It's a warm summer's day. There we go. For a
third time's a charm. It's boiling outside. How
many intros have we had where we've said it's
boiling, but it's genuinely boiling? I think
it's like 30, 31 degrees outside. 31 degrees
on the button. It's tasty. I love it. And we're
here doing our podcast. Welcome to What's the
Buttons? Straight off the bat, I'd like to get
right in amongst it. Let's do it. Talk about
a subject that I'm extremely excited about and
very, very passionate about. Hit me. The Last
of Us Chronological Order. Are you prepared for
it? You're taking a piss, aren't you? Do you
know what I'm on about? Yeah, I see it. You're
taking a piss, are you? Yeah. Yeah, I was going
to say. Oh, I can't wait. What are they doing?
You like that. What are they doing? Do you want
me to explain? how it works i have a theory i've
not looked into it my theory is that they've
just swapped parts around so it goes in chronological
yeah yeah yeah yeah that's exactly what they've
done well that's why i didn't look into it because
it kind of told it yeah it's free so that's good
actually is a decent update i will give i will
give um credit to that because it is decent um
What I'm not sure is the whole mantra of telling
the story how it should have been told. Why wasn't
that just done in the first place? Why didn't
we do that in the first place? Well, would that
not give away the twists and turns? I don't know.
Is it going to be chronological order from the
rip, or is it an opt -in chronological order?
I believe it's chronological order from the rip,
so it would be like where... Yeah, you're right.
They should have just sold it then. They told
the story the wrong way then. Where you've got,
say, like... Ellie's in the aquarium. but you
would then play as Abby when she's in that section
of the aquarium. So it's kind of like they're
following each other rather than you play 20
hours of Ellie and then 20 hours. Okay, okay.
I believe that's how it's supposed to be. Yeah,
that's pretty cool, but still, why just drop
it out? It's just becoming the next fucking Skyrim.
Yeah, it is, man. And I get that it's free, so
you can't complain and all that bollocks, but
you can complain and we will because it's just
resources. Stop milking the cunt. I've been milking
that so much. It's good, though. But fuck me.
You couldn't have given us online. Where's factions,
man? Factions would have been a nice one to throw
back in there. No. Here's the story again for
the 10th time, but we've chopped it up and moved
it around a little bit. But this is why I never
understand stuff like this. Who's this for? Anyone
that wants to play Last of Us surely has played
it by now. Yes. Surely. Yes. So the best you're
going to get is a player going back to play it
again. What benefit is that to you? Don't know.
I get it. I'm happy and I like the fact that
they're very passionate about their creation.
I love that. But you're not telling more story.
You're just... moving it about I don't know I
don't get it throw a DLC in there yeah they do
some weird stuff like God of War Ragnarok they
added like a long time after the fact they added
the Valhalla DLC or whatever it was called but
it had an entire game mode it had a reason for
being there yeah had more story to tell if you
wanted it still haven't played that you don't
really need to it's good but it's more God of
War but without the puzzles yeah it's more It's
more of that, but it kind of made sense. But
just if they was like, tell you what, here's
God of War Ragnarok, but we're going to switch
the levels around a little bit. You'd be like,
I'm not done. What's the fucking point of that?
But that seems kind of what they're doing. Imagine
that at an expo. You've got a whole arena of
people and you'll just stand up and you go, we're
going to do it again, but we're just going to
twizzle it around a little bit. How excited are
you? That's what doesn't make any sense. I like
the fact that they keep going on it, but meaningful
stuff, please, if you're going to. Yeah, yeah.
Speaking of The Last of Us, I played that with
Steph. People won't see what I'm pointing out.
I'm pointing out The Last of Us Escape the Dark.
I put a post out on our Instagram with the setup
for it. Very, very fun. We lost our first game.
first and only game yeah we lost you lost against
the board yeah cool yeah yeah so you have to
so the board gets laid out and it's basically
there's a countdown by days and you have to explore
different zones and the zones are all connected
and basically you have to cut your way through
a path to the final boss before the timer runs
down And there's all different cards. Obviously,
you can play all different characters like Joel,
Ellie, Marlene and all that. But basically, there's
all these different cards that you get that will
give you cool shit, different moves that you
can do. There's ones that will take a day away
from you on the timer and shit like that. So
it's quite a lot of mechanics going on with it.
and uh and yeah me and steph we sat down for
maybe like maybe the best part of an hour setting
it all up because it's the first time i actually
had to look it was 2022 november was when i um
obviously uh funded the kickstarter for it so
we've only just played it now in fucking 2025
and when i first opened it up i was like oh my
god there's fucking low you know when you just
see something you go i can't begin to wrap my
head around this basically like when we first
started dnd and you think fuck like how and then
when you actually sit down and and and do read
the instructions or steph reads them and then
relays them back to me um yeah do you sit there
yeah and you this does this and you sit there
and you think actually it's not that bad and
yeah we had our first first playthrough of it
you can actually play it solo as well which is
quite cool um And yeah, we died, man. We died.
We made it to the final boss and then just got
absolutely fucking battered because if one of
you dies, that's it. It's game over. And you
can split paths as well. So I can go off to the
sewers and someone else can go off to the library
or something like that to cover more bases. But
yeah, if one of you dies, then you're fucked.
Very, very fun game. I believe you can get it.
It's fully released now as well. The Last of
Us Escape the Dark, if you'd like a little bit
more of The Last of Us. If the chronological
order isn't cutting it for you, and you want
the board game version of The Last of Us, then
fucking 60 quid, you can have it. You lucky bastards.
That's it. Enough of The Last of Us. Yeah, fuck
that. How's your space theme going? Good. Good?
Yeah, I'm all in. In on? Everything. I've downloaded
everything. I've got No Man's Sky on the go.
Space Marine 2 is back downloaded. I played that
the other day, that Horde mode. I was playing
Space Marine 2 the other day. I didn't know you
had it. Yeah. Yeah, I was playing that. What
else did I download? I downloaded Rogue Trader
again, which is the Baldur's Gate style. I was
playing No Man's Sky as well. Yeah, I played
No Man's Sky on the Friday when I got back. Didn't
see you there, but I was on. That was a dig.
No, it was just... That was a dig. It wasn't.
Because I downloaded it. So did I. And I played
it. I made a new character. I didn't do that.
And then almost instantly remembered the mechanics
and went, right, I don't need this. So went back
onto my normal character. I thought I'd put more
hours in, to be fair, 60 hours. That's still
a lot. On that character, it is quite a lot.
and yeah jump back into that well I did the opposite
I went straight onto my character had no idea
well overwhelmed because I had what the fuck
is going on loads of shit yeah how do I change
how do I change view here what's what yeah what
button is it and then I kept fucking shooting
shit I was like fucking hell how do I change
to the terrain it was just yeah but it's just
no man's sky and it's good I had because obviously
I went back into it and then called in my freighter
And then, obviously, where it's been so long
since I've been on it, none of my ships were
on a mission. There's fucking loads of them just
come flying in like a full -on flight. I got
this really cool living ship one that I didn't
even know I had, and it just looked so sick.
And then, yeah, went into my freighter and then
went to where you basically receive all the shit
that you've got from people from sending out
your ships on missions. I'm rich. yeah I know
you're filthy rich billions I've got billions
but I don't know what the currency is like I
don't know if I believe I'm rich it's like when
you go to a country and their currency was massively
inflated so you've got like 10 billion of whatever
and you think I'm fucking rich and you go no
you can afford a loaf of bread here you go 10
billion please so my concept of how much dough
I've got is skewed but I remember from when we
last played in the the anomalies the hub isn't
it you remember well because i know you experienced
it as well whenever you just go and chill in
the anomaly and someone would just fucking give
you a load of random shit and i've still got
a load of that random shit where i've got like
hundreds of things that are worth nearly millions
of credits loads of them but i don't know if
that's Yeah. If I'm rich or not. You're richer
than me. I'm not very rich. Are you not very
rich? No, not at all. I could afford to buy everything.
You could buy me. Yeah. It's mental. Yeah. Well,
I'm not. Next time we're on, I'll give you some
money. Thanks. You're welcome. I've mainly just
been banging the two games I was playing, though.
All of these are like little side pieces when
I'm just desperate, but I'm just banging rematch
and Death Stranding, man. How's Death Stranding
going? Very good. I can't wait to play it it's
all I think about most of the time yeah it's
just anything exciting that's happened so far
how far in are you I don't know I think I said
last time I put about I don't know how long I
said but now I've just gone like 25 hours yeah
I think I might have overcooked it last time
I put all my hours into rematch but what's the
craziest thing that you've seen so far unexplainably
just loads of mad shit just big Squid monsters
and shit. I haven't seen too many of them. They're
like, they just fucking, it's normally, because
I've done the whole game almost, almost the whole
game in a truck. Yeah. So I haven't really had
to do much of the other shit. It's just like,
this one can't go in water, load it in the pickup.
Yeah, yeah. Whatever. I've seen a guitar. Yeah,
yeah, that's what the Higgs has got. Yeah. It's
got a guitar. Yeah, that's quite cool. And then
there was a big baby samurai thing, but I don't
know what that was all about. Big baby samurai.
That's a weird game. It's a weird game. I don't
know if he is a baby, but he defended me with
a sword. He was like, who are you? And you went,
like a baby. And it's just like, what is this?
What is going on? But yes, it's a madness. But
the game is like the fun moments, like yesterday.
Because obviously I've done the whole game in
a truck, but now I'm at a point where I'm going
up the snowy mountains and all that bollocks.
And I didn't realise that snow was also like
time for snow. I just thought it was pretty snow.
Yeah. Not the snow on the floor, the snow that
comes out of the sky. Oh, it was like time for
it. Yeah. I just thought it was snowing. Yeah.
So I was like, whatever. So yeah, I've battered.
Because I will take that truck anywhere. If it
says you can't, I'll fucking get it up there.
I'm telling you, I've smashed that thing against
rocks and mountains until it goes, I'll scar
in that shit up the top of a mountain. Yeah.
It goes where I go. And that's what I did on
this mountain. Is it battery operated? Yeah,
it's battery operated. Do you have to keep charging
it? I put loads of batteries on it. Right. I
still put all my upgrades on the batteries. Yeah,
nice. But then people put generators everywhere.
So, you know what I mean? You're always running
into a generator. Yeah. You keep going. But not
the routes I take most of the time. No one's
been there before. So, yeah, I was going up this
mountain to do a delivery yesterday to connect
them all to the network. And literally, probably
like, I don't know, man, 200 meters from where
I needed to get the battery died. And I was like,
this has never happened before. So, I was like.
Well, I guess I'll just wait till the fucking
battery charges. Oh, they're like solar powered.
Yeah, solar powered. So I got out and I thought,
oh, I know if you rest and go to sleep while
you're resting, so you hold square or whatever
to rest and sit down on the floor and then you
can go sleep, it will just charge while you're
asleep. But it won't let me sleep because it's
snowing. So I'm not allowed to sleep. You can't
sleep in the motor. No, no, no. You're not inside
anyway. You're on top of it, aren't you? I don't
know. You keep talking about the truck. I haven't
actually seen what the truck is. It's called
an off -roader. I think it was in the first one,
to be honest. Is it called an off -roader? Off
-road truck. Off -road wheels. Oh, yeah. That
is not what I was expecting. Yeah, it's very
cool. That is a cool bit. Oh, yeah, you just,
like, sit in the front of it. Yeah, and then
when you get out, it goes... And you get off
and sit. Yeah, because you had the motorbike
in... No, you got all that still, yeah. Yeah.
So, yeah, I got... So I was sitting there. It
wouldn't let me sleep, so I was like, fuck's
sake. And I was like, but... There's definitely
been a pop -up, and I don't want to Google anything
about the game because I'm so sensitive to spoilers.
I hate it. But it definitely popped up at one
point saying that I can charge the truck. Somehow.
But I can't remember how I was supposed to do
it. But I've got gloves that are, like, electric.
So I can, like, charge up an electric punch.
So I thought, oh, that'll do it. So I charged
up my electric punch, smashed the car. It just
fucking zapped the whole car. It was just frying.
Like, shaking phrases. I was like, oh, no. It
wouldn't let me touch it. It wouldn't let me
get on it. It was saying, you can't touch this.
This has been electrocuted. I was like, fucking
hell. Are you sure that doesn't charge the battery?
No, well, that's what I thought was happening.
I'm not going to tell you, but I'm curious now.
So the car didn't charge, so it was all fucking,
yeah, it was all just battered, fucking hanging
by a thread. I was like, I haven't got any option,
really, because it was pitch black as well, and
wolves are howling. I don't know if wolves are
in the game, but there are animals. And I thought,
oh, shit. So I just had to fucking dig the shit
out of the boot. Yeah. And then just book it
over this mountain. So I took it out. But it
was massive. Normally, you would put it on a
carrier or something, man. You wouldn't just
be lugging this shit on your back. But I didn't
prep for that, did I? So I just had it on my
back and trying to go across this mountain to
get to the delivery station. I made it, delivered
it. First thing I did was run straight back to
the truck. Well, I went into the room, rested,
straight back to the truck, and it said the truck
was, like, about to die from snow timefall or
something. I was like, oh. Because it's still
got my shit in it. Like, I carry everything in
it. Oh, does the truck itself get degraded by
the timefall? Well, I didn't know that. Can you
repair that? Yeah, but I don't know if you can
repair it out in the wild. Can you not use the...
I don't know. Probably. I've never tried it.
I don't carry that shit, because it always goes
in the boot. I never have to worry about container
repair spray, ever. I think I sprayed it once.
So yeah, I got back there, booked it to the thing
and managed to get it repaired. But that moment
of getting so close to it and then having to
think, oh, what can I do? And then trying to
work your own way out of the situation is really
cool. But then now I'm on the mountain, I had
another mission where I actually had to go find
a geezer that had been stranded somewhere. And
there was no way I was getting the truck up this
mountain. It was like fucking... Vertical. Yeah,
yeah. Just straight up. So for the first time,
I had to use ladders and fucking... Fuming. ...rappels
and shit. Fuming. You had to use the game mechanics.
Yeah, I know. And then I found a geezer, and
then I had to fucking lug the cunt all the way
back. But there's been a bit... Well, you had
to carry him back. Yeah, I had to carry him back.
What was wrong with him? He was frozen. He was
like... Oh, he was... But where the mountain
was, I've come up this side and then I've put
a ladder up here, climbed across, rappelled down
the other side, put a ladder there, gone a bit
further, got the geyser. Not realising I could
just walk around that. That was not an obstacle
I needed to climb over. I did not need to climb
over that obstacle. And then I fell a bit down
the mountain and hurt him. So yeah, I'm not very
good at the normal game mechanics. But no, it's
just things like that. And the game is just so
much better. The combat's more fun. There's so
much enemy variety. They've all got different
things. I've got so many different weapons. I've
got a coffin I can fucking... There's a coffin
that you can hoverboard. It flies on the water,
man. It's fucking rapid. You can put dead bodies
in it. to transport them or to stop them from
fucking blowing up for a thing void out you can
climb in it if you climb in the coffin yeah to
hide from an enemy you get in it and it just
goes sucks under the tar and disappears and then
when an enemy comes you can jump out and grab
them and shit so many things like that that's
so weird like rocket you've got like full on
mortar rockets you can fire packages and stuff
you can put grenades in packages and fuzz them
at people it's like I imagine if you actually
sat there and watched all the crazy shit people
could come up with it's kind of like a here's
the mechanics go have fun and play and see what
you can do yeah it's breath of the wild kind
of thing there's so many different things put
them together and see what crazy shit you can
do Whereas I'm just very basic. Give me an AR.
Let me shoot people in the head. Yeah, I've got
an AR. I've got a grenade pistol. Yeah, and a
letter. Find me the letterbox and I'll shoot
whatever's on the way. Something really cool
was that... Once again, I don't want to spoil
it. It's not really anything spoilery. But if
you're sensitive, don't listen. But there's a
pizza man. I think he's in the first one. You
deliver pizza to him. And this pizza guy wanted
pizza. So I delivered it. Fine. And then I was
going through my inventory at some point and
it was like I found a pizza pendant or something.
I don't know what the fuck it was. So I tried
to like entrust the cargo to another porter because
I just, whatever you do, it wouldn't let me.
And I looked at it and it said, oh, this gives
access to the pizza man's door. I was like, weird.
So I thought, fuck it, I'm intrigued. You've
piqued my interest. So I fucking hossed it all
the way back miles to the pizza man's door. And
lo and behold, the fucking door opened, man.
Yeah. Couldn't believe it. I've never been in
one of these little compounds before. And what
was behind the pizza door? Pizza man making pizza.
Yeah. And loads of fucking deadly robot samurais.
I had to kill them. Deadly robot samurais? Yeah.
Making pizza? No, they weren't making pizza.
They were just deadly robot samurais. Why were
they? I don't really know. That's a bit weird.
So it's a pizza hut. And you've gone in. And
there's a geezer making pizza. Yep. Behind the
counter. And then surrounded by deadly samurai
robots. No, no. Okay. I've gone down the stairs
into a room. There's deadly robot samurais. Yep.
And then I've killed them and I've walked into
the next room and then there's a man making pizza.
Okay. And then he turns around. Then we fight.
But a quite comical fight where he's like throwing
dough at me and I'm blocking it and stuff. Yeah.
This is a cinematic, not me. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But then it gets to the point where you're like...
he's doing all these kung fu moves the fight
goes on for ages cinematic it's like you will
most people probably will never find this shit
yeah but there's attention to detail and this
is mad and then uh yeah it gets to the point
where you're like ah and then he he accidentally
like pulls a pizza out and it lands on your hand
and then he's like oh sprinkle some stuff on
the pizza then you eat it and it's just weird
great but nevertheless the point i'm making is
that happened very cool and then he messages
you and he's like oh Here's a free pizza for
you. Go into your weapons menu, hold L2, R2 and
circle together for free pizza. I was like, what
the fuck is going on? Went into the pizza menu,
into the weapons menu, held L2, R2, held circle.
The fucking little circle goes round like in
a pizza shape. And then once the circle's like
completed itself, turns all weapons deadly. all
weapons full kill mode so it all goes red and
these are all live ammo now it's just like that's
how you learn how you can just kill people by
the pizza man what do you mean it makes it all
go live well because you don't fire guns do you
you fire like blood or something yeah you can't
shoot someone and kill them because you haven't
got live rounds they're like whatever they are
it was the same in the first one but there's
a way to make them like make them live yeah but
I don't know what their way was in the first
one. I think you used to use that bowler gun
all the time and shit, but in this one, yeah,
you've got all sorts of guns, but none of them,
they all just fire MP bullets, whatever the fuck
that is. Non -deadly stuff, whatever. But yeah,
you hold that and the circle goes round and everything
goes red and now you can just fire. I wonder
if you have to have that interaction before you
can make them deadly. Yeah, I doubt it. It's
Kojima, man. He's weird, bro. He does some crazy
stuff. Genius. So strange. I want to see the
pizza, man. Pizza, man. Yeah, sick. Pizza. Oh,
Pizza Chef. The Pizza Chef secret code. No? Probably
is that, yeah. The Pizza Chef will send you an
SSS telling you to press L2R2 plus circle. At
the same time, doing this will unlock the live
fire mode for any weapon you own. And by pressing
these buttons again, you can go back to MP mode.
Correct. It's just the game helping you when
you actually focus on the details and listen
to the people. Clever. Very cool. I don't know
why it's like that, but it's cool, and I've never
shot anyone with it, but once I've finished the
game, I'll be killing everyone I see. The graphics
in this game are fucking... The graphics are
by far the best I've ever seen. Like, for example...
They're mental, aren't they? When I was up there,
that snow, the snow in that mountain is insane.
The details on the fucking pizza in the cutscene,
I'm looking at it now. Fucking hell. It's a joke.
Jesus Christ. There's... Yeah, like, the details
in the snow is insane. I'm going up the fucking
mountain and, like... Quite often in this game
you get random earthquakes. They're called, like,
G -quakes or something. And it will, like, shake
the whole earth and you have to hold on and fucking
comes up. Oh, that was four on the G -scale or
whatever. Fucking started happening up the mountain
yesterday. Nice. And these happen all the time,
like, randomly. Not, like, perceived events.
literally the fucking snow and shit started falling
down the mountain like i've never seen like like
uh what's the word fucking not dynamics but i
don't know maybe a dynamic event that is so dynamic
that it looks like it should be scripted because
it was just insane like the way that snow comes
down and I didn't get hit by it, luckily. It
says, in Death Stranding 2 on the beach, earthquakes
are a recurring natural disaster that will impact
the landscape and force players to adapt their
travel routes. The game features dynamic weather
and terrain changes, including earthquakes, floods
and bushfires. And sandstorms. Which can damage
structures and alter the environment. Players
will need to navigate these challenges and potentially
rebuild infrastructure like roads and bridges.
I've made another bridge in such a perfect place.
Loads of people are using it. it just i don't
know man it's just this game has got it's got
some weird sauce bro and i'm drinking it and
i want it in me and i'll keep drinking it and
yeah i don't know i don't know i don't want to
say anything but i'm gonna say it i'm gonna say
it no you don't know what i'm gonna say i know
exactly what you're gonna hit me you're either
there's two things that you're gonna say here
yeah either one of them begins with a g okay
As in G -O -A -T. Okay, yeah. And the other one
is going to be G -O -T -Y. Yeah, second one.
Yeah, I figured, yeah. Well, no, because I don't
know. Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, I thought nailed
it. I didn't think it was going to get topped.
I don't know what else has been out this year.
Let me have a look. Hit me with some names, because
I know there's been some fucking mad games. Oh,
Expedition 33. Game of the Year contenders. Probably
will win it, but not for me. So here is the front
runners. Click on that, please. We have... Would
you fuck off? We have... Game of the Year front
runners. Claire Obscure Expedition 33. Deserved.
Why it could win. A critically acclaimed role
-playing game, strong storytelling and performance,
thematically resonant but also fun with slick
production values and shiny graphics. Weaknesses.
While it's a minor hit, enough people need to
play Expedition 33, especially among the critical
community, to keep it in the conversation for
more than six months. Game Pass will help, but
is it really big enough to win? Death Stranding
2 on the beach. Why it could win. Hideo Kojima's
sequel to his diverse, pathetic 2019 sci -fi
epic about hiking across the barren wasteland
between bunkers of civilization is both grander
and more palatable than the original. A technically
astounding, absorbing, ambitious dad game. What
else is there? Don't worry about weaknesses.
Hit me with the rest. Split fiction. Oh, you
played that, didn't you? Split Fiction was very
good. Did you finish it? I did, of course. I
heard good things. Giza at work played that.
Split Fiction was very good. Blueprints. Oh,
yeah, that's a roguelike puzzle game. Everyone
was going mad about that. Kingdom Come Deliverance
2 was on there. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.
That won't be winning. No. That won't be winning.
Wouldn't have thought so. Dark Horses. Never
heard of it. Obsidian Games traditional fantasy
RPG. Had a slightly soft critical reception.
Looked really fucking weird. Oh, sorry. No, sorry.
I'm reading it like an idiot. Dark Horses is
in the Dark Horses category. What a fucking idiot.
Avowed is under that. And then Assassin's Creed
Shadows. Despilote. Never heard of it. Ecuadorian
slice of life indie game about soccer and childhood.
Monster Hunter Wilds. The Altars. Upcoming titles.
Which would be a cool one. So Metroid Prime 4
Beyond. People will love that. Hades 2. Already
got it. Hade it. Keeper. Never heard of it. We
know next to nothing about Double Fine's next
game during October. Ghost of Yotai. Donkey Kong
Bonanza. And that is it for that list. Very intriguing.
Well, right now for me, it's Death Stranding
and Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. And I don't think
I could separate them regardless because Kingdom
Come Deliverance 2 is probably the game of the
year for me. How weird, isn't it? So if you think
about it, so I've played Claire Obscure Expedition
33. I know you have. You've played... And are
playing Death Stranding 2. I've played Split
Fiction. Neither of us have touched Blueprints.
And you've played Kingdom Come Deliverance 2.
So. Kind of have a decent. Knowledge. High of
mind. As to what. If I had to pick between Claire
Obscura and Split Fiction 2. That is really fucking
tough. If I'm honest. I think. I'd probably give
it to. clear obscure I think that's winning regardless
I don't think anything happens is going to change
that I think it's just a small team that was
behind it and that's why they will win and I'm
not saying they don't deserve it I'm just saying
I feel like more should be looked at like what
what War Horse which was also an indie studio
probably still is considered I don't know what
they're considered anymore but they kickstarted
for Kingdom Come Deliverance 1 that was a kickstart
game and what they've now created from KCD 1
to KCD 2 is insane the mechanics and the way
everything melds together the things you can
do the length of that game the decisions the
choices the consequence is it's probably like
the most shocking game for that i've ever seen
i've never experienced the weight of choices
like you're getting that because there's no fantasy
it's just real life people that you get to like
actually care for and they're they're always
in the world you can always go see them walking
around doing whatever it is they're doing they're
not just disappearing behind cut scenes they're
always about You can rob them. You can do whatever.
It's mental. There are IMDB lists where they
set, I think, separate categories here where
people are naming what they would expect to be
in the nominees. Oh, these are for all the different
categories. Game Awards 2025 nominees early predictions
list updated from June 29th. 2025 so modified
a week ago and then yeah game of the year is
the games that we just listed there and then
in brackets it's got the winner for Claire Obscure
best RPG it's got all the different categories
best action adventure game they reckon Death
Stranding 2 will win that sound fucking probably
Ninja Gaiden for best action game It's a long
old list if we were going to fucking go through
it all. I reckon Claire Obscure will get it just
because of that indie flavour. And they'll deserve
it if they do. My personal take would be KCD
or DS too. For now. Unless something changes.
I didn't expect to like Death Stranding 2 like
this. I bought it kind of on a whim because as
I said to you before, the first one was alright
and I just got to the end because... i feel like
i had to it was kojima was like growing up was
one of my favorite people um just because of
metal gear solid like are those ones where you
think like i'll get it because it's it's kojima
man yeah he hasn't done anything since milk is
solid what and he's he's crazy clever man he's
a genius uh so i'm surprised i've never thrown
out a documentary for the man oh they were like
just behind they will like get inside his fucking
head But, yeah, so, and I was just like, it's
all right, man, but I feel like you're trying
too hard, like, trying to create your own genre
and all this stuff. It was like... What, who?
What, Kojima? Yeah, because that was what he
was doing. He was trying to create a whole new
genre of games, like the Strand system, connectivity.
I don't even know what you would class that as.
Strand game, he calls it. Strand game. Yeah,
because it's all connected to people, connecting
to them, whilst you're connecting to other people
in other worlds. It's all... I don't know. I
don't know what he's doing. But it's a delivery
game, isn't it? So it's a weird thing. It's like
delivering pizzas, but you're not. And, you know,
combat was very limited. But the second one,
it's basically done what KCD 2 did to 1. It's
just cranked everything up by tenfold, made everything
tighter, more fluid, more enjoyable to do. And
it's just such a better experience for it. And
I'm actually following the story this time, whereas
the first one, I didn't have a fucking clue what
was going on. I have a clue. I actually know
where I'm at in the story. And there's twists
and turns and traitors and fucking all sorts
of shit. And I'm invested, man. It's cool, bro.
I've got a Reddit post. And to get this Reddit
post, I typed in, how would you explain Death
Stranding to someone that doesn't play Death
Stranding? It says, basically, you play as a
mailman in a post -apocalyptic sci -fi setting
where civilization fell due to the connection
between the world of the living and the world
of the dead, which brought... with it new forms
of matter and spectral creatures that cause atomic
explosions at the slightest contact with living
beings to reach your destination you have to
plan your route and the equipment you will carry
to overcome the obstacles and dangers along the
way as you progress unlock many new tools of
all kinds to optimize your deliveries and there
is also a also an async Asynchronous multiplayer
feature where you can collaborate with other
players through shared buildings, signalling
dangers and points of interest, material donations
and other indirect interaction. Still doesn't
explain what the fuck it does because then a
whale comes and here's these hands dragging you
from the fucking ground. For example, right,
this is the last thing I'm going to say on it
because I don't want to talk about it anymore
because people probably want to play this. But
yesterday, just by doing the delivery, you know
you can do like extra deliveries and then your
star rating goes up and then they give you new
stuff. Yeah. Yesterday I got given an EX grenade.
I was like, what the fuck is that? I'll tell
you what it is. You can throw them at the BTs,
like the big fucking ones, catch them, and then
use them like Pokemon. Oh, cool. I haven't done
it yet. That's very cool. That's what I've got.
It's just like, the game just constantly gives
you shit like that. EX ball. Yeah, it just gives
you stuff constantly like that. Who's that BT?
That's a massive whale. Now cry. Anyway, sick
game. Can't wait to play it later. Still banging
out rematch. Yep. I'm one division, oh, I'm a
couple of wins away from diamond rank now. So,
since last week, I was just in platinum. It's
been a bit more of a slog trying to get up to
the diamond. But I'm getting there. And then
when I hit diamonds, just Masters is left. And
that's like the best of the best. Top, top boy.
Are you excited for the brand new limited edition
PS5s that are coming? I didn't know they existed.
Yeah, they're coming. Oh, they're coming. Ghost
of Yotai editions. And they... You know the gold
lining from... Jin Sakai's mask? Yeah. I don't
know how you explain it. It is an art form, a
thing. Is it Chinese, Japanese? Somewhere in
Asia, I can't quite remember, where it's like,
you know, if they smash a plate... And they put
the plate back together and then hold it back
together with gold shit. I know exactly what
you're talking. Mosaic? I don't think that's
what it's called, though. It's got an actual...
You know the gold lines I'm on about. They're
making a PlayStation with them fucking gold lines
and then they're also making another one with
black lines instead. But that is a thing where
it's meant to highlight the... What is it? Highlight
the defects in something but make it beautiful
and make them stand out. But I can't remember
what it's called. Well, a mosaic is a decorative
artwork or pattern made by arranging small pieces
of material like stone glass or tiles onto a
surface. Let's go with that then. Gold leaf art.
Yes. So that's coming. And then that's about
it, mate. You know what I mean? I know what you
mean. That's all I've really got. I've just been
playing fucking World of Warcraft because the
new patch comes out. Rinse my feet. Rinse my
feet. New patch comes out in less than a month.
So I'll be gone. I've already let Steph know
that I'm going to play Demon Hunter. Everyone
who... is in the guild that will listen to this
will sit there and they'll go are you fucking
kidding me because the last couple of days have
been me sitting there going I'm going to play
this no I'm going to play this no I'm going to
let chat GPT tell me what I'm going to play I'm
going to ignore that and I'm going to play what
you know when you you know when you can't make
a decision and you have various different answers
so you say you put them in a spin the wheel or
something like that or you let someone else pick
for you But you know what one you want and someone
picks and it's not the one that you want and
you go, no. They go, well, why'd you fucking
ask me to pick for you then? I go, I don't know.
It's like that kind of bollocks. So yeah, that's
basically that for me. Like I say, I was jumping
back into Space Marine 2 because I never finished
the campaign for that. So I was, well, still
am. Playing that. It has a way of making you
feel like such a badass. Just slaughtering waves
upon waves and enemies upon enemies. I don't
have PlayStation Plus, so I don't have the online
aspect of it. And I refuse to pay the seven quid
just to fucking jump on Space Marines on my own.
I also played Helldivers 2, I forgot to add.
They've got swords in that, haven't they? Have
they? They have. I've got nothing, but everyone
else has got everything. They've got samurai
swords. I drop in. and it's like people are calling
all sorts of crazy shit and i'm just like i've
just got a machine gun i'm like level seven or
something how how was it i had a great time yeah
i like just shooting bugs because bugs at the
moment and i'll talk about that in the patreon
so i've got different subject to games but along
the same line yeah to do with bugs we can roll
out with that i've been Because I've been seeing
a lot of clips with Helldivers too. It kind of
had like a little bit of a resurgence. Oh, it's
a fantastic game. I see why people fucking play
that all the time. Yeah, because they had the
drama with forcing people to have a PSN account.
And they nerfed stuff, didn't they? Yeah. Yeah,
I remember when they... Wasn't it like the Flamethrower?
They massively nerfed and everyone was like,
why are you nerfing that? And then it was like
with the invasions where you'd finally... push
like get to a point where you're you're repelling
an invasion and then it's like the devs will
just turn the fucking switch and they go no you're
not yeah and everyone was like what's the fucking
point if you're not going to let us win what
is the point of putting all this effort in but
i believe like um and it will they they probably
feel like a like an elite sector of Helldivers
2 but when all that turmoil was going on and
people dropping the game and going and doing
other stuff and going oh fuck this I just know
that there was a group of people that were just
holding it down the entire time and they're like
we were fucking OG we were the vets man for super
earth you don't understand you left and come
back we were there we were fucking there the
whole time what I love about Helldivers 2 is
that the only FOMO that's there for that game
is like missing the events where they happen
like game moments where it's like oh do you remember
when the fucking robots invaded and we did this
and that you're missing that like content wise
you can't miss it because you go back there and
every like battle pass or whatever you want to
call it is still available you can always get
whatever you want anytime that is the way that
all of it should be because FOMO is the cancer
of this fucking industry. I wonder what the player
count is. Pretty high, man. When I was playing
on PS5 the other day, I was in a sector and I
was looking, because it tells you how many Helldivers
are active in different sectors. And the sectors
I was looking at, one had 40 ,000, one had 60
,000. That was just two different sectors I looked
in. That was just on PlayStation. I don't know
if it's cross -play or whatnot. I think it is
now. Steam Charts is always a skewed one, isn't
it? Because it runs off of Steam. But there was...
51 ,000 people playing four minutes ago. Yes,
that's a lot. Yeah, same peak. An all -time peak
of 458 ,000 people. That's a lot. And considering,
like I say, the PlayStation and Xbox have got
to be added into that as well. It's going to
be a lot of people, man. It had a weird resurgence
on May. An extra 32 ,500 people. It's just all
the updates, isn't it? They do a new update.
People come back, shoot some bugs, fuck off.
Same as everything. It is a good one. It is a...
Battlefront 2 just broke its record again. Where's
Battlefront 3, man? Do say it. Do say it. Kick
it. Do say it. It broke it again, did it? Yeah,
don't stop breaking it, man. That's what a YouTube
video said to me yesterday, and I said, you know
what? That's a game I need to install again,
because I fuck with Battlefront 2. Yeah, Jay
showed me a clip of someone playing as Vader,
and they just killed the entire team. They sort
of ran around this corner, and then there was
all there, and he just went... Just fucking choked
them all and then the little scragglers that
were left over. It looked fucking sick. I was
bowling around the corner and you're like, oh
fuck. Instantly. Battlefront 2 has doubled the
total player count of every single Battlefield
game combined. Oh yeah, that as well. Fucking
hell. It's ridiculous. But yet they still consistently
just churn out Battlefield. What are you doing?
You know where your money is. Just do it right.
Yeah. I don't get why. I don't get it, man. I
know. It's infuriating. It's the most obvious
answer in the world. Just do that. But no, we
want to do everything the wrong way. There's
a different universe where we're still doing
a podcast and there's just a sector that's in
charge of all games where they just sit next
to us. while we do a podcast. And then we just
look at them every now and then and go, that
battlefront, do a number three of that. And then
they'll just scribble it in their notebooks and
they'll go, we'll get that done. We'll get that
done. The last of us, stop dealing with that.
Give us something, Kelsey. Put that down. We'll
sort that out. New Skyrim, if you want to click
that over. Fable, if that could come out soon,
that would be great if we could do that. GTA
6. If you want to bring that forward, then that
would be great. And they will just scribble.
These are great. These are great ideas. Yeah,
yeah. We'll get that done, boss. Let's do this.
It makes sense. The nemesis system, if you'd
like to take the chains off of that so other
people can have a little look at that. I didn't
watch that video, but a video popped up yesterday
and it said how someone used the nemesis system
to create villains in their D &D campaign. But
they modded it, if you know what I mean. So the
villains had reason to be villains because they
were doing shit. It was crazy. I thought, what
an amazing system. Guess we'll never get to use
it. No. Yeah, nice. Thank you so much. Warner
Bros, you're the best. You're the best, man.
I am going to buy. And this is a problem. I want
to finish Death Stranding 2 because there's other
games I want to do. I want to go back to Rogue
Trader at some point. but i also want to i want
to try this more i'm a dark tide man it's good
yeah they've just brought out a new class aren't
they because i watched the resurgence that's
had a no man's sky redemption arc bro the amount
of updates that's had and how shit it was at
launch apparently is just like launched into
stratosphere it wasn't fun when it first come
out i remember that the redemption arc has been
real and and this is like two years later whatever
their first expansion proper expansion and it's
got like the like the judge dread, basically
the police, the big fucking enforcers of war,
basically with its fucking, with their, um, with
their big robot dog. 23rd of June. The developers
are psychopaths for releasing a new character
DLC on a Monday. It's what we do. Best of the
horde shooter genre in my opinion. Deep melee
combat with a low skill floor but a very high
ceiling on the highest difficulty levels. Many
improvements and additions since release. Completely
reworked skill trees for all the classes. Many
new weapons plus crafting systems and maps. Very
fun co -op game to play with your buddies. Don't
expect an insane storyline but the world building
and especially voice acting. I've read this review
out before when we last spoke about it. I absolutely
abhor the FOMO, stupid, expensive, cosmetic nonsense,
but the game itself is fantastic, visceral, exciting,
and a masterclass in environmental design and
an absolutely banging soundtrack. That's what
I mean. So I want to bang Death Stranding out,
man, because I want to play this shit. And I
feel like I'm missing out on the resurgence with
the new class. You know me. I'm going to look
at it and go, I want the big one with the new
shit, please. Because it's not even that expensive,
I think. It's always going on offer. One last
one. It's a game about an empire with a serious
are -we -the -baddies vibe that sends a bunch
of prisoners in teams of four armed with shivs
and laser guns to fight space zombies. My wife's
boyfriend just says it's like Left 4 Dead 2,
but now they can shoot at you. Basically, gun
go brr, sword go swish, head go chop, psycho
go boom. That's good. My wife's boyfriend. Oh,
yeah. I didn't even hear that bit. My wife's
boyfriend just says it's like Left 4 Dead 2.
Well, there you go then. There you go. Need a
poo. Merry Christmas. See you later, everyone.
Ooroo. Ooroo.