We Play, You Play: Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty with Shaun Diston

All right, Nick,

I'm ready to record if you are.

I'm really excited to talk today with Sean about cyberpunk.

Yeah, I'm ready.

I'm amped up.

You seem a little different, Nick.

I see it, don't you?

You can tell, can't you?

I

yeah,

something I think is a little off with you today.

You seem a little

just a little bit more, a little extra.

Matt,

I've gone cyber psycho.

I guess I did it.

I went cyber psycho.

I mean,

did you, though?

Because

you kind of just seem, you seem cheeky, but like you don't seem like you've gone full, like.

You're chrome, does.

I maxed out my Kiroshi stalker optics.

I got new bionic joints and dense marrow.

I got these gorilla arms.

I got titanium bones.

I got a micro generator and a shock absorber.

I got, you know, I got this adrenaline converter to amp up my movement speed.

I'm feeling like a million bucks.

No, yeah.

And that's all that's evident visually, but I guess, I mean, in terms of your demeanor, you seem

kind of the same otherwise.

Check this out.

That's the stabber.

I got the stabber.

Okay, yeah, no, you keep that away from me.

That's like, that's interesting but you

i don't know i mean i guess if if you're if you're cyber psycho right now have you been cyber psycho for as long as i've known you because you're kind of just like this what does that mean

what i'm just saying like you don't seem that different i've completely replaced every human part about me with some sort of biomechanical uh computerized piece of hardware.

I'm more machine than man.

Yeah, no, yeah, you're more computer than flesh.

I understand that, but it just seems like

you're just kind of being a little like you, the way you said this to me, uh-huh.

You're being a little shit.

Like, you're just...

What?

I'm cyber psycho is all.

Yeah, but it just.

I'm a cyber psycho.

I can't help it.

I guess maybe, maybe it's possible that cyber psycho isn't a one-size-fits-all label.

Like, maybe it doesn't make you like go absolutely bananas, as it were.

And, but you just kind of seem, you kind of seem normal, except your eyes are glowing red and you're, you're chromed the fuck up.

Yeah, no, I'm, I, I honestly have never felt this good in all my life.

You don't got a second heart?

I've got two hearts.

Fucking breaking records on the Peloton earlier.

That's, I mean, there's no, there's no need.

There's simply no need for something like that.

Well, now you're going to tell me there's no need, there's no need for my carapace either, right?

I couldn't even tell you what that is.

It's some armor, so when I crouch, I can take more damage.

My armor is like way more effective when I'm attacked from the back.

Well,

I guess

if you've gone cyber psycho,

I guess I better go cyber psycho too.

Matt, it's the best thing I've ever done for myself.

You got to do this.

You got to go cyber psycho.

Okay, two hearts, huh?

I'm going to go, I guess, three hearts.

Don't try to one-up me me in heart count.

No, no, no, I'll go three hearts.

Maybe a second carapace.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

A word I just learned.

All right, Matt, I'm gonna turn on berserk mode if you start talking about getting more than two.

Oh, you're gonna turn on berserk mode.

I'm gonna turn on berserk mode.

I'd love to see you in berserk mode right now.

All right, I'm berserk.

I'm berserk.

I'm a berserk cyber psycho.

This is actually scarier than a non-psychology.

Berserk cyber psycho is all.

We salvage the president's spacecraft and steal the identity of a French twin as we play.

You play Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty this week on Get Play.

Welcome to Get Get Played, your one-stop show for good games, bad games, and every game in between.

It's time to get played.

I'm Nick Weiger, along with Matt Abadaka.

Hello, everyone.

Hello, everyone.

Hello, Night City.

Wow.

Well done.

Heather is out again this week.

She'll hopefully be returning to the show real, real soon, but we have a fantastic guest in her stead.

Welcome back to the show, Sean Diston.

Hi, Sean.

Edge.

I just had to interrupt you.

Wow.

I think if it's not going to be Nick's catchphrase, it will be my catchphrase.

The birth of Edge, the genesis of Edge, dates back to your appearance in our old format when we played through the game Catherine.

Yes.

And Catherine implores the player to Edge

as you are doing some platforming, some puzzle platforming.

And that's when I started saying it.

And then there reached a certain point where you suggested me saying it.

And then I think, you know, you get about a year in and you're like, all right, so new fans are hearing me say Edge.

What's going on?

What is happening?

But I'm fine to take it up as my own catchphrase.

I love it.

I say it all the time now you know

i had an incident where i was this is this is unrelated but i was in an uber and i just talked to everybody like i was just talking to the uber driver as i as i i'm tend to do i tend to strike up conversations with strangers and she was telling me about like like i was she was like you know she asked me if i had kids i was like no she is i asked her about her kids and she was like oh well my my daughter's doing very well she's about to graduate from college and she's like my son he dropped out and he just like, he just plays video games all day and he's yelling.

And so I asked her, I was like, oh, so is he like, does he like stream on Twitch?

She's like, yes, Twitch.

Yes, that's the thing.

And then she like, but she didn't know what Twitch was.

And so I like explained it to her.

I was like, oh, well, it's like a thing where you get on and it's like, you know, you, you talk to people and they are,

you know, that you're playing video games and you also like have people who are watching you live.

And she's like, oh, starting to process it a little bit.

She's like, because I just thought he was like very like, like talented and funny.

I was like, well, you know what?

A lot of people who are like talented and funny, that's what they're doing now.

Did you talk this person into being proud of this?

I talked her into supporting her Twitch streaming son.

Yeah.

You're like, you know, you can actually make some money on there.

There are people who make their whole career there.

Unfortunately, her son was Dr.

Disrespect.

Oh, that's

he's doing great.

But I did, I did, like, I had a whole thing where, like, I felt like by the end of it, like, I'd like finished a quest.

Like, I'd like got this mom to reconcile with her Twitch streaming son.

That's so funny.

That does feel like a great side quest.

And

don't hold on to stories like that anymore.

We need that stuff around here when even when Sean's not here.

That's right.

I know that you brought it up because Sean loves stories, he thought.

But that's a good one just for any app.

That's so good.

That's so funny.

Well, that just, that happened since our last record.

It happened since our, oh, so it's not, you didn't have it in the chamber.

It's like a new story.

No, this is a new story.

No.

I just hear something.

I loved hearing it.

I can't imagine how many parents have no idea what Twitch is and are worried.

Like, why are there people like, is it weird to have like yourself on camera live for like three hours a night as a parent?

Like, how do you, how do you think parents feel about it?

I mean, my mom doesn't really understand what this is.

Like, no.

Yeah, so I don't even know.

I couldn't even explain to her what Twitch is, probably.

There's something about the live aspect of Twitch that I'm just a little bit like, if I were a parent and had no idea, I bet I'd be like, I don't know, I don't love it.

I don't know.

I don't love some creep can come on and watch my son in video games.

I'd feel probably, you know, of that, if I was of that generation, was not familiar with it.

I'm trying to extrapolate into the future what an equivalent would be, you know.

Oh, right.

It's like someone like, like, I guess

something that I would feel would be invasive is if like, my kid was live streaming us like having a family dinner.

But that's probably like in the future, right?

That already is.

It That probably already exists.

Maybe your child is a brain dance.

Yeah, I think the equivalent would be if they're live streaming their dreams or something.

Right, right, right, right.

You don't want everyone to see your subconscious.

No, that's interesting.

Yeah.

But yeah, that's, you know, Twitch is.

Don't dream our silent dinners.

That was work, honey.

I don't want to talk about it.

Oh, shit.

That's actually a pretty good dad watch that.

That is fun.

uh distin i we're we're talking about uh we're gonna be talking about cyberpunk in a bit yes uh and uh i'm excited to dig in on this but you uh like me uh uh do you the writer's strike kind of was a bit of a disruption uh and it sounded like that has led to you gaming more yes i my gaming habits are i go years without playing them

And then I get into one game and then it's like opens this pathway to like six or seven games.

Right.

And then I sort of run out out of steam somewhere.

Like if I don't have another game to hop to and then it goes away for a few years.

And the pandemic was a big uptick in gaming because obviously what the fuck else was I going to do?

But the writer strike in particular was so,

I don't know what it was.

There were just a few games that came out where I was like, all right, well, now I'm non-stop gaming.

And we'll talk about those when we get to the next section.

But like, yeah, I've been gaming so much more.

And it's not good.

It's really fun, but I'm finding myself like, oh no, when I get back to work, am I going to be totally fucked up?

I would say that

I'm very aware when you're gaming because our communications spike go to an all-time high.

We don't talk in general.

I'll just text you.

I'll just text you.

Just got to this part.

It's crazy.

Yeah.

Don't want to spoil it.

That's like most of our communications are like you are playing a game or like a Marvel movie is out and we're like two ships in the night talking about it.

Yeah.

I think the one of the things about gaming that I maybe am not great about is I don't foster the community around gaming like you guys have.

Like, I don't do much online gaming with friends, which I really want to do more.

I don't even know what games I would do it in, but the idea of it's fun, but I just don't do that at all.

So I often feel like I'm playing this game and have no one to talk to.

If Heather was here, she would be telling you to hop on Fortnite.

You know, if I'm afraid because Fortnite is one of, and we'll talk about these styles of games, but it's a never-ending game.

Right.

And something that doesn't have an ending to me is really, I struggle with because I can really sink some hours into it.

Yeah.

So I am, my tastes are, are similar to yours in terms of preferring single-player gaming.

Like, I don't do a lot of online gaming, but I will say that Fortnite did get its hooks in me pretty quick, to my surprise, because I was also scared of it.

Like, I don't want to be.

I think it's like cigarettes where it's developed to hook into you very quickly.

Right, right.

And, you know, you, you get addicted to it, but that just means it's good.

Yeah.

No, it just like cigarettes.

Yeah, cigarettes.

Cigarettes are back.

Cigarettes are back.

This is a pro-cigarettes podcast.

The, yeah, it's,

I, what I, what I, I get what you're saying because there is an element of you want someone to talk to.

And I don't even have the largest circle of like gamer friends, but it's nice to have people you can check in to check in with who are playing the same thing at the same time.

And that's partly why I get into playing a game like Phantom Liberty or, you know,

the Zelda earlier this year.

Because it's like the new release comes out.

It's like in the Zeitgeist.

And like, I know I'm paying a premium to play it right now.

And I know I have other games that have been out for years that I've never played that I could play instead.

But I kind of want to be a part of this moment because that has its own fun to it.

Totally.

Like Last of Us.

Yeah.

You know, even the most recent Star Wars game, like, I like to be

like.

night they drop, put a couple hours in and start to get into whatever the spoilers are.

But, you know,

I'm not opposed to playing with other people.

And we can talk about a game I'm currently playing in the next section, but I'm getting into it.

Like, I'm not a hater and I am worried.

I am bad at games is the problem.

Like, I'm, or not bad, but I'm mediocre.

And I feel like once you start playing with other people, your level needs to be so high.

And I worry that I just can't compete in some of these games, you know?

Well, look, we've edged enough here.

Thank you.

topic this is why it's my catch for you

i keep talking i'm like later we're gonna get to something

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I eventually got off that roof when the sun rose.

Let's get to it.

The question is: what are you playing?

Yes, yes.

All right.

Well, I'll get to it.

Yeah, let's just start teasing it.

So, obviously, Spider-Man 2 dropped the Insomniac game.

And I don't know if you guys have picked it up yet, but I have rolled credits on the game.

Wow.

I've played 31 hours of Spider-Man and finished it.

You've finished it.

100% of it, Matt.

Wow.

Since the last time we talked, I have collected all the stupid collectibles.

I was wondering why I hadn't heard about from you in a couple of days.

You're done.

I'm absolutely done.

Wow.

It's just...

It's a really easy game.

And like, I don't know, it's really story-driven.

So it's like I binged it, I guess.

Yeah.

And I stayed up late a bunch of nights and just really finished finished the fuck out of that game.

And yeah, I liked it.

I thought it was great.

I haven't ripped it open yet.

I haven't even started.

No, I haven't started it yet because I wanted to be just amply prepared for this episode.

But

I'm very excited to do it.

How did it stack up?

You obviously played the first one and Miles Morales.

I was the first one.

And I realized I must have missed like two DLCs on the first one.

But I played Miles Morales and I,

you know, 100% of those as well.

I think it's great.

It's thoroughly enjoyable.

You're not going to be disappointed.

I don't have any complaints.

I don't want to get too much into spoilers because it's a very spoilery game.

Like there's a lot of crazy shit that happens in it.

And I really enjoyed it.

But it's, you know, it's the type of game where I get it's over.

I'm finishing it in like three weeks and that's it.

Right.

Here's a question I think I, and I think I can keep it spoiler light here, but like gameplay wise, how does it iterate on the first game and a Miles Morales?

And because it's got both playable characters.

I think these are non-spoilery things, but it obviously has the sort of Grand Theft Auto thing where you can switch between characters and they have different side quests.

And I just think that it opens up the game in a fun way.

Sure.

And I think the like gameplay mechanics, obviously very similar, but they've added some quality of life stuff that I just think is great.

Like they've added...

Obviously, none of these are spoilers because they're in a lot of the trailers and people have talked about them already, but they've added a fast travel system that's just like i think you used to have to get on the subway right yeah or something and there's an animation point on the map you fast travel you literally pick any point on the map you click on it there's no load screen it zooms into the map and you swing into the picture it's insane and there's some new abilities that are really cool and yeah it just does a good job i also think like one of my complaints in the old game is the repetitive like bases kind of nature.

And I think they do a great job of varying those up.

Okay, cool.

So it's, it's, i i can't wait to hear you guys talk about it there's so much to talk about in it it's almost over stuffed with stuff yeah but i enjoyed it it was great where do you put it versus like where do you rank it versus the other games um

you mean in this franchise yeah oh i think it's

god it's gotta it's hard to say i think miles morales is like the story and the tightness of that game i really liked but it's just a little shorter you know it's probably like 19 hours or something i think this must just got to to be the best.

Wow.

I

there, the nitpicky complaints I have, you would have for the other two as well.

Sure, so it's only something that's getting better.

And I don't know if this is a spoiler either, but like, I think there's going to be another game.

Yeah.

And I think that's.

I'm just going to say, not a spoiler.

Yeah.

Not a spoiler.

I'm going to make another Spider-Man game.

But I mean, like in this story and within Tommy.

And I do think, like,

as a writer, I think that they have built up to a third game that could be the best video, like the best superhero game of all time.

Wow.

I think that this one is in contention.

I don't know what games are better in the superhero genre.

Batman Arkham games are all really good.

I love those Batman games, but these feel like that even more refined.

100%.

And you also get to be, and I like Spider-Man more than I like Batman.

If Gotham Knights was good,

it would probably be as good as this Spider-Man.

Sure.

But Gotham Knights wasn't great.

Yeah.

And so I need another Batman to come out on like PS5 for me to compare it to.

Yeah, yeah, it's it's up there, it's really fun.

What you were just mentioning about it's like the fast travel and that fast loading.

That, like, that's the thing, and other people have made this point, but that's the thing that feels the most next-gen about the PlayStation 5.

It's just like, yeah, and they did that same trick and riffed apart.

It's just like you were never really at a loading screen there.

You were just hopping in and out of stuff so quick.

And they do some, I, without getting into spoilers, they do some other really cool transitions like that where you're like, God damn, how the fuck do they do that?

Like, you go from being in the city to in a mission in some very interesting ways.

And I think there's a lot of

Spider-Man's a good game for me because it has a fun story, but it has a lot of like work to do.

And I just like fucking clearing those tasks.

Yeah.

And it satisfies both ends really well.

But the transition between the two, I think, is what makes this game really great.

And I mean, it sounds like it was like an easy platinum.

Like you went and did it all.

Well, I don't, I didn't platinum it because there are trophies I didn't.

but I 100%ed, like when I go in and it says 100% because I've done every task.

Okay, sure.

There are some things I think like I can fast travel from, you know, there's queens in Brooklyn in this game.

Like that's crazy.

And there's a three of the five boroughs are represented.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Which ones are missing?

Let's see.

Bull Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens are there, which means you don't have the Bronx or Staten Island.

Staten Island, right?

Okay.

So, which is, okay, sure.

Yeah.

But there's a, there's, I think, a trophy where it's like, fast travel from the financial district to a store.

Yeah.

And there's a way to do it.

I'm just not, it's not the type of thing that I feel.

I don't give a shit about the trophies, but I like collecting everything.

Okay.

Maybe the DLC will have the other bird.

Yeah.

And maybe the king of Staten Island will be in the game.

Exactly.

I think that there's setup for, I'll say this.

When you're playing the game and you look into like New Jersey, it looks like there's something there.

Okay.

And you start swinging there and it's like, you can't go there.

Yeah.

And he's like,

Jesus fucking Christ, Chrissy, I think I see Spider-Man.

Matt, that's really good.

So it's, yeah, it's a great game, and I recommend it.

I think the DLCs, I think there'll probably be a DLC before the new game.

They just set up a lot of stuff.

Yeah.

And I'd be happy to do any of the DLCs.

And so, I mean, this is maybe, this is maybe a spoilery question.

Feel free to not answer this.

Okay.

Is it more of a...

Because it's both Spider-Man are in it.

Would you say they're on equal footing in this game, or does it sort of lean like it's more of a Peter Parker story than it is a Miles Morales story?

Do you mean power level, or do you mean story-wise?

I guess story-wise, yeah.

I think they it's just good storytelling in that both characters have stories and arcs.

I think the main stories may be a little bit through Peter a little bit more, but that's just because of circumstances I won't get into.

Sure, but Miles has as important a role in the story as Peter, if not more.

It's arguable.

And I think power level, they're equal.

And it's just really fun to play with both.

And they've got some great costumes in there.

Shout out to Zig.

They've got the Spider Punk costume.

And it's honestly the only one I'm playing.

I'm playing back.

Shout out to Zig.

He doesn't.

He doesn't want to.

He doesn't deserve that.

Okay, well, just shout out.

He doesn't deserve the gas.

Shout out to the artist of

Spider Punk.

Yeah.

Because the costumes in there, and it's, I think, one of Peter's best costumes.

Because I have, I mean, this is like not maybe a new take, but I do think in the next maybe five to 10 years, Miles is the main Spider-Man.

I agree.

Like, you mean like in the MCU or

in general?

In Spider-Man, in comics.

I think we're sort of starting to see

that Miles is a little more interesting and that

we've had enough time with Peter that we could say goodbye.

Yeah, I mean, there's definitely been times where I feel like Peter takes a sort of backseat.

I mean, Peter was dead.

I mean, there's a lot of...

Yeah.

So I do think the movies were good.

Like, look, the new Across the Spider verse movie is incredible.

Yeah.

I'd love to see a live-action Miles Morales in the MCU.

But at the same time, like,

Martin Scorsese says that, like, these movies ruined all of cinema.

And I just sent him an email about it.

I know that he recently started reading emails.

Oh, he did.

Yeah.

And they're tough for him.

Yeah.

But yeah, I don't know.

I think Miles is super super interesting.

I love his story.

And he has a great Puerto Rican flag suit, which is great.

I also read that they accidentally put a Cuban flag in the game.

Yeah, which is a huge mistake.

Huge.

I'm like, for a game to be so fucking meticulous for that to be a mistake, it's crazy.

But yeah.

Wow.

I can't wait to potentially maybe even start it this evening.

I'll say this.

It's not a glitch-free game.

Okay.

I found there were a couple crashes and there were a couple like things I had to start over because it just kind of glitched a little, but not in any way game bending or just you forgive it because of how well everything is.

Do you think maybe it was that

because you were playing as Miles that he was in the wrong universe and he was starting to sort of...

I'll be honest.

Similar to the game we're going to talk about today, I could live with that.

I can have that sort of head canon of like, oh, that glitch was just the fucking cyber relic or whatever.

Right.

The other thing I want to talk about that I'm playing is, and you guys don't talk about these games a lot, is I'm currently playing NBA 2K24.

Okay.

Wow.

And I got into it, maybe NBA 2K23 sometime last year.

And I've always kind of side played these games, like the, you know, one-player thing.

And it was a little boring.

And one day I thought, what if I played against someone online?

Oh.

And they rocked my ass so hard.

Like

the fact that I continued playing and got anywhere decent at it is crazy because they're so good on that.

And yeah, I've been doing a little bit of the sort of 2K playing.

And the problems with it are it just built to extract money from you.

Yes, that's kind of what hit me off of the series.

Cause I used to play the NBA 2Ks and I like you.

I'm a basketball fan.

And I just kind of like reached a point where, yeah, it feels, first off, I don't give a shit about any sort of my career thing.

I don't care about a cutscene where Mike Conley tells me, like, you got the goods, kid.

Like, I just do not give, I just don't care at all.

I used to put up with that.

And then I, cause I was like a stat kind of, I liked figuring out my stats in the season, but it got so fucking annoying where it's like, you got to go down to the record store and do a fucking record opening.

I'm like, this sucks.

So I didn't want to do that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Then Dr.

Dre shows up.

You got the goods, kid.

It's like, all right, I've got the goods.

It's a, it's like, yeah, that shit annoys me.

But the bigger thing is, yeah, you got all these like to unlock like all these upgrades and different outfits and additional content.

It's all stuff to put real money in.

It feels like a mobile game.

And it's just like, that's not what I want these games for.

The thing is, the problem is it's like, they're so financially successful with that.

They're never going to stop.

Yeah, I think I read somewhere that like EA's most successful product is their FIFA mode that just like, you know, where people pay for extra content and

pay for in-game currency.

And it's just like, well, if it's so financially lucrative, why would they not do that?

But it's so frustrating.

It's crazy because I've only kind of been in the world like in the because i've played them a lot like just the seasons and you don't have to put any money into that yeah but now that i'm playing online a little bit you can play these like five on five scrimmages where you are playing with like nine other people online and and i found that to be kind of fun and i can see why fortnite and all these things are fun it's just a kind of controlled version of it and You have to like to be able to play with these people like you have to buy boost you have to buy fucking this you have to go to the gym and do all this shit and ultimately like I was playing 2k23 I can't even imagine how much money I put into it and then they upgraded the game to 2k24 and the change between years and seeing the way that they've been like oh yeah you used to have to work really hard to level up now you can just pay to level up right so there are people who are just paying like 80 bucks and like it's so much money every season which is like six weeks you got to pay 20 bucks to even participate it it's like a lot of money yeah and the problem is i can talk about it and i can hate it, but then I go home and I'm like, well, I got to put two games in.

Like it's just, the work of it is so fun.

And it's also really funny because in like the regular season, you'll play and I'll be like, oh yeah, I'm averaging a triple-double.

I have 50 points a game.

I'm the best player that's ever existed in the league.

Then I'll play in these five on fives and I'm averaging about nine points a game, four rebounds.

And I'm, I'm playing like the most role player position every game, but I love it somehow.

I don't know.

It's it's a real problem.

I need to stop.

Hey, man, if you're having fun.

No, I'm not having fun.

Oh, that's the issue.

Okay, got it.

And then at the end of the day, I'm losing most of the time.

I'm not as good as anyone else.

These people are so good.

And then when you like go online, you're like, how do you get better?

You see that there's a whole YouTube community of people who just make these fucking videos that are like.

There's just so many videos of like how to build your player better, how to play it better, how to do this.

And these people are making making money.

So I'm like, man, this is really a cash cow of a game.

I remember it because, you know, when I, and I don't play real-time strategy games at all anymore, but there was a time I was like, ah, you know, I had some friends who were into them.

I was like, I'll try to figure out how to play StarCraft or whatever.

And yeah, just like the.

The amount of like work that goes into like achieving like any sort of competency in online modes, because it's all like getting all your key bindings down, memorizing build orders.

Like there's so many things that you just have to like kind of get into your muscle memory.

And it's like, this is like, this is like learning a skill.

In 2K, you have to go to the gym every week.

Right.

And you have to do gym exercises.

And the fact that I do that more consistently than I actually go to the gym is a problem.

It's like you go to the gym.

In order to be good at shooting at all, you have to do like hundreds of shooting drills like outside of the game.

So it's like, it's, it's really tough, but I'm enjoying it.

If, you know, find me online and beat the fuck out of me.

I'm sure anyone listening to this that plays is so much better than me.

but like but it's so satisfying because i play like 50 games and then like if one game i have like 35 points i'm like this is so satisfying yeah did you ever play uh nba street oh my god and nba and nfl street okay yeah uh i played the fuck out of those games yeah i love nba street nba street was really fun and that was i guess what maybe i could go back to is this sort of like couch competition game like i loved playing against my friends in college nba street it was they sadly like they they're fewer and far far between these days, but

I loved NBA Street.

Just so fun.

Like, obviously a different type of thing.

2K is more

simulator, but then

the Street series is more just like arcade.

I bet if they had NBA Street, like on PS5, it would be like the professor from N1 would be like, hey, kids, you got the goods.

It'd be like the exact same shit.

You'd be paying money for like new street wear and shit.

It's just such

the microtransaction thing is fucking really tough.

Upload this TikTok to increase your stuff.

Yeah, that's what I'm playing, Carl.

I love it.

Matt, what are you playing?

Well, okay, so I haven't touched Spider-Man 2 yet.

That's on the docket for me.

But

on the same day that Spider-Man 2 was released,

you remember maybe a couple months ago,

Barbie and Oppenheimer came out on the same day.

Barbenheimer.

That's right.

Spider Mario?

That's the portmanteau you landed on?

Spider Mario?

The two words put together.

There could be a space in there.

That sounds like Mario got bit by a radioactive spider.

Spider Mario.

This is Mario with the new voice.

And what's this one called?

Super Mario

Wonder, yeah.

And I've also been playing this.

And in fact, I was playing some on my commute over here today.

I was playing on the bus.

And I really am enjoying this game.

I do think it's like,

it's the Nintendo thing of just,

it's got that dazzling visual presentation.

Like as dated as the Switch hardware is, they still just have such great art direction and know how to exploit the, you know, every

bit of horsepower out of that hardware

that it looks great.

The palette is really rich and beautiful.

And I think the physics are really good of just like running around and platforming.

Like I've enjoyed that a lot.

I kind of like just how, though, how slight it is.

And that for me is like, I've been playing, I've been, I feel like it immersed generally in like very heavy media, video games included, and cyberpunk, which we'll talk about included, of just like it's like stuff that's really like dark and depressing and like time-consuming and just sort of like doesn't make me feel good.

And this is just like, I don't know, it's, it's just, it's just pure fun.

It's a sense of wonder.

Yeah.

This doesn't start with a side mission where you have to bury Luigi

and go to his grave and click through a bunch of dialogue.

Yeah, the first thing you do is sign divorce papers given to you from Princess Peach.

I mean, that's the reason I don't have a Switch, and it does always, I do always go like, maybe like the darkness I'm feeling sometimes could be alleviated with some light.

colorful Switch games.

Yeah,

there's, boy, it's like the Switch is such a frustrating piece of hardware because it is really cool, but it's just like that they've never updated it.

Maybe the Switch 2

will fix it.

But I mean, it's just like,

it really feels old at this point.

And I even have the OLED Switch.

So like it, you know, that looks as good as it can.

But that said, that the like two first-party Nintendo games that come out a year make it

are pretty much make it worth it.

This is one of them.

Yeah.

And can I just say Elephant Mario is one thing where it's like

my expectations were too high.

He's fun.

I do like Elephant Mario.

He is cool.

He looks cute.

But I was expecting a little bit more than waggling the trunk around and then being able to

barrel through barricades.

But you can have water.

Yeah, you can have water.

I mean, it's fine.

But even still,

it's not quite what I expected.

Yeah,

I think he's fine too.

I do think it sort of made an interesting choice because

in previous Mario games where there are multiple characters, each character has a sort of moveset, right?

Like

Princess Peach has the umbrella or whatever.

Yeah, it's not always the case.

This one, they're just like different skins, basically.

They all have the same.

And I just go straight up Mario, you know.

I'm playing Mario as well.

I do know one spoiler about the game from Elephant Mario in that at the end, he travels a thousand miles to die in his family set of bones.

Yeah, and it's really sad.

That's the one sad thing about the game.

Yeah, it's that's you have to sort of hit a couple of

like specific story beats to get that ending, but it is really, really sad.

It's drawn out, really sad.

And then, like, some rich guy comes and poses poses in front of it like he killed it yeah baby bowser yeah yeah yeah

uh but i i'm i'm really enjoying it so far like i've been able to sink a little bit of time into this versus spider-man 2 because i don't have to eject the cyberpunk disc to play uh uh mario hey underrated factor not having to take a game out to play another game yeah like just just like that switch hey you know what pick up a different piece of hardware and so i so i've been doing that and i've been playing it at night and i didn't know like i i didn't love super Mario Bros.

U or whatever it's called.

New Super Mario Brothers U.

Yeah, I didn't love that.

I liked it.

I liked it okay.

Um, yeah, I, you know what, I agree with you.

I didn't love it.

Yeah, it's like it's fine.

It's exactly, it's fine.

Like, cause like the benchmark for those games is like Mario 3, Super Mario World, right?

Um, well, yeah, if you're gonna, but I, but I think, like, yeah, yes, absolutely.

But I think, like, we're talking about kind of that, this

feels like it's fitting in that new Super Mario Bros.

canon, even though it's not a new Super Mario Bros.

game.

It's like all these

3D as 2D

platformers that have existed since the Wii or whatever.

I don't know if it's just that.

This obviously just could be recency bias.

Every second of this game is a complete surprise to me.

Like, I'm just like, I'm going through it, and I'm just like, there's like a very specific thing that happens in one of the levels that I was like shocked by because there was no precedent for it before.

And

shocked sounds negative.

Tell me off bod because I don't, I'll, I'm curious.

I was delighted by it.

Um,

I'll say it right now, uh, just in, and I'll cut it out if it's too spoilery.

Um, but it's this, you get one of those like sort of things that sort of changes the world.

Yes, all there's like when a plant starts singing, right?

There's these flower,

I know exactly what you're talking about.

There's like these flower things, and the flower power-ups, I actually don't even know exactly what they are, and and they're always it's always a little ambiguous as to what's going to happen, but you collect them at a certain point, and yes,

the physical layout of the world changes in some way.

Yeah.

And it's always like a, you know, sometimes it's just like the geometry moves around, but other times something kind of like, you know, mystical happens.

And yeah, this is one where the piranha plants all come to life.

They start singing like a kind of a really like jaunty tune, but you can still kill them.

Yeah.

And so it's just like, wait, so I'm just going around, like, they're, they're, are they good guys now?

What's going on?

Like, cause I was just lobbing fireballs at these like joyously singing like this chorus of piranhas i love that i love that like that type of stuff that type of discovery in a in a mario game is so fun to me and then also i love the little flower the talking flower guy so you love those guys the little guy that's like how'd you get up here yeah i think they're fun um

the voice got to be a little bit much to me because I think it's like it was just kind of like a like a mental it was like a distraction from what I was doing.

And so I went and toggled off the voice and just have text only.

Wow.

Matt is.

I'm always looking forward to what he's about to say.

Matt is pissed.

I think he's so cute and so funny.

Like everything he says, I'm like, I can't wait to hear what he's about to say.

And it's usually like something like, that was close.

Or like, oh, water made it good.

Or something like that.

It's never anything that interesting, but I always have to hear what he's about to say.

I mean, it's great that you can toggle the voice off.

Like, that's the kind of sort of quality of life stuff that I'm sure Nintendo is really good at.

They're like, we'll know that some people will think this is annoying.

We We want this game to everybody to like this.

I want to turn it off.

I want to be careful here because I'm not, I'm just necessarily.

No, you're not saying it's annoying.

I'm just saying it was like a distraction from the platforming.

Are you playing with online on or off?

I am.

Okay, you're on.

Yeah.

Me too.

I'm on also.

And this is new to this game, Sean.

So in this game, you can turn on an online mode and you can see other people in the world playing the game.

Yeah, you see ghosts of them.

Is this kind of like Elden Ring kind of?

It's kind of like Death Stranding.

Yeah, it's a little bit more like a little bit of Death death stranding that's what it is it is like elden ring too though but like yeah it's it's that it's that sort of approach of like there's some signposting like people will like leave a little bit a little marker to make so to have some sort of vague indication funny that death stranding truly that might be something that we see in a bunch of games later on it's really interesting because there are things There are in Mario games, there are things that are hidden on the screen or on the map that you can't necessarily find.

But if you see somebody online in an area and you're like, there's nothing there, and you go over it, you're like, oh, there is something here somebody was finding this or there's like a standee there that someone left you're like okay what's this indicating yeah it is you know i mean it's death shiny but it also goes back to like dark souls it's like that you know that whole thing of just like we're we're getting an indication of some sort of presence here but we're not seeing exactly what is hole exactly right

um yeah the this game sounds fun i

yeah i don't know do i wait to buy the new nintendo thing at this point i think you do i i i would not necessarily, if you haven't got it, it's I mean, this thing came out in 2017.

It's six years.

I haven't played either Zelda, and I'm like, I'm sure there'll be backwards compatibility if they.

Oh, I wouldn't put that paste.

No, yeah, I'll assume that, but I would, I would, would expect them to re-release them

at full price.

Yeah.

So, you know, some up-residing.

Oh, speaking of re-release, by the way, I did buy and just downloaded the Metal Gear Solid Ultimate Edition.

Okay, yes.

Yes.

And it's fascinating.

I went back.

I'm like, let me try playing one.

Can't play it too hard.

And I was like, oh, let me try two.

And I'm like getting into it.

I'm like, God, it just, I hate camera.

I've only played two and three.

I've never really played one.

I've seen one played a lot.

I want to get it on the Switch, but the Switch version of it.

I don't know if this is something that I care about or not.

And Nick, maybe you'll have a thought about this.

I guess they're capped at 30 frames per second on the Switch.

And that's not something I ever really pay attention to at all.

But I also know that on the physical cartridge, none of the games are on it except for the ones for the computer, not the Metal Gear Solid games, or none of them are on the cartridge.

So buying the physical

copy of it is moot because if...

And when the server goes down, if you don't have it saved on,

you won't be able to play it.

Yeah, it's like I love, I remember playing the original like top-down one when I was really young.

And I I was like, I don't know what the fuck this is.

And then I played three.

I played three and or no, I played two.

And now I'm realizing, I'm like, I don't know if I finished or even played three because I just started three and I was like, okay, this is not familiar to me.

But the games are really hard to control.

Like, I literally like finished Spider-Man.

I was like, let me throw up fucking Metal Gear.

And it's just like, very different.

I'm not ready to figure out these controls again.

Three is the star of the show, I think.

I think two is like obviously great in like a very prescient video game, even today still uh but three i think is like is the best of the bunch that's so good it's a well you also you played five so here i wanted to say yes i i'm still i can't believe you guys haven't played five i know i've never played because because it's not the storytelling is not the star of five to me the gameplay like i think if i were to predict heather playing this game i think that heather would love five okay because you can almost do anything like you can almost go into a camp and like do whatever the fuck you want there's so many creative ways to do missions.

And I don't know.

I just, I've had a great, I've played five, maybe three times full.

Wow.

And it's just really fun for me.

But yeah, I wanted to go back because I'm like, yeah, I should just go back and see what three is all about.

I'll probably try to finish three,

but I don't think I'm going to play two or one.

But it's not like a full, this is not like a full remaster.

It's just like these are these games that are just like now available.

They're just available.

You can play the Japanese version.

There are some like video, there's some video cutscenes.

You could just watch like a video thing of all the cutscenes.

I know that Hideo Kojima is removed from the credits in this version.

Is he?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Gosh, I think he's in the credits.

But maybe, yeah, maybe he is.

It kind of sucks.

Yeah.

Kind of think would do.

Yeah.

The, yeah, we, we, we revisited three,

and I had played it, and I feel like it was, you, it, did you feel its age a little bit, but I found it, I found it and two both pretty playable, but also having the, you know, memory of having played it back in the day, it's like it's a little bit of a thing,

but, but I will say that

that feeling of going back to an older game, especially the older 3D games, those like when they were still figuring out how things controlled.

We experienced this with Shadow of the Colossus when we did that episode recently of like, of like, oh man, this is, this is still a great game.

This is still an all-timer, but man, the camera and the, you know, just some of the, the, the way the character actually moves around, it's just like, it feels so clunky.

Yeah.

Were you ever able to get used to it like in playing?

Yeah, you get used to it but you're always fighting it a little bit and and the camera is never good in that game you know it's it's just it's it's always a an obstacle i feel like with two and three i need like probably like five hours of getting back into it before i can control it the way i want to but i yeah you know i i just love watching all the like 15 minutes of cutscenes you have to watch before the game starts.

Oh my God, me too.

And it's just,

I'm like,

the voice is so funny.

So I'm like, I'm back in.

I might finish those before I start working again.

I don't know.

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Leslie, right now, let's talk about Cyberpunk Phantom Liberty.

This is the DLC for Cyberpunk 2077.

It is both an expansion, but also kind of its own self-contained game.

It's got, it's, it's, and it's, and it's pretty meaty.

And Matt and I were talking before we recorded of just like kind of surprised by

how

extensive this expansion is.

Like, it, like, it felt like a, it feels very much like a, I don't know, full game length campaign.

Yeah, I think it's, I think it's 15 hours.

I think like as its own release, it's like 15 hours.

It feels like the Miles Morales to the original Spider-Man game, where Miles Morales is a little shorter, but it has a complete story and it's just like playing off of the fun.

Also with the 2.0 update, I know you guys have talked about a little bit.

Yeah.

The whole thing felt new to me.

100%.

Because you played it back in the day.

I put over 100 hours

back then.

And that was over the pandemic, maybe.

So yeah, it was easy to do.

so i but then when the 2.0 came out i just started from the beginning because there's an option when you start to just start phantom liberty right and i was like well if it's going to be a part of the other game i might as well do it um because i also wanted to see like if it factored into a different ending sure we can talk about but um yeah i i was it's really meaty it's it's a chunky chunky ass game and i i really enjoyed it yeah did okay i also really enjoyed it and i just just to be clear because uh we're we're not going to get into story spoilers or at least late game story spoilers just yet.

We will have a clearly demarcated spoiler country point we'll get to when we'll talk about the late game a little bit.

But we've all finished Phantom Liberty.

Yes.

Yes.

Okay.

And I have not yet, I finished the campaign, the Cyberpunk campaign on my original save back when it released.

I have not yet finished it on this playthrough.

I started a new V, but I have finished Phantom Liberty.

And Matt, where are you at in the game?

I started a new V as well, and I am in

I'm on the roof with Johnny.

I'm at the end.

I'm waiting for a specific thing to trigger.

I'm trying to do the secret ending.

It is not triggering, so I might just have to pick one of the endings available to me.

In my original playthrough, I did the

Nomad ending with Panam.

And so I think I might just try one of the other ones available.

Are we in spoiler country?

I mean, you just talked about...

Well, that's the old game.

That's the old game.

That's the old game.

But yes, it's okay.

We can say that there's a

there's multiple endings.

We can say there's a nomad ending, and you don't know what it is.

Okay, we'll do it.

But yeah, I did that ending too the first time.

Me too.

It felt like the

logical one to do because I was like, I'm horny.

I don't know.

Yeah,

of course.

Because three horn dogs are going to pick the horny ending.

Judy wouldn't have sex with me, though.

But it's,

I started a new game, and then when you get the call to start Phantom Liberty, I went right into it and I have finished both and I'm put 111 hours in this playthrough.

In this playthrough.

That's wild because I've crested 40 plus, I'm 40 plus hours into my current playthrough.

Yeah.

And, you know, over 100 hours across two playthroughs.

But you've, you've, you, so you've put like 250 hours into this game.

That's wild.

I hate that you've put it into those pictures.

But yes, I have, I mean, it just felt like such a different game, to be honest.

Yes, 100% does the skill tree yes and honestly like you can play this game a bunch of times and have different builds and I always end up in the same areas like mine's slightly different than the one before but I really even think I could play the game again and do a totally different build What let's talk builds real quick because what I did is I I was I determined to use blades because I used guns last time.

I was just like, I just want to do something different.

So I went with the, I put a bunch of points into reflexes and all the katana skills.

And then in Phantom Liberty, when you get to that section of the game,

there is a new skill tree that opens up.

There's like a, you know, that, that, that involves, uh, it enhances some existing abilities that are in the game.

Um, and uh, kind of, I feel like it's like kind of a way to rebalance some of that stuff a little bit.

Yeah, and this is, and this is like the lightest of spoilers because it happens immediately when you start.

As soon as you start that, yeah.

So, so, you know, like, for instance, there's the

all the arms cyberware, like the gorilla arms or the mantis blades, which is what I use.

They all get like their, they're, they're, you can boost those in its own skill tree now, which you couldn't do in the past.

And it also gets benefits from a lot of the blade stuff.

So I ended up switching when I got to Phantom Liberty to the, to the mantis blades, which is very fun because it feels very cyberpunky now.

It's like, total, like, you know, size coming out of your forearms.

Yeah.

And.

So I did that.

And the other thing I did is I went like, like, really hard into cool.

I just put 20 points into cool.

I just maxed out cool.

And it was really fun because I think the stealth is pretty rudimentary, especially compared to like, you know, the whatever, a stealth-focused game like Metal Gear.

And,

but it,

it is just a lot of like cone of vision, looking at the mini-map, you know, but, but, but, uh, it is still pretty fun.

And also, it feels like you're like within this world, there are missions where you should be stealthing through.

So I enjoyed doing that.

Yeah, totally.

I did, um, I think just because we've been watching the anime as well, I respect and

did like a Sendevastan build.

And

this is the thing.

This is the Cyberware that slows down time so your character can move faster.

Yeah.

So I'm just like that, Mantis Blades and Gun.

So like I put all, I have, I think I'm like level 40 or something right now where I'm at.

And

I have fully upgraded.

technical ability and God, what's the one on top?

And reflexes.

Yeah.

Reflexes upgrading is really fun.

I've talked about this before, but on the podcast, but just like you can just zoom around the map.

You can just move really quickly.

It's so great for traversal.

Yeah.

But I've been jumping.

I've been really into, oh, God, once I got the double jump.

Yeah.

You guys use the double jump.

See, I use the charge-up jump.

Like where you hold.

How's that charge-up jump?

So you hold down X and let it go and you do a big jump as opposed to needing to time the second jump.

Oh, I gotta get a big jump.

It tells you that the double jump is like two points better, but I had more fun with the charge-up jump for whatever reason.

But yeah, like again, that's what's so cool about this game.

It's like I didn't play with the double jump at all.

So it's like a whole other build could have that and it could be fun.

I'll say this.

My build is a guy with a big ass sword.

I cut people's heads off non-stop.

Yes.

And then I also love, I've found the handguns really good

in this game.

And I've, I got really good at just so basically I would have a a handgun, I would have a sword, and then I, I didn't use the mantis blaves, but I used the gorilla arms.

So I would just go into rooms and like punch people across the room.

It was so fucking fun.

Yeah.

And the reason I put so much time into this is because I was like, I'm not going to finish the game until I've fully maxed out.

this character.

So I'm like fully maxed out street cred, fully maxed out all cyberware, everything.

And so I'm really, it feels balanced, but I'm ultimately the only thing I do is net running.

Like I walk in somewhere and I make people sick and I make them kill themselves.

Okay, yeah.

And then I go in and clean up with the sword and the

gun.

And

it's really fucking fun.

Yeah, you can kind of, there are enough points to go around where you don't have to be super specialized, which I like.

Cause like, you know, we get like, yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm primarily blades and I'm stealthing, but also, you know, I got a sniper rifle and I got some points into some of those skills.

And so the situationally, there's sometimes when that's really handy, even though I generally don't like sniping sniping in games, it's like it's fun in this game.

And, um,

yeah,

I don't know.

I like that you get to,

you don't have to go exactly, you don't have to commit fully down one path.

If you do all the side missions, I think by the end of the game, I was at 20 for four of the trees, like

20 in technical ability, 20 in reflexes, 20 in strength, and then like 12 and 12 or something.

Like, so you can really max out like at least three of these things, and maxing them out is just so much fun.

Like, the cyberware thing where I could like click down my triggers, and I could just put, do as many, like,

like, net running, like, hacks on people, and it would just take my power.

Like, I could go way over my RA.

It would just take power away from me.

I'm talking, I would go into that.

Yeah, so basically, your RAM is basically your mana, and then your, this is a special ability which drains your health.

And you could just have unlimited.

So, I would just go into places and make like four of the people cyber psychos and just watch them kill each other.

That's so funny.

It was so good.

And then I would just go in and be like, All right, who's left?

Your head's cut off.

I'm going to cheat you in that.

So, and you know, the other sort of fun thing to track is like you have this thing where you get like shinobi points or Netrunner points, and you start to see like naturally what you do.

And my Netrunner thing that was maxed out so early that I was like, Well, I guess that's what I do.

So, I try to do other things.

But yeah, the games, the gameplay this time around, I found so much more streamlined.

And I think this 2.0 thing is incredible.

Like, sucks they didn't release it this way originally.

Yeah, it's, it's, it's great.

I, the, the, so, like, what you were talking about, those are, that's like a separate kind of a pool of skill points that you will get from just like actively doing things kind of like Skyrim style in the world.

So like I had like a shitload of shinobi points because I'm just like running around, like vaulting over every chain link fence I find like jumping off of balconies because it's just fun to run around.

Speaking around.

Yeah.

Shinobi points are fun.

Yeah.

So so yes, all the, I think the combat, complete, the complete rework of the combat and the skill tree, like all that stuff is great.

But one thing

I think this, the Phantom Liberty specifically does well and that ties in on that is there are all these high-level skill checks and dialogue depending on like, you know, various abilities.

Like for instance, like level 20, like maxed cool like checks that are happening in conversation.

And when it hits those, I found it very satisfying.

Because you're like, yeah, I would not have seen this if I didn't have it.

And yeah, towards the end of the game or the end of Phantom Liberty, there's a few of those.

And I had a few like, oh, you're a level 20 technical ability.

So you know this specific thing about hacking.

And it is satisfying.

It's super satisfying and it's oftentimes something unique.

Like there's, there's one instance where I think it was like a maxed out reflexes or something and was able to like take someone's gun from some of them and that was so, from them in a situation that like that was the only way to do it.

And it's like, oh, this feels like, I mean, I'm just using the other recent thing that's in my head.

This feels like a Baldur's Gate thing.

This feels like something that would, you know, this, this really feels like an RPG, which sometimes in the base game, it kind of gets away from.

Yeah,

I really had fun with it.

Let's talk about the story a little bit.

So it's basically escape from New York.

It's like the president is lost in this decrepit city, this apocalyptic city, and your job is to do an escort mission and rescue them.

It's the kind of thing where like, I kind of love how,

I mean this affectionately, like, how dumb it is.

It's so dumb.

Because it's like Space Force One, the president's space shuttle, has crashed in Dogtown, this neighborhood of Night City.

And then you have to escort President Myers, who herself is like an action hero.

Like,

she like picks up guns and starts like fucking murdering people.

All that stuff is great.

I think the game, my criticism of the game is,

I wish I cared more about the story.

Yes.

So this is, this is the, I think actually the, the, the, the story of the base game is better because this one is a little bit

part of it, it's, it's a little bit hard, difficult to follow.

Like, I like Solomon Reed as a character.

Um, I like Alex, who's another character who gets introduced later.

Like, they're interesting.

But Songbird, I was still always, and Songbird is like the hacker who's like, you know, working with the president who recruits you for this mission.

And you end up like kind of being

trying to find her for most of this of the game.

Yeah.

I found her still just kind of ambiguous even by the end.

I was still like a little unclear as to like what

her, what exactly was going on with her, you know?

It just must be so hard to write a, like, what, just having played Spider-Man, I'm like, this is like such a down-the-middle story where I understand what's happening.

A lot of cyberpunk is like people are talking, and it's like, all right, so I have to select something now.

I don't even know what that guy just said, basically.

Yeah.

And you make these choices.

And like, if I were to talk to someone about this game, I don't think I'd be talking about the story.

Like, I like,

I think cyber, I think Phantom Liberty does a better job, but because it's more contained, maybe.

And then by the end of the original game, I kind of understand what's happening, but there's so much in the middle where I'm like, what the fuck am I even doing right now?

Yeah, I don't know.

I like, I've, I kind of found the, the other, the base game a little bit easier to track.

Maybe because I'm experiencing it for the second time.

That could be part of it.

With Phantom Liberty, there's a lot of like really inscrutable stuff about like the NUSA and like their politics and like what's going on with this new this organization the FIA and everything it's like all these like acronyms are thrown at me and I don't really understand the geopolitical situation in this world at large as opposed to what's going on between the different

street gangs and night city So it all, but that said, I don't mind all that sort of dense stuff.

I love science fiction.

I'm fine to just get a lot of

a bunch of information, but I sometimes had trouble parsing it.

That just reminded me of something stupid

from the game that's like not part of this discussion.

But

so earlier in the game, when you meet the voodoo boys and they're like, we don't call ourselves that.

They call us that.

Yeah.

But there's like voodoo boys graffiti everywhere.

It's on the back of your jacket.

It is the kind of thing where like it's all really fun and like good world building, but it's thought out like 85%.

And I think it's like...

Has to be that if there's going to be so many decision points and stuff.

It's so funny, but

I digress.

I will say the thing that this part of the game does really well is just opening up this new part of the map.

I found Dogtown, right?

Dogtown, yeah.

I found Dogtown to be a super interesting ad to the map.

It rocks.

It's incredible.

It's awesome.

It's such a great way to do it to be like, here is a contained neighborhood within this city.

So like they, they've, they've, they've explained it in a way where it makes sense.

This is kind of like this walled off, you know, it's got its own, its own government.

We just, no one goes, the police don't go there.

They've, they've justified it enough.

And then it just being like, because the problem with the base game is it's so sprawling and a lot of it feels kind of empty.

And here it's just like, it's so dense.

You know, it's like a, it's like a Yakuza game where it's just like, just everything is in walking distance.

It's really, really compact.

There's so many quests.

There's so many NPCs.

The vibe is super alive.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's like a little bit more post-apocalyptic where it's like kind of crumbling a little bit.

And there's like a bunch of like unhoused people on the street.

And I found that to be a really fun place i wish there were honestly more side missions there because i did all the side missions there and i liked them a lot i i would have liked to have lived in that world just a little bit longer uh what i one thing i like is there's a there's a thing that will happen where you'll get like

there'll be some sort of drop point there'll be like red smoke coming from it some sort of beacon and that will be like a place where a combat encounter happens and like those i don't know those encounters i found really engaging and also just like the way they crop up it's it's like oh shit there's something some shit going down.

A firefight's already in progress and I can just go join it and fuck shit up.

Do you, so

I

think I play this game a little differently.

Okay.

Because there are like, there are obvious, like you can,

you can kill anybody.

Yeah.

You could.

It's like Grand Theft Auto in that way or any sort of type of game like this.

Certain people they protect story-wise, but yeah, you can kill anyone.

But then there are people on the world map that have like sort of like little yellow indicators on them that they're like, these guys are like kind of bad.

it looks it kind of doesn't matter you can you can get collectibles from them and they maybe are affiliated with the game so those those people and like in like the different gangs yeah

i didn't unless i was in a mission i didn't start shit with anybody and i have to and i didn't have to clean and i didn't feel like cleaning up after because i'm like well okay who am i helping i'm helping the cops yeah i'm not like that interested in doing that yeah uh but i like i just kind of left everybody alone and like when people would like sort of spot me i would just run away.

I'm like, I'm just, I'm out of here.

But, but that's the thing, like, you can do that.

And partly, I think the game on the base difficulty is such where you don't have to like grind for a bunch of you'll get enough experience through just doing the quests and stuff where you don't have to worry about that.

I think they basically exist as just like the equivalent of like, you know, just random mobs and a world map.

It's just like you could go up and fight these guys if you want to, but you can completely ignore them.

They'd be maybe a little more interesting to engage with if like

they,

as a gang, stayed mad at you right like if like in in uh like i feel like this was even in like san andreas or whatever like like there'd be certain gangs that you're like oh that's one of them i better stay away from them and they would like try to get you or something or like in the in the um

in the in the lord of the rings mordor games there's this like nemesis system sure where like if you lose to a bad guy they like get stronger and then have more guys and it's like i wish that was like something that was in this game i feel like there could be some sort of dlc that's like gang warfare and you get more into that i think those people for me ended up just being like because i really was trying to level up all my cyberware so like each cyberware piece which i liked had different attributes and you could like craft and upgrade them and i think at the end you want all of them to be five plus plus orange so i was like having to do that so i just basically if i saw someone with a yellow top or whatever i was killing them just to get their stuff their stuff.

There'd be people like dancing around a car hanging out.

I'll just throw a grenade in there and kill everybody.

Like I

it became, I guess it wasn't fun because there weren't consequences.

It just became like a way to get like harvest materials and stuff.

Yeah.

Yeah, because there is a lot of like upgrading that needs to be done and disassembling other, disassembling gear from enemies is like the fastest way to get crafting materials.

What I will say is just like,

we should talk about the jank of this game a little bit because it is still,

I mean, mean, look,

I do really love it and I do really recommend it.

But I mean, it's got some stuff that still feels very rough around the edges.

But one thing is like the UX is much better than it was originally.

But it's still like, okay, here's, here's the thing.

I don't even know if this is a glitch or if this is by design, but like I would get clothes I know I'm not going to wear.

And I'd be like, okay, I'm not going to wear this weird, you know,

whatever, this weird helmet with ear flaps because I just like, that just doesn't fit my style of my character.

So I disassemble it and get, you know, get upgrade materials.

But then it would still be in my wardrobe when I went to dress my character.

And so I was like, wait, so if any item of clothing you get once, does it just automatically get added to your wardrobe?

Or was that a glitch I was encountering?

I feel like that might be a glitch.

Yeah, I shouldn't have that anymore.

There's always, yeah, but there's always shit like that just kind of popping up in the game.

And so like some of the other glitches, I talked about these with Matt with you earlier, but like

I I got one where a cigarette was just stuck on my character's hands.

Yeah.

And you see your hands a lot.

It's the part of your character you see the most.

So it would be in like in a cutscene.

It would be like some, you know, moment where like I would, whatever something emotional was happening, and they just have like a cigarette like grafted to like their index finger.

And this was like four hours of gameplay until I finally just like binged to see like, how the fuck do I get rid of this?

Yeah.

And some of the people were like, yeah, no, it's just stuck there.

Like you're just like, yeah, it's just not.

Did you search it and then the first thing said cigarettes are back?

That was the issue.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's a Marlboro branded thing.

This game has glitches that feel like part of the game.

And I'll say this.

Like

I had a thing where before

Phantom Liberty came out, there's a mission where you're dealing with Johnny and you start to cyberwear glitch.

I mentioned this on the podcast because you experienced the same thing I did.

I'm talking about it happened and I was like, oh, so when is this going to stop?

Yeah.

It didn't stop.

I was playing the game for days.

Oh, you played it for days because I played for like an hour.

No, no, no, no, no, I played it for days.

Like, being like, This is kind of hard to play, but I'm gonna keep doing it.

And it's like

where the map is glitching, and then I'm like, Something is wrong because you're not supposed to be doing this.

So then I start looking it up, and I don't know how did you end up solving it?

I had to, I just had to reload

a save from before.

There was a much crazier thing, and this is the way i fixed it because if i didn't fix it i don't think i would have even played cyber a phantom liberty because it was like game ending for me i was like this is too hard the way i fixed it was there's one mission you have to do and it's the mission where you talk to the fucking the the the little like uh vending machine oh wow and i read like oh yeah like the only way to fix it is to

do finish the vending machine quest and it's this quest where you're like dealing with this ai who's like alive and then has a girlfriend by the end.

And so I did it.

And then you like look up and then the glitch was gone.

And I was like, that is a glitch, but it feels like I had to help this computer to help me.

And it was, it was like really satisfying when it, when it went away.

That's so funny.

So if anyone, and I think because I had played like three hours, I was like, I'm not going to start over.

Like, I have to fix it.

And then somewhere on Reddit, I read that that's how you fix it.

And it blew my mind.

So, and then there's other game endings, like breaking stuff where I couldn't do the Pan Am ending this playthrough because, and I wouldn't have, but I couldn't because one of the side quests I must have run up on too fast.

And when I ran up on the side quest, like it didn't materialize.

So it's just there as undone.

And I can never do it.

Oh, interesting.

And I just kept playing and I would have to go back way far to fix it.

And then I did another side quest where I like shot someone and he fell backwards onto the like thing I had to collect and I just couldn't collect it.

It's just like, oh man.

So it's like sometimes I'm like, that's just the game.

That's cyber.

That's fucking that city, baby.

I saw an NPC walk into a campfire and he wasn't supposed to, and everybody ran away startled.

And I was like, this, I know this isn't part of it.

But it feels like, I don't know.

It was a little annoying.

But a little while ago, Nick, you were saying.

that you didn't really you didn't really connect with songbird yeah i went all in on songbird No, I mean, look, I, I,

we'll get to it in a second

because you get, you get some choices in terms of what characters you're going along with.

That also reminds me of something.

So choices.

I felt like the choices in the Phantom Liberty felt more difficult to make and more impactful than some of the choices in the base game.

I agree with that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's, yeah, it's, it's, it's, yeah, you really feel like you're going to go with one side or the other and you're not really quite sure what the right decision is.

That's that's fun.

Not getting into spoilers, I did watch other endings for Cyber for Phantom Liberty, and I was really surprised at how different they are.

I have to go do that because I only did my one.

They're

surprisingly different.

And

one of those great things about it where it's like, maybe it's worth replaying.

Yeah, there's one ending, and then I don't know if you guys know this, but there is an ending that...

changes the actual ending of the game.

I did read this and I didn't watch it yet.

And I kind of watched it and I was like, that's fascinating.

Like, that's kind of what I wanted.

I didn't end up getting it because of the choices that I made in Phantom Liberty, but I did want it to kind of affect the ending.

Yeah.

And it does in a really interesting way.

There's the, this, I'll also talk this way, talk around spoilers here, but like in the, towards the ending, I, in the ending, I did pick, like, towards the end of that section, there's that, this falls into glitch territory.

Um, there is a moment where a character like says goodbye to you, and it's like, kind of like, it's kind of like a profound moment.

Um, and then they're like in a car and they like so they like give a goodbye and I don't know the pathic was messed up but they just drove directly into a parked car

yeah it's just

it's like kind of we're gonna look back at cyberpunk as this like really fun game yeah but there is this magic to it being broken yes well it's it's like because if that happened if like your

if like your dad dropped you off at the airport was like hey you know i'm proud of you son take care i'll see you around and then like he immediately drove into like a fucking FedEx truck.

That'd be the only thing you would remember from that experience.

It's like, I think you should leave Sketch.

It sounds like Tim Robinson is like, no.

Yeah.

This game is either one of the best, worst games, or one of the best games that sucks.

It's got that.

Because the thing is, and I don't even really mean that because it is good.

It has really great bones.

And

the improvements to the game have made it really sing and like uh i i think it's it's it's so it's so so great um but like stuff like that you just can't help but be like why isn't this

like why is this in this well i think it just goes back to like the original sin of them trying to build their own engine from scratch which is just you know it's hubristic and and so difficult and i i think they've they've done a lot with it this you know

refining things as much as possible, but yeah, kind of the foundation is kind of built on sand.

And I think that's, that's, that's a, would, would explain why they've decided to pivot to Unreal Engine for their other games moving forward.

So is that the case?

So yeah, they built an engine called CD Project Red built the red engine, which they were intending to use for all things moving forward.

They ended up pretty much just using it for this game.

I don't know if that's the main reason there are all these technical issues.

You know, I don't know enough about it,

but it like,

I don't know.

Like, I read in between the lines as codec kind of feels like it's is part, like they're kind of trying to work within those restrictions, but it's a, it's kind of a self-imposed problem.

I'll say this.

I don't know what the future is for cyberpunk in particular, but I would, if they opened up another section of this world and said we have another DLC, I would absolutely play it.

Oh, me too.

Oh, for sure.

I found myself this time being like, all right, now I'm going to go to the, this is why I have 111 hours.

It's like, now I go to the edge of every corner of the map and I'm like driving and I'm like, all right, what could be out there?

They turn you around very often, but there's like one point where like you're driving down this highway and there's this big guarded gate.

And like, if you can kill enough people, you can get pretty far.

But there's, it's just almost impossible, which I kind of love those things sometimes where it's like, you can't go this way.

So they throw a million bad guys at you.

But I could see a DLC where like you all of a sudden have to go this direction.

Yeah.

And I would be back in.

I'd totally play it.

The

Oh, I want to talk about some of the missions here.

Are we going to say something?

I was going to say, I don't think we've mentioned.

I I mean, we mentioned Reed a little bit.

Yeah.

It's Idris Elba.

It's fucking Idris Elba.

It's Idris Elba.

It's cool.

What do you guys think about the performance?

I think it's, you know what?

It's kind of like Keanu's performance, and that there are points when it may be, look, both great actors, both movie stars, both people I'm huge fans of.

I think there may be moments where I think the challenge of this kind of acting is like you're in a vacuum and maybe you're recording things in isolation, not, you know, not always playing off of the actor you're going to be

off of in the game.

Because there are, I think it's

a strong performance, but there are a few moments that feel oddly like just off.

Yeah.

It's not hard for an actor to read like, all right, you're going to say these corpos came down.

It's like, I played the game, I experienced it, and I barely know what happened.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So I can't imagine an actor being given 12 scenarios with all this shit, understanding anything.

So in that case, I'm like, this is a pretty good performance from Idris, I'd say.

There are some, I think it is good.

And also, there's a moment where

it's like the, because you get these hollow calls, and like, he's like, so he's looking like directly at you, and he's like disappointed in me.

I was like, felt so ashamed.

Yeah, oh my God.

Somebody that handsome is mad at me.

He's black Superman.

No, I do think it's good.

And I do think it's like this, it's a, there are strengths of, of the, it's, it's a strong decision to like, hey, here's Keanu, who's a fucking movie movie star.

Here's here's Idris, here's a fucking movie star, and they're going to be like the they're going to be stewarding you through this game.

I think those are strong decisions that really you know help anchor you in these realities.

Did you guys think that you could maybe fuck Idris out?

I was hoping, I was hoping that it was going to be some sort of thing, but they never give, they don't give it to you.

There's no romance, and there's, there's some moments where it feels like it's being teased like with uh Idris and other characters are like kind of walking up to that line.

Things are getting a little flirtatious, uh, but there's no like, you know, that's confirmed.

Like, there's no, I thought maybe Alex, there was a way.

That's what it felt like, too.

Alex in particular, there's a, there's a moment, and, and no, from what I've read, there's no romanceable NPCs.

I thought I was early on, I was like, I think this president wants to fuck.

How great, why wouldn't they do the president?

Why not let you know?

Could you imagine the end game where it's like, I'm about to go die, but I did fuck the president.

I guess I'm the first lady now.

Yeah, that's one, I guess that's a little bit of a disappointment.

There's also a side mission with like a pop star where I thought, oh, there must be some sort of thing.

Lizzy Wizzy, right?

Yeah, Lizzy Wizzy.

Yeah, there's that.

All that said,

I overall like the NPCs.

I love Kurt Hansen, who's the bad guy.

He's just such a great, like, especially for this moment, it feels like the right kind of piece of shit.

Like, who you'd view ruling a totalitarian,

ruling

as a despot in a neighborhood is like this type of guy.

The fastest kill I've ever done.

I was like, I can't wait to fucking kill this guy.

He rocks.

He's such a piece of shit.

I can't wait to kill him.

Yeah.

He's like this tatted up like, you know, fucking buff dude,

this like this like Blue Lives Matter type guy,

tap out t-shirt type guy.

And he's such a great piece of shit.

And

it makes sense as to why he's like ruling this area.

And I also think the missions in this are a real strength, which are a thing with, I mean, there's pretty good narrative design.

And there is some really strong narrative design in the base game.

But here, there's like the main missions that you're going down.

For instance, there's a boss fight that's pretty early on, which is with the Chimera, who's like a tank.

And the way that is kind of built up, where it starts off, and, you know, first off, there's this thing, this gigantic thing that's just covered with a sheet.

And you're like, okay, this is going to be something.

And then that gets hacked and taken over to work on your side.

And you're seeing this gigantic like spider tank like mowing down your enemies.

Super fun.

And then it turns on you and you have have to fight it.

And it's like a really fun boss fight.

It's like the best boss fight in the whole game.

It's got some like mechanical things.

Like it has a laser sweep that you have to either, you know, jump over or duck underneath, which is like very video gamey, but it's the thing that a lot of the boss fights in this game are largely missing.

Yeah.

Where they were just like pump a bunch of rounds into this fucking dude.

Yeah.

And I found that super duper fun.

And then there's a, I'll talk spoiler light about this.

This is not the end game, but this is later in this game.

There's an infiltration into like a party that is so metal gear and so satisfying because like you have to like put on a diving suit and like swim through the sewers, and then you have to like change your clothes and do like a party outfit.

You have to like do it, do the sniper assist while Idris is doing like a stealth mission and you're like watching from the other side.

And all that shit is just like so, so fun.

And because it's so linear

and

just thoroughly thought out, it creates some really great moments.

I loved those missions, like in the missions like that, in this part of the game in particular, because they felt so different than the other, like the base game missions, because I felt like in a lot of those scenarios, you could just go in and shoot everything.

Yeah.

But in these ones, you really have to do what the thing is that you're trying to do for the most part.

Yeah.

The way I was describing Spider-Man, the first one being a little bit of like, okay, I can kind of see the seams of this.

And the second one has this fluidity and adds all this new stuff i do feel it's the same with the original game and and phantom liberty and it makes me like i i maybe they're going to the unreal engine or whatever but it makes me i'm upset like if they were to take like five years and do a cyberpunk sequel in this world with these mechanics i bet they could make a fucking incredible game it just starts to make me think like god it's so annoying that they stop short where they did because where they end up is is great yeah like stuff is cool no i think there's there is a there's a future masterpiece in the cyberpunk 2077 world.

I think they're going to make another one and they're going to maybe build it

from scratch and it's going to be rad and it's going to come out in five years.

But

all that said, I think this is a really, really strong expansion and kind of standalone game in its own right.

Should we, do we have any other thoughts before we get into spoiler country?

Let's let's no, let's do it.

Let's let her rip.

Let's do it.

All right, let's saddle up and let's secure your hats and glasses.

Yee-haw.

Let's get into spoiler country.

We're going to talk about the

yeehaw.

So if you don't want to hear spoilers for the end game for Phantom Liberty and you hear them now, that's your own fault.

Do you have time to press pause or exit out to a different podcast?

No, but don't do that.

Actually, stay all the way to the bottom.

Just keep listening.

Just mute your volume and listen to this.

Yeah, let it play.

Okay, so you get, so basically, there are

a really clear moment in the end game or towards in the late game where you are given a choice, and it's either betray Reed, Idris Alba's character, or betray Songbird, who is the hacker who you've been working on.

And throughout, Songbird is saying, I have a cure.

There's a cure that if we go together, we can get this cure.

And we can.

We can get Johnny.

In the same way that you have like this Engram in your head, you have the malfunctioning

relic that's going to kill you.

I can cure you and cure myself.

Which is, you know, in the original game, you're like, okay, you know that all the endings kind of end in darkness.

Like, there isn't a cure ending, I don't think, in the original game.

So, to have that as a prospect, I thought was a really fun

thing to have.

And then, also, like, Idris Elba's character is just so shady from the beginning.

Like, you obviously know something's up with him.

So, it's, yeah, that decision point is really interesting.

What did you guys end up picking?

I chose,

I felt bad doing it because I liked him, but I chose to betray Reed

because it felt like

it felt like the like the

if there was like a good or an evil path, it felt like the good path was kind of falling with Songbird.

And I was like, I feel like I kind of just want to see what happens there.

Yeah, I did this.

I did the same thing because I just was like,

yeah, like

she, I sort of knew from the beginning that she was going to fuck me over because like that's how the comedy works.

Yeah.

But like

he

i don't know he like that i couldn't i couldn't support putting her back in that cycle uh that's that that she's been trying to break out of and also like

he works for the president this guy's a like that's a huge part this guy's eventually essentially works for the fbi or the cia or something like that this is not a good guy or this is not a good organization no i was like so uh i was like sorry reed got a hint multiple times that like reed has done some fucked up things in the past and he just doesn't have an arc that feels like there's re rehab like it doesn't feel like he's going on an arc it feels like he's going down a dark path yeah so and and i do think in reading like i think the good ending is taking song songbird's side but yeah and also as a writer it's hard for me to like do the bad choice because i'm like well if i'm writing this as a story clearly helps songbird but yeah yeah it's tough there is a good look though but from a writing perspective there's a good thing they do just before or like a little bit before that moment which is that again, awesome mission.

You have to overtake the identities of French twins.

Yes.

I love that trade.

It's so great.

It's so fucking so great.

More of that, I wanted.

Yeah.

I love that shit.

I love, because, again, it feels like Metal Gear or Mission Impossible.

It feels like you're really doing all the fucking espionage.

Yeah, it's espionage sort of shit that you aren't always doing in cyberpunk.

But

like, so you, you steal their identities,

you like knock them out, and then he takes them out of the car, and then he just executes them in cold blood.

And that happens like you know, about a half hour in real time before you have to make a decision in terms of who to portray.

That felt like a real tell of like, hey, this is the bad guy.

I think I agree.

I think that must have been the thing that was still in my head.

I was like, I can't trust this guy.

Yeah, he killed the fun French guy.

So you do that.

So did you also align with Songbird?

Oh, yeah.

So we all did the Songbird ending.

Then you kind of like have a pretty extended like additional mission because I was like, you meet her up later and you smuggle her to a spaceport to try to launch her to the moon, very edge runners.

Yes.

And I was like, okay, well, we're just going to sneak through the spaceport and we're going to be good to go.

But no, there's like a whole bunch of combat you go through there.

There's some stealthing that you have to do.

And then there is a, and ultimately, a moment you have with Reed where you encounter him again.

I like when you show up to the spaceship and Reed walks out.

I'm like, this is classic video game shit.

Yeah.

Really felt like, oh, fuck, I betrayed Reed and now he's here and he's mad at me.

He's right behind me.

I do think that, look, this is the thing.

You got to, at a certain point, you either have to hand him over, hand her over to him, or you got to fucking shoot Idris Elba.

Yeah.

Like it's the fucking wire.

Yeah.

Like your brother Mazon.

And it's like, I chose to shoot him.

Yeah.

It is the kind of, like, though.

It's a video game-y kind of thing.

This is nitpicky, but like they put a revolver in your character's hand so you can do this moment.

And it's a revolver my character has never used up to this point.

And it's the kind of thing that's like, ah, is there a better way to do this?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Because it just sort of like magically appears.

And you have other weapons.

Exactly.

I wouldn't have used this wolf one revolver.

I'm not sure what is important about that.

I would have used my mantis blades and cut his head off.

Exactly.

It just kind of breaks the immersion a little bit.

And I whatever, but it, but it's the kind of thing where I feel like that a game that's where a game is trying to be a movie and they're like okay well we want to have this moment where they're pointing guns at each other and someone pulls the trigger first Yeah, but I don't know it just kind of took me out of it at kind of the climactic moment.

Can I tell you that I

I got the timing wrong twice and he killed me twice?

You mean this the easiest thing in the game where they slow it down?

Well, it's so funny.

Like I sometimes I wondered, I was like, what happens if I let him shoot me?

You know, I know that the game might have some sort of ending, but it doesn't seem that way in this.

No, you can fail this quest early on if you like leave or like

when you initially when you

When the president crashes like the very beginning of the Phantom Liberty, you could fail it and then songbird is like you really fucked us on this and then leaves and then you're just locked out of it.

Oh, wow.

That's wild.

I didn't know that.

That's really funny.

I had a moment where I died in that section because like it's like the point where the president and Idris elbow they like landed on the roof, and then you're like sneaking in the tunnels, but but like eavesdropping their conversation.

Yeah, but I didn't realize I was supposed to wait for Songbird at certain points.

I just like kind of kept going, and then I guess I got spotted and they like threw a grenade at me or something like that.

But I was like, it was just one of those things where it's just like, oh, this is this is super linear.

I just kind of have to follow, get to these scripted points.

I loved being that sequence in particular.

It is cool.

Yeah, yeah, the sequences that I think the opening sequence, especially with all the fucking shit going down and the explosions, and like that opening sequence of Phantom Liberty is incredible.

So fun.

It's so great.

Yeah.

Did you guys shoot Idris Elba?

Yeah, I did.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's so funny because I do think the game gives you a pretty clear path to go down.

And to make, to go outside of it feels like just such a specific choice I can never make.

But then when I read about what happens, I'm like, oh, it kind of sounds like it sucks.

Yeah.

So apparently, if you do hand over

Songbird to Idris here, this is where you get another ending to the game where

spoiler country.

Yeah.

You get, you get, do you know what the ending is?

Should I tell you guys?

Tell you guys.

Yeah, tell us.

You can tell us.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So you do get cured.

Oh, wow.

You go, you get picked up by Idris Elva.

They take you in a helicopter.

I think you text all your friends and then they cure you.

I'm getting cured today.

Yeah, but the really fucked up, and I think cool cyberpunk ending is that you wake up two years later.

Oh, you've been in a coma for two years and you lose all your friends because they all thought you abandoned them.

So you have no friends and you also lose all your cyberware because

something happened where like you're tainted forever.

You can never use cyberware.

So you become like just a fucking plebe and you basically like get mugged and can't defend yourself.

And then you meet Misty again.

Oh, wow.

And Misty is there and she's like.

her shop is closed and Misty's like more cyberpunk than ever.

Like she's one of the characters I felt like felt a little outside the world of the game.

But in this ending, she's like totally the same.

And she's like, I'm going.

And this is a cool spoiler country.

Cool Eastern.

Three levels

for Witcher.

We're three levels deep.

She says she's going to move to like, I guess, someplace in Europe and become a Witcher.

Wow.

So there is a connection to Witcher.

And then, but basically, like, yeah, you are V and you can make a bunch of choices there.

And I believe the choices are like, you could be really pissed about what happened or you could be kind of cool with it.

And then I think you end up being a fixer or something.

Oh, wow.

So it's a cool ending where it is kind of sad, but it also like,

I don't know, it feels like the, a really hopeful ending where it's like, you're not a merc anymore and you can kind of make your life however you want.

It's interesting.

When I was watching it, I was like, oh, this is fun.

Yeah, I got to watch all these.

Yeah.

And so I didn't do that.

And yeah, I guess some of the other, we didn't, so we all did the same mission.

That's so funny that we all did the same way.

But to your point, it does sort of feel like they lead you that way, kind of.

Yeah, there's multiple endings, but I think it's like the Pan Am thing.

I think we're just all horny.

Yeah.

Like Songbird.

Yeah,

yeah, yeah.

It's really tough because

I will say when I ended the game with Pan Am the first time and I like end up looking up and I was like, this is most of the ending that everyone picks because

I felt kind of dumb.

I was like, you know, and this time.

No, I feel dumb now.

This time the Pan Am.

Feel like a fucking

Pan Am ending was locked out for me because I couldn't do that one side mission in the Badlands.

So I had to do a different one.

And I chose.

All the horniest ones were available to me.

Well, I chose the one where you let Johnny take over and storm the thing.

And I love that ending too.

Like, I thought that was a really cool ending that I was glad to have experienced.

Did you get the there's there's a mission?

So like after the mission where you you go to the party and uh

uh you like you infiltrate it, then you escape.

There's like you'll just be walking around the stadium and there's a couple couple of random mercs who like get your attention.

And there's a mission, there's a side mission there where you go in and you play as Kurt Hansen a little bit.

Johnny Silverhand style.

Oh, I didn't do that.

That was, that mission's rad.

So I think you're locked out of it once you finish Phantom Liberty, but I'm glad that I experienced it because it is kind of like a, it's a really, it's like this dude, he's like a new recruit and he's talking about like how he joined up and he's like, and then like Kurt Hansen beat the shit out of him.

Oh, I did do that one.

Yeah, and then you flash back into him and you like beat up this guy as Kurt Hansen.

And then you have this whole mission you play him.

That one was cool.

It was really cool.

I did that one really early on, I think, because I was just obsessed with doing the side missions and powering up.

Did you guys do the one where you get to be like the Colombian or the Cuban crime lord?

No.

So there's one.

Is that in Phantom Liberty?

That's in Phantom Liberty.

Yeah, where you get to go.

I think it might be post, if I remember correctly, it's like it's post Phantom Liberty, actually, because there's a couple of loose ends that you have to wrap up.

And then so you,

in the same way that you can assume the role of the French twins, you get this data shard that like makes you look like this

Cuban crime lord.

I can't remember what her name is, but she fucking she rocks.

Wow.

And you go to,

there's two new

people that are vying for the Kurt Hanson spot.

And you, as the Cuban Crime Lord outsider, get to influence who actually gets to

run.

Oh my God.

I forgot about that.

Well, because I finished Spider-Man yesterday,

but I totally did that one.

Yeah, it is where you get to decide hammerhead or something.

Yeah, I'm trying to decide who I even picked to be in charge.

I don't know if you guys are.

There's like this like shrimpy guy.

I guess it was.

Yeah, it was between it was between Mysterio, Dr.

Octopus, and the lizard.

And then he actually went with Madame Wen.

But the

There's like a shrimpy guy, and then there's like another big guy, and then you, it's Mr.

Hands sends you to, which, by the way, I think Mr.

Hands is like they like recast Mr.

Hands, I think, in the, in this, uh, and like for the base game, too.

Uh, oh, interesting.

It's a new voice actor.

I think it's a new voice actor.

It's a, it's, he is really prominent in this.

Like, he's like the NPC who's kind of pulling all the strings.

And he's got story implications inside of

Phantom Liberty.

And Mr.

Hands, call him Mr.

Face.

This guy's handsome.

They do show his face.

He's got a pretty hair.

He's got a cool mustache.

But like, so yeah, Mr.

Hands actually sends you on this on this quest.

And

because he wants to just make it keep it.

Yeah, I remember that one.

That's the last Mr.

Hands thing.

Yeah.

I did do that.

And it's like in this weird like candle lit thing.

It's like you go to his,

you see Kurt Hanson's open cast.

Yeah, and you're like, huh.

Just like, I think we like shot him to hell.

I guess we did that.

Yeah.

You know, oh, speaking of the like fixers, there's another fixer.

I think it's the guy who makes you do all the car quests.

Yeah.

He sounds like Robert Smeigel doing Tr Triumph, the Insult Comic Book.

He's like, hey, Joom, I got a thing.

It's like...

For me to poop.

Yeah, exactly.

I'll say another thing I dislike about this game is I hate the driving.

I don't think the driving is fixed in this version.

And the...

You're insane.

I hate it.

It's a little better, but

I'm mostly with this then.

It's a little bit more.

I hate it.

And the motorcycle.

I use the motorcycle, but the thing that I hated were those missions that randomly popped up where you had to steal a car and then drive them to a garage.

Yes.

I read that they randomly

the amount of time, or no, not the amount of time, but they randomly assign the end point.

There's multiple places you can go.

So there are some that you just physically cannot do.

You are too far away.

And people were saying, like, if you want to do them, you should just quit out or like save before and then save your last checkpoint.

And it'll be a place that's much closer.

That's interesting.

And it made me mad because those are almost impossible to do.

Like the ones where it's like, don't take any damage or get there before this time.

It just couldn't be done.

I got locked out of a couple of those because, because yeah it was too far but i didn't realize that also the um i kind of wish that uh the

and this is just like a base game complaint but i wish that the the delamain missions where you have to go reconnect the the lost cars with like the hub uh dela main would um

like

I would be in a mission

and it would pop up and then that dialogue would sort of play over the other dialogue dialogue that's from the previous.

And I'm like, they got to like make it so that like outside dialogue, outside missions can't start while you're in a mission.

Right.

I also was really mad that that quest did not end with me getting Delamain to fast travel me around the city.

Like I thought it was going to end with like, now I have an automated car to get in and I can start the rest.

That's really good.

I really wanted that.

And it just, I don't know.

But yeah.

I played that the first time I played.

I did that whole questline the first time I played through the game.

And this time when the first one popped, I was like, not doing any of these.

No, not doing any of the delivery.

I did do one.

I'm not doing any of the car thefts either because it was just like, it's just dull to me.

I did do one recently or today, earlier today, and

I stopped a car from killing itself.

Yeah.

And I was like, this is funny.

I actually kind of drive off the cliff.

I did them again.

And I thought, you know what?

I like the variants of these where it's like, all right, ones you have to fight, one you have to chase.

The one that's like beep, beep, motherfucker.

That's funny.

Yeah, I thought that was funny.

And the thing about the driving, it's like it's, I don't think it's fixed, but I like that there's bad guys driving around shooting at each other or you.

I thought that's cool.

And then I don't know if you could do this before, but now you can have the katana out while you're on your motorcycle.

And it's that is pretty sick.

Yeah.

That's the best.

I, I mean, I loved it.

I, I, I am intending to go home and finish it before I start Spider-Man 2.

Um, but I

think this game

is like it's so much better at than it was at launch.

And I liked it at launch.

I like we all finished finishing.

Yeah, yeah, I

it's like I don't like the phrase warts and all, partly because I think the warts are gross, but it is useful here.

This is like a this is a very much a warts and all experience.

It was, there were a lot more warts when you're when it came out at launch.

You had to forgive a lot more.

Here, you had to forgive just like a little bit of like bugs and jank and some just is so perfect.

It's

but it's so good.

It's so perfectly in the world, though.

Yeah.

Bugs and janks.

Like when I saw someone T-posing this time around, I was like, dude, Cyberware is malfunctioning.

I can, in my head, make all of it make sense.

And that's kind of the magic of the game.

Like, honestly, me playing the game for three hours with the relic thing going on, like

that, I wouldn't do that in another game.

But this game, something about it, it's like hypnotically like perfect, even with all its flaws.

I think it's great.

Yeah, I'm playing on PC and every every time I exit out of the game, it crashes.

It's such a crash of course.

Like, this feels funny.

I feel like, yeah, the relic.

There you go.

Can I do

that funny?

Any other thoughts?

No.

I love it.

I can't wait for more cyberpunk in the future.

I'm just having a blast.

And, you know, the autumn of cyberpunk is coming to a close.

But, you know, before it does come to a close, it's time for the you play of our we play you play.

It's your review crew on Cyberpunk Phantom Liberty.

It's the Ryu crew.

Hadouken.

And

these are sourced from our Discord, discord.gg slash get played.

Getting on the fun over there.

Distin, you a Discord guy?

You know, I've got the Discord for comedy bang bang world, but I'm not on other discords.

But I have heard it's where I can find it video game friends.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Well, I didn't mean specifically our Discord.

I meant just a Discord.

Well, I should pop into one Discord every once in a while.

Not too much.

Discord, Diston.

That's some great synergy.

Dude.

All right.

I gotta have my own Discord.

It's just me talking to myself.

You heard one thing, and you're like, I gotta do it.

I gotta do it.

It's too clean.

Welcome to the Sean Discord.

Yes.

Show up to the Sean Distin Discord.

The Sean Score.

The Sean Scord, but I guess we're talking.

Yeah.

All things Sean.

That's funny.

This one's from, and some of the people in our Discord have spooky names right now because it's Halloween.

This one is from Six Wires from Ghost Ship.

As someone who bought it at launch and fizzled quickly, 2.0 slash Phantom Liberty has brought me back.

And the more time I spend with the game, the more I love it.

Absolutely phenomenal resurrection.

I agree.

Yeah.

They did a great job.

They did a great job.

We've belabored it by the way.

Let me ask you guys this.

So we've definitely like, we can look look at the things they improved and we're like, those are great.

If they were to do another full game, what would be things that you'd be like, you got to get better at this specifically?

The game should work.

Well, yeah.

I mean, working aside, like glitches aside, like, is there quality of life stuff or is there story stuff you'd want to change or just more of the same kind of?

It's a great question.

And I don't know enough about the cyberpunk war, the existing war to know what other, you know, possible biomes are, but I'd want it to be in a different city.

I feel like I've seen enough Night City.

Really?

And I really like the.

We're talking about the density and the compactness of Phantom Liberty.

I really would be interested in some of the stuff they have in Edge Runners, where

we're probably just getting into me liking public transit, but like Edge Runners, they've got like the train that you go around.

It feels like a much more alive.

Is it a different city?

No, it's also said in Night City, but it's like, so

maybe the Edge Runners version of Night City is one way to go, but just like having the neighborhoods feel a little bit more compact and there's a little bit more alive.

there's more stuff going on.

For me, just a taste-wise sort of thing, I kind of would like to see a little bit less like I still feel like there's some GTA kind of edgelord comedy in this.

And I just like that that to me is a little bit of a turnoff.

I need to see a billboard for the ass eating restaurants.

There's a lot of it.

And I do think the, but I do think the writing is generally pretty strong.

So I feel like it kind of just doesn't need that stuff.

And there's, there are ways to make the world seem like crass and heartless and, you know, dystopian without just playing that card all the time.

I would want a

like a, like you were mentioning, like a fast travel option that isn't locked to one of those portals that you have to go to.

Cause sometimes like I like driving around Night City fine, but sometimes if it's like.

If it's above a thousand or

I'm not doing it.

It's annoying.

And having just played Spider-Man with the like instant fast travel, it's like it can be done.

But like, also, but to that point too, though, I'd be surprised.

I'd be interested to see how often I do do the fast travel in Spider-Man because the traversal in that game is most of the fun.

It was like just swinging around New York City is a blast.

Yeah.

I guess, yeah, I just needed to finish this thing.

Like, I was really breezing through it.

But I did, there's a lot of traversal in missions and stuff.

I think if I wanted to fix cyber or not fix, but the things I would want is I don't want another, I don't want to see V again.

i think it needs to be like an anthology like new story new setup for sure you could do a new city i guess night cities like la

i don't know like there are a lot of allusions to la

i think i could do new york more dense more packed vertical city um but yeah i mean i think just for me it would just be a new story and

maybe a bunch of smaller new stories like a phantom liberty style as opposed to a big giant convoluted game could be interesting yeah i boy they really

think just following up some of the threads that are established in Phantom Liberty in terms of just like, yeah, the mission structure and just like the, there's some of that stuff.

There's some cool infiltration that you're doing in the base game of Cybermove, which is like more of that stuff, more of those more elaborate, multi-stage missions where it's not all combat.

And you know what else I would like?

And this is partly Baldur's Gate 3 stuff, but like, I just like more ways to get out through scenarios without combat.

Right.

Dialogue your way.

Yeah, exactly.

That's fun to me.

And

there are times when it feels a little bit restrictive in terms of what your options are.

I thought the cool, I mean, when you are maxed out and cool, you can talk your way out of something.

You can, a few things, but there's also times where it's just like, you know what, there's just going to be a bunch of waves of enemies and you just got to stand here and kill them all.

Yeah.

I wouldn't mind a third-person patch.

Yeah.

I don't have to do it.

I will say that in this playthrough, I was more like, this game would be so different if it wasn't this first person.

And I was starting to enjoy the storytelling of like your your own perspective.

Yeah, but there were definitely times like when you get on the motorcycle and you're like, He's there, I could just, why not just do this?

Yeah, it is cool to see your character on the motorcycle.

I'm torn in the first person, third person.

Me too.

I can't tell if it would break the game or not.

Maybe it'd have to just be a whole new game if you're going to do third person and just give me the world of cyberpunk again.

I don't know.

This next one is from Boo Nagi Roll.

Boo Nagi Roll.

Very clever.

Very like, I like it.

Cyberpunk is finally

cyberpunk is finally a complete game and it fucking rips.

Yeah, everyone's just like, this is good.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, I don't know if you could really complain about if you liked at all the original.

If you played at 20 hours of the original, this is so much better.

Yeah, it's good.

That's interesting because a lot of times when they make huge changes to something, there will still be somebody who's like, is like, ah, they ruined it.

And I don't feel like I've heard any of that about this game.

I feel like it's been universally positive.

This next one's from Mr.

Jones.

Hi, Mr.

Jones.

Spooky.

Spooky.

So scared.

I was going to read it.

I was so scared.

Oh my god, Mr.

Jones without me?

Oh, though, Mrs.

Jones.

Move over, Z-Boys.

There's a new Lord of Dogtown, and their name is V.

Wow.

Referencing the Dogtown and Z-Boys skateboarding documentary and later feature film and reference the Dogtown neighborhoods.

I wonder if there are Easter eggs.

Like, I wonder if there's like a little skate park or something in there, like, or an empty pool or something.

There were parts of the the map this time around that i straight up did not go to like i just like i was just kind of following story around and i wasn't i was fast traveling a lot so i wasn't seeing as much of the city so like even on my way to the final mission it was like saying new area like this very basic place wait in dogtown oh not in dogtown because like dogtown's small enough but like in in all of night city i was like i'm still finding new areas you can skip out on huge parts and like i like clearing all the like police like report report stuff yeah and i think maybe in the old game it automatically came up but you have to be near it now for it to pop up so there's some that i just am not gonna search for right but yeah the gigs are weird too this this is a the the the the gigs are weird too because it's just like you have to be in the right place and then you get like a text or a phone call about a mission that's happening right there yeah but it feels like there are times i was like wait i but i i thought i could go to the person who assigns me the gigs and they could tell me where to go but it's not like that it's more trying to encourage you to explore the map yeah a little weird um Um, something has happened in our Discord where I guess people in the Discord have been sharing um photo mode photos of uh their Vs standing next to trash and hashtagging them Dereleaked, like from Zoolander.

Very funny.

So that's very funny.

So a lot of

uh uh

screenshots uh in here uh with um I'll say

to put some of you on blast, essay length comments.

So

a little too long.

Yeah, a little too long to be read

here in the time that we have.

This next one is from

Erwin Plays Bass.

Hi, Erwin.

Hello, Erwin.

Sounds like Erwin plays the bass.

That'd be my assumption.

Yeah.

Still buggy as hell, but oh my God, it's so much fun.

Yeah.

It's like, everyone's sort of just like, this is good.

There's nobody's really saying anything that's like, it's, I don't like it.

I'm just trying to think of something like a game with like bugs in them, like insects.

but I couldn't think of one.

A bug's life on bugs life.

Yeah, it's still buggy as hell, but a lot of fun.

Sounds like whatever this is.

What is this?

Yeah, Bug's Life on the phone.

Yeah, what is Bugs Net?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Something like that.

Something.

We'll work it out.

We'll figure it out.

This one's from Playing Card Fiend.

Hi, Playing Card Fiend.

And they write, I'm not saying that there's better games in the cyberpunk genre, but Ghostrunner 2 comes out soon.

If y'all haven't played Ghost Runner, you're missing out.

People love Ghostrunner.

My understanding is it's it's like much more of a platformer

really good things you couldn't get into it i got it thinking oh this must be a dlc for you know cyberpunk i'll play it and i understand what it's trying to do but i a first-person platformer is really frustrating to me yeah mirror's edge did it well back in the day felt very mirror's edge okay i i don't know i'm curious i might give it a go Did you play part two specifically?

No, I think part two is coming out soon.

Is that what they said?

It's coming out shortly.

Yeah, I haven't.

I didn't even play a few hours of the original.

I couldn't get into it.

But I do think I should watch the anime.

There is a side mission in the real game now where you just find a like visor and you put it on and it plays a long scene from the anime.

Did you guys

know?

Yeah, it's just some random side mission in regular Night City where you just pick it up and it's like, check this out.

Basically, it's saying, go watch the anime.

And it's pretty cool.

But Ghost Runner is its own thing.

Ghost Runner is the game.

Edge Runner is a cyberpunk.

Edge Runner is the anime.

Yeah.

And then Jerry, Jerry Bell dude writes, Awesome DLC.

Sure, even with new update cyberpunk is still rough around the edges, but I was happy to revisit Night City.

The end credits song at the end of Phantom Liberty was an absolute banger.

Yeah, it was a rad song.

Yeah, I think when the titles drop on Phantom Liberty, you're like, damn, that was a good sort of fun ending, good song.

Love that they roll credits on the DLC.

I think it's great.

And there are people who probably just play that now.

And I think it would be just as satisfying to just be in Dogtown and finish the game that way.

I think it'd be fun.

And then finally, this one's from Obi-Wan Kenobi.

What's up, Obi-Wan?

I emphasize that because Wan is spelled not W-A-N.

Exactly.

J-U-A-N.

Got it, got it.

Love it.

It's really fun.

I'm someone who got the full version of the game for the first time because of the DLC.

Are there other games that have made you purchase them because of DLC?

This is a good question.

Yeah.

I know a lot of people got into Witcher 3

when their big DLC came out.

Yeah, another CD Project Red game.

I mean, like, yeah,

that's a good example.

I mean, I'm trying to think of the,

you know, you know what?

Honestly, like the Diablo 3, even though I had Diablo 3 and I played it as, you know, in its original state, it's when they, when they had the DLC and when they real, like, especially when they figured out how to make it control while on console, um, they added controller support and uh, or I can't remember if they added controller support.

I'm forgetting the sequence of events, whether that was the first release for console, was the DLC, was the expansion, or if they added,

at minimum added like the roll, the dodge that you could do on the controller in Diablo 3.

They made it much more playable

and a lot more fun.

And I ended up putting way, way more hours into it post-DLC for Diablo 3.

So that's one that comes to mind.

But you got to look up what it is.

Yeah, it feels a little unprecedented for, I mean, it's the combination of the DLC and the 2.0 patch.

Right.

Those two things make it kind of feel like a new world, but I don't know if I've seen a game that's.

And there's just so much messaging about the game being fixed.

Right.

Like, I don't know if I'm going into a game that I didn't love being like, what's the DLC like?

It's like, right.

So it's, yeah.

Yeah.

Reaper of Souls was the Diablo 3 expansion.

I can pull the name.

I read that they spent something, some ungodly amount of money on the combination 2.0 and Phantom Liberty.

I had something like a $170 million budget or something like that.

I mean, did they make that money back?

I'm sure they did that.

I'm sure they did, yeah.

I'm sure they will.

Yeah, because you don't pay for 2.0, but you pay for Phantom Liberty.

So, yeah, maybe they made that money back.

But I think they're encountering both people who are, you know, like the game and are buying Phantom Liberty, but then also what we just experienced with

people playing this game for the first time.

Yeah, I'm trying to think of any other examples.

There have definitely been some civilizations that didn't pick up until they had some DLC.

It's tough.

It's just because a DLC basically is like, if you like this, here's more.

There just isn't versions of here's more that got me to like something that I didn't like.

Yeah.

You know?

And that's it for this week's Ryu crew.

And that brings us to the end of this week's Get Clade, eh, Nick?

Wow.

Can I put something out to you?

John, I said we're done.

No, no, no.

I got to put something out to the Discord.

I have mentioned to you, Matt, that I've wanted to come on the pod and talk about Machinima.

Oh, yes.

And

basically, this is like people using the like Grand Theft Auto engine to make short movies and stuff.

Right.

And I've not really, I like, I, every time I go down this rabbit hole, I want to do it.

I want to get a gaming PC so I can both play Phantom Pain like created levels that people created on their own.

I got to do that.

But I want to get into Machinima.

I want to be able to make like a GTA 5 short film.

Yeah.

So I want the people on your Discord to contact me and tell me what computer to buy.

Tell me all the information I need.

Hey, if you want to send me the computer, just do it.

Oh, okay.

Maybe you have an, I guess the mission.

So what I'm understanding is.

Maybe you have an old one that you are not using anymore.

You want to send to me.

Yeah.

And I will make a really funny short.

So the call to action is contact Sean and send him a computer.

Send me your parts or your, maybe you just have a like sound card or something you're not using.

Send it to me.

And I want to get into this.

I think it's something that

I'm surprised Heather's not into this already.

It feels like a thing that Heather would pick up and be incredibly good.

I mean, it's definitely something that we should talk to you about at length for another episode because it's very interesting.

And

your specific fandom of it is fascinating.

I've watched some of the craziest bullshit online.

Like, there's a guy who's made an entire Justice League level series of movies where he's created like six superheroes in Grand Theft Auto and then there's like a team-up movie and I've watched all of it just being fascinated by how it's made and there's now a whole like just website based on machinima and they like fund these movies by directors and they look incredible like there are some good fucking movies in there and I just have such access to talent like I have all these voice actors that I could use so I want to get good at it so if you have a computer hey maybe you're a rich benefactor and you want to to buy me a gaming computer and send it to me.

That's second.

If you're rich and you listen to this show, you need to give us money.

Okay, that's got to be simple.

I'm mostly kidding, but I do want to get into it.

So I'm like kind of reminding myself.

I'm kidding too.

But yeah.

Sean, anything else you want to plug?

No, you know, I got Degis Scott hasn't seen with

Scott Ackerman.

We watch movies.

We talk about him.

You guys have been on the show.

We talked about Super Mario Brothers movie.

And yeah, it's really fun.

We're having a lot of fun over there.

What did you think of the new Ninja Turtles movie?

I enjoyed it, but I didn't love, love it.

Like, I thought it was good.

I just think it wasn't made for me.

Because you are a TMNT, I would say, super fan.

I'm a big, big fan, but but then the truth of it, and I think a lot of people,

this is true for a lot of people in Star Wars.

It's like you can be a big fan of something, but like, do how much of it do you actually like?

And

the like, the it's probably like 25% that I love.

A lot of it is bullshit.

Yeah, so I'm a fan, but I also know Ninja Turtles is hit or miss.

But I thought the good the new movie's good, and I think younger people than me will really love it.

But yeah, I don't think it was for me.

Did you guys see it?

I did see it, and I liked it.

I laughed.

I laughed out loud a lot.

Yeah, I laughed.

But I guess I'm not going to a Ninja Turtles movie necessarily to laugh.

I guess, yeah.

And that's what I discovered watching this.

I'm like, okay.

But it has your favorite joke in comedy.

In

not this one, but in previous Ninja Turtles.

I guess my favorite joke is when they say,

they go, oh, it's a little empty, a little too empty.

Yeah.

Oh, that was easy.

A little too easy.

And they go, that's raff.

A little too raph.

Yeah.

That's one of the best jokes ever written.

Yeah.

Well, and then this week on Get Animate, we will be discussing the final two episodes of Cyberpunk Edge Runner.

That's right.

That's a nice bit of synergy that kind of worked out for us.

The Cyberpunk Edge Runners, we're wrapping up over on GetAnimade, patreon.com/slash get played.

Uh, to so check that out.

Uh, also, thanks to our engineer, Alex Gonzalez, Dead Air Alex G on Twitter and Instagram.

And uh, and Sean, um, don't wait, wait, wait, wait, no, come on, Joom,

Joom.

I'm just about to delta.

Don't

don't do it.

You got played, Sean.

I'm T-posing.

What's up, everybody?

I'm Kyle Mooney.

And what's up, everybody?

I'm back by.

And man, ooh, we got something to tell you.

Oh, yeah, we definitely do.

Yes, it's a brand new podcast on Headgum.

That's right.

And it's called What's Our Podcast?

Yep.

And that's because we don't have a single idea what our podcast should be about.

Yeah, we don't.

So we actually have guests come on and they tell us what they think our podcast should be about and then we try it.

Yep.

Guests like Mark Maron, Jack Black, Brittany Broski, Kate Berlin, Bobby Moynihan, Make Stalter, and Tim Ball.

Landon Axler.

Joey.

Joni McGrees.

And Dender.

And Dender.

New episodes release every Wednesday.

So subscribe to What's Our Podcast?

On YouTube or any of your favorite podcast platforms.

Yeah.

I'm going to go do it right now.

I'm Tignotaro.

I'm Mae Martin.

And I'm Fortune Themester.

And together, we're handsome.

What is handsome?

Well, it's a state of mind.

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Handsome is also a podcast hosted by us, three stand-up comedians you may have seen on your TV.

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Every episode, we answer a question from a celebrity friend, people like Sarah Silverman.

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So if you're looking for a positive, joyful show guaranteed to make you giggle, check out Handsome.

Jump right in with whatever episode tiggles your fancy, or start from the very first episode.

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