Why Silent Hill f is dividing fans of the series | Friends Per Second #79

Interactive Transcript

Speaker A Did you guys see at the. In the the Xbox Tokyo Game show showcase that they had a clip of like playing someone playing on like a Rog Ally or whatever. And in the bottom right hand corner it had Activate Windows. Of course.

Speaker B Classic Windows.

Speaker C Activate Windows. Oh my God.

Speaker A I'm surprised that didn't get cut out though. Like little. That's. That slipped in there.

Speaker B No, it's a feature. It's a standard feature at this point.

Speaker C I got wind zipped the other day.

Speaker A Oh, okay.

Speaker C I got like activate your WinZip. And I was like, I didn't even know I had that. I'm gonna be real with you. I didn't even know I still had that.

Speaker A Yep, yep, yep. For sure. For sure. I was actually meant to be in Tokyo this week for Tokyo Game show, but I had to cancel the trip because I was just so snowed under with everything. But it's brilliant.

Speaker B You missed the Yakuza Kiwami 3 reveal.

Speaker A That would have been.

Speaker B That's so awesome. I'm glad. Like, I don't know why I was surprised. Like I forgot they were doing one two and then. Yeah, somehow I was surprised.

Speaker A Yeah. I. Look, obviously I'm not a Yakuza fan, but I know Lucy is, so I'm imagining you are excited about that.

Speaker C You could be Ralph. That's the thing.

Speaker A Well, that's the thing. I could be. Dude, I played zero, right? Second.

Speaker B You played zero, right?

Speaker A No, only like the little like the opening kind of thing. The only. What do you call it RGG games I finished is Ishin and lost judgment which my review for that one is much beloved. That's. That's the one that people really love me for the most, you know. Uh. But yeah, like I just the rest of the series. Wait, is there. Was there another one I finished? No, I think that was.

Speaker C You didn't finish. Do you even finish it like a dragon or.

Speaker A No, I haven't. No, I haven't finished. I played some like a dragon. I played some zero. But no, I've never really got into it. I'd love to. I've always. It's always been the dream to do it. But yeah time you will eventually, you.

Speaker C Know, take a year off and just.

Speaker A When I retire when I'm an old man just gonna blast. And they would have already made but that by that point they will have remade all of the games maybe twice at that point. So you know, like I'll play a really great version of them on my.

Speaker B They're probably gonna bring back Kiryu like four times. Anyway, again, until he's like an old man.

Speaker C So an older man.

Speaker B Oldest man.

Speaker C The oldest man.

Speaker A Isn't he sick, though? Like, isn't there something about that.

Speaker B That he's a long story.

Speaker A It's a long story.

Speaker C It's a very long story that we don't. We have a hard out today, so we definitely.

Speaker A We do have a hard out tonight.

Speaker B Speaking of hard out, welcome to the Friends Per Second podcast, Everybody. Is episode 79 nice?

Speaker A Yeah.

Speaker B Why are you guys probably.

Speaker A We're getting up at work. That's like. That's. We're getting there, you know, we're nearly at that hundred. That's great.

Speaker B What do you guys want to do for episode Hundo?

Speaker A We should, like, think about doing something live, I think. I really think we should think, oh, it's a while off, but, like, I'd like to do it, like to think about it. If I'm. If I'm allowed to travel to the United States by that point, you know, I'll. I'll consider it.

Speaker B What are you, Australian?

Speaker A Say again?

Speaker B You're Australian, right?

Speaker A Yes. What do you mean?

Speaker B No, sorry, you're not. You're on the list. You're not.

Speaker A That's right. Of course. Check my social media. They're like, like, nah, man, not you. You know, too annoying. That's right. That's right.

Speaker B So it's a stacked week. We got a bunch of stuff. A little Tokyo game show. Top level. We. We played Silent Hill. F. Lots dive into with that. Some Ghost of Yotei, some questions. Some good questions. So let's just start off with. Yeah, Tokyo game show. The whole thing.

Speaker C You didn't say, let's just jump right into it.

Speaker B So let's just jump right into it.

Speaker A There you go. Great. Done.

Speaker C Now. Now we're ready to begin.

Speaker B Thank you. Good show. A lot of interesting stuff. I liked seeing Forza Horizon 6. I thought it was cool.

Speaker A Did you see it, though, Jake? All you saw was a logo, man. Come on now.

Speaker B Yeah, but I'm glad it exists. We kind of had a feeling that it was gonna be Japan. And then Xbox was there.

Speaker C Didn't. The car company was out there. Like, hey, we got all these people from Xbox because the new games are here.

Speaker B Oh, that's cool.

Speaker C I was like, oh, it was one of those ones where it was like, you kind of leaked it. You kind of ruined it. But at the same time, you were just excited.

Speaker A I think ads for it were already going up on Instagram before the actual announcement happened. It was leaked a while ago anyway. Like, everyone Knew it was happening and it was like. It was also so unsurprising. It was kind of like, well, yeah, of course you would set a Forza game in Japan. That makes perfect sense.

Speaker B So it's gonna be sweet. I think it's a good environment for it, having spent a lot of time in Japan recently in all these video games. Like, cool. Driving there. Awesome.

Speaker C I was gonna say. I was like, when did you go to Japan? You kept that one quiet.

Speaker B No, in the virtual world. I've been in Japan as. As evidence from all the games I'm talking about this week.

Speaker A That's right. Yeah. But I think overall that showcase was like. I don't know, man, that the Xbox Showcase. Look, I think a showcase is always defined by like the. The one or two big things that you got going there. And I don't really think there was anything in the Xbox Showcase, like, again, Forza. If I'd have seen some Forza gameplay, I'd be like, yeah, sweet, let's go Forza. I'm excited about this because I actually really loved Horizon on the last one, so. But like, I don't know, there was really nothing else in the Xbox Showcase, was there? Like, more. Looking at Ninja Gaiden, Fallout got like a. Some camp stuff. Some like, Japanese themed camps. Yeah, like, they added. There's like an update coming to Fallout 70. Sorry, Fallout 76.

Speaker C Oh, I thought you said cans.

Speaker A No, no, no. Camps, camps, camps. Fallout 76 is getting camps with like, you know, Japanese themed. Yeah, there wasn't much else. Am I missing anything big at that showcase?

Speaker B I don't think so. I think it's kind of like a biding their time thing because, like, they do have so many things releasing just in October. So I. I get it. Like.

Speaker A Oh, no, I do that. Definitely not. Definitely not suggesting that Xbox has got nothing common because they actually do have quite a bit coming right now. Like, they're. There's. There's stuff going on with them for sure. Their October is massive. But just in terms of this showcase, it was. Yeah. I don't know. It wasn't too much to write home about.

Speaker B I don't think you're saying it could have been a. Could have been an email.

Speaker A I mean, that's the trite little. Hey. But like, yeah, I mean, basically, yes, it could have been. I. When I. When I read the press release of it, I'm like, yeah, you guys got it here. There's. There's. We didn't really miss anything. We still don't have an official price announcement. Though for the Rog Ally X.

Speaker B We do as of right now.

Speaker C We do as of right now. I just googled it. Yeah. 1990 minutes ago on. On IGN.

Speaker B Yeah, here is the deal. The Ally. The. The white one that's kind of like the streaming one. That is 600 and then the.

Speaker A It's not the streaming one. To be clear though, I won't push back on that. That's not the streaming one.

Speaker B That's not. What does it do? I forget.

Speaker A It will play low spec games that you can play your indie.

Speaker B Oh, so it's like the Series S of the handheld.

Speaker A Exactly. So yeah, like I think a good use case for it would be streaming, but you can play locally on it and you know it would. It would run many games totally fine so long as they're not like cutting edge AAA games.

Speaker B Okay, I. I'll admit I wasn't really paying attention to that one. Only the. The bigger one, the crazier one, the Ally X which is the more hardware intensive one that is going to retail for US$1,000. Yeah.

Speaker A Okay, do a search for me right now. Can you guys search like the Steam Deck OLED in. In US dollars? Because I can't search it easily. I have to do like currency conversion. Bullshit. How much can you buy a Steam Deck OLED for right now? Let's have a look in US dolls.

Speaker C On Steam the website. The OLED 1 terabyte is $650.

Speaker B Not to mention they've been really dropping the prices to move inventory of the older models and the LCD models. They've been on sale frequently.

Speaker A But I do think that a fair comparison is like comparing the OLED to probably that lower spec Series S model in terms of performance. Because clearly you know, the X version is more performant than a Steam deck. At least I understand that it is. Detailed testing will bear that out more. But like I don't know man. Yeah, a thousand dollars, that's 1500 Australian dollars. And that realistically is going to come in at 16.50 with like GST which is our tax or whatever. That is like an absurd amount of dollary dues. Like it's just a lot.

Speaker B So yeah, it's like a luxury item for sure.

Speaker A Yeah. And I mean like I think that again I don't have any problem with luxury items in gaming. If you're like really? There's a really specific reason.

Speaker B There are enthusiasts.

Speaker A Yeah, for sure. And it's like what's. But my question is like what's the specific reason for this thing? Like why would you what is this thing that you like? Yeah, I need to, I need to own this thing for 1600 bucks.

Speaker B Yeah, I, it's tough because like I get people like the alternative. I say alternative but like alternative to Steam Deck. Like people love the other handheld devices but for me I'd almost feel more inclined to pay like a ton of money for an expensive Steam deck because I'm buying into not just the hardware and the specs, but I'm buying into the legacy of the Linux nerds.

Speaker A I'm.

Speaker B I'm buying into Steam and Valve. I'm buying into developers being really excited to have Games Deck verified and all that and jumping in with this, it's like, all right, yeah, it's just a big old piece of hardware.

Speaker A I mean, sorry, go on Liz.

Speaker C I was going to say the convenience though of being able to have Epic Games Store.

Speaker A Correct.

Speaker B Well that's for me. Yeah.

Speaker C Not having to deal that with booting. What is it? What is the name of the app? I don't know. Yeah, Sideloading. I had to. I sold my Steam deck because I just prefer the Rog Ally. I've said this multiple times, I prefer the form factor of the Rog Ally. Roger Ally.

Speaker A Fair enough, fair enough.

Speaker C I've got old lady sword hands.

Speaker A Right, right, right.

Speaker C I need my ergonomics ralph, but I.

Speaker A Mean I think the. I personally, I think that the Steam Deck is better ergonomically than Rogaly, but.

Speaker C It'S obviously not for these small hands.

Speaker A Fair enough, fair enough.

Speaker C I don't know why I said it's such a weird way.

Speaker A I do think that. Yeah, look, I do think by the way, the Rog is actually really the Asus. Rog Ally is a great device. It's always been a fantastic.

Speaker B Yeah, people dig it for sure.

Speaker A No question at all. And so it really is just a case of like, okay, now you've got this Xbox partnership. It, it rebrands the console, it adds some new ergonomics. Most importantly it adds a front end experience that's like a stripped back version of Windows that gives you access to basically everything. And that's the real selling point. Right? You say it's like cool to buy into the whole Linux thing. Most people I think feel the opposite where they're like, well Linux is kind of annoying and you know, because most people are like, well I can't play everything I want to play and I can't do game pass and I can't play anti easy anti cheat games on it, yada yada yada. So I don't know like I see the appeal of it, I really do and I think it's smart that Xbox has got that lower spec like skew. I can, I can see it getting some cut through but like at the end of the day there's only as, I think there's only about 4 million Steam Decks in existence and it's the most successful handheld PC by far. I don't know that this one really moves the needle at all. I kind of, Yeah, I just think this is going to be a nice little enthusiast piece that's going to kind of sit off to the side. I don't know, I'm not really sure that it's. Yeah, I don't, I don't really see that it's going to do big numbers or really like expand their category and, and change the way we talk about Xbox. You know, I think it's just a thing that they're doing just the way they say the same way they release like Surface laptops or whatever. Do you know? I mean.

Speaker B Yeah, I, it's, it's weird because it's like I remember when the original Rog Ally came out there was so much excitement about, there was so much industry excitement about it too. Like I just knew colleagues that were like into it, people on the game development side that were like curious about it. So I feel like Xbox kind of jumped on that momentum and it was more of a short term, interesting collaboration. More than, more than something that again is going to like what, what did you say? Change. Change how you think about or change Xbox's momentum a little bit? Yeah, for sure. So I don't know, it's, it's going to be interesting to talk about it. And also, you know, it's, it's just, it's getting to the point like with like the price of everything. It's like I'm starting to like get like kind of like sticker shock about everything. Prices going up, the cost of living going so high. It's like, it's tough to talk about this stuff and with a handheld like this, that's a thousand dollars when. I don't know, it's like, I don't know, I'm just still unpacking it because I, you know, we're reacting to the price in real time.

Speaker A Yeah, look, I think the reality is as I said within gaming there's lots of premium high end products that are, you know, super high price, whatever else. And they're, and they're intended to sell to a small audience. Right. I think this, the X And this, the black version of this, whatever, it's. It feels like it's probably going to fall into that category. It's just a super premium product. It's probably going to run games really well. That's basically, you know, by looking at the specs of it. The ergonomics are really good. I've held it myself and it's good. It's really heavy though. And that's one downside to it for sure. And I. The screen is also not great for memory because I don't think it's 120Hz. No, no, that's. It is 120Hz but it's not OLED. That's what it is.

Speaker C Yeah.

Speaker A So which for a premium product, like not having an OLED screen is really. It's a real bummer. Having said that. Yeah, I mean like, it's not obviously a deal breaker, but. Yeah, I just think it's going to be one of those things that's, that's like for really super hardcore premium buyers who want it. Everybody else is either going to not really think about it or maybe opt for the cheaper version if they are interested. But I think if they are going for the cheaper version, I still think it makes more sense to grab a Steam Deck because yeah, you do have the flexibility of getting Game Pass and all that other stuff for sure. But I just think the overall ecosystem of Steam is just. It's so attractive, man. It's just. Yeah, I don't know. I love it.

Speaker B It came around. I'm Steam deck pilled. I'm just.

Speaker A Yeah, I mean. Yeah, like for sure, for sure. I personally think that. But again, fully acknowledge that many people are not on the same page.

Speaker B Totally.

Speaker C I'm. I'm Steam pilled.

Speaker A Okay, for sure.

Speaker C But like. Well, I, I always get my, I always get my epic free games, you know, like I claim those and it's, you know, I haven't used Game Pass and it's pain in the ass to do that on it on a Steam deck. So I'm opting for convenience over brand loyalty.

Speaker A Sure.

Speaker C Because I'm a fickle bitch. I'll turn on you with a drop of fickle.

Speaker A Fickle.

Speaker B Speaking of fickle bitches, did you guys see the Wolverine trailer?

Speaker A Damn, man.

Speaker B Man.

Speaker A Damn. That was a trailer that was like. I'm actually scared about upload because the news show right now has not gone out and I'm 90 certain that when I show clips of that in the news show that the video will be demonetized because it is so violent.

Speaker B Do you mind texting me if that happens? Because our Friday new show, I need.

Speaker A To know if I can know it.

Speaker C I know we were watching it in the office and we were like. Our manager of video production was like, oh, hell yeah. Big, big trailer to end the show. And it's. Soon as he saw the blood, he just went, oh, God damn.

Speaker A God damn it. There goes our metrics. Yeah, yeah. No, I don't. What a. What a. Because this is the first time we've seen the actual real, non leaked footage. Because obviously, yes, it was leaked a long time ago and it looked janky as. Because that's what game development is. Stuff looks really janky before they make it look good, and now it looks really good. Like, I am super into it. I just think the fact that they're going comic book accurate with, like, suits and the fact that little guy. Yeah, you know, he's. He's a little. He's a little ball of rage fur ball. Yeah, yeah. And the fact that they're going full gore is just so good. I mean, I still remember that moment in Logan when they're just like at the first fight scene outside his car or whatever, and you're just like, whoa, we're doing this, are we? Hell yeah. You know?

Speaker B Yeah.

Speaker A And I just think it's great because it really creates, like, a line break between the kind of sanitized MCU, like, T15 stuff versus this, which is like, yo, everyone needs to chill. Like, I actually, as I said, I don't imagine that I can. I. I already have to assume that my review of this will be demonetized because it's just so gory, you know? So we're all working for free on this one. But we'll do so happily because it.

Speaker B Looks cool, you know, it's so funny. I kind of like. It looks like what I kind of expected, where it's like Spider Man's color palette, world detail, even, like, you clearly see parts that are finishing moves. And it has that same camera angle approach to how it shoots shows those things. But I was still so surprised by just, like, how he looked. Him doing his thing, the insane gore. I knew they were doing it gory. Like, you know, that first teaser implied blood, but I didn't expect, like, Mortal Kombat level that we have here. And I think I'm gonna be the annoying guy in the discourse that's like, I don't need Wolverine to be that.

Speaker A Gory, but it's extremely annoying, Jake.

Speaker B It's like, not every comic had Wolverine Cutting everyone's heads off, you know, but when he does, it's cool. I can see why they lean into it.

Speaker A But I think we've seen, so we've seen decades of like, okay, you've got X Men 90, like animated series in 97, you've got, you know, Hugh Jackman's X Men. Right. The only time that I think. And obviously there's the comics where it gets gory. Like where have we really seen in.

Speaker B Like in popular culture.

Speaker A Exactly. We haven't really seen that level of gore outside of Logan.

Speaker B Yeah.

Speaker A Nowhere. You know what I mean? And so. And never before in the video game space. I don't think we've ever seen Origins.

Speaker B Wolverine.

Speaker A Oh, was it.

Speaker B Yeah, it was really.

Speaker A Okay. Was that level gore? Okay? Fair enough, fair enough, fair enough.

Speaker B Which can I. Can I say that I. The other thing that surprised me with this is that it is kind of like an evolution of that game in a lot of ways. I'm just blown away that they're making what to me looks like the snippets of gameplay we saw is kind of like a high fidelity, just like beat em up adventure game.

Speaker A Yeah.

Speaker B Featuring Wolverine.

Speaker A Right.

Speaker B And then sentinels show up. Like I am very happy.

Speaker A I was into that. I was very into that.

Speaker C I was very into Mystique. Mystique showing up.

Speaker B Yep, I did. But she looks like she's wearing a generic tactical video game suit.

Speaker A And I was like maybe just in.

Speaker B That one scene, if they got him in the yellow suit, then she's got a. They're going to put her in the white, the white dress type thing. But he had the cool jacket at one point. He had. I, I also really like the guy. I. Steve Blum Caldad. Like Die Hard. But this guy's voice really sounded great.

Speaker C I love that they recreated the bar to do the actual person.

Speaker A Yeah, yeah.

Speaker C Nice touch.

Speaker A Real sort of like the rehearsal kind of moment. So no, I look, I like the Liam McIntyre. I've actually never really encountered him and before, like I've seen before and stuff. But like. And I think he did okay, I guess, I guess I just have Caldod's like voice burned into my brain.

Speaker B Hard. Right.

Speaker A Can't hear anything else. And it just, I can't imagine it being any better than that. I just. Because even Hugh Jackman, I was always like, yeah, he's okay as Wolverine, but like he's a bit too pretty, he's too tall and I don't know, I just, I never really loved him as Wolverine. So Yeah, I don't know, but look, it's cool. I'm very excited for it. I'm really glad that, you know, insomniac get to have their moment now after, like all that they went through before. Now they get to show it on their own terms and people are really into it, you know, like they truly are. So. Yeah, it's exciting.

Speaker B Yeah.

Speaker A What you guys think of Saros?

Speaker C Looks sick, looks difficult. I'm already. I already had like the fear from playing when I played Returnal.

Speaker A Looks so good, man. I can't wait. I'm so.

Speaker C What is it? Cuz, like the whole thing has come back stronger. So he dies and he comes back and he's a little more powerful. I dig that. That is for me. That is a mechanic for me.

Speaker B Yeah, it sounds easier. So I'm into it.

Speaker C But I'm still. I still have the fear. As soon as I saw like the bright, like the Bullet Hell stuff coming.

Speaker B At me, I was like, oh, my God.

Speaker A God. I just. I understand. I think they've actually made some tweaks to the structure of Returnal post launch as well with like save points and stuff that allow you to like. Yeah, they've taken the edge off it and so I get why it was a bit shell shocking for some people. I personally just had the best time with that game. I totally loved it. And then seeing this is basically like more of that but with a different color palette, I'm like, that's fine, man. All good. Let's just go, you know? But it does look like more interesting Bullet Hell as well. Like some of the attack types and particle effects. You can see the similarities, but you can also see how they're pushing it further. And on the narrative front, I'm really keen for a new story with a new character. Yeah, I'm into it, man. I'm really pumped. I just think they looked really fantastic. House Mark Band better make bad games. They're not allowed. It's just. It's against the rules. So. Yeah.

Speaker C Yep, right into it.

Speaker A So was there anything else in the Sony showcase?

Speaker C I mean, those are the bookends, right?

Speaker B Yeah, that was a big stuff.

Speaker A Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker B So, yeah, it was a Battlefield.

Speaker C Single player.

Speaker A Yes.

Speaker C Did you play that?

Speaker A The embargo is up on that now. I am currently dealing with technical support because I was actually sent access to that build and then I was not like it. Hopefully I get access to this build by the time this episode is done because for whatever reason, I can't access it. Have you? No, I've already figured that out. Don't worry. Have you played the single player Battlefield yet?

Speaker C No.

Speaker A Okay. You haven't. Cool. Did you get access to it, Jake?

Speaker B No, I'm waiting for review, basically.

Speaker A Did you guys play the big map stuff that they did last week?

Speaker C Did do big maps.

Speaker A Cool.

Speaker C Map was big.

Speaker A Tell me what you think.

Speaker C I'm not the person you want to hear this from though, because I have like so such little battlefield knowledge. I mean, I have cares.

Speaker A Doesn't matter how much experience you have.

Speaker C No, again, I was just, you know, I just had a really good time. I guess I was just having a really nice time and I just, I'm so like, I. At work this week. I wrote that, like, here's the Everything to know stuff about Battlefield. I'm like, oh, here I am writing about Battlefield, talking about Battlefield and not playing Battlefield.

Speaker A Yeah, I know what you mean. No, I played. I had access to the. I had access to the build last week for big maps. There were two maps that they showed.

Speaker C Was it Mirac and.

Speaker A It was Mirac and Firestorm. And yeah, we just. It was like a four hour play session and I was like, okay, cool, we'll do this. And then four hours just like just zipped past. I was like, what? No, I want to keep going. You know what I mean?

Speaker B Excellent.

Speaker A And I know, I don't know, it's always like uncomfortable when you're like really enthusiastic about an EA game. But the truth is, man, I am like, I'm sorry, but the truth is, I am like, if it would look, I got no problem saying it was. Please refer to my Battlefield 2042 coverage for that. Right? But like, honestly, I just love this. I think it's so fantastic. I've had such a good time with it every. I played a lot of the, the open test, played this build and I couldn't get enough of it. Like, I just, just really blown away by how fun it is, how like good it feels to play. There's some tweaks to be made, obviously, you know, with like weapon loadout stuff, locked weapons, you know, which gadgets go on, which classes, whatever else. But the fundamentals, man, when I load in, I'm just like having a total blast and there's. And. And the big maps really do showcase how big it can get and how exciting it can be to be in a chopper like, you know, or in a plan, like strafing a target and whatever else, but also being on the ground and just being effective and just having those like 10 skirmishes when you're hiding out, trying to cap A point hoping the enemy doesn't notice you. And then you see that like two or three enemies are on. Like they're now contesting it, but you don't know where they are. And those big and small moments, that's what Battlefield is really great at delivering and that very few other shooters can do, like operating at big scale and small scale at the exact same time.

Speaker B And yeah, and it feels like the new maps, they really are designing for that for sure.

Speaker C So you know what, you know what this last play test I think instilled in me is that I am not going to be playing this game on my tv. Because I. When we did the preview event in la, it was like, you know, it was at a desktop and it was right here. And I just felt like I had such a better experience because everything was so much more easy to pass for me. Whereas on the TV it was like, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit. Looking around in every corner, missing. I felt like I was missing so much more because I was just sat further away. Not to say that like the ua, the UI is small or it's scaled poorly. It's just like you said, Ralph, there are macro and micro moments happening all around everywhere. I wasn't wearing headphones and I don't really have surround sound, so that was screwing me over. And it was just like all these things where I was like, damn, all.

Speaker A Right, there's a reason to this chair, this office Esports pros always play on like 27 inch monitors or whatever. They kind of cap it at that size because any larger than that and it's sort of like they need to look around more, you know, they don't, they can't just like take it all in quickly. So yeah, no, 100%. But no, I just, I, I loved it. They showed off a demonstration of Portal as well. They didn't get to play Portal, but we like watched a Vidoc thing kind of on Portal. It's like a ten minute thing. And yeah, like it's a very flexible tool set because they use Godot like the. As their kind of level editor thing and a scripting tool that allows you to create scenarios. So I can't really judge how that's going to work because I don't know how to use those tools. But they look sophisticated. They look like you can do lots of things and they've already made lots of cool stuff with them. So I'm really interested to see what the community comes up with for that because, yeah, this is definitely much more than just like A I don't know, turn some sliders or whatever. Like, this is pretty full on.

Speaker C You know, the community has been waiting for that for a long time. Right? You know, they've really been waiting for Godot.

Speaker A I just, I realized halfway through where you were going with that and I was like, God damn it. And I think that the single player stuff I've heard some mixed feedback on. I've heard some people really like it. I've heard some people are sort of a bit. It's a bit meh. I don't know. That's. Obviously that's had some rocky development as well, because I think it was kind of rebooted. Reports suggest it was rebooted at a late stage and had to be handed.

Speaker C Up because it was supposed to be Marcus Leto's studio, correct?

Speaker A Yeah. But then it wasn't just like they handed over that work. It was kind of like, well, they needed to almost start again after that. Again, allegedly. We don't know. So I wouldn't be surprised if that one's a little choppy. It seemed like that was coming in hot. But the core experience is feeling super good and yeah, man, I just, I'm really pumped for it. I truly am.

Speaker B I truly, I. Yes, I think, I think the time is right. It feels, it feels good to just be excited about like a simp. Like a simple but just like regular old fashioned battlefield at the top of its game quality. Like good shit.

Speaker A That's the thing, right? Because I actually interviewed some of the developers behind it and I forget the name of the guy always who said it because it was like a panel thing. But he's basically said, because I was asking, like, this feels really good at this point. Whereas in 2042 felt not great at all at this point. So like, how, how do you. What, what's changed? Like, how did you achieve such a different result? And he's like, look, the truth is, you know, with that one, we were trying lots of new things. And that's true, they were. And I. Who knows why they were trying some of those things. I think some of them were chasing trends, like, you know, the specialist thing. Maybe they thought they could like monetize the specialists and whatever else. I don't know. But the thing is, he acknowledged they were chasing that. He acknowledged they were trying new things with here. They're not really doing that. They're just kind of like giving the community what they want. And that's kind of all the community's been asking for, you know, especially after 2042. They're just like, no, just make a Battlefield game. That's it. And that's exactly what Dice Studios have done and so far it seems to be working really well. And I think that the buzz and the chatter from the Community is net positive as well. They have some gripes but like they're also excited about it and that's pretty hard to please Community, they're kind of pretty discerning. So I don't know, man. It's looking good for Battlefield. Looking really good. Yeah.

Speaker B Thankfully it's out soon, so we'll probably be talking about it next episode or so.

Speaker A Ready a little bit after that. In the next episode. We're recording. No, we're, we're recording on the 10th. It comes out on the 10th. So unless they do an advanced review period, I'm not sure if they're going to do that or not.

Speaker B All right, cool. Well, yeah, excellent. We do have a lot more to talk about, but right before we do, we're going to jump into a word from our sponsors.

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Speaker B Well, this is interesting. I need to hear more about this. You know, switching deodorant is a big deal. Have you been enjoying it so far?

Speaker A I bet it's been really nice. It's a roll on one actually, which I kind of prefer. I find the spray ones don't really work very well for me. Like other brands won't name those other brands but we all know spray on deodorant types so I've long preferred the roll ons and yeah, they're. It's really long lasting, has a nice strong scent without being overpowering. I didn't actually know that it was all organic materials until they. I read the spec sheet on it after they, after I got them like, oh, that's cool. But it also doesn't use any fragrance oils. It is recommended. It is recommended by dermatologists as well. It's just nice to be honest with you. I've really had a good time using it and I just. Yeah, I've Been impressed.

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Speaker A As I said, I think that does help with the roll on, you know, like, because I said I think roll on, I found it to be more effective over the years. And, yeah, as I said, it just has a nice. It has a nice scent. This one is smooth, solid. Mount Fuji is what it's called. So I'm like, all right, cool. Yeah, it's just. It's just a nice. It's just a nice, pleasant odor that just kind of keeps you protected all day long. And I've had a good time with it. They've got other products as well. They have, like, deodorant, like, what wipes. So if you're feeling, like, really sweaty after you've just gone to the gym or something, you don't have time for a shower or you're just having a. It's just a hot, sweaty day and you just want to refresh yourself. That's that. There's also an acid cleansing bar. There's a body wash. There's all. There's all sorts of things that you can do just to sort of like refresh yourself on the go or give yourself a nice clean in the shower. And yeah, it's been good stuff.

Speaker B That's good. And, you know, there's a lot. So the best place is probably to start with the starter pack. It's perfect for new customers. So it comes with a solid stick. Deodorant, cream tube deodorant, two free products of your choice and free shipping. So as a special offer for listeners, for you guys, new customers, get 20% off site wide with our exclusive code. All you got to do, use code FPSHOPMANDO.com for 20% off site wide plus free shipping. That is s h o p m a n d o dot com. Please support our show and tell them we sent you. Use code FPS again for 20% off site wide plus free shipping. Shopmando.com and big thanks to Mando for sponsoring this podcast. All right, we're back. And a lot of big games this week that we've been playing. The first one, top of the top of the pile is Ghosts of Yotei. Have you guys jumped into this yet or no?

Speaker A Nope. I have been doing. Yeah, I've been doing because I did Battlefield. I did a Pokemon preview. I guess we can talk about that at some point. And I did. So I did Silent. I did Silent Hill F and Yote just. I just haven't had time. But that's honestly what I'm doing. As soon as I finished here, I'm gonna start.

Speaker C Yeah, I have been doing Silent Hill F, but I have a couple hours in Yotei. So right at the very beginning. But yeah, suddenly. And then I traveled again to LA to see managed nails.

Speaker A That's like a 40 minute trip for you, by the way. You make it sound like you've gone on a holiday for three weeks or something.

Speaker C But I couldn't take my PlayStation with me.

Speaker A We were away for one night, right?

Speaker C Yeah, no, I was actually. I was actually out like kind of all day too because I met up with a friend for lunch and then, you know, I get you. I'm like an hour away from the airport. It's.

Speaker A I get you.

Speaker C I get you anyway. But Jake, how far through.

Speaker B While you were traveling the world, seeing your favor band, I was studying the blade.

Speaker C I knew you were doing it. I saw you light up as you started talking.

Speaker B I. I've been studying the Blade, but also other weapons because Ghost of Yote features multiple weapon swaps. It is, It's. It's good for me. I don't think it quite tops the original just in terms of that, like, wow. Like this is something, man. Uh, but it. It builds on everything. Like it is essentially like the bigger, badder, meaner sequel where bigger world, more side quests, more interesting stuff, more weapons, more skill trees, all of that. I just, I don't. It's kind of like someone. Someone in our comments mentioned how I've been kind of down on Sony sequels recently where it's like Spider Man 2. I was like, it's really good. It's just not. It doesn't hit like the first one, but God of War, Ragnarok. Yes. There's so much more. More combat options, more to do, but it's still just not. It doesn't hit like that first one. And it is kind of the same here. I've seen a lot of. I've seen some reviewers use the word safe and I didn't get that feeling Safe, like. Like safe isn't the word that comes to mind. But it's just a pretty straightforward sequel where I think I just wanted. Especially because it's a new protagonist, new world, new new thing, new time period. I was hoping they would evolve it a little more. I would hope I would. I was hoping to see them push it a little further. They didn't. As Much as I want to, but what is there is really good. It's still beautiful. Absolutely gorgeous. It's like one of the. Environmentally, it's like one of the craziest looking games I've ever seen. That was really like the first game, but now I think it's.

Speaker A It's. Is it a new level on top of that, you reckon?

Speaker B I think so, yeah.

Speaker A Okay.

Speaker B When you watch a YouTube video, it doesn't really show it, but like on a decent TV with HDR and with everything. I just.

Speaker A Bringing up the. I'm just bringing up the gamer angst video now.

Speaker B Yeah, it's. It's there for you if you'd like. It's. In terms of the combat, it feels pretty similar, but the new weapons are fun.

Speaker C So. Yeah, instead of stances, you've got.

Speaker B Yeah, you don't switch stances now. You switch entire weapons. So like, she'll just pull a whole new weapon out of her ass.

Speaker A Sounds powerful, man. What's the animation for that?

Speaker B Yeah, it's.

Speaker A It.

Speaker B I. I like it. I. I like the first game's like, focus on just the katana stuff. But here I like it. The switching weapons is fun, but what I really like is that enemies switch weapons too. So it's fun to kind of like an enemy will take out two knives and then you're like, oh, yeah, well, I got something for that. And you take something out the combat and like how it works and like her tool set and everything. This character Atsu, it's kind of like how in the. In. In Tsushima. I don't know like how I've said this in the video. I don't know how much this holds, but this is just going by feel. Okay, what's his face? Jin Sakai felt like Batman kind of in a way where Atsu is more like Boba Fett, but not Boba Fett. Like, he dies as soon as he shows up and he sucks and he's. It's funny, but like the Boba Fett we had in our minds as kids where we're like, this guy's so cool.

Speaker C Yeah.

Speaker B In terms of just being that kind of like cold bounty hunter with a bunch of tricks up their sleeves. What I really like too is the nonlinear storytelling actually really works where you go in thinking, okay, you're out for revenge, you're dumped in this world. There's the Yotei Six you gotta take out. That feels like something that we've had in games before. It's like, here are all the bosses. This is the Fire one. This is the ice one. This is the silly one. Go get them.

Speaker A Right?

Speaker B But I think the way they kind of trickle them out to you is good. And the. The way you kind of lose the thread feels good in a way. Like where in some games you kind of like get distracted and go off somewhere and then forget like, oh yeah, I was tracking the fire boss. What's the deal there? The way the game throws distractions at you and the way it's written and the way everything, the all the way the side quests are designed, it's. It's very much like keeping you on task or at least keeping things top of mind. The first game did this really well too, right? Like you were meditating, you were playing your little flute, but you were still focused on the mission. And like you. You knew that Jin was still a person doing this thing. This game does that again. But I think it's more of a flex now because of how non linear it is. So it was really interesting to see that play out. This story also too, like presentation wise, direction wise. Like it has all that. It has all the style, all the craziness from the first game. It has emotion. And I think like the first game too, it takes a while to really pick up in terms of gameplay because of the tool set and stuff. It's like the first game. Like in the first game I didn't love the stealth until hours and hours in where I was like maxed out and I had all these tools. Kind of feels the same way here again. And the story, I think it just kind of gets way more interesting as it goes along. There's also a lot more like action, set pieces and big moments in this one. Like big unique moments. So yeah, it's hard to explain why, but I think it's an improvement and it's an additive sequel in a lot of ways, but for me just didn't quite blow me away as much as the first one. I think some aspects of the story are a little predictable and I think I liked Jin Sakai a little bit more as a character.

Speaker A Really. I think he didn't have too much going on though. Like he didn't have too much going.

Speaker B On, but I think he did by the end. I think by the end I was just like really on board where I. I think the story, I just, it's. It's literally subjective. I really liked the whole thing with Jin Sakai and like the honor and like what it means to be a samurai and like what rules you follow and who you are. As a person, I just. I just like that. But I think this is good. I think if you liked Ghost of Sushima and you want more Ghosts of Tsushima, you're getting it here. If you were looking for it to, like, really step things forward a lot. Not quite, but like, especially because, like, pretty early on in the game, you're. You get into the, like, all right, I'm roaming a big field. Here comes another bird, here comes another fox I need to chase. And it's like very much the same thing. Okay, so, yeah, so there's a lot of same stuff, but there's a lot of new stuff. I'm kind of like, contradicting myself. I'm fresh off of writing the review. But yeah, yeah.

Speaker A So would you say that, like, the open world stuff? Because I think that was one of the biggest criticisms of Ghost of Tsushima, which is that, like, cool, nice rapper, looks really pretty cool combat, etc. But the open world stuff, this is this like classic Ubisoft fodder kind of, but just repackaged a little bit less grinding, whatever. Do you think that there's been a genuine evolution when it comes to that? Those open world activities and how they're presented and the diversity of them or whatever. Or you're like, it's basically the same, but just, you know, a little bit.

Speaker B More of it somewhat. But I. I will also defend Tsushima because, like, at first I felt the same way playing that game, but then once I, like, really got sucked into it, I like the activities and everything as this kind of like, contemplative, kind of chill game that let you kind of like, just focus on the world and kind of like, when you're not killing dudes, like, vibe out a little bit. So this game still continues that. But I think what Yotei does is it has some really killer side quests and to the point where, like, sometimes they don't feel like side quest. It has that thing. And a lot of times I'd literally walk past a guy on the side of a building, leaning up against the wall that, like, you don't notice he has a side quest until you get close enough to him where you notice you can click on him. And then I ended up doing that side quest and being blown away by it. And it again, it tying into and feeling like it's still kind of connected to the story and it's not like an actual diversion. Like, it's still this character doing her thing and then me going, wow, I could have just walked past that guy and missed that whole incredible side quest. So for that, I think it definitely. It definitely is an improvement.

Speaker C How does it. So in terms of. I remember in Sushima you would have your allies who you would, you know, they would train you up and, you know, they would get interconnected in the story. Is there anything like that or is it very much just Atsu's quest?

Speaker B A lot of it. It's senseis. So you find senseis that are like, oh, I heard there was a weapon master who lives in the mountains, and then he teaches you how to use the spear and he'll have his own little side quests and like, little, like, things you can do to unlock new abilities and stuff like that. The other thing is the wolf. The wolf is really cool.

Speaker A So is the wolf with you the whole time or what?

Speaker B The wolf is not with you the whole time. Okay, wolf, I don't want to, like, spoil it too much, but essentially the wolf starts off as just kind of this, like, random encounter thing that happens sometimes, and then it becomes kind of an open world thing to stumble upon where you'll be like, oh, hey, it's you again. What, do you need help? Oh, let's go, boy. And then you, like, fuck up some dudes together and then you'll get a little point. And then that wolf eventually gets its own skill tree where you can essentially dump points into increasing its likelihood to show up. And then also in terms of, like, what it does when it does show up.

Speaker C Right.

Speaker B It also works as the wolf also acts as like the last chance mechanic. So if you lose all your health and you die like Tsushima, the enemy will come up and be like, one final blow. And right when he does, the wolf just goes off, off screen, like bites the guy's arm and he's like, yeah, it's. It's cool.

Speaker A That's nice. I love that. Yeah.

Speaker B It's the other thing too, in terms of people helping you along is the. The bow maker, the armorer, the map guy, couple other little, like, weird vendors. They kind of roam around. If you get to a new town, chances are you'll probably bump into one of them setting up shop there. And then also campfire, Right? Yeah. Which they talked about. In the state of play, it's cool that that happens. It's not as much of a game changer as you would think it is, but at the very least it's cool that it happens and it's. It's nice to have sometimes. Also, just again, like, same with the first game too. Like, I Don't know a lot about Japan and I probably shouldn't let a video game teach me, but I have learned a couple of things. I just didn't know anything about the time period, you know, the way the lords and the shogun and like all these different things like how that all worked. I didn't really have any, any, any clue. So. I've learned a lot from sushi. I've learned more here.

Speaker A The fact that you get, have to get all your kid off when you go to those public spas, it's very confronting. The first time you do it. You gotta do it. It's the rules, man. They don't allow it.

Speaker B No, thank you. No, thank you.

Speaker A That's right. No, thank you. Pants? No, no thank you. No, thank you.

Speaker B No, I will wear a full shirt. Yeah, so definitely, if, if you're a fan, it's worth checking out. Yeah, it's a big, It's a big game. It's. It's a very big.

Speaker A Yeah. So have you finished it yet?

Speaker B Yeah, I didn't. I think my. I was definitely. Because I dawdled a lot. Like I, I really dicked around.

Speaker A Okay.

Speaker B I. I'm in like 35 something hours.

Speaker A Okay, cool. So it's like, it's similar, it feels similar to the last one there.

Speaker B Then they said that the main quest ran around a similar time. Yeah, yeah, it's. It's very pretty.

Speaker A Yeah, it's cool. It's chill play on PS5 Pro.

Speaker B Yes.

Speaker A Okay. And were there other like graphical settings for like.

Speaker B Yeah, so I had the, I had the mode that was like performance mode with the ray tracing.

Speaker A Okay.

Speaker B So it has a good frame rate and it looks really good.

Speaker A Okay. You know, is that like 45 frames or 60 or do you know?

Speaker B It's 60.

Speaker A It's 60 with ray tracing.

Speaker B Yeah, it's got that Spider man. It's got that spider man business on it.

Speaker A I know what they're doing. Spider.

Speaker B Spider tag. Yeah.

Speaker A Yeah. Okay, cool. I'm. I'm like really pumped. I mean, I. Yeah, I think the first one was such a beautiful game. It was such a breakout surprise and success and. Loved it. And Yeah, I mean I'm, I'm personally, I'm really most interested in the story side of it. Like you're basically saying that it's. The story doesn't hit quite as hard as think because you weren't as wedded to the main character for you personally.

Speaker B I think so. Yeah. And a couple of things I predicted too.

Speaker A Okay. Because I, I think that was the weakness of the. Of Ghost of Tsushima. For me, I just felt like there wasn't a lot of source to the story or the characters. You know what I'll give them here.

Speaker B Is that there is more of it.

Speaker A Okay. More story.

Speaker B First game, it was like pretty fairly distributed here. It's a lot more like active. And every essentially of the Yote 6. They're all like their. Their own like whole sub stories. Because it's not just like a guy, a sub boss and a castle waiting for you. Like it's like there's like a whole army around that person. There's a whole region. There's often like a whole culture around that person. And also like they go on for a while. There's one where you go and you think you're about to finally get to him and kill him. And then you start from square one. Like you get caught. And this whole. So there's like hours to some of them and it's. It's not quite what you'd expect how it goes down, but some of them are really cool. Like the, the, the. The. The Yote Six guys themselves. There's one that's like really creepy. There's a. There's a duo one. There's one that kind of gives off like Immortan Joe vibes. There's. It's cool.

Speaker A Okay.

Speaker C Yeah.

Speaker A Does it have like a western vibe to that as well? Like is that. Is that part of it or not really?

Speaker B It continues kind of like the flavor that the first game had with some of that.

Speaker C The music. I think kind of.

Speaker B I think the music's better this time around.

Speaker C Yeah.

Speaker B I was blown away. I was like, holy.

Speaker C I remember the opening music was like that opening.

Speaker B They also know how to do an opening.

Speaker A Like do they manage to top that title card sequence from the first game? Because I don't think any game ever has delivered a better title card drop.

Speaker B It's similar.

Speaker A I'd be happy to hear other submissions for a better title card drop than that. Anyone?

Speaker B Metal Gear Solid. Sorry.

Speaker A Going up the elevator. That's right.

Speaker B So cool.

Speaker A So cool. He totally stood there on that elevator while it went up. It was amazing. Your 13 year old brain losing it at the time. Oh my God. This is the greatest thing I've ever seen.

Speaker B I'm gonna cry. No.

Speaker A Did you guys actually. Speaking of which, did you guys see all this Kojima that he did for the like.

Speaker B Oh, we didn't talk about this. We actually should have talked about this.

Speaker A Yeah, we should have.

Speaker B So that's Ghost of Yote yeah, there you go. Love it or hate it, I don't.

Speaker A Think I'm gonna hate it, right? I'm gonna hate this.

Speaker B What? What?

Speaker A Like Ghost of Yota, I think. You don't think anyone's gonna hate this.

Speaker B Or just like I think some people aren't gonna play it. But yeah, like it's not like a.

Speaker A Hateable game in the sense that it might not be for you, but you know, like, oh, this game fucking sucks. I don't know.

Speaker B Because I think at the very least it addresses the open world fatigue in a way, you know, like the first game did too for me. I was like, oh, okay, this is an open world thing. But I think I dig it. It so same here. And also the combat, like it's not like insanely hard combat, but there is a good level of mastery to it, man. When you get those perfect parries down and you can do a whole encounter where you perfect parry, one shot each guy. And you really do feel like that badass.

Speaker A Right.

Speaker B That's cool. So may they continue to make cool, cool Samurai Ronin type games.

Speaker A Yeah. Anyway, the Kojima stuff, right. If anyone missed this, they held a Kojima held like a showcase like webinars for himself. For himself.

Speaker B It was an ELDAR event.

Speaker A It was called like.

Speaker C Oh, is that what it actually was called? Beyond?

Speaker A No, no, it actually was just he put it on for himself and he announced a whole bunch of stuff. Like he showed like a. Some the key art for Physant, which is the Sony backed tactical espionage game.

Speaker B Can I show you guys something immediately?

Speaker A Because I. I'm honestly thought about making it as my phone lock screen because it was just the same. Sickest. So sick.

Speaker B Man, that's so cool.

Speaker A As soon as I saw it I'm like, I don't know how they do this, but they just. They keep making the sickest I've ever seen in my life. I don't know if that character design is Yushin Kawa though.

Speaker B I don't know. It doesn't seem like his style.

Speaker A Seem like it is his style. That's the thing. Right. So I wonder if it's someone else.

Speaker B But I don't know because like a couple of things, not to get annoying, but the like cross section, right. There's like the tactical gear, like a lot of straps. Very like very like. Okay, like it's a Kojima thing. And then the coat, the coat to me is very Snatcher and kind of like Deckard's coat.

Speaker A Sure.

Speaker B Which I love. I think that's really cool. Do you guys Think it's Robert Pattinson. I see a lot of people saying it's Robert Pattinson's face. I don't see it.

Speaker C I. I do see it, but I see a lot of people say Eddie Redmayne.

Speaker A Is that the guy who I'm thinking of? That's exactly what I'm thinking of. I'm like, I don't know. I don't know his name. I don't know his name, but it's this guy, this guy. It's. It's definitely this guy. It's Eddie Redmayne 100%. When I see it, I'm like, that's him, man. This is him.

Speaker C But I wonder because, I mean, has Kojima posted? Kojima has met Robert Pattinson. Yeah, we know he's a fan. We know he's a fan of Twilight. He was posting about Twilight recently.

Speaker B He has said things about wanting to do something with him or there's been some, like someone asked him a question about it.

Speaker A Right.

Speaker B But cool. Yeah.

Speaker A I don't know.

Speaker B I just think it's cool. It's funny that. A little. A little poster art for a game that's probably like still barely in pre production.

Speaker C Yeah.

Speaker A Yeah.

Speaker B It gets people excited, but. Yeah, but it goes back to what I've said and I. I don't know if I said this on the podcast, but I've said it in my videos. Like, Kojima is best when he's making cool teenage boy where it's just cool guy with a gun and like robots.

Speaker A Yeah, I'm in.

Speaker B And this is exactly what that is.

Speaker A So there was that announcement.

Speaker C No, I was asking the same thing.

Speaker A Yeah.

Speaker C Do we think OD stands for open door?

Speaker A I don't know.

Speaker B Do we know what it stands for?

Speaker A No, I have no idea.

Speaker B Oh, damn.

Speaker C P.T. playable teaser O.D. open door. First one's called knock. There's a door in that trailer. I got you.

Speaker A Yeah, it could be.

Speaker B It could be Obligatory dumpster. No, come on, man.

Speaker A What about Stu? Just cut that.

Speaker C Stu. No, no, no.

Speaker A You can't let that be. Can't let the people hear that. That.

Speaker C So hang on. So PT is playable Teaser OD Observable drama.

Speaker A We're not going down this path, Stu. Cut this whole block, man. Stop. We're just. Stop, stop, stop. Okay. Anyway, the point is it seemed looked really creepy and visually it has a really nice sort of. I'm going to say filter. Filter sounds like a really crude, awful term to apply when you're looking at, like when you're talking about video game graphics that Some, like, you know, artists and technical wizards worked on for probably months. But when I. The. The word that comes to mind is filter, because there's this kind of effect. It's just like a room with some chairs.

Speaker B A24 horror room.

Speaker A Exactly. The A24 filter. It's here. You know what I mean? And it looks cool.

Speaker B I don't know.

Speaker A I'm just excited to see him playing in the horror space because obviously was that unfulfilled dream and all those dreams that he had, he can probably just do them here now, you know, he.

Speaker B Does creepy so good so well.

Speaker A He really does. He really does. And that was what was so great about the BTS in death training. One and one of the many reasons why I was less enthused about number two, because it was a way less creepy game. And I love that part of death stranding. So.

Speaker B Yeah, death stranding, too. You could just 360. No.

Speaker A Scope them while riding your coffin skateboard.

Speaker C You know, I mean, Sophia Lillis, I remember being, like, the standout of all the child actors and it from a few years ago. So I'm really stoked to see her, like. And I'm a big fan of Hansa Schaefer as well. Loved Euphoria, and so I'm just, like, really interested to see how he's gonna use acting talent.

Speaker B Well, I also like the. It really feels like a continuation of PT in terms of some of the repetition of what she was doing, but also, like, the gross worms coming out of the cup there. You heard a little, like, radio static. The text on screen that pops up basically references pt. Yeah. Babies. Of course. I'm like, what's with this guy and babies? Geez. But, yeah, I think I like that he is kind of picking up where he left off with PT in a way, because PT was just a demo thing. And I know people have listened to, like, you know, gaming YouTubers, you know, circle jerk this game, but I. I really do think that that PT experience was very influential in terms of, like, indie horror. And, like, we saw a lot of projects try and replicate that and run with that.

Speaker C So they had something for the first time, and they were streaming it on Twitch. And they like people. Yeah, because remember, like, you didn't know how to beat it. It was a very specific set of things that you had to do. And I think, yeah, it was a girl who did it the first time. It's probably on YouTube somewhere.

Speaker B Yeah. Once that hit and then, like, once it started to come out, like, people was like, we're like, oh, and then the Silent Hill thing at the end. Like. Sorry. Silent Hills. Yeah. So I just think that there's. There's a lot of potential for this one. Now, OD Knock. Right. So if I'm. If I'm correct, OD is like the horror collaborative, the horror anthology thing. And Knock is Kojima's game.

Speaker C Yeah.

Speaker B Where other horror directors are gonna be one. Yeah.

Speaker C Just Del Toro have one.

Speaker B I don't know if he does.

Speaker C They had a nice little pregnancy announcement photo that they took together. For some reason. I don't know why, he was, like, cradling his stomach.

Speaker A It was Junior. That's right. Danny DeVito and Schwarzenegger. That was it. So, yeah. Beautiful. Beautiful moment for them. Really nice. Yeah. But I think the other thing he announced in that showcase was also the fact that he's making a. He's releasing a Kojima sake, which I will be buying Day one credit card. There's also a Kojima credit card, which they're calling Debt Stranding. So that's great. And, yeah, that was his whole weird showcase. And I don't know, man. Like, look, it's great that he's got other. Other. It's great. He's got projects on the boil.

Speaker C Yeah.

Speaker A I think the world probably could have done without a Kojima credit card. I don't think we need that. With points that are redeemable towards Kojima merchandise. I think that's probably not what we need more of, but, hey, Kojima, man, he's gonna do his thing.

Speaker C Well, I was gonna say we were thinking about what we're gonna do for 100th episode, and I guess I have a whole pitch deck to throw out now.

Speaker A Absolutely.

Speaker C If we're not interested in this kind.

Speaker A Of thing, we're gonna get blind drunk on Kojima sake.

Speaker B Can you even do that?

Speaker A Well, I don't know. I've never Question. I've never got drunk on sake.

Speaker B Yeah, me either.

Speaker C No comment. I've got some cider punk. There was the Assassin's Creed wines.

Speaker B I have the Edward Kenway Black Flag rum. I've never opened.

Speaker A Yeah, we've got to get some of that Fallout 76 rum as well.

Speaker B I got that. I have Final Fantasy 15 wine.

Speaker A Okay.

Speaker B It's red wine over here.

Speaker A I'm sure it's aged beautifully. Tastes like vinegar at this point. Probably tasted like vinegar at the start, to be honest.

Speaker B It really did.

Speaker A So, yeah, that's. That's Kojima. I reckon we should probably throw to another sponsor. And then let's. Let's talk about something I'll f. Sounds good. So this video is brought to you by Raycon, longtime supporter of the show. We appreciate them. Been using Raycon for years. Very high quality audio at an extremely affordable price. Multiple different design options. They've recently released an open earbud. One of you guys seen this one yet?

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Speaker B Here in our corner of the world. It's fall, so it's my favorite time of year for getting cozy and eating good, warm, comfortable meals. And that's where the sponsor of this podcast, HelloFresh, comes in. If you don't know, HelloFresh is a great alternative. If you know, either you're incredibly busy, you're not caught up on grocery shopping, or maybe you're just a budding chef and you're still learning the ropes. Right. Lucy, you. You've been dabbling in HelloFresh for quite some time now, am I right?

Speaker C Yes. So I've been using HelloFresh for years because when I was growing up, I was maybe not very confident in the kitchen. Up until maybe, you know, like five or six years ago, I was really not very confident in the kitchen. And I think the fact that HelloFresh has, at this point now 100 options to choose from every week. And it has really great detailed instructions on how to prepare the ingredients and how to make something that they give you these great ingredients and you know that it's going to be delicious at the end of it. And it really built up my confidence. And. And so I'm at the point now where I'm looking forward to cooking because I have all these skills that I've learned from doing so much hellofresh.

Speaker B That's great. And then on the flip side with me, I'm a bit of a food snob, and sometimes I look at some of these things and things and think, well, how good is the recipe going to be? Or how good is the ingredients? How good are the ingredients going to be? And HelloFresh absolutely delivers. Not only that, but with the amount of options they have. Right. They've just added, like, way more seafood to the menu. You can do protein packed meals, you can do vegetarian meals. There's a bunch of stuff, especially because they're updating it with, like, seasonal flavors and stuff. So again, you can really get into that fall spirit with some of their new recipes.

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Speaker B All right, folks, we are back and we have a user question which I think might tie into our. Our next thing nicely Potentially. This comes from Anthony dinovarro who says, hey friends, greetings from old Blighty. What is that?

Speaker C Is that the uk?

Speaker B That is the.

Speaker A Oh, right. I thought he was like Blighttown reference, hanging out in Blighttown, running out.

Speaker C I mean some places in the uk.

Speaker A So it's basically blight down at this point. There you go.

Speaker B So Anthony says Lucy recently mentioned she had never played a Silent Hill game despite enjoying survival horror. We all have gaming blind spots and games and series we've never played for whatever reason. For my part, I've never played a Hitman game despite loving immersive Sims and stealth games. I've also never played a Fire Emblem or a Tales of game despite having played many JRPGs and TRPGs over the years. I've bought many but not played them yet. So what are your biggest gaming black spots? Hmm, that's tough.

Speaker A That's a good one. I mean, I think I always talk about Yakuza series as being like probably my biggest blind spot that I really wish. Like I got to get on that shit. So that's definitely one. Yeah. I don't know. That's a good question.

Speaker B Otherwise I had to look at like a list of long running video game franchises and see which ones I didn't.

Speaker A I didn't be for man. It was a big blind spot for me personally, you know.

Speaker B Yeah, sports games. Absolutely.

Speaker A And that used to be the case because we grew up playing sports games, right? Like we have, like we bought, I bought Madden like for multiple years.

Speaker B I bought the 2k football games.

Speaker A Yeah, yeah. I mean they were great. Like I just, we used to grow up, I. FIFA, NHL, Madden. What else? Yeah, the NBA games. Yeah. I used to play tons of sports games growing up. And then obviously all the microtransactions began. I'm like, no, no, no, I'm done with that now. Right. So that has remained a really. And I, and I often wondered to myself if I went back and played one of those games, like if I picked up the FIFA right now and played it for the first time. And I honestly have not played a FIFA game, I'm going to say for 20 years. Right. I'm going to say it's probably 15 years, right. Would I actually really like FIFA? Like would I actually just go, you know what, I don't need to do any of the ultimate team stuff. This is just a fun game to play on its own. Maybe, maybe it would be. I don't know.

Speaker B Yeah.

Speaker A I just have no interest. That's the truth. I did play The Formula one game recently though, they're like latest Formula one game and I actually really enjoyed that a lot. I thought that was great because. Yeah, you're just racing cars. Feels great.

Speaker B Are you into F1 in general at all?

Speaker A I always wish I was, but I'm just not. Yeah, but yeah, I. I enjoyed that quite a bit. So. I don't know. Yeah, the sports category is a big. Is a big blind stop. Is a big blind spot.

Speaker C Me too. But yeah, I have no. I don't even like sports in kind of like real life, so I don't know. I would enjoy. I'm also looking through. I think. I think the big. The spot for me is. We'll talk about Silent Hill in a second. But like a lot of Nintendo, never grew up with the system other than a Game Boy color. And even then I was too young and I didn't have, you know, anyone who was really saying, you should play this isn't this. I had the Mummy game and two versions of Pokemon, but I didn't have a cable to trade Pokemon with myself. And also, you couldn't do that. And I also had Alone in the Dark for Game Boy.

Speaker B Oh, even though they made that good, they shouldn't.

Speaker A No surprise.

Speaker C Yes. But, you know, I. I kind of never grew up with Metroid or, you know, I played Donkey Kong and I played Mario, but it was. I couldn't tell you which one because it was just at someone's house I never had.

Speaker A Right.

Speaker C So Nintendo's also. Chrono Trigger. Chrono Trigger.

Speaker A Okay, yeah, fair enough.

Speaker C Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker B For me, I enjoy Quite a few JRPGs, but I have complete series just missing like Dragon Quest. Never really touched those. Maybe that's very.

Speaker A That's very common for us in the West. Right. Because. Yeah, even though Dragon Quest picked up in popularity in the last like one or two releases here, it was always a series that was just. Only ever played in Japan. Unless you like, really went out of your way to check it out. Like, it was very.

Speaker B I don't know what happened though, because it's like you only. I guess, like, you can only grab so many as a kid because I remember playing some of the Breath of Fire games and liking those. But then for some reason, Dragon Quest never, never even got on my radar.

Speaker A They just never really marketed that much, did they, back then. Like, am I wrong about that? I just. I just feel like they would. Made no real effort. I wonder how many of those old games were actually localized western releases. I don't know. And then, and then I don't know how many of them were marketed. It was really only from like, I don't know, 10 or 11 onwards that I was really starting to notice it more. And that's recent, you know?

Speaker B Yeah.

Speaker A So, yeah, I don't know.

Speaker B Dangan. Danganronpa and like visual novel type game.

Speaker A Oh, yeah.

Speaker B A lot of people tell me that those are.

Speaker C Yeah.

Speaker B I also just like, I don't, and I don't often say this, but like, I don't see the appeal. And like, I try a lot of genres and I jump in, but I'm like, really? Okay, you know?

Speaker A Yeah, that's just me. Fair enough. I feel like I always just think, like, zooming out. I actually often think about the broader blind spots that we have in terms of what we do and how we do it. What I mean is like mobile Fortnite, big time Fortnite, all that shit is like bigger than, like Roblox alone is bigger than the entirety of every game on Steam combined. You know what I mean? Like, literally though, right? And if you were to ask me to describe one Roblox game, I would be like, can't do it. No idea. You know what I mean? Just can't do it.

Speaker B I can't even. I'm like, roblox. If you asked me to describe Roblox, it's like you're a little Minecraft guy.

Speaker A That's what I think.

Speaker B You could do whatever you want. You can get like sex trafficked if you want.

Speaker A Totally. You can spend all your dad's money right. On some shitty game.

Speaker C You can grow a garden and you.

Speaker A Can speaking to perverts down a catwalk.

Speaker C I. I'm. I feel like I might get from it. Maybe not from people who listen to and watch our podcast, but definitely the catwalk. Ugliest I've ever seen in my life.

Speaker A What is it?

Speaker B What is this?

Speaker C There's a. There's a whole catwalk fashion show thing. It's huge. Lady Gaga had a.

Speaker A In Roblox.

Speaker C Lady Gaga had a collab recently and I took a look at some of it and I was like, what are.

Speaker B You doing a catwalk as a little Duplo bootleg Minecraft guy?

Speaker C Hang on. What's it ro. Roblox.

Speaker A But this is how they do it these days. Remember when, like, Second Life was all the rage and companies were buying up like blocks of land in Second Life to open up, to open up shops or whatever? Remember that shit back in the day?

Speaker C Search for dress to impress Roblox.

Speaker A Okay, all right, let's do that now. So this whole thing is, is. Is such a massive blind spot for all of us because it actually is going to take over everything. And all of the people who are growing up playing this, they're not graduating into, like, God of War and Red Dead. Do you know what I mean?

Speaker B Like, they're not like Fortnite. I think there's at least some carryover in pop culture, but I think I see, like, stuff like Roblox, like, like zero translation.

Speaker A No, that's true. I agree with that. I. I totally agree with you on that.

Speaker C Where is the Roblox movie?

Speaker A Oh, God, this looks so awful. Holy. Why do their characters look so weird? They look just. Oh, my God, they've got bigger cheeks than I do.

Speaker C Me, a friend of a friend of mine, when we were at university, dyed his hair red and he had an allergic reaction to it and his head turned into a square. And that is what I think.

Speaker A Sounds like you're basically describing Conan o' Brien right here.

Speaker C It was much more like. Like this. I feel. I feel so bad. But it was very fun.

Speaker A Okay.

Speaker C And he was fine.

Speaker A Okay, so Roblox is definitely one. Mobile is the other, where it's just like, again, mobile is bigger than everything and we just really don't ever talk about it. I am playing some Destiny Rising, which is nice.

Speaker C You. You put your time in on Marvel Snap?

Speaker A Oh, absolutely. I've actually taken a month from it. I'm actually taking a month off from it. First time I've taken a month off since launch. But I was just like, I'll just see how this feels to not play it for a month because there's some frustrating things going on with that game. But, yeah, absolutely. But I almost don't consider Marvel Snap a true mobile game because it's good. So therefore it doesn't fall into the category of the fucking mobile garbage that. You know what I mean? Like, it's a really well made, proper video game that appeals to the likes of us as opposed to just being some, like, endorphin, like, slot machine simulator. You know what I mean?

Speaker B Esports games.

Speaker A Yeah, I know for sure. I did. I did. I definitely did my time with League, though. For sure. Absolutely.

Speaker B Valorant. A little bit. Okay, first impressions.

Speaker C But I. I played Heroes of the Storm for an Overwatch. For an Overwatch skin.

Speaker A Oh, wow.

Speaker B What was the epic ones that died? And then it came back a little bit.

Speaker A Paragon.

Speaker B Yeah, I played that, like, for a minute.

Speaker A Yeah. And then it came back as this project came back as. No, it came back as. Oh, predecessor. And there's another one which I can't forget that I can't remember the name of, but there was another project as well.

Speaker C So yeah, a lot of, a lot of things that we don't play.

Speaker B There's not enough time.

Speaker C Not enough time.

Speaker A There is not enough time. Oh, you know what, actually one other thing I will say that I'm actually really keen to one day fill the gap is those, those games where you just drive a truck around.

Speaker C Oh, the simulators.

Speaker A I really want to play those games where I'm just like, I'm just a trucker dude, just going and just driving for an hour on the road. For some reason I'm getting to the age where that's starting to sound appealing.

Speaker C There are so many simulator games that I'm just like, I've never heard of. I got one today and they're getting so specific. I got one, a press release for one today that's called Vacation Cafe Simulator.

Speaker A Oh, nice. Okay, cool. Not just Cafe Simulator. Vacation Cafe.

Speaker C Yeah.

Speaker B Realtor Addicted to Opiates Simulator. Oh God, the list writes itself. We should make a. We should do a whole series or some spin off thing where we play games that are completely something we would never ever play.

Speaker C Yeah, yeah.

Speaker A My dream is to just one day eventually just start playing the worst, most obscure Steam games that get sent to my inbox. I think Super Bunny Hop used to have a series called like game.

Speaker B Yeah, I believe he did.

Speaker A Yeah. And, and I just get so many of them like because I, I don't think anyone really knows this but like I have a curator page on Steam and the way it works is that, you know, basically anyone who releases a game on Steam just kind of flicks you a code through this Steam curator thing. And some of the that gets sent to me is just unbelievable. It's so wild. Like it's just everything. It's. Yeah, it's. It's crazy. So one day that's going to be when I retire. I'm just going to start like plowing my inbox and just doing like, look at this weird thing someone made and it doesn't even run. And it only go. It only lasts for like 15 minutes and that's the game, you know. So.

Speaker C Yeah.

Speaker A Anyway, good question. Thank you very much.

Speaker B Wasn't that a blind spot? It was Silent Hill.

Speaker C Oh, it was Silent Hill. Which I think leads us quite nicely into discussion of Silent Hill F A game.

Speaker A Almost. Almost like we planned it that way. Almost.

Speaker C I mean, and if Stu cut out the discussion that we had planning it. Then it's. Yeah, I'm gonna. I'm loving Silent Hill. The vibe is so. I love survival horror. I love horror in general.

Speaker B And to be completely clear, right, it's. It's your first Silent Hill.

Speaker C First Silent Hill, yeah.

Speaker B Cool.

Speaker C So that's the thing. I cannot talk about what it's like. And if it is a real true Silent Hill game or any of that, I can only talk to it as my experience is playing this game with fresh eyes. I am. I don't want to say when in the story I am, but I feel like I'm right about to hit the ending. The first ending.

Speaker A Okay, cool.

Speaker C The second ending recontextualizes a lot and makes everything. So I will be. That's this weekend that I will be doing that. I think in terms of things that I think it really nails, and I think I said this when I played it at Gamescom, is that I'm nosy. And I love hearing Hinako's in a monologue as it is written through her diary. I love to understand more about how she is understanding what is happening to her and talks about her friends and talks about her family. And I think the fact that it is done in the. Using the diary instead of just having the. The actress, like, speak it, I think is much more.

Speaker B You know, it's a good diary. It's a good diary.

Speaker A It's a really good diary.

Speaker C It's a really beautiful diary. But I think, just in terms of the horror, I think what really intrigues me and the thing that I like the most about it is that even from the very beginning, I was immediately overanalyzing everything that other characters were saying that Hinako was saying. There's a point. So, like, the very first scene is you. Your. Your dad is arguing with your mum and your. You as Hinako, like, it's very clear that your dad has a lot of resentment about you in particular. And they do a thing where it's like you don't see their faces, but your dad's face anyway. And it cuts to showing a bottle of beer just like rolling over. And so when I went to walk into the town, the first thing I was doing was looking at all of the placement of beer bottles and other things in the environment. Because I was like, sometimes she'll comment on things. There'll be little magazines or something that talks about what a perfect woman should be. And sometimes there'll be beer bottles and she would comment on a. Wow, who's drinking during the day? Like, that's weird, that kind of thing. And it immediately kind of conditioned me from the very beginning to just look at everything. And it's so funny when you have a horror game that really forces you to slow down. And a lot of Silent Hill F, I think, is pretty slow. But I think I'm getting so much more enjoyment out of it because of that and because I'm meticulously reading every single journal entry, I am backtracking all of the time in every area that I'm in to make sure I don't miss a single single thing.

Speaker B Yeah. And to mention, too, like, a lot of the lore and the scrap pages and notes you pick up first playthrough especially, you're like, oh, who's this about? What are they talking about? What is this, you know? You know, changing the world about, you know?

Speaker C Yeah, there's a lot of that. There's a lot of that. And I think in terms of the puzzles. So I'm playing on story difficulty, hard puzzles, which is what they recommended, at least for your first playthrough.

Speaker A Yeah.

Speaker C I love the challenge of the puzzles. I have been having just such a good time taking notes and making sure that. I mean, there's like, a kind of maths adjacent 1 when you get to the school. And I was like, this is my time. This is my time. Remember in Alan Wake 2 When there were actual math puzzles? And I was like, yeah, we're back. We're so back, baby.

Speaker A I can't remember those.

Speaker C Some of the cat. The. Some of the boxes, like the. Like the. The prepper boxes or whatever.

Speaker A Oh, I do remember those now. Yeah, absolutely. Yep, yep, yep. Sure.

Speaker C I love them. I love them. I think. I think the kind of. The combat is the one thing that everyone calls out. And I was talking about it with Kurt today. Kurt, who has now, by the way, finished it seven times.

Speaker A Oh, my God.

Speaker C Every single ending.

Speaker A Because he loves it or because he had to?

Speaker C Both. Okay, well, no, it was like. Because he was like, I'm gonna replay it and see if I get every ending. And then I think at one point, he actually biffed it and missed a big thing. So he didn't get the ending. So he went back and did it because he's really enjoying it. But I was talking to him about it, and we both were saying that we got to the place where the combat at the beginning, it doesn't feel very good. There's not, you know, there's. It does, you know, straight up. Just doesn't feel very good. And it is not the Thing that I am there for, but by the sort of, you know, a few hours in. It is a thing that I accept and I know how to deal with, and I'm confident enough in it and I'm familiar enough in it that it does not ruin my actual gameplay experience.

Speaker B I did feel like there was too much of it.

Speaker C There is more than I.

Speaker A Especially the back end.

Speaker B Yeah, the back end. By the back end. And this is the problem with the way it is structured. I love that. I love a survival horror game where it's like, you got to replay it again because there's more stuff. And they do a really good job enticing that and making that palatable because they add so much stuff in. In more playthroughs. But by the end of the first playthrough, I was like, I don't want to kill all those guys again, man. I'm done with this. So I had to, like, take a. Take a beat before I jump back in. But, yeah, I think it was like, towards the end, it was too many combat arenas where it was like, you have to kill all these things.

Speaker C Yeah.

Speaker B And I was like, I don't love that.

Speaker A Yeah.

Speaker C And some of them. Some of the encounters are kind of just like. I definitely. You know, I definitely hit in the window, or I definitely dodged that. And so there is frustration there, for sure. In terms of vibes, in terms of story, I. I'm really, really digging it, and I just can't wait to see how it ends. I, again, was talking about this with Kurt. I love that Resident Evil is like Resident Evil. I feel like, especially with nine, especially as Resident Evil has gotten bigger and bigger, it's not gonna be as really fucked up as I want it to be.

Speaker A Yeah.

Speaker C I think it will kind of always hold back a bit. Silent Hill, at least from F. I hope it goes more fucked up. I like how it is just messed up.

Speaker B Yeah, it's. It's. It's essentially like Resident Evil. Especially, like, early Resident Evil is for, like, boys who love comic books and dumb shit. And then Silent Hill is for people who, like, read books and are sad, and I think that's good. And honestly, like, this Silent Hill still feels like that to me. We can get into, like, what makes a Silent Hill game. It's kind of up to the fan, but. Yeah. Ralph, where are you at with this?

Speaker A Yeah, look, I really loved it. I. I really did. And I think it's. It's very. As I was playing it, I knew that it was going to be a very divisive title in the sort of Silent Hill anthology or whatever you want to call it, Whatever. I was very, very drawn in by its setup. I was very drawn in by its. And engaged by its storytelling. I really felt like, you know, they deliberately. Ryokishi7 the author was obviously trying to keep many elements at arm's length from you as a player. Like, you could guess what this was about, and you never really knew, though, because that was the point he wanted you to guess. And it's like, and so those answers, because I haven't done multiple endings yet, but it's like, you know, those answers do eventually come, and some of them are going to be satisfying and some of them are not. But I feel like the, the space that he provides as an author is kind of the most interesting thing, because I, I, it's, I, I, I actually care more about my interpretations of the story than the story itself, which I know is going to be a weird thing to say, and I'm sure people, like, clip that shit. But the truth, that is the truth. Like, you know, maybe a story ends up disappointing me, but if it's, like, led me along and give me, and give me genuine space to interface with its elements and, like, think about them and come up with my own conclusions about things, my own theories, I really appreciate that a lot. Even if the ending doesn't quite stick the landing, you know, because I've gone through the very stimulating thought exercise during it, and that's what Silent Hill F was to me more than anything else. It was trying to pick apart this thing and guess what? It was really trying to say. Some parts of it, there was a lot of clarity, and it felt very rewarding. Other parts, it was just more question marks. And I was like, okay, well, I guess I'll just have to keep going, you know. But I think the fact that it was willing to do that was great. I think the themes that it was dealing with were really interesting. It obviously wasn't holding back. It didn't feel like there was a, it was running things through a filter, which most games we play. These games, these, these days do, like, 98 of the games that we all play and talk about on this podcast, they're pretty chill. They're not like, they're not really very confronting in terms of their themes and topics and imagery and whatever else. Yeah, you know, like, you know, sure. Like Wolverine smashes, like, you know, drives his claws into some dude's skull. That's just cartoon violence. You know, there's other, there's other violence. In this game, which is symbolic violence, which has a lot of meaning, and it's kind of like if you really look at that violence and, and. And combine it with what, you know, Hinako saying in her diary and what it means within, like, the broader story, it's. It really affects you, really. You really think about it and it stays with you that those. That sort of imagery is very powerful. So, yeah, I loved it for all those things. Yeah. Like, you know what I'm talking about. There are some scenes where you're like, whoa, okay, so the gameplay stuff, I totally agree. And it's. It's. It's exactly what I said in my review, which is I'm like, combat's not great. I don't think it's terrible either. I don't think, oh, this is the worst. And I think many people are saying that it actually is horrifically bad combat. And I think I can understand how you think that. I don't think it's an unreasonable thing to say. It's just that I don't really care that much. Like, it kind of hits a minimum bar where I'm like, okay, well, I'm not frustrated playing this. I'm not like, this is terrible. I just kind of get through the combat in order to progress the story and learn more about the world and see a new environment and all that sort of stuff. So for me, that's always been how combat exists in Silent Hill games. So I just was never bothered by that. You know what I mean? Like, I. And, and as I said in my review, I'm like, personally, I think this combat is better than Silent Hill 2 remake, right? For the simple reason that, like, it feels thematically fitting. Whereas, you know, Silent Hill 2 remake. James was just such a powerhouse, and he was so, like, strong and relentless and he could animation cancel and he had no fear. You didn't have to be scared of anything in Silent Hill 2 remake because he was so powerful and untiring. But here with the stamina bar and the sanity meter and the limited resources and yada yada, like, yeah, I really kind of had to. I felt engaged in combat. It felt like it made sense to not engage every foe and run away when I could. You know, I felt that tension and that weakness, and I felt moments where my stamina bar was empty and they were going in for a haymaker. And I was like, okay, this is going to happen now. Nothing I can do to stop it. Right?

Speaker B Yeah, that.

Speaker A I appreciate it.

Speaker B I'm with you because, like, I, as much As I had my issues with it, I. It's weird how much I enjoyed when I took a big swing and completely missed.

Speaker A Yeah.

Speaker B And the animation is so slow that you go, oh, no. Which, like, you don't get that feeling anymore in like a survival horror game. So I like that.

Speaker A It's exactly where I'm was, where I was at with it. Yeah. So I think that I, as I said, I was a huge fan. I really, really liked it. I liked it. And then I think there's a broader conversation about whether or not this is a Silent Hill game. And just, just so you know, like, the Silent Hill subreddit is now officially kind of like semi locked down because the conversation over there has become. So it's not locked down, but like, there's a lot of moderation going on right now and the mods have actually just put up a post about it nine hours ago saying, today we will be cracking down on toxicity in this community. And I can definitely see their feed that the wall here has clearly been very, very moderated because there is just so much angry discussion about this game on. On subreddit. And, you know, and I've definitely experienced in my own comment section and whatever else, to be clear, Silent Hill community, it's a challenging community to interface with sometimes. Okay? No doubt about it. Like, they have their idea of what a Silent Hill game is. And to this day, whenever I mention, like, The Silent Hill 2 remake, you know, like a really complimentary way, there's a lot of angry comments being like that. No, actually, it sucks. And whatever else, keep in mind, this is a game that on steam, is overwhelmingly positive, 95% Silent Hill 2 remake. On balance, people love it. But the Silent Hill fandom is extremely engaged and have very specific views about what they like and they don't like. So I'm not going to tell them they're right or wrong. All I'm saying is that I knew that Silent Hill fans are going to have some strong thoughts about this video game, and they clearly do, to the point where the subreddit is now being actively moderated. And in a way, I get it. But at the same time, this is not a mainline Silent Hill game. It's Silent Hill F. It's a spin off kind of thing. It's set in a new setting. They're not saying that this is the next official, you know, this is not Silent Hill. Whatever. Like, it's, it's. It's the thing that they're doing. It's clearly taking some creative risks and I Think that that's okay. You know what I mean? I don't mind that it's not set in Silent Hill. I don't mind that the connections to the franchise aren't that strong.

Speaker B Now, I was skeptical. I was the one who was like, I don't know about this. Yeah, it's a departure. But I, like, for me, I come to Silent Hill for like. Like, meh combat and like, some okay survival horror elements, but good puzzles, storytelling, vibe and atmosphere and like, subject matter, like taboo subject matter and, like, uncomfortable feelings. That's always been my thing with Silent Hill since I saw a magazine ad for the first game. It was like, that makes me feel uncomfortable. And this game still has that, for sure.

Speaker A That's it. To me, I think that's the. That's the foundational element of Silent Hill. Right. And obviously Silent Hill fans are going to feel really different, but, like, the foundational element for me is, like, psychological trauma and how that can manifest in a dangerous, you know, oppressive game world that you need to survive, you know, And I think on that basis, this is a Silent Hill game because it is based on that, you know, a girl's war with their inner demons and how that manifests. But, you know, obviously there are other aspects of the series that people really cling to as well, and this doesn't have those things. Yeah, for sure, for sure.

Speaker B I do want to say, though, what. Just going back to what you said with the interpretation of things and, like, how you're kind of trying to piece together and assume what the story is as you're going. You're trying to guess. That was my favorite aspect here, and I think that's why it's flawed. And I don't think it's a 10 out of 10 or anything. But, yeah, I do think I'm going to remember it absolutely at this point. Like, I rate that very highly in my. In my heart, where I'm like, all right, I'm actually going to really. That one's going to stick with me even too, in terms of, like, what you were saying, where it's like, you think where you're going, you think where it's going, and you're having some guesses along the way. I also found it so interesting going in as a Silent Hill fan and reading some things or starting to put together the story and automatically in my head, assuming the worst possible direction or the darkest possible interpretation of that. I just thought that was interesting as an exercise, like, for the writer to kind of, like, conjure that out of me. It was fun.

Speaker A It was cool. Absolutely. Yeah.

Speaker C I mean, digging it.

Speaker A Yeah. So I don't know, I, I, look, this is the thing. The, the arc of history is long and, you know, one of the posts I saw in like the subreddit was like, you know, a magazine article talking about like Silent Hill 2 back when it released, and this game sucks, you know, And I think, you know, most Silent Hill games have been divisive upon their arrival, and then the community kind of comes to a view about like, well, what do we think about this and what have you. I just, I just firmly believe that even though not everyone is going to like this and feel, I just feel like it's going to find its place as a game that's really worth experiencing, that's saying some, some really compelling things, that's fearless in its presentation and it's willing to be. Willingness to be confronting and disturbing. You know, I think it earns its place in the sort of survival horror pantheon and that place will be contested by some and not others, but I think it's going to be there. I think people are going to talk about it in the years to come. They're going to remember it, you know, because this is a real shot in the arm for the survival horror genre. I. I think, I mean, I certainly look at like, Kronos the New dawn and then I'm not sure. Did you guys play that one?

Speaker C Not yet. I had to. I had to kind of move on to Silent Hill and Yote, but it is on my list.

Speaker A Yeah. So I really enjoyed Chronos the New Dawn a lot. I. Visually, it's spectacular. It's survival action, Survival horror combat is so good. Yeah, you told me. Yeah, it's super good. I. But the story stuff, really, I wasn't into it, you know, I just wasn't. And some people were, it's cool. But I felt. It felt weak there. And I feel like I'm trying to remember some of the biggest, most iconic moments in that game from a story perspective, and I kind of can't. And I finished that game like two weeks ago, if you know what I mean. Whereas the stuff with Silent Hill F, I'm like, nah, man, I'm not going to be forgetting that anytime soon. I'm going to remember that boss battle. I'm going to remember that cutscene. I'm going to remember that thing that he or she said. Right. And for me, with like a survival horror game, that's so important, you know, just that, that searing into your brain like that, that's what this game delivers that Kronos didn't. And I said, I enjoy both for different reasons.

Speaker B You know, I am curious to know what you think. Just about, I've been getting a lot of questions, People saying, should this be my first Silent Hill game? What do you guys, what do you think?

Speaker A What do you think, Liz? Yeah, this is your first Silent Hill game. So, like, I mean, it's made me.

Speaker C Really want to play other Silent Hills, even though I know they will be very different.

Speaker A Yeah. Right. Okay.

Speaker C I, yeah, I applaud it for so many things, you know, like confronting subject matter, psychological horror, those kind of vibes that's made me excited to finally jump into Silent Hill.

Speaker A Yeah, I think, I think that Silent Hill 2 remake should be your first Silent Hill game. I know a lot of people will disagree. They're like, no, you should go back and play the original Silent Hill one on emulator. No one's gonna do that.

Speaker B Yeah.

Speaker A Okay.

Speaker B I love that. That's my favorite one. But, like, sure, it's rough. It's rough.

Speaker A That's what I'm saying. Like, for your average person who has never played a Silent Hill game, are you gonna ask them to go back and play it? No. So, like, what should they actually play? And I think they should play Silent Hill 2 remake. And, you know, I, I think it's a really big, brilliant, brilliant game. I loved it. I, I, I don't think this is Silent Hill F is as strong as that, you know, But I still think it's really worth experiencing for sure.

Speaker C Because that's the thing. Do you want people to start with the actual best one and then be disappointed by the second one? Or do you want to start with, like, the pretty, pretty great one and then you get to experience.

Speaker B No, I don't think so. So I think, yes.

Speaker A I don't agree.

Speaker B Silent Hill 2, it, like, original Silent Hill 2, isn't. It wasn't my favorite Silent Hill to. But I think, like, the remake is a good way of, like, jumping in and seeing, like, okay, I get what people generally like about this franchise. It's a good example. And then I think that your enjoyment of Silent Hill F would be more if you were more aware of Silent Hill.

Speaker A I think so, too. I think that's a good way to put it. Yeah, you're right. You're right. Yeah. Because you'll also be able to understand and appreciate those differences and yeah, I agree with you, I on that. Yeah. So I think one thing, though, is interesting. A lot of discussion about price on this one.

Speaker B Yeah.

Speaker A A lot of people saying like, okay, this is cool, but it's not worth like it's a full price product. I think it's like US$70 or whatever. And they're like, nah, man. It's because they're like it's 10 hours long and you got to finish it multiple times. The combat is jank. Like the visuals are there. They feel like it doesn't feel like a premium product and it should kind of be like in that $50 category. I don't know. I can see an argument for that. I, I definitely. This, you can clearly see this was made on a budget and I think that Konami probably would have done themselves some favors had they priced at about 50 bucks because it would have get that good, it would have got that goodwill. I think it would have set the right expectations to market about like, you know, level of polish and whatever else. Game length I'm less sympathetic to because I actually think the 10 hours for a survival horror game is kind of the standard. Less so these days. They got, they get a bit longer in the modern era, but like I think it's in the, in the ballpark. But yeah, I do think that charging $70 for this, I can understand how people bristle at that price point for sure.

Speaker B Yeah, I agree. Just play it eventually.

Speaker A Yeah, that's it.

Speaker B That's what I kind of have to say at this point. Well, with that, Silent Hill was great, but I think. Is there anything else you guys have.

Speaker A Been playing actually I want to hear? Because you played Borderlands, right?

Speaker B Yes.

Speaker A We haven't talked about Borderlands, have we?

Speaker B We haven't.

Speaker C We've got eight minutes before Ralph has to go.

Speaker A No, I actually got my, got my timings wrong, actually. I got, I've got, I've got another hour.

Speaker C Oh, okay.

Speaker A Well, you don't, you don't have another hour.

Speaker B No, but Borderlands 4, I did first impressions for it and I, I did enjoy my time with it.

Speaker A Okay.

Speaker C Did you finish it?

Speaker A What did you play it on? What'd you play it on?

Speaker C Yeah, what'd you play?

Speaker B I played it on PS5.

Speaker A Okay, cool. Did it run like us? Like tell us?

Speaker B No, it was, it was all right. Oh, no, actually, sorry. Wow. I'm so shocked. I played it on PC.

Speaker A Okay.

Speaker B Jesus. I checked it out a little bit on PS5, but yeah, I played on PC and I didn't, I didn't have a ton of issues.

Speaker C I had to find the Randy Pitchford tech support line.

Speaker B We can do a whole episode on that whole thing. No, to Me. It's, it's. I, I enjoyed what I played. I think it, it plays better. It's faster, it's smoother. The weapons are like immediately engaging up front. The open world was good. It was pretty varied. I immediately bumped into side quests that I actually found interesting. It didn't feel like busy work or a waste of time, which is kind of what I assumed was going to be the case.

Speaker A Yeah.

Speaker B The villain established is at least more interest. You know, he's no Handsome Jack, but he's at least more interesting than the Borderlands three villains.

Speaker C Oh yeah, the streamers. Yeah.

Speaker B Yeah.

Speaker A What a low point for video games, man. Not just a low point for Borderlands. Not. Not a low point for looter shooters. A low point for video games. That's. That's, that's what that was.

Speaker B So, yeah, I, I had fun.

Speaker A I.

Speaker B It's so funny. I like moved on so quickly from playing it.

Speaker C But how did you find the writing?

Speaker B It's still, it's still Borderlands, I think. Like, I don't want people to get it twisted. It was still Borderlands. It still is jokey. It's not as jokey. And I actually. A couple of bits made me laugh.

Speaker C There's a fucking sensibly chuckled.

Speaker B They make jokes about like crypto scams. Like, like what's his name? What's the little annoying guy? Claptrap makes a joke about like a crypto scam. There was an island, like area you come across. That's. No, no, no, it's. No, it was like. It was, it was. No, it's not.

Speaker A F. It's not Epstein Island. Don't worry.

Speaker C I thought you. I thought it was gonna make an Epstein joke. I was like, there was no way that they would have been.

Speaker B Epstein said Epstein didn't kill himself or something. Something crazy.

Speaker A Oh God.

Speaker B Yeah. No. So yeah, they, they did. They did a bit on Embracer that like actually made me laugh. So.

Speaker A Yeah. That's good. I.

Speaker B How was.

Speaker C How was Pokemon?

Speaker A Oh, Pokemon O. Yeah. Right. Look, I. The honest truth, this is a thousand percent honest truth is that they've changed the combat and I like it. I actually do because it's no longer turn based. Again, I got no problem with turn based combat. I like to base combat a lot, in fact. But Pokemon turn based combat was boring. It was. They didn't even bother to do any animations. Do you know what I mean? Like the character would just kind of like do that and that's an attack or something. It's like, come on guys, put in some effort. So they've made it real time now with Legends. And it feels kind of like a really simple xenoblade in a way because, like, your attacks are on a timer and you're kind of moving around a battlefield. There's a kind of metronomic turn based thing working in the background. You know, it's so. It. It feels kind of like tactical, real time combat. And it really works, to be honest with you. Like, I had a good time with it, like, in the sense that, like, I was like, okay, I can see how I could spend some prolonged time with this. It's just the rest of the package is still as dated as it's always been. Like, visually, it's. It's old, man. Like, it's really old. We're not. It's calling it last year and is like generous for real. You know, it just looks very, very bland. There's no voice acting, which is such a bummer. I do this. This series could really even come from that massively.

Speaker B I think you think about some life into it. Yeah.

Speaker A You think about like the Pokemon cartoon and you think about like the movies and all this stuff that there's so much you could do with that and they just don't do it. And they've set the whole thing in a city.

Speaker B Which is it the French city again?

Speaker A It is a French city. Yep. I look, I've only seen a portion of the city, so I can't say, but all the portions that I saw, they all look the same. And I was like, well, how much. How much diversity we got are we going to have here? Right? Because Pokemon games are usually like a journey through, like the little countryside and you go to different places, different towns, there's connective tissue, whatever. None of that seems to be here. But again, I can't judge that because I need to see more. So I'm going to. I'm gonna hold off on that. But overall, I like what they've done with the combat. I'm just like, it'd be cool if the rest of the game could be modernized as well. Thank you very much. And that's not happening. I don't know. I feel like we've been saying the same things about Pokemon for many years now. Nothing's changed. They still sell a bajillion copies. Game freak obviously have their niche. They have their audience. They're happy to service it in the way that they are. I think that if they were to ever truly invest in this franchise, they would achieve levels of success that would be Absolutely absurd. Because it would just break through. Like, people like us would be interested to play that game. If they really delivered a Pokemon that delivered on all our dreams, we would all pick it up and we all be like, hell, yeah, let's go.

Speaker B And it's primed for it right now. Because Pokemon right now, outside of the games is bigger than it was when we were kids.

Speaker A Like, people are insane for it.

Speaker B So if they just came out with a Pokemon game tomorrow that had the fidelity of like, Fortnite, whatever.

Speaker A Yeah.

Speaker B Way more people would jump into it, casual and hardcore.

Speaker C Pikachu, a gun.

Speaker A Well, they did that in Power World and look what happened, you know?

Speaker C So that's getting a spin off as well, isn't it?

Speaker A Like, our world is getting a farm farming game the same week that Nintendo announced a Pokemon farming game. You cannot make this up. Nintendo's lawyers eating good tonight.

Speaker B It's like. Yeah, it's like Gary and Ash Ketchum all over again. Pal World and Pokemon.

Speaker A Yeah. So that's. That's. That. That's Pokemon, really. And that's kind of everything I played this week, I think. And then I'm gonna get stuck into Ghost of Yote. And next month's big, though. Next month is. We've got. We've got what? We've got. We've got battlefields, we've got. Oh, has anyone. No one's played Hades 2, right?

Speaker C No, no, I haven't. Consume Me also came out. I really want to see.

Speaker A Yeah, Ed's actually. Ed's actually got a review for that up on the website. Thiswingvideogames.com thank you for the support.

Speaker C Ed and I are very aligned in a lot of games.

Speaker A You do like your weird little indie games that no one's really heard of. But then people, when the people do eventually hear about them, they're like, oh, that's actually the best game that released that year. You know what I mean?

Speaker C Welcome.

Speaker A Yes, exactly.

Speaker B The hair for him. Perfect.

Speaker C Baby Steps is out. Blippo is out.

Speaker A Baby step.

Speaker B That's right.

Speaker A Blippo plus painkillers coming out on the 9th.

Speaker B Yeah, but it's like it's co op now or something. It's like a co op shooter now.

Speaker A I didn't even know that.

Speaker B Oh, it's like not painkiller like you remember. It's kind of different.

Speaker C This is Daddy's painkiller.

Speaker A Little Nightmares 3 as well.

Speaker B Very excited for that.

Speaker A There's a devolver game called called Ball X Pit, which is looking really great. I've seen early Footage of that, and it looks awesome. There's the Rog Xbox Ally coming out on the 16th. Keeper is on the 17th. Ninja Gaiden 4. After that, vampire, the Masquerades. I don't know about that one.

Speaker B I can't wait to see what's up. It's been so long. I've been talking about this game in Gameranx top 10 videos for 40 years now.

Speaker A Oh, my God. Yeah. And Then Outer Worlds 2 is at the end of the month. Actually, there's another one, Arc Raiders at the end of the month. So, like, October is massive. Massive. Ridiculous.

Speaker C Oh, is it Mina? The Hollowers as well?

Speaker A Oh, I didn't even have that on my list.

Speaker C I think it's October 31st.

Speaker A Oh, my God. Wow. Okay, sure. So, yeah, man, it's. It's gonna be a fun time. It's gonna be a very fun time. But, yeah, I'm keen.

Speaker B Last but certainly not least, show and tell, where we talk about something that we've been enjoying that isn't video games, believe it or not. Maybe I'll start first because I have literally only been. What is Hideo Kojima's bio is. My body is 100% movies.

Speaker A 80%.

Speaker B That's me. But with video games right now, I had to, like, travel. I had to bring a PS5 Pro with me through TSA multiple times, and it got flagged every single time.

Speaker C Yeah.

Speaker B While I was traveling. That was fun. So I've been. I've been gaming. The only thing I did enjoy is Batman, the New Batman Number one by Matt Fraction. It's really good. Really good.

Speaker A Really? Is it worth it?

Speaker B I. I mean, yeah, I think so. It's. It's one issue, so it's short, but it's. What's his face. I don't know if it's George or Jorge Jimenez, who is a good artist. He's done Batman before in incredible ways here. It's really good. And Matt Fraction, I just like Matt Fraction, of course, did that really like defining Run of Hawkeye that a lot of people go to. It was just. It just feels like good Batman. A Batman that is very much Batman that, you know, detective Batman, but it shows his more human, empathetic side in an interesting way in just one issue that just hooked me. Also, he has cool gadgets in this one. The art is great. It's a Batman where he's a gray and blue, which I'm always a sucker for. So I highly recommend it if you have a sledgehammer.

Speaker A Doesn't have a sledgehammer like absolute. No.

Speaker B Yeah, which I just read the new. The new issue of that too. Number 12 also. Very good.

Speaker A Yeah.

Speaker B Support your local comic book stores if you can.

Speaker A Sure. I watched Fast and Furious. Seven.

Speaker C Ooh. Okay. Which one is seven?

Speaker B This is one.

Speaker A Seven is the one.

Speaker B Sorry, Paul.

Speaker A Paul Ruddy Walker died. Jason Statham appears. I think this may be one of the greatest movies ever made.

Speaker C Yeah.

Speaker A I was utterly just blown away by how good this fucking movie is. Like, I really enjoyed one. And I was like, this is Pete. There's no way they're top of this. And then seven. I was like, if this isn't at the top of the lists, I don't know, there's no justice in the world. And sure enough, I went onto IMDb and looked at the force rankings and yes, 7 is at the top. It is incredible. It is the one where they have a sword fight with the wrenches. It is the one where the rock is in the hospital in a cast and he's like, time for daddy to go to work. It is the one where Jason Statham appears like a fucking Dark Souls npc. At random moments he just like summons in like a red phantom. Then he's like, what's up, boys? I'm here too. You're trying to steal this car in the middle of Dubai out of a skyscraper. I'm here to jump out of the skyscraper.

Speaker B Yeah.

Speaker A No, I'm not even joking. I actually think this is like an incredible, unbelievable movie. I was just like the entire time, I just couldn't believe it. And then in the end with Paul Walker, because they did like a send off to him. I was there watching there with my mate and we were like. And I was just there and I was like, don't cry. It's good.

Speaker B It's good.

Speaker A At the end I'm like, that was. That was really tastefully done. They did really well with that.

Speaker B Maybe deep faking is okay.

Speaker A Like, they did the thing where like, where like the roads go and I'm just like, yeah, it was. It was such a. It was a very tasteful send off at the end. Like a really beautiful send off actually. And yeah, I mean, like, that should have been. I mean. Oh man, I was so all in. Like, I just. I thought it was incredible movie, truly.

Speaker B Look, he's crying again. Look at him rubbing his eyes.

Speaker A Yeah. Yeah, that's right. I mean, it's just got to be again. And I can't even remember the one that I watched before 4 then. Or do we watch one after that? I can't remember? No, I think we stopped at 7. Why didn't. We didn't watch 8?

Speaker C 8 has. For some reason in my ranking, 8 was my top.

Speaker A But I think, oh, no, this is Charlize Theron. I haven't watched this one yet. So I stopped. We stopped at seven.

Speaker B Yeah, that's the one I fell asleep during. Which, like, blew me away because I don't fall asleep during movies. Like when I go to the theater.

Speaker A Okay.

Speaker B And I fell asleep.

Speaker C Put it at number one.

Speaker A Yeah, yeah.

Speaker C I fell asleep during John Wick 4.

Speaker A So what John Wick stuff is so heartbreaking. Sorry, The John Wick stuff.

Speaker B I don't know.

Speaker A I felt like I. By the end, I was a bit like, I'm kind of done with this.

Speaker C No, I went. I went to C4, like the last day of GDC, so I was exhausted and I just. It's just. It just goes on a bit.

Speaker A It goes on, yeah, I completely agree.

Speaker B But it's. It's the only good one next to number one, in my opinion. Were kind of a waste of time except for good action bits.

Speaker C Shocking too.

Speaker B Let him stay dead. Kill him and just let him stay dead. God damn it. Please.

Speaker A No, there is that pitch of like, he has to fight his way through hell and I would watch that. Sorry, but that's the sickest pitch I've ever heard. I would 100 watch that.

Speaker B That he's got his dog with him in hell.

Speaker A Yeah, well, no, the dog's a good boy, so why would the dog be there?

Speaker B Come on, you know, can't you, like. Can't you, like, jump back and forth? Like, how does that.

Speaker A Yeah, man, that's how it works. You just go up to heaven whenever you feel like. Of course, that's what it says in the Bible. There's an elevator.

Speaker C You know, what if one of the levels of hell is he has to fight the dog.

Speaker A Oh, wow, that's.

Speaker C That's the devil playing tricks on him. But then it turns out he's like, you know, Alfie Allen or some.

Speaker A I like that.

Speaker C I went see Nine Inch Nails again, of course. Very good as always.

Speaker A Another week, another Nine Inch Nail show.

Speaker C Just. Just the two. This tour. I am going this weekend. So when this episode is up, I believe I will have already seen them. I'm going to see Sparks. So to prepare, we watched the Sparks documentary by Edgar Wright from a few years ago. And man, I am so excited to see this. There are two, like, we were talking before we recorded the episode. Jake and Ralph. Don't know who they are. I think you would recognize this town and big enough for the both of us. That song, that's like their big, big hit. I think it was on some. I think it was on like a Scott Pilgrim soundtrack.

Speaker A Okay, okay.

Speaker C It was definitely on an Edgar Wright.

Speaker B It's like the monkey guy all over again where it's just completely something I didn't know about.

Speaker C Well, the thing is, is that I really thought that Sparks was a British band. They are American.

Speaker B Oh, wow.

Speaker C But if you Google Sparks band, you cannot tell me that these boys do not have the most British aura you have ever seen.

Speaker A Right.

Speaker B Sparks with an X.

Speaker C Just Sparks. Sparks, the band. So the younger. Right? My God, the younger one, Russell, it's.

Speaker B Like haunted hall and Oates.

Speaker C Still not over the hall and Oates divorce, by the way.

Speaker B Oh, yeah.

Speaker C Oh, man. But no. So Russell, who's the younger one? Who's the singer? He's 76. And Ron, the older one, the. The keyboard player is 80. So we could not believe it. And like, yeah, yeah, they. They are still touring. Apparently the show is very good. I'm very, very excited to see them this weekend of. Listen to a lot of the. A lot of their music. They have like 25 albums, by the way.

Speaker A Wow.

Speaker B Jesus Christ.

Speaker C And a few years ago, I didn't realize this, but a few years ago they did an album with Franz Ferdinand and. And the project is called ffs. Okay, that's classic Franz. And so, yeah, I'm very excited about that. So my. My thing this week is Fox.

Speaker B Did you guys know that Michael Caine is coming back one last time for the Last Witch Hunter 2? Because he's best friends with Vin Diesel.

Speaker C Shut up.

Speaker B He's like in a wheelchair. Retired. Like, very retired for years now. Yeah, he's coming back to reprise his role from the Last Witch Hunter 1 in the upcoming somehow Green lit the Last Witch Hunter 2.

Speaker A Why do we fall, Jake? So we can learn to get back up again. Batman begins.

Speaker C Batman begin.

Speaker A Batman begin.

Speaker C Batman begin.

Speaker B The meme. The meme of Michael Caine saying Bane's the scariest guy I've ever seen in my life. I laugh at that every time I see that.

Speaker C I laugh at this. It's like an old image of Michael Caine's face on a tangerine. Help me muster. Wait. Tangerine. Alfred. I don't know why he kills me every time. I'll be Mr. Wayne.

Speaker B The dumbest. The dumbest stuff. The dumbest stuff is the funniest. Speaking of that, another episode in the can. Thank you guys for being here. Thank you folks for listening. Why'd you go?

Speaker A Sorry, I'm just looking at the tent right now. Unfortunately, she's not wrong. Unfortunately, she's not at all wrong. Anyway, let's wrap it. Let's get out of here.

Speaker B Yeah, that's. That's hilarious.

Speaker A Told you.

Speaker B Okay.

Speaker A All right, let's do it.

Speaker B Thank you very much for being here. Rate us on the podcast apps if you'd like. If you haven't already, give us a like here on YouTube. We appreciate you. We're here not next week, but the week after. That's how we do it every other week. For us, we are friends per second. I'm Jake Baldino. That's Lucy James. That's Ralph. Skill up, tie your shoes and go to bed.

Speaker A Sa.

Why Silent Hill f is dividing fans of the series | Friends Per Second #79

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