Whatcha Been Playing: Alabaster Dawn, inKonbini - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Summary

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Kinda Funny Gamescast: Whatcha Been Playing — May 8, 2026

Hosts: Tim Gettys, Greg Miller, Andy Cortez, Blessing Adeoye
Episode Theme:
A classic "Whatcha Been Playing" episode, the crew dives into the latest in indie and major game releases, hands-on impressions with new hardware, and a spirited discussion of everything from Steam Deck setups, to an evocative indie like Alabaster Dawn, and the new Invincible fighting game. Deep-dives into game credits, controller tech, and a surprising segment on a steamy “Pokémon Snap-like” game keep the conversation lively, honest, and packed with personality.

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Main Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Ritual of Game Credits — Appreciating the End

• Do You Watch the Credits?
  • The team reflects on whether to watch or skip credits after completing a game. Tim and Greg both cherish the moment, finding value in digesting a project they’ve completed and spotting friends' names in the credits.
  • Tim: “Since I was little, I always kind of took it in as like, I did this. ... The credits music kind of like hits harder than a lot of the other songs in the games.” (01:49)
  • Andy enjoys credits for potential teases, but also appreciates the option to fast-forward as needed.
  • Memorable moment: Playful banter about credit scores from Andy—“I have a 7892 I think credit score. Come on man.” (02:57)

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2. Steam Deck, PC Docking, and Controller Experiences (04:26–11:34)

• Steam Deck Setups:
  • Andy reflects on finally using his Steam Deck Dock properly, experiencing the joy of “console-like” PC gaming on the TV.
  • Andy: “Not only just playin’ Alabaster Dawn, but a couple of other redacted... popping that Steam Deck dock on, sitting down with my Steam controller and it feeling like the console experience.” (04:48)
  • Tim: “The Steam Deck docked experience, it is entirely serviceable. It’s good even… but now that I know the [Steam] machine’s a thing, I’m just like, no.” (05:22)
• Valve Steam Controller:
  • Andy raves about the “slide vibration” feedback and the unified, console feel—“It feels so natural and right. It’s a feeling I didn’t know I wanted on PC.” (06:46)
  • Greg laments delayed shipping.
• PC Gaming Friction:
  • Greg describes the ongoing frustrations of desktop PC gaming—“If I start it, then I got a crouch in front of it, wait, scan my face... put in my code, whatever I’m doing...” (07:43)
  • All agree: we’re "so close" to no-hassle living-room PC gaming, but not quite there.
• DualSense Integration on PC:
  • Tim details recent progress in DualSense support, including wireless limitations and Raspberry Pi workarounds. Excitement for the future, but battery life gripes persist.
  • Andy: “Even on the DualSense Edge, the battery life just sucks, man. ... I’m only playing for two hours and I’m getting the low battery warning.” (10:22)

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3. Impressions: Alabaster Dawn (11:40–22:25)

Overview:

• Alabaster Dawn
  • Top-down 2.5D action RPG from the CrossCode devs, Radical Fish Games. Early Access on Steam.

Key Impressions:

• Visuals & Art:
  • Andy is blown away, loving the blend of pixel art and 3D for character models:
    • Andy: “The art looks so fucking great… what their pixel art is doing here…” (13:56)
• Gameplay & Combat:
  • Combat praised as deep and responsive—elemental attacks, combos, skill trees, parries:
    • Greg: “Deceptively deep… It’s overwhelming to some degree, like, oh, okay. I really gotta pay attention to what I'm doing here.” (14:10)
• Tone & Structure:
  • “Hyper Light Drifter meets Zelda meets CrossCode”—dungeons, shrines/trials, puzzles.
  • Strong intro—Andy calls the first 15-20 minutes “such a great way to go grab. Play this.”
  • Andy: “If you play the first 15-20 minutes... you're gonna be like, oh, fuck. Alright, I'm kind of into this and I'm into the story.” (14:49)
• Early Access Content Model:
  • 6–10 hours for now, expanding to a planned 40-hour, 7-chapter release after a ~2 year early access.
  • Greg: “This is one where it’s going to be like, I’m probably gonna keep playing it and... [as] they drop the updates... there’s more Alabaster Dawn. Let’s go back.” (21:09)
• Quality & Polish:
  • The team is surprised by the early access polish—“so much high quality... astounding... does not feel like an early access game.” (18:48)
• Memorable Quote:
  • Greg: “This game fucks.” (15:27)
  • Andy: “It is the exact kind of combat I want. It’s doing everything perfectly for me.” (20:32)

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4. Invincible: Versus (23:11–28:04)

Overview:

• Invincible: Versus
  • 3v3 tag fighting game set in the Invincible universe.

Key Impressions:

• Gameplay:
  • Blessing is “really enjoying” the fighting mechanics—combo-driven, accessible, MVC-like tag system.
  • Blessing: "The combos are also very easy. You can mash the combos if you want. Right. Tap square, Square, square. Hold L1 to get the tag in, continue the combo from the tag. It's a very approachable and accessible fighting game in that way." (25:40)
• Story Mode:
  • Short (1-1.5 hour), well presented, but ends on a big cliffhanger—“the problem is, it ends on such a cliffhanger in a way where I’m like, okay, so is this DLC, is this a next game, or is this just an unfinished story?” (25:39)
  • Visuals: “looks better than the TV show,” Spider-Verse-like animated cutscenes.
• Longevity:
  • Predicted to be “underrated”—a solid 7/10 experience that could blow up if the FGC rallies at EVO, but overshadowed by a packed year for fighters.
  • Blessing: “I think the hardcore people are checking it out, but it doesn’t feel like it’s breaking out...” (27:10)

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5. Replaced — Greg’s In-Progress Review (33:33–43:52)

Overview:

• Replaced
  • A moody, cinematic platformer with a cyberpunk aesthetic, praised for its sci-fi storytelling and atmosphere.
• Greg:
  • Early in the game, but already “infatuated with the story, the world, the look, the visual, the music.” (35:13)
  • The slow pace works for Greg, although panel criticism (from Mike) included “very slow… especially the intro.”
  • “It will definitely be on my top 10 for the year. I think it's stunning visually and... such a fascinating world.”
• Development & Community Response:
  • Recent patches have improved playability (better checkpointing, skippable dialog, faster collectible tracking).
  • Andy & Tim: Genuinely excited to push through by end of year, especially with improved features.
  • Tim: “This is just such a unique AI story... I’ve never experienced one quite like this.” (43:11)
  • Greg: “I'm anxious to get back to it when I'm done with the reviews and I have that gap.” (41:53)
• Personal Stories:
  • Memorable aside: Greg’s first comedic experience in high school—standing up and shouting “My eyes!” (38:51)

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6. Super Chat Chaos — Sapphire Safari: Not Your Average Cozy Game (43:54–46:40)

• Listener Recommends “Sapphire Safari”
  • Tim, Andy, and Greg investigate—what starts as “a cozy game like Pokémon Snap” quickly reveals itself as unabashed “monster girl” porn.
  • Andy: “Is this a horny game?”
  • Greg: “My algorithm's fucked now.” (44:42)
  • The crew recoils (laughing and roasting the submitter), comparing it to Howard the Duck’s infamous duck-breast scene.
• Takeaway: Even the veteran KFGC crew can be blindsided by wild Steam submissions!

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7. Quick Hit Impressions, Music & Nostalgia (47:00–50:53)

• Shoutouts:
  • OG Smash Bros. and Mario playable credits hailed as all-time greats.
  • Star Fox 64: New orchestral music and nostalgia—Andy notes the beauty of hearing SNES music “redone with the same SID sounds,” likening the experience to “the kid who puts on glasses for the first time.” (49:40)
• Super Chats:
  • Listeners toss in recommendations (Will Follow the Light, The Big Catch: Tackle Box), rapid-fire jokes, and music nostalgia.

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8. What Are You Playing This Weekend? (54:10–56:08)

• Andy:
  • Nearly done with Castlevania: Symphony of the Night—“I mean, just, you immediately sort of see, like, ah, you are the blueprint. You are what everybody's chasing. And it's, it's sick.” (54:41)
  • “It’s an awesome video game and I should be beating it... and then I haven’t played it in the last week ... but I will be getting back to it. But this weekend—starting for the first time The Witcher 3 DLC..." (55:20)
• Tim:
  • Lots of embargoed games, but teases more to come.

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9. Sponsored Segment: Exit 8 (56:27–63:25)

Overview:

• Exit 8 — Indie Game & Film Tie-in
  • Short (~45–120min) liminal horror/puzzle game based on the movie.
  • Greg gives hands-on impressions (unsponsored and sponsored):
    • “...You’re trapped in an endless underground passageway. Observe your surroundings carefully to reach the Exit 8.”
    • “It becomes a spot-the-difference game, which I love... except it’s a moving image.” (57:53)
  • Greg’s playthrough:
    • Ends up playing much longer than expected, gets obsessed with spotting anomalies, feels “like I was losing my mind, which that's what the game wants you to feel.” (62:26)
    • “There can be scary stuff... but it was really a fun puzzle game and a very fun two hours to run through.”
  • Movie Hype:
    • Greg ends by saying he’s genuinely interested in the film adaptation: “I’m very interested to see how you make a movie out of it. Because so much of this is me discovering what’s different about all these different worlds.” (60:20)
  • Andy shares behind-the-scenes movie magic (moving an actor via bicycle to create the looping effect in a continuous shot). (62:30)

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Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• Tim: “Since I was little, I always kind of took it in as like, I did this. ... The credits music kind of like hits harder than a lot of the other songs in the games.” (01:49)
• Andy on Steam Controller: “It feels so natural and right. It’s a feeling I didn’t know that I wanted on PC.” (06:46)
• Andy: “Even on the DualSense Edge, the battery life just sucks, man. ... I’m only playing for two hours and I’m getting the low battery warning.” (10:22)
• Andy on Alabaster Dawn: “The art looks so fucking great. I was so blown away by their implementation and style of what their pixel art is doing here.” (13:56)
• Greg: “This game fucks.” (15:27)
• Blessing on Invincible: “It’s a very approachable and accessible fighting game in that way.” (25:40)
• Greg on Replaced: “It will definitely be on my top 10 for the year. I think it's stunning visually and... such a fascinating world.” (35:13)
• Tim: “This is just such a unique AI story... I’ve never experienced one quite like this. ... The way that it deals with human augmentation is so clever and, like, of the times." (43:11)
• Andy on SOTN: “You are the blueprint. You are what everybody’s chasing. And it’s sick.” (54:41)
• Greg on Exit 8: “Expecting a 45 minute thing, like went through all the emotions of. By the end of this two hour experience, like, the like weight off my shoulders... I was very much expecting a horror game... but it was really a fun puzzle game and a very fun two hours to run through.” (57:53–60:18)
• Bonus (Sapphire Safari shock):
  • Andy: “Is this a horny game?”
  • Greg: “My algorithm’s fucked now.” (44:42)

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• 00:46 — Game credits discussion and why they matter
• 04:26 — Steam Deck, controller, and home setup talk
• 11:40 — Alabaster Dawn deep-dive review (Andy's segment)
• 23:11 — Invincible: Versus impressions (Blessing's segment)
• 33:33 — Replaced in-depth impressions and expectations
• 43:54 — Super Chats: Sapphire Safari wild detour
• 47:00 — Music memories, Star Fox, SNES nostalgia
• 54:10 — “What are you playing this weekend?” segment
• 56:27 — Sponsored Segment: Exit 8 game impressions
• 62:30 — Movie Backstage: Exit 8 practical effects
• 63:45 — Episode close & next streams

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Final Thoughts

This whirlwind episode stays true to Kinda Funny’s signature: a mix of honest impressions, deep-cut technical talk, chaotic energy, and genuine love for the craft of making and playing games. Whether you’re here for hardware tips, new indie gems, or just the crew's infectious enthusiasm (and accidental Steam porn discoveries), there’s something not to miss.

Transcript

[A]

Rent or buy exit 8, the highest rated video game adaptation of all time, wherever you watch movies. If you want to get our shows ad free and our exclusive shows go to patreon.com kindafunny. Welcome back to the kind of Funny Gamescast for Friday, May 8, 2026. Of course. I'm your host, Tim Geddes. I'm joined today by Andy Cortez.

[B]

Hello, good morning.

[A]

And I love the shirt. Greg Miller.

[C]

Hey, everybody, it's me, Nikki, Jakey's number one fan, Greg Miller.

[B]

Oh, nice.

[C]

Creative llc. Don't worry, he sent this to me.

[B]

That's sweet. That's pretty sweet.

[C]

I sent him some money, but he also sent. I said when I was talking to him on the phone that I would

[B]

do it fair exchange.

[A]

Yeah, Xbox just tweeted out to anyone who watches the entire closing credits after finishing a game. We thank you. What's your. You beat the game? What do you do?

[B]

Well, lately I've been finishing these games on stream. So I just sit there and I'm just talking as I let the credits go. And then usually, I mean, I feel like most of these games have had something after the fact, just something you got to watch out for. There's one more thing. Yeah, well, you know, who knows what villains gonna pop up at the end? Who knows if they're gonna tease a little caterpillar in Mr. Misogynist.

[C]

Mr.

[B]

Mind.

[C]

Mr.

[B]

Mind. Mr. Mind. That's right, Mr. Mind. Who knows if Woody Harrelson's gonna have a red wig? Who knows and who knows and be carnage.

[A]

What about you, Greg?

[C]

I sit, I let him play. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Eventually, when we get out of like the stylized things I might see, Can I scrub? Can I go faster? Can I skip out? But usually I just let it go. They usually get a good song in the back.

[A]

Yeah, I, I, since I was little, I always kind of took it in as like, I did this.

[C]

Yeah, yeah.

[A]

You know, and normally the credits music kind of like hits harder than a lot of the other songs in the games. And so I'm like, I'll sit there and kind of take in the experience of it all. But in the last, I'd say 10 years, like, probably while doing kind of funny, I have taken a much higher interest in the different disciplines that go into making a game and kind of like, oh, sure, looking for names. And I'm always interested in who gets the special thanks and who doesn't get the special things. And like, we know so many people, so it's kind of cool.

[C]

It's always trying to find your friends.

[A]

I always get excited seeing Pop agenda, you know, I mean involved in so many games but like it's just still very cool to see people that we know, you know, be part of something that I just experienced.

[B]

But wait until you complete the best day of your life when you beat near Automata and you experience the credits there.

[A]

Yeah. But yeah, I do also appreciate when they allow you to kind of speed up the the credits because like I I don't want it to skip but I do like the ability to especially once you get to the when it's just yeah the if you watch it live be part of the show by super chatting on YouTube.com kind of funny games. Let me know about your credit situation. What are you going to say andy?

[B]

I have a 7892 I think credit score. Come on man.

[C]

Free credit report.com come on guys.

[A]

Remember we couldn't make amazing content like this without your support on Patreon. Shout out to our producers Karl Jacobs, Omega Buster and Delaney the Psalm Twining for now, let's begin with the topic of the show. A good old whatcha been.

[C]

Oh it's been too long.

[A]

It has been too long. There's been so many reviews out, so many games to talk about on a bigger scale when it comes to hey playing through the whole thing have something to say. But that meant that we've all been kind of playing little things here and there. Some more than others. I will say a lot of redacted right now I'm in an unfortunate situation. Well for my job, not for my life where I'm playing a ton of games that I just can't really talk about or the games that I can talk about. We just did big reviews for sure. Sure over the last couple of weeks. But Greg, I feel like you've been kind of getting into a lot of little things. Maybe playing catch up a bit on some of the reviews that you didn't get to be on because you were reviewing bigger things coming out or different things.

[C]

Yeah it's been a fun juggling act here of being on a bunch of different reviews as well. I have a couple redacted coming your way next week. One's done more to play on another stuff like that. But in between those, you know those days where you don't have the code being able to jump into something else. And then of course for something like Alabaster dawn, the embargo being up because it officially came out yesterday and me and Andy have been tearing this thing because it's so good.

[B]

I'll tell you what, I'll tell you why. Like last night and the last several nights have just gotten me so excited for the possibility of having a Steam machine. Because I finally put to use my dock, my Steam, which I never do. I bought that thing day one. Never.

[A]

Fuck.

[B]

The only time I've ever used my Scene Deck Dock charge it was no to plug in like a laptop, to like get Ethernet or whatever. Like it was just like this. It was essentially a facsimile for like a. An ethernet dongle. And the last several nights not only just play in alabaster down, but a couple of other redacted popping that Steam Deck dock on, sitting down with my Steam controller and it feeling like the console experience. It feeling like this is my PC, but console at home or whatever and I'm not having to sit at my desk. It's been fucking cool.

[A]

It's such a tease, man. Because I'm at the point that obviously I've been doing a lot of different experiments with my setups and the Steam Deck being a big part of that the Steam Deck docked experience, it is entirely serviceable. It's good even, I would say. But now that I know the machine's

[B]

a thing, I'm just like, no, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[A]

Oh, for sure. Just come out.

[B]

Oh yeah. I mean, I, you know the problem. Somebody, you know, I open up Moonlighter 2 on the Steam Deck dock and it doesn't run great. You have to make it look really, you know, kind of garbo to make it run close to 40 even frames per second. It's usually hovering around 30 or 20 because it's an early access game or whatever. But I know that I look at the Steam Deck and, and I go, that's. This is perfect for playing the smaller games on my big screen. And that's kind of what I've been doing for the past couple of weeks.

[A]

I mean, I will say to your point, the Steam controller makes the experience a hundred percent better.

[B]

It's awesome.

[A]

Like I. It is. It is such a exciting promise that this thing is going to work the way that we expect it to, which is way more like a switch works. You know what I mean? Honestly, Way more like a PlayStation work.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Must be nice. Yeah, I was talking about it be nice to have a Steam controller.

[A]

You'll get one one day.

[C]

Yeah, I know. Because mine's been packaged, process the payment. Packaged items hasn't been picked up by the carrier. It's been days. Days.

[B]

You have to be the One to pick it up. It's.

[C]

I'm the carrier. I got to go up to Seattle and get it.

[B]

There's something about it, Tim, that feels so. Like, it feels so natural and right. And it's a feeling that I didn't know that I wanted on PC. And when I grab the controller and I hit that Steam button and it gives me a slide vibration, it goes, yeah. And I'm like, oh, this is big

[A]

picture mode I have on the tv.

[B]

I haven't had this in ever, really. Like, you know, I'm used to this with any other console that I turn, but it's. It's such a thing that I just take for granted, like, oh, this is kind of what it feels like to have a. So I don't know. I freaking love the controller. I love the. I love the experience so far playing on the big screen.

[C]

It's the one piece that's missing for me because, you know, obviously, I'm playing on the Rog and then on the road or whatever, but at my desk and then at home, I'm playing on The Razer Blade 16, that gaming laptop I got from them, which just fucking sings. I've been playing things, you know, I'm turning on the dlss. Not for these games we're talking about redacted, that are coming. Dlss. I'm doing the. Have you heard about this? Have you heard about visuals?

[B]

He's known about the frame.

[C]

I. I didn't know you could unlimit the frame rate. There's a lot of stuff. But plugging it in and turning it on and, like, getting it into big. But. But it's like, I can't. It's the classic one. If I start it, then I got a crouch in front of it. Wait, scan my face. Okay. Put in my code, whatever I'm doing. And then, you know, okay, I don't have the wind. I want the Windows, like, I have the Windows update to boot into the Xbox gaming experience. You know what I mean?

[A]

They're out of that. Like that.

[C]

They are. It's rolling out when I'm driving, as my Windows doesn't have it yet. So then I got it, and I open up Steam and it opens into big picture mode, which is nice. Then I hit my controller, and then I'm off to the races. But to have the little. Be able to move my mouse like you guys say, I can do with this.

[A]

We're so close, guys. We're so close to this. Just working. We're not quite there without still the tinkering yeah. You know, but.

[D]

God.

[B]

Oh, sure, yeah, we're close. You know, there. There were a couple of roadblocks because. Because I think it's a brand, because it is such a new control that not a whole lot of people have and not a whole lot of developers have specced for, which they likely will now. But games that are coming out in early access, just like right now, games that were under embargo that we were able to be. That we were playing essentially before they fully released to the public, didn't have Steam Deck compatibility and. And. Or, I'm sorry, Steam controller compatibility. So I'd be able to control the Steam Deck with the controller, and then once the game would open up, I wouldn't be able to really do much. And I was like, like, obviously, very, very small sample size. This will not happen in the future. It's just as those games are being developed, they're like, oh, Steam released a new controller. Well, we haven't spec for that yet, but, you know, that will happen in the future. So that's been a bit of a bummer. But ever since those games did fully come out now, everything's totally working great and it's. It's awesome. It's been a great experience in.

[A]

In controller talk. Barrett. I just put a link right above the topic of the show there. Huge, huge thing happened in the last week each where, you know, fuck it, we'll do it ourselves. Moment went down. The DualSense integration on PC is so close to greatness, but there's just some issues. Main issue at this point is it is fully integrated into Windows. Like it's compatible the entire way, except wirelessly. You're not getting the haptics, you're not getting the adaptive triggers, and you're not getting the haptic stuff.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

And that is kind of a big deal, especially as more and more of the PlayStation games come to PC. You can get a $16 Raspberry PI that adds the wireless stuff all back.

[B]

Nice.

[A]

And I, of course, have one on the way. Very excited about.

[B]

Sweet.

[A]

And to see what trouble this brings me, because I'm sure it will. We're getting close, everybody. We're getting close. They figured it out.

[B]

God dang. Playing through Soros, you know, under the embargo, period, and then just realizing, man, this is. Even on the dualsense edge, the battery life just sucks, man. Like, it's crazy to me that I'm. I've only been playing for two hours and I'm getting the low battery warning.

[A]

I don't know that my dual sense has ever died on me playing a game.

[B]

This fucker's not even ever.

[A]

Don't think that I'm playing that long. That must be it. I'm just not playing that long.

[B]

That must be.

[A]

I do have two.

[C]

I play a long time. It just doesn't happen to me. I don't. Do you dock them every time? Because every time I'm done for the night, I put them into the holder.

[A]

Oh, you said no, no, like.

[B]

Well, I don't. Like, whenever I'm using it, it's like, I will try to have it plugged in at times. Again, speaking from the perspective of somebody who barely turns this fucker on. Like, I never really ever use this thing, but I'm turning it on with full battery. Yeah, it's just like two hours, two and a half hours. Soros is doing a lot, granted, with a lot of the vibrations and stuff like that.

[C]

The most.

[A]

Yeah, that and Astro Boy are like. Astro Boy Astrobot, yeah.

[B]

Kind of funny's favorite game.

[A]

Insane.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Well, I'm sorry, Andy.

[B]

It's annoying. Yeah, man.

[A]

But I want to cheer you up a little bit.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

I want to talk about a game that you like. Alabaster Dawn.

[B]

I would love that.

[A]

All right. Break Nyx's curse and guide humanity's rebirth in this top down 2.5D action RPG from the creators of Crosscode. Battle enemies with stylish combos, wield multiple divine weapons, solve intriguing puzzles and explore a changing world. It is developed and published by Radical Fish Games and it's out now in early access for $25. What's up with it, Andy?

[B]

So, you know, many years ago, the homie Jace from the community was, you know, talking a lot about Crosscode. And I remember hopping into Crosscode and being super impressed by it. And it plays very similarly and it's kind of very similar nature to be in this top down, awesome pixel art Zelda. Like, you know, it's a. With really awesome puzzles. I was really blown away by how awesome the dungeons were and things like that. So when Alabaster Don first gets teased, I'm like, oh, shit, this is the Crosscode team. This is awesome. And I've said awesome seven times so far and the art looks so fucking great. I was so blown away by their implementation and style of what their pixel art is doing here. Again, It's. They say 2.5D because at its heart it's a 3D game. It's just everything looks so convincingly good as 2D, you know, pixel Art or whatever. And it. I think it breaks the illusion a lot for me. And it's something that I don't love when it happens in 2D games where it's like, yeah, it's a pixel art game, but that guy's not really hand animated in a way. Like, that's very much just like a 2D puppet tool that is moving like a marionette or whatever. And this game does that, but it's in 3D. So you. I think you notice it a lot less. Like the main character has essentially different drawn sprites, versions of her and all these different, like sort of turning radiuses or whatever. And so whenever she's running around, she just looks like a 2D sprite, but it controls so well. It's an action RPG that is very inspired by the. The old school Zelda likes with combat. That is so freaking phenomenal. It's so much fun to play. It's so responsive and really deep so far. With how the move.

[C]

Deceptively deep.

[B]

Yeah. With how the movesets go. It's not. You're not just tap and attack all the time. If you. If you tap attack once and then you hold the second time, it does a different moveset. And if you hold the first time and then do something the second time, it'll do something else.

[C]

We got skill trees, we got runes, we got all like. It's overwhelming to some degree of like, oh, okay. I really got to pay attention to what I'm doing here.

[B]

Paries ele elemental things, blocks dodging it is.

[C]

You've unlocked new weapons and you got this new ability to go to.

[B]

It's exactly what I loved about my experience with Hyper Light Drifter and going, oh, this is just like a Zelda for the new age. And I know a lot of people have tried it, but those games like that have always resonated the most with me, not just visually, but what they're doing stylistically. And I think this game is just so up my alley. I love the. I think that the first 15, 20 minutes of the intro is just such a great way to go grab. Play this.

[C]

Grabs you by the throat.

[B]

Play this and you're gonna be like, oh, fuck. All right, I'm kind of into this and I'm into the story. And yeah, the early access period. I think they mentioned Greg was like six to 10 hours of campaign or

[C]

whatever 10 they put in there, depending on how many optional things you do.

[B]

It rocks. I did my first several trials last night, which is kind of like their version of. Of Link Or Breath of the Wild Shrines. Yeah, and very, very cool. It's. It's essentially very puzzly and Shrine like in the 2D form, top down, 2D form. It's awesome. This game rocks. I cannot wait to keep on sinking my teeth into it.

[C]

Yeah, Tim, this game fucks like, I think to sum up everything Andy talks about, like I. Of course this is an old story because we talk about this every so often. You know, we saw this in one of the. When it's debut trailer or whatever that was in one of the showcases. Andy said it's like Crosscode. I went and bought Crosscode. Enjoyed the shit out of crosscode from 2018. Barrett, I put in the doc, the Crosscode trailer. Can you throw it up? Because in my mind I think this is what Crosscode looked like. And then you go back and you look at Crosscode and you're like, man. Round of applause for the radical Fish games, you know, honing their craft from 2018 to what Alabaster dawn looks like now. Because Alabaster dawn is incredible looking. But you go back and look at Cross Code and you're like, oh yeah, Cross Code doesn't look like Alabaster. I mean it does, right? You see it. But to like the jump in the detail and what they did in like honing your craft, getting better. Delivering on the success you found with this. Fucking excellent. Sorry. You can throw Alabaster dawn back up.

[A]

JCAM in the chat says this looks almost like a progression of GBA graphics to me. And I actually think that's a really good shout out because at first blush it's like, all right, cool, super Nintendo. But there's a, a level of just color and stuff that this does give me GBA vibes, especially when we get the kind of full character art for the support conversations and all that.

[C]

But that's cool, you know. I infamously am still struggling with modern day games in early access where early access to me for so long was well, I'll wait, I'll wait till the final game. I couldn't wait for this to jump in and is doing exactly what I was scared of, of just like, I just want more. I just, I mean like I think I've put only maybe three or four hours in right now and I don't think I'll play more because it's like I. This game is awesome. As somebody who's not like, you know, the souls like or anything like that, like the combat for me is just challenging enough and it's not even challenging in Difficulty, it's challenging in pat your head, rub your tummy, right? Because it's like, oh man, I got sentries up on the here, so I got to hit them with arrows. But now I got these guys coming in. They're nothing but they're blocking the other guys who are throwing stuff at me. Then you're getting into, okay, now I can, you know, do the sword attack or have the quick stab attack and then, you know, get the giant fucking hammer that can now slam through the places you couldn't get through before. It's like it's a world I want to get lost in that I want to go and explore every nook and cranny and get all the XP points, get into the skill tree. That again is very wide but not overwhelming in terms of what's going on with it.

[A]

I was watching a YouTube video breaking down differences between Hades 1 and Hades 2 and one of the things was that the way that the art is handled, like the character art itself in Hades 1, it is a bunch of different like hand drawn arts as like you like see the different angles of the character. And in Hades 2 it is more similar to this where it's like a 3D model that just is stylized and that makes up a difference of like tens of gigabytes of file size.

[B]

Oh really?

[A]

And it's just like, it's just so much more efficient. I'm like, stuff like that's just so cool. You look at them and if you're directly comparing, I think you could tell the difference. But like otherwise I definitely, I wouldn't have known that.

[C]

Right.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

It's cool to see this look where it's like, it looks like old school pixel art stuff, but it's being done in a modern way that I feel elevates it a little bit more from a art perspective and also from a gameplay perspective where you can look at this and it, you can tell it feels better than some of the other pixel art based games that are actually pixel art.

[B]

Yeah. And you've made a great point, Greg, about the comparison to cross code. Like, I, there is so much high quality in this. It is astounding. The amount of times that I, you know, there's a small animation change or there's a. There's so much variation already this early on in whatever their early access period is. I'm just so impressed by the level of quality already. It doesn't. Again, again, you're experiencing five to 10 hours of the campaign right in the game. They're doing something similar to what no Rest for the Wicked did where hey, we understand we're an early access game. We are also going to give you a, an in world contextual roguelite thing as well that you know, has lore purposes or whatever. And it's, you know, you're not just going in no Rest of the Wicked. You're not just going on the home menu to let me go into roguelite mode. It's like within the world and, and it makes sense and it's really neat and they're doing something like that here as well, which is really cool and just an awesome way to kind of give players more replayability and, and honestly in the early access period to give players more experience with the weapons and with the move set and what things they should change. I'm just so, I'm so impressed by how, you know, I, I think with early access you expect really, really rough stuff sometimes and I think this feels so polished already. Now granted you're not getting the whole package yet, but it's like everything we're seeing so far, it's like wow, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot missing here from this experience. It's so awesome. It's so much fun. I, one thing I didn't realize last time is that when the ranged enemies are attacking you, if you shoot them at the right time, it stuns them.

[C]

Oh yeah, they fall down and I,

[B]

I didn't even realize that. I'm just like trying to melee dudes on the ground while trying to shoot them as well and little things like that just kind of like take the combat the extra mile. It's. It's exactly what I would want a top down combat to be. It's like it's doing everything perfectly for me.

[C]

Over in the chat I had seen do we know how long early access is? Over on their Steam page they say early access will continue as long as necessary until we complete the main story of the game. Since Alabaster dawn, much like Cross Code is an ambitious is ambitious in scope. We expect early access to go on for at least two years. This allows us not to rush development and to deliver a final game we can be proud of.

[A]

Wow.

[C]

It goes on, you know, talking about how long, what's a big game going to be, yada yada yada. We plan for the. We plan for following early access updates to gradually expand the story and add more content. We will try to keep this, any save made during early access compatible with future versions of the full game. The full game will include the complete story with seven chapters and an estimated playtime of about 40 hours, it's going to be hard to wait, but this is one where it's going to be like, I'm probably gonna keep playing it and they're gonna drop the updates and that'll be like destination. Okay, there's more, there's more. Alabaster Dawn. Let's go back. Let's go back.

[B]

Yeah. The way this game starts off is just, it's. It just hits in such a cool way.

[C]

Abandoned you.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

So cool.

[B]

It's just such a badass concept of, you know, this big fight is happening and all of your God given weapons that are these special things, they go away and you're just like, what the fuck? Why don't we have our word in this war? And word what? Why do the gods abandon it? And then, and then the game and it's like, oh, this is sick as hell. And yeah, two years is going to be a long, tough wait.

[C]

Yeah. But worth it.

[B]

It's going to be absolutely worth it. Yeah.

[C]

This, what I would say this is worth the money. And I would say it's worth the investment in them. Right. Cross code. If you haven't played cross code, go play cross code. And then to get this and be like, here's your money.

[B]

Keep.

[C]

Take as long as you want. Make great.

[A]

All right, we got a two year heads up for fantasy critic who's gonna get it.

[B]

You better not be.

[C]

I mean Blessing will probably steal it like he stole my mixtape.

[A]

Maybe.

[B]

Damn.

[C]

I had. Maybe then he stole it this year.

[A]

Speaking of bless, ah, I want to hear his thoughts on some games. I know he's not here right now, but it'd be cool if you would join us at the desk to talk about Invincible versus.

[B]

Oh, I thought you were gonna cut to ass.

[C]

Hi, Blessing.

[D]

What's up guys? How's it going?

[C]

Good, how are you?

[D]

I'm doing pretty good.

[C]

Are you here to apologize about mixtape?

[D]

I don't think I thought I had mixtape.

[C]

You do? No. And I had it last year. Are you sure? I'm positive.

[D]

Because I remember being upset that it seemed like it was getting. I'm pretty sure I had it last year actually because I remember being upset that was going to get delayed because you. I feel like this is neither here nor there.

[C]

Please talk about your. Please talk about invincible.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Invincible versus a brutal superhero 3v3 tag fighting game set in the Invincible universe where you can battle to the death as a team of fan favorite characters in iconic locations.

[C]

This is neither here nor there. So did I have it two years ago? Hilarious. You stole it from me twice.

[D]

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

[A]

Damn.

[B]

Back to back.

[D]

I. I suffered last year so I could come up this year. How many points do I have right now, Barrett, on this?

[B]

I'm going two years ago. No one had it two years ago.

[C]

Maybe I'm just missing. You're not making maybe. I bid on a night.

[A]

The dev is quarter up at the publisher, Skybound. It's $50. It's out now there's a story mode. You've played it. What do you think?

[D]

So Invincible Versus is a really cool fighting game. I think it's probably going to go down as being quite underrated, actually. I've been really enjoying playing it. The gameplay itself, the fighting itself is really fun. Of course. Quarter up is a studio that's founded under Skybound. They're made up of people who formerly worked on the Killer Instinct game that came on Xbox One. And when you play this game, I think you can feel a lot of that legacy. Like, it's very combo driven, but it's also a tag game, as you can see. The funny thing about this game now that I've played quite a bit of it and mainly played through the story mode, which is about an hour to an hour and a half long, probably depending on how many losses you take, which you might not take that many losses, this one. The thing is, I was getting ready upon starting this up to come in here and be like, tim, Greg, you have to play this. Now that I finished it, I still feel like you could play it. The thing is, man, is this disappointing for what the promise was early on. The cutscenes are great. It feels like I'm playing an injustice story mode. Where it is, you go in, they have a story set up. You're getting into, like, these fight. You start off, I believe you're playing as Mark fighting Omni man. And they set up this thing of like, damn, Omni Man's you up, right? Like, it is the typical. You know, you're down, you're in a downtown Earth City. Things are. Are getting destroyed. You're getting into these fights, and then shit gets weird. Mark starts noticing that, like, oh, wait, something's off. Something's weird is happening here. And then things get more interesting from there. The story setup is really cool. The cutscenes look fantastic. It looks better than the TV show, in my opinion. It kind of has, like, the spider verse animate on twos thing going on in the cutscenes. So they look phenomenal. The Problem is, it ends on such a cliffhanger in a way where I'm like, okay, so is this dlc, is this a next game?

[A]

Or is this just an unfinished story?

[D]

Is this just going to be an unfinished story? Which a dceu cliffhanger might be the most? MGS5 Most likely thing it feels like episode one to an Invincible season, which I don't like for your core story mode for a fighting game. I'm sure they probably only had an hour to tell the story that they wanted to tell, but I wish they they did a story that was more complete. That said, I'm still pretty impressed by what they had. Right. Like, I think they were able to kind of give me what I want out of a fighting game story as far as. Yeah, just give me cutscenes and reasons for these characters to fight each other. Right. It's fun talking about this coming off of the Mortal Kombat movie, which is basically what that is, as well as those video games. But story mode I thought was cool. Even though it ended on that cliffhanger disappointment, the gameplay continues to be really fun. That's another reason I would actually recommend it to you, Tim, because I know that you like a tag fighter like Marvel versus Capcom. Right. And this kind of has that same sort of setup there. The combos are also very easy. You can mash the combos if you want. Right. Tap square, Square, square. Hold L1 to get the tag in, continue the combo from the tag. It's a very approachable and accessible fighting game in that way. And the character roster, I think, is cool as well. You know, I think they have a really good mix of characters. Definitely room for more. I'd love to see some DLC get in there. I want to be able to place Thrag. That's my new. That's my guy now.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

I don't know about this drag guy.

[A]

Oh, yeah.

[B]

Gandalf and Thrag.

[D]

Gandalf and Throw.

[C]

Talk about it. You think it's going to be underrated in the long. In the grand scheme of things, is that what you're seeing now that it's out? Like, is there just not a lot of fighting game community people talking about it? Like, what are you seeing from now that it's actually in the streets?

[D]

I think the hardcore people have are checking it out, but it doesn't feel like it's breaking out of the fighting game or invincible bubble in any meaningful way. I think it's also just a crowded year when it comes to fighting games, of course. 2xko has been out since the start of the year, which 2xk also hasn't been. That's not been blowing up either. But then you have Marvel token fighting souls coming out later this year in Avatar, and I think there's more excitement for both Avatar and Marvel than this game. Even though playing this game. This game is very fun. It is a really solidly made fighting game. Probably somewhere in the 7 out of 10 range, but we're also just in a very strong time providing. So I think that's what I say when I say underrated, is that, like, I don't think it's going to break out of that audience, but I think that could be fine. Like, I think if we get to evo and there is an excitement at EVO that then starts that groundswell of people paying attention to it more and being like, oh, maybe I should check this out, because I think they have something here with it.

[A]

You got me hype.

[D]

Oh, yeah.

[A]

I mean, I'm sad about the story mode, but that is the thing I'm most excited for. Yeah, I will.

[D]

I think if you go into it knowing that there's a cliffhanger, it actually helps it out a little bit because what's the. There is pretty fun.

[A]

Yeah. I'll play through the story for sure. Greg, how wild is this? Thank you so much. Bless.

[D]

Thank you.

[B]

Thank you. Blessing.

[A]

Can you believe this game is real Invincible.

[C]

No.

[A]

Yeah, Like a full fighting game that's just invincible characters.

[C]

Absolutely not. Like it's, it's. It's. It's not hard to throw ourselves back to. Like when they announced the invincible movie and I flipped out in the old studio and it was like such an out of left field. The comic book I love, but no one ever wants to read is getting a movie. And now you see all these Amazon prime, this, that everywhere. Insane.

[B]

Listen to a great podcast, the Christopher Dream Game business podcast.

[C]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[B]

Where he was talking with some of the people from Skybound. Talking, you know, the idea that the killer instinct devs going up to them and going, we really want to make an invincible game. And then being like, yeah, that sounds great.

[D]

Let's.

[B]

You know, you guys are really good at this. It's not like we are, you know, taking a risk on. On development that may become development hell. You know what you're doing. Let's pair up and, you know, try to make some magic. It's pretty neat.

[A]

Yep. You know what else is neat?

[B]

What?

[A]

These ads.

[B]

Oh, thank you.

[A]

This episode is brought to you by Exit 8 Based on the eponymous video game from Kotake Create, Genki Komura's Exit 8 has taken the genre by storm and is now available to rent or buy wherever you watch movies. Certified fresh and the highest rated video game adaptation of all time on Rotten Tomatoes, Exit 8 is an audience favorite and a masterwork of the liminal horror genre. The film is being hailed as, quote, fiendishly clever and quote, the best video game adaptation ever made. A lost man, trapped in an endless subway passage sets out to find the elusive and mysterious Exit 8. His way out is to identify anomalies within the recurring corridor. The rules of his quest are simple. Do not overlook anything out of the ordinary. If you discover an anomaly, turn back immediately. If you don't proceed in the direction of Exit 8, you can watch Exit 8 now. This episode's brought to you by Rocket Money. Rocket Money can track subscriptions and has the ability to cancel unwanted ones within the app with just a few taps, saving users over $880 million in in canceled subscriptions the amount of times that Snowbike Mike has signed up for something, forgot about it after the trial period ends and then charged. It's quite frankly terrifying. So many people have at least one paid subscription going unused each month. Thanks to Rocket Money. You can see all of your subscriptions in one place and cancel them within the app with just a few taps, saving time and avoiding charges, and the app consolidates checking, savings, loans and investments into a single dashboard. Rocket Money is a personal finance app that helps find and cancel unwanted subscriptions, monitors your spending, and helps lower your bills so you can grow your savings. Let Rocket Money help you reach your financial goals faster. [e-mail] kinda funny. That's RocketMoney.com kindafunny this episode's brought to you by Factoring Sometimes hunger strikes and you are just exhausted or you're hosting shows back to back to back and you just don't have it in you to set up and prepare the whole meal that you thought you would have time for. That's why so many of us here at Kinda Funny Love Factor Factor makes it easy with fully prepared meals designed by dietitians and crafted by chefs so you can eat well without the shopping or cooking. On many occasions, factors completely saved Greg and Gen when they needed it most. Every meal is crafted with functional ingredients lean proteins, colorful veggies, whole foods and healthy fats. Factor bans 175plus ingredients. No artificial colors or sweeteners, no high fructose corn syrup, no refined seed oils, just nutrient dense food. Feel the difference no matter your routine. Head to factor meals.com kinda funny 50 off and use code kinda funny 50 off to get 50% off and free daily green per box with new subscription only while supplies last until September 27, 2026. See the website for more details. This episode's brought to you by Aura Frames. Mother's Day is right around the corner and guess what I need to worry about for the very first time? Getting Gia a Mother's Day gift. But guess what? I'm not stressing at all because I got the perfect gift lined up to show off all the adorable pics. A little baby Samsam. This year, ditch the flowers and upgrade to the digital frame. All of Kinda Funny loves the Aura Frame. With the Aura frame, Greg's been able to constantly keep his mom updated with photos of her grandson via the Aura app. He just clicks the photo of little Benny as he's shredding on his skateboard all over here in San Francisco. How cool is that by the way? It taps a button and it's on Jamie Kennedy's frame in Chicago, named Number one by Wirecutter. You can save on the gifts moms love by visiting Oraframes.com for a limited time. Listeners can get $25 off their bestselling Carver Mat frame and with the code Kinda Funny. That's a U R A frames.com promo code kinda Funny. Support our show by mentioning us at checkout. Terms and conditions apply. Next up Greg, you have on the list replaced.

[C]

I do have replaced on there Tim,

[A]

which is a game that I loved a lot and I can't wait to hear your thoughts on. I've heard your very very early thoughts, but how much more have you played?

[C]

Still very very early? No, sadly no. As I remember a lot of the games I put on my list here are the ones filling in those evenings before the next big review gets there before you have to move on thing. So I still haven't moved from when we last top level talked about it, but we didn't even get to get into it there. Of course Replace is a game I've had my eye on for quite some time and then sadly the way review embargoes lined up, I wasn't able to tackle this one and be on there with y' all and so when our review dropped I immediately jumped in there and listened to it and I was at first disheartened and then when Tim started talking about it and you gave it an 85 if I'm right, I

[A]

ended up at a 9.

[C]

Ended up at a 9. Oh, that was that for. Yeah. So in the review you were an 8. 5. Later on, you updated to a 9. Tim was saying all the things I really wanted to hear, whereas Mike was a little bit like, ah, it's very slow. You know, he kept calling it the cinematic platformer and he thought it was slow, especially the intro, the prologue. And so when I finally got to start it and got out where it's like the, you know, Steam achievement or Xbox achievement, I guess, popped for, hey, you've, you know, gotten out of the prologue. I was floored because I was so riveted by that opening and have been riveted this entire game. I adore this game so far. It will definitely be on my top 10 for the year. I think it's stunning visually and I think for where I'm at right now in really embracing sci fi, you know, through space, through, of course, the obsession I have with Starfield, but I haven't played since my birthday. But calm down, you know, the project Hail Mary stuff, The Babiverse books, etc.

[A]

Etc.

[C]

I've really been diving deeper into my sci fi bag than usual. And to get in here and have such a fascinating world, such a great start of this man have, you know, having AI embedded in him and him being gone, but the AI still calling out to him, still talking to Warren. Like, the game is vibes. And I think it's interesting to have this conversation on the heels of what we just talked about with mixtape yesterday, where mixtape, I think, you know, 10 out of 10 from me and Tim being this game that I think is so many things, but so close to the playable movie and not in a at all an insulting sense. Right? Like replaced is. And I said with mixtape, I was like, mixtape, I would recommend to anybody. This is a game anybody can play no matter what. If you, even if you just like Ferris Bueller's Day off, you could play this. It'd be your first game, you'd be great. Replaced isn't that, but replaced is that like, man, I am consuming, I am playing, I am living in, just breathing in a sci fi world that feels so rich and so fleshed out and like, you know, I'm going through and I'm picking up every collectible because of course, I'm just an obsessive gamer. But more I pick them up and then write to the Walkman of like, what has this happened? Tell me more about the collapse. Tell me more about what happened, you know, before we put up the walls and vice versa. And then the characters you're meeting and what the corporations have taken from them and what's going like I am so infatuated with the story, the world, the look, the visual, the music and then the gameplay which I know again the criticism from the panel with you was just a little bit too slow or whatever is for me that perfect accompaniment to all the things here where it is like yeah, it is arkham in a 2D thing. So it's not over complicated. I do think they at least for me challenge me enough with oh again, pat your head, rub your tummy right? Of like here comes this guy with the gun. So I gotta roll. But I got shot because I was rolling it like I like that peppering all of that in giving me a little stew there to enjoy that way to overcome these obstacles to then get back on track of what is going on.

[B]

It's the role player, it's the. It's The Kellen Johnson 6 Man of the year on the San Antonio spurs right now. Tied one one series, by the way.

[A]

So excited for you.

[B]

One thing that I'm super pumped for, to eventually get two replaced because I obviously, I think this game just speaks so much to me visually and aesthetically and what it's doing just.

[C]

I'm okay, everybody don't wor.

[B]

Water.

[A]

Someone was driving their car and they're now crashing to the side of the highway. Cuz Greg scared the hell out of that.

[B]

I didn't see the water come out at first.

[A]

God, I didn't see the water come out at first.

[B]

But then he yelled and I saw the water coming out but I was just so enthralled by the yell.

[A]

Yeah, that yell was all consumed. Uhhuh.

[B]

Like my brain just stopped.

[C]

One of the laughs that changed my life, you know, I was. I'm listening to Nathan Lane right now in Fresh Air. He has a great interview going on and he talks a little bit about getting his first laugh on stage. Mine I always think of is in high school, we're at high school lunch. We, you know, terrible, just terrible kids we'd buy, you know that you'd get the liter, I guess probably not a liter, 16 ounces or whatever of Mr. Pibb, Coke, whatever out of the vending machine for a buck because it was a different economy and every lunch someone would end up knocking someone's soda over. And I remember when I finally clocked that and I was like, the next time it happens, I'm going to do something. And so that next lunch when somebody's got knocked over. Not nowhere close to me, like over by Tim. It gets knocked over and I just. I just stood up and yelled. My eyes.

[B]

Big laugh.

[C]

And that's why I'm here.

[B]

Oh, okay. Big laugh. I was wondering, like, did it.

[C]

Oh, they thought it was hilarious.

[B]

Okay, gotcha. Gotcha. Okay. Sorry.

[C]

I get more paper.

[B]

One reason why I'm so excited to get back to replace later in the year is on April 17th and then on May or maybe. Or May. Second.

[A]

Right. Second.

[B]

Yeah. There have been several additions and fixes and community requests that are kind of being fulfilled that are awesome because it seems like a lot of these things are fixing some of the issues that people had with the game.

[C]

You call that better checkpointing? Which is one of my complaints early on where I was like, hey, won't

[B]

do anything for pacing necessarily, but I

[A]

think it will in terms of the pacing of your gameplay experience. Because some of the checkpointing was the biggest problem with the game, where because of how slow it is, you're doing this platform section and it takes a minute and a half to get through and you get to that end and you fall and you're starting it all over and it's like, oh, it feels like it's grinding to a halt because you're like, I just did this.

[B]

Gotcha.

[A]

Like the first time obstacle challenge is done. Now it's just doing it again. That's not fun.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And I think that could really slow the game down.

[B]

I meant more just in terms of, you know, if the story is kind of. If you're getting Blade Runner 2049 vibes. 20, 2049. And you're just like, ah, this movie's a little too slow for me. It's like, okay, well, I can't help you there.

[C]

You know what I mean?

[B]

But like, if you were Mike in the prologue thinking. But Mike ended up really loving the game too, so. But yeah, not. Not just checkpointing, fixing some, you know, doing some combat rebalancing, fixing issues with some dodges. And the most recent one, they added the. That dialogue is now skippable. You can hit the button now as opposed to when it would just kind of give you the dialogue. And if you didn't read it in time, it was gone. And that kind of sucked early on. There's now level selecting with collectible tracking for different collectibles in the. In the levels. You can go back and go, oh, I missed a little dialogue, or whatever.

[A]

Definitely a game that, like Craig was saying, it's like the collectibles get you more story. And for this game, like, that is the, that's the reward. Like, that's the stuff you're looking for. Because the story, I think, is incredible. Incredible in this game.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

I think all of this is, is so awesome. You know, obviously maybe this would have helped it get higher reviews when it came out, but I love that this ever is still being put in because they know they have an awesome product. They know they have an awesome game.

[A]

They, they, they do have that awesome product and they do know it. And they also are such a small team that when Troy was here, he was talking about this, like, because he is good friends with them, and he was like, they are trying their best to make this as good as possible. But, like, you look at this game and it, you could see the love put into it. And it's like they were working on this to get this out the door till the very last second. And clearly here we are a month later beyond that. Right?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Like, they are, they're putting the effort into this game. And I'm very happy that it's clicking with you, Greg, because I, I hope that you see it through to the end.

[C]

Oh, I will. No, no, no, no. There's no.

[A]

So good.

[C]

This isn't one of those, like, I'm gonna put her out or whatever. I'm like, no, I, I, I'm anxious to get back to it when I'm done with the reviews and I have that gap.

[A]

I go to that having finished it now. It's like seeing how the story all comes together, I'm like, wow.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Like, I, this, it just lived up to at any moment, what I was hoping for from it. And it's not like I was trying to call or like, predict what, where the story was going. But on when we were giving the review, I was saying, this feels like me watching Walking Dead at its peak or reading Walking Dead at its peak, where I'm just like, man, I, I love how they're using the framing of zombies to tell a story. And I can't wait to see where they go next and what characters are introduced and all of it. And this is the closest I felt to that in so, so, so long. And they wrap it up in a way that I'm like, hell, yeah.

[B]

All I needed was you. Like, two people with different tastes. I would say, like, you and Mike don't, I guess, you know, Final Fantasy and Zelda and stuff. But, but there are stuff that you would roll your eyes and there's stuff that he'd go like, No, I don't like that. But Tim likes it. But it's for both of you all to go, this story is awesome. And, like, that's kind of all I need. This is not one that I will, by the end of the year, go. I just kind of ran out of time. It's like, no, I need to prioritize this because it looks so amazing and I love the art style. But if you're also going to pair that with a story that sticks with you and resonates with you, hell yeah.

[A]

Yeah. No, it's. It's very cool and I'm sure it'll come to other consoles. I see people saying, it sucks. It's not on PlayStation. I'm sure it'll get there eventually. But another thing is this is just such a unique AI story, and I feel like we've had so many different AI stories. I've never experienced one quite like this. Like, the way that it deals with human augmentation and all that is so clever and, like, of the times in a lot of ways. But after finishing it, I started it up again just because I was like, man, it's been so long since I've played that opening.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

So I wonder if there's going to be a different, like, context for me and. Oh, man, it's one. It's like Expedition 33, where it's like, when you know what's coming, the beginning hits even harder.

[B]

Harder.

[A]

But, yeah, obsessed with it.

[C]

Can't wait.

[A]

We have some super chats I want to do here. Zach says lately I've been curling up with some chamomile tea after work and playing a cozy game on Steam called Sapphire Safari. It's just like Pokemon Snap. That's kind of cool.

[B]

Sapphire Safari.

[A]

I bumped in new Pokemon Snap for the first time since it came out a couple years ago. Just. Just to see. It was like, hey, what's it look like on a switch, too? And, like, get some of that Pokemon Snap. Fun. Interesting game. Never my favorite.

[B]

Why is it Pokemon just giving you the fuck me eyes.

[C]

You know why?

[A]

You know why?

[C]

You know why? I mean, look at. That's the. Look at that one.

[B]

Jesus. Is this. This is a horny game.

[C]

Oh, my God. No. Look at those. Bathing his. Rubbing its titties. Those are titties.

[A]

These are.

[B]

This is a horny game.

[C]

You tricked us.

[B]

You tried to get us this.

[C]

Go to the Steam page, everybody. My algorithm's fucked now.

[A]

You tried to get us.

[C]

Those are Pikachu titties. That's Fox titties.

[B]

Oh, this is a horny game.

[A]

Y' all should pull it. He says he leaves. It's a cat with emoji with heart eyes.

[B]

You're trying to get us banned.

[A]

You're trying to get us got.

[C]

Answer the call of the wild with Sapphire Safari. An open world photography adventure game. Capture the beauty of real life. Monster girls in their natural habitats. Use tools to lure them into more erotic poses and become intimate with them if you are brave enough. Oh, my God. Indie. They. That's.

[B]

No. Yeah, they were Eiffel Tower and Jesus Christ. Yeah, I didn't believe y'.

[D]

All.

[B]

And then when I tried to pull up the. The Steam. Not logged into Steam. It was like, hey, you have to log into Steam to look at this.

[C]

This game is marked as a reverse cowgirl.

[A]

That's kind of marked as adults only.

[C]

Yeah. Oh, no, no.

[B]

It is straight up porn developer.

[C]

Kinky Fridays.

[B]

It's not like we're not joking. It's straight up porn.

[A]

Like, wait, can I see? Let me.

[B]

Like, they're. They're like. They are.

[C]

That one's getting his push.

[A]

Can you hand me the.

[B]

Yeah. He wants to see the laptop.

[C]

I'd like to. I need to see the baby.

[B]

Zach. That's got to be about a week. Band, you would have really hurt our financial.

[A]

Oh, yeah, those are just titties.

[B]

No, it's just.

[A]

Those are bunny titties.

[B]

Yeah, it's a porn game.

[A]

You're getting.

[B]

You're getting Pikachu cozy with chamomile tea

[A]

and playing that game.

[C]

Well, that was. He was again. They were trying to beat us.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Oh, my.

[B]

The nipples look very similar to.

[C]

Zach says, okay, but it's Pokemon Snap. I didn't lie.

[B]

The nipples kind of looked very similar to in Howard the Duck when the duck had shown. Oh, you do. You weren't there.

[A]

I haven't seen it.

[B]

You weren't there. Yeah, yeah. There's a shot where there's like a panning shot through an apartment building, and

[C]

I didn't realize that was Zach. You got to understand, all of Zach super chats are jokes all the time.

[A]

Got it. Yeah.

[B]

Zach was the one who apologized for Steve Irwin. Yeah, for Steve Irwin.

[A]

You know, Zach, I like you, dude.

[C]

I got the same conversation with. I forget Zach. What was it? The Starfield Stream where he finally said something serious and I was like, by the way, I see all your jokes. I don't usually pepper them into the shows. Good job, Zach. You keep us on our toes.

[B]

I love that.

[A]

Oh, good lordy Lord. Wade says Greg I started Will Follow the Light last night and I'm really enjoying it. Great ass video game. Hope you get to check it out. I know there's a lot of games to play right now.

[C]

Thank you for the recommendation. I've been wondering about that one since we did it in the GDC thing. No, no, no. Since we did games of the next month or whatever.

[A]

Right. Yeah. Very cool. Jeff the Maverick says shout out to the OG Super Smash Brothers credits. That made them fun. I love a playable credit.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

You know.

[C]

Yeah. Yeah. Astrobot.

[A]

Great. Most of the Smash brothers have a fun one. Some Mario's do. Mario Wonder recently had one Mario meet up at Belle Bell Park. I don't think anyone besides me got to the credits, but Ben's working on it. It'll be there soon and he's he'll have a little playable section. Omg. Ger Bear says nothing hits like getting to the end of a game's credits and getting a thanks for playing. I always respond thanks for letting me play. People that make video games rule. I do love a thank you for I do too. It's just so good. It's like hey man, we did this together. You video game and me gamer. So cool. Zero says. Speaking of credits, after listening to the new Star Fox tracks, I played Star Fox 64 for the first time in 25 years and I ran through a playthrough before games daily today. I'm very rusty. Are you proud of me, Tim? I am very proud of you. Also, those tracks hit to goddamn hard. They added five songs from the upcoming Star Fox or not zero Excuse me Paraphra Fox to narrative music and I'm just like oh my God they're banging. They're so good. It's like literal 10 out of 10 perfect. Could not be better.

[B]

And is it. Is it just the OG soundtrack like kind of redone?

[A]

Star Fox 64 reorchestrated? The main menu theme is too damn good.

[B]

I never really talked about it on camera, Tim, but I, you know, last week I had finally I'd bought that Super Z SNES app on on Android and saw that on my Ayn Thor. And it is so crazy to hear these redone songs with the same, you know, SID sounds and everything like that. This isn't, you know, they're not redoing music or whatever on this app, but to hear these musical renditions with higher quality, uncompressed, higher quality sounds. It's crazy to play these games with headphones on. It's unbelievable.

[A]

The depth to it all.

[B]

It's nuts. But Mega Man X is just like the coolest sounding ever. There's some sound effects are a little like, weird, like, oh, maybe we tune down that. That charge.

[A]

I mean, that's the thing is, it's like these games were designed with the limitations in mind. So a lot of the crunchiness and the compression was built into what the intended experience was. So there are certain examples of games that like, the higher quality sounds worse, but there's a lot of them where it's like, okay, for purists, sure, but let's just be real. This sounds better.

[B]

Do the music. It's so cool to hear. It's like, it's what I imagine. Like, I wish you would have recorded me because it would have been like when the kid puts on glasses for the first time. You know what I mean? When the person sees color and there's like, wow. And they get emotional. Like, I was like, whoa. I'm hearing this in a new way that I've never ever heard before because I'm so used to hearing them just in the compressed Super Nintendo versions. So cool.

[A]

Yeah. By the way, the more I reflect on the Star Fox reveal, the more I am just bothered by a lot of different things. But mainly it's just. I feel like everything they've released since that direct has just been pure hype and pure. Just like, this is. This is awesome. Like I sent you yesterday, I don't know if you ended up watching it. There was a clip from the Japanese website of Star Wolf's introduction.

[B]

Oh, was it the Japanese voice actor?

[A]

Yes.

[C]

Yes.

[A]

And it's like, it's perfection.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Like seeing it in game and like the. When the designs are a lot smaller and like not as in your face when they're doing like the mission briefing stuff, I'm like, okay. I actually kind of. This is working for me, the in game stuff because of how seriously they're taking the.

[C]

The world.

[A]

And with the music being orchestrated, it's like they're trying to make this like Star wars, which is what Star Fox always was.

[C]

Bless was just talking about the music today, feeling like Star wars that they released the tracks he's been listening to.

[A]

And they're so good, man. And like that star Fox 64 was like that too. It just didn't have the ability to be orchestrated because it was on N64. But like, to think about Star Fox 64, one thing that I don't think it gets enough credit for now when people talk about it because it's. They see it as Just like this old game. It is so cinematic at a time where games weren't cinematic. Like this predates Metal Gear Solid and stuff like that. This game had voice acting on the N64. And recently the voice actor of Wolf died. And Bless. And I listened to every single line of dialogue that Starwolf had in Star Fox 64 and it took 36 seconds. And that's crazy because growing up, Star Wolf was one of the most fleshed out characters in my mind. You know what I'm saying? It's just like you put together this backstory and like the world is just so good that like, you're able to fill in gaps and stuff. So it's just like, yeah, I'm very excited to play this game in Japanese even. Oh, nice, dude. That Starwolf thing was awesome.

[B]

Very cool.

[A]

Andy got you. Says Andy. What was the name of the podcast you were talking about?

[B]

The Christopher Dream. The game business is the name of the podcast on YouTube and podcasts around the globe. Around the globe.

[A]

Back on Rodriguez says. Hey, everyone. Bang. A recommendation incoming. I need you, Tim, also Bless and Barrett to play the big catch demo called Tackle Box. It's a short, self contained adventure and it's unbelievable. 3D momentum platformer with retro visuals and it feels incredible. 100%. You'll love it. Barrett, can you bring this up? The big catch demo called Tackle Box. Let's hope that this isn't Horn.

[B]

Yeah. I thought it was gonna be like a. A fishing game that is. Is kind of disguising itself as being a cozy thing and that was gonna be scary interesting. A lot of games. He does have a fishing rod. Yeah. Cool.

[A]

I like character design.

[B]

Yeah. Skinny Lucario that looks like a Smiling Friends character. Like the environment stuff reminds me a lot of like Jak and Dexter and like, like Rayman 3D a little bit as well.

[A]

You nailed it with Rayman. Yeah.

[B]

Yeah, dude. I love the character design.

[A]

Yeah. It's kind of like.

[B]

Yeah. So basic and cool.

[A]

Cool stuff. What do we have any more to get to here?

[C]

He's checking for more super chats.

[A]

Cause you all right saying Tim sees the game and walks off the set with the laptop. I'll be honest with you. They didn't do anything for me. I'm not a weird pervert when it comes to these animals, you know?

[C]

Okay.

[A]

I like my. My animals clothed. I don't want to see their human looking titties.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I just don't appreciate it and I think people need to stop.

[B]

It's an unfortunate shock to the system, it is like this early.

[C]

We just weren't expecting it. But pre lunch, you know, we have lunch yet.

[B]

Yeah, but yeah, the doctor says don't get horny before lunch.

[C]

Your blood pressure can't handle it. Don't do it.

[A]

Well, I guess really quick, I do want to ask you, what are you playing this weekend, Andy?

[B]

The. The Witcher dlc. Did you know or no? Oh, really?

[A]

Oh no, no, no.

[B]

I thought you were setting me up for like a, like I'm going to get your ass ready. Well, I have been making my way through on my. On my E on Castlevania Symphony tonight. I'm like pretty much almost done with it. Oh, okay. Pretty awesome game.

[A]

I mean is it, is it hidden for you in a way of like, oh wow, this is.

[B]

Oh yeah. Like it's, it's.

[A]

I mean the way he moves, man.

[B]

I mean just it. You immediately just sort of see like, ah, you are the blueprint. You are what everybody's chasing. And it's, it's sick. It's. It's one of those things where I imagine when you throw a, like a current day Olympic athlete into a triathlon in 1920 or something and it's like, you know, because, you know, I mean I beat Silk song. I play.

[A]

Yeah, it's like what's like the kid that's doing all the nine hundreds. You see this?

[B]

Oh my God.

[C]

Three in the back.

[A]

Nine year old doing three nine hundred.

[B]

Unbelievable. But no, the, the game's awesome.

[C]

It's.

[B]

It's so good. I, I've already got experience like the big moment. It's, it's an awesome video game and I, I should be beating it. And then I haven't played it in the last like week or so because of just other embargo things. But I will be getting back to it. But this weekend, starting for the first time, the Witcher 3 DLC which Blood and wine. Blood, heart and stone. Heart of stone or. And stone, I don't remember. But starting the first DLC this weekend, we'll be playing through that for the first time and then eventually making my way onto. Making my way super stoked because I'm, I'm. I'm just itching to get back to the Witcher. Like when I dropped it and I thought that I was. I don't want to like overdo this. I found myself over the next week going, what if I just started the new DLC or not new dlc. But yeah, yeah, I'm pretty pumped for it.

[A]

Very exciting.

[D]

What about you?

[B]

Tim, what are you playing this weekend?

[A]

It's a bunch of redacted. I don't like saying, you know, it makes me feel like a.

[B]

Like you're trying to be. Like you're not trying to be snobby or whatever.

[A]

Yeah, I do all that. What I am trying to do, Greg, is segue to a sponsored segment. You played Exit 8.

[C]

That's right, of course.

[A]

Sponsored by the movie.

[C]

We're sponsored by the movie. Available now on digital, yada, yada yada. And so you can take this with a grain of salt. But when they were like, hey, you know, do this. Could you also play the game? And I said yes, because if you remember organically, when Exit 8 got announced for Switch 2, I was like, I've heard about this. What is this? Read 2 seconds or read the chat about it and bought it on Switch 2 and never actually played it. So when they were like, hey, do you want to do this? I was like, yes, of course. Thank you. Not telling them that I'd been wanting to do it for a while. So, yeah, yesterday I sat here, I was told, Exit 8, 45 minute game. I was like, oh, awesome. Very, very cool. I like that a lot. I'm a fan of that, obviously. So I turned on the PlayStation, it's 399 everywhere. Turned on the PlayStation, sat down, and then two hours later I was out here feeling like I was going blind and ins while Kevin is back there. Like, what did we miss? What did we miss? Like, it's good. Like, I think it doesn't shock anyone to know it's good. Your Steam description goes. You are trapped in an endless underground passageway. Observe your surroundings carefully to reach the exit 8. So if you are unfamiliar, I would say just go play it or go watch the movie. Available now. Dude, like, yeah, I don't bear how much footage you have. You have. You are free. Look at me, I'm fucking yawning.

[A]

Locked in.

[C]

I'm locked because I started, like, totally normal sitting here in front of of the microphone playing, and then push the microphone out, my feet are up, I'm rack. I'm glasses off at one point going through.

[B]

You forgot you were making content.

[C]

Oh, I was like, why am I mic'd? And Kevin's like, might as well. I was like, okay. And then it's me and him talking it through eventually. Because of course, he's a puzzle poppy like everybody else. But the idea here, which are spoilers to a degree, I guess, right, is you start in this thing, this tunnel, you walk through it you see what's going on and then you turn the corner and you're back in the same tunnel. Same thing, same guy walking. There's a sign though that tells you to look out for anomalies. If you see an anomaly, turn around. If you keep. If you don't see an anomaly, keep going forward. And so the idea is that this becomes a spot the difference game, which I love, I've always loved to spot the difference like in a, you know, a Sunday cartoon thing or now with Ben, the Pokemon books or whatever we get where they're doing a spot the difference here, two different images. Except it's a moving image. And so, so when you get it right and progress, you see that now is exit 5. It says that way you go. Then you turn the corner and you look and you go, okay. Is there something different about this compared to the one I just did? Every time you come in here, this is me freaking out. I'm like, how close I got searching for anomalies. 72% have I seen them all. What's. You have to walk through the hallway, this guy walks at you, there's all these posters. So you're looking at the posters, trying to figure out what's different there. Is there something different about the guy? Is there something different about the doors or something about the sign? Like I expecting a 45 minute thing, like went through all the emotions of. By the end of this two hour experience, like, like the, the like weight off my shoulders. When me and Kev finished it and then we did it, we immediately got the next one right as well. Like we were on top of our game. But then like the going through this and learning because I don't want to tell you too much about it because like I was definitely overanalyzing at times. I was definitely missing obvious things at times. Like there's all these little changes and it's, it's a very, very special fun game that I not knowing about the movie and obviously knowing when I bought it that it sounded cool. Like you see me freaking out because it says Exit zero and I'm like, what a fuck up. I was very much expecting a horror game. It kind of almost gone home to me where if you remember, gone home. I started expecting this to be a Ghost Story game. And it becomes not a Ghost Story game. And instead this one, it was like, okay, cool. Like there can be scary stuff in this. I didn't really get it. There's a few, like maybe like you turn the corner, there's like a little not A jump scare of like, somebody's coming at you. Even though I guess that can't happen. It didn't happen to me. But, like, things are there. Like, it was a very fun puzzle game and a very fun two hours to run through.

[A]

So are you interested in watching the movie now?

[C]

I was already interested in watching the movie again. Like, I know we're sponsored. Take it all with a grain of salt. But like, the. I forget, maybe it was the movie. We talked. That's what it was. It wasn't a direct, was it? It was that we talked about the movie and I was like, I don't even know what this is. And then found out that the game was 399. Bought it on my switch because it sounded cool. Yeah, I don't. I'm very interested to see how you make a movie out of it. You know what I mean? Because it is. So much of this is me discovering what's different about all these different worlds. To have watch a character do that. It'll be interesting to see how many flashbacks we're getting. And then also there's no real story to this. Like, you know, like, I expected at the end that maybe. Are we dead? Are we going to heaven or hell or something like that.

[B]

Is this purgatory?

[C]

You just walk up the stairs and it goes, thanks for playing the game. You're like, oh, cool. All right, cool. And then it does it again. If you want to go run it back and try it again.

[A]

So, like, this looks awesome.

[C]

Very, very fun. Very, very fun. Yeah.

[B]

This is one that Christopher Plant brought up when I was on the episode of the Besties and talked about how. Watched the movie. And we sort of went into the. A bit of the backstory of what the game is. And it's, you know, very liminal spaces, very back rooms esque of this. Very, you know, you're not really supposed to feel super comforted in this area. It's supposed to be kind of of, you know, unnerving.

[C]

And to jump out there too. I did a disservice there. I'm sorry. To audio listeners, this is a first person game of you walking through what you would assume to be, I believe, a Japanese subway tunnel or whatever. Maybe it might be Korean. I'm actually not familiar with the language above it, but it is the idea that you're just walking through what I think would be a subway tunnel or whatever is you navigate your way through. Posters are over there in a different language. You got the doors over there. It's. It looks like what you'd expect a underground station to be. And it's these tiles like you'd find in your bathroom or the underground. And again. And I. I thought I was gonna get Destiny Eye where you remember how when I blew all my blood vessels out playing too much Destiny because I didn't blink and I stopped. I wouldn't stop staring at the screen or whatever. Japanese. Thank you very much. I like was going mad because you're turning the corner and it's like, are the tiles moving? Are they getting bigger? Am I losing my mind? Like, I literally felt at times like I was losing my mind, which that's what the game wants you to feel. And they definitely evoke that emotion.

[B]

Wow.

[C]

So, yeah, I'm excited for the movie.

[A]

Very cool. You got me excited.

[B]

I have a quick clip that I'm gonna send.

[C]

You were the one. We talked about this today at the start of Games Daily. And I could. Me and bus is like. I didn't say that, but I was part of the conversation.

[B]

Oh, okay. Yeah. This is a behind the scenes thing that I had seen just kind of randomly on I think on IG reels. But this is a. You know, because the movie is out and they were kind of showing how they did a lot of the filming and behind the scenes stuff. And the clip that I sent to Assets shows how they get one of the moments where the guy on the top part is walking through, but then he leaves the scene and he has to pop up again at the end of the hallway. So he gets on a bicycle and rides to back to the other side of the set so that he could quickly, like be there and appear again. It's just so cool. Like, I love kind of like movie magic sort of like that.

[C]

But we were talking about in regards to AI where I was like, to see something this practical and see how they did this and how they made it work is very cool.

[B]

Yeah. Getting on a little bike to just get there faster. Really neat.

[A]

Whoa.

[B]

It's super cool.

[A]

I'm even more sold now.

[C]

Yeah, I think I. You know, when we finished it, we walked out there and Nick was like, how was that? Really? It was great. And we're like, Kevin's like, it'll be a stream game that drives you mad. Yeah, you guys have to play it on stream because I can just see them screaming at each other.

[A]

Very cool. Well, here we go, everybody. The end of games camp, but not the end of the day. We have some fun stuff coming up. We have a party mode stream. And then after that, Nick's going to finish mixtape. And guess who's joining him? Me. Oh, the end of mixtape because Mike has the day off. But until next time, I love you all. Goodbye.

[D]

Bye.