Death Stranding 2 Trailer Reaction & Breakdown - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Summary

Death Stranding 2 Trailer Reaction & Breakdown - Kinda Funny Gamescast Summary

Release Date: March 10, 2025

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1. Introduction to Death Stranding 2

At the outset of the episode ([08:30]), Tim Gettys introduces the primary topic: the unveiling of Death Stranding 2 at South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas. The hosts express excitement about the newly released trailer and the announced release date of June 26, 2025. The anticipation is palpable as the panelists anticipate how the sequel will build upon the foundation laid by its predecessor.

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2. Trailer Overview and Initial Reactions

Andy Cortez ([09:07]) commences the discussion by reflecting on the alignment of the game's promotion with other major industry events, noting, "Kojima is always finding like what is the most Kojima way to do this." The hosts appreciate the strategic timing of the trailer release, highlighting Kojima's unique approach to marketing.

Greg Miller ([11:20]) shares his enthusiasm for the firming up of the release schedule, emphasizing the importance of a well-planned year for game releases. He states, "I'm very interested in what that means for PlayStation Studios with Ghost of Yote as well," indicating the broader implications within the gaming ecosystem.

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3. Visual and Technical Analysis

A significant portion of the discussion centers around the trailer's impressive visuals and technical prowess. Blessing Adeoye Jr. ([09:06] and [25:55]) praises the use of the Decima engine, noting the stunning environmental diversity and realistic character rendering. "I'm so impressed by the face tech that they have in this game," he remarks, underscoring the advancements in motion capture and facial animation.

Andy Cortez ([17:35]) echoes this sentiment, comparing the game's visual fidelity to titles like Horizon Forbidden West, and expresses excitement over the realistic depiction of environments: "It looks like Mission Impossible 4."

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4. Story and Character Insights

The panel delves into the narrative elements introduced in the trailer. Greg Miller ([12:01]) reflects on his initial experience with Death Stranding 1, mentioning, "I need to get back into it to understand the world again," which sets the stage for anticipating the sequel's storyline complexities.

A notable discussion revolves around the introduction of a character resembling Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid. Blessing Adeoye Jr. ([39:07]) speculates on the character's role, suggesting he might be a major antagonist: "I think he's going to play a very interesting part of what the plot is." Greg Miller ([40:04]) agrees, anticipating that Kojima will weave subtle references to Metal Gear into the narrative, enhancing the depth for long-time fans.

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5. Thematic Discussions

The hosts explore the underlying themes presented in the trailer. Blessing Adeoye Jr. ([45:22]) interprets the tagline "We Should Not Have Connected" as Kojima's commentary on the societal impacts of the internet and social media. He elaborates, "This game is gonna be about the disarray around connection and the reactions to that."

Andy Cortez ([45:28]) connects this theme to real-world events, pondering whether the game's message reflects Kojima's perspective on contemporary issues like political manipulation and the overreach of technology: "This game is gonna be more so about the disarray around connection and the reactions to that."

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6. Comparisons to Previous Works

Drawing parallels between Death Stranding and other franchises, the panelists discuss potential influences and integrations:

• Metal Gear Solid: The presence of a Snake-like character suggests a blending of universes, with Greg Miller ([43:07]) anticipating "a lot of very subtle references to Metal Gear."

• Phantom Pain and Ghost of Tsushima: Blessing Adeoye Jr. ([55:26]) notes, "Phantom Pain type stuff," indicating possible gameplay or narrative elements inspired by these games.

• Pacific Rim and Mad Max: Tim Gettys ([53:02]) hints at influences from Pacific Rim and Mad Max, especially regarding the expansive and dynamic environments showcased in the trailer.

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7. Fan Reactions and Speculations

Incorporating listener Super Chats, the hosts address fan theories and reactions:

• Volkdasher ([49:15]) asks about the potential for more varied action gameplay in the sequel, to which Tim Gettys responds with skepticism, emphasizing that Death Stranding 2 may aim for a broader appeal without straying too far from its core mechanics.

• User Theodosius ([52:25]) highlights Kojima's penchant for integrating diverse cultural references, mentioning, "the character is flanked by several soldiers similar to how Death Stranding’s antagonist, Clifford Unger, would surround himself with troops."

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8. Conclusion and Final Thoughts

As the episode wraps up, the hosts reiterate their excitement for the upcoming release:

• Greg Miller ([57:45]) and Andy Cortez ([57:47]) express high anticipation, considering Death Stranding 2 as one of their most awaited games of the year.

• Blessing Adeoye Jr. ([57:51]) reinforces his admiration for the original game and his eagerness to revisit its world with the enhancements promised in the sequel.

In closing, Tim Gettys ([59:02]) invites listeners to share their excitement and thoughts about Death Stranding 2, fostering a sense of community and anticipation among the audience.

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Notable Quotes

• Blessing Adeoye Jr. ([25:55]): "I've been so visually impressed by it back in the day. It still looks incredible."

• Greg Miller ([43:07]): "I think he's going to play a very interesting part of what the plot is, what the themes are."

• Blessing Adeoye Jr. ([45:22]): "This game is gonna be about the disarray around connection and the reactions to that."

• Andy Cortez ([26:17]): "I think this trailer was a bit overwhelming in all the good ways. Yeah, I'm excited for it."

• Greg Miller ([31:13]): "I think it'll just be tweaked to hopefully be even more enjoyable and probably be tighter sections."

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Final Thoughts

The Kinda Funny Gamescast episode provides an in-depth and enthusiastic analysis of the Death Stranding 2 trailer. The hosts balance technical admiration with narrative curiosity, drawing connections to Kojima's broader body of work and current societal themes. Their engagement with fan theories and speculative discussions enriches the conversation, making it a compelling listen for both existing fans and newcomers eager to understand what Death Stranding 2 has in store.

Transcript

[Greg Miller]

Over the past several days, three females have been found dead.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Looks like someone's going after these girls. Then they have to know to wash their backs.

[Greg Miller]

Streaming March 13th.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

You really want what will happen if it's when it happened to you? Exactly why I need to keep going on this.

[Greg Miller]

Starring Emmy award winner Amanda Seyfried.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I'm worried about what you're gonna find.

[Greg Miller]

So am I. Long Bright River, a limited series, streaming March 13th only on Peacock.

[Tim Gettys]

What's up? And welcome back to the Kind of Funny Games cast live for Monday, March 10, 2025. Happy Mario Day. And they didn't. Do you know what I mean?

[Greg Miller]

What about the lego?

[Tim Gettys]

It's like 12,000 pieces or some Mario Kart Lego. That looks fine.

[Andy Cortez]

Whoa.

[Tim Gettys]

Come on. You know what I mean? Give me something good. Give me Galaxy 2. Give me three all stars again. Stop.

[Andy Cortez]

No, I mean, he's spitting God.

[Tim Gettys]

That's what they did for the 35th anniversary.

[Greg Miller]

They're gonna chill till that switch, too. That's what they're gonna do. Then they'll bring all that.

[Tim Gettys]

Well, that's, you know, plus. How are you doing?

[Andy Cortez]

I'm doing all right.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

I'm doing pretty good, actually.

[Tim Gettys]

You could do better.

[Andy Cortez]

I could do better, Mario. If Mario. Mario was like, oh, here's Odyssey 2 and Galaxy 3 and 642 and Mario 3 2.

[Tim Gettys]

All of them.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

Where's Mario 3?

[Tim Gettys]

So, wait, you said you're feeling good? Why?

[Andy Cortez]

You know, I'm about to watch a death rating two trailer that I haven't seen yet.

[Tim Gettys]

Good.

[Andy Cortez]

Very excited to see what Kojima's been cooking for the last few years.

[Tim Gettys]

Greg, how are you?

[Greg Miller]

I'm great. How are you?

[Tim Gettys]

I'm good. I like the stash.

[Greg Miller]

Thank you very much. Yeah, of course. Kind of funny podcast right after this where I'll talk all about going to Boston to film a movie and them shaving me before any of that, though. And they shaved me everywhere, Tim.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Greg Miller]

Places the camera didn't even go. You know what I mean? Turned out the guy didn't work on the movie.

[Andy Cortez]

They just got him off the street.

[Greg Miller]

No. I have yet another Benjamin Miller video game update for you, Timothy.

[Tim Gettys]

Okay.

[Greg Miller]

Yesterday, Ben negotiated to play some video games. As he does, we started up the switch.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Negotiated.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah. You know what's like, he's only three years old, right? So let's be honest here. The games cook them. They make him crazy. You know what I mean? We get a lot of fights afterwards, but, like, you know, it's you and him. No, mainly him. And his mom, you know, okay. Me and him just want to keep playing.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I just, I just picture him walking up, like with a lawyer and be like, father, I would like to Propose it.

[Andy Cortez]

A $10 bill.

[Greg Miller]

The reality of it is, is like, you know, turning off a show, turning off anything. It depends, you know, where you're at, how tired he is, how hungry he is, stuff like that or whatever. So you'll get the pushback. And maybe I don't want but like video games, anytime we try to stop video, you can do. I've done it. So we're setting a timer for five minutes after this level, whatever. Lots of times shutting them down. He has a big, It's a big emotion. So that's what I'm talking about of like, you know, like we keep doing it because you got it. I, I, you know, as for as much as they mean for me and how much he loves them and obviously how much they mean for Gen 2. But like, I want to make sure we can get to a good place with it. So it's like, you got to be ready sometimes.

[Tim Gettys]

Relationship.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Gotta teach regulation.

[Greg Miller]

Exactly. Yesterday was a good shutdown on it. But no, we did our normal thing where we started up. Do you want PlayStation? Do you want Switch? You want to switch? I'm like, okay, we jumped moderation, huh?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Regulation. Yeah, same thing. Who gives a shit?

[Andy Cortez]

Who cares? You thought the Nora accolade.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Shut up.

[Andy Cortez]

They got to regulate this show.

[Greg Miller]

Start the show again anyways. God, this is a long walk. I so we got to play. We went through our normal things. He loves, loves, loves Pico Park 2.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Not everybody who doesn't.

[Greg Miller]

It's a really hard game him and I play. But then we. He does the mini games. We did a lot of mini games yesterday. And then he was like, okay, I want a Mario. So we went in and we did Mario Wonder. He's been around all the Mario blocks, but Mario Odyssey had finally downloaded. So he jumped into Mario Odyssey and was playing that. And he likes shooting himself back and forth on the lightning rods. And you do Donk City, driving the moped out there. He was hiding balloons for people to find. He was having a great time. So I like to update you on all the Marios he continues to play.

[Tim Gettys]

I'm very proud of him.

[Greg Miller]

We wanted Pokemon. The start was, oh, you can finally play Pokemon Snap. Because we had mentioned that, like at bedtime or whatever. So he started up N64 Pokemon Snap. Didn't like that. I'm downloading new Pokemon Snap.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, I think that'll go, if you.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Get him on sunshine, he may be a sociopath later on. Just watch out with that.

[Tim Gettys]

And of course Roddy has a group. We have Andy Cortez.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Hello everybody.

[Greg Miller]

There was the Heartbreaker the other day where I was like, you know, we were driving, he was talking about Sonic and I was like, by the way, Ben, do you like Sonic or Mario more? And he goes, sonic? I was like, no. I'm like, don't. Don't be like me.

[Andy Cortez]

Don't be like that.

[Greg Miller]

Don't be like that. You don't need to be.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I don't want you to be like me, son.

[Greg Miller]

I want you to have a better life.

[Tim Gettys]

Time to be alive, everybody. If you love what we do, please support us with the kind of Funny membership on Patreon, YouTube, Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Get all of our shows ad free and you get a daily exclusive. Greg Way a chance to be part of this show though. Submit your thoughts and opinions as YouTube super chats as we go. So if you have any thoughts about Death Stranding 1, 2, the trailer we're about to see, or anything else, please super chat them in and we will get to them throughout this episode. A little housekeeping for you. We're an 11 person business all about live talk shows. You already got Kind of Funny Games Daily. That was Andy, Mike and Greg for a little bit. Breaking down the Last of US Season 2 trailer. After this, you're going to get the Kind of Funny podcast it's all about Greg's trip to Boston to film a movie. And then after that, it's the continuation of Nick's Pokemon Nuzlocke adventure. Andy, you were here for about 12 hours. What was that like on Friday?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

It was awesome. It was thrilling. There was many moments where it's just like, all right, we lost focus there a little too much making dumb jokes and that. That Scyther was overpowered and in that moment could have easily killed your dude had they not done like the crystal like you. Holy shit. We could have lost it all like right there. So so far, no deaths in our permadeath.

[Greg Miller]

Wow.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

But like we were really, really closer. The fun, the comment that made me laugh the most was like Nick's mild illiteracy really brings like a level of excitement to this stream. Because if he just like reads words, you know, like a little wrong.

[Greg Miller]

Like what a week?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Okay, yeah, yeah, that too.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Or you know, just not, you know, reading types or. But for example, one of them that made me laugh the most, Tim. And I'm definitely going to embellish this story. But he kept on saying like, you know, we're early on in the game and he doesn't know where to go. And he goes, yeah, but that tower is full of ghosts and stuff.

[Tim Gettys]

I saw this.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

The tower is full of souls.

[Tim Gettys]

It.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

It has like ghost. It has spirits.

[Tim Gettys]

Spirits. That's what it was.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Spirit tower. It's full of. It's full of ghosts. And like, I can't, you know. And he remembered from last nuzlocke of like, normal moves don't do anything on ghost types. So I was like, wow, proud of you there, Nick. But he kept on saying, yeah, like ghosts. You can't go to spirit tower full of spirits in the. You know, there's going to be ghastly is all sorts of stuff. And then we finally, we finally read the sign.

[Tim Gettys]

And 30 minutes later, after him trying to find out where to go because he's like, it can't be this direction.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Finally read the sign and it said Sprout Tower because it's the bellsprout tower. And Chad was saying, go to the bellsprout tower. And I said, and he goes, oh, I thought that said spirit. And so now we kind of knew where to go. And obviously there are some spirits in the bellsprout tower, but it's mostly a bunch of bellsprouts.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

So that was a kind of a great way to, to start the stream. We had a lot of betrayals, you know. Did Joey buy four Twix bars for all four of us to have? And as I'm eating mine, Mike goes, give me one of those. And I said, no, man, get yours. You know, I'm not going to give you one of my two pieces of my Twix bar. So I just, I decline and Mike gets one and starts eating it. And later on, Kevin's looking at the desk and he's like. I'm like, what are you looking at? He goes, I'm looking for my Twix bar. I was like, well, we each got one. Like, each of us got one. And Mike goes, I ate two.

[Greg Miller]

Never forget.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Even though Joey gave us, like, I specifically said, you each get one.

[Greg Miller]

It's like such, you know, Joey's the mom of this car for this van full of kids. They're seven years old coming home from baseball practice so bad.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

He's like, you're a bad person. Who the fuck does that? He's not wrong.

[Tim Gettys]

It was so funny, man.

[Andy Cortez]

The way Greg's sitting right now, looks like he has horns.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, I get this all the time I line up like this all the time, people love it. Don't forget it's because I'm the son of Satan.

[Tim Gettys]

Oh my God. Well, son of Satan, you got a Greg way later today. It's gonna be a doozy. What's it gonna be?

[Greg Miller]

I don't know. That means that I forgot the microphone in my wife's car, so I didn't do it in the car. And then that screws up my whole day. But it'll be good one. Don't worry, it'll be great. I'll give you the 15, 20 minutes I do each and every day.

[Tim Gettys]

Thank you to our Patreon producers, Delaney Twiny, Carl Jacobs and Omega Buster. Today we're brought to you by Monster Hunter. Now built rewards and stash. But we'll tell you all about that later. For now, let's start with the topic of the show. Over the weekend, Hideo Kojima and friends went down to south by Southwest in Austin, Texas. Had a very fun panel talking all about Death Stranding 2 on the beach. They debuted a new trailer and the release date which is June 26, 2025. I want to start with you Bless real quick, that release date.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

How do you feel about it?

[Andy Cortez]

I feel good. It's funny because I think we've talked about this quite a bit, especially me and you. I think we've happened to line up with the KFC and like the, the PlayStation State of Plays where we've been able to speculate and talk about what our expectations for this were. And I feel like my expectations were spot on. I forget what month I said, but I think I said like this has given me earlier in the year, like first half of the year, the. This happening at south by Southwest. Right. Makes sense the way it was promoted, the way that it kind of led up. This was announced like right before the last state of play. And I think even then I was like, yeah, no, this is where we're going to. We're going to get the release date. So I like that it happened this way. I like that Kojima is always finding like what is the most Kojima way to do this. Hey, I'm going to hang out with my celebrity friends in south by Southwest.

[Tim Gettys]

Yep.

[Andy Cortez]

Cool. Yep, that makes sense. It coming out in June. Awesome. Right? Like I think for PlayStation first party stuff you want to be able to have like a sprinkle throughout the year of what that audience can expect. And Kojima Productions kind of sits separate from PlayStation productions, but they are making a PlayStation first party game. So I think from the first party side, they can probably be tough to regulate if you are PlayStation trying to figure out how to paint your calendar. But for the fact that they've been able to land here, I think works out perfectly. Right. Like, hey, first half of the year we're gonna get Death Training two and then hopefully Ghost of Yote we get sometime in fall.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, definitely. Pleasantly surprised by how early this is. Like, I. I wasn't too far off, but I was pretty sure it was going to be August. Something about that felt right to me. But getting in there in June, I'm very interested in what that means for PlayStation Studios with ghost of Yote as well. Right.

[Greg Miller]

Like trying to.

[Tim Gettys]

Where they're trying to place that, hopefully create a little bit of a. A gap there. Because I mean, last time for Ghost, that was what, one month after Last of Us Three, right?

[Greg Miller]

Two.

[Tim Gettys]

Two months. Yeah. So really close there.

[Andy Cortez]

Last was Last was part two.

[Greg Miller]

Yes, yes. You said three. Last three. I'm saying last.

[Tim Gettys]

Oh, shit.

[Greg Miller]

That's what I.

[Andy Cortez]

That's what I was not first.

[Tim Gettys]

Gotcha.

[Greg Miller]

But that was also Covid related.

[Tim Gettys]

Right.

[Greg Miller]

That was when everything was like, last was like, just get these goddamn games out.

[Andy Cortez]

And so, yeah, like Last of Us.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Was supposed to come out in February originally.

[Greg Miller]

Right.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

And then it like immediately got delayed after that release. Initial release date.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

Do you remember Greg? Any thoughts on the release date? Great.

[Greg Miller]

That's a good one. I'm glad to start seeing this year firm up. You know, we've talked so much about how people are terrified of gta, so it's making everybody be very, when's it coming? I don't know, blah, blah. I'm happy to start seeing some things down the road because again, this is supposed to be a banger year. If everything comes out, that's supposed to come out. So to see these start solidifying, great. I think June's a good time for it. You know, summer is usually a quieter period after SGF in terms of big game releases. Get this out there, get people in there, let you digest it. I think that's the biggest thing of like, you know, I enjoyed Death Stranding so much when I played it originally as that meditative experience. But I haven't been back to it in forever. And so I'm very interested to see how this one's going to work, how it's going to hit, what it's going to feel like. And I'm sure the trailer will answer some of those questions as well.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

You were a different person back then.

[Greg Miller]

I was no kid. I was playing in Quebec City.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Damn.

[Greg Miller]

This big old bulldog Larry hanging out with me and Portillo.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

All right.

[Andy Cortez]

That's right.

[Greg Miller]

They're both gone.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Wow.

[Andy Cortez]

Rest in peace, Andy.

[Tim Gettys]

Are you surprised that.

[Greg Miller]

You. Man, you don't even know Larry.

[Tim Gettys]

Are you surprised? That's right. Two is going to be coming out before Metal Gear Solid Delta.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah, it's. It's really fascinating. I. I think that obviously what we'll see here in the trailer with Kojima and just maybe his thoughts and his meta narratives on things should be kind of a fascinating cap to the rest or the start to the rest of the year. Right? Will we be playing this, do you think, while we're at sgf?

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, I think.

[Greg Miller]

Do we have dates on sgf?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I mean, we just. It's always early June, right? You know?

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

That sucks.

[Greg Miller]

See, I don't think we will. I bet we'll probably get it like.

[Tim Gettys]

The week after we get back.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, June 6th. This is 20 days later. Nah. Yeah, you'll get it. We usually get. What, best case scenario, two weeks with stuff like this.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah, we. We did have a decent lead time with that Shining One when we reviewed that sucker.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, we don't remember. Yeah, that was a different time. Larry and Porty were still here.

[Andy Cortez]

I mean, I would think this is gonna be a long game, right? I forget how long that's training one was. But if this. If this is 40 to 50 hours, man, I hope we get like three weeks with it.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

It's going to be. If you mainline it, probably 20 plus, you know, 30ish. Right. Is what I assume. But whenever you want to do everything, you want to be building all those bridges, it's going to be me and Daniel Dwyer again, building for each other.

[Greg Miller]

How long beat puts this on the original Death Stranding? 40 and a half hours.

[Andy Cortez]

And I would think that this is gonna. Not. Having not seen the trailer, I imagine this game is going to be bigger and be wackier.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Final cut.

[Greg Miller]

I would love to be playing Death Stranding leading up to this.

[Andy Cortez]

You should.

[Greg Miller]

I wonder how crazy.

[Andy Cortez]

Let's play it on this team deck.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

That's the plan for Snowback Mike.

[Tim Gettys]

Roger.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

That doesn't help me be in the.

[Greg Miller]

Room with Conan O'Brien. He's like, yeah, I know why I turn into Wado. I don't do a good mic. I don't do good.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

None of us can.

[Tim Gettys]

All right, well, without further ado, let's get into the deaths. Actually, wait, who has seen this yet? Andy Cortez has seen it.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I went live in one.

[Greg Miller]

I've seen two screen grabs from it.

[Tim Gettys]

Okay.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Went live with. With Dark Souls 2 yesterday. And people were like, did you see the new Death Shine 2 trailer? I was like, no. They're like, it just dropped 20 minutes prior to me going live. Like, holy. Drop everything. Let's watch this right now. Oh, it's the 10 minute Kojima one. Yeah, dude.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah. I saw. Anytime I saw a clip pop up on Twitter, I saw the clip. So I think I've seen all the big things here, but I have not seen the.

[Andy Cortez]

I've just seen a. I've seen like the one dude that everybody keeps sharing where I'm like, oh, interesting.

[Tim Gettys]

Interesting. To find out how it all comes together, let's check out The Death Stranding 210 minute trailer.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Audio listeners. Sorry, this is.

[Andy Cortez]

You got 10 minutes.

[Greg Miller]

We're going to talk over it. Like, isn't this fun, audio listeners.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, but then we talk over it.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Criminal.

[Greg Miller]

Shut up so I can hear it.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Guilty of illegally entering our country on multiple occasions.

[Greg Miller]

The only thing that I'm guilty of is doing your dirty work. And by way of compensation, we have overlooked your crimes.

[Tim Gettys]

Bring it on.

[Greg Miller]

Because I'm not doing this anymore. It makes you think. You have a choice.

[Andy Cortez]

Develop a kid. You kind of cargo.

[Greg Miller]

Cargo like brain dead pregnant women.

[Andy Cortez]

No one would possibly allow that.

[Greg Miller]

That's why I have to smuggle them in. They make me bring them over from Mexico. I like how normal this looks for right now.

[Tim Gettys]

Weird.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Gonna get weird, this thing between us.

[Tim Gettys]

God, it looks good.

[Greg Miller]

Andy. His beard like yours.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

No, no.

[Greg Miller]

It was not a mistake. It was not a mistake.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

The facial hair doesn't connect. Just like we should not have connected.

[Andy Cortez]

Wow.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Strands. Good looking baby, right?

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

Good baby. Jesus Christ. What?

[Greg Miller]

It's big baby.

[Tim Gettys]

Dude, that looks so good.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, I can see 11 months of UCA.

[Tim Gettys]

That background was like distractingly good looking.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, servers.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Servers. Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

I'm like, nick, I can't read. Deliveries May the deliveries have been automated.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Doesn't this just look like content? All right. There. God damn. Unbelievable.

[Greg Miller]

Plate gate connects the continents. That's awesome. I wish we had that now. A new ship rides the tar currents.

[Andy Cortez]

Currents that shake the earth.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

A new challenger has approached.

[Greg Miller]

A mysterious faction spreads car warps the environment. Wow. The unending sixth extinction.

[Tim Gettys]

Wow.

[Andy Cortez]

Love that guy.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Wow.

[Tim Gettys]

Oh, man.

[Andy Cortez]

It looks like The Unreal Engine 5. Like, right?

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

Jesus.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Place where you woke.

[Andy Cortez]

I love that.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

That looks like the first location, right?

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

It's like Mission Impossible 4.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Oh, Rebecca Ferguson.

[Greg Miller]

Tonight's one car, right?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Little paddle boat.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, he's got another dead body.

[Andy Cortez]

That's right.

[Tim Gettys]

Oh, my God.

[Greg Miller]

I had a puppet. I forgot about the puppet. Oh, it's that guy.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I kept saying Wong, but it's Guild. The guy with his guild. Yeah, yeah.

[Greg Miller]

From train to Busan, too, right?

[Andy Cortez]

I'm fragile, but I'm not that fragile. But I'm not. I'm not fragile.

[Greg Miller]

I tried to do the lines, you know.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Oh. But I could only take my equipment with me.

[Andy Cortez]

And I could.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I couldn't possibly think of Lou like that. There was no way for the two of us to escape together. The best I could hope for was.

[Greg Miller]

To jump Lou out. Just Lou.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

What the fuck, man?

[Greg Miller]

Everybody remembers when I did my amazing Deadman cosplay. Remember? For Halloween?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Fantastic.

[Greg Miller]

I can tell you right now, against Ben's will, he's gonna be this baby. He's far too large, but I'm doing it.

[Tim Gettys]

What the. What the. Kai ch.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yi shinkara. The Goat Man.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

What is this? The end of E. A lot of.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Hands in this blast.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, but I don't mind these ones, though.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Really?

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, I think it's it being like the black gloopy hands.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Okay.

[Andy Cortez]

Makes it fine. Wow. If they're more realistic. And like.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

The useless jetpack move.

[Andy Cortez]

I love a good zip line in these games.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

What the hell?

[Greg Miller]

That cat had wings. Tar Man, George Miller Hicks. Joy Baker. Tomorrow, Tomorrow.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Tall Man.

[Greg Miller]

The President.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Lucy, did you notice the character Rainey was under rain?

[Andy Cortez]

Neo.

[Greg Miller]

Dr. Deborah Wilson.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Got two right hands.

[Tim Gettys]

Oh, really?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah. Weird.

[Greg Miller]

You can't be a normal doctor in Hideo.

[Tim Gettys]

That is such a Kojima thing.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

You know what I mean? I was telling Chad, this whole sequence right here, every shot is so different. It felt like here's coming. Here's what's coming at hbo. This. Yeah, it's like six different shows.

[Andy Cortez]

Yo, this wood kid.

[Tim Gettys]

Got it.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

This wood kid kind of has that going. I've been alone this whole time. You're wrong. Death can tear us apart. Always be connected. Look at the nose tech right here. Nose tech will always be with you, no matter what.

[Andy Cortez]

You will never ever be alone.

[Greg Miller]

Kept going. You thought it was over that time. That no second, no bones about it.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

No bones in the nose. I'll make a lasting connection with.

[Tim Gettys]

The.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Perfect ending humanity deserves.

[Greg Miller]

Ah, no, Troy.

[Tim Gettys]

I don't like.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

So gross. We must all come together. You think this shit's over? Hell no.

[Tim Gettys]

Uppies going to space. Let's get hover a little bit.

[Greg Miller]

Hand creatures hate it. They Hate space travel.

[Andy Cortez]

All right, we might have gone too far.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

The hands are too much now the.

[Andy Cortez]

Hands are now it's too much. It's like, why are their heads hands?

[Tim Gettys]

What the. It's like Megazord.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I said the same, dude.

[Tim Gettys]

Wait, for real?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah. Hell yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

Falconzord on his back.

[Greg Miller]

Should not have connected. I've been saying this for years. The moment that launched a thousand screenshots.

[Tim Gettys]

Oh my God. It's even cooler than I expected it to be. With a few sticks.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Encouragement.

[Andy Cortez]

Holy.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

The UCA's precursor, the United States of America, had a prominent gun culture.

[Greg Miller]

A.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Distinctly American philosophy, and one which would appear to have spread to this continent. The more we seek to unite the people with metaphorical ropes.

[Greg Miller]

God damn.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

More essential sticks seem to become.

[Andy Cortez]

Yo, he's cooking, bro. Drawbridge View Edited by He got it.

[Greg Miller]

He got to let you know he was in it.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Dhb Magellan Integrate.

[Tim Gettys]

Stop. What are we talking about?

[Greg Miller]

Talking about Metal Gear Sahelanthropus.

[Tim Gettys]

For reals.

[Andy Cortez]

Everyone hold on tight.

[Tim Gettys]

It's just Rex.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, they put Rex on a kaiju.

[Greg Miller]

Pre order March 14th, 17th.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

If anything, you see, you know, solid snake at the end there doing the hand signals. I'm like, dude, I'm just like. It got me even more excited for the upcoming. Yeah, whatever.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

Is the character from MGS3.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, you're right. You're right. Yo, that was a trailer and a half. Yeah, like that.

[Greg Miller]

Like nobody does it.

[Tim Gettys]

Like, I know Kuji was done a lot of trailers in his life, but like this brings me back to the like MGS four days of the big ride in Fight and all that stuff of like. Well, we're seeing some we've never seen before. And also this game. Andy, you said it looks like coming up this season on hbo, all the different shows. I don't necessarily want to play all of them. You know what I mean? Or watch all those shows, but some of them, Holy crap. This might be the most gorgeous looking vistas in a game I've ever seen.

[Greg Miller]

100%. Yeah, like the stuff they're doing with the Decima engine, which is already gorgeous. We already knew that are on another level. Like the stuff you see that first one we saw of Norman Reedus right there on the mountaintop, right. Looking down over all the craggy cliffs and shit. Like, holy fuck, that looks amazing. Like.

[Tim Gettys]

And then there's the shots of the moon. Super close.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

So close. Where are they, Tim?

[Tim Gettys]

So many different vistas and areas. Like, holy crap. Bless that. That was your first time seeing this like, what are your take?

[Andy Cortez]

I mean, that was an incredible trailer. It's. It's almost like the bittersweet thing of me, for me though, of I almost wish I didn't watch it. Like, I wanted to experience all like a lot of this stuff for the first time in the game. And obviously Kojima does this trailer with all of his games, right? He does the 10 minute thing of, hey, let me take you through a bunch of. And there's still going to be a bunch more in the game. And so I'm not taking this as a. Oh, man, how dare you spoil anything. It's not that, but it more so like, damn.

[Greg Miller]

I.

[Andy Cortez]

You've shown me so much now. And coming off of Death Stranding 1, right? I think one of the things I was so excited for with Death Stranding 1 was to kind of not knowing like, what the is this game and like not believing that it really is a game about delivery until I play and being like, oh, this is a game about delivery. Okay, cool. We're connecting the strands. We're doing all this, man. I. I think for me this trailer was a bit overwhelming in all the good ways. Yeah, I'm excited for it. Like, I don't think I can be more excited for this game after seeing this trailer.

[Tim Gettys]

Greg.

[Greg Miller]

I agree, I. I agree it's overwhelming, but I think, yeah, it's overwhelming in the right way where I don't think I know what the fuck's going on in this game. And again, one of the reasons I want to go replay Death Stranding is I really don't remember much about what was going on in Death Stranding. I beat that. I rolled credits. I did the whole damn thing, but it was like. And I remember connecting. And I remember I'm Princess Peach and you're Mario. I remember all this stuff, but I need to get back into it to understand the world again and remember exactly what's going on. But I'm also not too worried about that because it's the ride to go on, right? And see all these vistas and understand what's going on and see what's happening, all these crazy characters that are being introduced and see what swerves he's gonna throw our way when you get there. Like, I'm intrigued. I'm excited. I think again, the June release date makes a lot of sense for a game like this to go get lost in and try to figure out what the fuck is happening.

[Tim Gettys]

Andy, this wasn't your first time seeing it, but seeing it now multiple times. What are you feeling?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I. I guess I still have like the initial thoughts of when we get that first sequence of the two people at that deposition table or whatever. I immediately, I'm just like, you keep. Every new trailer has like three new actors in it. I'm just like, how big could your roles possibly be if like there's always new people being shown to me? And I guess part of me worries about being overwhelmed by what it's trying to do, possibly story wise, because I'm just always overwhelmed by what Kojima is doing story wise, but in a very good way. And yeah, upon watching it again, this is like my fourth time watching it. I. I'm just so. I'm so impressed by what they're doing visually with Decima, what they're doing with like character rendering tech. And we see that one avalanche sequence, which is awesome. We see a moment where water's rushing and it's clear that it looks like a flood, like a dam has been broken and water is rushing into an area of, you know, a body of water that it didn't belong in. I'm just, I'm fascinated by what all of those things are hinting at, gameplay wise and how we would have to deal with them. You know, are we experiencing more and more BTs? We have that one moment where Norman Reedus is sort of doing that slide sort of move with his gun, getting into third person action gameplay and maybe invoking a bit more of the, you know, gun violence that they talk about the UCA having. And maybe this game being about like, well, we have to kind of fight fire with fire if that's, you know, I don't know. It's just there's a lot of like sequences in this game that look more than just throwing piss grenades at ghosts.

[Greg Miller]

You know, But I bet we will still.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Oh, there's going to be piss grenades. Yeah, we'll be shooting everywhere.

[Greg Miller]

Oh yeah, yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

It's funny playing Death Stranding 1. I think some of the sections that I didn't love the most gameplay wise were the super action sections because the game is built way more around just the delivery and the walking around. And when you get there and I'm like, oh shit, there's weapons. Oh shit, I gotta shoot. It almost felt out of place.

[Greg Miller]

It's that thing looking back on that right now that feels like such like I remember the walking way more and I mean I remember the fights but I remember them being like, oh, wow. Yeah. What? Like that's not what this game is.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, exactly. And so I'm Hoping that with the commentary of all right, we should never have connected. Like, you know, this being a successor, the UCA being a successor to the USA and it having this commentary about, you know, this country's obsession with guns and how that's going to feed into the reaction that we're having now of being connected and being like, oh shit, we actually now have to fight back. I wonder if we're going to lean more into that, into action, or if it's going to be a similar kind of thing of death training, one of like, oh, here's some action sections sprinkled in. I hope there's a better balance. Or at the very least, I hope that when we get to those action sections, they feel a bit more thought out and a bit more engaging on the action side.

[Tim Gettys]

I mean, it seems like we're getting a lot more action. Right? Like, I. Even when I tried giving this another shot a couple of months ago, I didn't make it that far in. But I. The few action scenes that I faced, I'm with bless or it's like, didn't feel built for that. But that's not the point of it. Looking at this trailer, this seems, I mean, might be far to say majority action, but there's a lot of different types of action scene. Like the motorcycle chase, the kaiju fights, like, all of it, like, does see it in the gun stuff. Do you guys think this is going to be a pretty radically different game gameplay wise?

[Greg Miller]

No, I think it'll be an evolution. I think, honestly, it'll be. There's still gonna be a lot of. As much as we see Norman Reeves walking around the giant backpack, even though, you know, delivery men have been outlawed or, you know, taken over by AI or whatever, like, I think you're still gonna get what we did before. I think it'll just be tweaked to hopefully be even more enjoyable and probably be tighter sections is what I would expect.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah. I mean, the more as I watch the gameplay in this trailer, I get all the same vibes from Dust writing one of what the gameplay is going to be like. I think the action that we see is there to. To sell the game. Right? Like, I think you need to have that stuff in the trailers to show that, hey, like, you know, it's not just a boring walking game. You're going to have guns and shit. Right. I think thematically I like the leaning into it. I think that's going to play an important part and I wonder how that's going to feed back into the Actual gameplay. But I don't expect it to be like that much more of a piece of the pie of how much action there is like, you know, shooting guns and stuff. Because like at the end of the day I think you have to choose what the gameplay loop and the gameplay flow of this game is going to be and if it is a thing of. All right, I'm here to deliver packages. But I keep getting interrupted by action segments and it feels off or it feels like way more interrupting to the core experience of the game. I think that gets in the way of things. I hope that it is a thing of hey, Death Stranding 1 did something unique, did something had a gameplay style that is about the balancing and the delivery and like, you know, getting through those BB or not BB BT areas and all that shit. Like up uplift that gameplay. Like that's kind of where I'm at of. I. I liked some of what I saw as far as the different kinds of carrying devices that Norman Reedus has, where it's like he had like a thing that was like a line connected to the thing that was like a line connected to another thing. I'm like, I look at that and I get excited. More so than even looking at the action. I think the action looks very pretty.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

You played this pretty recently, right too?

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

On your Steam deck.

[Andy Cortez]

I played it like whenever. When the Steam deck first came out, that was the first time I played. Played all the way through desk training. I played like 20 hours when it first came out and then I replayed it and finished the whole thing a couple years ago.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah, I'm with Greg. I think it'll be a bit of an evolution. I think there will be still be the dedicated what you expect Death Shining gameplay to be of still doing delivery, still dealing with balancing all of the cargo on your back. And I think we'll still see plenty of segments like that. I do think that the action will be a bit more amplified though especially. I mean we see that one shot kind of in the trailer somewhere where it's just like. It's a zoom in of him of Normaritus with the gun and you're getting like the muzzle flashes in the shot and it looks so. It reminds me so much of like a Phantom Pain trailer that like it. It looks like a snake, an enemy that's fighting big boss or something having, you know, a gunfight. It just. It's such classic Kojima though it's all directed.

[Tim Gettys]

So I definitely want to talk about the snake of it all. But we're going to do that right after a word from our sponsors.

[Greg Miller]

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[Tim Gettys]

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[Greg Miller]

Fine, I'll do it myself, he says.

[Tim Gettys]

What's Also interesting to note here is that the character is flanked by several soldiers similar. Similar to how Death Stranding's antagonist, Clifford Unger, would surround himself with troops whenever he appeared in the game. That suggests has died and become a post death entity, someone who finds himself driven to complete his unfinished business and can journey to battlefield beaches. Another reference to Metal Gear Solid can be seen in the brief scene where Hartman takes control of the DHV Magellan submersible, fusing it with a gigantic entity from the TAR to take on the other titans. Yoji Shinkawa, who is the art director on 98's Metal Gear Solid, also worked on Death Stranding too, so it's not too surprising to see a few visual callbacks. There's also a hint of Pacific Rim in the control interface here for Magellan man, which is a nice allusion to the film's director and Dead Man's visual inspiration, Guillermo del Toro.

[Andy Cortez]

I love how subtle Kojima is.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I don't think he's ever been accused of.

[Andy Cortez]

You blink and you miss a reference.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Again. The character named Rainey has rain falling on her, which is. The rain is called Timefall, Tim. And that's what ages you.

[Andy Cortez]

They're gonna reveal that that dude's name is Solid Snake Man.

[Tim Gettys]

Andy, what. What are your thoughts on the. The snake illusions?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I mean, you know, it's. It's. It's obvious that it's, you know, trying to get people, you know, all excited about Kojima just showing the thing that we all know him from and the thing that we all love him from, what it's doing. Possibly story wise. I immediately thought of The Death Shining 2 Director's Cut trailer where Norman Reedus looks at the box and kind of goes like, like, I don't want that or whatever. And I thought maybe that'd be the last sort of callback to a Metal Gears type thing. I thought that, you know, maybe Kojima was. All right, I'm done. I'm putting that in the past, but it seems like he's. He's still got some. Some fuel in the belly, some anger out there.

[Tim Gettys]

The director's cut, if I remember correctly, had like, modes and stuff of like, stealth sequences, right? Like, it leaned in pretty hard.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I never played the director's cut, so I don't remember, but I just remember that little nod from the trailer.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, yeah. Greg, what about you?

[Greg Miller]

I can't fucking wait to see what he does for this character. I guarantee it's way more than just the bandana, you know what I mean? In terms of what he's gonna be doing, what he's gonna be saying, what kind of counterpoint he's gonna be to Sam Porter Bridges here. Like, I think there's gonna be a lot of very subtle references to Metal Gear and I can't wait.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I think what's hilarious about it all is there's no creator out there that just that really sort of like publicly does what he does just based on vibes. Like, I heard this Caroline Polacheck song that my friend Roger Pocorni showed me, the Tastemaker. Probably gonna put that song in the. In a game. Right. With all this Skype or all the Zoom meetings he's been having with him. Skype got shut down. You hear about that?

[Greg Miller]

I did. Can you imagine fumbling that bad Idiots. We are the video call conferencing. Everybody's working from home now. Oh.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

But yeah, the same with, you know, we. As we've seen him do multiple times post. I saw this movie with this actor. They did a great job. Next time you see him, they're in a Zoom meeting talking. Next time they're in person at Kojima Productions, they're going to be in the game. Like, I just love that he's just. Whatever he's doing and he's into. It's like, I'm gonna get you in my game. And I. I just. I love that energy. The. The snake actor being Luca Marinelli and being like, yeah, that guy could play Snake in a movie. And here it is like he's just doing what he's saying that he wants to do, which I. I love that it's also publicly out there, most of.

[Tim Gettys]

It, you know, so it seems like he's probably gonna be a bad guy.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

How integral to the plot do you think this character is? Like, do you think that this is like the big one, or is it just one of the Rogues Gallery?

[Andy Cortez]

I don't think just one of the Rogues Gallery.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Right.

[Andy Cortez]

Like, I think based off of in that second part of the trailer, the conversation about once again, guns and in the US and all that stuff, I think he's going to play a very interesting part of what the plot is, what the themes are. Because I. One of the things I find fascinating about death stranding, especially now that we have this solid snake adjacent character in it, is how Death straining stands and opposed to Metal Gear, where I feel like Kojima. I feel like Metal Gear calls to Kojima like the Green Goblin mask in some ways. Where it is, man. All right, I'm out after MGS 3 I got to come back, make some MGS 4. Okay, I'm out. I got to make MGS 5. Right. I got to keep coming back. And like, I think this is one of those ones where it makes sense in the ways that Death training feels like such a commentary of. We need to come together, we need to connect, we need to like. It is so not a game about war. Right. It is so, so much a game about connection. And I think taking your previous war game and placing it into this one as a opposition of each other, I think can lead to some really interesting things. Because, you know, fans love solid Snake. You know, fans love Metal Gear. But you have something that you're trying to say about, like, where humanity, where humanity's at, where the Internet's at, where, like, whatever. Whatever the thing is, whatever the message you're trying to say is, I think because of that, he's going to be obviously very major part of it. But I. I still look at Troy Baker's character. Higgs is like, probably the main bad guy.

[Greg Miller]

See, I still think he's like a second banana. I could see this Snake knockoff taking the lead and that Higgs is doing his thing coming in, throwing it off. But it is this introduction of this guy who's even introduction to that meeting is so Snake. Right? Of like, I was doing your dirty work. Right. You know what I mean? Like, the government turning on Snake and doing it. I would be. It'd be interesting to see them cast him here as like, it is so solid Snake. But it is this time he's the bad guy. Like, you know, what if Snake went bad or whatever and we're doing that, which I know.

[Tim Gettys]

Do we play as in the middle. You saw it segment.

[Greg Miller]

I definitely could see it for sure.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Will there be a, like, exclamation mark anyway? Or excuse, you know? Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

Like, how far can they push.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yes.

[Tim Gettys]

You know, it's.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

It's all just so extremely exciting. I immediately sort of think about what the. Like, I think my favorite part of the trailer is. We should not have connected and how much of like a statement that is from Kojima.

[Tim Gettys]

Color change even there.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

It's. It's just like. It's a little. Obviously a little too on the nose. We were just making this. The subtlety jokes. But I think that's such a statement from him and his state of mind and, well, being living as a human right now in 2025. Right. With 2020 again. Or 2019, when this game came out. Right. Or 2019.

[Andy Cortez]

End of 2019. November.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

But yeah, you know, blessing being talking about, you know the first death shining was about connection. It was about helping one another. It was about doing stuff that you know. Yes. You're getting likes and it's like the social media sort of illusion and you know. But if you're doing stuff for only likes, that's how the porter. That's why some of the porters just became like crazy and they just love delivery because they were only getting likes or whatever. But in a game that is so much about community and building things together and building bridges for to see in red font, you know, not red font but white font with that sort of red really dark looking background saying we should not have connected.

[Tim Gettys]

It.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

It hits me to my core because.

[Andy Cortez]

I'm gonna be this whole like.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

Do you think that between 2019 and now, obviously world has changed in quite a few ways. Right. But like post pandemic, post every like post where we're at politically and all this.

[Tim Gettys]

Right.

[Andy Cortez]

Do you think this is like a Kojima's soul has changed?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah. This is him saying this is his Kojima way.

[Andy Cortez]

Let's with it because I agree Kojima.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

The Internet was a mistake. Yes. I love it.

[Tim Gettys]

But then what's the solution?

[Andy Cortez]

Deleting Twitter?

[Tim Gettys]

Like because I feel like that's the thing is like combining that sticks or whatever they're saying here. Like. Like the. The gun culture and then how important guns were to the way things used to be. Like it's. But it's kind of a frightening.

[Andy Cortez]

But I don't think it's Kojima like elevating guns. Not that he's above it because he made evidence. Right. But I think it's more so a thing of hey everybody. I think if I'm to compare. Compare this to the real world right in social media and us connecting all this stuff. Right. Like I think there is sort of this when you look at social media, when you look at X, when you look at how that stuff has been manipulated politically. Right. I think we're having an adverse reaction right now as far as. Oh man, we gotta fucking jump ship. AI is taking all this shit over. Oh man, everybody's being shitty to each other. We gotta hop to blue sky, we gotta hop to threads. We gotta like. I think there's a. This game is gonna be more so about the disarray around connection and the reactions to that. And I think in Kojima being like we should never have connected. Right. It's. I think that's going to be a reaction. But I think the where this solid Snake esque character is going to be a villain esque role is he's going to be almost like the killmonger of it. Of taking this idea that could be a good idea and going too far with it. Of oh yeah, we shouldn't have never connected. And we need guns, we need sticks, we need to cut like cut those connections which can you. Very fascinated.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Can you rewind back bear to that shot of all of solid. Snake is standing there with the soldiers where the fireworks happen. Because there's this, there's this like little subtle moment with the character where he. He really kind of blinks his eyes and I don't know why. I think that somebody else has taken over his brain right here. He has this moment. He sticks his hand up, he's doing like the, the military signals telling them to hold amazing shot. Like God damn, what a directed shot. And he has that moment of like oh yeah, he's kind of like kind of flinching. Yeah. The severance sort of moment. But I mean that could be nothing. Could just be a stressed out dude being like holy shit, I'm about to get in it right now. But I don't know, something that, that part just seems like it really stands out to me that he is maybe somewhere he doesn't want to be right now. I love it. I just the, the face capture, the motion capture. I. When I looked at the credits I saw that they are working with. They are partnered with Metahuman who's owned by Epic. Metahuman is, is Epic sort of like we have a, an engine to create characters with with like a bunch of different faces and stuff. And so I'm just so blown away by the face tech that they have in this game.

[Tim Gettys]

I talked, I thought Gary Lemie Widow looks amazing.

[Andy Cortez]

Gary Lewittow looks fantastic. I mean you look at Horizon, Forbidden west, especially Burning Shores and like the same engine and those faces look incredible. Like I remember playing that and being like wow, I cannot believe how good like an aloy and all these other characters look. Well, I think this engine is probably gonna go down. This generation is like, you know, this is one of those ones if you want to make a game that looks absolutely gorgeous because the level of detail is insane.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

If I'm Sony, I'm making us a Decima house where we are a decimal household.

[Tim Gettys]

A bit bizarre that that hasn't been more of a thing. And I wonder why. Right?

[Andy Cortez]

I mean EA I think tried to do that with their engine frostbite and I think that went wrong for them. Yeah, right. Like, I think different developers just have their different right now.

[Greg Miller]

So, yeah, you know, if, you know, Sucker Punch is used to working with X and Naughty Dogs working with Y and these guys are working with Desmond her. Like, if it's all working, why rock the boat and screw with it?

[Tim Gettys]

I'm saying more for the ones that it's not working for, you know, I mean, like, why.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

It's just so.

[Tim Gettys]

I mean like the bends, right?

[Greg Miller]

Like we don't know if it's working or not working. One quick thing I want to throw out. Do you think. What do we think the odds are you. Because you asked, are we going to play as Lucas character here? The Snake look alike, right? What are the odds that we're going to get riding in this? I think it's going to. It's going to be Norman Reedus for the first few hours and then bam, we're into this for 39.

[Tim Gettys]

I want to jump into a super chat here from Volkdasher saying, Is there any hope that death's running 2 will be more varied and have action gameplay actions in quotes? I don't think so. LOL. Kojima didn't think anything was wrong with Death Stranding 1. This won't be a quote. SQL changes everything thing. I'm not so convinced, man. Like, I feel like there's enough going on in this trailer that like, I mean, you guys all beat the game. I did not beat the game. So I do think that that is the most important thing to put out there. Everything we're seeing here, I do think that it seems to be an attempt towards getting a bit more mainstream appeal to. To people of like, hey, this looks so good that you're going to want to play and there's going to be enough action and gameplay stuff that I. I wouldn't be surprised if.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Is it a Last of Us 2 situation?

[Tim Gettys]

Not the main character.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

The Last of Us 2 situation.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

That have the first half as delivery, heavy focused. Maybe second half you become Snake ish and it's, you know, more action focused and we're getting his backstory. Like, man, the. The possibilities are endless. I. Man, you're getting me so jazzed up, Greg. Because I'm like, man, I really want to play part one again now.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

See just how it looked again. I was so visually impressed by it back in the day. It still looks incredible.

[Tim Gettys]

But it was the first game we saw DLSS with shit, you're right. Upscaled like 8k or whatever.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah, very fascinating.

[Tim Gettys]

Marcus Aurelia says Wood Kids song Iron Was used in one of the Assassin's Creed games years ago. He's got a knack for the epic sound. And then my guy, Wicked Penguin Corn says, bless Wood kids. The artist sampled in the Kendrick song the Spiteful chance off of section 80, the goat.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Oh, wait, are you.

[Greg Miller]

Are you Kendrick?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Are you sarcastically saying or like, not?

[Andy Cortez]

No, this is a joke because being like, when they announced the panel, like, the panelists for the Kojima panel yesterday, it was Kojima, Troy Baker, Norman Reed, and Wood kid. And me and Tim were like, who the fuck? Okay, Yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I wasn't sure if, like, you'd already listened to his music because I'd never really, like, heard of him either. But I love when Kojima is just. Is in his Hyper Focus bag and he just, like, will platform the person that I. Or the musician or whatever I'm super into right now.

[Tim Gettys]

Thor jingle says, I wonder what kind of crossover stuff we'll get eventually. The standing One Director's cut had Half Life and Cyberpunk.

[Andy Cortez]

Does Monster come back? Monster energy drink?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

No, it would have had.

[Tim Gettys]

It would have had a moment in.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

The trailer, but expired. They took it out of the game because of that license expiration.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, yeah, but, like, what new license did you get?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah, I think you nailed it, rock star.

[Andy Cortez]

I don't want to see Celsius.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, please, God, no. Prime.

[Andy Cortez]

God, no.

[Greg Miller]

He's got the hydration station he can drag behind him.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

What sort of actor cameos are we getting? Like, we see Chalamet, right?

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, I mean, we saw one here, right?

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I think his name is, like, Gilgamesh. Yeah, yeah, of course.

[Greg Miller]

Trained. Trained.

[Tim Gettys]

What's his name? Don.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I mean, he's. He's from Eternals, which is.

[Greg Miller]

I forget, did they confirm Conan was back or that Jeff was back some. I think Conan might have been confirmed.

[Tim Gettys]

Don Lee, is his name Roger Pokorny?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

He looks fast.

[Andy Cortez]

I was gonna say. I feel like Carolyn Polachek is not out the question.

[Greg Miller]

No, you're right.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

At least as a body model. At least. Like, maybe they're not getting her to act, but it's.

[Andy Cortez]

You know, in fact, that training is.

[Greg Miller]

Bringing back Conan O'Brien.

[Andy Cortez]

I'll put it at like an 80% that Carolyn Polachek is going to be one of these people you deliver to.

[Greg Miller]

Okay, I like that. I take those odds. I take those odds.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Oh, either it says Rocco from Mega 64 wins a Koji. That's right. Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

That'd be amazing.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

And they obviously know each other from back.

[Greg Miller]

So did Roger. Maybe Roger got scanned we don't know exactly.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

That's what I said.

[Andy Cortez]

I also went with Roger.

[Greg Miller]

Roger was there. He's the Tastemaker.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

That's fair.

[Greg Miller]

What if they didn't ski, Roger?

[Andy Cortez]

They're like, hurry, hurry, get in there. He's taking a. Let's go.

[Tim Gettys]

John says, I have a theory that the action will have aspects of Mad Max with George Miller being involved and talk about different continents. Like Australia. Yeah, that could be interesting. More Mad Max stuff. I mean. Well, even though that. What's going on with that motorcycle sequence?

[Greg Miller]

Cool gameplay. That's.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, it's cool.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

What do you mean?

[Tim Gettys]

That just seems very. On what I'd expect from death stranding.

[Greg Miller]

Well, I mean, motorcycles in death stranding.

[Tim Gettys]

You know, it wasn't like fucking again.

[Greg Miller]

I think this is gonna be everything you know about death stranding better, you know what I mean? I think that's what they're trying to do.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I think that when we're just talking about pure like environmental diversity, this by far seems way crazier than part one. Part one had a lot of very similar vistas. And whenever you would just jump into the beach, which is kind of like the. The place between life in the. And death, that's where you would see some wild shit. But for the most part it all kind of. It was like snowy or it looked like Iceland, you know, that looked like.

[Andy Cortez]

Like a road somebody built. Yeah, I know that sounds crazy, but like. Yeah, that looks like one of the user created things.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

100%.

[Greg Miller]

Remember, we're connected now, so it makes sense.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

But these environments are the ones that I'm like, where are we? Yeah, like we're just. He's just normal. He's being a normal delivery man in those sequences where it's this crazy weird galaxy looking vista and then the moon being about seven feet away from planet.

[Greg Miller]

Like maybe it's a Starfield crossover.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

It's Majora's mass crossover.

[Greg Miller]

Ah, the moon's cool.

[Tim Gettys]

Stunning, man.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah, the moon is really cool for granted.

[Andy Cortez]

It's true.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

We're gonna be really sad when it's gone, you know. One of the things you don't know.

[Greg Miller]

Will it matter? Well, it won't matter. Talk to Sean and Kevin.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Wait to see. Can you rewind to that little gunshot sequence of the guy with a little jetpack?

[Andy Cortez]

Barrett about like see him shoot his 15 seconds ago?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah, I love the little helmet being knocked off.

[Andy Cortez]

MGS5 show Phantom Pain type stuff.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Very neat.

[Tim Gettys]

Zeke Speak says, sure, this has been talked about already, but it's interesting to see how literally Kojima is taking Kobo Abe's short story by naming the militant group Styx. Like y'all said, he ain't subtle. Lol. I don't know what you're referring to, but I am not surprised. That would definitely check out. He likes the thing. He's like, cool. I'm gonna use that. Change it maybe a little. Maybe out of plural, maybe not.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah, I just watched Black Sheep and Time Boy. I'm getting David Spade in the game.

[Tim Gettys]

What's up with Charlie not getting and Red Samurai not getting big reveals?

[Greg Miller]

Those are reveals.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I mean just what's up with Charlie period?

[Tim Gettys]

Why is a good question.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Like, yeah, this character Charlie is a mannequin looking dude and has like an like animated textures on its face to kind of show that it has life. And that's how we're gonna see the mouth move. But I don't know what it is and why it is, you know. You think this is Timothy Chalamet? Maybe the eyes look like it has.

[Andy Cortez]

Red Samurai talked in previous trailers. Like maybe he just doesn't talk.

[Greg Miller]

Well then it has a big reveal when he goes back and he goes away. And it is Roger.

[Andy Cortez]

Exactly.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Drops coffee all over his desk like he did this morning. It was very stressful morning.

[Tim Gettys]

Oh, is that what it was? Do we find out what happened? It was Roger. Well, these separate events.

[Greg Miller]

That was 30 minutes before the mystery dripping of coffee in the kitchen.

[Tim Gettys]

There was but Roger knocked over an.

[Greg Miller]

Entire coffee cup on at his desk. You know he had it when Barrett came out. He had a warn Barrett that he'd done it in the PlayStation.

[Andy Cortez]

Was it right next to like where the coffee maker?

[Tim Gettys]

It's like it was from Mike's new.

[Greg Miller]

Desk because Mike is move desks from that. But it was like in sections of dripping. Yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Interesting.

[Greg Miller]

It was think of them like footprints, but they were dripping.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

It was like how you follow a trail of blood to like a deer that you shot in the forest.

[Greg Miller]

Exactly, exactly. A lot of mysteries are kind of funny today.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

We got a couple super chats that aren't death stranding related. So if y'all have anything more to say about death stranding, please think about it. Manny Bagel boy Sanchez says, I know this struggle Greg is having as a gamer. Dad. It's our passion, but at the same time we need to balance it. It's rough.

[Greg Miller]

I don't know what you're talking about. I'm not having that struggle.

[Tim Gettys]

Scarlet lever says, thank you, Tim, for the Pokemon fire red phone suggestion. I found a GBA emulator and downloaded it. I'm four hours into the game and I love it. Hell yeah, man.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

You're just admitted to your crimes like that. That's great, man. You know, allegedly crazy.

[Greg Miller]

You gotta say allegedly.

[Tim Gettys]

Aaron Lime says, where's dead man?

[Greg Miller]

Oh, it looked like at one point, when Norman Reedus puts his hands to the screen, that looks like Guillermo del Toro's outline.

[Tim Gettys]

GDT gbt. Not him and Kevin Pot. GDT chat.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Gdt.

[Tim Gettys]

Remember when they became friends? Yeah, what a time.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

That was awesome.

[Tim Gettys]

Kevin had his little notebook, his hot dog sandwich. Holy shit. Any. Any final thoughts on this? Death Strandy 2 on the beach.

[Greg Miller]

Very excited 6. Looking forward to that one.

[Andy Cortez]

Same. Probably my. One of my most anticipated of the year for sure.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, wow.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I mentioned on Gamescast, I love Death Straining one. Yeah. I mentioned on Gamescast that, you know, the. The first trailer that we saw with little doll man animating oddly. Right? That was a while back, but I feel like we got a trailer recently. Maybe it was TGS or something that was more death stranding stuff. And it wasn't necessarily on a big ass showcase because it was tgs. It's. We were never, never awake when that shit goes down. But the last couple of showings of it, you know, I'm still excited for the game, but I was like, okay, I'm just like, maybe I'm not feeling it as much right now. Maybe it's. I'm getting into that too much Monster Hunter trailer sort of area where it's like, enough. Stop showing this game off. This one just shot all the excitement way back up. I think in the way that they're showing the environments and the way that we saw without UI present. Like it's obvious gameplay in moments of the gun and the shooting and the throwing of the spear to shut down the vehicle. All that stuff just very, very exciting. I. I think it's like as good of a trailer as Kojima can make.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, well, I agree with that as well. Let us know in the comments below how excited you are for Death Stranding 2 on the beach. OTB.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, you know me.

[Tim Gettys]

DSOTB, DS2, OTB. Andy.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Okay.

[Tim Gettys]

You remember that. Okay, stay tuned. After this, we're doing the kind of funny podcast we're gonna hang out, talk all about Greg's journeys, wherever the hell he went to make a movie. And that's gonna be a very fun time. After that, Nuzlocke 2.0 continues. Thank you so much for hanging out with us. Until next time. Love you all. Goodbye.