Reacting to Sony's "State of Play", Nintendo vs. Palworld Showdown | OTC EP 17

Welcome to Off The Console, the hottest new podcast featuring

Gardner, Bryant, Jay, GamesRevealed, and I. And this week, we're going

to talk about, of course, Sony.

We're going to talk about their state of play, the absolute state of play

that they're in, as well as some other stories like the updates to Nintendo vs.

PowerWorld, and Steam's new policies.

What's going on with everyone and also one more thing too, we just hit

300 subs on YouTube and thanks to everyone for subscribing, watching

us on YouTube or on our various different podcasting platforms.

And if you want to check us out, you can check us out on YouTube or you can check

us out on our Castapod, uh, Mastodon.

Betaverse enabled feed.

I love it.

And so what have you guys been up to?

Well, uh, I'm just getting ready for some PlayStation

hate this week instead of Xbox.

No.

Uh,

oh, man.

watched our main topic.

I have some notes.

It was good, but also interesting.

Uh, as far as this week, like, I've been playing, Astro Bot

came out with a new level.

So that's kind of a cool thing.

Astro Bot's been releasing, like, Since it released, it's released

extra levels and stuff to unlock.

And so, that's cool.

DLC are free.

It's free.

Yeah, it's like, suddenly, the galaxy appears.

It was yesterday, I thought it was, I don't even think it's like, Valentine's

related, but it just appeared yesterday.

Oh, that's right.

Yesterday was Valentine's Day.

How was y'all's Valentine's Days?

It was good.

it was, it was, it was great.

I might, I might not have gotten very much sleep, and might have

drank a little bit too much wine,

Oh

That's how you do it.

That's uh, yeah, exactly.

All right, what about you gardener what have you been doing this this entire week?

Well, uh, I got Emily, uh, a little, uh, stuffed.

It's not a stuffed animal.

It's a stuffed grilled cheese.

And she loves it.

Um, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's adorable.

And you can actually put it in the microwave and it'll heat up.

And then you can cuddle with a warm little grilled cheese

looking stuffed animal type deal.

It's awesome.

You, you need to drop that in the, in the

dude that that does sound

My kid will,

Yeah, it's a, uh, it's, it's a good little present.

And I also bought a new range for our kitchen because the

one we have is going out.

Um, it's on its last legs.

But as far as what I've been playing I have been playing original Xbox.

What up?

Oh.

Ooh.

playing Halo 2, I've been playing Unreal Tournament, or Unreal,

uh, Unreal Championship 2.

I've been playing on Insignia, which has been a bit of fun.

I, I messaged you guys and neither of you have an original Xbox.

I used to have an original Xbox, but

Yeah.

things happened to

have one.

It's just, I,

I,

you have, you have one,

dude, do you have

bought, I I bought one off eBay, and I need to go and repair the

insi Like, the inside has like, the guy was a smoker or something.

I have to go and like, clean it up,

God I hate.

Yeah, it's kind of one of those gross things where I It works fine,

it just needs to be cleaned up.

But, I do have a chip for it.

A special modification chip that I need to still.

hell yeah.

Mine is currently only softmodded, but the hard drive sounds

like it's on its last legs.

So, I really want to like, either put like a compact flash or Something else,

um, in there to, to kind of shore it up and Expand the storage, because

like, if you, if you replace the, uh, the hard drive You can put, you can

dump all your games, you can, uh, put a bunch of ROMs and stuff on there

Yeah.

Just dump the entire Xbox library in there.

Does the, does the original Xbox use Saya or does it use IDE?

Oh,

Oh, it's IDE,

It's, it's IDE.

school, dude.

And it's limited to, like, how much, like, it only can support

so much storage, correct?

Uh, my understanding is that if you've, when you hard marred, hard mod it,

you have to flash the TSOP and the TSOP flashes now support pretty much

any size But you can only have up to a one Terabyte partition so like

you there's lots of partitions on there, but you have to have you can

only have a one terabyte partitions

is partition limited.

Yeah, that makes sense.

Yeah, so it's it's pretty neat though, I love

How big is the original Xbox library?

Let's find out.

Oh, there's not a whole lot of games, but the ones that are on there are great.

it's probably gonna,

you could, they say here on Reddit that you could fit basically every retail

Xbox game ever released in an archival quality ISO onto a two terabyte.

Uh, drive.

So about 1.

78 terabytes.

Hmm.

sounds about right, honestly.

Yeah, yeah, I I have a whole collection, like a whole bunch of like writable

DVDs but like many of the ISOs that I find are like, you know, 8 gigabytes or

more and none of the writable media I have is capable of like Supporting that.

Did they ever make burnable dual layer discs?

Yes, but I don't think it's easy.

I don't

don't think it's super common either.

Yeah.

That's Yeah, they did at one point, but Huh.

Yeah.

that's, that's fun.

Like, I used to mod Xboxes all the time for friends and everyone back in the day.

You know, did the cardinal sin of playing Mario 64 on it.

Loved it.

That was like the best thing.

Yep.

streamed my, uh, movies or, you know, whatever I had on to it.

Like, it was, like, it was my original, uh, like, before

it was cool to stream stuff.

It was my, uh, so that's, that's, uh, ah,

The first con yeah, the first console I had experienced with modding by

myself was the PSP, the original one.

And

that was such a good, that was such a good modded, like.

Dude, it was so awesome.

So aside from being able to like

One of these.

Yes, yes.

The like, original 1000 model.

I have a, uh, I have a 3000 model that's still in box.

I don't know why, but,

uh,

PlayStation, but

I also have a Mod Vita too.

I have Mod Vita

Oh, nice.

Yeah, too, bad.

Sony never made anymore of those.

we'll get to the Saudi later, but, uh, Oh yeah.

What have I been

playing?

I've been playing Bellatro still trying to 100 percent it and their Magnolia.

I'm going to accept that game, too.

It's probably a lot easier to do that, even though it's a Metroidvania.

And I've also just been watching a bunch of the Onion videos

like from back in the day.

Have you guys have you guys seen their videos?

No, it's it's so funny.

Well, I think my favorite was it's called.

The situation in Nigeria is complex, and like the ho It's like, it's like those,

like, Meet the Press style, like, spoofs.

The

host is talking about the situation in Nigeria, and then all of the, like, Posts

don't know what the heck's going on.

They're just saying a bunch of like, they're trying to sound like they

are talking They're saying shit like, oh, their situation is complex

because of the factors that are involved or some bullshit like that.

Like, you know

it sounds like it's just what it sounds like in real life that's the

problem with the onion especially nowadays it's just you read

something I'm like I Have to check.

Okay, the source is the onion because I don't know if it's real or not.

Yeah, you've, you've heard of like the Simpsons, like predicting the future,

but I feel like the onion is, uh, spookily more accurate in a lot of cases.

is some of their stuff is so dystopian.

Yeah.

it hurts because it's true

Yeah.

speaking of things that hurt, a lot of PlayStation fans were kind of hurt

with this newest state of play, the absolute state of play that Sony is in.

So, I know James has watched it, but have you watched it, Gardiner?

Dude, I tried to watch it and I was like, uh, I had it on in the background, so

I wasn't paying a lot of attention, but every time I would kind of, something

would piqued my interest and I'd start watching and I was just disappointed.

Um, the only thing that really excited me was the Sonic Racing Crossing Worlds,

and that's only because I'm like a fan of, uh, SEGA and, what is it, SEGA,

Sonic and All Stars Racing Transformed, which is like the worst title for a game.

Um, but yeah, I like it.

I like a good kart racer.

So, we're just gonna go down the list of Oh, sorry, go ahead, James, sorry.

Oh No, I was just gonna say like I actually there's a lot of titles

in there look interesting, but it's definitely like The Final

Fantasy era, apparently, of games.

Because, like, half the games look like Final Fantasy characters.

Or, like, Final Fantasy

Dude,

interesting.

Ha ha ha ha ha!

So, I'm gonna go down the list.

of games, and I'm gonna, like List our opinions, our short opinions on them.

So, first and foremost, Monstrum or Wilds?

I don't think it's gonna win more on Steam Deck.

Yeah.

I think that's a good prediction.

that's a good prediction.

I mean, it looks fun though.

ha!

But, uh, let's see.

Ah, the next one though.

Shinobi Art of Vengeance?

Dude, fucking

one looked fun.

2025 is a great year to be a ninja fan.

It really is.

Like there's like that one really stood out to me to be really fun,

but it also made me sad because this, is this going to be on everything?

Cause with the, with the problem with the state of play is that it only

shows like it will sometimes say it's on PC, but you know, always like PS4,

Oh yeah, most of these are, only two games are actually PS5 exclusives, and we'll

talk about those later, but, uh, it's gonna be another hot take, I think

Shinobi 3 is the best game on Genesis, better than Sonic 3 and Knuckles,

okay.

I don't know about you guys, but, uh, that's what I think.

Now,

Sonic Racing Crossworlds, so, the trailer only had Sonic characters,

but the PlayStation article mentions other characters from

other universes, so to speak, so,

I don't know how big of, I don't know how big you guys are into

Sega, but like, let's take some, let's take some predictions, who

do you think is gonna show up?

Yeah, probably, uh,

Oh, damn.

Uh, I'd have to put me on the spot.

I mean, I'm going to guess a lot of, like, Sega characters, like Ai

Ai and, um, probably Jet Set Radio.

I can't remember his name off the top of my head, but Jet Set Radio characters.

Um, they even had, like, I'm guessing, like, a lot of the ones that were in, uh,

Racing Transformed are going to be here.

Virtua Fighter characters, gonna make a comeback

since, yeah.

Was the guy

I wouldn't be surprised.

Go ahead.

was the guy from Altered Beast in the last one?

I don't remember.

I

I don't know his name.

Yeah.

This is the thing with Sega is like, most of their characters,

besides like, the Sonic characters, like, they're not super iconic.

You know?

Like, they, they, there are like, a lot of Sega fans who know them off

the top of their head, but like, I don't know most of the characters

names from most of the Sonic games.

Or Sega games that I've

That said, since the last one released, a lot has changed with SEGA.

First and foremost, SEGA bought Atlus.

Yeah.

And as such, Persona is

technically SEGA.

So, I don't,

I was looking at that.

That'd be interesting.

I think the Persona series would be an interesting add to it.

Uh, Bayonetta?

Be interesting if you want to go If you want to go more mature.

Yeah, Bay Yeah, and, uh, the Yakuza games, too, exploded in

popularity, too, so, that's almost like a shoo in, too.

But it is kind of a kidsy game, right?

So, it'll be Like, meaning it's, it's a family oriented.

I shouldn't say kids y. And it definitely looks like the first,

honestly, it's the first kart racer that looks like Mario Kart competitor.

Partially because it looks like Mario Kart, I'll be honest.

It looks, it looks so similar to Mario Kart.

Mmm.

with that, honestly.

Uh, like, the, the, it looks, to me, like, it's this weird, uh, kind of

mishmash of, like, cartoony, but then they have, like, realistic textures in

some of the roads and stuff, and I'm like, I don't know, like, some of it

just looks a little, Like, N64 ish, where, like, they didn't really have

a coherent art style for, like, Mario.

So, like, they brought in a bunch of, like, mishmash textures.

I don't know.

I could be a little bit too critical, but I think some of it looks a little funky.

Like, especially when it transforms into the, the, like,

prehistoric world or whatever.

Um, like, a lot of that looks a little too photo real.

I want it to be more cartoonish.

I think that was the point, is that it's multi, uh, universal, right?

It's like the multiverse kind of thing, so it's meant to have, like,

that's what it kind of looked like.

So, depending on what universe you're in, it's going to have different details

and stuff, which, I, if it's like that, I can respect it, but I agree, like,

if it starts to mash things in a weird way, it could be really off putting.

There was another game though, there was another game that was kind

of, that had this kind of issue.

It was, uh, Jump Force.

It was like a, it

was like a crossover of all the Shonen Jump characters, like

Dragon Ball Z, Naruto, One Piece,

Bleach, all the new ones.

But the problem was that, like, you know what anime looks like, but like, they

had this like weird photorealistic style.

I'm sure you've seen, I'm sure you've seen it.

I'm sure I have too, I'm just, there's so many of them,

It's terrible.

The, the game looks horrible.

Um, but I mean, I have more faith that Sega will do.

Right.

I mean, especially if you know the theory that, you know, it's multi, it's like a

multiverse, like some of the game, it's like some of the universes that are meant

to look more like the photorealistic games

Yeah.

photo realistic

I think, I think it looks good.

I think, honestly, I'm, I'm, I'm shocked that it actually, it looks like it's going

to be a real competitor to Mario Kart.

In my opinion, like, meaning, I think this will actually sell well.

just

in time for Myocar nine or whatever for the switch to,

We'll see, like, we'll see.

one of the things that I like about this game is it has the, like, the

different type of racing stuff.

Like, you have the, the flight and the, the boating as well,

which I really, I love that.

I mean, one of my favorite games of all time is Uh, Hydro Thunder

Hurricane for the, uh, for Xbox 360.

I don't know if you guys ever played that, but it's just straight up boat racing.

And, uh, uh, Racing Transformed has some similar physics

when, in the boating sections.

So, um, I really love the, the boating stuff.

And, uh, Mario Kart has never done anything like that.

That just makes me think of Wave Race on N64.

Wave Race is good too, yeah.

But I, I, I don't know why, but I really love racing games.

Like, uh, I'm,

Do you have like one of those thousand dollar like racing setups multiple

thousand dollar

man.

I have like a, I have like a 600 racing wheel setup.

dude?

It's time to like quadruple the budget.

I have, I built it specifically so that someday I could put that on like a

whole like simulator where it tips you back and pushes you forward and stuff.

Like, I really want that

Did you

get one of those like vibration?

Like, I don't know what they're called, but like the haptic feedback motors

were like, if you crash it, like, makes it seem like you crash in real

life and like, jerk your head forward.

The, one of the, one of the things I want is to have like the whole rig.

So like, you sit in a chair and the, the screens are on, like, on

this whole gimbal that can tilt you.

So if it tilts you back, it's like you're accelerating.

If it tips you forward, it's like you're.

Breaking or crashing.

It's, it's really neat.

want one

don't have space

to do the same.

yeah, I kind of want to do one of those,

want to build one from scratch.

I kind of want to do one of those, but like.

You guys ever heard of a game called Steal Battalion?

Mm hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

For the Xbox?

For the X, the original Xbox?

Yes.

Yep.

The problem is finding a con.

Yeah, because

it's, it requires a 300 control with like buttons or so.

I haven't played it,

but I wi I've wanted to play it for so long.

I remember selling that at a GameStop.

It was, like, when we got it in, I was like, What the, what is this?

It was crazy for its time.

dude.

They'll never make another game like that again.

Alright, so before we wrap up, so Sonic Racing Cross Worlds

Steam deck, yay or nay, what.

Um, Yay?

With potentially some tweaks.

I mean, it, it says it's coming to PS4 as well.

So,

Oh shit, that changes things.

Yeah, it's definitely, I'm definitely going to say it's going

to work on the Steam Deck for

If it's a racing game, especially if it's not like, hitting for realism, like

some of the racing games do, um, it's an arcade style, then most likely you

can get it to work on the Steam Deck,

Yeah.

Alright,

the next game is Digimon Story Time Stranger.

So, I haven't seen Digimon since like, Season 3.

I think that was like, Digimon Tamers or something like that.

That was on TV.

So I don't know anything about Digimon these days.

Yeah,

kid's into Pokemon, so, I know Pokemon, and I don't know Digimon.

Yeah.

It was interesting, though.

the RPGs look pretty slick though, the new ones they've been coming out with.

But the big question is, when is PowerWorld gonna start making

Digimon inspired, uh, PALs instead?

that would be awesome, like an expansion pack.

Dude, I would

it?

dude, I would kill for like a Omnimon style PAL in, uh, in, uh, in

PowerWorld, that would be so awesome.

Dude,

You know,

POW World, Gardener?

no,

It's, it's actually a pretty interesting game.

Like, I, I, it's, yeah, it's Pokemon with guns.

It's so, it's so

I've seen people play it and it doesn't look like my kind of game.

I think it was, I thought it was funny though, I did, I, when I

first saw Palworld and some of the characters and I was like, People are

saying this ripped off Pokemon, but these look more like Digimon to me.

Hmm.

Haha.

like half of the characters are guns, and there's a, uh, and there's a Digimon

that's like almost entirely guns.

Gundramon, I believe it was.

Nice.

At least it's original.

Yeah, it is.

And, uh, Digimon's story, I think it's gonna run well on Steam Deck.

I have no reason to believe it wouldn't otherwise.

Yeah, that would be surprising if it didn't.

But you never know how, like, they could be trying for the, uh,

unoptimized Olympics, I guess.

Lost Soul Aside, one of the, one of the many Final Fantasy

looking games on this, uh,

Ah,

this list.

it's so hard, because they all actually look fairly decent.

And so they're gonna have, like, and there's a couple of them and they

all kind of, like, uh, get mixed up in my head and which one's which.

Exactly, but the way they're gonna win me over is diversity of story, environment,

and, uh, the, and how good the combat is.

Cause I'll actually play some of these.

I actually don't mind this style.

As long as it's done well, and has really good aspects that

make it stand above, um, so many.

And it really looks like the Year of the Final Fantasy, uh, cloned aesthetic, so.

Hm.

It looks interesting though.

So, I'm not sure what to make of it.

I mean, it looks pretty fun.

I want to see more in depth combat though, cause all of the, cause it

looks like he was just fighting just bosses or like, I guess, bigger enemies.

Cause it looks like he can, like, do combos and stuff in the air too.

But if you don't have, like, small enemies to showcase all of that on,

then What even is the point, right?

Like

for a Devil May Cry style game, where, I mean, You guys have

played Devil May Cry, right?

Yep.

Long time ago.

Yeah, like, Imagine if Devil May Cry was all big monsters

that you couldn't combo off of.

I don't think it would be super interesting, you know what I'm saying?

hmm.

Sweet.

Yeah.

mean, there are

it looks like you could combo.

It's just Different.

I just, I just want to

see more in depth combat before I make a full judgment.

I mean, it looks cool.

Otherwise, though,

100%.

uh, that, that said, it's actually a PlayStation published game,

but it's coming to PC day one.

May 30th, which is crazy that they don't have more game Well, I'm sure

they'll release more gameplay before it

yeah.

I, I, they, they should.

I mean, if they aren't going to them, if they're watching the podcast, be

sure to release more in depth gameplay.

It looks interesting, but I want to see how it stands above, because

the trailer did not show that.

All right.

So, Steam Deck EA or Ney?

I'm going to go with Ney on this one.

Um,

May, I mean, probably May.

What's What's the engine it's using?

Do we know?

That's a big part of it.

I'm probably gonna say nay on this too.

I don't think it's gonna

Yeah, I

don't know what the end of it is.

Well, I guess we'll figure it out, uh, later.

Let's see, Like a Dragon, Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii.

So, this game is not a new announcement.

In fact, the game already existed, uh, was already announced.

But, they announced the demo.

So, uh, let's, so let's see how the demo runs on Steam Deck.

He can run at a consistent 45 FPS, which is actually pretty neat,

oh, wait, DeckWizard has a video.

It, it looks like it shouldn't be.

Uh,

The Yakuza

games have run pretty well on Steam Deck.

They ha they have.

And so if it's u if it's using the same engine, then it should run fine.

yeah, I mean, it looks like it runs quite well, 60 FPS on the demo.

I mean, the demo's not fully indicative of the final game, but I think that's,

like, a pretty decent indicator.

It's usually less optimized, so it's is a pretty good indicator.

Okay.

And so we're gonna go on Women and say, yes, that one's that

looks together, run on Steam Deck.

Uh, David, the

diver's getting a DLC crossover with Yakuza.

Uh, I'm not gonna lie, who wants this?

I'm just curious, like, okay, I'm not the biggest, like, a Dragon

fan, but I just don't know who wants this crossover with Dave the Diver.

That's

It's crazy.

Like they've had a crossover with tro.

You can play TRO in David the Diver,

Mm.

like, I don't think it's like a full version of Bala.

'cause

that'd be kind of insane.

They've also had a crossover with, uh.

They've done it with of course, naturally.

They've also done it with Dredge, which actually makes sense.

And Godzilla.

God, still.

I mean, I'm for crossovers, but Dave the Diver is like, it's a fun game, but

I, it's not like The type of game that I'm going to be playing for crossovers,

so I'm just, gotta be honest, like, it's a, it's kind of weird for me.

Yeah, man.

That, yeah, that's why you play Fortnite.

Honestly, I think Fortnite makes sense for crossovers, and it's doing very well.

It's a live action, it's a live service game where Dave the

Diver really It's not, right?

Uh, so speaking of live service games, Splitgate 2.

Have you guys played Splitgate?

Like, the original one?

So,

I've played it for a little bit.

It was essentially Halo with portals and jetpacks.

And it was also on PC, whereas Halo wasn't at the time.

But then once the Master Chief Collection came out on PC, people just started,

like, abandoning split game droves.

And so this one is very similar to that, but it also has, like,

a class system, so to speak.

mm

I don't think we have too much detail too many details on, like Anything but,

like, three of the classes, but, like, I'm not sure how I feel about that.

Classes in, like, what should be, like, an otherwise Halo like experience.

It's I think classes can actually really help, depending on

what you're trying to go for.

And so with this type of game, it's It's really hard to say if this is interesting

enough for me, because once you introduce portals into a multiplayer game, it

starts to get a little too complicated for me, as a casual player these days.

Yeah, so

all of the, all of the, uh, classes have access to the same

portal and jetpack mechanics.

I

Is it just like heavy, light, like is it just

Or do they have abilities?

Cause I've watched the trailer, I just don't remember

glasses being the highlight.

don't know for certain.

I mean, it's gonna be a free to play game, I think we'll figure out eventually.

But, yeah, I don't know for certain.

Do you guys think this'll run on Steam Deck?

I don't think so.

It would run on the Steam Deck if they allow it.

Yeah,

I, the, the first game had Linux support, didn't it?

I believe so.

I believe so, yeah,

you could play.

doesn't mean they won't, uh, pull it.

I know.

You never know.

could, yeah, I agree, they could, but it would suck if they did.

Agreed.

I, I think it, I think it would play.

It's just, a competitive shooter on the Steam Deck's just It's

it's UE5 though, right?

Like that's why I'm saying I don't think it will work very well.

Oh, is it UE5?

I think

Oh, well then nevermind, I don't think I would run that while on Steam, Nick.

Okay, hold up, guys.

Like, UE5 games can run fine on the Steam Deck.

It just depends.

I've played, I've played, I've played, I've played a few.

I've played plenty of UE5 games.

It just depends on what kind it is.

On the Steam Deck.

I don't know.

I feel like UE5 is not optimized for handhelds.

Uh, it's not well enough.

It's, it's architecture's not as designed more for future facing.

But yeah.

Yes.

agree, like, it's not the best for, for handhelds.

No.

Yeah, I don't know, man, it's I'm not sure, at this point.

I'm gonna go on a whim and say, I'm gonna be on the safe side and say no.

But I'd be pleasantly surprised if it did work well.

So,

uh, it's gonna work fine with FSR.

You might not be able to see anything, but you'll be, it'll be fine.

You'll get

God, I hate

ha ha ha!

I cannot stand FSR Shimmer for the life of me.

Yeah.

Ah, I'm fine with it.

But I wouldn't want it in my competitive.

Yeah.

it has to be optimized.

It

Does anyone care about this game here?

interesting, to say the least.

me a No Mercy remake and I'll be interested.

Yeah, I

think, I think they, uh, Wrestling games peaked in the GameCube era.

To be honest.

No, they, no, they peaked in the N64 era.

That's my opinion.

I don't play these types of games.

I think the last one was like on a Sega or a Nintendo,

Yeah, the, uh, yeah, we don't, I don't

play these anymore.

I remember playing Wrestlemania, the arcade game, and that was pretty fun.

And I remember playing No Mercy on the N64 and that was, that was amazing.

It had like the, I mean, that was back when WWF had like the best roster anyway.

Um, but yeah, now, I actually really like wrestling, I'm not gonna lie.

No, that's, and that's great.

Like, honestly, this, like, for big wrestling fans, this game actually

looks kind of fun for them because it has, like, you wander around, uh,

like a Hello Kitty kind of inspired island where you get to buy stuff.

Oh, really?

I, I guess I missed this,

I had to throw that jab out for people.

I guess I missed this trailer.

Wait, let me, let me

You might have missed it.

Uh, yeah, if you're a big WWE fan, like, you might like it because it literally is

an island with different sections with, like, different, uh, characters, almost,

So it's like the single player campaign, right?

Yeah, but it's, I think it supports up to, like, 60 players in that

area or 30 or something like that.

Like, so it's like, it's not single player, but it's, it's kind of like

what some fighters have done in the past where you can have, like, a big lobby.

Oh,

And a bunch of people could be wandering around shopping and everything.

I

this doesn't, this doesn't look interesting to me.

Um, The, the theme sections looked like it, they, honestly it looked

like a step forward for this type of franchise for, for me, but it's, I,

I find the sport or the entertainment aspect of it interesting, but I just

didn't, I didn't watch it as a kid, so

Yeah.

I, I watched a lot of wrestling and football when I was a kid.

But like anything with Roman Reigns as the freaking face of it, I have zero interest.

Like, I just don't, I find him the most obnoxious.

But Paul Heyman's cool.

I don't know.

Do you guys, do you guys know anything about wrestling?

Like

know the

not anymore.

know, I know, I know the names, that's about it.

I remember when I remember when the undertaker wasn't retired and he had

this whole gimmick where he was basically like an undead necromancer kind of guy

and he could just.

Yeah.

And he

dies in the stage, and then he comes

back to life.

They should do more of that.

That's so awesome.

It used to be fun and wacky, and now it's just like,

Dudes like

smacking each other.

I don't know.

I, I, dude, Undertaker was my favorite character.

Like, he literally And Uh, and then Mick Foley, and then, uh, Mankind.

He was, he was my favorite.

But, anyway.

We're getting off topic.

we are.

Yeah.

So WWE

Oh, okay, hold, hold up.

Before we get back on topic, I have a question.

Who won the Super Bowl?

uh,

the

into bi

The Eagles

Okay,

Why?

I didn't, I didn't watch it, I don't know

Oh, I watched the whole game.

It was

I didn't watch

brutality, dude.

It was

was a, slaughter fest.

it?

it?

I

funny too, cause I was watching with my brothers and they put money on it,

Oh.

but they

Oh.

like bet on, they didn't bet on like who would win.

They'd bet on like, if it was like a high scoring game or not, I don't know

if that qualifies as a quote unquote

Uh, well, that was a high disparity score for sure.

Like it was, it was like four, it was like, it ended up 20 to 40

or something like that, which is

Oh my gosh, that's really high disparity.

You're right, you're not

for most of the game, like the Eagles were ahead by like two touchdowns at least.

Really?

Okay.

Kansas city, I don't think Kansas city scored until the third quarter.

dude.

it was crazy, dude.

so bizarre.

Yeah.

dude,

isn't Taylor's

the Eagles, the Eagles defense was crazy.

They sacked, uh, the, the chiefs quarterback like six times in the game.

It was insane, dude.

And, and then Mahomes threw three interceptions.

It was anyway.

Sorry.

No, you're, you're good.

I, I My family is big into football, and I don't care.

I like the, I like the commercials, but this year I didn't even pay attention.

I didn't know who won until just now, when you

I was so excited to watch the Superbowl because.

Last year, the last, I don't know, 25 minutes of the game was

probably the most exciting game of football I've ever watched.

And then I was like really excited because the Chiefs were back, uh, and

the Eagles were doing well this year.

And then the Eagles absolutely slaughtered the Chiefs, and I was

like, how is that even possible?

But it was, it was fun, even though I was cheering for the Chiefs because

I used to live in Kansas City.

But, uh, aw, dude, it was, ugh, anyway, sorry.

Ha

Now that's

to be honest, I'm not really much of a sports watcher,

neither of my brothers, but when

there's money on the line, they'll watch it.

Oh my gosh!

It's, it's, it's such an Asian thing to do, let's be honest.

Yeah, that's, that's, yeah, okay.

Alright, so, alright, so, uh, back on topic.

WWE 2K25, do you think it'll run on Steam Deck?

I'm gonna say a surprising yes, because the last games, uh,

according to DeckWizard's videos, ran pretty well, I would say.

Yeah.

Even this one has a PS4 version.

That

changes things.

So it's gonna be an absolute yes.

No.

we're going to PS4 versions of everything when we have a PS7.

Hey, that mean

that

that.

this theme that one can live a little longer.

I want the Steam Deck too, though.

Okay.

But what I want Well, actually, I don't want it more.

But the next one is Borderlands 4.

And this one I am excited for.

Like, quite excited for.

Um, Borderlands series is like, my jam.

Partially because me and my wife Susie play Uh, like to play at co op.

Like, it's one of the games that we play, like, for date nights and stuff like that.

And it's really fun.

Um And we really liked 2 and 3, we really had a fun time, uh,

playing through all of that.

And Borderlands 4 looks like an upgrade in every way.

Except for, I have no freaking clue what's going on in the story in it, so.

And they really gotta do better with these trailers of actually like, Instead of

showcasing like, uh, or like, revealing too much, But at least showcasing

something that's like a good hook.

And I just haven't been seeing hooks as much lately with trailers.

Well, the art of making a good, oh, sorry.

Go ahead Gardner.

was just gonna say I'm not a huge Borderlands fan, like I've played it

a few times, but I will applaud them for actually having a PS4 version.

An art style and sticking with it and not being afraid of having an art

style like a lot of games nowadays

So I will

say making a trailer is a bit of a lost, a especially one that, that hooks you

in without spoiling too much because they've been spoiling like plot points

for things for a long, long time, like the new Captain American movie.

So, uh, everyone knows if you watched a trailer that, uh.

Harrison Ford turns into the Red Hulk, but in the movie, that's

supposed to be like a third act twist.

So, yeah, spoilers.

Spoiler alerts if you haven't watched the movie or, I mean, the trailer.

trailer.

The trailer, if you haven't watched the trailer.

And that really pisses me

off, so.

Yeah.

yeah, I really hate that type of stuff.

You got to have some feel like if you're going to it makes us.

I don't want to watch it.

I'm like, okay, cool.

I can watch it from my home.

Now.

Like I don't have the surprise if it's a movie if it's a game if you don't have

a hook for me, like a very intriguing what makes your game different.

Uh, then I'm not going to buy your game.

I'm going to wait for reviews or maybe just pass on it because there's so much

competition nowadays and Borderlands four, the name alone is going to

get me to buy it, but the trailer.

Didn't give me a big enough hook.

Now that being said, they've upgraded I didn't know how they were gonna

be able to upgrade this art style of like cel shaded, cartoon esque look.

But they did.

They added like, it made it more edgy.

I don't know what they did with the shadowing around the edges,

but like, it looks like a true upgrade to what Borderlands,

Yeah,

cause,

has been in the past.

like Borderlands 3, you know, despite being a generation ahead of Borderlands

2, kinda mostly looked like Borderlands 2.

Which is not a bad thing.

Not a bad thing, Borderlands 2 was really good.

But, it didn't look super next gen. And this, this game does.

Also, one

more thing, too.

Let's talk about the writing in these games, because I remember

Borderlands 2 was really funny, but then I read that one green text post

from 4chan about Gearboxes, right?

Have you read this?

Oh my

For 4chan?

I don't take much credit for 4chan.

Hold

But yeah, go for it.

Okay.

It's a No, no, no.

But it's This one's actually This one's actually super,

like, accurate and on point.

Let's see.

Here's

what they said.

They said, I can't stand the writing.

It feels like it gets worse with every Gearbox game.

They can't go one month without stuffing it full of ironic

observations as their form of jokes.

Like, they have an insecure 12 year old filter for everything.

If you can get some fuel canisters, then I can reactivate the main

generator to get our shields back up.

I'd mark the objective on your map.

Alright, that's normal line.

Gearbox line.

Hey, buddy, great job killing all those mutants and all.

You're, you're really good at that.

Shooting things, that is.

One problemo though, it turns out a bunch of, it turns out a bunch of monsters on

the planet are gonna tear our eyes out if we don't get that shield back up.

And this is just my opinion, but that's gonna suck.

Not having eyes sounds terrible.

Like, how am I supposed to read my collection of bodacious space

babes without flippin eyeballs?

Here's my brilliant plan that I got written here on this napkin.

this generator thing, you follow me?

And it needs gas.

Who knew?

So, maybe you can go out and fetch some canisters, and then

we can get the generator running.

And then the shield will go up back up, and we won't have, and we won't get

horribly, horribly viciously murdered.

Doesn't that sound great?

I know, right?

So, since I did most of the work with the plan, I was thinking you can do

the last step and get the canisters.

If you see any monsters, shoot them in the face or something.

Oh, and one more tip, try not to get killed.

That'll put a wrench in this plan.

Metaphorically, that is.

Not literally.

I hate when people misuse the term literally.

It drives me figuratively insane.

Anyways, I'll just be here cowering in my bunker while you go do that.

Go team badass!

Yeah Yeah

it's not.

Like, that sounds like, honestly, that sounds close to what would it be.

Here's my thing though, and this is, I Okay, are you going to play

a game with that first content?

Like with that first text like that first story bit?

No, you're not gonna play someone that says like I've played games like that.

They suck horribly when they're too to the point.

You gotta have some character that being said Borderlands takes a little too far

at times and you saying that high tech.

Definitely I'm like, is that from the game or not?

Cause they have some characters that have that like, bodacious style of

talking And it's fine, but they go too over the top, they go too far And

that's the problem with them, is that they gotta rein that in a little bit

like it would be one thing If there were characters that talked that

way, but, like, it's most of the game that talks that way, right?

And, like, and, like, that's, to me, that's like a, there's a lack of

sincerity to, to that kind of thing.

And there's an insecurity of the writer that comes through with

that kind of, like, dialogue.

Uh, or they have to point out, like, oh, this is ironic and

we're not playing a serious game.

Like, you know, there's a place for that, but, like, I just, I find it obnoxious.

Yeah.

It's,

one of the reasons I'm not huge on that game.

Yeah.

uh Uh, moments and even dialogue and there's a lot of parts that are not

the problem is is they don't they need to figure out this melding of the two

and that's where the art and where the like the craft comes into like a

master craft so I agree but I will not like I don't agree that like that's how

most the game is uh there's a lot of aspects of it both but I'm not gonna

go to like this is a game where I fully agree like it has It's a co op game.

It has lots of guns, it has some silly parts that I enjoy, and

that's what I'm here for, but

the writers have promised that they'll rein in some of that dialogue,

and that there won't be any jokes about Hawktua, or Skippity Toilet, and I am

inclined to believe that some rogue writer at Gearbox is going to do

exactly just that, just to piss off the head writer, because that

would be so funny if they did that.

Mm.

quest, I don't care, like, do it.

Like, that's the, that's where they need to do it.

Side quests, where you don't, like, it doesn't matter to the main

story, throw some of that stuff in.

Hawktooth, I don't care.

Skibbity toilet.

Okay.

uh,

To be fair though, this is like,

one of those, yeah, to be fair though, this is like one of those games where

like I'm not gonna remember the story.

Like, fucking Diablo.

Like, I played the Shadow

of Diablo before.

I couldn't tell you a thing that happens in both the game and the DLC though.

Cause, we all know.

what we're really there for.

We're really there for the loot.

And the guns, or I guess,

The loot sucks so bad in 3, though.

That's why I'm hoping it's better, because you'd finish like a major

boss, and all the loot sucks.

Sorry.

This is like a series I put a lot of time into.

Borderlands 2 has a really good story.

Borderlands 1 has a horrible story, for the most part.

Like, it's just not great.

Borderlands 3 has a, like, eh,

Yeah, Borderlands 2 was only carried by a handsome jack.

But anyways, Borderlands 4,

It was still good.

do we think it'll run on Steam Deck?

Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The other ones run, I think, fairly decent on the Steam Deck.

This one's upgrade and it's, like, graphics could prevent it.

So I'm gonna put on a maybe.

It might, it depends.

I mean, Borderla the, the other Borderlands have, uh,

native Linux clients for them.

So, I would imagine, if they follow through with that, then there

might, there might be a chance.

It really depends on the engine.

The other ones are all using Unreal, right?

It's, yeah, it's gonna be Unreal 5.

That's probably one of the reasons why it has, um, it looks better.

But it's Unreal 5, so Oh,

fine, I'm gonna go on um, yes.

Cause it's not like, super graphically demanding, so I'm just

gonna go on a web and say yeah.

Now, Split Fiction, the newest game by Joseph Fares.

The guy that said fuck the Oscars at the Game Awards like a number of years ago.

hmm.

Yeah.

So, thoughts on these games.

Thoughts on this new one?

I'm not sure I'm not sure I'm feeling this one to be honest.

I mean, the, the, the woman in the blue, uh, Mega Man armor kind of turns

me off a little bit from the game.

Just, like, it just, she looks like she's Mega Man.

I don't know.

Dude, Megaman's

awesome.

We were gonna talk about Megaman last week, but

we ran out of

no, nothing, nothing against Mega Man, it's just like, I don't

understand the art style here.

the art style is that there's multiple, so it's split fiction, so one of them

is uh, a fantasy writer, the other one's a sci fi writer, so you're

going in and out of their different stories, and I actually really like

that concept a lot, and it's co op.

Yeah.

they're the same guy, uh, developers that made, um, It Takes Two, uh,

which is a really good game actually.

Yeah.

I played it with Emily, but the animations were all like, mocap,

like, backyardigans looking bullshit.

I was like,

It's definitely, yeah, it can be a little frustrating.

For me, anytime I can get a co op game to play with my kids

or my wife, I'm here for it.

So, I wanna support it by, uh, I wanna get it like day one, just

to support the vision of having,

Good stuff.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

thing.

Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, it

is interesting.

One of the things I like about these games is that when you buy

one copy, you can also, like, share it with someone else, so to speak.

Like, not just family, not like family sharing, but like,

the other person can download, like, a demo version of the game that connects

to, like, the full game itself.

And you can just play

off of your copy and not have to buy two copies.

Hmm.

kind of bullshit if you had to buy two copies of this game to,

like, play it with someone online.

Especially if it's,

like,

lot of games that do that, though.

There's so

Yeah, yeah, there's a lot of games.

that do that.

But this game is like mandatory co op, like you need to play with two players.

Yeah,

I think that, that is a little different when,

I guess that does make it a little different.

I like it.

I think it's a good trend, what they're doing.

Yeah.

I'm down for it.

Yeah, so Split Fiction, I think it'll run well on Steam Deck.

Yeah.

I think you're right on that.

The only good thing EA has done is, uh, well, not the only good thing, but they've

been financing his games, EA Originals.

Let's see, Directive

8020, the newest game by the guys that made Until Dawn.

So this one's supposed to be like a survival horror game, but it's space.

\ So I don't, is there any gameplay in this really?

I don't think there was much gameplay, which

I

It, it, with this type Until Dawn is like a, almost a point and

click, like, uh, adventure, right?

It's a

yeah, it's, it's like a telltale.

Sorry.

It's like a telltale game.

Yeah I really liked it, but I'm a big horror fan I really liked Until Dawn

I thought it was really fun and the different paths you can take Uh, this

one really, like, really jumped out to me I'm a big sci fi space person And so, I'm

excited for it, but very Cautious, because I want to see how it's going to play.

And not just the cutscenes.

Yeah, because I think a game like this, especially when it's kind

of like among us where you can't trust your crewmates, you don't know

who's real and who's an imposter.

I think game like that does deserve to be like an actual game

and not like a telltale game.

In my opinion.

Yeah, well, and it's weird that it's set in the same universe

as, um, Uh, what is it called?

It's not Until Dawn, but it's set in the same universe as a bunch

of other games that they have.

I don't

know either.

But, it's

interesting though, I thought, I thought Supermassive Games was

owned by Sony, but apparently not.

So until Dawn was just like an exclusive that Sony, like, financed?

Or like, paid for the rights to publish exclusively?

I don't know.

But it's on PC, day one.

Nothing about Xbox, but it could probably be on Xbox, cause it's not

published by Sony, as far as I'm aware.

Oh, it's a Dark Pictures game, meaning it's set in that, the Dark

Pictures, uh, uh, universe, which That was a whole thing that I, I

knew about the games, but I didn't realize that they were all connected.

I'd have to look into it more, but

Dark Pictures?

Is that not the thing?

No, I'm thinking of something else.

I'm

thinking of a

The, Dark Pictures anthology, it's uh, yeah, like,

I'm thinking of the Dark Universe that, uh, Have you guys seen the Tom Have you

guys seen the Tom Cruise, uh, The Mummy remake or remas remake or whatever?

The reboot?

but I know what you're talking about.

Yeah, I haven't seen it either.

So

Yeah.

Isn't it?

Is it like, uh, universal dark pictures or something?

Yeah, they tried to make, like, a A un like, a cinematic universe.

Featuring all of

their stupid, uh, They even had a they even had Russell Crowe

was like a Nick Fury type.

Mm.

Yeah, it's stupid from my from what I've seen.

Apparently the the trailer for that that one movie, The Mummy, they

uploaded it at first without any audio except for like One track.

They didn't upload

the, like, track with music or sound effects, they just had, like,

character, like, the dialogue.

And, if you're, uh, you have to watch it, but, like, you can hear

Tom, Tom Cruise's scream, and it's the funniest thing I've ever heard.

I don't know why.

Mm.

So, Directive 8020, I don't think this is gonna run well on Steam

Deck, but depending on the type of game it is, you may not need

to run it at a high framerate.

Yeah, if it's like an Until Dawn kind of style, it could run okay.

Yeah,

But it might be an FSR.

yeah, let's see, Five Nights at Freddy's Secret of the Mimic, I

kind of want to skip this one.

I don't know if you guys want to talk about it.

It looked interesting, out of like all the Five Nights at Freddy's

games I've seen in the past.

Like it actually looked like one I might pick up, especially when my kid

gets just a couple years older, but

Yeah, I

mean, it's, I mean, it.

seems okay.

The Midnight Walk though, I don't remember which one this was.

Oh,

it's that one game that's like,

it looks like it's stop motion, I think, but it's also like

an FPS also, I don't know.

It's interesting looking, I'll say that much, but I don't know

if it'll run more on Steam Vic.

I can't hear you Gardner, you're muted.

Sorry.

I, I love games that, with this kind of aesthetic, the, the low frame rate

looking animations, but with like a actual fluid frame rate, it just, it's cool.

Yeah.

kind of style.

It looks really fun.

It's, it's, it's right up my alley of like Little Nightmares

kind of style almost at times.

Horror.

First person, you got me there.

Uh, it looks like it, it, it legitimately freaked me out.

Potentially

I want to see more gameplay, like how in depth the game

gets, to be honest, but that's

Well, it looks like you can leave first person mode and go third person

and do different things and it has effects on, on some of the environment.

Yeah,

pretty neat.

so I think, actually, now that I think about it, it might run more on Steam Vic.

You might even be able to mask the low framerates with, uh, the art style, how

it's like animated, like stop motion,

like, say what else, Darwin's Paradox.

So this one was interesting.

It's like, it's like an octopus, like adventure platformer, sort

of getting published by Konami.

Yeah.

I was, I was totally game for it when I was watching it and then I

saw it was published by Konami and I have no interest in it anymore.

Heh heh heh,

big against Konami?

I'm big against pretty much all publishers at this point, but Konami screwed over,

uh, uh, blanking on his name, but Kojima.

Yeah.

And I was just like, after that, I was like, screw Konami.

they fucked, they like, just fucked over Konami and basically killed

off the Metal Gear franchise.

Hell, they killed off

basically all their franchises.

for

pachinko

they've got, yeah, they've got Metal Gear Delta or whatever coming out like

that yeah that did show up later um yeah

the remaster?

Or

the re the i think it's a remake metal gear

It's a, yeah, okay, it's a remake.

Yeah, the way that they're doing this is just

All these Metal Gear remakes are just kind of interesting.

Yeah.

I love Metal Gear, but

I, I mean, don't get me wrong, I think Darwin's paradox looks cool.

Like I'd actually like to try it, but I, I've just on principle, I don't want to

yeah kanan is gonna have to do a lot to bring back their trust the trust that

they used to have Cause they

basically abandoned everything for pachinko and then the, uh, the pandemic

happened and no one was going to casinos in Japan, pachinko parlors, and so they

had to go back to re releasing their games on PC, which I will say, I don't,

I don't think Garnet's going to like this, but I did buy the Castlevania

DS collection cause there's like some of my favorite games that were made.

I mean, you do.

You man, I just

We're supposed to stand strong.

You're not supposed to buy stuff.

Hey, I, I did, I, last week, I, I bought, uh, uh, uh,

That's right, you bought an EA title.

Yeah, which is a no no I but you know what those those games I really wanted

I have, I have Okay, yeah, with these, uh, game companies, there's a couple.

I just If it says EA, if it says Konami, if it says

Ubisoft, I'm kind of turned off.

And the only will buy a game, if it's in a franchise, I already love.

So if EA wants to make money from me, make another Dead Space.

yeah

That's all

that easy.

it really is not that hard.

Like you have IP that is really good that you have fan bases in and you don't need

to pump hundreds of millions of dollars and you'll get a reinvestment back.

Like it doesn't get some good analysts, guys, get some good analysts.

That's all I ask.

Give me a new SimCity.

Give me a new Command Conquer.

I'm here for it.

But you know you guys they won't do it

EA, you have these two that want to give you guys a buttload of cash for games

that they want to play, that you guys own.

I'd kill for a Mercenaries, I'd kill for a new

No.

Mercenaries.

Okay.

yeah

It's been a long time.

Yeah, let's see what else.

And so, the minute, so, Darwin's

Paradox is probably going to run low on Steam, Nick.

Yeah,

it's gonna run decent.

I think Warrior's Abyss, which is next, is gonna run, uh, I think it, it

doesn't look like it was too intensive.

It, it was a roguelike Warriors game, which didn't excite me at all.

I didn't, I don't care about the Warriors series.

I don't know about you guys.

it looks like Vampire Survivors mixed with, uh, Dynasty Warriors.

Honestly, it

kind of makes sense when you think about it.

Yeah, no, it makes sense, but it's not my style of game at all.

fair enough, yeah.

I mean, we'll have to

see.

I think it'll probably run well until, like, Like, you know how

Vampire Survivors runs really well, and then, like, towards the latter

half of a run, it runs like shit?

I don't know, like my, I know Susie, she plays it on the Steam Deck.

And I don't know if she's ever

they, I think they, like, I think they fixed that issue, but, like, very

early on in the Steam Deck's lifespan, Vampire Survivors, when you get

to, like, the end of a run, where there's, like, a billion enemies

coming at you, it, like, lags.

Like, crazy.

Well,

really bad at the game.

I just, wow, high tech.

Calling my wife out.

Now, that's interesting.

I feel like any of those games, once they, like, if they don't have a cap on

enemy spawns and all that, and they don't have good controls on that, could get

really bogged down on the Steam Deck.

Steam Deck, once you throw a certain amount of things

at it, its CPU fails hard.

Yeah.

Really hard.

Um,

a lot of RTSs are CP bound, and while a lot of them are older, A lot of the

ones that most people want to play are older, like there are some newer ones

from indie developers that come out,

and like I have to question if they run well on Steam Deck.

Yeah, I know they're a good fit because of the trackpads, but like, the

performance, man, like the performance.

It's not even a turn based game like Civ, it's a real time strategy game.

Yeah.

I, ah, man.

I don't know what to say.

All I know is Onimusha 2 and Onimusha, uh, Way of

Way of the Sword,

which, one's a remaster, which is interesting that they went with

remaster instead of remake on that one.

I feel like it needed a remake.

And then, uh, Way of the Sword looked interesting.

Like, they both, like, I'm, I, I quite like Onimusha.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And so I'm excited, but my, my, there's so many games coming out.

I don't know if I'll be able to commit to playing these.

Yeah.

Only Moosh is an interesting one because it has tank.

The old one has tank controls.

Like it's like Resident

Evil almost.

A lot of games like during the PS2 era from Capcom were basically

kind of like Resident Evil.

Like, Devil May Cry 1 was kind of

like, was kind of more like Resident Evil with like the pauses and shit.

It was, but it could, it, the hack and slash made up for it.

It, it made it still fun.

Like if it didn't have that, uh, it definitely, I would not

have succeeded, but yeah, it was definitely had the fixed camera angles

You know, you know Devil May Cry started out as a Resident Evil 4 prototype?

Think I do that.

It sounds familiar.

Yeah, like, it started out as Resident Evil 4, but then there was a bug that

would let you do combos in the air.

And so they just turned that into a new game franchise.

Dude,

They invented the hack and slash.

No, no.

dude.

I don't know, Half Life is such a weird genre name because like, It could refer

to a number of things, like some people can refer to Diablo as a hack and slash

or the games of champions of Norrath on the PS2 as a hack and slash, but then you

have other games that are considered hack and slash is like Ninja Gaiden or Deathly

Night Cry, and those are like completely different games compared to like Diablo,

so I don't know, man, it's a really

broad genre name I so.

Yeah, so, only Mushou 2, definitely gonna run on the Steam Deck.

Way of the Sword, though, I'm a little less optimistic about,

given Capcom's recent releases haven't been running that well on Steam Deck.

I will admit, I'm still a little salty about Dragon Sunman 2

not running well on Steam Deck.

I, I don't think game companies are like obligated to make sure it

runs well on Steam Deck right now,

Yeah, of course not.

going that route.

I definitely want to push the industry that route.

I think, I hope that, you know, with the Steam Deck being a proven name

that, like, developers will move heaven and earth to try to get their games

to run well on the Steam Deck 2, like,

I mean, it's an easy, I think it's an easy sell more and more as you support it.

Like if you support it better, more people are going to buy steam decks.

There's already like a lot of people that buy it and a lot of people buy it.

I think it's our, isn't it?

Like what is the statistic on this?

I can't remember, but like people that buy the steam deck by drastically more

games through steam than otherwise.

Like it's a.

Yeah.

Feel free to correct us in the comments, because I don't know

the exact statistic either.

But it is like quite a bit, a higher amount of people buy, uh, games

that own a steam deck, which makes sense, but you're missing out on

sales guys, optimize it, make it run really well, treat it like a console.

Like you can do that.

They can do that.

That's the one thing.

And so, uh, a valve needs to start selling how many consoles that they have to these

developers and say, Hey, we have like.

Millions of people that have these start marketing towards 'em.

I think they're kind of getting there with their badges and I think, I think

we're gonna see, uh, in the next few years, especially if the steam, when

the steam deck two comes out, I think what we're gonna see an era of that's

what they'll tar start targeting as their baseline or their, um, low end.

I just think it makes sense,

yeah, I mean, I think it's interesting how, I mean, I think Valve does tell, I'm

pretty sure Valve tells these, like, big developers that they're partnered with.

I'm sure they have some data points for those to like convince them

to try to optimize for Steam Deck.

I mean, there are

publishers that are trying to do that.

But,

They're not big.

That's the, the thing with valve is they are not big.

So while it depends on what they're trying to accomplish, that's the

problem with the valve is that they don't have that big of a company.

So when they're trying to take on multiple, uh, ventures or multiple,

um, projects at once, it, it, it just really depends on what

they're going to be able to do.

So,

I guess that makes sense.

yeah.

See, we talked about Metal Gear Solid Delta.

I don't, that might run well on Steam Deck.

Metal Gear Solid Delta's pretty linear.

Metal Gear Solid 3, I mean.

I don't think 3 is going to run that well, if it's a remake.

Yeah, I mean, maybe.

I mean, some of the effects, like the refraction of the, uh, the water

droplets on the camera, like I was like, whoa, I don't know about that.

on the steam neck,

but

that is true.

yeah.

See,

hell

want to play them on the Steam Deck, just play the originals, right,

through emulation and stuff like

Yeah, or the collection, I believe, has.

Cause the, uh, I believe the original Metal Gear Solid games actually

used the pressure sensitive buttons on the original playstations.

And it can kind of

make it difficult to play, like, on a modern system.

Cause no modern controller has pressure sensitive face buttons.

But I think they

a PSQ adapter.

, two controller adapter.

Yeah, but they did account for that in the remaster if you're interested,

so I guess that might be a good way to play on the Steam Deck.

Let's see, there's also Hellas Us.

I don't remember which one this was.

It, it's a horror game.

It looks interesting, um, but it, it, I,

Wait, isn't a

souls like

It is from, is it the same, I think it's, is it the, um, developers of Returnal?

No.

That, that's a different game.

That's a

um, that's on the list,

there's a one from Returnals.

Uh, this one looked interesting, but once again, It, I just need more.

Um, it was a dystopia, like, it's a dystopian, Um, kind of like, uh,

apocalyptic world that has a Mark Zuckerberg like character in it.

That's all

And

say.

It looks interesting though.

It looks, it looks interesting.

It looks very freaky.

I, I love it.

It look, it's horror esque.

It's just Yeah, I don't know.

I'm excited for it.

I just, we'll, we'll see.

We'll see.

It's really hard cause with all the trailers, almost all the trailers

I've seen I'm just not fully sold.

And partially because I've been burned enough in the past of like,

These look cool, but I don't truly know what this is going to be like.

Yeah, that makes sense.

And speaking of souls, like lies of P is getting a DLC, and so I've

heard a lot of great things, but lies of p I've heard it's probably

the best non from software SOS like.

Cuz, okay, so, this is gonna suck a hot take, but I don't think most souls, but

to be honest, I think the only ones that have made good Souls likes so far, are

the guys that have made Dark Souls games, you know, from software, the guys that

made the fucking genre to begin with.

Okay,

I think they make horrible souls like, and I think everyone else makes them better.

I'm just kidding.

I'm kidding.

That, that would be, that's a hot take.

Though, uh, To be, okay.

Honestly, I kind of believe that, except for Elden Ring.

I think that's the only one that's an exception.

I think that the Souls games are just overrated.

Once again,

Wow,

it's not my genre.

okay.

for it.

Every time I try to play it, I'm like, eh, this isn't fun.

And I've played other games that are more fun, that are like Souls like, so.

Lies of Pi P looks really, like, fun.

I wanted to try it, but

And yeah, Lies of P. I still need to try it, I've heard it's really good, yes.

DLC is coming out, and we already know Lies of P is Steam Deck Verified, so

we can move on to Dreams of Another.

This one is actually one of the few exclusives, from what I understand.

It's not, it doesn't have a PlayStation, it doesn't have a PC entry on Steam.

Interesting.

Dreams?

It's, it's made by, uh, Pixeljunk, who made a

bunch of the, yeah.

Yeah,

Yeah, this one is very unique.

I don't think I can play it.

I think it's just too uh, sensory overloading for me.

Like, it's just going to overload my senses too much on this and

so it's going to bother me.

Um,

so

don't normally say,

kind of looks like one of those, it kind of looks like a voxel game almost.

Yeah.

It's even got the voxel style destruction as well, and honestly, man,

I'm all for video game destruction.

I was hoping, like, next gen games would have more video game

destruction instead of fucking better graphics where that doesn't happen.

I don't know, man.

I

the end.

Unreal Engine 5 does a really good job with destructive capabilities.

It is a little taxing, so you have to scale down your graphics a little bit, but

mean, yeah, the performance is

there.

It's just no one wants to do it for some reason, and it really pisses me off.

Is

tools are there.

That's what's crazy.

The tools are there because it really is not that hard to use the

destruction engine in unreal five.

But the problem is boundaries.

I think, I think people don't want to have to deal with, uh, stuff

being destroyed or having boundaries.

So they go outside of the game boundaries.

Cause if you try to draw too much, you overload the system

and it's a balancing act.

But I'm, I, I want more, uh, Wow.

What's that Mars game.

Damn it.

Uh, it's,

Red Faction?

Red Faction.

I want more Red Faction.

That's the best part about it, is that you just destroy everything.

You just have a fun time doing it.

They should make another Red Faction, but did PA publish that?

I don't know, some big company, that's why we're not getting more,

because it's not a live action game.

Or a live service, I mean.

Let's see who owns it.

THQ

THQ does,

And, uh, Deep Silver not owns it because of THQ's inclusion.

So, Deep

Silver, you know what you need to do.

You know what you need to do.

Let's see, Days Gone Remastered.

I don't know if this game needed a remaster, to be honest.

It, it didn't, and this is probably the thing that pissed me off the most

and knocked the, the whole thing down a little bit is that the Days Gone

creators really want to make a Days Gone, uh, a Days Gone 2, like the, um,

the OG people there, and they're making a remaster that doesn't need to even be

done, and everything they're adding to it doesn't look that, like, I loved it.

I, 100 percent of days gone, the aspect, cause I'm a big zombie

fan, the aspect of how you're on a motorcycle and just everything about

it is a very unique, uh, game in a genre that's oversaturated at times.

This didn't need a remaster.

It needed a second one.

And so I think this is going to just do okay.

I don't think it's going to really do that well because it doesn't,

it's too soon of a remaster, right?

So I think it's an interest check.

I think it's an interest check because I don't think, I don't think many people

bought the, that many people bought the original game, at least compared

to a lot of the other Sony exclusives.

And I

will say,

fair, partially because it did not do well day one.

But, because it's a new franchise, sometimes that happens.

It did, I think, a lot better as time went on.

Like, it did a lot better.

that's fair enough.

Um,

So I will say the remaster is only 10 if you own the PS4 original.

So you're not having to buy a 50

game and it's, and it.

do respect

And it is only 50 if you haven't bought the game on PS5, and also they're not

releasing the remaster on PC because, uh, well the PC just looks the PC

version just looks better, but you can get the extra content for 10 on

Oh.

On the PC, that's good, that's good.

The extra content just has zero value to me right now, um, I

want more story in this universe.

Uh, but, yeah, maybe that's what it is, is that Days Gone on the PC RE looks

really good, and that I've played it recently on the, on the PC, and it

looked just as good, if not better than the remastered trailer I saw.

So

think the point was for them to make the PS5 version look as good as a PC version.

Oh, hey, Gardner, welcome back.

Just do a patch update.

Just do it kind of more silent and just be kind of nice about it.

Like, don't do these weird remasters.

Uh, Days Gone 1 sold 7, like, in, by 2022, sold 7.

3 million units.

That's actually not bad.

That's not bad at all.

Like, that's why, and I don't think it was, like, in a very expensive

franchise, but I could be wrong on that.

Like, it makes the money.

They didn't lose money on it.

It's, and there's a big enough, like, there actually is quite a bit of people

that love Days Gone, that there'd be, I think, a day one, um, like,

success, if they did a Days Gone 2.

Yeah, and so, speaking of another game that's getting released on PC, Stellar

Blade has a PC release and a DLC which crosses over with their own gacha

game, uh, Goddess of Victory Nikkei.

This game is so funny because there's so much controversy around

it because they nerfed, like, the, uh, the boobs or whatever, you know.

People get so up in arms when they can't frickin have, uh,

have material, uh, for whatever sessions of stuff they want to do.

But it's

But

it's not even like, but it's not even like one of those games.

You need two hands to

play this game.

I know it's not one of those types of games.

Oh my gosh, right?

I've

never even heard of this.

I don't even know what this

Stellar

Stellar Blade?

It's a

Sony exclusive.

It has hot girl androids as the protagonist.

Oh, is she an android?

I don't know, actually.

I don't know anything about the story.

Cause, it reminds me a lot of, um, Nier Automata, yeah.

Which I really, that game is really good.

So that's what made me interested in this.

Uh, is that, I really like Nier Automata.

Like, it was a fun game.

And I, I'm interested in this.

But, everyone's just kinda making it almost like, uh, They're just,

It's not a porn game.

We'll just say that.

I

But people are acting like it needs to be more and more.

Like, it's really a bizarre community, and I don't like that.

It kind of is a turn off for me, when people

feel bad for the developers because some of the people really dragged

this game into a culture war that they didn't really ask for.

it didn't.

Just let like, here's the thing.

I don't care.

Go make a porn game.

I don't care.

Like, games can be games.

If the game character is gonna look more realistic, so they're

not gonna look as attractive.

If the game character is gonna have peach fuzz, like, in,

Peach was.

Horizon.

Mm

well, here's the thing.

Sorry to say, like, you're an incel if you say otherwise, because you

don't know what women are like.

They're gonna have a little bit of hair in certain places.

Unless they take care of it, like, it's Welcome

have to tell me what's going on.

Sorry, sorry, I'm going off on this, but it's like,

Well, there was like, there was like a high detail render of Aloy, or Aloy,

however they pronounce it, from Horizon.

And, and, they had like, individual little, little hairs on, on, on her face.

And they were like, what is this?

D. E. I.?

Like people were freaking out because they were like, Al,

women don't have facial hair.

And it's like, dude, you literally have never seen a woman before up close.

If you don't know that they have like, fine hairs on their face.

And some have way more hair than It's like, dude, people come in all

sizes, shapes, and varieties, my guy.

It's a post apocalyptic thing too.

Like you think she's going to be able to upkeep that type of stuff.

It gets fine.

She looks fine.

She has hair in her legs, too, bro.

It's, I honestly do it, like, that's how, like, So that's my only problem.

It's not a cult, like, I don't even consider it a cultural war thing.

I just think it's a, kind of an incel thing, more than anything.

You just don't really, yeah, it's stupid.

And that's why I get upset, because I don't want people

to ruin games that I enjoy.

Cause then, what if, you know, they, Everyone starts to look like these

Final Fantasy characters that have zero hair or zero realism to it.

Like, I want a mixture of everything.

I want developers to be able to build what they want to build.

Dude.

That's me.

So you're saying, so you're saying no one's thought of killing one of those

dinosaur robots and just making a Razor?

Oh my gosh.

That's awesome.

Alright, but back to Stellar Blade.

So, they're crossing over with their gacha game, Goddess of Victory Nikkei, and it

got famous because, like, of the designs.

Naturally.

But also, because when you're in like the combat screen, like, one of the

characters, like, when you're like, Okay, so I don't know, I'm not sure, and

you like, crouch over behind the cover and you shoot, but then you can see

her whole ass, like, hanging out, when she's firing, it's so funny, it's like,

I'll be honest, like, you try fighting in that type of outfit.

Of course it's going to hang out.

Yeah, I, no, I'm not, no, I'm not saying,

I'm just kidding.

Uh, uh, yeah, I mean, haven't you guys,

damn,

uh, no,

bust out the James, it's time for you to bust out your job armor.

dude.

We've

all

already a silly

in wars at one point in time.

Yeah.

an anime.

So the developers have said that they're going to optimize for Steam Deck and they

apparently said this before the like.

PC version was officially announced.

Wow.

Cool.

I am inclined to believe that, yeah, it'll go on Steam Deck.

Maybe.

If it runs decently enough on Steam Deck, I'm picking it up just to support, well

partially I was interested and it's a hack and slash and I like these types of games,

but I like to also support companies that try to release for Steam Deck and so I've

bought a lot of games in the past because they've tried to support for Steam Deck.

As long as it's decent enough, not like a Cyberpunk one where I played

and I'm like, this is not that well optimized, even back in the day.

When it originally released before the,

Before Phantom Liberty?

Yeah.

So, Stellar Blades is going to be interesting on PC because all of

those guys that complained about, uh, censorship could mod the game.

Novel concept.

There's a whole website for shit like this, uh, for like Skyrim

and all sorts of other games.

I'm not going to say the name of it because this is a family friendly podcast

where we don't do stuff like this.

friendly?

Did we get so much, but yeah, no, I agree.

We don't need to mention it, but I don't think it's going

to take much to type it in

to Google.

Now the next game, Tides of Annihilation, is another hack and slash.

Oh, and this one looks more like the old God of War games.

I saw there was like an emphasis on platforming too,

like from fixed camera angles.

Kind of like the old God of War games.

Those games were fun.

Just don't play with your family around because sometimes

you'll just get unprompted, uh,

nudity in those games.

Unlike Starblade!

Wow!

Oh God of war.

Yeah.

Tides of Annihilation looks pretty fun.

It also

Yeah, it does it does actually look pretty fun

It also kind of looks like Final Fantasy.

That's my problem.

It looks like it looks fun, but I'm like, okay another Final

Fantasy kind of style game.

I Still could play it.

We'll see.

Is it the Sorry,

They had a,

it's the one in England.

yeah, it's based on like Arthurian legend or some shit like that, you know,

we don't get too many games that focus on like Arthurian legend, like I think

the most prominent game series that does that is Fate Stay Night and Fate Grand

Yeah, and that's a very different Type of game

very different to say the least, it's basically, it's basically Battle Royale,

but in Japan, wait no, Battle Royale like started in Japan,

nevermind, what am I saying?

Let's see, Metal Eden, it looks like it could have the sauce.

It's made by the same guys that made Ruiner, and that game had the

sauce, but I want to see more of it.

Man I have to keep on looking up all the stuff even though

it's only been a few days.

It's like not that's like I'll

That's a bad sign, to be honest.

It is this one had a cool trailer, but once again like I Don't know actually

I think this is a game that I'll play.

It's first person

Boomer Shooter?

Boomer, I don't know if I'd go as far as Boomer Shooter, but it reminds me

a little bit of Doom, uh, which I'm, I'm here for, so we'll see how they,

I must have missed this one.

Doom meets Ghost in the Shell is what it made, it made me

think of, which I'm down for.

Yeah, so I think this might have a good chance of running on the Steam Deck.

Mind's Eye

Yeah.

Yeah, it.

the game also doesn't look like it has the sauce.

I just need more details, just looks like a genetic third person shooter.

Minds Eye I mean.

Mine's eye looks interesting, but like you said, like, it's,

what's the selling factor?

It looks like a futuristic Grand Theft Auto.

And not like GTA 6, it looks like a GTA 4 or 3, almost.

Like, it, it didn't seem graphically that good at times.

Other times it looked really good, and other times it didn't.

Yeah.

It's giving me, like Um, Crackdown vibes, but like, but like not cel shaded.

Ohhh I had a friend that bought Crackdown for the Halo 3 beta.

It never played the game.

Oh, that's funny.

I, I love sci fi, and I like, actually really like, um, Uh, a couple of

games that are like this, it's just, it's too generic, like you said.

And the final game, Sarus, is a PS5 exclusive.

One of two games that I know of that are PS5 exclusive so far but like Returnal

it's probably going to come to the PC.

Ah, yeah, Returnal is really fun.

Have you guys played Returnal before?

No, I've heard a lot of good things about it though.

It's fun.

It's, it's got one of those really weird trippy stories to where you're lost on

this, uh, world with alien artifacts that it was just really with your, uh,

time perception and stuff like that.

And so I thought I'd beat this game and then come to find out I haven't.

And there's a whole other step through I have to go through,

but it's a, it's a dungeon diver.

Uh, like, um, uh, What is it?

It repeats, essentially.

So every time you die, you have to start over again.

And so you know how to run And you have to do the runs all over again.

It's a Roguelike,

Roguelike, that's what it is.

And so, you have to build up for it.

But it's not I don't know, I don't feel like it's traditional.

So it was really hard to get through it the first time.

And so once I almost started over again and I was really

confused, like, it lost me.

And so, fun game!

yeah.

I put a lot of hours into it, and I still don't think I've beaten it.

And I don't like that.

I don't know if I've beaten it or not.

Or if it's just like

hate when that happens in a video game.

This happened when I was playing Labyrinth of Galleria, which is a dungeon

crawler, and it's man, it's crazy.

Alright, so we've talked a lot about the PlayStation state of play.

A lot of

people were kind of disappointed, mostly PlayStation fans that wanted

PS5 exclusives and not a bunch of PC

announcements.

But hey, it is what it is.

Here's my thing.

I don't I don't Okay.

Exclusives is a weird one.

You bought a PS5.

You want really good games on it.

But the problem is, is like, Sony has a lot of IPs that we want.

What we've had in the past, like on the PS3, PS4, PS2.

Come out with more of those games.

Like, I don't care if they come to the PC.

And I think people, like, Sony fanboys kind of get weird about this.

But like, if it comes to the PC and the PlayStation, it doesn't matter.

As long as you're getting a really good game.

We're just not getting really good, uh, IP that's, we're used to from Sony.

Oh, well, their argument is that if it really just comes to PC, well, I

don't want to just get a PC and like,

Then get a

yeah, get a PC,

that's the stupidest part about this whole platform fighting

thing is, it doesn't matter.

Yeah, we all

controller.

I think the controller does matter, but the PS5 controller is supported by a

PC, so we all win at the end of the day.

So

speaking of fighting.

Oh, sorry.

Go ahead,

I was, I was gonna ask, James, did you, you, I sent you that

list from a couple weeks ago.

Did you try any PS,

Not yet.

I downloaded a game and I'm gonna try it on my Steam Deck.

But I haven't done it yet.

I've been too busy with other games that, uh, I'm gonna get to it.

Okay.

And programming.

My project.

So next up, speaking of fighting.

Nintendo vs.

PowerWorld.

Nintendo v. PowerWorld has moved into the United States,

so it used to be just Japan.

But now it's coming to the States, and we've gotten a lot of

information, first and foremost.

Nintendo tried to file 23 patents.

22 of them were rejected in the U.

S., but one went through.

And so this, this patent was essentially related to aiming and capturing

characters from what I've read.

I've linked the patent below in our document here, but it, I don't know, man.

Wait,

Do you think, do you think that patent's even gonna matter soon when, you know,

the USPTO doesn't exist in a few weeks?

what?

Is it not going to exist in a few weeks?

No one fucking

are off, man.

All bets are off.

That'd be crazy.

you need to go look up on the news and this is like not even really

like a political thing per se as much as a lot of agencies are

getting, uh, just axed completely.

So, I'd be shocked if this one was,

If I was a betting man, I would say that the USPTO would stick around

because because it, like, there's so much private interest in keeping, like,

intellectual property and enforcing it.

I agree, I just don't see, it depends on if Musk has a patent he wants and

Yeah, but Musk is crazy.

That's true.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

He

And he's the one that's doing it.

So it's, this is interesting.

So I don't think it's going to affect this right now, but

like it could affect future.

am saying is, on the flip side though, if the USPTO goes away, you know that patent

that WB holds for the Nemesis system?

Yeah, you know what I'm thinking, you know what I'm thinking, I think we

should make a game with a nemesis system

in

I, I, agree with that.

I like that idea.

Uh, I really think, uh, these types of software patents need to go away.

I think that's

So yeah, please.

It's software patents and design patents are some of the, uh, Like, I get a patent

on, uh, maybe some medical stuff, unless it's researched by, like, with funds

from governments, which they all are.

So, the whole patent system is just asinine, unless, it should, it was

there originally to protect, like, smaller people, and now it's there to

protect corporations that don't need it.

I, I don't need to get into this, but

The the thing about the this patent specifically if you look at

it, it's like oh my god Nintendo invented the crosshair guys

Dude, they invented Doom?

They invented the crosshair?

Dude it's ridiculous.

What is this?

Oh, have you not seen this, this patent before?

Like, it's ass

Dude, it's crazy.

I don't know, man, there's so much going on with Nintendo vs.

Powerworld.

They really just want to wipe Powerworld off the face of this

earth, and like, honestly guys?

I don't know if he, I know Garnet doesn't like Power World, but I think we should

all rally behind Power World because it would suck if Nintendo got their way.

Yeah, no, I, I just don't find, like, those kind of games that interesting,

but like, I definitely am on, on board with supporting Pal World.

Any enemy of Nintendo is an enemy of mine.

You mean a friend of

Or, I'm sorry, any enemy of Nintendo is a friend of mine, I meant to say.

I agree with Gardner.

I'm on Nintendo's side.

I want Power World dead.

Uh, no.

It, it, it is like they're a, a great success story.

Like, um, they're like the power world.

I don't know.

Are they a two A or are they just an, I don't think they're an Indi Indie studio.

I think they're kind of a little bit more established, but

I

think at this point, they're like a double A, like they definitely

start out as Indie, but uh,

They're, they're whatever, they're whatever Mojang

was before they got bought.

It's the same

I think Mojang was much considered Indie even back then.

I know they sold like a billion dollars of Minecraft, like even

with what Microsoft was like.

It, it, I mean, it started out as an indie,

Yeah.

it's a success story of an indie game.

Um.

This is also one of those, it's a successful indie game, and it allows

for us to bridge, like, it allows for people to be creative, like, they're

like, because, you know, I could, I could guarantee that, that the creator of this

is like, I want a Pokemon that's a little bit more mature, open world, I can capture

things, but is very different also, um, they could have played it a little safer

with some of their character designs.

I think they would have, this is where I kind of saw this kind of, I thought

it was gonna happen much sooner, but they could have played it safer.

I don't want them to go away

but at the same time though.

It's like a parody game.

It's like a parody of Pokemons, and they

should be protected under parody law, naturally, like,

I will say, like,

wolf Pokemon aren't necessarily super original, and like, there's a wolf pal,

and like, there's only so many ways you can design a wolf, like, period.

I, I agree with that.

That's, that's the it, if the games are iterative, like if Nintendo is gonna

play this game, they might end up getting screwed over by some of their stuff

yeah, I sure hope that you get something

' cause

Yeah,

Yeah.

Yeah.

it's iterative, like, let us just have fun.

and yeah, I will say some of the designs do ride the line, like,

what is it, like, one Pokemon that's essentially Egyptian Lucario.

There you go.

That one is the one I was thinking of, actually.

Yeah, it's, yeah, I don't know.

But also, um, kind of related, but not related to the story in general, is the

fact that, that Pocket Pair teamed up with Sony, Music Japan, and Aniplex to create

a company, Power World Entertainment.

It's kind of like the Pokemon Company, almost.

And that, is kinda crazy to me.

And I think that's where the threat's coming from.

I'm not sure,

but, Pokemon's had a stranglehold on society for like, ever now.

it just makes me think of South Park and the Chip Pokemon episode.

But

Du heh heh heh.

dude.

Oh my God.

That

the

brilliant episode.

Chappo man.

You gotta buy

Fucking South Park also predicted Hello Kitty Island Adventure.

And now it's a real game.

yeah, it's true.

Just came out like recently, didn't it?

On the on Steam.

It's uh.

All I gotta say is, I hope Palworld wins against Nintendo on this.

Nintendo's going really hard because they probably are both trying to

want to establish, um, more rights to the Pokemon, uh, universe.

Uh, and milk it even more.

And so they're probably going really hard and I think it's a toss up.

We'll see how this goes.

It might be Palworld just has to pay some damages or something.

I mean, I hope that's all there is, cause it would suck if Nintendo, like,

essentially locked everyone out of making, like, these sorts of games, like,

I don't wanna say they're like Pokemon, but like, You've seen the games on Steam.

They're like indies, but they're basically Pokemon

like

Well, capturing, uh, animals.

Capturing beasts.

Uh, enslaving creatures.

Wow, when you put it like that, it sounds

hor If you play Power World, it's kind of horrible.

You're like, okay, here you go.

Here's a gun.

Defend my base at all costs, including your life.

Like, that's kind of what it feels

dude.

I TV.

Yeah, you're putting Pokemon in sweatshops, too.

Did you even

Pokemon itself does not, on paper, sound great at all.

It sounds horrible.

You're having creatures, like, uh, pets.

Your pets essentially fight each other.

and

you're having ten year olds running out there with them

to going on grand adventures

Yeah.

dude speaking of which In power world, you can actually capture humans

Yeah, you can.

Slavery is a thing in Pal world.

It's interesting.

so like, you can, we can, like, so you also, on top of fighting other

pals, you can also, like, directly fight humans, and some of them

have, and some of them also have their own guns too, you can fight, like, raiders,

and like, shit, and you can capture them in the Pokeballs, and you can,

It's fun.

you can use, you

can summon them too, to fight!

you can, yep, I think you get like marked though.

If you capture humans, you get like a mark on you, uh, cause it's a little taboo,

and you can't sell them

to people except for the black market.

Yep.

So it's a fun game.

Like I I'd be shocked if it goes away though.

So just like my final take on this whole Nintendo versus power world.

I don't think power world is going to go anywhere.

I think what Nintendo wants is a piece of the pie and to protect

their IP at the same time.

All they have to do is publish PowerWorld on Nintendo Switch, and that'd be a,

that'd be, that'd be a power move.

But on the Switch too.

the, they're not going to go the, the, the, uh, make a friend route, which

would make them probably more money.

Like people are stupid these days.

Like it's probably an ego thing potentially to

That makes sense.

higher, higher ups have like weird egos.

And so, speaking of which, uh, we were supposed to talk about

this last week, but, uh, Steam published a bunch of new policies.

First and foremost

was the whole early access thing, in which games that haven't been updated in

a while They get a little notification in the early access box that says it hasn't

been updated in like so so amount of time.

Like for example here, we have a game here called Cavern

Kings.

hmm.

And

Eight years

8 years ago.

yes, that's correct.

So,

they need to probably put it in red.

If it's past a certain point, they need to put it in red and

be like, this is abandoned or it's done and they just didn't,

they're, they're just didn't want to

while Valve doesn't want to deter people from sales if they're super

determined, like, you know, they still get a little bit of that pie.

They should because it doesn't look good on them.

They should deter a sales if it's a mixed review kind of thing like on that game.

But it looks like the system isn't perfect

either, because there's another

game on here called Heartbound, and it says it's, uh, they haven't

had an update in 13 months, but they just released a patch, like,

earlier this month, February the 1st.

Mm. And they had one in, on January 19th as well.

So, I think the system might be a little flawed.

For now.

I'm sure Valve will

Oh, wait,

Wait, what?

What?

The, the, the, the one on January, in January was just a video, uh, talking

about the, uh, the future of the game.

Sorry, it wasn't an actual

I see.

It's a, it's a, I wonder if it's like based on like major or

like, I'm curious how they do.

I really want to know how they're doing this API and how they're hooking into it

because I'm looking at, uh, some reviews and this guy, this guy's like, there's

really not much been that's, that's been completed on this game since 2020.

Uh, so maybe they patched like a couple of things and worked on just

a little bit, but for an early access game, it doesn't sound like it's

coming along like it's supposed to.

mm

I guess that's

Yeah.

I've had people ask me like, why I haven't done early access for, uh.

For Chessmas and it's like I don't want to get in this situation, you

know, like I don't want to be here and disappoint people Who've given me money

Chess mess would actually work decently because then you'd get more

feedback on tweaking And if you put I don't know how you feel about putting

telemetry in it, but like it can help with Optimizing algorithms and

stuff like that Telemetry that is so

Yeah,

so,

I mean, I don't know.

I just I I don't I don't like trust early access I just don't like the idea.

It doesn't sit well with me

I,

hurt you

yeah, it makes sense.

I understand.

Yeah.

'cause a lot of games are just perpetual betas and you don't want

that reputation.

So speaking of chess mess, are you putting on an early, are you

putting on an next best demo?

I hate to put you on the spot gardener.

I Haven't had time to figure that out.

So probably not

Damn.

Well

the next

when, when is, I don't even know when the next one

uh, so this upcoming one is in two weeks.

It starts on the 24th.

So,

maybe,

I haven't had a chance in the last, like, two months to do much

with Chessmess, unfortunately.

that's fair

that's another reason that I don't want to do Early Access.

The next, uh, next fest after that is in June, so,

I will, now, that, so there's that too.

But anyways, there's also one other policy Valve implemented, or I guess

they implemented years ago, but they finally made a new page for ads on Steam.

Mm.

So, how do you feel about advertising?

I hate ads.

Me too.

well, okay.

I mean, here's the thing with ads.

If the service is free and you get ads, then.

Sorry to say, you're, like, YouTube, for example, people try to skirt YouTube ads,

it's, I don't think it's very ethical.

If you don't like it, or if they do it too much, then just don't consume YouTube and

try to find creators that are like Gardner that release it on other platforms.

Um, do that.

What I hate?

people that do that, but you, you're, you're essentially, because it costs

money, like YouTube is expensive to run and Gardner, you could detest this.

Uh, you know, your system's not specialized, like where

YouTube is probably super optimized and always optimizing.

It costs a lot of money to run a video hosting website, essentially.

uh, YouTube makes however many, uh, different versions of a single video,

like most of my videos when I, when I render them are around two and a half

to four gigabytes, somewhere in there.

And then I upload that and that bandwidth costs money.

And then they.

Take that and they crunch it down into 240p, 360p, and all these other

resolutions that then you can stream from.

That's compute time, and that costs a ton of money.

And, uh, and from, like, for my videos, uh, if I upload the full

4K video to my, to my, uh, PeerTube instance, then it takes over a day

for my compute to actually Crunch that down into a PeerTube video.

So, I have to like, render out my videos separately as at 1080p for, for my,

uh, subscribe to me PeerTube instance.

And then that still takes several hours to come, to, to re render.

So, and then, and then just hosting it indefinitely and the bandwidth that goes

out the door is a huge expense as well.

I mean, I remember reading somewhere, and I don't know if this is true,

but I remember reading somewhere that, um, YouTube PeerTube.

Is one of the most, uh, like, energy intensive websites in the world.

Like, it takes more energy to run YouTube than most other websites combined.

Like, it's so incredibly expensive in terms of energy use.

don't doubt that.

So, I will say, yes, I said I hate advertising.

I understand advertising if used

for a service that you get for free, like

YouTube, naturally.

But, I also don't like it when, say, for example, Disney Plus

implements ads in their, in all their tiers, I should mention.

That's bullshit.

I paid money so I don't watch ads.

Now you're telling me I have to watch ads anyways?

Yep.

it's one thing

That's why I pay.

yeah.

That's why I pay for the YouTube premium.

Me too.

I don't want to watch the ads, so I'm going to pay for it.

Like, I treated, I watch a lot of YouTube.

So, and I want to support them.

I like, I like YouTube, whether or not Google has, I have issues

with Google, but, um, I'm going to, I'm going to support it.

I'm going to do that.

But these other companies are going just out of control with these

ads, with these ads, even for paid.

Like, I'm about ready to be done with my Prime

Like, they shouldn't, like, there shouldn't be a TA where you pay

for money and still get ads.

My opinion.

I mean, I

guess if It's

cheaper, I can kind of see it, but at the

same time, though,

makes

I don't want to, I want, I want a tier that has no ads and isn't

obscenely expensive, like fucking Netflix or some bullshit like that.

Netflix

is ungodly expensive.

and They only have, like, maybe Two shows that are

worth watching.

Um,

have stuff on and off that I like, but it's hard to justify every month,

and so I really sh I don't know.

I'm starting to go the route of, I'm gonna start buying, I think,

uh, just individual shows instead

Yeah.

I mean, to be honest, shows, there aren't too many shows that are really worth it

if you're not super into, like, if you're not into anime, because they do do, they

do, like, bring over quite a bit of anime.

I will say.

They do, but then just get a fu uh, not Funimation.

What's the, uh,

Like Crunchyroll?

get a Crunchyroll.

I think they're that's actually not that expensive.

well, what I'm saying is they have some animes that aren't

on Crunchyroll, unfortunately.

That are,

That are, like, they have, yeah, you buy those,

those, you can buy on like Apple TV or whatever, which,

But outside of anime, like, they have, like, two shows, like, they have, they

have Squid Game and Stranger Things.

yeah, which,

are, like, their two most prominent shows, and, like, and, like,

Stranger Things, I think, is about to end, I think, isn't it?

I think so.

Yeah.

And

Squid Game Season 3, I don't know if that's gonna be the end or not, per se.

They kind of like split season two and a half from what I understand, but I don't

know it's Anyways, so here are some supported.

So there valves guidelines for supported ads includes product placement like for

example death strandings monster ads where the guy the main character drinks

cans of monster I don't know about you, but I think Monster is kind of not good.

Not just not

good for you, but just not good, period.

Yeah.

Every energy drink is like that though, like, they all taste the

same and if you drink it enough you get an acquired taste to it.

Um,

Maybe that's what it is.

I'm not really

I don't, I don't know if I care so much if there's paid advertisement for

products in games, but do note that if you start doing, like these companies

start doing it, it will be a little off putting or could really throw you off.

Uh, depending on what type of game you're making, so,

so let's see what else.

Yeah, so let's see what else there is.

There's also cross promotions.

This includes things like bundles with other games.

Like, let's see what else, it includes other Steam products, products outside

of Steam, those are encouraged, yada yada yada, I don't know, paid

advertising outside of Steam, okay, there's no way they could ever ban that,

because like imagine if you couldn't advertise your game, and advertise

the fact that it's on Steam, like

that would be bullshit.

it?

No, it's supported.

It says paid

advertising outside of Steam.

Developers may want to run paid advertising to drive traffic

to your Steam product pages.

Okay, now here's what's not

Oh

Here's

Okay, I was looking at the wrong page.

Okay.

Hmm

utilize paid advertising as a business model in their game, such as requiring

players to watch or otherwise engage with advertising to play, or

getting gameplay behind advertising.

If your game's business model relies on these, You'll need to

remove this from shipping on Steam.

Other options you should, you could consider, including switching to a single

purchase paid app, you know, like a game.

Or making it free to play with optional microtransactions or DLCs.

And I mean, yeah, I can agree with that.

Developers should not use advertising in a way to provide value to players, such

as giving players a reward for watching or engaging with advertising in their games.

So, some games, not even gotcha games, like some like crappy free to play game.

Will make you watch ads and you'll get premium currency for

it.

Wasn't, wasn't FIFA like two years ago doing

Yeah.

so, okay, so, here's my thing.

So, sports players are okay with ads in their games because it's

more immersive and there's actually ads in sports, in sporting events,

but like, that's bullshit too.

Yeah.

Like, especially if

you're paying, I'm not, like, if you're paying, oh, sorry, go ahead.

Put, put a clause in for them because they're brainbroken.

Just let them have their ads.

Fuck them.

And then, and then everyone else doesn't need ads.

see developers should

What, what good is a rule if it doesn't also protect the brain broke?

I know, but like, at least they're doing that instead

a tax on the poor that's what it is.

Oh my gosh, the tax.

I mean, yeah, probably

should not charge other developers for access to steam features.

Wait, what?

You can do this?

What?

say that again.

So wait, what?

So

Here's the whole phrase.

Developers should not charge other developers for access to Steam features.

This includes sale pages, bundles, store pages, franchise pages, etc.

so

I've seen, I've gotten emails from companies that are trying

to like sell me Access to, like, getting my game in bundles and,

and getting them in sales on Steam.

So, I think that's proba like, it's like prom reselling Steam's promotional

stuff without Valve's permission.

yeah,

when you put

it like that, it makes more sense.

I was a little confused about

that clause, but shit, man.

well, steam features too.

Like that's.

There's some game engines that integrate with, uh, Steam and they

could be trying to sell maybe also

Oh,

unlocking features through that too.

does

make sense.

Yeah, you have two people that have access to Steam's development, like, suites.

So they know what's going on.

I don't know shit.

But hey, that's why

they're here.

Could be it.

But I think gardeners like right on though, like that is a becoming more

of a, a trend people are trying to,

Yeah, it,

it sucks that people try, like, actively try to scam you.

So,

does that, does, will that potentially kill Humble Bundle though?

I don't, I doubt

It's not directly on Steam, it's, it's, but they're still selling

Well, like, some of the stuff that I've seen is like, oh, Godot integrations

that will, like, you know, help you easily add whatever to your game, and

it's like, dude, literally those, it's so easy to do without an integration.

Yeah, but if someone like then don't buy them like do you integrate

it yourself if you want like I'm okay with like Plugins for engines

that will make it a little easier.

I'm okay with that kind of Unreal does that too?

But at the same time, I don't know Yeah

Steam, Godot Steam or whatever it's called, which is like an open source.

Integration that like, just makes it easy to access the Steam API.

Um, but like, there, there's people that use, that in, like, sell

products that are supposed to like, get you more sales on Steam and it's

like, they're scams first of all,

Yeah, I agree

to do that.

Yeah, I agree with that.

Yeah, it definitely need we need some protections around that so I

Yeah.

so the cap office topic, I mean, early access games, people really should,

people really shouldn't be buying games based on a promise of like feature sales.

They should be buying games not based on what it is now.

That's my genuine opinion, and I think that's why early access games are okay.

That's why I have less of an issue with them than most people might 'cause.

I understand that.

You know, a game may not be getting updates as intended.

Hm.

It's like how you, it's like how you wouldn't buy, what

was that one, the Rabbit R1?

People bought it on a promise for some bullshit, but you

really shouldn't have done

that.

Oh, yeah.

know, funny story, they, funny story, they contacted me, said they, said

that I would be getting a review unit.

And then I never got one,

Mm.

so.

Could be a good thing.

Yeah, probably a good thing too, I wouldn't have known what to

I think they got, they got roasted way too hard by going with big creators.

You're like, yeah, they got destroyed.

And the thing is, I like the idea of a personal AI.

We've talked about this, like, Gardner, I believe, um, about how I

want to train and name my pet AI in my house and have it do my chores.

Like,

Wash my dishes.

but Well, digital chores, starting out.

House.

And then I'll get a

Organize my emails,

Read my emails and tell me if there's anything important.

Pay my bills.

house automatically pay my bills, casa, mojo dojo,

No, I'm not gonna, it's not gonna be called house.

I'm gonna call it something like a, I don't know.

Ca Casa.

dojo casa house.

Oh my

Well, one of the, I think one of the, um, names that you can give Home

Assistant when, when you have like your, your AI assistant built in is

Nabucasa, which is like the company that makes, um, that makes Home Assistant.

So,

Oh, that's cool.

Yeah.

so, are you guys ready for a tale as old as time?

Yeah.

games?

makes people violent and do violent crimes.

Tell me you haven't heard that one

before.

And this is coming back and this is gonna be a new thing.

So, Just in time for GTA 6.

So, the one good thing that Take Two has done recently is said that violent

video games doesn't make people violent.

I mean, obviously it's to protect the sales of, like, their cash cow, but still.

Yeah, of course, they're going to have a huge interest in this.

So,

I think, if violent video games made us all violent, that we would all be

a new breed of super serial killers.

Yeah.

Uh, I mean, so here, they're going to start to, they're going

to try to fight the data on this.

The statistics, the statistics show that every year we're getting less violent,

less, like less crimes and stuff like that beyond shoplifting, which is,

that doesn't count, I don't think.

So.

I'm really curious to see how they're going to fight this, but I

can guarantee you in the next few years you're going to see rhetoric of

trying to ban certain types of games.

Oh, yeah.

Well,

coming back.

the cynical part of me is saying it, isn't it convenient that this argument.

Is rearing its head again, just as Take Two's about to

start marketing the next GTA.

Are you, oh, are you saying Oh, dude, wait.

This reminds me of, uh Do you guys remember Dante's Inferno?

On, like,

the Xbox 360?

How they made it, how they had, how they hired a bunch of guys

to be, like, fake protesters?

Is that what you're,

uh, is that.

what you're suggesting?

It's more than that.

It's more than that, because Grand Theft Auto Has always used highly controversial

stuff to market their games, right?

Like They always have.

Rockstar, that's like one of the things they're notorious for.

Even when they were DMA Design, they were always using, like, I mean, some of

the Lemmings advertisements were insane.

And so it's like, they have always kind of capitalized on controversy in order

to get their, like, sell their games.

And it's like, I don't know.

I, I don't know.

Am I cynical?

Or is it just kind of their MO at this point?

It

is

wouldn't be shocked,

Yes.

they are one of the most mainstream, uh, and very questionable

content, because you can do about anything, right, in a GTA title.

So I can get why this is, like, in the crosshairs.

And growing up, um In the homeschool community, I can guarantee like

there's a, there are groups that aren't paid to go after this in the,

in the nineties in two thousands.

It was big, but I agree.

Like it's starting to feel like a trend to where they, they saw that I helped them.

And so maybe they're playing off of it.

I just,

yeah.

we'll see.

Well,

a couple of years ago, it came out that like, the developers

behind Mortal Kombat were having to get psychological treatment.

Because their, their bosses were forcing them to look at like real gore and

oh shit.

And, and nobody complained back then, dude.

Like, there was nothing in the media about it.

Very little, right?

And now, and now GTA 6 is coming out and you can pee on a hooker.

And people are getting their panties in a twist.

I don't, I just, it just doesn't feel authentic to me,

Yeah, GTA is not even that violent when you look at some of the other violent

video games these days like, yeah, you can kill people, but like, have you seen more?

Have you seen a Mortal Kombat fatality in 2025?

So this might be a very hot take.

I actually think GTA all the, like, um, GTA 4, 5, 6, uh, should be rated, uh, 18

Adults only?

bit, because adults only and because it, I do think it glorifies crime.

I do too.

Yeah.

I don't think it's a very healthy game for, uh, kids to be playing, flat out.

I, I, I think a respectable adult's fine playing it, like, that's,

that's, mature's, mature's for 17, but I think it needs to be strapped

to even more, but at the same time, I'm fine with people playing this.

I just,

that'll, as much as I,

as much, as much as that makes sense, that'll never happen, because

that would kill console sales.

Like, like, they still, all the console makers still have the policy

where they can't, where you cannot put a rated AO game on their system.

Yeah, but if GTA does, it gets slapped with it, they will

change it for the consoles.

I think consoles will allow it at that point.

that is interesting.

Yeah, GTA is

I would agree with that.

Yeah,

The other, the flip side of that is that the ESRB is an industry,

uh, organization, and they're not interested in actually doing that.

So.

yeah, let's just slap it with

a hard M rating and call it a day.

This is the problem of self governance.

It doesn't work like

Right.

So,

is our piece of joke, but

violent video game, yeah, sorry, go

ahead.

no, I was just, I'd rather have it be available than to

have it be completely banned.

I'll just say that.

I just think, yeah.

so, video games.

I think, I'm sure, not a lot of people talk about it anymore.

Because, like, it's been proven time and time again that violent video games

Aren't making like these super serial killers, but it shows up again because,

you know, some people are impressionable.

Some people do copy things.

I'm sure there's at least one case inspired by GTA.

Yeah.

Well, I mean, like, like I said, and James said this, uh, like, it.

It does glorify violence, and it does, uh, crime especially, but at the same time,

it's like, what in our culture doesn't, you know, like, I'm not amenable to the

argument that, um, we'd all be super serial killers because we're all playing

violent games, but there are certainly people who are influenced by, uh, the

violence that they act out in GTA or the violence that they watch on TV or in

movies, like, so for me, it's like, How can we, I don't want to say moralize, but

like, how can we, like, help games, like, improve our situation in, as a culture?

Like, that's where my head's at with

Well, I think the problem is that a lot of people, especially

younger people, are having a harder time these days differentiating

between reality and fiction.

like, I've seen, I've seen some of the shit that goes on.

People like, you ever heard of Kinning?

No.

No.

where like they adopt like a character as their kin and they like act as them like

their mannerisms and shit It's kind of like role playing but like a lot shittier.

mean,

My whole body just physically cringed when

yeah, that's pretty bad, but I, I think things are just a

little bit more normalized.

I think that was happening a while ago,

Yeah, that's

neurodivergent autistic people are potentially going to do stuff like that.

Not saying that's all, you know, you know what I'm saying?

Like it is fine, but I think mental health needs to be the, the crux of all this.

Like they go after violent video games, everything, just make sure you

have a healthy society and that's.

I

also they said about rock and roll

Yeah.

and suck sex and

Rock and Roll was a PsyOps campaign.

Rock and Roll was a PsyOps campaign.

Yeah.

It was made to

it was made to make rock and roll sell better

Yeah, no, I don't know, I'm just joking.

No, it, it, it's, that's a conspiracy theory.