TruVillain: Welcome to Lost My Save, Episode One. This is a PC podcast, but we talk about all kinds of stuff. I am your host, True Villain. And I'm of course joined by Kai. What's up, man?

Kainitsu: Hey man, how you doing?

TruVillain: Doing okay. Doing okay. I was cleaning my house earlier and I heard what sounded like a gunshot. People are still fucking shooting fireworks here. Like I just thought about that. I was actually gonna tell talk about that earlier, but we started talking about other stuff. It it's crazy. It is the nineteenth, people. That is that is fifteen days after our day of independence. Please stop. Please stop.

Kainitsu: ⁓ shit. Right, right. Mm-hmm. Well, you also do ⁓ live in a state where ⁓ fireworks are just legal anyway, so

TruVillain: Man, it's it is honestly year round with the fireworks. I mean people people buy them, save them. I don't know if it's legal or not to buy them year ro we certainly have the stands everywhere. Like you can't see you you can't go down the road without seeing ⁓ a couple of ⁓ It's it's and and like the Walmart parking lots and shit where they like hang out. It's wild. I I got offered when I like seventeen, I got offered a job at one and that just seemed ⁓ it seems like you need hazard pay to

Kainitsu: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Really.

TruVillain: work there. And everyone in that fucking shit smoked cigarettes too, and you're like, man, that's not I mean smoking kills, but especially in a firework booth. But ⁓ yeah, how you been, man? You've been ⁓ hanging in there.

Kainitsu: Ha ha ha. Yeah, usually how it goes. Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah. I'm doing all right, yeah. You know, just yeah, just ⁓ living it day by day. working and try to spend time with the wife when I can. Play games when I can. Yeah.

TruVillain: Yeah. At least you've already moved, man. Like trying to move like I I I spent all day cleaning up to this point and 'cause that's the thing about preparing to move, you gotta fucking clean everything, you know. And you gotta you search the cabinets and you find just shit you haven't seen in twenty fucking years and you're like, What the fuck? And stuff like you could have really used, you know, but you just went and bought more, but you didn't know it was tucked away in this random cabinet through a demon portal. So but it you know.

Kainitsu: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

TruVillain: ⁓ that's just that's just life with moving.

Kainitsu: Yeah, yeah, moving sucks ass, dude. I I hate I hate moving. Anytime I have to do it, it doesn't I hate the whole process. Everything to do with it, it sucks.

TruVillain: Dude, it's Yeah, it's it's like death taxes and moving are like the worst. I it's it's it's anyway. ⁓ this is a PC gaming podcast, not a moving podcast. we don't wanna well I would say we don't want to depress people, but the news is coming. The news the news is coming. So but bef yeah, no we can't. But ⁓ sometimes we can.

Kainitsu: Yeah. It is. We can't have nice things, guys. No joy for this world.

TruVillain: Yeah. ⁓ what I've been playing this week's pretty nice though, so that's our ⁓ but first we're gonna start with what you've been playing this week, my friend. ⁓ says here play I think you've said you finished up Gothic Remake and you're doing Jedi Fallen Order after that.

Kainitsu: Okay. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. ⁓ so yeah, I finished up ⁓ Gothic One remake.

TruVillain: In a word, ⁓ well that was a little that was a little s sensual.

Kainitsu: Sigh. ⁓ yeah, little ⁓ Anyway, yeah, so ⁓ yeah, no, so I I really enjoyed my time for the most part with Gothic One remake. ⁓ never played the originals or anything. ⁓ again, just to let people know, it's ⁓ based off of ⁓ or remake of ⁓ early 2000s game. It's a very European RPG, it is very grueling in many ways, it's unforgiving, ⁓ in the sense that like again, the world is just hates you.

TruVillain: Go ahead.

Kainitsu: You suck at everything when you start. You pick up a one handed sword, use two hands because you suck at it. Can't swim properly. You can't hold your breath underwater. So, like, yeah, ⁓ there's a tight economy and everything with it. And then there's like three factions you have to figure out who wanna join early on and all of that. So it's interesting and it's fun and it's cool that they really stayed close to like, you know, this old school ⁓ kind of game development philosophy. But man, some of that started showing some cracks at the end. ⁓ Like I couldn't like I got in a an impossible situation to beat this game and I cheated. I cheated. Like I that is something I usually like ne never never do. Now I've beaten hard games by myself. Like I've beaten like I've beaten like Dark Souls games and Eldering, all that stuff, you know, like challenging games that are fun. And I play plenty of games. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I command console that shit. Like and I even I modded to get a command console. ⁓

TruVillain: You cheated? Did you like command console it? Like what do you you cheated? Like how did you? You modded damn. So wait, so you modded the command console in just so you could jump in. Jesus. So hold on. Wha so when you say you were like stopped, was it just 'cause it was too hard or was it because it was like glitched or I mean what what are we talking about here?

Kainitsu: Mm-hmm. Yep. Yep. ⁓ Yeah, so it was just it was just too it was just too difficult. And it's not like ⁓ I I'm really bad at games. I mean I'm old, okay, but like I'm still decent at video games. ⁓ and ⁓ yeah, I ⁓ god, so it got into a dungeon and it was pretty much like almost a boss rush, but it was also a pretty sprawling dungeon to explore and find and like it had pretty just tough enemies. And the strategy I was able to use against a lot of these tougher enemies was magic. And like this magic lightning orb spell specifically, because like you could stay away, it goes very far. It doesn't like go away until it hits something physical or c with collision. And ⁓ it would stun enemies. So I could be far away, stun them, and then not to worry about them getting too close because I could have another spell be charged up to ready to go to hit him again to stun him again and takes a lot of damage or di does a lot of damage, but No. The boss says I had a deal with man, like it just it wasn't it wasn't working. And the very first one specifically had like it had like these stupid ads halfway through it and ugh. It was just

TruVillain: No. So are there not difficulty settings? Is there just the one? ⁓ But there's no easy you could knock it down to without

Kainitsu: ⁓ no there is, and I was playing on normal. ⁓ no, you can't like once you start it, you can't like you're locked into that difficulty editing. So I couldn't like take that down if I wanted to, unfortunately. So that's basically why I cheated.

TruVillain: ⁓ okay. And so so this was a result of like your just failure up to this point? Or like, okay.

Kainitsu: I was at 70 hours in the game. Yeah, I was in 70 hours in the game. ⁓ I was like, it's time to to beat this to move on to something else. No, it's done. I'm done with it. Apparently I got the worst ending as well. Cause I guess there's multiple endings. I'm like, okay, cool. So apparently the also with how hard it was, and I don't know if it would be any different if I did this, because it kinda gave you a hint from someone ⁓ saying, like, hey

TruVillain: Apparently not.

Kainitsu: Go to this guy, get his armor. I can't tell you how to get it, but if you get that armor, it might they make things pretty good for you. So if I would have had that, maybe it may change the ending of that game. But like I didn't even know how even to like go about doing that. Just of like how things happened in the game and the story and everything at that point. So I'm like, Okie dokie. So I cheated. And I get I never do that. Like an either persevere or just give up. So I just put on God mode and just went through it. I just went through it, finished it. Kind of cool ending. The game has a lot of stability issues, so like cutscenes and stuff in certain s like sections, like, you know, they they it suffered with with with the frame rate. And it's not like I have a like a horrible PC. It's decent, but like yeah. ⁓ the game's good. ⁓ it's like I think it's it's a budget game's like fifty bucks. I recommend it if you'd like to try it. ⁓ like challenging games and stuff like that. ⁓ but just be prepared.

TruVillain: Mm. Give me a number out of ten. Give me a number out of ten.

Kainitsu: ⁓ for If the ending was just a little bit different, ⁓ and because it has a stability problem still right now, I'm gonna give it like a like a like a seven out of ten. It's like little little little like people say seven is average.

TruVillain: Okay, okay, not bad. Not bad. A lot of people sevens are bad. Well, see f on an actual scale of ten, five is average, right? Like, ⁓ seven so five is average, six is above average, seven is good, eight is great, nine is fucking excellent, and ten is a masterpiece, right? There's no yeah, like it's not perfect, but it's a masterpiece. Baldur's gate three is a ten, for example. Divinity Original Sin two is a ten.

Kainitsu: Exactly, that's what I say. Yeah, that's like that's like God tier. So Yeah. Right. It definitely is. It it it

TruVillain: For example, which are three, ten. These are all tens. ⁓ and ⁓ Expedition thirty three's a nine, I'm sorry.

Kainitsu: Mm-hmm. I know I I I get it. I get from like what you you said the reason why you give those ⁓ the number, but hey, I mean that's still a really good game. Yeah.

TruVillain: So nine, yeah. So I mean okay. Okay. So seven out of ten. Good. It it's good. Yeah.

Kainitsu: Yeah, so it's good. It's it's above average. It's a good game. ⁓ the stability problems, ⁓ the ending still grueling.

TruVillain: I'll tell you what, though, your description of that final dun it takes me back to my childhood because I remember I I feel like games I always wondered if it was just 'cause I was a kid or like what, but games you'd hit these points where it was just like this is just fucking impossible. But also it's probably because I didn't find some fucking key in some fucking cave that opened some door in some other fucking cave that led to a demon who I had to kill

Kainitsu: Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

TruVillain: Who then told me where his fucking long lost mother was, which it's basically I'm describing Dark Souls, basically, is what I'm doing. But yeah, so.

Kainitsu: Right. Gotcha.

TruVillain: I I don't know if I'm gonna check that one out. I'm a big RPG guy. I just I don't know that there's time, quite honestly. Like

Kainitsu: Mm-hmm. I I I will I I will also just say this just maybe I also just kind of fucked up my build because I kind of tried to probably do a little too much, but my main thing was try have enough money through the game because the economy is so tight in it and like everything you want to do for the most part, especially like getting yourself trained for things when you find people that will train you. ⁓ you have to use that money. And it is hard to come by early on. And again, the economy is very tight. So even when you're trying to sell stuff, like people What you're first finding is it's ho hardly selling for anything. And then like they don't really have that much money to get it with. It's like it's kinda like with The Witcher Three, where ⁓ we go to a merchant, they have a set amount of money, and once you ex exhaust that amount of money, they're out for X amount of time. ⁓ usually between chapters, that seems like the merchants would all of a sudden get like a huge in in ⁓ income of of money all of a sudden to use to sell for stuff. Yeah, yeah, get that government money. ⁓ but ⁓

TruVillain: Yeah. Them stimulus checks, boy. ⁓ yeah.

Kainitsu: ⁓ but yeah, so you know it's good. ⁓ I will say maybe try with a like maybe a character building guide of what you want to do to kind of get an idea where to start. Because like again, tw first 20 hours of that game for me was like just trial and error. So that's a lot of time for trial and error. So it's good. ⁓ but it has its flaws, ⁓ stability problems on PC, but definitely worth it to check it out. Budget game. If you if you need to wait for sale, I get that. I I'm waiting on sale for most games these days myself, so

TruVillain: Mm. Yeah. ⁓ yeah. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Kainitsu: ⁓ and then the other thing I've been playing, ⁓ get fallen order. ⁓ I tried to play this game when it first came out in like 2019. I didn't really care for it when it first came out, and I don't know why. ⁓ I know it was like the first like Star Wars game that wasn't Battlefront, because it was like eight years was just Battlefront games and nothing else. ⁓ but also Yeah. Well, Battlefront one was pretty good. Two

TruVillain: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And shitty ones at that. Got good, but it was too late.

Kainitsu: After they fixed their issue of like we're gonna make you grind for ten thousand hours for our pink skin anyway. ⁓ yeah, so there was that all and at the same time, it was just it was like the tail end of like, you know, the the newest trilogy being wrapped up. It was just Disney just trying to shove Star Wars down your throat. There's just so much Star Wars content that I even like obviously I didn't watch all of it. ⁓ and yeah, I ⁓ yeah, it it didn't really grab me when it first came out. Also, that game had really bad stability problems on PC when it first released, too. I was on a good old 1070. ⁓ Yeah, that the the the workhorse GPU that got me through two generations of that 1070. But anyway, ⁓ yeah, so

TruVillain: I remember that. Mm-hmm The good old days.

Kainitsu: ⁓ there was that problem. And then I also didn't feel real like you're too you weren't really real well rewarded for like exploring a whole lot and stuff like that. And it's like I get you have a lightsaber. You're a space wizard and you have a lightsaber. And it's a sword made of light. Like how much more strong can you get? It's basically you're you're sh like you got a sword of plasma that you're shoving into people. ⁓ and animals and stuff. But also on top of it too, so like when it first came out, I'm pretty sure do you have you heard people like calling it like, ⁓ it's the Dark Souls.

TruVillain: Mm. Mm-hmm.

Kainitsu: Of Star Wars or Star Wars of Dark Souls.

TruVillain: Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Kainitsu: That's half true. ⁓ it's more akin to Sekiro instead. And what I mean by that is because in Sekiro, ⁓ you have just the one sword, but you get to upgrade it to get progression to have it do more damage, but you only have the one sword, that's it. ⁓ but there's another sword too, but it's part of like story and stuff like that. But it's it's less used, but you really only have the one sword.

TruVillain: Mm-hmm.

Kainitsu: ⁓ and then you have a skill tree. So you don't have like stats and stuff that you build up. So you get skill points to go for skill trees. ⁓ that's where your experience goes to. So it's the same thing with Fallen Order. ⁓ you have skill trees and you have a lightsaber. You don't get to really upgrade your lightsaber, except and I'm ⁓ sorry if I'm gonna spoil like, you know, six-year-old game, but whatever. I started enjoying this game way more when I recently when I stumbled upon the dual bladed ⁓ lightsaber. I was like, ⁓ okay.

TruVillain: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Kainitsu: I guess I just didn't give this game enough time for myself. ⁓ because that okay, I was not expecting that at all. So that was cool. And I've been enjoying that. ⁓ I also feel like since I've had such a break from Star Wars at this point, I haven't really consumed anything Star Wars since the Obi-Wan show, and that was okay for the most part. ⁓

TruVillain: Yeah. Yeah. ⁓ new Star Wars is just trash. Like I'm so fucking yeah. The movies, dude, that that la episode nine was it? C seven, eight, nine, two. Whatever the last one was. Yeah, nine, yeah. garbage. Dude, I was laughing in the theater. Like it was n not in not in a good way. Like the whole palpiting ⁓ Yeah. ⁓

Kainitsu: Most of it is yeah. Yeah, it was nine. It was nine. Yeah. ⁓ Right. Dude, ⁓ man, like I so first off, friends and I thought it'd be really fun to get drunk and go see that movie. I was pretty plastered watching that movie. ⁓ It's probably the only only way to watch that movie. Like my God, it's a fucking

TruVillain: That's hilarious. That's the best way to watch that movie. It's the best way to watch that movie. D. It's very bad. It is shockingly bad. It's such a terrible movie. ⁓ the middle one was pretty bad. The the first one was just the Force Awakens. Is that the very first one? Yeah. That was okay. It was just a new hope though. They said we're just gonna do a new hope all over again. And s a new hope a new hope was pretty good. And so this one was pretty good.

Kainitsu: There there's that one was ⁓ okay. So Yeah, that was the that was seven. Yeah. Yeah. Pretty much a little speak beat, a new hope. Yeah. It was yeah, and it's it's not like ⁓ that's actually the only good one. It's actually a decent movie. Like it's decently ⁓ you know, written, it's well acted, it has decent direction. ⁓

TruVillain: Well then there was the weird like there was the weird like argument between the directors that was happening on screen with fucking Kyler Renn's mask because the director of the second movie wasn't JJ Abrams and he thought the mask was stupid so he like you know, smashed it. And then in the third movie he's like he he doesn't get a new mask, he welds it together and then will wears it again. It's like Jesus fucking Christ. ⁓ it was terrible. Yeah.

Kainitsu: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. 'Cause it was JJ Abrams trying to fix the movie. Like, dude, it was ⁓ my God. Like it was so it was so disjointed. It was such a bad project altogether with all three of those movies. Like well again again, still Force Awakens. I can still give that a pass 'cause I that I c I I can watch that and be okay with it. ⁓ but yeah, no th those other two I can't. Like, especially ⁓ God, like now we're just going on Star Wars movies. But anyway, like the second one just really disappointed me at the very end 'cause like

TruVillain: It was ps shockingly bad. Yeah.

Kainitsu: They built up Snoke and he was so mysterious and it was all this stuff. I was like, ⁓ man, that's really cool. Like who is this guy? Where did he come from? What who is he? They killed him off. They they just they just murder him. I'm like. And not only that, like he's supposed to be like this power for a Sith Lord, like, ⁓ Kylo Ren's his is his master. And fucking Ray just mur. It's so bad. It's so bad. ⁓ anyway, sorry.

TruVillain: Yeah. Just quickly. Just you know, just bye. Rest in peace. Yeah.

Kainitsu: On to some more positive stuff. ⁓ so Fallen Or has been a lot more fun. I've enjoying a lot more. ⁓ I've only been playing it on normal just because like again, I'm a space wizard with a you know sword made of light. I kind of want to be a little overpowered. And for the most part, I am ⁓ in a lot of ways, because I have pretty much the whole skill tree unlocked at this point, and I I I don't even think I'm halfway through the game yet. So it feels like progression is is a bit lacking, like I felt like last time as well. ⁓ an exploration's been okay.

TruVillain: You're good. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Kainitsu: Like you just basically find like, ⁓ hey, you get a new fucking dis different colored poncho. Or here's a a skin for the ship that you guys fly around. ⁓ here's here's here's here's the ⁓ skin for the toy we want you to buy, BD one. ⁓ and ⁓ yeah, or you can get different skins and like customize your lightsaber, which is kinda cool because it gives you like different types of like ⁓ you know, switches and mounts and stuff like that. So that's kind of cool. But at the same time it's like, ⁓

TruVillain: Mm-hmm.

Kainitsu: It seems like there's a lot of progression with it. But I'm enjoying it more. I'm probably gonna beat it. Just cause ⁓ I yeah, just to just to beat it. And ⁓ I'm gonna be playing ⁓ Survivor after that probably, just to see what the difference is. Cause I've heard Survivor is a a much better game. Because like not only Fallen Order, like expiration is okay and stuff, but like some of the movement and everything, man, is just janky. Like even after all these years, like it's still fucking janky. Like wall running, you

TruVillain: Yeah. It is.

Kainitsu: ⁓ you just fail, like why what? I what why? Just run, you're a fucking Jedi, dude.

TruVillain: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, I I I actually beat this and Survivor. ⁓ yeah. ⁓ and I liked them well enough. ⁓ the stories are pretty good in ⁓ I just I have a problem with these kinds of games where you're it's like you c there's like point A and point B, and in between point A and point B is this goddamn like puzzle of like we gotta go up here, down here, left, right, unlock this door, go here

Kainitsu: But yeah, so mm. Okay. Mm-hmm. Right. Mm-hmm. Yep. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

TruVillain: And then blah blah blah. And so by the time you get to point B, you're like, fuck, man. God damn. And so I get worn out. Yeah, I get I get worn out by these. Like the God of War games, the new ones, same kind of thing. ⁓ the Banishers, Ghost of New Eden. I fucking love that game from like a story perspective. But goddamn, because they basically modeled it after the new God of War in like games like this.

Kainitsu: Yeah, those like 'cause d yeah, there's also a lot of backtracking in this first one. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm. Yeah. Okay, okay. Mm-hmm.

TruVillain: And ⁓ great game if you like but by the end of it I'm just so exhausted by them. And so it's like when I maybe want to go back and replay ⁓ like 'cause in Banishers there's actually choices and different endings, and so it's like, but I don't want to go I don't want to go through all that again. And I feel the same way about Fallen Order and Survivor. I enjoyed them, but I'll never play them again because I just don't want to I just can't. ⁓ and fuck the fucking ponchos, man. I was so happy they got rid of them and like

Kainitsu: Mm. Ha ha. ⁓ Yeah, I Yeah. Ha ha ha.

TruVillain: Survivor is better just because you have better clothing options. Like you have some dope ass clothing. And the I don't know who was in love with ponchos and like because every option, I think there was like a there's some kind of like pre-order bonus or something that I think was the only w I think well but I think there was one there was one non poncho option that you got for something, some DLC. I don't remember, but everything else was a fucking poncho. Why? I think someone was like

Kainitsu: Good Good Ha ha. Mm-hmm. Well even those suck. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah.

TruVillain: This is gonna be our Han Solo, like this is gonna be his style, the poncho. And it's like ⁓ my god.

Kainitsu: It could have been something like that, but it's probably more like just just to save time to give you something and it's like an easy thing. It's just basically reskinning an already existing asset. ⁓ like, ⁓ this will be progression. No, man, like that sucks. Like it's it's the same thing. Stop giving the same thing. It's the same. I don't care if it's a different color. Who cares? And most of these colors suck. So ⁓ but

TruVillain: Yeah. Yeah. S I thought ⁓ Survivor though has a much stronger story, I thought. I thought it also has some really cool ass moments in it. But it it it suffers from and I think Fallen Order does a little bit, of of the power creep thing that's been happening in Star Wars, especially in these types of games where it's like it happened between Empire Strikes Back and the Return of the Jedi. And it's like so you're telling me that fucking Darth Vader was

Kainitsu: Okay, okay. ⁓ mm-hmm. Yeah.

TruVillain: walking around and swinging his sword like this and occasionally choking someone while in the background someone is fucking ripping star destroyers from the sky and fucking throwing ⁓ into buildings and doing triple back flips and it's like, Okay.

Kainitsu: Mm-hmm. Got this guy being badass. Ha Right. Hey man, ⁓ Star Star Destroyer was was was ⁓ or Star Curse, what I forgot was like Star Scream, I forgot it was not Star Scream, that's fucking Star Killer, that's what it was, yeah. ⁓ yeah, he that man that that was a fun and cool game. ⁓ I'm really sad that the second one of the Force Unleashed was really bad. ⁓ because the first one was pretty good. Huh?

TruVillain: Star Killer, that was his name. Yeah, yeah. My brother really liked those games. I didn't like them so much. My brother really liked those games though. But I didn't like them as much. But I

Kainitsu: Yeah. Hey man, like honestly, it's better days for Star Wars games at that time.

TruVillain: Mm, it was well, see I was like, but it's not Kotor, that w I was that kid. Like I used to want KOTOR too. A real KOTOR too, not a not fucking the one we

Kainitsu: Ha ha. Gotcha. But yeah, ⁓ yeah, ⁓ I'll I'll get to Survivor whenever I get to that. I don't know if I'll get to before then. Hopefully I'm playing something else in between there too. I'm gonna need something, honestly.

TruVillain: Yeah, I thought Survivor was was really ⁓ was wasn't much improved. ⁓ but they really triple down on the whole like like I said, point A, point B and then zigzag like I mean they really the jumping puzzles and the and again, it's kinda fun the first time through, but I'll never replay ⁓ again. Every time

Kainitsu: ⁓ that's good. That's good. Backtracking, ⁓ Yeah, 'cause So, like, for the most part, I haven't had like a that bad of a problem with it. And just to also kind of like throw out here, too, is like there are some pretty cool like scene transitions that did they've done in Fallen Order. And it has pretty good lining and stuff like that. And the graphics are pretty decent. ⁓ and those are all cool. The one thing I hate though about this game is again for the exploration and stuff, it's like, ⁓

TruVillain: Mm-hmm.

Kainitsu: The the new God of War did this and everybody loved it, so let's now do this the whole like ⁓ let's go in between and like this this little crevice and you're gonna squeeze through and the camera's gonna get really close and it's gonna go real slow. It just feels like padding, man. Like, just let me go through it. Like it's fucking slow.

TruVillain: Well, so that's that's ⁓ in a lot of shit, but in different ways. That's a load screen hide is what that is. Like they're hiding yeah. They're loading the next area. You see less of that in newer games because the SSDs are faster, but back when that game came that's a PS4 I think that came out on right. And ⁓ so they had to hide those load screens. ⁓ Yeah. Mass Effect it was the elevators.

Kainitsu: It more yeah, I get it, but it's like ha Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. They had to do it. I get it, but at the same time it's like it's kinda cool. Mm yeah. Well at least those were were less those were faster, but like Yeah.

TruVillain: I love the Mass Effect elevators. Just in there having conversations and I'm a nerd for that kind of shit. I love it.

Kainitsu: Yeah. But yeah, man, ⁓ that's what I've been playing. ⁓ Gothic One made me sad and I cheated and I feel shameful. So

TruVillain: Nice. I will be flagging myself later. Flagelling. Flagellating? Flagellating, that's the fucking word. You'll be whipping yourself later. You should. I've never cheated in a game. Even even well, I mean as a kid there's cheat codes and stuff. I guess I did that, but ⁓ you know. My soul is ⁓ pure.

Kainitsu: Okay. Yep. Let me get my my my nine tails. ⁓ well Yeah. Yeah, of course. But yeah, for for as an adult, I usually haven't cheated. but yeah, that that I haven't done that like in forever, and I've usually can't like I usually don't do that, but either way, it happens.

TruVillain: Yeah. Yeah, sometimes you just lose patience you wanna patience and you just kinda wanna see the end of it. I mean it's it's a single player game and you're alone in your room and, you know, no one gets hurt. It's fine.

Kainitsu: It's okay. I I might play it again one day. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Exactly.

TruVillain: But yeah. Yeah, looking at your list and my list, I mean I and looking around I mean, there's not much out, you know, so it's backlog time, you know, just playing which I I love. People complain. I saw a bunch of people online like bitching about game releases. It's like I love when there's nothing because I can just go back through and play shit I didn't play or replay stuff. ⁓ and that's kind of what I've done here. before I get to the main game I've been playing. I did finish up my ⁓ Age of Wonders four campaign I was working on.

Kainitsu: Mm-hmm. I yeah. Mm-hmm. Hell yeah.

TruVillain: The problem with a grand strategy game is it's not usually as simple as like I won or I lost. The game ended and I was like third. You know, like a Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, 'cause there's all these victory conditions and you know ⁓ a grand tale being told over decades and generations and stuff and so third out of like ten isn't so bad, you know. A few other people got wiped out, ⁓ a few other factions rather. ⁓ Yeah. Yeah, I did.

Kainitsu: Mm. ⁓ no. Yeah, yeah. Hey man, you got the bronze. Let's go. You're you're like a you're a ⁓ like a vampire race, right? Or faction?

TruVillain: Well dude. The fucking the No, that I that's where I was playing. I made a ⁓ they were actually elves, but they were like they were kind of they were like gun toting like steampunky, like we hate magic elves. And they were yeah, they were in a world of magic. ⁓ magical beings and stuff and we're like, We want none of this. ⁓ you know, it was it was pretty fun. It was pretty fun. Yeah. Yeah. So I got done with that and it was like, well

Kainitsu: ⁓ okay. Okay. We're the anti elves. Mm-hmm. I don't believe in your so-called magic.

TruVillain: I didn't really have any sing other kind of single player story stuff to get to ⁓ on the docket. ⁓ and I like, ⁓ maybe maybe start up another strategy game, Crusader Kings or something like that. ⁓ but that was kind of scrolling my wish list and there at the bottom on sale for like twenty dollars for all the expansions was Midnight Suns. Yeah, Marvel Midnight Suns, yeah. And I've ⁓ I've seen that game a million times. ⁓ I remember when it came out

Kainitsu: ⁓ Okay.

TruVillain: I remember being very disappointed because it wasn't XCOM three, which is, you know, 'cause it's made by Pharaxis and they made XCOM. ⁓ and then some of the reviews kinda I guess really shit on the story and things like that. And I don't know. It's just it seemed like one of those, it's like, all I'm gonna skip this. ⁓ but for twenty dollars, I was like, you know what? Let's let's give it a shot. And ⁓ I'll I'll tell you what, I I was gonna refund it after like two hours. I was like, I'm gonna

Kainitsu: Okay, okay.

TruVillain: Give myself the two hour limit. If I don't like it, I'll refund it. Like six hours later, I realized, ⁓ shit, I've blown past the two hour mark because this game's fucking awesome. ⁓ yeah, dude, I've I've really been enjoying it. It it's really it's really ⁓ it's really two games kind of. Well, it is one game. It's it's what Fraxis does, right? Or with XCOM. They have like kind of the

Kainitsu: Hell yeah.

TruVillain: ⁓ tactical layer where like you you're kind of planning stuff and doing things and then they have like the strategy layer. ⁓ actually I got those backwards but whatever. ⁓ where you're doing like the turn based tactics and stuff like that. ⁓ you're doing the fights. And in this game the strategy layer is actually it's it's almost like a life sim kind like a like a persona kind of where like you're running around this place called the Abbey, which is this giant mansion Where your character that you you create your own character and you're running around talking to all the heroes, like a blade, you're playing video games with Blade, you're you're hanging out in the pool with Spider Man. Like it's wild, dude. It's it's it gets it gets wild in the Abbey. ⁓ but you build your you build these relationships and it and you train with them and you do these quests and things like that, and then it feeds into the turn based stuff. And so, ⁓ you know, the higher your friendship and bond level is, the

Kainitsu: Okay, okay. ⁓ ⁓ Mm, okay.

TruVillain: more abilities you have, the, you know, buffs and stuff in combat. And ⁓ it's a lot. It's it's you spend a lot of time in the Abbey just talking and then there's lore. Yeah, but it's really relaxing. ⁓ it's great on the Steam Deck, that part of it. ⁓ and then you go out and do the turn based stuff. ⁓ I was actually a bit disappointed with the with the turn based stuff at first because it seemed really simplistic, especially compared to XCOM.

Kainitsu: Mm-hmm. Really. Okay, okay.

TruVillain: But when you start digging into it, it's actually a lot more complicated in a way. Because you only go in with three heroes. You can pick three. ⁓ yeah. And and you're also on a flat plane. There's no like elevation or anything like that. But there's a lot of environmental interactions, there's a lot of like bonus objectives, like kill everyone within one or knock ⁓ out. You're it's a Marvel game. Knock ⁓ all out in one turn or like ⁓ get

Kainitsu: Mm. Right, right.

TruVillain: three environmental KOs with this character, you know, and so like you're kind of like there's all these little strategies kind of happening and it ends up being very complicated. ⁓ and they do a really good job of making the the heroes kind of feel like the heroes a little bit. I mean it's a turn based game and it uses a card system, ⁓ which I think put a lot of people off. ⁓ and it also seems kind of unnecessary, like, with the cards, because it's not

Kainitsu: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

TruVillain: It's not really like a deck battler. You only get like ten, I think. And ⁓ but they're just moves that your character could do. Like they would they would maybe be better off if they had just presented it that way. 'Cause I think the cards this game didn't sell well at all, apparently. Yeah. there's not gonna be a sequel. at the time I was like fortunately, but after playing it kind of unfortunately, I'd I do enjoy it. Now if they get to make XCOM, I would definitely much prefer XCOM three, but ⁓

Kainitsu: Aww. Gotcha.

TruVillain: But yeah, so like I mean Spider Man, you know, he swings around and ties people up and knocks them down, and Iron Man, you know, he, you know, powers himself up and shoots missiles and things like that. It's all the characters they end up feeling like themselves. and ⁓ one thing I really like about it as well is like like one thing Foraxis does really well, they did it across all the XCOM games, is like the pre mission hype. Like they have like this theme song that plays your characters like slow walking into the mission and shit. It's awesome. Like you get hyped for every fucking battle. And they did that with ⁓ XCOM, you know. ⁓ did you ever play XCOM? ⁓ man. Yeah.

Kainitsu: Hell yeah. Okay. No, I've never have. I've heard I've heard X Cotton 2 is very, very good. ⁓ but I've never been too keen on ⁓ like tactical RPGs. Yeah. Then I always there's like permadeath and stuff and I'm like, ⁓

TruVillain: It's very good. It's fantastic. They're brutal. They're very brutal games, yeah. Yeah, there you're on a mhm. Yeah. In XCOM, you know, there's this whole like you you get you have to gear up for the mission, choose your squads. There's this epic music. You get on the the shuttle and it f it's this cinematic, you know, flying off and you're like, let's fucking kill some aliens. It does the same thing here. It's pretty awesome. ⁓ the pre mission hype is is great. ⁓

Kainitsu: Okay, okay. Hell yeah.

TruVillain: Yeah, it's it's it's just a really fun game. ⁓ it it's it's not as nowhere near as tense or as difficult as XCOM. Because you have on XCOM you're on a timer, you know, like you're on a time limit, everything under pressure. This game you have all the time in the world. You could spend eighty hours in the Abbey and never do a fight and then go do a fight. Or do a bunch of fights and then spend s you know, it's it's all kind of just at your leisure. ⁓ and again, it's a great Steam Deck game. It's been really fun on that. Runs really well.

Kainitsu: Gotcha. Okay. Mm-hmm. Okay.

TruVillain: a couple issues I did have with it is I don't I don't particularly like the main character very much, which is you. ⁓ well his story is like actually pretty good in a way. Like the whole setup is like Lilith has come back from the dead and you're the her son and you're the one that killed her in the first place. And so you were kind of like bred for that. ⁓ and so it's kind of a cool setup, but your character himself is he's very like I don't know, well

Kainitsu: No. Okay. Huh. ⁓

TruVillain: He's fine. The voice acting, the writing is actually fine, but just the way he looks. You can customize him, but there's no way to customize him where you don't kinda look almost like like a kin doll. You know, like you're very like perfect and you know what I mean? Like it's it's like a Chad. And then part of it is you have this really just like I don't know who desi like it's this collar that you wear, like because it's like containing your energy or something. I don't

Kainitsu: Mm-hmm. ⁓ okay.

TruVillain: Fucking know why you have the collar. But it looks fucking dumb. And so you kinda almost you get a lot of customization options, but I have to customize around doing my best to hide this stupid fucking collar. Because it just looks weird. And I don't like it. And I think it's still like I wish that you would have got to choose like a wristband or something would have been fine. Like, why has it gotta be a fucking and it's like a big chonky thick thing, you know? And I don't like it. Yeah.

Kainitsu: Okay. ⁓ Mm-hmm. Mm That's unfortunate. Like that is a really odd ⁓ design choice for a main character and it's like you get to only have this and it's there forever. Deal with it.

TruVillain: Mm. Mm. Yeah. Yeah. I mean there's different ones. Like I got I went down like the dark there's like light and dark path you can go down. And I went down the dark path so at least got one that was like black and kind of faded a little bit. It wasn't 'cause the one you start with is fucking gold. Like some Egyptian fucking yeah, it's it's

Kainitsu: Mm-hmm. Okay. ⁓ God. Hmm.

TruVillain: I hate it. In fact, I kinda just wish that like they'd just let you play as the I mean it makes sense because you do kind of need like an avatar to kinda go through it. But they could have done the XCOM thing where you're like the off screen commander, you know, or something. But ⁓ but I mean his story is interesting. I mean it again, he's he's kinda sad really because he he's never really had parents. His ⁓ his ⁓ the people that you know, his mom's a fucking demon. He doesn't know his dad and then the people that raised him

Kainitsu: Mm-hmm. Hm. Okay.

TruVillain: raised him as like a weapon and so he didn't really, you know, know that like love and stuff. So I mean, you know. ⁓ but yeah, it's and it it's it's sorry, it it has a hard time, I think, balancing like the levity and like the silliness with like the seriousness of the story. I mean maybe later, 'cause right it's silly as fuck. Like the the heroes are just doing one liners every chance they fucking get. You know, like I said, you're sitting there playing video games with Blade during hangouts, you know, you got Captain Marvel and the

Kainitsu: ⁓ okay, okay. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. ⁓ Mm-hmm.

TruVillain: cool, you know, like we're just we're just having a good old time. And and and as long as you go into it with with like that expectation, you know, this isn't Arkham Knight. You know, this isn't you're just it's it's a silly game. But there's a lot of good tactics in there too, you know. ⁓ and it's not I wouldn't even really call it like baby's first tactics game either. It's it's pretty tough. And it has like escalating difficulties too, ⁓ that you have to unlock. It starts you out on normal and then as you kind of

Kainitsu: Yeah. Okay, okay.

TruVillain: Do like three star missions and stuff. As you do better, it'll unlock more difficulties if you want it. And there's some missions even on normal, like I barely got out. And I'm I'm pretty seasoned at this, so ⁓ these types of games. So I don't know. It's pretty good. I'm really enjoying it. I think I'm like twenty hours in now. The other the other annoying thing is for whatever reason like the frame rate settings don't stick ⁓ you have to change ⁓ every fucking time you go into the game. Yeah. Yeah, 'cause I always like cap mine at sixty or one twenty depending on the game, 'cause I don't want my fucking GPU just r you know what mean. There's no reason for it. And this game's a you know, it's a term based game, so I do like sixty. And every time you go in it's just unlocked. Like every time. It just it just defaults to unlock, yeah. Yeah, so that's something to look out for. Yeah.

Kainitsu: Really? ⁓ Okay. Yeah, th some I mean, I don't I don't know why devs do like some weird like default settings for for games sometimes like that. ⁓

TruVillain: Think just a bug. ⁓ and it this isn't even remotely as buggy as Forax's games typically are, so ⁓ although it's had years of of of updates and there's a bunch of DLC for it. There's like Deadpool, Storm, Venom, ⁓ Morbius, yeah, there's a bunch of and it I got it all for like twenty bucks. the only other last kind of thing about it is a little bit of a PSA actually. I almost didn't buy this game because if you Google it right now.

Kainitsu: Ha ha ha. Mm-hmm. Okay.

TruVillain: Everything you find will say like ⁓ that it doesn't support Steam Cloud Saves because at launch it did not. They like but they were like broken or whatever and I guess because it wasn't like a big game, no one's talking about it, so it never really got fully updated on the so that was the other thing too. It's like, well if I can't play this on my Steam Deck and my PC, 'cause it's primarily my Steam Deck game, right? ⁓ and I don't wanna buy it. So I got it. And the cloud saves work fine. They did fix it.

Kainitsu: Mm. Mm. Mm-hmm. Okay.

TruVillain: ⁓ they work fine. That was gonna be a big refund point too. And that's actually the fur that's the first thing I did. I loaded it up on my PC, started a game, made a save, exited it out, launched it on my Steam Deck. And it's I've done it back and forth several times and it it works fine. So they they definitely got that fixed. ⁓ but again if you Google it right now, it everything I saw said no it doesn't. So I was like, ⁓ but maybe they did, and they did. So ⁓ yeah, Marvel Midnight Suns.

Kainitsu: Nice. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Well good. I'm glad that Hell yeah. Well I'm glad it was a surprise ⁓ for you there that you enjoyed it more so

TruVillain: It's a great game. Very surprising. Yeah. You just you you just have to have the right expectations. You have to go in kind of wanting like a campy kind of superhero Marvel. I don't even like Marvel very much. ⁓ well playing this game kind of made me realize that I do like Marvel. I don't like the MCU. Right. This is th yeah, this is much more in comic book, right? It's a very i it's it's some deep cut stuff. Stuff I've never even heard of.

Kainitsu: Mm-hmm. Yeah, no, I c I can understand that. Yeah. Mm-hmm. ⁓ Okay, okay.

TruVillain: and it and it has just kind of that energy. It's it's not a Marvel movie. It's not an MCU movie. ⁓ it it has stuff in common with those, for sure. but it's definitely more in line with the with the comic books. It's real campy, it's real fun. it is darker a little bit in some areas. I hope it leans into that a little bit, maybe towards middle to the end of the game. But ⁓ you know, the heroes they're all swinging around and teleporting around and quipping and

Kainitsu: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

TruVillain: It's it's all just quips. Everything's gotta fucking come back, you know, and they're all arguing with each other. Yeah. Yeah, but basically, yeah. Everyone is every even like Blade is his quippin' and it's like, I'm on now, but it's fun. It's a fun game and it's it's kind of a a lighter lighter game. I I'm I'm gonna try to see it through

Kainitsu: Hell yeah. E everyone s talks like Spider Man now. Funny.

TruVillain: To the to the end. So Yep. That's ⁓ I think that's all I wanted to say on that. I'm trying to think if there's anything else on that. Did you have anything else to add to any of that or?

Kainitsu: ⁓ no, I mean I'm glad that you ⁓ took a chance on the game and you got to buy it for cheap for everything. ⁓ and it turned out to be more of something you enjoyed. That's that's always a great surprise, especially when it comes to video games, 'cause like there's been plenty of times like, I'm not gonna like this game and it's like I I I do.

TruVillain: Yeah. That's why I love backlog season, man. I've got I really want to squeeze in another like Crusader Kings game. But ⁓ this this is apparently a pretty long game. Like it's like a 60 to 8 hour 80 hour game. Yeah, yeah. Well, Foraxis games are that way, man. ⁓ XCOM 2. Yeah, XCOM 2 has a long ass game. And again, it's a you can shorten or lengthen that depending on how much exploration Abbey's because the Abbey's big and you can explore it.

Kainitsu: ⁓ shit, really? Damn. Are they okay. Mm-hmm.

TruVillain: How many side missions you do, cause you they kinda generate kind of infinite side missions. ⁓ and then there's like main story missions that kinda carry you through the story. So it's really up to you how long it is. But it's it's a pretty lengthy game, and so I may have one more game in me. I don't know. When does Blood of Dawnwalker come?

Kainitsu: Gotcha. Hmm. ⁓ I don't know. I am really interested in that game maybe. Which that might be the first new game. ⁓ shit, really? Damn. Okay. Well

TruVillain: Let's see, it's is that September blood of release date. I'm super September 3rd. Yeah. So I have maybe yeah, I have probably one more game in me to go before Blood of Dawnwalker comes out.

Kainitsu: Yeah, same. I guess we're gonna be experiencing at the same time 'cause like that's that's that's something I'm really interested in. And I don't usually buy new games right now.

TruVillain: I love vampires. Like there is my my before I was true villain, I was Vampiric XX. Like that's it's true. It's true. High school ⁓ high school true villain was ⁓ vampiric x.

Kainitsu: Ha ha ha. Yeah. ⁓ I'm gonna be so edgy. I'm gonna be vampiric six six six. I'm devil. I know I'm sorry. That's like the most 2000s mid-2000s like online handle.

TruVillain: ⁓ XX, not six six six. Say Sat Satanism was corny. I was too cool for Satan. Ha ha.

Kainitsu: I was too cool for Satan, but I used those X's just like every two thousands chid did.

TruVillain: Well, you use the X's so that you got the name, right? You didn't have to use numbers, yeah. I know. It was a thing of its time. Yeah.

Kainitsu: Yeah, I I know. It's just that's it's just like it's still kind of a common thing too. Like I have a friend Yeah, I have a friend that did this and like ⁓ I'm gonna be kind of putting his PSN name on blast, but I don't think anyone's gonna no one's gonna watch this right now. ⁓ like

TruVillain: Watch this episode do millions of views and then he gets fucking harassed for some reason.

Kainitsu: Who who is who are these people? Why? Hey dude, I'm sorry. ⁓ you might want to change your name. But yeah, no, he he wanted to be called I I don't know why he decided to call like master, but he put X's in between the whole every single letter. I'm like, dude, like that's weird.

TruVillain: It was MXAX S X T that's crazy. That's too much edginess. That's when edginess goes wrong. Like, never go full edgy. Edgelord.

Kainitsu: Yeah. Yeah, dude. Yeah. I I was like, man, alright. All right. Well I'm I glad I haven't done it with a with a name, so

TruVillain: Yeah, but I love vampires. I love v now, not Twilight Vampires, not I love like y you know, Underworld, ⁓ Dracula, you know, the classics. ⁓ yeah, vampires like badass, evil, fucking angry vampires. And this game looks fucking aw I've seen one trailer, I don't wanna see anything else 'cause I'm sold on it. ⁓

Kainitsu: Yeah. Okay, okay. Yeah yeah. Mm-hmm. You know, like vampires. Not sh not Hell yeah. I I've seen a trailer and I watched the one extended gameplay feature 'cause I was really just curious to see what they're gonna be doing with like, you know, exploration and everything like that. And I'm like, shit, I'm probably gonna buy this game when it comes out.

TruVillain: Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah, I'm definitely am. ⁓ and I'm hoping I can comfortably get it done before GTA. I should, yeah, it's like two months, so I should be able to get that comfortably in there. Well it's not they said it's not like witcher length. It's not like hundreds of hours, it's more like seventy hours. So I think Yeah. Yeah. We'll see. ⁓ but yeah, I'm hyped about that. But that's I I

Kainitsu: Mm-hmm. Maybe. Mm-hmm. That's still a lengthy lengthy game though, man.

TruVillain: I may try to squeeze, ⁓ after this one 'cause it's not that line but that that vampire game, I never played it, and that might be a good like

Kainitsu: the one we were like a a doctor that's a vampire? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

TruVillain: Yeah, you're like a yeah, it's from the it's from Don't Nod, yeah. I

Kainitsu: Yeah, I never played it. I I heard okay things.

TruVillain: Yeah. Funny thing is I'm like I never think about it, but I'm kind of like low key, a pretty major don't nod fan. And only f only recently too, over like the last two years, 'cause I just like I'll randomly years later happen upon their games. So like I played both Life is Strange games, ⁓ of theirs. None of the ones after 'cause it wasn't them. ⁓ and those are great. Like I I I I was shocked by how much I like those games.

Kainitsu: Really? Okay. Mm-hmm.

TruVillain: ⁓ 'cause I I kind of always laughed at them from the out you know, like, ⁓ those are fucking, you know, woke ass fucking teenage games. Corny ass. And they are corny, but they're they're shockingly good. And then I played Banisher's Ghost of New Eden, which I talked about at the top of the show. And that game's awesome. That game's fantastic. Again, it does that weird like point A to point B shit that I get tired of. But the story, dude, it's so good. The story is

Kainitsu: Yeah. Look look at this this blue haired lady. Mm.

TruVillain: really good in the set it takes place in kinda like a like pilgrim times, you know, like that kinda yeah, like that kinda olden times and you're like a yeah. You're like a ghost hunter. Yeah, you're like a ghost hunter. Like in you're like in the like the colonies and stuff, you know, there's like you know, it's it's awesome. I highly recommend it. Yeah. No, it's a great setting. Yeah, it's a great setting, a great story. I'm not gonna spoil it 'cause I don't even want to spoil the setup because

Kainitsu: Huh. Okay. We let's go to Plymouth Rock. Mm. That's that's actually pretty interesting. You don't see too many things from that time era. I mean ⁓ wow, okay. Hm. ⁓

TruVillain: I went into I went into this game blind. There's a demo for it. There's a demo for it. I yeah, I recommend trying the demo sold me on it actually. I played the demo and ⁓ and it's like, ⁓ shit, okay. And then when you realize like what c like like comes after the demo, you're like, ⁓ Yeah, it's it's great. It's fantastic.

Kainitsu: Mm. Okay, okay. Hell yeah. ⁓ I just want to say just like a quick note. I I am very happy that demos have become a thing again. Like they they they like I'm old. So like mid mid nineties and like late nineties and early two thousands, ⁓ you would you'd get game demos pretty often and like you get them like in the weirdest ways possible because it's the nineties and capitalism's like everywhere.

TruVillain: Mm-hmm.

Kainitsu: ⁓ doing trying crazy things to get kids' money and stuff. So, like, ⁓ man, you went and got a pizza from Pizza Hut. Well, here's a PlayStation disc with all these demos. Like so it and then like you, ⁓ you got you got PlayStation magazine. Yes, there used to be a thing called a magazine. People read them like a newspaper.

TruVillain: Be some dude in a fucking Yeah. The d the dude in the trench coat selling kids cigarettes on the mall fucking also gave him a demo disc with it.

Kainitsu: Come on out of kid. You can't just sit here and read that shit. You gotta buy it. Get out of here. I just I just think of someone who's at one of those I don't know. I just think of that being one of those people smoking and have like almost a stoma in their throat. So ⁓ but yeah, ⁓ so yeah, you would you would get demos pretty more often, and they're not always like great demos, but you it would it'd be a way to like try games and stuff and

TruVillain: Why is he? Why is he from New Jersey?

Kainitsu: Then they that like just basically stopped and it was basic was pretty much exclusive to, you know, fucking journalists and stuff. And it's like, Man, I wanna try this game too. And like sometimes you would get one like I remember there being a Bioshock demo for the 360. I was like, Holy shit, that's awesome. And it was a really, really, really lengthy ⁓ demo too. It was it was brilliantly like the the first almost quarter of that game, like the first major boss and stuff. ⁓ and I was like, Okay, cool, I'm sold, I'm gonna get this game. ⁓ but yeah.

TruVillain: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Kainitsu: I'm happy that demos have made a comeback because it's a good way to try stuff. Also, it really helps out Dindi ⁓ indie developers a lot too.

TruVillain: Yeah. Mhm. Yeah, the other thing about the ⁓ the Banishers demo, if you do tr which I do recommend you and anyone who happens to listen to this, ⁓ the thing about it is that game is the combat starts out really basic. Like really like I and you're sitting there, I hope it and but it r it it expands quite significantly. Like as the game goes on. It's one of those where like you start real basic and then by the end of the game it's it's it's really expanded. There's

Kainitsu: Mm-hmm. ⁓ okay. Hmm. Hell yeah.

TruVillain: Now it never ge it never reaches the levels of God of War or anything like that, but it it it gets a lot more serviceable, I would say. So I yeah. Yeah, it's it's fanta I love it. It's a great game.

Kainitsu: Okay. Well that's interesting. I might need to give that game a try. I always like trying new things. Okay. Hell yeah. Buy it.

TruVillain: Speaking of things I don't like and don't love and hate the news The news we have a few

Kainitsu: Mm mm. Mm. Now it's now it's the s it's sad time now.

TruVillain: Everyone. ⁓ see we're wearing black. ⁓ both of us wearing black for the for the news. ⁓ got a few quick things here before we get to some of the the bigger items here. tell me about this ⁓ AMD New Egg thing. ⁓ this was your one of yours that you you ⁓ added.

Kainitsu: Yeah, yeah. ⁓ this is ⁓ the we ⁓ yeah, kind of a weird weird news thing. So new egg, ⁓ which a lot of people have used throughout the years, so that was like that was like the place to buy PC parts online. ⁓ before Amazon and everything. and whenever parts are actually a lot cheaper. So but they're not as popular now these days because of like ⁓ some of their policies and change of ownership and all that. But

TruVillain: Mm-hmm.

Kainitsu: ⁓ according to ⁓ Yahoo Finance, ⁓ Veg is launching a ⁓ North America exclusive AMD Ryzen 7 7700 X3D processor. ⁓ for a lore cost way into high-end gaming. Is the title of ⁓ this article. ⁓ and a and a mid-rising memory cost. So that right there. That's that. Yep, that's the thing right there. So ⁓ to tie this in a little bit as well, ⁓ there's also recently, not too long ago, ⁓ I want to say about maybe two weeks ago, ⁓ AMD also started reproduction of the Ryzen 75800 X3D ⁓ processor as well. That's already been released and 15 minutes in, they were basically all bought bought by scalpers. ⁓ which is

TruVillain: Mm-hmm. As you do.

Kainitsu: Yep, as it happens. As as the legend goes. but yeah, ⁓ that that's some pretty sad news. But it's just weird that like there you can get this processor that's new and is like, ⁓ we're gonna help you save costs, but you can only buy in this one place. And it's a place that most people don't really like wanna, you know, trust or buy from these days. So I don't know why they went with that word exclusivity deal. Maybe it's a timed exclusive. I don't know. what it sounds like. It's just gonna be

TruVillain: Mm.

Kainitsu: That's where you're gonna buy that. But I did look this up because I was curious because I saw it when I was searching up some things. And actually on Amazon right now, ⁓ you can get ⁓ a Ryzen 7 5800 X3D ⁓ for three hundred and fifty dollars. That's actually what ⁓ AMD has ⁓ set this the price for. So it's it's a hundred dollars cheaper than when it first came out, four years ago, four or five years ago, I want to say. But feels like it should be a little cheaper 'cause it's definitely not near the price it was before it stopped production 'cause like, man, this was like Not too long ago, that was like a two hundred dollar processor.

TruVillain: Those are those are equivalent to the the I fives, right? Kinda kind of around there.

Kainitsu: ⁓ yeah, the sevens are like kinda closer to the like the I fives, maybe sevens depending depending on on what it is with the cores and everything.

TruVillain: Yeah. I'm I'm a I'm a Intel NVIDIA snob, so like AMD ⁓ I'm less knowledgeable on but I'm pretty sure the 'cause like the the what was it the ninety eight hundred, those are more of like the the high right, the ⁓ like the I nine kinda. Yeah. Yeah.

Kainitsu: Okay. Gotcha. Yeah, yeah, there's like more of the the yeah, the I9 twelve Ks and stuff. Yeah. ⁓ or 13Ks. Like I forgot where they're at now with with Intel processors. It's been a minute since I've because I can't I can't afford it. ⁓ so ⁓ the fifty eight hundred X3D, it is currently three hundred and fifty dollars. You can actually get this on Amazon right now for three hundred and fifty dollars. And again, that's not a bad deal. It's pretty decent. But ⁓ but here here's this. ⁓ also on

TruVillain: And you said that was how much? Mm-hmm. You you can get an I five for two fifty. You can get a I five for two fifty. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Kainitsu: Damn, I'm surprised that's so much cheaper than AMD. but is that like the low-end i5 or the high-end one? Because they're they have like tiers.

TruVillain: It's the fourteen s fourteen six hundred K. So I mean the that's yeah, it's the K. So I mean it's it's ⁓ which I mean, yeah. It's the one that I think is most comparable to the one that we're talking about here. So

Kainitsu: Not too bad. Okay, yeah. That's this but but but Yeah. But but get this though. So ⁓ also on Amazon, you can get an AMD Ryzen seven seventy hundred X three D. $350. So it's a weird competition it has with itself right now on the site. And it's even like from the AMD store on Amazon. So I I if you're in if you're going to get yourself ⁓ an AM4 processor to work with your DDR4 RAM, because no one can fucking buy RAM for DDI five D DR5 to upgrade their systems.

TruVillain: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. The old D D of Or Mm.

Kainitsu: ⁓ you have some options now if you have an AMD setup for yourself, which I actually still am on ⁓ an AMD or AM4, AMDM4 and ⁓ DDR4 setup. So these are actually some decent prices. I might I might do this for myself just to have some assemblance of upgrade for power. I have a I have a 5700 X in here right now. Again, it's not bad. You know, it's an eight core, 16 thread. ⁓ it's a decent processor, but I can't

TruVillain: Mm-hmm.

Kainitsu: It's it's giving me the only real way I can, you know, upgrade and I'm sad it's more than I want it to be.

TruVillain: Well We're all gonna be on AMD rigs if this shit keeps up, you know. Like Yeah. I can't yeah, I play too many Paradox games to get a fucking ⁓ fifty what is it, fifty seven hundred, is that? Yeah, or an I five. Like I need like you can get by I fives are good for most games. ⁓ but in games like Paradox games or even maybe like a GTA six, anything with like heavy simulation, you're gonna need

Kainitsu: We're all gonna be on D D four until we're eighty. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

TruVillain: to step up from that, obviously. ⁓ if you're just playing if you're playing COD, if you're playing even like Midnight Suns, like just games like that, Gothic probably even that should be most fine for most people.

Kainitsu: ⁓ yeah, yeah. Dude, that reminds me of mm. Yeah, yeah, definitely. But yeah, like you're saying, if you need something that's gonna need a lot more processing power, yeah, you're gonna have to get a little bit more beefy processor. Cause like it just made me think of ⁓ of Red Faction Gorilla. Dude, when that game first came out on PCs, it just ate processors, like nobody could really play the game. Like you go destroy a building, it's like, ⁓ man, I love having four frames a second.

TruVillain: Yeah. Yeah. Honestly, I mean I unless if you're unless you're really budget constrained, I definitely recommend investing in a good processor, like I mean, go in the step up. But I mean, you know, mm Times is tough out there, you know, like But I would at least get get the I seven or the equivalent if you can spring for it. just 'cause you don't want to be processor limited, right? I mean

Kainitsu: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Times are tough. They they be hard out there. Mm-hmm. No, no. And and and I and I kinda am with this currently. I think that may have also been why I've had some stability issues with with Gothic One, 'cause again it's like a lot more games are a bit more process dependent than, you know, GPU. ⁓ but it's kinda going back to GPU i w or kind of more in the middle. It's like you gotta have two both be good. So ⁓ to have a good experience with everything, so

TruVillain: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. And I ⁓ an I seven or whatever the AMD equivalent is is probably good enough. You don't have to go I nine for sure.

Kainitsu: Yeah, the Verizon Sevens, ⁓ the seven series are are are decent. Like it's like mid tier, but it's still technically like a high end machine ⁓ for yourself without going into like, you know, breaking your bank. And then they have what then they have the thread ripper with the AMD dude. Like those those things are those things are stupid. Like the like just the cash alone on one of those is is like a stupid amount. And it's like what? ⁓ and those are really expensive, but at like the same time

TruVillain: Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Kainitsu: You're not gonna really have anything that's gonna utilize all of that power and those that many threads and stuff. So, like thread ripper is just kind of like a fun thing to have if you have a stupid amount of money.

TruVillain: Or I mean if you're doing a lot of ⁓ like editing and stuff and and things of that nature, yeah. Yeah. ⁓ but yeah, for for mo even like you know, even Paradox games, I mean an I seven will do you just fine or whatever the the Ryzen equivalent is of an I seven. I don't like said I'm

Kainitsu: Yeah, that can that can definitely help with that. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Right. ⁓ it's gonna be that's gonna like the the seven series ⁓ for Ryzen Sevens. The Horizon fives are like the lower ones are just a little bit under for I fives, but like the higher ones for the Ryzen fives like closer to I five and the horizon sevens are like the low end ones are like you know closer to like just above the i five and then you get further up, they're closer to the i seven. So like they're not they're AMD makes some decent hardware. But yeah, ⁓ there's still some things out there you can get right now. Apparently, apparently I apparently can get an I five for like two fifty.

TruVillain: Okay. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Kainitsu: If you want to go Intel.

TruVillain: ⁓ yeah. Yeah. Which I mean, you know. Again, I'm it's harder and harder to be an Intel snob these days, you know, like it's and in Nvidia it's you're ⁓ you feel more like an abuse victim, quite frankly, but

Kainitsu: Well, Yeah man, dude ⁓ god fucking NVIDIA right anyway.

TruVillain: Anyway. Moving on. ⁓ Black Flag sold three million copies in the first week. Two million of that, I think, was in the first day. ⁓ Yeah, it's pretty wild. ⁓ a lot of people kind of upset though. I think it has really negative reviews on Steam, I think. Because ⁓ the microtransaction situation going on. ⁓ let's see. Let me check it.

Kainitsu: ⁓ it's pretty crazy. Yeah, I mean Yeah. That's not too surprising, ⁓ being Ubisoft at all because they're Ubisoft and they suck. And it's not like the first time they try to like put microtransactions in a single player game.

TruVillain: I mean I think it's all s ⁓ very positive. Okay. Well. But I mean it's all skins, I think. Yeah. It's all like but it there are they're like

Kainitsu: Okay. But st dude, like why are you making why are you making me buy this for a fucking single player game? Like just you made it, just let me unlock it. Give me some progression.

TruVillain: Yeah. Well and they're really like Yeah. And they're really like like the hellfire ⁓ fucking yeah skin where it makes you fucking look like a demon and I don't know. Yeah, I I don't know, man. Like part of me doesn't care because it's just skins and stuff, but it also just feels skeevy. Like I think stuff like that I think stuff like that should just be like fun stuff that you find in the game.

Kainitsu: I'm on fire, bruh. It it did what it is.

TruVillain: But I ⁓ y you're definitely gonna see more and more of this kind of thing for sure.

Kainitsu: Well, it it it's become more of a thing. It has been, but like it's it's less in single player games. It's rampant, obviously, in like, you know, multiplayer and live service games and all that shit. ⁓ but yeah, no, it's it's disheartening. It's disheartening to seem like we want to run games like a mobile game, and I get it, they're a business and all of that, but co come on, man. I'm buying a single player game. I'm getting a single player experience. Just give me the single player experience, like

TruVillain: Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Kainitsu: I understand you need money and development costs are really expensive. But to be completely honest, you chose to make those expensive costs. You chose to have these big teams. You chose to go that route to spend like a quarter billion dollars to make a game. That's not my fault. That's your fault. That is bad management of your money. ⁓ so yeah, I get it. Like making games expensive, they're less profitable coming back because sales go down again.

TruVillain: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah.

Kainitsu: Like it takes more and more to get that revenue back to spending s by spending so much. But at the same time, come on, man. Like pre I like I I barely just get by like pre order bonus shit to begin with. ⁓ or like ⁓ get the deluxe edition to get these extra things and then you know. ⁓ and sometimes I do that. If it's like I did it with ⁓ Stiller Blade and ⁓ and Blackmith Wukong because those are technically like independent studios. So I wanted to give I wanted to support them.

TruVillain: Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Kainitsu: ⁓ but but for like these larger fucking de publishers and developers, nah fuck just just fuck you. Like that's all I can say. Like yeah, like like I I I I complain it about plenty of times and you will hear this from me a lot. Blizzard. Blizzard.

TruVillain: Fuck you. Yeah. The old blizzard. The old blizzard.

Kainitsu: They are the most egregious They're the most egregious, the most greedy when it comes to like skins and shit, man. Like

TruVillain: I I'll say this though, Blizzard does have really really good skins though. I've I don't I'm glad they don't keep a running tally of the skins and the money you paid for it in Overwatch because I would be whew. I could have retired. I could have retired, boy. You

Kainitsu: Well here's the thing. I've only spent like a mortgage on ⁓ it's okay.

TruVillain: Dude, I am I'm a fucking mark for a good fucking skin, dude. And well in in a free to play multiplayer game, yeah. In a fucking Assassin's Creed game, probably not, you know, like single play like like to me it you're supposed to unlock it, you know. I bought the game. Gimme some cool shit to find, gimme yeah.

Kainitsu: No it Yeah, dude. Give me give me some progression. Give give me a reward for doing something cool, you know?

TruVillain: But I I'm so done with Ubisoft anyway. I loved Black Flag back when it came out. That was the last Ubisoft game I actually really like played for real. Outside of Far Cry, me and my friend we do have like this tradition when a Far Cry game comes out, we co op it and it's a good time. but I mean other than that I I could give two fucks about Black Flag remake, to be honest. And I loved that game when it first came out, but Ubisoft has completely just completely shit the bed for me. ⁓

Kainitsu: ⁓ Mm-hmm. Right. Yeah. Yeah. They're they're it it they should not be a company anymore right now. Like literally not like just just how like you know economics and everything works, they should have failed. They should have failed and feel bad and go away, have their shit sold off to other people who might respect it more. Like

TruVillain: Ha ha ha. Yeah. Mm-hmm. They almost did a few times until I think Tencent came in and saved them this last time.

Kainitsu: Yep. Yep. And then they and then they did this weird like separation of their company where like their main big IPs and franchises kinda got separated from Ubisoft. So it's kind of two companies, but it it's not at the same time. It's a it's a weird it's a weird loophole they did, and I'm mad that they got to do it. Ubisoft, you suck. Like you should you should not be a company anymore at this point. Like but like just how you hand your business.

TruVillain: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. People people love their shit.

Kainitsu: How you've done everything, how you've like killed like so many franchises. You sit on so many other things, like many other developers and and ⁓ big publishers, like because everyone wants to be safe and like the same fucking game again. Meh, meh, man, numbers forward to fucking investors. But it's like because it it's killing the industry. Like, why is no one buying games? Because you make the same fucking game. You all make the same game. Be creative. Make something interesting. Take chances. Like like that's I

TruVillain: Yeah. Yeah, they did invent they they invented the open world formula that everyone fucking subscribed to for a long You have some mm yeah, you have some like twists and stuff on it nowadays, but ⁓ but yeah, I don't know. They just

Kainitsu: Right. They did. Ubisoft did do that. But I'm not just talking about Ubisoft, man. I'm just talking about like the industry altogether for the most part with this like big publishers and developers. Yeah, man, I'm calling everybody's bullshit right now, dude. Like, like go do something interesting fucking shit. You want our money and you bitch you don't get money, do something interesting. Like they're very like Capcom is one of the very few big like ⁓ publishers and developers that I'm actually okay with for the most part right now.

TruVillain: ⁓ we we own the whole industry. Yeah. Everybody. I got bullets for everybody.

Kainitsu: They got really they got a lot better with during their DLC and ⁓ practices and stuff like that. ⁓ they do a really good job for the most part now. Whenever they're releasing ⁓ stuff on PC, it's it runs pretty well and has it's pretty stable. Like just to give it a quick example, ⁓ again, ⁓ that new OnaMusha coming out next year looks really fucking cool. Got a free demo. It's kind of lengthy, it's really fun. It runs well, like it runs super good on my computer. Like I it runs like butter. Like, and that's commendable. Like

TruVillain: Mm-hmm.

Kainitsu: Do do cool stuff like that. Like and and I get away with some of like their stupid DLC 'cause like I just don't see it for like even for like single player games, but like I don't know. Like if if if you if you make good games Yeah. ⁓ okay. She doesn't really care for their their franchises.

TruVillain: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Cat they just don't have anything I care about is the problem with cap. I I I admire them from afar. I've tried every Resident Evil game. Don't get I d 'cause they have demos for all of them, and I've played the demo for one, two, three, four, five, seven, eight. And I I just couldn't the closest I came to sticking with one was I wanna say two and eight.

Kainitsu: Okay. Huh. Was it the remake?

TruVillain: Yeah, two and and ⁓ I think I said one. There was no I'd I've never played Resident Evil One, not not demo. I think I was just counting. It was two, three, four, five, demo, six, seven and eight, I think had demos and I played all of them. Eight was the closest 'cause I really liked the vibe of eight. It had kinda had like an old like haunted house, ⁓ you know, vampires and werewolves kind of vibe to it and I dug, but I don't know.

Kainitsu: Okay. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

TruVillain: But I mean they seem to be doing good stuff that people like. ⁓ I mean Monster Hunter World I think was I fucking loved that game, but but I mean Wilds was was bad.

Kainitsu: Yeah, yeah. ⁓ mm. Yeah. Yeah. So there you There's a Capcom game you like. You do like the Monster Hunter. That's great. Yeah. Man, that game was awful on PC. Just like like you had a little bit better experience than Migas because of you just had more VRAM available. Yeah. ⁓ and I so Resident Evil engine is not really made for open.

TruVillain: Yeah, Monster Hunter World, I love that game, yeah. And I love the concept of Monster Hunter Wilds which is dog shit, I'm sorry, but it was really Brute force. Yeah.

Kainitsu: It never was meant for something like that. ⁓ they tried. Mm hmm. Like it just this the textures are just stretched out. They're trying to do like rely on like AI skilling and everything, and it just didn't look good in that sense. ⁓ again, it ran like ass on computers. ⁓ they had like there was like not enough content for a Monster Hunter game coming out, especially compared to like World. Which that's like it's it's like this is like, you know, its predecessor.

TruVillain: No. And it looked worse too. Like it didn't just ran run bad. It looked worse than world. It just looked worse. Yeah. Yeah.

Kainitsu: ⁓ and I again I put way too many hours in that game. I I didn't have to buy it. ⁓ I I played it from ⁓ from ⁓ Family Share on Steam. But ⁓ I put a lot of hours in that game ⁓ and I really enjoyed it and ⁓ but it it just didn't have enough content and then they were like doing this they wanted to treat it kind of like a live service and it just had like really bad trickle content and it's like man

TruVillain: ⁓ I bought it. Mm-hmm.

Kainitsu: You guys killed this game. It came out too early. It needed more time to cook. But for what you guys wanted to end the fiscal year on a high note. And you get you sold eight million copies, cool. But everyone played your game, moved on, and no one's gonna come back to it.

TruVillain: I only put twenty-five hours into that game apparently. That's twenty-five hours more than I should have. ⁓

Kainitsu: I put way too many Yeah. It definitely is.

TruVillain: Well, anyway. Assassin's Creed doing really well, as it turns out. ⁓

Kainitsu: Mm-hmm. Yeah, and and and it and that's for Ubisoft just 'cause like I don't don't want them to get big big pants or think they have big pants and everything 'cause ⁓ the other part of this news is that like this is the highest game sold on the Steam platform since they started selling games, games their games on Steam. ⁓ especially for Assassin's Creed. ⁓

TruVillain: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's it's currently number twenty seven. I'm looking at it now on the most played list with f like fifty thousand people, yeah.

Kainitsu: ⁓ wow, damn. Okay, yeah. See and then that's good for them. But ⁓ it doesn't mean people are gonna be loving new Assassin's Creed games, man. Like you guys remade a game that people loved already. So

TruVillain: Well Assassin's Creed is kind of in that like Call of Duty nickelback kind of category where everyone seems to hate it, but it sells like stupidly good. You know what I mean? Every year. Shadows, Ask Creed Shadows done did extremely well. Val Valhalla, despite everyone whining about it, was like the top selling Assassin's Creed of all time. They're all they all s yeah. Yeah.

Kainitsu: Ha ha. Mm-hmm. It and then it shouldn't. It sold way more copies than it should have. Yeah, it sold what, like fifteen million copies or something?

TruVillain: And I mean I like my little brother, man, he loves those games. Like I think he's I think he's the guy. I think there's billions of him on the planet because buying these, yeah, because he just he doesn't care. He just gets excited. He's like, ⁓ shit. It's you get to be a Viking this time. Let's fucking go. And he just plays it and he just enjoys it. And I wish I could be him. Dude, I fucking And he I think he's on a fucking

Kainitsu: Does he? They're all the same guy. Cool. You get I man I wish I could be that person. Right.

TruVillain: standard is the standard PS five now, like playing it at like thirty frames a second. Like I he's just happy. I can't be happy, apparently. Like I have to Yeah, but I it's like and then he also plays Call of Duty when it comes out. Like it you know and and it's just a thing you do every year. You know, you play the new Ass Creed, you play and then they remaster one that you love, like, ⁓ man, let's go back and play, you know.

Kainitsu: Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Right? Mm-hmm.

TruVillain: This is the first time they tempted me was was with Black Flag, 'cause that's the last one that I ever really played and liked. I tried Odyssey and just couldn't get past the whole like I stab you through the back of the head and you don't die thing. ⁓

Kainitsu: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. ⁓ that's all I was about to say about your friend or your brother be like, ⁓ no, the new Assassin's Creed, like, ⁓ yeah, go enjoy your fucking pseudo really bad RPG, took away what made Assassin's Creed cool, like

TruVillain: Yeah. But he loves him. I mean, people love him and I mean, you know, hey, you love what you love and it's doing very well.

Kainitsu: Yeah. ⁓ I I actually bought a lot of older Assassin's Creed games just because I didn't play them after three. ⁓ I've stopped at Syndicate at this point. ⁓ was possibly planning a project. I don't know if I'll ever do it. I always plan plan projects and then never do it because ADHD brain. ⁓

TruVillain: Mm-hmm. Here's the kind of psychopath I am. Assassin's Creed three is my like second or third favorite Assassin's Creed. I loved three. Yeah. I th I thought three was awesome. And I thought that the I thought the hate that Connor got as a protagonist was fucking stupid. Like, ⁓ he's too he's too just solemn and and melancholy. It's like, dude, he watched his village burn when he was five. He's constantly being used by the people that did it.

Kainitsu: Yeah, man, I I was surprised when you first told me that. I didn't enjoy it. Mm-hmm. Right. Yeah. Mm. And and and his dad is a white man.

TruVillain: Like what the fuck do you expect him to be like, you know? Like it's just ⁓ Yeah, it's like it was just he dude was going through I thought he was one of the more interesting protagonists 'cause he was definitely the more like conflicted, you know, everywhere he turned was like someone trying to they were all claiming to be the good guy. And I think it really showed some of the truth behind like she know in America, man, we like we get taught about the American Revolution and rah rah rah this and rah you know.

Kainitsu: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Right. Yeah. Yeah.

TruVillain: But I think the game did a really good job of showing like, nah man, like even the colonists, man, like I mean, we were out here slaughtering Native Americans and like doing a lot of bad shit. A lot of bad shit. And ⁓ I think the game did a pretty good job of like having stuff like that and it didn't do the best job because it's a fucking video game from like two thousand and seven or something. ⁓

Kainitsu: Like of the darker side of it. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yep. Right. Mm-hmm. It's like two thousand ⁓ like two thousand fifteen, sixteen, something like that. Yeah.

TruVillain: ⁓ okay. I don't know when it came out. I I don't know dates. Time is an illusion. ⁓ but like I thought I don't know, I thought it was great, ⁓ personally. But you know, anyway. ⁓ anything else you got to say about ⁓ Black Flag or ⁓ you're frozen. ⁓ no. Hold on. Hi, you are you are frozen, my man. ⁓ no, we are doing so well. Let me ⁓ let me type out to him on Discord. See? ⁓ he's gone. Rest in peace. ⁓ shit. It is just me now. Let go to Discord. ⁓ he's back. He's back. Fantastic. I cannot hear you. I don't know what that means. ⁓ shit. It wouldn't be episode ⁓ one without ⁓ some some technical difficulties, let me tell you. I would just pause the recording, but I don't know it's it says stop, not pause, and I don't want to have to start a new one, so we'll have to experiment with that later. But while he's getting that up and running, ⁓ the other kind of fast news thing I had here. ⁓ was that Kratos was recast in the new ⁓ T V show. Apparently he, ripped his bicep and rather than ⁓ wait for him to heal, they're like, we're just gonna reshoot the whole fucking show. Apparently they they did four they did f four episodes I think already. Which that seems like I mean, what's an episode of T V cost, you know? Like t thirty thousand dollars an episode or something. I don't fucking know. A lot of money. They go and reshoot it, they gotta recast. ⁓ all that good stuff. So and that's kind of a shame because I was kind of looking forward. I like Ryan Hearst a lot. I liked him as Opie in in Sons of Anarchy. That's really where I know him best from, and I thought he did really a really good job there. The the problem was that that initial photo that they showed of the of the ⁓ T V show, like the screenshot, it was it was not good. Like his beard was too short. It was like this little scraggly thing that he had. But I don't think that was his fault. I don't think that was him being a bad actor. I think that was just like costuming and they could have easily went in there and fixed that like Either gave him a new beard or like went in and CGI'd it for the four episodes that they had already shot. But yeah, I mean apparently I don't know if maybe they had like a stunt Kratos or he was doing his own stunts, but I mean he's an older guy, so I don't know. I mean he got in shape apparently for the show, but something threw his arm out. But Are you back, Kai? Are you ⁓ I can't hear you if you Yeah, there's no audio. I'm keeping the I'm keeping the masses entertained, though. ⁓ in the meantime. You know, I I wish every other aspect of my life was like this where I I could speak and people listen and I can't hear them. But not this aspect. This is where I need to hear him. So one time where it's it's really really not great, but he's working on that. Tell you what, me talking about midnight suns wouldn't have a good time for this to happen. Let's see what else do I have here on the the news stuff. I mean that's really really it in terms of the kind of smaller stuff. I think I hear a noise. ⁓ no? ⁓ you know what this is a great opportunity for for me to talk about fucking marathon. Like I I I knew I knew the time would come. He's laughing because he knows. We cut it before the show. Cause I was like, I want to talk about marathon. Well, we have so much to talk about already. Marathon is doing badly. Alright. It's dying. I don't even know if you'd say it's on life support, quite frankly. one day they tracked as low as like 1950 players, which is crazy. It's it's crazy. Like that is an astronomically low number. And like it makes me really sad because I really love marathon. I think marathon is great. I was skeptical at first. I put I bought it and I put like 60 hours into it, like really quickly. ⁓ all the way up to I wanna say how does it say I have hours. Wise. Marathon. ⁓ good my Steam's not loading. Fantastic. It's a lot. I think like eighty or something. But ⁓ season two came. I didn't I didn't come in for season two. ⁓ because I just I kind of saw the writing on the wall. And I didn't want to put ⁓ too much more time into a game that's probably gonna die. I think they'll probably go free to play with it next. You'll probably I th well There's probably gonna be a ladder, right? There's probably gonna be Sony will probably throw it onto like their service, like the Playstation Plus service. They may even throw it in Game Pass. Just to try to get like more players into it. It's not gonna let me change my mic while we are recording. Well that's odd. let me see if I can pause this.