Welcome to what's the buttons we're live. We're here. Who have I got with
It's a fucking it's a new person on the podcast episode. Oh my god, it's only taken us. What is this? This would be episode
85 oh
my
God and this is this is Connor by the way. We've done it mom. We're on the pod
I can unsubscribe and never come ash is in Ireland
And then well
No, it's not that we didn't want to get Stefan at all. It's just the permission for
Connor now works with me
Permanently, so we thought well fuck it. Let's see as he's here
Let's see what happens, but you've been on under the under request that that your your decibels on the old voice oometer
Increase a little bit because you have a very mundane boring voice
If you
We've obviously spoken about you at length before on the podcast. Yeah, call me a prick. Yeah
Connor's our
in-house
D&D dungeon master in-house nerd basically. That's me. Just another one
I'm not a one DM nerd gamer. Yeah, and I'm hoping that you can bastard man
you can impart some some knowledge on this podcast because
I've got nothing
Any games this week I've done nothing what um, oh
It's a well-needed cup of tea
Um, I suppose you can you can jump straight in with I tell you what let's talk about first while it's while it's hot
And heavy because we were talking about earlier
the old
Battlefront fucking
collection it was it the I don't actually know what it's
like the
it's not even called the remaster is it it's basically the
Battlefront classic collection
Edition yeah, that's classic Star Wars. We remaster finally drops everyone hates it. It's not a remaster though
Yeah, we couldn't we couldn't quite work out about was a remaster remake
I think from what ash was saying they've slightly tweaked some stuff, but ultimately I think just view it as
It's a copy and paste. Here's an old game. We've just given it to you. Here you go. Have it back type deal
It doesn't like in theory. It doesn't sound bad, but then when you literally we've looked earlier and it said
There's bad reviews because they've only got three servers
Yeah for the PS the PC version which you think this is a game like they came out what I don't even know how long ago
But I was I remember playing it like at least 20 years ago
And you think there's a long time for nostalgic players like Star Wars. No, it's like, you know
I wouldn't say it's a game that's been around for a long time
It's like Star Wars. No, it's like, you know, I wouldn't say Star Wars is my favorite
Like niche little night. It's not nice, but isn't my favorite scene. I like Lord of the Rings and
But it's definitely one of the big ones you think there's a lot of people like ash ash, especially there's the Star Wars crazy
Yeah, Star Wars diehard fans the even looking back like I remember playing that game when I was a kid
I well like ash said it was a this should have been an easy home run
and he also said that the people that were sort of not developing this but
Put in charge of this were a spire which were kicked off for the KOTOR
remake or
There's no what is a cursed aspect of making
Star Wars games so it should have been an easy one for them because the building blocks or the games already fucking there
Oh, yeah, the games there haven't they haven't done anything new to it. There's no new maps
There's no there's nothing new all they've done is just switch the service back on and apparently they only switched on three of them because
it's bad
It was ten thousand players that were that were ready to play day one day one and
Yeah, they only had capacity for barely 300 of those players. That doesn't that doesn't seem realistic
Like I said to you earlier that compare like helldivers to came out recently and that had a cult following from the last game the
Granted they suffered from success and had problems with their servers, but you think this is like by comparison to start the Star Wars game
It is say 20 years old with such a following that you would think
People were begging for it to be to be remade remastered re I don't know why it weren't fucking remastered or remade
Because I feel like you it that
Obviously, I don't know the ins and outs. I'm not I'm not a Star Wars fan myself. However, I can't understand why
Why if you've got people that are begging for that specific game to be remade?
Why you wouldn't just go through the slight effort of remastering it at the least rather than remaking it
And then releasing that I wouldn't think like you would have had to have done that much like you in theory looking like
Remember what I remember like I don't I haven't played it recently and whatever else but the bit like you said all the building
My poster sorry, he's just ruined the place. Mm-hmm
the the building blocks were there in terms of the gameplay and the way it all
worked out and like the Galactic Conquest stuff that went with it that
Hmm that you could have just reskinned it kind of like they did with the Tomb Raider
Remastered they did. Yeah, but yeah because that hasn't because I suppose
With a game that's a certain age
There's only so much of a of a remaster that you can really do without
Completely tearing down the building blocks and starting again, which obviously you're not gonna do that's where a remake comes into play
whereas that a remaster is you or you're taking the OG game and you're
You're slapping a new new makeup on it. And yeah, which is what they've done with the Tomb Raiders
I feel like people didn't necessarily need it to be hold that closer to your mouth to your mouth. Hello
They didn't need it to be a full
remaster, I think people just wanted it to be
Essentially to look newer but perhaps just to for it to not necessarily be up to the standard of the new EA
Battlefronts because they're very trying to be that little cinematic
Yeah, yeah, they're trying to be that battlefield but at the same time, I think if you just gave it, you know early
2010 sort of graphics it would be enough to
Bring the people in or at the very fucking worst just release it where you were able to play online. Yeah
You that's the that's the main caveat to people paying 35 quid for that collection
Is being able to relive that nostalgia because I played that game back in the day
And it was fucking great. So did Mark. So do very very fun game and I can recall quite a lot of memories of playing it
and
It's it's in that weird sort of sector where
You were young enough to play it and enjoy it
But you weren't old enough to actually understand what it is that you were playing especially for me anyway, so
Revisiting that as an adult I feel would be different same with something like Simpsons hit and run
We haven't played that for so long you go back as an adult and you go. Yeah, this is fucking sick
Whereas like something like
Say ratchet and clank. I was old enough when I was playing that that I knew what I was doing
I understood the games with us all went back now. It's a bit like yeah, I like this but it's not
Hitting the same because I'm just full of seeing it from the same perspective as when I first played it and they
to
Release that game and not even be able to fulfill that kind of shit like fucking hell
You're telling me that free servers are so that's all that you were going to ramp up error or not in today's day and age
That isn't enough. Yeah, especially if you're slapping on a 35 quid price tag for that. Yes. That's not triple a money but for
A literal here's a 20 year old game. We've changed nothing about it
It's taking the piss you could easily find
Like I don't know what the game is like the original game
You can probably find on like steam for say three pound or well, this is the first game
But now you're charging 35 pound for games that are technically already out. You've not done anything apart from turn the servers
You just flip the servers back. Surely you could have done that
This is what I was saying to you earlier. Are they trying to entice new people in?
Hmm to that haven't played the game
I haven't lived that nostalgia that we have and and other people have lived and have begged for that now they're
They I don't know. I don't know if there's enough new people like you know, like you know, they're not
They they I don't know. I don't know if there's enough new people like young people like the
Really does need uh that interested in star wars like the I don't think that disney stuff would have brought enough
No, the new films would have brought enough interest in and it's all the cult following from the the older generation that well
I said to I said to ash said about with me
I'll be fucking demanding for a refund off just because of how she is and he sort of said
Well, no, he's like they could they can turn it around but I come back with they shouldn't have to turn it around
I'm one of
There's too many games now that are doing that
Yeah releasing fucked up and then it's all right
We'll fix it and then we'll give you a load of free stuff to compensate
No, just give me the fucking game of paper. Do we need another like no man's sky or
You know, what's that? Uh, what is it? Uh
What's that new not enshrouded the other one that came out?
Um enshrouded power world not power of the other one the nightingale. Is that it? Yeah nightingale. Yeah
Yeah
I just read something earlier that said that that was a hit
Negative reviews because of whatever reason and they're gonna try and work on it and it's like
Well, stop trying to fucking work on it. Why we lived in that that era of
You can put out a game and people review and not even review vomit
But they they put don't speak favorably on it and then
It's probably one of the reasons why they turn around and went our borders gates now the big thing because it just performed
Yeah, yeah, just did exactly what it needed versus every other game coming out and it's like well actually
I will we'll fix that later because at the minute we're um
We're focusing on other things or we just wanted to get the money off you because we've put the game out
I think you can you can kind of
not accept it but
Slightly understand it when it comes from a fully indie developer or bringing out a game when there's there's slight things wrong
But when you've got a game something like in shrouded
Where that's still an early access game that game's incredible
The only reason why me and you aren't still fucking playing is because we finished with it
We finished there's literally nothing other than
Hoarding equipment and building in terms of skills and everything. There is nothing left. We've hit the cap
That's why we fucking stopped
but
Even then from a from an indie point of view
That's just the the market that you're in now
You can't just hire fast games anymore and that's why it's so difficult to be an indie developer
Because regardless of whether you're paying fucking 10 quid or 70 quid people still expect a polished product
Yeah, you know, I mean like you you're you're at a point where
Most people and I think i'm guilty to it to to a point
If I buy a game and it's a bit wha and i've only spent a couple of quid on it
I go fair enough. We paid 12 pound for inch routed and we were happy that we played it for
A week and a half and then basically got our money's worth out of it. How many because that was through fucking um,
Steam wasn't it? I think we had 60 odd hours like each more or less and we more or less completed everything apart from grinding
Yeah, and then but we were happy that we paid 12 or 18 pound or whatever it is when it was on sale
But if that had been a bit wha you'd sit there and you go, yeah, it's early access fair enough
Like i'm not massively happy but you're at the same time. I wouldn't be sitting there going
I want a fucking refund but but 35 pound for two games that was like you said before about um
the last of us remasters
The why are you paying a full, you know a game that's been out two years or wherever it was and now you're paying
Essentially for half half the game for the same shit
And it's literally not changed at all that you could equally say why am I paying?
35 pound for a game that I can probably pick up either
You know on steam for for pence essentially or I might be able to even find it down like cx for
13 p or something or or an equivalent, you know bargain basement or something
I've probably still got them at heart like in my parents house in the loft with like my old ps2 like still sitting there
Yeah, I mean this is what people were saying is that you
the only
Reason to be buying that game is for the online
There's the only reason because if you still have the original versions, you've basically got the game
Yeah, you can still play them because it's not changed. Nothing's changed about it. Just just switched it back on
It's like the building blocks. That's surely in some respects that there's you know
You can get dedicated servers for stuff like you could get a dedicated server for
For fucking enshrouded you could get which you know that's how world had that if you if you minecraft if you bought um
I think it was just if you bought power world
If you bought power world you were given a dedicated server. Yeah to go alongside it
So you know, I think it was power world because I think ash I think ash had one
I think he had he might I might be wrong, but it was either power world or enshrouded one of those two
You got a dedicated server. I'm pretty sure it was power world and then enshrouded
You would have to pay like four quid or whatever it was to get a dedicated server because I know we were having some issues
We're fucking the hosting aspect. Yeah, that would disconnect suddenly
I don't know if one of us had a bad connection for a moment or whoever was hosting it. It completely just didn't work. But
It's just weird man. It's um
I mean if i'm honest, I didn't even know that it was coming out. I I didn't really hear much about it
It went very much under the raid. I know like hell divers came out and exploded and then
Everyone was all over that and then I think I don't know if it's again. Well, I don't know
I'm trying to think now. I think I saw something about it maybe a week ago
But didn't remember that it was coming out essentially yesterday
until
All of a sudden I kept seeing it all over like
Instagram reels and it was everyone was like, oh, yeah
I'm so you know, it's the season of of for democracy and and yeah, you know the the men's um
What is it the the
In a feeling in man that they want to sacrifice themselves, you know in a massive army situation and
but yeah, because it's got it's definitely they're the um
the like conspiracies and the speculation around something like hell divers too where
like the latest one of
You're not actually the good guy. Oh, it's welcome to space fascism
Yeah, and it's like the the um, we're doing it for democracy. So don't start
Apparently
This will be noted we'll we'll refer back to this but like the automatons are are just slowly working back to
What the original area was? I can't remember what it was called and that the that the the terminates are
Trying to
Just defend themselves rather than
Then kill you for attacking purposes. They are just purely on defense basis
Is the it's the thing that people don't actually realize that that's the satire of the game
and that's the whole point is that if they people I think that's where the
That's like the same with starship troopers, which take is a massive influence on
Like massive on things like hell divers that people didn't realize that that was actually the whole point of like the book and the film
Is that it was space fascism and yeah, you know, it's
Yeah, you're not we aren't the good guys, but you know, we're doing it. So
Well, yeah, I think there's there's just
I don't know. You've got you've got the community of the people that
Understand the game that they're playing and you've also got a lot of people that don't really understand what they're playing
Oh, yeah, and getting angry for different reasons like with the dev saying if you're still dying and struggling, it's a skill issue
I found that I love that. I love that from a developer. Yeah, that's the point
That's the whole reason that the game's there and like you I don't wish trying off the star wars point
But like the the last difficulty is called hell dive
And yeah, and like me me and my friend dan who you played with like we were clearing them with
Randoms and like that's not saying that the we said that it felt like there was quite a bell curve in terms of the difficulty
Yeah, the games that we played like when you rejoined us in that was fucking hot. Yeah, the point where I went no, I'm right
I can't be bothered with this when we were playing on the hiatus and we were doing quite well and we hit like granted
I haven't touched it since the latest like not because of that but I
I think a lot of people have of
Cod brain rot brings to mind. You know, I mean, I think people
people are used to things being
semi easy
Or things being hard and being able to kick off and then the developer immediately going
Oh, we'll fix it. We'll fix it in fear of fucking losing their player base. Yeah, like meta hunters
Yeah, it'll be they'll be on their phones
Like we know a couple of people will be on their phones looking at what the next best strat is to get
Yeah, or like fucking it's such a big thing in the call of duty community with like a fucking gun needs nerfing
This needs nerfing blah blah and streamers hold such a big influence like doctor disrespect and tim the tap man people like that where they
They are able to heavily influence those kind of first person shooters
And I feel like when you when you jump onto something like hell divers
it's
Completely different ballgame the the the mechanics of the game are completely different
And it's just something that you're not used to and it's you're not going to be able to play it the same way that you could
With cod and that that issue was also when battlefield 2042 come out and a lot of people who were playing call of duty is like their main
First person shooter were coming over. Yeah and go and not being able to necessarily deal with it because it's such a
Cod's more arcady. Yeah, I don't like cod anymore. I'm not a fan of it. It's
Almost it's leaning into the aspect of almost being a boomer shooter like like doom or
I'm trying to think of equivalents that are similar to doom, but you know destiny
Yeah, sort of that you all you're doing is you're just there for the kills
whereas they don't realize in like battlefront and battlefield and
Like hell divers and other of those games that have come subjective. It's subjective. It's not it's not about who gets the most kills
It's about who actually like plays to the team. Yeah, because I remember like years and years back now
It's not really years, but the when like when I was in school with my mates and we we actually preferred
battlefield over cod
Yeah, we didn't like cod. Yeah, yeah
We we enjoyed like bad company too was like our number one at the time
Before like we were big Xbox players. So that's why you know a lot of my
if I went through my favorite games a lot of my stuff it ends up being
Xbox stuff, but
We were heavy on battlefield and if like if battlefront had been
Online at the time or you know, the times don't line up necessarily
That's why we ended up on things like battle the EA battlefront. Yeah. Yeah, but even they were kind of
Mediocre, they didn't live up to the same
It's just one of those. I don't know if it goes without saying
It's just one of those. I don't know if it goes again with nostalgia. They didn't live up to what they had been before
It's just that it's just a different kind of game. That's what that's what something like hell divers is it's
it
Follows a slightly different norm
To everything else and I feel like that's sort of why it's so popular because it's that it is that breath of fresh air
That's why something like power world was so popular. That's why
Contrary to a point was very popular because they were doing
They were fucking around with the same chemistry
but tweaking it in ways that made it very refreshing but also
Understandable and had that that that
Home kind of feel to it. You weren't playing a brand new game where it's like fucking hell
I don't know what the fuck's going on. You you sort of knew what was happening, but it was like, oh, I like this little tweet
This is nice. This is nice. I like this
I feel like it's definitely been the last like year to two years have definitely been the rise of indie devs and
And just stuff that's not mainstream anymore like COD's still there and it's got its fan base, but it's not
It's not I don't see in the news or in like the media as much as being something that's you know
There's big like borders gate blew up and truthfully larry is an indie studio and then like hell divers came out of like
I knew it was coming out and I spoke to you and I spoke to that or mentioned it to ash and said
Oh, yeah, that's coming out. It would be quite interesting and I was intrigued by it coming out and then
like similarly
Like ash got on power world and then you and I both got on enshrouded and then I'm trying to think what else has sort of come out more recently
Like cult of the lamb was another cult of the lamb was very was another indie one that we all went on high-fiber rush very good one
right
It's it's refreshing to see that but at the same time it's also refreshing to see that co-op games are coming back
Yeah, I feel like what you've what's happening now is something that's very similar to to the fashion industry
to a point where
It almost does full circle you had
Tying in with what we spoke about last week
Me and stef where we're talking about like consoles and stuff having having that more
variety and in just look and appeal
Going back years
It was also the same for games. There was a fucking game for everything
Anything and everything any any new movie that had come out there'd be a fucking game alongside it
You know, I mean a lot of them were shit, but also a lot of a lot of games were very very good
There was definitely you still had your your a-listers
But there was a lot of variety in games and some of them hit really really good
And then you sort of went into that more mainstream where people
People weren't that interested in in in other stuff people were interested in the cards to call the the
Grand Theft autos the you know, I mean the halos there was it seemed to be franchises were
Yeah, there was that pinnacle and then slowly you're seeing that
Kind of digressed I suppose that comes with a lot of that is that we played those games when we were young like going back with
The battlefront the og battlefront is we played them when we were kids and we had high nostalgia out of them and then
Gradually as we got older and older like our expectations got higher and higher because that was that highlight of
Technology evolution like yeah, where can I upgrade from that?
Which game's gonna be better it it was very much in our time in you know our
Youth to like our adulthood is that everything's progressed so rapidly and then games have progressed so rapidly and then at the same time the
But then the industry hasn't so like yeah, you've gone along with so like take
Hey, like halo was a big one for me being like a junior xbox player. Like I didn't have a playstation for ages and
The the games kind of were good. So like halo 3 was good
Hey, like odst and reach like some of my favorites of that
Genre, but then quickly. I think it was after halo reach it changed from
Bungee to three four three
It was a who was the people who had left bungee and made another studio
And then the game started to go downhill and I partially don't know if that's because
The game started getting worse and the storylines started getting worse the more it became sequels and sequels and sequels and sequels
Or if it was just as we got older our expectations got a lot higher
I think it's I feel like it's a culmination of everything because that definitely seems to be the one once a company finds a game
That's that where you can really fucking milk the cash cow
Something like cod you just keep going and fucking going
For tonight, you just keep going
I feel like I feel sport
Orientated games fall a little bit out of that category purely because they're like a fucking calendar
You gotta have a new one every year, especially something like fifa. I know it's not called that
Ea fucking whatever the fuck is called or just any any game that ea seems to get their hands on like ea just shit
Yeah, ea and ubisoft. We spoke about that a couple weeks ago. They're just fucking awful. I don't know how they're doing that
Yeah, that's what they're doing. Yeah, they're just fucking awful. I don't know. Yeah, it's been bad for a long time
There's been a lot of like I think it's been highlighted year on year and year, but it's just gotten worse like ash
Ubisoft just fucking follow the same
pattern
Constantly and like you said, yeah, I've just dropped
I do want to say some good thing for ea because my like probably my favorite game franchise is mass effect
Mm, and that was as of mass effect 2 was picked up from I forget who made
The the original developer that they they picked it up to be like the publisher and the one with the deep pockets
And they did a lot for that franchise because the difference between like mass effect 1 and mass effect 2 is significant
Yeah, but then obviously they quickly rounded out the the the main trilogy and then
We're straight back on. Oh, well, we need to make some money out of this. So let's do andromeda
Which wasn't a bad game, but I know a lot of people have got bad things to say about it
And I will admit it
For a game that came out after the main sequence. It was very much a repeat of one of the last ones
But yeah, but then since then, you know, ea's had control of star wars and we've seen what they've done with that and
You know, they've definitely put some good stuff out like the
fallen order and
Whatever the the latest calc esters one it runs off. I can't think of it off the top of my head
But those games were good, but it's a survivor. Yeah, that's the one like they're definitely good games
But it seems at the same time. They're definitely milking the cash cow with star wars
Yeah
I
Suppose you you have to at some point
At the end of the day if you're a developer
You're making games. Yes, you're making them for the fun of gaming
But you also need to make money out of doing it. I'm not i'm not having a dig at people making money out of gaming
Ultimately, it's one of the biggest things in the world. So
Of course, you're going to want
We're technically I know I know not you but I myself running this podcast
Am making money off of the back of gaming like that exposed. He wants the money
We're very clear about that we want the money
I'm not digging out trying to make it
What's the buttons?
I'm not trying to dig out the companies for making money out of gaming
I just feel like when it comes to franchises like that you hit a point where
You can only do so much like with um, even to a point with world of warcraft a lot of people
Love harping on saying that you're making money off of gaming
I think to a point with world of warcraft a lot of people love harping on saying the game is dead leave it scrap everything
world of warcraft 2 just could because they've already
Announced their next free expansions. It's like fucking hell
How how many more are you going to be able to keep popping up because you're just after the fucking the money factor of it
Them subs rolling over and there's still x amount of concurrent players. Yeah, the money's rolling in so we're good boys
but like I say the I feel gaming as a whole is is
Is changing to where indie developers are?
rather than being
Um being an indie indie developer isn't like being small like one man anymore. It's just
You can be like larryons
You would class that as an indie developer. It's still got like 400 people
But yeah, it's because they're they're in control of everything. I think it's just it's just gone from rather than being safe
And copying big hitters because you want a game that's going to be very similar
And you know the recipe works and you can make money. I feel like a lot of indie developers now are
Pulling away from that and going no, let's let's go back to what indie developers actually do and that is
Make something innovative and new and sometimes it might work. Sometimes it won't work and so far from 2023 and 2024
Those indie games that have come out have fucking hit the ground running because I feel
the gaming player base
Have grown tired of needs. Yeah, just the same shit over and over again people are waiting for gta 6 fucking
Fucking waiting waiting for anything new
And then just being bombarded with remasters every fucking five minutes because no one's able to make it
What the fuck's Naughty Dog doing? Fuck off the last of us leave it alone
Can they don't need to fuck around with it anymore? Can we stop remastering games and actually get them onto PC?
What I'm saying is you don't need to do that
A lot of games are starting to go on the people
PlayStation is fucking exclusive like 90% of them now are all going on to fucking pc
They're they're not I think that is a big change as well. I don't think that that
War anymore that exclusive war is fucking over because everyone's soon realizing
That cross plays the pinnacle. Yeah, it needs to happen because there's no point like it was a big thing when like we were kids
You turn around and go. Oh, what have you got?
Oh, yeah, like for me I I had a playstation in the end
But it took a long time for like grew up having like my my brother and my sisters like hand me down
PlayStation and stuff like that and then I because everyone I knew and was friends with had an xbox
I got an xbox and then yeah, that's where it was all at
Yeah, and then all of a sudden it was like oh one person got a playstation
Not like the whole reason I bought a playstation 4 since not having one since
Like early of playstation 3 coming out was ash
Yeah, because red dead came out on playstation red dead 2 came out on playstation
And obviously I wanted to play it and I wasn't going to wait two years or however long it took for the
The pc version to come out because i'm heavily a pc game and have been for the last 10 plus years
the
Just the exclusivity just doesn't doesn't gain you the same
It isn't worth it. It's it's
You get more players and more money coming in by making yourself open to everyone because at the end of the day like
I can afford to buy a playstation and an xbox, but I don't want to because I don't see a point
Yeah, there is no there is there is very little little point to
Because I know it's like picking a side because I know
That xbox is probably a little bit more approachable, but it doesn't have the games there that I can't get on something like game pass on pc
Versus i'm not going to pick it like I really want to play
Ragnarok. Yeah. Yeah, but you can't but i'm not buying a whole ps5 to
Play one game and then maybe play like two other games
Not when not when sony's announcing so many fucking games are coming on to pc
I think it's only a matter of time before something like ragnarok does get fucking flung onto onto pc. What I mean like um, I didn't play
Days gone till it was released on pc such a good game and like that
Loads of others like like the last of us i've never played
Because like i've seen a full playthrough of the first game because I was in that youtube era of just watching people play games, but
Like I haven't I know what happens in the second game
But I haven't played it and I haven't watched it. I wouldn't mind playing it but till it comes out on a pc port
Yeah, you're not gonna i'm not gonna i'm not gonna spend the time and the money getting hold of a playstation
Like how much grief was it for like you and everyone else to mark and ash to get hold of a playstation?
I know it's not a problem now, but I can't be bothered
And then they'll turn around and say in like a year and a half. They'll tell me our playstation 6 is coming out
Yeah, pretty much that's what that's what happened when I got a playstation
I was fucking talking to someone on on one of the discords like from the guild and they were saying they were thinking about
Upgrading their play their pc or getting a ps5 for I think it was final fantasy 7 like the
Whatever one come out
And I was and he was like is it is it worth getting a ps5 and I said to him I was like honestly
I said if you really want it for this one specific game, then it's your money
Do whatever you want, but I was like longevity wise I said i'll upgrade your fucking pc
Yeah, don't worry about getting a ps5 because even now there's far cool out. That's exclusive to a ps5
Ties in very well with 22nd of march is when rise of the ronin comes out, which is a ps5 exclusive
Alongside with that on the same day. You got dragon's dogma 2 which both big heavy hitters
I mean i'm pissed off with dragon's dogma anyway, because it's locked to 30 frames per second, which is pathetic in
2024 on a fucking new console
Well, it's bollocks. It's not a frame hole. That's absolute bollocks. It's fucking stupid rise of the ronin looks really really good dragon's dogma
Two looks really good, but it sort of if I had to pick between the two i'm going with rise of the ronin
Just because I feel like it has a little bit more
Pizzazz
About it. It's probably more appealing to you from an outside perspective because you haven't played dragon's dogma 1
Yeah
Versus like ash has played it and I have played it and I remember very specifically because I spent a period of my
Youth which was very much in line when dragon's dogma came out that I could only play single player games
Because not because of like I didn't want to play multiplayer, but I didn't have any wi-fi in my house
Yeah, yeah, yes
So I couldn't till I was about 14. I didn't have any wi-fi. Yeah
Sort of around that sort of age 13 14. I didn't have any wi-fi to play online games
So so you were limited?
I was very limited to what I played and it shows in the games that are my favorites games like, you know
of that older era it stands like mass effect and
Obviously there was the halos and later on when I did have have wi-fi but games like fable from the xbox
all of that trilogy and
I'm trying to think of some other ones but by that point it you know the
That in that time frame I played dragon's dogma quite a lot
Yeah, yeah
And so I look at it and I hadn't heard anything about rise of the ronin because I don't if it's sony exclusive
That doesn't come. Yeah, it's not it's not your fucking bank
That doesn't come up in my circles for me to have known anything about it because I didn't not even know it existed till you
Mentioned it probably last week or earlier this week. I I saw the um
Um, it was the announcement trailer for rise of the ronin a while ago
Like year two years ago. I don't know whenever it was first come out
and it just looked
gritty and that fucking samurai and the
Combat looked like nothing that I'd ever seen before in my life because you liked um
Sekiro, didn't you?
Or is that more ash ash like sakiro? I've never played sakiro, but it's obviously of that souls born
type been wanting to play sakiro, but after elden after the fucking
Needing rehabilitating from elden ring. I was I can't do another one
I
Have some appeal to elden ring, but my last souls game was souls
three
Yeah, yeah playing I played like souls one when it came when it first came out and yeah, that was a slug didn't play two
Play three and then didn't get didn't get bloodborne because I didn't have a
PlayStation that's that's another one that people speaking of like remasters and remakes and stuff like that bloodborne is the one where people are like
For fuck's sake. Yeah, give us that back
Which I feel like i've kind of missed out because I played bloodborne quite a bit
But never completed it because I just wasn't I wasn't good at souls born's game
Oh, yeah, I definitely feel like i'm like when we played in shrouded i'm like i'm not very good at the parry aspect anymore
I'd love to go back now having gotten quite good at elden ring
Just to see how I would fare especially after reading the graphic novels based around um bloodborne as well
That whole world is very dark and seedy and very interesting from from a dm perspective and having like my own dnd
campaigns and stuff like that think those the souls games and bloodborne appealed to me massively in terms of their lore and background
Because just of things that I can pinch and yeah, yeah and take inspiration from and and you know use like my
my current um like homebrew
Campaign has a lot of like witcher-esque
Yeah, yeah, yeah, because of like witcher which are being quite
Good one of one of my favorite more favorite games
but
Yeah
Why you got the fucking podcast podcast bloating
No, I lost my train of thought on what I was trying to say, but no the yeah the lore of um
Things like that that is very easy one of the things that is very fascinating. I wonder how um
Um how popular because I want to see if I can find how popular bloodborne was
Yeah, all those that's the thing all those style of games they're
I feel like I can do them and I definitely did well through like three 20 20
So sorry 2015 is when it come out. They're really that old over a decade. Yeah, I didn't think it was that old
Almost a decade
But yeah, it's going back. It's not it's kind of one of the reasons that well rise of the roaming doesn't appeal to me
Because if it fits in that same sort of soul-borne
Aspect is that I I don't have time to to get good at to get good at them types of games anymore
It's multiplayer
That helps. Yes rise of the roaming supports online co-op multiplayer for his main story missions
Up to three additional players can join your game up to three
Yeah to explore the open world and take on enemies together having companions along enhances the experience and provides strategic
Strategic advantages fucking hell in combat
Yeah, it is it like ghost of tsushima the combat the story of the world as well the drama of it all
Has kept me utterly hooked despite the open world busy work. It's not quite dark souls
So don't call it a souls like and it's not quite ghost of tsushima said don't call it a clone instead think of rise of
The roaming as a greatest hits album by team ninja
I always thought from looking at a lot of stuff from rise of the roaming that it was its own
Its own thing it is taking inspiration from many good games, but it is its own
Game outright rather than being a a souls like and and that type of stuff because you I feel like
Like you get that a lot with games now people will compare copycat games. Yeah
Yeah, and I I think it's since since the souls games have come out
There's there's that's the whole reason it's it's soulsborne or souls like is that there's a whole genre
Yeah, of sub tier games that are because they created something amazing that want to be like that or don't quite get it
You know, it's like like roguelike and all of that but now there's souls like so yeah. Yeah
But it's a shame. I didn't I haven't looked more at
Um rise of the roaming but again, it's not in
It's not in your wheelhouse because you're not you're unable to play it
Yeah, it's not in my circle. Whereas as soon as there was mention of dragon dogma 2 I was like
Yeah, that's a bit of me when it comes out the because I follow their like um
their tiktok account and instagram stuff for that for dragon's dogma and
It does look good. Like I I do like the look of it. It depends if you want to play a very sort of
Japanese styled rpg because
It I know you were saying about grand blue
Grand blue fantasy relink dreamlike fantasy
Whatever whatever nonsense is that? Yeah
The game that you would like yeah that one. Yeah, the the mobile game that they decided to do a big release of but
like that
It is in that sort of the original game is very much like if
a You've added japanese culture or that style of game a japanese rpg
But kind of made it very western because even when I was I was trying to like brush myself up and what what had happened and they're saying
Oh, it's you know, the the island that everything happens on is is based on sicily
Yeah, but capcom makes the game so it's like
Okay, you're blending very you know eastern and western
Aspects into a high fantasy game
And it kind of you can see the that element in like the at least in dragon's dog for one
Not um, there's it seems it's all changed especially with the character customization for
For number two that's come out the the character customization looks fucking incredible for that like
Proper proper on there and proper in-depth fucking shit for that one and whoever else is on there
Yeah fucking
Peter griffin and homa simpson, you know, I mean you can fucking do anything on that by comparison
The first game was very much like it like a souls character customization
But yeah considering the amount of hours that I spent in the I didn't get the darker risen which was like their deluxe re
Have you pre-ordered dragon's dog? Well, I haven't yet but I was thinking about doing it
Too well, I checked it yesterday on steam and saw the prices of like 40 that were
Little 98 for 45.98 or whatever it was. Yeah, why is that? Why is it that extra bit of pence?
But I did think about pre-ordering it just but it's one of those ones where do you pre-order it?
Because we don't like the pre-order currently
Yeah
But is there enough to
Get
Pre-order is one of them fucking is there enough in it to merit getting the pre-order because it's a lot of like weapons and stuff
But I don't ever remember from the last game that the weapons were the type of thing where I don't think there's ever once been a fucking
pre-order in my life
Or in history that has given you a piece of a set of armor a fucking weapons
that
Have any bearing on the game whatsoever. That's what I mean that I don't think that
It's probably I probably will just pay pay out for the deluxe edition and pre-order
it because because I want the game but at the end of the day you can get the game when it fucking comes out it's not going to be a shortage
Yeah, but you know got paid today. So
It's always worse when you pre-order something
And it's not good or you get the deluxe edition amazon normally do fucking loads of things where it's like exclusive to amazon bollocks
and you get
like a like a sword and fucking
Certain helmet. Oh, yeah, I've looked and it's literally just a set a bundle of like slightly better quality weapons
Yeah, and it's not really much else
I always find it annoying when you get that and then within an hour's worth of playtime you've got better gear
Yeah, you've already got better. So you go well, I'm fucking wasting my money here
Then you know, because the games obviously not the game's not designed for you to for it to only work when you're wearing that better gear
You can do it with the normal shit and I find that a lot of the times they don't really look that way
Anyway, let me have a little look. I can't remember what exactly they gave you but it wasn't I didn't think it was that fantastic
But at the same time like if I'm I know i'm gonna buy it anyway, is it worth just getting it?
I mean saying that I spent the fuck I've got the deluxe edition or whatever it was for fucking outlast trials because you got a couple of
cool like
Skin, it's definitely better when it's more to do with like cosmetics
Yeah, that you can just wear or like transmog related stuff
Yeah type items where you can just chop and change the signal is great
Yeah, the cosmic cosmetics over
Actual use of items is far trumps it especially if they look cool as well because I feel like that's a better
Ad but obviously you require you require a game to incorporate those kinds of mechanics
A transmog system or cosmetic based system because obviously a lot of stuff like ghosts associated with most games
in fact don't incorporate that
Elden Ring does because
The stats don't really mean a lot when it comes to the gear. Yeah, it doesn't really hold that much bearing
Um, so you are quite free to kind of do whatever you fucking want
Um, here we go. You're gonna tell me finally. Here we go. The standard edition pre-order bonus is a boon in early battles
Superior weapons quartet so you get it looks like you got staff
Sword and board and bow and two daggers and then sword and board
And then it goes further. Okay. The only difference in the deluxe is that there's the game and then obviously all the
All of that above plus a special ring
Some sort of camping kit what looks like as in-game currency
The music and soundtrack which you've discussed previously is actually not a bad thing, especially for me
I quite like it when games come with
Soundtracks, yeah, yeah going as a dm. I can use that music if I want to can you use it? Yeah
That's what we play in the background. Yeah, so a lot of like ambience for for dnd will be from games
from games
Yeah, yeah, then just banging on a bundled spotify mix or the like that you can just go. Okay. I need some battle music
Oh, i'm just gonna decide to play the witch's ones. Yeah, that was a real decent fucking
Patron, what that's a self selfless plug right there selfless plug all about fucking music and gaming big big pot get on the patron
And some other
various assorted items that probably make sense when you're actually playing the game, but
Starting vocations you get fighter mage thief and archer
And then then that's the only good thing about I mean starter vocations leads tells me oh, there we go advanced
Warrior and sorcerer
Is that it
There's there'll be more than that
I remember from the last game that you had essentially you had the base ones and then each one had at least two
variations hybrid
Mystic spearhead
Which is essentially magic archer would blend the two so if you know you'd have
Say you were a warrior and a mage you could get a battle mage and then you could get and a trickster
Yeah, you could get ones that were in between it was very good because it was like you probably experienced in
The final fantasy online is that you can essentially have one character and just level up the vocations
And you don't have to make a whole new character like you would in
Every other game that's one of the don't want to be a fighter today. I want to be a mage and that is one of the best
aspects of Final Fantasy 14
ever is
That you can do absolutely everything with one character save so much time. That is it just one character the the
Necessity to create another character is purely from a cosmetic basis. You don't
Anything and everything and that is a goal that most people that play Final Fantasy 14
Strive to achieve is to just get every single job max level because then you fucking you've done it then yeah
I feel like it's just it's a lot. It's one of the things that put me off
having like when I played wow with you is that I was playing the tank and
Granted I didn't mind playing the tank and I quite enjoyed it, but it was very much an aspect of
I'm new newer to this because I played it long long ago when it went like Burning Crusade first came out and stuff like that
but the
Wow's got a toxic community playing a simple that I don't want to be the guy holding everyone back
Wow's communities fucking disgusting which then and it's good to see you know
If I wanted to do something else, I you know
How long did it take for me to get to the end game content just from the grind and not being like
I'm just gonna cheat my way into not cheat but I'm gonna use the dungeons
Yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna use the the quick way to to level 60 for the
truthfully you go or
the the the
Ash has it that I don't want to use this because I might need it later. Yeah. Yeah the mentality that
If you're starting a brand new MMI, you never want to just max level straight away
If you've got the option because you fucking won't understand you like for
For final fantasy to do that and say you can keep one character and you can put thousands of hours into one character
But you can do everything one character is such a better. It's like an aspect of relief to someone like me you go
Yeah, I don't have you know at the minute. I definitely don't have hours and hours to spend on
Multiple different characters getting like I know you love it, but you've played well for a long a long time
Yeah, I love it
But if given the fucking opportunity in world of warcraft to not have to make multiple multiple characters
And you know 100% I would do that because with final fantasy
Once you hit a certain point, I think it's level 70
Basically, the way that it works is so for example, I'm a dragoon is my main
level
57 so
if I go and make a new start a new job like
I don't know like a rogue for example, which then turns into a ninja
It's basically the bigger the level gap from your main to your the job that you've picked up
It just halves it and puts you in the middle. No the the the bigger the xp increase from leveling that up
So if you start doing missions, you're going to level up a lot quicker to bring you in line with your main a lot quicker
And then also once you hit level 70
I believe the xp that you gain from other jobs goes up by like 200% or something
so that when you're
Of a max level when you want to start trying out other stuff. It's not so much of a grind because
Yeah, but it brings everything up a hell of a lot quicker and
Everything's level synced much like wow is
um, but
Also, if you're playing a new class if you want to go to a tank you want to go to a hill or something like that?
Every dungeon in the game has an npc
Setting for it every single one world of warcraft at the moment is trial in that but it's only on the end game dungeons
Dungeons or anything before level 60 you can't do that and even then it's only limited to 10 a fucking day
Really? Yeah
So on final fantasy if you aren't feeling that comfortable with tanking with actual people even though the community is
Is 90% really lovely and will wait
You can try it out with npcs instead
For the entire thing and see how you get on
um, and also alongside that there are some classes where
they
they can be a
so for example the fucking the
summoner
Can also turn into a healer class called the scholar
I believe
Two separate jobs. However, they level up simultaneously
So a lot of people will make us will make a look. I can't remember the class that turns into a summoner
Um, I think it is just like sorcerer and then at level 30 it turns into a summoner
A lot of people do that so that when they're leveling up to max level
They've got a max level healer there as well in case they ever want to swap over for easy queues and stuff like that
So it helps out it's very it's very old friendly very old friendly world of warcraft is
is very very toxic for new players and for current players to
To get involved with and staying because if you're not keeping up
It's fuck you you jump into a dungeon and you don't know it
Everyone's just fucking sprinting to the end because they're all grinding because the main point of world of warcraft
That was massively how I felt when I jumped in with you and it was like
I don't really know what i'm doing. I'm following you. Yeah the main
Unfortunately, i'm the one who's meant to be the main point of the game is end game content
Yeah, and getting the best gear you possibly can and final fantasy doesn't follow that same rule set obviously it's still there
But that's not the that's not the main bread and butter of it, which is where you have that very relaxed
state of of play
I don't know what brought us on to that fucking talk, but I think we were just going on about like rpgs and how you can with
dragons dog where you can just have one character and you can try out like you can quickly realize that you can play you can
Start the game as a fighter and then go. Oh, I don't want to I don't like this
I want to play a mage and then you go actually mage is a bit jank
So now I want to be I don't know what to be a ranger or a rogue type instead
It's nice that games that have the option of doing that rather than being like, oh you spent the last 30 hours building
Your rogue character up and you don't actually like it. So now
Tough luck you're gonna have to make a new one. Yeah, which is very annoying is
As for someone who doesn't have a lot of time in the day to to play games
The one character is what I'd rather play as because I can sync ours into one pair
I keep doing that and keep doing that and keep doing that. I don't want to be like, you know
Oh today I'll play the tank but oh actually I feel like I don't want to play tank today
So I actually need to level up my I don't know my hunter or something. I feel like that's why someone like ash
will
stick with
Final Fantasy 14 because obviously as we all know he loves to build that that role-playing aspect with a lot of the characters that he makes
Rain dolo
and
Squid man with with old Final Fantasy you are able to
continue building that story with your own character if
If you have to if you if you make a rogue saying wow, and then like you say
50 hours in you decide actually I want to be a mage
Brand new character start all over again
Where was something like Final Fantasy you've developed that character if you're role-playing as a rogue you then want to jump on and play
Puggy list
Then you can if you really want to you can you know
I mean if you're if you're role-playing with your character you can fucking role-playing to something else
You haven't got a completely start again, which I think for a lot of people
I'm not one that's massively into role-playing
and
For people that are I feel like that's such a big
Big thing because you're free to do basically whatever you want in this fantasy world
I feel like it you're you're taking away from the fancy
Fantasy aspect if every single time you want to do something different you have to make a brand new character to do it
So I'll fucking know like this isn't I'm trying to role-play here. This isn't fulfilling that the aspect
It goes into like you could also say that for games like it's the same that borders gate doesn't it does have an aspect
you can respect which is a good thing, but
Well, I suppose they added it more recently
So it's not so or had it earlier from the start and you can like transmog your character now
That originally when you first started if you didn't like your character the way they were, you know
You made their appearance you were essentially stuck with them and then
You you could respect your character if you turned around and went. Oh, I don't want to be the same again
You don't want to be a fighter or whatever that I suppose
It's one of the ones that doesn't translate so well to like actual tabletop D&D
because
You are what you are you you've essentially made your character to be the way that it is
but I suppose there is an element of like flexibility with the person who could run in the game that you could change that but
That when Ash was like, oh, can I play rain dolo in your campaign?
I was like, yeah, you sure but you can't be a squid man. You can't you can't be a mind flayer. Thank you very much
Yeah, else your new characters mine
Yeah, yeah, I can hold up but you know, because that's a little bit unfair if I turn around and say yeah
You can be a mind flayer mate, but
You just fucking murder everyone
Well, it's it's an interest in
D&D has multiple like the the adventures that are written and you as a DM
Have it within your possibility to just take people's characters if you want
So if all of a sudden you came to my game and said I
Don't know what in an aspect of ashes character rain dolo the the actions he has made in
his
Baldur's Gate campaign when he reaches a certain point in the end of the game
Granted, it's a guy the game is separate. But if you were playing tabletop
when he
Don't spoil anything for the man because he's still playing. He's yeah, but certain things that ash has done
Would merit me taking control of his character potentially
And he's just out and then he would have to make a new character
Hmm, because there's a same element of you could
Have a character die then
You could bring them back say as a revenant, which is like an
undead
Agent of vengeance and
You was the DM could then say well, it's not your character anymore because you're not you
That I'm now in charge of that. I quite like that. I that that sounds like a
You had the mercy of the fucking beholder
I mean you're
It's down to DM discretion is like we've asked before
We're trying to wrap my head around the fact is I walk and I do anything in when we're playing t&d and you go
Yes, you can do anything you so I go all right
And we're doing whatever we're doing the most basic campaign
I go the minute we start I pick up a knife and I stab him in the throat
I said, oh, well, are we able to do that? And so yeah, yeah, you like you'd ruin the entire experience
Be good. You were also able to do that
Like if you're like I'd imagine there have been people where if they're getting bored of their campaign
But they don't quite want to say they're getting bored. They just slit their own throat. Oh my god enough of this
I'm just gonna kill myself
So this what they're my the group I play with currently, which is my old like college mates and schoolmates they
Before I joined them
They had with like the other half of my schoolmates that I don't really talk to anymore
same group I same group of people when we all grew up and
We're mates and everything but they had one guy. He's massive. He's a nice guy. He was my best mate
But we drifted apart and he is massively ADHD. He cannot he's not medicated or anything, but he can not
Like most of my other mates ADHD and medicated. Mm-hmm. Whereas he is not
To his own is that's the way he wants to be but he can't focus on these things
And yes, I played one session with him and it was unfortunately with my mid kovat
It was the first time I'd joined in properly with the India been interesting getting into it from the months and years
and it was the first time I joined in and he like he had no interest and as I
He didn't then play going forward, but I'd learned that he had a character before the one he was currently planning
And he just killed him off
Multiple times he made suicide attempts on his character because he didn't want to play that character anymore
Yeah, yeah, I've had enough of it
Yeah, you could you can easily just turn around and say look Ash could play rain dolo as where as a rogue and say I don't
Want to play rain? No, no anymore and you would then turn around like you could say do you want to kill your character off?
He'd say not really. I might want to use him later. You say okay. Just take him out. So I
You essentially either you can roleplay it and say like rain dolo wants to go on his own adventures
And then just move him along and then he could have a new character
Or you could in theory you could respect them
But that would take a little bit more like it would take out of the roleplay aspect and lean more into the mechanics of it
Yeah, yeah, but truthfully like if you turn around and said, okay, I don't want to play
Who did you make you made?
Gouldan
Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know
I don't know why you I don't know why you pick me. I'm no longer playing Gouldan
You don't want to play
Who did you make you make Gouldan Gouldan the the the raven fucking ball fangy mucking a raven folk
Warlock. Yeah. Yeah. I don't want to play anybody more the kenku. You didn't want to play him anymore
You could just go. All right. I'm just gonna do something stupid and just kill yourself
you could just jump off a cliff or something and that
at that point I'm out the game. I may stay in the session but I have no bearing on the
game whatsoever. There's nothing I can do. So are those people then able?
They could bring you back if you wanted to.
Yeah, they go, right, well he's jumped off a cliff because he's had enough and he's had
enough of this campaign. However, we're now going to make it our fucking sole objective
to go and bring him back out of the fray.
You could, but at the same time it's in the writing of spells and things like that. If
you killed your character and you had someone who could res you and had the materials to
do it, you could do it. You could just res him. But there is in the writing it says willing.
So you could turn around to me and say, don't, like you could just shake your head at me.
And then everyone would make that attempt but you could not come back. You could just not
come back. It would be like a vague attempt.
That would play into the role play aspect of...
We should definitely do it. Well, we'll fucking set a date.
We've got a date.
I can't remember what the date was.
April 13th, I think. Or 12th.
Just inviting ourselves around your house.
Yeah, just said, I'm coming around now.
Have you listened to that episode yet?
Great. Have you listened to it? I was like, no, I'm busy.
Did I say that it's a calendar? Did I? I want to see if I put anything on the calendar.
I think I might have done. It's literally sorted it all out without even your fucking...
Without my agreement. Just said, we're coming around.
The Amazon series of Fallout comes out on the 12th.
Does it?
Of April.
Was it 12th or was it 13th?
12th. What, for D&D?
I think we said the 13th because that's a Saturday.
Because we originally said the 6th.
And then Ash said he couldn't. And then you said you couldn't.
So then I said, all right, well, the 13th then.
And the 13th was what we chose.
And that's what a show remains.
Oh, God. Here we go.
And then Ash getting upset because then I'll run a baby campaign as if I'm not going to run.
Ash is going to get upset because I'm going to crush his head with a boulder just for the fun of it.
You're going to kill Reign, don't you?
I'm going to attempt.
Three minutes into the session, you're going to have Reign Dolo dead.
Or I won't kill him, but I will make a very sly attempt.
And then it's just going to be a campaign of...
Backstab.
Yeah. I don't trust this geezer, but I need him.
He's already said that he doesn't necessarily want to play Reign Dolo in that first campaign anyway.
I think he doesn't want to do Reign Dolo.
Yeah, because you're too scared of fucking it up.
He doesn't want to do Disjustice.
Exactly.
He's already...
That's a fake role play, though, isn't it, Prince?
You've got your main character as Reign Dolo.
This is your fantasy.
He made Wolf, and he doesn't want to...
But now he wants to protect him and say, no, I want to trial run D&D first to make sure I'm actually decent at it.
And then bring Reign Dolo into the fray rather than just fucking raw dogging it straight in and then seeing what happens.
He's listened to one podcast and now he knows what D&D is.
Don't say that because we need him.
I know, fuck all.
Oh yeah, he's still coming.
He's got more research done than me.
That's fine.
Where he said, oh yeah, you're doing a baby campaign.
I'm only doing a baby campaign because it's one of the best starter adventures that's out there.
And it's almost like the best way of getting into it is to run it like that.
And I'm still on the fence of having maybe two of my mates who are more seasoned to come along to sort of balance things out or whether just to say, look, we'll just do it like me, you, Daryl, and Ash.
I would absolutely love, but the money's just...
We won't get Mark because fuck Mark.
Mark ain't got the fucking mental capacity for it.
He's too hard, isn't he?
He ain't fucking interested in D&D.
Plus, he don't drive.
I'm not picking his ass out of it.
I'm not going to do it.
He's a prick in his bedroom.
I would love to, but the money and the equipment isn't there.
I would love to do a D&D session, but audio record the entire thing.
If we ran a normal podcast, but then every time we did a session, record it raw and then just post that as a series going alongside until it's fucking done.
There has been a massive influx of...
Since...
How many years ago was it now?
There is a massive company called Critical Role.
Yeah, Critical Role is massive.
They sort of set the precedent for D&D podcasts because they do it nigh on every week and have been doing it for like...
They're also fucking voice actors.
Oh yeah, that's completely unfair.
They're professional voice actors.
There's definitely been a lot of influx of D&D podcasts since they've made it big from their original like Geek and Sundry with Felicia Day was the one who did it and then obviously Matt Mercer and all the cast.
Stranger Things also helped out.
They made it much more mainstream.
It went from being like the...
When D&D first came out, it was the Boogie Man.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Sort of things like... But then you realize that truthfully it's...
Someone explained it very well and I can't remember the way they worded it, but it's an exercise in cooperative imagination with aspects of...
There's math involved.
Yeah, yeah.
It's crazy because you sit there and go, I'm bad at math, but I'm having to do it playing a roleplay game rolling dice.
But it's also where it's that role playing game, people would see it as, oh that's fucking nerdy. I don't really like the sound of that.
But at the same time, because it's a role playing game, you can make it not nerdy.
It doesn't have to be goblins and trolls and fucking magical spells.
You don't have to fucking roll with that.
There's so many different things out there.
Like the cyberpunk inspired fucking tabletops.
There's high fantasy ones, you can get Star Wars, I forget what it's called, it's not Rogue Trader because that's something.
It might be Rogue Trader, but that would be weird because Warhammer 40K has Rogue Trader.
But again, you can have sci-fi, it's what you want to play.
Like Ash wants to do cyberpunk at some point, but I need to buy a whole new thing for that.
But it depends what you want to get into.
The worst thing is probably the first session with people you haven't played with before because it's there.
You have to work it out.
I was very nervous even with my own mates to play the first time.
And then I'm still quite nervous DMing because you're running the whole show.
But that would be fine.
We'll be absolutely fine.
Start stirring their voices.
To be fair, I don't think I would struggle too bad when we're all sitting around because we're weird enough as it is.
Comfortable enough as it is to be doing that.
It's difficult on here because there's fucking other people that live this.
You know what Darryl's going to do when he turns up.
I know what Darryl's going to do when he turns up.
Darryl-y doo-doo.
He's going to get a fucking shock when he hears your voice on the ears.
Oh yeah, because he didn't even tell him.
He's going to love it.
Whoopsie daisy.
We're going to fuck off to the Patreon where you'll really hear it.
Listen into it.
But yeah, appreciate you Conn for helping us fucking throw your voice into the mix.
I hope it weren't mundane enough.
And sorry everyone if it was.
My name's Mark.
See you later.
Bye.