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- [00:00]
Greg Miller
Foreign.
- [00:08]
Tim Gettys
What'S up? And welcome back to the Kind of Funny Games cast for Tuesday, September 2, 2025. Of course, I'm your host, Tim Gettys. I'm joined today by Andy Cortez.
- [00:17]
Andy Cortez
Hey, hey, hey.
- [00:18]
Tim Gettys
And Greg Miller.
- [00:20]
Greg Miller
Chips Ahoy. Remember that commercial? They were just dancing cookies.
- [00:26]
Andy Cortez
Man.
- [00:29]
Greg Miller
Think of people in like the 1920s when they were danc legging high, going out and having sex. But we're just talking, we're just eating cookies now to it, you know, Makes you think about where they'll put Sabrina Carpenter's music.
- [00:39]
Tim Gettys
I was about to say with Chips Ahoy on the mind because of Sabrina, it is 100%. So everybody, hey. This is the Kind of Funny Games cast. Each and every weekday we get together to talk about the biggest reviews, previews and topics and video games live on YouTube, Twitch and podcast services around that darn globe. If you love what we do, support us with the Kind of Funny membership on Patreon, you, YouTube, Spotify or Apple podcast 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 the show, submit your thoughts and opinions as YouTube super chats as we go. Little housekeeping for you here we are, an 11 person business all about live talk shows. We just did a Kind of Funny Games daily episode. Me and Roger talking about a whole bunch of things but most importantly Andy Cortez's initial thoughts on playing Hollow Knight silk song at PAX after this is our exclusive stream of Everybody's Golf Hot Shots. What do we have to look forward to, Greg?
- [01:31]
Greg Miller
The first time anybody's played it ever on stream. Wow, that's us.
- [01:34]
Andy Cortez
Big exclusive.
- [01:35]
Greg Miller
They come to us, they say, you guys love Hot Shots, right? You love everybody's golf. We say, yeah, we do. They say, you want to do so? Yeah, we do. I still haven't looked at it. I haven't decided if I even like the game because remember I was talking a lot of shit leading up to it. Clap hands. Is it going to be. Is it the Port of the Vita? Is it? We're going to find out live.
- [01:49]
Tim Gettys
We'll see.
- [01:50]
Greg Miller
Maybe they will regret doing this. Exclusive non sponsorship can't create a character. Strike one.
- [01:58]
Tim Gettys
If you're a Kind of Funny Member, today's Greg ways more than 22 minutes covering Haley Williams new album. If you should join BS, that's Blue Sky Tim and Mizzou football. Thank you. So a little bit of everything. A little bit everything.
- [02:09]
Greg Miller
Why not get it all in there.
- [02:10]
Tim Gettys
You know thank you to our Patreon producers, Carl Jacobs, Omega Buster and Delaney the Psalm Twining. Today we are brought to you by X Real, but we'll tell you about that later. For now, let's begin with the topic of the show.
- [02:23]
Andy Cortez
I. I just real quick. I tried DMing our friend Matt Batson, I know him. And I accidentally DM'd Matt Watson from Super Mega and was like, hey, man, what's your schedule looking like? Would love to get something edited. Like, wait, you're not the. I feel like an idiot.
- [02:44]
Greg Miller
Maybe throw him some work. Maybe he wants to edit. Maybe he wants to try.
- [02:46]
Andy Cortez
He's doing fine.
- [02:47]
Greg Miller
He just.
- [02:48]
Andy Cortez
He's not looking for extra work.
- [02:49]
Tim Gettys
I don't think Hell is us. We are reviewing it. Once called Greg Miller's most anticipated game.
- [02:56]
Greg Miller
That's right.
- [02:57]
Tim Gettys
The year he's now reviewing it. Did he like it? Did it live up to expectations? We're going to have to see. But first, I want to tell you about the description of this game. If war is the closest we get to hell on Earth, it's because Earth harbors the worst of demons. Humankind in an isolated country ravaged by infighting, discover the secrets of your past and deal with the repercussions of a mysterious calamity.
- [03:18]
Andy Cortez
Oh, my God.
- [03:19]
Tim Gettys
Not a blight. We were so close.
- [03:20]
Andy Cortez
Not a blight. Not a scourge. Not a scourge. It's on my hand.
- [03:25]
Tim Gettys
Released on. Oh, my God. September 4th, 2025. The developer is Rogue Factor, the project led by Jonathan Jacques Belet, known for Deus X Human Revolution. And I thought I might get him.
- [03:37]
Greg Miller
I tossed it. I think he might not. He might panic.
- [03:39]
Andy Cortez
He thought he was going to like dodge it, like parry that.
- [03:42]
Tim Gettys
I'm going to be real. I looked at it and I just took it. I was like, I can say Jonathan, I can get past that. And I was like, I'm just not.
- [03:48]
Greg Miller
Everybody calls him jjb, so we can just.
- [03:50]
Tim Gettys
JJB everyone. Publisher nacon. Greg went to Montreal in May to play it and talked about it on this very show. The kind of funny games cast. The Metacritic currently is a 77. And that 77 is kind of pulled from some higher reviews, some lower reviews ended up in that nice little double sevens, you know.
- [04:08]
Andy Cortez
Yeah.
- [04:09]
Tim Gettys
Greg Miller.
- [04:09]
Greg Miller
Hi.
- [04:10]
Tim Gettys
You have beat the game, correct?
- [04:11]
Greg Miller
I have, yes.
- [04:12]
Tim Gettys
Andy Cortez, you've beat the game, correct?
- [04:14]
Greg Miller
No.
- [04:14]
Tim Gettys
You've just started the game, right.
- [04:16]
Andy Cortez
You just started the game about a week ago and then realized this is going to be real tough to try to play this game as I'm gone at PAX because it's not exactly the type of game that you go, you know what, in the hotel room, I'll do another run. It's not a rogue line which is not one of those video games. It requires a lot of, you know, know your attention. And so I. I'm only like two and a half hours in. Once I told Greg, hey, I'm. I'm going to back out of the review just cuz I know I'm not going to put that much time in it but after playing last night, kind of regret going to PAX a little bit. Who I think it's really cool so far.
- [04:50]
Tim Gettys
Okay, can't wait to hear your initial thoughts there. But we have to start with Greg's formal review on the kind of funny scale. What did you think of Hell Is Us?
- [04:58]
Greg Miller
Hell Is Us is an amazing video game. Um, I think it is an 8.5 out of 10. My reasoning there is that it's great, we're in that great space. I think to give it an 8.0 puts it too close to just being good when there's so many. It gets close to amazing. But I think it's right in that mid section of where we're at. I put 25 hours into hell Is Us. Could have done more, it turns out, in terms of side quests, these things, the mysteries we'll get into all this stuff that you have. But I did 25 hours to go through roll credits and I had an amazing time. Just incredible. I think this game is so special. I think from the big picture view of it, this is what so many of us have talked about for so long. We wish there were smaller studios making smaller experiences in being fucking weird. Hell Is Us will not be a game for everyone. Of course they've advertised it and talked about it out of that Preview as being 50% combat, 50% exploration.
- [05:57]
Tim Gettys
Reason.
- [05:58]
Greg Miller
Yes, exactly. For me that 50% exploration is done so incredibly well. It is a world I loved living in and being in. And it's scary and it's real and it tackles again themes and events that are going to be off putting to people. There are dead children in this game. There is rape in this game. There are people hanging from nooses in this game. It. It doesn't do. The thing we see a lot of safe video games do is allude to that, but never like put a pin in it. Like, you know, you have characters talking about rape. It's like holy shit. You have people talking about what they did and how much they regret it and how it weighs on them. And that's what's very interesting and special and just one of the avenues into this, to pull into what we're talking about, why I think it's so great and why I think it's not a must play for everybody. As you hear about this, you can make your own decision. But for me, it is a masterclass in level design. I can't tell you how refreshing it was to come into these. These areas, these worlds, and be like, okay, as you've probably heard in the preamble to this game, right? No mini map, no magic compass. They talk about player plattering. They want you to go find it. They want you to listen to conversations. They want you to go into your data pad and find these little things and remember codes and you. Before we even get into all that stuff and what that really means, I'd walk into these environments those first few times, those first few hours, and be like, oh, my God, this place is humongous. I'm always the guy who wants to go down every nook and cranny and find everything. So I'm like. But I'm in a dark cave, a dark tunnel. It's like, okay, well, I'm gonna go this way. But will I remember to get back? Oh, God. Then I'd go downstairs, I find this old woman with a baby that's crying, that needs milk, and I'm like, ah, I'll try to help you, lady. But will I remember how to get back here and back to this being masterclass in level design? As you go and you run into these walls and you hit these doors, and it's locked from the other side. You know, such survival horror stuff. This door is locked from the side. You get the keys, you get the McGuffins. You do the thing, you start opening up all these pathways. And by the end of your time in this place where you have no map, you have. You started with no map. You didn't know what this place was any. You feel like it's just a gigantic circle. And, you know, all the nooks and crannies. You can get back to things you can remember, things you can be, all right, this, the lady with the baby was down this thing and that thing. And if I just run, if I just go this way and keep going down, I'll run into it. And now that I've opened up this shortcut and that little nook, I can figure out a way back there. Really amazing there. I think the music is incredible. As well, it's this synth sci fi, dark wave to it, right? Like it sets the vibe. And again, this game is vibes. I can't say that enough. You know, you ran through the top level of it, but you are in this fucked up other space here of a country right there in the middle of civil war. You breach the perimeter and you find these walkers, right, these little white guys, no faces, holes in their bodies and whatever that want to attack you. And they do a great job, I think, of giving you enough narrative to keep you going, but never have it be necessarily the whole point. It was the exploration and it was the combat I find enjoyable too. But I think that'll be some people's concerns. And I of course have complaints and pats in the back there as well.
- [09:17]
Tim Gettys
Tim, Andy, what's your initial thoughts? Only a couple hours in.
- [09:21]
Andy Cortez
My initial thoughts is that it's just so freaking. It's. It's immediately interesting and you are compelled to want to learn more and you are compelled to try to, you know, break down any sort of line that's given to you from a character or letter that you read. And last night figuring out a puzzle with, with the help of some Ken junior in chat was helping me a little bit with one of the puzzles. But it's just so fascinating and so interesting and I think that if the combat was worse, I may drop. I may have dropped off or if there was more of an emphasis on it. Yeah, and it reminds me, you know, thinking of those, the comparisons and the percentages of, you know, 50% combat, 50% exploration. It reminds me of falling off of Banishers, Ghost of New Eden and how that is still, I think one of the like, best acted and some of the best writing in a game that I've experienced in a long time. But the combat was so underwhelming and I think this is more than, more than good enough. It's fun, it's hack and slashy and to see the way that it opens up with the abilities that you're unlocking along with your little drone that allows you to attack different ways. I did some of that stuff off stream last night as I kept playing, like, oh, this, this opens up a lot more than what I was expecting having, you know, I started off with the dual axes, but then I just found a great sword and it's a lot heavier and maybe the parry timing is much slower, but it's going to block a lot better. And it, you know, controls like a truck, but it hits hard and I love the variety in it so far and it's just what I've experienced in the first like three hours with it. The combat is. There's a lot more variety there than I was already expecting. That being said. Yeah. The. Because this game is meant to be a, you know, you are deciphering this world, you are in this area. Explore, go. If you see something that interests you, go there and there's probably going to be something there to reward you. And having that moment last night that Greg talked about the first time during his preview where somebody says, yeah, my, my niece is over there. She's in that house by the tree house or she's in that tree house by that one building and you turn the corridor and it's just beautifully set up there for you. And it's like it's off in the distance but it's still like damn, that's, that's, that's really good. And it's such an easy thing to mess up, I feel.
- [11:43]
Tim Gettys
Yeah.
- [11:43]
Andy Cortez
But nailing these small little hints of helping the player go along without completely holding your hand I think is just so supremely well done so far. And, and I, I'm also happy to know that you beat it in like 20 something.
- [11:58]
Greg Miller
25. 25.
- [12:00]
Andy Cortez
Which is awesome because I didn't want this to be a super long, bloated experience, but so far it's just extremely satisfying and yeah, very dark, very, very dreary in, in a way that has me just super interested to figure out what the hell is happening with everything. And yeah, the lines of dialogue you're getting with some of these NPCs talking about the other side and, and you know, the palamist, all the, the Sabinians are, you know, they're a bunch of. They're dogs. Like they're, they're lesser than, you know, it's, it's. You want to learn why it got to this place and why this place looks the way it does because out of. At first glance it just looks like planet Earth and then there are these weird walking things with these crazy entities and weird, you know, sort of remedy control like enemies. It's, it's really awesome so far and I'm super interested to keep on going.
- [12:51]
Tim Gettys
25 hours to credit. Does it seem like there is a lot of post game stuff or.
- [12:56]
Greg Miller
No, that is a mistake on my part. I don't even think so much because of the review, just the way I was playing. Obviously this is always the fun part of you getting the advice when you listen to the show. Do everything as it comes. Don't put things off to the end. There are a lot of different things here. Again, the exploration being such a big part of this, right? As you go through your data pad and your menu, right, you are inundated with things to do and stuff to go. And it kind of all these menus that are first off coded, you know, to look like an old school computer screen, which I love so much because this is set in the 90s. You have basically like the old high school brainstorm too of like, here's this guy and then the thing branches off of them to another thing and you can hover over them and get your information. But as you go through Tim, there's a bunch of different stuff of like, okay, there's good deeds which are like side missions to go do. You can go off and have these mysteries. There's time loops to crush all these different things. I thought this is, I think again, I love a game that is particular and Hell Is Us is a particular game which I think a lot of the things it's particular about might be off putting to certain gamers. They might not be your cup of tea, you might not be in the mood for it, which makes sense. Imagine me finishing the game, rolling credits. I'm like, because, Tim, I talked to you on Friday where I was like, you're like, are you going to finish it for review? And I'm like, dude, I'm fucking terrified because I've been in Act 2 forever and there's three trophies for Act 1, Act 2 and Act 3. So Act 3 is it. I've been in Act 2 for what feels like ever. I feel like I'm about to do that, which I'm sure is going to do the next thing, which will be. But I got home that night, did the mission I talked about wrapped act two and act three is like 45 minutes. So it's just. I was like, oh, okay, you got me there, or whatever. But it was more that I finished it up. And then I was like, all right, cool. I have all these mysteries I was, I was putting aside because I was going to off and do this. And for the record, a mystery in your data pad is literally just the title and then a blurred image. So you, you can go over it, right? And you'll be like, okay, cool. You know, a good deed even, right? Mine just says, oh, that's one that's completed for loan for forlorn fate. And then just this thing and it's, it says status incomplete. So it's like, if I don't remember where that is or what it is or what started. You have the note. You have the thing in your bag you could go dig for, but you got to put it together anyways. Matt, I. This is. I already mentioned it, so we're just gonna say it. This isn't a spoiler. This is a good deed spoiler or whatever. But to the point, hey, I wrapped this up finally. I think in the end there, I figured out what I needed to do to get that baby milk. Remember I mentioned this? The lady with the crying baby or whatever. Cool. I'm gonna go back and give. I go get the milk, go down there. That lady is there, and the baby is dead. I didn't. I took too long to get the milk, and it was like, oh, this game never gave me the Dead Rising. Here's a timer you can fail. It's like, oh, you can fail these side missions. And so it's like I was coming back with the intent of maybe I platinum it for, you know, Monday or whatever or Tuesday. Instead I get there, I'm like, oh, that this is. I have. If to get the trophy for all the good deeds, I would have to go back and do them. I was like, okay, do them all as you go. Same thing with time loops, which are the. You saw it in one of the things. You've seen a lot of the preview coverages. These big bubble and. Yeah, yeah, a big thing. You have to kill the time loop guardians in the level to be able to go over there and do that.
- [16:01]
Andy Cortez
It visually looks so cool. I could just.
- [16:02]
Greg Miller
Super cool.
- [16:02]
Andy Cortez
I could just look at it for hours because I just love the effects happening on it. It reminds me so much of remedy, you know?
- [16:08]
Greg Miller
Yeah, exactly. And there's a lot of that here. A lot of that. And then it's the same thing, too, of like, eventually I went through this gigantic labyrinth. Finished it. It was the one I did during the preview, but didn't actually roll or beat in there or whatever. And I came back out and, you know, this person who's working with me, I'm gonna keep this review as spoiler free as possible. Is like, hey, cool. And I found this vault of forbidden knowledge. Based on some of the stuff you found in there, we find these artifacts. I was like, okay, cool. If that vault is anything like the vault I. That I. In my head, I just did, that's gonna take too much time for me to do and do the review. I went to do these vaults, and it turns out they're literally, like, combination Locks. You open up and then it's just all these gadgets and things and like, fuck, should have done these, should have been doing these. None of this took away from my experience. I obviously, I love this game.
- [16:52]
Tim Gettys
I mean, you going back to do these things.
- [16:53]
Greg Miller
Yeah, exactly.
- [16:54]
Tim Gettys
But it's like.
- [16:55]
Greg Miller
But it's the idea. If I had advice for you as a person who hopefully is interested in this. Do everything as it comes. Don't be. And again, I. What? This is not a game. I rushed. I did not rush this. But it was a game where it's like, oh, I should have done that that way.
- [17:07]
Andy Cortez
Is it like that one pain? That one. I don't want to spoil it. But last night I ended up doing something that sounds similar and unlocked a door with a combination of like numbers.
- [17:19]
Greg Miller
It wasn't like a bike lock puzzle.
- [17:20]
Andy Cortez
Yeah, like you're doing. I mean, it was a door lock. But when I went in there, I just kept getting hit with new loot to where I felt like the game feels like it's broken now because like you unlock this. I was like, oh, cool. It's a little. All right, awesome. And you. Oh, okay. It happened six times. Oh my God.
- [17:37]
Greg Miller
Oh, shit. A fifth one. Oh my God.
- [17:39]
Andy Cortez
Like I just kept on unlocking. Shit.
- [17:41]
Greg Miller
Yeah. I think to jump off of some of what Andy was saying there. I think when you talk about what is this game? I wouldn't say miss, but not get all of. I think variety is going to be a big issue for a lot of gamers. I think you can go through here and build out your kit, right? Your weapons here you have. You take to a blacksmith and you eventually imbibe them with Olympic energy, right. Which are all based on emotions. There's four of them, right. But you know, there's sorrow, there's rage, there's ecstasy, there's fear, terror, which I.
- [18:11]
Andy Cortez
Still don't fully understand. Is that a rock, paper, scissors sort of deal?
- [18:13]
Greg Miller
And this is where I'm gonna answer in with my, I think a criticism. And I would imagine not knowing, but understanding game development, how many things fall by the wayside. I got to imagine, Andy, it originally was, but it's not. Which I think is one of those things of. Oh, then why am I getting all this stuff? To dial it back though, everybody, you get your weapons, right? You can have the great sword, you can have the double axes. There's a. Another one too.
- [18:35]
Andy Cortez
A normal one handed. There's also like a polearm sort of like. Yeah.
- [18:39]
Greg Miller
And so you have these things that start off as neutral. And then you go to the blacksmith and you can upgrade them and take them down paths and you choose which one of the colored energies I just talked about to put in there, which. Which then come with their own special moves when you hold down L2 that you can use and you can put in and you can upgrade and all that jazz. Meanwhile, you also have the drone in your back that, with your R2, has its own special moves that you're unlocking and finding the thing I think that's going to be interesting for you to keep playing and talk to me about in 20 hours, especially as such a combat person, is the idea that I was doing this and I was like, okay, cool. But I'm just pouring them into my great sword. You gave me my great sword. I'm going to just do this, yada, yada, yada. Like you said, the great sword is much slower to parry. So I was like, you know what? I was in a harder area. I hit level three enemies. I was like, damn. I'm actually finally having to fight here for a second. And we should get to difficulty in a second. I want to try the double axes for better parry. I did level them up pretty quickly to where they should be, but it was this idea of like, okay, cool. I started meeting more and more of the creatures that have the haze, the guys that come out of their chest. When you see someone come out of their chest and float, you have to kill the guy who came out of the chest to be able to hurt the white guy to clear the whole thing out, right? But it was like, okay, cool. They're level three now and they're actually really hard. Is this that I need to use the blue energy if they're red, or if I need to use the yellow if they're green? And no, you don't. And so I think it falls into. I think that was originally a mechanic that got paired back. And so I think you're left with it, which is fine. But I think to the loot problem, I had all these swords and all these things, but I'm like, why would I use any of them if I found the one I like and I'm just able to do it. And the duel axes, this is like, maybe even I'm too bipolar on this one, where it's like, I think that system should have been reworked. But when I was like, man, I'm not feeling my great sword anymore. And I switched that. I was happy that I could just jump right in and feel like I was, well, like, I Wish I had.
- [20:33]
Andy Cortez
A yellow 10 hours in and I.
- [20:34]
Greg Miller
Didn'T do anything with this. So now I can't even switch off. I was able to switch off and go the rest of the way with that.
- [20:38]
Andy Cortez
I'm in an area where all the enemies are doing red and I wish I had the yellow thing.
- [20:41]
Greg Miller
And I think one of the times when I critique a video game and I'm critiquing it here, even though I'm saying 85 great, is the idea that pretty quickly you've seen all the enemies in this game, you will continue to see these same white walkers. I'm going to keep, I'm going to call them right in the various forms you're seeing in this demo. These basically grunts that do nothing. The big dudes who kind of look like moths, the flying guys who shoot from afar. You'll get them where, okay, they're level two, they're level three. You'll get them where they have two hazes on them now. They're all sharing a haze. Like stuff like that. Like you get a mix of that. But if you're expecting this to keep amping up and changing, that doesn't really happen. I think the exploration is so good that I didn't mind that. And to jump into the combat, the biggest thing I have to say, you all know me, you know Greg's shortcomings, you know what he's great at, and yada, yada, yada, I need you to know I am not bad at video games, okay? I am an average gamer, if not a little bit above, but I'm no Andy Cortez or whatever.
- [21:39]
Andy Cortez
We've seen you dominate a lot of party modes. Greg.
- [21:41]
Greg Miller
Thank you.
- [21:42]
Andy Cortez
Back in the day.
- [21:43]
Greg Miller
I say this because if you jump into this based on what I said in the preview and what I had to fucking say on Friday again during the September preview, you're going to be expecting this game to be difficult. I was getting my teeth kicked in during the preview in Montreal when I booted this back up. I was shocked by how much they had apparently gotten that feedback from every play tester. And normal difficulty is so easy. And again, I don't think that's a bad thing. I enjoyed that. I think Hell Is Us is again, an amazing, great game and has an amazing suite of features where if you want to go in and dial it to be more difficult, dial it to be less difficult, you can. And I don't just mean easy, normal hard. I mean go in and be like, I want the enemies to have 10, you know 150% health and do 200% damage. Like you can get into that or dial it way back and you could turn on the souls business of if you die you lose everything you just got and you'd have to go get it's off by default.
- [22:36]
Andy Cortez
Oh really? I didn't know that.
- [22:37]
Greg Miller
So it's very much like I don't want you to jump in here and be like holy, this game's easy. Greg sucks at games. Like it was way tougher and it has gotten better again. Good for me. I liked it and didn't. I did not want it. I could have increased it. I didn't. I enjoyed being able to go this because I was in it way more for. I want to get these keys and open this vault and see what that is and what's over there and how am I ever going to get over there. I want to like that worked for me and but I want to call that out again. I think for people who either number one are going to think I suck ass at games or number two jump in and go this is too easy. Get in there and really tweak it and make it your own.
- [23:07]
Andy Cortez
Yeah, I did. I did hear about some of the way that the. The combat eventually sort of in the later hours you're kind of just breezing through everything even more. Some people told me in chat that YouTuber who's a friend of ours, fighting cowboy who does a lot of soul stuff said yeah by the end of it it got very, very easy. And then even Cooper Fukua in the chat mentioned that yeah by the end of it it had leveled up to hard difficulty just to kind of work for it a little bit more. But I, I wonder if it's not even just an issue with the enemies. I wonder if it's a. Maybe the speed up and progression that you have as a player is a little too quick. Like you ramp up too quickly to get a like more powerful than you should.
- [23:52]
Greg Miller
I think perhaps again your. Your weapons are earning XP as they go. Then they have their own individual levels that you need to go to the Blacksmith to push them to that level to open up new levels inside the level. The grade I guess is what you'd call it. I'm sure it's not what they call it but you know what I mean in terms of having different things to chase and go for and I am not combat guy. But again the way they change this for me. Sung as we watch it right now and you watch that health bar up there from Andy you'll see that white bar get added after he does damage. If he hits R1 that he can automatically heal all that white energy back.
- [24:25]
Andy Cortez
Which I always forget.
- [24:26]
Greg Miller
Well, you're brand new. It's like it was. I remember doing this, the demo in Montreal and talking to JJB and the rest of the devs afterwards and being like, I suck at it, but I'm excited to try to get better. And like, I couldn't figure the pairing. The pairing I was fine with and to my level of pairing but healing I was not doing in the preview. And like, eventually you're going to figure it out and you're going to figure out if you're either looking at the health bar or you're looking at the ring in your character. And da da da again. I think they changed all the windows for it, so it was easier. Now it feels great. And it was like I appreciated when I was surrounded by enemies and suddenly having to do it versus okay, I'm just doing because I want to. And I even unlocked at one point one of the modules that was automatically refilling me not with the white. But if I I. If I did like a finishing move or if I did a certain takedown that it would auto fill in or whatever, which was nice, but I felt like there's a lot of combat options even though I'm not the combat guy. So I'm not prepared to speak to it in terms of if you're a soulsy grindy, you want as hard as possible. But in terms of Greg who was like, I was kind of afraid after that preview that this game was going to be so difficult that I'd want to do the exploration, but this would keep me away.
- [25:30]
Andy Cortez
It might be the rally mechanic that we're talking about right now, because if you're watching the video, whenever that white circle pops up around my character, that's when you want to hit R1 to get back the health that you are attacking. Very similar to. To bloodborne whenever you take a big hit. If you go right back into the fight because they want to encourage aggression, you go back into the fight and the more that you swing, you can get that health back that you just lost. And I think maybe that is a tune a little too aggressively because you're, you know, in the times that I was forgetting to do it, I died a bunch just kind of forgetting to hit R1 and not getting my health back. And that means that you need a lot of health packs on you. And if you don't have health packs Then you're. And you are. You will die. But a lot of that just comes down to me always forgetting, like when I'm playing a. A hero shooter for the first time and everybody in Chat's like, Andy, you have that ability. I'm like, I know, I'm sorry, I keep forgetting. But once you get the hang of it and you get into that sort of habitual gameplay, then you will constantly be rehealing yourself and almost feel like you're unkillable in a way if you are just dodging the right things. I did, I am having trouble figuring out the. The enemy attacks when they are the crystallized things that come out. You know, when, when the dudes, the creepy white guys are, are attacking you, they have very easy telegraphed attacks. And you know, okay, here comes a big move. Here's this swing, here's that swing. But the crystals, they're almost so noisy to a point where it's hard for me to know what, what's ha. I don't know what is even coming at me. And I think once you kind of get the hang of what the attacks are because they have been more infrequent than not. I think once the, once you get the hang of that, then you'll start to know, like, you see that big crystal, turn to the spear and it's going to come stab you. And you know, all right, dodged that or parried or whatever. But I feel like right now I'm a bit confused with it.
- [27:22]
Greg Miller
And one of the things that's interesting and I will be fascinated to see as more people get their hands on it and really push this certain directions is what Kit you're working with. One of my criticisms with the weapons, right, is there's so many different weapons, but they're all kind of just noise at a point. It's the same with your usable items where by the end of this you've got these different consumables that'll make you take less damage from the certain colored enemies. That's great. But then there's like carrots and onions in this thing that'll give you back your stamina. I'm like, I never used it in my entire run. So for me, I look at that, it's like this is a cluttered menu item that I don't think should have been here and maybe is a hallmark from when the game played and was a bit more difficult. But again, if you're going to play it on a more difficult thing or play, you know, in a certain way with an item I didn't have right My drone to to help you if you want it. At least my little piece of advice for that my drone my triangle move on him was where he distracts so I would bait to get the haze out of the dude's chest. Then I would switch target, have the drone distract that and then run up and beat the shit out of it. Yeah so it never really got a chance to get into doing those attacks.
- [28:26]
Tim Gettys
Or whatever I want to keep talking about Hell is us. After a quick word from our sponsor Sandy, this episode's brought to you by Xreal as of August 25th, Xreal One Pro is finally available on Amazon and BestBuy.com plus it's back in stock now on Xreal.com a few months ago my life changed forever when I brought a pair of xreal One Pro AR glasses on a incredibly long flight to New York City. I legit could not believe how easy it was to use and how high quality quality my experience was playing games with my Steam deck and watching movies with my phone on the plane on a theater sized OLED screen right in front of my eyes without too much extra stuff or a giant goofy headset involved. No joke, this is my favorite new piece of tech in years and it has earned a permanent spot in my travel bag. It's only hard to believe it works as well as I'm saying until you try xreal AR glasses for yourself and then you will see that the tech is here. Connect xreal One Pro glasses to whatever you're playing like a handheld console, PC phone or home console and get a massive 150 inch virtual screen anywhere, anytime for any game gaming on the go like a long flight, you need xreal1.neck starting to hurt from staring down at your handheld. You need Xreal 1. It's plug and play with all your devices via USB, C built in audio with sound by Bose and anchoring your screen literally anywhere in space. 1080p full HD and you can make it bigger, smaller, farther, closer, ultra wide or regular widescreen, horizontal, vertical, even 3D if you have a 3D movie. It's all built in and can be controlled by pressing a few buttons on the glasses. These are what make Xreal One Pro a must have. Xreal One Pro is now available on Amazon and Best Buy.com and from August 25th through September 1st you can get $50 off if you bundled Xreal One Pro with the Xreal Beam Pro AR mobile device on Amazon or Xreal.com there is nothing better than when a Sponsor of Kind of Funny is something we are legitimately obsessed with. So get yours today at kind of funny.com xreal that's kind of funny.com xreal Martha listens to her favorite band all the time. In the car, gym, even sleeping. So when they finally went on tour, Martha bundled her flight and hotel on Expedia to see them live. She saved so much she got a seat close enough to actually see and hear them sort of. You were made to scream from the front row. We were made to quietly save you more Expedia made to travel savings vary and subject to availability. Flight inclusive packages are atoll protected.
- [31:08]
Greg Miller
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- [31:38]
Tim Gettys
Couple questions from the chat I want to get to here. First off, what did you both play on? Greg, it looks like you're playing on a PlayStation portal now. Play on PlayStation 5.
- [31:47]
Greg Miller
I was on PlayStation 5 Pro the entire time. Yeah, thought it ran awesome, looked gorgeous.
- [31:53]
Andy Cortez
I'm on PC and yeah, for this being an Unreal 5 game and we've heard tons of tales about, you know, Unreal 5 games requiring maybe more optimization than not or maybe that's just a product of studios rushing games out. But I think it looks amazing. I think it runs fantastically. There's you know, the typical hitches here and there, but by no means is this like oh my gosh, this is a framing nightmare. I think it looks awesome. This game is so impressive lighting wise.
- [32:25]
Greg Miller
One thing I will toss in it is a crime the hair they gave the main character. Yeah, of course he looks like Todd Howard, but they gave him this mop of curly hair and it's like if you can't make it look good, you could have just given him any other cut of hair because it does just look like he's got a weird like plastic spaghetti on his head. Like as soon as I got the hat I'm gonna put on a hat. We don't need to see this. Thank you.
- [32:45]
Andy Cortez
Yeah, it looks like, like his character was like in a panic and like grabbed the wig and just like cuz it just looks very odd. It looks Very. It looks funny as hell.
- [32:55]
Tim Gettys
Jamasky says, are there bosses? I don't think I've seen a single one in any trailer.
- [33:00]
Greg Miller
There are. There are bosses here. I don't want to spoil anything. I don't think you're. I. I would not expect a boss battle of, like, it's not. You're not getting Elden Ring bosses. You're not getting that kind of thing. You. They do their. Like. There was one. There was. Here's what I'll say. You're not getting a boss battle where I think the boss is the coolest thing about it. You are getting battles where I grabbed him and walked into my desk and gave him my headphones, and I'm like, you need to understand. I've played the entire game and it looks like the first 15 seconds of this. But watch what this fight does. Like, there's. There's multiple of those where you're like, oh, I'm doing something this. They've taken what I know, but they're twisting it. Which I was appreciative of.
- [33:42]
Andy Cortez
That's really cool. That makes me excited.
- [33:44]
Tim Gettys
Combo says almost every Souls, like, has no map, no mini map, no character talking to himself, no quest log. I'm not sure why people are hyping this aspect. Maybe it's coming from players who don't play Souls games. Andy, I want to start with you there. From your limited experience with this and major experience as a Souls player, what do you think?
- [34:04]
Andy Cortez
Well, I think this game, you know, I think this game operates a bit more like. In Souls games, you don't. You get hints from NPCs about stuff, but it's more of the directional nature. Like, where this game operates. Like what living in the 90s was when you didn't have GPS and you stop at a corner store and somebody. You go like, yeah, it's the seventh building on the right. You're gonna take. You're gonna hang a ride and it's gonna be that yellow building. If you've seen this.
- [34:33]
Greg Miller
Right the wrong way.
- [34:34]
Andy Cortez
Yeah. Yeah, It's. It's more of that sort of nature with Souls games. Like in. Yeah. In the beginning of Elder Ring, they say, yeah, you go to Stormveil Castle. It's to the north. And then you have your sights of grace that point you in a direction, and then that little trail of light kind of fades out. But you never. You don't really have an NPC in Elden Ring. Like, they're. They're mainly mentioning things about the world and the lore and the story. But rarely ever do you have someone go, oh, man. If you hang a right at that blue tree that the blue leaves and look underneath it, that's where. And that's the stuff about this world that feels like, you know, you are being directed in a way without handholding. Eldering is more of like, I feel a lot of stumbling upon stuff and going, oh, I remember somebody mentioning something similar like this. But you're rarely ever given the directive.
- [35:24]
Greg Miller
Yeah, I mean, I'm not the souls guy, so let me know if I speak out of turn on this opinion. But I think it comes from the fact that if you were to glance at this game, just have it thrown up on the screen. It looks like a lot of action, adventure, modern games. It's the fact that this game, I think, pulls from Alan Wake and pulls from Souls and pulls from Kojima and does all these things to get into its own interesting spot where, yeah, this looks like a lot of games we've played. I, you know, I wanted one of the things I thought was what I realized this game was fucking crushing it for me. When I was trying to think of what I was comparing the exploration to my mind, and it's a very specific reference. But I remember in Assassin's Creed 2 when they'd be like, oh, there's a new suit of armor over here. And you'd see it in the map, but you knew it was locked in this area and so you had to go. And I would walk for like what felt like hours, but I'm sure it was 20 minutes around trying to find the foxhole entry, go down behind. Okay. And then I was in. And then it was the thing of, how do I get to this thing? That's what this game does in terms of its exploration, what you're doing. But it has the puzzles and it has the sci fi and it has the story and it has the cutscenes. Again, it's not a cutscene heavy game. You know what we. I talked about in the preview, what you've probably seen in the trailers, right? The game is told from Remy, the main character's perspective as he's being interrogated after giving a truth serum. So the idea is that, like, you get these between the acts and these big story beats. You'll maybe flashback to the big fat guy smoking a cigarette interrogating you. If you die, it'll be like, we have to change the dosage. You clearly didn't die there. And then, you know, you come back and play the game that way. But, like, I Think they do. An interesting thing here with story where I. Again, to go to souls, right, Is for me. And I know this is where I get. Vatividya is going to smash through the wall and kill me. They're telling a more traditional story here, and they're doing them on top of each other. Where the initial drive of this game, right? Which is no spoilers. I talked about the preview, and it's there. Remy is from Hadiya, the country you're in. He is. He is. He got his mom smuggled about and said, never come back here. He grew up outside of it. Now he's snuck back in to try to find out what happened to his parents. When he gets here, it's the civil war is already happening. Everyone knows that. But then this calamity is here as well. So there's Remy's story of trying to find his parents and figure out what actually happened to them. Then there's the calamity on top of it of what the fuck's going on here. And then there's the civil war that goes back generations. Like, we're talking about, you know, they're talking about kings and queens from the 11th century bullshit going on here. So it's like, there's all these different plots and subplots that I think, you know personally by the end of it, like, I finished it and Jen was talking to me the next day. She's like, all right, cool. So, like, you know what happened? Like, what? What? And I'm like, I am going to need a Wikipedia summary of the end date. Like, you know what I mean? Like, it got to that thing of, like, I. I'm picking up every tape and reading every conversation, and I'm following along for the most part. But I opened this stone door and I went through this thing, and all this shit happened. And then this thing happened. And then. So I don't know 100% about the calamity. I think this is what happened. But I need someone smarter than me who's done it all. But I'm like, remy's story, right? Him in the interrogation room. Here's what happened there. And I thought that was awesome. And I thought there was a bunch of great beats throughout the game about that. But again, a bunch of great beats are a handful of cutscenes. Elias, two fexes, of course, Deus Ex himself is the voice of Remy in this game.
- [38:47]
Andy Cortez
He's awesome.
- [38:48]
Greg Miller
He's awesome, but he's criminally underused. Like, it's not that kind of game. You're not Getting the Metal Gear Solid cutscene. We're talking for 20 minutes. And good or bad on that? And again, I think it works for the product they've made. It's very unique. I wanted more because I like him so much, but it worked out well. And I think even there's, like. Early on, I had a criticism after Night one. Again, I don't feel like it's spoilers. He enters into this world not knowing about the calamity. He sees these creatures and has to fight them and sees, you know, somebody die in front of him and there's no, what the fuck is going on? You know, he doesn't, like, ever do anything. And like, three cutscenes later, or maybe that's not. That's too much. Probably the next cut scene or whatever, but an hour hours later, the guy's like, I've read your file. You're a sociopath. Right? You have no feelings. I was like, oh, what an interesting way, you know, I mean, like, you know, you left me on the hook there. Like, that's a weird reaction they get. You're like, oh, he's not your normal run. He's not me. He's not some run of the mill idiot.
- [39:40]
Andy Cortez
Right?
- [39:40]
Greg Miller
Like, he's a military dude who's. Whatever. So it's like they do fun training.
- [39:43]
Tim Gettys
Stuff in the axe.
- [39:44]
Greg Miller
Yeah, yeah, trained in the axe. You know what I mean?
- [39:47]
Andy Cortez
Yeah. The. The demo is available. I still. I. I think. I think it's still available if anybody does want to try it out. But this is a. It's a $50 title as well, which is, I think. Or no, 60. I'm sorry.
- [40:00]
Greg Miller
Okay.
- [40:01]
Andy Cortez
I think it's a $60 title, which I think is really cool and very attractive, especially for a game that looks this good and it seems like, you know, a decent amount of a chunk of hours. I think that there's a lot of content there, and I did my best to.
- [40:17]
Greg Miller
PlayStation 5. It says you can get a $49.99 edition.
- [40:21]
Andy Cortez
Oh, okay. I did my best to. I did my best to make.
- [40:24]
Greg Miller
Standard PC Digital is 49.99.
- [40:26]
Andy Cortez
Okay.
- [40:27]
Greg Miller
Standard PlayStation 5 is 60. Xbox 60.
- [40:30]
Andy Cortez
I think there is some really great. Not. It's not facial mocap. You could tell that it's the. The procedural type of. Of facial animations that are all based on whatever the characters are saying. If the character is saying no, then you'll see the mouth make the O shape or whatever. And I think it's one of the best uses of it. It's not like Perfect by any means, but it's certainly better than a lot of other games that maybe just do mouth flaps and. Because you are talking to a lot of people and there are a lot of conversations to have and there are a lot of refreshed conversations to then go back and kind of get an update as to what is going on with that character. But yeah, that. The. That first little girl that you talked to in that town that we just.
- [41:11]
Greg Miller
Saw right there talking about the. You know, she opened it up to talk to you, but if you came close, she closes the blanket.
- [41:16]
Andy Cortez
I thought. I thought it was awesome. As I kept on going, I thought her performance was really damn good. And yeah, again, it's. There was a more emoting there than I expected because I did expect just like kind of, you know, animatronic mouth flaps, just, you know, mouth moving just to, you know, here's a character talking. But I thought they did a good job with it.
- [41:38]
Tim Gettys
We have. I have a question actually, from earlier that I wrote down. You were talking about the kind of level design and how by the end of the game, this massive place became somewhere that you actually knew.
- [41:50]
Greg Miller
Yeah.
- [41:51]
Tim Gettys
What was that? Was it just remembering this character's here, this character's there, or is it like a coloring thing or like it's just.
- [41:57]
Greg Miller
From being there and existing the. I think, you know, I was. Again, I. You go watch my preview because I. I talked about there how big Rogue factor is. They're small. I forget. And I don't want to just throw out a. But I'm going to say 50, but maybe it was less or more, I don't know.
- [42:10]
Tim Gettys
But one person made this game.
- [42:11]
Greg Miller
But it's the idea of like, I expected a very small experience game and there's a lot. The map is. You will have a map filled with icons to go that you can go between right with with your APC and when you get.
- [42:22]
Tim Gettys
Sorry, I thought this game didn't have a map. So now there's a map. What's an apc?
- [42:25]
Greg Miller
Well, no, no, no. I mean like when you're in your. When you go to your APC and you want to drive somewhere, it's not like you're. It's, you know, a level select, area select or whatever is what you're jumping into.
- [42:33]
Andy Cortez
So you're. You're driving to large open zones.
- [42:36]
Greg Miller
Yeah.
- [42:36]
Andy Cortez
In this, you don't have a map.
- [42:38]
Greg Miller
Of the zone in a vehicle that.
- [42:39]
Andy Cortez
You commandeer because it used to belong to the. This military or organization. So you steal this vehicle and it has like its own tech or whatever. But you can only see that map when you're fast traveling to a zone. Yeah, but one nice thing was I did pick up a physical map showing me where I need to go where some. It was some map that somebody that belonged to somebody. And then somebody in the chat was like, oh, you could put that on your down button on the D pad as like a where my health items would be or whatever. And you can set it there to just kind of as a reminder and be like, oh, yeah, that is really, really neat. So there are things like that that you can pick up, but again, there are no. There's no waypoints or anything. And if somebody says, yeah, it's about northeast, past the road there, then you can bust out the compass and go like, all right, I'm heading northeast. I'm going the right way, you know.
- [43:28]
Greg Miller
But no, you. In these open zones, you spend so much time there. So you get there and there's the main objective. But inevitably, any main objective is going to have three other objectives to get you to the main objective. So you're running around and you, like, you run into these people, like, well, I ever see them again, and then an hour and a half later, you might open a door that opens up in this thing. They're like, oh, there you guys are, or whatever. So it's just. It's just the idea that I think it kind of has that Disney ride aspect to it where it feels so humongous, but then when they turn the lights on, you're like, oh, it's just over there to there. Okay, cool. Like, once you've done it enough and run the route, you realize, oh, this isn't overwhelming. It's this section. I can do X, Y, and Z. It's a giant circle, a spoked thing. Whatever you want to talk about.
- [44:07]
Tim Gettys
We have some super chats. Alex Frazier says game wreck for Greg, Story of seasons Grand Bazaar on switch.
- [44:13]
Greg Miller
Oh, I've heard about this. Yeah, People have been talking about this one.
- [44:15]
Tim Gettys
Very fun farming sim with shopkeeper and relationship sim elements as well. Cool.
- [44:19]
Andy Cortez
We'll be shopkeeping in Moonlighter, too. Come on.
- [44:23]
Greg Miller
Come on, baby.
- [44:24]
Tim Gettys
Dave Rowe says rock chalk. Am I right, Greg?
- [44:27]
Greg Miller
No, don't. Don't pay it no mind. Keep moving.
- [44:30]
Tim Gettys
I'm going to pay no mind.
- [44:31]
Greg Miller
Well, then this weekend they'll be seeing. Who's rock talking.
- [44:33]
Andy Cortez
I always tell people that they talk all the you want as long as you're paying. Like, super chat or sub in. Yeah, yeah.
- [44:39]
Greg Miller
These stupid Kansas people. You know what I mean, Rob from their mom, they get the Internet.
- [44:45]
Tim Gettys
Trevor says if the devs made a second hell is us. What new or different? What new slash different would you like to see in the sequel?
- [44:52]
Andy Cortez
I think different hairstyle.
- [44:53]
Greg Miller
Different hairstyle for sure. I think, yeah, the. I think making the colors of the weapons and all that matter would be cool. I think it would be cool to at least have two weapons where I'm like, oh, you're this, you're blue. So I need to use red or green, you know, I mean blue, you know, whatever. Some kind of combo of that where it's like I'm leveling up too for a reason other than just feel of wanting to switch it up.
- [45:12]
Andy Cortez
Yeah, Red. Red is by the way is like tied to. Red is anger and blue is sorrow. Yeah. Like they're all kind of just like inside out situation.
- [45:22]
Greg Miller
Yeah. Empathy, emotions. Yeah, yeah. My other one would be like, it's so hard to tinker with this stuff and then not take away from what they were doing. I think there's a few little quality of life things that I understand. They want player plattering and they want you like this game's inventory, when you open it up and look at it is just a sea of notes that all have like the sparkling white, like they're a new item on it. So it's like you can go in and you can personally archive them. So like you've done this thing, had a clue that got you to this room or a code for this safe. You can then archive it and send it to the bottom of your list. Auto archiving would be nice. I understand again that it's a bit too. They want me to do it, but it's like when I think about that after 10 hours and I look, I'm like, oh, fuck. All right, well, I don't want to archive any of this. What if I did need it? What if I did? You know, I'm that kind of gamer where I just don't want to let any of it go, that I don't want to worry about it. There's something like that I think would go a little bit further again. A few more enemy varieties maybe in terms of what you're doing, have them gated. So as I go deeper and deeper, I find more and more 8bit Lou.
- [46:26]
Tim Gettys
Says are the direction details remembered in game through notes in the menu or something similar to that? Or is there something. Is it something I'm going to have to physically write down on a piece of paper otherwise that info's gone. You Kind of just answered that. But my question to you is, did you write anything down physically?
- [46:39]
Greg Miller
Sure. But I want to talk about that because I, I, I do want to call out that a lot of this I think sounds intimidating or could sound intimidating when in reality you said it earlier and I meant to talk about it of, you know, like, they want you to go, you go find my, my niece in the treehouse. And you turn and there's a treehouse over there. You can see it's not right in front of you, but it's over there. There's a lot of that going on here where I think they present you with stuff where I was like, oh man, am I gonna have to write it down? Am I gonna have to do this? Blah, blah. And it wasn't. They are challenges designed to be a bit challenging, but make you more than anything, make you feel smart. So, like, all the different things you're doing in this game, I think you are like, can sound crazy. But then you do open up your high school bubble chart of what's going on and you can hover over a person that talked to you. And there's the bullet point things of they said this and they mentioned that and they said I should go here. And so you can then go. It doesn't tell you on the map that that's what that person said to go do, but you can say, oh, they wanted me to go to the hills or whatever. And you go to the hills and you can trap, you know, go over there and do it.
- [47:39]
Andy Cortez
That way, if anything, you're one step removed from being able to pin that person's info on your screen. You know, like, it still requires you to go into the menu to. You hit pause and you go. And you see that like, hey, this person came from here. This is how they feel about that. And they also mentioned this house that has a key or whatever. And it's once again, you having to do that means that it's just not up on the top right of your screen, which makes you feel like you're doing, makes you feel like you are more investigative in that. But I do have like my notepad up whenever people are talking. My notepad app on PC or whatever. And I'm just kind of typing along and just writing shit to kind of help myself remember, you know.
- [48:21]
Greg Miller
So to come back to your question then, did I write stuff down? Yes, that's the kind of gamer I am. I like to visualize it. And also busting out a notepad makes me feel more in the experience So I brought my torn out notes of me trying to decipher codes and figuring out this blocks and then. All right, cool. Well, if the horse does this and the dove does that. And like, I left one at home. Jen was laughing at me. But here's like, where I'm highlighting things of like, there's dual choices. And then this is the over the top one.
- [48:46]
Tim Gettys
Oh, God. What is this?
- [48:48]
Greg Miller
Where I got to a point in the game where they wanted me to clearly go and do this combination business, right? There's a lot of combo locks, a lot of different things, a lot of, you know, ancient things to move. And again, usually they're pretty. You hear it, you're like, okay, cool. Move everybody. All the statues, they're looking Easter, whatever. But there was one that I was struggling on in this section. It was the first time I saw level three enemies. So I was actually getting my ass handed to me a bit and I needed to figure that out. So I struggled through and I was like, I know it has something to do with this painting over here and I don't want to show. I just want to show it to you guys. But I was clearly missing something and I couldn't keep. And I was like. And it's. You have to put the pieces of the painting together in a puzzle thing. But, like, you can't do that. So I screenshotted all the pieces and then went into Photoshop and assembled the painting.
- [49:32]
Tim Gettys
Oh, my God.
- [49:33]
Greg Miller
So that I could actually see, like, and this is over the top. You don't need to do this. But I enjoy that level of a puzzle y thing.
- [49:40]
Tim Gettys
You still Photoshop.
- [49:43]
Greg Miller
I'm ready. I'm ready. I'm in the mood for my blueprints playthrough finally. Where it was like, okay, cool. Like, I did that to figure out where the sides were. And then the other thing I'd call out is my PlayStation app, Tim. My screenshots are littered with.
- [49:55]
Tim Gettys
Got it.
- [49:55]
Greg Miller
What I found was like, okay, cool. I knew it was going to ask. I can have the solution in my notebook, right? Or in my pad or, you know, my partner said something and like, oh, this is going to be the thing for the forbidden door or whatever, or forbidden knowledge. Rather than jot that down, I would screenshot it. And since the PlayStation app now syncs immediately, I would then run off by the time I got there, open my captures and go through and be like, okay, there it is. That's what I'm doing. And a few of the not more than a few puzzles are reading A caption deciphering an ancient language, and it's clearly calling out, blah, blah, blah, eight. Like, okay, eight's gonna be important in the combo lock I'm coming up to. So. Screenshot, screenshot, screenshot. You know what I mean?
- [50:33]
Tim Gettys
Yeah, Very cool.
- [50:34]
Greg Miller
But it makes you feel smart and it makes you feel like you're doing something. And again, I think that's so much of this. Again, when you start playing it to Andy's point, it's like, all right, cool. It's not putting it on your screen, like, showing you or your character automatically remembers it, but you have that at your fingertips. You just have to go find it. Which gives you this sense of agency that most games don't, where it's not being handed to you. And again, you have a compass, so when they say it's northeast of here, you can go. And usually you'll see a giant thing over there. That's got to be it. Let's go do that.
- [51:03]
Andy Cortez
But which is weird because I feel like it's all about just how the developers and publishers frame the experience for the gamer. And because, you know, since the day that we first saw this game, that's how they were always framing it. This is a game about discovery. This is a game about not having your handheld. This is going to be an experience that you will want to learn more and that will cause you to progress through the game. And in other games, if I'm not given that framing, there'll be. I'll have the opposite reaction. Why don't you just fucking auto type in that log? I don't. You know, some games will. If you learn a code, you walk up to the door that requires that code. It auto does it. That you don't have to remember it, and you go like, oh, that's a nice quality of life thing. But for some reason here it. I like it. And because I'm being told here's what the experience is, and I'm getting that experience. And it feels good.
- [51:55]
Greg Miller
Yeah.
- [51:55]
Tim Gettys
And, Andy, we've danced around this a little bit on this episode, but we talked about it in Games Daily this morning. But the fact that Expedition 33 and this game both are real, both are, to varying degrees, very, very good, and are not $70 titles. And from small teams, they actually came out their new ip, like, so much about this is amazing. You know, and going to give it an 8.5, like, that's spectacular that this game actually came out in the timeline that it did and that you liked it this much, that you're wanting to play it more. Like, all of these things should not add up.
- [52:30]
Andy Cortez
There.
- [52:31]
Tim Gettys
There should be some monkey's paw situation.
- [52:32]
Andy Cortez
But like, I. I need you to.
- [52:34]
Tim Gettys
Good shit.
- [52:34]
Andy Cortez
I need Greg to officially be a part of Open Critic somehow. Because, okay, it's sitting at an 83 on open critic and Greg's 85 will bring.
- [52:43]
Greg Miller
I want the opposite. Where the, you know, embargo went up yesterday and I looked at Metacritic and I was like, oh, It's. It was 79 then or whatever. And I was like, oh. And I went to Open Critic and it was 83. I'm like, all right, maybe we should start using Metacritic maybe, you know, for fantasy. Sorry. I love the game. I'm gonna talk about it. Blah, blah. Yeah, to your point, Tim, like, it's. I don't want to say a golden era, but it is. I hate when people go, you need to be supporting games like this if you want. Blah, blah. And like when it's like sometimes a mid game where it is like, okay, sure, a small team made it, but I don't, you know, blah, blah. Like, Hell Is Us is one of those that I would be like. Like, if you like the weird kind of Sci Fi, X Files, whatever, like, you got to pick this game up, you got to do this. Because I think this game, even at just, just an 8. 5, just calling it great. More important than any adjective I would give it for a review scale is Hell Is Us is special. Like, this is a special game. And it was one of those games that I was playing it despite flaws or this, that going like, I'm having such a good time playing this game.
- [53:41]
Tim Gettys
Do you probably the right way to word this. Do you want a sequel? Do we need a sequel?
- [53:49]
Greg Miller
Yeah, I do want a sequel. I do. I think again, while I'm confused, maybe on the calamity part and I need a little help there, the Remy part in where we leave that character, I'm like, I would like to know what happens next. But again, if they stopped here and they said, no, we're not and we're going to do something completely different, I would go, fuck yeah. Because like Rogue Factor, clearly one to watch, I think. I think there's a couple different. Like, let's talk about the industry angles to pull and yeah, the Expedition thing for sure. Next, I would say Rogue Factor is a studio to watch out of Montreal, what they're doing here. But then in a very interesting way, Nikon. Nikon, the publisher, right? Where it's like, well, they did some Lord of the Rings stuff before. And then they did robocop last year.
- [54:33]
Andy Cortez
Oh, right.
- [54:34]
Greg Miller
We were all like, this is them publishing, not developing.
- [54:36]
Tim Gettys
Yeah, that is published RoboCop.
- [54:38]
Greg Miller
And that was the game where we were like, this game shouldn't be good, but this is fun. This is a weird. And they put out a standalone one today. They're putting this out. It's like damn again where we talk about these double A publishers, the people who are in this space that aren't AAA and aren't small indies. They're making, they're funding really cool ideas which I think, you know, hats off to them on doing.
- [54:56]
Tim Gettys
That's awesome. Yeah, great, great poll there. Any final thoughts on. On Hell Is Us? That was a nice recap there, Greg. But do you have any final things you want to say?
- [55:05]
Greg Miller
I love this game, period. Like I. I love this game. This was an experience. I'm stoked that I had. I wish I could just go and platinum it, but I knew I have to new playthrough, which I'm not against, but we all know as I'm now on to redacted 2 and I have redacted 3 coming I think today.
- [55:20]
Tim Gettys
So this is redacted 1.
- [55:22]
Greg Miller
No, this was redacted 2. Redacted 1 was Metal Gear. You know what I mean? Like, it's just you can't stop on the review season. But this is a game that if I was a normal man with a normal life, I would restart and go and try to platinum on one playthrough.
- [55:37]
Tim Gettys
And then the final super chat of the day to get out of this episode of Gamescast before we do our everybody's golf stream comes from Mateo Castillo saying, I love you guys. I'm in San Francisco for the HubSpot conference till Friday night. What are your top recs to do while here? Any must have food slash sites. Ramen, Nintendo. Nintendo. Yeah, definitely going to Nintendo. And if you're going to Ramen, where do they got to go in Marufuku? In Japan Town.
- [56:01]
Andy Cortez
In Japan Town. And just walk around Japan Town. But also check out a place called Golden Gate Park. A neat little thing that I discovered just opened up.
- [56:10]
Greg Miller
Andy just found it.
- [56:11]
Tim Gettys
Yeah, she and I brought the dogs there yesterday. We're just walking around and I was telling her. I was like, can I tell you about Andy? And she was so mad at you. Like she was actually pissed off.
- [56:22]
Greg Miller
And of course I would throw out Square Pie guys. We love Square Pie guys.
- [56:24]
Tim Gettys
And Square Pie guys is a great one too. The Ghirardelli one. Because then you just get such a nice experience of the. The touristy part of the city that I think is like a standout. Like, I. I know people often are like, don't do the touristy. It's like sfs.
- [56:40]
Greg Miller
But Nintendo. Yeah, great call.
- [56:41]
Tim Gettys
Yeah, Nintendo's great.
- [56:42]
Greg Miller
Mere woods, if you're a nature person.
- [56:45]
Tim Gettys
That'S kind of far.
- [56:46]
Greg Miller
I'm not. It's across the Golden Gate Bridge. I mean. But if it's one time in San Francisco. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [56:51]
Andy Cortez
Depends on how many meals you got. But also I would recommend Volcano Curry.
- [56:56]
Tim Gettys
Hell yeah.
- [56:56]
Andy Cortez
It's a little.
- [56:56]
Tim Gettys
A little further out there. But if you go to Golden Gate park, it's not that far.
- [56:59]
Andy Cortez
It's not far. No.
- [57:00]
Tim Gettys
But, yeah, check all of those out. And Games Daily, somebody wrote in and said that they went to all the suggestions that we had and loved them.
- [57:08]
Greg Miller
Great.
- [57:08]
Andy Cortez
So.
- [57:08]
Greg Miller
Oh, we're never wrong.
- [57:10]
Tim Gettys
We're never fucking wrong. Never. Not a single time. Stay tuned for our stream of everybody's golf. Was Greg wrong? Is this the Vita port? Is it not?
- [57:18]
Greg Miller
How can I be wrong? I never said I knew.
- [57:19]
Tim Gettys
He doesn't know anything. He's a fucking idiot. Love you guys.
- [57:23]
Greg Miller
Bye.