We are a weekly podcast, soul of a gamer. Hey,
I'm smart this time. I did this time. Let's not
go that far. I will fuck it up again. I love
pressing that button. That was my favorite part.
This game gets really fucking weird. Yeah, so
you do acid and then you go into the hamster
suit. And this week is Night Trap. Night Trap.
They're right behind you, Night Trap. Ten -year
-old birthday party. Next scene, kill the kid.
You got to kill the kid. Sha -la -la -la -la
-la, car is coming. Throw your body into the
car and die. All I could do every time I was
playing Ethan was just start walking around and
go, Jason! Oh, God. It's just my list. I got
my list. Okay, he's ready. I'm ready. I'm ready.
What is the... God, what is the SpongeBob one?
Are you ready, kids? No, no, no. Doesn't he walk
down the street going, I'm ready. I'm ready.
I'm ready. Doesn't he... No idea. I've never
really watched this show. I've only watched two
episodes ever. It's so good. Honestly, it's very
good. Everyone... I was never allowed to watch
it. And then I just never got around to it. it
was fun back in the day now i think it's probably
stupid but it was fun yeah i don't know like
i i've seen all the clips there's tons of funny
clips there's tons of funny songs and stuff like
i get that there's a lot of appeal for it i also
i'm like uh i have a lot of other things i want
to get to before i'd even go back to that ever
all right before we continue on this we are soul
of a game podcast welcome back everybody i'm
scum and i'm steven And we tell you about games,
and we do hot takes, and today we are doing some
hot takes. Yes, we are. Energy. Yeah. I feel
it. Come on. I want to go more. We hope you enjoyed
our last week's episode, Lost in Random. That
was a lot of fun for us to play, and we really
do enjoy that game. We just wish it was more,
I guess you could say complex, but not complex
in a way. We just want more cards. Yeah, we want
more variety. More variety, yeah. So we hope
you enjoyed that. Today we are doing hot takes.
We are doing upcoming games, what we are most
excited about, or least excited about, if you
want to go in that direction, and how we feel
about cutscene. Yes. Before we get into any of
those, though, I wanted to bring up a TikTok
I saw earlier today that I thought you would
greatly appreciate. what do you think that i
would ever appreciate a tick guys i do not watch
tiktok i'm just like i know this is why i had
to tell you here i i know like i do like five
things and tiktok is not one of them unfortunately
yes it's very unfortunate so i have to do all
of our tiktok handling so if you're talking on
tiktok you're talking to me um but one of my
favorite comedians his name is ron funches he
uh came out wearing a tuxedo with the nintendo
logo up on the top of the screen came to be the
new ceo of the american office and then he's
like all right i'm here to talk about game pricing
in today's games yes our standard games are still
going to cost around 60 but are really good games
like mario kart world they're gonna cost 80 why
because fuck you that's why it's so true and
he's like oh true and if you if you're worried
about that you ain't heard nothing until the
new pokemon game comes out that's gonna cost
you two grand a month and you're gonna have to
suck my dick i actually just watched the thing
so eventually in the future we're gonna be doing
pokemon red for our pokemon red blue or red green
or whatever it is for our podcast, and I was
watching a video on how it was made, and I'm
actually surprised. Did you know Game Freak is
not owned by Nintendo? I thought they were separate,
yeah. Yeah, they're completely separate. They
are a second -party verifier, because a third
party would be able to push to anyone, but the
second party, they usually only push to a select
few. Oh, okay. So Game Freak only pushes to Nintendo,
which is super fucking interesting. Very, okay.
Yeah. And apparently Nintendo has like a small
stake in Game Freak, but like so small, it's
like a minority share. But the two of them together
own the Pokemon company, which, you know, that
releases all of the merchandise. And they even
show like how much money they've made. And most
of their money, like 80 % of their revenue, Game
Freak comes from fucking merch. I'm so surprised.
I don't know what you're talking about with Pokemon
merch. Also, all my Pokemon Funkos. It's not
just that. It's like Pokemon cards count as the
merch, too. It's super interesting. The business
model is crazy with this fucking shit. Dude,
the amount of Eevee stuff we end up getting because
how much me and my wife love Eevee is kind of
funny. Everyone loves Eevee. That's not unique
to you. Shut up. It's not unique to us, but we
showcase that love extra. Everyone has their
own favorite Eeveeloo shit. and everyone hates
Sylveon, so there you go. Fuck you. Sylveon's
one of my favorites, bitch. It's one of the stupidest
ones and it's the latest one to come out. Sylveon
and Vaporeon are my favorites by far. You literally
chose the two worst ones. Way to go. No! Hot
take. Sylveon sucks, guys. Vaporeon's not much
better. Because, okay, a lot of the people I
used to battle against, especially our good friend
Bryant back in the day. He used to play dragons
all the time. So fairy type was fucking baller
against him. Okay, well, guess what? Fairy types
rule so much, they took their fucking energy
out of the card game. So way to go, fairy types.
I guess you're so good. Well, you know what?
I didn't care about the card game to begin with.
No one cares about fucking fairies. I like fairy
types. Of course you do. What was that X and
Y, I think, where that came out? Yeah, I love
X and Y. I think it might have been before X
and Y, but X and Y had... No, I think it was
X and Y, because I remember... Yeah, it's X and
Y. I believe it's... I'm almost 100 % sure it's
X and Y. Okay. You have to double check, but
I'm almost 100 % sure. Let us know if we're wrong.
Hot take. Sylveon sucks. Vaporeon sucks. Go Jolteon.
I don't think you could really go wrong with
any of them, to be completely honest. Sylveon
and Vaporeon. Fuck you. Moving past that mini
hot take, let's get into our regular ones. How
about that? Alright, what do you want to get
into first? I like to talk about upcoming games,
actually. This is exciting. There's a lot of
fucking cool games coming out this year. I really
had to go through a list of like... And there's
a lot more than I thought there was. You know,
we hear these stories about... game companies
closing down and game companies getting shut
down by the bigger developers and everything
like and it's amazing that there's still so many
games coming out man it's incredible actually
There's more games coming out now than like ever
before. And it's crazy. And every time we hear
any big news, we're like, oh my gosh, 9 ,000
people got laid off. And it's like, yeah, but
also 14 ,000 jobs got created somewhere probably.
Yeah, probably. But I mean, they're not wrong.
It's probably not that bad. And I know big layoffs
are always atrocious. And I feel awful to anybody
who ever is affected by any of that. I'm not
downgrading that at all. I'm just saying there
is so much. It's just the game industry is hostile,
man. It's fucking hostile. It sucks. It's stupid.
I think video game and movies right now are in
some of like the most hostile they've ever been
as far as the production and everything. And
it doesn't even matter if they make money. That's
the big thing. Like, it doesn't seem like anyone
cares if they make money. Like, they could make
twice as much as they spent and that's still
a failure to them. Well, and sometimes their
big failures can be huge tax write -offs. So
their big failures aren't even that bad for them,
apparently. I'm like, wait, what? How does that
work? But still, they'll shut down the company.
I don't understand how big money works. I don't
want to. I don't care. I never want to be that
big. I want to be big enough that I can support
myself and not have to worry about it, but I
don't care to have a mansion. Like $150K a year
is probably where I want to be. That's about
where I care to be. I hate rich people. I think
you're just being selfish. I think if I was making
millions a year, 90 % of my money would go to
donations. Because why the fuck would you? Why
do you need all that fucking money? Honestly,
I would love to just go to... Every time I go
travel, I would make that place better every
time I traveled there. Yeah. I would just spread
the wealth as much as I could. It's hard, man.
I know it's extremely hard, but it's a lot of
work. And it's the most deviated opinion you
could have because most people are like, well,
what about your future family? Well, fuck my
future family. They can get their own goddamn
job. What future family? Kidless. But let's say
I had a grandkid. Why the fuck am I taking care
of my grandkid? Let the fucking parents do that.
Why is it my job? Hot take here. If I take care
of my kid, my kid's going to be able to take
care of himself. Exactly. There you go. And if
they don't, then they're a fuck up and they don't
deserve to. So there you go. I can't control
his life once he's 18. I'm in control of taking
care of him up to a point. I like how you keep
saying he. You're like, no, I'm not having a
girl. It's got to be a boy. Honestly, I've always
envisioned one of each. Actually, my wife and
I had picked out names a long time ago before
we said we weren't going to have kids. yeah I
picked out names too and it was all for dogs
because I never wanted children the first name
I ever sold somebody I wanted to name a child
what was the name Chloe and the next week my
aunt was like hey I just named I just stole your
name that was a cool name so I named my new snake
Chloe I mean that's kind of shitty but also that's
fine I mean two people know I know it's pretty
funny I was like whatever yeah all right guys
well let's jump into the upcoming games yes i'm
gonna start out this list and actually i have
two of these games on this list two from the
same developer because it's developers you know
as i've said so many fucking times yep i love
the sequels of two different games of course
they are but like literally it's one of my favorite
developers of all time I love them so much I've
played all of their fucking games every single
one I am in love with like there's nothing wrong
with that they are awesome and their owner sounds
awesome like we talked about this in the Baldur's
Gate episode he really wanted to make Baldur's
Gate 3 too and he let the guy from Sweden I cannot
remember his name what is it uh lorian studios
but yeah i can't remember the guy they were close
friends and he's like you know what you take
the reins on this one i can see that you are
very passionate and that takes a fucking special
kind of person to say i don't want to make millions
of dollars you know It does. You're right. I
mean, you have to kind of definitely be able
to make that sacrifice. And also, you have to
know that you trust the person that you're giving
it to. Exactly. And that's the big thing. You
trust them without a doubt. So that's why Obsidian
is one of my favorite companies. And I'm going
to start my thing off here with Grounded 2. Yes.
One of my big excitements. Yeah. Was that on
your list too? Oh, 100%. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It
comes pre -release of the, or the early release
comes out the 27th. Oh, I thought it was the
25th. Oh, maybe, maybe. It might be the 25th.
I think I just looked this up because I was really
excited and I thought it was already out and
then it wasn't. I was really pissed off. Yeah,
so it's coming out very soon. By the time this
podcast comes out, it will be out. So we'll already
be playing this, but we're both extremely excited
for this. We're only getting a portion of the
map. Yeah, which is fine. I mean, it's a pre
-release. It makes sense. And you don't have
to pay for it. It'll be free. Yes. Like, Obsidian
is one of the coolest companies in the world.
If they want to take their time making a game,
they can fucking take their time. Is there any
upgrades or any new things that you've seen so
far that you're the most excited for? So with
this game and with the original game, the original
game was such an ingenious fucking idea. I don't
think anyone has really done this kind of game
before. There are games where you go mini. I
remember playing DK and you play Tiny and she
can go mini. There's games where you can do this,
but there's no game that really explores the
world of a just... such a small microcosm of
what we just step on every day like and it's
so beautiful to see that like you know what i
mean like there was a mosquito game back in the
ps2 area where you play as a mosquito and you
have to draw blood from people you know but then
that takes into the larger than life aspect of
a smaller creature you want to see how the smaller
creatures are interacting with their own environment
not how they interact with us that's also true
yeah yeah yeah fair so like there's so many things
I'm excited for I'm excited for the new builds
I'm excited for the new equipment I'm excited
for the fact that you can ride other insects
now but I believe it's limited to two right now
but I bet they'll expand on that yeah I think
it was one or two at the beginning and then they're
gonna add another one in like three months Yeah,
and I bet they're going to have more of a stat
building because Obsidian is like a role -playing,
loving game. They love role -playing games. So
I guarantee they will put some more role -playing
aspects into this game. One of my favorite new
features is going to be the new Omni tool. There's
going to be one tool for everything. For your
shovel, for your pickaxe, and for your... Well,
it's kind of like Omnitools from Mass Effect
from Bioshock, or Bioshock, Bioware. Also, the
guy from Obsidian is best friends with the original
guy who made Bioware. Oh, nice. And if Bioware
is a giant piece of shit, the original guy left,
so don't worry. It's not his fault. Fair. That's
all EA. I'm also stupid excited for this game.
I think it's going to be absolutely incredible.
I'm just waiting for that. I've already pre -installed
the game, honestly. Yep, me too. I went to install
it because I thought it was out, and then no,
it's not. I still have to finish the first one,
though. We are on the last thing. Oh, you still
haven't finished it yet? We're just on the last
thing. We're just building stuff now and just
having fun. Fair, fair. We defeated Director
Schmechter. Schmechter, right? Oh, nice. Yeah.
I think his name was Schmechter. We were working
on upgrading weapons and such to beat the infected
brood brother. oh fuck and then after the fight's
so hard dude yeah after we beat the infected
broodmother we are probably going to go and do
uh the last thing the beginning thing we already
built an entire base around all the cables yes
you need to dude it's crazy that last battle
is epic as fuck yeah but we haven't started it
yet just because we want to beat the infected
broodmother first I definitely overbuilt for
when we fortified our base because that's the
kind of person I am, but I was glad that I did
because most of it got destroyed. Yeah, okay.
We put up a shit ton of mushroom barriers, so
we're ready for this. Oh, that's what I did too.
I did mushroom and ash walls over everything,
and I had turrets and stuff. I had everything.
Dude, that was so crazy, but I was like... But
also, once I got... So the wands all the way
leveled up and all my build towards my wands.
Wands were the most damaging thing I could do
in the game. Yeah. Actually, I'm running a dagger
build right now, which is a lot of fun. Yeah,
I'm able to like... I essentially can kill every
boss with just my dagger. By myself. Getting
up in front of a lot of the things. I'm usually
the distance person, so I'm supporting her. Okay.
Yeah, I'm doing all the... I can block really
well, so... i was talking to wife about the game
last time we were all together and uh i was saying
saying that me and her were actually really similar
you and jen were more similar because i i'm more
of the uh building while she goes and kills everything
and grab this all the supplies and then i build
everything i was like god damn it that's so funny
so it is all right what's your what's your game
what you got for me what's your upcoming one
uh yeah i guess i'll uh wait to talk about the
other One from Obsidian. And I will go with one
that I just found out about is fully actually
real and coming out. I think it's coming out
next year, not this year. But it is TMNT, The
Last Ronin. Oh, nice. So they're going to go
through the last Ronin storyline? Yes, they are.
Dude, that's fucking sweet. That storyline is
so cool. Guys, if you have not read the comics,
they are a world of different from the TV shows.
They are so much fucking darker. Yes, it is extremely
dark. You can tell already from the trailer of
the game. I saw IGN released it or whatever.
It is super dark. And I think they're having
Leo possibly be the last Ronin. um no that's
lame i it seemed like it was leo but i know like
i it better be mikey it's mikey michelangelo
i better be michelangelo man because that was
the thing that really sold that comic for me
it's like this fun loving turtle who normally
is the like life of the party is completely fucking
darkened by everything that's out you know what
i mean like yeah that's what made it even more
like heartbreaking because you know what mike
used to be like the trailer starts with him like
uh basically like wounded crying uh having all
of his brother's weapons laid out in front of
him and are like all the turtles weapons laid
out in front of him and then he grabs uh leo's
broken sword and almost starts to commit seppuku
but then like sees a rat and starts hearing shredder's
voice and then stops himself from committing
svuku and i'm like oh my god dude like this is
all right you're getting the tone right yeah
uh i think if i remember right i heard the rumor
that i think the people who did god of war are
doing it oh nice so i think they're gonna i mean
it'll be a good game right yeah i was like you'll
get those upgrades and everything from like yeah
i was like please God of War Valhalla? Was that
the other? Ragnarok. Ragnarok. Yeah. Yeah, so
I'm really excited for that one. That one sounds
really sweet. I'm hoping that one actually looks
as good as it does so far. All right, well, I'll
jump right in with the other Obsidian game then.
Yes. Did you put this one on your list too? Outer
Worlds 2. Hell yeah. Oh, you did? You never played
the first one, did you? I did. I didn't beat
it, but I played probably about 50, 60 % of the
game. Okay, yeah. One of my favorite games to
come out in the last 10 years was Outer Worlds.
Such a fun game. You did play it because we talked
about how cool it was that you didn't have to
romance people in the game, but you could hook
people up with other people. And my favorite
was hooking up that lesbian character in your
crew. That was such a cute date. Her name starts
with a P. What was it? I can't remember. I think
it starts with a P, but she's so cool. The mechanic
character. I don't know. It was such a cool game.
Honestly, Obsidian did a great job making a spacefaring
game. I will say I played through it twice. The
first time I was really upset because I fucked
up and I had to kill everyone in the city that
I was in. which means i couldn't complete certain
quests which means like like you know i failed
a bunch of quests and then i was all pissed off
and i'm like i'm not playing this fucking game
ever again and then i restarted from the beginning
and i understood like okay well now i i get what
i have to do and i need to start doing it this
way because i'm such a dummy i wasn't doing it
this way that's fair And, you know, I bought
all the DLCs and everything, too. I love that
game. So it was so fucking cool. And the DLCs
were sweet, too. Like everything about the game
was awesome. You should and you should play the
DLCs because they are actually a lot of fun.
Nice. All right. I will. I'm definitely excited
the most for this new system they're coming out
with in the game, though, this new faults and
quirk system or whatever that they have. Yeah.
Oh, they had that before. But this one is way,
way. hypersensitive now yeah yeah like last you
could like drink two alcohol things and then
suddenly your fault is you're an alcoholic you
know so yeah but i love like this one adapts
to your gameplay so if you're a stealthy person
you're always crouching then it's gonna have
a defect that goes on you that uh is like uh
It's called, I can't remember what it's called,
but it's like you make a loud sound when you
uncrouch afterwards. That's funny. Because you
crouch for so much that it ends up doing that.
Or there's an effect. Like your knees crack or
something. Yes, exactly. And it makes a loud
noise alerting more people. So that's a defect
that goes on you because of your play style.
So that's one of the things that I really love
is it's a game that's going to adapt to the way
you play the game and add defects and stuff to
what you do based on how you play. That's such
a unique and inventive system. Yeah, honestly.
Yes. And like the entire first game was so good.
I can't imagine they're going to fuck this one
up. Oh, no, it looks incredible so far. I'm super
stoked for it. Even not completing the first
one. I'm like. Just with this new system, I'm
like, I want to play everything. You know what's
crazy, too? I believe it's a AA game. I don't
think it's a AAA game. I think so. Yeah. Again.
It's AA Studios. They do so much better than
the AAAs, guys. They don't have as much writing
on it, so they can swing bigger. Yeah. The character's
name is Parvati. Parvati. Parvati. Yes. Parvati.
Parvati. I think. I don't know how to say it.
Yes. All right. All right. Yeah. I'm also really
excited for that one. I guess I will go to my
next favorite. This one's a more quirky game
because, you know, I like my weird, stupid games
that make no sense kind of game. Yeah. Yeah.
We know we've heard. Yeah. One that's been catching
my eye that I can't keep think I stop thinking
about is this new game called Baby Step. Oh,
nice. I don't know what that is, but are you
a baby? no so it sounds like it is you're actually
like a 24 year old like man with like a full
beard and like a beer guy um but like i don't
know what the story is or anything but it seems
like you don't know why you're you're there and
you kind of just have to like walk and figure
out the story and it's like a walking simulator
because you have to like you control your legs
in a unique way so it's one of those like weird
games where you have to like fumble with how
to walk and you have to like walk up mountains
and shit so it's one of those like stupid or
super challenging games that are really like
clickbaity games for youtubers and stuff a lot
but it just looks really ridiculous and the graphics
for it are actually like pretty darn good and
it looks like it's gonna be kind of pseudo realistic
in a weird way and it just seems Weirdly like
something I want to play. I don't know why, but
I do. Okay. Well, I wondered if you had heard
of this game before. You definitely know what
game they made, but I don't know if you've heard
of the game. Guardians of the Wild Sky. No, I
don't know this game. This game looks fucking
sweet. It's like an exploratory building game
where you're exploring like a continent that
has all of these like floating islands. And you
have a ship that you're building on that you're
using as your transportation to the islands that
you're doing. It's a survival game, kind of like
Minecraft where you're looking for resources
and everything too. It just looks like a cool
game. And you'll never guess who the fucking
publisher of this game is. No. No, not even close,
I don't think. I don't know. So they made a game
that we played on the previous podcast as a hint,
and it was a Halloween game. Halloween game.
One of the games we played for, yep. The same
company. It's Blue Isle Studios. They're making
this game. People gave them a lot of shit for
Slender the Arrival, and I didn't love Slender
the Arrival, but I didn't hate it. It was still
jump scary. It's one of those dumb fun games.
I honestly still like that more than Five Nights
at Freddy's. You know what's funny is that people
gave it so much shit because it cost $20. Now
look where we're at. I know. This $80 game is
fucking ridiculous. Yeah, yeah. So that was,
and it was such an interesting thing. with that
game but then they came out with another game
and i don't remember what it was but they like
kind of save face on the second game and now
they're coming out with this and it looks fucking
sweet i would recommend you guys look it up it's
on steam i think and it it's like a building
game you get a ship you get like cannons and
shit you get to explore i have floating islands
it's really fucking cool i'm really excited for
this it kind of reminds me a lot of scars are
skies of arcadia okay yeah You might have pets
or something you fight with, too. I'm not 100
% sure. The trailer looked kind of weird when
I was watching it, but it looks fucking sweet.
I'm actually super excited for this game to come
out. Nice. What you got for me next? Right. Next
for me, I've got a game that I'm really excited
for. Humble Games game. I definitely know what
the name of the game is. It is a game. I am on
it. I am definitely super into it. It is a game
of coolness and excitement game. Yes, exactly.
It is a movie. Okay, so Billy Bust Up. Billy
Bust Up is the name of the game. Billy Bust Up?
billy bust up it kind of sounds like that uh
game we played that the the fighter the like
the 2d fighting game yeah yeah kind of like just
the name kind of sounds like it has that kind
of attitude uh fair it's uh not necessarily along
that same lines um it is a 3d platforming musical
okay i'm looking at a picture of the characters
right now and i am not impressed If you watch
the video of one of the, quote, boss battles,
it is so much fun. It's like platforming while
dodging to a song, kind of like, remember in
Rayman Legends, those music levels? Yeah. Where
you had to go across the map? Yes. It kind of
feels like that. Where they only had one good
song, and it was the first one. But it feels
like an entire game of that, but it seems like
all the characters are really cartoony and fun,
and their songs seem really cool and inventive.
It just seems like one of those really weird
games, kind of like Lost in Random, that just
has such a unique funk and style to it that I
really think I'm going to vibe with. Okay. I
like it. You know what's a game I have to get
back into that's reminding me of the funk and
style? What's that? Pacific Drive. Ooh, yeah.
That game was so much fun. Yeah, I want to actually
go in and beat it, but I stopped playing it because
I was playing other games. Fair. Now I'm on a
Baldur's Gate kick because I wanted to try a
ranger build, and holy shit is it OP. I've been
playing a couple of games. I just started, actually,
the new fucking RoboCop Unfinished Business standalone
DLC just came out. Oh, nice. So I bought that
and started playing it today. Sounds like that's
the next thing I want to play because I loved
Robocop. Dude, I've started it. It's pretty great
so far. It does kind of reset you back. You have
the same kind of level up system as you did,
and it kind of resets back to the beginning.
That's fine. It's been so long since I played,
it's probably good that I get reacquainted with
the game. Yeah, honestly, it's pretty good. And
it seems like it's set up like the movie Dread.
I don't know if you've ever seen that. Yes. Well,
I mean, Judge Dread, I know. I'm assuming it's
just a playoff Judge Dread. Yes, exactly. Dread
and Just Dread are the same. I've watched both
of them. They're both good. The only one that's
good is the Sylvester Stallone one, okay? I like
the new one, the Carl River one. It's fun. Of
course you do. But the way this story starts
out is the precinct just gets attacked and Robocop
comes in and the Sarge is just barely alive and
he says that Omni Tower has a bunch of mercenaries
that came and shot up the precinct and killed
all these cops. You go there, the tower is locked
down. All these civilians come out with guns.
You have to make your way to the top to kill
all the mercenaries. I'm like, oh my God, it's
Judge Dredd. It sounds more like Die Hard. Same
difference. It's every 80s action movie. Tower
climbing. One man army. Now I know what a TV
dinner feels like. Exactly. I've been having
fun with it so far. It's hitting all the same
spikes. I've had a couple of performance things
where the frame rate crashes a little bit. You
had that in the regular game though if I remember
right. Just wanted to bring that up. Yeah. You
have any other upcoming games? Yep. This is my
last one. And this one's actually kind of exciting,
but also kind of sad. I don't know how I'm going
to feel. I love the DLC for it for the first
game. It was so fucking good. And they didn't
have the guy in that one. So I'm really hoping
that somehow this is going to work even without
Justin Roiland. But High on Life 2. oh yes that's
coming out in quarter four i believe and i like
i'm super excited because i loved high on life
one i did fucking absolutely love that game agree
yes but i'm nervous that they're gonna like the
humor in that game is all written by roiland
and without him they might lose a lot of their
funniness that's true and it's hard to say because
i haven't even watched rick and morty anymore
like I haven't watched the newer seasons just
because I stopped watching the show in general
not because of Roiland or anything yeah yeah
I mean the newer seasons there's no Justin Roiland
it's two guys playing Rick and Morty no I know
I know I know that's what I'm saying like it
feels the same Dan Harmon was doing all the writing
anyway so okay yeah but like honestly the DLC
did really fucking good it's really tiny is the
problem like if it wasn't so tiny if it was bigger
than I'd say yeah they're gonna do a great job
They can do a really good job in tiny doses without
Roiland. I wonder how they're going to do in
a full game. I hope they have more shitty movies.
I want another hidden theater with another movie
in it. Honestly, that was one of the reasons
I got into shitty movies. What was the T -Rex
movie? Tammy and the T -Rex. Tammy and the T
-Rex. It's actually got Paul Walker and Denise
Richards. Yeah, Paul Walker's in it. That's right.
Yes, it's one of Paul Walker and Denise Richards'
first movies. It's fucking hilarious. It's so
bad. It's so terrible. I wonder if Paul Walker
was alive, I wonder if he'd look back and say,
I regret doing that, or that was probably a good
idea. He'd probably be happy with it because
it got him to where he was. Yeah, seriously.
I mean, I think he should be. I think we should
all be happy about where we start. Well, and
honestly, sometimes some of those like... for
like a friend are honestly sometimes more fun.
Like even though the movies fit, they were more
fun to do or more fun to film. Yeah, fair. So
it could have been one of those kind of situations.
I agree with you. I really hope they go on that
like Mystery Science Theater 3000 trip again.
Because they did that. They had the hidden theater
where they actually played a Mystery Science
Theater with the movie Demon Wind. You actually
could watch the entirety of the movie. And if
you did, you got an achievement even for we paid.
to have the licensing to have this movie in here
or something like that. It was ridiculous. I
mean, they paid like $4. Come on. Licensing cannot
be that expensive for that fucking movie. And
it's a movie that both... Mystery Science Theater
and Riff Tracks have both ripped apart too. And
I own the actual copy of it and the Mystery Science
Theater version of it. I love Mystery Science
Theater 3000. That was the cool shit. Now it's
garbage. They try to put Felicia Day in it. They
try to put Patton Oswalt and they put that other
guy in it. No, those are pretty decent. No, they're
not as good. They weren't as good as the originals.
The original guy is just so fucking funny it's
hard to compete. The greatest thing is if you
go to Riff Trax, a lot of the original or the
best of the Crow mics and all that from Mystery
Science Theater, three of those main guys have
all actually gone on and done their spinoff thing,
Riff Trax. Yeah. For the last, it's actually,
they just hit their 19 year anniversary. I just
bought a bunch of stuff from them. They're funny
fucking dudes, so why not? well dude they actually
have this uh they have their own like streaming
service on their website it's seven dollars a
month for a like access to half of their library
of all the riffs so i've been watching a new
one almost every fucking night it's that's nice
that's cool uh but yeah high on life too super
excited i'm really hoping it comes out and does
a good job same all right i have one last one
as well This one is one that I've heard of a
couple times. I thought it was actually canceled,
but I heard it actually is still coming out,
so I'm really excited for it. Marvel 1943, Rise
of Hydra. Okay. Is it a Captain America game,
or are they going to include some of the other
heroes around that time? It's Captain America
and Black Panther, but I think it's Black Panther's
dad, T 'Chaka. Okay, but no Wolverine, no...
Not from what they've shown. They've only shown
Cap in Black Panther so far. Interesting, because
Wolverine was definitely there. He's got whole
storylines in World War II. Yeah, he's got whole
storylines fighting in the war, but I don't know
necessarily if they crossed paths necessarily.
Yeah, they did. Remember, there was a whole thing,
and I'm trying to remember why it happened. Originally,
when Cap got frozen, it was intentionally, not
by accident like the movies sell it as. And it
was because his body was degrading and Wolverine
was the one who actually convinced him to freeze
so he wouldn't die. But I mean, they haven't
showed anything with that and Wolverine's getting
his own game coming out. All right. Insomniac's
doing a Wolverine game. I'm kind of tired of
the Wolverine games, but it's fine. We haven't
had a Wolverine game in a while. The last Wolverine
game was Liza P. Overture DLC. Well, I mean,
they had a cool... Dude, I still... We've talked
about this before. What was that game? Marvel
Ultimate Alliance? Dude, that game. Fucking the
best when it came to creating these X -Men and...
Well, there's the X -Men Legends, too. Those
are pretty decent games. X -Men Legends is really
good, too, because I think that followed the
story of Apocalypse, right? Yes. Yes. I think
the second one was like all of those games were
so fucking good. Like they did a great job. And
now we get these shit single like action games.
I really hope they do justice with Rise of Hydra.
I have my doubts because they keep fucking them
up. Yeah. I mean, there's been an occasional
game here and there that does some things right.
But yeah, there's not been like an X -Men game.
It's been a lot of times like Marvel games that
have X -Men characters in them. Yeah. Marvel
Rivals does the X -Men characters really well.
uh i think marvel uh the turn -based marvel game
i can't remember what that was called um that
one was really good and did some x -men characters
really well as well but yeah they haven't had
a good x -men game since what 2001 probably no
2005 i think but yeah i mean i think you're right
and i'm hoping this works out and i kind of wish
it was a double a game i'm sure it's a triple
a but i wish it was a double a I can't remember
who's doing it, but it looks really great from
everything I've seen so far. The cutscenes and
everything look great in it, so I'm excited to
see what's coming from it. I also just heard
that Spider -Man 3 was announced and Venom's
getting his own game, so I haven't heard anything
about those, but I'm stupid excited for both
of those. Nice. All right, well, why don't we
jump right into our next little hot take? We're
going to be talking about cutscenes and how we
feel about them. Yes. For the most part, I don't
really play games for cutscenes. I'm going to
be honest. Are you a cutscene skipper? Yeah,
not a skipper. I will watch it the first time
I play a game, and then after that, I do not
give a shit. That's fair. I am that way with
most games, especially speedrunning a second
playthrough or something, unless I really love
that certain cutscene for a certain reason. Yeah.
yeah and i mean like i can think of a select
few cut scenes where i'm actually like this is
fucking sweet and the only one that really comes
to mind ever when i think of cool cut scenes
is the mass effect one when the first mass effect
when all the ships are battling because i just
love those giant open fields like if you show
me a giant battle that's happening i will likely
watch the cut scene because i think it's sweet
to watch it like it's pretty fucking cool The
only other ones I can think of, like Project
Sylphid, I love the cutscenes in that one because
they would show an entire planet getting decimated
by just a giant fucking weapon from space. And
those are really sweet cutscenes. And the other
one I can think of, remember, what was that game
we played, the Sega game? The one we really liked.
Are you talking about the planet -destroying
one kind of one? No, the one where you're a soldier
with the experimental armor. Vanquish. vanquish
yes and the beginning part of that like it's
not that interesting but the fact that they show
an entire fucking city san francisco i think
it was getting just completely annihilated yeah
that was god that was it was so fucking cool
like that shit is cool and it doesn't last too
long but then you get these like final fantasy
cut scenes they're like we have to tell a whole
story in 30 minutes to do a cut scene here because
you need a lot of backstory to understand what's
happening Yeah, and I mean, don't get me wrong.
There's times and places for some of those, and
some of those are fantastic. And if you are all
in on those games, then I know that those are
something you absolutely love. They're beautiful
production values and everything. There's something
that I can always be like, I can appreciate everything
that went into it. Might not always be for me,
especially because of the way I play games sometimes.
And a lot of times I'm like, I want to play just
for a little, like an hour. And then I'm like,
oh, okay, well, I didn't know I was going to
spend 15 minutes walking and then a 30 minute.
cut scene and now i'm not really playing at all
like that's kind of a bummer when you think about
other games like balder's gate right like i said
i'm on a big balder's gate kick and they don't
have cut scenes really in that game they do and
they don't they always lead up to conversations
and you have choices in the conversation so it's
not so like boring to watch like you are actually
interested because you are making choices as
you are essentially part of the cut scene True.
Which is a much better way to do it, in my opinion.
True. I do have one Baldur's Creed 3 cutscene
that I wrote down as one that was a standout
for me, though. Go for it. It was Asterion's
ending the cycle cutscene. Like, if you take
him to the vampire tomes or whatever, and you
have him actually end the cycle and not ascend,
that cutscene is pretty wild, and the emotion
and stuff that he gets into, and the depth, like
that. character goes through when he actually
like kills him and then is like crying that he
didn't take the power but also like crying because
he's finally free and i'm like dude it's it's
pretty powerful it's crazy and that's so true
like there's some cut scenes that are really
good but for the most part and like that again
that's a cut scene where you spend maybe what
45 seconds, two minutes watching the cutscene
and you are a part of the cutscene again. Like,
yeah, I really enjoy that aspect of cutscenes.
I just fucking hate it when I have to sit there,
stop everything I'm doing, all the momentum I
gain playing the game just to watch someone do
something. Yeah, there's some games that also
really build up really well to them. I think
one of like the best like intro cutscene buildups
ever. It's actually in Bioshock. like when you
first like you crash land you uh swim out to
the island and then you you get into the elevator
and that first like intro cut scene as you see
rapture that welcome to rapture. And then you
like start going through and you're seeing how
beautiful this place is, but then it quickly
goes from beautiful to horrifying. But remember,
that's also an interactive cut scene. You can
move around during that. That is the thing. Like
that seems to be the magic trick, making an interactive
cut scene, make it so people can do things while
they're admiring the beauty. And a lot of people
bring up, it's not necessarily a cut scene, but
even like the giraffe scenes and stuff like that
in Last of Us. When you're able to pet the giraffe
and you go into like a mini cut scene of petting
the giraffe. And I was like, you want that. You
want to watch that. You want to see that. You
went up for it for that reason. Yeah, you're
making that choice. And games like for the new
Final Fantasy and games like Persona 5. You are
just... forced into fucking insane storylines
you know even in um we played another game what
was the jumping game jumping a cat catherine
i think it was called oh yeah yeah the one where
you're climbing yeah yeah so that 95 of that
game is cut scenes and that game is really good
when you're actually doing things like it's actually
a lot of fun but so many passive is crazy yeah
Yeah, but even just being in the bar and like
hanging out with people and talking with them
and like shit, that's a lot of cool things, too.
But then you get fucking stuck on doing goddamn
cut scenes for half an hour and you're like,
God damn, can we stop? I want the story, but
can you make it like intuitive enough so I'm
getting the story while I'm playing? Like, is
that possible? Yeah. One of the cut scenes that
I think recently did kind of interactive, but
also. kept it short in a way, but like they kind
of broke up the cut scenes throughout the game
was Alan Wake 2. Alan Wake 2 did this really
amazing thing where they actually have this four
part musical explaining the entire story of both
Alan Wake games. Okay. It's nine and a half minutes
in total, but you watch it in four parts throughout
the game and you actually like interact with
the beginning and the end of the scenes. and
you walk into these sets and stuff, and then
it's live action with the band, with the band
Old Gods of Asgard, and they're back for the
game. Nice. And they do this song called Herald
of Darkness, and this song was so good and won
so many awards, and this cutscene actually won
a bunch of awards, I think, and they even performed
the cutscene live at the music awards. Like,
this is... peak of cutscene cinema and it's such
an epic song and it's so cool and if you're interested
in the story like it really does go over like
everything in these nine and a half minutes it's
crazy how well they do this in a kick -ass song
with a weird vibed musical but it's so awesome
like the main character comes out and he's like
um It's like a talk show, and he's like, I'm
here to introduce Alan Wake and the Old Gods
of Asgard performing Herald of Darkness, or as
I like to call it, the story of Alan Wake, the
musical. So stupid. It's so good, though. It
really is. The second game, I haven't finished
it yet, but I've been really enjoying all the
depth and craziness it goes into that builds
on the first one. okay all right i like it i
mean for the most part like there are some fun
like things and cut scenes that you can watch
when you think about like donkey kong 64 and
the opening scene where they're just doing the
rap you know it's kind of fun just to sit and
watch it for a couple minutes like and you have
that choice too you don't have to but it's fun
to do and i think they did that one right oh
yeah i love a lot of games that have like idle
cut scenes and stuff like when you're on menus
and go into those kind of thing i like to think
those are even underrated a lot of times i think
even like banjo kazooie had that where like the
band would start playing and stuff like that
in the house and they see all this like adventure
and then like just walk around their everyday
life you're like what in the world it'd be funny
if you pause the game and like suddenly banjo
or someone whoever your character is goes back
to their house and opens their fridge realizes
they don't have any milk they're like fuck and
they go to the grocery store and they Like do
all the normal shit. And then when you unpause,
they have to rush back to where they were and
they're out of breath or something. That would
be fun. That would be funny. Uh, other things
though, like we were talking about like short
cut scenes being really impactful. Like you think
about a far cry three with Voss, his definition
of an insanity speeches. Those are all pretty
short. There are a couple minutes each time.
like less than five minutes every time he captures
you and it's annoying every time he captures
you and it kind of does take you out a little
bit because that game's so action -packed most
of the time that take you out for even five minutes
feels like a lot but those precious like five
minutes those few times really encapsulated the
character like he's almost like the hannibal
lecter of the video game world like he got so
little screen time and everyone's like foss is
the best fucking he's number one which i mean
i'm not even the main bad guy in the fucking
game no i know that's the funniest thing hoyt
is which who who the fuck even remembers hoyt
i i remember hoyt because you had to go and kill
him all you gambling i think if i remember right
i think so yeah but i mean like some really get
those cut scenes down right in those short amount
of times yeah and you know you'll see that and
that's great but honestly i just i like cut scenes
i really do and some of them are really fun you
know when i play as guys of arcadia they do have
long cut scenes in that but it's exposition it's
explaining story motifs and everything like that
and they're not You spend a good amount of time
in the open world before you get a five or 10
minute cut scene. Yeah. Which I think that's
the balance too. You have to like really balance.
When are you putting these cut scenes in the
game and what's the attitude around them? Are
you giving players time to like explore before
they have to do a cut scene? Cause if you're
not, you're doing it wrong. I feel like. I think
the one game that balances that the best and
honestly probably has arguably the best cut scenes
of any video game ever. Diablo 3 and Diablo 4
say what you want about those games I think they
balance fuck you they're awesome at least 3 is
incredible I still really enjoyed 4 too I mean
I enjoyed it it just wasn't my thing it's not
my favorite no no it's fair it's not a lot of
people saying it I get why it's a grindy fuck
it's such a mess it's so difficult it's got a
lot of things but like that's the thing though
you'll play like six hours of the game. And then
you'll watch the most beautiful 15 to 20 minute
cut scene ever. That gives the most great story.
And like, like one of my favorite cut scenes,
especially in four. And it's even got over 13
million views on YouTube alone. Just this one
scene of it is the Anarius army versus Lilith
army. Yeah. and arias thinks he'll go back into
heaven if he starts to get things right and take
out lilith and her army and leaves this like
religious army and it's just this epic battle
of humans and demons and then he's like flies
out there with these giant wings and goes up
to lilith and she ends up like basically like
letting him stab her and then be like you think
god's gonna listen to you you think the heavens
are gonna let you in no and then takes out the
blade and stabs him back with the one that she
just had in her and it's like Jesus Christ. But
it's like, it's seriously, it's some of the most
beautiful animation. I would watch an entire
movie or TV series filmed in this style. I don't
know how they do the cut scenes the way they
do because it's unmatched in my opinion to most.
It's ridiculous how beautiful they are. But I
think that is just incredible. Yeah. And like
I said, you get a lot of gameplay before that
cut scene happens. And I think that's the important
thing too. You have to feel accomplished before
you get a 30 minute cut scene. If you don't,
then you're just bored. Yeah, I mean, there's
games like that Quantum Break game that came
out that after every mission, there's a half
-hour TV show. Oh, my God. It's both a TV show
and a video game, and it's actually a full -length
TV show, too. But how long are the missions?
The missions, if I remember right, like an hour,
two hours, maybe. Okay, well, maybe that's okay,
but... It means if you spend two hours, one -fourth
of that mission is going to be just the next
30 minutes of your life watching a fucking TV
show. Yes. Too much. I think there's a full six
or eight episodes in this game through the story.
It's an interesting story, but there was times
where I'm like, I want to play the game. I don't
want to spend much of the episode right now.
Don't get me wrong. Some of the episodes are
great, but other episodes I was like, I'd rather
be playing. Why am I here? I don't want to be
here. And it's funny, like Mass Effect will do
and a lot of Bioware games do this, to be honest.
They do the like sex scenes for their romances,
you know, like Mass Effect. Andromeda? Yeah,
Andromeda is the one where you get to see tits.
But 1, 2, 3, you do not get to see anything.
You just see the bra, right? I mean, not like
you need to see tits. I think Dragon Age is similar.
I think the first two. Well, actually, in the
first one, you technically see like boobs, but
it's... part of an horrifying it's slowly becoming
a more and more normal thing in a lot of yeah
and it's like it does nothing for me it's not
like yeah i want to see those two like it's a
fucking fake character i don't i don't give a
shit either way yeah i'm not going to my computer
screen wanting to see that necessarily yeah but
you'll get like cut scenes like that where like
they're supposed to invoke almost a horny response
from the guys and i think like that's maybe to
get their youtube channel up or maybe to get
their their game up to that point because they
usually put that near the end of the game too
which is an interesting thing so if you were
really into seeing one of the characters boobs
you have to wait all the way till the end of
the game to do it right you have to get to the
last part of the romance options you have to
fill up the romance bar all the way yeah yeah
so like and i wonder if that's a strategy of
theirs these horny guys are gonna want to see
tits so let's just throw them at the end of the
game and then they'll play our game all the way
through and then larian's like you want to fuck
a bear you can fuck a bear you will fuck in the
first four minutes you can fuck in the first
four minutes you can lazel i think offers like
five minutes the game it's it's i'm like whoa
jesus all right i get the attitude of these cut
scenes too like i understand it's a cut scene
to show a naked person to invoke a more emotional
response from people because like when are we
at our most vulnerable with our partners probably
during sex right like that's just it's what it
is we're naked we're we're in a state of passion
like and i get what they're doing with those
cut scenes and i understand it They're not always
super necessary is what I'm saying. They're not
all super necessary, but some of them are really
great. Like, I got to say the Gale sex scenes
alone, dude. Like, I don't think I had sex with
Gale until my third playthrough. But he goes,
he does this thing with magic where he makes
it all illusionary where you're like these godly
beings in space that are the size of planet.
having sex. And then all of a sudden he makes
it. So like eight of him are around you, like
all touching you and fucking you in different
ways. And it's like, what kind of wizardry bullshit?
Like, he's like, I'm going to give you ever pleasure.
You've never, ever thought you'd even have. And
it's like, I mean, All right. I think there is
a sort of satisfaction because you did build
these characters up in a certain way. And you're
like, well, then we can talk about how they have
sex, too, because these characters are going
to, you know, their emotions outside of the sex
probably will bleed into sex. Right. Oh, yeah.
I mean, like one of the funniest things I find
about the game is you can actually have a threesome
in the game with Will. No, it was Will with Gail
and Halston. But you have to tell them both about
it and get them both to agree to it. Okay. And
if you open about it, then they will. If Gale
is willing to make eight of him, I'm sure he's
willing to have three. So you know what I mean,
right? But if he's not, he's a fucking hypocrite.
He even said he would only do it for like...
with someone he absolutely loved and something
like that oh that's weird like it was it was
such a weird thing but it was kind of funny or
I can't remember exactly what it was but I remember
like Halston being like well if he knows about
it and he's okay with it then I'm down okay I
mean Halston's about nature and nature they do
that so yeah yeah I think other times like I
wanted to bring up one other thing with it. Like
sometimes boss entrances have cut scenes. And
like some of them, especially in like Souls likes,
they're really beautiful. They're great ways
to introduce the characters. But also some of
them are unskippable or have unskippable parts
of them that are like 30 seconds, 40 seconds
long. In a game where you have to, sometimes
you're going to stall a player at that boss fight
for 50 tries. Yeah. It's really annoying to have
really scenes. I can't remember. I just played
a game where they did that, where I just kept
dying at this boss. And I'm like, and of course
I have to watch this fucking cut scene again.
And I watched it 40 fucking times and I'm, I'm
super getting pissed off and I'm about to put
the game down and never fucking touch it again.
Like, and it was a matter of the cut scene is
10 seconds or a minute. Like you were equally
as pissed off for having to wait that. over and
over and over and over. I mean, if you do have
to fight it 50 times, it's 50 minutes if it's
a minute long. If it's 10 seconds long, I don't
know. I'm not going to do my 500 seconds. If
it's a Souls -like game, it could be a 10 minute
long fight that you do 50 times and you don't
want to pause for a minute in between each time.
Yeah, exactly. You just want to get right back
into the fight. Exactly. God, I do not remember
which game that was, but there was a game where
that happened to me recently and I was just like
so fucking livid about it. I wish I could remember,
but it's fine. Yeah, I agree. I think they need
to make all cutscenes skippable. All cutscenes
should be skippable, but I think all of them
need to have like a... Not an easily skippable.
I don't want to accidentally skip it by just
pressing A. Usually it's hold. If you want a
hold down button, this is where you have a hold
down button. Don't make me hold down to pick
up ammo. Make me hold down to skip a cutscene,
but make every cutscene skippable. One of the
things that you should know, though, with games,
especially after the Lost in Random research...
We know that they do things to buffer rendering
times. I know. And I bet some of the cutscenes
are for buffering rendering times of a giant
boss like that. Oh, and I'm sure, and I know
there's reasons for it, and I'm not downplaying
them, and I know some of them are super necessary,
and a lot of them, like every one of them has
a ton of work going into them. I don't want to
downplay anyone's love of any cutscenes. For
sure. There's just times where it really takes
you out of the game, and other times where I'm
like, this is the most brilliant, amazing thing
ever. Yeah, this should definitely be in here
no matter what. The boss introductions of every
Shadow of the Colossus creature. I love every
one of those. Those need to be in there. Those
are amazing. They're epic. They show the scale
like no other. It's incredible. But some of these
other ones, like we were saying in boss fights,
like in Dark Souls where I'm like, I don't want
to watch. I was playing Sun Wukong, Black Myth
Wukong, the new Sun Wukong game. There's a boss
fight that's a mandatory boss fight to progress.
And I'm stuck at that right now. And it's got
two different animation sequences that you can't
skip. You can skip other parts of the cut scene,
but it's got like three things or two things
you can skip and two things you can't. And I've
fought this like 60 times and I'm so tired of
watching that animation. And I stopped playing
the game for a while. honestly i'll do that in
like two months i will absolutely i just need
to take a break because i'm way too frustrated
like i can't keep watching this i can't keep
doing this like sounds like you're about to cry
all right guys well i believe that's all i have
on cut scenes yeah that's all me okay that's
good all right guys well thanks for watching
or listening to another uh soul of a gamer episode
remember every monday nine uh nine o 'clock no
eight o 'clock well we're gonna leave 10 o 'clock,
I think. Whatever time it is in the fucking morning.
You will find him. It's going to be on Monday.
Monday at some day during Monday. Just check
Tuesday. It'll be there. So just double check.
You'll see us. Reach out to soulofagamerpodcast
at gmail .com. Tell us your thoughts. We asked
a question today. Could not tell you what it
was, but it was something. Oh, yeah. Does do
Sylveon and Vaporeon suck or are they great?
Because honestly, I think they suck. And we don't
need the goon answers. We just want. We just
want your real opinions. I'm sure that's going
to be one of our TikToks, honestly, so you can
definitely comment on there as well. Thanks for
watching, guys, or thanks for listening, and
we will catch you next week with whatever we're
doing. Another game. Tony Hawk, Pro Skater 3
and 4. Oh, yeah, that's right. All right, guys.
See you later. Bye.