The Thanksgiving Buffet of Video Games

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Besties – "The Thanksgiving Buffet of Video Games"
Release Date: November 22, 2024
Hosts: Chris Plante, Griffin McElroy, Justin McElroy, Russ Frushtick

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1. Introduction: Navigating Parenting and Gaming Expectations

The episode kicks off with a heartfelt discussion about parenting in the gaming era. Ross Frostichnada shares a relatable story about his son's fear of Bowser and the unintended consequences of allowing him to play "Zelda Echoes of Wisdom." Ross humorously laments, "now his expectation is that in every game he ever plays, he can summon every animal in the game whenever he wants" (00:00), highlighting the challenges parents face in managing their children's gaming experiences.

Justin McElroy concurs, emphasizing the ubiquity of creative freedom in modern games: "If you can't make any animal you want at any time, maybe the game's wasting your time" (00:52). The hosts resonate over the balance between fostering creativity and setting realistic expectations for young gamers.

2. Delving into "Echo Point Nova" Without Revealing Its Name

The main segment revolves around an in-depth analysis of the indie title "Echo Point Nova." In a playful challenge, Ross requests that the hosts refrain from mentioning the game's name throughout the discussion, testing the listeners' recall abilities: "We will not say the name of the game we're talking about for the rest of the episode until the very, very end. And we're going to see if the people at home remember the name of the game we're talking about." (02:10)

Christopher Thomas Plant enthusiastically describes the game's expansive sci-fi universe: "This is a massive open world where you are hopping from kind of islands in the sky... you're a God of pain." (04:34). The conversation delves into the game's mechanics, praising its destructible environments and creative freedom. Ross highlights the game's ambitious design, comparing it to titles like "Shadow of the Colossus" and "Earth Defense Force," noting, "It's like Earth Defense Force but fun." (15:39).

Justin offers a nuanced critique, appreciating the large-scale battles but pointing out challenges with player control and game pacing: "I really feel like it is tuned to such power... when you have to slow the scale enough to do things like shoot one enemy in front of you... it's too fast." (10:39). The hosts discuss the game's aiming system and its effectiveness across different platforms, ultimately praising its netcode and cooperative multiplayer experience: "If you're together and you decide to take on one of those defend the point spots... it's completely smooth." (25:00).

3. Game of the Year Nominations: Debates and Snubs

Transitioning to industry news, the hosts analyze the recently announced Game of the Year nominees: "Astrobot Balatro, Black Myth, Wukong Elden Ring, Shadow of the Erdtree, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, and Metaphor Refantazio." (30:20). They engage in a spirited debate about the inclusion of DLCs in major award categories. Ross expresses reservations about "Elden Ring" being nominated as a DLC: "I don't personally think that this DLC deserved to be in the list of Game of the Year." (30:59), while Justin defends its inclusion based on its impact and popularity.

The conversation shifts to notable snubs, particularly the omission of "Dragon Age" from both the Game of the Year and Best Role-Playing Game categories. Justin attributes this to timing and marketing issues: "It didn't click for us... I feel like it wasn't marketed super aggressively." (33:40). The hosts reflect on the challenges of award selections, questioning the balance between mainstream appeal and indie recognition.

4. Audience Letters and Recommendations

Engaging with their audience, the hosts read letters and offer recommendations. Ross receives a recommendation for "Rise of the Golden Idol," which he notes maintains consistent quality with the franchise: "Rise of the Golden Idol and the Golden Idol franchise is fucking excellent." (44:39). Justin introduces "Night Manor" from the UFO 50 collection, praising its horror elements: "It's a bit of an older letter. It's a point and click horror game that absolutely nails the vibe and mechanics." (46:08).

Christopher suggests the classic film "Cutter's Way," introducing it with enthusiasm: "This movie, Lost to Time, is a masterpiece. Released in 1981, it is a 1970s ass neo-noir set in Los Angeles." (47:20). Justin also recommends the "Murderbot Chronicles" by Martha Wells, highlighting its unique protagonist and engaging narrative: "The first one is called All Systems Red and I think it's well worth checking out." (55:02).

5. Upcoming Content and Closing Remarks

As the episode nears its end, the hosts tease future content, including a dedicated episode on "Half-Life 2" and discussions about upcoming games and documentaries. Ross encourages listeners to stay tuned for predictions on award outcomes and more in-depth game analyses. The episode concludes with acknowledgments to patrons and a lighthearted reminder to recall the secretly named "Echo Point Nova" before revealing it: "Anyone at home? Shout it out... It is Echo Point Nova." (55:35).

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Notable Quotes:

• "If you can't make any animal you want at any time, maybe the game's wasting your time." — Justin McElroy (00:52)
• "It's like Earth Defense Force but fun." — Ross Frostichnada (15:39)
• "We need to talk about why Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is in this list, why you guys think?" — Justin McIlroy (34:44)
• "This podcast is sponsored by Squarespace." — Christopher Thomas Plant ([Not quoted as per instructions to skip advertisements])

Conclusion:

In "The Thanksgiving Buffet of Video Games," The Besties blend personal anecdotes with in-depth game analysis, offering listeners a comprehensive look into modern gaming dynamics and industry accolades. Through engaging discussions and candid critiques, the hosts provide valuable insights for both casual gamers and industry enthusiasts alike.

Transcript

[Ross Frostichnada]

Okay, so we talked about how my son is afraid of Bowser last week. He's still afraid of Bowser. That hasn't changed. I did make a huge mistake, though, because I let him briefly play Zelda Echoes of Wisdom. And I think that was a mistake because now his expectation is that in every game he ever plays, he can summon every animal in the game whenever he wants.

[Justin McIlroy]

Oh, yeah, that's a huge problem. I bet he's just got tables everywhere, huh? Yeah, you got to tell him he can't make his own table.

[Ross Frostichnada]

It's basically tables and jellyfish as far as the eye can see. And any other game that doesn't have tables in jellyfish seems like a real downgrade.

[Justin McIlroy]

I got into a lot of this when, like, my kids are playing a lot of Minecraft and they were just making anything they wanted to. And I feel like maybe that's a pretty good standard. If you can't make any animal you want at any time, maybe the game's wasting your time.

[Ross Frostichnada]

Yeah. You know what I mean?

[Justin McIlroy]

Like, it knows how to do it. It's just ones and zeros.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I had the exact same problem with my son. He played sonic the Hedgehog 2, and he can't have Sonic the Hedgehog in every video game. And he's been pissed about it every day since.

[Ross Frostichnada]

I mean, that's how you raise a modder right there. Sonic the Hedgehog and Li Noir. It's going to be awesome.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Oh, I thought you meant somebody who just would love to mod communities at Neogaf. And I was like, yeah, that sounds about right.

[Justin McIlroy]

My name is Justin McIlroy, and I know the best game of the week.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

My name is Christopher Thomas Plant, and I know the best Boom, boom pow pow game of the week.

[Ross Frostichnada]

My name is Ross Frostichnada. The best game of the week.

[Justin McIlroy]

My brother Griffin is out on assignment. But the three of us are here to talk about Echo Point Nova. Chris Plant. What's that?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I'm just impressed that you remembered the title.

[Ross Frostichnada]

Okay, so actually, before Chris Plant describes.

[Justin McIlroy]

It, I have a post it note right here under my key.

[Ross Frostichnada]

I want to make a request for everyone on this podcast.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Okay?

[Ross Frostichnada]

We've just said the name of the game that we're going to be talking about. We will not say the name of the game we're talking about for the rest of the episode until the very, very end. And we're going to see if the people at home remember the name of the game we're talking about.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Somebody is driving right now sweating, going over Echo Point Nova, Echo point.

[Ross Frostichnada]

Don't say it.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I'm not going to say it anymore.

[Ross Frostichnada]

That needs to be fully muted. Fully muted.

[Justin McIlroy]

We are going to, we're going to talk about that right after this. We are officially there. We're there in the gift giving season that we're in that special gift giving time. You don't want to hear about it because it's stressful. Well, good news. How about I just fix all the stress for you right now? No problem. With aura frames. Every time you give an aura frame, it's going to feel like a hand picked personal gift. Why? Because you're going to digitally fill it with an incredible number of memories that you and the person you're giving the gift to can share. You want your grandma to see what's going on with your kids, you want to see your brother, to know what your dogs are up to, whatever. Then buy them an aura frame. You set it up on their wifi. You can do it ahead of time if you want to. And then with just a couple of button presses on your phone or whatever, you can upload photos to that person's phone. It's a really good way of staying in contact. It's a wonderful game gift. It's easy to set up. We've got, we've gotten them for quite a few people in our lives and we have never had anything but a thrilled reaction. And I think that you should really give it a shot. For a limited time, visit aura frames.com and get $45 off Aura's best selling Carver matte frames by using promo code besties at checkout. That's a U R A frames.com promo code besties. This exclusive Black Friday Cyber Monday deal is their best of the year, so don't miss out. Terms and conditions apply. I didn't let Chris Plant describe the game because it's kind of all the games. Huh?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

It is all the games. That's a great way of putting it. Except for the ones where you have to care about talking in words. They pretend that you do, which I admire. But this is not a game for words. This is a game for jumping around, grinding, snowboarding without snow doing whatever the hell you want. Because you are a God of pain. That is. This is a sci fi.

[Ross Frostichnada]

Let me just stop you right there. Chris Plant. Every time, Rachel, our lovely editor who is very, very talented, every single time you say the name, which is already multiple times since I said we weren't going to say it, Rachel's going to have to go in there and put a Bleep over the name.

[Justin McIlroy]

Maybe that's a sign, Russ, that this bit is not meant for us. Maybe this. It's a sign that the universe wants us to say the name of the video.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

We're doing it for fresh. I got it. Anyway, it is what I would say.

[Justin McIlroy]

If I made an independent video game and the people doing the podcast about it said, now the one thing we're not going to do is repeat the name of the game. Okay.

[Ross Frostichnada]

I think it's.

[Justin McIlroy]

I would say I'm going to find where they live and burn their houses to the ground.

[Ross Frostichnada]

I think it's good marketing because people are going to focus. It's like trying to work your name into your stand up set. But like making a big deal of it, I think is going to make people think about it even harder.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

It's just like that extremely relatable example.

[Ross Frostichnada]

Exactly.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

This is a sci fi fantasy esque game that is a massive open world where you are hopping from kind of islands in the sky. And at first you hop in and you got like a gun and there are things to shoot and you're like, oh yeah, I'm kind of familiar with this indie shooter. I get it. And I can move kind of fast. And then it's like, yeah, but what if you had a snowboard that could zip you around at almost light speed and grind straight up the edges of mountains and you're like, great, I love it. And it's like, what if you have a pickaxe and you can terraform the environment and carve holes into areas to sneak up on enemies and you're like, great, I love that too. And by the end it's like, what if you have a grappling hook? Multiple jumps. You can basically fly. Your grappling hook now works on clouds and you are literally just hopping across entire chasms, miles of open air from island to island, collecting unbelievably powerful weapons that just happen to lock right onto enemies in that oh so delicious way.

[Justin McIlroy]

If this game, if suddenly the environment of this game would melt away and it would be a carpet store and your main character would suddenly become an Iron man action figure. And you could just see the kid like jumping him around, flipping him, you know, like. And then I shoot my grappling hook and then like, oh, I have my hoverboard. And this is purely. This feels 100% like a kid playing with a toy. And you're like, well, you can't do that in a video game. There's just too. You're giving him Too many powers. It's like, oh, yeah, well, I don't know. I let him Minecraft stuff. I just did it. I just said he could.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

And you know what? Because he said that he gets an extra gun.

[Justin McIlroy]

Right? Exactly. I'm gonna give him now his pistol is a machine gun too.

[Ross Frostichnada]

Let me talk about. Can we talk to.

[Justin McIlroy]

Keep waiting for the lightsaber, right? You keep waiting for light.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Very true.

[Justin McIlroy]

You know, like it's gonna come.

[Ross Frostichnada]

So we've talked a lot about sort of some of the stuff you do. Structurally speaking, you're really just jumping from island to island and you'll have like kind of defend the point moments where you start a wave of enemies and you basically have to kill 25 enemies to progress. And it'll unlock a chest and you unlock things with it. But the minute to minute is really like the only thing that I think this game like, it just. That's what I think clicks for me is the fact that you have that level of freedom and it's such an extreme representation of a power fantasy that it's like when people talk about why a Superman game is impossible to do. I think this is checking that box of like having that infinite power, the Defend the Point.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I get that comparison because yes, you go to an island, you find a kind of start button, you press it in, enemies start spawning, and it'll say that, hey, you need to kill like 25 of these things and then we'll give you whatever the reward for the island is. I get the kind of comparison to Defend the Point, but for me, what it felt like was almost like a multiplayer map that I would find and I would trigger the multiplayer map. And it was like, okay, just completely dominate this map. Because it's not really about defending anything. It's just about using the map as your little skate park in whichever way you want. And if you are the sort of person who wants to do a lot of shotgun stuff, you could go down underground into a chamber and kind of wait for things to come for you there. If you want to be balancing hundreds of feet in the air, you can use little bounce platforms. If you want to use your skateboard, there's like little ramps for that. It really wants you to use each island as a play space for whatever your style is.

[Ross Frostichnada]

And as it goes on, you end up fighting against like 50 foot tall mechs and like giant other things. And those enemies will then have like explosives that carve away into the maps, like using the same destructible terrain stuff that you were using with your Pickaxe such that at the end of one of those encounters the entire map is like totally bombed out and destroyed.

[Justin McIlroy]

So I didn't start liking this until I got to those bigger encounters when you started taking on bigger enemies. And this is kind of my problem with the thing overall and why it didn't necessarily I think click for me. I really feel like it is tuned to such power like for you to be so powerful and fast. Right. Fast moving that when you have to slow the scale enough to do things like shoot one enemy in front of you or get one orb that you see in one place. I feel like I'm over compensating constantly because I'm not at a scale where I'm taking on one on one enemies. There's a lot of I would grappling hook and I would be right underneath the platform and just want to go up a little bit more and can't quite do it.

[Ross Frostichnada]

It feels like it is almost the Sonic the Hedgehog problem where you're so tuned to like I'm zipping through the world so quickly and then suddenly you have to make a careful platforming move. And it's not really designed to do that.

[Justin McIlroy]

Right. When you're taking on those big. When the battles get big enough that you're not even really aiming at specific enemies. You're like popping a headshot as you're flying through the air. Or when you're shooting like a rocket launcher at these gigantic T guys. And even if you fly across the whole island, you can continue to clock that dude. That scale started to feel like enjoyable to me, but I think I was. It requires a little too much fidelity. I think early on for taking on those like one on one enemies. It feels too fast to just like slow down and shoot dudes one on one.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I think that's totally fair. I will say a few things that it does to try to accommodate for that which it has a lock on system. So when you do aim, if you're like zipping through the sky, if you can vaguely aim at a character, it will magnetize onto them.

[Ross Frostichnada]

And it's a hard lock. It's not like a auto aim.

[Justin McIlroy]

It's like are some guns better at that or is that in my.

[Ross Frostichnada]

It might be a range.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Okay. Yeah. And once you do that, it does. I love the aiming system which it locks, but that doesn't guarantee it hits. So if the character is running left, you then have to kind of steer with. Once you're locked, steer the thumbstick a little bit to the left. To kind of guide the bullets. So if you're locked, you will be able to shoot them, but you have to still add this little extra touch to kind of get ahead of where a character is going. And it makes you feel like what watching somebody on Twitch playing Call of Duty with a sniper rifle does, where they're like, oh, wow, they shot three feet ahead of the character and somehow got a headshot. Even though the truth is, again, you're locked on, it's pretty easy.

[Ross Frostichnada]

So a point of clarification. If you're playing on a mouse and keyboard, by default, there is no lock on, which, honestly, I would not recommend because I think it makes the game much harder.

[Justin McIlroy]

I think you gotta understand how little of your screen the enemies are usually taking out. Like, you're regularly, like, 100ft in the air, like, looking down at them. It's not like a you're a noob. It's like, I can't. I need a magnifying glass.

[Ross Frostichnada]

Yeah. And it also, like, I think where this game succeeds is when you're. I'm doing a wall run with my fucking snowboard and looking behind me and getting two headshots in a row in slow motion. And that's stuff that, realistically, I know I could certainly not do without the generous auto aim that this game provides. So I think if you're looking for the power Fantasy, the best way to play it is on a controller. There might be a way to activate mouse, keyboard, auto aim, or lock on, but I know for sure it works on a controller.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Did y'all play on a TV or on Steam Deck?

[Ross Frostichnada]

I played on Steam Deck. Ran great on Steam Deck.

[Justin McIlroy]

For what it's worth who I did both, I will say that some of the things I'm talking about were somewhat alleviated being on a larger screen.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Really.

[Justin McIlroy]

Even though the performance was fine on Steam Deck, I felt like I was able to, I don't know, like, take in more of the environment at once. You know what I mean?

[Ross Frostichnada]

It seemed like only 800p, so that alone is gonna limit visibility.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

That's interesting because I expected the same. But I played it on Steam Deck while I was traveling and was really locked in. And once I played it on a tv, it was so big and overwhelming that I was kind of getting, like, almost motion sickness because things are moving so fast, which I think is just a personal preference. It is. I mean, let's talk a bit about the ambition of the game and, like, all the things that you can do in it and how weird it is that it does run on a Steam deck when so many games that do that look maybe nicer but do less. Can't run on a Steam deck. Like we said, it is a game that has full huge open world.

[Ross Frostichnada]

It has and fully streaming. Like there's no like load times once you're in it. It's like the whole world is streaming through.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yes. You can see long distance. You have these massively destructible environments. You can again skateboard up hundreds of feet of terrain. And again like you said, no load or anything like that. The destruction is fantastic. As you mentioned, fresh that after a battle the entire area can basically be bombarded. But the other thing is you can use that destruction in creative ways. So I actually ended up beating an island that was all about going deep down into the island because I saw it had lava at the bottom and lava is destructible. So I bombed out the lava part of the bottom of the island and then carved up into it and finished it in like a few seconds.

[Ross Frostichnada]

Yeah, that's great.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

That's like. It gives you that creative freedom. Is exceptional. The closest comparison for me is. I know you all don't love these, but the Earth Defense Force games, I.

[Ross Frostichnada]

Was thinking the same thing. This is like Earth Defense Force but fun is my.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Not entirely unfair. It feels like this would be more.

[Justin McIlroy]

Fun with EDF's levels of enemy density. I think like having that kind of like wave bait, like that would be a lot of fun actually.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yes. And it feels like if I think about how this game can be upgraded over the years because I. I really hope we get another one of these.

[Ross Frostichnada]

Well, yeah, I. I'll say the. They. They. This is their second game, the studio's second game. The studio is called Greylock Studio and they made Severed Steel which came out in 2021, which was basically the similar in terms of like gun shooting mechanics but much more linear. Like it wasn't an open world, it was more like straight levels. So I think the studio itself has had like a lot of support. And you look at the Steam reviews on this, it's like 99% with 2000 reviews. Like clearly they've found their audience and I know they are planning on future updates for this as well. Sorry, you were saying? I interrupted.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was saying that I hope that they go the EDF direction which is. Worry less about ultimate polish.

[Ross Frostichnada]

Yeah.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

And just continue to climb and pick out the ambition and the scale and yes like larger hordes of enemies. The EDF route I think is such a healthy route for this sort of game because once you start getting too focused on Polish, you end up killing all the things that are special about it. And then we've seen that happen to so many games.

[Ross Frostichnada]

I mean, nothing about this game tells me that they prioritize polish.

[Justin McIlroy]

Yeah, listen, I'm sorry. I try to be respectful, co host, but hearing Plant say that he wants anything to ever follow the EDF path and just like kind of sitting back and letting it happen. I think what if they made just like a real video game would be cool too, is what I would love. I'm kidding. Of course. This is a. But it is a case where like, I think for me personally, I need a little more romance. I need a little more. I mean, I've been sitting here trying to think of a less gross way of putting it, but the fact is I need to be whined and dined. I love it that you let me triple jump. That's perverse. I love it. But at least give me a dad that I hate. You know what I mean? I just need a little kiss on the cheek.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Did any of you all attempt to consume the story?

[Ross Frostichnada]

I mean, I read the instructions.

[Justin McIlroy]

It seems maniacal. It seems like there are several games happening at once. It's impossible.

[Ross Frostichnada]

Yeah. So the story is delivered, you'll get to a point and there's just like text boxes that are floating at a specific point. And you just read the text boxes. And then at the end in the last one, it'll be like, we gotta check out this facility. And then you just get a new waypoint. You go there. But realistically, like all you're doing when you go to these points is just like progressing whatever the next waypoint is.

[Justin McIlroy]

I will say, speaking of progressing, and I will say this is something you told me. And I feel like pretty. The game really, I think could do a better job of communicating this. When I first started playing, it feels like someone has the field of view turned up too high or something. And the sensitivity is off the charts. You know that feeling of like, oh my God, I can barely control it. And when you first start playing, you're like, why is it like that? Like, why is it tuned like this? Like, this is a first person shooter. Why did they have it? Why did they make it feel like this? And I. It wasn't for me until I got like the grappling hook and the board and the double jump and those like basic maneuverability. And then you're like, oh, okay, like that it. But you have to just keep pushing for it. Because it is going to seem insane.

[Ross Frostichnada]

It takes about 40 minutes to get all the tools.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

That's a great point in that you expect it to feel like COD early on, right?

[Justin McIlroy]

Exactly.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

You press left and it's like, oh, wow, I'm looking behind.

[Justin McIlroy]

It feels like you have cheats on, Right. It's that feeling of like somebody turned on. No clip. I'm just, like, falling around this world.

[Ross Frostichnada]

Yeah. No, that is a really good note.

[Justin McIlroy]

It is really funny. I think this is a funny video game joke that this game has the ability to. You can fall for so long that it pulls up a prompt that's like, do you want to push a button to restart? And then you land on the ground. It's like, no, I was just falling that entire time. I'm okay. I know it seems like I was going to fall forever, but. No, it was actually just 30 seconds of straight falling.

[Ross Frostichnada]

Did you guys get to any of the boss fights, by any chance? You would know.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

No, I guess not.

[Ross Frostichnada]

Okay, so I'll just share the first one. This happens a few hours into the game. You get to a large desert area. It's just like a bunch of dunes. And then suddenly a fucking sandworm the size of. Bigger than anything you've seen in the game. It's fucking enormous. It's as big as a sandworm from Dune shows up. And you have to glide into the sandworm's mouth, and inside there are, like, turrets and enemies and, like, weak points that you're destroying. They call them colossi in the game. And effectively, it feels kind of similar to Shadow of the Colossus, where you're destroying these giant things, which is wild when you think about your mobility speed. And also being on something that is actively moving at that time is nuts. Like, very, very cool. The second one is even more involved than that. So that is worth checking out.

[Justin McIlroy]

Maybe this is the broken part of me as we were talking about, you know, needing a bit more romance. But it did occur to me that it's a really good reminder that the fact that we don't have more good superhero games is not due to the fact that superheroes are inherently impossible to do. It's just a lack of creativity and a lack of, like, I think we could have superhero games that just don't feel like Call of Duty. Right?

[Ross Frostichnada]

Yeah.

[Justin McIlroy]

Like, this is a really good example of this game with a couple of little tweaks. Could have been a killer Silver Surfer game.

[Ross Frostichnada]

Totally.

[Justin McIlroy]

Right. If you imagine these as, like, asteroids in space, you're black, you know, Whatever. But like, this scale is what superhero games need to be. It needs to feel this level of, like, going wherever you want, doing whatever you want. And it's just not gonna feel like, you know, the traditional, you know, 8 hour 10 level, you know.

[Ross Frostichnada]

Yeah. I mean, this is like. You can see pieces of Spider man, the newer Spider man games in this, you can definitely. Obviously this is a very. A much more raw experience than that, but the feeling of swooping through the world in Spider Man 2 does not feel that different than it does in this game.

[Justin McIlroy]

As a connoisseur of these sorts of physics, I have to say that I don't think as much as I love Spider Man's been perfected for me, I think. But the feeling that this gives you of. You can grapple clouds and then just tug yourself through the sky. And the. The tugs of the grapple are impossibly strong. So you're like really just soaring through. It feels incredible.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

The grapple is almost like a bungee cord in that, like. Yeah, you're like a trenched up bungee cord that. So you can feel it pulling you and you're almost gaining momentum.

[Justin McIlroy]

It's a little batmany, a little bit like Arkham. Arkham, yeah.

[Ross Frostichnada]

You guys also haven't gotten any of the powers after you beat some of those bosses. You unlock powers. The first power you get, you can drop basically springboards on the ground wherever you want. So as you're gliding, you drop a springboard right in front of you and you go fucking launching into the air. So that, I mean, they, I think, had a lot of ideas that they executed on really well in terms of how do we expand this very goofy ass idea into something that feels much more like a video game.

[Justin McIlroy]

Would this work as A, like 8 on 8 capture the flag? I mean, could they. Could they turn this into a multiplayer experience?

[Ross Frostichnada]

I don't fucking well. I played so multiplayer. There is multiplayer in this game?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Oh, yeah.

[Ross Frostichnada]

So there's co op. I played it. A good friend of the show, Kirk Hamilton, and I played co op in this game.

[Justin McIlroy]

When was this?

[Ross Frostichnada]

This was yesterday.

[Justin McIlroy]

Okay.

[Ross Frostichnada]

I tried inviting him.

[Justin McIlroy]

I have a text. I have a text. No, I wouldn't have joined. I wouldn't have joined because I have a text where I recommended a song to Kirk that I thought he should do an episode of his podcast on, and he did not respond to it. So that's been before you played. So I know he has had free time. I assumed he had had a terrible, terrible calamity in his life some Sort of death in the family. Very close family.

[Ross Frostichnada]

Yeah.

[Justin McIlroy]

That would prevent him from responding to my text for multiple days.

[Ross Frostichnada]

And was the song hey Jealousy by the Jim Blossoms?

[Justin McIlroy]

Absolutely not. Okay, but that is a bop. Like it's a good dude. It is.

[Ross Frostichnada]

Anyway, I played co op with Kirk. The crazy thing about the co op is. Okay, first of all, there's no.

[Justin McIlroy]

It deletes all your messages on your phone and you can't respond to any important texts.

[Ross Frostichnada]

There's no unique progression. So when I joined his game, my progression stayed the same, both in terms of my character, like I had all my upgrades, but also in terms of my quest. So I could go and do my quest while he was doing his quest in the same world at the same time and we would both progress. I don't know why you would do. I don't know why you would do that.

[Justin McIlroy]

You can also do that in your own game.

[Ross Frostichnada]

That's true. But there was one other feature I wanted to call out. If you're together and you decide to take on one of those defend the point spots, whatever they're called, and one of you dies, the only way to revive the other person is. And this will sound familiar if you played Windblown by getting a certain number of kills and the other person will get revived again. So clearly this is becoming a trend and it feels great. Kirk is in Portland, I'm in New York and we had no lag, no issues whatsoever. It was completely smooth. So this legit. I think someone would have a really good time just playing through the campaign with someone else. It's very goofy and silly and whatever, but I think they did a really great job on the netcode as well.

[Justin McIlroy]

This is if we ever have a bracket for most video game ass video game, let's remember to include. Really sets a new standard. I feel like this feels like if you come into your kid's room and you knew your kid was playing video games and you saw them playing, it might be a real come to Jesus moment where you're like, this has gone far enough. I didn't realize you were onto the hard stuff, kid. This isn't. This isn't. There's no romance here. Let's take a break and we'll come back and talk about other stuff.

[Griffin McElroy]

Us gamers got a game and there's nothing that can stop us. Even a subscription fee for the game that we're playing. But sometimes we move on to a new game and forget about that subscription fee for a long, long time. And it's just chewing away at our bank account like so many termites. Well, good news. Rocket Money is here to help you find those subscriptions that you have forgotten about and help you cancel them so that you can save a whole bunch of money. I've used Rocket Money a lot in the past to catch some subscriptions for games, MMOs specifically that I hadn't been playing, or apps specifically for my kids on the iPad that I had subscribed to and forgotten about. And I cannot even fathom how much money it has saved me because of those subscriptions that it caught. Rocket Money is a personal finance app that helps you find and cancels unwanted subscriptions. It also monitors your spending and helps lower your bills so you can grow your savings. Rocket Money has over 5 million users and has saved a total of $500 million in canceled subscriptions, saving members up to 740 bucks a year when using all the app's features. Stop wasting money on things you don't use. Cancel your unwanted subscriptions by going to rocketmoney.combesties that's rocketmoney.combesties one last time. Rocketmoney.combesties.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

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[Ross Frostichnada]

Okay, so we thought we'd take a look at the game award nominations which got announced earlier this week. Where do we want to start? Do we want to start with the big one?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah, we got to start with the biggie, which is the Game of the year. The nominees are Astrobot Balatro, Black Myth, Wukong Elden Ring, Shadow of the erdtree, Final Fantasy 7, Rebirth, and Metaphor Refantazio. There is plenty of drama for us to discuss here in terms of what was even allowed to be nominated and what's like missing. So I mean, I mean, let's start with the Elden Ring of it all. How do you feel about DLC being a Game of the year contender? And that is not a loaded question. I actually don't have a lot to get in the game.

[Ross Frostichnada]

Yeah, I have no problem with it. I don't personally think that this DLC deserved to be in the list of Game of the Year. Like it wouldn't necessarily make my top five if I needed to come up with a top five. But it doesn't holistically seem off base. Like there have been plenty of DLCs over the years that are like feel like their own game.

[Justin McIlroy]

Yeah, it's, you know, I don't. I think eventually you get into like just marketing. Right. I mean if this is the year and everyone was talking about this game in this year because of the power of this dlc, like then it should absolutely be in the conversation.

[Ross Frostichnada]

They easily could have just released this as a standalone. You start your character from scratch.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Sure.

[Justin McIlroy]

Yeah. And then you're like, what's even the difference at that point? Right.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Like instead they made it so that you had to have a far ahead advanced character.

[Justin McIlroy]

Right.

[Ross Frostichnada]

Probably would have been if they wanted.

[Justin McIlroy]

To sell a bunch of them. It could have made it standalone.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah, I tend to agree that I don't mind it being here or DLC being here. I personally think there are too many other games. How do you all feel about the kind of snubs?

[Justin McIlroy]

Well, the snubs are not that surprising to me because of the way that I know that when you have nominees that are being done by large groups of people, I think that you have a tendency to have games that are sort of like brought more broadly appealing maybe, but some of those like smaller things get like lost in the shuffle when It's a big group voting.

[Ross Frostichnada]

Does it. Are we at the point where the Game Awards need to follow the footsteps of the Oscars and have more nominees for Game of the Year?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I don't think so. I think actually this Game of the Year list kind of shows that it's maybe the right amount because I don't think that there is. Let me be clear. There are games that my Game of the Year nominations would look very different than this. But in terms of what I think is the conversation, I think this is a pretty reasonable top six list. And it's what the other categories are for too. It makes sense that you have Best RPG and there are a lot of games that I think could be in a top list, but I think are also fine in their own category. I think what's interesting in terms of snubs is like Dragon Age, not. Not only not being nominated for Game of the Year, but not being nominated for Best Role Playing Game despite like the last one winning Game of the Year at the very first.

[Justin McIlroy]

That's really. To me, that really feels like a timing issue. Like I really. It's hard to. It feels like there was a lot of things and it. It didn't come out that long ago. And honestly, I feel like wasn't marketed super aggressively. I don't consume a lot of marking, but I don't feel like there was a huge interest. I don't know.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

We'll look back at this as like one of the best years maybe ever for role playing games. The nominees for that category is Dragon's Dogma 2, Elden Ring, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. Like a dragon infinite wealth and metaphor refantazio. Any of those things could win Game of the Year and I would be like, yeah, that seems fine.

[Justin McIlroy]

But like, what a. I mean, at this point, what a meaningless genre distinction. I mean, if you're comparing Dragon's Dogma 2 and Metaphor Refantazio, what. What are you comparing? Like human shapes?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Like what?

[Justin McIlroy]

Like what, what are you comparing? I. And of course, that's always the easy thing to do with these. Like they're meaningless. Yeah, I know. They're video game awards. Like, what do you want?

[Ross Frostichnada]

Here's a little secret. All award shows to some extent are pretty meaningless.

[Justin McIlroy]

I mean, because it's. Well, there's not a. It's not subjective. Right. It's all based on human ways of celebrating stuff. Right. The one that I think is puzzling and I don't want to get negative. I want to have a positive discussion about why Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is in this list, why you guys think? Because I didn't. I guess I haven't consumed enough popular opinion about it, but it just seems like it landed with such a thud.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Okay, I think there's a relatively simple answer here. We did not get many, if any, other big AAA releases. The true aaa. Wow. This is the visual future. This is the first party mega game. We just didn't have many. And totally understandable. That appeals to a lot of people. A lot of people who only, you know, have time to play two or three games a year. And they want one of them to feel special. They want it to feel even bigger and better than the last thing they played. And I think for that sort of person, there's a lot to love in this game. I also think that game in general. I've been trying to figure out why it didn't click for us, but it clicked with a lot of our listeners.

[Ross Frostichnada]

Yeah, well. And you also have to remember the Metacritic on that game is fucking 92.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah.

[Ross Frostichnada]

So it was critically acclaimed, maybe higher than any other game that came out this year.

[Justin McIlroy]

Yeah, I'm in the besties bubble. I fear, guys. I really. This is my bulk of video game journalism. I consume.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I think it is a pretty classic example of we've been drinking so many different delicious wines that when we have the wine, we have to be like, oh, it needs to have, like, this earthy thing. It needs that. Like, all of this is so familiar where I think if you only play it again a few games a year and you play Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, a lot of the stuff that I think feels overly familiar to us or repetitive or old hat, I think to many people is like, yeah, I don't play this every week like we do. I actually enjoy this stuff. Maybe this is the first time in a long time that I am tooling around an open world doing these sorts of things. And there's just the fact that, like, people love Final Fantasy 7. They have, like, deep personal affections for it. So it could have been any of that.

[Justin McIlroy]

It's just such an odd. There's so many. It's the things that are not there. It doesn't feel like a snub, because no one's like, snubbing anything. But it's like the new Zelda, like the Astrobot and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth would be on the list. And not like Infinite wealth or the new Zelda or like.

[Ross Frostichnada]

Let's take a minute. Let me stop you right there and say maybe the only installment this. And Probably Balatro Astrobot 150% deserves to be on this list. Could win and could win. Could win, but won't. But could win.

[Justin McIlroy]

But shouldn't.

[Ross Frostichnada]

Astrobot.

[Justin McIlroy]

It's not that fun.

[Ross Frostichnada]

Astrobot is definitely on my top five.

[Justin McIlroy]

Listen. Marketing of the decade. Marketing the year. Marketing the decade.

[Ross Frostichnada]

I'm not talking about market.

[Justin McIlroy]

Not since, not since yo noid. Not since 7 ups the cool spot on the NES have I been so.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Jazzed about being talking about Ross Frostic's favorite.

[Justin McIlroy]

The funnest commercial of the year.

[Ross Frostichnada]

The best platformer ever made.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah.

[Justin McIlroy]

Funnest commercial of the year goes to.

[Ross Frostichnada]

And it was also that too. It can be both things.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I, I, I agree. I, I know what you mean. Hoops, but I think the, it just.

[Justin McIlroy]

Feels like an incomplete list to me and that it's not my award show, it's Jeff's. But it does feel like, it doesn't feel like anybody's consensus. Right. It just feels like so uneven that I don't know if I'm trying to imagine who this person is in my head that crafted this list as an organization. Right. It feels very scattered.

[Ross Frostichnada]

And why would more nominees, like, I kind of think that more nominees would be more representative of the audience as a whole. For Game of the Year, at least.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

For me, I think you can go either way. More nominees means more opportunities for especially smaller games to get a shout out even if they don't win. That pop off. Like when Balatro got nominated for this, the audience of people who wanted to read about Balatro on Polygon, people are googling what is Balatro? It increases. So that is great marketing. And I don't want to discount that. I do think when you start to get to 10 or even 12 nominees, it I, it's wild to say this about the game of the awards and I take it less seriously because it does start to feel like, okay, we're just like throwing in as much as humanly possible. And I think if I look at the Oscars as a comparison, I think the Oscars trajectory over the last 20 years has been like a lot of that. Like what even is the Oscars at this point? Like it has completely lost its identity as an award show in trying to chase relevance.

[Ross Frostichnada]

Yeah, Oscars was different. Like Oscars was a different problem because the Oscars increased their number of nominees because all the nominees were like the English Patient and snobby shit like that that no one wanted to watch. So they wanted to make sure that Dark Knight.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah, I feel like they'd be going the opposite direction. Here. Right.

[Justin McIlroy]

This is what I'm saying, though. Like, I feel like this was not a list. I want the snobby people to come back in a little bit and be like, this list is crazy. Like, I don't want to be snobby about it, but, like, it's just uneven. Like, it just doesn't feel good. Right. Like, if it was a five, they could maybe get to five, where I'd be like, yeah, maybe, but it just feels uneven. Like, the list doesn't feel cogent to me. Like that. That is what I would say. It doesn't. There's so many, like, weird omissions like that. I'm like, why this and not that?

[Ross Frostichnada]

And I think it just bothers us as a whole because we know, given doing this show day in and day out, how much indies are, like, sustaining this industry, interest in this industry, and to have most of them relegated to categories, it's is a bummer.

[Justin McIlroy]

It's really hard. And I don't. Again, this is maybe not even fair for me to say because I'm so ignorant of it, but it is hard to kind of feel like, you know, how big of a deal game premieres and trailers are in the game Awards. It's hard to feel like whatever the selection process is is not weighted towards those games that are going to have a big ad spend in the upcoming years.

[Ross Frostichnada]

I don't have visibility to the voting, like, how the tabulations are made, but you do, obviously you see an emphasis on the AAA titles. And again, a lot of that is probably just popularity because those titles get played by a lot of people.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah. That's the reality of it is this is an international pool of voters. It's a humongous pool of voters. And just inherently, you're gonna favor whatever most people play because not everybody is playing everything. So if everybody plays, you know, Final Fantasy 7, Rebirth, the odds are just higher that some of them will vote for it.

[Justin McIlroy]

That's true.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Or at least put it on their nominations list and then it climbs the ranks.

[Justin McIlroy]

Whether or not that is a good example of the last game was, I think, really, really great. And I think a people who enjoyed the last one would at least be on board enough to tune in. Like, check this one out. Like, seek it out.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yes. Which also we see in, like, other stuff too. Right. Like where a book that comes out after the one that became popular suddenly, people like, oh, yeah, I missed giving it the praise and the flowers last time, so I'll do it now.

[Justin McIlroy]

I think that the omission of Echoes of wisdom is sexist. I think you're revealing an inherent sexist. Isn't. I'm serious. If the game started linked, it would be on the list 100%.

[Ross Frostichnada]

100%.

[Justin McIlroy]

Especially when you're talking about an international pool. Come on.

[Ross Frostichnada]

I will say this as the biggest fucking Zelda stand in the planet. This is kind of a mid Zelda game, and the fact that it's Zelda has literally, if we're being serious, has no impact on my opinion. I think design wise, it's like a fine Zelda game.

[Justin McIlroy]

Rebirth, though, I mean.

[Ross Frostichnada]

I mean, I agree that Rebirth was also bad.

[Justin McIlroy]

If they made a game where Link could make all the beds he wanted to, it would be on this list. List. You guys can tell yourself that's not true. But it is true. Sorry.

[Ross Frostichnada]

I don't know, man.

[Justin McIlroy]

Well, tell me why. Sam. Hey, listen, Samus keeps wearing the helmet.

[Ross Frostichnada]

I can't even tell if you're joking or not. Are you joking?

[Justin McIlroy]

Samus keeps wearing the helmet. Russ, you tell me.

[Ross Frostichnada]

Okay. Was Link's Awakening nominated the year it came out?

[Justin McIlroy]

Link's awakening is when he saw that his best friend Zelda didn't get put on this list and he awakened to his privilege. He was like, I. Wow. Wow. That was the awakening Link needed. You know what I mean?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Are wrapping up this section, and we're going to be doing an episode where we talk more about all of the.

[Ross Frostichnada]

We'll make predictions on who's going to win.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

We'll make predictions. And in the meantime, this is a reminder for everyone, including the people on this podcast, to play 1000x resist the game of the year 2024.

[Ross Frostichnada]

Yeah, I'm not gonna do that.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

It's not. I actually told Fraco. I was like, don't even bother. I love you too much. I know what you like. It's a great game, though. Hey, do we got anything else to talk about?

[Ross Frostichnada]

We have a couple letters wrote very quickly. We have one from Josh. This is from last week. Haven't listened to the episode yet, but didn't see it in the games list. Are you guys gonna do an episode on Rise of the Golden Idol? Just came out last week, and it's a fantastic sequel. Did Griffin talk about this at all during honorable mentions?

[Justin McIlroy]

I don't think he did. I think it came out in between.

[Ross Frostichnada]

Okay. My thinking is we've talked a little bit about it off the podcast and the general consensus, and I'm sure Griffin will talk about the game next week, but we probably won't Do a dedicated episode on it. Mostly because we all agree that Rise of the Golden Idol and the Golden Idol franchise is fucking excellent. But I think from a structural standpoint, there's not a lot to say because we're not going to be able to talk about the narrative and really you're just left with the gameplay which hasn't dramatically changed.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah. I mean in terms of like if you have not played any of these games, going back and listening to the original episodes and conversations we had about it, that would be the choice because yeah, I think we would end up saying pretty much word for word what we said last time. Yeah. And then. Yeah, just really actively trying not to spoil it. Because to talk about the game story is to not just spoil the events of the game, but to spoil the game itself.

[Ross Frostichnada]

The puzzles will be given up. Yep. So that's that background. We have one more letter real quick and then we can move to honorable mentions. This one comes from Jared. Justin needs to try out Night manor from the UFO 50 collection based on Justin's next fest. Rex. This is a bit of an older letter. It's a point and click horror game that absolutely nails the vibe and mechanics. As a big scaredy cat myself, I enjoyed every minute of it.

[Justin McIlroy]

Thank you, my friend. I always remind people that using the bestie's email to directly contact me is a misuse of that conduit of communication. This is a public forum and if you need to reach me directly, please just call my cell phone. This is inappropriate.

[Ross Frostichnada]

Did you play that?

[Justin McIlroy]

This is a Show for everyone.

[Ross Frostichnada]

UFO 50.

[Justin McIlroy]

I did not, but I will. I've kept UFO 50 out. I keep seeing Griffin playing it and it makes me think like, ah, maybe I'll just go hop in UFO 50 a little bit and then I'll play the garden game for an hour and get so mad that I want to cry and then I'll throw it away.

[Ross Frostichnada]

Just my advice is ignore the fact that there are 49 other games and just play this game. That's the best way to experience UFO 50. Pick the one game and stick with it. Be diligent, which I know you can be. Stay strong, honorable mentions, anything people want to talk about.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I have a movie to recommend to you. It's called Cutter's Way. It stars John Heard in Jeff Bridges. John Heard, the dad from Home Alone?

[Ross Frostichnada]

Yeah, sure.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

And let me tell you, this movie, Lost to Time, is a masterpiece. Released in 1981, it is a 1970s ass neo noir set in Los Angeles.

[Justin McIlroy]

You can't say it was released in 1981. Then say, I know. That's so confusing. It's so close. That kind of started for me in the 70s.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Oh, I know what you mean. Here it is. John Heard plays a Vietnam vet. He's lost an arm and a leg and an eye. And he is a cantankerous, offensive man who's just here to cause trouble and drink.

[Ross Frostichnada]

He must be so young.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

He's so young. Jeff Bridges plays quite possibly the sexiest person to ever be put on film. There is a shot of Jeff Bridges in this movie that you will watch, and you'll be like, you know what? They probably should have cut it because it is too distracting from the rest of the movie. Too sexy.

[Justin McIlroy]

Too sexy.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

He plays kind of a loaf who did not go to the war, and they are oddball friends. And one night, on the way to get some drinks, Jeff Bridges pulls into an alley. It's raining, his car is busted. And he sees what he thinks is a man putting a dead woman into a trash can. And he goes and gets the drinks, and he's like, surely that wasn't it. The next morning, he gets the door.

[Ross Frostichnada]

I like that. He goes and gets the drinks.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

They're like, bang, bang, hey, we found your car here. There was a murder there. And then he's trying to remember who was the person he saw that night, what actually happened. And him and John Heard have to solve the mystery. It also stars an actress named Lisa Eichorn, who I'm sure most people do not know. And let me tell you, just a fucking unbelievable performance. Truly one of those. You see it and you're like, how is this person not the biggest actress of all time? It is on Canopy, so if you want to watch it, you're going to need to get a library card. But the good news is, if you have a library card, it's free. You literally just download Kanopy. Enter your library card number, and you can watch this. Plus, like, every A24 movie. Like, it's great service.

[Ross Frostichnada]

So something crazy about this movie. It came out in 1981. Another movie came out in 1981 with a character that looks exactly like John Heard in this movie. Snake Plissken.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah.

[Ross Frostichnada]

In Escape from New York, they've got the same eye patch, the same hairstyle. It is, like, uncanny. It must have been that time.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Must have been that moment.

[Ross Frostichnada]

Yeah.

[Justin McIlroy]

Sexy time. Hey. I have a recommendation, if I may be so bold, and I'll be honest with the listener. During the section, initially, I had issues with my audio, and I'm Having to rerecord this without the other guys talking. I want to tell you about Murderbot Chronicles, which is a series of novellas in one novel. And they are a really fantastic, really easy to read fun series of books about an Android. And it is a security robot which is all about like protecting people that somehow overrides its governorship and starts working for itself basically, while still trying to blend in with its its bosses, taking on different clients, providing security and trying not to let on that's actually operating under its own auspices. When it's left to its own free time, all it usually really wants to do is watch like soap operas and reality TV that it has downloaded. And when it starts interacting with people, a lot of those interactions are based off of the soaps and the reality shows that Murderbot has watched. It's like a funny sci fi series, but it's also a really interesting meditation on neurodivergence, I think, and how it feels to be a neurodivergent person in. Around neurotypical people. I think in the first book, to give you a really good example, Murderbot has. Which is its name for itself, not, you know, it calls itself Murderbot, but Murderbot has a mask that's part of its helmet. And it's really uncomfortable when it doesn't have its helmet because it doesn't like people looking at its face and how it's reacting. It makes it really uncomfortable. So it's a really cool series. I really enjoy it. The first one is called All Systems Red and I think it's well worth checking out. So do that. Do that for yourself and for me, I guess, but mainly for you and for yourself. I mean, it's for all of us.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Nice.

[Ross Frostichnada]

Cool. I'm going to definitely check this out real quick. I played the Grand Theft Auto trilogy, which came out like three years ago. Yeah, it was the re release of the PlayStation 2 era, Grand Theft Auto games 3, Vice City and San Andreas.

[Justin McIlroy]

Okay. Yeah.

[Ross Frostichnada]

The games, if you'll recall, came out and they were like a total disaster, technologically speaking. Yeah, it was a whole thing. The Switch version, I think was running at like 330p or something like that and at about 15 frames a second.

[Justin McIlroy]

And weren't they like. Were they the ones that were like adaptations of the Android version?

[Ross Frostichnada]

Well, the developer. Right. That worked on the Android version and they like poured it over a bunch.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Of stuff and they had like AI tools. So like the. A giant donut looked like a screw, I think or something.

[Ross Frostichnada]

Yeah.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Oh, no, no. The joke is it was supposed to look like a screw, but it looked like a donut.

[Ross Frostichnada]

Right. And they used like a generative text, so the text was like all gibberish. And anyway, everyone sort of had written it off as like, this is a total disaster. And now we're stuck with it because Rockstar doesn't sell the original versions of those games anymore. A new patch came out very recently that did a bunch of things. Most notably removed the title of the developer from the title page of these remakes, which the developer took offense to because they probably did a lot of the work that is in these new patches. Anyway, I put it on switch. It runs dramatically better. It looks dramatically better. And they changed the lighting so that the lighting better matches the original games. They also added like cloud effects, which was very important because in the original release when you flew up in the air in San Andreas, you could see like the two other cities that are in San Andreas because there were no clouds. It was just the distance was like a million miles, which seems like it'd be pretty good. But then all it does is just highlight how small the map actually is, even though they spent a lot of time to make it feel like much bigger. So if you could have wrote it off, but you did buy the rerelease, it's worth booting it back up again because it looks like they addressed a lot of the issues that people had.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

For context around the developer part. I believe that another developer was brought in to do a lot of this.

[Ross Frostichnada]

Yes.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

And that other developer had worked on a separate version of this that maybe.

[Ross Frostichnada]

Was like, yeah, there was like a big dramatic thing where the original developers CEO went online, was like, hey, we made a lot of the fixes that are in this new patch. And then. But presumably there are a lot of fixes that they didn't make.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

And yeah, I'm not, I'm not trying to apologize for removing it, but just so people know, it's not like they literally were the only person working on it. And then they inexplicably had their name removed.

[Ross Frostichnada]

Right, Correct. They've brought in different studios.

[Justin McIlroy]

Anyway, hey, real quick, because I realized that I did not say the name of the Murderbot Chronicles of Martha Wells I should have mentioned, which makes it sound like a grand reveal and it's not. Martha Wells also has some fantasy work, some sci fi work, some YA work. She's all over the place, so check it totally out. All systems read.

[Ross Frostichnada]

Speaking of grand reveals, what was the name of the game that we talked about in the EGG segment of this episode.

[Justin McIlroy]

What?

[Ross Frostichnada]

Anyone at home? Shout it out. If you remember it, say it.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Oh, we heard you. It is Echo Point Nova.

[Ross Frostichnada]

Yay.

[Justin McIlroy]

I will say this. I tried to be supportive of our indies, but I know of three things that these cats have named so far. Two games in a studio. And I'm gonna say they are not allowed to name things anymore. Please reach out, y'all. Like, you have a lot of really good skills. This. Naming things is a hard job. Silver Surfer. Just call it that. Who cares? What are they gonna do? Sue you? Silver Surfer. It's a TC mod I made for. Hold on, wait. It'll come to me.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

It's a Echo Point. Echo Blast next week.

[Ross Frostichnada]

We haven't discussed it, but how do you all feel about doing a Half Life 2 episode?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Hadn't we done this before?

[Ross Frostichnada]

We did Half Life one on Rusty.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

And then we could talk about the documentary too.

[Ross Frostichnada]

Yes. So there's a new documentary that came out. They just UpdatedHalf Life 2 to have full workshop support on Steam and it has controller support and it was free for like a week for people, because it was the 20th anniversary.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

You know what? Let's do it. But I'm going to see if I can bring something new too, for the.

[Ross Frostichnada]

I mean, Griffin can talk about Pokemon card game if he wants to.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah, there's enough new stuff out that I want to make sure we. We're giving that audience a little, you know, a little bit of taste.

[Ross Frostichnada]

But if you want to prepare for it, watch the. And you are a fan of Half Life. I wouldn't put this on someone who isn't a fan of Half Life. Watch the documentary on Valve's YouTube channel. It's a new two hour documentary about the making of Half Life 2 that.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Has a look at Half Life 2 episode three.

[Ross Frostichnada]

Yeah, you actually get to see some gameplay footage from episode three that never came out. Yeah. The doc was made by Danny O'Dwyer's team, I believe. What are they called? Secret level? Secret something? Secret Base? No, no, it was a different name. Anyway, the doc was made by Danny O'Dwyer and his team who did the half life one doc. And I know they've also worked on no Clip as well. So it's high quality work and I would strongly recommend you go check that out. It's on YouTube and it'll be a good primer for the episode next week. One last thing, thank you to the [e-mail] thebesties we have a new Rusties coming out this coming Tuesday. We also have a Racket episode coming out in early December to get excited about. I wanted to thank the following people who are patrons. We have Mankoosh, we have James Gandalfenix, we have Plain Celery, and we have. Okay, so this person broke the Patreon page that I used to actually look at the list their name is. I wanted to see how many characters you could put in here and. Oh, my God, this is insane. Why would any person need this many characters? I'm only going to call this out once. If anyone else puts a really long name as their Patreon name, I'm not going to call it out because it has genuinely made my job harder to pull these names because it screwed up the entire table on Patreon. They clearly cannot support any name that has this many characters. Don't do this again. But it was pretty funny the first time. Okay, that's gonna do it.

[Justin McIlroy]

All right. That's gonna do it. Make sure to join us again next time for the besties, because should the world's best friends pick the world's best game names.