Stray Gods / More Baldur's Gate 3 - Noclip Podcast #140

foreign [Music] [Music] hey what's going on everybody Welcome to the noclip podcast my name is Jesse garasha I'm not Irish but I am hosting this week for Daniel Dwyer who's on vacation hope he's having a good time kicking his feet up and taking a break but I'm not alone I'm joined by Frank Howley hello hi Jesse Jesse we are always so excited to have you back give the best radio voice you're fantastic you're incredible you're the editor you're the the you're the best so I'm excited to have Jesse we love you how have you been how are you oh you know I'm doing um I'm doing well it's been a while since I've been on here had a couple weird like medical things going on but it's all chill we're living the doc gave me the okay I'm healthy as a something that's healthy uh and they you know gave me the all good a big thumbs up I'm happy to be here I did miss you guys it's been uh it's been a little bit but you know I'm just so busy I'm busy doing so many things and schedules don't line up you're on the west coast so it's like three hours behind and oh yeah whatever it's all good it's all good I love getting to come on here when I do uh but you know we still have we still got Jeremy Jane with us by the way Jeremy hello hey it's a three Jesse it's a pleasure to see you man uh also I just watched I just washed my face and astute viewers May notice that my mustache is dripping sink water uh which is very it's a very professional thing to do when you show up on cameras to be dripping from the mustache I would say yeah that uh dripping anywhere I feel like on camera is usually not particularly slightly it's a power move to just be like sweaty or just all wet and just like I mean it would have been better if I left it mysterious because people would have been like why is he like profusely sweating is it really hot I guess it could be for you guys is it really hot still it is pretty hot but it has nothing to do with my lack of profession sure yeah it's like a spider ham in the into the spider-verse my hands are wet uh you know just wash them no other reason like why is your face wet who who's to say uh by the way this is episode 140 of the of the noclip podcast I don't have a fun word that rhymes with 140 I feel like uh Danny always opens with a fun rhyme what do we got Jordy feeling Jordy yeah feeling what sorry feel Authority I'm feeling naughty in the Matilda musical they there's like a whole song that's like well it's a bit naughty naughty just what we like yeah yeah there you go so they say Nordy British accents for the rest of the podcast that'll be good uh before we get into talking about games by the way there's so many there's so many games I have not played that many but there are so many that exist uh if you'd like to support this 100 AD free podcast fund our documentaries and get access to a bunch of bonuses including videos bonus podcast episodes and Discord access you can do so at patreon.com noclip you can also join our battle pass holders the battle passers uh Battle Royale games Arno Richard Matheson James Brown Jason Drury Mark Rojas Ryan Cobb Cody Krieger Tucker Morgan Crimson cyclist Sven huster Carson Tim Robinson Forest Pruitt this is a long list now by the way thank you so much everyone goodness gracious uh Andy Fegan Darren Birmingham sorry new name I'm getting used to these ones uh Eric Hamilton Schneider Cameron lad uh Alex sharp Alex gouche George zakotas Jacob godserve silventro is that supposed to be like cilantro yeah yeah that's like Roman cilantro yeah Roman cilantro I wonder what that tastes like gameby uh James Andrew Adams toe here tilliev and ricin ricin every time that comes up I just think of uh of Breaking Bad Breaking Bad yeah me too what's what's rice and support I just think of wall being like I had I don't even remember what the line is but like kind of an air saw it's like I had to do with Jesse oh I don't really remember what they talk about though no you're right yeah it's I think he poisoned a child or something to get yeah yeah like then they also put ricin in a cigarette and then somehow the kid I don't know something like that the kids smoke the cigarette I don't know he's like kids love cigarettes if I poisoned the cigarette that kid will die always going into his mom's purse stealing out one of them it's a very elaborate plan he had to set up to get this kid he's a teacher he knows that kids love to see this is true this is true yeah he was a high school teacher you think they'd have better benefits right yeah you would think so this is an American television show that's a good point yeah I guess if it was Canadian it would be two episodes it would just be Walt going to the doctor okay I'm sick and they'd be like oh no I'm so sorry come on in we'll we'll help you with that come on later bud come on oh buddy I like that show so much better let's make that let's make Canadian Breaking Bad yeah let's make a two episode series let's do it I feel like if you take the tragedy out of it like if okay so in response to the tragedy wall becomes this like violent maniac and that's kind of the Arc of the show that couches the tragedy in another rapper I feel like if you just have two episodes where he just goes to an oncologist that's just like breaking sad you know what I mean like without him being a villain it's just like a it's just a sad show but it's not going to the doctor that's good I like it as like a butterfly effect kind of thing where like he had to be yeah evil at some point this was his moment then he doesn't have cancer but now he's like now he's bald so he's gonna become evil anyway as everyone knows all ball people are evil it's just a fact it's it's like a Marvel uh Marvel what if you know where they do like alternate versions Samurai yeah yeah what if break what if Walt had good health care and also instead of like was it Los Pollos Hermanos Gus for England manager Tim Hortons oh yeah oh that's good Delete the podcast for making this delete this episode uh video games video games is what we usually talk about on here not normally um you know ethical ways to sell drugs or how to get away with uh Healthcare fraud but you know have we been playing many of them gentlemen we've been playing many video games Frank what have you been up to what have you been uh playing yeah I my favorite type of game announcements are like when they announce it and it's just out so quakecon happens and uh they dropped Quake too we actually like mentioned it last week because I think what had happened like weeks in advance is some ratings board somewhere leaked that there was a quake 2 happening I don't know when it dropped it was free on Game Pass so this is Quake two I guess remastered um but also with extra campaign an extra campaign by machine games there's Quake 2 N64 on it it's 10 bucks I think if you already have Quake 2 on your steam Library you automatically get this new version uh I got it on the Xbox uh the coolest biggest surprise with this Quake 2 remaster is you can co-op all of the campaigns on Xbox Live or actually cross play so you can play with your PC friends or Xbox friends so the last week I've been going through all the levels and getting achievements with my friends on Quake 2 Co-Op campaign and it is so fun and Goofy and um it reminds me of playing Halo co-op because like when you die typically like in Doom or Quake you either restart the level or low to save with Quake 2 as long as one of your other friends are alive you just respawn next to them so we were just going through all of these levels running around hop hop upping everywhere blasting rockets and grenade launchers and stuff like that and like it's so fun and I'd never touch Quake too um this was the first one made like without genre Romero so I never really cared about it but uh yeah this came out of nowhere and that's like kind of the only new or relevant game I guess it's not new whatever relevant games to share or talk about but yeah Quake two so far has been really fun never has to be new or relevant I feel like I love hearing when you're talking playing older games or you know episode episodes from Liberty City you were talking about last week that was a blast to listen to It's like yeah Gay Tony uh but but Quake Quake too okay is this um the RTX update like this instead of Ray tracing on Console or so that's a good question because I'm yeah I saw it was like Nvidia was it like 2019 or 2021 they put up this like RTX update uh but this is now a new newer version um I don't know yeah I know all the specifics I do know like you know they both like 120 frames you can do it if you have that a TV compatible with Xbox like I don't know but it's uh it's a lot a lot of stuff is in there there's also death match and multiplayer stuff but I don't know if there's RTX on Console I feel like I always like turn off Bloom and extra effects zero yeah but but it shouldn't have any trouble you know hitting Max uh performance issues on Console or PC um 120 FPS that's it that's all they're gonna do yeah get through 600 it's quick too yeah I haven't I haven't touched on PC and I bet it's better the one thing that sucks playing on Xbox is like I've tried doing the multiplayer Deathmatch stuff and like I you just get destroyed if you're playing against PC players obviously but like it's still it's still fun and Goofy like I don't know I love I just like I love that art style again like anytime you have like those chunky polygon like Graphics are very very fun to mess around in um so yeah quick Quake too I really I don't know if I have anything deeper to say than that oh the one thing I kind of mentioned it but like they include the N64 campaign in this which is its own separate thing they made like smaller versions of a lot of levels and you can beat it in like an hour and uh the one thing that surprised me playing Quake too is there's so many there's so much platforming in this game I know I know Quake won the introduced some verticality he could like Rocket Jump to get secrets and stuff but a lot of Quake too are like weirdly like it's almost like playing Mario or something we have to jump on platforms as they're moving there's like like elevator not puzzles you have to dodge lasers and stuff so like it's it's fun playing this it's also in multiplayers everyone has to like get through the gauntlet to go through it so um yeah it's it surprised me it's it's Goofy and pretty fun that's awesome yeah I want to play this I actually I've never played a quick game in my entire life but I have a deep appreciation for arena Shooters because they're obviously super influential on you know like if you play something like Apex Legends it obviously comes out of respawn that has some you know call it X Call of Duty people working on it and stuff like that so it has that side of the FPS genre in the equation but I've always felt like it really you know things like Apex with high mobility and uh like a high ttk um are are drawing on a FPS more because it's it's more about just like movement and kind of that balance between moving quick and zipping all over the place but also tracking your opponents and Landing like a bunch of shots you know like in a Call of Duty you pop around the corner and pull the trigger and kill like two people and then you go to go to work the next day you know what I mean like it's just there's I feel like it's this is kind of like very simple Loop and uh and things like Apex and even like Team Fortress too like I missed I kind of missed afps but I feel like I got it second hand through the things that influenced um but it's it's been I feel like it's been a tough road for afps because it feels like it it's like RTS where it's like a dated genre like people just think of it as kind of like out of Vogue uh there was a game called do you guys ever play diabolical by any chance okay so there was a game called diabolical um Indie uh Arena first person shooter uh I don't really know how to describe it you played like these big egg looking dudes like these big orbs and uh it was essentially just a you know kind of an indie contemporary afps and it was super fun um but uh I think the community tour I had a friend who was really into it and the community towards the end was so small that you'd hop into a server and you'd see like the same eight guys just hopping around in there uh it was just real sad you know what I mean it's funny but it's sad but uh yeah yeah it was it was kind of like going to the Dive Bar in your local town where it's like oh yeah he's over here how's the wife he's hitting the bottle hard tonight uh yeah so I don't know I I feel like it's cool to see afps getting a little bit of a little bit of recognition because I feel like it's it's an important genre that I you know that I kind of slept on until I saw its influence in other things so no definitely I mean I haven't uh I'm kind of in the same boat I haven't played any Quake games um but I do have a respect for the sort of yeah jumping around bouncing bunny hopping shooting it's exciting uh I mean Ultra Kill from oh yeah a couple years ago yeah access but but that sort of Boomer shooter that's more focused on the action and less on the sort of visual aesthetic I think it's just is so much fun Ultra kill especially if you haven't checked that out and you like Quake oh you're missing out shooting a coin and having it kill things is like the tiny little projectile limit it's great I love that mechanic it's so clever it's such a good way to like uh like I I dislike when games incorporate mini games and they feel like mini games like their Cipher or cordoned off from the rest of the game I love when games do like little like the active reloading Gears of War or shooting the coin in Ultra kill I love this little like seamless kind of like oh now I gotta like play the tiny little game uh to do better and you know what I mean but it feels like it's so seamlessly woven into the loop totally I love it yeah I don't know that game is designed within an inch of its life I love that phrase oh such a good you guys use it designed with an inch of his life yeah I just picture like John Romero beating the [ __ ] out of like a out of a level be better be better yeah exactly this corner could be tighter Quake two uh from night dive Studios actually it looks like uh handled the remastered remake this time around they're kind of on fire eh it's going on with my Canadian company they're kind of on fire eh uh what are they doing earlier system shaded systems the system uh remake yeah I feel like um it's it's very interesting that they've so successfully monetized a business model that is essentially kind of you know like preservation like they're almost like a commercial games Museum in some way but instead of having a physical location where you go see stuff they're just like taking old games and making them more available and kind of like rotating them back into the site because I mean people could have just like gone and played Quake 2 with less features and everything and it would have been you know old Quake too but it's cool to like recirculate that and I don't know I feel like that's good for uh for it's like throwing calm post on the game influence pile you know what I mean like it's getting it's mixing it up people are being like Oh Yeah remember remember Quake two and I don't know I I think it's good for games in general purely uh reasonable comparison but I feel like referring to anything as compost is like we're just putting [ __ ] on the pile here's some [ __ ] hey Mitch the [ __ ] is [ __ ] makes the world go around right yeah if you've ever enjoyed an ear of corn you're a [ __ ] lover all right and I count myself among them speaking of [ __ ] lovers Jeremy how's that how's Baldur's Gate three you having fun with that God I'm like a I'm like a pig in compost dude um Baldur's game three is is okay so have you guys ever seen this is gonna sound unrelated I promise it's related uh William freaking the director just passed away and so the clip was going around again of him talking to Nick winding refin the director of Drive have you guys ever seen the clip where Nick revin refers to drive as a masterpiece yeah and William friedkin is so in the in the clip Nick refin is referring to his own movies as masterpieces and William friedkin a much older more seasoned wiser and more grounded director turns around to the camera crew and he's like is there a medic on the way like can have you guys heard the ambulance outside because he's saying that like Nick refin is insane for referring to a movie that came out like four I think he was talking about neon demon and stuff too but he was talking about movies that came out like a few years ago that he made as masterpieces and friedkin makes the point that we we won't know about drive and for another however many decades he says or whatever like things like uh 2001 A Space Odyssey we can talk about whether or not it's a masterpiece because it's survived the test of time it's still event it's been hugely influential and so like I I feel like I've been trying to internalize that when I talk about games because I think it's easy to play a game that you really love and get caught up and be like oh this is like this this is the Game of the Year this is the best game ever this is the best game and uh and I think it's important to recognize that like there is like a recency bias when you play games um so I'm trying not to overstate Baldur's Gate three I'm trying to give it the the time and space it deserves all right Jeremy give us the butt here let's hear it that being said I think this is one of the best games ever [ __ ] made like oh my God this is like Baldur's Gate 3 is the only video game ever made uh it's just it's it's so unbelievable I have I don't know I I don't even know where to start with it have you guys played much Gate 3 before I go and say anything because I know last week you had no I'm I'm I'm I I'm waiting for the console release I should just play it now but it's like I'll I'll wait for the console release No Good call that makes sense what about you Jesse Yeah I mean I've played a little bit of it uh I'm playing at co-op with cash just because like if I played it alone it'd be all I do for the rest of my life probably from the sounds of it yeah so you know she only plays games for a couple hours every once in a while so it keeps me keeps me solid lets me play Final Fantasy 16 and then other games when they come out uh so it's the sort of background thing but yeah we've we've made it uh in my head like 10 of the way through act one from looking online I've made it point one percent of the way through act one uh yeah it's a really big I'm still act one and I have uh I have well I was gonna say over 20 hours but I uh my I do a lot of saves coming because I you know as much as it's fun to fail roles sometimes I do I do do feel like the one thing that disco Elysium does better than any other crpg is is making failure fun so like it's uh in Disco Elysium I did not do a lot of saves coming because I would fail a save roll and then something funny would happen I'd be like oh that's canonical because Harry is like a drunk fool and this is funny um whereas Baldur's game I really do I want things to go right so I am doing a lot of saves going so my play time is probably about five hours higher than the play time on my save file um which means I've spent about five hours like failing battles and saves coming to manipulate reality into the form I wanted to right um so yeah the act one is absolutely massive so no shame in that but uh but yeah I just wanted to talk about like the the thing that I think is interesting about Baldur's Gate 3. um besides all the things it does immaculately besides all the things that Divinity original sin do did it as well uh I I think that the thing that's interesting to me about bottle Skate 3 is that it's incredibly popular uh like it's as popular I mean I haven't looked at the sales figures but the general Zeitgeist I'm getting is that the sales figures are massive I don't know how it Stacks up to something like tears of the Kingdom but I feel like those are two of the best-selling games of the year I think that's fair to say and it's interesting to me because tears of the Kingdom feels very much like it's a Zelda game that's you know like breath of the wild taking lessons from a lot of AAA game design like big open worlds and like little hot spots and pois throughout it I feel like Baldur's Gate 3 and Divinity original sin 2 is kind of the antidote for that to me because I don't I don't particularly enjoy big open world games and that side of AAA design in fact I liked breath of the wild kind of in spite of it uh but I feel like they have so much open space and I feel like what happens is when you're in it and in those first few hours you have like the novelty of like oh I'm gonna there's balloons and I can make them fly and there's like gliders and stuff and I I feel like that allows me to to suspend my disbelief and it allows me to immerse myself in this world and be like Oh I'm like I mean Hyrule I'm like walking by a Riverside I'm wandering in the forest but I feel like when the novelty of those things wears off and I'm doing my 28th Shrine puzzle and I'm finding another encampment and I'm starting to find the same weapons I do feel like the big open worlds start to feel like they are just empty space I think when you're in the wash of novelty initially you're like this is an empty space this is the world and then I think when that Fades away it feels big and empty to me and that happens to me with almost every big open world game and I think Baldur's Gate 3 is interesting because it is not trying to create a like a a simulated World in some sense in in terms of like spatially and the the design level design and like the layout of things everything is very close together and the environments are incredibly dense and so if you look at it like in the abstract it's almost like a like a board game or like I'm what I imagine d d plays like just like a room full of very dense encounters and a lot of depth to it and I think it's interesting because it's like the the density of environments makes it feel like I'm there's no wasted space it feels like when there is empty space in Baldur's Gate it's incredibly rare and it's usually just a little buffer between two incredibly deep zones with like narrative depth combat depth whatever you want experiential depth um and so I don't know I just feel like Baldur's Gate 3 is like it's it's the it's the it's it's the villain to everything I don't like about AAA game designs Spider-Man hero like do you know what I'm saying like yeah it's like small and dense and weird and like it's a clearly simulated World it doesn't feel like real places but it's so much more experientially interesting for me to inhabit I mean despite the yeah I completely agree with what you're saying like despite the fact that Baldur's Gate 3 is obviously crafted by a bunch of very talented people and there's only a certain amount of things that they can do they've done this sort of like mental playground almost it's you know I think it's easy to compare it to a dungeon master for Dungeons and Dragons like they are already considering a handful of really interesting things and then either through play testing or I'm sure being in Early Access allowed them to really refine this sort of thing um they're able to go oh this dumb little thing someone wants to do or like this oh there's a hole like what could the hole be they made a character that happens to be able to go in the hole like what's in the hole they go in and it's just like a chest with a painting and you're like what's that for it's nothing but like you know they have so many scenarios set up that make the world feel like it's more full than it actually is even if it's something small even if it's something dumb that doesn't matter you know and they push you back on the path at least from where I'm at again very early on um but they're really good at like giving you a couple of strands of things that you could go and follow and along the way the world opens itself up in this way that just feels so organic and so like intentional but also like you're the only person that's ever tried to do that thing um I think that's part of what uh part of what I like about this game and why I think Cassie kind of got into it because she doesn't really like my fiance doesn't really like um crpgs RPGs in general things where you're making a lot of choices she hates DND I used to play it like for two years straight my buddy's Uh custom campaign and it was you know it was fun I enjoyed it um but every time she heard me playing it she was like this is so dumb what are you doing and now she's like we gotta go follow the Druid we gotta I know I kind of know what's going on or like how do I get in that kids camp what's going on there how do I talk to them um so it's it I think and this is what I think uh it really nails for um people who haven't played D who want to kind of get into that role-playing element of it as well to speak on that um is like d and d and Frank you probably know this from when you were doing big dogs uh this like wait especially if you're playing 5e you're rolling the dice a lot your rolling the dice way too much and in real life I don't know whenever I was in combat I hated doing that Frank did you like whenever you were in combat are you just roll in the day you're like can we just get yeah I feel like the dice part like the thing I liked about d d was The Improv and like the the riffing and also just joking with the friends when it came to actually like having to do the game mechanics I was like oh I like I mean that's why like a lot of games all Mash X just next thing don't care get let me get to the fun it's like that's how I felt I get the science behind and I like you know like the chance and random element and things can go you know in other directions but it's like oh that's where things kind of get boring for me or I turn off a little bit yeah exactly yeah and I feel like that's what this game kind of solves because like there's still a lot of role-playing and a lot of like because I made a Bard because I'm always playing a Bard because I love being annoying and you get to do like tons of persuasion and like deception and stuff and there's lots of opportunities to interact with characters and like if you get to speak with animals trust me you're gonna run into some cows pretty early on talk to the cows uh but like there's so many little things and interactions you can do and then the combat and this is what I think they really solve is uh you guys talked about this last uh last week with the dice rolling and the sort of juice that they inject into the game to give you this element of like enjoyment of watching The Dice rolls um there's so many opportunities where they could have just not done that sort of thing but they could have just not added the Jews where they could have just let the dice roll and showed you the number or whatever but like that element of it I feel like the fact that watching it roll is so fun is what makes it so enjoyable and I think for RPGs and games um there's a lot of scenarios where I feel like um you lose especially in Fallout games and newer Fallout games uh you don't get the opportunity to pick a dialogue option because you don't have a certain trait you don't have enough perception or whatever right the thing that I liked about Dungeons and Dragons and I think the thing that works here and the thing that worked in Divinity I've only played the first original sin but the thing that works in those games is you can pick something that your character is not necessarily proficient at but still have the chance for it to work so there's that that chance and that role that you get to do whether it's literal or it's behind the scenes or whatever where you have the chance for something to happen that normally wouldn't you don't have to like be good at it to give it a shot you can just try it and like that's so much fun like that there's there's joy in that you know yeah it also shows you um it's it's interesting because I've never done a full replay of divinity original sin 2 which I feel like is a fair comparison because they're very similar like systems wise uh but but going into those roles and being like Oh if I had a character who was like a stronger DEX Build this would be a moment where they would really shine I feel like it shows you um it makes your play Feel Your playthrough feel like special because you're seeing other people's parallel playthroughs like simulated in your brain as you're seeing these alternate strands or like if you don't have a character who can talk to animals and there's a situation where you're like oh if only I could like talk to that Ox I bet I could figure this out or something um yeah I don't know it just by seeing all of the other possibilities around you it makes you feel like you're in your own lane uh and even if you never replay the game it still feels like you're having this special kind of like tailored playthrough that's unique to you is that the key to making a good choice-based narrative game or like RPG or anything like that is the key to having other like obvious things that you couldn't do because of your character like is that what makes it feel big that's a good question I I'm inclined to say yes because I I think that like I think having okay you know you know in like old games like a N64 era there'd be a secret that no or actually let me use a more contemporary example I feel like signalus without spoiling anything but signals because you should play signalus if you haven't played it um there are secrets and signals that you would never figure out on your own and it took the entire signalus Community to put them together yeah and I feel like even though I didn't solve it knowing that that exists in the game makes it feel more makes my playthrough feel more special because I'm like interacting with a game that has such rarified experiences within it that uh that I don't know the like missable content is such an important part of having like a special playthrough even if your playthrough is the one that misses all of it I feel like it's it's um it's kind of like what I uh I've talked about this before but in Star Wars Galaxies the a game that was kind of like a flawed Masterpiece uh they had a Jedi system where players could become player character Jedis but it was so incredibly rare that no one figured out I think Sony gave Ralph Coster the lead designer and ultimatum at some point where they're like listen Ralph we need like we need a Jedi by Christmas dude like there's no Jedis in this game about Star Wars um and the reason is is because the goals were under the hood and they were obfuscated by the systems so a character would be pooled into different like seeds of how they became a Jedi but the game would not tell you what those were and they were things like you know go to the highest point on three different planets visit like every planet things like that and I think that uh when I when I played Star Wars Galaxies the fact that I could be a Jedi but probably never would felt more special than if I was a Jedi for some reason so yeah I don't know I think I think like rarefied experiences existing in the world give you the feeling that uh that you're not being catered to or pandered to like the game was designed to be cool and interesting and have special experiences and you may not be the person who experiences those things those rarefied Little Gems but just knowing they exist I feel like makes the whole experience more special that's a really good way of putting it yeah like you're not being handed an experience feels like you are the one sort of deciding what happens to you what happens around you yeah yeah it's a special game they have to be miscible they have to be miscible or like or or your experiences it it actually makes even if your experiences are more commonplace like they're I'm sure there are a million things in Baldur's Gate 3 that everyone experiences because they're necessary parts of just the core storyline um although I'm not I'm pretty early so I don't know how much it diverges but I think that's fair to say at least for act one and even though it's like more common events I think are more like rarified big branches that are created right like The Telltale Games the sort of post Walking Dead titles they all found this thing they could do where they sort of funnel you back into the same end point but because each smaller choice is different enough it still felt special like who knows really what happens if you picked between these two characters do things really changed like not on a fundamental level but you feel your impact on the story you feel like there's a branch that you have cut off as a player and that feels really special like you know I don't think consciously anyone's thinking oh I've just decided that this entire route of the game isn't going to happen but when you see that sort of pop-up of like you know whoever like Ellie will remember this or whatever um you you get excited you get like oh this is an important thing I have dictated on this game and I feel like Baldur's Gate does that same sort of thing where like you decide very early on uh in some cases which characters you want to kill who you want to bring along with you um maybe you make a mistake and pick the wrong name and end up killing an important main character uh and that sort of stuff feel it makes yeah we just keep saying that but it makes your playthrough feel like it's your own it makes it feel special in a way that so few games have and there's a reason this is getting 90s across the board and the hundreds across the board because I'm very glad to see it because crpg as this genre is like is definitely I mean you know Danny has been getting into it which has been nice to see someone like immersing themself in it for the first time but it really is just I don't know man I those those are the games that I played as a kid that that really like showed me how much potential games have as as a storytelling medium that's like an immersive experience in the way that like when you see a really good piece of Cinema and it touches you and you're like holy [ __ ] like geez you like walk out of the movie theater you have to like put your life back together um yeah the the other the other thing I wrote down is that uh I feel like also I'm not trying to [ __ ] on tears of the Kingdom I think it's a good game you're that Nintendo it is a game [ __ ] hate you here I've I was so excited for tears of the kingdom and I just like I just haven't been able to finish it I just don't really like it that much damn I feel really sad I feel really sad about that five out of 10. dude I'll have to we'll have to talk about it more in depth sometime but it actually it's actually changed my mind a little bit about breath of the wild whoa cause I've always been a breath of the wild I've been a breath of wild Defender for years like even the people who are talking about weapon degradation you're happy you're winning uh moment right now you're having you're like I know it wasn't America last time I know yeah dude I I hear him out there because I'm [ __ ] I'm code red over here I like yeah I don't know I I it made me think okay here's here's my here's my little take on it I guess uh and again if you're like tears of the Kingdom I you have succeeded where I have failed because I want to enjoy it but I feel like tears of the kingdom is a huge toy box and it gives you a million different toys and at first I'm like Oh my God look at all my toys and then as time goes on the the possibility space the amount of things that you can do with those toys kind of kind of funnels down into a more narrow possibility space it's like a lot of tools a lot of them can do or is it worth doing because like I mean I guess that's because it broadens really why you have so many things you can attach to your shield and your arrows and different Contraptions you can make like a meaningful exactly the meaningful outcome of those things yeah that's a good distinction actually is it's not it's not the things that the toy box lets you do whatever but is there meaningful outcome to those things Beyond just like making a a YouTube short where you're like oh there's a spider on my microphone whoa that's is that in the game I failed my safe check there was a spider all you see is failed perception in the corner like over and over I guess uh video listeners will get to enjoy that almost crawling inside of my skull um sorry that really threw me uh uh but I the the thing that I guess you're that is a good distinction because it's like yeah you could make a YouTube video where you're like I can't believe they let me make like a rocket powered jet car and Zelda and that's like okay well what are you gonna do with that rocket power jet car you're gonna shoot around empty World Rock Guys across a ravine like that's all you're doing with that yeah yeah it feels like a huge set of tools with a very narrow possibility space whereas Baldur's Gate 3 feels like a very like a more limited set of tools with an incredibly broad possibility space and I think that's that's what I was trying to get out with the world design thing earlier is it doesn't need to be a big giant world because the way our brains model like video games the way our brains like experience them isn't as like we don't map them as physical spaces you don't map the world of Hyrule as a physical space with topology and depth and height you map it as an experiential space like when you tell someone about your experience going from A to B in a big open video game you're not like and then I went up and then I went down and then you know you're like all right then I went like 2.7 kilometers you're like I saw a goblin camp and I fought the goblins and then I was wounded so I needed to go over here and find Band-Aids and yeah like that the things that are are mapping of video games is is experiential and so I feel like even though Baldur's Gate 3 if you put it side by side with a big AAA open world game it would look like a little toy world the way it feels to to me is much more what I think a video game should feel like an incredibly broad possibility space with meaningful depth meaningful like writing and the last thing I'll say about it is the characters in Ballers Gate 3 like I actually care about them like I care about my mean uh girlfriend uh lizelle uh oh sorry Rest in Peace by the way my apologies I took her out you killed laser okay well I'm hanging up the call okay you have girlfriends in Boulders gate three and there's there's like full you can Frank there's there are like five different types of penis in the character oh that's what I heard yeah okay yeah it's wild you can rock penis D if you want and do do your thing um but I though the last thing I'll say is that I I as a Zelda lover I feel like in the old games when I play things like Majora's Mask and Ocarina of Time the light touch storytelling the little bits of character that you would get were you know you would talk to Zelda for like four lines of dialogue and she'd be like I am the princess Lincoln you need to save me and that was enough and then the music swells and I'm like crying and I'm like in love for the first time because I'm nine years old and now you know I feel like fruits and now you know like where she went on vacation when she was 14 like okay sure yeah I and I just feel like I don't know I feel like the Zelda mode of Storytelling needs updating because I feel like as I was playing tears of the Kingdom as that initial wave of novelty wears off and my brain starts to go oh is this just a big empty world with like six different types of thing I can do scattered around in it that's the moment where something like having a really strong narrative thrust uh it can maintain my immersion for the long run because novelty will not last forever there is no game more than you know like double digit hours play time where novelty will carry me the entire way through novelty eventually wears off once I get used to the things and when novelty wears off I need something of substance and I think the narrative depth the quality of writing the quality of like character design in Baldur's Gate 3. I think those are things that will carry me through for like whatever 140 hours that it takes me to play it because I'm I'm invested in these people now they're people uh we talked about last time how you know these are characters who have multiplicity they're like the funny guy but then you get back to camp and he's like seriously worried about something um and I feel like in Zelda the most narrative that I get is like you gotta help the bird Village because they don't have enough wind and then it's like okay I got the wind back and they're like we love you link you've like helped the birds and I'm like okay I just here's an orb who care about any of these people thanks I guess yeah here's your orb okay I'm out of here this is I don't know whatever I want to like cheers the kingdom I'm gonna keep trying to beat it eventually but uh yeah it's hard not to compare the two because those are two kind of like my big games this year no fair yeah that's a bummer but I mean I'm hearing the sentiment more and more I mean when breath of the wild came out it feels like it kind of scorched the Earth of game discourse and I know this has been a crazy year for video games I think I've heard anyone talk about the tears of the Kingdom since like it came out like outside of funny gifts of like you're saying and like cute clips of I made a music machine I don't think I've seen anything on that game and no it's not very affable where's the video I dude I've I've I actually was thinking the other day should I launch my own video essay channel so I don't Scorch the Earth at uh at no clip and do a video essay about like but I just don't want to do like video essays about like why why game is bad because that's like no one wants to hear me [ __ ] on the thing they like but I do think I don't know I do think in uh in like film criticism some of the most important voices were descending voices who like pushed back against big budget films and what they meant for the industry and for the medium and stuff and uh yeah I think that's harder to do in games the people I see in games who push back harder against beloved things like the last of us too and stuff um usually get a lot of harassment and so it's like I don't know it's a it's a real cross to bear if you want to be the guy who is like maybe maybe this thing you like is like maybe not the best goes one of two ways right you're either the the guy who's like I hate this and also minorities for some for some reason it's like why does that always happen why is that always the way it goes or yeah you're the person who dislikes things and all your comments are like oh are you a minority like what's up with Gamers and minorities anyway true true it's weird stuff going on man I've been on YouTube for a while uh I get a lot of comments anyway uh video games folder Baldur's Gate three Masterpiece apparently uh gonna survive for the next 50 years you heard it here first Jeremy Jane said it uh and I'll commit to that and I'll put money on that uh other video games other stuff going on uh stray gods that came out I talked about this a couple of months ago now whenever I was on last actually I feel like I talked about I played the demo of it it's a new game from summer fall Studios is the name uh it's a studio comes from uh somebody who worked on Dragon Age a big Dragon Age head they worked on uh what was the last game they did Anthem and worked on a bunch of stuff at ea uh it sort of splintered off did you say a big Dragon Age Chad I I didn't but I should have that's way funnier that's what I thought I thought you said a big Dragon Age Chad I was like wow that's such a good credential for a Game Dev sorry put that on my resume no that's good that's good I'm gonna start referring to myself as a chat if I think I'm good at something yeah you should um but yeah stray Gods is a uh a game for me it is a game exclusively for me if you haven't heard of this you're not missing out it is for a very specific set of people so if you're really into musicals uh like I am and it really is a stretch maybe I like like you know the odd musical I used to really be into when I was a kid I was in them all the time uh in high school and in elementary school elementary school specifically I played played Black uh what's his name Prince Charming it was great in a hip-hop version of of that uh what's what's Prince Charming from the Snow White I don't know I was gonna ask you I can't remember I was just so incredible that sounds right yeah um but uh yeah stray Gods is is a game about musical RPG stuff so if you like uh I think the best way to describe it is it's like a Telltale Game if um instead of adventuring and like walking through areas and trying to find puzzle pieces you are just having conversations um you're it's it looks like a comic book um there's a bunch of individual figures that appear on the screen that are drawn in this really nice art style and they sort of fade between them so there's no like 3D rotation although there are environments that the characters are placed inside of but story wise you are playing as this uh woman Grace who is looking into the death of a God uh very early on it's established that Calliope comes to uh her band meeting I guess her and her friends run a band and they're trying to find more musicians to be a part of it Calliope and her do a duet and the whole game the whole game's not just a musical uh there are tons of scenes where characters are talking uh but for the most part what they're doing is they're they're sort of hashing out this murder mystery that takes place between the Greek pantheon of gods there's a ton of really high quality voice actors and singers um Troy Baker is one of them I gotta get the whole list because I can't remember there's so many names I believe Ashley Johnston's in it um oh music actually written by like legit musicians that's interesting to say uh yeah I was curious I was gonna ask you who did the music for it if it's someone that I might know the name of it's not like big name bands or anything but it's like people who do musicals let me look here yeah Scott Edgar Stephen Gates Simon Hall Austin Winters uh part of it as well so there you go there's one oh cool yep all right that's one I know that's all you need uh but yeah the voice cast Troy Baker Laura Bailey um Felicia Day Raul Coley Yeah Yeah Ashley Johnson yeah plays Calliope at the start which is really cool um you can tell right away which is good or bad up to you uh but it was a it's a really fantastic um story to play through so far I'm not super super far I'm about at the end of the first day which isn't too long uh but it it's there's something about it if you like that sort of style of game Telltale Style game I think you will get a lot out of this uh if you don't like musicals do not play this for the love of God do not play this I feel like and I was talking to my buddies about this um specifically musicals uh but theater in general I feel like you need a show to like sell you on that genre of of media um because musicals they'll never make sense to you because like why are they singing right that's the thing I hear every time is like why are they singing and that's a completely reasonable position to have this is not going to sway you if you didn't like Hamilton this is not going to be like the thing that makes you like musicals but if you do like musicals you get to press buttons sometimes and that's nice uh the big mechanic by the way for interacting with the songs is you're kind of picking the lyrics as things go along so there will be a character who's like emo and trying to like sort out their emotions like oh my God I'm so sad my girlfriend's dead and you have to like help him come to terms with that and you're trying to get his Assistance or are you and you can like tell him to you know hit the road so there's lots of moments where you can based on your personality and your play style and and the ways you want to react to these characters decide things and the things that you say to them and the personality traits that you pick determine what um narrative choices you have like you were saying with Baldur's Gate right the less things you can interact with and the more opportunities you see that you've missed out on the more you want to go back like now I want to go back and like what if I said this instead like could I say this to this person and like how does that unravel the sort of murder mystery that's taking place um so I'm really liking it so far it's on PS4 it's 40 Canadian dollars I don't know how much that is in American like 10 bucks um it's not it's like 30 or something but it's definitely worth your time if you like that style of game and uh you like musicals yeah you guys like musicals at all musical fans I do I don't I don't like watch everything but every like yeah I loved Hamilton Hamilton made me cry I was blown away by it like even even Barbie's a musical like I I like I like when films are campy and like the tone is everything and if it's like legit or not um like I don't care about Glee or Hamilton no no I'm trying to think of uh High School Musical like I don't know but if it's if it wins me over then then I'm all in so yeah I don't I don't chase every musical but if it's if it's good and Earnest and and you know tight then I like it my question like right you were saying like so it's like yeah there's dialogue you can choose like a Telltale Game so it's like will they sing your answers like as you as you whether you pick line a line b or line C doesn't matter if it Rhymes yeah so it's uh I really like the songs and it uh but it has that musical thing where like sometimes they're just singing a sentence and it doesn't necessarily rhyme all the time which is okay uh but yeah so you you will pick a line usually in response to another character and it will you don't pick the whole line but you'll pick like the idea for the line uh like do you want to be sassy pick the obvious Sassy one sometimes they're color-coded um like red is is you're a badass I think is what they call it your badass uh greens Charisma and like blue is curious so you pick one of those and that sort of this uh decides the tone that your response has uh I haven't played through all of the scenarios yet obviously but I think it's pretty clear like you can make serious narrative choices like very early on you get to decide if a pretty cool character comes with you or not um I think it's uh his name's pan which is cool from a Greek sort of Mythology um horns very it's like a tiefling I got excited uh and uh you get to decide if they want them you know you want this guy to come along with you or not you want to stick with your buddy you want to just do whatever you want to go solo and you can choose those while the song's going on so and they do this cool thing where like um it separates the scene so you'll be in an apartment which is like in 3D and like has 3D elements and like 2D elements it's very they do it well it looks good um but then it'll cut to Black and there will be like you're in this set or like a tree and there's like a little Pond underneath it and it's Rippling it looks beautiful it's very Hades looking by the way which feels unfair because it's it's Greek stuff but it does it kind of can't escape the immediate visual comparison uh but it's it's a blast I think if you yeah I'll keep saying if you like musicals there's really no reason to not play this it's it's a blast I I'm gonna give this a shot I this is my feeling on musicals and I feel like it's quite it's it's a it's a paradoxical feeling I I love music and I love theater and I am not opposed to musical theater but I'm not a huge fan of uh of like campiness as a tone right I I and and I feel like saying you don't like camp but you like musicals is saying you you know you like Indian food but you hate spicy food or something right like it's like the primary you're like I love Indian food I can't stand that Curry stuff like I it's kind of one of the primary ingredients in musical theater so uh yeah I don't know is there like a what's a is there like a real sincere piece of musical theater that isn't like John waters-esque I like John Waters too but just like I don't know you gotta buy the camp yeah I think you're 100 right I even like I was gonna say like West Side West Side Story is like from the 50s and that movie blew me away like I really like that movie like it's really you know even the Spielberg one yeah I heard that's good too yeah but yeah all right I'm gonna check that out yeah yeah the Sharks and the Jets hey who are you talking to yeah yeah what's going on Jeremy all right what do you want okay that sounds cool all right musical theater yeah seriously yeah these West Side Story is dope like there's yes oh oh I like grease is pretty good grease is pretty good I uh I when I was in high school um I had a I had a girlfriend that went to a different School except it was actually true she did go to a different School sure but she was really into musical theater and so I would go to their performances and this is a true story man she's real and her name is um so they did a uh they did a performance like they did like a bunch of they would choose their own performances which shows they did and um they did Chicago which is a very racy show for like a bunch of 16 year olds do and I remember how awkward it was that it was like all the parents came and it was just like a bunch of of like high schoolers and like lingerie and [ __ ] and it was so weird it was like such an odd I don't know that was that was like the most Salient musical theater memory of mine because it was so bizarre uh so I don't know maybe they also did Grease though that's why this traumatic memory came flooding back to me the but anyway I'm gonna give this game a shot is there is there like I need like a Fallout uh low intelligence playthrough where they're like the the lines they give you or they like don't really rhyme and you're like like they're all doing every line why why are saying yeah or like like he's trying his best like everyone's like doing perfect you know iambic pentameter and stuff and he's like there's a there's a tree over there and he's like trying his best but he doesn't know the default low intelligence is like a walk in here you just goes straight it's it's like yeah it's it's I that's my like Boston Guy voice hey by the way Boston was a blast I don't know if I talked to you guys about that Boston was really cool dude one of the highlights other than your 400 lobster roll yeah that was too much money uh that was that was a rip-off lobster fine um yeah Boston was cool Boston I think is is a is a city with stuff in it uh highlights had to have been going to the New England Aquarium it's very cool seeing the Penguins yes uh it's so good and then the two-parter of going to the Boston Tea Party reenactment um where they like put you on a boat you get to go fly a whole lot and yell uh that was too much money for what it was but it was kind of cool and and I like the reenactment and then the second part of it was we went to Old Boston right before we left because we needed to waste some time before our flight and we went to the was it the old North Church I think it's called um yeah yeah where like they did the the British are coming there's the which which how many lamps are there um they're lanterns they don't have lamps back then wouldn't that be wild man like light bulbs they're the only light bulbs uh but whatever that Paul Revere actually was the first guy with a flashlight you'll see me flashing my flashlight they're like wait you gotta back up back up what is that figure holding and why is it glowing don't worry about it uh he had like a smartphone take a picture um yeah we don't have time I'll get into this later but but we're there and we're sort of like looking around and reading the the history and then we get to one point and it's like uh Paul Revere was one of 40 people who who ran by night and did all this and he got arrested before he even made it to the end and I'm talking to the lady uh who's doing the sort of History tour and I'm like is that for real it was more than like there's more than Paul Revere she's like oh yeah most of the stuff he hears a lie and I was like what America's a lie I can't believe it uh that was a lot of fun dude that was pretty good that was pretty good that's that is wild yeah who are those other 39 people not getting any credit where's that musical we've got Hamilton about the secretary treasury or whatever now we need the we need the other guy the not Paul Revere guy the Midnight Runners or whatever right where's that that is a that is a bummer how I mean is that you know this is going to sound like an awkward segue but I just sincerely mean it the same thing also happens in Game design where I feel like narratives about history are easy to assign to individuals because it feels more Salient because like you experience reality as an individual so you're like oh that's the game that John Romero made and it's like oh a lot of people worked very hard on that and they're not John Romero who's that Warren Specter quote where they like he says like oh you know I feel like we attribute game development to a single person all the time says War inspector created a creator of deus ex and Thief I haven't seen that but that's incredible it's a classic quote man yeah it's a pretty bad thing in the games industry and creatives in general but when you it's on PS4 Xbox PC pick it up now learn about gaming autors uh I've got one more game I want to talk about this one's pretty cool this is pretty sick it comes with a caveat I'll get to it at the end on guard on guard guys I just want you to look it up it's en g-r-g-a-r sorry d e on guard this is the coolest game I've played in a very long time I love this game it's amazing so uh this is a swashbuckling action game that's how they describe it that's how every review uh refers to it you are a um sort of Mask of Zorro style character who's fencing and fighting in this beautiful rendition of I want to say Spain it makes the most sense they're speaking Spanish um and it's it's just so much fun it's so hard to describe what about it in particular is fun because it's the whole package on guard is like basically a third person action game it sort of plays like um like a playable do you guys see Puss in Boots earlier this year oh I heard it's great though no but familiar with it no yeah amazing movie um the action it is super well done it's not like as bombastic and large scale as that movie can be at times but it feels like you're playing that sort of thing or like if The Road to El Dorado had like sort more sword fighting this is what that would be like um it is this beautifully rendered by the way it's very bright very colorful just action game where it's not a focus exclusively on fencing I feel like we end up prescribing like you know it's a it's a sword playing game to games with swords in them a little too often when they have other mechanics in them and this is one that really relies on the other mechanics and it feels so good so a big part of it is environmental interactions you can like kick boxes into enemies and they all have sort of stun meters so after you stun a character a certain amount of time you can hit them and they have certain hit points the easy ones F1 the harder ones have two and three and so on so forth uh but you can yeah you can kick boxes into them you can like if an enemy and this is my favorite thing this is the thing that sold me on the game when I played the demo uh there are tables that enemies can jump on top of and if you kick the table the enemy falls on its face and I was like oh my God I'm in I'm all the way in give me the game right now I'm sold that's that's a game seller right yeah if I can kiss something okay wait does it is this what is it like soulsy in the way it controls no so it's very light and I think it's closer to Batman Arkham than it is to like dark souls or like a harder action game or even Ninja Gaiden like I wouldn't compare it to a character action game it doesn't feel like that yeah it just feels like that slow motion combat where you're sort of like zipping around it auto targets onto the nearest enemy all that sort of stuff um you can run away from the enemies which is cool because it sort of removes the lock-on and then you can run up and but the big focus of the game is interaction it's platform thing it's jumping around it's kicking boxes it's kicking enemies off of things there are enemies that show up a little earlier a little later sorry um that throw grenades but their whole thing is they Dodge you all the time so they run away so you have to do environmental interaction to stop them or like there's cannons that you find that have these like Trails of gunpowder and if you set the gunpowder Trails on fire it'll blow up the cannon and like shoot the cannon at the enemies and knock them over and and then you could beat them up and and it gets really frantic because it's kind of like again Batman in this way where there's a Parry system so you could see enemy attacks coming you can Parry them but there's also unparriable so you got to move out of the way and then so it's sort of keeping track of the enemies and their placement and how they're attacking you uh while also trying to maximize how many other things you're doing in the combat it's just it feels amazing this looks really cool dude it's I oh I want to play this it only has it has like 30 reviews on Steve how did you find this game it was a demo a steam nextfest like two three months ago I could not stop thinking about it I everyone I knew that likes playing games like these I was like you need to place right now and they all wish listed it because it's just that good there's not a demo anymore I wish there was because it's one of those games where you play it for five minutes you know if you're in and trust me you're gonna be in it's so cool the caveat this game is like two hours long and it's like oh 100 uh which you know I'm not one of those sticklers for price to hours played especially because this has a lot of replayability to it the better you get at it the more fun you're gonna have there's alternate routes like each combat scenario is connected by these roads um sometimes literally and sometimes it's just like an Alleyway and you do these platforming sections where you're kind of like you're swinging off of um poles that are sticking out of the sides of buildings you're swinging off of uh ropes between platforms and it feels like early Prince of Persia like that's what it feels like you can land on enemies and attack them you can bounce off of them there's this great mechanic where these buckets lying around and you can throw the buckets at something and it'll have the bucket on a 10 and it can't move you could just like beat it up while you're like it's so childish but like in a complimentary kind of way it's a very juvenile video game The Comedy is very juvenile the the early enemy is uh called el vigilante um and you're fighting him and he's like clearly your brother like at the very beginning it's like Oh Sister you have to go save us and then you know you'll find the guy and it's clearly your brother in a mustache and it's just that kind of tone of humor characters interact with the main character and and they're kind of just like they're just fun it's just funny and dumb and silly in this way that I feel like we don't see enough of in action games anymore I feel like we've gotten very serious with our action games everyone's trying to be like you said like Dark Souls that's kind of the first thing I think we think of when we think of action games now this feels like a GameCube game and like the nicest way it is it is silly it's fun and it's bright colorful fast and it is short but like that's what games used to be you know now we complain kind of about like oh 60 and it's only 30 hours but it's like you used to buy a 60 game it was like six hours if you were lucky if you were bad at it you know yeah you just get Earth Defense Force for like 70 dollars at Funko land and it would take you months to be because it was hard but the game was only an hour and a half long yeah you beg your mom for Shrek 2 and it's like five minutes long whatever you're okay this is where you just gave me a brilliant idea how much first first question two two questions here first question how much do you think the license for Jackie Chan's police story would cost if you were to make a license to video game dude because I feel like a Jackie Chan police story beat em Up game like a like a silly like the action is serious but the tone is kind of like silly and madcap I feel like that would be a have you played a video Yeah Jackie Chan stuntmaster on PlayStation one what's up Master sorry I have played a little bit of Stunt Master uh yeah it uh it's not quite what if it's oh just for example classic I do it might be packed up one stone right oh okay all right okay I need to see if we got physical Jackie Chan maybe with less racism I feel like you go back and watch those it's kind of hard to watch yeah I've but equal amounts of Chris Tucker yes uh yeah because Chris Tucker is dearly we need a Chris Tucker in video games I think dude like who's the if Troy Baker is like the uh the Christian Bale of video games acting who's we need a Chris Tucker to you know what I mean to offset that serious tone yeah we need a funny actor that everyone goes to there's got to be one right is there an uptrend yeah we got like our Troy Baker or Matthew Mercers we've got a lot of velvety uh voice I'm surprised like handle Burris hasn't gotten into the video game voice acting I feel like he's such a clutch like yeah he was in you know the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie had so many of like those like Paul Rudd does a character Hannibal burst as a character Ice Cube does a character John C John Cena have John Cena do video game voice acting right John Cena yes yeah I if however we need to contact John Cena I'll just tell him that his mom was my friend's bus driver to elementary school oh yeah I will seal the deal I feel like that will seal the I feel like John Cena is the kind of guy we used to see him there was a diner uh near where I grew up called skips it's closed now but like an old style like 50s diner and uh we would just be eating cheeseburgers in there and John Cena would just like come in and get a cheeseburger uh and he was so gracious he would just like say hi to everyone who wanted to say hi to him and he's a burger so I feel like if I just reached out and was like I we hung out at Skip's one time he'd be like hey it's me John Cena just emailing you back you know what I mean he seems like that kind of guy you could use your Make-a-Wish get him in a video game I feel like that would be like fake that I'm dying yeah one way yeah sure what do you have okay Italy itis osis I traveled to Italy recently yeah fatal disease John there's just one thing I want I just if you could make my wish come true he's like all right what do you want like an autograph and I'm like no I I want the rights to make a police Story video game with Jackie Chan in it it's like I don't know why you reached out to me for this please John only you have the power to get me the license for Jackie Chan's police story oh boy he's the only one who could make it happen he's the only one he's got the power yeah but you can't see him he does all right I think that's everything is there is there any other games or anything I mean we can quickly go through our you know essentially our emails from from the community yes that's right this touches this touches further on Jeremy's discussion on Baldur's Gate three uh but yeah Jeremy do you want to take uh uh the first comment yes I would love to dark insanities rights from our Discord we need Danny Frank Jeremy and Jesse doing a four player co-op of Baldur's Gate 3 on noclip crew please uh I I would love to do that the amount of time uh that it would require I feel like Twitter hours I I feel like we'll need to get Danny roaringly drunk to approve this project uh but that's that's not you know beyond our means we could do that you know what I mean yeah like like after a few stiff drinks I feel like he'd be like why not or we should be playing Ballers Gate 3 all of us for 120 hours that seems like like a documentary's worth of budget yeah it should be invested I think patreon.com if you want to see that happen get us to a million dollars because that seems like such an intense skate like I like I have a friend who's getting on PS5 and he said he's down to play co-op with me but I I do not know if I'll have the patience for it but I'm interested if either of you have tried Co-op stuff with balls gate three um yeah yeah that's how yeah Jesse what's been your experience yeah um it is uh bad I will I will just come out and say it really it's bad really it's really bad why I think of any original sin 2 Co-op and it was great so we're playing it on PC um on my um living room PC which is only slightly worse than my work one uh it runs fine like there's no performance issues like in terms of visual quality and frame rate it's consistent um ish but the big problem is it's way too buggy I know that like everyone's talking about oh Xbox series s if they put it on that the thing's gonna explode and jettison itself into the sky the real problem is it just doesn't work like it crashes a lot there's a lot of like interaction issues like I'll be able to interact with something no problem Cassie like needs to stand on like one specific pixel next to a rock and like clip inside of it and then she can open a door um or like there's no good tutorial like I feel like everyone's been saying this the tutorialization is very kind of mediocre in Baltimore which is fine it's it's one of those games where learning things on the Fly is half the fun but like system mechanics stuffs for Co-Op like if you have multiple um Side characters you have to figure out how to connect them to a different player because you know Cassie was player one because she made her character first and that meant that every character was attached to her so we had to like Google how to use attach a co-op character give them like this side character or whatever so it's there's a lot of things you gotta look up a lot of things you gotta like sort of troubleshoot and work through and even then still just like yeah there's too many issues it needs more time in the oven I feel like there's going to be a lot of people upset with that when they try it on Console unless you know maybe I'm wrong maybe it'll come out it'll just be perfect when they get it on PS5 but in its state right now I don't know man I'll give it a couple months yeah I have I have had a number of bugs with Ballers gate three none of them I've been playing it solo so none of them have been hard crashes and none of them have been game breaking and also I get a message every time that's like you need to update your video drivers dude and every time I open it everything yeah so I I will attribute some of my bugs to that like there was a scene where one of my characters was an event and it was a really bad scene for it to happen because it was a very dramatic scene like a really narratively tense scene right and it was like his skin turned into green screen uh and and so you could only see his like hands and his torso and like like his clothes and his head and hands were the only but his body was the Invisible Man oh my God and so he was like pleading for his life but he had no body so I was like this is this is really breaking my immersion um but other than that I've I've had mostly minor issues I had a few things where I got stuck in um in battle or in a cutscene it just like it wouldn't progress even after I waited a minute or two uh but I just made a Save State and loaded it and it came right back but um but I have had friends playing a co-op and they said that uh some of like the spectating stuff in the battle has been tricky for them like in Divinity original sin 2 when your teammates go the camera just goes to them and you spec them so when you're not playing you know it it does the drudgeries alleviated because you at least get to inspect them while they're doing their thing right and he said during bottle Skate 3 it was like not specing properly and stuff like that but um but in spite of that this same friend is someone who does not play single player games uh and I talked to him last night and he was like I feel like he was like hey he said something that was like Baldur's Gate 3 has opened my eyes to the fact that I've I'm like a like a competitive FPS player in recovery he was like I forgot how much I liked just playing games where I can immerse myself that's awesome uh he was he was telling me that for like a decade he's basically needed the friction of other people like shooting at him and yelling at him over the microphone in order to feel anything and bottomskate three is so good that he was like oh my God like he he described it as coming out of a coma where he was like I forgot that I just like love just like being in a video game so I'll just get three it has the power changes changes lives what a masterpiece changes lives thanks for the question dark insanities in our YouTube comments uh sinced uh left comments saying if you fancy another D D cell old school PC game try dark and darker an excellent dungeon crawling uh PV PVE looting extraction game a great experience for sure this was something I know Jeremy played a ton of I think it was part of steam nextfest right so I saw that and I was like I forgot about that game I went to go check it out it's been listed from Steam I guess Nexus had like a cease and desist or something's going on the game is out you can play it I think on darkandarker.com but it is not on Steam so this is something where it's like yeah what the hell happened are people playing this like yeah is this gonna impact its audience I don't know I was legitly looking forward towards this game because I got so much buzz when the demo was out it's a bunch of X Nexon people who left uh and apparently we're working on a game incredibly similar in design and some of the assets were really similar and stuff some of the concept art was identical uh so it seemed like a situation where Nexon was accusing them of you know taking all of the stuff that was developed for an Exxon and running and doing it independently um and their their offices got raided too uh so it was I was surprised to see dark and darker popping up again because I figured you know I figured they'd be in legal hell for at least a couple years before anything happened but uh yeah I mean all of the legal Shenanigans aside it is a very fun and weird and interesting video game um kind of a very slow plotting first person uh yeah kind of like if tarkov was Morrowind or something like that um yeah it's fun though I I really like it it's it's janky but it's janky in all the right ways where you know like you move really slow but that makes it fun because like the skeletons are advancing on you and you're just like hulking slowly backwards and hoping you don't die and stuff so uh yeah I mean darker darker's worth checking out uh as long as long as you're not breaking the law by playing it right yeah don't tell them about the torrents guys don't don't seed all right they won't know yeah exactly well thanks for the uh the comments everyone you can let us know your thoughts and feelings ask questions give us recommendations podcast at noclip.video if you want to send us an email or just YouTube comments whatever you want carry your pigeons send them our way uh P.O box whatever zip code is funny 90210 is that the one California a yeah thanks so much yeah I really like getting the comments from people by the way I think it's really cool getting to interact with the community and everything even though you know I'm not on here to do it but like just just seeing and everything it's it's great I love interacting with the No No Clippers so that's what I'm calling them the no clue yeah dude it's fun I mean I our Discord is is very active yeah it's just like it's it's a really positive Community too I feel like people just genuinely want to come there and just talk about games and game design and stuff that's going on in the industry and uh yeah I don't know we've got a really good community so it's cool to to take some of that and put it onto the podcast because I think people who aren't in our Discord are you know missing out on a cool like side discussion that happens around all of the docs we do in the podcast episodes we do all those things kind of spin off into these you know really rich discussions our community has a lot of very intelligent and informed people uh who you know obviously like when we do our end of month meetings there's always someone who comes forth and it's like I grew up in Bulgaria and in Bulgaria we like didn't have this game but this was a huge deal and it's it's just so interesting the way that you know using games as a lens for exploring the different backgrounds people come from and their different experiences with games and media and uh yeah I don't know it's called so I I like doing this stuff too it's cool to involve our community in some way in the podcast yeah that's right and if you want to be a part of that Community you can head on over to patreon.com noclip you can get on that Discord fund our documentary support our work all the cool stuff that we're doing yeah bonus stuff you get to be parts of those meetings you get to be there for for the the patron show there's lots of and there's even more stuff coming in down the pipes premium podcasts we're nearing the end of getting that first episode put together it should be up soonish once uh once Danny's back we'll start finalizing production on that but it has been slow and steady and I'm finally uh not not worried about my health anymore so I can actually sit down and work it's great uh what else are we working on we got the Burger King documentary coming soon Frank did an awesome job on that Jeremy what have you been working on lately what have you been doing uh Danny and I filmed some stuff yes that's right it's like I won't say what it is because it's dating his very obviously hinted at what it is on the podcast in the past but I I don't think it's announced so I don't feel comfortable doing um but we filmed with some people who you know worked on worked on some games that were very formative for me right as a young very young person uh so it's been cool yeah I don't know it's uh we've got some really good interviews they were one of one of the subjects it was someone that I really look up to after we wrapped like looked at Danny was like are you you're pretty good at interviewing it was it was a moment of Pride because I was like man like you know obviously Danny's super talented but I just it's a it's a nice reminder when uh when I'm just reminded how like how talented our team is and stuff I always feel proud of the stuff we do but there's little moments where I'm reminded that uh you know I'm lucky to be part of this this roving band of Maniacs yeah it's pretty dope it's pretty sweet it is yeah oh Dwarf Fortress as well that's that's also oh yeah yeah we got a we got a bunch of stuff a lot of stuff we always got a lot of stuff going hey I feel like we got things cooking and sitting on the back burner and then one day people wake up and there's a vampire survivors documentary here there's like a true yeah it's pretty cool pretty awesome anyway I think that's good stuff I think that's the Pod I think we've we've had a lot of fun here we talked about a lot of games talked about Canadian health care and how how all right it is and it's been a plan how bad it makes Breaking Bad yeah exactly I'm more like breaking not so bad anymore is it hey hey Frank what are you doing for the rest of the week what are you saying um I uh it's so again I don't know why my mind goes to the weather because I I it's like 90 degrees but I still want to ride my bike so I might do it anyways uh although I've been doing I've been having to ride at night now which is like very fun and I'll make also maybe kind of dangerous uh just because you know the lights are on but maybe I'm foreshadowing I might get into another accident it's fun it's uh it's I don't know I hate you have to navigate around the heat but um but yeah playing games it's again like what Jeremy's saying it's like we're in the middle of so many projects so it's like I'm playing these different things that I can't talk about but they're all cool and exciting so uh yeah just wrapping myself in video games dude well one of the things I know we're not supposed to I don't know I'm not going to say anything obviously but one of the things holy crap one of the things holy right what the f anyway it's pretty cool all will be revealed yes in time uh Jeremy what about you what are you doing this week man probably doing some more hikes going outside more uh yeah I've just been kind of like going outside playing Baldur's Gate and doing Game Dev and uh I like your little lizard like you posted on Twitter by the way thank you very much dude um yeah I've been uh I've been getting close to I'm thinking about the RPG that I've been working on for over a year I'm getting pretty close to thinking that I might start like put the I have a title for it I have the whole stories written I would say like 60 of the script is written all the mechanics are ironed out the world is designed I still need to do a little more puzzle design but it's like it's really far along there's a lot of the characters or like you know 80 to 90 complete and stuff and rigged and animated and stuff so yeah I might uh it might drop like a an emotionally devastating RPG on your ass one of these days and another Jane Dev episode wow that's so cool man thank you so much I know I know yeah I actually I was talking to some people about this in our community I think I might start doing the Jane Dev videos on my own channel as a separate thing just because it doesn't really it makes sense to it's a for me to ask for the amount of time and hours properly it would be like making like eight documentaries like just it takes a long time it's it's like several edit days and filming days and voice over recording days and all these things in scripting but on top of that it's all the work like the dev work yeah yeah which I would do anyway I would do that if I was living under a bridge with a laptop so it's gonna keep going um but yeah I think I might I might launch it as a side thing and see if people are interested in in following that I think it would be a good way to the the problem is is that I as I'm thinking about how to do it I have three different games that I'm working on and I'm thinking about like how do you how do you bring people along for the ride where you're showing them the how the sausage is made without kind of spoiling the meal that they will eat at the end of it yeah it's a very diff especially like the two of the games I'm working on are more just kind of like mechanical ones like a god game and one is like a first person Co-op game um and those are very tiny ideas but especially the RPG one it's like how do you be like and then this is the part where like this character reveals that they have a dark past and it's like well you just ruined that moment for anyone who plays the game you know exactly but I I do it is like [ __ ] the doing those Dev Vlog episodes and having people give feedback on the stuff I'm working on was a very positive thing for me and uh and also like this this is kind of the same thing with working on a multiplayer prototype um with the I talked about doing net code stuff on a previous episode uh has been incredibly positive for me because I can send a build to a friend of mine and play it multiplayer with them and it's like it creates this feedback loop of I'm not just like looking at the thing and it's not even a game anymore it's just this like abstracted thing I've been staring at for hundreds of hours it's like a game that I play with a friend and they get to be like this part is fun I like this part this is cool and uh and it gives like yeah it creates like a healthy routine around it like a rapport where people are except my friends are like excited to play more of it and see more of it and it makes me want to work on it um so yeah I think the devlog is a similar thing I think sharing the creative process with other people is like a healthy thing I don't think we should always just like Cloister up in the Wizards Tower and you know labor and silence totally I agree behind the scenes with uh jeremyj patreon.com Jane Dev support the work coming from yeah maybe someday we'll see I could [ __ ] I could use the money California rent is is draining me dry buddy I can't even imagine it sucks up here it's got to be worse down there at the 30 increase crazy it's bad it's bad it's bad everywhere especially bad down there I'm sure uh myself I'm uh playing video games as well uh busy we're gonna watch the new TMNT today excited for that uh we're gonna see Jonas Brothers over the weekend Big Joe Bro fan nice big is a is a stretch I know three songs maybe um that's exciting who's your favorite Jonas brother the the cool one Nick I don't know I don't care I don't even know if that's a real one I could have said anything Bartholomew that's my favorite Jonas wait I know Joe Jonas is one of them because that sounds made up that's no that's right that's Joe Jonas that's the right one yeah Nick Jones they should all be Joe Jonas they should I'm Jojo I feel like they should I feel like it should be like an Eddie situation where their names are just three videos Joseph j j o e yeah and Joey it's Jojo and Joey Jonas the JoJo's yeah that'd be good but yeah video game has that idea for free there you go record companies enjoy that one uh I do want to mention two video games very cool coming out this week Shadow Gambit uh the cursed something or other it's on a boat that's how it starts anyway um it's the new game from the Desperado 3 Developers guys this game there's a demo Again Play it it's so sick it's so sick it's so sick it's it's like a stealth Pirate game where you like control time and like what it's uh it's so good it's so up your guy's alley trust me just play the demo for five minutes don't do the whole thing it's too long uh but oh my God that's so good tomorrow honestly you you just saying it's so sick three times with such enthusiasm sold me more on that than any person has ever sold me on a video game I don't know why I was like so I was like I'm buying this right now you should just be in commercials yeah like yeah it's so sick buy this new hamburger yeah no dude this game I was overwhelmed it it's so cool uh and uh bomb Rush cyber Funk is out on Friday people listen to this podcast you could be playing it right now finish the episode first there's only like a minute left I bet maybe two uh it's really cool I'm gonna play all of the Jet Set Radio games and then play that as a little treat to myself when I finish Final Fantasy 16 uh which God got out soon so much it's a long game anyway that's it that's it thank you so much for being here everybody we appreciate you listening I've been uh Jesse garasher your host this has been Frank Halley at Frank Halley on X or whatever you call it at Jeremy B Jane on on the website with a letter for their name uh thanks so much see you next week goodbye goodbye [Music]

Channel: Noclip Podcast

Views: 3,799

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Id: Be9DCuKUhXc

Length: 78min 32sec (4712 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 18 2023