Marvel Rivals Review (So Far) / POE2 Mini-Review - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Summary

Kinda Funny Gamescast: Marvel Rivals Review (So Far) / POE2 Mini-Review

Release Date: December 6, 2024

Hosts: Tim Gettys, Greg “GameOverGreggy” Miller, Blessing Adeoye, and Andy Cortez

---

Introduction

In this episode of Kinda Funny Gamescast, the hosts delve deep into their initial impressions of the newly released Marvel Rivals, a free-to-play arena shooter that has quickly garnered attention for its integration of Marvel's expansive universe. Additionally, the episode features a brief yet insightful mini-review of Path of Exile 2 (POE2) by their ARPG specialist, Xanth.

---

Marvel Rivals Review

Game Release and Initial Impressions

Snow Bike Mike kicks off the discussion by highlighting the overwhelming launch numbers: "steam charts, day one, we're 450,000, so almost half a million, I'm sure when you include Xbox and PlayStation" (06:13). The hosts express excitement about the game's strong start and the substantial investment from the developers, Netti's, evident in the game's production quality.

Gameplay Mechanics

Greg Miller praises the game as a "supremely impressive product" (08:42), emphasizing its similarity to Overwatch but with fresh elements. The gameplay revolves around 5v5 matches with team-based objectives like pushing payloads or capturing points. The hosts appreciate the game's ability to be both accessible to newcomers and engaging for seasoned players.

Character Design and Movesets

One of the standout features discussed is the depth of character design. With 33 characters at launch, each character boasts unique movesets and animations that pay homage to their Marvel counterparts. Andy Cortez remarks, "Each and every character's moveset and every character's animations... super impressive" (09:19). The hosts admire the attention to detail, noting how characters like Incredible Hulk switch between forms—Bruce Banner and Hulk—each with distinct abilities.

Game Modes and Multiplayer Experience

The conversation shifts to game modes, where Andy points out the limited variety: "there's currently three game modes promoted... two of them look the exact same" (11:02). Despite this, Greg remains optimistic, suggesting that future updates could introduce more diverse modes to keep the gameplay fresh.

Balancing and Longevity

Balancing is a central theme, with Greg acknowledging, "Marvel Rivals is supremely impressive... but is it going to have balancing issues? Of course" (09:08). The large roster of characters inevitably leads to balancing challenges, especially as new heroes are introduced. However, the hosts are confident in Netti's ability to address these issues promptly.

Technical Performance

Andy and Greg commend the game's technical performance, noting minimal lags and a robust player base: "the game ran really well day one... it ran flawlessly" (28:06). The cross-platform compatibility ensures a smooth experience across different gaming systems, further enhancing its appeal.

Future Prospects and Esports

Looking ahead, the hosts discuss the potential for Marvel Rivals to carve out its own niche in the competitive gaming scene. Andy speculates, "six months from now... I will be really impressed if it's still pulling in massive numbers" (19:33). The inclusion of in-game tournaments and ranked modes positions the game well for an esports presence.

Community and Player Engagement

Engagement tools like instant replay and customizable factions are lauded for fostering a strong community: "they launched with a lot of features that a lot of games don't have at launch" (26:28). Greg highlights the ability to create squads and participate in tournaments as key factors in retaining player interest and building a loyal fanbase.

Notable Quotes

• Greg Miller (08:42): "Marvel Rivals is a supremely impressive product... it's a really insanely impressive product for being a free-to-play game."

• Andy Cortez (11:02): "If you like Overwatch, if you've ever thought about Overwatch, if you just want to try an Overwatch type game, Marvel Rivals is for you."

• Snow Bike Mike (09:19): "They're at the advantage where Overwatch is in kind of like this panic mode... Marvel Rivals is very, very good."

---

POE2 Mini-Review by Xanth

Towards the end of the episode, Xanth provides a concise but thorough mini-review of Path of Exile 2 within the Kind of Funny segment.

Early Access Impressions

Xanth rates POE2 a 10 out of 10, praising it as "the greatest ARPG I have ever played" despite its current Early Access status 00:51:58. He highlights the game's engaging story, stunning visuals, and intricate skill systems that keep players immersed.

Gameplay and Systems

He commends the dynamic map generation, ensuring that revisiting areas feels fresh. "Every time I go back to an old area, it was generating a brand new map for me to explore" (Xanth, 00:51:58). The variety of classes and ascendancies, along with planned expansions, promise a long-lasting and evolving gameplay experience.

Future Developments

Xanth expresses excitement for upcoming content, including six more classes and additional acts, which will enrich the game's depth and replayability. He concludes with a strong recommendation, emphasizing the game's potential to captivate players for years to come.

Notable Quotes

• Xanth (00:51:58): "This is still the greatest ARPG I have ever played and if it were to release in this form... I would be content to play this version for years, full stop."

• Xanth (00:51:58): "The skills, it's in the systems, it's in the fun. I did not find myself chasing fun in this game. It was all around me."

---

Conclusion

The Kinda Funny Gamescast episode effectively balances an in-depth review of Marvel Rivals with a succinct yet enthusiastic mini-review of POE2. The hosts provide a comprehensive analysis, highlighting both the strengths and areas for improvement in Marvel Rivals, while Xanth's insights on Path of Exile 2 add valuable perspective for ARPG enthusiasts. Overall, the episode serves as a valuable resource for gamers looking to stay informed about the latest in the gaming world.

---

Timestamp References

• [00:02] - Introductory Advertisement
• [06:13] - Launch numbers and initial impressions
• [08:42] - Marvel Rivals gameplay mechanics
• [09:08] - Balancing issues discussion
• [11:02] - Game modes analysis
• [19:33] - Future prospects and player engagement
• [26:28] - Community features and engagement tools
• [28:06] - Technical performance review
• [33:02] - Multiplayer vs. Solo play discussion
• [36:19] - Character customization and skins
• [51:00] - Transition to POE2 mini-review
• [51:58] - Xanth's POE2 review

---

Note: This summary omits advertisement segments, introductory banter, and non-content sections to focus solely on the substantial discussions relevant to the episode's main topics.

Transcript

[Tim Gettys]

This episode is brought to you by Skinny Pop Popcorn. Perfectly popped, endlessly delicious. Oh, so light and crunchy. Skinny Pop Original Popcorn is the snack you've been searching for. Made with just three simple popcorn kernels, sunflower oil and salt. Snacking never felt or tasted so good. Perfectly popped, endlessly delicious. Give yourself permission to snack and pick up Skinny Pop original Popcorn today.

[Snow Bike Mike]

What's up? And welcome back to the Kind of Funny Games cast for Friday, December 6, 2024. Of course. I am, Tim Gettys. I'm joined today by the master of hype, Snow Bike.

[Andy Cortez]

Good morning, Tim. Happy Friday. Nice to see you.

[Snow Bike Mike]

To you as well. You're gonna have a great little Path of Exile weekend.

[Andy Cortez]

Yes, Path of Exile weekend. Mako Freakout weekend with Andy Cortez. A lot of Call of Duty ranked. Also looking into, like, what's next on my backlog game, Tim. Do I go way back, Andy, and play demon souls on that sweet PlayStation 5 Pro here in the office, or do I play something from this year that I haven't played?

[Snow Bike Mike]

You know what I mean?

[Andy Cortez]

There's a lot of games out there, even our top tens.

[Mike]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

You know what I mean? But I got, I got a solid top 10. I got some that people have forgotten about that. Then when they hear it, they're going to go, oh, shit. That was a really good.

[Mike]

Mike was right.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, yeah, I got a couple of those.

[Mike]

Yeah. I mean, you introduce him as just Snowbike Mike, you're, you're looking at a top 25, possibly top 10. Jeff the land shark in North America, like, watch out. You don't understand the sort of skill this guy's got.

[Snow Bike Mike]

I mean, I, I, I felt the level of power emanating from him. I didn't know what was the difference, though, that.

[Andy Cortez]

You saw the clip, though. I know you saw the clip of you and Jeff.

[Snow Bike Mike]

I, I did see the clip. Do you want, should we show the clip? Should we, should we pull.

[Andy Cortez]

I mean, we can show the clip while we talk about the podcast topic.

[Snow Bike Mike]

We'll get that, we'll get that in there, in there Later. That's a little tease for later, everybody, because of course I have to introduce the nitro rifle. Andy Cortez looking in amazing, amazing in his brand new. Want to explain this for me sweater.

[Mike]

It's a little ugly Christmas sweater I designed, Tim.

[Andy Cortez]

I like that.

[Mike]

It's called from the Help of Chat, Winter Wonderlands Between.

[Snow Bike Mike]

I like that.

[Mike]

Lands between. Get that. There's a lot of other ones. Another one I was going to do Jingle Belden Ring. That one. Not that one. Not so much. But yeah, it's all your favorite characters from the world of Elden. Ring designed it, drew all the characters.

[Snow Bike Mike]

What I love most about it, two things all knitted one. Fantastic color math there. You mean, nice distribution of good colors that look good together. But on top of that, unmistakably Andy Cortez art.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Snow Bike Mike]

You look down at the bottom. Guys in particular, like the witch. Yeah.

[Mike]

Right there, we got Blithe.

[Snow Bike Mike]

And on the other side of you. Yeah, those two. The middle and those two. I'm like that. Andy Cortez did that. 10 out of 10.

[Mike]

I'd be able to call that Melina and the bat. The back's probably my. Oh, we got. We got.

[Andy Cortez]

I like the turtle.

[Mike]

We got Melania right there. Turtle Pope is a great one. Yeah, Turtle Pope right here. I'm doing the weird, like, weather forecasting thing. I don't know what side's what, you.

[Snow Bike Mike]

Know, so is this. Is it only Elden Ring characters or is it.

[Mike]

This is only Elden Ring. And then the other one is. Is bloodborne.

[Snow Bike Mike]

Gotcha.

[Mike]

Yeah.

[Snow Bike Mike]

Do you have one? Are you gonna make one for Sakura, the bathing ape?

[Mike]

The bathing ape.

[Snow Bike Mike]

That's all I know.

[Andy Cortez]

That's it.

[Mike]

That's his name.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Mike]

He throws shit at you, you know, and then he bathes afterwards.

[Snow Bike Mike]

What happens?

[Mike]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Snow Bike Mike]

Remember, everybody, this is the kind of funny games cast. Each and every weekday, we get together to talk about the biggest reviews, previews, and topics in video games live on YouTube, Twitch and podcast services around the globe. If you love what we do, please support us with the kind of funny membership. You get the shows ad free. You, you can watch live as we record them and you get a daily exclusive Greg Way for a chance to be part of this show. Please get your super chats in as we go. We're talking all about Marvel Rivals. So if you have any questions about the game or Marvel in general, anything you want to do, Super. Chat them in and we'll get to them as we go. A little housekeeping for you. Our Indiana Jones and the Great Circle games cast is live now. You can check out all of Greg and Paris thoughts. And we just did a great games daily. That was me and Jerrica breaking down the reviews at large of Indiana Jones, which is doing very, very well right now, which gets me excited because I'm currently in the lead in Fantasy Critic, a place I didn't expect to be, Mike. But it feels pretty damn good. The only thing standing in my Way of victory is Greg Miller and Marvel Rivals. So I can't wait to hear how bad this game is from you guys. I really need that. Okay. Cross your fingers if you're kind of funny. Member of course you get today's Greg way. That's going to be Snow Bike Mike.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah. Today will be a Snowbike Mike takeover. Not quite sure where it will go, what it will be. Yesterday you could tell it went places. Me and Nick sat on the couch, we just turned on the camera and we let it go. And then we found out that Mike broke something in this office. What did I break? Tune in to find out.

[Snow Bike Mike]

Tune in to find out.

[Mike]

Can you just. Can you just tell me?

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Mike]

Can you. I will say this.

[Andy Cortez]

I broke it and I was gonna run away if I was gonna leave it. Oh yeah, I was gonna leave it and see what happens.

[Mike]

The play. That's what you gotta do.

[Snow Bike Mike]

But like to the point, I don't want to spoil the content. Yeah, it did end with you literally kind of running away.

[Andy Cortez]

Y. Oh yeah.

[Snow Bike Mike]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

I mean it was 5 o'clock on the dot. I had to. I had to get out.

[Snow Bike Mike]

I've never seen Snow Bike Mike leave the office with haste a single time. And it was weird and I didn't ask questions. But then when I heard the story, I'm like, I knew something was up. I knew something was up.

[Andy Cortez]

You don't want to tune into that one. Like I said, it kind of goes places at the beginning where we go and then it's just Mike and Nick talking. Then we went to where we needed to be.

[Snow Bike Mike]

Yeah, man. Today we're brought to you by Shady Race and R Frames. And shout out to our Patreon producers Del Twining and Carl Jacobs. We're also brought to you by a turnum that's not right.

[Mike]

New World Imperial.

[Snow Bike Mike]

Imperial. Thank you so much. Imperial. A last minute ad. So I didn't get anything to run a show here, but I appreciate you brought you by Imperial. But we'll talk all about that later. Let's start with the topic of the show. Marvel rivals our review so far. We're not actually going to give a final number on this or anything because servers just went live. What? Andy?

[Mike]

4Pm yesterday. 4pm Pacific time yesterday. Now Bless and I had codes through for the whole week. They sent us a separate little build. One of those weird ones, Tim, where it's like you gotta. You gotta unzip it. The file, right? You gotta unzip it and then it requires a password to unzip. It and it's just like an executable. Very odd. I'm used to just like a Steam experimental branch or something like that. Very weird kind of way of doing things. But it worked out.

[Snow Bike Mike]

It worked okay.

[Mike]

And the game was also getting updated even though you weren't clicking update on this game. So I don't know how the hell they were doing that. Are they my colonels? Mike I have no idea they're in your colonels. But throughout the week it was them. Not only just revealing the new character of Cloak and Dagger or Wolverine, but then later that night the builds that we had would have access to these new heroes.

[Snow Bike Mike]

Cloak and Dagger.

[Mike]

Sick as hell, Cool as hell name.

[Snow Bike Mike]

Like come on, are you kidding me?

[Andy Cortez]

Pretty wild character in the game too. Tim.

[Snow Bike Mike]

Yeah, I still don't know what they do.

[Mike]

Mike.

[Andy Cortez]

Lot transforming into two different characters all around the map. It's pretty wild. Tim.

[Snow Bike Mike]

So let's start here. How long have each of you played?

[Andy Cortez]

Mike I put in seven hours last night. I started at 4:00 and we went till 11:00. I probably would have gone longer with Andy and JD but I did get tired and had to turn it off. So I am seven hours deep into this day one build.

[Mike]

Andy Shocking. I had a lot of like my computer just started like exploding yesterday. It was very scary. So I thought I was going to have a lot less hours. I have 6.5 because I did. I did continue on after my. I played for about three hours on stream and then suddenly I lost audio. I was like, what the fuck happened? And then I restarted and then I. I try to unplug the wavelength. That's always a disaster. Trying to do that midstream. Blew everything up, went back in, ended up playing a decent amount more, got to the level 10, which is what's required of you to play. Competitive. I have 6.5 hours and that's not even including the beta sort of week that influencers and streamers and press had.

[Snow Bike Mike]

Which y'all put in a significant amount of time in.

[Mike]

I put about. Yeah, I put about four or five hours into that as well. Yeah. In addition to the beta from whenever that was a couple of months ago, which I think I put like 25 hours in or 20, something like that.

[Snow Bike Mike]

So anyway, let's start with you then with. With all that prior experience and now playing the actual game being out, what are your thoughts on Marvel Rivals so far?

[Mike]

Marvel Rivals is a supremely impressive product, I think. Is it going to have balancing issues? Of course people have balancing issues. With games that have been out for six years at this point, like Overwatch or whatever, like that's just something that's always going to happen. I think that's an easy thing to point out and go, yeah, they got to work on balancing. That's like a really easy take to say because every game always needs to work on balancing at every moment.

[Andy Cortez]

Especially with 33 characters, it's going to.

[Snow Bike Mike]

Be bouncing all the time and surprising amount of characters. As an outsider to this, I saw the like launch lineup and I was like, no way is this like actually what's in the game good for them.

[Mike]

A wild amount of characters to have at the start and to not even think to drip free to drip feed those. You know what I mean? I would have assumed what the process would have been was hey, whatever the characters you all played during the beta, we'll let you have like two more and, and every month. Here's a. Here's Wolverine. Here is whoever the hell, right? And super, super impressive. That they were able to launch with that much shows you that Nettie's. They got that money and that budget is going really far because this game is on another level production wise. The amount of times that a player got a player of the game last night and me and Mike would react to the highlight intro of that character and we'd be like, holy shit, that's like every. But there's so much love put into every kind of character's moveset and every character's animations. Super impressive shit along with the team up abilities. I just think it's a really insanely impressive product for being a free to play game where you don't have to buy characters. And that's something they already committed to. Whenever the beta was out, them saying, hey, you're not going to be buying characters here. Whenever we release them, they're out. You get them. You'll be paying for battle pass stuff or skins and we got a decent amount of those. We got a little pop up notification during our gameplay yesterday that I, we had a good chuckle at that was like, hey, if you can't buy anything, make sure you reset. It's like, oh, they want the.

[Andy Cortez]

Please make sure the money's coming in. Let's help you.

[Mike]

Please, let's get this money, let's get this monetization going. I'm super impressed with it. I'm having a lot of fun playing a lot of different heroes. Oh, a lot of the power is going, oh, what the hell's happening?

[Andy Cortez]

We're just gonna ride this lightning, we're riding it, baby.

[Snow Bike Mike]

2.0 mob cyclone. We'll see what goes on.

[Mike]

Dude, honestly, what my brain goes is like, Greg Miller's gonna pull a bit right now.

[Snow Bike Mike]

Oh my God.

[Mike]

Like these lights are flashing over here. I'm like, greg Miller's gonna come from the ceiling. Yeah, yeah. Marvel Rivals, of all things. But yeah, I'm very impressed with it. I'm having a great time. I think it's a lot of fun. I think that they are at such an advantage with new players who look at a game like Overwatch and say, that game's been out forever. How in the hell would I have a, you know, a snow globes chance in hell to be able to survive in this game where everybody playing has been playing for their whole lives at this point and they have so much experience. I'm going to feel stupid as hell. I don't want to hop in. That's how I feel. League of Legends, Mike, you know, so to have that advantage of a very sort of friendly style game that anybody can kind of hop into right now because it is brand new and we are all starting off on the same foot, that's awesome as hell. They're also at the advantage where Overwatch is in kind of like this. It feels like a panic mode trying to get 6v6 back in some sort of way to bring back a lot of lost player base. I'm ranting, sorry.

[Snow Bike Mike]

Marvel Rivals is 5V5.66. It is 66. Okay.

[Mike]

But it's not. I mean, I don't think that that's why players would say, I'm going to pick this over Overwatch. I just think it's a, it's, it's a brand new fresh thing. And I don't think, I think no matter how impressive Marvel Rivals is, I still don't think Overwatch will die. I think that has its fan base. This reminds you a lot of a valorant CS2 sort of thing, Mike, where Valorant comes around and it's also this really, really precision shooter and both games are still succeeding and doing very well. I think both games will continue to do their thing, but Valorant, very, very good.

[Snow Bike Mike]

Awesome, Mike. I want to jump.

[Mike]

Not Valorant.

[Snow Bike Mike]

Very, very.

[Mike]

Valorant's very good. But this game, Marvel Rivals, very, very good is what.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, there's a fun conversation to be had about longevity and where this game and Overwatch in the state of the first person shooter shooter industry goes later. Because I love having that talk. But right now, for me, Marvel Rivals is a great Game it is up there. It has the presentation value of those wowing Marvel IP characters in a really well done style. The maps are beautiful, the gunplay feels really, really good. Being in third person, seeing your character goes a long way for having, hey, this is your Marvel character. Deck it out with the cool costumes, have a good time. So all in all, I mean, if you like Overwatch, if you've ever thought about Overwatch, if you just want to try an Overwatch type game, Marvel Rivals is for you. It's got the Marvel IP on it, it's got the Overwatch gameplay. It is a great game. It's a lot of fun. Where I get hung up as a casual audience member of this style of gameplay and of this game mode is there's not enough game modes. There's currently three game modes promoted. You would think that two of them look the the exact same. You would never know the difference, truly and honestly. And so for me, I have still since Overwatch to now, after 10 years, it feels like it's like I haven't seen anything break the mold game mode wise in this style of game. It feels like if you play Overwatch, you've seen there, you've been it, you've done it all the same game modes and push the payload to tug of war that they've added and created in the past couple of years to just hold the points. Right now, the problem for me as a casual fan with Marvel Rivals is anything in past about two hours or three hours of gameplay, it just feels too repetitive because it is just either capture the point or push the payload. And I'm hoping that in the future we will see Marvel Rivals or even Overwatch somehow break that. Because I think for the casual audience member it gets just too repetitive only having those options. But for right now, if you jump in and have fun, this is a great game, a lot of fun.

[Snow Bike Mike]

Very ignorant question here. Go ahead Just so with that, with with Mike saying this, I feel like this is something I hear you, you say often is is wanting more maps, wanting more modes. You do play a lot of these competitive shooters. But Andy, I guess I, I feel like you might be answering this already, but do you think that this game should just double down on it? Is this, these modes like this is what this style of game is between Overwatch and Marvel Rivals? Or do you think that other modes are something that they should be looking into with the cast of characters and the abilities those characters have?

[Mike]

I've always differed from Mike on this discussion because when I play Overwatch I know what I'm getting. And that is the game mode. When you play CS2 or Valorant, you are playing a search and destroy mode. It's two rounds of offense or defense and you're planning a bomb or you're trying to defuse the bomb. And that's what those games are about. That's why you play those games. And of course they have little silly modes of deathmatch or whatever to warm up or play team, whatever the fuck, you know. But for me, Overwatch is Push the Payload or control the. The zone, King of the hill, whatever the hell you want to call it. So I guess when I play a Call of Duty or Halo, I expect different game modes in addition to different little fun things of, you know, the skull, you know. What's that mode?

[Andy Cortez]

Oddball.

[Mike]

Oddball, yeah, Oddball and stuff like that.

[Andy Cortez]

Capture the flag.

[Mike]

Those are the games where I expect the kind of more wacky modes. But for me, I've always differed from this on mic, where if I'm playing a game that's an Overwatch clone, I expect to just have the Overwatch clone modes. And I think you can still iterate like, you know, Mike was mentioning earlier, Overwatch 2 try to replace one of their least popular modes, which was called two Point Capture, where a team is on offense and a team is on defense and you swap rounds, but you essentially rush one point and you try to take that point and once you do, then you go to the second point. And that mode is just really unpopular because it felt like it just wasn't as fun as two teams clashing over one singular point or two teams defending and pushing the payload. Right. They tried to introduce this push mode where it is a. It's a tug of war thing where there's a robot in the middle and if you push the ro. If you're running with the robot, the robot will walk and then the other team kills you, they can push it back the other way. And I like that mode better than two Point Capture, but it isn't like Setting the world on fire. I don't particularly love whenever that game mode pops up. If they can iterate and make a third sort of version of that, I'm all for it. But like, I'm still extremely satisfied with just getting more maps and more payload and more King of the Hill or Capture the Zone.

[Snow Bike Mike]

I need to take you guys on a tangent real quick.

[Mike]

Yeah, take me.

[Snow Bike Mike]

Because Mike, you. You said that like there's the two modes that are similar out of three and it reminded me of something weird that's been happening to me. This has nothing to do with Marvel Rivals.

[Mike]

Okay, great.

[Snow Bike Mike]

You know when you're on Gmail and, like, you're on a thread and you go to reply and then there's a couple, like, autofill options that pop up at the bottom of just like, you know, quick reply, type, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. For some reason in the last couple days, every time I go to reply, the word brilliant is in the replies.

[Mike]

They know you.

[Snow Bike Mike]

And it's like, like, brilliant. Thank you. And I'm just like, I've never said brilliant in my life. Working at their work yesterday, two out of three of the responses had the word brilliant in it. And I just feel like I'm getting taken over by the Brits. Like, what's happening here?

[Mike]

Oh, it's brilliant.

[Snow Bike Mike]

It's so weird.

[Mike]

They gotta know you by now.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, I thought they would just know you.

[Mike]

Think with the amount of times you're replying, they see, dude, yo. But really sounds good. Yeah.

[Snow Bike Mike]

What are we talking about? I don't know, man. Anyways, back to Marvel Rivals.

[Mike]

That reminds me of another really, really good tweet I saw recently of, like, you know, it said, like, British guy unhooking my bra before we're about to have sex. And the quote is, what's all this? S.

[Snow Bike Mike]

So good. So Marvel Rivals, obviously a lot of conversations to be had about these type of games coming out. How competitive the landscape is, it being a clone of a very successful game, Overwatch. But in Overwatch's not biggest years, do you think that this game is. Is doing enough to stand apart? And let's just. Let me just call this what this is. Six months from now, what's this game look like?

[Andy Cortez]

Mike, six months from now, what does this game look like? Well, steam charts, day one, we're 450,000, so almost half a million, I'm sure when you include Xbox and PlayStation, this was massive on this launch. I do expect this to have the juice. I think it has the leverage. That's where I get into game modes. And what is this game with Andy Cortez? Because when I look at this, right, does this pull the Fortnite audience? Does this pull the Roblox audience? When me and Paris used to talk, does this pull something like his son to come in and play with these just normal, established games that are really dominating the market. And so I'm very interested to see if we get that 2017 overwatch hype all over again where it was. Oh, snap. This is the game that we all want to play, this is. Everyone's talking about it and it has the Marvel ip. It is a great game. I think it's got the juice. I just don't know where we will be six months from now with this. I will be really impressed if it's still pulling in massive numbers like it is of course today and throughout this week and month. But where this will go, I think that's an Andy question of is the esports going to be something because they already promote tournaments that will keep people engaged. Is Overwatch now going to reignite with people wanting to jump back to classic Overwatch that they know and love with their favorite characters? New, new characters being added in that fights for this? I don't know.

[Mike]

Yeah, I, I think now more than ever. I never been more unsure of what a game will look like. And it's easy to. It's easy to feel discouraged nowadays by any multiplayer the game game that comes out. This is the one I've had the most confidence in, not only because of it being a supremely well made product, but it is the Marvel IP that people know already. And it's one thing to make a Marvel multiplayer game and have it just be complete shit, but it's not. Like this game is really good and really well thought out and designed.

[Snow Bike Mike]

And me jumping in from the Marvel side of this, putting the Marvel IP on something these days doesn't necessarily just immediately equal success, of course.

[Andy Cortez]

Right.

[Snow Bike Mike]

And I think even looking at video games, what I've been so impressed from the outside looking in on this is how much love it seems is put into making sure that this feels like a Marvel product in the good ways, but also having a unique identity to it. Like, it reminds me watching this of how I felt in the 90s and early 2000s with Marvel versus Capcom. One and two of they are doing justice to these characters. They. They're gonna have all of the mainstays that you would expect given the time frame of these coming out. So for us now, all the MCU characters, but also getting in there a little bit deeper and getting a little weird with some of the. The picks that they have. Like this kind of just seems like an unbelievable success from the Marvel side, seeing all the skins they have it being third person and giving you all the options you want. Like we played the insomniac Spider man games and like it's. We love suiting Spidey up, we love unlocking different classic suits and seeing new ones they make. But it seems like this game is doing that for all 33 characters.

[Mike]

Yeah, I mean, that it's. It's kind of wild to. To think about the move sets that these characters have. And I, as I was looking through a lot of the different characters, you know, because obviously it, it takes a lot to just build a character and sculpt a 3D art of somebody. But Hulk has three different versions. Hulk is Diva in this video game. So in the video game Overwatch, when Diva gets knocked out of the mech, they call it baby Diva, where it's just the actual pilot, the girl running around with the pistol and she can shoot enough enemies to then get her mick back to her. And that's the equivalent here is Incredible Hulk where whenever he gets knocked out of Hulk form, he becomes Bruce Banner. And he's just a small little scrawny dude running around shooting a gun. And he could eventually get his Hulk back. But then the ultimate is a completely different 3D model for Hulk. And what is crazy about that is that when you're, when you're selling cosmetics, you have to make a themed version. If it's a Christmas thing, you have to make a Christmas version of Banner, normal Hulk and the ultimate form of Hulk, which is just kind of wild. Like the amount of work that's going to have to be put into this in addition to a character like Magic, the sword wielding lady from New Mutants. If. If you're like me and don't know a whole lot. Of course, yeah. Anytale of Joy. That's her name. Yeah. The. When she goes into her ultimate form, she becomes like that demon with the sword and just kind of goes crazy. That's another model that they have to make. There's so much love put into every one of these characters and so much thought put into the move sets. The idea that on this payload map, the. These goats in fucking love and thunder. Yeah. Or the love and thunder ones that yell.

[Snow Bike Mike]

They.

[Mike]

Whenever they get to the payload, they go, ah. And they yell like they do in the movie. There's all these little small touches that casual audiences like me would go, oh, that makes sense. I. You know, that's pretty neat.

[Snow Bike Mike]

And I've said this a million times. I always talk about the Marvel vs. Capcom games because I feel like they did such a good job of ingratiating people into these characters. So that when you watch the movies or watch the shows, it just your familiarity with the dumb little things of the goats yelling or the way that Scarlet witch kind of moved in multiverse of madness, it deepens your understanding of the characters. So it just makes I think the entire experience feel more premium. And like you both are speaking so highly on the production value of the game, jumping from. From that to the gameplay itself. Obviously it seems like they're cloning Overwatch successfully. That's a good thing. That's a quality game. Andy, you being one of the biggest Overwatch fans I know, do you think that you're going to be playing this not six months from now? Because I know that that is crazy. But like, do you see yourself playing this at the end of next month?

[Mike]

Absolutely, yeah. Especially because of the. The competitive mode. I want to get ranked. I want to see what these skins are. I want to play enough to where we have a squad. I think they did a great job of launching with a lot of features that a lot of games don't have at launch. They not only launched with a full instant replay, so where any match you played, you could just go back and play that match really and play it from different perspectives or free cam mode during that. Insane sort of tools that are already there for the broadcaster that wants to like Snow Mike. Mike, maybe shout cast over something. Now you can't do it in real time, but it's still crazy that you could do it of a replay. And they also launched with these squads. I'm blanking. Maybe they call them factions in this game. Yeah, factions. You can create your own faction and they have in game tournaments already there. You can click on the little tournament tab and it'll tell you when teams are going to be trying to play for tournament spots and then those tournament spots will likely lead to cool rewards and things like that. That is so awesome to build a community from the get go where it's already telling fans, hey, find your. Find your squad, find your friends or whatever and hop in here and be online at this time to play against other squads online. And it isn't just competitive mode where you are, you know, just trying to get your rank up. It is we are our team. Here's our team name going against, you know, the Jabronis over there. Hopefully we beat them and move on to the next stage. That shit is so awesome and I love when games can kind of bring in that. It's why I've been in love with Valorant for the last couple of years after I fell off for a bit. Because Valorant Premier has that rec league, you know, after work softball, soccer matches that Mike does with Bless. It's just really, really cool. So having all those modes pushes it even further for me of this is something that I want to play for a long time because I haven't. I haven't really had the itch for Overwatch in a while. This is scratching that itch that, you know, anytime I look at Overwatch or I see a friend play, I'm like, maybe I should go play Overwatch. Eh, I'm good. I have other stuff to play. This is making me want to play this arena shooter, this sort of payload hero thing. I'm having a lot of fun with it.

[Andy Cortez]

And custom lobbies day one.

[Mike]

Custom lobby.

[Andy Cortez]

I mean, the game ran really well day one. I think we only got kicked like truly once during the seven hour experience. It ran flawlessly. Custom lobbies, day one.

[Mike]

Finding matches, immediately finding.

[Andy Cortez]

Oh yeah. When you have half a million people on Steam alone, yeah, it's going to be easy to find this right then. Yeah. I mean, Tim, 33 characters and they have the unique team up abilities which makes it a little bit different than Overwatch. Of course, adding that flare of oh my God, Rocket Raccoon can jump on the back of Groot, right? And then it gets damage reduction while on the back of Groot when then it can move around the field with Groot healing people. You see Andy and when he plays Punisher or Bucky and then JD plays Rocket, you get that team up ability of faster shooting and unlimited ammo. So it is really cool to see up these team up abilities and how that that will grow with 33 plus more characters. They'll continue to add that. And it's cool of like when I play a character, I can ping the whole lobby and say, hey, somebody else play one of these three characters so we can use those team up abilities together. That's a fun one fun thing.

[Mike]

That is really, really neat.

[Snow Bike Mike]

Definitely want to keep talking about Marvel rivals, but after a quick word from our sponsors, this episode is brought to you by Imperial. Imperial is a complex, challenging, feature rich action RPG in a far flung corner of the galaxy. An expedition arrives on a hitherto unexplored planet to find a colossal monolith built by a lost civilization. There are no more ruins. The monolith is filled with danger and the expedition is ill equipped to unearth the secrets within. All eyes turn towards an elite mercenary who may succeed where all others have failed, venture inside the monolith and face the automatons that yet remain. Remnants of the impossibly ancient civilization that built this unknowable structure, survive and uncover revelations that transform our understanding of humanity itself. Imperial features a memorable cast of characters with personal quest lines and multiple endings for each one. Of course, you can unlock new abilities to personalize your playstyle and upgrade and modify the loot that you find. Your only hope of victory lies in mastering a unique and complex combat system. So get on it. You can wishlist Imperial now on PlayStation, Xbox and Steam Wishlist Imperial Today Isn't.

[Greg Miller]

It funny how the people we love the most are often the hardest to shop for? Luckily, there's one gift that everyone on your list is sure to enjoy an Aura Digital Picture Frame. Aura frames make it incredibly easy to share unlimited photos and videos directly from your phone to the frame. When you give an Aura Frame as a gift, you can personalize it and preload it with a thoughtful message and photos using the Aura app, making it an ideal present for long distance loved ones. I have one on my desk, I sent one to my mom and I'm sending this bad boy to my dad for Christmas. Seriously, uploading photos via the app is so easy in such a nice way to share Ben's childhood with my parents even though we're in San Francisco and they're in Chicago. Save on the perfect gift by visiting auraframes.com to get $35 off or as best selling Carver Matte frames by using promo code Kinda Funny at checkout. That's a U R A frames.com promo code kinda Funny this deal is exclusive to you, our best friends, so get yours now in time for the holidays. Terms and conditions apply.

[Snow Bike Mike]

This episode is brought to you by Shady Rays. Get ready for this holiday season ahead with quality shades built to last. Our friends at Shady Rays have all of your gift giving needs covered with premium polarized shades that won't break the bank, durable frames and world class optics for all outdoor adventures. With an extensive array of styles and colors, you're bound to find the perfect pair of Shady Ray sunglasses. Y'all know I've been outside in the sun a lot playing Pokemon Go and it's always such a great experience wearing Shady Rays when I'm out and about looking dope. Every pair of sunglasses is backed by lost or broken replacements. If you lose or break your pair even on day one, they told us they will send you a brand new pair, no questions asked, exclusively for you. Listening Right now, Shady Rays is giving out their best deal. Head to shadyrays.com and use code kinda funny for 50% off two or more pairs of shades. Try for yourself the shades rated five stars by over 300,000 people. Shadyrays.com use code kind of funny for 50% off two or more pairs of shades. Andy, my question for you. Mike, I want to hear your thoughts on this as well. Y'all are multiplayer boys. You got your squads, you have friends, you have things. Andy just went on a whole tirade talking about how excited he is that they're actually coming up with like worthwhile events and like timed things to get a squad together. And do what? If you're on the complete other side, you're hearing you guys talk about this stuff. You're not really into multiplayer things, but this game looks cool. You're not going to be mouse and keyboarding it. You're just going to be a simple controller. Boy, can you just jump into this game and have some fun or are you just going to be completely overwhelmed without having a squad? It's just you playing with randos.

[Mike]

I think you can absolutely hop in and have fun. I like, obviously everything is always elevated whenever you are with friends or whatever. But again, I think you're at such of a benefit of being here within the first week. Right. And that's the learning period. That's where people are getting the hang of controls and moves. And what character should I be playing right here in this moment? I think it's like you could hop in and just play against bots as well. That's all. That's awesome. You could play against like three different levels of difficulty bots.

[Snow Bike Mike]

Cool.

[Mike]

You could set a custom matchup and play against any sort of set of difficulties of bots that you might want to play again. So absolutely. You can hop in and have some fun and be a hero that you want to play.

[Snow Bike Mike]

Does this game work on Steam Deck, do you know?

[Mike]

Oh, that's. I don't know. Only because of how Anti Cheat can sometimes not love Steam Deck because they don't want people doing, you know, AIM bots and stuff.

[Snow Bike Mike]

Gotcha. Mike, what do you think?

[Andy Cortez]

I still don't know where my Steam Deck is. I'm going to look for it one day. It's not high on my list of like life things, but one day I'll look forward to again. You know, it might be under the bed, Andy. Who knows? Who knows? Yeah, I don't know. You know, playing solo is a lot of fun. This isn't a game where you will take over as a solo player. It's not like you're getting seven kills alone. It's a team based game so you'll be running around with your squads. But I think, yeah, it's just fine. I think it's a Fun time. Now would probably be the time to jump in when there's a lot of a large player base. But I think Overwatch has benefited from years of it where you just jump in, you zone out, you play and have some fun with this one. You can take it super competitive, you can take it super casual. Solid deal. Yeah, I think this is a good game that can be team or solo. This is one of those games for sure.

[Mike]

Yeah, I. It's really easy to feel your impact when you're in a game. I think like it's. It would be rare to hop into a game and not, you know, because you get the little sound effect whenever an elimination happens. Even if that the kill wasn't necessarily yours. You're going to get that little thing pop up and you'll have the narrator of the match who is Galactica, the Galactus's daughter or some. I forget one. But she'll be like great kill. You know, she gets all stoked whenever you pop off. But that's a 5k or whatever. You feel that instant satisfaction. You get that coming back to you. You see your little ultimate meter going up. You know, Mike's done some big pop off plays. The. I always talk about the satisfaction I get whenever I would play support a whole lot back in the day where I love knowing that this little. I'm the, you know, as Rocket Raccoon racker. Rocket Raccoon's a lot of fun to play as as a support character because he just shoots out a lot of little yellow orbs that heal your. Your team. And when it gets next to the character that you're trying to heal. If Mike's out there as a tank, as Venom, I can shoot that. That little orb of heel juice and it'll like slow down when it's next to him to kind of like pour into him and you see his health bar go up and you know, oh, he's going to. I'm supplementing him for this like fight that he's taken on right now. There's a lot of different ways to get satisfaction from this video game. And there's a lot of baddies in this game as well.

[Snow Bike Mike]

That's the chat's popping off right now in a very, very, very awesome character model.

[Mike]

Yeah, a lot of great character art's fantastic.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, the art style and each character has three different outfits, if not four on a couple other ones. I mean, I've already given them $20 and got the cool Jeff the Shark wannabe dolphin. But I call it the Cameron Skin because he's got the pink hoodie.

[Snow Bike Mike]

I love that.

[Andy Cortez]

Super cool. So I'm calling to kill a cam right now.

[Mike]

Yeah, it's adorable.

[Snow Bike Mike]

Squirrel girl. There she is.

[Mike]

And we saw, we saw Mike it up. We saw Mike as Jeff the Landshark also riding on the back of Groot.

[Andy Cortez]

Yes. Jump on the back of Groot. That's very cool.

[Snow Bike Mike]

Is that the link that you sent?

[Andy Cortez]

No, the clip that I have, of course is Jeff the land shark's ultimate ability, which is a very cool like shark kind of circling the water and then comes up and grabs anybody that's inside of this area.

[Mike]

Just imagine.

[Andy Cortez]

It's really cool.

[Mike]

Imagine Nick doing the sucking blow. Tim.

[Andy Cortez]

Yes, Tim. That's exactly what it is. And so you can see I've sucked up enemy and I'm gonna go off the map with them and get a six little kill ace. Yeah, My first ace ever. Mars Marvel Rivals.

[Snow Bike Mike]

Let's go.

[Mike]

And that.

[Snow Bike Mike]

And that opened blow in a freaking.

[Mike]

Shooter and that opened up the match for us. Yeah, because like we were, we were at a standstill right there. Mike doing that really, really helped the squad like push forward and I can.

[Andy Cortez]

Even get my own teammates so I could technically save you. Or if you're like endless dark, you get uptight because I'm probably going to kill you too. So I apologize to my teammates ahead of time.

[Mike]

But yeah, you could also suck up your teammate. Yeah, yeah. Couple of times we'd get sucked up.

[Andy Cortez]

By Mike as like a solo player. And just in general, there's a lot of heroes in this. Right. Like you have a lot of heroes to choose from. And someone in the chat was asking was 33 too many and I would say no, I think it's the right amount because it always feels like I have something new to click on, someone new to try. I know it's going to be a nightmare for balancing and we're going to see that for weeks on end here of one character is not correctly balanced.

[Mike]

Right.

[Andy Cortez]

But it is fun. As the casual audience to this style of gameplay, I love having as many heroes as possible. So I can always try something new and fresh.

[Mike]

Yeah, the. I would have loved if they launched with maybe 25 or something. I only because I, I don't want them to just like blow their load immediately. Like, I think about the future of continuing the hype and hopefully they have enough. There's been a lot of characters that have like kind of been leaking and stuff here in different forums everywhere. But I, I would have loved for them to had a Constant kind of tempo with releasing a new dude every two weeks or a month or whatever. I think I could have continued the hype quite a bit, but there's still a lot of characters you look at. You're like, ooh, where's Cyclops? Where's Gambit?

[Snow Bike Mike]

Yeah.

[Mike]

What are the possibilities there that. You know, how. How is that kit gonna look? We need more superheroes of guns. I'll say. Huh?

[Snow Bike Mike]

Punisher in this.

[Mike]

Punisher's in it. He's. He's the default character that everybody says, if you don't know who to play as, play as Punisher because He sold your 76.

[Snow Bike Mike]

Okay.

[Mike]

He has an AR and then he. If you scroll down on the mouse wheel, it becomes a shotty. And so you can use the shotty. And he's just very, very basic. But when. Whenever they sort of revealed Winter Soldier, I'm like, oh, shit, he has a hand cannon. Hell, yeah. More characters. The guns, please. Because I'm. I like to be the shooty shoot guy as opposed to the. I'm going to get up in your face and be a melee type.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah. The big thing is the melee characters we haven't really spoke about, like, yeah, melee heroes are a big thing in this game, and there is a lot of them from Spider man to Iron Fist. Spider man is really interesting with the web slinging as well alongside Venom.

[Mike]

But, like, Spider Man's a fucking freak.

[Andy Cortez]

Spider man in this game is swinging all over the map, and it is very cool to see it add something to the movement of crashing the back lines and being that pester over for your healers and kind of any sort of DPS character in the back. It's fun to watch. It's difficult to master, and it's a nightmare to have to go up against.

[Mike]

A good Spider Man.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, good Spider Man. And then similar to like, Iron Fist has been a lot of fun to see and watch. It is cool that they've blended this shooter with melee. That's clearly still feels like a shooter. Right. It's not like anything changes, but it is really cool of seeing characters like that.

[Snow Bike Mike]

So the melee is very interesting to me because I feel like more and more we've been seeing melee in. In this type of game. And like competitive traditional shooter games that are a little bit more ranged, where I'd say melee is more of a option, but not like a.

[Mike]

Look at this real quick. Tam rewinded like 5, 10 seconds, Barrett. Just because this is something to just kind of marvel at. No pun intended. The. The doctor Strange portals are cool as.

[Snow Bike Mike]

That's insane.

[Mike]

Like, it's like, obviously portals have been in games for a long time.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Mike]

But like in a real time multiplayer.

[Snow Bike Mike]

Game integration from Doctor Strange. Again, we know the language of this. That's so sick. But this melee stuff, earlier I was looking at the footage they were showing of Wolverine getting in there and just kind of slicing people up. Does that feel good? Because I feel like that's such a difficult thing for me to wrap my head around. Melee. Such melee, focused combat. Feeling good in this type of game pace.

[Mike]

It doesn't feel good for me because I just don't vibe with those characters. I understand why anybody could get satisfaction from being a melee character if they're dominating because you're getting kills. Their Winter Soldier has a really fun kit that has some melee involved. Winter Soldier is a kind of hybrid ranged got some melee stuff as well to kind of fend off anybody trying to push on him or whatever. But he has a gun that has three bullets, right? And his. That's his left click, his right click. He can grapple dudes with his like soldier arm and bring them back towards you. And then you can combo that with a move that he has where he essentially punches forward at you, knocks you up in the sky. And I've done. I've had a lot of satisfaction of like, shoot a dude, grapple him, bring him back to you, punch them, knock them up to the sky, shoot them in the air, and they're dead. It's like, oh man, that feels so good. But it's when you're melee only, that's where you kind of lose me. Because I'm just not that type of player. But I understand why people love it. A lot of people were like, andy, you're crazy. Iron Fist is awesome. It's like, I'm not saying he's not a good character. It's just not my style of play, you know?

[Andy Cortez]

The melee combat worked so well in this scenario because the game modes are centered around. You have to go to one point and that gathers everybody there. So the melee always feels like it can be viable and part of it because we're not standing 100 yards away from each other, just shooting from window to window every. It's a brawl. It's right. That's truly the feel. So when you have the game modes like push the payload, where the team either has to be right next to the payload to push it forward, or the defending team has to be stopping you at that point or capture the point, it's Always. We are going to one spot. We're going to bang into each other. And that's where the melee characters feel good. Right. It never feels like, oh, that person's sniping me from a thousand yards away the whole entire time. You're in the mix the whole time.

[Snow Bike Mike]

So you're main in Jeff.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, I'm playing Jeff Storm Psylocke. I've been. I've clicked on every single character. But I. If I throw down 20 on Jeff, I'm going to be Jeff forever now. That's. That's my thing.

[Snow Bike Mike]

What about you, Andy?

[Mike]

Man, I love. I'm having trouble picking anybody to try to main. I'm the. I'm best at Hela. That's where I like. If I want to lock in, I will play as Hela.

[Snow Bike Mike]

What's her play style?

[Mike]

Hela is a. I mean, better if you could just bring up some footage. Top 10 na hella gameplay. Like I'm. I'm sick nasty Tim. Like I am disgusting as Hella. And she is. She throws her daggers, her sword things, you know, long range. She kind of feels like a super broken character. She's the type of character that if you are just. If you're hitting shots, she reminds you of just like a Zenyatta in Overwatch where she's just shooting a sharp projectile and then her right click, she kind of charges up all the projectiles and shoots them all. And then when they hit, if they hit a character, they'll then explode inside of the character. This is the ultimate. That's her ultimate ability.

[Snow Bike Mike]

It goes to the first person.

[Mike]

She. She floats up in the sky. First person. And you look down at wherever you're at and you start like shooting projectiles there. Adam the. She's insanely fun to play. She has a quick getaway as well. Well, she turns into like a green raven, sort of like spirit raven. And you could kind of fly away and get the hell out of dodge if somebody starts pushing you. And then she has a move that will suck a bunch of enemies towards it. It's like a little Orbitos and enemies will kind of get hurt, but also get pulled towards the center point of it. A lot of characters can feel kind of samey and they'll have one move that really differentiates them. But the like essentially a lot of characters are just, I'm going to shoot one projectile or two. You know, Moon Knight. Very fun as well. Had a lot. Having a lot of fun with Moon Knight. Winter Soldier. I love playing Winter Soldier. Widowmaker is just Black Widow or Reverse that. Black Widow is just Widowmaker. She's a sniper. She can sprint as well. Which is really, really nice to kind of get out of crazy if somebody's pushing you. I. I'm having a lot of fun with the projectile style players. I am really bummed out that I'm not loving any of the tanks so far. I was hoping we'd get some more tank love and maybe that just comes down to me maybe feeling a lot more viable on a. On a DPS player. So I'm like, I shouldn't be playing Tank. My team needs me to be dps. Let me go click a couple heads. But when I play Overwatch, I love playing as Sigma or Roadhog. And there's like that skill involved of I. I need a couple of characters to feel a lot more different because so far just a lot of the different characters can feel like just skin swaps.

[Snow Bike Mike]

Class this, class that.

[Mike]

Yeah.

[Snow Bike Mike]

How's my girl Scarlet Witch play?

[Mike]

Scarlet Witch is very op. Scarlet Witch. Well, I. I think here we're in a. I think we're in a really good spot with the game right now, Mike, because I feel like five times a game we'll say that about four different characters like this character and that's that fun. That's. That means you're great spot because a lot of people are finding ways to be good with a lot of different characters. Scarlet Witch, she'll auto aim, like suck your life force out of you if you're. Which is like, man, I would love for that to happen. Right. But she sucks a life force out of you, Tim. And then she can float up in the sky and throw orbs at you that kind of explode. Blessing really loves playing as Scarlet Witch. She's an absolute baddy as well. And you can get the skin from Multiverse of man is really cool.

[Snow Bike Mike]

Is there any way I could see Scarlet Witch's skins?

[Andy Cortez]

A lot of MC skins in this? Yeah.

[Mike]

Oh, yeah, for sure. Yeah. There's definitely got to be a little collection out there.

[Snow Bike Mike]

Good.

[Andy Cortez]

I will say while we bring up the skins, you know what does grind my gears.

[Mike]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

Let me hear you some characters on the movement side of things, Tim. Some characters have a double jump. Some characters can run up walls. Some characters don't have anything at all. It's just a basic. Just kind of jump. The jump isn't good enough. It needs a mantle.

[Mike]

We need a man.

[Andy Cortez]

Every character needs a double jump because there's areas there where you can't even jump up to where you want to go. And you. You're hit with this frustration of, like, God damn it. Like, what am I now? I just got to go back to the basic path. Every character needs some sort of mantle or just give them all double jumps. There's a weird. There's a movement tweak here that needs to be elevated.

[Mike]

Well, I think another reason why I feel even more strongly about that is because you and I just played Fortnite for three hours the night before.

[Andy Cortez]

Yes.

[Mike]

And I kept on just feeling the muscle memory of, I can mantle here. Why? And you can't mantle, and it just really, really stinks, man. What a. Just a storm, I think, is just, like, number one baddie of the game, though.

[Snow Bike Mike]

Okay. Not thrilled about these.

[Andy Cortez]

Love.

[Snow Bike Mike]

Love how accurate they are to multiverse of Madness. Like, come on, Are you kidding me with this?

[Mike]

Yeah.

[Snow Bike Mike]

So freaking sick.

[Mike]

Now, they did make the Star Lord version look like Chris Pratt, though.

[Andy Cortez]

He looks very much like Chris Pratt.

[Mike]

Like, they, you know, in the game, Star Lord doesn't. Well, I guess. Maybe. I don't know if we've seen a skin of him without the helmet, but. Oh, we have.

[Andy Cortez]

They have the blue and red from the latest movie.

[Snow Bike Mike]

You're right.

[Mike]

You're right. But the the Guardians of the Galaxy 3 version of Star Lord skin is like, oh, you made just a Chris Pratt equivalent of the face, which is pretty neat. It seems like they're going to be doing that for. For quite a bunch of different heroes. Yeah, I agree with Mike. We need a mantle.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, it was really, really.

[Mike]

Feels really awkward when there's a lot of different heights of stuff that, oh, my character can't just jump up there, even though my ankles are kind of clipping right at the edge. You gotta either just lower that surface or kind of make it easier for maneuvering.

[Andy Cortez]

You know, Destructible environments are a big positive. It is fun to see the environments change with gunshots blowing holes in walls, bridges falling down. The environment actually evolving as you play from bridges to different slots, moving and creating barriers that you can hide behind. That's all positive. I like all that. I think it's awkward.

[Mike]

I think it's awkward when they reform, though. I had this same criticism.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Mike]

And during the beta period, whenever the destructible environments reform and go back to what they were, where maybe this column was broken, but now that column is sort of being built back up, but all you see is sort of a green placeholder version of the column kind of forming back, and you can still shoot enemies through it, even though you can't really see them. It's kind of awkward.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Mike]

But I don't really know what the solution is around that. Aside from the fact of maybe just leaving it destructed the whole time.

[Snow Bike Mike]

Looks cool as. Are you kidding me?

[Andy Cortez]

With the white and black. And then she's got the mohawk storm too. Yeah, the punk rock storm.

[Snow Bike Mike]

This skin is sick.

[Andy Cortez]

What they call that Ivory Breeze.

[Mike]

Jeez.

[Snow Bike Mike]

I mean, wow. All of them are freaking cool. Oh my God. That's awesome. But yeah, this, the Ivory Breeze is what I was looking at. That's.

[Andy Cortez]

That's my favorite one. That one you actually earned too. You don't even have to pay for it. So I'm going to earn that eventually.

[Snow Bike Mike]

Love that.

[Andy Cortez]

It's a great game. It's a really good time. It's really, really good. Free to play, being everywhere. Cross play. This has the makings here for the holiday season to take over the end of the year. Like Tim asked before, I am interested to see where we go. But as of right now, you can't go wrong. This is a great game.

[Mike]

It was the game of the summer and it may be the game of the winter now.

[Andy Cortez]

This is it.

[Snow Bike Mike]

Maybe it is. Everyone stay tuned.

[Mike]

I could not. I wanted to stop playing a lot earlier last night, but I just. I was having a lot of fun playing a lot of different characters. Want to get competitive? Ranked. We're both ranked now.

[Andy Cortez]

Start Saturday, December 7th, you can start playing ranked games. They have a tournament right away for the top 250 teams or something crazy like that. So go out there, have fun with your friends.

[Snow Bike Mike]

Just like y'all are about to do right now. These boys and Nick are about to hop in the lab and play some Marvel Rivals. So go check that out. If you're on Twitch, you can stay right where you are. If you're on YouTube, you're going to need to make the jump. But guess what? We actually aren't done with this episode. Our boy Xanth, our ARPG man here at Kind of Funny has an update on his time with path of exile 2. So we're going to leave you with a a short little, I think it's about six minute video of him talking about his updated thoughts. And right after that, this episode will end. But we appreciate you all for hanging out. Stay tuned for some more Xanth till next time. Love you all.

[Xanth]

Goodbye, ladies, gentlemen and en bees, welcome to the Podcast Within a podcast covering all the latest and greatest in all things ARPGs. Condense into a tight five that we're calling arbitime or ARP ARBG time. I am your host, Xanth, and let's get on with it. Path of Exile 2 Early Access releases today and I had the opportunity to get hands on for about the past week to review. And unlike some people, I did manage to keep my mouth shut about it on the kind of funny scale. And it is early access and there's a lot left to be discovered. This is still a 10 out of 10 masterpiece with only six classes, two ascendancies for each class, giving us, you know, essentially 12 classes. Some of the items have yet to be introduced into the game, some of the skills have yet to be introduced into the game. This is still the greatest ARPG I have ever played and if it were to release in this form, barring all those other things they never make it in, I would be content to play this version for years, full stop. Well, let's talk about why. First and foremost, the story in arpg, it is not a big deal if you have a great story, but it helps. And I found myself at the end of the story portion wanting more, wanting to know where we were going next and why. And that is a nice example of good storytelling within the genre. Often you just kind of want to rush through. I kind of expected that with the pace at which I was trying to push through all the content, but the story itself was still engaging. I wanted to keep going with it. Visually, the game looks amazing, even if you're running on a very crummy PC because you only got access to a PC version. If I go back to when we were in LA running on a top line PC, it was even better and I look forward to dropping it into my PlayStation the second I can until I'm able to upgrade this beast. Where an ARPG truly shines though, is not as much on the polish side, on the on just the razzle dazzle graphics if you have it, it's in the skills, it's in the systems, it's in the fun. I didn't find myself chasing fun in this game. It was all around me. I could sit there for 20, 30 minutes messing with skills, messing with my skill tree, trying to make it work, and never feel disappointed. I did find points of inflection during this game, points of resistance where I was struggling with a boss, several bosses, you'll see. But at no point did I ever feel like it was unfair. I would go back to my tree, I could go back to older areas. Every time I go back to an old area, it was generating A brand new map for me to explore, to find new things. So even if I was retreading something I had done before, I was still experiencing it in a different way, which made that process of making and creating this character more exciting. Speaking of Which, I spent 48 hours in the past eight days playing this game. Don't do the math, please. And I only played one character and one ascendancy. I spent all of that time playing a sorceress, and I specked into becoming a chronomancer because the thought of stopping time sounded so cool. But as I was doing it, I also had major FOMO becoming a mercenary or becoming a monk, or perhaps maybe even a witch. Every time I was getting involved in my character, it was also in the back of my head, planning another character for me to go in and play. That's exciting. And to cap it off, there's more to come. There are going to be six more classes. Each one of the classes will have three actual ascendancies, which brings the grand total to 24 missing classes in the game that will be introduced in the next six months. That's on top of more skills, that's on top of more items, and three additional acts that you won't experience in early access at the moment. As I said earlier, this is the greatest ARPG I have played, and it's only going to get better. My recommendation, the servers might be a bit of a mess today, but go out, get in and tell me what you think, and I'll be back, maybe in a longer form once we've all had a chance to play, to really dig into this. In the meantime, this is Xanth, and this has been Aarbid Shine.