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Blessing Adeoye Jr.
This episode is brought to you by LifeLock. Between two factor authentication, strong passwords, and a VPN, you try to be in control of how your info is protected. But many other places also have it, and they might not be as careful. That's why Lifelock monitors hundreds of millions of data points a second for threats. If your identity is stolen, they'll fix it, guaranteed, or your money back. Save up to 40% your first year. Visit lifelock.com podcast for 40% off terms apply Foreign yo, what's up? Welcome to Kind of Funny Games cast for Tuesday, June 3, 2025. Your second kind of funny Games Cast for the day. I'm one of your hosts, Blessing Adioa Jr. Joining me is the nitro rifle, Andy Cortez.
Andy Cortez
Hey, bless.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
How's it going? Good afternoon. Nice to see you again.
Andy Cortez
Good afternoon. How was your lunch?
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Dude, I scarfed that down real quick. Yeah, real, real quick. I had another hand roll as I do. I've been on a run of hand rol and handles.
Andy Cortez
When you think about it, very similar to ice cream.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Very similar to ice cream. When you think about because they're like a cone shape and then like, you know, like the seaweed plate paper they use to wrap it is like a cone and then like the rice and fish they have inside is like the ice cream.
Andy Cortez
I think everybody has thought that once in their life.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I think everybody has been saying that.
Andy Cortez
They go, yeah, you know what? You're right.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Everybody's been thinking that.
Andy Cortez
I'm listening. You're right.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I'm the one who says that.
Andy Cortez
Yeah. Yeah.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Remember, this is the Kind of Funny Games Cast. Each and every weekday we get together and talk about the biggest reviews, previews and topics and in video games live on YouTube, Twitch and on podcast services around the globe. If you love what we do, support us with the Kind of Funny membership on Patreon, 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 a part of the show, submit your thoughts and opinions as YouTube super chats as we go. Some housekeeping for you. It's a big old week. We're throwing a Switch to launch party this Wednesday. Going into Thursday morning, tune in as we pick up on unbox and play our Switch Twos for the very first time. Barrett, if you can bring up this Blue sky post because it's just been announced in the previous Gamescast that Greg and Tim will be going to the Nintendo Store and streaming live from there. We're getting started. It doesn't say the time. Does it say the time? It doesn't say the time. I'm going to say seven. Something is when we're going live with that. So tune in, hang out with the folks that are going to be in the studio, and then the folks that are going to be at the Nintendo store. I want to come through. Here's the thing. Nobody wants to invite me to the Nighttime Stream, but I'm going to come through. All right.
Andy Cortez
Oh, I invited myself on there because I'm like, I don't got anything going on.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I was. I wasn't on the meet in the meeting. So I'm pretty sure. Whose fault was that blessing? Greg's for sending me to la. So I'm pretty sure it was mentioned that anybody can come through, but I'm just going to, you know. Oh, yeah, I'm going to throw blame.
Andy Cortez
That's what it is.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
But I wasn't invited. I'm going to come. I'm going to come through anyway.
Andy Cortez
We're all dressing up.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I'm going to dress up. I'm going to wear a mask. Because surely Snow White Mike will still be fucking sick.
Andy Cortez
Of course, if he's still sick, we're sending him home.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
And then it'll be me. It'll be me and Roger playing Mario Kart World.
Andy Cortez
Well, no, I'm gonna.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
The way that I planned it. Just me and Roger playing Mario Kart World.
Andy Cortez
I'm the one who forced myself into it.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Can I. Can I be honest?
Andy Cortez
Yeah.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I got volleyball tomorrow night.
Andy Cortez
God damn it.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I got volleyball tomorrow.
Andy Cortez
You can't do that.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
But, like, I. I missed the last two volleyballs. It's a new season. I've not shown up once yet.
Andy Cortez
You can't do that.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I'm the captain. I got to show up to volleyball at least once.
Andy Cortez
That's like. That's like saying I have. I have volleyball practice, like, on Christmas Eve. You can't do that.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
What's up, Roger? I just want to admit something to you, Andy, about the graphic. I changed the graphic because you bullied me. You made fun of me, so I got embarrassed. So I changed the graphic and I got sad and I was like. I liked all the warped text that was on every single text.
Andy Cortez
It wasn't enough.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I think there should have been more warping. Like, just warp the top. Ye top text. That's there, too.
Andy Cortez
I think he was going for. You guys are mean. It wasn't meant to bully. I was like, I like the concept of, like, it looks Like a nightclub kind of flyer, you know, I get it.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah. But it also, well, love graphic design.
Andy Cortez
What it, what I read as. I read it as like he learned he watched a YouTube tutorial and was like let me apply this to all the assets.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah. And like you know what?
Andy Cortez
I think it looked great.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I think it looked cool too. But that's happening. Switch to launch party tomorrow. Tune in, don't be late. Of course. Remember we're an 11 person business. All about live talk shows. You already had KHD about PlayStation's data play predictions and a different Gamescast breaking down our Xbox showcase predictions. If you're a kind of funny member. Snow Mike. Mike goes big with this month's Patreon exclusive poster made by the incredible panda Musk Tread the Narnar is what it says on Patreon before the month ends. It's a really cool looking art.
Andy Cortez
Beautiful Panama, so talented.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Great art style. I don't like saying shred the Narnar out loud. Today's Greg Way is Greg's review of the Rog Ally X so far. Thank you to our Patreon producers, Karl Jacobs, Omega Buster and Delaney Twining. Today we're brought to you by xreal, but we'll tell you about that later. For now, let's start with topic of the show. The topic of the show is a spin off of a KFGD story that didn't happen. So me and Tim, right, we sit down for KFGD, we start doing the show, we talk about our PlayStation predictions and then we move to story number two. But before we move to story number two, we went to Adbrick and we had a conversation, a really real conversation about how big this story is because the Witcher 4 had a big old presentation at the Unreal Engine 5 event that went down this morning.
Andy Cortez
Part of Summer Game Festival.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Part of summer.
Andy Cortez
It's part of the week when I open up the Summer Game Fest website which by the way, Summer Game Fest has a weird website. I don't think I like it.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Barry pulled up Summer Game Fest website.
Andy Cortez
I don't think I like it. The, the icons reminded me of like 2009 iOS, maybe 2011 iOS. It's just something about the summer games website. I don't. Is it summer game fest.com summer game fest.com it doesn't. Oh. That's why it feels generally put in Summer Games Festival. It feels like a website that is unofficial, that a fan made.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
It looks like it's optimized for mobile.
Andy Cortez
When you scroll down. Well, I Mean, those graphics look good, but like, I don't. I don't know.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
It does look like an iOS thing.
Andy Cortez
It's interesting. Yeah, it's interesting.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah.
Andy Cortez
But anyway, that's where I saw that the Witcher thing was going to be there, which was kind of surprising.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
So I was making. I was talking to some people about this, right? About how when Summer Game Fest first hit the scene, it was Geoff Keighley making a calendar and essentially claiming every other showcase as being part of Summer Game Fest. I didn't know he was still doing that. Any new show, because, like, the PlayStation State of Play, they're not talking to Jeff and being like, we're part of your Summer Game Fest. Right. Or are they. Am I, am I underrating the amount of effort and like.
Andy Cortez
Yeah, I don't know. I got to assume that, you know, I mean, it's a smart call, you know, to see all these showcases and go, yeah, it's all one big festival. It's all, it's all one big thing.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I mean, I do like the fact I didn't know this calendar was here. I do like the fact that it organizes all this because I actually really did need this.
Andy Cortez
Yeah. Add to calendar. Look at a little add to calendar button.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
So shout out to Jeff for doing this.
Andy Cortez
And even better, you know, it's only. It's a. It's a mutually benefiting sort of relationship.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I'm sure these, it's all just promotion.
Andy Cortez
I'm sure these places aren't bummed that, you know, they're getting their, their image sort of shown there.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Because my question is if Kind of funny announced a game showcase for Monday, do like, if we refresh this page, does it just show up without us even talking to Jeff?
Andy Cortez
Well, I don't think Jeff likes Snowbug Mike. Maybe that's sort of. Those are engineered. I'm kidding.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I'm kidding. So anyway. Yeah, well. So wait, this is on the website the Witcher 4.
Andy Cortez
Yes, it's the first thing.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Oh, State of Unreal. There you go. Okay, cool. Well, the State of unreal happened at 6:30am Pacific time, according to the schedule. And as part of the State of Unreal cd, Projekt Red showed up and they showed a lot of the Witcher 4. I have an article that I want to read through, but before I read through it, I want to start off with a cinematic that they showed, a two minute cinematic that they showed for the Witcher 4 to kind of set the tone and talk about that before we get into the nitty Gritty details about the tech at work in the Witcher 4. Because that is what the topic of the show is for this show. And is the tech at work going on in there.
Andy Cortez
But I would love that. I haven't seen it yet.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Barrett, if you can pull up the cinematic trailer so we can live react to it.
Andy Cortez
Sleep. Is he the plowing plonker? Break me pearlies on this blasted pit ridden tract. Fight.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
The devil's out.
Andy Cortez
Oh, Jesus.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Oh, somebody's got him jailed. Ripped out of the car.
Andy Cortez
Audio listeners. A man was ripped from the vehicle.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Ripped from the vehicle. And it looks like the vehicle there and the carriage there is being carried by a monster.
Andy Cortez
Watch on my laptop. I synced it up time wise.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
That looks like a griffin.
Andy Cortez
Things don't be. Oh, things aren't working out for him. It's very disgusting looking.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah. What would you call that creature?
Andy Cortez
I don't even know.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Is that a Griff?
Andy Cortez
I don't think it was. It doesn't look like it had the mouth of like an orc.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Wyvern's the big bat looking things.
Andy Cortez
It looks like a big bat. No, Wyvern's a dragon. That doesn't have.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Right. Yeah. Right.
Andy Cortez
Yeah.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Where?
Andy Cortez
It's awesome. Man. That looks.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Everybody in chat is saying Manticore.
Andy Cortez
Holy cow.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
We got Siri on screen. Almost have me fooled through it. God damn. Then we get a quick scene.
Andy Cortez
I will say unfortunate that whatever this trailer was reposted by IGN is a 1080p enhanced to bit rate. I'm not sure if the OG stream was in 4k at all, but I would hope so.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
This.
Andy Cortez
This longer video that we have directly.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
From the Witcher YouTube page does go up to 4K.
Andy Cortez
Nice.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
There we go.
Andy Cortez
We didn't. We weren't sure where this was in that video so we just decided to react to this even better. I mean, look stunning. One thing I will say just sort of first impressions and reactions from it is if you bring back up the footage just on these two NPCs. Barrett, for the little of Witcher 3 I've played, it's still like my biggest gaming sin is that I only put like five or six hours into surprises me. And that was as of recently, like when it came back as remaster when they sort of, you know, did the. The port like the enhanced version. Yeah, that's when I sort of hopped into it. And I think initially my big worries about CD Projekt Red moving to Unreal and losing the red engine was that you worry about things becoming very Homogeneous. You worry about things sort of looking samey. The whole future seems to be like it's always going to be Unreal Engine 5. And there's a lot of positives and negatives to that, I think. Positives. It helps out great for employees and co workers and games to get done quicker because you're bringing in employees that don't have to learn a new engine because the last two games they worked on were on Unreal Engine 5 as well. And like that just helps speed up the process a bit more. But my worries have been calmed a little bit because still looking at the way these characters look, obviously they're not only calm because the game looks amazing, but it still looks very witcher. These NPCs still look like they've been kind of ripped out from the Witcher 3 game and just up resed and made to look better with lighting and everything. There's still something about the look of it that feels right. You know, I, I, I think whenever I think of whenever indie games show off that they are working In Unreal Engine 5, it always kind of has the same sort of look. But you discount the fact that larger teams can customize this out of Unreal Engine 5 and push tech further in certain areas. The game looks really damn stunning. And the fact that they're saying it's.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
PS5, that's the thing is, and we're watching the cinematic, right? And we're after this bear is going to bring up some of the actual, I wanted, I was going to say actual gameplay, but they did come around and say that it's, this is, it's essentially gameplay running in the same like engine as the Witcher 4. But it's not straight, it's not straight up Witcher 4 gameplay. I have a different article that I'll find and pull up in a second to kind of clarify that. Right. But like as we watch this cinematic, my first blush is, yeah, this looks fantastic. And I think to hop off of what you're saying as far as them hopping to this new engine, I think it's very key that they are very clearly partnered with Epic in Unreal Engine 5. And this is sort of the showcase game for the engine because like that means that they're talking and they're working together very closely. And I think that is exactly what you want. One of the things that I'll say about Cyberpunk 2077, as far as one of my favorite things about it is how that game looks both stylistically but then also like how the technology Pulls the style together. When I'm walking through Night City and I see the lights and I see the way the characters move in anime and I see like, how much they have going on in that world, there's a distinct style there. Even when I go back and play the Witcher 3, which 2015 game. And so when I played in 2024 or whatever, like, you know, there is a sense of, all right, I can tell that this looks a little bit old. There is still a sense of style and a sense of intention and walking through the forests and seeing how the lights come through the trees. And like, I think there has been something special that CD Projekt's been able to do and maintain with the visuals of their games within the red engine. But making the shift to Unreal Engine 5, the thing that you would hope the most is that you're still getting like that top tier. No, we're putting everything into how this is gonna present and how we're gonna implement the technology to make the facial animations look good, make the lighting look great, make the amount of textures going on in the backgrounds and all that stuff great, make the foliage feel full, all that stuff. And I'm happy that they're working this closely with Epic with whatever this partnership is to make it happen. Because as we're watching the gameplay demo start here, this looks insane. And of course it's a tech demo. You know, the game is still years out. This is a showcase and so like, who knows how this is going to differ from the final thing. I do love this as a presentation for what they're doing because as they go into this, they talk about like, how they've gotten the foliage to this level, right? Like what they're doing with crowds and stuff. I do have an article that I want to read from Polygon to give some context to this. Titled the Witcher 4 has been shown running on PS5 in stunning new demo footage. This is written by Isaac Rouse at Polygon. At the State of Unreal 2025, CD Projekt RED unveiled an impressive new tech demo for the Witcher 4, highlighting its cutting edge graphics, immersive world design, and the debut of nanite foliage which dramatically enhances the realism of natural environments. We're introduced to Kelpie series horse companion, a sleek black stallion with a red saddle that matches her red and black attire while riding. The upgraded physics engine is on full display. Kelpie's body moves with realistic weight and individual muscles are visibly flexing as she gallops, adding an impressive layer of authenticity. If you're watching the video version, they're about to show it in a second. And one of my favorite parts, where they zoom into the horse's legs and actually show the muscles as they're going to kind of show, like, the level of detail they're putting in to make sure the horse feels real and natural. Continuing on with the article. Oh, here it is. The horse is running.
Andy Cortez
Look at the muscles.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Look at the muscles. God, this is insane. And then they. Yeah. Show the actual anatomical muscles.
Andy Cortez
Yeah, they show, like, the musculature underneath the skin. And that's. It's not just. It's not just artists and designers, you know, pushing pixels in certain ways, not to discount that, but a lot of it is like, no, we want these things to be as accurate as possible. And that's why you're seeing those muscle.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Groups flexible to simulate how this actually looks. Continuing on in the article, the camera then pulls back to showcase the surrounding wilderness. Thanks to Unreal Engine 5.6's Nanite foliage. The demo features trees, grass, and plant life rendered with incredibly incredible density, lifelike detail and. And essentially unlimited draw distance. Zooming back in, Ciri arrives at a bustling town. Here, the game's world. The game's world responsiveness shines. In a crowded market, townsfolk gather to watch a performing bear while Ciri weaves through the throng. She bumps into a passerby carrying a crate of apples, prompting him to react and drop a few pieces. Even small details, like being able to seamlessly have your witcher drop a coin to a beggar, add to the world's interactivity and depth. Andy, how do you react to what you're seeing here?
Andy Cortez
I mean, it's, you know, everything. This hustling and bustling town, seeing all of the nanite tech working on the foliage earlier was really, really damn cool. You know, we talked about this on the prior gamescast where, you know, we were all really stunned by the cyberpunk footage. Yeah, that one year. And then kind of figure out exactly what was going on there. And you go, all right, we've, you know, we've been down this road before. I've. I've. You know, I've been lied to before. I've been, you know, tricked before. And I. It still blows me away that this is running on a PS5 with the level of fidelity that we're getting. And I think a lot of my judges will have to be reserved for the inevitable digital foundry breakdown to see exactly what sort of pixels are being pushed and or what sort of count, pixel count we're actually looking at. Because if It's a normal PS5, that means that we're not getting any sort of up resin technology necessarily being used a whole lot.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah. And they don't have the, the pss.
Andy Cortez
They don't got that pisser.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
They don't have the pisser in there.
Andy Cortez
I mean it's, it's stunning. It's super impressive and I think the level of crowds that they were able to get to make these worlds feel super like just really, really natural and these little random events happening again. I this isn't necessarily even gameplay though, right? This is just like so the update.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
That VGC got from got from CD Projekt Red VGC writes CD Projekt Red has confirmed to VGC that what was shown wasn't Witcher 4 gameplay but but a tech demo set in the Witcher 4 world. QUOTE this is a tech demo and a first look at the cutting edge technology powering the Witcher 4, but not the Witcher 4 itself. A spokesperson said to VGC it showcases powerful foundation, the powerful foundation we're building in close collaboration with Epic Games to push open world design further than ever before and the core systems and features we're developing using Unreal Engine 5. We're really proud of this early milestone and excited to give you a sneak peek at some of the cool tech like UAF nanite foliage, smart objects, ML deformer and fast GEO streaming that are helping shape the future of the Witcher.
Andy Cortez
These, the facial reactions and mocapping and everything looks so freaking impressive and I can't wait to watch and break more of it down.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Blessing yes, After a word from our.
C
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Blessing Adeoye Jr.
And we're back. And I want to bring in a super chat from Guitar Hero Arrow, who writes in and says, I haven't felt this way about a gameplay tease slash reveal since RDR2. This looks incredible. I'm gonna lose myself in this game. And I think for me, I want to start there because I think you give really, really good context as far as where we're at around this time before Cyberpunk 2077 came out. As far as like, you know, impressions that we got from footage before the game came out, promises that were made. And then the game comes out and it's a mess, right? And like we get that all the time with games that target a certain thing or at least they reveal like, oh, this is the technology we're working with. This is the target that we're trying to hit. And then the thing comes out and we're like, okay, well, we're not anywhere close to that. I think what I want to bring to the conversation are games like GTA 6 and then also Death Training 2, which is one of the games that I got to preview recently. And I talked about how good that game looks and how like, even On a base PS5, there are certain things that are being hit that I'm like, I'm. I can't believe what I'm looking at. I can't believe how good, like how detailed and good these games, these environments, these characters look with Unreal Engine 5. Andy, like, do you look at the, at the footage we're seeing with the Witcher 4 and go, ain't no way or is it more so just a thing of like trying to get ahead of the hype cycle?
Andy Cortez
I only say that just because I, you know, I'm constantly kind of a pessimist when it comes to these things. But then I get hyped and you know, and then you get excited at what the possibilities can be. But I know that I know of several devs and have seen other devs mention, you know, when the PS5 Pro was sort of being released, people saying, people that work in the industry and that have been there for years and years and years ago, we haven't even fully unlocked what we can do with the PS5. Like we're just kind of now getting to that point. And that does give me hope. And I also, maybe I'm putting misplaced trust where it shouldn't, where it doesn't deserve to be. But I believe that. CD Projekt Red, first off, I think that they're very smart by saying, hey, this isn't, this isn't gameplay.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
This is a tech demo running in the world.
Andy Cortez
This is a tech demo running in the world that does not represent, we're hoping this could represent what it could be. Right? And that's all sort of pie in the sky. If everything works out perfectly. It does. To me at least. If I were to put my money on it, I would say that what we're seeing is all real and all possible because I think we're getting to that point where with enough time, with development, these devs and these teams can slowly kind of unlock what the PS5 and what this generation can actually do. And then it will only look better from there. Where then you talk about not only just ray trace reflections, but now we talk path tracing, now we talk the real, real high limit of you have a $2,500 or a $3,000 PC, this is how it's gonna look on a 50, 90 or whatever. I do think that what we're seeing here looks really, really damn good. And I believe that it's running on PS5 and I think that once we hopefully get whatever the next Xbox could possibly be, because this is clear that this is gonna be some sort of cross generation type game.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Oh yeah, I wouldn't be surprised.
Andy Cortez
Yes. And then, and then we'll see it kind of running at where, you know, at its actual full potential. But I mean, even right now, not the best example, but when you're on console and you run into a building in Fortnite and it's using Unreal Engine 5 and it's using its Lumen system and all of the bells and whistles that Unreal Engine kind of has right now, it's like, damn, this is running on console. And it's really kind of impressive looking already. And I think Unreal Engine 5 is getting better and better about making amazing things run more efficiently and lighter weight, you know.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah, I think I remember. This is another one for the decimal engine example that Desk Training two runs on but like playing. Did you ever check out the Horizon DLC Burning Shores?
Andy Cortez
No, I did not.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
So that DLC chat, correct me if I'm wrong, I believe was PS5 exclusive. Whereas like the actual game was PS4. PS5. Okay. And the like facial animations in, in Horizon Burning Shores were off the chain in a way that again, I could not believe. Like when you mentioned some developers even mentioned that like we're not even unlocked what we could do on PS5 yet. I'm. I feel like we're starting to see more and more of those hints of like, oh shit, yeah, no, there's a lot of potential here, here left for what you can do. And so when you combine that with The Unreal Engine 5 aspect of it and like it making it easier to do things, what they talk about with the, the foliage system that they have here. So in like even the most, the horse muscle system, which I'm sure translates to humans as well.
Andy Cortez
Yeah, oh, definitely.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah, yeah. Like when you talk about those things and like the things that maybe an animator might not have to think about as much when it's, okay, cool, I can make my horse run or I can make my humans move a bit more naturally because the systems already exist in the game to like have their muscles move in certain ways. Cool. Now I can focus more on this other aspect and like these games are going to look better naturally and a bit easier, which is really exciting for hopefully getting to this level someday.
Andy Cortez
And it all comes down to time. And whenever we look at devs with little time making games on hardware that's maybe underpowered, you think of how the constant comparisons between something like Tears of the Kingdom compared to Pokemon Scarlet and Violet.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah.
Andy Cortez
And one game is a game that's clearly a game that was rushed as hell. And that's why it looks the way it does because you don't fully have the time to optimize and make the most out of what we can show people without it running at five frames per second. So you're gonna get what you get right now. And yes, it's running at 26 frames per second and you're kind of lucky it's running at 26 frames per second because we, we just didn't have time to fully, fully go through with it. And I think CD Projekt Red, a lot of those, I love this sort of look by the way of like exactly what's happening.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah.
Andy Cortez
For audio list as we're seeing the, the trees and the nanite tech on these individual leaves, they kind of reduce.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Them down to voxels and then show how they kind of then expand out to full foliage.
Andy Cortez
So damn impressive. But yeah, I think a lot of this comes down to time and those lessons learned with cyberpunk.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah.
Andy Cortez
And how the behind the scenes footage on or. Or behind the scenes murmurings from people at on the dev team going when they said that we were releasing the game on this time, we all just laughed and we were like yeah, fucking right dude. This is not ready. We are at least a year out or whatever. And I think another great thing about this being On Unreal Engine 5, as somebody who doesn't want everybody to everything to be on Unreal Engine 5, I still see all the positives. And one of those positives comes from the CD Projekt Red sort of actual write up article on their website which is just announcing what they were going to show here today. But we get a quote from joint CEO of CD Projekt Red Michael Nowakowski who says we started our partnership with Epic Games to push open world game technology forward to show this early look at the work we've been doing using Unreal Engine. Running at 60 frames per second on PlayStation 5 is a significant milestone and a testament of the great cooperation between our teams. But we're far from finished. I look forward to seeing more advancements and inspiring technology from this partnership and as development of Witcher 4 on Unreal Engine 5 continues. And then we get another quote from Tim Sweeney at Epic Games who says CD Projekt Red is one of the industry's best open world game studios. And we're grateful that they're working with us to push Unreal Engine forward with the Witcher 4. They are the perfect partners to help us develop new world building features that we can share with all Unreal Engine developers. And that's the stuff that I love. And I totally still feel like I don't want every game to be on Unreal in the future. But then I see the benefits of look at the tech that we're building and the tech that can be shared with other developers that are making their stuff in Unreal Engine 4 and the teams of 20 that go, man, if we could afford a team 100, we could maybe do that. All these tools being implemented and developed can kind of make those things possible for smaller teams.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Especially when you have a game that is as big as the Witcher, doing it right, like, coming off of having their own engine and having experience with, like, open worlds and wanting to make worlds that are demanding of what they are, you want an engine that can meet that demand. And so, yeah, having the Witcher 4 be the one to kind of lead this charge it. I keep bringing up Decima, but it's just the easy example to give, right? Of, like, that's a collaboration between two developers, right? That was Guerrilla Games and then Kojima Productions came to them and now they have like, a back and forth shared synergy of like, oh, what if we did this? Oh, if we did this? And like, learning from each other. And therefore, both those games look fantastic when you have the power and money and wealth of epic games right behind Unreal and like, what. What they're already trying to do in Unreal with things like Fortnite and other games. And then you have a. The Witcher 4, which is this world, that one has a lot of popularity, a lot of people care about what C Project Red is working on, but then is a realistic world and one that you want the most fidelity for. You want the most, like, things that work for as far as. Yeah. When we're talking about foliage, we're talking about lighting. When we're talking about the natural, I guess, feel of a crowd. The thing that really hits me in watching this footage is seeing Siri walk into the. Into the town and seeing, like, her slowly take off the hood and then the guard kind of, like, try to, like, you know, get at her or spit at her right there, right? And then, like, they come up off on the bear. That's like performing for this crowd. And everything is happening so naturally. In the Witcher 4 is a game that you would want to figure all that stuff out for and that is then going to trickle down to the other developers that might have ideas for wanting to do these kind of kinds of things. Guess What? Unreal Engine 5 already has maybe, like, I don't know, settings or, like, already has tools in place to make those things happen a bit more naturally.
Andy Cortez
You have the bear dancing tool.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah, I want to make a dance. I want to dance. There's a good portion of people that don't know why that's hilarious.
Andy Cortez
They're gonna be watching Our content now. The drawbacks from this is sort of the drawbacks that we've seen with something like Watchdogs one with that first sort of trailer where everything was. Everything is so wet in that trailer. And you're like, man, look at these, look at these. It is pouring in this city.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Can you bring up the Watch Dogs one trailer? But that trailer changed my life until the game came out.
Andy Cortez
As you're walking through the town as Siri and we see all of these lively interactions. This. This Witcher 4 game better have that in every goddamn town or else people are gonna keep on pointing back and go, yeah, we know it said it was a representative of the game. We know it wasn't the actual play. But look at what it could have been. You know what I mean? And look at this shiny ass concrete, man. There's specularity maps on the water. Oh screen also.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
It's crazy how much this blew my mind in 2013, dude.
Andy Cortez
It was crazy.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
2013. I was like, this is the craziest of all time.
Andy Cortez
This is directly from you Ubisoft. So this is like the. The best version I can find.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
We've come so far.
Andy Cortez
Yeah, we definitely come.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
This looks so much.
Andy Cortez
I was in art school when this dropped and all of us just like stopped. Classic. We were like, put that on the screen. This is crazy.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
No joke. I'm watching this right now and I'm like, you're telling me the game looked worse than this? That's crazy. Supposed to look like dog.
Andy Cortez
But yeah, when I see this video, and obviously this video is cure. It's the most vertical slice of a vertical slice you could have, right? Cuz it's not even a vertical slice of the game. It's a vertical slice of a demo that we're showing you what the game could look like.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
But like it's tough to imagine. Like an actual open world, right? Like an actual open world. The Witcher 4 video game that is interactive and doing all these things.
Andy Cortez
How many times are we gonna see a guy bump into Syrian, drop an apple? Is what I'm kind of getting at.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
How many times are we gonna see a dancing?
Andy Cortez
Dancing Turns out in one night. You can see multiple depending on the quality. Like the facial animations look freaking fantastic. And there's also a quote that I got from. From somebody had asked one of the developers a question. This is from Kotaku. A spokesperson for CD Projekt Red told Kotaku that the only changes were made to Siri in the new trailer or that only two changes were made to Siri in the new trailer, one of which has already been changed. Again, it's the same character model we use at the 2024 trailer. Series face has a direct copy of the Witcher 3 model adapted to work with the latest metahuman technology. And two subtle changes were made to improve animation quality. Slightly raised eyebrows, more relaxed eye area and the lat was present in the trailer but has since been removed. But metahuman technology being one of those key things that is a part of the Unreal Engine. Yeah, that is one of the things that they. Oh shit. Is one of the things that they really focus on in addition to nanite, in addition to lumen, lighting technology in addition to. Well, I guess nanite was the other one I was thinking of. But like metahuman being this easy, amazing way for developers to get really good variety with characters and facial animation and all that stuff. Just. It really, really excites me for what the future of gaming could look like with smaller teams taking on Unreal Engine 5 and using this suite of technology that would have otherwise been crazy expensive to develop or would have otherwise been impossible because you don't got the budget for it, you know.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah. I want to bring in a super chat from Gerald of Rivia. Very fitting for this episode. Name what mechanics do you think the tech and UE5 could inspire or improve upon for the game?
Andy Cortez
What I ultimately hope to see is what they're doing over on the. I'm blanking on the name of the engine, but it's for the Crimson Desert game.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Oh yeah.
Andy Cortez
It's for their in house engine. What I'm hoping to see is a lot of gameplay mechanics surrounding not just Levolution but the burning of wood that eventually charged enough and it's able to be broken. That sort of level of interactivity, I think. Yeah. The Black Space engine. Thank you, Barrett. The Black Space Engine is the engine that they have for Black Desert Online and now for Crimson Desert. It's their in house engine. And it's why you look at the tech specs for the game of Crimson Desert and you're like there's no way this game is real. And they go no. All this shit can run on a 2060 or whatever GPU. You don't need the latest hardware because it's all in house, it's all internal and we're not using a bunch of different tools from everywhere. Everything's being sort of made here. I what I want to see, Gerald of Rivia is the. The gameplay of interactivity of not just Cool visuals and a million billion particles on the screen. I want to see a, a moment where, you know, I, I, if I'm using a fire spell, I see that fabric on the top right. Start to slowly burn or, and that's just not for visual sake. That's for also, you know, maybe that thing falls down and now that's usable or something like that. I want to see these tangible gameplay. Yeah. These tangible in world items be interactive.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah. That's something that I've not seen talked about as much. Granted I have not watched the full video yet. We didn't have time before this. But like, yeah, that's the stuff I want to see more. Like I don't really from hearing how much they're putting at the forefront of this, the nanite technology, the metahuman stuff. And then there was a third keyword but like lumen. Lumen. Thank you. The lighting stuff there. Right. Like none of that really for me has effects on gameplay. That stuff all has effect on visuals and how the world looks and how alive the world feels, which I think is very important for the Witcher 4.
Andy Cortez
Right.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Or for the Witcher as a, the kind of game that it is. But yeah, I would love to see them talk about that stuff more as far as what you're mentioning with, with the Black Space Engine, because that's the stuff that really gets me excited. Even though I don't see the Witcher as the kind of game that might be as, I don't say, I don't want to say as interactive because it's the most interactive you can get. But like, I don't see it being as, I guess systems heavy in the gameplay as far as like what I think about, when I think about what Crimson Desert is presenting itself as being.
Andy Cortez
Or even something like, you know, the kingdom.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah. Breath of Wild was going to be the reference I made also as far as like how physics interact for you to, to get these unique and interesting situations.
Andy Cortez
A lightning spell allowing water to use that lightning. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, a lightning bolt at a lake and see things, enemies in there get shot. You know, that's, there's like environmental stuff.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
There's a clip that I remember taking from Breath of the Wild that I think is lost now. When I lost my switch, it was saved to that switch, but.
Andy Cortez
Oh, the one, the airplane.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
The one in the airplane. Yeah. It's fucked up.
Andy Cortez
Did you replace with an oled?
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah, well, I think the one that I lost was an oled and then I bought another oled. I know, but yeah, in there I had a clip of like myself doing like one of those challenge rooms that they added in DLC and what I was fighting some enemies and I use like a heat or like a fire arrow and then the grass, like the tall grass caught on fire and then created an updraft. And so I got like, I use my glider to like get height off of the updraft and then busted on my arrow and then went to slow motion. I took on an enemy and I was like, this is the coolest shit I've ever done in any video game. And it is thanks to the physics systems that are available in tears. I want more video games to do that kind of shit.
Andy Cortez
That's that shit.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
That's that. That's that shit that I love.
Andy Cortez
If you were able to look back at the game that came out I think earlier in the year, I can't believe I'm already here with the year 2025 where this happens everywhere. You're like, wait, that came out this year. Eternal Strands was come out early in the year was game by Mike Laidlaw's team. And that was very Breath of the Wild light in what it was trying to do with being a primarily physics based video game. I want like a very physics based systems heavy Witcher game. You know, I don't want it to be one for one with just only just slack hash and slap hack and slash. But freeze. But like the fact that in this game you can use your ice power to not only just freeze enemies, but if I'm between two parts shooting out ice and then using that as a bridge to cross two areas like it. Yeah, that's a type of, of of like magic that I see is like, wow, I can't believe that's possible.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
And I guess that become circles back into an answer for GE of Rivia. Which is like a big part of Witcher is hunting down creatures and tracking them and like taking them down. And I think there is potential right of like you have so much detail. What are the things that you can do a bit more naturally in the world to make hunting. To make this almost feel like a hunting sim in some ways of like, okay, I am tracking these grip these griffin. I'll say Griffin footsteps. But I guess the griffin would fly. We'll do a. They do land or walk around sometimes I'm chasing a cyclops. I'll say Cyclops. They have to walk.
Andy Cortez
This is the pidgey conversation in our Pokemon Nuzlocke of going like the Pidgey's on the ground. It's got to be a ground type.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Jesus Christ. Use a earthquake ground. Take out a pidgey. But yeah, like, if I can follow the actual steps of a thing and like, if you can use the detail available in the game to make that stuff feel a bit more like permanent and like, I guess exaggerated a bit so I can like actually feel like I'm really hunting a thing down instead of like the highlight button to then like follow like the Batman scan vision type thing that you get in most games.
Andy Cortez
I love the idea of not pre placed footprints or footsteps, but in a similar way to when you, when there's foot deformation and snow. That first time you saw it in red Dead Redemption 2 and you're like, whoa, look at. You know, if you were to actually see real time displacement in the ground, in mud.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yes.
Andy Cortez
Where you see the footprint of something and it isn't just a, you know, an icon that pops up with a little exclamation point says, oh, there's probably footsteps right here. If you could see that in real time and it lead to these, you know, the, these sort of moments in gaming that you have in Red Dead 2 where suddenly you're being attacked by a legendary beast and it catches you super off guard, that would be really, really damn awesome.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
And like the stuff that we're talking about with like fire and how that interacts with colder things now, like, I think there are ways you can use that for the world of the Witcher 4 for hunting specifically, because that feels a bit more appropriate. But at the end of the day, right, the Witcher 4 has to be what the Witcher 4, the Witcher is as a video game, which is narrative based. Get into combat, you're like, you know, completing quests and all that stuff. Like, I don't necessarily want them to force in physics systems that don't really make the game what it is. But that's what this shit is for, right? These tools are to make the best game that you want to make, make the best Witcher game that you can make here.
Andy Cortez
So it's not even necessarily that I want it to be a core component. I want it to be a result. I'm not. Yeah, I still want Witcher combat to feel good and be using your sword and your pairing and stuff. But if I knock an enemy into a tree, I would love to see the enemy kind of like stagger against that tree and be up. And then the tree eventually breaks down.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Oh yeah.
Andy Cortez
Or and then falls and hits something else, you know. Like, that's one reason why I just love physics, gameplay. And that's probably just me, you know, only talking about the things I love and what I love seeing. But like, Dragon's Dogma 2 was so much fun because of the random moments of drop kicking a little orc and him falling back and hitting his orc friend and they both fall down. Like, I just love that sort of level of interactivity.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
That's when the world feels reactive.
Andy Cortez
Yeah.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Man, I got some ways I can take this conversation. Also, we're running. I mean, we're not running long, but like we're longer than I thought we were gonna go on this.
Andy Cortez
Yeah.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I'll bring in a super chat real quick from Ca Splitzen who says, which of four Fable 4, Elder Scrolls 6, most hopeful 4. I'm hopeful for all three, if I'm being honest.
Andy Cortez
Yeah, of course.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I think all three are gonna be great. Witcher 4, Fable 4 and Elder Scroll 6.
Andy Cortez
Elder Scroll 6.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I.
Andy Cortez
You know, part of me feels like Elder Scrolls 6 may have the largest room for improvement because we're coming off of Starfield.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Sure.
Andy Cortez
And I, you know, you want to hope that there are lessons learned. You want to hope that there is a larger level of interactivity and maybe we can shoot any NPC and we're not barred from like shooting that one villain because he said something assholish to you and you shoot him and the bullet goes through his head and nothing happens. Like, you hope that there have been lessons learned to where they go. Man, we really need this writing to be so top tier and top notch and we need these NPCs to be so lifelike with how they interact with you. That's the one that I am maybe most hopeful for. Where the other ones, I feel like I'm going to be pretty stoked with them because I kind of know what to expect.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah, yeah. That's my thing is, I think if we're talking about Metacritic wise, like, I think Witcher 4 probably has like the highest. I think Witcher 4 would be the one I would bet on. Even though we are coming off of Cyberpunk. But Cyberpunk got there in the end as far as being a really incredible game.
Andy Cortez
We're also kind of like predicting NBA finals winner for 2026.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah.
Andy Cortez
Like this season isn't even over yet, so it's also kind of hard to get there.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
But yeah, as far as one shot, which one I'm most excited for between Witcher and Elder Scrolls, I'll say Witcher because we're here. It's a Witcher video.
Andy Cortez
So.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah, I'm excited for Witcher today. Ask me tomorrow, it's gonna be Elder Scrolls. My last question for you, Andy. We know that the Witcher 4 is firmly in the production stage because CD Projekt Red, very transparent as far as where they're at working on all their games. They moved from pre production to production for Richer4. After seeing some of the tools we've seen here and what they have. What they have in this tech demo, how do you. When do you think we actually see this game come out? Do you have any guesses?
Andy Cortez
I'll say. Well, the recently going into production thing, was that not Cyberpunk or was that them entering pre production?
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I think they enter. I think they just announced Cyberpunk 2, but I think Witcher 4 went for production like seven months ago or something.
Andy Cortez
Okay. Cyberpunk 2 entered pre production phase. My bad.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah.
Andy Cortez
I would see this game coming out in 2029.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Wow. Damn. I would have said 2028, maybe 2027. 2027 feels like quick, but it's pushing it. But Cyberpunk came out in like 2020.
Andy Cortez
And then they spent a lot of time trying to fix cyber.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah. And doing DLC and doing all that stuff. Yeah.
Andy Cortez
It just depends on the mobility of their teams and who's working on what and what. How they are allocating their people to be working on certain projects.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
You know, I also do wonder, like, the scope of some of these things because they do have like a billion games in production right now, it feels like, because, yeah, they have Cyberpunk 2, but then also they have a Witcher remake that they're working on, I believe, still. Unless they.
Andy Cortez
Is that in house or is that a port?
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
That's a really good question. That's a really good question. I'm not positive.
Andy Cortez
Witcher remake.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Look that up. As I close down this episode, his. Ladies, gentlemen and bees, that brings us to the end of your second gamescast for the day. That's right. You got a KHD and two games cast. You guys are spoiled today. All right, don't ask me for anything ever again. I need y' all to stay out my mentions in my DMs if you ask me for anything.
Andy Cortez
We didn't get to play the Sentry and Pass today. Yeah, but we got to see some cool tech.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
We got to see some cool, cool tech.
Andy Cortez
I'm getting really. Man, I. I made myself Sad by saying 2029.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
You made me sad.
Andy Cortez
I'm sorry, man.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I mean, I get that you're being like, you're being safe about it. I say 2028.
Andy Cortez
I mean it was eight years between the first cyberpunk reveal and the game coming out.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah.
Andy Cortez
Was it seven years?
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
But it was still like from. From Witcher 3 to Cyberpunk, it was like five years.
Andy Cortez
Yeah.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah.
Andy Cortez
Damn. I'm sorry. I bummed everybody out.
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah, you bummed. You bummed me out. Anyway, that's it. That's your games cast. I've been blessing. That's been Andy, support us on Patreon till next time. It's been our pleasure to serve you.
Andy Cortez
And there's no stream after this.
Kinda Funny Gamescast: The Witcher 4 – Breaking Down The NEW Demo
Episode Release Date: June 3, 2025
Hosts: Blessing Adeoye Jr. and Andy Cortez
Podcast Series: Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast
The episode begins with Blessing Adeoye Jr. and Andy Cortez engaging in their usual light-hearted banter. They discuss personal anecdotes, such as Blessing’s recent streak of enjoying hand rolls and Andy’s invitation to join an upcoming live stream event.
Key Announcements:
Notable Quote:
The core of the episode centers around CD Projekt Red’s unveiling of The Witcher 4 tech demo at the Unreal Engine 5 event, part of the Summer Game Festival.
Key Points:
Notable Quotes:
Blessing and Andy delve into the specifics of the demo, praising the stunning visuals and realistic animations.
Highlights:
Notable Quotes:
The hosts engage with their audience through Super Chats, integrating viewer comments into the discussion.
Super Chat Highlights:
Notable Quotes:
Blessing and Andy draw parallels between The Witcher 4’s demo and other notable games, discussing the evolution of game technology and interactivity.
Comparisons:
Notable Quotes:
The discussion shifts to potential gameplay mechanics empowered by Unreal Engine 5’s technology, highlighting the importance of interactivity and realism.
Key Points:
Notable Quotes:
In the closing segments, the hosts speculate on the release timeline for The Witcher 4, considering CD Projekt Red’s current projects and past development cycles.
Predictions:
Notable Quotes:
The episode wraps up with a reflection on the impressive advancements showcased in The Witcher 4 demo and the potential it holds for the future of open-world gaming. The hosts express excitement and optimism about the continued collaboration between CD Projekt Red and Epic Games, anticipating further technological breakthroughs and immersive gameplay experiences.
Final Remarks:
Notable Quotes:
In this episode of the Kinda Funny Gamescast, hosts Blessing Adeoye Jr. and Andy Cortez delve deep into CD Projekt Red’s new tech demo for The Witcher 4, showcased at the Unreal Engine 5 event. They analyze the impressive graphics, realistic animations, and the technological collaboration between CD Projekt Red and Epic Games. Drawing comparisons to previous games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Red Dead Redemption 2, the hosts explore the potential gameplay mechanics enabled by Unreal Engine 5, such as enhanced physics-based interactions and immersive hunting systems. Engaging with their audience through Super Chats, they anticipate the future of open-world gaming and speculate on the game’s release timeline, balancing optimism with realistic expectations based on past development cycles. The episode underscores the excitement surrounding The Witcher 4’s advancements and their implications for the broader gaming industry.