We Played Path of Exile 2 - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Summary

Kinda Funny Gamescast: We Played Path of Exile 2 – Detailed Summary

Release Date: November 22, 2024

Hosts:

• Tim Geddes
• Joey Noel
• Greg “GameOverGreggy” Miller (referred to as Xanth)

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1. Introduction and Episode Overview

In the November 22, 2024 episode of Kinda Funny Gamescast, host Tim Geddes welcomes listeners back to discuss the highly anticipated release of Path of Exile 2. Joined by Joey Noel and longtime Path of Exile expert Greg “Xanth” Miller, the hosts delve deep into the game's features, development history, and what fans can expect from the early access launch slated for December 6th.

2. History and Development of Path of Exile 2

Xanth shares his extensive background with the Path of Exile franchise, highlighting over 13 years of involvement since Path of Exile's inception in 2011. He remarks:

“I've put more hours into Path of Exile than anything. We're talking thousands of hours.” (02:49)

Xanth explains that Path of Exile 2 evolved from the original game's roots in Diablo 2-style action RPG mechanics, aiming to modernize and enhance the experience with improved visuals and deeper gameplay systems.

3. Gameplay Mechanics: Skill Trees and Classes

One of the standout features of Path of Exile 2 is its intricate skill tree system. Unlike previous iterations, the sequel boasts a more intuitive tutorial system and integrated guidance for both new and returning players. Xanth emphasizes:

“Every single class has the same skill tree. All those nodes that you just saw are accessible by every class.” (12:15)

Classes: Early access offers six classes, expanding to twelve upon full release through additional ascendancy options. Each class can further specialize, allowing for a vast array of playstyles and character builds. For instance, a player might start as a Witch and specialize into a Necromancer or Occultist.

4. Story and Cinematics

Path of Exile 2 introduces a more cohesive and engaging storyline, marked by its first-ever cinematic release. Xanth describes the cinematic’s impact:

“This was the first time that GGG had put out a cinematic. ... it was absolutely gorgeous.” (18:05)

The story takes place 20 years after the original game, with the return of a formidable evil in the land of Wraeclast. Players embark on a quest to thwart the resurgence of an Eldritch being, blending rich lore with dynamic storytelling.

5. Early Access Details

Early Access Release Date: December 6th, 2024
Platforms: Windows, PS5, Xbox Series X/S
Cost: $30, which includes 300 in-game currency units and access to Acts 1, 2, and 3, along with a harder difficulty mode for replayability.

Xanth highlights the value proposition:

“If you've spent at least $480 over Path of Exile's life, you will get early access granted to you that way.” (22:11)

Additionally, all microtransaction purchases from the original game seamlessly transfer to Path of Exile 2, enhancing continuity for long-time players.

6. Cosmetics and Microtransactions

The sequel offers a class-agnostic cosmetic system, allowing players to customize their characters with skins, armor sets, and effects that aren't tied to specific classes. Xanth notes:

“Most of the sets are reasonably priced and you can buy them in pieces... they're class agnostic.” (38:43)

This flexibility contrasts with other games like Diablo 4, where cosmetics are often locked to specific classes, providing more value and versatility in customization options.

7. Multiplayer and Co-op Features

Path of Exile 2 supports up to six players in both online and couch co-op modes. Xanth explains the streamlined co-op experience:

“Couch co-op in Path of Exile 2... Person who picks up the controller next to you doesn't even need an account.” (36:22)

This feature encourages spontaneous multiplayer sessions without the need for additional account setups, making the game more accessible for casual and hardcore players alike.

8. Comparative Insights: Diablo and Baldur’s Gate 3

Drawing parallels with other franchises, Xanth compares Path of Exile 2 to Baldur's Gate 3, predicting it could achieve similar breakout success within the ARPG genre. He states:

“Path of Exile 2 is very much like that, you know, Baldur's Gate 3 kind of swept the world by storm because... it had enough going for it that I was open to trying something new.” (27:09)

The combination of deep customization, engaging story, and polished mechanics positions Path of Exile 2 as a strong contender for Game of the Year honors.

9. Combat Mechanics and Boss Fights

Combat in Path of Exile 2 is described as strategic and dynamic, featuring a dodge roll mechanic with a cooldown to prevent spamming, adding depth to combat encounters. Xanth shares his experience battling a boss:

“This fight is very souls-like... trying to feel out the fight. And I'm going to make a mistake eventually and that's what's going to kill me.” (35:44)

With around 100 unique bosses planned for full release, the game promises challenging and varied encounters that require both skill and strategy.

10. Endgame and Mapping System

The endgame introduces an infinite mapping system where players can explore procedurally generated maps with endless directions and difficulty modifiers. Xanth describes it as:

“The end game system is an infinite map. It is an infinite map going all directions... you can constantly be chasing new things in all directions, literally and figuratively.” (30:08)

This system ensures long-term engagement by providing limitless exploration and customization opportunities.

11. Platform and Cross-Progression Issues

While Path of Exile 2 offers robust cross-progression between Xbox and PC, PlayStation users face limitations:

“If you are a dedicated Xbox user, hey, you win... PlayStation is the odd man out.” (55:30)

This discrepancy affects the use of cosmetics across platforms, with Xanth expressing hope for future integration improvements.

12. Final Thoughts and Recommendations

Wrapping up the discussion, Xanth highly recommends Path of Exile 2:

“If you're worried, is it worth it? I would argue 100%. It is worth your time and definitely worth your cash.” (57:57)

He praises the game’s comprehensive early access offering, seamless transfer of previous purchases, and the sheer depth and quality of the new systems introduced.

Tim Geddes concurs, stating:

“I'm betting on the ARPG sickos out there... Tim, he's rolling the dice. I'm betting on the ARPG sickos out there.” (60:45)

The hosts encourage listeners to follow Xanth on social media and express excitement for the game's potential impact on the ARPG landscape.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Xanth on Early Involvement:
  “I've put more hours into Path of Exile than anything. We're talking thousands of hours.” (02:49)

• On Skill Trees:
  “Every single class has the same skill tree. All those nodes that you just saw are accessible by every class.” (12:15)

• On Cosmetics:
  “Most of the sets are reasonably priced and you can buy them in pieces... they're class agnostic.” (38:43)

• Comparing to Baldur’s Gate 3:
  “Path of Exile 2 is very much like that, you know, Baldur's Gate 3 kind of swept the world by storm because... it had enough going for it that I was open to trying something new.” (27:09)

• On Endgame Mapping:
  “The end game system is an infinite map. It is an infinite map going all directions... you can constantly be chasing new things in all directions, literally and figuratively.” (30:08)

• Final Recommendation:
  “If you're worried, is it worth it? I would argue 100%. It is worth your time and definitely worth your cash.” (57:57)

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Conclusion

Kinda Funny Gamescast delivers an in-depth exploration of Path of Exile 2, with expert insights from Xanth and engaging discussions among the hosts. The episode highlights the game's significant advancements in gameplay, customization, and storytelling, positioning it as a must-play for ARPG enthusiasts. With its early access launch approaching, listeners are left with a strong impression of the game's potential to redefine the genre and captivate both new and veteran players alike.

Transcript

[Angie Hicks]

Hi, I'm Angie Hicks, co founder of angie.

[Tim Geddes]

One thing I've learned is that you.

[Xanth]

Buy a house, but you make it a home. And for decades, Angie's helped millions of homeowners hire skilled pros for the projects that matter. Get all your jobs done [e-mail].

[Tim Geddes]

What'S.

[Joey Noel]

Up and welcome back to the Kind of Funny Games cast for Friday, November 22, 2024. Of course, I am your host, Tim Geddes. I'm joined today by it's Christma November, Joey Noel.

[Angie Hicks]

Happy Friday everybody.

[Joey Noel]

The master of Hype Snow Bike Mike.

[Tim Geddes]

Happy Friday Tim, you made it to the end of the week and from.

[Joey Noel]

The Diablo podcast on pure diablo.com but more importantly, kind of funny's Diablo guy, it's Xanth.

[Xanth]

Yay. Happy Friday everybody. And I think after today we may just have to switch it to Kind of Funny's ARPG Guy.

[Joey Noel]

Yeah, yeah, because you're about to teach us some. Today going to talk all about a game called A path of exile 2, which I am incredibly unfamiliar with. So I'm very excited to hear what you have to say about that. Because remember, this is kind of funny. Games Cast each and every weekday we get together to talk about video games, reviews, previews, big topics. We do it all here live on Twitch and YouTube and then later on podcast services around the globe. If you love what we do, please get the Kind of Funny membership. You get the shows ad free. You could watch live as we record them and you get a daily exclusive. Greg Way, you can also be a super cool Patreon producer like Carl Jacobs and Delaney Twining. We appreciate you so very very much. You already got Games Daily. That was Blessing and Gary Witta continuing the conversations about the game awards. And later today you're going to get Mike and Nick dropping back into the war zone, baby.

[Tim Geddes]

Just a couple of jabroni boys. Flying high. We're having a good time.

[Joey Noel]

Got a fly high everyone. Today we're brought to you by Sonic at topgolf Aura Frames and the Visual Triangle merch. But we'll tell you all about that there. Let's get into it. The topic of the show path of exile 2 xanth, you have played it. Path of exile 2 is an upcoming free to play action role playing video game developed and published by Grinding Gear Games. It's a sequel to Path of Exile from 2013. The game is set to be released for Windows PS5, Xbox Series X and S on December 6th as an early access title. Xanth, what is your history with Packs of Exile. What is Path of Exile and what'd you get to do with Paths of Exile 2?

[Xanth]

Okay, so atop a show, we. We just briefly touched on, you know, Diablo podcast. And as a franchise, I've put more hours into Diablo than anything. As a game, I've put more hours into Path of Exile than anything. We're talking thousands.

[Angie Hicks]

Wow.

[Xanth]

Wow. Of hours.

[Joey Noel]

That's crazy.

[Xanth]

It's been out for a long time. Barrett, I sent you an asset. It says CW email if you want to drop that.

[Joey Noel]

Oh, I need to go find that.

[Angie Hicks]

Hold on.

[Xanth]

Sorry. I'll chat. You find it.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah.

[Xanth]

So years ago, I wasn't in the media space. I wasn't putting myself out on camera or on mic, but I was writing articles and I was talking about Diablo, talking about Diablo 3 and Diablo 2, and the head of GGG Grinding Gear Games reached out to me and said, hey, I like your writing. You may want to come and try our game. That was in 2011. So I've been in that Path of exile sphere for 13 years. You're OG with wrong.

[Tim Geddes]

Wow.

[Xanth]

Yeah, I sent this in because I wanted the date. I want people to be like, okay, yeah, he's got Diablo tattoos and he does Diablo podcast. But I. I've been here since the start, people. I. I'm not.

[Tim Geddes]

Wow.

[Xanth]

You know, just jumping ship or anything like that. So it started way back then with this little game from a small group of people out in New Zealand who loved Diablo but were tired of waiting. They were tired of waiting for what Diablo 3 was going to be and eventually become. So they started their own thing. And it very much has its roots in Diablo 2, and it's still up and running and is getting updates to this day.

[Angie Hicks]

That's wild.

[Xanth]

But a few years ago, they were like, hey, we want to make this a little bit better. We want to go in. We want to update some of our systems. And that evolved into this sequel that is path of exile 2. It becomes its own beast. It becomes its own thing. And, man, as we talk about finally getting hands on, having heard about this for years, having played path of exile 14 years, we're going early access December 6th. I don't know when it officially releases, but I'm going to say the year it doesn't, Maybe early access will count for this. It will be in the game of the year contention.

[Angie Hicks]

Ooh, wow.

[Joey Noel]

That is.

[Xanth]

I will make a pizza bet on that.

[Joey Noel]

So, I mean, let's. Let's be clear about this. You're saying game of the year contention in terms of quality. But are you talking about like the game awards, one of the six Game of the Year nominees? That's wild.

[Tim Geddes]

That's. That.

[Angie Hicks]

I don't.

[Tim Geddes]

That's tough.

[Angie Hicks]

Spicy.

[Xanth]

I don't care what year it is, if it's next year in 2026, or if it pushes to 2027, when this game comes out, it's in that conversation.

[Joey Noel]

So when path of exile 1 came out, is that game that good too? Like, would you say that that is like a Game of the Year contender?

[Xanth]

No. I think Path of Exile one is great, but it's dated. It's always lacks that fluidity and that like shine of what like a Diablo 3 or a Diablo 4 has. Where it's really excelled is the complexity that it provides in the player choice and options. But so much of that is obfuscated by like the ugliness of it, the age of it. So that when you take all the things that are working really well in Path of Exile one, when you add in these new systems in two, you're taking what really worked in an old one and combining it with something much better looking. And now you have this perfect recipe for success.

[Joey Noel]

So what was. What did you get to do with this game? Like, how long did you get to play?

[Xanth]

I got eight hours, which is a.

[Angie Hicks]

Lot for a preview event, but probably not a lot for this game.

[Xanth]

It wasn't enough. And to compare why it wasn't. When I got done at the event, I went back to the hotel and played path of exile 1. I just wanted more of that. And that's okay. That's just me being a glutton for more. We got about eight hours. We started with a presentation from Jonathan, one of the lead developers and co founders of ggg, going through the various systems that are going to be implemented, what early access will actually look like. And then we got to get hands on for eight hours. During that time, I was just kind of watching around the room. I skipped lunch. Lunch was 20ft away from me. At any point I could have walked back there, but I couldn't pull myself away.

[Joey Noel]

Wow.

[Xanth]

I couldn't pull myself away to eat. I wanted to just keep playing. I did eventually go and sit down for dinner because, like, you know, the whole bottle. Yeah, I needed fuel to play, more.

[Joey Noel]

Paths to get back. Exactly. So, all right, so you're saying that Path of Exile one, very inspired by Diablo two, and you're saying that this is a bit more modern, has that Diablo 3 and 4 kind of sheen to it. How similar is this to Diablo 4.

[Xanth]

I would say it's very night and day. Diablo 4 is about giving you as much power early as possible. Path of exile 2 is going to slow drip that where if you're going to get to Diablo four levels of power, it's going to take a significant investment and it's not going to be guaranteed. Whereas you know in Diablo 4 that your character is eventually going to be kicking demon ass all over the place. In path of exile 2 it's going to be a little bit slower at the start. You're going to have to think a little bit more carefully. You're going to have to plan things out. But then the reward of being pretty powerful will feel more earned. And it's really about like, how are you going to gauge that down the road with Padave or with Diablo 4? Can I do it? Can I like kill a whole bunch of stuff the highest difficulty really quickly? Whereas in Path of Exile, at the highest difficulty, can I just beat this boss? It's just a different measure of success between the two games and they're kind of on these like very, very different pathways. But now path of exile 2 just looks so much better and plays so much better. I spent my whole time playing on a PS5 controller. I would never play Path of Exile 1 on a controller. It's just not fit for it. This just plugged in and worked perfectly.

[Joey Noel]

When you play Diablo, do you use mouse and keyboard or controller?

[Xanth]

I was originally a mouse and keyboard die hard. But with Diablo 4 controller all the way, like it just feels so right.

[Angie Hicks]

I have a question. You know, we've played Diablo before. I love Diablo. I don't get into the weeds of Diablo. I'm not doing like Thorn builds and bleed builds. Like I am like such a. A kind of like top level Diablo player. Can you play Path of Exile like as a casual player or do you have to like commit? Because it sounds like you have to commit.

[Xanth]

Yes, you can. And I think I've been lucky enough to talk to Jonathan a couple of times and that has always been the big question. And like, I think the biggest barrier for like Path of Exile one is the complexity that's kind of baked in. What they've gone and done this time around is from the start, the tutorials are very intuitive. They're going to guide you through all of the processes and then they're also going to make sure like once you do finish the campaign, they're going to guide you through what is the end game as well. Every single skill has like A little video explaining it, explaining how it works and what it would actually work with, which is, you know, another more complicated thing. Like the. The skill system in Path of Exile is not as intuitive as a. As Diablo. The skill tree is a little bit more complex. So they baked in so many of those pieces to make sure that they don't lose people along the way. And from my experience, like, you didn't need to be an expert to kind of clear through this is the skill Tree. So.

[Tim Geddes]

Wow.

[Xanth]

Oh, my God. That. Zoom out. Watch this for a second. For you audio listeners, there's no way for me to actually describe what the skill tree is.

[Tim Geddes]

It looks like the solar system. You look up at the stars and there's thousands of them.

[Joey Noel]

This is wild.

[Xanth]

This is taken from Path of Exile one. I did. I grabbed this footage off of one of my characters just because I didn't grab one from path of exile 2. The skill tree will be a little different, but the heart of it is very much that. The way it works in Path of Exile is every class has the same skill tree. All those nodes that you just saw are accessible by every class. You just start somewhere different, depending on what you choose.

[Joey Noel]

Like the sphere grid in Final Fantasy 10. Mike, we all know.

[Tim Geddes]

Come back. Blitzball.

[Xanth]

No.

[Tim Geddes]

Yeah, it is.

[Xanth]

It is a little daunting, but if you want to just be. The character I opted for for the day was a witch, you start there. You can just kind of path up your node, up your different nodes, grabbing whatever, and it's not going to hinder you. You can get to the end game, have a build that maybe is a little wonky and still be fine, still be able to do everything that you kind of want. And then you can go back and respect it. They made that a lot easier as well. For path of exile 1, you used to have to go and find a specific currency item to undo your changes, and it was hard. At this point, gold is integrated into the game. You can use gold to respect your tree and then go about dotting it up however you feel so inclined.

[Angie Hicks]

You talked about playing as a witch. Tell me about the classes. That's always what we want to know.

[Tim Geddes]

Yeah, I saw there's 12 classes in this. Is that too many? Xanth? What's up with that?

[Joey Noel]

How many of them do they feel?

[Angie Hicks]

6. What do we have now?

[Joey Noel]

So it's double Diablo.

[Xanth]

So there are six in Diablo. Wow. Well, you guys want to have some fun? There's actually going to be 36 classes.

[Joey Noel]

What does that mean?

[Angie Hicks]

I. The Scope of this game is very different than what I expected. I've always known that Path of Exile is like for the hardcore, but I didn't realize like how deep it got.

[Joey Noel]

That's a lot.

[Xanth]

It is, but it isn't. Let's. Let's cover this. So there are, there are going to be 12 classes. That's the goal. Every class as you level has the ability to kind of go and specialize. So you can become. You can go into an ascendancy class. So you start as a witch and then you become a necromancer or something like that, or an occultist or something different. And then they're. They're shifting things up a little bit with their different classes. In the early Access, you'll have six classes and each of those will only have two ascendancies. So we are still technically getting 12 classes per se. But it does seem like a little daunting at first. You just make your choice based on what you want to play. Do you want to be a spellcaster? Do you want to be a ranged shooter? Do you want to be a melee fighter? Then yeah, choose something like that. Choose the warrior if you want to be a melee fighter. Choose the mercenary if you want to, you know, shoot things with crossbows. Or the ranger if you want to be using a bow from distance. No, wrong choice. The other fun part is you can also kind of switch it up. If you want to be a witch who carries around a gigantic sword and fights things with two handed weapons, you can do that. You just have to spec on the tree for that. I kind of equate it. So like Diablo 4 is kind of like playing D and D from a regular rulebook, right? It's a little bit more guided. You have a DM who will just kind of push you along and they'll keep things within boundaries. Path of Exile is kind of like playing D and D, but your DM just lets you do whatever you want. Like you can come up with the craziest combination and maybe it'll work, maybe it won't. But it's up to you to kind of figure out if, if that's what you want to try.

[Tim Geddes]

So what are their active abilities? Do they all shine? Like you talk about kind of having this blend in 36 characters. Does each character though have its own like unique. Oh wow, those are that, that's classes, abilities and those are wowing me. Or that doesn't really speak to me. Or is it all going to be kind of like, hey, they're very similar but you could have smaller differences here.

[Xanth]

So, like, each class kind of has a tendency to speak to different people. Like, I really like, like, shape shifting and druids and stuff like that, which is unfortunately not available in early access at the moment. But that is a class that's coming. So with that, that's where I'm. I'm going to be a little bit more drawn to. That's going to have more of an affinity for shape shifting. If you want minions and you want to have, like a skeletal army, then, yeah, the witch is a great place to start. That's what I went for for the. The point of, you know, kind of trying out for the early, for our play test was just to have some minions and then cast some spells and play it safe, because I didn't feel like trying out anything I was completely unfamiliar with. But, yeah, every single class does feel different. And then when you start specializing into it, it starts to really even become more of your own, and that's when you start to branch out from the rest of the crowd.

[Angie Hicks]

Do are the classes in Path of Exile two the same as one? Are we rotating kind of through different ones? Do we retire?

[Xanth]

Most are coming back and then they've added a bunch more. There's only one that isn't officially returning, and that is the Scion. The Scion was, as you look at the skill tree, the middle of the skill tree, and would just branch out into different directions because they. They moved it into 12 classes. Now they didn't feel like they needed somebody who was in the middle because they kind of have hit on every archetype that they thought players would want to kind of go and play as.

[Joey Noel]

So what's the story of the game?

[Angie Hicks]

Oh, that's a great question.

[Xanth]

Oh, well. Barrett, did you grab that cinematic?

[Joey Noel]

Whoa. This is not what I expected.

[Xanth]

Audio listeners, I apologize, but this is amazing. We were shown this, told at first that they weren't going to be releasing it, and then they, surprise, dropped it yesterday. They've never done a cinematic before.

[Tim Geddes]

Oh, okay.

[Angie Hicks]

This looks good.

[Xanth]

One had none. So this was the first time that GGG had put out a cinematic. They did. They're a smaller team, so this was not done in house, but it was still of a amazing quality and really great to see. Essentially, what you're witnessing is kind of the return of evil to the land within Path of Exile called rayclast. It's been 20 years since the events of Path of Exile 1, and we're going to have a character who's going to be Trying to return this strange Eldritch being back to the land of Ray class. And it's our journey to kind of go and stop him and kind of figure out all the different things that are happening behind the scenes.

[Joey Noel]

Are you invested?

[Xanth]

I'm more invested in the story of two than I was in one. Because the way Path of Exile one's story kind of came to be is. Path of exile 1 started as a react story, then they added the fourth act, and then several years later, they added acts 6 through 10 all at the same time.

[Joey Noel]

Wow.

[Xanth]

So Path of Exile has always tried to go kind of above and beyond. When they added six through 10, the general expectation was they were just going to add a fifth act and suddenly, nope, we didn't give you one, we gave you six.

[Angie Hicks]

Wild.

[Xanth]

So the story itself was a little bit harder because it was written, you know, essentially in these different phases. So like the. There was a lack of cohesion and then there's different endgame things that kind of get added in. It's not to say it doesn't have its great elements, but when we think of like the storytelling of a Diablo, like if you look at like the way Diablo 2 did it, or if we were going to like Diablo 4, there's just more cohesiveness. This seems like since it's all going to be coming out at the exact same time, we're going to get Acts 1 through 6, plus we're going to have more of this kind of storytelling. It should then, you know, kind of do two things. One, it's going to make the story stand out for most people. I think it also is a much better bridge for new players. People can see this and understand what Path of Exile is going to be.

[Tim Geddes]

Yes.

[Xanth]

And be a little bit more excited about what it actually is.

[Tim Geddes]

You bring up new players and that's what gets me is I have the question of can I jump into this as a new player? Will I be excited? I like the 20 year time jump. I like the reintroduction of evil into the land. So you kind of like, hey, we're on a new starting ground here. You can probably pick that up. Also, this cutcene that you're showing us, did they say that there will be more cutcenes throughout at the end of every chapter or act? Do you think is this a one and done do intro the game and that's the only one we're going to get? What do you think is going to happen here?

[Xanth]

They did hint at there will be more than this. Whether they're Going to be at the same scope. I don't know. But they were also like. When we did get to see it, they were like, oh, we're not going to talk about this. So we didn't grill them as much when we were given the opportunity to kind of meet and talk because it was just like, well, if they're not going to talk about it, should we be asking questions? I did sneak one or two in. Yeah.

[Angie Hicks]

Test the lies.

[Xanth]

It was just so exciting. It was so exciting to see this knowing, like the growth of the franchise and seeing that they were finally able to kind of do this, this level of visual storytelling.

[Tim Geddes]

Of course. And then with early access, what do you think we will get in this early access period, story wise? Is this a full story? Is it an Act 1 and 2? How deep will we really get before the release?

[Xanth]

Okay, so early access, first and foremost is a interesting deal. If you've spent at least $480 over path of Exile's life, you will get early access granted to you that way.

[Tim Geddes]

Whoa, check that out.

[Joey Noel]

That is so specific. I love that.

[Tim Geddes]

Okay, that's cool. Yeah.

[Angie Hicks]

That's why Path of Exile one is free to play, correct?

[Xanth]

It is. So it is a free to play game. I have, I've spent enough that. But the way, the way Path of Exile generally works is they announce a new league, they announce a major addition and then they release what are called supporter packs. You pay, you know, 30, 60, 100, 160, 240, 480 in different levels. And you get, you know, your typical microtransactions. You get, you know, a nice suit of armor. You get points to spend on the shop, what have you. For early access, if you've spent your money, you're good to go. If you haven't, it's about $30. So it's $30. And that also includes 300 of their in game currency for microtransactions as well. So it's not just paying for early access, but now you can make your character look real pretty. You can go and go to the shop and figure out what you might actually want to purchase. The other nice thing is if you've played Path of Exile one before and you've made a purchase, everything that you've bought in Path of Exile one transfers to Path of Exile.

[Joey Noel]

Shut up.

[Tim Geddes]

What? That's crazy.

[Xanth]

So every single thing which is so beyond what you would expect. Yeah, I, I kind of thought when I bought those things, Path of Exile one that's where they would stay. But they've decided to go above and beyond. And in fact that's why early access has been delayed is they want to iron out all the kinks to make sure that everything does transfer over.

[Joey Noel]

That is very, very cool.

[Tim Geddes]

That's amazing. Yeah. That is a special one of we have these conversations about microtransactions and the legacy of all these in games cosmetics coming with you. A game like that, the years that Xanth has put in, the idea that those are carrying over after all those years, I. I'm blown away by that.

[Joey Noel]

Yeah, that. That's great. I want to keep talking about this game, but I want to do that after a quick word from our sponsors. This episode is brought to you by Sonic the Hedgehog at topgolf.

[Tim Geddes]

Y'all.

[Joey Noel]

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[Xanth]

The year is 2024. Lasers are a commonly used technology. Snakes have been replaced by small robots and nobody noticed. The government tells us we must choose between resolution, frame rate and quality.

[Joey Noel]

We will not be lied to for.

[Xanth]

The first time in this long bloody war. The full power of the visual triangle is ours. On sale now at kind of funny.com store.

[Joey Noel]

Now that we're back, I want to ask you. You. You're saying that you think this is going to be a game of the year contender whenever it does drop. And it reminds me a bit of Balers Gate 3 where you know, obviously third in a franchise, a more niche franchise, but a very popular niche franchise and Baldur's Gate 3 kind of became this massive success. Right? I feel like that, that is such an example of hearing you say, oh, you think it's going to be a game of the year contender? I'm like, I don't know about that. But then thinking about Baldur's Gate 3, I'm like, that's possible. What makes this that much better? Like what makes. Do you think this is going to be that the Baldur's Gate 3 style breakout for this genre?

[Xanth]

I love that you made that comparison, Tim, because I was thinking about that in the car as I was coming home today. It definitely feels like that, you know, Baldur's Gate 3 kind of swept the world by storm because it, I mean one, it was an amazingly beautiful game. It was very accessible, had good word of mouth and yeah, it's just, just a very good game. I never played a Baldur's Gate prior to that. It. I got drawn in by the good word of mouth and it was beside the genre. Right. I like action, I like role playing games. But it, it had enough going for it that I was open to trying something new. I think Path of Exile is the path of exile 2 is very much like that. It's taken all those good foundations of POE1, it's added in that polish and that sheen. And then it has like those elements of Baldur's Gate too, where you have so much open creativity for how you want to craft your experience. My character that I was playing was a Contagion witch, right. With Minions. I could have made that witch a hundred other ways and I could log in today and make a witch that would have the same spells, but maybe just varied gear and it would all feel very different. I think that's going to appeal to a lot of players. I think that's going to appeal to a lot of people to be able to go in and truly craft this journey through the story and then into the end game. And that's something we haven't talked about is the end game. Oh, man. So you have the campaign which will be six acts, and in early access it's gonna be acts one, two and three. And then you will do one, two and three again under a harder difficulty because they're holding acts four through six to kind of get some polish and it's kind of nice. Maybe we don't spoil the story for ourselves. And then you'll get endgame. Endgame is essentially the tagline in Path of Exile has always been that if you can get players to end game, you'll own their soul. Right? You have got that.

[Tim Geddes]

That's what we want.

[Xanth]

That's all you got to do. They've changed it a little bit, but the end game system is an infinite map. It is an infinite map going all directions that you can socket in different things to add in difficulty. It's mind blowing. It is absolutely insane. The level of detail that they've gone and added to this. And that you can constantly be chasing new things in all directions, literally and figuratively.

[Angie Hicks]

Sounds overwhelming, but in the best way possible. I. This is also so hard for me to like wrap my mind around because it seems like such a scale difference from Diablo that it's like a little bit daunting. Obviously.

[Xanth]

Yeah.

[Joey Noel]

Mike, where do you fall on this? Like, obviously Joey sounding a bit more on the casual side. Like, are you like, oh, I. I want Diablo to be a little like, way more complex?

[Tim Geddes]

No, I like Diablo where it's at. I think for me as a Diablo fan, it's the push hearing Xanth hype me up about this game to get me excited to jump into it. I think it's hitting at the right moment for casual fans like Joey, where we've just come off a year of great Diablo 4 success, where new and old players alike have come back and really enjoyed the genre and are dipping their toes in I think with people like Xanth who are spreading the good word of like, hey, this game is actually really good. Put it on your radars and if you can nail that with Free to play. Right. We haven't really spoken like this game is free to play. It has early access money tied to it. But you're going to be able to jump into this when it's fully released. Free to play. I think it has a good head of steam here to get me involved and more. But yeah, I'm in this weird like I'm a casual player but I'm also a little more on the hardcore side so I can jump into that and get lost in the systems and dive deep. It does seem a little overwhelming when Xanth brings up the skill tree of all these passives and you kind of your mind blows up a little bit. But for me it's always been simple. Does the world design look cool? Are the enemies and the bosses fun and engaging? Are they wowing characters on the screen for me and are the characters unique with their own cool abilities that flash and pop on the screen to keep that dopamine going? Right. As Gary Witta always says, when you play World of Warcraft or Diablo, it's about the ding. It's about the satisfactory of I got new item. Oh my God. What does it do? 2.5 damage speed a little bit fast. Okay, I got to put it on. These are the things I'm looking for in an ARPG and like Xanth will probably hype it up of like yes, Mike, the world is beautiful. You're going to like this. Cuz I I Diablo for me 3 and 4 haven't hit the same as Diablo 2 back in the day. And maybe that was because my first Diablo I like the world's personally better in Diablo 2. So I'm still chasing that high of I want this. Can that give me that.

[Joey Noel]

You mentioned bosses. You want to talk about the bosses in this little Zanth?

[Xanth]

Oh yes I do. Barrett, you want to pull up the boss footage that I sent you? This is a boss Ruja, the Dread Engineer.

[Angie Hicks]

Dread Engineer? Hell yeah.

[Xanth]

This is not an end of act boss. This is not boss that particularly stands out. It is just a boss that's kind of in your way and it has complicated mechanics. I'm going to lose in this. I'm going to die. I hate to spoil it for you during this. I thought that was important to show. Like I think it's kind of it'd be. I have a footage of me defeating it eventually. But that's. That's not how it's always going to be. And that's not how it's going to be for most players as they kind of go through. What was really exciting in this campaign was this is. This is an Act 2. I struggled with some bosses in Act 1 as well. In fact, there was one I just right up skipped, which was nice. It was a nice option. But what I loved was figuring out how I could go about tackling this fight. You'll notice he's got these wild swings. And it's very souls like in that regard where I'm like, okay, I have a dodge. I have a dodge roll, right? Can I time this so I can kind of get out of the way? I can keep moving backwards. And then when I'm doing that, I'm staying at range. I'm watching where he's planting his bombs. I'm watching where that fire, that flamethrower is going and really just trying to feel out the fight. And I'm going to make a mistake eventually and that's what's going to kill me. There are going to be an early access about 50 different bosses. By the time full release, there's gonna be about a hundred. These bosses will make their appearance. As I talked about in that end game mapping system, these bosses are gonna get recycled and used at end during maps. Not all maps are even gonna have bosses. If bosses aren't your thing, you're gonna be able in the end game to kind of go and avoid them. But every boss will be associated with more treasure and different items. And overcoming that guy. That was when I left to go and have dinner was after. I was like, okay, you Beth in maybe, you know, get some chicken and potatoes and let's see how that powers me through the rest of the time here. Also, just the small little detail when it says you have died. And there's that angel playing a little violin. Beautiful. That's all.

[Joey Noel]

I get that angel a lot. Oh, a lot. That's right.

[Angie Hicks]

We're gonna be real good friends with the angel.

[Joey Noel]

What do you think, Luke? Looking at that boss, Mike?

[Tim Geddes]

Very cool, right? I think for the audio listeners, you probably couldn't see how cool looking that boss was. Right? Like seeing the screen go from all of the. The flamethrower with the whip just following your character to the lights of the fire that were left on the battlefield. I really loved seeing all of that. Right. And I can imagine me and my Friends. Because this game is also up playable, up to six players. I definitely want to talk about that. It's like, what does that look like with six players jammed up in that small arena? Is it too much? Because that was a tighter arena to fight in.

[Xanth]

I didn't get a chance to play with anybody else. They had the option to do like two players and I didn't want to elbow the guy next to me and be like, hey, you want to come in and join? Because we're all kind of just in our own cells. But there are great synergies that you can go and do. Like you can end up, you know, casting spells that are causing a somebody to be more prone to fire damage and then your character specializing fire so you can play off of each other, you can work with friends. Co op is highly encouraged. You're going to have the option to do Couch co op in path of exile 2. Person who picks up the controller next to you doesn't even need an account. If they have a Path of Exile account, they can obviously log into it and kind of move forward with that, but it's not going to be a requirement. If you just want to show up with your friends and blast through some campaign or blast through some bosses, you can just grab a controller and go. And I thought that was such a different change of pace. Playing in A group in Poe 1 is a little bit harder, whereas this is very much pick up and go.

[Tim Geddes]

Cool, that's amazing. Yeah, I want to. Let's touch on that really quick. So the Couch Co Op experience, which we don't get to see many games do still. Right? And the idea of playing this is awesome. You said they don't need an account, so what does that look like? Say Joey comes over to my house, she clicks on Player two and she doesn't have an account. Is she making her own character? Is she pulling from one of my characters? Is this a character that you can just pick up, never see and play again? What does that look like from a Player 2 perspective?

[Xanth]

That was something I did ask about when we were given our. Our little group interview. And the, the. If you have an account, obviously that's the easiest. So you log into your account, you grab your character, you just play. If you don't, it does seem like you would be able to just create a character essentially in this guest profile that I believe is going to just sit there and that you could pick up again if you needed to.

[Angie Hicks]

Then Tim could come over, pick up my character, and you guys get boogie.

[Joey Noel]

Hell yeah. Squad, baby.

[Angie Hicks]

I want to know about cosmetics because I feel like I always want to spend money in Diablo, but I'm not necessarily motivated by a lot of the skins and I want to spend more money, but clearly there is an economy in this game to spend real dollars. So tell me about what I can spend money on.

[Xanth]

You could buy just about anything. What I love is most of the sets are reasonably priced and you can buy them in pieces. So if I just want a helmet from a set that I like, I could buy the helmet and I'm going to pay a little bit more than like bundling it, but I'm going to get it at a reasonable price and I can buy that. The other nicety of it is that helmet, that body armor, that wing effect, that character effect, whatever it is, is usable on every single class. It's not class specific, it's class agnostic. So you really do get that value because, like Diablo's Diablo 4's skins are beautiful, but they're locked to a particular class. And it's like, I really need to love something to. To want to buy it for that class because now I'm going to be beholden to it because I paid this money as opposed to in path of exile. Like, hey, this. I can use it on my mercenary, I could use it on my Huntress, I could use it on my Druid. Everything's going to translate. But Joey, here's where it gets better.

[Angie Hicks]

I'm so excited.

[Xanth]

Let's say you're playing. I don't know, Joey. What. What kind of class do you want to play? What's a spell you would like to cast?

[Angie Hicks]

I'm usually like a archer range kind of girl. Give me a bow and arrow.

[Xanth]

Maybe. Maybe you're shooting some lightning arrows and you're like, I really don't like blue lightning arrows. I wish they were. I wish they were rainbow. I wish they were, you know, celestial. I wish they were abyssal.

[Angie Hicks]

Give me all the smart things.

[Xanth]

Yes. Are they have a. There's a spell, it's like cast on crit that they turned into cast on cats, where essentially you have cats that will come out in place of different things they're willing to.

[Angie Hicks]

That's how we get Lauren to play with me.

[Xanth]

But you have the. We go back to that concept of freedom. You can start tailoring your character to look and feel the way you want it. You. You want that different colored fireball. Go for it. You want, you know, the gigantic wings on your back. Go for it. You can also then purchase other Conveniences. You can buy more stash tabs. You can buy tabs that will organize your currency. You can buy tabs that will organize your end game materials. I'm not a person for like my Diablo stash is horribly mismanaged. I have an image in my mind every time I start of like this is the year. This is the year I get my together and it never happens. Yeah. Whereas these Path of Exile ones that you can purchase, they just organize it for you. So like all my currency for crafting is there. I can just like go and grab it as opposed to searching around a billion different things trying to find what I'm looking for.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah. That I am down to pay for that. Having to organize my own stuff is just kind of a disaster. It's very exciting. I feel like my biggest issue with Diablo cosmetics is that I always want skins from other classes because I don't necessarily think that I always love. I guess I'm playing Sorcerer right now for my seasonal character. I'm like, I like a little bit more of your skins but there's some other ones that I always want. But I've. If I don't like playing that class then I kind of get locked out of it. And this is very exciting. I want spink pink sparkle spells and maybe some like blue fire or I don't know. Yeah, this is gonna be really fun.

[Tim Geddes]

That's very cool.

[Angie Hicks]

This is bad news for Mike and I for sure.

[Tim Geddes]

I love that.

[Joey Noel]

Suzanne, with your time with it, was there anything that you didn't love?

[Xanth]

No, I. I think it. Since that's awesome. I think I was messaging Greg like this is very much the ARPG I've always wanted in like in everything. And I've seen some complaints. So the campaign is going to run if you've never done it. They're estimating to go from Acts 1 through 6 should take a person around 50 hours. If you're just kind of meandering and some people are complaining like that's something we have to do all the time because it still follows like a Diablo seasonal model. Like I'm going to have to do a 50 hour campaign every time just to get to the end. I can see where there's some frustration in that. Every time you do this though, you get better at it. You learn those bosses you get, it becomes a little bit easier. The time goes down. And the nicety of doing a campaign like this is the way items work in Path of Exile is you're not trying to chase just to the end game to get the best things you can get. Really good stuff that makes your character powerful starting at level one. In fact, in Path of Exile 1 there was a, and still is an amazing sword that you can get off the first boss within about 10 minutes. It's not a guaranteed drop and you have to farm for it, but it's there. And that's something that's attainable by a level one character. So even this journey from 1 to 65 is essentially where they're expecting endgame to start for you. Has merit and you can try to rush through it, but you're still rewarded for doing it. So I can hear some of those complaints from people about not liking what that campaign might provide, but because there's still value to it. Going back to my initial complaint, I just wanted more time. I wanted. I wanted this to be like a three day event or something like that where I get.

[Angie Hicks]

They just let you leave with a little goodie bag with the whole game that you can keep playing.

[Xanth]

I just like just take it. Enjoy. I think like I was also really hard from the time wise because you know, I was staring. I had six classes to choose from. I wanted to play all of them. I wanted to just. But it's like, hey, what's a better. What. What's a better experience? I need to get as far as I can to have at least as much scope to talk about as opposed to like oh, I played an hour of each class and I got. I didn't even get through the first act or anything like that. So that. That would be the only complaint. But it's. It's really good guys. It's just so good.

[Joey Noel]

Is there anything you haven't talked about yet? Any mechanic or aspect of the game that you want to touch on?

[Xanth]

See here I gotta go through my notes. I got the ascendancies. We talked about the mapping, we talked about early access. We've talked about a lot. I guess the better question is what do you guys want to know?

[Angie Hicks]

Mike's got.

[Tim Geddes]

Yeah, I have the quick rundown list. So of course this is kind of like your end of show if you missed anything that we had the kind of the wrap up and things that I'm interested in. So Xanth will go through the quick bullet points. Here it. This is a free to play title. 2999 to jump into early access which.

[Xanth]

Comes out when December 6.

[Tim Geddes]

Is that on PC console and consoles or is that PC only for early access? Do you know?

[Xanth]

I think it might just be PC only but kind of funny you're wrong. Right.

[Joey Noel]

Wikipedia says the game set to be released for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series on December 6th as early access. Right.

[Tim Geddes]

So early access will be for all of that people in the chat. Yeah. Go, Zant.

[Xanth]

I got my complaint. I got my complaint.

[Tim Geddes]

Okay, here we go. Here we go.

[Xanth]

We need to talk to PlayStation. We got to talk to PlayStation real quick. And obviously you guys just got that snap. You just got that amazing PS5 Pro.

[Angie Hicks]

Greg's gone. If we need to destroy it in the parking lot, we'll do it.

[Xanth]

So we were talking cosmetics before and let's talk about Fortnite real quick. I know it's a tangent, but let's talk about Fortnite. When you buy a skin in Fortnite on PC, can you use it on PlayStation? And if you bought that on Xbox and then logged in on your PlayStation, can you use that skin too?

[Angie Hicks]

Yes. Right.

[Xanth]

Yes, you can.

[Angie Hicks]

It's been a long time since I played Fortnite.

[Xanth]

I'm just using what I think everybody knows right now. When it comes to cosmetics, if you are on PC, you're good to go. If you're on Xbox, you're good to go. Those will work freely between one another if you're on PlayStation. However, if I were to purchase a cosmetic, it's not going to work backwards. And if I buy one on PC, it's not going to work on PlayStation. There's something going on behind the scenes. I don't know if PlayStation wants their cut or whatever it might be, but if that's fixed, that would be ideal. I love both platforms. I like to play on PC. I love to play on my PlayStation. I like to use remote play. It's seeing the portal. Get that cloud access. I was like, oh, this might be the thing that pushes me. And then to find out, like, hey, the game I'm more than likely going to be playing the most on this system, I'm going to be kind of blocked out from using the cosmetics. And as we were saying before that, you know, the 500 plus dollars that has been spent in POE1, that's transferring over, I can't touch that If I'm on PlayStation.

[Joey Noel]

That's not good.

[Angie Hicks]

That's bad.

[Tim Geddes]

Yeah, that's odd.

[Joey Noel]

Does this. Do you think they're going to change this or does it seem like it's a Sony decision and they're not going to budge?

[Xanth]

I don't know. But maybe if we just keep the conversation going, we bring that up. I just think it is kind of odd to. It obviously it works well with Xbox and PC. PlayStation is the odd man out. And why is that? And why are other games is that okay that I can have cosmetics that cross transfer, but not in this one.

[Joey Noel]

Yeah, it's weird.

[Angie Hicks]

You also mentioned playing on the portal. How do you think that this would work on a handheld? Is this. Obviously we don't know if this is going to be like Steam deck compatible. Is this the kind of game that's going to be worth it to play handheld?

[Xanth]

I think, you know, if we use Diablo 4 as kind of like the bar there, I think it'll work just fine. Like general combat and flow of it. There is even a nicety. One of the good bonuses of playing this is when you drop into your menus on solo. It pauses the game.

[Angie Hicks]

I'm not dying to some random one off.

[Xanth]

You're not going to get Worm the whole time. So I think that lends real well to that handheld play. If we're going on cloud and maybe it's being a little jumpy courtesy of your wi fi or whatever it is, you're on pause, you don't have to worry. You're not going to lose your progress or whatever it might be. So yeah, I was really looking forward to this and like doing remote play because I like to play video games when I run on the treadmill. It's getting into winter, guys, I'm inside way more and remote play was going to be my main course for that. And that's PlayStation. And it is bummer to not be able to kind of access that.

[Tim Geddes]

Yeah, nice. Okay, some more questions for you. Of course, we talked about up to six players grouping up together. You said it's much easier than in Poe 1 to be able to group up with people. Diablo, of course, introduced this kind of shared world where we were seeing players that weren't in my group running around. Will I see something similar here where it feels almost like a Diablo MMO situation, or is it strictly this is my world, no one else is in it.

[Xanth]

We'll see players in the town hubs. So every, you know, act has its town hub. You'll see some other players kind of going back and forth to merchants, but the second you step outside those doors, that's your world, unless you've invited somebody else to it. So once you've grouped up, then you'll go out there. But it's not. It's not like Diablo's more open world where everybody's kind of out there doing their own thing. You're much more akin to Diablo 2. Right. You know, the second you stepped out of town, they were gone and you're on your own individual journey.

[Tim Geddes]

Paint me a picture, Zant. What do these worlds look like? So of course you know I'm a Diablo 2 kid. Right. All of those worlds were procedurally generated. Every single dungeon I went into felt fresh and new every single time. Even though it was the same beginner dungeon I was jumping in. Is that what I'm seeing here? Are they connected? Similar to Diablo, where I'd go from one area to the next and keep moving? Or what does this really look like moment to moment on the world design?

[Xanth]

Yeah. So there are still those connected areas, but you are correct, it is procedurally generated. Like when you jump in. This was the gameplay from my run back after I had died at the the boss. And you'll notice the map itself is kind of filled out, but there's a lot of gaps in it because it. It had been so long. They re recreated the map for getting back to that boss. So you do get a different adventure kind of along the way. Similar enemies, what have you. But you're not always going to know every twist and turn. Which is again, harks back to that Diablo 2 element where you. You just didn't know what was around every corner. And that adds that level of excitement as well.

[Tim Geddes]

Do they have that sweet overview map where it goes on top of my screen while I'm still running around and it shows me? Because that's the best, man. That's Chef Kiss.

[Xanth]

Just hit tab.

[Tim Geddes]

I love that. Are there mounts in this? Of course. Diablo 4 introduced mounts. People really loved those. Is that world big enough to justify amounts?

[Xanth]

I would have to go back and check. Now there was like a year ago they did show one of the classes getting a mount, one of the ascendancy classes getting amount. But in terms of availability for all classes, no, no mounts, just general. You know, you're going to use the power of your feet to walk and slay all through ray glass.

[Tim Geddes]

Okay. When I think of these worlds, I always think of like, you know, medieval times. You have castles, you got the jagged mountains, you got kind of like the foothills. But what I always loved about Diablo 2 was when we had the expansion and we went to the jungle and it brought a lot of bright, vibrant colors. Do I have that in this or is it more of the medieval dark fantasy worlds that we think of?

[Xanth]

It's a great blend. Obviously we've only seen like Acts 1 and 2 is what I got hands on with Acts 1. Like Act 1 was much more traditional, very akin to like what Diablo 1, Diablo 2 had to kind of shoot forward in terms of like a general, you know, there's a graveyard, there's a, there's a castle, what have you. And then in Act 2, much like Diablo, you end up going to a desert, but it's like a red sand desert and you're on a movable town, like a big caravan. And it's absolutely gorgeous while retaining that desert aesthetic. So it's, it's gonna stay within the parameters of what we would expect, but also defy some of those expectations. And it's just the general beauty of the landscapes that they end up painting.

[Tim Geddes]

That's great. You know, we talked about not having a shared world, but are there world events? When I run through these maps, will there be a random encounter that pops up that's not a dungeon or a, you know, pre made, you know, boss encounter?

[Xanth]

Yes and no. So what GGG likes to do is integrate their leagues into the campaign. So over the course of the campaign you get introduced to different league mechanics that, that had been prevalent and that are now integrated into the game. And then once the game goes live, when you go through the campaign, you'll encounter those kind of things where like whatever the mechanic might be for that league, you'll start seeing early on so you can start to get familiar with whatever new thing they're starting to introduce to the game. That's where Path of Exile does add in these layers of complexity. When you miss a league, when you miss a league or two, there's a couple things that get added in that, that are going to change your playstyle, are going to change things up and they're much better now about explaining how those things used to work. Whereas I think of five, six years ago taking a league or two off and feeling like I was 10 leagues behind because I'm like, I have no idea what any of this is anymore. I have to go and watch a few YouTube videos to get to get caught up. But for the most part, yeah, that's what you're going to see is a league mechanic will, will start to be introduced early on. And for the course of this campaign you're, you're at least getting introduced to the, the end game mechanics pretty early so that you'll have a better idea when you make your way at the, at level 65 or whatever.

[Tim Geddes]

It is very exciting stuff for me. I'll wrap it up with just two quick ones. You brought up controller support and how good it did feel. I'M excited about that full cross play, cross progression. I know Sony's kind of putting itself on an island, but if I was to jump from my Xbox to my PC like I like to do, will there be that shared? Hey, this is Mike's account. It's moving with him all the time.

[Xanth]

Everything, like, everything will be. If we're talking Xbox and PC, everything's going to be there. All of your cosmetics are going to be there. Your character is going to look absolutely perfect. It's just the PlayStation of it all. That is not like that. But if you are a dedicated Xbox user, hey, you win. If we're looking for consolation prizes in the console war, like, this is it for you. But Ideally, I hope PlayStation kind of comes around and it's like, yeah, we should have that full integration there.

[Joey Noel]

Metal Baby Mario super chats in and says, does the combat feel more frenetic with the inclusion of a dodge roll mechanic?

[Xanth]

It feels alive, I think, like Path of Exile one, it got to the point of just like I go into a room, I cast my skill, I hope everything's dead, I move to the next room or I maybe get hit, I die, rinse and repeat. It feels so alive because you're watching, it's a little bit slower. It will speed up towards the end, but it's a little bit slower. You're watching the way enemies are reacting. You're seeing what you can do. You're. You're using your dodge roll as you would to. Much akin to a Dark Souls, right? Like, I'm thinking strategically of how I can use it because it is a limited resource. Like, I can't just spam it. It feels very natural. I would argue, like, because Diablo 4 has a Dodge Roll 2, this one feels more needed. It feels like not using it would be hindering my character. Whereas I can go, you know, days in Diablo 4 without ever feeling the need to dodge anything.

[Angie Hicks]

Is there like a cooldown on it or.

[Xanth]

Yeah, it's like a. Just a small cooldown, but enough that again, you can't just spam it.

[Joey Noel]

Yeah, well, wrapping things up. Xanth, any final things you want to say about path of exile 2?

[Xanth]

I would say I'm not. Early access is weird. I think GGG is doing right by themselves by putting a. Putting money in front of everybody. Being able to kind of come in and try it. What they are giving you for $30 feels like a steal. You're getting while you're not getting the full campaign, you're getting Acts 1, 2 and 3 and then a cruel difficulty to go back and play them. You're getting access to the end game. Six classes, two ascendancies apiece. And then they're going to slow drip in all of the other classes. The other ascendancies. This if we're looking at comparisons. Vessel of hatred was $40 for Diablo and that was one class additional campaign. This is more for less. And then all of the stuff that you may purchase with the gold that they give you can be used right away when you jump into the free version of the actual game. So if you're worried, is it worth it? I would argue 100%. It is worth your time and definitely worth your cash.

[Tim Geddes]

My final one.

[Joey Noel]

Go for Mike.

[Tim Geddes]

I drafted Path of Exile too, a couple of weeks back on my fantasy. Now it is early access, but, like, it does have an up, upfront cost. Do you think I'm scoring big on this thing?

[Xanth]

It was so like being at this press event. 1. It was the first press event I had ever been at. Yeah, it felt really kind of surreal to be like, oh, this is Xanth from kind of funny. What's the question? My reporter hat on. It was interesting to kind of watch. There were. There were content creators there, so, like, I already kind of knew where they were going to fall. But to like watch the. The rest of the press play the game and they were hooked. Like, they were sucked in. I. I would think this is gonna score pretty well. I. I think you might have drafted really well with that.

[Joey Noel]

Barrett.

[Xanth]

My rebuttal to that.

[Tim Geddes]

I'm not saying that the game isn't.

[Joey Noel]

Great, and it sounds like once it.

[Xanth]

Gets reviews, it'll review well. This game is coming in December 6, same week as Indiana Jones.

[Joey Noel]

That outlets are definitely going to be way more focused on. I could see maybe a review in progress for an early access game.

[Tim Geddes]

Not being. They're not being very many. And when they do come, it's probably.

[Xanth]

Going to be January.

[Tim Geddes]

We'll see what happens. I'm like, Roger, he's rolling the dice. I'm betting on the ARPG sickos out there. Those websites like Pure Diablo podcast that are dedicated to this stuff that are coming in, they're like, you know what, Mike? We fucking love this game. And I'm going to be. Put me above the rafters, Tim, because I'm winning this thing. Well, you're.

[Joey Noel]

If.

[Xanth]

If it does get reviews and you do get points off of it, you'll.

[Tim Geddes]

Definitely be in the top four. I don't think you. I don't think you have a shot at him.

[Joey Noel]

And Greg, I love it. Zen, thank you so much. Excellent preview. Thank you for having fun at the event. And also, this was an amazing episode. I think you did a great job explaining why this game is so special to you and why people should pay attention to it. So thank you for that. And where can people find you?

[Xanth]

Well, you can find me over on the Twitter. HC Zanth. I did create one of the Blue sky accounts, which. Here's the deal, guys. I get more followers on Blue Sky. I'll just delete Twitter right out.

[Joey Noel]

Yeah, go, everyone. Go follow him on Blue Sky.

[Angie Hicks]

Oh, yeah.

[Xanth]

I also said I would shave my mustache at a thousand, so.

[Joey Noel]

Oh, thanks, everyone.

[Tim Geddes]

You know what? You get a thousand, I get 3,000. I'll shave my mustache, too.

[Xanth]

Sam.

[Tim Geddes]

Let's get weird together. Let's do it. Let's go crazy.

[Xanth]

I, I don't. Everybody drop everything you're doing right now and go follow us both. I want to see what's the mustache. Mike, it's just dance on Blue Sky.

[Angie Hicks]

Hell yeah.

[Joey Noel]

Yeah, go check that out. And yeah, let us know in the comments below if you're hyped for Path of Exile too, if you're going to jump into the early access. And yeah, till next time, I love you all. Goodbye. Follow him. Follow him. Make him save his bust apps.

[Xanth]

Hi, everyone.