do the thing, hit the

[Andy Cortez]

button, go home, dude. That one mission where you walked into the room and the enemy popped up and he said those things and then they trapped you. You this. They are just. They are simply ways to get more XP and get a lot more xp. The missions are never exciting. They are go over there and do that thing. And you may experience a lot of things on the way. You may get into a crazy gunfight or you may just quickly get the thing you need to get done, which is in another way, like, can be as thrilling as having a bunch of gunfights on the way there. Because you're like, good. I did this thing. I've been trying to do it for the last hour. Now I can get the hell out.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

And I'm going to get that XP and I'm going to level up and now I'm going to be faster. And my. Because I'm, you know, leveling up my conditioning so I'm not always. My stamina is much higher. Like, that's. That's the excitement for me as well.

[Greg Miller]

Like, that's my thing.

[Andy Cortez]

The missions aren't exciting. They are just.

[Greg Miller]

It's a checklist and I mean, I'm so early, but it is that idea of just going out and doing, just being out there, getting some stuff, coming back, being able to upgrade and seeing that very small progression payoff that I want to join and I don't want to be like, yeah, my stamina's in the tank. I can't do anything. I want to be able to join up and go.

[Mike Mahardy]

I am getting happier. I am happy that, like, we are progressing where we are noticing that we can start taking out some of these larger ones, right? Of like from the bombardier to the leaper. It's like there is the moment when you first jump in to maybe the first 10 hours where you are deathly afraid of those. And then there is a moment where it's like you and your crew are ready for that fight. We watched a perfect crew take down a bombardier. I said, andy, Matt, I. We're gonna kill these people when they walk out, right? And sure enough, they walk out. They catch me slipping. I'm in the wrong zone, so I can't get the jump on them.

[Andy Cortez]

Right.

[Mike Mahardy]

We sweet talk them of like, let's team up, right? And it's like, oh cool. Like now let's go take out the other bomber right now together. And it's like, that's sick, right? It's like, that's fun. But there is a moment where it's like, you and your squad are strong enough. Get out there and activate it. The weapon upgrades have been very smooth, very easy. I'm very pleased with like, like when you get that level one Rattler and you're like, it's got eight bullets. This thing sucks. But if you come out with it and you go to upgrade, it's simple parts to upgrade it to level two. Now it has 12 bullets. And you're like, okay, that's sweet. And like getting it to level three and four, it gets sniped. All of a sudden that thing's 24 bullets. You can take someone down with that. Now you're adding on attachments. I mean it's so fun to get into the weapons and upgrade those, add attachments, see the benefits of them actually like, like live in action where I know, hey, if I whiz one sniper shot at Greg here, I'm gonna break his shield. I'm gonna switch quickly to my next gun and I'm gonna take him down faster than he can react. Right? Whereas I like, oh, I'm like, I just got this like Rattler that doesn't have it right. But you can still make it work. You're always a threat.

[Nick Scarpino]

I have for Andy.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Nick Scarpino]

Andy, you're probably the most even keel patient person that we have here as far as games like this are concerned. Shooting games, you know, you're a shooter.

[Andy Cortez]

Thank you.

[Greg Miller]

He's a shooter.

[Nick Scarpino]

Who should I be more worried about going in with in a duos match? Snowbike Mike, who we know is a wild card or Greg, who has a proven progression of being a rogue lone wolf agent. And the second we see trouble, I know I'm going to look behind me and see Greg just running the other way.

[Greg Miller]

Fuck that. I'm going to the other extraction point behind me.

[Andy Cortez]

No, Greg, don't leave me. You know, I did have, have there were a couple of, you know, kind of.

[Nick Scarpino]

Because I'll never forget that. What was it, pubg, when Greg just decided to like leave us?

[Andy Cortez]

Fortnite.

[Nick Scarpino]

It's Fortnite.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah. There were a couple of come to Jesus moments, A couple of hard talks that I, I had with Mike when, you know, Mike was like, Andy, do I take this level whatever sniper in there? Like it's blue, it's got.

[Mike Mahardy]

And I'm like fun.

[Andy Cortez]

That's great. That sounds awesome. Mike, do you think you're gonna be able to kill people with it?

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

And he said, you know, maybe if I hit my.

[Mike Mahardy]

That's the whole thing.

[Andy Cortez]

And we had a couple of moments where it's like, hey, I'm down to fight that crew. We don't have a whole lot of ammo and are we good enough?

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Nick Scarpino]

But I love that. I love that and that that to me is what keeps me coming back and wanting to and having that, that, that, that FOMO right now.

[Greg Miller]

Yep.

[Nick Scarpino]

Because I love those clashes. I love being a part of those moments. I win or lose, it doesn't matter. Like it's just so fun to have. Anything can possibly happen. And that's one of the reasons why I love like Warzone because we jump in and you're playing against real players so you never know what they're going to do or how they're going to react. And much more dynamic than I'm trying to come up with another title. One of the games that like you would just go in there's you know, four of you guys and you're just fighting waves of zombies or two. I guess a Hell Divers would be a good, a good analog for that.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah.

[Nick Scarpino]

To me that just felt like that was way too repetitive because you're only ever fighting NPCs you're only ever fighting at. You're not getting the chaos of the mic or the Greg who you don't know how they're going to react.

[Mike Mahardy]

Me and me, Andy and maybe man, I could Wash. You had a great one where we're at the top of the tower in.

[Andy Cortez]

Oh my God.

[Mike Mahardy]

We have trapped this team inside of a room and sure we don't know how they can get out but I'm communicating to him like just so you know, I know you're on the other side of this door. We have you like you're not coming out of here without a fight and

[Andy Cortez]

there's terrorists and there's no escape where they're at and they have barricaded this thing down and Mike is like, you're not getting out of here now out. We don't have like the best gear on us but we. But Mike is doing a great job of intimidation.

[Mike Mahardy]

I'm talking to them saying you're not coming out of it.

[Greg Miller]

So many of the old stories of Russ. I want to hear the story.

[Mike Mahardy]

And so I got Andy and Maddock on the left hand side of the door. I'm on the right opening it and closing it, right? Like I'm working and I'm scaring them and I'm yelling at Andy and Maddock of like you shoot them when you see them. Let's see what happens. Sure enough, we take one down and it's like bust open the door, we're going in, right? And the craziest part is up on the top of this tower there's open windows and a giant open hole. And they have now got the attention of the bombardier who is now shooting bombs at them in the window while we're trying to come through the door. And it's like we have put them at this perfect spot where they are now trapped on the balcony side of the window trying to scurry through without getting bombed to death. And sure enough we come in and they have fallen off the side of the tower. They're all dead. It's like this is is the moments that you want out of the game and it's just so much fun to play. It's a blast.

[Greg Miller]

Mando Delgado super chats and says, I have roughly 40 hours in arc Raiders. I haven't been this immersed in a game in so long. Can't wait to dive back in. Easily see myself playing this for months. And the roadmap looks promising. Bear, if you could bring up the roadmap from the dock, I would turn to you, Mike and ask yes, right now. How much do you envision still playing arc Raiders? I know this is a question about Friday. What would you do here? There's. But do you see legs on this still or is this a two weekend? You and the boys have fun. Would this roadmap that we're going to see bring you in? What do you think of the roadmap we've seen? Of course we're pulling from the arc raiders. Twitter is where they posted this.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah, of course. I'm always a delicate dance when you ask me, right? I am the guy who is playing video games seven days a week for eight hours plus a week, right? Like I am not the person that is going nine to five and then coming home, making dinner, hanging out with the family and then getting to play, right? So like I'm putting in a substantial amount of gaming hours and so it's easy for me to be like, well I played it for two weekends cuz I've somehow put 60 to 80 hours into a game where most people are like I'm just diving in, right? So for me it's easy to be like I'm bored of this toy now. I'm on to the next one. But I do think the positive thing right now for me in my world is I have a great Battlefield 6 with a great battle royale. I have Arc Raiders now that is dropped and is fantastic. I have Call of Duty around the corner and it's like one of those of I could find myself one night a week going, hey, let's get some raids in in Arc Raiders. Let's find the flow. Well, I complement it with other ones, right? If I was to play this every single day from Friday through the weekend like I have and then into next week, I would be like, hey, by Monday, I'm. I'm good on this, right? Because I've put in so many hours, but this is good and they're doing exactly what I want.

[Greg Miller]

Right.

[Mike Mahardy]

I always bring this up and I know it's tough on live service games staying up with content, what the player base wants. But as someone who is going to be playing this almost nightly, right. I want new things and new exciting things and I love that. We already have a new map lined up for November, right? I said it. With Battlefield, you have to strike while the iron's hot. If a team has so many players and people are excited about that, you're gonna have to feed that beast. You have to keep them on the lure. And Battlefield did that with new maps of multiplayer into a battle royale. While this game as well, like you look at it the first month, we're getting a new map already, right? We're adding snow conditions in December. That gets me excited because man Holiday, the weather conditions already in the game are awesome. From night raids, the heavy rain to the electric storms.

[Greg Miller]

So good.

[Mike Mahardy]

Now it's like you're gonna add snow onto the map. That's fantastic. I really hope they nail that. Where it's like, I can see your footprints in the in the field would be awesome. I mean, they're adding a new new arc, right? That means new enemy types, new wow factors. There already so much in the game that maybe people haven't seen yet or just being exposed to. We saw the giant mother out there, the giant, giant spider, and it's like those are the ones where you go, oh, wow, when will we get to that point? So the more the better. I mean, more gameplay items. We haven't talked about it, but there's a lot of great traps and grenades in this game where it's like me and Washy, of course, being the trolls that we are, have set up up so many electrical mines and C4 bombs at this evac. Station, right? Like if you were to press the box, you're dead.

[Andy Cortez]

Right?

[Mike Mahardy]

And then Washy, out of nowhere, hucks the lure grenade, which makes sounds. That draws the arcs in, right? It's like there are so many ways to have fun and play. There's, you know, you could bait out the arcs going the other way if you needed to. Like, they are very, very good.

[Nick Scarpino]

But the thing about it, and I play with you for a long time here, Mike. I know you though. When you get to this stage of like, like toxicity and with other players, I think that's the end game for you. I feel like that's, that's you being like, I'm looking for ways to make this game my own. And it's not necessarily keeping my.

[Mike Mahardy]

Well, when you think of the road map, right, like Andy said, from the betas to the server slam, me and Andy in particular, and I think Nick as well has come with us. We played this game for almost a year now. If you really think about the timing of when we first started into now,

[Andy Cortez]

for me it's probably close to 40 hours. Yeah.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah. So it's like I've already played a lot where I am, you know, shout out to dq. Dq Roman on tik tok that I enjoy, right? Like I'm hunting you. You are the most valuable prize. You are gathering the stuff that I've gotten bored and don't want to gather anymore. I like the thrill of the chase. You are the most dangerous game. So like, yeah, of course I'm coming after you no matter what.

[Greg Miller]

When I would be getting killed or just be worried about getting killed in this game. The words of one Kevin Coelho echoed in my head over and over when me and Kevin started playing pubg. When pubg was brand new. There was a moment one night where we were late night playing and he just goes, you know what? Every time we pick something up, we're just going to be a loot box for someone else. And I feel like playing our greatest. I'm gathering all this shit. I'm like, I'm never getting out of here with this. I got a full backpack. I'm like, we'll drop the whites and bring in the blues. But I'm never fucking expecting any of this.

[Mike Mahardy]

My favorite is there I am trolling and I catch this kid slipping at the evac point.

[Andy Cortez]

Right, right.

[Mike Mahardy]

And I knock him down and I, I'm being the mic. I said, hey, great fight out there. Unfortunately, you lost. I'm going to take everything. And the kid, kid goes, he goes I got a lot of great loot. Like, you're going to really enjoy this. And I go, you know what, kid? Get in here. We're going to survive together. And I let him crawl in and I. We survive. It's like he got to keep the stuff. But like, yeah, I'm out hunting for you is right, Nick. I am. When we actively. Andy sees it in my eyes, the chat season, when we drop onto the map and I hear that first shot, I immediately am identifying, triangulating where that came from.

[Andy Cortez]

I get it.

[Nick Scarpino]

It's fun. It's the most fun part of the game.

[Mike Mahardy]

And Eddie's like, no, we have to go this way to like do the mission. I'm like, what if we just go the opposite direction?

[Nick Scarpino]

We die.

[Andy Cortez]

What if we go over there and die?

[Mike Mahardy]

Restart.

[Greg Miller]

Here's a final question I want to get from the super chats before we get out of here. Nightlife 2025 says, doubling back to what we're saying, but it'll go somewhere new. Sound quality superb. I heard a tree rub against a glass pool. I stood there in awe. Only worry will high level players discourage new users. Do you see that chasm getting to a point where there's no entry point in, well, what they're talking about of like how solos is different than duos, which is different than trios. I'm wondering how much that does. And then how they're putting people into the maps and stuff.

[Nick Scarpino]

I don't know. Skill base.

[Andy Cortez]

You hop in with people that are similar level to you. Okay.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

Okay. So like, I already feel like that

[Nick Scarpino]

divide was big for us already. When we were popping in for our first like three hours of game, I felt like there were people that were, I mean that's always the same with every time I go into any game, I'm like, like this. How do these kids play 20 hours when the game's been out for an hour. Yeah, but I feel like everyone's already got high, higher level than me.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

The thing that I, I, I posted on on threads last night was everyone I run into in solo arc Raiders runs have been the most well adjusted and helpful human beings ever. It's rad. Got killed a couple times by raiders, but for the most part it's just gamers trying to do missions and fighting arc together. Good game. And I, I, part of me wonders if that's kind of the, the, the it's like, hey, you go to trios if you want a PvP.

[Nick Scarpino]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

If you want to like do missions, you, you go to Solo.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

And that's not always going to be 100%. You will get. You will get shot and you will want to hunt down people in either mode. But it does feel like the. The amount of former or not former, but just like Tarkov players that I run into to where I. I would ask them questions to be like, well, yeah, I mean, I've played Tarkov for, you know, eight years or seven years or whatever. And yeah, that's how we do it here. But yeah, you come to, you know, it's the amount of people that I had tell me in solo mode. Yeah, you come do solos if you want to eat, you do your missions, loot all you want. Like, you come to solos for that.

[Nick Scarpino]

Okay, I'm gonna try that then.

[Andy Cortez]

But trios mode is like, always be on alert. That's what we're gonna fight. That's what we're gonna shoot, people. Me, Maddock and Kevin Ax had an awesome match last night where trio destroyed me and Maddock. Kevin waited around for them. Kevin went solo. He didn't really have much on him, but then ends up taking a dude out and it happened to be the dude that took out me and Maddox. We were like, fuck, yeah, you got that, dude.

[Nick Scarpino]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

So just like, moments like that feel awesome.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah. It will be interesting to see where we go the next couple of weeks. Right. As, like, Greggy continues to play this week, we team up with him. You know, I'm starting now to unlock these. These trials or expeditions. I haven't searched into them of, like, when I complete things, they're like, oh, check out this new menu that you can go learn things on. I haven't clicked into that. I'm excited. Like, I'm very much. I'm just trolling people now, so I'm sure when I get with Greggy and Andy again, it will be, hey, let's look into that. What is it getting me? What is it doing?

[Andy Cortez]

Quality of life improvements. I would just like to see loadouts. Even if you don't have the stuff to. To complete the loadout.

[Greg Miller]

I a standard. This is what I would want.

[Andy Cortez]

And you just load the amount of times I have defaulted to the free loadout just because we're trying to get back in there and I'm on stream and it's like, I don't want you. And the menu can be very, very kind of overwhelming at times with how your inventory looks. Yeah, the inventory sorting, I think is really good and helpful. However, I wish that you could either make a custom tab because the way the menu is sorted on the left hand side, you can go into guns or gun mods or shields. I wish you could make a custom tablock. These are always my go to items. Or put shield recharges in the shield area instead of like consumables. I think that would also be really, really helpful. And yeah, because a lot of that just kind of gets really, really annoying. Also, a lot of people have been rightfully calling out the AI voices. I think that sucks too. Not only from like that.

[Mike Mahardy]

The voice mods for players, public chat or it like.

[Greg Miller]

No, they use the video text to speech AI for some stuff and some actors for real stuff.

[Andy Cortez]

No, I mean it's pretty much all

[Mike Mahardy]

actors that are Celeste to the meta guy. Those are all AI.

[Andy Cortez]

It's all actors that have trained their like voice like whatever software or whatever. And that sucks just from a worker standpoint. But it also sucks because it's so bad. It's so flat like it. And you know, again, you're not expecting a whole lot from these random NPCs that you click on and they just look at you and talk to you. Yeah. But it leads to a really bad performance as well where it's like, I'm sure these actors who were paid to do this, who agreed to, you know, lend their voice to kind of give them a library of. We could just have our actors say whatever that it's like, well, I would rather you just pay them to kind of say whatever lines you need then to do in the future. But if that's what they agreed to do, fine. It just sounds bad because like you'll see a character like hey, so any run into any arcs out there and it's like, oof.

[Mike Mahardy]

Like yeah, that's interesting.

[Andy Cortez]

Just don't voice them if they're gonna sound that bad.

[Mike Mahardy]

Are they doing that in cutscenes too? Because it is interesting. It's like this game is trying to tell you a small story and they got really well done cutscenes of like we're clearly trying to make something here, a world that you want to learn more about the lore. And it's like, are they doing that in that the.

[Andy Cortez]

The cutscenes sound real?

[Mike Mahardy]

Okay.

[Andy Cortez]

It's just the moments from my perspective that what I'm assuming is the cut scenes are a lot like real actors delivering real lines. And then whenever you click on the NPCs, it is a real actor who has trained an AI voice model to type in whatever. Whatever. Yeah, whatever the text to speech prompt is for whatever mission it is that they're doing and it just leads to us really subpar performance that I'd almost rather not have that there because it is kind of just bad, you know, in multiple ways, of course. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Voice acting sucks.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah. But yeah, I. As far as the question, is this something that I would.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, well, how much that I see

[Andy Cortez]

myself playing more of?

[Greg Miller]

What's your future?

[Andy Cortez]

I. We are really just in a period that if Silksong was out, I wouldn't be playing this.

[Nick Scarpino]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

You know, like, that's. That's where we're at now. I love it though. I really, really enjoy this game and I want to play more, but I could totally see this coming out at a more inconvenient time where there is a big single player action RPG that I'm so too. And it's like, yeah, sorry, Mike, I can't play tonight. I'm really, really into this game. Last night got our asses whooped in Valorant premiere again, which is like, hey, premiere team, I think I'm done. I. I'm so. Get Mike off the bench. I'm so tired of playing on this premier team and just playing against people that are out of our ranks.

[Nick Scarpino]

A team that's like, thank you. Single a Valorant with.

[Andy Cortez]

We need to do something.

[Nick Scarpino]

Let's just have fun.

[Andy Cortez]

We need to do something. We're no play people that don't belong. But anyway, as I'm getting my ass whoop. It's like, I wish I was playing arc raiders. I wish I had said, hey, somebody else sub in for me.

[Mike Mahardy]

Can I tell you a night Andy had is Andy came in after Valorant and me and Washy are playing. He's like, you guys playing arc raiders? And we immediately go, yo, we're trolling people in our creators. And he just immediately was like, I'm not having any of that. Just left us there because we were giggling going, yeah, we're not playing the game. No. You know, we're ruining people's experience.

[Andy Cortez]

No, you know what I realized I had muted my mic mic and was talking to you for a couple of sentences. But I was like, I'm going to go eat. And then I left a call and then I looked and I wasn't muted in discord, but my mic was. I was like, oh, they didn't hear me say anything, people.

[Greg Miller]

Well, it seems like arc raider impressions are positive so far.

[Mike Mahardy]

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

[Greg Miller]

I can't wait to get back to it. There are a lot of streams planned this week for arc Raiders. Tomorrow on Tuesday, the Jabroni boys here will be playing arc Raiders in an Nvidia Spider sponsor stream. Then Wednesday and Friday I joined the team. Wednesday it's me, Andy and Blessing after he eats playing arc Raiders. And then Friday it's Mike, me and Nick.

[Nick Scarpino]

Let's go baby.

[Mike Mahardy]

Get the clip.

[Greg Miller]

He know like when you get on at night. Even though I'll probably never be on Mike. Well, I keep you on a mic for you. We'll figure it out.

[Nick Scarpino]

Okay, I'll shoot.

[Mike Mahardy]

You get the clip. Shy of the night and day difference of you with Andy and Bless and then you with me and Nick, you're

[Nick Scarpino]

gonna have so much more fun with

[Andy Cortez]

us and you're gonna quit playing that game forever.

[Nick Scarpino]

Mike is the end for you.

[Andy Cortez]

It's really like I think playing with Mike is like Greg, if you want to hang out with me, we're going to get some flamin hot snacks and drink some energy drinks. With Mike it's like we're going to get into heroin. We're going to be ruined forever and never want to come back to this. But it's going to be really fun in that moment.

[Mike Mahardy]

We've got this car a thousand miles

[Nick Scarpino]

an hour right now. Mike, I thought about you the other day. It's Friday night. It was Saturday night. I'm going to my venue for my comedy show. I'm with my buddy Austin. He goes, holy shit, look. And in the middle of the road, just down the road, fucking big ass coyote. And it just looked at me, winked and ran off. And I was like, that's what it's like playing. Well that's what it's like playing with snow bikes now.

[Greg Miller]

Well, you can look forward to a lot of those sessions here on YouTube.com CondofunnyGames, Twitch TV, KindafunnyGames podcast services around the globe. Remember we're here each and every day with a of live talk shows except for today. We are about to go eat Chipotle that we had catered and then do our annual hey, what are we doing next year? What worked this year? Where are we taking this company? So that means our programming day is ending here. But like subscribe share use your Amazon prime for that free Twitch prime sub and make sure you check us out tomorrow when we kick the day off with kinda funny games daily. For now though, until next time, it's been our pleasure to serve you.

[Mike Mahardy]

Monster Energy. Everybody knows White Monster Zero ultra, that's the OG it kicked off this whole zero sugar energy drink thing. But Ultra is a whole lineup now. You've got Strawberry Dreams, Blue Hawaiian Sunrise and Vice Guava. And they all bring the monster Energy punch. So if you've been living in the white can branch out. Ultra's got a flavor for every vibe. And every single one is zero.

[Nick Scarpino]

Sugar, sugar Tap the banner to learn more.

[Depop Sponsor Voice]

Are you dreaming of the perfect prom? But there's just one thing holding you back.

[Greg Miller]

Speak English, Mom.

[Depop Sponsor Voice]

Welcome to Ethnosync. Ethnic Modification. What is this place?

[Greg Miller]

We help you reach your true potential.

[Andy Cortez]

How are you feeling? It's good to be white. Hey, new girl.

[Depop Sponsor Voice]

Hey. Look at what you've done to yourself.

[Andy Cortez]

For a new plant to grow, the

[Mike Mahardy]

seed has to die.

[Depop Sponsor Voice]

Slanted Rated R. Only in theaters March 13th. Side effects may occur.

[Andy Cortez]

Close your eyes. Exhale. Feel your body relax.

[Depop Sponsor Voice]

And let go of whatever you're carrying today. Well, I'm letting go of the worry that I wouldn't get my new contacts in time for this class. I got them delivered free from 1-800-contacts. Oh, my gosh. They're so fast.

[Andy Cortez]

And breathe.

[Depop Sponsor Voice]

Oh, sorry. I almost couldn't breathe when I saw the discount they gave me on my first order. Oh, sorry. Namaste. Visit 1-800-contacts.com today to save on your first order.

[Andy Cortez]

1-800-contacts.

[Mike Mahardy]

How many discounts does USAA auto insurance offer?

[Greg Miller]

Too many to say here.

[Andy Cortez]

Multi vehicle discount.

[Mike Mahardy]

Safe driver discount. New vehicle discount.

[Andy Cortez]

Storage discount.

[Depop Sponsor Voice]

How many discounts will you stack up? Tap the banner or visit usaa.com autodiscounts restrictions apply.