What We've Been Playing* - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Summary

Kinda Funny Gamescast: What We've Been Playing
Release Date: January 27, 2025
Hosts: Tim Gettys, Greg “GameOverGreggy” Miller, Blessing Adeoye, Andy Cortez

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1. Opening Banter and Announcements

The episode kicks off with the usual friendly ribbing among the hosts. Greg starts by highlighting that Mike's birthday is three months away, leading to playful exchanges about remembering the date and sending birthday wishes. At around 00:19, Greg quips, “Sell wherever your customers are,” in reference to a sponsored Shopify segment, setting a light-hearted tone for the show.

2. Game Showdown and Interactive Features

As the conversation shifts, Greg introduces "Game Showdown," a film project they’re working on. He explains its interactive nature, mentioning, “you can play along to game showdown and it records your answers and your score” (02:29). The hosts discuss the integration of interactive elements like dirty laundry and trivia, enhancing audience engagement. Andy humorously notes the spoilers hidden in the thumbnail, adding to the casual and humorous atmosphere of the podcast.

3. Supporting the Show: Patreon and Membership

At 05:07, Mike Howard emphasizes the importance of supporting the podcast through Patreon and memberships, highlighting benefits like ad-free shows and exclusive content. He states, “We're an 11 person small business all about live talk shows,” underscoring the community-driven nature of Kinda Funny.

4. What We've Been Playing

a. Greg Miller on Cryptical Path

Greg passionately shares his experience with Cryptical Path, an action roguelite developed by Old Skull Games. He describes it as a game that “pushes the boundaries of the genre” (11:39) by allowing players to build their own rooms within an ever-changing labyrinth. Greg praises the game’s ability to blend traditional roguelite elements with innovative mechanics, such as creating paths and managing currency to unlock perks. Notably, he mentions, “You can spend all you can spend without having it and get negatives, like going to negative money,” which introduces strategic depth through curses (18:10).

Greg Miller (11:50): “Cryptical Path is one of those that even when I'm doing something else, I'll be like, all right, before bed, one run, let's jump in there...”

Despite enjoying the gameplay, Greg critiques the lack of narrative depth and character development, noting, “it does borderline generic” in terms of story elements (19:03). Nevertheless, he highly recommends the game for its engaging mechanics and replayability.

b. Greg on Berserker Kazan and AI Limit

Greg transitions to discussing Berserker Kazan and AI Limit, both demos he played over the weekend. He lauds Berserker Kazan for its refined combat system, likening it to a blend of Souls and Sekiro games (20:12). He introduces the term "Miyazaki University" to describe games that excel in combat mechanics, positioning Berserker Kazan as a top contender.

Greg Miller (22:02): “Miyazaki University is the new one that I'm going to introduce into the lexicon of. Kind of funny, right?”

However, he expresses concerns about AI Limit, a PlayStation China Hero Project game, citing its familiar gameplay without standout features. Greg remarks, “I don't think it does anything to bring it up to that. Oh, this is great, right?” (34:30), suggesting that while AI Limit is solid, it lacks the unique appeal needed to distinguish itself in a saturated market.

c. Mike Howard on Eternal Strands and House Flipper 2

Mike Howard shares his thoughts on Eternal Strands, praising its dynamic abilities and magical combat. He compares it to other action-adventure titles, noting improvements in his personal gameplay experience. Additionally, Mike announces an upcoming stream where he and Nick will be playing House Flipper 2, aiming to redecorate Andy’s stream room, which adds a fun, collaborative element to the podcast.

d. Blessing Adeoye on League of Legends and Fast Food Simulator

Blessing returns to the discussion with enthusiasm for League of Legends, inspired by the Arcane Season 2 trailer and streamers like Ludwig aiming for high ranks. He highlights the thrill of competitive gameplay and the satisfaction of team coordination, stating, “when the team clicks and everything works” (50:30).

Moving to Fast Food Simulator, Blessing describes it as a "good to great simulator game" ideal for multiplayer fun with friends. He explains the hectic yet enjoyable experience of managing a fast food restaurant, handling orders, and coordinating among team members to keep operations running smoothly.

Blessing Adeoye Jr. (53:16): “If you're looking for a fun game night with your friends, it's a must play.”

e. Andy Cortez on Ender Magnolia and Citizen Sleeper

Andy Cortez discusses Ender Magnolia Bloom in the Mist, the sequel to the acclaimed Ender Lilies. He praises its responsive combat and engaging lore, expressing excitement for the game’s potential. Additionally, he mentions Citizen Sleeper, recommending both its original and upcoming sequel for their compelling narratives and gameplay mechanics.

Andy Cortez (62:19): “It's super enjoyable so far. I'm having a really good time.”

f. Blessing on Silent Hill 2 and Half-Life

Blessing delves into Silent Hill 2, a remake by Bloober Team, commending its sound design, horror elements, and emotional depth. He recounts the game’s ability to evoke a mix of emotions and its effective storytelling through environmental cues and character interactions.

He also touches on Half-Life, specifically the fan-made remake Black Mesa, praising its adherence to the original while enhancing visual and auditory experiences. Blessing appreciates the game's timeless appeal and its ability to stand the test of time.

Blessing Adeoye Jr. (63:48): “It was really, really you and Roger.”

5. Fantasy Critic Updates: Game Bidding Frenzy

Greg Miller provides updates from Fantasy Critic, detailing recent acquisitions and bids for various games. Notably, he humorously narrates the intense bidding wars for titles like Ninja Gaiden 4, highlighting the competitive nature of game publishing.

Greg Miller (72:19): “Nitro Rifle also acquired Ragebound with a bid of $15.”

The segment showcases the dynamic and often unpredictable landscape of game acquisitions, with playful exchanges among the hosts about their strategies and the potential outcomes.

6. Closing Remarks and Future Streams

As the episode nears its end, the hosts reiterate the importance of supporting the show through memberships and Patreon. They tease upcoming streams, including playing House Flipper 2 with Nick Scarpino and scheduling Minecraft Mondays, where they plan to embark on new adventures in Minecraft.

Mike Howard (75:34): “Until next time, it's been our pleasure to serve.”

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Notable Quotes

• Greg Miller (11:50): “Cryptical Path is one of those that even when I'm doing something else, I'll be like, all right, before bed, one run, let's jump in there...”

• Mike Howard (05:07): “We're an 11 person small business all about live talk shows.”

• Blessing Adeoye Jr. (53:16): “If you're looking for a fun game night with your friends, it's a must play.”

• Andy Cortez (62:19): “It's super enjoyable so far. I'm having a really good time.”

• Greg Miller (72:19): “Nitro Rifle also acquired Ragebound with a bid of $15.”

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Conclusion

In this episode of Kinda Funny Gamescast: What We've Been Playing, the hosts engage in lively discussions about a diverse array of video games, offering detailed insights, personal experiences, and recommendations. From innovative roguelites like Cryptical Path to beloved classics such as Half-Life, the conversation provides listeners with valuable perspectives on both new and nostalgic titles. The episode seamlessly blends game analysis with the hosts' trademark humor, making it an engaging listen for both avid gamers and casual fans alike.

Transcript

[Greg Miller]

This episode is brought to you by Shopify.

[Mike Howard]

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[Greg Miller]

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[Mike Howard]

Meaning fewer carts going abandoned and more sales going cha ching. So if you're into growing your business, get a commerce platform that's ready to.

[Greg Miller]

Sell wherever your customers are.

[Mike Howard]

Visit shopify.com to upgrade your selling today. What's up, everybody? Welcome to the Kinda Funny Games cast for Monday, January 27, 2025. Mike. Three months to my birthday.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Three months to his birthday.

[Mike Howard]

To the day. Andy, put on your calendar right now.

[Greg Miller]

This is the second time he said this today. Or we could be shouting out the person whose birthday it actually is today, you know?

[Mike Howard]

Oh, my God.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah, but it's three months to the.

[Mike Howard]

Day for Greg's birthday.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Write it down in your mind.

[Mike Howard]

Do me a favor, Andy. Bust out your fucking satellite phone to call Roger in Trinidad and wish him a happy birthday. He doesn't want to spend it with us, we don't want to spend it with him.

[Andy Cortez]

Exactly.

[Mike Howard]

You know what I mean?

[Greg Miller]

He has WhatsApp.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

We never watch this.

[Greg Miller]

Text him on WhatsApp.

[Mike Howard]

Probably just call him too.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I'm not texting.

[Mike Howard]

Jesus fucking Christ. I'll text him right now. Oh, my God, Roger, what year?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Add me on that. Just say from Mike, too.

[Greg Miller]

Well, I can add me also.

[Mike Howard]

Mike. Come on, Mike.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

You guys.

[Mike Howard]

Yeah, Time zone. I don't know what time zone it is.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, Trinidad's not that far away. That must be. If I had to guess. Like, must be the same as New York.

[Mike Howard]

Probably wish you a happy birthday.

[Andy Cortez]

Takes a vacation.

[Greg Miller]

I'll watch ADD Me too. And Waffle Places. Add me on that too.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Let's just all make sure we get on that.

[Mike Howard]

Okay? It's in there now. It's in there now.

[Andy Cortez]

Don't tell him I say happy birthday, but tell him I'm working on that game show. Don't Thumb from last Friday that I forgot to make.

[Mike Howard]

Okay, hold on. Andy isn't wishing you. I'm gonna. Hey, I'm gonna say hbd.

[Andy Cortez]

Hbd. Yeah.

[Mike Howard]

And I'm gonna say BC for the heartbreak. He's working on the film Game Showdown. He forgot.

[Andy Cortez]

It's a funny reaction. The thumbnail's got spoilers for everybody from. For the thumbnail who already watched.

[Mike Howard]

I mean, come on, you gotta watch Game Showdown. What a show. What an episode.

[Andy Cortez]

It's the. It's the reaction to the Halo moment. It was so mad.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

And you can play it now.

[Greg Miller]

You can play it On Reddit.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

They made it.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, somebody, they tweeted at me on Blue Sky. Let me look it up now for like the exact name of it. But there's a thing where you can play along to game showdown and I don't know exactly how it works, but it seems like it records your, your answers and your score. Let me see. It's called React. So it's R, E, A C, T react, vts, reactivates, reactivates dot com, slash play along. So you go to it.

[Andy Cortez]

I was at a virus.

[Mike Howard]

Oh, fuck.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Got him.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, my computer shut down.

[Andy Cortez]

You got.

[Greg Miller]

You go to it though, and like it opens up. It's not just kind of funny either. Like it has dirty laundry from. From Dropout here has Arcade Pit. It has like, I assume it has probably Game Changers and stuff like that. It has the McElroy stuff too. Trivia Tower for Madroy.

[Andy Cortez]

And can anybody say that name right here at this company?

[Greg Miller]

Wait, did I say McElroy?

[Andy Cortez]

Everybody says McElroy.

[Greg Miller]

Hey, hey, you do it too.

[Mike Howard]

Call it like you see it. All right. I don't look at McDonald's and go, oh, Stevens, it says McDonald's.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

All right, Stevens.

[Mike Howard]

Yeah. A lot of people got a problem where they're just like, oh, that's not how you pronounce it. Well, that's how you fucking wrote it.

[Greg Miller]

You could have said MacDonald's so different.

[Mike Howard]

A lot of people got a problem.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

You still get the view for this.

[Greg Miller]

I mean you must.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, because then it plays a honey situation.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Double checking.

[Andy Cortez]

This is a honey situation where they take the address.

[Mike Howard]

That got me good.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I'll send him an email real quick, everybody.

[Mike Howard]

Of course. This is the kind of Funny Games cast. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for coming to hang out with us today. Each and every weekday we run you through the biggest topics in video games. Whether they be previews, reviews, or just topics we need to discuss with you. If you want to hang out with us and discuss those topics, it's quite simple. You should be YouTube super chatting. Of course, we are an 11 person small business all about live talk shows. I blew up my lungs.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Get it out.

[Greg Miller]

He's been coughing all day. And like right before the show, maybe on the show he was telling us about how like Ben is sick. And then also you had. You dropped that. And also Jen is sick.

[Mike Howard]

The toddler thing.

[Andy Cortez]

Think about that one stream where Greg is just coughing like a maniac. He's not sick though.

[Mike Howard]

It's okay.

[Andy Cortez]

And he ended up missing the next week.

[Mike Howard]

Kevin, go see doctor. Go see doctor. I'm not gonna see Dr. Kevin. It's just a cold. And then what? I get.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

They get.

[Mike Howard]

The doctor charged me a hundred dollars. It's just a cold. Go home. Okay, great. Thanks, guys. Anyways, that's not what this is. Don't worry, it's just. He made me laugh real hard and then I got. Then you know, I got, of course.

[Greg Miller]

What they always say. See, he's trying to butter me up.

[Mike Howard]

Listen, I licked every donut out there for you and you're the one going hanging out at parties, people fucking texting you. Ten hours later, everybody's dead.

[Greg Miller]

One kid threw up. It's fine.

[Mike Howard]

Everyone's. I got a cough.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I got a call to get it out.

[Mike Howard]

God damn everybody. All right, we're not going back to sitting in the goddamn discord windows. It's not worth it.

[Andy Cortez]

We're not going back.

[Mike Howard]

We're not going back. Anyways. Kind of funny gamescast topics, you know, that support us. We're an 11 person small business. Of course you, you can super chat like I said, to be part of the show. More importantly, you can pick up a membership on YouTube.com kinda funnygames patreon.com kinda funny apple and Spotify podcasts. It would get you all of our shows ad free. That's more than 20 a week. It would get you the ability to watch the afternoon podcast like today's kinda funny podcast. And it would get you your daily dose of me Greg in a series we call Greg Way. No books tossed away, no big deal. Like subscribe, tell your friends, shout it out, all the jazz you're used to. Housekeeping for you. We just did kinda funny games daily where we ran through the Phil Spencer interviews and all the amazing Xbox nuggets that are coming. Mike, how excited are you about the future of Xbox right now?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Pretty excited. I got some feelings. I got some feelings.

[Mike Howard]

I'm never gonna be able to talk this entire show. He tried to be like usual Mike, like I'll be.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, Mike couldn't even be Mike about it.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, it wasn't even the fiercest noise.

[Greg Miller]

I've ever heard come out of my life.

[Andy Cortez]

There wasn't the fraud positivity.

[Greg Miller]

Mike's excited to meet people who's like never met before on the street. Greg's asked about Xbox. You couldn't fake it for this one time?

[Mike Howard]

God damn, dude.

[Andy Cortez]

Barrett's wearing a mask. Jesus Christ.

[Mike Howard]

No, he's been wearing a mask.

[Andy Cortez]

They're all sick, man. I've never looked at it.

[Mike Howard]

I mean, being Very proactive. You know what I mean? I appreciate that. Where his. His partner's sick and then he's like.

[Andy Cortez]

Oh, I thought this is because of you thing.

[Mike Howard]

Oh, no, no, no, no.

[Andy Cortez]

I'm like, what. What info does Barrett have that we don't?

[Mike Howard]

He's getting the live updates from Tim. I'm like, guys, it's bad. I puked on everything when you. Anyways, that's the games daily. And it's up right now, of course. And of course the stream after this is going to be Mike and Nick playing house Flipper two.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah, we want to renovate houses. Good enough. So Andy will let us come in and redecorate his stream room. So that is the goal is two up and coming. You know, house decor enthusiasts sure come to your house.

[Andy Cortez]

I heard Nick say, you know how they have that middle room in their apartment? I was like, nick, that's the room that I sleep in. I don't know when you didn't hear about this info, but I've been sleeping in that room for over a year now. That's not just an empty room room anymore, you know, but we want to do with it.

[Mike Howard]

Wait, so did your bedroom become your streaming room?

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, yeah. The where the bedroom and the stream room was just one together throughout the pandemic. I moved into the middle bedroom that nobody was occupying.

[Mike Howard]

Okay.

[Andy Cortez]

Or our older roommate used to live.

[Mike Howard]

See, I've heard you say you. You have a streaming room now. Yeah, but it's not your bedroom anymore.

[Andy Cortez]

No.

[Mike Howard]

Okay, so now you sleep in the middle room.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, I don't need to give him.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Info, but he won't let me decorate the stream.

[Andy Cortez]

I don't need to give Greg info for any.

[Mike Howard]

Hey, hey, hey, hey. It's not about you anymore. I got stars in the bank. That's what I'm fucking Tim's house. It's not about you.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I just want everyone to understand that.

[Greg Miller]

This podcast should have an asterisk next to it because Andy's juicing.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

You want to tell them what you're doing, Andy? I don't want to point it out.

[Greg Miller]

But Andy has a sugar free monster.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Can here and I saw him pouring.

[Greg Miller]

Some sugary Mountain Dew into it before. For before this podcast happened.

[Mike Howard]

This game should not count to remind myself. Well, first off, this isn't game shot.

[Greg Miller]

I appreciate it.

[Mike Howard]

I have added the asterisks to the temporary headline on my document and I will add it to the final headline. Whatever we end up with here, because we're going to go on a journey.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Tell him what he did. Tell him what he did. Because he's juicing, that's why.

[Greg Miller]

Okay. He's peding right now and he comes on this podcast and his brain's working better than all of us because we're all natty and he's not.

[Mike Howard]

That's the problem. Yeah, he's pe.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

We're natty over here.

[Mike Howard]

Performance, Dancing.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Drugs.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Mike Howard]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

All right.

[Andy Cortez]

Well, I don't know if there's anybody who knows our calendar less than me, than Nick. I thought I.

[Mike Howard]

No, buzzers out. Blessing isn't how he's saying it's fucking Monday. You gotta appreciate it though, you know what I mean?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

These people's boss.

[Mike Howard]

Of course, then if you're a kinda funny member, like I said, you can get today's Greg Way, which is about the crazy universe we live in and its signs, especially when they come to online gaming.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

That was a lot.

[Mike Howard]

You can also get the kind of funny podcast this afternoon where Joey Noel is joining us. And I'm very excited about it. Thank you to our Patreon producers, Delaney Twining and Carl Jacobs. Today we're brought to you by Better Help and Bilt. We'll tell you about that later. For now, let's start the show with what is and forever will be topic of the show. It's been a while. All right. Since I could say nobody's gonna join me. Okay, fine. I was stained. I was giving you stained.

[Andy Cortez]

It's been a while.

[Mike Howard]

It's been a while. Candles light your face.

[Andy Cortez]

I remember he played one time in the rgv. It was just like super racist. Apparently he was. Yeah, it was real bad. Aaron. Yeah, Aaron something.

[Mike Howard]

Oh, I don't like that. Don't tell me that.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, this is real.

[Mike Howard]

Let me. Tell me. I need to know. But it just sucks that you can't mention anybody. Literally. I could be like, oh, like the Empire carpet man. You'd be like, oh, he fucking murdered a bunch of kids, did he? Ah, fuck. Not the Empire carpet man.

[Greg Miller]

It's all good. It's all going to change. We got a new president.

[Mike Howard]

What are you talking about? Why did you engage with that?

[Tim Gettys]

I don't know.

[Mike Howard]

It's been a while since we did a. Just what have you been playing? We've been doing previews, we've been doing reviews, we've been doing big topics. We've been doing Game of the Year. We've been doing. It's just been nonstop, but I know we've all been playing games and so Tim's dead. He's Buried. Neurona virus killed him, apparently.

[Andy Cortez]

Neurona.

[Mike Howard]

Neurona?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Is that what they call it?

[Mike Howard]

I said what? I said neurot virus.

[Greg Miller]

Noro.

[Andy Cortez]

It's a norovirus Neurona.

[Mike Howard]

I love it when he's not here. We have so much more fun, you know, I want to talk about games then and what we've been playing. You guys have listed a bunch of stuff, I've listed a bunch of stuff. And I want to start because you come off a game of the year, you come out of this thing, all these great games, some of which I didn't play, things. It's impossible to keep up with everything.

[Andy Cortez]

It's a haze.

[Mike Howard]

It's the normal thing where you start up the new year, you're hungry for new games. And I'm like, I want to give more chances, you know, I'm very busy. We're all very busy, but I'm very busy, right? And so it's like, you know, you're holding off for these big games, these next big reviews, these little things. I have a bunch of games here, just three, I guess, that are smaller games that I've played, that I've touched, I have something to say about. All right? And I want to start with my pick of the litter. All right? My pick of the litter, Mike. My favorite game that I've been playing since I got back is Cryptical Path. Have you heard about Cryptical Path, Mike?

[Tim Gettys]

No.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Lay it on me.

[Mike Howard]

All right, so Barrett's going to toss up a trailer here for you. This Steam description would tell you, of course, that this is from old Skull Games and it goes. Cryptical Path is an action roguelite that pushes the boundaries of the genre. Play the architect, build your own rooms and tame an ever changing labyrinth you've been summoned in. So the ideas you see here, and maybe you're an audio lister who aren't seeing it. Roguelite, right? Running along, side scrolling back and forth. Kind of looks like the Prince of Persia. Tim. Love so much last time around, right? You go in there, you fight the enemies, you get the currency, right? And then of course, since it's rogue, you're opening up chests on every run, getting new things. But what's really interesting about it is when you start it, you have to create your path and as you play, you create your path. So you have a bunch of different rooms you unlock that you can put in there, and they can be filled with enemies, they can be filled with treasure, they can be filled with hearts if you need that, or whatever they cost you. A certain currency that you're getting as you run through, right? And then you make your path to the boss every time or to the other things to get it. Does what I love in a good roguelike, where, you know, you fail, you come out, you're back in the Overworld, right? And there's all manner of things to do, of cool. I'm. I've got these coins there, and I'm going to come in here and invest in this perk, right? So I'll have more health for the next run. Oh, I've been enjoying that. So I'll go to this section up here where now I can go. And it's got special rules to it that'll give me a better reward for playing that way. And then the entire time just trying to go through, kill all these guys, take back over your world or whatever. What I think so nifty about it, right, is Mike, you might be saying nifty, hey, you're going through and you got to spend this currency to put down rooms. What if you run out of currency to get to the. You can't connect anything, right? The idea is there, you can spend all you can spend without having it and get negatives, like going to negative money. But when you do that, that then is what gives you curses. So suddenly you're here, you can't hear in the game. Everything's got no color, you're taking more damage, stuff like that. So they really tweak and play with the things I love so much about, like, Rogue Legacy, where it was, okay, cool. Like, you know, you come back as this character. What's the pro? What's the con of them? How are you doing it? So you can get stronger, you can stick to it. You can put down just the enemy rooms to get the currency to do the thing. But. But what I found with mine, of course, is like, oh, man, I'm taking hits and I want to have as many hearts, so I need to put down heart rooms real quick before I go to the boss. There's also in the skill trees, you go through and unlock all the stuff, the normal stuff, more health, whatever. But you also can unlock configurations of rooms. So it's like, all right, if you put down tiles in a way that makes like a plus sign, the middle will fill in with a free heart square. And so it's like they got a lot of really neat stuff they're doing with tweaking it. It's not a 10 out of 10 by anything. It's a smaller game, obviously. Small Developer. But I'm really enjoying my time with it. It has been one of those that even when I'm doing something else, I'll be like, all right, before bed, one run, watching tv, watching wrestling. All right, let's jump in there, go through another run of this and see how many I can do. What can I push? How far can I get? And you guys know that I'm not the Dodge Perry, Prince of Persia kind of guy. I guess Perry isn't correct for this one. But, you know, this is about, oh, it's these candlestick guys that are coming at me. So I know that I need to, you know, do my dash through them when I'm invulnerable to on the other side to hit them. I need to jump in here, do this. They've got bombs in the world that you can knock out on them. And I don't know if you saw it there in the video. Again, Cryptical Path, it's playing on a whole bunch of different things like Critical Path, but it's also playing on, I think, critical role to quite a degree. The weapon you're using is a dice. It's a dnd die that you're throwing out. So there's like, you know, you'll unlock these different, you know, things for your run. And one of them can be that when you kill an enemy, then they spawn another die in the world in that spot. So you can be out there and throwing it back and just shooting dye all over the place and do the stuff. Like, it's really cool in terms of like a very basic idea that I have come back. I think I'm like on seven hours of it now, according to Steam, just playing it over and over again, really finding new things in it, interesting things. Downsides to it, I would say, of course, is like, it's a lot of it's repeat, which of course you'd expect, I think, to a degree. But it's even the thing of, like, when you beat that initial Boss for Act 1 to unlock Act 2 with the new area, next time you play, you have to play through act one again and beat that boss again to get back to act two. I think there's just three acts according to achievements. I have not finished it right. So it's like, I get that you do that to keep it going, but I would have rather been. I finished act one. I finished that first map. Here's a new app I can just jump to. I can start with or whatever, but outside of that, no real complaints. Having a lot of fun with it. A simple game, a fun game. I'm enjoying it and I would recommend it for you guys because I do think this is something. I, I, I look at this, I'm like, oh, man. Again, Tim loved Prince so much. Yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I look at these two of like, are you guys impressed with this? I'm, I'm blown away that Greg is recommending this game. This is not a Greg game that I would put on you, Greg. So nice job. Way to step out there.

[Mike Howard]

You got to get out.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I like that.

[Mike Howard]

You know, you get this whole thing. I want to, I want to be out there. I want to play.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

At what point does the main character talk about his dead daughter or something?

[Mike Howard]

I mean, that's my biggest downside to it.

[Andy Cortez]

No divorce.

[Mike Howard]

My biggest downside. This guy's all, no generational trauma. The architect comes back to his place and somebody's taken over. I'm like, oh, o, oh yeah. Can it be his long lost brother who his mother loved more and made him cry, you know. But no, instead it's just this dude. And that's the thing where it's like the characters are whatever. But again, I don't think they need to be anything special as you just go and fight candlestick people.

[Andy Cortez]

Do you find yourself in any of these runs in the middle of a run or at the start of a run? Discovering, like, one of my favorite thing in Roguelites is once you're kind of starting your run and you get those first couple upgrades, you go, oh, this is going to be at this sort of run. Oh yeah, this is gonna be a fire run. This is gonna be a lightning and a whatever run. Like, I, I love knowing kind of going into runs that like, hey, maybe this one is going to be successful, but I can make a lot of money and we can just have this run be, let's make money. So then when we get back, we can then kind of prepare for the following one.

[Mike Howard]

Yes. Sadly, there isn't, I don't think that big of a differentiator between like, oh, a fire or a freezing or whatever. It's more of like, oh, the room layouts here is going to be I'm going to clear every room rather than trying to mainline boss or I'm building to whatever, you know, bonus I want on the main screen. So I'm just going to try to get the gold and put those down and do this or, you know, I'm doing this now, so I've unlocked that. You know, there's going to be more chests Spawning with more X, Y and Z. So I'm going to try to do that here and there. There's that level to it, but not so much of, like, my gameplay is switched dramatically.

[Greg Miller]

What are your thoughts on it visually? Because I think hearing you talk about it, right, I'm like. I'm very intrigued. I like a Roguelite. I like the idea, the concept of building the world out as you go and like, being able to make those choices like that. But then I look at the gameplay of it and for some reason, it's not doing it for me. Right. That doesn't look like a world that I want to be in.

[Mike Howard]

Yeah, 100%. I think that's a great point. I think it's a valid one. Where I would say, yeah, a takeaway I would have, again, for the repetition is that then I think it also makes it feel generic where it is like, again, who is the architect? Exactly. I don't need, like, his whole backstory and his family tree or whatever, but just a guy with these horns or whatever. Like, I'm sure there's some reference they're making to a D and D kind of thing based on how the game is, but it just doesn't do anything for me. So, yeah, it is. Like, when I started playing it in those, I think the first couple runs, it was like, okay, just fighting candlestick men here. That's weird. The idea, of course, is that this is your old mansion, right. While you were gone, this guy came in and kind of possessed everything and added new enemies and stuff like that. So it's your world come to life to attack you kind of thing. But you're seeing so much of the same people that I do think it does borderline generic, but it is the actual gameplay that actually keeps me engaged. Like, okay, well, I want to come back and I want to do more and I want to unlock as much as possible.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I like the building out your own map on how you want to go.

[Mike Howard]

That.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

That entices me. That interests me of, like, so what does that look like? So I could hypothetically just build straight to the boss and just roll it right there.

[Mike Howard]

They have. You saw some of. You saw in some of it, there's, like, rocks there that are, like, blocking your way. So you can't get through those. Or at least I can't get through those yet. You do a way to blow up rooms that exist already, but not the rocks. So you do have to go around them.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Okay.

[Mike Howard]

And so it becomes the thing of, like, if you want to go straight to it, you're probably going to take that penalty. And the curses are random, so you don't know what you're going to get. Whereas if you want to do more of it, you can usually link up and then as you go, have enough currency to get around. But there's a different cost to every room you're putting down. So, like, you know, if you wanted to get the hearts, it's going to cost more than the enemies kind of thing.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Okay. Okay.

[Mike Howard]

But yeah, I recommend it. Highly recommend it. I'm enjoying my time.

[Andy Cortez]

Thank you for sharing that.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I like it.

[Mike Howard]

Yeah, it's out for everybody. You can go pick it up right now. Blessing. What have you been playing?

[Greg Miller]

Ooh, where to start. Where to start? I thought you're gonna talk about everything.

[Mike Howard]

Oh, no, you. I mean, I can go through the rest of my.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, I like it.

[Mike Howard]

Nobody wants.

[Greg Miller]

Great.

[Mike Howard]

A monologue that long.

[Greg Miller]

Well, I want to talk about two of mine in conjunction with each other, because I think my thoughts on both kind of have to kind of play off of each other.

[Tim Gettys]

Sure.

[Greg Miller]

So over the weekend, I played two video game demos. I streamed. I streamed through them. The first Berserker Kazan was the first demo I played through, which I picked up because I think Andy was the one who kept telling me, like, oh, you gotta pick up first Berserker. You gotta check it out. And then this other game called AI Limit, which I'll get to in a second. The first Berserker Kazan picking it up. Let me tell you, this game has the sauce. Yes, dude, this game has the sauce.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Fantasy Critic.

[Greg Miller]

And, like, we'll get to that in a second because I think I have a lot of really great things to say about this game. And that is also. I also have quite a few critiques to it as well. But if I'm starting off with the good as I was streaming, I was talking about, you know, I think the first. The first Berserker Kazan is one of those games that does a really great job of looking at what from from software has done with its combat and, like, picking and choosing the elements that are going to uplift the game the most. Right. I could maybe call this game a Souls, like, but I think maybe Sekiro, like, might be a bit more apt for the kind of game, the kind of combat you're getting into here. It is like, a lot of deflecting. It is a lot of, like, time and with those hits to then, like, build up the stagger meter on an enemy or a boss and like, getting Those heavy hits to build, build down that stagger meter more and get that like finisher move on them to take them down that way. I really like the. The art style of this game. I like the presentation of. Of this game. I think this game has like a vibe and feel to it that is really cool and really dope. And the combat is very fun. I like the weapons they're giving you. I like the pace at which they're giving you loot. Like it feels very fine tuned. And when I talk like how well it adapts those things from things like souls games or seiro or like from software thing. There was a new term that was coined from somebody in my chat that I think condensed it all into Miyazaki Breaking news.

[Mike Howard]

Breaking news.

[Greg Miller]

So Miyazaki University is the new one that I'm going to introduce into the lexicon of. Kind of funny, right? Where in the last, I mean the last decade. But I think especially in the last few years, every year we get multiple games that feel like they attend Miyazaki University and I think usually we come out with one valid valedictorian every year. Right. A couple of years ago I would have said it was Liza P. I think last year maybe up for debate between Black Myth and stellar Blade. I wouldn't count Erdtree because Erdtree is like an actual fromsoftware game. But I would give it last year to maybe a stellar Blade. I think this year so far, first Berserker Kazan might be my Miyazaki University valedictorian contender of man, y'all learned all the right shit from like that developer. Like man, y'all are doing all the right things to translate this game. Like it plays well. The work, like the, you know, presentation is good. I like some of the pathing. I like a lot what you're doing here. And after playing the demo I. My excitement for this game skyrocketed. No, yeah, like I. I am going to be there hopefully day one like playing this game and hopefully like probably talking to Andy and doing a review and all that stuff. Right. All that said, like there's still I think my biggest thing though coming out of the demo as far as like critique or trepidation or whatever is I. The way I felt finishing this demo reminded me of how I felt finishing the Wo long demo. The Wo long Fallen Dynasty demo where upon finishing that one I remember being like damn, that was such a fun time. Like that combat was so good. I love the deflections. Like this is doing everything for me. But I Then go on to play more of wo long and kind of realize that it is, like, a lot more of what I experienced in that first hour.

[Mike Howard]

More of the same.

[Greg Miller]

More of the same. Right. Which kind of brought it down because I. I think I needed that game to do more dynamic things. I need that world to be more interesting. I need to be more invested in the story. The combat had it. Like, the combat had the stuff. But the more I played it, the more I'm like, okay, this is maybe a little bit more one note that I imagine. I think for me so far, playing the first Berserker Kazan, the story isn't grabbing me necessarily. Right. Like, I think they're doing a good job presenting it. Like, I like hearing Ben Starr voice acting. There's like a. Like a demon that you're essentially possessed with, and, like, there's kind of this confrontation that you're having as you're going.

[Andy Cortez]

It's a venom situation.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, there's like, a venom situation going on.

[Andy Cortez]

It's like a friends. It's a blade demon that kind of goes inside of Ben Starr's body, and Ben stars, like, you know, I don't want to. I don't want you here. And the blade demons, like, Eddie, you know, and they're just fighting to. They're just fighting against each other. They don't like each other for a.

[Mike Howard]

While, but they'll come.

[Andy Cortez]

You can tell they're going to come around in Act 2.

[Greg Miller]

And I'm hoping that stuff grabs me more because in the first I played the demo. Took me about three and a half hours. In that three and a half hours, I came out of it being like, all right. I don't really care about anything that's going on in the story. Yeah. But I think that that nugget there could evolve and maybe. Maybe, you know, get something out of me. And then I think my other thing, too, is, man, I hope to see, like, the world get more interesting. Like, the. The environments get a bit more dynamic, even like the. The pathing, I think, after the beginning became a bit more straightforward. And that might be because the demo takes place in a more, like, foresty area. So there's only so much that you can do with pathing. In the very beginning of the demo, there was, like, a cool part where you kind of drop down. You have to, like, look down and see where the next ledge is to drop off to, then continue. I thought that was good level design, but after that, it felt like that stuff kind of got a bit stale in terms of like, all right, now we're flat and now we're kind of just going. I want to see that stuff uplifted more in terms of like getting me invested in the pathing, the level design and like bringing that. That part of it too. My one other thing too is like in any of these games when you get down the stagger, you have like your finisher or like a, like a visceral move or whatever you want to call it. I'm not, it's not hitting for me like that specific move.

[Mike Howard]

Like there's like a what about it doesn't look good. It isn't fun to perform, it's not satisfying.

[Greg Miller]

You know, like the way I was comparing it when I was playing on stream is like you get to a glory kill in doom and you want to like rip and tear. Like I want to like, you know, grab like reach into like somebody and you know, rip out their head or rip out their tongue or like rip them in half or some. And even if it's not violent, I think at the very least like a, like a inward motion and an outward motion or something that feels like it has more umph to it.

[Andy Cortez]

The stellar, the stellar blade kills were fantastic because it was always some cool shortcut scene that had her jumping up and doing something crazy and it was always kind of enemy specific. Yeah. So, yeah, during boss fights that was a lot more appreciated, I would say.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah. So like here it is more. You'll do like a harder hit or whatever and you'll knock the enemy away. But I kind of wanted a bit more out of that. That's a small critique, but that was one that I think stood out to me the most of, like, oh man, I wish this was more satisfying.

[Andy Cortez]

That's a fun ass game. Yeah, I, I'm glad you're, you're. You played it and I'm glad we're talking about it because I. It's one of those that. I played the demo whenever it came out.

[Greg Miller]

I even.

[Andy Cortez]

I previewed it a couple months ago and it was like pretty fun. But for whatever reason when this recent demo came out, it just felt awesome. The locomotion feels great. Running around in the game feels great. The combat is great and the responsiveness of all the parries and stuff just felt super satisfying.

[Greg Miller]

Very fine tuned.

[Andy Cortez]

And the boss fight, you know, not only from a presentation sort of angle, but also just what the boss is doing and how you're having to survive in those moments. I thought it was a lot of fun, super engaging. I really, really Had a lot of fun with this demo and I, I agree that like yeah, I think when Liza P came out I was like these. They went to a class and learned how to make a fromsoftware game. And so far I feel like this is lesser than Lies of P but way more because I, you know, these games are diamond or a dime a dozen nowadays and they come out and you expect that same sort of feeling and it kind. It's rare whenever it hits for whatever reason, this game just feels good enough to where it's. It's hitting and I'm excited for the final product.

[Greg Miller]

So the other game I'll talk about in conjunction with this is AI Limit.

[Andy Cortez]

Oh great. I'm glad you're going to talk about it because I downloaded the demo and didn't get a chance to hop in.

[Greg Miller]

This is one that somebody brought to my attention as I was playing the first Berserker Kazan. And this is in the middle of the Miyazaki University conversation where they were like, oh, there's another demo for this game called AI Limit that you should check out. And so the very next day I booted it up. I played through it. It took me, I think maybe like an hour and a half to play through this one. To give context, this is a game that is part of PlayStation's China Hero Project to pull from the PlayStation website. The China Hero Project is a PlayStation mentoring and support initiative for China based developers helping them create incredible games that reach a global audience. There's Also like the PlayStation, I believe they have the India Hero project and like PlayStation does this a lot in recent years where they're trying to find games globally and support the developers to kind of like, you know, help give a push for more game development happening in more countries. And so this is one coming out of the China Hero project to read the Steam description of this game or actually this is from the PlayStation website of this game. AI limit is an action RPG set in a distant future where civilization is on the brink of extinction. A strange substance known as mud is spreading and monsters are appearing across the land. You'll play as regenerating warrior Orisa, exploring the ruins of monster infested cities in search of the truth behind the apocalypse. This game has a release date for March 27, 2025, which very soon, very soon, but also the same day as the first Berserker Kazan, which feeds into this conversation. The conversation a little bit of I played through this demo. I have again a lot of good things to say about this game. It Feels like. It feels like more of a souls game than even the first Berserker Kazan does. Playing this game reminds me of how it felt playing Bloodborne of, you know, First Berserker Kazan had it where the easy.

[Andy Cortez]

I mean, you're invoking a very powerful name right now.

[Greg Miller]

Don't get too excited. But, like, you know, in First Berserker Kazan, the default control scheme is like, you know, square, light attack, triangle, heavy attack. Like, it's. It almost feels like it tries to weave between being action and Sekiro. Like, or Souls. Like, this one is straight up. No, this is what you expect. Like, this feels like you're picking up a bloodborne game in gameplay, right? Of you're pressing R1. The attacks move like a fromsoftware souls game. Like, the combos, the animation on the character, their movements look and feel like a souls game. Even like the. Like the finishers, Right. Like, there is the crunchiness that I kind of wanted out of the First Berserker in it. Yeah. Like, it has that. I think, for me, though, playing through this game, this, I think, suffers from the same thing that it benefits from, which is going back to the Xbox developer, Underscore Direct. One of the things that I'd mentioned is that, like, we're in the best time for an act to play an action game. Action games are everywhere. Like, if you want a fast action game, guess what. Ninja Gaiden 4 is coming out later this year, and you Got Ninja Gaiden 2 black. That's out. That was out last week, Right. You got First Berserker Kazan. There's Elden Ring Night Rain. We got Liza P DLC coming out just this year. You know, like, action games are coming out left and right, and I think that has given rise to. Yeah, more of the first Berserker Kazan, which are these games that are really quality and really viable in terms of. Oh, this actually plays really well. Just like so many other games lately that play really well for this genre of game. And AI Limit, I think, plays well, but it also, I think, is missing the it factor. Like, I. This one is one where, as I finish the demo, I don't foresee myself going back to it because these games are now a dime a dozen where I'm like, why would I pick AI Limit when I got First Berserker Kazan? Right? Why would I pick up AI Limit when I could replay a Bloodborne or XYZ thing? And I think the thing that emphasizes that for me is that the gameplay feels Very familiar. But then the world is not grabbing me. This is one that has an anime art style. I would say it's probably similar to a code vein in that way. I don't really like how the main character looks like. They look more generic. What are the streamers that have, like, the anime VTubers? VTubers? The main character. When I look at the main character model, it reminds me of a Vtuber. Right. I wish they got more inspired for a world that seems way more dark and grim and it's like post apocalyptic and stuff. I feel like they could have gotten a bit more inspired with the character design. And there are times where, like, I have my main character standing next to an npc and the NPC looks like they're in a different art style.

[Mike Howard]

Damn.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, like. Like, you know, main character, colorful. Anime npc, fucking dark. Like, brutal. Like, you ripped this out of a bloodborne type thing and I didn't really like how that looked.

[Andy Cortez]

Do you feel like you would feel this way if you play the demos in a reverse order?

[Greg Miller]

I think so. Also. Yeah. Like, I think even if I played this at first, I still have that feeling of, like, I don't necessarily love, like, you know, how this world looks and feels. Right. Like, again, it's supposed to be dark, it's supposed to be grim because it is, again, post apocalyptic wasteland. But there is something that feels also bland about some of its, like, world presentation. I think the. The setting that it's going for. I'm always down for some kind of futuristic tech type. But yeah, like, a lot of it just wasn't speaking to me. I wasn't looking at it and going, oh, damn, that's a cool vista. Or, oh, damn, that's a cool visual. I think the one part of the demo that I did get that is like, when they take you to a different kind of setting toward the end of the demo where I'm like, oh, that's interesting. I wasn't expecting this, but as I was moving through the demo, I was kind of like, this. This ain't really doing it for me. Story wasn't doing it for me either. Right. Like, it's. I. There was a lot of jargon being thrown at me and like, that's a very regular thing in. In these types of games. But it didn't. I wasn't feeling the substance of the jargon either. Like, they're talking about the. I don't know, they're saying words.

[Andy Cortez]

The mud.

[Greg Miller]

The mud. Yeah. The mud is a great one.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Where I'M like, I don't really. I don't know what the mud is. I don't care about the mud.

[Andy Cortez]

Would you now, if this game was not coming out the same day as First Berserker, would you be a bit more higher on it if it was.

[Greg Miller]

Coming out and like a time where nothing else is coming out? I think I would be like, okay, I. I got time. I'll play through this game. I think the way I'll put it is after the first Berserker, I did this thing where I was doing the blessed forecast of where I could see this game landing in terms of like a blessed forecast. So for the first Berserker Kazan, I was seeing it at like maybe an 8 or 8.5.

[Mike Howard]

Wow. Okay.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

87.

[Andy Cortez]

No, no, no. Like, not higher than liza.

[Greg Miller]

P for AI limit. I. I was feeling more of a 7 out of 10. A game that is not bad by any.

[Andy Cortez]

Totally worth your time still.

[Greg Miller]

Totally worth your time still. If this is your jam of a type of game, I think there is like, there is a feel there, there is combat there, there is exploration there. That's going to work for you. But I don't think it does anything to bring it up to that. Oh, this is great, right? First Berserker Kuzan coming out of it, immediately I was like, oh, that is great. That was a great experience. This. I am like, okay, this is good, this is good. But like, it doesn't feel special. It doesn't feel standout.

[Mike Howard]

So I want to jump into one of my other games because I think I want to see if you what a lot of what you're expressing is exactly how I feel about Eternal Strands. Oh, Eternal Strands turns head turned head last week when the demo dropped. You can play through it. Your progress carries over. Yellow Brick games. Mike Laidlaw's over there. Formerly of Bioware. Everything else Steam description reads, fight epic towering creatures while blending magical abilities with an arsenal of powerful weapons to keep the world from crumbling. In this third person action adventure game, when I meet somebody, tell them what I do. They say, oh man, what games do you love? Or whatever. I usually say third person action adventure. Right. I like a story and I like. I like dodge rolling and I like stabbing and I like questing and all that jazz. You were streaming it last week. Bless Eternal Strands. And I walked in because I was playing it out at my desk and I sat down with you and I was like, what's going on? Because this is a game I want to love and I feel like I'm just liking. And even liking isn't being generous. I enjoy a lot about it, but like none of it is so compelling that I need to go back to it. And I played well beyond what you played in the demo. I'm not, I did not roll credits. This is not a full blown review or anything. But I kept playing. I unlocked more stuff. Yeah, the chat points out right now the set, it's a 71 on Metacritic right now for the PlayStation version.

[Greg Miller]

All the reviews are out.

[Mike Howard]

Yeah, the Margo's up. I played more. I did all stuff and it's like I just can't get into a groove of loving it. And I was really ready to love it. I wanted to love it. I was playing on my portal and I'm like, I think the combat is fun. I like how it feels. You know, you're dodge rolling, you're using sword and shield, you're using bow and arrow. It of course is from a lot of people who worked on Immortals, Phoenix Rising. You got the ability to climb everything. Like Zelda and Immortals. There's so much in here and the powers. And I'm like, ah, this is gonna be so great. And I just can't vibe with it. Bless you played it. Am I crazy?

[Greg Miller]

No. I felt all the same things that you felt. Right. And I think this is, I think my initial impression of it. Of what? We played it for two or three hours. Maybe like two hours. Cause I think we switched to dreams. But my initial impressions was it felt like it was trying to throw too much into the pot. Like it felt like it was trying to do too much for the type of game that it wanted to be. Because when this game was initially revealed, I got excited because it reminded me of games that I like, I love, right? Like Shadow, Shadow Colossus, right. Like they have the giant beast that you climb and like, you know, fight against. And I'm like, oh, they're making their own Shadow Colossus style game. But then I look at other elements of it and there's this really cool like, you know, like element thing of. There's fire, there's ice. Like the way in which these forces of nature will play with each other, you know, interact with each other. And like, it remind me a lot of something like Zelda Breath of the Wild, right? Like you even see the climbing in the game in the video that we're showing right now. Like so much of it reminded me of Breath of the Wild in terms of those things. But I think once I picked up the, the Preview, right? The demo that. That I played through on the. On the stream as I played, it felt like it was just trying to do too much and almost punch above its weight of like, all right, we're getting into this dialogue. You're building this bigger world. I'm playing as this character Brin, and, like, you're introducing this party of characters now.

[Mike Howard]

And if I can jump in here, One of the things when I came in to go, like, sit there with you and try to figure this out, wax about it. Wax on and on. Somebody in the chat was like, Greg. Or maybe it was even on Games Daily, but it came up there too. Someone who's like, greg, you should love this. It's like Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning. And I was like, I adore Amalur and I don't get those vibes here. And on the stream with you, I was like, I guess maybe a little bit of the combat, but Amalur, you could switch everything up. And then it wasn't until I was at home playing on Portal, where I was like, oh, it's like Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning, where it is beating me over the head with so much fucking lore and terminology and jargon that I'm like, skip, skip, skip, skip, skip. I just don't care anymore. Just let me go fight the things you have, a fun combat system. Let me get out in the world and stop inundating with all this. And it's like, stuff that is cool and the voice acting is good and like, they're trying to give you all this stuff, but it's just too much. I don't care.

[Greg Miller]

That's my thing is there's so much. There's so much to it that I don't care about. Right. Picking up the game. I cared about fighting giants and I cared about, like, oh, maybe some of the adventure stuff that might, you know, be invoking Zelda with the environment or the element stuff and, you know, some other things, the climbing and stuff. Right. But as I get into it, you introduce, yeah, these characters and, like, this deep lore. It feels like they're trying. They're trying to hit you with. Right as I'm going, I'm picking up all these things. And I. Early on I was like, is this more survival crafting? Because I'm picking up, like, a lot.

[Mike Howard]

Of resources and you're limited on how much you can carry, so it's like, I got to go back and drop this stuff. And then I hit Max everything fucking out. And it's like, well, now you got to wait to get to level two. I'm like, when? Or level three. I'm like, when? How? I have no progression bar. I just want to be level three already.

[Greg Miller]

Quests are like, hey, go talk to this person and combine these things and learn how to, like, craft. And I'm like, what is this game? Like, in the first two hours of playing, I still don't know what I'm playing. Like, I still don't know what the meat of the game is. And I'll ask you, like, what do you feel like the meat of the game is? Is there a gameplay loop where you're like, oh, this is what the game is, and this is why it's go.

[Mike Howard]

Back to hq, get the next quest, go out and do that thing. Come back to hq, go out to the next quest, you know, and you're unlocking new things. Like, you know, and it's a weird game of, like. A great example is I'm playing the prologue to it at the opening, the intro, and it's like, damn, I'm playing. I'm like, I could really go for a lock on. It's crazy. I can't lock on enemies. Finish the intro mic, jump into the main world. The first thing. Like, if you want to lock onto enemies, click right. I'm like, okay, why would you delay that? It's the same thing. Then where the game is, like, cool. Go from home base out to do these missions, then come back, and you're like, so you're just running back and forth. Like, this kind of sucks. Why don't we have fast travel? Finally? You unlock fast travel to these points. Like, all right. Like, it's the same thing. It's so Zelda. It's so immortal, where I'm like, when am I getting the glider? Like, I'm up on top of these things. Just give me a glider.

[Greg Miller]

That's what I was telling Mike when we were playing of, Like, I'm like, on top of a big thing. And I'm like, I'd be nice if I can just glide down right now, because guess what? There's a lot of fall damage by the fall damage is going to destroy me. Also, the art styles didn't speak to me. I don't. And I didn't like the immortal art style really, either. They describe it as painterly, I believe. And, like, I don't know. I've seen a lot of games that look like this, and none of them really, like, hit for me. And I don't know if that's A me thing. I don't know if that's a universal thing, but, like, I could tell that there's detail and, like, talent put into it, but it's just. The style just feels too familiar, I guess. Like, it doesn't feel like it stands out to me.

[Andy Cortez]

I thought it was a bad demo because as I'm streaming it, I'm just like, I. All right, let me get back to it. Because I'm having to speed through all these conversations that I don't really care about yet or sell me on the gameplay first instead of what the world is. And I. I really vibe with the combat in the world in terms of how everything interacts with each other. I loved the idea of if you're.

[Mike Howard]

An audio listener, you can use fire and you have spells and you essentially.

[Andy Cortez]

Have like a telekinesis power where there's a certain type of flower in the world that explodes on impact. So you can use your sort of psychic grab to pull that off of where it's sort of planted into and toss it at somebody and it'll turn to fire and that fire will eventually spread to other places. And I loved being somewhere high up and trying to get across somewhere and going, oh, I can make my little ice bridge from here to there. This is really cool. And I love that as a concept, it just wasn't lending itself to the gameplay a whole lot, like, in ways that I really wanted. Although when I was fighting that big ass giant, I did find it cool that there's a lot of different ways to sort of take this on. Not only by climbing it and hitting the weak spots or whatever, but I kept on trying to, like, skillfully grab with my telekinesis powers a rock and try to hit it to like, direct hit those little weak points to where when you hit those weak points, those are holding together the giant's armor. So if you hit the weak points, it'll eventually break off and suddenly the enemy is exposed in those spots. I found fun in that. I just like, it was just going back to the home base and then experiencing a whole lot of lore and the fact that my fire was also hurting me.

[Mike Howard]

So I needed.

[Andy Cortez]

I needed elemental armor.

[Mike Howard]

I was getting. I was like fighting these things. There's so many of them. And I'm like, okay, cool. I'm into the flow. And then I was like, I see, I'll freeze you with ice. And then I run over and hit you. I'm like, this is cool. And then I start getting hurt by the ice that they're leaving on the ground from my eyes. Like that sucks.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

But I did enjoy a lot of the way that the those elemental things sort of work together. I want more of that. I just, it wasn't enough to make me want to go back anytime I would. I, you know, I'm in bed at night, I'm looking at my Steam Deck, I'm like what am I gonna play? And I would see it there. It's like. And it runs great on Steam Deck. It runs awesome on Steam Deck. But I just could not bring myself to wanting to go back and which is kind of a bummer because I've had this one sort of marked on my get excited for this sort of game because I know it's Mike Laidlaw, formerly a Bioware and I know it's a lot of really talented devs putting together something that looks interesting to me and it just, it wasn't quite hitting and maybe it will if I go back to it at a later date, but nothing that I felt like I needed to run back to and give a shot.

[Mike Howard]

Yeah, sadly that's where I'm at too, where it's like I was hoping this would tide me over before avowed getting into some other stuff. We're waiting on for review codes and it was just like I'm gonna play other stuff and jump around and Mike, I want to hear what you've been jumping into after I talk about the fact you should be supporting us with the Kinda Funny membership. Did you know we're an 11 person business that relies on you and your support to make the 20 shows we do every week to make a daily Greg way for you to give you shows ad free to give you cool afternoon podcasts like the Kinda Funny Podcast. Well if you didn't, now you do pick up a Kinda funny membership on patreon.com kinda funny YouTube.com kindafunnygames, Apple and Spotify. But since you're not using your member benefit. Fuck I was so close. Benefits right now. Blessing Addie oh yay Junior, that's me. Here's a word from our sponsors.

[Tim Gettys]

This episode is brought to you by Bilt. If you're a renter, I'd start taking advantage of Bilt if I were you. Here's the thing. We earn points on groceries, travel and practically everything else we buy. But we should also be earning points on rent, one of our biggest monthly expenses. Bilt changed the game by letting renters earn high value points on rent and around their neighborhood. There's no cost to join bilt, and as a member, you'll earn valuable points on rent and your everyday spending. BILT points can be transferred to your favorite hotels and airlines and even the ones you haven't heard of. There are over 500 airlines and 700,000 hotels and properties around the world. You can redeem your BILT points toward points can also be redeemed towards a future rent payment and unique experiences that only BILT members can access. So if you're not earning points on rent, my question is, why not start earning points on rent you're already paying by going to joinbuilt.com kindafunny that's J O I N B I L T.com kindafunny make sure to use our URL so they know that we sent you there. Joinbuilt.com kindafunny to start earning points on your rent payments today. This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. What do you want your 2025 story to be? Every January brings you 365 blank pages waiting to be filled in in 2025. Maybe you're ready for a plot twist. Or maybe there's part of your story you've been wanting to revise. Life isn't about resolutions that fade by February. It's about picking up the pen and becoming the author of your own life. Think of therapy as your editorial partner, helping you write new chapters and create the meaningful story you deserve to live. Some of my best friends use BetterHelp, and they love how helpful it can be for learning positive coping skills and how to set boundaries. It empowers you to be the best version of yourself. It isn't just for those who've experienced major trauma. If you're thinking of starting therapy, give better help a try. It's entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule. And it serves over 5 million people worldwide. Write your story with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com kinda funny to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp H-E-L-P.com kindafunny betterhelp.com kindafunny not that Nick Scarpino.

[Mike Howard]

Like, not our Nick Scarpino.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

That Nick Scarpino.

[Greg Miller]

There's another Nick Scarpino.

[Mike Howard]

Oh, you never.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

You don't remember?

[Mike Howard]

This is old.

[Greg Miller]

This is why he's Nick Underscore.

[Mike Howard]

Remember?

[Greg Miller]

I remember this.

[Mike Howard]

Yeah, the Nick Scarpino who has all the Nick Scarpino accounts ended up working at Portillo's, like on their corporate side. And now he's the CEO of Giordano's.

[Greg Miller]

The CEO?

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Mike Howard]

Like we know people who know me.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Reach out to you.

[Mike Howard]

Want a fucking reservation?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Help us out, please.

[Mike Howard]

Michael Howard. Hello and welcome to the Gamescast.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Hi, Greg. Thanks for having me. It's been a pleasure to listen to all of your awesome game recommendations so far.

[Mike Howard]

I'd love to hear what you've been playing and enjoying, Greg.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I've been all over the place. You know, I've had a strong start to the year. I've been playing a lot of games. I've been tracking all the games I play in my notebook.

[Mike Howard]

I like that.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

But you know, Greg, I took a trip to Silent Hill.

[Mike Howard]

I believe I saw the blue sky or tweet from you that said it changed me. I'll never be the same.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah, you know, there's things in Silent Hill that you can't unsee, Greg. And unfortunately now I can never go back. But I had a really good time with that. I've also met Gordon Freeman, of course, and I visited the Black Mesa and that was a very special moment there as well. Of course, me and my friends opened up a fast food restaurant and I've been in just deep competition.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, I missed my shift there.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah. Well, we have a write up for you on the desk. We'll call you about that. So, Greg, I've played four games that I would like to talk about.

[Mike Howard]

Okay.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

League of Legends, Fast Food simulator, Silent Hill 2 and Half Life 1. I'm gonna start off with the two small ones which is League of Legends and Fast Food Simulator. Of course. Greg. I am always in the mood for some intense competition. I love a good competitive video game. And this this year, for some reason I got bit by the bug and I wanted to return to League of Legends. I think it was coming off the high of Arcane Season 2. It of course was the incredible Riot Games trailer with the Arcane team that they did to kick off the brand new season for the new year. Seven minutes of awesome League of Legends lore in a video that you definitely want to see. And you know there also some streamers like Ludwig, who was trying to compete to get his highest ranking ever in League of Legends, got me excited to go back the path to Plat. The path to Plat. And so I've been jumping back into League of Legends. I've been playing two games of Ranked a night by myself and I've been having a ton of fun with it. I've always loved League of legends since about 2012-13 when I was first introduced to it. As Andy knows, I have three different accounts with a whole lot of money involved in each one. But I'm back to the right account.

[Andy Cortez]

Three that we know of.

[Mike Howard]

Yeah, I will forget that Xbox SGF E3 presentation where they announced the combination. He's going, oh, it's gonna save me a lot of money.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Saved is right. And so I've been having a lot of fun, Greg. Going back to League of Legends, the 5v5 Ultimate MOBA. I'm a kid who grew up on Warcraft 3 and the Custom Games of Dota where it all really started, and having fun moments like that. And so I've always chased that high and it's been a blast to jump back in. There's over 160 plus characters AK champions now. And so every time I play, there's usually someone new in the mix. You can kind of tell what the meta is after a couple of weeks of playing. But it's always fun of like, oh, who's that character? I've never seen them. Or oh, I can't believe that you chose to go poppy support down in the bottom lane, which I really love. Seeing different people throw some buff. I'm pretty basic. I'm still using Blitzcrank Leona, you know what I mean? Little Soraka sometimes. But I'm pretty basic in my support role. But there is something that gets me every time. It's a top five feeling, a top five Snow Bike Mike feeling.

[Mike Howard]

Wow.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Teamwork. When the team clicks and everything works. When you are fighting bot lane and you're playing a little cat and mouse with your opponents and you let them come a little bit closer onto your side of the lane and you see that jungle coming down for the gank and it just clicks of like, oh, snap, they just hit the flash. They've now jumped in on that.

[Greg Miller]

The fish just coming in and it's.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Like, here's the collision and you get the 2 bot lane and you get the gank from Jungle, there's this feeling that I love. It's a top five snowbike mic feeling of like, that's a team success. That's a team win right there. And you know, I've muted all comms, so I have no idea what anyone's saying, but I. I say to myself, great job, team Jesus.

[Andy Cortez]

Do you only talk, do you only talk to your teammates whenever you're doing content?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

No, when I play. Well, this doesn't have voice chat and I don't like to type while playing at the same Time. It's a very intense game.

[Andy Cortez]

Very scary.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I can't be type. I'm not a fast enough typer to be typing while needing the buttons. And so if it had voice chat, I would definitely be uplifting my team. Like, I've done numerous ones. Thank you, Greg.

[Greg Miller]

I don't know if. I don't know if we can uplift.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

The League of Legends. Oh, I can. Andy. Did I uplift those kids in Valorant?

[Greg Miller]

Well, Valerie is different.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, that team did.

[Greg Miller]

I'm saying League of Legends.

[Andy Cortez]

Well, I mean, I've been in those lobbies before.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I've uplifted and so, yeah, I've had a ton of fun with League of Legends. Just want to give that a shout out. I'm back on my League of Legends run right now, which has been a blast. I'm still in cardboard division, AKA iron. I'm Iron Tree. Got out of iron four. I'm just climbing. You know what I mean? Will I hit bronze? Maybe silver, Gold, Gold to get to gold. If I could get to gold, that's a massive win for the year. We'll see what happens. Moving forward. Fast food sim. Greg, I've given you a bunch of fun sim games throughout the years that you and I have been together. And some of them are bad. Some of them are just good. Others rise to the ranks of great.

[Mike Howard]

Oh, my God.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

TCG Card shop Sim great. Gas. Gas station Sim great. Hey. This year we kicked off the year with Fast Food Simulator. It's up to six friends. You and your friends open up a fast food restaurant. Think McDonald's or Burger King. You got burgers, fries, ice cream, sodas. It's a really fun experience. Getting to share it with six of your friends in the mayhem and the hilarity that ensues of just trying to organize orders, trying to pick up and clean, trying to put in actual food delivery orders and make it all run day to day. This is one of those good to great simulator games that you probably want to pick up with your friends, especially because you can share this experience with six of your friends.

[Mike Howard]

Done this 101%.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

And so you know, of course, as you can imagine, you're opening up your own McDonald's with six of your friends. And it's a blast from prepping the orders in the back to then having to serve them, organizing tickets at the cash register, dropping off food at different tables, cleaning up the restaurant, ending the day with your friends just laughing and the overwhelming nature of it all of we had three people in the back, one cooking burgers 2. Making the burgers actual with buns, lettuce, tomato, pickles, ketchup, mustard was all mayhem. Then up in the front, we had one person working the drive through. We had Chris Anka trying to organize drinks, ice cream, putting orders on the trays and getting them out where you can actually hire NPCs. So that really helps because six people isn't even enough. And so just to have more NPCs doing a number of tasks for us really helped out. But this is the game. If you're looking for a fun game night with your friends, it's a must play.

[Greg Miller]

Can I ask you something? Yeah. I had sent you a link about a week or two ago to a new sim game that's coming out and I want to get your. Like give me a gauge. I want to get your. Yeah, the gauge. Like Mike Gage, right? It's called Sports Renovations. It's a first person renovation simulation game. It's coming from the publisher, dear villagers and developer Goat Games. Right. Here's an overview. Restore the glory of sports in a relaxing renovator sim. How do you save your beloved team's court from being torn down by a real estate developer? You do what you do best. Renovate dilapidated sports facilities to collect the money you need to help out. I saw this and immediately I was like, this seems like the most snow bike Mike ever. It seems like Mike for sure. It comes out March 27th, the same day as first berserker and AI limit. Big day.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Wonderful. I guess I know where I'll be playing.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah. Is this like a you thing? Is this going to. Is this gonna hit for you, do you think?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah, definitely. Blessing. I, you know, you sent this to me. I've definitely put this on my wish list. This is gonna be high on my. Give it a try. Right? It's been fun to see all the sim games that we've seen over the past couple of months and years. And like I said, there's bad, there's good, there's great. And I'm always looking for the great ones that you can play alone or with friends. And yeah, anytime you can put me in a rock climbing gym and I get to renovate that, I'm all in.

[Greg Miller]

Seems insane.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I'm gonna make the prediction that this.

[Andy Cortez]

Will be On Mike's top 10 at.

[Greg Miller]

The end the year. This seems insane.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Could be.

[Andy Cortez]

We need a kind of funny best friend developer to make a fix your finances sim so Mike can play it. And it's really just connected to his bank account.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I Like that we should find one.

[Mike Howard]

We gamify it, he'll be.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Exactly. And so, yeah, keep an eye out for those. I'll let Andy talk, but I could go on with Silent Hill too, and the other one, Half Life. You ever play Half Life? What a game. What a game. Go Andy.

[Mike Howard]

Christ, what a game.

[Andy Cortez]

Let's see. You all ever heard of this game called Minecraft? Man, Minecraft's pretty cool. Greg, you're playing Minecraft. I mean, here's the thing with Minecraft. It's a game that we play that I've played a total of maybe five hours in my whole life. We play two hours on a stream in 2022 and then we played another hour in 2024. And so whenever I hop into Minecraft, I don't know a goddamn thing about it because I've played, you know, a handful of hours over a collective five years of my life. And I just. It's a pretty cool video game. So anyway, that's all I got to say about Minecraft. A lot of fun. Yeah, we're going to be Minecraft Mondays. Yeah, we're going to be Minecraft. Minecraft Mondays. Tune in everybody issue with Minecraft, we've.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Always jumped in and we have the once a year you get a week in your life where you're like, I just want to play Minecraft. I want to devote myself to Minecraft. So that's where we're at right now. But every time we play, all we do is build dope mansions. Washy will go, you know, go get a bunch of sheep.

[Andy Cortez]

Mike tells everybody to get wood. It's always Mike who's on wood duty and Mike just becomes the delegator.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

And so this time around, we've decided we're gonna beat Minecraft. So we have the goal of we are going to fight the Ender Dragons.

[Mike Howard]

Oh, wow.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

We will go to the Nether. We will fight the Ender Dragons. That is the rule. So keep an eye on us. Trying to do that.

[Andy Cortez]

It sounds exciting.

[Greg Miller]

The year is 2025. We're talking about League of Legends in Minecraft and Half Life, Funny, only plays the hottest games.

[Mike Howard]

We are playing the, you know, right on the pulse of everything.

[Andy Cortez]

But this weekend I also started a game called Ender Magnolia Bloom in the Mist. And I sent it to Tim and I was like, tim, I know this title sounds dorky as all, but Ender Magnolia is a sequel to Ender Lies, a very, very popular and highly rated Metroidvania that came out in 2022, I believe, and It's a game I bought and wanted to play on a flight and then fell asleep on the flight, so I never got to play it. But the sequel came out this past week, had a lot of good ratings so far. Open critic, and everybody's getting like, it's nines.

[Greg Miller]

And I'm so mad that, like, this one was. Wasn't even picked up for the Fantasy Critic.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Because, yeah, this debuted, I think, in like, 87 or some.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, one that just kind of like popped out. And even my replies, people are like, oh, the sequel's out already. And so I decided to start it over the weekend on my Steam deck, and I'm having a good time with it. It's a pretty neat sort of combat concept where you are this little girl who's like, on a tuner, I believe, and every ability that you set is like the spirit slash ghost of one of these sort of creatures called the homunculi or whatever. The. It's just real nerdy. Sure, of course, but like the melee person, you could set that to your whatever ability, and then that's like your main melee attack. So you're never attacking as a girl. You're always just summoning these creatures to attack for you. And then you have a parry as one of the abilities or you have a ranged punch. But each one of these spirits that you are summoning has three different versions of their abilities. So you can kind of be like, all right, well, now I want my melee person to do the super heavy ax swing as opposed to the fast sort of sword swinging. The combat feels great, super responsive. And I'm just sort of enjoying the world and actually enjoying what the story and what the lore is, finding these little lore bits around the world and talking to different NPCs. But as far as Metroidvania goes, it kind of immediately opens up fast travel, really, and double jump and air dash and all that stuff. And it just really fun to play. So far, in addition to when you're walking, you know, it's not just one of these Metroidvanias that's only like. I mean, it's always 2D side to side scroller. But then you'll walk upon one area where you're looking at it, and there's a hallway that kind of runs deep that way. So then you. You can walk through there, and then it becomes another area. So, like, there are walkway entries that are kind of like north and south.

[Mike Howard]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

You know, and so it'll open up new spots and then you'll find a Bunch of cool secrets and things to upgrade your abilities and your. You're constantly finding little bits around the world that will upgrade your health by 5%. And they. I've found maybe about 12 of them so far. So you're kind of constantly upgrading your health, but then you will use money to buy, like, I don't know. I always go with the word talisman because Elden Ring's kind of the most recent version. And you could buy talisman slots and some talismans will cost three slots and that the three slotsman might be like, get health back on every kill or whatever. So right now I think I have like nine talisman slots that I've bought and upgraded. So I have nine slots that kind of fit either four talismans or three, depending if they're super expensive. And those will be, you know, your sort of passive stuff where it's like, oh, now your combat is 15 stronger when you're in the air, or you have 15 more defense when you're on the ground. See, that's how you kind of make your character stronger. But it's. It's super enjoyable so far. I'm having a really good time. I. That's the game where I was like, I could go play Eternal Strands. I'm really digging this, though. Let me go back to Ender Magnolia Bloom in the Mist.

[Greg Miller]

So some context for you. This has a 90 on open credit. And I went and checked because, like, the Release date says March 25, 2024. And I was like, wait. And then I did a lot of Googling. Turns out it released an Early Access last year. Oh, and this was like the final release, so it wouldn't have been eligible anyway for Fantasy Critic. But it is a win for Early Access. Like another game that came out and, like, seemed like it had a year to, you know, iron things out, figure out, like, you know, all right, are we all digging this? And then fully release?

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, I'm really enjoying it. And the art style, it's one of those art styles that can kind of turn me off sometimes. Whenever I just see it in trailers where I always talk about how if you're using 2D art, that's the puppet tool where it's like a character enemy that's drawn out, where it's like they draw their arms separately and their torso separately and the body moves kind of like. Like a ventriloquist is controlling it. But a lot of these enemies and characters are all 3D models that are just. It looks so 2D, but the characters are 3D models that rotate and have like depth and dimension to them. I just. I'm really digging it so far. So shout out to that team for. Yeah, I didn't even know it came out in early access. That's awesome because I feel like I've seen a lot of versions of these games come out because the. The homie Adam Cole, baby, loves the. Loves Ender as the franchise. Like, I always see him streaming. I'm like, okay, I need to give this game a shot someday.

[Mike Howard]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

But now I'm finally happy to be playing this one and hopefully I'll finish it and then eventually go back to Ender Lilies, which is kind of what started it all and started up all the hype.

[Mike Howard]

Oh, yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

Good game. Yeah. I also started a recent game, Greg, called Citizen Sleeper. I don't know if you've heard of this one.

[Mike Howard]

Oh, Citizen Sleeper too. It's coming up soon.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, we'll be reviewing it soon. But I decided to. I did beat it Citizen Sleeper 2. And then I decided to start up one again on Steam because I beat the first one on Xbox. I just wanted to start up Citizen Seeper1 again. So for no reason in particular, play Citizen Sleeper 1 because what a good game that is. And. And also maybe get ready for the sequel whenever that game Review soon. Review very soon.

[Mike Howard]

Okay, good enough for that Sincere one.

[Andy Cortez]

Kicks so much ass. Good lord. Mike, tell us about Half Life.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Oh, you know what? I want to take a moment really quick because Greg and a lot of people in the chat. I know. And the audience out here, we'll get on him for this one. Because, Greg, you're talking about taking chances on games. I'd love for you to take a chance again on Silent Hill 2. Oh, Greg, this game is real good, man. This remake from Bloober team. Greg, you know, I didn't love the medium and I didn't really. I don't know, but this team, they crushed this. This was really, really you and Roger.

[Mike Howard]

Roger tell me to do it.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Took me about 14 hours.

[Mike Howard]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

And I. It was my first ever Silent Hill experience. Besides watching the movie that gave me a lot of nightmares. And so I didn't really know much about Silent Hill. To me, if you asked me Silent Hill beforehand, I would just say, man, hopefully it's like Resident Evil. I just run around, slay zombies. And thankfully the combat and the moment to moment gameplay felt like Resident Evil, which is what I really appreciate. I think as a casual fan that drew me in was like the moment to moment gameplay felt like I was playing a normal Resident Evil action game. But the story has a lot of themes going on. Okay. He's looking for a dead wife.

[Mike Howard]

Greg, you know how much I love that.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

He's drawn to a small, silent, foggy town because his dead wife wrote him a postcard and said, come find me at our spot.

[Andy Cortez]

And I mean, media literacy.

[Greg Miller]

This story has themes of dead life.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

It was crazy. Bless. Bless. She. Here's the issue. It's like, can I just spoil it? But I don't want to seem like it's like, I'll give people the little touches, but I could get deep into the themes because we had a whole breakdown session afterward because very few games. Greg. I finished and I go, man, that was powerful. That was pretty impactful. Silent Hill 2 was that for me. I was really impressed by, like, how I sat there and felt at the end of it all. It's like, damn, I'm a mix of emotions right here. There's some things that hit and I have some question marks that I want to learn more of, and I'm really interested in it. But I think Silent Hill. So Silent Hill at the end of it was, like, so cool because of the sound design. Every single moment, there's creepy sounds going on all around you that really draw you in. The character designs are horrific. They're things that I will never unsee and forget. Those nurses will stick with me for the rest of my life. The scary spitter monsters, those are definitely sticking with you. Pyramid Head.

[Mike Howard]

Oh, yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Found out about Pyramid Head. Ladies and gentlemen, Mike walked about Pyramid.

[Andy Cortez]

Today and said, you know, this Kojima guy was gonna make a Silent Hill game.

[Mike Howard]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

A lot of people said, mike, you gotta ask Greg a lot of questions about that. I'll tell you what. A lot of comments.

[Mike Howard]

Did you ever play pt?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

We played PT and then. Yeah. Pretty exciting stuff. Yeah. That would have been wild to see what he could have done in this universe. Of course.

[Mike Howard]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Now we'll get OD and we'll see what he does with that. That's going to be exciting as he collects all the scary horror people and make something good.

[Greg Miller]

Collects them like Pokemon.

[Andy Cortez]

This guy had an Xbox podcast. Theme's a dead wife. Yeah. Themes are just plot moments.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I could spoil it all if you want me to get into it. I'll do it. Greg, Play the game. It's fantastic. I don't. I don't know. I know your complaint was like, it starts slow, Greg. It's. It's going. It's going to keep moving at all Times I never felt it slow down at all. I really enjoyed that. Every puzzle took you to the next spot and you just kept moving forward. It never felt like, okay, I couldn't solve anything. It always felt like I was moving and progressing the story forward the way I want.

[Mike Howard]

Roger, I don't trust Mike. I trust Mike says to go back.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

This is it. I would go back to this.

[Andy Cortez]

Been on you for this, Greg?

[Mike Howard]

Yeah, well, they're on me about a bunch of stuff.

[Greg Miller]

If Greg goes back and plays it and I go back and play it, do we redo our game of the year last year? Impossible.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

This is a. This was a five date range for me. Like I, I kicked, I kicked one off.

[Mike Howard]

Damn. It's on my top email. Barrett, you gotta let them know.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I'll let them know.

[Andy Cortez]

No, it's too late.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Let them know. Update that again. No, we're not. Yeah. So good.

[Mike Howard]

I want to tell you, you've been playing Half Life too, you said.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah.

[Mike Howard]

And you, you've been playing Half Life as well and you enjoy Half Life.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I finished Half Life first ever time playing it.

[Mike Howard]

What'd you give that in the score?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Oh, Half Life.

[Mike Howard]

What are you gonna score that one?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Gordon Freeman going to another dimension. Man, that's just crazy.

[Andy Cortez]

Good theme.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

That's probably nine. That's a nine.

[Mike Howard]

Okay.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

That's a nine. He had one bad day. Andy showed up late to work.

[Andy Cortez]

Oh, been there doing crazy.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Oh, you got to play this game. So fantastic first person shooter.

[Greg Miller]

I didn't play Half Life with me.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Didn'T grow up with a PC. And so I've always seen the orange box on Xbox. I thought, you know what, I'll give it a try. I wrote Gary Whitta, I said, do you want me to play? I said, do you want me to play the original or should I play Black Mesa, the fan made remake? And he said, mike, just play Black Mesa. It's real good. You're gonna enjoy it. And the visual stood up to the test of time. Of course, it's recent fan made remake, so it looks really, really good as well. The music slaps at all times. The progression from going from a possible top eight starting weapon of all time crowbar into an arsenal of weapons that Gordon Freeman has to take on. It is really, really good. I liked this. I loved this. I was impressed that half life at 2025 can still stand the test of time and you can jump in and have a good time with this first person shooter. So, yeah, mark me down as excited for number two as I'll get ready to go play that one next. And I can't wait to see where Gordon goes because I've had an offer at the end, you have to take an offer and Gordon gets to decide what he really wants to do. And how will this number two play out, the sequel? I don't know. It's really exciting stuff.

[Greg Miller]

You didn't have a computer growing up?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

No, we didn't have a computer until late when we started playing World of Warcraft. So we're on the later side. Right. Kyle Frescus had Doom, Wolfenstein, Unreal tournament, Baldur's Gate 2. Those are at that house. We were playing old school PC games like that.

[Greg Miller]

Did you call him Kyle Fresca as like a nickname?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Quezon was his name. A lot of ques.

[Greg Miller]

I didn't expect that.

[Mike Howard]

Yeah, I just want to give you a quick fun one. Back in the day, right. You know, I'm early, early days of IGN and you know, we didn't have slack that didn't exist. So you sent your emails into topsgn.com, right. And then they would send back the thing to everybody, all the different thumbnails because you had to make the giant thumb, the giant cover and then the little ones, yada yada yada. And so I think it was game of the year, but maybe it was looking forward to it or whatever. I don't know what it was. But every channel submitted, hey, we need our top. We need, you know, PlayStation, you know, we're talking about Uncharted or whatever the hell else. So put all these. You have to tell the designers who to put in the top because they're just designers. And one day we're all sitting at our desks and the email comes in onto tops and every bursts out laughing and you open up and it was PC Games of the Year a year in advance. And it was all these PC characters from games and then dead center was Morgan Freeman because they wrote Gordon Freeman and didn't. The developer designer did not know. They gave no context to who Gordon Freeman was. They just put Morgan Freeman in with all these. It was amazing. Before we get out of here, the one last game I want to shout out that I've been playing with. And this one I've just been tinkering with, but I'm enjoying myself. And we'll be back is Mika and the Witch Mountain. This is talking about something, I'm sorry. Mika and the Witches Mountain. I knew something was wrong with what I was saying. You want to talk about a game I normally wouldn't be all about or whatever. But this one came through and I was like, all right, little anime. I'm a witch. Whatever. Imagine a short hike, but you're a witch, right. Mika shows up to witch's school at the top of the mountain. She gets kicked all the way back down. Her broom breaks so she has to take a part time job delivering packages to earn enough money to increase her broom's ability to fly back up.

[Andy Cortez]

Oh, this looks adorable.

[Mike Howard]

So it is as you're watching right now, but if you're a listener, it is third person 3D. Spin the stick around you. You have the your broom to fly around. You are dropping off packages. It's so. It's almost like Blake mixed with a short hike. You're obviously get mixed into these people's lives. You know, I got to give this fisherman his package but he's going to tell me a yarn about his strange son.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

You might be his daughter, who knows?

[Mike Howard]

I'm having a great time with it. It's super cute. It's. It's. You gotta get the packages there and you know, you're judged on how fast you do it, the condition they arrive in, etc. So you can't be bumping into stuff. You gotta fly carefully. There's different outfits to unlock. Very cute. I would put it into that, you know, cozy game category as I work my way back up the mountain by delivering packages and picking up fish. So I'm having a lot of fun with Mika. Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, this isn't about this.

[Mike Howard]

Oh, sorry. Yeah. So that out now obviously I wanted.

[Greg Miller]

To give like a quick fun fantasy critic update.

[Mike Howard]

Oh sure.

[Greg Miller]

A lot happened. Oh, Saturday. A lot happened on Saturday.

[Mike Howard]

Oh, damn. Okay, so I didn't know about this.

[Greg Miller]

I have opened up the history of the league so far which details every piece of movement. Right. Bear, don't spoil anything. Bear, don't spoil anything.

[Mike Howard]

Shut it down, Bear.

[Greg Miller]

Shut it down, Bear. It's public knowledge.

[Andy Cortez]

I dated about it over the weekend. Everybody watches so everybody knows.

[Greg Miller]

This is everything that happened on January 25th. I'm gonna go piece by piece. On January 25th, Barrett Courtney boss Baby Productions dropped Earthblade because of course they canceled that game. So he was able to drop it.

[Mike Howard]

Heartbreaking.

[Greg Miller]

I'm going to get. I'm going to come back around to some things that happened with particular game. But skipping forward alo Reach Games who is Roger McCorney acquired unannounced elder Scrolls Oblivion Remake with a bid of $15. Nitro Rifle Games acquired Liza P. Untitled first DLC with a bid of $10. Nitro Rifle Games. We'll come back to that. Okay. Actually, no, I can go. I can. I can do this, actually.

[Andy Cortez]

Oh.

[Greg Miller]

Nitro Rifle also acquired Ragebound with a bid of $15. Now here's where things get very fun.

[Andy Cortez]

Ninja Gaiden.

[Greg Miller]

Ragebound, Boss Baby Productions tried to acquire game Ninja Gaiden 4 with a bid of $15. They failed because publisher was outbid. Oh, let Tim published. Let Tim published. Try to acquire game Ninja Gaiden 4 with a bid of $21. They failed. Publisher was outbid. Tim Tendo, who's me, tried to acquire game Ninja Gaiden 4 with a bid of $21.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Damn, y'all gotta get your money up.

[Greg Miller]

They failed. Publisher was outbid. Nitro Rifle Game tried to acquire Ninja Gaiden 4 with bid of $20. They failed. Publisher was outbid.

[Andy Cortez]

Shouldn't we know what the bids are? Like an auction?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

No, that's a guessing game.

[Andy Cortez]

Yes. Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Guessing a low Reach games was Roger McCorney acquired game Ninja Gaiden 4 with a bid of $56.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah, Roger, way too much money. No, it's not.

[Mike Howard]

I.

[Greg Miller]

For a game that possibly might not even hit this year.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

No, no. Cuz take a look at his team right now. What does he have? Loaded one open slots. How much money does he really need for one final game? That could be anything. Could be predicted anytime. Guess what he did stiff armed all of you away from what possible. Great game, Roger.

[Greg Miller]

There's four games on this list that.

[Andy Cortez]

Might not come out this year.

[Greg Miller]

Congratulations.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Happy birthday, Roger.

[Andy Cortez]

Happy birthday, Rogers.

[Mike Howard]

Might not come out.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, that's true. At least Ninja gotten four has a 2025 attached to it.

[Andy Cortez]

I think Roger's gonna win.

[Greg Miller]

I think Roger's gonna win too.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I'm picking games that only Andy Cortez speaks highly of.

[Greg Miller]

Expedition 33 is gonna.

[Andy Cortez]

Roger, you're getting real on Hyperlite Breaker, huh?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah, that's my new strategy. So if I lose, I blame it on.

[Mike Howard]

What if it goes the other way? You know, what if Expedition actually hits?

[Greg Miller]

So that's what I'm saying, because he has it as a counter pick.

[Mike Howard]

Oh, sorry. I was.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, if he.

[Andy Cortez]

If that hits and then, like, if.

[Greg Miller]

The Oblivion thing is a remaster, does.

[Andy Cortez]

That really count for that pickup? It's gonna be a remake E day.

[Greg Miller]

You know, the question is, how much money does Roger have left? $23. Oh, that's all. That's plenty to do. Here's the thing. Look, look.

[Andy Cortez]

Barrett's watching everybody's wallets. Right now. Like I need Bear to worry about.

[Greg Miller]

His don't look at my pocket watch.

[Andy Cortez]

Public knowledge.

[Greg Miller]

We need to know what we have so we can think about like, how much do I realistically need to bid on?

[Mike Howard]

Remember, this is the same guy who was listening to podcast so he could cheat and get metaphors.

[Greg Miller]

That's true. I drafted metaphor round.

[Andy Cortez]

Insider trading.

[Greg Miller]

God forbid I listen to better content than ours.

[Mike Howard]

That's another episode of the Kind of Funny Games Cast in the Bank. Remember, you can check us out each and every weekday with live talk shows all about video games and hanging out. Up next, Mike is hanging out with Nick Scarpino to play house Flipper too.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah, we're going to earn the trust and love of Andy Cortez because we're going to break into his room and we're going to update his stream.

[Andy Cortez]

That's not how you.

[Mike Howard]

And then in the afternoon, we will be streaming the Kinda Funny podcast live as we record it for Kinda Funny members. So pick up your membership on patreon.com kinda funny YouTube.com kindafunnygamesh, Apple and Spotify. Until next time, it's been our pleasure to serve.