We're on. We're here.
We're live?
Yeah, yeah.
Thrilling.
Oh, God.
We're here.
Get comfortable.
Um, morning, everyone.
Afternoon, evening, wherever the fuck it is where you are.
Hello.
Where's the energy gone?
Is it all gone?
We had a big conversation before we pressed record.
We were sort of, um, fatigued our vocal cords.
Spoke to you about five minutes during the last week.
That's enough.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, we actually haven't really spoken.
It's a common occurrence now.
We never do anymore.
Nah.
Because we're running an empire on a weekly basis.
It's sad because we used to talk daily.
Yeah, but now we talk on an hour schedule.
We've got two hours with each other a week.
It's more than enough.
It's pathetic.
Um, you're still playing Marvel Snap.
Yep.
You haven't got off the fucking finger.
It's the first time I've seen you today without being on it.
Yep.
Decent.
You're screwed over, Kyle.
Uh, yes, I snatched him.
Well, I didn't.
I beat him in the first game, then he beat me in the next two.
Oh, he actually beat you?
Oh, so he fucked you up?
Yeah, he fucked me.
Oh, you both kept that quiet.
Was that, oh.
Yeah.
Oh, dear.
But yeah, it was interesting.
We were both pooing and we were both snapping.
That's a good, um.
It's a good game.
That's a good, uh, uh, podcast to consumer interaction right there.
Yes.
Yeah, it was a quick, uh.
Take a shit with us and play some Snap.
Yeah, fight me bitch.
And he was like, yeah, all right.
And then that was that.
That was the one.
Decent.
No pay to entry, yes.
And then he's out of it and there's not pay to win.
I don't think it is.
He's talking bollocks.
You're both talking bollocks.
No, I don't think it is.
Sick game.
I've already played Marvel Snap and Bowlers Gate, so I have very little to offer.
I don't have that much to offer either.
You haven't.
This is great.
A little bit.
Uh, you haven't played any Phantom Liberty yet.
No, but I did play Cyberpunk for about 30 minutes yesterday.
Just to get your bearings.
I was just doing the intro missions.
What Ashley, um, uh, has done is fully committed and deleted all of his saves.
Yep.
Everything.
You cannot, um, you cannot get it back.
It's done.
It's gone.
So he forced himself into a brand new playthrough.
And I was talking to Mark about, why don't you just start a new game?
And I know exactly why he didn't, because I'd do the same thing after about an hour in.
You'd go, oh, fuck it.
I've got used to it now.
Let me jump on my actual site.
Well, I did start a new game.
And then when the new game stopped going through cutscenes, I went into the save files and
deleted everything because I was like, I'm going to load an old one.
So that's why I did that.
Exactly.
Which is fair enough.
And you've just haven't had any time to play it because boulders gate is taking up every
second of existence.
I have when I am child free in the evenings and the goat is the goat still the goat still
better than witcher.
Yeah.
Yep.
Act three now.
Crazy.
So wait, hold on.
So it's taking you 40, 50, I'm going to 55 now.
But it took you 48 hours to get through like the first act.
It took me a long time.
Yeah.
The act two, I kind of, I didn't rush it.
But the area, I weren't fond of it just because it's one of them light, dark, dingy, dark
and dingy.
Don't go into the poison areas.
If you just adds to so many variables, I'm sorry.
I'd rather not be here.
Was it like, um, what was that place on Elden Ring with the Scarlet Rock?
Where was that fucking?
Yeah.
Not to that extent.
So was it still something say on it?
I can't remember.
But yeah, every form of software games got fucking poison swamp in it somewhere and it's
no different.
Yeah.
This is like, you've got to have a fucking lantern out and it's just fucking bollocks.
But it's, um, I didn't diminish anything.
I, I, I, I'm sure I was making the mistakes, but I was like, well, when it said, if you
go forward here, you may not be able to come back.
I was like, get me out of here.
K Lid.
That's the one.
Oh, I remember.
Um, yeah, I'm with you on that one.
Them dark dingy areas.
They always, it sounds so odd.
They always make me hyper aware that I'm playing on my own because I'm in such a, I'm in a
dangerous area.
It's like when I play any games with any form of horror in them, I always remember I'm completely
on my own here and I'm scared.
Hold me.
I don't like playing horror games.
No, I genuinely get scared.
Oh, I guess I get scared of the jump that I know I'm going to have.
Yeah.
Not the actual thing that's on the screen.
I'm always paranoid that I'm going to get scared and have a heart attack.
So I'm going to die.
I don't like it.
Yeah.
No, not that bad.
Sorry.
Act two is still great, but I, but also there was a second reason why I finished it quickly
and it's because I feel, I probably haven't, but I feel like I've done everything in act
one, like everything that was possible to do.
I feel like I've done it.
I feel like you definitely haven't.
I feel like I have.
I don't feel like I couldn't find.
Connor, I'm further than him, you know?
Yeah, but he also spent about 10 years on act one.
This is true.
He won't know what I've done.
So yeah, I think I've done everything in act one.
So I was like, well, I'm definitely going to do a second playthrough, not for a while,
quite a while, because my backlog is getting ridiculous.
So I want there to still be stuff that I've never seen before, just in case.
Obviously the stories are going to be different.
I'm going to take different paths, but I want there to be like actual stuff.
I'm like, Oh, I didn't know this was here.
Understandable.
So yeah.
And act three at the moment, it's fucking huge, the area and the stuff.
And yeah, I'm, I'm a bit overwhelmed by act three, to be honest with you.
That's where it happens, ladies and gentlemen.
Well, this is where you stop playing.
The overwhelmed feeling comes in.
I am overwhelmed, but it just feels like, I dunno.
I put myself in some fucking sticky situations.
I really did in terms of, uh, cause there's a system in it where you go, you,
well, you know, you go to camp, right?
So you can rest up to heal.
But then there's places in the game where you can't go back to camp because you
know, you just can't because you're locked in a design and you have to do what
you're doing.
Uh, so I've had myself in some situations where I can't go back to camp to heal.
I've got no short rest things either.
And I've got no health potions, but I have to get through this fire to proceed.
So I, and, and it's very, uh, generous in its auto-saved, auto-saves loads.
So you will never get proper stuck, but where I've committed to this, no, these
choices are the choices and this is the way I've had to like proper grind out
some things.
And I am blessed and grateful for the ability to be able to save during combat.
So there's been a fight where I took on some evil necromancer guy.
He was sick, man, like Balthazar or something.
He is a fucking cool character and I can't wait to side with him one day, but
this time didn't feel right.
And every fucking time we started to fight, old rain would get a barrage of
poison that is at him, but he'd done so much damage that it pretty much one, it
KO'd him.
And if it didn't, the geezer done like two more attacks after that.
Anyway, if, if he didn't, if that didn't put him down, something else did, then
there was a, after reloading, like five, six times, there was a time when he
didn't hit me with any of it missed.
Save.
This is now where we start the fight.
So it was every time like I made a bit of progress, I would get a
save and I had to keep doing that.
Otherwise I'm just toast.
There's no way.
Is that not saves coming?
I'm talking more decisions.
Like if, no, I'm not having that because what do you mean?
You're not having it because I see the anger in your eyes.
I'm not angry.
Just disappointed.
Uh, the only option would have been to reload a save before that and then go
back to camp rest and all that.
Otherwise I'm not getting through that fight at all because I've got no healing
potions.
Yeah, but you would have done.
No, I wouldn't.
It would have been physically important.
Also, all my spells were used by my healer.
So there was no healing available.
I had no health potions and I had to fight a fucking fat necromancer.
So what happened when he, when he did the abilities at Mischia and then you
saved, what happened after that?
Well, then I had to bang my head against the wall for about two, three hours.
So you technically could have done it without any saving.
Uh, yeah.
But what's the point in reloading?
Hoping he misses you.
I'm dead reloading, hoping he misses your arm dead.
I'm with you on it.
I'm just saying it's on air.
I see what you're saying.
It's live.
No, it's not what I'm saying.
It's what you said in that you wouldn't save scum.
Now to me, that's not safe scum chat.
What do you think we need some advice on this?
That sounds like safe.
I made a decision yesterday that got me thrown in jail.
Right.
And I was also in a bad situation.
I could have reloaded the save and not got thrown in jail and chose a different
option, but I didn't.
And I had to try and escape prison and get all my comrades and fight.
And it was difficult.
What did you do?
I just, what put you in jail?
Started on someone.
They started on me.
And I was like, well, you got the option to be like respectful and say, okay, I'm
sorry.
And blah, blah, blah.
Or it was like, don't talk to me like that.
And there's no way you can prison.
Something like that.
You've let the worms overtake you, haven't you?
Yeah.
And I am indulging.
Yeah.
Connor is not very impressed with that.
But.
Well, cause you let the worms take over.
I am becoming a lifted.
I am becoming squid man.
So what's what?
What?
Connor don't like the squid?
I don't think so.
But Connor's ginger.
So the opinion's not there.
Yeah, this is true.
Just keep his mouth quiet.
Burns in the sun.
Why don't you just shut the fuck up?
Shut your dirty mouth, Connor.
Horrible man.
So yeah, well, the problem is I've got, I'm in love with shadow heart.
And I don't mean like, I don't mean.
You don't mean like the sweaty nerdy kind of, I love her posters on the wall type.
No.
Yeah.
That's exactly what I mean.
I thought you didn't mean in game.
No, no, no, no.
Rain loves her, but I love her more.
Right.
Okay.
So I've fallen in love with her.
And Gem, Gem can.
He's got with his wife.
Gem can confirm this.
Yeah.
She's got competition.
I had my headphones on the other day.
She was doing whatever she was doing sitting on sofa.
Yeah.
And when I got offered the worm and I was like, oh, but shadow heart, what?
Cause she's like, well, I'm going to change a little bit.
And I thought, is she still going to love me?
Is she still going to care for me?
Is she still going to want me?
Yeah.
So.
Who offered you the worm?
I don't want to do like spoilers and stuff.
So I'm just going to, you know, but yeah.
So I was just like, well, I don't know, man, do I?
Don't I?
And the only thing stopping me really was shadow art.
And I was like, I fuck it.
I'm going to eat it.
So I ate it.
And then the first thing I did was run to shadow art and make sure she weren't like,
oh, you monster get away from me.
And she weren't best impressed, but I managed to persuade her to eat one too.
Right.
So now we're just a couple of squids doing our business.
Does any squid paraphernalia end up coming out of you?
What do you mean?
Why do you end up getting squid bits?
Well, I'm, I'm, it says I'm partial illithid.
So I'm not, well, I showed you a picture of what I looked like.
I looked like venomous, just spunked on my face.
You look like a vampire.
Yeah.
I look, but I've got some fucking abilities now, man.
Gives you some cool shit.
Well, obviously you can eat them.
You have the worms anyway.
Oh, squiddly diddle.
And then a little bit into the game, you get the option basically to, you know,
eat more.
And then you get like a whole new skill set menu, which is like a,
a skill screen basically of a brain and each node is a piece of your brain.
And then when you pick one, once you found a tadpole,
it burrows into your brain is very dirty and cool.
But that's where like powerful abilities lie.
So I'm like on the outer ring of the powerful abilities now.
And I've got some fucking shadow.
Yeah.
She's, she's, yeah.
Yeah.
So now I've got some fucking sick abilities and a bit of a weird fringe.
And she says gone now.
Oh, you can say no, she switched herself up.
Oh, he was bugging out.
Oh, she changed it.
Oh, Jim Jim thinks I'm mental.
I was like, what you done to your hair?
I ran over and obviously I had headphones in so I can't hear how loud I'm talking.
And she's changed her hair.
Her hair is white now and she's got rid of the fringe.
And she's like, do you like my new look?
I love it.
Shadow art.
Is there a picture of it?
Oh, what you mean?
Fucking like that.
Yeah.
Shadow art.
Good Lord.
Yeah.
But I think that's cause I'm the decisions I've made and like I say,
I don't want to go into it and decisions that I've made her or not made her made,
help her made it's just fucking sick.
Sick is going to have played by some fucking distance.
I'm so powerful now, but I am regretting eating the worm.
Oh yeah.
Well, I just, I am and I'm not like, I don't like the way I look now.
As I say, it looks like Venom's just fucking finished all over me.
Yep.
Nice.
18 inches of venom, 19 inches, whatever.
19 inches.
19 inches of venom all over my face.
So yeah, I'm not, I'm not too keen on the way I look, but,
and also rain's a good guy, man.
He's not really, I'm not really, he's not really making terrible decisions.
He's doing things that he would do.
Right.
But the way I've got it in my head is he's trying to do the right thing.
So he's, he's, he's doing this for the greater good.
Right.
And if you don't, kind of, if you don't know the story, you won't know what I mean.
Obviously I'm not going to go into it,
but I feel like obviously there's going to be massive fucking twists and turns still.
And I think Act 3 is like the biggest act, so I could be in it for another 50 hours.
But yeah, I do think that, because I asked Connor, I said, can I play rain in a D&D session?
He was like, yeah, pre-eliphage you can.
And it also makes me believe, two things make me believe,
and I don't want you to Google it and tell me I want to find out on my own,
but two things make me believe that you can turn full eliphed.
And one is that on the, don't, on the, on the skill screen, it says literal partial eliphed.
Yeah.
Why would it say that?
Why would it say partial?
If there wasn't a step up.
And then two, I just feel like the way the story is, I think,
I don't know if you'll be able to play as it, but I think it might be like, right,
the final thing is do you want to turn into a full squid man?
Basically, and then everyone's just going to abandon you.
But this is fine.
That's fine.
That's all I need.
As long as she's, well, so is my other companion.
Oh, they've all got the worm.
Well, two of them have.
All the other companions that I've possibly could have had really are dead.
So I can't, I can't really ask anyone else to eat the worms,
which is why it's so great because the stories that I've yet to be told from other companions,
or I can play as them, can fully start as them.
Yeah.
It's just be like a whole new story because there's like fucking three companions
that were dead within seconds of meeting me that I didn't even really have a moment with.
So it's like, I'm so excited for this game and I hope they do expansion,
even though there's too much to do already.
But there's not.
I want more.
I want it injected into my bum through my eyes.
I know the answer.
Well, I don't want to know.
But yeah, it's the best game I've ever played.
It never will be.
You don't want to know the answer?
No, I don't.
I'll tell you that.
Don't even look at me.
It will never be a better game than Baldur's Gate 3.
Because it's right here.
The answer is shut the fuck up.
Baldur's Gate 4.
Here I come.
And so does D&D.
Anyway, let's move on.
Do you want to know if your companions can just shut up and talk about Assassin's Creed Mirage?
You can't find a close it.
If you don't want to know, I don't know.
You don't want to know.
Oh, it's quiet.
Shut up later in.
Talk about Mirage.
I've closed the window.
Thank you.
But I hold the knowledge.
Brilliant.
I hold the knowledge.
That's good.
That's all I need to know.
Yeah.
My second collector's edition of a game.
Assassin's Creed Mirage.
I probably brought the little statue out to show me.
But never mind.
Oh, fuck.
Yeah, I forgot.
I'll do it after this.
Because me and Steph, that picture that I took of it and showed you, obviously she's got
a big old cabinet where all the stuff is.
And Bassim is with all the other Assassin's Creed figures and Ellie.
I've put two hours in because I didn't get that much time.
I did because I didn't start work until about 11 o'clock today.
I did have the anticipation of playing until the early hours last night.
But I was just so fucking tired.
So two hours is all I could manage.
And in those short two hours, I really like it.
What have you done?
Why don't you know how to figure out the head?
They're annoying.
And they, to be fair, they are a bit stupid.
Yeah, that's right.
You sorted it right.
The headphones are causing.
Yeah.
Yes, I like it.
They so playtime is about 20 hours.
Now, Mark was marked part of a platinum trophy group thing on Facebook
where people post the times that they've done a platinum on all sorts.
And he said someone's platinum in 23 hours.
So that leads me to believe that it could be less than 20 hours worth of gameplay.
And in the two hours I've played, I can see that happening because so far
the story has progressed quite a decent chunk.
This is obviously reflected in the price point because it's 45 quid brand new.
They're not asking 70 quid off of you.
It's a very decent game made by a very big company.
But yeah, they're not asking for big boy prices.
And yeah, they've gone back to their roots properly.
From what I can see, like I say, the story is not that long.
The area is not massive.
The free running feels fucking fantastic.
It might be because it's been a while since I played an Assassin's Creed game,
but it definitely feels better than when I played Origins 100 percent.
It feels so much nicer.
One gripe that I've already got is the I think a lot of people are saying
the voice actors are quite poor.
I quite like them.
Bassim's voice actor is a bit hit and miss,
but the facial animations are awful.
Oh, really?
They're awful. They're just not good.
How we speak or any normal person or any fucking normal game,
they give you the facial expressions.
You can tell if someone's angry, upset, sad.
You can see those things or when they're laughing, you're able to.
I always know that they can never get the eyes right, can they?
The eyes and the mouth sometimes.
Inside the mouth.
Yeah, always a bit odd, but you gloss over it.
This, on the other hand, it's just blank expression for majority of fucking
dialogue, which doesn't spoil it, but it is quite annoying
because you think you can definitely do better than this.
Like I said, I'm only two hours in, so it could get a bit better.
But to me, it seems like that's how it's designed.
I can't see how something like facial animations are going to progressively
get better within the game.
You know, I mean, the further you get along, it's to me, that seems like an
integrated thing that everyone's going to behave this way.
But other than that, the combat feels good.
Much more slow paced than the last couple of Assassin's Creed in a sense of
there is a proper like parrying mechanic and it is a bit hack and slashy.
But I'd imagine that's where the skills come into play on that one.
And yeah, just just generally much slower.
The stealth is decent.
However, it does seem the NPCs are a bit thick.
Now you can put it into hard mode where your stealth and things like that are
obviously much more there's much more smaller scope for for fucking up,
which I probably will switch over to because I started in normal just to get a
fucking feel for it because it is only easy, normal and hard.
There's no extreme hard mode or hardcore or anything like that.
But like, for example, say there's a group of enemies about 10 foot in front of
me and I'm in the typical tall grass and then you get that that glow over you to
say, say like you're in stealth.
You can whistle people over, which you've been able to do in pretty much every
single one.
Now, if there's a cluster of people, it would make sense that if I whistle,
everyone is going to come fucking having a little look because I can't just
singularly whistle to one person.
But no, if you whistle to someone, one person comes over.
However, everyone in that group turns around and starts fucking looking, but as
if they're all going to come over, which is a bit freaky.
But you can, for example, whistle someone over and then the prompt will come up
to take them down long before they're in the grass and you can take them down.
So you run out of the grass, like grab hold of snap the neck, do whatever and
then drag them back into the grass.
But I can do that in front of a load of people and it won't prompt them to come
and attack me, which on one hand makes the stealth sequences a lot easier and a
lot more manageable.
On the other hand, ruins the immersion side of it.
It's like how true do you really want to go with it?
I guess probably down to difficulty.
Yeah, I feel like I'll have a much better opinion of it when I play it after
this, of which I will change the difficulty on it just so that it is that
little bit more.
I got a couple of mates who have also said the same thing where they don't
like the combat.
Maybe I just haven't experienced enough of it yet, but I don't mind it.
I don't know. I prefer the older style of combat of Assassin's Creed to the
Valhalla's and all that.
It definitely feels older style.
Because it used to be, I've got not a great memory of it, but it seemed to be
more akin to the Batman games where it was like when you...
Or Shadow of War type shit.
Yeah, they're about to hit me so I press the triangle and they'll block it.
You're hacking and slashing, but as long as you can dodge at the right time and
all that shit.
I preferred that because the combat of Valhalla and Origins and that was very
hack and slash, big old health bars.
And it was just silly.
It was just like geezers that were nine foot tall.
At the end of the day, I think what they've done in terms of going back to
their roots is they've definitely done that with the combat.
Yes, there's abilities there with chain assassinations where you can teleport
over and stuff like that.
I see that as being the newer era of stuff melding in with the older style of
Assassin's Creed, which I haven't unlocked that stuff yet, but you can see it.
It's in one of the trailers, right?
Yeah, and I like it.
I like the look of it.
But yeah, I'm with you on that.
I prefer the older style of combat.
One thing that I'm not too keen on is, again, I'm running on a limited basis
here because I've only got two hours onto it.
But as far as I'm aware, you can't just go to like a blacksmith and buy new
weapons.
You can only upgrade the weapons that you have and it's sword and a dagger.
That's it.
But again, I have not, don't take my word for gospel on that one.
I have not explored this game.
So I'm going to assume I'm wrong on that and I'm just not far enough in.
But in a 18, 20 hour game, how far do you need to be in to start being able to
get different types of weapons?
Yeah, I imagine it's just the same weapon.
They're trying to streamline it.
I read yesterday that this was for a long time, this was actually just an
expansion to Valhalla.
And then they decided to make it a standalone game.
There's Transmog.
You can change the appearance of it in your outfits and shit like that.
It just seems like a weird choice to make because Bassim is the kind of a big
deal in Valhalla and he plays a quite a pivotal role, especially towards the end.
He's massive in the story and he's still in the whole game of Valhalla was left
on a cliffhanger of Bassim.
But it just seems so strange to then go back to his origin.
Yeah, you start right from the beginning before he's even an assassin.
When I watched the review of it yesterday, it really gave off, because it showed a
lot of the early gameplay and how the game starts off and stuff.
It really gave off like Aladdin vibes, like he's a bit of a street rat going
around doing bits and bobs.
It really gave me the start of Aladdin, which was cool because I like it, it's
my favorite Disney film.
Yeah, he starts off as you are just a thief, basically, trying to make ends meet
and all that shit.
And it just so like your typical, just so happens the person that gives you most of
your jobs is currently doing your effectively doing jobs for the assassins
without realizing that you're doing jobs.
And then you meet like the fucking, I think a Roshan or something like that.
That's not a ghost spoilery, yeah.
That's not spoilery.
I'm still giving you the plot.
That's all right.
I just don't know what spoilers is not.
I haven't played it.
And yeah, you're that is what I like about it, because when I played things like
when I played Origins and when I played Valhalla, everything felt like it took
fucking forever to get involved with.
It does.
It felt far too long, far too annoying.
And this doesn't because I've been having this for myself.
All right.
Now, this Assassin's Creed is what 45 quid?
Yeah.
It's a short game.
Yep.
Good.
But comes with a physical disk as well.
Yeah, that's great.
But the argument I'm going to have with it is physical case to Spider-Man 2 is
apparently 15 hours long.
But that's 70 quid.
So it's a difficult one because I just think that 15 hours is not a lot.
But then once again, you come with the argument of if it's a really good game,
really good story, really tight, fair enough.
But then should it still be cheaper, regardless of how good the game is?
Because I wouldn't go to the cinema and watch a three hour film.
I would go to cinema and watch a three hour film for the price of the ticket.
But I wouldn't go and watch a half hour film for the same price of the ticket.
There's got to be some comparison to be had there because I'm excited for
Spider-Man 2, whether I fucking finish Boulders Gate by the time it comes out,
I don't know.
And I've got to do Phantom Liberty first.
But it just seems really short because I can do 15 hours in Boulders Gate in
like two, three nights.
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
It is definitely a it's a it's a weird one because I feel like with kind of
with Spider-Man, you you expect that polished near perfect experience with it,
whereas with Assassin's Creed, Ubisoft, that that start with that price point.
It's a weird is weird because I was going to say you you almost forgive if it's
not polished, but at the same time, it should be the price shouldn't denote
whether the on the quality of of the product that you're not that you're
playing.
My point is, though, or my question is, should a game be cheaper if it's short?
Should that come into the price point of games in the future?
I feel like, yeah, maybe if the game short than yeah, because when you get
down to the actual fucking like imagine if you were putting in an invoice for
it, well, I'm giving you 15 hours worth of content that has then meant that
rather than it taking a thousand hours to make this, it's taking 500 hours.
Everything has to be scaled down, surely, if you're getting.
But again, you could argue, all right, well, I can give you a 50 hour game
and it be shit and not be as good as the up to par with the fucking game.
That's 15 hours.
What am I going to charge you 70 quid for this one and 45 for the better one?
That's where it's different.
What are you?
What are you supposed to?
I don't really.
I don't really know how they.
Well, there must be a bracket because there's no there's not really any
difference.
I have a 45 quid.
I have a 45.
No, sorry.
Usually on the very cheap ones like 35 up to 70 in it.
Yeah, I mean, any game that comes out nowadays, regardless of how good it is
in five is normally 60s, 70s.
Yeah, the only cheaper ones normally are like indie titles.
Standard PlayStation five game is 70 quid now.
That's just the norm.
Now is Assassin's Creed that because they're trying to win some fans back over,
get some people back in, get a cheaper price point or is it because it is a
smaller game and they're like, well, we can't really charge full price for this.
Where Spider-Man 2 is and then some maybe maybe a bit of both because I suppose
if you've if you've just come off the back of Origins Odyssey and Valhalla
too much massive, massive fucking games and you're charging 70 quid for each one
of them, you then bring out another game and then charge 70 quid for that and
people can have it done if they really wanted to a day.
Although I do feel like right the Valhalla.
I played Valhalla much more than I played Origins, but I think I played Odyssey.
I was obsessed with Odyssey for a long time.
I played over 100 hours into Odyssey.
I do feel like they get a bad rap because what they actually put into them games
is nuts.
Like the amount of light I know you don't see like the same structure more than
once.
I mean, they saw handcrafted towns and cities.
Now there's not a lot to do in them towns and cities, but if you like walking
around and looking at the architecture and like historical things, then it's
there.
Yes, there.
And I think they do get a bad rap when it comes to story.
Valhalla was balls just because it's the same thing over and over again, which
is sad because it's a Viking game.
That's what I want.
Yeah.
So it has a bit more actually with the novel of Valhalla, the game as well.
It's sad because I really wanted that to be really good.
But the game itself was just I think they get bad raps, but they are too long,
too bloated, too wide.
But I also feel like this may be too short without playing it.
So I kind of have an opinion, but I feel somewhere in the middle.
It needs to be.
I see.
I like the fact that it's a short game because it means I'm more than
confident to finish it.
That's not me saying I'm unable to finish long games.
It's just I have a serious thing or if the game isn't holding me, I'll just
fuck off.
I won't bother putting the time in.
If I already know that I'm not interested.
The minute I start debating whether I'm going to finish it or not, I already
know that I'm not going to finish it because I'm already debating it.
Whereas a game like this where it is only X amount of hours long.
It's like, yeah, I can confidently.
But I suppose it all depends on how much fun you're having in the game.
Like the last was part two.
I could have swore was like a 60 hour campaign.
It's not 20 odd hours.
It's like 24 hours.
That took me over 30 definitely.
If not 40.
It took me a long time to finish it.
Admittedly, I was only playing it when Steph was around.
So that was like once once every week, like week.
But it's so it's like.
It's no bigger than Mirage.
So is it is it an issue that is that it's a short game?
I'm not sure.
Would it be an issue if I paid 70 quid?
Almost definitely.
However, I paid 130 quid for a collective edition.
It's got a fat statue with it.
Come with a with a cool map, like a broach thing, a steelbook,
a fucking physical copy of the game with the fucking physical disk as well.
So I've got both things and then some downloadable content.
As far as a collector's edition goes, it's quite decent.
Like I'm happy with it.
The only bit I didn't like about is that the box itself is quite flimsy.
It's very thin.
Yes, the average play time for last was part two is 20, 24 hours.
Definitely not.
Not for me.
You could swear that it's long longer.
It definitely was longer for me because I could have.
I could have swore I put about 20 hours into the first half.
And then when the second half started, I was like, for fuck's sake.
And I could have swore I googled it and it said like, yeah, you're there for about 30 hours.
I was like, where was I getting my info from then?
Because I remember it being a lot longer.
I definitely put in more than 30, 100 percent.
Maybe I'm just slow.
But yeah, if if this is the new direction of of Assassin's Creed,
of where Ubisoft is taking Assassin's Creed, then I'm all for it because I much prefer the older games to the newer games.
So far, do I think it's as good as the likes of Assassin's Creed 2 or Brotherhood or Black Flag?
No.
But you haven't been with him long, have you?
Exactly.
So after this weekend where I'm effectively going to be able to play it all weekend, you never know.
I think Steph's out on Sunday, so I might even have it fucking done by Monday.
I'll be able to give a much more informed idea next episode.
But so far, I think for the price tag, it's definitely worth it because it's 45 quid.
I'll definitely be picking it up. It won't be too long.
You can just borrow it off of me.
Yeah, it's physical.
Exactly. You can just borrow it off of me.
That alone is crazy for a collector's edition to have a physical copy because that does not happen anymore.
So I've got an actual steelbook where I can put the fucking disc in the steelbook, which is cool.
Yeah, that's a relic of the past these days, isn't it?
Yeah, of course it is.
I was looking at, speaking of that, I was looking at Boulders Gates collector's edition the other day.
Big?
Oh yeah, comes with an illiffed statue.
It's fucking goated.
It was about a grand.
Fucking hell.
Fucking grand.
Well, it wasn't. I remember seeing it go up.
Oh, it wasn't when it first came out?
Nah, I was excited for Boulders Gate, knowing what I knew about Divinity, but little did I know I would be like this.
And yeah, I'm obsessed and I need it. I need the collector's edition.
You can't have it.
But I can't have it. Not unless I've spunked my savings.
I mean, look at that. Sorry, I just burped into the microphone.
Oh, sorry. I forget that's the worst thing. I'm pretty sure you're part of your shit on these microphones.
I can't zoom in, but look at that.
Let's have a little gander.
So what do you get? That's the statue itself, the old squidy squidy.
And you get all that other stuff.
Who's the geezer that's on it?
I don't know, I haven't looked into it.
It's very cool. And then what's that? You get some patches as well.
Oh, you get Magic the Gathering cards.
All sorts of shit, man.
Magic the Gathering, a fucking D&D dice.
Oh, those fucking D&D cards. Yeah, I don't know.
I think they're a character. That's all I want.
And like a weird key ring thing, a map.
What is that? The game itself, a book, a certificate, another picture in the background.
I think I think it was about two hundred fifty dollars.
That's very cool.
Probably about two hundred quid.
But yeah, now you're looking at a grand.
Yeah, well, what you actually get is.
Here's two hundred and fifty nine ninety nine euros is what it was for PS5 or for PC.
It is a mind flayer versus a drow battle.
Two twenty five centimeter battle, dear armor of a mind flayer and a drow locked in a deadly exchange of blade and psionic might.
This collector's edition statue is made from high quality PVC, ABS plastics.
Features are finally painted and hand finished around scenic base, depicting the subterranean realm of the Underdark.
I've been in the Underdark. It's not great.
He loves the Underdark. Hardcover art book, tadpole key ring, boulders gate 3D20, character sheets.
That's what they were character sheets. Stickers.
Boulder's gate, the game cloth map of Faerun magic, the gathering booster packs.
What is magic? The gathering got anything to do with D&D?
Magic, the gathering's got stuff to do with fucking it definitely has because I saw a boulders gate card of like the actual gate because I've been looking into the law.
Boulder's gate is just a gate in the city of Boulder's gate and it was built in 17.
I've been looking at some law collectors edition certificate.
Boulder's gate is just a gate.
But I want it, but I can't have it and it's killing me inside.
Yeah, there is a commander legends battle for boulders gate magic, the gathering.
Commander's legends battle for boulders gate is the second magic, the gathering commander set that is designed to be drafted.
It was released in June 10th, 2022.
Looks like I'm going to start collecting that shit.
I believe boulders gate was a great set for the commander format and the best set of 2022.
The commanders and the backgrounds, the set introduced were great designs that allowed you to build your own flavor of deck without forcing you into established pairings like partner.
I don't know magic gathering, so I don't know what any of that information is, but it's there for you.
I mean, that's another addiction. Does nostalgia magic the gathering card?
750 quid. Yeah, fucking ridiculous.
1200 pound.
Steph's one of Steph's best friends.
Her husband is a big magic, the gathering guy, and she's forever like saying like he keeps coming home with magic, the gathering cards and stuff.
We've got a fucking place to put these big, big into it.
Not my sort of thing.
I say that for the sake of my wallet because they brought them Lord of the Rings ones in there and I was like, no, don't do it.
Yeah, I want this so badly.
So if any of I'm going to set up a what's them things you know that the only fans people do Amazon wishlist on the boulders gate clicks edition.
Fucking wishlist.
So if you want to see pictures of my feet, buy me the boulders gate free collector's edition.
I'll send you a picture of whatever you want.
My balls, my nipples, my toes.
I want this so badly.
I will suck for stuff.
I won't.
That's not an advert.
You will though, won't you? For boulders gate clicks edition, I'll do things.
You'll do what you're fucking told to do, mate.
I'll do what I'm told.
All right.
I'll be dominated.
So just fucking get on with it.
I want that statue.
So, yeah, that's that's where I'm at with that.
That's made me really sad that I'm never going to have it.
Have you played any more Cyberpunk?
No.
Oh, no.
Have I?
Yeah, no, I have.
I have, I have, I have, I have.
I have.
Yeah, it's decent, man.
It's real decent.
I am obviously going to do Mirage first before I finished Phantom Liberty.
But Mark's finished it.
I think it took him 13 hours or something like that to finish it, which is decent for a DLC.
It's quite a big chunk.
It's almost the size of Mirage.
Yeah.
Fucking.
But, yeah, it has by no means am I put off by it.
I've just not had the time to fucking play it.
I think I see yesterday that Cyberpunk sold 20 million copies or 25 million copies or
something.
And Phantom Liberty's already sold three million.
Yeah.
It's impressive.
I'm sick of seeing people say, see, this is much better than Starfield.
Fuck off.
Yeah, I said no.
Just fuck off.
A game that I haven't actually picked up for a long time is Starfield.
Again, much like you, the backlog of games I've got.
I've got a balanced fucking ESO in there as well.
All right.
I've almost finished Cadwell's fucking Almanac thing where you got to go through and do all
those missions.
I've got like four things left to do.
And then I get the little pot that he wears on his head.
So there's just so much stuff.
You know what I mean?
There's so much stuff.
Buying a house.
You know what I mean?
There's all sorts of shit that's.
Thanks to the Patreons, Reese is getting a mortgage.
Yeah, pretty much.
Thanks, guys.
Keep that one coming because now I've got bills.
Yeah, but it's like we said the other week, there's a big excitement around gaming at
the moment.
I mean, I feel like I'm absolutely involved.
You ever think about something that you really like and then just wish you could jump into
the pool of it and be smothered by it?
Yeah, you know, I mean, I feel like that I'm being hugged by the by the mother that is
gaming.
And she's just fucking she's got a big old boobies are there and I'm just sucking on
them, getting all this gaming all over me down my chin.
It's great.
Was Dillion White once famously said, it's a bit of a weird analogy.
That's fair.
That's it's just yeah, I got lots of shit popping off, man.
It's decent.
I can't think of let me have a look.
I don't know if my calendar surpassed Mirage in terms of games that are coming out.
But you got things like Payday 3 come out and like that just went under the radar.
Me and Mark didn't bother getting it.
Spider-Man 2 is coming out this month.
I'm just not interested in Spider-Man though.
I know you're not, but these are the sort of big hitters that are still coming.
There's still some big boy bollocks coming and it's nuts.
Yeah, I haven't got anything past Mirage.
There's so much.
My backlog at the moment is, well, it will be Spider-Man 2.
It's going to be Cyberpunk Phantom Liberty.
I want to do Mortal Kombat 1.
Mortal Kombat.
Exactly.
I still got to jump back into Starfield.
Oh, fucking Wolfenstein as well.
He's been playing Wolfenstein on the Steam Deck.
Plays fucking fantastically.
Oh, it's so much fun.
It's so much fun.
I'm about nine, 10 hours through the first one and they're not big games.
So I'm 10 hours or so.
So I'm somewhere near there.
Good fun.
Real good fun.
Like I say, plays really nice.
Feels really good.
I'm just shooting Nazis in the face.
I mean, what more?
What more can a boy dream?
I chose Street Kid for Cyberpunk.
Starting story.
Jason.
Different from...
You were Nomad last time, weren't you?
Yeah, I was Nomad.
So it's a completely different story.
Really interesting.
Really cool actually starting off.
It's nice to see how it transitions into the same, you know, obviously funnels to the same bit.
But it's Jason.
It's different.
It's interesting.
I felt a lot shorter than the Nomad starting.
But you can, but even just from the start, the way the menus are popping,
even going to your apartment for the first time and it's like, right, here's your weapon stash.
Like the cars.
I don't think you get constantly bombarded with messages about cars no more.
It's all on your emails on your computer.
That it is.
Things like that.
Just making it so much cleaner.
Items on the floor, weapons you're picking up, like the stats, the stats screen for the weapons and stuff.
You can actually inspect the items as well.
You can actually rotate.
I love that in games.
Rotate the actual object and have a look at what is.
We were wrong last time.
We said that there was no additional health things anymore.
I found some yesterday.
There are.
However, the health packs themselves just regenerate.
Same with grenades.
Yeah, that's what I prefer that.
It's much better.
Which is decent.
So you can just quick, quick slot what you want.
Even the crafting components.
It just says tier one crafting components.
Rather than fucking all these confusing convoluted bullets.
They've streamlined it.
They've definitely streamlined it.
It just feels, it feels fucking smooth.
However, I come across a mob when I was last playing it.
Like some random interaction.
On the map, it looked like a puddle.
Like on the map.
And it was a police officer having a fight with like a load of other people.
And I thought I'll quickly stop and help the other people.
Like help the police officer.
Start shooting at these mobs.
Health bar was not, it won't do anything.
No damage was even popping up.
I was there for about 10 minutes.
Running them over, firing grenades at them.
Slicing and dicing.
Shooting them in the face.
Nothing was happening.
I was like, am I at a wrong level here?
What is happening?
Killed the police officer.
That's just a bit of a bug.
I turned around and I was like, what's going on?
Popped the police officer in the head.
He was dead.
I was like, fuck.
So what is happening?
Sorry officer.
Let me just check something.
Bang.
Oh, sorry.
Killed him.
Ended his life.
And just carried on on my way.
I don't know if it's part of the DLC or not, but obviously I completed my storyline with
Pan Am.
She is my lover.
And completed the storyline with the other, one of the other ones.
Judy.
And I completed my storyline with all of them.
With every single one of them.
Except for Pan Am is the one that I've like fell in love with.
And I thought that was it.
However, in this DLC, there's constant conversation back and forth.
And I can't remember if that's part of the base game or if that's an addition on the
DLC.
I don't know.
Pan Am sent me nudes every now and again.
Oh, did she?
Yeah.
She, I'd just be driving about and he'd be like, hey Vy, and then it'd just be her in
the shower.
I'd be like, oh.
She didn't send me any nudes.
She didn't have the same relationship as me and Pan Am did.
Yeah, but I'm, yeah, but like I say, I'm the same in the game as I am in person.
I'm caring and attentive.
I've got all the patience in the world.
You know what I mean?
Same.
Definitely not.
I'm a nice guy.
No, no.
What it is, you're the fucking, you're the bad guy and she likes bad guys.
Typical, typical thing, innit?
Good guys being fucked over and the bad boys getting all the nudes.
No, not at all.
I was very polite.
I'm always polite.
But if I don't like it, I'm shooting you.
Or in Baldur's Gate.
I'm just going to put my sword through your chest.
There is speculation that on October the 26th, GTA 6 will be announced.
I've heard this.
I've heard this fucking years and years and years.
I just believe it when I see it now.
Yeah, but apparently it's come from very serious leakers.
Yeah, I still believe it when I see it.
And to be quite frank, I don't care.
I've got enough on my plate and it probably ain't going to come out for another year.
So who cares?
We all care.
GTA 6 is here.
When GTA 6 comes out, the world is basically going to be nearly the end because that's
just the end times.
Yeah.
That is the end times.
That's when the comics going to smash into earth the day before GTA comes out.
Yeah.
But if that doesn't happen, the world is going to be taken over.
Gaming as we know it will cease because every single person in the world will be playing
GTA 6 as they did with GTA 5 for the last 25 years.
It's going to be mad.
It's going to be fucking mental.
If there's a collector's edition of that, you can bet your ass I'm going to try and
get it.
I don't think there will be, but fuck me.
Yeah, fuck me as well.
I wish I knew that I loved Baldur's Gate as much as I do before I did because I would
have bought that collector's edition.
One million percent.
And when did it come out though?
What?
Baldur's Gate?
A collector's edition.
I don't know.
How would it got it?
Did it come out with normal release or was it like because everyone able to play it for
the last fucking 17 years?
Oh yeah, they wouldn't have had the full game, would they?
They wouldn't have had the full disc release and all that shit, would they?
But all I do know is Baldur's Gate 4, motherfucker.
I'm getting that collector's edition.
How are they going to fucking top it?
Well, they're not.
No, I mean, how would you?
It's impossible.
I'm probably going to be like 55 by the time it comes out.
Diablo 4 got some new reskins.
Oh yeah.
Diablo.
Oh yeah, dead game.
That's enough on that one.
That was a game that you also said, I believe you, I remember you saying that this would
be on this forever and this would be the game that you could retire on.
This is your forever game and it lasted a month.
My live service games.
Destiny.
It lasted a month.
Destiny.
I wanted something different from Destiny and I thought that would be it, but it's not.
Destiny 2, Dead in the Water.
Destiny 2.
Completely fucking dead.
The goat.
Destiny 2, when there's no expansion, I'm not going back to it.
No, because there's no point.
I think I'm over.
I'm not even going to go because the final expansion, not light fall.
Is it light fall?
No, that was the last one.
The final shape is the last expansion to sum up the whole of Destiny, the whole story and
then who knows what's going to happen.
I'm not even going to go back for that.
Although I say that, I probably will, but at this moment in time, I've got no plans
of buying it.
I've bought every single expansion, pre-ordered them.
I'm not going to do it because I'm confused by it.
I don't understand the game anymore.
I don't understand what they want me to do anymore.
It's too much, too convoluted.
The community when you play with people is so toxic.
They're twats, basically.
Welcome to Blizzard, baby.
Ninety percent of the people I've raided with are nobeds.
Blizzard and Bungie.
They're just rude and there's people in the group that don't know what they're doing.
They just get shouted at and it's just pathetic and I hate it.
They...
Destiny and World of Warcraft need hard, hard resets.
They need a brand new game.
They need another installment.
You need Destiny 3.
Well, they've got a new game coming out, haven't they?
That shooting game.
I can't remember what it's called.
Well, yeah, they have got a new one.
I can't wait for the Division 3.
Fuck the Division 3.
That's all I've got to say on the mail.
Love the Division.
Very, very fun game.
A lot of fucking...
I can still remember where I was when we started talking about Division 2.
We was down a road in Tottenham.
We were.
Outside a gate where I was about to drive a big vehicle to move big bags and we were
just talking about Division 2 and I said, it sucks balls and he was like, no, it's great.
And then that's how we become friends, I guess, if that's what you call this.
What, we was moving the fucking...
The cab star?
Was that when we were doing it?
When we were emptying out them lake things?
Yeah.
I was going to move the tractor thing.
Yeah, the skid steer.
Yeah, the big one.
Yeah.
Yeah, and then we played it, didn't we?
Yeah.
And we were both nervous.
Like children, you were.
I can hear it in your voice.
Now that I know you, you were as nervous as well.
I was not nervous.
You were as nervous as I was.
And then, yeah, didn't play the Division again after that.
No.
Didn't really play anything together after that.
You made me play it.
I bought the stuff that I needed to buy.
I bought the expansions, the dark zone, all that crap.
And then we done it.
And then you was like, well, I'm off.
And I was like, see you later.
I played it for a bit that night.
And then never played it again after buying it.
Fucking pointless.
I can't help you there.
You know what I mean?
It's just different times, man.
Different times.
We're both grown up.
You've become happier.
I've become out of my shell more.
You know what I mean?
I think the Division's a very good game.
It's just a lot of these games where they're live service games, eventually they hit a
point where it's like, right, there must be a decision of do we stop this and try something
new or do we just keep adding to this bullshit?
Like what Destiny and World of Warcraft are doing.
The pair of them just keep adding shit.
Stop it.
I want Baldur's Gate to keep adding to the bullshit.
Please give me more.
Yeah, Baldur's Gate's different though because it's fucking brand new.
World of Warcraft needs to shut down and they need to do World of Warcraft 2.
I want Baldur's Gate online and I want Starfield online.
All right?
That's what I want.
I just want WoW 2.
And I also just want more of the stuff that they've already done, but I want Baldur's
Gate.
I just want them to go, right, Baldur's Gate 3 is now just called Baldur's Gate and we're
just going to add content into this game every day for the rest of your life.
I'll be like, wicked.
I want World of Warcraft, but Star Wars.
What do you mean you want that?
I want that.
It'd be exciting though, wouldn't it?
I just want that.
Luckily though, I've got ESO and that shit is still holding me with a firm grip.
It's great.
I really love it.
It's fantastic.
Right.
That's enough.
I want to go play Baldur's Gate.
We've got to feed the Patreons yet though.
Yeah.
So we'll fuck these lot off and then go back to the people that we actually care about,
the ones who give us money.
The people that matter.
Funnel money straight into our pockets.
We'll go and talk to them instead of the new fuckers.
Absolutely.
Oh, I'm getting all the hoodies and shit tomorrow.
Nice.
So that will be fucking primed and ready.
As Maui said, you're welcome.
Decent.
See, if you was all part of the Patreons, you wouldn't be able to get access to all
of them, but here's what it is.
Let you know.
What?
Half the people aren't part of the Patreons.
This is a test run, all right?
So there might be some merch coming at some point.
We're just testing on the guinea pigs that are our friends.
All right?
So just have some fucking patience with us, please.
Have a little patience.
I'm going to pause this.
I'm going to stop this.
We're going to go and do the Patreon.
We'll be back next week.
Yep.
Decent.
Sweet.
See you later.
All right.
It's time for a question?
M irgendwann.
Okay.