Civ VII, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II Thoughts - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Summary

Podcast Summary: Kinda Funny Gamescast – Episode on Civ VII and Kingdom Come: Deliverance II

Podcast Information:

• Title: Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast
• Hosts: Tim Gettys, Greg “GameOverGreggy” Miller, Blessing Adeoye (Snowbike Mike), and Andy Cortez
• Episode: Civ VII, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II Thoughts
• Release Date: February 3, 2025

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1. Introduction

The episode kicks off with the hosts engaging in their characteristic banter, briefly touching on the aftermath of Groundhog Day and introducing each other with humorous remarks. The hosts establish a relaxed and conversational tone, setting the stage for an in-depth discussion of the latest video game releases.

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2. Civilization VII Review

Overview of Civilization VII: Civilization VII, developed by Firaxis and published by 2K, marks the latest installment in the iconic 4X strategy series. Released simultaneously on PC and consoles on February 5th (deluxe editions available earlier), the game introduces significant structural changes, including a division into three distinct ages: Antiquity, Exploration, and Modern.

Greg Miller’s Gameplay Experience: Greg Miller delves into his extensive experience with Civilization VII, logging 14 hours of gameplay over the weekend. His approach spans multiple incomplete games, with strategies focused on both military dominance and cultural victory through the spread of religion.

[05:20] Greg Miller: "I put 14 hours of gameplay in over the weekend, which comes out to about two games, two incomplete games. I'm still, I'm still fighting for my life in one of them."

Gameplay Mechanics and Innovations: The game retains the classic 4X elements—explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate—enhanced by real-world historical elements. Greg highlights the introduction of ages, allowing players to realign their strategies periodically, fostering a more dynamic and personalized gameplay experience.

[07:48] Greg Miller: "Civ is kind of based in reality where you are rewriting your own history of the Earth. And so seven is broke down into three ages this time. The Antiquity age, the Exploration age, and the modern age."

Critical Reception and Host Reactions: While Civilization VII has garnered a Metacritic score of 81, reviews are mixed. Eurogamer’s Sin Vega rated it 2/5, citing it as "dull" despite high production values and innovations. In contrast, IGN’s Lena Heer gave it a 7, appreciating the streamlined gameplay but noting it may alienate hardcore fans.

[16:11] Tim Gaddis: "Eurogamers Sin Vega gave it a 2 out of 5 stars... But it's dull."

Greg empathizes with the critiques, acknowledging the game's challenges for casual players and the absence of comprehensive tutorials, which can make the game less accessible.

[17:24] Greg Miller: "My 14 hours have not been dull... They definitely identified like, hey, there's a lot coming at you and nothing explaining anything."

Platform Compatibility and Future Prospects: Civilization VII’s simultaneous release on PC and consoles is a strategic move to broaden its audience. Greg expresses confidence in the game’s suitability for console play, likening its turn-based mechanics to titles like Gears Tactics and XCOM.

[23:11] Greg Miller: "I definitely think you have the time that it takes on the controller and gamepad to slow it down and be able to do that."

Conclusion: Greg concludes that Civilization VII serves well as a sequel, especially for casual players seeking a more straightforward 4X experience. He remains optimistic about future updates and DLCs potentially addressing current shortcomings.

[24:04] Greg Miller: "This is just another Civ to me, but it's a little more of a straightforward sieve... I really enjoyed it. I had a good time with it."

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3. Kingdom Come: Deliverance II Review

Overview of Kingdom Come: Deliverance II: Developed by Warhorse Studios, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is the highly anticipated sequel to the realistic medieval RPG. Released on February 4th, the game continues to emphasize historical accuracy and immersive storytelling, set in 15th century Bohemia.

Critical Reception: The game holds an 87 score among PC gamers but has received varied reviews from major outlets:

• PC Gamer’s Joshua Wallen: Gave it a 90, praising its ambitious and peculiar yet fulfilling nature, reminiscent of classic titles like Stalker and Morrowind.

  [32:20] Tim Gaddis: "Joshua Wallens gave it a 90 saying this game feels a bit miraculous..."

• GameSpot’s Richard Wakeling: Awarded it a 9, commending improved combat, quest design, and technical stability over the first installment, while critiquing its portrayal of historical figures and diversity.

  [33:07] Tim Gaddis: "Game spots. Richard Wakeling gave it a 9 saying it's not perfect..."

• Eurogamer’s Catherine Castle: Scored it 3/5, noting its ongoing divisiveness and tedious approach despite improvements.

  [33:17] Tim Gaddis: "Eurogamers Catherine Castle gave it a 3 out of 5 saying this gorgeous medieval RPG..."

Greg and Mike’s Gameplay Experiences: Greg shares his initial three-hour experience with Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, highlighting a slow-start narrative-driven approach that gradually evolves into engaging combat mechanics reminiscent of titles like For Honor.

[34:27] Greg Miller: "I really enjoyed the two characters... I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes."

Mike recounts his less extended engagement due to fatigue, finding the early gameplay overwhelming but intrigued by the story dynamics and combat system.

[35:27] Snowbike Mike: "I put one hour in and it was strictly one of those, oh, this review code's coming tomorrow..."

Gameplay Mechanics and Narrative: Both hosts appreciate the game's focus on realism and player agency. Greg is particularly drawn to the narrative and combat blend, while Mike expresses a desire for a more action-oriented experience but remains hopeful about the game's potential.

[39:36] Greg Miller: "I want to try something a little bit different... I'm looking forward to riding on this one."

Conclusion: Despite some initial hurdles, both Greg and Mike express a willingness to continue exploring Kingdom Come: Deliverance II. Greg is optimistic about its depth and story progression, while Mike remains cautiously interested, acknowledging the game’s immersive qualities but recognizing his preference for more dynamic gameplay.

[40:28] Greg Miller: "Yeah, this is one I want to complete."

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4. Additional Discussions

While the primary focus of the episode centers on Civilization VII and Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, the hosts briefly touch upon upcoming game releases and hardware reviews. Notably, they mention the anticipation for Avowed and discuss experiences with high-end gaming laptops from Razer, emphasizing their commitment to providing in-depth reviews and previews for future content.

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5. Conclusion

The episode offers a comprehensive analysis of two major game releases, balancing professional critiques with personal gameplay experiences. Greg Miller's enthusiasm for both Civilization VII and Kingdom Come: Deliverance II provides listeners with valuable insights into the strengths and potential shortcomings of each title. The hosts maintain their signature blend of humor and expertise, ensuring an engaging and informative discussion for both avid gamers and casual listeners alike.

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Notable Quotes:

• Greg Miller on Civilization VII’s Historical Integration:

  "[07:48] Civ is kind of based in reality where you are rewriting your own history of the Earth."

• Greg Miller on the Streamlined Gameplay:

  "[24:04] This is just another Civ to me, but it's a little more of a straightforward sieve... I really enjoyed it."

• Greg Miller on Kingdom Come: Deliverance II’s Narrative Depth:

  "[34:27] I really enjoyed the two characters... I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes."

• Melanie on the Need for Player Focus in Civ VII:

  "[29:35] ... it is a game that needs your focus and it's enough."

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For a deeper dive into their gameplay strategies and more detailed opinions, listeners are encouraged to tune into the full episode of Kinda Funny Gamescast.

Transcript

[Tim Gaddis]

Foreign.

[Greg Miller]

What's up?

[Tim Gaddis]

And welcome to the kind of Funny Games cast for Monday, February 3, 2025. Means it's the day after Groundhog Day. And I didn't hear any update about this little.

[Snowbike Mike]

They don't. It's usually weekday, right? You want to do it on February 2nd?

[Tim Gaddis]

I don't know. Groundhogs, they don't. You don't get to choose the day based on what day of the week it is.

[Greg Miller]

Look it up.

[Snowbike Mike]

Punks. Donnie, Phil.

[Tim Gaddis]

What's he up to? He looking.

[Snowbike Mike]

Five days ago. They have a USA Today five days ago.

[Tim Gaddis]

That's fucked up.

[Greg Miller]

How you doing?

[Snowbike Mike]

Oh, no. Okay, now. AP says four hours ago, Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow handler say predicting six more weeks of wintry weather. Punxatani Phil saw eyeshadow Sunday. You were right. And predicted. They just don't report till Monday. And predicted six more weeks of it.

[Tim Gaddis]

Wow, man.

[Snowbike Mike]

Phil was welcomed with chants of Phil, Phil. Phil. And pulled from a hatch on a tree stump shortly after sunrise before a member of the Punks and Andy Groundhog club read from a scroll which boasted, only, I know you can't trust AI. End quote.

[Tim Gaddis]

Sorry, who said that?

[Snowbike Mike]

That's what the scroll said. The scroll that they read from.

[Tim Gaddis]

Only I know. Sounds like such a threat from this little fluffy guy.

[Snowbike Mike]

Here's what I'll say. Thank God Phil's getting fucking political. He was also like the nation's crumbling Supreme Court for reform.

[Tim Gaddis]

Now, of course, everyone, I'm Tim Gaddis. I'm joined today by the big daddy himself, Greg Miller.

[Snowbike Mike]

Hello, Tim.

[Tim Gaddis]

And rounding out the group we have the master of hype, Snowbike Mike. It's Monday, so that means overalls, baby.

[Greg Miller]

Are we overall? Are we over all Mondays? Are we over today's Monday.

[Snowbike Mike]

You were the only one who ever did it.

[Greg Miller]

No, no, I'm over. Are we overall Monday.

[Snowbike Mike]

Can I just. All I need is. Can I just get a Sunday night text? It's overalls tomorrow, Greg.

[Greg Miller]

Okay.

[Snowbike Mike]

Or can you put on the calendar reoccurring?

[Greg Miller]

How about I take you, me and Nick over to workwear shop and let's buy some new car hearts?

[Snowbike Mike]

I'm not buying new car hearts. I barely. The ones I have are when I have to cosplay. Like I know what I'm doing in the house when I want to walk in a hardware store and act like I know.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, yeah, when you go and do.

[Snowbike Mike]

It, dude, when I'm underneath the house in this box we bought, trying to make sure you know what I Mean.

[Tim Gaddis]

Why do you wear it? Like, does it make you feel, like, special or, like, do you actually use it as function?

[Snowbike Mike]

Function screwdrivers in there and tape measures and like that.

[Tim Gaddis]

Why is that so funny to me?

[Snowbike Mike]

I got all sorts of photos of me.

[Tim Gaddis]

Like, you and dad mode. I mean, like, God, no human being has went through as big of a change in their life as Greg Miller becoming a dad like you. All of a sudden, you look at him, you're like, oh, yeah, this guy goes on hike.

[Greg Miller]

He's locked.

[Tim Gaddis]

This guy plays, you know, hiking.

[Snowbike Mike]

Jen was dragging me out on hiking.

[Tim Gaddis]

Yeah. But it never looked right. It didn't look right. Now it's like you look at you and it always looks right. So, yeah, seeing you in that, like, seeing Mike in this, he doesn't look handy, you know what I mean?

[Greg Miller]

You look.

[Tim Gaddis]

You look kind of cool. You look like a 90s school kid.

[Greg Miller]

Kind of, you know.

[Tim Gaddis]

Here comes Nick.

[Greg Miller]

Come on, tell him, Nick. Tell Nick. Just got that dad look that you're just kind of like, over everything. Yeah.

[Snowbike Mike]

Me?

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Snowbike Mike]

Over everything.

[Tim Gaddis]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Like, I see you sometimes. You're just, like, a little disappointed with me.

[Snowbike Mike]

Well, I'm always a little disappointed with you. Oh, perfect.

[Greg Miller]

Okay.

[Tim Gaddis]

What you looking for?

[Snowbike Mike]

I'm trying to find you a good. I want to find a representative overall.

[Tim Gaddis]

I mean, because I can see you in the overalls.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah. You know, but you never see me working them, you know? Yeah.

[Tim Gaddis]

I haven't seen you with the screwdrivers.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah, that's pretty damn sure. But you keep doing your show.

[Tim Gaddis]

I'm gonna keep doing it because remember, this is Kind of Funny. Games cast. Each and every weekday we get together to talk about the biggest reviews, previews and topics. Video games live on YouTube, Twitch and podcast services around the globe. If you love what we do, please support us with the Kind of Funny membership on Patreon or YouTube to get all of our shows ad free, watch us record them live and get a daily exclusive show. For a chance to be part of this show, though, you got a YouTube super chat in, just like Lucy Bluth has done, saying, sending in the birthday tax, celebrating my first birthday as a mom. Congratulations and happy birthday. Thank you for spending your day here with us. A little housekeeping for you. You already got rumors of a February PlayStation State of Play on Kind of Funny Games Daily. A great episode if I do say so myself. After this, the stream's gonna be Mike nick playing Streamer Life 2. You hyped on that, Mike.

[Greg Miller]

Streamer Life 2. So excited. This is the new simulation game that everybody, everybody's talking about, you know what I mean? It's a competitive business now, Tim.

[Snowbike Mike]

Are they all talking about it?

[Greg Miller]

And now the question is, is, does Nick have the stuff to go out there and compete against some of the best streamers on planet Earth?

[Tim Gaddis]

Big question. We'll find out today. If you're a kind of funny member, you can get today's Greg Way the which is Greg's Royal Rumble Stories. And you can get a funny podcast this afternoon tomorrow on YouTube and podcast services. Rod, you brought that up. If you please could again. This is the platinum Patreon item for the month. It is the as off poster by Panda Musk and it is absolutely incredible. The two sides of potentially the same man, Johnny Nick Scarpin.

[Snowbike Mike]

In order to trap him, he must become him. Face off.

[Tim Gaddis]

Thank you to our Patreon producers, Delaney Twining, Carl Jacobs, Omega Buster and Karen Lindner. Today we're brought to you by Aura Frames, but we'll tell you all about that later. Get into it. The topic of the show, Civilization 7, we're reviewing it so far. Mikey's been playing this, of course. Developed by Firaxis publisher 2K. Release date February 11th for the normal people out there, February 5th for the deluxe editions. Wow, Mike, how much have you played of this and what is your history with the Civilization series?

[Greg Miller]

Tim, I put 14 hours of gameplay in over the weekend, which comes out to about two games, two incomplete games. I'm still, I'm still fighting for my life in one of them.

[Snowbike Mike]

Code came in late for this one for you? Yeah, yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Unfortunately, Code came in a little late for me on this one. But you know what? I, I said, I'm gonna give you some time, let's have some fun. And I got lost in it.

[Snowbike Mike]

That's my main thing.

[Greg Miller]

Deep in and on.

[Snowbike Mike]

So many people have brought up the fact of like when you talk about being the civ guy, the sim guy, that doesn't strike them as, you know, a Snow White Mike game. So talk to me about that before we even get really going here. What is your history with Civ? Why are you drawn to it? What do you like about it?

[Greg Miller]

Well, it starts off being an RTS guy growing up with Warcraft 3.

[Snowbike Mike]

Right.

[Greg Miller]

I've always loved real time strategy games from Starcraft 64 into Warcraft 3 into Age of Empires 2. And so there's like this passion of, I love real time strategy games and that kind of evolved into more strategy games. So similar to XCOM too, which I'm a big fan of xcom. And then of course, one of my best friends, Washi, loves Civ. So it kind of got us in to Civ a long time ago. And so I've just dabbled in. I've been more of a casual fan, but like, I like the game, but it also requires a lot, right? And we've learned that we can't play multiplayer because we like to press the button go, go, go too much. So we can't play it together anymore. So I wish, I wish. So, yeah, I put in a lot of time. It was surprising. I put in two hours on Saturday just to kind of dip my toe, see the feeling. And then on Sunday, 12 hours, 12 hours later, I was like, man, I got to get out of this room. It smells kind of funky. That's how hard I win on this. And yeah, just kind of dove right into it. I had so much fun. Some fun ones for you. You know, the first civ was 1991.

[Tim Gaddis]

Wow.

[Greg Miller]

Isn't that crazy to think about and to, yeah, see it live and in person now? It's like, man, this game has come a long way and it looks great. And so, yeah, over my 12 hours I have two really good games going on. One where I am going for the dominant all out war win and then the other, I decided to change it up and go for the cultural win. So I'm spreading religion.

[Snowbike Mike]

Let me stop you here because Civ 7, of course making a lot of headlines at announcement because it's the first it's going to launch on PC and console simultaneously rather than Civ 6, which had a break in there, yada yada. So I do feel that like for a lot of gamescast people, they might not know what Civ actually is. Oh, can you give a top level of what SIV is and what you're doing in Civ?

[Greg Miller]

Sieve is a 4x strategy game built on a bunch of tiles similar to what you would see with Settlers of Catan. Or maybe if you played xcom, you kind of know the squares that you move upon. But 4x is explore, expand, exploit and exterminate are your options there that you'll go through. Of course you'll explore this vast map. And Civ is kind of based in reality where you are rewriting your own history of the Earth. And so it's really cool. Like you'll see the touchstones of actual, you know, planet Earth from different geological areas, different, you know, cities and states that you might recognize, and different, you know, wonders of the world that you'll pass by. And so you get to kind of write your own history book here throughout the different ages. And so seven seven is broke down into three ages this time. The Antiquity age, the Exploration age, and the modern age. And these are kind of just periods of the game that you'll play. So you'll start off in Antiquity, which is like, hey, you're first set, you're settling down with your first civilization, your first city. You're going to expand maybe a couple more cities, you're going to start to meet others with your scouts, you're going to start to build warriors and people with bows, right? And then of course, we'll move into the modern age at the very end where it's like, now I have tanks and I have riflemen, all of a sudden I have a plane, right? So, like, that's where we'll get to as we start writing our own history. And throughout history, you'll meet other civilizations, other players, whether it be AIs or other players that you're playing with the multiplayer game, which is you will kind of maybe make alliances, or maybe you'll start to trade with them, or maybe you'll get into fights with them like I do. And so it's really how you want your own history to be told through this. And what I enjoyed with Civ 7 is in between each period, you kind of have your chance to realign with what you want. Are you militaristic? Are you going for the cultural win? Are you maybe pushing more different diplomacy values? And so at the end of every period, you'll get to kind of realign. Who do I want to be? Where do I want to go? But we'll talk about that a little more as I get deeper into this.

[Tim Gaddis]

Can you explain that? What's a cultural win?

[Greg Miller]

A cultural win is where you. You spread religion around the globe. And so you have four ways to win. Cultural, military, science, and economic. They all have their own touchstones and milestones that you have to achieve throughout. And then at the very end, you can win through a number of ways.

[Tim Gaddis]

Do you have to kind of choose one path to go down, or can you kind of like try for two at the same time?

[Greg Miller]

You're going to blend a couple of them with some of them, but most of the time you're probably going to want to focus on one. Especially if you're a beginner player, you probably want to focus on one, see how that plays out, and then learn how to kind of open up that funnel and grab more as you go. Like, for me right now, Doing the cultural. Right. They probably want me at the end of it to have a little more touchstones into some other ones. Right. So I'm looking for world treasures to try to add on to stat to add on to my stats. So between every age they'll show you, like, hey, this is where you're kind of at right now. Like, you're winning in this area, you're winning in that area, you're losing here. And you're like, okay, well, I'm not going for like a military thing. So, like, of course I'm losing there. Or yeah, I'm not exploring that much. I can see why I'm down on this side. And so you have different things that you can add on to throughout your different ages to win.

[Snowbike Mike]

Can we talk about ages for a second? Yeah, this, of course. And I should point out, I did the pax panel for Civ 7.

[Greg Miller]

Yes.

[Snowbike Mike]

I killed it, of course. You know what I mean.

[Tim Gaddis]

Oh, yeah.

[Snowbike Mike]

You know what I mean. But of course, the big thing they wanted to talk about there was ages. This is the new thing for Civ 7. The idea they talked about at that point, which I had not played. I don't think previews were out yet. It was the idea that ages allowed a more free form Civ before. You choose who you're going to be and you're locked in all the way it's going to be, you know, you can explain it better than me, but you're locked into whoever you're picking.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Snowbike Mike]

Whereas with these three ages in between the ages, you get to make certain choices that then make it no longer strictly historical for what it would have been before.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah. So that's the fun part. So you kind of roll back the clock here to the beginning when you first down and when you first sit down in front of your computer or console now to place, we should point.

[Snowbike Mike]

Out you played on PC.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah. Pretty wild. That console, of course is what they're promoting, but I didn't play it on that also.

[Snowbike Mike]

What are you hiding?

[Greg Miller]

Steam Deck verified. Didn't check it out on Steam Deck, so I can't give you the update on that. But it is cool to see it going everywhere. I think that's the goal, of course, and to try to get players anywhere they want to play. But when you first sit down, you have a number of options, but you're going to click on new game where you will be prompted to pick, of course, who is your civilization leader and what is that civilization kind of based off of. Right. So you have people Like Benjamin Franklin, Catherine the Great, you know, Augustus. So you'll kind of look at, hey, who do I align with? What are some of their starting stuff that kind of lines up with me. Do they get more gold when they build military stuff? Do they get, you know, starting their hero or, like, kind of their. I don't want to call it. Yeah, we'll call it a hero unit for right now, but I'll go into better explanations. Their hero unit gets three free skill points right off the start when you jump into them. And then after that, you'll get into, hey, where do you want to start? You don't have to start from the beginning, the first era, which is that antiquity era. You can go straight into modern era to shorten up the game. And then, of course, what do you want to base your civilization off of? So they have different civilizations from all of time, different areas of the globe that might align with what you want to do. Are you looking for culture? Are you looking to be militaristic? Do you want to maybe be more on the economic side? So you'll kind of blend the civilization with your leader together to try to determine where you want to start your game? And so, as I said, you'll start off with the three ages. Greg, as you brought up is when you first start, you will be kind of going towards that. They give you a really good job of four different advisors. So you can choose from the advisors. I talk about economics, science, military, and culture right off the start. And they'll give you kind of missions and a guideline to follow. So for me, if I wanted to do culture, it says, hey, you need to make four different, like, cultural landmarks. You need to have four relics inside of those. And so you kind of know, oh, this is what I want to be going for. So I know what I want to do to win, right? When I went with military, it was like, hey, you need to take over a settlement that's not yours. And so you kind of know, hey, this is what I should be following, where I should go. And then at the end of the age, it says, hey, we're about to hit the transitional period. Get ready. A number of your units aren't going to come with you. Right. As we kind of transitioned here, some units will be upgraded and they'll carry forward, some won't. And so when you hit it, everything stops. You could be in the middle of a war, and when you come out of it, no, we've kind of reset the board. And so when you're in that middle Period. You have this moment of hey, I've been really enjoying what I've been doing with Augusta and whatever country I chose. Now I want to switch that. And it kind of gives you everything that you could be, but then it locks out things that you aren't doing. So they'll kind of give you probably three to maybe five options of hey, these cultures here in this next world, this next round that you do, can be militaristic and cultural, they can be economic and cultural. They give you two options of each and they kind of set the tone of hey, this is where you're going to go next if you want to be that. So you have the opportunity to jump ship and try something different. You have the opportunity to keep going. And also you're kind of rewriting history as you brought up of now this civilization that was known as the Romans, right, for what they were doing. Well, all of a sudden they're doing this completely different, which makes Civ fun. It's your own story.

[Snowbike Mike]

So I want to jump into that. Do you like that? That was a big change that I know the hardcore civ community was like.

[Greg Miller]

Push and pull on as a casual player. I like that cuz it felt like a check in. It felt like, hey, do you like what you're doing? Oh, would you like to change that up? And also it felt a little more fun and freeing to me as the casual player of, oh, this is cool, I get to pick a totally different civilization now and kind of change up what the look is, what the vibe is. I liked that a lot for myself.

[Snowbike Mike]

Okay, fair enough.

[Tim Gaddis]

I want to read some of the reviews right now because the Game's currently at A81 on Metacritic and some of the big sites aren't necessarily feeling it here. Eurogamers Sin Vega gave it a 2 out of 5 stars, saying, Civ 7's by no means a bad game. I open with that to acknowledge its competence and to and to damn it. Civ is the archetypal 4X, and in some sense Civ 7 remains a standard bearer. It's better in a general sort of way than most recent attempts to unseat or deconstruct it. There's lots going on, production values are high, and it innovates with a new structure and revamped diplomacy, City expansion and more. But it's dull. Even some of its most flawed challengers are far more interesting at times. When I hit a stretch of just one More turn, it felt less like an in joke than a curse. The most immediate changes are the are to the formula of take historical culture from an ancient village to modern world domination itself. Your choice of leaders now untethered from their historical place. A full game is divided into three ages that require you to choose a new culture with bonuses less numerical and more specific than in humankind. Each age partly resets foreign relations, trade reserves and building effects. They downgrade cities into towns themselves. A new feature. Newly founded settlements can only buy not build a limited set of buildings, but grow faster and can halt that growth to become specialized tributaries instead of cities. And IGN's Lena Heer gave it a 7, saying Civ 7's improved war warfare and added bits of narrative flare give me reasons to keep clicking one more turn late into the night. But the desire to streamline and simplify this legendary 4x series feels like it has also gone a bit too far, particularly when it comes to the interface. Mike, what's your reaction to hearing this based on your 14 hours?

[Snowbike Mike]

Have your 14 hours been dull?

[Greg Miller]

My 14 hours have not been dull. I did read Lena's over on IGN and I I see what they're talking about and I actually I click with it as a casual player. They definitely identified like, hey, it felt like there's a lot coming at you and nothing explaining anything, right? I back in the day with Wash, he had to watch a lot of YouTube videos, really had to get into of like every moment I would move a mouse, I would be trying to read the screen on this. There didn't feel like there was any tutorials. I really thought there was going to be a single player, hold your hand and like there's a tutorial, but it's not like a tutorial that you would want in a game like this where it really explains everything. And so I really identified with that of like the explanation. Yeah, you're probably going to be looking stuff up, you're going to be looking around the screen going, where is this being shown here? Because there was moments where I was like, I usually would know, hey, this production sign, I can tell where that's being held at. I have no idea where that's on the screen. I don't know what to do next. And so luckily I had a little base knowledge on what I was doing. But for me, I never felt like the games were boring because I kind of play Civ much different than most people. I like to play it like Risk, right? Where like my goal is to dominate and go out there. So I am always starting a tussle with someone. I am trying to take over different Zones. So my game of civ is usually much different than most people's. That's why I switched on the final game to more of a cultural one to see how that is. And that does kind of get a little tedious and boring because what you're doing is, is you are at your home bases creating this unit that is going to go out and spread the word of your religion. So essentially what I'm doing is I just take that unit, send it to some other civilization's town, and I press a button and they go. And then the religion is spread. And so I have to do that on all the different parts of the map.

[Snowbike Mike]

I'm sorry, real quick, what do they do again? Thank you.

[Greg Miller]

So they're spreading religion to all the different parts of the map. So I'm flying over on this side, on that side, trying to get everyone, while also finding different historical pieces of the land that will add to relics that I need. But really you're just sending units over to different pieces and pressing woo. And that's all they do. And so that is boring. Right? So for me, when on the military side now, I'm trying to find strategic places to put my units. I'm trying to find choke holds within the environment for you to bring your units through. But that's only one fourth of the game, right? There's a lot other ways to play, so I can see that. I was blown away by the theme and the soundtrack and the sound design. Tim. Holy cow. The moment you turn this on, big shout out to the composer. I had to write it down here, Christopher Tin. Christopher Tin. Tim, you know I'm a sucker because I. I don't know music that well, but, man, when someone like a Gareth Coker gets put into my life, this person right here, Christopher. Oh, yeah, dude, you're on my list.

[Tim Gaddis]

First Grammy ever won by a video game song.

[Greg Miller]

The music in this game is unbelievable. This game, Civilization, is a turn on a podcast, watch a TV show in the background type stuff.

[Snowbike Mike]

Is it?

[Greg Miller]

I played 12 straight hours of this game and never once turned down the music. That's how good this is. Every single time. From different cultures, different pieces of the world, it's just hitting you. And every time, every age will change and whatever you're doing will change. And the sound design, when you're in those military fights and you're putting different riflemen and cannons, you can feel it and hear it. I. I got to give a big shout out to the sound design, the composer, which was great with the music. The look of the game continues to look great. Right. Civ isn't a bad looking game if you look at Civ 5 and Civ 6. Right. But like they continue to make it look better and better every time you scroll in and zoom in on your little city and see the big pillars that you put up there and you go, oh yeah, that's cute. Is it get.

[Snowbike Mike]

Oh, that's cute.

[Greg Miller]

It. Does it get cluttered and insane? Yes, because you're trying to put two things in one. And I'm jamming up the amplif. I'm jamming up the Roman coliseum next to some sort of Mayan temple. And you're like, mike, that doesn't look right. But I'm going for the cultural win. So I need all these big cults.

[Snowbike Mike]

You got to have these touchdowns.

[Greg Miller]

So yeah, for me, I, I really enjoyed my time with it. I look forward to playing it again. But I see the reviews. Right. A lot of people talked about streamlining it and kind of making it just this. I wouldn't call it bare bones, but like we're just trying to get you into it and get you moving. Straightforward and maybe make it a little snappier and faster than what other civ fans would like. So I would encourage you, if you are a big civ die hard, to go find those die hard civ fans and see what they say. But for me, as the casual fan, I liked the speed. I liked it what the way it was going. Of course. Mind you, when you start Tim, like I brought up, you look at the starting screen, you're going to get deep into, hey, how fast does the gameplay go? What are the different maps that I want to choose from? I encourage you to change those sliders every single time you play to try to adjust. Right. I had to go from the normal speed, which was taking way too long, to online speed, which is going at a much faster rate to keep these games going and moving and progressing them. I mean, we're talking hundreds upon hundreds of turns that you will play in this game in just one game. And you can go from a six hour game to maybe a four hour game if you're really moving. But for me, I, I was lost in like six plus hour games on both of these.

[Snowbike Mike]

Wow.

[Tim Gaddis]

So you didn't get to play on console, but this being the first day and date PC console version of a franchise.

[Snowbike Mike]

Can I stop you too?

[Tim Gaddis]

Yes, you can.

[Snowbike Mike]

Did you play the other ones on console even though they were late? Did you ever tires on them? Okay, thank you.

[Tim Gaddis]

Yep. So looking at save, obviously it is a PC first game. When we look at the ip historically some of them have had console entries after this being a big coming out party for them of like, yo, we're trying to find success here. We've seen other similar games find a level of success, things like Halo wars on the console side. Do you think from the gameplay that you've experienced so far of Civ 7, do you think that it's going to work as a console game?

[Greg Miller]

100%, yeah.

[Tim Gaddis]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Because I think of games like Gears, Tactics, I think of xcom. Of course you bring up Age of Empires. I think Age of Empires is a much faster RTS in the managing of units, the economics, the just moment to moment gameplay. This is very much a turn based game where you will take your turn, you will you move your units at your own pace while not worrying like, oh, is Greg going to hit me right now? And I'm not prepared. So I definitely think you have the time that it takes on the controller and gamepad to slow it down and be able to do that. And I don't think any of the button inputs would go onto the controller and be like, oh, this is impossible. No, it's very, very much a point and click. There's nothing past that, which is nice.

[Tim Gaddis]

And then my last question here on Civ is do you think that Civ 7 is doing what it needs to do as a sequel or is this just another Civ as a casual player?

[Greg Miller]

This is just another Civ to me, but it's a little more of a straightforward sieve. I think they're hiding a lot of the. When I played Civ 6 and Civ 5, I think they're hiding a lot of those mechanics beyond like past just a facade of oh, this is just straightforward as we talked about with that ignore. I think they're all there. It's just like they're not being shown and you're kind of not recognizing it. I think a lot of people bring up of like they're going to refine this with game updates and DLC and we'll see where it is in a year from now. Right. But for me, as of right now, I. I liked what I got. I was enjoying it, I liked it feel. It felt more straightforward to me.

[Tim Gaddis]

Are you going to continue playing it?

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, I want to finish up my two wins. So I want to spread my religion. I chose Buddhism. You can create your own religion, Tim. But I wasn't smart enough off the rip to choose what I wanted to name it. So I was like ah, you know what Buddhism it. So I'll spread that.

[Snowbike Mike]

What do you mean you don't have a snowbike microligion ready?

[Greg Miller]

I didn't have something I should have got. Yeah, Ste. Something like that.

[Snowbike Mike]

Something like that.

[Tim Gaddis]

Around the world.

[Greg Miller]

And then I want to go back to my. I want to go back to my military one because I was fighting a hundred year warrior to this game was nuts, right? So I, I team up with the team on in red next to me. And mind you, we're on one continent. This map is massive, everybody. That's why I encourage you to mess with the game Sliders because you might think you see it all this map, you're going to have to get on boats, you're going to have to go explore other continents because there's a bunch of other players on here, right? So me and red team up. Mind you, they didn't help me at all. I'm in a hundred wars.

[Snowbike Mike]

Come on, help them out.

[Greg Miller]

Any military help? We didn't really talk about the politics and how you now have influence and you can talk with every single one and spent influence points instead of the previous way. We'll get into that. But there I was fighting this war and so I'm like, okay, I'm going to identify one. I'm going to go after you because I want to dominate. And so I go and dominate yellow and now I move on to green. And green has me on two different sides. They got me on the east and they got me on the north. My biggest building is in the north, my capital city. But then I started taking things to the south. So I had them on the east side. It's like how do I play this out? So I lined up all these un. Tim, I'm talking so many points, so many turns. Real civ players would, would have been like, you've wasted so much. What are you doing? And I said, no, I'm gonna get this. And so I line up all my units to the north. Right Tim? And so then on the east I've gone down to the southeast side. But I didn't, I didn't see the map. I didn't see it was this tight little area where they're right on the coast and a mountain so that the bottleneck is too tight for me to really send units up, of course. So I start my dual threat of I'm going to hit you from the south to the north and from the south to the east here and see what happens. And I send all these units And I'm fighting this war, right? And so I start to win the north, but, oh, I didn't know. Now Harriet Tubman out of nowhere comes in, she goes, harriet, no, you can't start this war. And then another person I've never seen, he's like, you can't start this war. So now I got three on one, right? And they're sending units in from the oceans. And I'm like, oh, no, they're coming in for the coastline.

[Snowbike Mike]

Who would have thought? Harriet Tubman. We want to stop. Mike.

[Greg Miller]

Sudden, I'm fighting south to the north. I got people up from me on the coastline from the east. I can't stop them. So I've taken two out of the three major cities on the north, but I can't take the final city. Then on the south. I'm just getting dominated in the south. So I'm like, that doesn't work. So I said, restart. That was an hour and a half, mind you, that was an hour and a half. So I run it back. I go, okay, I'm going to focus only on the north. They can send stuff up from the south. I'm fighting this, I'm fighting the north. They start sending people up from the south. They're now taking one of my cities. I'm like, no, you can't do that. Restart again. So now I know only everything up on the north.

[Snowbike Mike]

No wonder you haven't finished either game. Just let it go.

[Greg Miller]

I set a barricade up on the southern city. I say, surely they won't get me this time. So I start invading. They instead of coming from the east to the north, they go from the south to the my southern one. And I'm like, I didn't put any units there. Restart again. I'm gonna. I'm in a hundred year war right now. I'm battling for my life.

[Tim Gaddis]

Harriet Tubman.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, no. It's a good time. I really enjoyed it. I won't put a number on it.

[Snowbike Mike]

But yeah, for sure. I've always wanted to love civ. You know what I mean? This is funny that I host the panel because that was the second thing I ever did. I went to Maryland Forever 2015 to do Civ 6 videos and stuff. And I love talking to developers of any kind about their video game. That's always exciting, but I've never been able to actually click with it. And so even though two of the big reviews are turned off by the streamlined nature of it, I'm hoping that'll work for me because I am the Guy of like oh man, I come home in like 100 turn game and all this other stuff but I love SimCity but that's not what this is. But yeah, it's like I don't know. I hope I vibe with this one but I'm never sure. I've never been able to make it click Mike. But again I'm hoping Steam Deck versions the portability of it consoles, maybe that'll change it for me.

[Greg Miller]

I would encourage anyone that tries it. Just remember you can always save and come back. You don't have to complete the game in one sit.

[Snowbike Mike]

Of course, of course.

[Greg Miller]

And so it is a very long game. I think it is a game that you have to put focus into. You need to understand what you are doing and I think they did a really good job with these advisors throughout that you can kind of choose which way you want to win and the advisors will kind of try to keep you on track on the top left of the screen of like, hey, here's your goal. Why don't you focus on that? Because it's easy to kind of get lost in hey, I'm sending a scout along all these continents and I'm looking or I'm expanding all these cities which is great but I'm not going after my goal. So like try to stay focused on that. It is a game that needs your focus and it's enough.

[Snowbike Mike]

And that's the thing with me why I think it's never worked before in this ages thing while off putting to some people I think might work for me of like, all right, so I just started in the modern age. Right. Let's just jump.

[Greg Miller]

There you go.

[Snowbike Mike]

Way shorter because like the focus part of me will never exist. Right?

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Snowbike Mike]

I'm going to play it for two nights then some of the review code is going to come in. I'll come back three weeks later and be like I don't know what the hell is doing. So I feel like maybe if I.

[Greg Miller]

Can knock them out, that's a good idea. Yeah, it is cool that you can start at any age and kind of just jump right in. So if you want to jump directly into the modern age kind of that late game and see where it goes for you, it's a good time.

[Tim Gaddis]

Tyler Pate super chats in saying, I can't put my finger on it but Sip7 feels like the one that will truly break out. Can't wait to use the switch mouse.

[Greg Miller]

Keep an eye out. We, we'll see. Right. Like we talked about, a lot of people love the updates the DLCs throughout the lifespan of these games. So I think that's where they'll kind of get the players of those hardcore audiences back of like, hey, we've heard you. This is where we're going to go after. We'll get you back here.

[Snowbike Mike]

We'll see.

[Tim Gaddis]

Any final thoughts on Civ?

[Greg Miller]

Go play it. I really enjoyed it. I had a good time with it.

[Tim Gaddis]

Hell yeah. We're going to take a quick word from our sponsors, but when we get back we are going to talk a little bit about Kingdom Come Deliverance too. This episode is brought to you by Aura Frames. I'm Going to be Real Aura Frames might be the most popular sponsor product people here have ever had at Kind of Funny. Many of us have Aura Frames set up at their desks and even more of us have gifted them to friends and family to absolute rave results. Aura Frames was named the number one digital picture frame by Wirecutter and it's for a good reason. It's so easy to set up and they have different frame options. We gifted our frames to Gia's mom and dad this holiday and they're both obsessed with us being able to upload our wedding photos straight to their frames. All you need is the free Aura app and a wi fi connection and you can upload as many photos and videos as you want and your favorite live iPhone photos will play right on the frame. Right now you can save on the perfect gift that keeps on giving by visiting auraframes.com for a limited time. Listeners can get 20 off of the best selling Carver Matte frame with Code Kinda Funny. That's a U R A frames.com promo code kinda Funny. Don't forget to mention that we sent you to show your support for this show. Terms and conditions apply.

[Snowbike Mike]

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[Tim Gaddis]

And we are back for some Kingdom come to Deliverance. 2 thoughts here Developed by Warhorse Studios, releasing on February 4th, it's currently at an 87 on PC gamers Joshua Wallens gave it a 90 saying this game feels a bit miraculous, a ludicrously ambitious and peculiar thing that somehow fulfills its ambition in peculiarity. Managing to hit the highest warhorse aimed for in the first game but perhaps fell just short of it feels tailor made for a certain brand of systems loving sicko, the kind of person who still gets star eyed about Stalker and Morrowind and manages to actually make good on there. Or at least my nostalgic yearning for those halcyon games of old. Game spots these writers, I swear to God they just be like dropping bigger and bigger words these days.

[Snowbike Mike]

Let's just say when he's talking about being a specific kind of sicko, this is how these sickos talk. They're not out there in the streets. You mean they're not saying that they're not.

[Tim Gaddis]

And then game spots. Richard Wakeling gave it a 9 saying it's not perfect. With the Codex still needlessly describing the ideal woman of the time as a thin, pale woman with long blonde hair, small rounded breasts, relatively narrow hips and a narrow waist. What a quote. And while there's a character hailing from Molly Kutenberg is also conspicuous for its scarcity of people of color. Despite being a major trading city, you would expect a small population of merchants from places like the Middle East, North Africa, Africa to exist within its market style, so they're notable for their absence. While Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 still stumbles in some aspects of its portrayal of 15th century Bohemia, the shadow that lingered over the first game has mostly dissipated. This is a massively improved sequel in every other area, with better combat, quest design and none of the technical issues that plagued the original. Not everyone will vibe with its slow paced and oftentimes tedious approach, but those willing to meet it on its own terms will find a compelling open world RPG that relishes in player agency and the consequences of your actions. And then Eurogamers Catherine Castle gave it a 3 out of 5 saying this gorgeous medieval RPG continues to be just as divisive, prickly and abrasive as its predecessor. Mike Greg, both of you have played a little bit of this game. Who has played more?

[Greg Miller]

Mikey yeah, I put in three hours. You know, me and Greg talked a little bit after that first hour and I came kind of gave him the face like ooh, that's a real slow start there. Greggy. That was tough to get through, but once I broke through that, the story is what grabbed me. Tim and that's I was, I was surprised that I Was going to say that because I was looking for more of a chivalry 2 type of approach. I'm chopping people's limbs off. It's just mayhem at all time. But it felt a lot. I mean, it is a lot slower. The moment you jump in, you're going to see it's a much slower approach than something like that. And the story is what grabbed me. And so I was happy that I kind of push past that initial hour. And I would even say it goes past the initial out. It's probably like the first two hours, they really set up the gameplay moment. They set up the gameplay. They show you the kind of the mechanics of how you're gonna fight, what the world's gonna be, and then you get off and running. But man, oh man, I. I enjoyed the two characters. I liked the back and forth between these guys. Two bros, just, you know, telling some fun and I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes. But yeah, that my first three hours was that.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah, I put one hour in and it was strictly one of those, oh, this review code's coming tomorrow. I just. This thing and I got this. I know Mike's going to play. And he got derailed by Siv. So I jumped in that first night and I was. I think my main problem was just being tired. Yeah, I jumped in and this is not a let it wash over you game. Like you need to be dialed in, you need to be paying attention. And so I was in the same. I think it's a slow start. Not that that's bad, especially for this gigantic rpg. It's going to be common all the spiraling thing. But for me, Tim, what it was is like, okay, interesting dynamics between these characters. Narrative first, which you know, I'm a big fan of. But then they give you a section to play right away, getting the feel of it. Throwing ladders off of the tower as they're attacking us. Doing all this using my sword machine. Okay, cool. I can get behind this. I can behind this. And then it was when we got to camp and they were like, this is so early, obviously, but they're like, hey, all right, cool, now put on all your stuff. And it literally speaks, I think specifically to Joshua from PC Gamers. It feels tailor made to a certain brand of systems loving sickos where it threw up my inventory. And it was like, put on your thing, but you got to put on the undercoat to put on the other. And I'm like, you know what? I'm tired and I'm shutting this down and avad will be here momentarily. And I know that I reviewing that rpg, I'm going to not get deep into this one. My hope is, especially with these scores, I come back now when there is a breathing spot of like, okay, cool, let's go in. Because this was fun. This combat was fun, and I want to see more of that, and I want to see the choices they're talking about. I do love that idea, and I don't mind a slow build and burn to it. It was just that one night where I had the free time where I was like, this is not what I need right now.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, I guess I use the term slow at the beginning because it isn't just a kind of Skyrim adventure. It's like, okay, you're free. Go figure it out. It is very much like, and this.

[Snowbike Mike]

Is my thing, coming off of the avowed preview I've talked about, right? Where the avad preview literally is like, create your character. And they're like, cool. The emperor has sent you out there to do this thing and figure out the dream scourge. We'll see you later. And, like, you're right into stuff. Whereas this one wasn't. It was like, do this now. Ride your horse now. You're here, but you're in camp, and you're talking to this guy.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Snowbike Mike]

Putting five pieces of armor.

[Greg Miller]

Let me show you what we're gonna. Let me teach you everything right now that you're gonna experience. So all of a sudden, you're in a dice game with the guy, and it's like, the dice is the slowest moving game that you've ever experienced. And you're like, all right, man. Like, get me back out there. We just experienced a battle. Let's do that again. And it was very much of like, hold up. Like, we got a lot to show you here. Let's jump into the menu. Let me explain to you that you have to put your cap on first and then put on your medieval helmet over it, because, you know, you might get CTE when they rattle your brain. It was like some fun moments like that where you're like, all right, just get me through it. But then, like, you take a deep breath. You're like, all right, I understand what you're trying to get at. You really want to make this deep? I. I'm in for it. And then, yeah, you get caught up in the story of these two, just kind of having some fun. We're on an adventure. You know, Somebody stole my special message that my dad sent me to Go give to another king. And now we got to get out there. And of course, a couple of dudes.

[Snowbike Mike]

Look at these bros right here.

[Greg Miller]

These are my bros. Hey, we, you know, it's our first day at camp. I want to. I want to go in the water and take a bath. And this. The older homie's like, hey, man, like, you don't got to do that. We just started, like, let's not do. He's like, get the wine. Let's do it. And then, of course, that's. Things happen. So, yeah, I. I'm in. I'm interested in this. I really enjoyed past that of like, continuing to build up these two characters, their backgrounds, where we're going to go. And so, yeah, I'm looking forward to it. The combat is interesting, right? It's like this mix of almost for honor where you choose a limb, but you're choosing, like, which way to go from left or right or forward. And, like, you're kind of reading where they're at defending. It's an interesting blend here that I think.

[Snowbike Mike]

And it slows down.

[Greg Miller]

Just a normal Skyrim hacking.

[Snowbike Mike]

And the chat was talking about it being an immersive sim, a medieval sim. And I do think that's what's going to stop me from really progressing in it, is that I. I love a good rpg. I love a good western rpg, but I want to be like, the avowed. I'm have powers. I'm doing this are more exciting to me than a perfect block or guessing where he's going. And da. Da. Like, again, I want to get back. I want to try it. I want to do the thing. I'm not throwing the baby out the bath water here, but I do think when I look at it, I'm like, I think this is going to be similar what we're talking about with Civ to a degree of like, there's going to be a slow burn and you're going to need to be focused. And I think focus is such a struggle for me where, as you'll see the games I've been playing, what I have coming up.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, I think that's what's getting me excited is I am ready to try something a little bit different, Tim, than the normal Skyrim. Hey, here's all the power in the world. What if we make it more grounded, right? I've always wanted a Game of Thrones story. Now that I rode that high of Game of Thrones, it's like, all right, just give me the true medieval stuff and let's we can cut the magic. Let's see what happens here. And so, yeah, I'm looking forward to riding on this one. I. I think I'm gonna see this one through.

[Tim Gaddis]

Gator Mashed Potato writes in so good. Come on. Exactly. Kingdom Come Deliverance is one of the most immersive games I've ever played. Once it gets its hooks in you, it's hard to go back to other open world games. So excited for two. And I saw a couple similar sentiments in the chat going as well of people saying that like, once you play the first game through, it makes you look at like Skyrim and that stuff so differently. Mike, do you see yourself going back and like completing this or is this something?

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, this is one I want to complete.

[Tim Gaddis]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Well, as of right now, I want to put elites another 10 hours plus into this and see where it goes. But the story so far has got me where it's like, oh, I. I do want to try this out. We have a vowed as well, like, I'll jump into that eventually. So I'm excited to see that. But yeah, it's kind of this interesting blend of we're getting hit with a bunch of games now and so now you kind of play the game of what am I putting my attention into? But this one did grab me where I do want to play more of it.

[Tim Gaddis]

Love that.

[Snowbike Mike]

Timothy, what have you been playing, dude?

[Tim Gaddis]

Ninja guide in black 2. Are you kidding me? It's just, I can't believe that we're getting four right. Getting that Xbox developer direct last week was awesome. Like, so many exciting things to look forward to on the Xbox side. But Ninja Gaiden 4 I have all eyes on at this point because I think that we often talk about what's the right strategy if you're putting out a sequel to a franchise that hasn't seen any action in a while, how are we going to get the people excited? You don't want to like overdo it by like putting out every single game like months before it comes out because people kind of burn out on it. Right. But I think that the strategy of announcing that later this year we're getting four. But Shadow Drop today you get to play an example of why this franchise matters in an updated version. I think it was kind of just like the perfect one two punch. Right. And everyone being able to immediately jump into this if you have game pass, it's available for you. I've been playing on PlayStation 5 and man, it's just a joy to go back to this style of game and it's funny because, you know, Ninja Gaiden always used to be way too hard for me. It was like, it's the I'm a Devil May Cry guy, right? Devil May Cry is a perfect example of a game that has a very high skill ceiling to master it, but a very, very low barrier of entry to be able to enjoy it and just button have a lot of fun. And I feel like it is that flexibility of the combat and chaining things together and all the different weapons that allow those games to be so much fun. Ninja Gaiden was, let's take that. But like really refine it and like, you need to be good. You need to really think about what you're doing. And in the era we're in now of like Souls games taking that and like completely changing it, making it, I think, even a lot more strategic than all out offensive action, right? Going back to this, I'm like, oh, man. I somehow feel like I've gotten better. Like, I think that it's like playing this game. It's like, it's still difficult, but it's like, yeah, it's a lot more enjoyable. I feel like just gamer sensibilities have matured to a place that playing through this, like, you just feel like a badass jumping and dismembering people left and right. It is an old game. The camera does not hold up. I think that it fights against you more often than not. There's certain button layout things that I've been having some issues with. And I feel like if they just let you customize a bit more, it would go a long way. But everything is there. It's just not quite perfect. Like, the lock on is a little bit weird. And when the camera is such an issue, I feel like that is not ideal. But I play this and I just constantly like, oh, man, Ninja Guy four is gonna kick ass. Like they're going to solve all of those issues and the fun that is in this game, like, oh my God, it is going to be incredibly special. I can't wait. And again, I'm hoping to see Ninja Gaiden 2 through and I haven't beat the second one ever. So excited to keep going. Have you guys played at all or do you have any interest in it?

[Greg Miller]

You go, do you have it?

[Snowbike Mike]

I never played it. No, it was that thing when even back in the day before Souls games were a thing, when Brudvig and Clayman would come in and talk about being grinding on a boss and have they reached out to pr? I was like, this does not sound like a game I'd be interested in. All right? And even as somebody who played DMs Devil May Cry and then was like, okay, I get it. But it's not like, that's not the action game I want or what I'm looking for no. 4 with the futuristic thing and the past. Like, and I imagine what a modern day version of that would look like with sensibilities and how approachable or whatever. I want to try that, but I by no means think I'm going to go through. It's like what I do with Stellar Blade, where I'm sure I'll play it for a couple hours to get the vibe and be like, all right, cool. But I don't see it grabbing me and pulling me through.

[Greg Miller]

That's a big win for me. Tim, as an Xbox kid growing up, you and I have talked about this before of I never played Ninja Gaiden, I don't really know this franchise. And so riding the high of all the from software games that I've been playing, wanting that more hack and slash actiony vibe instead of the hey, this is going to punish you all the time. I'm down for the punish, but like, I want to get kind of wild with it. And when I look up how long to beat it says 10 hours for the main story. It looks like a little bit smaller there. Sure, I'll die a bunch and then we'll probably add on to the clock, but like, yeah, this is right up my alley. I guess my only question, Tim, is will I understand the character and the story since this is two, not one. Yeah, but I mean, yeah, like you brought up for Xbox fans like me or just any gaming fan, it's like perfect chance to jump in, learn about it and get ready for four. I'm all in on this. I can't wait.

[Tim Gaddis]

Yeah, really, really cool stuff. And again, just playing this type of game is just so refreshing. And it's funny because like it coming out right now as we're gearing up for the Devil May Cry anime dropping on Netflix by Shankar and them just putting out the intro for that and like how excited I am for, for that project, like, it's got me in the mood. I'm like, oh man, I kind of want to go back and play the old Devil May Cry games. Like, I just, I. I think they're about to get a renaissance of that, this style of game and that makes a gamer like me very, very excited.

[Snowbike Mike]

Like me.

[Greg Miller]

Can you help me become good at Devil May cry. No, I bought a guy for that. Every time they bring up the score, I'm like, stop embarrassing me with the score. Like, I'm just having fun smashing the buttons. Like, don't hit me with the score. And they always do. And I'm like, just get off the screen for a minute.

[Tim Gaddis]

Greg, though, hey, you have a whole bunch of things that you can't really talk about.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah, it's one of those weird things. I've been traveling the globe, the entire country, previewing games, enjoying myself. So there's a bunch of things that I can confirm and give you dates for. So of course I went to Royal Rome. I'm gonna do this in order of the previews slash reviews. Going live, of course. Went to Royal Rumble this weekend, got to see Jay USO Killer, went to Smackdown, had a great time. But on top of that, the whole reason I went out There was that 2K flew me in. Obviously a bunch of different journalists and creators out there to play WWE 2K25. Can't talk about it yet, but I will on Wednesday, February 5th. That is this Wednesday, that gamescast, I'll be able to preview it there. I also snuck Poe and his son.

[Greg Miller]

That's awesome.

[Snowbike Mike]

Shout out to 2k, where I was like, hey, my friend. I was like, my brother, you know, I dress it up. My brother and nephew, because it's so hard in an email to explain. He's my best friend for forever. We've known each other since kindergarten anyways. And my nephew, I was like, huh?

[Greg Miller]

Is he rocking a mullet?

[Snowbike Mike]

He's rocking a mullet.

[Greg Miller]

He looks good, doesn't he?

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah, yeah. I was like, hey, he's the biggest WWE 2K fan. He's gonna be there anyway. Can I bring him and can we do content together? And they were like, sure, yeah. So they gave him a station he could. Jack got to play alongside me. I want to get some impressions from him to read or at least have maybe a video with him for Wednesday. So I'm excited about that shout out for that. And yeah, talk about what's going on with that one. That's really good. Then before then, I went to New York. I took a red eye Wednesday night to Thursday morning, landed, went to the hotel, dropped my bag, caught 30 minutes of sleep. And then I went to Microsoft, the experience store they have there, and I played south of Midnight for another preview there again.

[Tim Gaddis]

Wait to hear.

[Snowbike Mike]

Can't tell you about that 1 till Tuesday, February 11. However, I can show event space photos. They had all these amazing things from the stop motion intro video they put together. So we got to see that. I don't know when that gets revealed, but if you want to page through a whole bunch of cool stuff for what they did.

[Tim Gaddis]

Wait, so they actually did real stop.

[Snowbike Mike]

Motion for the intro video to the thing, which is like a tone setter. Not for the game. The game is different. They had an amazing presentation from them, both the developers and then the people they partnered with to do this, where it was this really weird. Maybe that's embargoed. I'll talk about it later. But no, you see a whole bunch of cool stuff there. Got to meet a whole bunch of cool creators and got to play a bunch of stuff at midnight. So very excited to talk about that one. Tuesday, February 11th. So that's next week. And then possibly most important for next week, Thursday, February 13th, we're reviewing Avowed. I do have Avowed. I have been playing Avowed. We're confirmed to have that. So lots of exciting stuff there. Yeah, all coming up. So what could I talk about today? What could I shine the light on? We will shine the light on the Razer Blade 18 laptop.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, snap. It's massive.

[Snowbike Mike]

Of course it's 18 inches, right? It's this gigantic laptop. Roger. Showing you the pretty thing over there. Whatever. This is a shout out to our friends at Razer. This is not a sponsored segment. This is, hey, Greg, you're getting an avowed code, but you're also about to travel the country. And I was like, ah, okay, crap. And I reached out to Razer and I was like, hey, I'm gonna be needing to review on the road. Can you hook me up and help me out? And they're like, yeah, we'll send you a loaner so you can try it out. And they're kind of funny best friends. Like, we know how you feel about PC gaming, but we also see the opportunity you've had with your Steam deck and everything else. So they sent the blade 18, which I will have to read because, you know, I don't know any of the things.

[Tim Gaddis]

I can't wait for this. This is so funny. Craig doing it.

[Snowbike Mike]

You have the Blade 18 laptop with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 GPU. It features a QHD screen with 240Hz refresh rate and an OLED panel. Oh, yeah. It says our blade 18 is meant to be a desktop replacement for power users who want the most powerful and largest laptop. This laptop is a problem because it is so much better than the Tower. I Have at home. And again, the like, here's what, I'll walk you. First off, I mean, obviously the whole point. So I could review on the plane, so I could review in the hotel room. Of course I could. They also sent the Wolverine V3 controller. Very nice.

[Greg Miller]

Back paddles.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah, back paddles. They got the nub thing up there too. Like a third ball.

[Tim Gaddis]

Back sticks. I'm pretty sure.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah. And what would that. I think it's the black shark headset they sent me as well, so I could have this. So I had a whole experience ready to go. Again, none of this is sponsored. They're just great partners and great friends of the show. So thank you, Razer. But back to the thing, like, I mean, not talking about obviously avowed in any sense, but in terms of the laptop, you'll play games and then also playing my other stuff, playing Gripmaster on it, let me tell you, as somebody who only played Crit master on a Steam deck, booting it on an actual thing and watching the load bar go, I was like, oh, shit, that doesn't.

[Greg Miller]

Happen on my Steam deck.

[Snowbike Mike]

Oh no. Oh no. But again, having this, having the screen like, you know, I. Even before I left, I was playing a little bit at my desk, right? Because of course I have that. I have the widescreen monitor that doesn't have hdr, right. So games often don't look as good as they could playing on this. The screen's good, right, Tim?

[Tim Gaddis]

Oh, yeah. I don't know.

[Snowbike Mike]

The stats, I'm telling you, the stats, right.

[Tim Gaddis]

My experience with Razor Blade have been very, very positive. So I would imagine that this new model is just, I mean, these numbers back up a very powerful laptop with awesome specs. So I'm sure that it's awesome.

[Snowbike Mike]

So, yeah, that was great. Playing on the plane was great. I couldn't. I was on the puddle jumper from New York to Indianapolis. Didn't have enough power through the seat to do it. So I got an hour, I got an hour out of it before the battery died. When I was like, you know, and I wasn't tweaking settings, I was just like, let's play, let's just jump in.

[Greg Miller]

That's how we.

[Snowbike Mike]

But again, and you know, as somebody who usually has a laptop with them, having a laptop that could play games very like, you know, very well, I was like, huh, that's incredible. And then of course, last night, I fly, I land, I come home right into dad mode.

[Greg Miller]

Been so excited to see me.

[Snowbike Mike]

I got him a CM Punk wrestling buddy. He was drop kicking that around the house, having a great time, finally getting this little kid to sleep. Jen, she's going to sleep. We watch Severance. And I'm like, all right, I'm tired, okay? But I need to. I'm on the review grind. I'm gonna play Avowed. I gotta get to work here. You know what I mean? And so I had this whole thing of like, okay, well, I was playing offline in the hotel room, which means I'm gonna have to turn this on and then sync the save. And I know sometimes Xbox is weird about that. Cause I'm playing through the Xbox gaming app here. So it would go to my thing. And I was like, oh, it's installed down there. And I was like, wait a second, I can do that tomorrow. I'm very tired now. And I just walked to the living room TV and picked up the HDMI and plugged it in, Plugged it in and sat down the couch. And I was like, yeah, that's actually really nice. Because I don't know if you know this. It's like, then a portable console.

[Tim Gaddis]

Oh, yeah.

[Snowbike Mike]

It just plugs into everything and it just works.

[Tim Gaddis]

It just works.

[Snowbike Mike]

It just works. Little tiny Roger, you know, don't know if you know Roger, Roger, you know, like, the tower downstairs, it's got bios. Who? I have no idea. People ask me all the time when I'm like, I'm trying to do something on the tower downstairs. Like, oh, give me your specs. I'm like, I don't know how I wish I could. I know there's an RTX in it. And they're like, what is it? I'm like, it's not the one Bernie owns. It's, you know, it's got numbers and I think it's in the 3000s, but I'm not sure what's going on in it. So the fact that this one's ready to go, pretty goddamn impressive. And then Razer was like, well, don't forget we're about to put out a 16 inch version, which they said, coming in Q1. It's been completely redesigned and features the latest and greatest GPUs, making it an exciting addition to the Blade family. It'll support the new 50 series GPUs, including up to the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090. The chassis has been redesigned to be 32% smaller by volume compared to the Blade 16. We've enhanced the user experience with the typing and all this other stuff. Still has the OLED screen and I'll Tell you, that was the one thing about it on the airplane. You know, I'm a big man.

[Greg Miller]

Big man.

[Snowbike Mike]

And so I'm on the smaller puddle jump, big computer. There was a lot of balancing until I found the right position.

[Tim Gaddis]

Okay.

[Snowbike Mike]

I was playing.

[Tim Gaddis]

I mean, because. Yeah, 18 inches on a plane.

[Greg Miller]

That's. That's. Is that too big?

[Tim Gaddis]

Yes. You're pushing it. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

[Snowbike Mike]

I was fine. I was. I was there and I had it. And the guy next to me, he was a gamer. He was watching some dumb anime on his phone. He kept looking over and see what I was up.

[Greg Miller]

Hell, yeah.

[Snowbike Mike]

Don't worry. Microsoft now, looking at the game, just looking at the amazing razor last time. All right? They're looking at the way you're looking at a screenshot. You don't know what you're looking at. Nobody knows what's happening. Anyways, I'm very impressed with this.

[Tim Gaddis]

So, I mean, let's be real here, Greg. Like, does this change you in any, like, demonstrable way going forward? Obviously your eyes are open. Like, the people have been right. You know, do you. Do you see this actually making a change, or is this just like, oh, it's cool. I'm happy other people get to have their fun that way.

[Snowbike Mike]

I don't know. I think there's an investment opportunity here again with it being way better than the tower I have, which is outdated. And I mean, pre. Covid.

[Tim Gaddis]

Yeah.

[Snowbike Mike]

You know what I mean? The tower I'm using downstairs. So there's something there with it. This is back to our conversation about Xbox, you know what I mean? Of course. Like, well, if. And I'm not even sure what the about specs are on Series X. Whatever. But let's just say whatever when they're always having the problem where. Well, the PC version, 60 frames in that Xbox game isn't going to be 30 frames until they update. Like, Starfield was at launch and stuff like that. Like, again, of course, the first thing I booted up to try out on this baby when I got it was Starfield Game of the Year, two years running. Right.

[Greg Miller]

And did it work, Tim? It ran, baby. It ran.

[Snowbike Mike]

It looked really good. There's way more detail. Like, I'm not, you know, I'm not that guy. I'm not that guy. But looking at it, and I'm like, this is. There's way more detail in Starfield here. It's running better here than it is on my Xbox Series X. So it then becomes this interesting conversation of, well, what about it? And then again, I'm still a Steam Deck guy. I still want my Steam Deck for the plane normally. Right. Obviously for a pre release game and all these different things. There's a million bells and whistles and things being added and changed. So it's like, I don't. I don't know what it does to me. I don't think it shifts where I'm like, you know, whatever. It's obviously way more expensive than a PlayStation or.

[Tim Gaddis]

Yeah, I mean, I don't know the cost of this, but I mean, I bet it's what, five, six times the cost of an Xbox series.

[Snowbike Mike]

You got it up, Barrett? Joe. Sorry, Roger. You saw the link up there. They gotta have a price in there, right?

[Tim Gaddis]

Or whatever.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Let me pull it up real quick.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah, I mean, that's PC gaming to me. An outsider and why I don't do it. But what I like is that it's turnkey and it would be done and then you'd have something. If you buy the 16, that's the latest and greatest. How long that lasts, I don't know. Any can move 3600, right?

[Tim Gaddis]

Yeah, yeah.

[Snowbike Mike]

So, yeah, a lot of money. That's PC gaming to me. Maybe I'm wrong about that. You know what I mean? So. But it's like, would that change it? Would I do that? Like, I don't think I'd go that far, but I'm enjoying my time incredibly with it. It's a great, A great addition to being able to play that stuff and review a game on the go that way.

[Tim Gaddis]

Yeah, totally. I mean, that's very, very cool. Even getting you. Getting an hour on a plane for a new game. Like, that's cool.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Tim Gaddis]

For our lifestyles.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[Tim Gaddis]

In particular, I think very valuable. And while we're already here, you know what I mean, talking about Razer, the.

[Snowbike Mike]

The fine friends at Razer also are sending me over, not sponsored from everybody.

[Tim Gaddis]

But they're sending me over the Kuromi razor. Or not a 310 keyless Kuromi edition.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[Tim Gaddis]

Because l has all the hello Kitty stuff.

[Snowbike Mike]

So like, hey, do you want Kuromi?

[Tim Gaddis]

And I'm like, yeah, I like the keyboard.

[Snowbike Mike]

So yeah, it's coming today.

[Tim Gaddis]

Hell yeah.

[Greg Miller]

That's great. Tim, that controller, really nice. Craig, what you think of that?

[Snowbike Mike]

I like it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's of course, you know, on me, I'm like, I'm not doing the back paddles or any of that stuff.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, it's gonna change your life.

[Snowbike Mike]

No, I refuse to do it.

[Greg Miller]

I did back paddles. Feel great on this. They got the. The adjusters on the.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Tim Gaddis]

That's big for me. I need those adjusters.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, really, dude, you do the mounts. Click on that. I like the full pole still. Yeah, I'll always be a full pole guy.

[Snowbike Mike]

Michael says this all sounds very sponsored. It's not. Again, they're just really good kind of funny. Best friends. They make cool stuff and they send it to us. I can't help you on that one. I don't know.

[Tim Gaddis]

Can't help.

[Snowbike Mike]

If only other people would send us stuff.

[Tim Gaddis]

Yeah, somebody send me something, please, somebody.

[Snowbike Mike]

Well, PlayStation sent me the hell diverse.

[Greg Miller]

Controller, you know what I Mean?

[Snowbike Mike]

Gifted by PlayStation. Hashtag what a thing to come home to, you know what I mean?

[Greg Miller]

Oh, open it up. Open it up the way you do.

[Snowbike Mike]

Why would I open it any other way?

[Greg Miller]

Open it the way you do.

[Snowbike Mike]

Am I. I'm not one of these sickos keeping this box above my bed like a bunch of weirdos, you know what I mean? It's about the controller. Gary Widow wishes he could get this controller.

[Greg Miller]

I think he has two.

[Snowbike Mike]

Damn it.

[Tim Gaddis]

There we go.

[Snowbike Mike]

I think it's a really good looking controller, imo. Okay, well, I mean, I love hell.

[Tim Gaddis]

Okay, you don't like the.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah, I'll tell you the one thing I think that throws it off is in the box I just tore apart. They show it with the blue light on it. Oh, and with the blue light on it. That's what I'm like. I don't like the blue with the.

[Greg Miller]

They don't really like messing around with the back now.

[Snowbike Mike]

Why?

[Greg Miller]

I mean, it's a full controller. I want the whole thing dressed up. You know what this reminds me of?

[Snowbike Mike]

What?

[Greg Miller]

My Titanfall Xbox controller back in the day. Roger, bring that up. That's a very similar look to it right here.

[Snowbike Mike]

The Lamosa. Right, Because Randy Lamosa made it or whatever. Remember this? Ign's Randy. Oh, it doesn't matter anyways, maybe his brother, I forget. But I had the Titanfall controller. I like that a lot.

[Tim Gaddis]

Yeah, but I like Hell divers a lot, so.

[Snowbike Mike]

I like that, I like that.

[Tim Gaddis]

Where are you at these days with controllers? Because I know, I know you tried for a little bit with some stuff, but then like where, like, do you have like strong convictions?

[Snowbike Mike]

There it is. And see lemost armory. Randy Lemos's brother or him, I forget. It doesn't matter. Do I have a controller that I go to like a default that I love? Is that what you mean? Yeah, you know, at home with the PlayStations right now, I. For a long time, I rocked the kind of funny blue and the kind of funny pink, you know, when they did those ones or whatever. And then now that I have the 30th anniversary PlayStation DualSense, I'm either doing that or that white one they did in the Chroma collection. The Chroma white. I like that one a lot too. So those are the ones on the dock right now that are ready to go. Here at work, I use just the straight black one. I might keep the Helldivers one out and maybe start switching up on that one. For Xbox, for the longest time, I was using the see at home. At home, I used the pink one. Here at work, I was using that see through white one with the gold accents that I like a lot.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, that was nice.

[Snowbike Mike]

But then, of course, Xbox helped us out. Thank you so much for our anniversary. We made the custom ones and now I'm just using that Xbox One.

[Tim Gaddis]

So even though you have an edge, that's not your go to correct.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah. Remember, I gave my original edge to Janet Garcia and then I have the 30th anniversary edge. Now it just sits downstairs there. It's like my whole this is such a weird thing. I know, I know. It's better and amazing. Yeah, yeah. But just the way I'm wired. And this sounds stupid, I admit, but my point is that when I get dropped into a game that has a very similar control scheme at a preview at a summer game fest, I don't want to be like, oh, well, I had it back here, so I'm not used to it. I just like, I'm going to take the default thing and work with it that way.

[Tim Gaddis]

But even without the changing the back buttons or using them at all, like you wouldn't prefer the. The Edge? I just think it's so much nicer.

[Snowbike Mike]

No, it's heavy. I love how she heavy. I don't like that. Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

How much heavier compared to the Elite? Is it as heavy as the Elite?

[Snowbike Mike]

Somebody would have to pick up.

[Greg Miller]

Nobody knows heavier than the Elite.

[Tim Gaddis]

It's a dense boy. Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

No, I.

[Tim Gaddis]

Big, big fan. I mean, the Elite's great too. Both of them. Edge is 0.71 pounds, and then the Elite 2 weight is 0.752. So the Elite's heavier. Really?

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Wow.

[Tim Gaddis]

That shocks me.

[Snowbike Mike]

Doesn't feel like it, though.

[Tim Gaddis]

It really doesn't, I think. Yeah. The distribution.

[Snowbike Mike]

We're not picking up the queens.

[Tim Gaddis]

Yeah. The. The Xbox One's a little taller, you know.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah. The weight feels in the handles of the Xbox One, for sure.

[Tim Gaddis]

Interesting stuff. Well, everybody, let us know in the comments below if you think the edge is too heavy or just right. You know what I mean? Let's Goldilocks this.

[Snowbike Mike]

I like that.

[Tim Gaddis]

And, yeah, if you have any thoughts on Kingdom Come, Deliverance, or on Civilization 7, please let us know those in the comments below.

[Snowbike Mike]

Can I throw one thing out there?

[Tim Gaddis]

Yes, you can.

[Snowbike Mike]

Before we go, I just sent Assets. Roger, I know, sorry. You're doing a million things. I just sent to Assets a screenshot we have. I know. We shouldn't give our haters any publicity. You know what I mean? The people in the comments who want to be big babies and be mean, but if you can throw it up, a very old man named Paris Lilly sent this to me. And you and Roger ain't special. And it's him with his Wolverine Pro boxed up. Here's why we're special, Paris. You're watching us. No one's watching you, all right? Also, you see, ours is unboxed because we're gamers and we play things. Yours is all wrapped up, all right? Because you're an old man. So let me just turn it off and go to Denny's for the Early Bird Special. Nobody's got time for you.

[Tim Gaddis]

I'm so sorry, Paris. We love you a lot. Greg's just in one of those moods for everyone. Stay tuned. The day's not over. Mike and Nick are about to play streamer. Life 2. If you're on Twitch, you can stay right where you are. If you're on YouTube, you need to make the jump over to a different YouTube video. But either way, we love you. We appreciate you. Until next time, but our pleasure to serve you.

[Snowbike Mike]

I'm not picking up this box.