Dingy dingy dong dong. Bong. I'm going to have
a chocolate digestive. Do it. So much for that
intro. It was good. It was forward thinking,
I think, because we'd had a gap. Started thinking
professionally for a minute. We could do this,
we could do that. Nah. I saw one Reddit post
asking that question of... do you do an intro
for your podcast or not? And the majority of
people said, nah, fuck that. So I'm with them.
The thing is, pretty much everyone has intros,
outros, and fucking little segment things. And
whilst it's cool, if everyone's doing it, it's
not really unique, is it? When you watch a season,
a brand new season, what do you do? You normally
watch the start of the intro. And then what happens
the next episode? It's gone. There's only a couple
of I watch. I watch Game of Thrones intro because
it gasses me up. It's gas. And I watch Vikings
intro because I fucking love the tune. Yep. I
actually got that on my playlist. And that's
it? That's about it, yeah. Unless he's got a
banging tune or great visuals, I'm not interested.
And no matter what, Jem says, fucking skip this
shit. And I say, okay. Depends. Depends. If it's
one of them two, no. Anything else, yeah. Get
this off my screen. So, let me give you the update.
Please do. If you listened to last week's episode,
Ash berated me about my inability to play other
games. I'm just getting choked up about it. You
used to do that a lot. What? Voice crack? Yeah,
I know. Stop that, aren't you? I know. Well,
so I come up with the, we were talking about
Death Stranding quite a bit in light of Death
Stranding 2. released in a couple of months um
and we were trying to understand what the fuck
is any of it about so tried to get astro explained
to me what death stranding one is about and you
basically said the same shit as what everyone
else said and that is i don't know so i thought
well what better than to play it and then i set
myself homework an ongoing assignment of start
death stranding and finish it and give a weekly
update in the podcast as to what I'm doing how
I'm getting on what's going on so here it is
kind of like kind of like your football manager
series this is a Death Stranding series I'm all
for it however there will be spoilers so you
are going to play Death Stranding don't listen
to this there will be spoilers and the problem
that I've got is my lovely biscuit is because
I don't know what the fuck's going on I don't
know what's a spoiler and what isn't if I'm honest
so I am Six and a half hours in. Something like
that. I haven't... I mean, that's admirable.
I'll take that for the week, mixed in with split
fiction and wow. I'll take the nearly seven hours
game time that I've managed to throw into it.
It's decent. And what I will say, straight off
the bat, considering all you see when you look
up Death Stranding, is it being a walking simulator,
I think it's great. Really, really like it. Love
this. It's peaceful and simple, but scary at
the same time. BTs can fuck off. However, what
we did last episode is I went on Reddit and surmised
sort of what Death Stranding was about. Couldn't
work it out, but there were things like time
for BTs, the beach, whales and shit like that.
Little buzzwords. Now... I understand a little
bit about them because of those Reddit posts.
If I didn't read any of that, I wouldn't have
a fucking clue about what anything is happening
because nothing gets explained, at least from
what I've played. Like, barely. I think I learned
more talking about it with you last week than
I did playing the whole game to its completion.
Crazy. Crazy. I carried my mum to the fucking
incinerator. Is it your mum, is it? Yeah, it's
your mum. I can't remember. Threw her arse in.
So now my sister is the president of what was
America. Because that's what you're trying to
do. From what I've gathered, the world, the death
stranding happened. And it's basically like where
the dead has come into contact with the living.
And it's just fucked everything up. and what
happens is if someone dies in the living world
and they're not disposed of within 48 hours they
explode and take out fucking cities with them
like everything they just get fucking bang and
then they turn into BTs which are like these
paranormal fucking horrible things that just
they're just grim but they're invisible Just
a terrible name for them, to be honest, because
in the UK that means British telecoms. British
telecoms. So I just can't take it seriously.
BT's coming. BT's coming. Yeah, they're grim.
They're the things that you see their footprints
in, isn't it? Yeah, so they are invisible, and
we are invisible to them as humans. However,
there are people with dooms, which means that
different levels of... sort of like special powers
where some people are able to just see him outright,
you as, I don't even know his name. Norman Reedus
is the fucking person, but my actual name. Sam
Bridges. Sam Bridges, that's the fucking one.
I'll fold it out of the bag, I don't know. He
can sense them, so can't see them, just sense
that they're knocking about and see footprints.
Is that not what that little thing's for, that
little flower? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you've got
a baby, which is called a BB. um and a bb is
is taken from a a mum while still in the womb
a uh like a vegetable mum basically and is taken
out of the womb and for whatever reason it was
i think it was being partly explained but not
fully explained yet they are able to interact
with the other side which is called the beach
is that the other side i think I don't know.
Or that's the link in between. If that is, I
learned that last week here. Or Death Stranding.
I can't remember which one. And then... From
the ending, I would presume you're right. But
they're able to sense the things and basically
they're in like a little fucking incubator and
you plug them in and then, yeah, there's like
this... Or is that what powers that? Yeah, like
this antenna that is attached to your shoulder
and that fucking pings off in the direction of
where things are and that's how you avoid shit.
And I love my BB. I've grown very attached to
it. And that's exactly what the fucking fat geezer,
the scientist, tells you not to do. He's like,
it's just equipment. Don't get attached to it.
It's fine. But if you've got a rocket to fucking
calm it down, it gets stressed out. If you submerge
it in water, as any fucking baby would, when
you get back to your base, you fucking put it
back in its incubator on the wall. Make sure
it's all right. You can have a shit. There's
all sorts of stuff. I spent a long time just
in my base just showering and stuff like that.
It was weird. Definitely not sponsored by Monster
Energy, that game. Yeah, definitely not. Fucking
hell, it's everywhere, isn't it? But it's planning
the routes for everything that you need to do
and slowly working out exactly what it's like
being able to build a post box and everything
like that. If you've never seen anything to do
with Death Stranding, you are a postman. You're
a courier. DPD. Fucking UPS. Whatever you want
to be, you are one of them. What our mission
is connecting a fallen world together. So each
individual civilization, we're basically connecting
them to the 5G network, which is actually called
the chiral network. And with the hopes that eventually
everyone, the whole of America gets reconnected
and then boom, we can fucking take over again.
To these individual places. And set up the network.
With like this weird necklace. That's made out
of like tablets. Like stone things. It's really
odd. But because you are. You have dooms. You're
able to interact with this thing. And I thought
that the premise of that. Of just walking around
and shit. Would be so boring. But it's fucking
fun. It's really fun. Having to keep your balance.
Fucking. I know that you can manually load stuff
in. And change it around. But I just use the
auto. load of thing i ain't fucking around moving
shit about um and it does get dicey with like
um those people at the beginning that are trying
to kill you i can't remember what they're called
um like the the mugs hugs or something like that
bugs these people but obviously the combat like
you said in the in last week it isn't centered
around combat and i knew that Going into it because
of what you said. So the first time I see enemies
like across some river. I'd set off one of their
fucking recon things. And then suddenly there
was after me. And I was shitting it. Because
I was like they've got guns and stuff. And I've
got nothing. And I know this isn't a combat game.
So I was like what am I supposed to do? But yeah.
Planning your routes. Figuring out what's the
best way to go. Learning how to use ladders.
And shit like that. I didn't realise that when
you place a ladder you can't pick it up again.
you've just placed it and what i found quite
cool is it much like um in a soulsborne game
when you can leave a note other people can do
that they can leave notes for you and and signs
and shit like that but also their equipment so
like their ladders and their ropes that they
can tie off on cliffs and shit like that they
can they will stay there for a period of time
but then the time for which is the rain that
erodes everything over real in real time erodes
that shit so you only have access to what other
players have put down for a certain amount of
time and it's forever changing you don't need
playstation plus for it because i double checked
because in fucking elden ring you need playstation
plus to see everyone's shit and i kicked off
about that and i said steph i said i bet this
is the fucking same and she googled it and it
ain't so that's that's good i ain't gonna i ain't
gonna buy a playstation plus for that um and
i'm just at the point now where i'm about to
get the motorbike i think Or the geezer told
me it needs a new battery. So I think I'm on
a mission to sort of figure that one out. So
even though I'm, call it seven hours in, I haven't
actually done a whole lot. But it's fun, man.
It is fun. I've been thinking about it all week.
Not in an obsessive way, just in the back of
my mind. Oh yeah, I've got to play that game.
I'm trying to remember bits and bobs and some
stuff's coming back to me. I didn't know that
stuff... left the world because of the rainfall.
Yeah. Timefall. Yeah. Which is cool. I knew it
left, but I didn't know the reason. Have you
not got a gun yet or nothing? Nothing, bruv.
Because I remember you used to be able to like,
if you did get caught with your pants down, you
used to be able to like throw some of your luggage
at them and then run in and whack them up. Throw
a suitcase at them and then go in and punch them
up and that. But yeah, you do get weapons, but
I can't remember what the, I'm sure you can like
fire like these balls, you know, like a ball
with rope on and then ball and then it wraps
around them. I'm sure you can fire them. And
I'm sure you get an actual gun that you can kill
people with. But obviously killing people is
bad because then their bodies need to die. So
I can't remember what the thing is around that.
I'm sure there is something. But yeah, I feel
like, I'm not sure if I said it last week. It's
not, I wouldn't necessarily say it's a bad game.
I just feel like if I knew, if the story was
explained to me in, like, baby terms whilst I
was playing it and I actually knew what was going
on, I'd be more invested. But because I had no
idea what was going on, everything just felt
so pointless. I really, really didn't like, and
I don't know if you can tell me why because I
don't know if I ever found out, like, the lack
of humans. Like, why am I delivering stuff to
a hologram in a compound? Where is that then
going? Where do them compounds lead? You're delivering
a parcel to a hologram, but then where are they
going? Do they live there? Where's the rest of
the humans? Are they the only humans left? I'm
confused. I'm pretty sure that they stay sort
of either underground or out of the way because
of everything that's going on, because of the
BTs. So there's a lot of civilization. They just
live in the bunkers. Yeah, they're all, from
what I've gathered, they're all split apart.
But this chiral network, which is what puts them
all together, obviously they don't have access
to that. So they can't. You're making me want
to buy Death Stranding 2. They can't fucking,
they can't talk to anyone. So you're linking
them all up so that they're able to, well, to
just rebuild pretty much. Has Troy Baker turned
up yet? Troy Baker has not arrived yet. Has not
arrived. I can't wait for that. It's just a good
game so far. I mean, next week's update, it could
be like going, oh, this is shit. But my sort
of aim is to sink in at least sort of like minimum,
maybe four hours a week minimum to try and fucking
shoehorn it in. But so far, so far, yeah, it
is fun. I'm enjoying it. I can see the appeal
to it, but you really, it's one of those games
where you do have to, yeah, keep in mind what
the fuck is going on. I remember there just being
some really fucking annoying bits. I don't know
if you've faced them yet or they just haven't
annoyed you the way they did me, but I just remember
some parts just being like, just fuck off. You
know what I mean? Just honestly, like when the
world just turns to water and you're fighting
a whale, but then you have to keep trying to
get out of the water and climb on stuff and you
keep getting knocked back in the water and I'm
just like, that shit just frustrates the hell
out of me. I had to carry six boxes of precious
metals. to the place where you get the bike.
And there was BTs along the route, and I tried
my best to avoid them. But no, sure enough, I
feel like it was meant for the scene, and you
can't escape it. Sure enough, they got me and
it all kicked off. And it was just so frustrating,
because this BB is pinging off everything, fucking
pointing at them. I'm trying to avoid them, and
then all of a sudden... There's a BT on my arse.
There's fucking black things coming out of the
ground grabbing hold of me and I'm fucking pushing
them off. What happened? I fell off a cliff.
Fell off a cliff and all my shit fell off. It
lost like 50 % of its durability. I was like,
what the fuck? I was like, that's so, so annoying.
So yeah, that stuff's going to piss me off. I'm
going to avoid BTs at all costs. The collector's
edition of the Death Stranding 2, it says you
get a machine gun and MP bullets. Level 1. Early
unlock. I guess you can get guns. They've shown
two. Cool. Cool statue. Does it have the price
for it? Yeah, I don't know if this is... It's
219 quid, but I don't know if this is the...
What? I don't know if this is the proper price
or if this is just like... sold I don't know
because it's £299 on eBay fuck knows but yeah
I don't know I'll keep my mint pies on it sunshine
and I'll I'm looking forward to more of that
because I don't know what happened or what happened
or what happened three times so that's that that's
cool man what else you got for us split fiction
faction very fun yeah split fiction sorry more
biscuits You play them with Steph or Mark or
a combination of both. Play them with Steph and
it's very fun. Split screen? Mm -hmm. Nice. Mm
-hmm. Some decent Easter eggs in there. Some
funny levels. And overall, it just feels really
good. The movement, the fluidity of it, the speed
of the actual game itself feels really good.
and we kind of had to stop ourselves from playing
it because we were just steamrolling it. We sat
down on, was it Saturday or Sunday? I think it
was Sunday for maybe like almost six hours just
fucking playing this game. And yeah, do I think
it's as good as it takes to? I'm not sure yet
because I haven't finished it, but I'm teetering
on. Because I really liked It Takes Two, but
this is definitely more, not gory, but more serious
undertone. Whereas It Takes Two was quite, not
childish, but very whimsical and ultimately was
trying to teach you a lesson. Which I feel like
is what Split Fiction is trying to do as well.
But Split Fiction is less happy. and in your
face but still very very fun there's also an
easter egg with the elephant from it takes two
which is which is very cool um and the side missions
are very fun um i don't want to say too much
because i don't want to spoil it for people but
there are some very very funny side missions
that i'd like seen clips of from tiktok but not
all the way through and i know steph had seen
barely anything um and there is there is one
where um spoilers i mean it's just a side mission
so it's not too bad but there's one where you
are um both pigs um knocking around trying to
gather apples for like this this thing that is
like open doors for you and you go you go through
all these all these different little levels um
rolling through mud like so like steph's pig
its thing was it cranked its head up on a spring
like really high and then you'd press triangle
or x or whatever and then it would like fucking
retract itself and that's how you jumped up things
my pig just farted so you'd jump up and fucking
fire and you just fart your way to wherever you
needed to go it farted rainbows brilliant very
funny and you're knocking around and then we're
like oh this is really cool enjoying this and
you basically end up going down this ramp like
this slide And Steph was like, oh, this is quite
cool. She was like, could you imagine if we fucking
just died and that was it? And yeah, that's what
happened. At the end of this ramp was a meat
grinder. Nice. So you go in the meat grinder,
all gory, fucking splatter. Steph was shocked.
She was like, what the fuck is that? And then
screen goes black and then comes back into frame
and now you're sausages. You're hot dogs. Yeah,
class. Hot dogs bouncing around and then you've
got to cook yourself on a grill and then fucking
Steph had to squirt me with ketchup and mustard
and then you jump into a bun and then fucking
someone eats you. And then boom, that's that
side mission done. Hilarious. Fucking just so
stupid. It's a good game. I strongly recommend
it. What is the game though? I don't know what
it is. So you are playing as Zoe and Mio, which
is a weird name. And basically they are both
writers. struggling writers that haven't been
published yet. And Mio is your angry, dark type
personality, kind of hates the world type shit.
And then Zoe is the happy -go -lucky, always
finds the good in the world type. So polar opposites,
basically, but typical polar opposites that become
best friends. they both get a message from this
publisher saying they want to meet them um and
discuss like published deals and all that shit
and basically they all let like these two end
up at this this big it's like in a skyscraper
type thing big building and there's quite a few
of them because they've obviously contacted other
people And basically this geezer that runs it
comes down and is like, yeah, we're really excited
to sort some stuff out, like get some ideas off
of you and figure everything out. Basically takes
him into this room, massive room, with this huge
contraption in the middle of it and these like
bubbles that are knocking around it on the sides.
And basically he says, step into the bubbles
and we'll be able to look at your faults. And
your ideas, rather than you tell them to us,
we'll be able to actually see them. And everyone's
like, oh, that's really cool. Like, let's jump
in. So everyone jumps in the bubbles. Mio doesn't.
She's a bit dubious about it. So he's already
jumped in. And obviously when they go in these
bubbles, they're unconscious because their brain's
being fucking tapped into. Mio kicks off. But
in doing so, they try and force her into this
fucking bubble. She fucking scrambles and then
ends up falling into Zoe's bubble. And now they're
both fucking interconnected. So both of their
thoughts are now intertwined. And it's now where
they are currently living the stories that they've
got in their head. So everything that they've
written in the past, they're now living it as
a physical memory. So they know what's going
to happen and all that sort of shit. um and basically
within within these stories there's glitches
and that's what you find at the end of every
level is a glitch and what that glitch does when
they grab hold of it is it basically creates
a hole in this bubble thing So from the outside,
it looks like a massive bubble that they're sat
in, like a bubble of goo or whatever. From their
heads, they're in sort of like this huge room
that almost looks like the universe around it.
And you can see sort of like out of the bubble
a little bit. So yeah, every time they get a
glitch from the end of one of these stories,
it creates a crack in this and it's getting bigger
and bigger and bigger. And yeah, so far, from
what I gather on that, going through all of their
stories to get out and expose this creepy guy
that's trying to fucking sap everyone's memories
from them and he's kicking off saying don't fucking
do it because you're going to ruin my life's
work because you spent all his years making these
fucking contraptions nice and that's it so you
don't need to play it because I'll fucking I'll
tell you about it you know what I mean it sounds
like a game that I'll YouTube sounds pretty cool
sounds like a cool watch it's good fun it is
a good game and yeah for Like I said last week,
I like these types of games, man. It's good fun.
It's a unique play style that is almost the genesis
of multiplayer. It's refreshing. It is refreshing.
Old school, but new school. I love it. The best
school. Okay. So, what have I got? I don't know.
Fuck all. You've not done anything? No, I've...
It's inspired by your homework assignment I've
took on my own. Though I haven't started it yet.
What I have done is download the demo just to
double check. It's not going to be a terrible
waste of money because it's expensive right now.
I'm going to do what you said you were going
to do but didn't. And you let him down. Talking
to you, Sam. Oh. Talking to you, Sam. Yeah, go
on. Granblue fantasy fucking relink fucking Narnia's
wardrobe. That one. I'm going to give it a go.
I can just give it to you if you want. That's
all right. I've got the physical copy of it.
Have you? Yeah. All right. I'll just give it
to you. Fuck the demo. I'm going to try and work
my little way through that. I mean. I downloaded
a demo. I've started downloading demos, right?
Because I've looked for the demos category. And
I think demos now are actually worth it. Not
all, but quite a few. A lot of them follow the
Final Fantasy format of carrying on from where
you left off, right? Like that game that you
mentioned about. Oh, yeah, that one. The Berserker.
The warrior one. The Viking, Kazaa, the Berserker,
whatever it was called. What? What are you...
What, what, what? What, a game? Yeah. What game
did I talk about? Berserker? Kazaa the Berserker
or something. Oh, yeah. What about it? Yeah,
I've done that. I've done the whole demo of that.
Completed the demo. Oh, right. Oh, okay. I see,
I see. Which was fucking hard, by the way. Yeah.
Very hard game. Yeah, click demo that and then
when you get the game you can carry on yeah So
I like that stocks you don't feel like you have
to because I don't like the idea of starting
a demo Doing loads of shit. I like this buying
the game them to do all that shit all again.
Yeah, take the fun out of it Yeah, just yeah
saps it a bit. So well, yeah, I was gonna play
the demo tonight, but it looks like I'll just
play the game Yeah, I downloaded a demo call
of Octo path traveler to Know if you've ever
heard of it. No very popular game In some circles.
Yeah, Octopath Traveller 2. That's my fucking
go -to, that one. So it's... I advise you to
get some images up while I try and describe what
it is. You haven't taken any of these biscuits,
by the way. Have I offended you with the biscuits?
No, I've eaten far too much. I always stock up
on food before I get here, so I can't make it
to dinner. What am I looking at? Octopath Traveller
2. Or one, they both have the same art style.
Very, very unique gameplay mechanics and ideas.
And you essentially start the game. There's eight
different characters you can be, hence the Oct.
It's a JRPG. I already don't like it. Yeah, well,
that's fine. I apologise. You don't have to apologise.
You like what you like. I'm not really a JRPG
fan either, but I'd say Baldur's Gate and stuff
got me into turn -based stuff, so I'm more appealed
to it now. So, yeah, I downloaded the demo. You
get to pick one of eight characters at the start,
and they've all got their own stories, right?
So they're not connected in any form. as far
as I know. I picked a guy called Oswald, who
has quite a dark story at the beginning. He's
a wizard, or a scholar, if you will. I think
magic's readily available in this world, but
he uses fire and teaches his little instructor
about fire and stuff like that. But he works
out how to harness the fire to make it. More
powerful. It's on sale at the moment. Yeah, I
know. I've got it on my wish list. And he teaches
him, rah, rah, rah. But the game actually starts
with Oswald in court and being sentenced to a
long time in prison for killing his wife and
his child, which is dark as fuck. Nice. So you
start the game in prison and it's like a prison
island. So it's a whole island and you're in
jail. And you're kind of just thrust in there
and then it's like, oh, I need to escape here.
And it transpires that the guy that you was working,
like through flashbacks and stuff, the guy that
you was like your sidekick, your compatriot,
basically murdered all your family and you've
took the blame for it. Not intentionally, but
that is the situation that we're in. So the game
is kind of like, okay, you escape the island
and then... kind of free to do what you want
like open world uh style um but what's cool about
it is i don't obviously i don't know how it all
plays out but i've watched a lot of videos on
it trying to not spoil myself but try and get
a grip of what actually the game is and how it
works which is interesting in the fact that you
can pick one of eight characters right so i picked
oswald i could pick one of the other seven but
you can carry on with oswald's story To its completion,
I guess. But all these other characters are in
the world somewhere and you can go and interact
with them and they'll join your party and you
can level them up. And then, obviously, there's
a big thing at the end of the game. Can you swap
between them? Can you say you can level them
up? I'm not sure. This is what I don't understand.
I'm not sure how it works in terms of... Obviously,
you can use them in your party while you're fighting.
But they've all got different abilities and stuff.
But then, obviously, say Oswald, who I am now,
meets, I don't know, Phil, the fisherman. I just
made that up. And then he joins my party. And
then I complete Oswald's story with Phil in my
party. Does that mean when I play Phil's story,
I meet Oswald? You know, I don't understand how
all that works. But he's very interesting and
very unique. And I thoroughly enjoyed the demo.
The one thing I don't like about it... which
is what I didn't like about JRPGs when I was
a kid, and they've kind of gone away from that,
is it's got that system combat in where... Like
the old Pokemon games where you're running around
and it'll just go... I like to see that there's
a fight coming up. Yeah, what's happening. I
don't like it just spawning, you know, randomly.
I used to hate that shit. You're in a fucking
cave and you're a couple of steps and then...
Fucking hell, I can't be arsed. Yeah, and that
happens on this. So, like, I'm trying to, like,
look around and go around the world, but... I'm
sprinting at 100 miles an hour at all times because
I just don't want to get into a fight. I just
feel like rushing. I feel like I'm under pressure
to do stuff all the time, which I don't like.
But I think I'll buy it. I don't think I'll buy
it yet. So that kind of led me into, oh, maybe
I'll check out that other fantasy RPG game. And
I'm going to do it for you, Sam. I'm going to
give it a good old go, mate. Granblue Fantasy
Relink is a very pretty game. I just, yeah. It
was fun. It just weren't massively for me. But
also, I can't fucking stand the super, super
positive American attitude from it as well. Have
some fucking darkness, bruv. Way to go, team.
We finally did it. Yay. Shut the fuck up, bruv.
Shut up. Yeah, I hope there is some darkness
because I don't like all that shit. I don't know
if there is, man. I really don't know if there
is. There has to be. Well, with... Octopath Traveller
2. It says, what games does it compare to? Is
it worth it? And generally, what did you think?
And the comment underneath that was, it's like
Octopath Traveller 1, but 2. Such a knobbing
to say. I love it. You're not wrong, I guess.
I said, oh, well, that solves it. It's got good
reviews. Yeah. It has got good reviews. Number
one had very good reviews as well, and then it's
got a 9 out of 10 on Steam. Ping out some of
them Steam reviews, man. Let's hear what people
are saying, because I still don't really understand
what it is, other than a JRPG with annoying combat
parts. This game has got 78 hours on record.
Just go for it, seriously. Either you played
the first one or not, being familiar with JRPGs
or not, I'd still recommend this game. Every
single aspect of the first game that I already
considered one of my favourite games was outdone
here. Stories become better, combat system become
better, visual effects become better. Only thing
that didn't improve was music because you can't
improve what's already peak. If you don't play
it until the end, this game has a lot to offer.
Oh, even if you don't play it until the end,
this game has a lot to offer. better than octopath
one in terms of gameplay in pretty much every
way but i liked more of the individual characters
of one than i did two however the cast in two
has much more opportunities to interact with
each other and the quality of life features makes
it hard to play one after playing two i recommend
trying out both games but definitely recommend
playing the first game before this and then we
always round it with a with a little bad one
honestly not a huge fan there was a lot i liked
about it I liked the art style and the graphics,
the music, the way the characters were introduced,
but I didn't love the combat or the class system
very much. The game also felt like a slog a lot
of the time, and I found the progression kind
of confusing. I understand that it's supposed
to allow you to make your own choices on what
parts of the story you progress and when, but
it was overwhelming to me. Well, it's that last
bit, it was overwhelming to me. Shut up. How
about that? Shut the fuck up. For me, it is too
similar to OT1. Many characters to play with
unique skills. It's got good reviews, man. People
love it. Great story. Great gameplay. Thumbs
up. That's all you need to know. There you go.
What I want to see is... Fucking Assassin's Creed,
bruv. I was about to ask you, baby. What's your
thoughts on the shadows? It's getting a lot of
fucking decent shit. A lot of people are saying
they might think that Assassin's Creed is back.
I'm seeing the polar opposite. It's like one
extreme to the next. This is the fucking best
Assassin's Creed since the old days. And then
people saying this is fucking just as bad as
the other slop. We've got very positive reviews.
It's currently the number one selling game on
Steam. as well and for the very low price of
424 pounds and 37 pence you can get the assassin's
creed bundle 16 games there you go um let's have
a look at some reviews here because yeah oh all
right okay first two not recommended Here we
go. Spicy. I can't play this single player game
because of an issue with my Ubisoft Connect account.
Right, I'm ignoring that one then. Lock me out
of my Ubisoft Connect account. Right, I'll ignore
that as well. Jin Sakai mastered the way of the
ghost, but Naoe was born in the shadows. Hey
Ubisoft, if you actually want people to buy your
forgettable 7 out of 10 games, then drop the
Ubisoft Connect bullcrap and stop forcing us
to install it. This is PC problems right here.
Assassin's Creed Shadows is a game that tells
the story of Johnny Samoli. who time travels
to the feudal era of Japan. I don't know what
that means. Somali or Somali? Somali. Johnny
Somali? Johnny Somali? Fuck knows. Is his name
Johnny? No, I think this guy's just taking the
piss. That's what I mean, I'm confused. It's
a bit overwhelming with so much content at 15
hours of gameplay, but I'd say Assassin's Creed
is back on the right path with this one. But
don't buy it full price, wait for sale, and more
importantly, do not buy the Deluxe Edition. You
can get those things in -game for free if you
play enough. The problem with Steam is that most
of it is PC player reviews, and a lot of them
are just fucking upset little people. So trying
to trawl through some of this is a bit shit.
I think it's a good gauge on games like indie
games and smaller titles. But big games like
AC, they're going to have people whinge or just
make shit up. One of the big problems I've seen
a lot of people say is that they just need to
settle on one character. They need to stop this
dual character stuff because saying like... I'm
sorry, I don't know their names. The lady is
really cool to play. She's a Saxon. She can do
X, Y, and Z. And the other geezer is just a big
brute. Yeah, I was seeing a lot of... They're
like two polar opposites, but you kind of can
play the whole game as one, apparently. And it's
just like, why would anyone play this? You want
to play the cool ninja. Yeah, I saw someone saying
that you can do like 70 % of the game as Neowei.
That's their girl. I can't remember the name.
Rather than Yosuke, which is the game. Respect.
Yeah, I know it. Big AC fan. Which, I mean, you
sort of, yeah, I agree with you on that. I don't
want two different people, if I'm honest. I know
that, obviously, we've had many discussions about
it in terms of role play and when you're on different
spectrums when it comes to that, but I think
we can both agree that... And regardless of what
you like to play and how you like to play it,
if we're going to go strictly into a role -playing
aspect and wanting to build a connection with
the character that you're playing with or as,
I want to be solely on that character. I don't
want to have to flick between because I feel
like if you flick from one character that you're
really enjoying and then have to flick to another,
it's fucking annoying. Especially if you then
have like... Like with The Last of Us. But it
was kind of different with The Last of Us because
that game makes you hate Abby. Makes you fucking
hate her. And then all of a sudden you've got
to be Abby. And then you play through the story
and you go, oh shit, I don't actually hate her.
Like this has twisted it on my head. Interestingly,
I nearly stopped playing when I switched to Abby.
And then I powered through and I was like, actually,
I think I'm team Abby. Yeah, yeah. Abby's not
in the wrong here. So are we the bad guys this
whole time? But yeah, I feel like you don't need
to have both of them. I think you're now on the
head with it, really. Doing dual protagonists,
it dilutes it, I think. You want one and you
can have it a really strong character, be it...
Yasuki and Naoe I think it's Naoe I'm not really
sure either one I think pick one of them and
go with that because doing two dilutes it right
because you have to you have your way of playing
with the Naoe and then if you're forced to then
change to a character that you don't want to
play as because you strictly want to play as
Naoe he's going to have different moves different
ways of moving and stuff and you're like then
that part becomes a slog. He's like, I don't
want to play as this guy. They just rush to get
through it. Yeah. You're not enjoying playing
as him. Whereas in The Last of Us, at least,
it's just cover, cover -based shooting really,
isn't it? Yeah. Yeah, it's not crazy. It's the
same stuff. You haven't got, because I imagine
you're going to have different abilities with
different characters. Completely different, yeah.
So there'll be, like I've seen the parkour with
Yasuke. and he kind of just like barrels his
way up yeah because he's a big fucking big geezer
samaristic oath but as the assassin's creed you
want to play as a nimble assassin um so most
people are going to want to play as now a and
i think that's what it is yeah and then i think
like i say i think that just dilutes dilutes
the um dilutes the game a bit so i think the
game would have done better if it was just now
a rather assassin's creed is about assassins
um you come away from that if they're going back
to their roots, then go back to them properly.
I'm not saying it's necessarily a bad thing and
there probably is people that like how Shadows
has been done. But the one thing that Shadows
will forever live with is being compared to Ghost
of Tsushima. Forever. It just will because Ghosts
was so incredibly good. And sort of what everyone
wanted because Assassin's Creed weren't doing
it yet. And that is a setting in Japan as a fucking
samurai. And it did it oh so well. Very fucking
well. And it looked very, very pretty whilst
doing it. So I kind of think whilst Assassin's
Creed isn't necessarily in competition with Ghost
of Tsushima. Because they've released it two
completely different times. People don't want
to be big brutes. If I'm honest. People have
been screaming for an Assassin's Creed based
in Japan. Since number one. Yeah, since number
one for a very long fucking time. Very long time.
Since I was about 19. And the excitement when
it finally got leaked, the code red was going
to be set in Japan. Everyone was like, oh my
fucking God. So I don't really understand why
you wouldn't just go all in with that Assassin
type. Because obviously Naoe is a ninja. She's
not a samurai. She is a ninja. So own it. Go
with it. I understand that having Yasuki as this
big brute of a samurai, it does fit the story.
But I just don't think that that's... You're
playing an Assassin's Creed game. You don't want
to be big and brutish. I think you either have
to have Naoe be the ninja. um that can fight
like a samurai or you have um yusuki who is a
samurai that can fight like a ninja and sneak
around like a ninja i don't feel like i feel
like they've tried to do both and and by doing
that i don't know i'm guessing from what people
have said and what i've seen it dilutes it while
doing that if they'd stuck with one protagonist
i feel like they'd had a better yeah if you're
if you're create if the story isn't dependent
on having two separate characters let's let's
let's hypothetically say that it isn't then for
me your best your best put a call to to appease
everyone would have been to have one character
be able to change that character as to whether
you want to play a geese or you want to play
a woman and then have a some form of skill tree
in there Like they've done with most of the other
ones, like Valhalla and that. You could be evil
as a guy or a female. But then have those play
styles. If you want to go through as a samurai
that's fucking big and brutish, then fucking
go for it. But if you want to go through as this
stealthy ninja, then have that in your skill
tree or have an amalgamation of both so you're
able to get those play styles if it wasn't story
dependent. That's how a lot of it... could be
solved that's if it's that matter if it's that
big of an issue like so neither of us have played
it so it might not actually be a problem but
i noticed that playing assassins creed syndicate
um i preferred playing as jacob than i did as
as evie absolutely nothing wrong with evie very
good story and a very good character but i feel
like the switching it just isn't for me Really?
That was the one in London, isn't it? Yeah, and
for some reason I feel like it stretches out
the story unnecessarily. Even though that's not
what it does, that's what I feel like, because
you spend 20 hours playing as one character,
and then all of a sudden you've now got to play
as someone else. And if the stories aren't linked
up yet, it feels like I'm back to square one
because I'm playing another game. I've just done
20 hours of progression, now I'm fucking back
to nothing again. So now it feels longer until
the inevitable of those two stories linking up.
I've seen a lot of people, Assassin's Creed Shadows
launching in a polarizing state, shall we say,
has done a lot for another game because I've
seen a lot of people playing Rise of the Ronin
now. Yeah. And people are giving it the old,
why did we hate this again? Yeah. And everyone's
like, why the fuck is this like, this is well
underrated. Why did we not like this? And it's
weird, isn't it? Because that come out and everyone
was like, this is fucking shit. Because you got
that and I got something else, right? I never
got Rise of the Ronin because of that. I think
you were going to. I was going to, yes. And I
went Dragon's Dogma. Dragon's Dogma. Because
Dragon's Dogma come out alongside Rise of the
Ronin and everyone was fucking slating Rise of
the Ronin. And unfortunately, fucking I fell
into the trap of... I mean, it was expensive
as well. It's difficult, isn't it? Because if
everyone's slating a game and then it's got a
70 quid price tag, you don't want to fucking
do that. You don't want to spend that money.
But... Yeah, I mean, let's have a look at fucking
Rise of the Ronin then. Assassin's Creed Shadows
looks good. I probably will get it. I won't be
paying full price for it. If I can help it, I'll
try and avoid that. But for someone like myself,
it feels relatively criminal to not own Assassin's
Creed Shadows. So I say I won't pay full price.
If I do, then it is what it is. Rise. Rise of
the Ronin is only 40 quid as well. I've got sat
in here. This was a month ago. Rise of the Ronin
is probably one of the most underrated games
I've ever played. I can literally feel the passion
and art in this coming out. It's my favourite
game that came out last year. The story, voice
acting, graphics are meh, which is why it got
bad reviews, but who cares? The gameplay is top
notch and makes up for its flaws. It's fun to
master different weapons and styles. Someone
replied, no, that's not the case. The bad reviews
came from many factors. 125 plus game websites
reviewed it for one console. Two, released in
the same game from a huge company that was absent
from 12 years ago. Three, the fake reviewers
keep it compared. This English is awful. This
isn't me, by the way. The fake reviewers kept
comparing it. I'm trying to just fill in his
blanks. With a lot of games... I can't read it
anymore. It's just all over the place. But basically,
everyone's just saying, yeah, it's really fucking
good. And I don't know why everyone dunked on
it so much. Let me try and find... That's a little
too long. Great game. Extremely poor optimization.
Can absolutely not recommend until they make
it better on PC. Fuck off. Just finished the
game maybe an hour or two ago and unlocked the
harder difficulty with the new gear and felt
zero desire to do it. The game is nice for a
40 -60 hour playthrough, but maybe wait for a
25 -50 % sale and patches. Of course, it is more
enjoyable if you have knowledge of the Bakumatsu
period of Japan. Just a heads up, I have all
three maps at 80 -ish and did the pro shogunate
path. Again, that's too long of a review. I'm
not that interested. Expecting Ghost of Tsushima
2 .0 from Rise of the Ronin was setting the bar
too high. Graphically, it feels like a game from
2016 to 18, which is jarring for a modern title
released in 2024. Performance -wise, my setup
of 4090 and more, check my profile, is overkill.
Yeah, I still ran into stutters and crashes that
a lot of people... That's the thing, man, is...
Optimisation is obviously a very important thing.
But I feel like a lot of bad reviews come from
optimization rather than the game itself. But
this is the problem, isn't it? This is the developers
and the higher -ups maybe more so. It's a problem
because they're pushing this game out when it's
not ready, and then the reviews will drop and
be like, yeah, sevens out of ten is all right,
but it's framey and it's jittery and it's buggy.
And then three months down the line, the game's
fucking smooth as butter. Yeah, yeah. But they
don't go and re -review it. It's not their job
to re -review it, right? But they don't re -review
it. So then reviews, you just go, you're looking
in a shop, not so much these days, I suppose,
but you're on the PlayStation store and you're
like, oh, what's this? Oh, I remember this. Look
at reviews like sixes and sevens. You're like,
no, fuck that then. I'm not paying 40 quid or
whatever it might be at the time. And that's
kind of just how it does. So you kind of sign
your own death warrant with it a little bit because
games are not finished and optimized when they
launch and they tend to get fixed after. Yeah,
agreed. It's very difficult when you look at
any reviews for it, like the overall. 3 .6 out
of 5 stars. 7 out of 10 GameSpot. It's 4 out
of 5 on TechRadar. What have we got? 11 months
ago. The combat and weapon variety. You get to
choose your play style. Want to use guns? Have
at it. Traditional samurai who shall not dishonour
themselves. Use bows and shurikens. The combat
has a stamina bar and plenty of skills to learn
and combat styles to master as you play. The
more you use a certain weapon, the better it
gets. The closer you get to your friends or hunt
down criminals, they will give you new combat
styles and or teach you the next level of it.
Jesus Christ. This person just basically says
the game is good. RPG system is great and allows
you to focus on what you want. Very much like
the weapon variety in the game. The outfits in
the game are top tier. There's plenty of variation
as well as transmog to let you create badass
characters. Yes, the transmog. Every game needs
that shit, man. Allies is the best AI I have...
Is it the best AI I have seen in a game? No.
Do allies aid you in battle well enough so that
you can take out the enemies that need to be
dealt with while the other enemies go towards
your allies? Yes, yes, yes. You can buff your
allies with gifts that will make them better
in combat. And when you get closer to them, blah,
blah, blah. Yes, I'm going to get it. It sounds
great. Do you reckon, yeah? Yeah, I'm going to
get it, baby. I wonder... I added it to my wish
list earlier. It's full price now. It's like
70 bones. I'm not paying that. Get it on CD,
keys for 29 quid. What's that, though? You can
download the DLO code for the PlayStation. Let
me have a look. You probably fucking can't because
it's bollocks, isn't it? Rise of the Ronin. CD
Keys likes to not give you any PlayStation fucking
bollocks. No, that's all purely Steam. I don't
want to play it through Steam. Yeah. Yeah. Poor
timing in it for its release. Just one of those
ones. Is it something that I think will be picked
up eventually and then have a resurgence? Probably
not. I don't think that it's in a category of...
that is unique enough for it to have that kind
of resurgence. Cyberpunk, I felt, is very unique
in its format of game and exactly what kind of
game it is and had all that fucking hype around
it, whereas Rise of the Ronin obviously doesn't
have that. No Man's Sky, again, pretty fucking
unique in what it is. But, yes, I agree, and
I'm not disputing what you're saying, but however,
if... They're not, I imagine. But say they're
working on a big fucking expansion for its sake.
Yeah. And then they go, bang, Rise of the Ronin,
Dreadwater. And it's like fucking, they've added
an expansion, there's pirate ships and I don't
know, just spitballing it. And they drop that
next week and everyone's a bit like, meh, on
shadows. People will buy the shit out of that.
They'll go, hold on, let's check that shit again.
Yeah. And that is the resurgence. But I think
it's having enough of a resurgence at the moment.
more than I imagine they would have expected.
They probably thought, yeah, we've done all right,
that'll do. And now people are playing it again.
They think, oh, here we go. Look, people are
not shitting on it anymore. And people, I think,
also are getting confused with what Rise of the
Ronin was. I don't know. But they are the same
team that made Nioh. Nioh. Yeah, yeah. And that's
a fucking fantastic game. That is like Souls
game samurai. Weapons, fucking demons. That shit
is fire. It's on Amazon for 40 quid. And I was
Devo when they didn't make Nioh 3 and they made
Rise of Ronin. Because I've played both Niohs
and they're fucking sick and they're hard as
ball bags. And hopefully they'll go back to Nioh
if they're not going to do Rise of Ronin 2. So,
yeah, them games are more Souls -like than they
are... Ghost of Tsushima, AC Shadows. Yeah, yeah.
So if you're going in going, oh, I just want
to be a cool samurai, yeah, you have to be a
cool samurai, but you have to be good at the
game as well. So, I don't know. Maybe that's
something to do with, I don't know, maybe we're
just good gamers. I don't know. Yeah, I get that
quite a bit, you know, where people are like,
oh, yeah, this was really hard, really, really
difficult, and go, well, I didn't find it hard.
Yeah, but you're a fucking Elden Lord now, mate.
I am an Elden Lord. You're not the little scrub
I picked up. You've, like, elevated. You beat,
mate, you beat Radan. Pre -nerf Radan as well.
Radan, bruv. Spent a lot of time beating Radan.
I think you beat... I mean, you beat Radan before
me. Yeah, you beat... Yeah, but that doesn't
matter. You beat post -nerf Radan in base game.
I beat pre -nerf Radan base game. And then you
beat... So you full circled and was like, yeah,
I'll beat it down, no problem. Did you? Yeah,
you did prime con. Yeah, because it was you that
made me fucking do it because I was so horrendously
jealous and angry. You was there like three days
before me banging your head against the wall.
Yeah, yeah. So it took me a couple of days, I
think. Yeah, I was a cunt of a boss. Killed it
once and I was like, I'm never doing this again.
Yeah, and rightly so. He's a cunt. But you did
it and not many people can do that shit. There's
a geezer, Dan Gieselin. He has over 8 ,000 deaths
or something to him. And he finally beat him
the other day. He's still been playing it since
the expansion dropped. Stuck on that boss. It's
one hell of a boss, man. I'm telling you that.
Prime Consort Radan is... What's even more crazy
is because I killed him in his own gear with
his own fucking weapons from normal Radan. Yeah,
before you become a consort. Because I felt like
I just needed to do that for me. I was like,
I'm going to fucking kill you in your own stuff
with your own weapon. That's how much this fucking
hatred is festering. And got his weapons at the
end. I don't even like them. I don't even like
them. I prefer his old weapons. Because that's
just how I roll. And yeah, that boss fucking
sucked. One of the hardest bosses, if not the
hardest boss I've ever fought. It's got to be
the hardest thing I've ever done in a game. Previously
to that, it was fucking Milena was up there,
brother. Now Milena looks like a piece of piss.
Piece of piss. Absolute piece of piss. Fight
her all day, every day compared to that. Because
I had that first phase, that first phase of that
fight was under lock and key. I wasn't getting
hit. No hit. Full health. Weren't having to touch
potions. Nothing. I was fucking sweet. And then
when you get into that second phase, it all crumbles.
And all them beams of light. Yeah, and then you
watch a guy and it's like, oh yeah, when he does
this, just move to the left and then I'll run
over here. That never happened with me. We must
have been playing different games because he
was doing all sorts of weird shit with me. I
had no fucking hope. Sometimes they're grabbing
you up and they pick you up and shit. Yeah. Like,
oh yeah, fucking don't use the summit. Fuck you.
My mimic tier was out in full force. I wouldn't
have been able to do it without that. No fucking
chance. I was sick of it. I have no mimic tear,
bruv. I cried. I cried. I'm not ashamed of that.
A tear. One tear. I'll cast it as crying because
water exited my eyeballs. Stress and relief.
One tear. There's one of them and you just want
it done. You're like, I'm done with this shit.
I was getting... Just let me finish this now.
A weight on my shoulders. A genuine, like...
i'm a relatively anxious person i'm a confident
person but relatively anxious i feel like you're
the same as well and i get um because of the
addiction the anxiety from the likes of like
world of warcraft or even death strand like these
games i'm playing where i'm like i need to play
these i want to get these done so when i'm not
doing that i don't feel burdened by it but it's
always in my mind where i go i need to get all
of this stuff out the way and then i can play
this and do this because i want to get this done
and prime consort radan was an absolutely higher
level to that by a fucking mile like to the point
where i couldn't think anything else i couldn't
do anything i was feeling losing sleep It was
pissing me off that I felt that fucking infuriated
by it. And when he fucking died, weight off my
shoulders. Imagine making a boss so immensely
difficult that people feel so fucking happy that
they finally killed it, that they never play
your game again. That's what happened. I killed
him, fucked around with his swords for five minutes,
took the disc out of the PlayStation, put it
in the case, done. See you later. Done. Done
with it. He was a motherfucker. I didn't kill
all the bosses in that DLC, but I killed the
hardest one, so I don't give a fuck about everything
else. Done. Him and that fucking cunt that rides
on the pig. I hated him. I hated him so much.
General fucking... General Arsis or whatever
his fucking name was. Was he the one that you
had to fucking do an emote at the statue to open
the door to get out? I think so, yeah, yeah,
yeah. I remember that. I never would have fucking
worked this out. Yeah, yeah. What a fucking arsehole.
Try a gesture. What a fucking gesture. Yeah,
I hated him. Finger butthole. Yeah, finger bumhole,
please. Is this dog? Tortoise. What a game. Right,
well, sweet. Doing the Patreon. See you later,
everyone. Ooroo. Ooroo.