Voxels

We talk about Destiny 2: The final Shape, and we 4 weeks after the fact talk about Summer Game Fest 2024.

Show Notes:

Destiny 2 The Final Shape:
Sony State of Play May 2024
Summer Game Fest:
Chapters:
  • (03:00) - Destiny 2: The Final Shape
  • (28:33) - Summer Game Fest 2024

Creators & Guests

Host
Cristian Colocho
I like computers, reading science fiction, manga, bad anime, rap music, and making hot takes.
Host
Sadiq Saif

What is Voxels?

A podcast on Art and Culture by Sadiq Saif and Cristian Colocho

Sadiq:

Hi. I'm Sadiq

Cristian:

And I think we're both dangerously late at this point. You know what I mean? Have you ever been, like, it's I let's talk about newsworthiness just for a quick moment. I'm Cristian, by the way. You know, sometimes life happens and next thing you know, you're 4 weeks late to the final shape, and you're 4 weeks late to, Summer's Games Fest.

Sadiq:

No. I think you were only 2 weeks late to the game at Summer Games Fest. So, you know, let's give us some credit there. We're just 2

Cristian:

weeks That's true. But I do I do wanna say I've gotten significantly further in Tears of the Kingdom. And,

Sadiq:

oh, I oh, I did not know you're playing that. Okay. Yeah.

Cristian:

Yeah. Yeah. I'm I'm going through Tears of the Kingdom right now. And, you you know, I think the reason that it didn't hit, like, the first, like, when I picked it up is because I just finished a playthrough of Breath of the Wild.

Sadiq:

Yeah. That's, yeah, that would do it. I think it's But It's

Cristian:

But with a few months past, though. With a few months past, I I do have to say Tears of the Kingdom. Here's my hot take. Just for the fact of the movement mobilities, it is better than Breath of the Wild, and and hear me out. So You know Breath of the Wild, right, there's a lot of, like, puzzle mechanics that sometimes you'd have to do the YouTube playthroughs.

Cristian:

So Tears of the Kingdom, right, has the, the fuse abilities, the way you can build stuff, and more importantly, it has the, Humphrey name of it. But basically, you can just climb through any ceiling. So whenever a puzzle is super annoying, you can just cheese it, and the game's like, okay.

Sadiq:

Yeah. The game I I think that's one of the things about the game, that I did like was that it gave you a lot of flexibility in the in the shrines. Right? In the in the in the puzzle shrines. I felt, I felt like you they were more interesting at least than the the ones in the first game.

Sadiq:

I think they did a better job with the strides. I just got bored after a point. Like, I I think I hit, like, a point where I was I did a few of the big dungeons, right, that you do, and I don't wanna spoil anything, but they're, like, big dungeons that you have to do, for the story. And I did a I did a few of those, and I was like, you know what? I'm fine.

Sadiq:

Like, I'm good. Like, I have seen enough of the mechanics and and the gameplay. I was like, I I don't know if I'm gonna come back to it, and I did not come back to it. I don't even have my Switch anymore. I don't know.

Sadiq:

I don't know if I mentioned this on the podcast, but I, like, gave away away my Nintendo Switch, so I don't have Nintendo console at this point.

Cristian:

PC only gaming right now.

Sadiq:

I'm only PC. Yeah. I'm only PC. Yes. But but the last

Cristian:

the last thing that they also bought series of the kingdom, because I'm I'm near the end of it. I don't think we're gonna do, like, a a final on it or finale on it because it's not I don't think it's worth it. It's just I'm happy games like that exist because if you like what was the last open world game that you could say was not infiltrated with live servers bullshit?

Sadiq:

Ghost of Tsushima? It's coming to

Cristian:

p c yeah. I was about to say that one.

Sadiq:

I'm playing that right now.

Cristian:

That's the

Sadiq:

game I'm still playing. I've been playing that before.

Cristian:

Oh, how's the PC port, actually?

Sadiq:

It's really good. It's it's it's it's all, extremely good port, and, you know, it's fun to play. Second playthrough for me, so it's it's fun to, like, play it again. I've been trying it. Almost done with the DLC.

Cristian:

To hear that. Yeah.

Sadiq:

It's good.

Cristian:

But, yeah. Speaking about games of live service bullshit, I think we ought to talk about the final shape.

Sadiq:

Yes. So Destiny 2, the final shape, is is the is this the final DLC? Big it's not DLC. The big expansion for Destiny 2. Like, I'm not actually sure at this point.

Sadiq:

Like, is it the is it actually the final final shape? Like, is it actually, like or or is it just like one of the

Cristian:

Bungie has been noncommittal. Basically, what they've said is they plan on making more Destiny 2, but there are no current expansions in, like, announced or anything like that. So I I would basically I think what they're trying to say go to us is we'll probably make more stuff, but it might not be coming yearly, which is the point I'm going to come back to a little bit later. But, yeah, so so here's the part where I crack open a beer. I'm going to just talk about the final about Destiny for half an hour, but, yes, the final shape came out.

Cristian:

It is the final sort of, entry point in the current light versus darkness saga that's been going on Destiny since Destiny 1. It's supposed to wrap up all the story points, all of that stuff, and put a bow on everything. Now, there's a few angles I want to tackle this from and the first one's tackle it from how the campaign plays before we go into weird Destiny Kingdom Hearts story bullshit. Right? Let's talk about something that's grounded in actual reality before we go into space magic.

Cristian:

This campaign, I am conflicted on it, because the actual story missions are fantastic. And the main reason being is that Bungie has finally, I think, figured out how to implement mechanics based encounters and, level design in a way that's not frustrating puzzles, nor is it just holding x on plates.

Sadiq:

Yeah. That's

Cristian:

So for example, here's the mechanic in one of the levels. You there is the main boss for that level is invincible, and during the level, you basically find out that if you destroy a certain enemy, it shows a shape, like a a it drops an item that shows a shape, And if you shoot that shape in a different room, you get a little, buff. And if you do that 2 times, the boss then goes, into a damage phase where you can actually damage it. So that's, like, the entire encounter. And earlier in the level though, in order to get through certain doors, shooting enemies and and shooting the shapes is how you unlock key cards to actually unlock those doors.

Cristian:

So throughout the entire level, it kinda basically teaches you the mechanics of the final boss fight in that level.

Sadiq:

That's pretty clever. I think that's a good. I mean, I mean, the whole thing with the damage phase is not new to I mean, Destiny's been doing that for a long time. Right? But, like, the rest of it where they, like, sort of guides you through the mechanics of of the of the boss is, pretty good game design, I'd say.

Sadiq:

That's pretty clever.

Cristian:

Yeah. And then there's another part of it too where once you actually get to that final boss fight, it introduced another new mechanic where, certain rooms have poison in them, and those rooms where you get poisoned are where the actual enemies need to shoot to get to figure out what items, you know, what what keys you need. So you can then find, basically, a buff that grants you 40 seconds of invisibility. So you basically have to get the buff, go to the room, kill it in 40 seconds, survive that encounter while other enemies are rushing you, remember what sign it is, go back to the main room, shoot it, damage the boss, and then do that a few times. And it was actually really fun because it kept you moving.

Cristian:

Right? That's the thing. There's another bot, room where basically, it's like a strike, but the entire time it's like the whole the floor is lava thing from, like, when you were a kid. So the the the level keeps changing and it keeps, like, rising with actual, like, lava that you would die from if you if you touch. So you have to it just keeps you moving the entire encounter while you're fighting a boss.

Cristian:

So there's a lot more of that where they keep introducing these raid mechanics where you have to manage debuffs, buffs, you have to unlock certain doors. You might have to tackle things in a certain order in order to actually progress through the levels, and it's done really well.

Sadiq:

It it, like Would you would you say, like, it's harder? Like, is it does it make, like, the gameplay more is it like, what's the difficulty curve like? Is it, like like, do you have to have a group to play it, or is it, like, if you're playing solo, like, it's fine, like, you can, like, sell these counters? Like, are these difficult? Like, what's the I

Cristian:

would say it's fair. Every time I, like, wiped or I died, it was always because I messed up the mechanic. Right? It's like, ah, shit. I missed that jumper.

Cristian:

Oh, wait. Nope. That was I shot the wrong single. It was a cymbal. Ah, crap.

Cristian:

Like, one of those. Right? It was I would it was fair. I never felt like I was, what's the word for it? Like purposely, like, just dying because of like weird difficulty spikes.

Cristian:

Like that never really happened. It was always fair, I felt, and and it it did make the encounters fun. So I really like the campaign for that. They had a lot of dialogue. There's many cutscenes throughout your mission, like and and the thing is too, I'm playing after the raid.

Cristian:

He's basically of 7 missions and then it says like there's a final cutscene that says, after the raid, that is when the final mission unlocks and you'll be able to take down The Witness once and for all. The Witness is the the big, enemy of this expansion. So since I played After the Raid, you basically play 1, prerequisite mission, which isn't like a fetch quest, it's just like an actual fun mission where you, go on a hunt. Like, basically, you have to hunt some, like, weird monster and you have 2 other characters and basically they, what do they do? They they have it where you do stuff and then you have to let time pass.

Cristian:

So you basically have, like, a camp base you set up and the entire mission is doing things, going back to camp, you know, having a little story encounter, then going out and trying to find this, this monster.

Sadiq:

So it's, like, kind of, like, a Monster Hunter RPG esque.

Cristian:

Yeah. Okay. It's very monster hunter inspired. Yeah. Where you, like, actually, like, go you meditate or go to bed to pass time after you do an objective.

Sadiq:

Oh, interesting. Okay. Yeah. That's very, like, RPG game. Mechanic.

Sadiq:

Like, sure. Okay.

Cristian:

So great story design, and the final mission, is 12 people match made.

Sadiq:

Okay. Oh, god. That sounds,

Cristian:

that sounds like chaos.

Sadiq:

Okay. It sounds like it could go really wrong, but, like, I feel like maybe it's fine.

Cristian:

Basically, it's it's like a you've already beat the campaign and stuff. So, basically, it's it's kinda like Bungie being, like, we just wanna make you feel like a badass. We're gonna give you, like, 12 people in this arena, and you're just gonna have a bunch of buffs and, like, a bunch of free ammo and a bunch of

Sadiq:

free supers

Cristian:

to destroy stuff.

Sadiq:

Okay. So it's just like a power okay. Okay. That's fine.

Cristian:

Yeah. But it's it's really fun though because they do, like it's you and 12 people, but they just throw, like, all of the strongest, like, enemy types in the game.

Sadiq:

Oh, I see. Okay. It's like a dumb weapon. I'm surprised

Cristian:

there were no frame drops.

Sadiq:

That's yeah. I was curious, like, performance wise, like, how is it I I guess, like, it's not like, I mean, it's not like this is, like, a big technical change from the other expansions. I don't think there's gonna be any performance problems necessarily, at this point in point in the game. But I know, when final shape came out, like, the first day was rough. Like, you couldn't get into the, you couldn't log in into the servers?

Cristian:

Or Yeah. That's why I waited a week to buy the expansion. Kelsey, I wanted to wait and talk to the raid. But, you know, like, story wise, I would give it, you know, it's a good campaign. But here's the issue.

Cristian:

Even with this game being delayed, I think from a narrative perspective, yearly expansions and this is also people who play World of Warcraft, I think, also have kind of been saying this Yearly expansions for main story content, I think is too little of time. This game needs at least 2 years in between expansions. I really hope now that they're done with this current saga, they move to a 2 year cycle. Because as far as I can tell from, like, reading in the Reddits and all of that, the reason this campaign is as good as it is is because it got 6 months of crunch with the delay.

Sadiq:

So so you're just saying that it just needs more time to sort of build up, like, the quality of the campaign missions or or, like, just the expansion?

Cristian:

Right. Right. Like, because it there are story beats in this, like, spoiler time. You know, this is a spoiler time. But so, like, for example, Zavala goes through a crisis.

Cristian:

You played the season where it showed he lost his family. Right? You remember that one from way back when?

Sadiq:

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I remember.

Cristian:

So it kinda picks up on that with The Witness playing with him, and he goes through, like, a crisis of faith. But the issue is it's only in one mission, like it's in a mission and a half, and it's not enough time for that narrative to develop, really. So that those are the kinds of things. They also bring back Cayde 6 right. And at least he's there through the whole campaign.

Sadiq:

I I don't know how I feel about that. Honestly, I don't like, I'm not particularly attached to kate 6 as a character. I know, but a lot of people I know, there are a lot of people who are very attached to that character. So it feels weird to bring back characters like that. I'd I feel like you can really mess that up.

Sadiq:

And have

Cristian:

people They didn't mess it up though. I don't think they messed it up. I think it's more of they used him to help tie some narrative bows on stuff they didn't wrap up, if that makes sense. Right? Like, bring him back and then he he he sacrifices off the end of it anyway, so he's he's dead again.

Cristian:

Okay. Okay this time. Alright. He's only back forever. Like, he he died it.

Cristian:

But but so let's explain this story though. Or, actually, go ahead and ask your question.

Sadiq:

That was just I was gonna ask about the raid, but I don't know if you actually attempted the raid or or anything like but Okay.

Cristian:

We can talk about the raid first, then we'll go to narrative. So this raid, it's so funny. Because so with Lightfall's raid, all of, like, the hardcore salty YouTubers were like, Bungie's falling off, they can't make hard raids anymore. So I guess Bungie said bet, Only one team cleared it in 24 hours.

Sadiq:

Yeah. I heard about this. Yeah. Yeah. That's,

Cristian:

They had to extend contest mode. So basically, contest mode is is like you that's how you when the raid begins, there's a there's a special difficulty mode for, like, the day 1 sweaty people. They had to extend it by 48 hours because it's only 28:4 hours because only one team cleared it in the 1st day. And the funniest part is, it was the team of random people who weren't even streaming it on Twitch. So no one could, like, steal their mechanics or, like, stream snipe.

Sadiq:

Oh my god. That's incredible. So just like the brandos who did and that's that's They

Cristian:

were literally using the PlayStation 5 share mode to share it to their friends so they could have a VOD recording.

Sadiq:

Oh, god.

Cristian:

So good. So So I'm guessing the raid

Sadiq:

is, like, really difficult at this time, like, actually, like, challenging.

Cristian:

So here's the reason the raid is is difficult. So you basically have a a mechanic where it called it's called final shape looming. You have 4 minutes to clear whatever mechanic you have to clear or else everyone wipes. So what the raid demands of you is perfection. If you fuck up a mechanic, the entire encounter gets started over in contest mode.

Sadiq:

That's oh, so that's, so that means you have to just, like it's it's very you have to everybody has to be on point, like, all the time. Like, it's just,

Cristian:

Right. And there's one puzzle in there, which I actually think is fucking fantastic. So it's I forgot the name of it. But basically, it's a room where everyone gets teleported to their own mini rooms. And the way that you unlock doors to get back together and start the the fight is there's statues of every person in the raid, and you have to figure out who is who in each room, and then tell each other overcoms based off of who's at like, whose person you see in the room you're in, what they should be doing.

Sadiq:

Oh my god. That's So you have

Cristian:

to, like, like, who has this gun equipped or who who is who's using the shader Or who has this cloak? Right? You have to recognize the armor that your teammates are wearing. Communicate with that over comms, so you can do like, you tell them to shoot something while you shoot something and go back and forth with all 6 people.

Sadiq:

That's that's that's hilarious. That's very good. I I love that.

Cristian:

But no one could figure that out though. People got stuck there for, like, 8 hours. Yeah.

Sadiq:

I would imagine because it's not obvious. Like, I feel like that's kind of a new mechanic that they've tried. I don't think they've ever done that before.

Cristian:

No. It's the first time they tried something like that, and I sure think it's fantastic. Because, yeah, you, like if it it this rate is probably the least LFG. You thought someone was really good at, like, getting random people to, like, make friends to communicate with each other? But, I mean, that's what the rates are for.

Cristian:

I'm I'm here for it. I was laughing the entire way when people were, like, 28 hours is when, like, one of the biggest streamers finished. They had to take an 8 hour after no. After 28 hours, they had to go to bed for, like, 5 hours, and they came back to finish it.

Sadiq:

So how is the the so explain what is happening in, like, broad strokes, I guess, the narrative right now. So where where are we in the narrative?

Cristian:

So when's the last time you stopped playing? Beyond Light?

Sadiq:

You know that season where with the Zavala stuff? I think that was, like, the last yeah. Yeah.

Cristian:

That's Beyond Light. So yeah. So you you stopped playing after all the planets went away. Right? After they they removed the content?

Cristian:

Okay. So, basically, what happened afterwards is Lightfall, you can kind of ignore as an expansion, because basically we go to city Neomua Neomuna. We have our first encounter with the Witness. The Witness shoots a hole into the traveler, goes inside the traveler, and we discover something called the veil, which is a power we can use to, like, channel darkness or whatever.

Sadiq:

Sure.

Cristian:

Lightfall and The Final Shape used to be one expansion, but they split it into 2 for time reasons.

Sadiq:

Is that why light is that why every Destiny person I know is, like, Lightfall is kind of like a nothing expansion, like, nothing actually, like, it's not, like

Cristian:

You can actually tell the first cinematic of Lightfall is, like, all the main characters sitting in a spaceship, and the last cinematic is them in that same spaceship and it shows the witness going inside the traveler. That was probably one cinematic that got split in 2 to try and be build narrative cohesion between the expansion. But, yeah, apparently, according to the leaks, Lightfall used to be originally, it was planned to be the the last city is where you're fighting in, like, they invade Earth and then midway through the campaign is when you go into the Traveler and where the final shape stuff takes place. But should be clear, would have been a banger expansion. And this goes back to my main point that if they spent 3 years working on that, like, that would have actually been fire.

Cristian:

Because, you know, you, like, the first part's kind of mid, but the payoff's worth it because you go into the traveler afterwards. Like you get 2 zones in it like that. It would have it would have made a lot more sense. I think Bungie would have not, had felt as much pressure to deliver. But so yeah, so we go inside the Traveler.

Cristian:

Right? And you're basically fighting the Traveler. This patrol zone is a linear space. And what I mean by linear space is you just go forward. Right?

Cristian:

Like, you can explore stuff in patrol, but it's just all the story mission zones. It's not like an open world ish kind of patrol place, which I think actually lends itself to the better story mode, because they don't have to worry about it being like a replayable place. You can just you go through it once, and there's nothing to do afterwards and many missions, but it's just reusing the story mission zones and that's fine because it's, you know, I don't think people are gonna complain about that. But so narrative wise, you go in, you find Cayde. Cade's back to life because, Fro, who is Uldren, who killed Cade in final shape, came back as a guardian and he wished upon Ahamkara from, Forsaken to go inside the Traveler and bring Kade back to life.

Sadiq:

So so when when Cade died, his, like, his, like, soul or whatever, when did the traveler is that what is that what is implied? Like, Well,

Cristian:

they're ghosts. Remember, ghosts or ghosts so basically, ghosts come from the traveler made ghosts and ghosts revived dead humans.

Sadiq:

Right. But, like, Kate isn't the whole thing with Kate's ghost that it got, like, shot by a big sniper rifle? Right.

Cristian:

Right. So when guardians die their final death, they just turn into light because they're not actual, like, alive. They're just paracausal beings of the traveler. Oh. So so it's it's not like it's not like it's not I'm not saying the traveler is like a god where humans die, where their soul goes.

Cristian:

Like, you're just a reincarnated shell from the traveler.

Sadiq:

Right. So you just go back to into the traveler when you, like, when you when you go

Cristian:

You're not, like yeah. The the person's gone gone. Right? Like, whoever Kade was when he was, like, a actual human is is long gone. It's just the the actual traveler, you know, is light.

Cristian:

So yeah, they go back there. K's revived. Ichor and Zavala also go in. RIP Lance Reddick. Once again, the new voice actor did a great job, but, you know, RIP Lance Reddick.

Cristian:

So the first few missions are just finding the gang. You find Crowe, you find Zavala, you find Ikora. Zavala basically is like fuck the Traveler. This guy does shit for us. All he does is speak in riddles.

Cristian:

I'm gonna go use the darkness. That's and that's picking up from that thing because a witness basically told like, it's taunting Zavala of his dead family, saying that Zavala joins the witness to have given back his dead family. So Zavala chases into the darkness. The witness ends up killing his ghost, so Zavala has no light. And but you do learn from that sacrifice because the witness is actually a collective of people.

Cristian:

So The Witness was a society of folks that the traveler once went to. And when the traveler left, basically, they decided in order to destroy the traveler, because the traveler abandoned them, that their entire society would just, like, sacrifice themselves to become one like mega being. But because it's made up of multiple individual parts, you have dissenters in it. Right? There's 3 factions.

Cristian:

2 that are down with the idea and 1 dissenting faction. So the dissenting faction still got, like, basically slaughtered to be turned into the witness, but those dissenters are what they told Zavala to go inside the, like, to join the witness. Because when Zavala went there, they told Zavala that if you go to the place where we began, like where everyone was, like, you know, basically calcified and, like, turned into this witness being, that's where you can destroy it. So the final mission at that point, right, that's up to you. You get the game back together, you're trying to figure out what you can do, is you go to basically, you storm the witnesses' headquarters, that's like the last few missions, And once you get to the Witness' creation zone, the final fight with the Witness and the campaign is you're basically summoning a way to go inside, like, an ascendant plane.

Cristian:

And if you kill the dissenters, right, within the witness, that damages the witness because it's you're destroying it from the inside. It plays really well. But, yeah, no, it's very, like, space magic stuff, probably the most space magic Destiny has been.

Sadiq:

He is very, very space magic. Ice I did see that cut scene with Zavala where he's, like, surrounded by, like, all the separate witness forms, I guess.

Cristian:

Yeah. Those are the centers.

Sadiq:

Yeah. So the centers that he's, like, the he gets, like he, like, falls, like, into some darkness, I guess, and, like, dies, or something, I guess. I don't know if he asked. Did he ask?

Cristian:

His ghost dies in that scene. Yeah. His ghost dies trying to protect him. Yeah. So he's he's without a ghost.

Sadiq:

Yeah. I saw that scene, and I was, like, this is the most Kingdom Hearts nonsense that I've seen, in Destiny in a long time. So that was that was my impression, from that that cut scene alone. And I don't know. I you I don't know how you feel about, like, this narrative style.

Sadiq:

I I I just never liked the witness as a plot device. Like, I just don't find it particularly compelling in any way. So that's kind of my sort of thing with the stories that I just I just don't really care about the witness. It it feels weird because it just feels like it came out of nowhere. And it just kinda feels like what's the word?

Sadiq:

Deosach smacking on? Like, is that is that the thing? Like, I don't I it feels like a thing that they have put at the story just to so they can just, like, have an antagonist that's just, like, everybody's against it. And also, like, can have all this weird shit happening. You can just be, like, okay.

Sadiq:

The witness did that. You know? You know what I'm saying? Like, it's, like, kind of just the

Cristian:

Well, it's the Destiny story. Right? So, basically, the Destiny is the issue of Destiny is the best story moments are always, like, the small people to people interactions. Right? And whenever it comes to an overall narrative and I think the reason is is because Bungie, because it's a live service game and they have to quickly write narrative into the game, it becomes messy.

Cristian:

Right? It's not like you have 6 years to make this video game, so so your writing team can really make sure it's coherent. It's like you put out this expansion, it's a year and a half, maybe 2 years of dev work at most, And you had ideas about the narrative, but then when some seasonal conduct comes along, you're like, oh, shit, we have to change this. Like, for example, they they basically back wrote Oryx into being a, a disciple of the Witness from just Destiny 1 to try to make it more coherent.

Sadiq:

Okay. Sure. So this is I I I don't envy I I I do understand why the story is so, like, kind of incoherent. It's like, it is hard to write a life a story for a live service game like this. Like, it really is difficult with the dev cycles.

Sadiq:

And, like, trying to figure out where you're gonna go, like, years from now is, like, really hard. Like, you have to do retcons all the time. Right? Like, it's just kinda messy. It just yeah.

Sadiq:

I just I don't know. I'm I'm I'm I'm whatever. Like, at this point, I don't actually care that much about the Destiny story. I don't know if I actually care that much ever, but at this point, I certainly, like, don't have feel any investment in it. So and I I think this is my question overall for the expansion of SDG.

Sadiq:

Like, where does this like, what state does this leave the game in? Like, how are people feeling about, like, this being sort of, like, the conclusion of, like, an era of storytelling and and game, for this this for Destiny. How how are you feeling about it?

Cristian:

They cleaned up enough narrative loose ends that they could do something completely different and it would not feel weird. Right? Like, Bayley's cleaned it up. They cleaned up the whole lightness darkness saga where, like, the answers you're getting are the answers you're getting. The story is now done because the main villain is off.

Cristian:

Right? So for example, remember the whole I don't have time to explain thing from Destiny 1? Yes. Yes. Yeah.

Cristian:

Yeah. Like, this is so the sole divisive. Right? Like, the black guard from Destiny 1 was made by the witness. It's never addressed though.

Cristian:

It's not addressed. It's like it's it's not addressed. And the whole entire reason that the Stranger came back in time was to stop you from becoming like an like a disciple of the Witness and, like, you know, going into the dark. Like, it just all is supposed to be coherent like that, but the but it's all done. Right?

Cristian:

Honestly, what I would like Destiny or what I'd like Bungie to do now rather is even like, don't make a new game engine. Right? Like, we can still use the same Destiny 2 Bones in the same locales, but I think it's time for a full f f 14 style reset where we just do a huge time skip. Right? Let's start from 0 and a new narrative in the same world.

Cristian:

The bones are fantastic. Right, like the the the world design, all of that, the locales. I don't even think we need new worlds, like bring back all of these locations from Destiny 1 or whatever. Like, use existing map stuff. Right?

Cristian:

But they should put dev time into just resetting everything and just being like, you know, it's been a 100 years since the Battle of the Witness and, you know, here's the because we have new alliances. Right? The Fallen and the Cabal work together. Even the Hive under Savathun are, like, kind of our allies, but not really sometimes. So, like, at least in this system, like, there's some, episodes going right now.

Cristian:

They brought on fail safe. They're still going with the Vex, but those all seem to be, like, mini stories just to give people content while they figure out what's next. And if they did, like, a whole, you know, if you ever played World of Warcraft, right, basically World of Warcraft begins like a few 100 years after Warcraft 3, right, and it just like mentions the past and says, you know, you're starting off in this race, you're starting off in that race, right? Here's your starting zone and you can go out and explore this new world and new stuff. I really think Bungie should just handle it that way.

Cristian:

Like just, let's let's do a new story and let let's do something different and, you know, this this whole 10 year saga might have been messy, but people still like playing Destiny.

Sadiq:

No. No. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah.

Sadiq:

Yeah.

Cristian:

So we should continue, like and again, I think a game like Destiny should exist. Right? Like, I think having a a shooter live service MMO style game is a good game to have. Like, it's not like Destiny shouldn't exist, but we can just do something completely different, you know. Brand new characters, brand new story, like, let's just keep the universe going and use the same game engine because Destiny's game engine is still good.

Cristian:

I don't know about the dev side. Maybe if there's, like, dev stuff, but at least for it runs well. It's the network stuff is like the one thing about Crucible you can say is you don't really run into cheaters or you don't really run into, like, random network issues in Crucible. Right? So it the bones of a good gamer are there, but, yeah, I was just I just want them to move on from this story and just do something completely new.

Sadiq:

Yeah. I I'd agree with that. Like and and that would actually interest me if they, like, just sort of started fresh. Like, at that point, like, I would feel like, I would feel like you're it would not be, like, overwhelming to get back into the game. Like, right now, like, if I go back to the game, I'm just, like, I'm, like, behind.

Sadiq:

I don't even have that new class. Like, I don't even have that shit. Like like, I would have to unlock all that stuff and, like, you know, do all that crap, to get it. And I'm just like, I don't I I I don't feel like doing all that shit to just just finish the story. So it whatever they're gonna do, I'll give it a shot.

Sadiq:

I hope it's good.

Cristian:

I hope they don't continue the main story, though. I just keep I just really wanna say that. Like, because the rumors right now are that we're gonna continue the same characters and we're just gonna leave the soul system and go to other universes. Like, nah. Nah.

Cristian:

We don't need to do that. Oh, speak about classes. Prismatic. We didn't even talk about it.

Sadiq:

Yeah. We didn't even talk about Prismatic. So how is, so what is this, like, sort of class, multi class stuff? Like, how is it how does it feel?

Cristian:

It's really fun, but it is advanced. Like, if you are new to the game, I would not recommend manning prismatic because you need to know, like, what combos work well and what don't. Because you can have like really weird builds where you have like, void grenade, a solar melee, and they just don't work well together. So I think for for sweaties, for people like me who play too much Destiny, it's really fun to be like, oh, I think I could make a stick build if I pulled this from this one class and that from that one class with this jump. But, you need to, like, be really into how the game plays, I think, in order to to really get the full benefit of it.

Sadiq:

Alright. So that's that's Destiny 2, the file shape. Let's, let's talk about we we were we are too too I mean, we we are extra late on this one, I feel like. We're, like, nearly a month late from the PlayStation state of play, so let's we'll start with that. Few things here.

Sadiq:

The big one, I think for me is God of War Ragnarok is is coming to PC, in September, which, you know, I'm I'm excited for because I actually haven't played Ragnarok because it's it was PS 5, and I don't have a PS 5, so I'm looking forward to that. I don't under okay. This this is my question. I don't understand why Sony is making Sony is so interested in making, like, an Overwatch clone. And I I mean, I know.

Sadiq:

They wanna, like, a live server escape that's, like, really popular, but, like, this Marvel ass look Marvel ass game that just looks kinda kinda okay, and it's, like, basically Overwatch, but you you're gonna have to use Marvel looking characters called Concord. I even forgot the name. I'll have to look it up. It's like it's like, it's fine, but it's like why is this it's it's like, I don't know.

Cristian:

I'd actually be I I actually kinda like to look at Concord, and maybe it's mostly because my Overwatch 2 is bugged right now because I changed Bethesda or I changed battle on net accounts. Every time I open it on my Xbox, it says that I'll link my battle on net account. And when I try to link it, it gives me an error, and I don't know how to fix it.

Sadiq:

That's, alright.

Cristian:

That means I'm gonna lose all my characters in Overwatch. So I'm gonna play so fuck, Blizzard. I wanna play a different game. I play Conker.

Sadiq:

Sure. Sure. I and honestly, I might like, sure. I'm I would, I don't know if this is actually oh, actually, this is coming both to PS 5 and PC on August, actually. Actually, next month, but 2 months from now, like, it's it's it's gonna be it's gonna be out.

Sadiq:

So, you know, I'll give it a shot, see if it's any good. Mar the the other Overwatch sort of clone, I guess, is is Marvel Rivals, which I mean, it's it's just it's just Marvel characters, but Overwatch, which, I guess, sure. It's coming to PS 5 and Xbox and also PC. Right? So it is actually coming to Xbox, which is which is cool.

Sadiq:

We have Monster Hunter Wild's gameplay. I don't know if you care about Monster Hunter Wilds, Monster Hunter, but, you know, there's about new moss.

Cristian:

Did you skip over Astro Bot? Hold on a minute. How'd you skip over Astro Bot?

Sadiq:

Yeah. I was gonna get to that later, but, like, yes.

Cristian:

Oh, yeah. If I fuck Monster Hunter, I've some people love it, but it's not for me. Did you actually like Monster Hunter?

Sadiq:

No. I I tried, I tried playing at the Monster Hunter worlds, when it was on sale, and I just couldn't get into, like, the like, just the way the characters feel in combat. Just I just don't. I just don't. It's not that's not my thing.

Sadiq:

So, no, monster harness for me. Astrobot looks fun. That just looks like a fun, you know, platformer, like, they're just like you know, the Astros played over was so successful, I guess, with everybody liked Astros played over so much. They're just like, fuck it. We just gotta we just gonna go all in and just make a make a whole ass platformer.

Sadiq:

Just like a bunch of, like, Sony franchise characters are gonna, like, be in it, like, create all the ALR.

Cristian:

The Sony nostalgia, you know, for

Sadiq:

the Sony For the Sony fans. Sony Knights. Yes. Sony Knights. Silent Hill 2 remake looked bad.

Sadiq:

That did not look good. I'm not a Silent Hill person, but from from, as as I understand it from all the side hill fans out there, they're not, they're not happy about this. It doesn't look it doesn't look, like Bloomberg team has, started a good job on certain aspects of, from looking for

Cristian:

I'm just watching the animations and the cut scenes in the trailer.

Sadiq:

It's Yeah. It's not good. Yeah. It's it's and especially the voice acting looks sounds really bad. Weirdly bad.

Sadiq:

Dynasty Warriors, I don't think either of us ever I don't know if you've ever played the dynasty have you ever played the Dynasty Warriors game? Like

Cristian:

I played the Hyrule Warriors demo Oh. On Switch Oh, yeah. I know. Of course.

Sadiq:

Yeah. Yeah. That would, that was so there's a new Dynasty Warriors game. Path of Exile 2 is coming to PS 5. Oh, speaking of games that are coming to PC, Until Dawn remaster, I, I I kinda like Until Dawn, actually.

Sadiq:

I remember playing it on the PS 4, like, and I play you can you can, like, finish it one day. This it's not that long. But, like, I I'm kinda curious, like, what like, I I feel like until dawn didn't really need a remaster per se. Like, it it looked fine. Like, I don't I don't think anyways, we're gonna get we're gonna at least we're gonna get this on PC now, so that's cool.

Sadiq:

There's a game called, this is PS 5 exclusive, so I don't actually care, Where Where Winds Meet. Looks like a open world RPG. Sure. Infinity Nikki, I don't. Is this a dress up game?

Sadiq:

Is this is this what this is? Like, I'm not a 100%

Cristian:

Oh, my god. An open world dress up adventure? Hold on a minute. Woah. Okay.

Cristian:

Okay. Listen. Listen here. There is a certain genre of influencer personality in streamer that is going to get rich off of playing this game. I need I need to I just need to put that

Sadiq:

out there. Do you just mean, like, a YouTuber that's gonna know how to make it, off of this,

Cristian:

Yeah. Like, so this game, I don't think it's for me or you, but, like, targeted, like like, targeted marketing, like, on this shit, like, yo, this game's gonna be this is this is the game of the summer.

Sadiq:

Yeah. I I but it's it's a PS 5 only as far as I know, so I don't that's unfortunate, but, you know, it's

Cristian:

I I mean, mostly everyone who isn't me or you as a PS 5, like, specifically speaking.

Sadiq:

Yeah. That's that's fair. That's fair. That's true. Ballad of Anterra looks like a soulslike, and I'm just I am so tired of souls likes.

Cristian:

Because they're not even good. Jesus Christ. Fuck the Elden Ring DLC. I don't even wanna talk about it later. Like, whatever.

Cristian:

Is is not good. You only you listen, you only played Elden Ring because you use a mod that made it easier. So I don't even wanna hear it.

Sadiq:

Yeah. I did. I I mean, Yeah. I I know. And then the end of DLC is actually really hard.

Sadiq:

It's much harder than the base game. It had a alien rogue. Oh, this is a PSVR game. So a person he did not forget.

Cristian:

PSVR still exists?

Sadiq:

Yeah. That's that's, like, that was what I was gonna get to. It's, like, PSVR too, you know, got some, got a couple, and I I I'll I'll be real with you. The Behemoth trailer looked really bad. Like, it looked just like the most bargain basement as VR game possible.

Sadiq:

Like, it looks it doesn't look good. So that's, is there anything here that's really catches your eye? Like, I feel like the only thing is, like, how you care about is, like, the stuff that's coming to PC, but, like, otherwise, like, I'm not particularly, like, Sony. It's just kinda, like, you know, kinda not really doing anything particularly interesting, for me.

Cristian:

I've never played Path of Exile. Is it good?

Sadiq:

It's a It's a Diablo. It's an ARPG like Diablo. Yeah. Like, if you like Diablo, I think you will enjoy Path of Exile. You know, maybe you should try it.

Cristian:

What console is it coming? Let me see what console is Path of Exile coming to. Oh, well, I'll probably I mean, wait a minute. I have a I have Game Pass. I can just place Diablo on Game Pass.

Cristian:

But, yeah, that's a Sony event. There's no first party real big Sony games coming this year, But apparently, a PS 5 Pro sometime, which keeps getting leaked, which I don't know why.

Sadiq:

Yeah. I yeah. I don't I don't know. Yeah. I mean, that that's not surprising considering that we are, like, sort of what, like, mid mid cycle on on the consoles.

Sadiq:

So it's it's surprising that, I mean, aren't we getting a okay. So let's get to the Xbox stuff. Before we talk about the games, there was a hardware announcement. Right? Like, they have a a Xbox, like, disk locks, series x.

Sadiq:

Right? Like, the no disk drive version coming out all digital. Right? This is like a a all digital version?

Cristian:

Yeah. There's a yeah. So basically, there's a 2 terabyte series x, a 1 terabyte with disk, a 1 terabyte without disk, it's a little bit cheaper, a 1 terabyte series s and now 512 gig series s. The white Xboxes are now gonna be all digital only and the black ones will have a disk drive. You know what I wanna know actually?

Cristian:

Let me search this shit. Because Microsoft said they only they did minimal hardware changes. Does this shit still have WiFi 5? I need to verify that.

Sadiq:

Is this really what I don't know if you I don't know if the hardware's out yet, so I don't know if you if we can figure that.

Cristian:

Well, there's a press release in it. So let's see. What do do we have any text backs on it?

Sadiq:

I don't I don't know if they I don't know if they're gonna put the Wi Fi details in the press release. This is the this is the most. Yeah. This is this is the

Cristian:

Let's see here. Hold on a minute. Hold on a also, fuck. Hold on. Fuck this PR page.

Cristian:

It says Xbox consoles are better together. If they're better together, why can I not use any USB headset with an Xbox? Well, let's let's let's talk about, like, choice in the market. Why do I have to buy Xbox licensed headsets? No.

Cristian:

I'm still gonna be I'm gonna beef on that till the end of time because it is a dumb it is a really dumb

Sadiq:

That is

Cristian:

like restriction.

Sadiq:

Status of Sony. Yeah.

Cristian:

Okay. Let's see here. Do I have Xbox? Okay. Let's see.

Cristian:

Xbox series x one TB digital edition. If I can pull up the tech specs page. It's it's only $50 less too for the disk drive, which is kinda wild. You think it'd be cheaper?

Sadiq:

Yeah. I I like, I feel like if you're through the market for this, I I would just buy the version of the disk drive because I think I feel like, you know, why not? Because you'd just be like, like, you know, that you could use the disk drive to play Blu ray movies. So why would you not get the disk drive, I guess?

Cristian:

Jesus. It's still Wi Fi. It's AC dual band, bro. Bro. For a whole

Sadiq:

lot of people hilarious to me because it's just like I I

Cristian:

They upgraded the USB to be 3.1 gen 1.

Sadiq:

Yeah. But they don't care about the Wi Fi, bro. Like, it's it's fine, I guess.

Cristian:

It's an all digital console.

Sadiq:

I know.

Cristian:

I'm not even asking for 6 here. No. They put 6 in it.

Sadiq:

No. I mean, yeah. Yeah. I guess I guess they don't they did it. I I guess their I guess their thing is, like, if you really care about that, you gotta plug it into Ethernet.

Sadiq:

Like, that's their that's their probably their their goal there, to save Geez.

Cristian:

Yeah. Just us, man. I'm not even I'm curious too if it's gonna be, like, a dye shrink on the on the GPU.

Sadiq:

Maybe.

Cristian:

On a CPU. Maybe. Because you would have to think at this point that you could probably get the same performance on, like, a cheaper process or whatever.

Sadiq:

Sure. Maybe. We we will I guess, we'll we'll know when it actually comes out and people, sort of get in there and see what's what's what's in there.

Cristian:

Fucking Wi Fi 5. Any continue. Yes. What what happened at the Xbox show?

Sadiq:

Yeah. I I have enough left to Age of Mythology. That's that's a day, but I haven't heard of the long ass type, but, there's new Age of Mythology game. That's supposed to come out in it's coming out this year, actually, September 4. I don't I don't have any opinions on this because I had never played any of the age of mythology stuff, when they played age of empires.

Sadiq:

So I don't I'm I'm just glad that Microsoft hasn't completely abandoned the RTS franchises that they have, you know? I feel like I feel like this the that would have been, like, one of the first things of the of the chopping block when when it comes to, like, not making them anymore, but I guess not. Avowed, I still don't really understand this game, honestly. Like, what is this supposed to be? Like, is it like like a RPG?

Sadiq:

Like, this this is supposed to be an RPG. Right? Obsidian?

Cristian:

I think. I don't know. I mean, Outer Worlds is great, but, like, I just don't know I don't know what's gonna play because the thing is, so and this Obsidian's a great studio because they they make, like, such varied games. Right? Like, we went from Outer Worlds, right, to Grounded, to Pentiment, to Avowed.

Sadiq:

Yeah. There there there

Cristian:

I don't know how this is gonna play.

Sadiq:

Yeah. I know I know. I have I have 0, like, sort of, like, idea about what a vow is, like, a game. So we got a story trailer for that. It is coming out in 2024.

Sadiq:

We don't have a date for that yet. So, you know, that's, oh, exciting news. Call of Duty Black Ops 6. Do do It's when the game pass was a metal Yeah. That's all that matters.

Sadiq:

That's the only views that actually matters to anybody at this point is that we're doing cold war shit again. We're gonna do the yeah. Which is

Cristian:

We're doing late cold war. We're doing the nineties. It's the first time.

Sadiq:

Yeah. It's 90.

Cristian:

I mean, is nineties a Cold War run? No. No. Nineties a 90s a Cold War. What am

Sadiq:

I saying? I don't even know why I say Cold War. I'm still stuck on that Call of Duty, Cold War game, I guess. My my It was

Cristian:

a good game.

Sadiq:

The multiplayer on that game

Cristian:

was good. It was good fun. But I Yeah.

Sadiq:

The only reason I care about Call of Duty anymore is is, like, the multiplayer, I guess. Like, I don't like, I don't that's that's all I really care about.

Cristian:

And people just live and breathe zombies.

Sadiq:

Yeah. Zombies. There

Cristian:

are generators who just blow the shit out of zombies.

Sadiq:

Yeah. Zombies is

Cristian:

I'm supposed to be a huge get for Game Pass, but I have one beef with it.

Sadiq:

Yeah.

Cristian:

It's not coming to Game Pass Cloud.

Sadiq:

Which means, like, no xCloud. Right?

Cristian:

Right. Why?

Sadiq:

I feel like xCloud is gonna get shut down or,

Cristian:

Well, it's also Ubisoft fault too, maybe. Because remember the part of CMA, Microsoft has to license all Xcloud games, even first party ones through Ubisoft now.

Sadiq:

Oh, right. Right. There's some some shenanigans going on there. Alright. That's that's weird, but

Cristian:

That smells like money laundering, honestly, when you think about it. The fact that Microsoft made the game, then has to go to Ubisoft and, like, move money to get it into xCloud seems weird.

Sadiq:

We're getting a new Doom game. This is Doom Dark Ages. Honestly, I'm kinda done with Doom, personally, after Doom Eternal. Like, Doom Eternal was, I mean, we we were talking about this. Like, it it just kind of felt too much.

Cristian:

Who's the Marauders? Yeah. That was the only reason

Sadiq:

I was talking garbage deer anime. Swear to god. Worst enemy I've fought in a video. Give me the longest time. But, yeah, there there's a new game, Doom, coming out in 2025.

Sadiq:

This is gonna be a theme. Lot of games announced at Microsoft's event coming out in 2025. Like, it's just it's just that's how it's gonna be.

Cristian:

Well, Vowel comes out this year. So at least

Sadiq:

And Vowd comes up in 2025. Yeah. Vowd comes up, like, this year, so I know. Alright. Now this is your your thing.

Sadiq:

Fable, got a new trailer. I still don't really know what kind of game this is. It was just like a story trailer, I guess. I I don't know how I feel about this. Like, I'm just I was just, like, sure, I guess.

Sadiq:

Like, we got some good looking characters in a in a cutscene.

Cristian:

I need to interrupt you though. This is in game footage. Like, it's engine footage In game in game footage. On a console. Yeah.

Cristian:

Do you know what engine this is. Right?

Sadiq:

It's the it's the Forza Forza

Cristian:

Horizon engine, bro. So even if we don't know what the game plays like, can we just talk about the fact? Yeah. That this is the Forza engine that is making this.

Sadiq:

Yeah. Playground games is making this right with, with apparently with Idos.

Cristian:

I I think back when we were talking about, Forza Horizon 3 or 4, I was I mentioned specifically, these facial animations are really good for a freaking racing game. Yeah.

Sadiq:

I I think Playground is like, for some reason, like, they're good at really good at racing and also facial animations, I guess. Like, sure. I'm really curious. I don't I don't I don't know anything about I mean, I'm I you've you've told me a lot about Fable, but I don't really don't really have any attachment to the franchise. So I'm just I I don't it's coming out of 225.

Sadiq:

I guess we'll see. You know, I suppose we'll get gameplay stuff closer to launch. Sure. Well, I I'll I'll I'll

Cristian:

Yeah. It's weird because I know how it plays as a fable, but you even played the old one, so I don't really know how to tell you how, like, it's going to play. I'm excited for it. Yeah. It's coming out next year.

Cristian:

I need more fable in my life.

Sadiq:

Gears of War e Day. This

Cristian:

Love me some gears.

Sadiq:

I'm down for it. I I I'll I'll check it out, I guess. I I'm not I'm not, like, excited for it or anything, but, like, last year's game I played in the quest gears 5, right, was pretty solid. I had lots of weird the the story was a bit weird in some places, but I don't know. It was as a game, it was alright.

Sadiq:

So, you know, I'm I'll I'll be down.

Cristian:

And I'm I'm gonna keep saying it. Hivebusters is fantastic. You should play it. Everyone should play Hivebusters. Hivebusters, you do not need to play the main Gears 5 campaign to play that, expansion, and because Hivebusters is the last thing The Coalition did, I'm down for it.

Cristian:

The Coalition is under new management. The prior management went to go run Diablo. So this is their first game kind of of, like, a reformed team.

Sadiq:

Yeah. I did they're like, yeah. Yeah.

Cristian:

So I'm really curious on how on how this is gonna work. And I know I think it's probably why they did a prequel because it's, like, if you're gonna have, like, a team of people who are kind of new or had some big changes, I think testing it on a prequel that might be not, like, kinda mid is probably better than the next big mainline Gears game.

Sadiq:

Yep. It's unreal engine 5 game, so that's that's that's interesting. Indiana, do you care about Indiana Jones? The Indiana Jones game? I don't I don't I don't particularly Here's

Cristian:

the thing about Indiana Jones. Alright? If it plays like the Tomb Raider games or Uncharted, I'm here for it.

Sadiq:

Yes. Yes. Agreed. I agree with that. Yes.

Sadiq:

If I I I really love I've played all the Uncharted games, so I I would be down to play a game like that in in in that vein. I don't know. Like, I couldn't really tell. It was not really a gameplay trailer, so it was just, like, kinda, like, a story.

Cristian:

Well, it so there's a little bit of first person gameplay near the end, but this is the problem. Right? It's because it's made by Machine Games. So it's probably gonna play, like, fucking Wolfenstein. Ensign.

Sadiq:

That's not gonna work. I feel like

Cristian:

sign games were good, but, like, I don't I really they really should've done 3rd person, like, Tomb Raider style game.

Sadiq:

Yeah. I feel like it shouldn't be a Tomb Raider or Uncharted kinda third person game. I I really feel yeah. But it is it is machine games, so, you know, maybe at least the guns will feel good, I guess. Like, that's that's that's all I I could say.

Sadiq:

Flight simulator is still going, strong. It's gonna have, like, new, like, new DLC, like, new, like, new modes. That's cool.

Cristian:

Isn't this how you, how you, like, benchmark all new PCs by just running flight simulator at max settings?

Sadiq:

I the problem with that is flight simulator takes forever to download because it has its own downloader built in. Like like, when you install it from, like, whatever store you get it from, it starts and starts another downloader to download, and it's massive. It's like it's it's it's a problem. It's it's it's it's a massive game. So, it's on PC, it's like a pain in the ass to actually play.

Sadiq:

And I haven't played it. I I don't I haven't played 5 Sublative since, like, 5 Sublative 2,002, which, which was a long time ago. I'm not really a flight simulator kind of person, anyways. The the next next thing on the list is is the one that I I forgot this existed. I forgot they announced this, like, what, like, 4 years ago.

Sadiq:

Perfect Dark got a new gameplay trailer, which looks sick as fuck, but, also, I don't trust this trailer, bro. Like, I I I I really considering, like, the the development history of this of this title, like, it is it's been very troubled. So I I I until this game actually comes out, like, I don't we don't have a release date, so we don't we don't know when this is coming out. Probably 2026 at this point, and I I think it looks good, but whatever. Like, I I don't

Cristian:

I'm here for it. Listen. Listen. Perfect Dark, the you know you know how they got me? The Mirror's Edge parkour.

Sadiq:

Yeah. The mirror oh, yeah. The Mirror's Edge parkour looks so fucked. Like, that that shit, I I saw that, and I was like, hell, yeah. Like, give me the give me

Cristian:

because it's gonna play like thief versus Mirror's Edge. Right? Like, that's the whole idea behind perfect dark.

Sadiq:

I I think that's the discussion I've seen is, like, people don't really I feel like some people are, like, this is an immersive sim, but it's not. Like, it's, like, kinda like a light there's some light immersive sim elements, but, like, also kind of like an actions platformer is, like, stealth stuff going on. Right? So it's like it seems like a combination of various genres. Right?

Sadiq:

Like, it's like mirror's edge, catalyst stuff in here, sort of like deus ex stuff in here, you know. It's it's it feels a little bit unclear to us to what kind of game it it really feels like. So we'll see in, like, 2 years, I guess. South of Midnight, this game looked interesting to me until it got to the gameplay, and I was just like, this is the most mid looking gameplay I've seen in a minute. Like, I swear to god.

Sadiq:

Because the setting itself looks, you know, very interesting. It's like southern gothic stuff going

Cristian:

on. I mean, it it's it's made by the people who made We Happy Few. I know some people really love We Happy Few. I don't know why that game exists. I'm sorry.

Cristian:

I just I don't know why We Happy

Sadiq:

Few is We Happy Few is not. We Happy Few is not good. Yeah. I I don't. We got a state of decay.

Sadiq:

State of decay is just I mean, I'm not an open world zombie survival person, but

Cristian:

State of Decay is not open world zombie. Okay. Hold on. Hold on. I'm gonna get that one.

Sadiq:

This this is State of oh, no.

Cristian:

Well, this case okay. As someone who played State of Decay 2, I put a lot of time into it. I'm sorry to admit. It's like open world resource management where you build bases and stuff. It like has tower defense elements into it.

Cristian:

Like, and it has like a progressive, like time and day and like time system and stuff moves on. So, okay. Listen, listen here. I Theta decay is not for everyone.

Sadiq:

No, it's not. It's really not.

Cristian:

But it is very fun to fuck around with and like build stuff up with. So like, I'm not, I'm not I'm here for you, stay the case stands. Like, you know what? Yep.

Sadiq:

I respect it. That's, that's fine.

Cristian:

It's a perfect, like, kinda Game Pass game, right, where it's, like, you don't need to worry about sales and stuff because, you know, you can just have it on Game Pass.

Sadiq:

Is there like, I don't wanna go through all the trailers here, but, is there anything else that starts stands out to you, that is

Cristian:

Let me I do I keep falling in and out of, in and out of, what's it called? Call it 76. So I am gonna check out this new expansion. Diablo 4, I need to start playing. I want to get in Diablo 4.

Cristian:

Elder Scrolls Online 2, I kind of fall in and out of. So I'm here for those. Sea of Thieves still not for us, but hey, people are

Sadiq:

Yeah. People are still, people are still

Cristian:

People love it's it's one of those popular games on PS 5 right now. And then there's World of Warcraft.

Sadiq:

We're getting a a Metal Gear we had a trailer for the Metal Gear solid state.

Cristian:

Oh, are you gonna pick that up, actually, the Metal Gear Solid 3 remake?

Sadiq:

I maybe. I I I tried playing the original, and it didn't quite work out. But, we'll see, I guess. I'm I'm I'm hopeful that this one is more, playable. I don't but I don't trust Konami, so we'll we'll see.

Sadiq:

We'll we'll we'll, we'll see how this.

Cristian:

Oh, frag punk looks good, actually. Wait, before we talk about soccer, frag punk looks really good. It's like a card based shooter?

Sadiq:

Yes. It's kinda it's kinda weird. I'm not sure how I feel about that, but, yeah. So Stalker 2, Heart of Chernobyl, I not like, Stalker just never quite I was always, like, kinda like, I never got around playing you know, I didn't play any of the original Stalker games. They're kinda rough to play without modding the hell out of them and all that, but, I'm I'm I'm I'm hope I hope this is good.

Sadiq:

Stalker is a very weird and interesting franchise, so I just hope this is this is as good as it looks. I will say, the only I mean, we have Ubisoft up next. Right? But the only big thing I have 2 big things with Ubisoft's announcements. Star Wars Outlaws got, got gameplay footage.

Sadiq:

I don't have any commentary on this because I did not see it. I don't particularly, I'm not interested in Star Wars but Ubisoft, so I'm not I'm not I'm not, like, real.

Cristian:

But it's made by Massive Entertainment, though. They had the same studio made Avatar, so I'm kinda here for it.

Sadiq:

Yeah. I I haven't played Avatar. Yeah. Sure. Maybe it's I I hope that, like sure.

Sadiq:

I mean, it's gonna be, like, a lot of Star Wars, but, like, open world mechanics. And I I think that's what the Avatar game was like as well. Assassin's Creed Shadows, is

Cristian:

Alright. Let me go open a beer.

Sadiq:

About this. I mean, this this is the this is the voxels episode where we just, like yeah. Saturday Shadows, there's a game extended, like, gameplay footage. Dual p dual characters, you play, either as Yasuke the samurai or, Naue the shinobi. So we don't we haven't done a dual character thing since Assassin's Creed Syndicate, which was the last of the old style Ubisoft game, old style Assassin's Creed games.

Sadiq:

I know you don't like Assassin's Creed, but, like, I think you, like, you play a bunch of them. Like, you played, Origins. Right? Like, or you played, like, Valhalla?

Cristian:

See, this is why I'm a really good hater because I played this shit. I have bought the games and played them. So when I say I hate this shit, I say it from the chest. Right? Like, I hate the way it just plays.

Cristian:

I I hate the way that it looks. I just hate the story and mechanics. I think this I hate the writing in it. I hate everything about it. This is fuck Assassin's Creed.

Cristian:

I'm not buying Assassin's Creed shadows. I'm just not. I've been referred to many times.

Sadiq:

Real Kendrick moment there, but I I hate everything about it. So, yeah, I I so I think I don't think this is gonna be for you either. I don't I don't I don't I don't see anything that's changed here, set in feudal Japan, and, you know, we got 2 characters. So I am excited for it. It's been it's been a long I I like samurai shit as as my love for Ghost of Tsushima, is is is is is a lot.

Sadiq:

So it's like, you know, I'm it's all the stuff that I hear about. In a game. It's coming out in November, this year, so I'm looking forward to that.

Cristian:

Is it gonna be open world, though? That's the thing I'm actually curious about. Is it, like, older Assassin's Creed style, or is it, like, Valhalla style?

Sadiq:

So the way the gameplay looks is that once you have when you have story missions like, you can switch characters. Right? But what what what do you I think you can switch care I did, like it's kind of implied. Like, you don't really say it, but, like, you can, like, switch characters anytime. But if Safa's story missions, when you start story missions, it'll give you a choice between either character, that'll determine how the mission plays.

Sadiq:

Right? Whether it's, like, more action oriented, like, melee stuff with with the samurai or, like, stealth oriented with the with the with the ninja? I I it's I'm not sure how that's gonna work, because it's been a long time since the Assassin's Creed even did that. So, I don't know how that's gonna be balanced or, you know, how the progression is gonna be. So, you know, I I it is gonna still be open to the world, almost like this note.

Sadiq:

Like, there's no way this is a linear game. And we're not getting a like, Assassin's Creed has never been, like, a linear game. So, we're not, we're not gonna get that. I know it's it's almost certainly, open world game. I'm curious what they're gonna do with side stuff.

Sadiq:

That's where the interesting story teller usually happens in in Ubisoft cubes nowadays is is side quests. So and I'm curious about that.

Cristian:

Do Do you think they'll have a side quest exposing how woke this game is?

Sadiq:

I'm not I'm not engaging that discourse. That discourse is hella boring. Hella hella hella not not not interesting at all. It's it's it's bad.

Cristian:

More importantly, listen listen. Let's let's take this no. No. You know, I'm a talk some shit real quick. Let's take this as logical ends.

Cristian:

Listen, y'all talking about how like, oh, you can have a Black character in feudal Japan. I would say, you know what? Let let's ride this boat down the fucking stream. Why can why why do the French get to make a game set in Japan? Listen.

Cristian:

Hey. Listen. Let let's let's let's fight let's fight let's troll with trolling. You know? Don't let the French make a game like this.

Sadiq:

Don't let the French make a game like this. You know, it would be cool if this was made by a Japanese developer, but, it is it is not. We get, we got Ubisoft. And Ubisoft, is a worldwide studios, a worldwide sort of enterprise, so there's gonna be a lot of different kinds of people making this game. That's for sure.

Sadiq:

But, yeah, Shadow's Greatest Shadows, let's talk Nintendo Direct because I wanna give Joseph here a chance to talk about Metroid because otherwise, he's timeless. You're not gonna, you're not gonna shut up about Metroid. So let's let's talk about Metroid. What's what's how you how excited are you for Metroid Prime 4? What's it's it's what you It's

Cristian:

what I want. It's what I need. It's like literal like, hold on. Like like, let's let's just let's let's just be real. Okay.

Cristian:

So retro studio still has it because this is recorded on the original Switch. This game looks like fucking Halo 5 and I don't mean that in a bad way.

Sadiq:

It does look like Halo 5.

Cristian:

But this is on the Switch, like, it is all the stuff I want. We're shooting aliens. I'm scanning shit. I'm scanning shit. I'm turning into a morph ball.

Cristian:

I'm strafing and shooting. Like, listen here. I love Metroid Prime 1 Remastered. This picks up on the story of Metroid Prime 3. It's a pick it follows that same storyline.

Cristian:

Like, this is just people nowadays, right, you gotta make these games big. You gotta go out and above. No. This is what I want. I just want a Metroid Prime game.

Cristian:

I just want this shit. Like so, yeah, I'm here for it. I'm I'm just here for it.

Sadiq:

Yeah. I I I'm I'm I I mean, I don't know if you have a you don't have a Switch anymore. Right? Like, can you, like, I have a Switch Lite. Alright.

Sadiq:

You know, that's how you play.

Cristian:

I said before we we started yesterday. Sorry. I for some reason Listen. Yeah. I'm just a I'm listen.

Cristian:

Vugenix got shut down. I can't emulate the show on my MacBook Air anymore.

Sadiq:

Alright. So so you're you're planning on picking this up. I'm sure. Like, certainly,

Cristian:

you know,

Sadiq:

day 1 purchase.

Cristian:

Day 1 fucking purchase next year.

Sadiq:

Alright. Alright. Alright. I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm sure. I I think it looks good.

Sadiq:

Like, I the trailer looks good, so I don't, I'm not really a Metroid person, so we'll see. Is there anything you need to

Cristian:

There's another game that we gotta talk about. Yeah. Fantasia Neo Neo Dimension. Fantasia Neo Dimension. So the reason we're talking about this is it was no longer playable because it got delisted from Apple Arcade.

Sadiq:

Oh, is and this is a mobile game. Right? Like, this was, like

Cristian:

So this was a so no. No. So this was a Apple ordered it from this is the people who made the original Final Fantasy games, came back to make another, like, top down RPG. And it was on Apple Arcade for, like, a year or so, but it then got, delisted so you can no longer play it. So I think there's a lot of people who never got a chance to play this game and who should.

Cristian:

It's gonna come out to Xbox, PlayStation, PC, all of that. You know, I think I think people really should should play it because I wanted to get delisted. It got delisted

Sadiq:

I I think, like, a couple years ago at this point, like, a year or so ago, I think, that I remember hearing about this game vaguely. Let me see.

Cristian:

Is it still on Apple Arcade, actually? Let me I I could've sworn that it's right? 2021, wasn't it? Or let me oh yeah, it's still on it's still on Apple Arcade. But still, for it to be on a platform where you can buy it and not subscription only, I think it's still, still totally worth it.

Cristian:

So I'm excited for that game to come out. As well, We also have the Zelda game where you play Zelda. Do you wanna do some more woke disc or some series? No. No, I can't.

Cristian:

I can't. I can't troll this hard. So put aside the fact that people are like, well, why can't she hold a sword? I think with Tears of the Kingdom, like Nintendo's done making old school style Zelda games at this point. Each new Zelda game is gonna have some weird gameplay mechanic and I'm here for it.

Cristian:

So I'm excited to play it because I like top down Zelda games. I like the fact that you finally get to play Zelda and the mechanic looks fun where you like fight. You summon enemies that fight for you. I don't know. Did you ever play Overlord?

Cristian:

So Overlord was a game back for like 360 where the mechanic was you were an Overlord, so you wouldn't fight. You would have all your minions fight for you, and it has really strong Overlord vibes.

Sadiq:

So it's like a mini like a mini like where you like a god game where you, like, click control, like and I mean, this didn't look like that. This looked more like you use Zelda to, like, summon things that would fight for. Yeah. Yeah.

Cristian:

No. You summon people who fight for you. Yeah. It's not like Overlord is, like, back to the extreme. But, yeah, like, this whole, like, wand mechanic, it's like the fuse thing from Tears of the Kingdom.

Cristian:

I I'm really excited for it. Like, it it looks like it'll be a fun game. And once again, like, yes, please. Let me play Zelda. Like, you know, I'm done playing as Link.

Sadiq:

Yeah. There I mean, we're also getting, like, a Hyrule edition switch, like, a gold gold, Switch Lite with this game.

Cristian:

That's ugly ass color.

Sadiq:

Yeah. I I'm not, like, a huge I like the crest, like, the Zelda logo on the back, but, like, the Hyrule crest on the back. But, like, other than that, the color is kinda kinda kinda mid. But

Cristian:

It's a it's a it's a piss yellow switch.

Sadiq:

Yellow switch. Do you think that Metroid Prime 4 is gonna be a dual launch where it launches both on the current Nintendo Switch and then whatever the next iteration of the Switch console is? Like, is this gonna be like a it's it's gonna be like a Breath of the Wild situation where, like, it's gonna launch on both cons on, like, the current gen the next gen console and, like, the older older console? Like

Cristian:

Only if it's not backwards compatible. If it is backwards compatible, then I think it doesn't need to. But and to be clear, it should be backwards compatible. Because here's the thing. Retro, you don't gotta worry about performance.

Cristian:

Metroid Prime 1 ran at 60. This game's gonna run at 60. This game's not gonna run at 30. No. No.

Cristian:

Listen. Retro got a 10 80p60 shooter on the original Wii. Like, it's really like, we really don't have to worry about

Sadiq:

Alright. Alright. We we have faith we have faith we have faith in retro. That's that's that's that's the that's the, is there anything else before I guess, we we should wrap this up. I don't know if we could get to the other devs, but let's let's, like, let's wrap this up.

Cristian:

Yeah. I think that's it for for basically the Nintendo one. Yeah. Yeah. It's just other Nintendo games, you know, people buying weird, weird, cozy games where you just put farm and people have, like, nothing but game libraries full of it, which I respect.

Cristian:

But, yes, we have Day of the Devs last.

Sadiq:

There's a lot here. There's a lot of things got announced at Day of the Devs. I I don't wanna, there's a I don't have anything particularly that comes to mind that I wanna I wanna shout out. Oh, yes. Actually, there's a looks like a sort of narrative focused game called After La Love EP.

Sadiq:

It's like a narrative game with, like, dating sim and, like, rhythm elements that's, like, about grief and love and and and stuff like that. It's it's it's it's the, also interesting because it's, like, developed by an Indonesian developer, set in, like, I think it's set in, like, in in Jakarta. So that'll be interesting. I'm I'm actually I put that on my wish list because I occasionally, I like to play, like, a sort of narrative focused game like this. So, you know, not really gameplay oriented, but, you know, that's that's that's Wait,

Cristian:

dating sim and rhythm element. I'm a check this shit.

Sadiq:

Yeah. It's about a muse like, the story is about a musician, who hears the voice of his girlfriend after she dies. So it's it's like, you know, it's doing that like, it's it's it's like an exploration of grief and love and music, I guess. So, After Love EP, it's it's on it's gonna come out in October this year, hopefully. PC, Switch, PlayStation, and Xbox, I know it's on all the platforms.

Sadiq:

Go. If it sounds interesting, at your own PC, go put it on your wish list. It does actually help the dev a lot. Anyways, that's, that's our Gabe's discussion for a little late to the party, but, you know, that's fine. It's not like it's not like we really missed anything or but not like we do this with the SEO, so it doesn't actually matter.

Cristian:

We're probably an open eyes, Dave, base at this point, unless we're real. Yeah. That's true. To be clear, because, I never, I never took the did do you I on Shades of Brown, did you ever block AI from the robots. Txt file?

Cristian:

Because I forgot to do that for this podcast.

Sadiq:

I think I did. I think I added a robots. Txt file, all the sites on my server, the on that server that is on. So it might be. I haven't checked, but it it might be.

Cristian:

Was it before or after chat gbt came out, though?

Sadiq:

Probably after. Yeah. Who who knows? It's it's whatever. I don't.

Sadiq:

As always, you can find the show notes on voxels.fm. You can email us what's the email?

Cristian:

Feedback at voxels.fm.

Sadiq:

There we go. And you can find me on maston@packercad@10forward.social and on the website, sadiqsafe.com. Go check out my blog, null router.space. And, Christian, where do people find you on the world wide web?

Cristian:

You could find me not talking about NFTs anymore. I'm on my new grief. I'm grief I'm grief in a new way right now. I'm thinking, you know, there's an AI powered social network where it's just AI post all the time. I think that's the new wave.

Cristian:

Automate social media so you can automate it for yourself. That's that's the wave. You can find me not doing that though on mastodon@lofikarats msdn.plusandmywebsitetrustfind, website. But yeah, until next time, first and foremost, fuck Assassin's Creed. Goodbye.

Cristian:

Bye.