Dialogue Tree: Character Creation

Behold, newborn souls,

you are about to be born on Earth,

and for this process, you are allowed to build your own character.

You can create yourself in the image that you see fit, and then experience those joys and shortcomings as part of your journey through life.

Young Matt Oppotaka.

What kind of character would you like to be?

You know,

I.

Okay, so this is what I would like.

I would like.

I don't know what the words are for this.

I would like it for people to see me and think I'm nice and that I'm having a good time.

That's like sort of like the main vibe I want put put out there for sure.

These traits are granted to you, my son.

You shall enter a room, and people will be uplifted by your charisma and your general sense of well-being and place.

And now, you,

Nick Wyder,

your body and mind shall be designed by you here in the pre-life.

So choose your character.

Ascribe yourself, your athleticism.

Yeah, you got it locked and loaded.

Default.

Hit me with a default.

For athletic?

Sure.

For athleticism, you can be default.

No, I kind of meant just like a blanket default.

Just hit me with all the defaults.

But this is

part of the pleasure of being born

is choosing the the

porpoise that you shall inhabit.

So perhaps, how would you like to

sound?

Would you like a uh

perhaps a twang in your voice or

an extremely high or low voice?

Right, so like a description of like kind of like the tenor of my voice.

Uh, I think the best word I could use to describe that is default

default,

My son, I'm concerned about your experience of life.

Uh-huh.

Would you like perhaps to have

a magnetism?

Or a sexual charisma?

Perhaps you want to be a

lover instead of a fighter.

Hey, you know, that actually sounds pretty good.

I think I'll

take all that stuff at sort of a default level.

That'd be awesome.

All right, I'm just going to go down the sheet here.

Wisdom.

Default.

Default.

Two words.

Default.

Okay,

I'll just default the rest of these.

Default.

Can I have some of his extra?

Yes, you may, my son.

Yes, you may.

We repeatedly hit randomize and customize our genitalia as we discuss character creation and video games this week on Get Played.

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

It's time to get played.

I'm your host, Heather Ann Campbell, along with my fellow host, Nick Weiger.

Oh, that's me, Nick Weiger, and I'm here with our third host, Matt Abadaka.

Hello, everyone.

Hello, everyone.

And welcome back to the Premiere Video Game Podcast, where, I don't know, maybe this week.

Maybe this week we're going to talk about stuff we love.

Maybe we're going to talk about stuff we hate, but we'll definitely be talking and it will probably be about video games.

I think it'll, yeah, it's generally mostly about video games.

There's some tangents, but I think that's why we're all here.

That's

that's how conversation works, right?

You're not just going to ever only talk about one thing forever.

Sometimes you'll be talking about something and that's, you know, through the magic of storytelling, through the magic of engaging with one another, somebody might say, hey, that reminds me of something.

You you know family guy is the perfect uh template for this actually we try to model the show off of family guy wait what

this show if you really stop down and and listen to it it it is like no big family guy energy it's a fan it's definitely a sort of a family guy sort of vibe it's not quite like american dad or the cleveland show where it's a direct spin-off more like a a Brickleberry where it's kind of like a, you know, I don't, I mean, like, I, I literally write for a different cartoon.

I i don't know why we can't heather you're sounding like a real meg right now oh what

the shark

yeah

oh god okay

even imagine

the time that the meg bit me

what

and then the meg is meg yeah

oh no the meg and then he like harpoons her because that's i don't know what the fuck you guys are talking about not seen a single second of the seminal works of seth mcfarlane I literally haven't.

You gotta watch Family Guy.

It's funny.

Here's the thing about Family Guy.

I haven't watched it in years.

Anytime I'm in a hotel room and I put it on, T-minus five minutes, I'm laughing my ass off.

It's a funny show.

Funny people raid for it.

Just like almost like near crying.

Who's your guy?

I like Quagmire.

I know he's problematic, but he's funny.

You know what?

it's basic

but i'm a stewie guy stewie fucking gets me everybody is that the is that the baby the baby baby yes that's the baby yeah uh stewie he's like he's brain from animaniacs or does kind of like kind of like brain like him yeah instead of like instead of like trying to destroy the world he wants to uh kill his mom at least in the early go what

yeah his whole thing is that he hates lois see this show the show is intense it's good it's funny He's funny.

I'll go as far to say, and I know we talked about this, I think, on a different show.

I think Stewie is the bender of Family Guy.

Everything he says and does is funny.

That's a big, because, like, Brian is really funny.

Oh, God, Brian.

Brian.

Yeah.

Brian is great.

I don't know if I'd go that far because I feel like Bender is so clearly

just like throwing haymakers.

You know what I mean?

Bender, yeah, it's true.

I don't know if Bender hasn't a direct allegory or he's not analogous to any character in any show because, as I stated, I think on Get Animate, he's the funniest character to ever be created.

There's nobody, there's not a single character on television that's funnier than

Bender.

I almost said Kramer, which I don't mean.

Well, you also got it wrong.

Because if you look, like, it's really, it's kind of a smaller core cast, I feel like, on Futurama, right?

It's really just like Fry, Leela, and Bender are kind of the big three.

And, you know, Zoid Berg and, you know, Zap Brannigan or whoever like pop in there, but it's not like they're like as, yeah, they're, they're not as present, you know, as those big three are in every storyline.

But this is how good Bender is.

Uh-huh.

Every single of the other characters that you mentioned

are also so funny.

They're all good.

None of them are stinkers.

See,

I've seen Futurama a few times.

I'm not like a, like, I haven't seen many episodes.

I saw the Hypnotoad episode because somebody was like, you have to watch this.

It's, yeah, that's a good one.

And so

I'm more familiar with Futurama.

Also, I want to point out, I said, where this week we'll probably talk about video games, and you guys immediately launched into other shit.

Animation domination, yeah.

Well, this week's topic, in all fairness, is Family Guy Online, the MFL.

And you know what?

There are, they have tried and failed to make both of the things we've talked about into video games, and they're very bad.

Futurama's in Fortnite.

Futurama's in Fortnite.

Fortnite is the, is the version of all of these properties that is good.

That's true.

So is Family Guy in Fortnite?

I want a Brian skin immediately.

That'd be awesome.

So I think,

I think Family Guy's in Fortnite, but I'm not sure.

That reminds me of the time I was killed by a zettomorph with a sniper rifle.

But even in

Fortnite, the mythic weapon that was a couple of weeks ago was Bender's Ray Gun, which was a constant beam.

Yeah.

So, Matt, you would have loved it.

I would have loved that.

And while we're on the subject,

I think if you haven't seen the episode, Heather, where they go to like a Willy Wonka style, like it's like a a Willy Wonka parody episode.

I haven't seen it.

Do yourself a favor, and as soon as we're done talking today, go watch it.

I think it's my favorite episode of the show.

It is so funny.

There's a specific joke in that episode that I think about constantly.

Okay.

Maybe we're going to be talking about it.

Talking of the time, Willy Wonka hit the gritty.

This is going to happen in Fortnite.

Man,

I wish that the way Fortnite worked was that they did mainstream pop culture releases.

Like every month, there was a pack, and it was like Futurama, WWE, Jiu-Jitsu Kaisen.

And then they had one esoteric,

like

Kafka.

Like one,

like way outside of the box

skin that you'd be like,

I just got, I just got killed by 1985 Steve Jobs.

How many elections do you think it's going to take for there to be a presidential nominee and or

electe as a Fortnite skin?

I think it'll have.

I mean,

they've already done sort of...

Some sort of like more artsy, you know, museum-y things in Fortnite, right?

Certainly some concerts.

I feel like I probably already we're going to see, you know, at some point, maybe even this election cycle.

You know what?

I'll say it.

I'll take the under on this election cycle.

We will see some campaign event take place in Fortnite.

A dark Brandon skin.

Yeah.

The problem is that

the layer of geriatric oligarchy is so old now.

How old is it?

I think that if the trend had continued with like Obama-aged presidential

campaigns, that there would have been a Fortnite event for sure by now.

Right.

There was an expectation after Obama.

It's like, okay, well, that we're done with like boomer presidents.

We're done with, you know, silent generation presidents.

It'll all be Gen X.

But no, no, then we got our two oldest presidents in history in sequence.

Yeah.

I've become less cynical about the gerontocracy, even though their brains are like, you know, rotting.

I do think there is something to

it's a generation that has not been completely cooked by overstimulation.

Like they were just not on, not so online that they can't focus on any particular task, which is like totally anyone our age or younger.

So maybe we should just be ruled by old fucks until they all die off.

No, no.

And then the people that will be mad about it, that would be mad about having a younger president

will also be dead.

And then we'll be the old people that are like, it's fine if they're young.

And then it'll be, then it's fine.

And, you know, the world will end two years after that.

So it's just, it's, you know, it'll be fine for two years.

It's funny that, like, if you're, if you're 65 years old, you have spent your entire, almost your entire life, save for Obama,

having presidents that are older than you.

Yeah, sure.

You know, I want to know who our oldest listener is.

Tell us if you're old and it's fine.

I wish, I just want to know.

I'm curious about the data.

And tell us what the beach is.

And yeah,

drop the, drop your, drop a pin at the beach.

At the old beach.

I want to say that

Matt respects our oldest listener enough to assume that they are also tech savvy enough to drop us a line.

I'll tell you this.

My girlfriend's dad is 84,

and what he can do with technology has

pushed other

older people ahead in my eyes in a way that I do think that they can just do what he can do.

That sucks.

So, like, I, I, he's, he's like, uh, he's a fucking tech whiz, this guy.

He goes to the Apple store anytime there's a new update and learns about what, what, how to use the phone.

Man, that's so cool.

Cause that's like they have those seminars or whatever, and you're always just like, Well, who's this for?

And it's just like that someone's actually taking advantage of it and using it like the way it was supposed to be.

That's great.

I love that.

I very much encourage that.

A good man.

And so now my relationship to

who is actually old is different.

So now,

Brandon

is a fucking spring chicken, this guy.

Should we watch the Family Guy Online debut trailer from 11 years ago?

Because

it is fascinating.

I don't know if you've ever seen this.

Sherry,

what is it?

This is the failed MMO they tried to make out of Family Guy in

2012.

Okay, let's watch some of this.

All right.

Let's see what you got, Fox.

It's Family Guy Online, a new free-to-play game launching soon.

Say woo!

Just use the character creator to customize your own character.

So, your class is a different Family Guy character.

Looks like someone farted in a shoot.

Then, join your fellow citizens and other Family Guy bands.

Whenever they're gonna catch me to keep the streets of Kohog safe,

would you like to come inside for a cupcake and a glass of wine?

And enforce your own brand,

um well, if it isn't King LardassuyOnline.com and get ready to play.

Whose leg do you have to hump to get a dry martini around here?

That's his classic.

That's a classic line, a Brian line.

Uh, that made me ill to look at.

Well, because it shouldn't be in 3D.

It's like it's too much.

It's like Simpson's hit and run, I think, did it pretty well.

It's it, but like that, that particular aggressively 2D aesthetic can be pretty unnerving.

Not quite, I almost said hidden valley.

I got lunch of the brain.

Uncanny Valley, but it is like.

I'm not going to balloon a ranch over here.

The South Park games are excellent conversions.

Like

they look exactly like the show, but you can move around in the environment.

I thought they were fantastic.

I played Stick of Truth.

I did not play the other one.

But Stick of Truth, I was like, yeah, but it kind of lives in a 2D plane.

Like, it's like you're moving, you know, side to side.

But to your point, that's a good way of using that IP.

And

maybe that's partly why the Family Guy MMO didn't work out.

The fractured butthole is really good.

It's really good.

I like it better than Stick of Truth.

I think it's awesome.

Okay.

Yeah.

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Speaking of video games, first up, we do a format every month, the We We Play You Play, where we talk about one game at length for the bulk of the episode after we get all of our family guy discussion out of the way.

On this month, on Monday, August 28th, in two weeks, we are going to be discussing horror fishing sim dredge, which is available on pretty much every modern platform if you want to play along with us.

So check that out on

whatever you use for gaming if you want to play or otherwise just join us for the discussion.

But that'll be Monday, August 28th, Dredge.

By the way, that's Nick.

I think it's currently on sale in the PlayStation Store.

I'm not sure if it is on sale on other venues, but yeah, currently, I think 20% off on the PlayStation Store.

But right now, we got some other games we've been playing.

So the question I put to the panel is: what are you playing?

What are you playing?

Oh, shit.

Oh, shit.

Oh, he's back.

You know, okay,

I'll start things off because

I'll say something and then I'll see if anyone else wants to go first because I think this might be a group conversation because the bulk of my gaming time has been spent with Baldur's Gate 3.

So I have some BG3 to talk about.

Matt, I know you've messed around with it a little bit.

Yes.

Heather,

I think you've at least installed it.

I'm not sure where you've gotten it.

I've played about...

I've hit the character creation, created my character, and then played for about an hour okay got it

so yeah i'm still in the relatively early game i have my my playtime is at seven hours and 30 minutes on my save um my play my playtime in steam is at about 11 hours uh and that just speaks to how much time i dicked around in the character creator which we're going to talk about as a topic in a little bit but why wouldn't it zoom in more on the hawk

they unfortunately only let you zoom in on the face you can't zoom in on your customized genitalia.

Trust me, I know.

So Baldur's Gate 3 went out of early access last week, and it's a

Swamarian Studios who made the Divinity games, which we talked about.

And I am really enjoying this.

This is like exactly scratching the RPG itch that I have, at least in as far as I played of it, that I didn't feel like I got from Final Fantasy 16.

I mean, like, again, this is a personal taste thing, but like, this is what I want from a role-playing game.

It's just a lot of opportunities to role-play, endless dialogue trees, just so much conversation, so many NPCs you can interact with in different ways and either alienate or, you know, or woo.

I love that shit.

A couple of wonky things.

This is just like...

This is this is, again, a personal taste thing.

And I'm sure some people, it doesn't bother them as much.

But anytime I have a game that lives in a more isometric perspective and I have to really babysit the camera, I'm less into that.

I kind of want the camera to just take care of itself.

And honestly, I kind of don't, I kind of even like the Diablo approach of like a fixed camera where I don't have to worry about my orientation all the time.

I understand that's how this game works.

I understand that for a lot of people, they like that about this, especially for the tactical combat, that you can move the camera around

is

gives you a little bit more of an advantage there.

But for me, I just find it a little bit more difficult to navigate.

And I also find myself worried about,

I find it a little bit less immersive.

So again,

it's a hurdle I can get over, but it's a little bit of a hurdle.

The other thing is that I'm...

So I got this unwieldy

big-ass widescreen monitor, this 32.9

monitor, and I love it.

It's great, especially for something like podcasting, because I don't have to worry about multiple monitors and spreading my real estate everywhere.

But so any sort of tasks where I get to, I have a bunch of different windows open, it's great.

For gaming, it can sometimes be a little bit annoying because some games don't support it.

Or in the case of this game, it does support it, but the way it's supported, I kind of find it a little bit, I honestly prefer playing it in 16.9,

which is just a thing that I, and also performance-wise, I think just like this game is,

it's got a lot of detail and you can see a lot of it.

And I think that my performance, I got a hefty rig.

I got a 3070, but my performance was dipping in 32.9.

So I went down to 16 by 9.

Here's the other thing.

Because there's so many

small cinematics, like every time you have a conversation with an NPC,

it goes into more cinematic coverage.

I felt like those shots were just not framed as well in 32 by 9 because they'd been designed for a normal resolution that most people are going to play at.

So I felt like they had a bunch of extra real estate on the sides that was just, I found distraction.

So distracting.

So I like it a little bit more

using a more compact resolution.

But those are small, these are minor grievances that I just want to get out of the way because I am absolutely loving it.

I think it's so great.

I think the writing is so strong.

I think the characters are really well drawn.

And I think the that like it really feels like you can role play your character.

I'm playing a human paladin.

I like playing paladins in these sorts of games.

I like the idea of being someone who is altruistic.

I think that's just a fun sort of thing to role play.

And it's also like a very straightforward thing to role play.

Just I know, you know, there's certain things that this character will do and will not do.

And

especially for an initial playthrough,

that's kind of like how I like to

go through it.

I think there are some genuine moments where you have to like make strong choices.

And that's one thing I really like because a lot of these games with a lot of dialogue trees and and role-playing, there's sometimes like a middle ground option where it's kind of like, I'm not really offending someone.

I'm not really making a choice here.

I'm kind of staying neutral.

They really make you like, there's a part, there's a part relatively early on where they're just like, I'm going to give you this thing.

Do you swear to use it?

And it's like,

and you can be like, you can try to defer.

And if you try to defer, you try to not commit,

they'll like double down.

Like, no, I want you to swear.

And so you either have to swear to use this potion, this poison, in the event of a certain outcome, or you have to say, like, basically, fuck you.

I don't trust you.

And like having to make those hard choices, I think make it really, really interesting.

It's also just like

really,

I think the art direction is great.

And I think the scoring is awesome.

And there's so much music.

Yes.

So I'm really, really enjoying my time with Baldur's Gate 3.

I feel like I want to get into some of your choices that you've made in Baldur's Gate in a larger discussion for this episode.

Sure.

And I also don't want to fork our road towards that conversation.

But I, so the only thing I want to say is I think, I think

Wizards of the Coast, is that their name?

The guys who owned the camera.

That's the.

Yeah, that's the company that owns the whole

D ⁇ D property now.

They really thought this was going to be the year of Dungeons and Dragons.

Like,

I went and saw that movie, and it fucking ruled.

It is so fucking good.

I love the movie.

It is so good.

And then they have this major, major game release, right?

Like,

I think that

they were like, you know, there's a generation of people who grew up watching the kids in Stranger Things play D ⁇ D, and that has demystified D ⁇ D for everybody.

They grew up?

That much time has passed?

It's been like a decade, hasn't it?

Those kids have grown up?

How long ago did that show come out?

I don't know.

It first released in 2016.

Okay, maybe not quite grown up, but

I get your point.

These kids that grew up watching Stranger Things are voting now.

Yeah.

It's seven years, dude.

Okay.

That's almost all of high school and college.

I guess so.

Not if you're Van Wilder.

Anyway, I think that they were like, this is our window.

This is our moment.

Sure.

And I think that the ad campaign for Dungeons and Dragons, the movie, sucked, which is the only reason people didn't go see that film in droves.

Yeah.

But I'm really hoping that Baldur's Gate gives DD the

sort of gentle

volley that it needs to keep it aloft.

Not that it's a small brand, but I want people

like it's crazy to me that LinkedIn uses a level up system

and people aren't all conscious of Dungeons and Dragons, which invented the level up system.

That's interesting to think about.

Yeah.

DD has probably permeated the culture.

at large in ways that most people are just aren't conscious to like i don't know i i've played my fair share of of dnd and

getting into this game i just i guess I didn't realize that it was that.

Like, I, I, I, because I've never played the game before, and I'm, you know, I'm just unfamiliar with what Baldur's Gate is.

So, getting into

starting this one, I was like, oh, I, like, know this stuff.

So, the, like,

what I thought was going to be a tough barrier of entry was actually pretty easy.

But, like, the, uh, like, as far as like picking a class and things like that, and, like, inspecting my character.

Uh, but

the problem, not problem, but like the

roadblock for me is uh, just because I haven't experienced this type of combat in a video game before, is navigating that and like, like, just knowing how many, um, because I'm playing on my Steam Deck.

Yeah.

So there's a lot of, um,

I just have to remember what buttons do what, like, and what buttons bring up what wheel, you know?

Like, because it hit, there's all my commands are on a wheel.

So it'll show me, like, okay, like, you can, you have these these types of actions or this type of bonus action.

And they're all on different wheels.

So I'm just constantly scrolling through wheels.

And I'm always accidentally ending my turn too fast because I think that the end turn button is the button that brings up the wheel.

And

it's getting me into trouble.

Yes.

But

what I'm loving about the game so far is one, it's playing Grand Steam Deck.

I did mess around with the settings a little bit, and I had to a few times because I was not satisfied with

how it looked

upon finding my first set of preferred settings.

I thought it looked kind of bad actually, but then I found a set of settings that made it look great.

And

I'm loving how it looks.

And so far, to Nick's point, too, just so many dialogue options.

I don't feel as if I'm being led a certain way, which I think is probably just

like genius, like game design, right?

Because I feel like in some games, you know what way you're supposed to go and like what you're supposed to be doing.

But so far, it feels even this early in the game, it feels like I could be doing anything anywhere.

Right.

Like, I don't know if I'm necessarily following what I'm supposed to be doing, but I did have the same encounter as you.

So maybe, you know, it's just me tricking me, maybe.

But like, cause I did have the encounter about the potion that I have to swear to.

But

I have a sub-goal in,

that's for me.

Going to Jersey Mike's.

Nick, I'm going to Jersey Mics today.

I went for dinner two days ago.

I had a fucking fantastic turkey sub.

Did you just put a thumbs up in the chat?

Well, my hands.

Zoom now can

Zoom does this thing where it can track your hands.

And

I had a thumbs up and it traced it.

So it's going to do it again.

Look.

Wow.

I want to shout out

the Olympic toboggan-like speed of Nick's joke

of

sub-goals.

Nick's on five.

I saw Nick do, I did a Doughboys the other day, which will be out.

Your episode of Jacob Waisaki will be out tomorrow in the Dough Boys couple as of this release.

Wow.

So go check that out.

There's a joke, not even two minutes into the recording, that Nick,

it was incredible.

It was like, if it was like an Olympic event, he would have got the gold.

Wow.

It was unbelievable the speed.

It was, it was gorgeous, Nick.

Let's jack up those expectations, everyone.

Yeah.

And you're going to get your fucking socks knocked off.

Yeah.

You know, if you listen to Doughboys, you kind of know what

level you're working with there.

So of those types of jokes, it was really good.

good.

But so, my sub-goal in

Baldur's Gate 3 is that I'm trying to make every character want to fuck me.

Oh, yeah.

No, that's that's like me in every one of these games where there's romance options, 100%.

So, so far, I'm just like,

whatever dialogue option I have

in front of me, I'm always picking what seems like the horniest one.

Yes.

Or like the flirtiest one, at least to like maybe just put the implication out to one of the characters just to see what just to see what they say uh and uh i was at uh a camp last night at my camp last night and both people in my party were sort of like well you know it's kind of

you know yeah what's going on here so it was pretty pretty pretty interesting for me i i like okay so here's the thing and and this is kind of bleeding into our our character creation discussion but like i did kind of i i'm trying to to not look at any spoilers or anything i'm not trying to look at any guides i'm just sort of like trying to play through this thing and discover what I can.

But

I do look at all the when you're carrying when you're making the character, there are a bunch of prefab characters you can pick.

And this is the same way the Divinity Original Sin 2 works, at least,

which is like the characters that are going to be party members, you can also choose to be your player character.

And so I looked at all those and just looked at all their classes and race combos to sort of be like, okay, I'm going to try to do something distinct that doesn't overlap with this.

And I'm glad I did because one of my favorite party members so far

is

who I'm kind of going and inadvertently ended up going down a romance path with is Asterian, the rogue.

Who I don't know if you encountered him, but he is like a, he's also like vampiric.

And there's a whole interaction where like he,

this is, this is super minor spoiler territory.

So we just kind of like, you know, take took a few steps into spoiler country here.

But like there's an interaction at camp, and you can go to camp at any time.

And

where I was, I was sleeping at camp, and then I wake up, and this dude's like fucking feasting on me.

He's like drinking my blood.

And I like wake up.

And you can, like, it's great because the game gives you the amount of choice where you can like grab a steak and drive it through his heart and kill him.

And he's just dead.

You can choose that.

Or

you can tell him to back off, or you can do what I did and let him feast just a little bit.

Just a taste.

This is an absolutely true story.

One time I was in Japan and I had my cell phone with me, but I was

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That's a true story.

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I eventually got off that roof when the sun rose.

I've not played one of these games before, so I am just really struck by how, like,

they're sort of like, yeah, you can sort of just play this game however you want, but, like,

you can, like,

you can make them fuck if you want to.

You can, yeah, it's, it's, you can do it.

It's really, you know, because I think like the comparison, it should be in every game.

I think especially because you compare this game to, because there's, I think specifically because of the character creation system, this game has been compared to, and because it was another big RPG, Cyberpunk.

In Cyberpunk, which we all played through and we all enjoyed, the...

And the romance options are really limited to your player characters,

gender and sexuality.

And then the NPCs have their own determined genders and sexualities.

And it's pretty rigid.

It's like, you know, this is a, this is specifically a female-female romance option.

This is specifically a, you know, a male-female, you know, like they're, they're all pretty, you can't just romance anybody.

It's determined by your player character.

Here it seems, at least so far, is the opposite approach.

Like you can, like, basically, there's just kind of a, of, of a blanket pansexuality, and you can kind of go after anybody.

And, you know, I don't know which, which one is

right or wrong wrong necessarily, but I think this approach is more fun from a role-playing perspective because it just gives you more optionality.

Yeah.

We have different goals in this game.

I like almost don't know what else I'm supposed to be doing.

So when I play Dungeons and Dragons, I want to be a cooperative but mischievous member of whatever the party is, right?

Yeah, sure.

But what my

id is screaming in every one of those games is: what if I just attacked this clearly good person?

Because Dungeons and Dragons is just like it's an every door in front of you is open.

And you choose the right doors because you want to help the DM.

You want it like you want it to be a cooperative experience.

You want it to be fun.

You keep all the boats sailing together.

But my God, all I want to do is, I'd like to do an initiative check and just like roll

and see if I could just jam my dagger into somebody's head.

Like for no reason.

Yeah.

And so with Baldur's Gate,

since I don't owe anything to the game, I chose criminal and rogue.

And I am going to go straight down the chaotic middle of like betraying people on a whim,

like stabbing, looting.

Seems fun.

Like just to be a

real agent of chaos in the world.

And sleeping with people is not on my list of things to accomplish.

Man.

Some rogue.

I do want to, and I don't want to dwell on this too much because I know Heather has just gotten started, but I do want to talk.

We should talk about the combat a little bit.

I am pointedly playing on their three difficulties, and I am pointedly playing and unashamedly playing on Explorer, which is the easiest.

Because I played what I played at Divinity Original Sin 2.

The combat system is really well developed, and it's certainly using a very similar thing here, although with 5th edition D ⁇ D rules.

But it is so dense.

It is so complicated.

And also, like, the main reason I play these games is not for the combat.

So I just wanted a little bit more margin for error in these encounters.

Because also what I remember, I don't know if it's the case with Walter's Gate 3 from, again, a relatively limited amount of time with Divinity Original Sin 2, is that you can't really over-level in the same way that you can for some other, in some other games.

I could be wrong.

Maybe people who put 100 hours in that game can correct me.

But like, you're, you're kind of at a place where you just have,

you just try to get to the level you're supposed to be at for an encounter, and then you have to figure out how to overcome it.

It's just got a lot going on, and then the tutorials are relatively minimal.

I'm sure when some people have some YouTube, like, here's some things you might have missed about all the combat in Baldur's Gate 3 that will be illuminating.

Because a lot of the stuff, I'm like, man, I don't know which of these 40 spell options that are available by level two are the right ones to slot in for my mage.

I don't know.

I don't know which of the,

I don't have any sense of how to min-max this.

And also, positioning your characters is such a huge part of these.

And area effects are such a huge part of like, you know, if there's grease on the ground, you can ignite it.

And that can completely fuck things up for one side or the other.

That there's just so many strategic and tactical considerations that I just decided to make things a little simpler on myself.

And I don't regret it so far.

No, and I have died.

Like it's, it's not unchallenging on Explorer Earth.

You can still, you could still mess up.

It's not easy.

I'm not bad at it.

It's just like, it just gives you a little bit more leeway.

So I'm not familiar with.

the language of PC games as much as I am with the language of console games, like in terms of the UI.

So for me, a lot of what this game is doing is is an extremely steep learning curve of like 100%.

It is.

Heather, you're absolutely right.

It is.

Like, I don't, like, I

could not figure out

how to use an item.

And that's, that's a shock.

Like in a, in a, in a world where I've always been on these menu screens that show you the word item and then you click it and then you choose an item and you execute.

Like it's weird to me to be like, I don't even know where my fucking inventory is.

Um,

I'm really excited to play it.

I'm, I'm, I've never played a game like this, uh, so I'm really excited to give it a shot.

Um, and I have a lot more space because uh, my what am I playing this week is that I have rolled credits on Final Fantasy 16.

Wow,

she did it.

Not only did I roll credits, but I hit the level cap

before I did,

And

I think it is.

Look,

my tone on this game has not changed.

And I am, I'm angry at it now

because it is,

it is fucking ridiculous that you would play a Final Fantasy game and the level cap would be 50.

Like part of the joy of these old Final Fantasy games is you get your guys up to 99, right?

I was thinking about the complications of the Final Fantasy VII

materia system or the junction system in eight or the fucking gambits in 12, like the sphere grid, all of these choices that you have to make in

Final Fantasy games.

Like in Baldur's Gate, your choices are character-based.

It's like, how am I going to interact with this person?

And what am I going to equip on my dude in order to get him or her to do the thing that I want them to do?

Right?

Like, am I going to equip this sword?

In Final Fantasy, I feel like

the choices are made for you in the story, but

your...

granular level of choice and the way that you implement a role-playing game system in the game is all of the fucking sub-menus of all the bullshit you do to your character.

Like all of the material you level up, all of the gambits that you, you sequence in order to take down a boss.

And this game has nothing.

Like, it has fucking nothing.

And I kept, like, I'd been told by enough people online that there's going to be something later on in the game that makes it all worth it.

And I, like, I was like, unless the final fight of this game is

Clive breaking the fourth wall of the concept and being like, I need to call on all of the heroes of all the Final Fantasy games.

Like if he becomes this like meta being who is then like invoking heroism as an idea in order to beat this thing that he's fighting against, and like fucking lightning comes in and like everybody is like attacking.

Everyone is here.

Yeah, like that

unless there is some like nostalgia baiting moment at the end of this game,

which there wasn't.

I'm heartbroken.

I'm fucking like, man, I'm heartbroken.

I feel

these games come around so infrequently.

And the other thing is, I think that there is a great story in Final Fantasy 16.

I just think it's poorly told.

Like, all of the lore I love.

Like, digging into those fucking encyclopedias and like

reading about the, like, the background characters, like the entry about Barnabas's mom like all of this shit that is packed into this game that you that you are rewarded for how much you talk to all of the people in the world how much you uh you go to the fucking tomes and you talk you read his encyclopedia entries and you get all this lore shit

like

So there's a good story there.

It's a fucking kind of a cool world, but it is fucking ugly and it is so simple.

It is so simple.

It is heartbreakingly simple.

There is not an optional battle in this game that is fucking impossible.

The way that all Final Fantasies seem to have a battle that is optional that is impossible to beat.

Or even in Final Fantasy 15, there was this optional dungeon that was hidden

like in a fucking corner of a map that was baffling.

Like just a baffling dungeon that made a character who

you can't really control that well

go through significant platforming sections.

Like,

I'm,

I'm really, I'm just, I, I, like, I, I, I don't want to, I know this is stupid to get emotional about a video game, but like, I love Final Fantasy games so much, and I have loved all of them up till now.

And this one, I am just like, I feel like I didn't get to play it.

Like the final boss,

you just mindlessly tap the entire time, and then it's done.

It's almost as if you can.

I think it was Final Fantasy VIII, where when you summoned somebody, you could press the square button over and over and over again to power up that summon.

And that's basically what it feels like you're doing every time you do combat in this game.

I'm broke.

I was similarly lukewarm to you as you, Heather, in my, in my, you know, 15 hours or so of playtime.

I, I, as I talked about, I gave up on it at that point.

I'm impressed that you saw it through to the end.

I applaud you for giving it that much of a chance.

I beat every side quest.

It's a bummer.

Every single side quest.

I hunted every single mark.

I unlocked every treasure in Clive's room.

I got the ultimate sword, which doesn't have any,

like, it might as well not be the ultimate sword.

Well, because it's not.

To build the like official

ultima weapon, you have to beat it on Final Fantasy.

You have to play it in Final Fantasy mode.

Like, that's like the other thing that's like sucks.

So, like, there's like a best sword in the main game, but the really best sword is locked behind playing it a second time.

But all that to say, I don't want to make it sound like I don't, I didn't love it.

I loved it.

I'm sorry that you didn't like it,

but I

still loved it.

Yeah,

I did not love it.

I'm sorry.

It's okay.

You didn't make it.

And the truth is, if I was ever faced with the people who made it, I'd be like, what an incredible game, guys.

Good job.

Like, I would never, ever, ever say to any of them

that my emotional experience was lacking when it came to final fantasy 16.

you know what's not heartbreaking

i i also explored a little bit more of the video game culture here in amsterdam as part of wow journey into being a world warrior

amsterdam

and

i went to molly's arena which is one of the two

i well let me first uh position this by saying that by the time this episode airs, I will have hopefully hosted the very first

get played, get together in Europe at Blast Galaxy, which is a different arcade.

But there's two major arcades

that are in Amsterdam.

And the other is Molly's Arena, which is an arcade,

an anime arcade and ramen bar.

It is an arcade that takes all of its inspiration from the

Instagrammable things about Akihabara and puts them into a single room.

So there is a full ramen bar with Naruto references and fucking all, like all these anime references on the menu.

Or you can get fluffy pancakes like you see on Instagram, like the jiggly fluffy pancake.

I've seen them back.

Yeah.

And then they also have a...

a strange mix of games that is

adjacent to a a Chuck E.

Cheese.

Like you've got your big driving games and you get your big like simulator game, like, you know, like, like a jet fighter game.

But then they also have hardcore fighting games.

Like they have Ultra Street Fighter 4, they have Tekken, and then they have like a

10,000 games in one Astro City style cabinet called, I think, Ultimate Hegemony, which has just like.

let me make sure that that was name, let me make sure that's the name of ultimate hegemony.

Hold on, let me make sure that's the name of the,

yeah, no, that is it.

Ultimate hegemony, and that sounds like an optional Final Fantasy bot.

Yeah, it has

like King of Fighters 97, King of Fighters 97,

like

balance tweaks.

It has 319 pages of video games on this.

And I'll hold this up to the camera so that you guys can see

what the machine looks like.

That's actually a pretty nifty UX there.

It's not like just a main, you know, bunch of plain text.

That looks pretty stylized.

Yeah,

it's a pretty machine.

And then the outside of the shop itself has like...

Naruto, that's cool.

Yeah, it's a

fucking rock.

It's a really

cool space.

We don't have any cool shit here.

Why don't we have anything like that in LA?

Everything here sucks.

I don't know why.

And

the tables have turned so hard since the last time I was in Amsterdam.

The last time I was here, there's like one place in the entire city that you can get like one Dragon Ball manga.

And now, because

of the rise and ascendancy of otaku culture, there's multiple places you can buy manga.

There's a full-blown,

like on their website, they have dudes dressed in cosplay playing video games.

Like as a photo of like just a thing, they also sold cosplay gear in the store because there's like a shop in the front so that you can get like a um

like a uh a demon slayer robe so that you can wear the robe while you're playing the games.

Um,

I don't know, it's it's it's a cool concept.

And I was like, God, if I'd fucking if I'd lived here and this place existed, I would have

I would have gone to that place every weekend.

That's fucking rad.

So yeah, immensely arcade culture alive and well in Amsterdam, unlike Los Angeles.

Yeah, I mean, there's, you can find arcades in LA, but it's like, it's, there's nothing that,

you know, unique and interesting.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And even like the, I feel like the barcade has sort of like had like a

plateau.

Cause like, I don't think there's like a single barcade here that is like better or different than another one.

Like they're all sort of like, oh, yeah, like they have games and drinks.

100%.

And it's it's also like kind of like a very much like just a like, okay, we're to do American Gen X slash millennial nostalgia.

Like that's just our play.

It's not like there's a bunch of weeb culture or anything.

And there's not

in those spaces, there's, there's, it's primarily, say like you go to Button Mash in Los Angeles, you're not getting to play modern fighting games.

So that was part of what was weirdest about this space is that you had modern games.

I mean, Ultra Street Fighter 4 is not super modern.

There's been, we're already at six, but like to see a full gorgeous flat screen cabinet play like a huge widescreen cabinet for playing Street Fighter that isn't Street Fighter 2 was kind of incredible.

Yeah, you're not getting any of these barcodes.

You're not getting anything more modern than like a Neo Geo cabinet.

Like that's kind of where

it tails off.

By the way, because you mentioned, that sounds awesome, Heather.

I'm again, I'm very jealous.

I would, I would love to experience that, but I've never crossed an ocean.

I am going to say the

because you mentioned earlier, like you weren't sure how Baldur's Gate 3 was doing, I looked it up and it had,

it's, it's selling like gangbusters, two and a half million sales and and through early access alone and 800,000 concurrent players its first weekend uh so you're really rocketing the top of the steam charts that's just on pc it's coming out in ps5 in september and we'll see how it does then but i think it is it is a a big ol' hit that's great that's great yeah

i i i i hope they have i hope they have a big year i hope that i hope so too you know

you know

part of why i think people gravitate to games like Baldur's Gate 3

and other sort of role-playing experiences.

Like there would be like the spark of fire right here crackling underneath you as you make this transition.

It's because you get to choose who you're going to play as.

You get to create your own character.

And

this is a slightly newer format/slash segment for us that I'm just going to call, because it's just a loose, open-ended discussion about a topic, I'm going to call our dialogue tree.

And today, we're going to rest under the dialogue tree and discuss creation, character creation, that is.

In the beginning, there was a blank slate.

In the beginning, there was a default character model who looked a lot like me.

And so I just clicked A until it was done.

Let's back it up to like, because I'm curious what everyone's first experiences are in a video game creating a character.

Mine goes way back,

but I know that in console games, character creation came a little bit later than it did in

PC games, though there are some early NES RPGs where you get to make a character and make a party.

But Matt, how about you?

Do you remember the first time you created a character?

Yeah, that's actually really interesting.

I hadn't really considered that because

nowadays,

you know,

for the most part, you can kind of do that in almost any game that isn't like, you know, telling the story of a specific character, right?

Right.

But that's like, but that is sort of the type of game that I mostly play.

So

I think the first time, like, this can't be true, but the first time I probably created a character was probably like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3.

Like, like, I think so.

I think that sounds very, I don't know if it's even in that one.

It might be.

But I don't remember really doing it in a game that wasn't that until probably like an rpg later on or something or uh even like

uh well granted i thought it was different because like those are characters i'm trying to wow what games do you even do it in what games have i ever have i ever done this uh i certainly have uh because i have issues with it like there's like you know you do it in like

There are I guess Mass Effects a good example like because while it is like a set character You can sort of make your shepherd look however you want, 100%, even though there, even though there is a

set shepherd.

Um,

but I think, I think it was probably one of the Tony Hawk's PlayStation 2 games because I remember

making my choices sort of like aspirational.

I was like, right, my character is going to have like a mohawk and like tattoos because I'm 12 and that's what I want to be.

Uh, Heather, how about you?

I'm racking my brain here because

I know there has to be earlier character creation than Fallout 4,

right?

For me in my life.

But

I can't remember

really making a character.

Like, could you make a character in Skyrim?

Yeah, 100%.

Right.

So I did it in Skyrim.

I can't think, I don't think there are any PlayStation 3 games or PlayStation,

like, that's Xbox 360 years is Skyrim.

So I didn't play original Xbox

PlayStation 2.

Was there anything I made a character in?

I don't think so.

It seemed to have maybe

emerged weirdly late on the console side.

Yeah.

But I and there is one that I was thinking of, Matt, that I know is a game you've played, and maybe you don't think of it the same way, but Final Fantasy I, you make an entire party.

I wasn't saying that.

That's the thing, like, even though you're not customizing each character, it was like, oh, I'm picking

the composition of my party.

I'm like, do I take a black belt or a thief?

Do I take a white mage or a red mage?

You get to make those decisions.

You get to name all those characters.

So it always felt like I was making those that party.

These are my guys.

My guys are different than your guys.

These are my guys, pee, poo, ass, and butt.

Yeah, my guys are fucker, dumbass,

shit, and but.

So I guess we have one of the same guys, yeah.

Great black mage.

Yeah, that's one I think of on the console side.

And then also there was a, there was a port of Ultima 4 that

you create a character, although there it's really just kind of picking your class, but it's still like that was an NES one.

But my first experience is on the PC side, which was the Bard's Tale, which is, I think, a game that's kind of been, it's a franchise that's kind of been memory hold.

There was a reboot, but like

that was for a time, that was like one of the big art, like PC RPG series, along with like Wizardry and Ultima and Might and Magic.

And so Bard's Tale 1, like me and my brother would like go through and you'd roll all your characters and you'd make it a whole party.

You get to name them.

And it was just like, that was like a crazy thing that like i enjoyed that more than actually playing the game as a kid i just had a flash of a memory of uh making a character in like a wrestling video game when i was playing like that with my uncle oh sure and uh like i just remember being a kid and being like i'm gonna make the most fucked up guy like i'm just gonna make like the fucking freak because like that's all all you uh

You know, that's all you can think to do when you're a kid.

It's like, oh, like, my guy's going to have like, and now it's like,

like, the craziest thing I can think of is like a normal adult now.

It's like, my guy's going to have blue hair.

He's just going to have blue hair.

He's just going to be like a cool guy.

I remembered one just now.

Yeah.

Which was Final Fantasy XI.

Sure.

Final Fantasy Online

had a pretty robust

character creation, or at least least a ton of visual options,

as well as, I'll put it in this

chat that we have.

But there were

one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight different.

There was like human male, human female, Elven male, elven female, tartaru male, tartaru female, mithra, gulka, and then like a ton of toggles for each of those races and classes.

So I guess maybe that was my first.

I'm trying to think of it if, yeah, that probably, I think, timeline-wise, that might have because that's PlayStation 2.

I'm depending on when exactly that came out.

PlayStation 2, yeah.

That's 2003,

I think, maybe 2004.

I also like,

what I'm thinking of with these games is

like, because

you mentioned

Final Fantasy XI.

And there are like,

there are differing degrees of granularity in terms of how you customize these characters.

And like that makes me think of World of Warcraft, where World of Warcraft, at least I haven't played it in a decade.

I revisited WoW Classic a little bit, but I don't know what the modern game is like.

But the

character creation in World of Warcraft, at least at first, was based on just getting you into the game quickly.

And it's a very different approach than like a fromsoft game where it's like, hey, you know what?

You can spend a lot of time here really just deciding like just exactly how pronounced your brow ridge is.

In World of Warcraft, it's like, pick your race,

pick your class, pick your gender, and then like, here's a handful of faces.

And then you're just, you're going to, you're going to have a lot fewer decisions to make to get you into the game.

And the way you're going to customize your character is by actually playing this thing because we don't want you living in the

character creation screen.

I kind of, I really like getting to do a lot of shit in a character.

character creation system, but I do admire that approach.

I do kind of like appreciate the idea of like, let's just get people invested quickly.

I like when you can customize a character within parameters.

So, for example, Disco Elysium.

Yes, that's hey, that's a great one.

That's not on my list here, but that is a great one.

Oh, are we doing a tier list?

No, no, no.

I was, I'm not going to do a tier list.

It's just a discussion.

I'm just saying, Disco Elysium, though, S tier.

It's a great one.

It's a great system because you're making a guy, but you're choosing your guy.

Yeah, you're choosing your guy.

So he is some version of what you want to experience in that world,

uh, but he is still

fundamentally himself, also.

Like he is right,

like you can play a smart version of him or a dumb version of him,

but he is himself, which is Chris.

Yes, and that is a game, that is a system that completely, having played through the whole game twice with two different Harrys, it completely affects how you play, what your first stats are, what your build is, which is what you want from one of these systems.

Yeah.

In Elden Ring, right?

Like,

you can make a little freak.

Like, you can make a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of nasty guy.

Yeah.

But, like, that

to me, like,

it's different in like a game where like in Tony Hawk, for example, you can make like a guy, like, look however you want.

And, like, that's not breaking immersion for me too much because you're just skateboarding.

But, like, in something like Elden Ring, where there are freaks and you make like an even bigger freak than the freaks that are in the game.

Yes.

I'm sort of like, okay, well, like, this is now, we're just being a little silly, aren't we?

Yeah, I'm trying to take this pretty.

I'm trying to take this seriously.

I think, I always think it's fun when someone's like, hey,

I made the Undertaker, you know, in Elden Ring.

It's fun to see.

Or even like, let me solo her has an iconic look.

It's just the

little diaper that you can see.

Right.

Or like that, that, you know, that McElroy's YouTube, which is a monster factory, where they just make like the most freakish abominations you can using various games, like character creations.

Like, that's interesting just to see how these systems can be

extended.

But, like, yeah, I always want to try to make a character that's aesthetically pleasing.

Well, good, even if they're not like gorgeous.

Good luck doing that in Street Fighter VI.

Yeah, yeah, you can't.

I tried so hard to make a character that looked kind of Street Fighter-y,

and they just did not look

like the rest of the people in that world.

And I've seen,

you know, like you, like you said, Nick, I've seen like YouTube videos of like, look at this fucking beast that I made in the Street Fighter VI character creation, where it's like their, their neck is too long.

Like,

there's a lot of things you can manipulate in that system.

Yeah.

Um, I guess

the me

is a character creation system.

Oh, yeah, that's a great one.

S tier.

That's S tier.

I think Disco is my favorite.

I like Elden Ring's character creation system because I do feel like it is affecting how I play the game forever.

Like, forever in my playthrough.

If I'm making somebody who's going to have to not wear any armor in order to move around,

that's it.

Like, that's it forever.

But I like too that like, I like in games when you can create a character,

that you can change it at any time.

Even though that might sort of seem like it's like breaking immersion a little bit because like you can't like

necessarily change how you look completely all the time.

But like...

In Elden Ring,

you can go back to the character screen, for example, if you go into a mirror and like change your entire entire face body.

Uh, but like sometimes you start, you, you're, you're locked into the choice that you make early on.

And then maybe, you know, halfway through your playthrough, you're like,

kind of just wish I looked like

not a not a freak.

I'm not always making a freaks.

Well, I think that's a relatively modern thing of just a relatively recent thing of, hey, I can respec my build and also completely change my appearance, like mid-game.

Like it's, you know, used to be a little bit more locked in.

Yeah, I mean, you mentioned Fallout earlier, Heather.

I always thought the Fallout

character creations are really fun.

I like how simple, like, the stats are.

It's just like a one through 10.

It's really easy to wrap your head around.

You're not worrying about, like, you know,

like, like, it's not some like kind of like semi-arbitrary

metric where you have a hard time figuring out like what a 36 rating is.

And,

and I like that you've like the perks.

The perks, I think, like add a lot of like character to the game.

And just it like that always, I always felt like that was,

those were really fun and

great ways to start off those games and part of the immersion because like aesthetically it matched what the kind of like nastiness of the world.

I also like, I mean, going back to,

I really like Baldur's Gate 3s, but I like Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 as well.

Like those, those systems were just like,

again, you could spend a lot of time there, and it was really fun to make your dude.

And it felt like you had a lot of specificity in terms of how you could build them.

God damn it.

I mean, we've already talked about it, but how fucking crazy it is, the amount of detail that you can change in the cyberpunk character creation

setup only to never see them.

Yeah, 100% to be a very personal.

Truly insane.

And that's a good point to not, you know, there's a lot of options, but there are,

but they exist sort of within a binary that doesn't quite add up for the future world that it's in, right?

Like, and I think that's sort of

the downside of

many character creations in video games.

Like, they've gotten better over time, but like in its earliest iteration, there was probably like, like, for example, like three skin colors, which doesn't cover the base for everyone.

It's like, because like even like for me, someone who's like, you know, I have, I'm Mexican, Puerto Rican, so I have like brown skin, but it's not like

very dark brown skin.

So, like, sometimes the option presented to me is like, well, like, I don't really look like that's not me.

I guess I'll pick the white character.

Like, and that sucks.

That's a bad feeling.

So, you're not really representing yourself either.

But you're like, well, I'll just go the other way instead, which sucks.

But, like, the game's easier, but I mean, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Oh, everybody loves me in this game.

I'm getting treated so kindly.

All that to say, too, there's been a lot of strides made.

Like, even in

Baldur's Gate 3, you can have,

you know, a male, a female, or a non-binary character, which is very cool.

Um, but a lot, but that's like that, and that's great.

And there's obviously a variety of

like skin colors and tones because some of the people in the game are

like

dragons or what or demons or whatever.

Right.

But then also on the people scale, there's like many different

on the human scale, there's many different skin colors and skin tones.

But the complaint that I see a lot from a lot of people and a lot of my friends as well

is that in regards to character creation

for black people, the hair options are always bad and they are mad at it because it's like they're like, you couldn't hire,

you obviously didn't hire a black person to help make the hair because it always looks like how like white people think black people's hair looks and that sucks.

That doesn't feel good for like those players.

So like the ones that get it right, I feel like I see celebrated a lot, which is is great.

And it's changing.

So hopefully in the next couple of years, it's universally good and not just like,

I guess I'll pick this hair.

Yeah, I've definitely a criticism I think anyone who's used Many Games has encountered.

And I, yeah, hopefully it is getting better.

And, but it, it is like, yeah, for the longest time, it was just developers were like, well, this is what I look like.

So, you know, like, like, I felt like there wasn't any more consideration beyond that.

Because I think there is a human instinct to want to make, not, not that I do this with every game, but I think a lot of people want to just make themselves.

And like, I want to just be in the game.

And if those options aren't presented for you, I'm sure that's super frustrating.

Wasn't there going to be, maybe I'm, maybe I'm misremembering, but I feel like there was going to be a camera peripheral for the N64 that would allow you to map your own head onto basketball players or make they've done that with some.

Yeah, there have been games that have tried that and it's all, it's looked looked like shit because they've just taken a photograph, a 2D photograph, and just like wrapped it over someone's face.

They haven't figured that out yet, but I'm sure at a certain point they will figure out how to model that in three dimensions, basically.

I've done that in a few games.

Like, I feel like you could do it in Tony Hawk 4, I think.

And I remember doing it.

And,

you know, I've

just sort of known this for a long time that

I have like a pretty big head.

and

it's it always it always makes me feel bad when

I scan it

and it fucking doesn't fit on the fucking

model.

It sucks.

Um, have you guys ever, no, because neither of you really played Final Fantasy 15.

There was a multiplayer um

sub game.

Shout out to Jersey Mics.

Jersey Mics.

Hell yeah.

That was called Comrades.

I don't know if it's still functioning in the Final Fantasy XV.

Like, I don't know if people are still playing it.

But there was a

pretty significant character creation

system in Comrades, but it was

really hard to make your character ugly.

Like, it was possible.

But it was, like it was such, like, if you, if you search FFXV Comrades characters, you'll just see like row after row of just the most beautiful people,

like,

like all who look kind of different, but all of whom look like Final Fantasy characters, like, you know, pre-16.

And

it, it's really, it's a funny.

I don't remember how they

fenced in that character creation system,

but so many of the

men and women were gorgeous that that system would create.

Yeah.

It's uh, I that's just that's kind of a Final Fantasy thing, though, right?

Like, has there ever been like an ugly Final Fantasy character?

They're all kind of very attractive.

I mean, there, there were, there were ugly, you could make them in

Comrades, but

but like your default settings and stuff were

fucking gorgeous.

I'm trying to think if there's anything we missed.

I mean, the, you know,

Matt touched on Mass Effect.

Those are, that is like a really great balanced character.

Like, it hits that balance of you get to customize your character as much as you want, but also you can choose a prefab build and just be ready to go and have the time of your life

and just be like that shepherd.

I've heard a lot of things of the,

I haven't played the Dragon Ages, but like I've heard that the Dragon Ages have really good systems

among more

contemporary games.

Oh, you know, Diablo, Diablo 4, I think, kind of hit a nice balance of just you get to customize your character, but you can't like

you,

they really limited what the parameters were.

So you can make a character that looks how you want, but it's not going to, you're not going to get completely lost in the weeds there.

I thought that one was well done.

I think

I don't want I like parameters, so what I'm about to say is gonna sound counter to that, okay?

But like in like cyberpunk,

penis one, penis two,

boobs one, boobs two,

penis one, penis two, vagina, and off, I think, were your options in cyberpunk.

Give me a slider, that's it, yeah.

Okay, so here's the thing: give me a slider.

Here's the thing: I think

I think the because genital customization is a thing in

Cyberpunk and Baldur's Gate 3.

In Cyberpunk, to me, it feels like kind of like Edgelord, kind of like, and I like that game a lot, but it's like, it's kind of like, look what we did.

You can customize your hog.

How about that?

You'll be a robot hog, too.

Who cares?

Give him a cyber hog.

Like, why?

Why not?

Of course.

Yes.

Yeah.

I can't believe we talked about the game a year and a half ago, and I just got to Cyber Hog.

Like, yeah, why not?

Or, like, make it weird.

Yes, I saw the Ripper dock, and he, like, split it in two.

I don't know.

Yeah, I've got a forked one.

So,

what I'm saying is, like, I think that I think in Cyberpunk, it almost feels like a joke, and it's also like doesn't have much utility in the game itself.

In Baldur's Gate 3, and I haven't gotten to anything, you know, super explicit in terms of the game, but like, it feels like it.

had the attitude of, to your point earlier, Matt, like it feels inclusive in Baldur's Gate 3.

It's kind of like almost like, and I feel like when you're, when you're choosing your genitals, like to me, it felt like more clinical, less like lascivious.

I don't know quite how they were able to balance that, but I think by drawing less attention to it, it just kind of feels like, okay,

I can have the genitals of this character match their body type and role play that, you know?

And I think that's the difference because, and I'm just talking hogs for a second

I Think cycling cycling through

cycling through the different classes

And you know, I had to I just had to see what the hogs looked like I had to see I had to see what everybody looked like I definitely hit hide clothes on an on a half orc just to see what he was working with

They all have different hogs.

Like they all have class appropriate hogs.

Yes.

It's like that feels like that's like okay like that because everybody sort of has like a different one, you know, and there's like two body types like per class or whatever, like you know, you can be sort of like small or big

like body type.

I didn't, I didn't even see that so everybody has a proportional hog.

What's that?

I didn't see that this was an option when creating my character.

I think it's under general, it's and it's kind of hidden because, like, you know, your character will have a default general option that you just choose not to choose just to go along with whatever they decide for that body type, but you have to have the genitals of my character.

Well, yeah, you have to toggle the clothes off.

Yeah.

No, I mean, like, I never even saw, like,

are you, was there a toggle?

Yeah, 100%.

No, it's fucking this whole

section of character creation I didn't see in Boulder's Gate.

It doesn't call a lot of attention to it.

Yeah, I think that's partly by design.

I'll seek it out for it.

Yeah.

I wonder, but I'm also playing a beta.

You can choose to ignore it.

I'm playing an early access version because I'm playing on Mac.

Oh, yeah.

And

maybe I missed it.

Maybe I didn't.

But yeah, maybe it's not there yet.

Maybe it's.

That's the last thing they added.

Yeah.

They're like, yeah.

Hey, we got, that's what they're working on.

I've spent the last six months.

I created a genital system.

Nobody wanted this.

Just put it in the game.

Volva 2 is crashing M2 tips.

We got to do something.

I had a,

there was a, I wanted to step back in time because

I feel like this is a thing that's kind of disappeared from character creation systems.

And I think it's a good thing, which is dice rolls.

And I love that there's a lot of dice rolling in the game itself of Baldur's Gate 3.

I love that in Disco Elysium, but actually rolling dice in character creation systems.

I don't know if y'all have ever experienced that, but I remember doing that a lot with

the old school Baldur's Gate or other RPG or other RPGs based on the DD licenses back in the day.

Or the one I think I sunk way too much time in was the Wizardry series, like Wizardry 7 Crusaders of the Dark Savant.

And

you could just keep re-rolling your character endlessly.

And every time you re-rolled a character, you might get like shitty stats.

But the way the system was, you couldn't roll a new character until you created that character.

So you had to go through the whole character creation process and be like, well, shit, I gotta make this whole like fucking, I'm gonna make this bard now and then just delete it and then make a new character re-rolling it that way.

I don't know.

Like, I think the randomness it also disrupts the balance because then you can just roll like a super character, and then all of a sudden the game's like easy for you.

So, I like that that has been.

I'm sure there's some purists that like dice rolling as an element of it, but I like that it's been completely dispensed.

And nowadays, it's just usually have some prefab stats you can move around.

I, I played, this is this is a sort of side note, but on the same tip, right?

Okay, so I played a tabletop

What you were saying reminds me of all the times I've played tabletop RPGs and you roll for your character and you're like, oh, fuck, my guy's so dumb.

I played a

tabletop RPG

with a, it was a, I think this system was called Scream, but I'm not sure.

Or maybe it was called Darkness.

But it was a horror

tabletop game.

And you had to

create yourself

in the game in order to play because you were playing your, you're role-playing yourself.

Like, what if this happened to you?

And the way you would do it in a group is that you would sit around the table and somebody would be like,

who thinks they're probably the fastest person here?

And then that person would be like, I think it's probably me.

And it'd be like, how fast are you on a scale of one to 10?

And they'd be like, I'm like an eight or seven.

And then everybody else would be ranked below that so you if that person had an initiative of seven then the slowest person in the room would have an initiative of one and you would do that for all of the stats in order to create your version of yourself in the game but it was all comparative like it wasn't like yeah you couldn't say

i mean at some point you're probably the the best at blank in the room, right?

Sure.

But then

you would be like, the truth is, though, I'm not that smart.

I'm, maybe I'm the smartest person in the room, but I'm not that smart.

So I'm like a five.

And then everybody would go, oh, come on, because it would be set

close to the people in the room at zero.

Yeah.

I wish that there was a,

I don't even know how you would do it, but like a

synthesis engine that would allow you to literally, like you were saying earlier, not only create what you look like, but also

your basis stats as a person.

Yeah.

Because it would be funny to see myself get just

decimated by those first imps in Baldur's Gate.

Because if I was in that room, I would die.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, I can't handle like three imps.

They're going to fucking tear me to part with their claws.

Like, I couldn't.

I'm not even sure that I could if I wanted to.

I think I could take one.

No, I don't think I could take any of them.

If I had like boots on, I think I'd probably take one just because they'd have enough, like, you know, oh, yeah, you got your shit kickers on, absolutely.

Boots because I'm bigger than them.

So I think, like, if I reach out with my hands, they're going to rip my arms apart.

But if I've got like boots, I could like kick them.

I think if I were to roll my actual stats,

they're all coming in at like, if the, if it's a scale of one to 10,

I think I'm like

maybe like five across the board, maybe four across the board, uh, like slightly below average, because I don't think I'm that smart, but I'm not an idiot either.

You know what I mean?

Like, I understand.

It's also funny to think, like, Olympians are the ones who have tens in physicality, right?

Yeah.

And like, I'm not even half an Olympian.

Oh, so, like, no, I'm a one to like LeBron James or something.

You know what I mean?

So, like, if you think about like somebody who's maxed out their levels in like a real-world scenario and how much, how many of our skills are one.

Like, if I go up against a physicist in intelligence or wisdom, I'm a one.

It's gonna be a one.

It's all comparative, I guess.

Yeah, that's that's that is interesting.

Like, we are all level one

characters

100%.

Is

because, like, I don't know, there's

we all in our day-to-day

sort of make choices as our characters, right?

Like in real life.

Like, we all dress this same way.

We all have an outfit.

There's an element of character creation, obviously, in real life.

Do you ever think, like,

because sometimes I'll see clothes

and be like, I could probably wear that.

But then don't do it because like that's not what I normally wear.

Right.

Sure.

Like, I'll see like a clothes that's like a little loadout.

Yeah, exactly.

I'm like, oh, like, that's like, if I

start dressing this way, I got to be like a completely different guy.

Anytime I've done that, I get compliments, which also makes me feel bad.

Because I'm like, I wouldn't, like, I can't pull this sweatshirt off and then to wear it.

And I'm like, really, nice sweatshirt.

And I was like, oh.

Why does that make you feel bad?

Did you be this guy?

Because that's what I know what Nick's talking about.

Because I'm like, well, then my normal choices, my normal instincts are wrong.

I should be like a different guy because people like that guy.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's

like you in clothes that are a little bit more chic.

Got it.

I also just like, I hate

the,

I hate clothes.

Like, I hate shopping for clothes.

I don't like it.

And that's just like a different thing.

Like, I don't know.

Like,

I don't know.

I don't know anybody who's like, I love the way clothes fit on my body.

Like, I don't think that anybody like that I know is like, this is good for me.

I like to buy clothes because I always look good in clothes.

Yeah.

So it's a fucking

struggle.

Mental nightmare every time that I go buy clothes.

But that's why I kind of keep to the same stuff that I know I don't hate as much.

Have you guys ever gone to a department store and tried on something that is so far outside of your price range to see how it makes you look?

No.

I've gone to, like when I was, say, wedding shopping or when, like, when I'm, for whatever reason if I'm like at a fancy department store I'll try on something that's like

I don't even know the names of the brands

like

what is say say Lauran right is that how you said that say that I don't know I don't fucking know but like if you put on clothes that are for rich people

They make you look so good.

So infuriating.

They They make you feel bad that you're not really good.

It's also like, oh,

rich people don't look good.

They're just wearing really expensive clothes that are just well made and cut.

And that's why they look good.

And

they look just like me otherwise.

That's why it's funny when like

these like fucking rich dorks look like shit all kinds of like you could look good.

You can look good.

I tried on

I was uh I was going there's one department store in Amsterdam called Debayenkorf, and I went to the store because I needed a shirt to wear in order to perform in a show, right?

And I didn't bring, I brought like t-shirts with me, so I had to get like a nice button-up.

But I went to one of their floors, and they had like all the like high-end designer stuff.

And I tried on a jacket that was like $3,500, like a

jacket.

Oh, yeah.

And I looked so fucking good.

Yeah, I bet.

that rocks.

Yeah.

And still it's still at the store, but it was pretty fun.

We should do what you were talking about earlier of like just like making us.

We should, we should do an episode.

Wherever we're back in the same room, we should get like a GURPS rulebook or something like that and just roll like

characters.

Okay.

I mean, I don't know.

See what happens.

That sounds, that sounds like a

hurt ourselves.

Yeah.

We get like a DM to help us.

Oh, that's a fun idea.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, really, what you should, what we would, if you were to do this, like, if you were to create a game show where this was a concept or like a core element of it, then part of that character creation would be your best friend would be there because they'd be like, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Nick is so good at cooking.

He's so good at cooking.

Like, you know, or whatever.

Oh, yeah, right.

Just to gas you.

And then you'd also, I think the producers would have to also find somebody who hates you.

Yes, right.

So that you could get like a proper spectrum of your skills and attributes.

Right.

I don't know what that, what the game show is, but that feels like a reality show segment in a character creation game show.

That's ours.

If that gets made, you have to pay us a fee.

Maybe we came up with that.

Maybe the game could be, oh,

here's what it is.

Here's the game show.

You know somebody who's great.

And the game show is

trying to find the world's best person.

Okay.

This has made me so nervous already.

So, like, you, you're like, oh, fuck, I know somebody who's really good at a lot of stuff.

And you, you bring them onto the game show and you tell their story.

And then they have like, athletic measurements and like intelligence tests and everything, like, like a chart, like a section where they're like doing musical talent or whatever.

And it's like they eventually get a score and then they're ranked on a board of all the people who've ever been on the game show.

And if you're ranked number one, you get, you and your best friend get $50 million each.

Wow.

So this is like a top human.

Yeah.

It's basically what we're trying to quantify.

World's, I'm going to world top human.

I think that's great.

You got to do a world search, though.

You got to make it international.

Because there are people out there who are like all of it.

Athletic, musically talented, charming.

They're like all the stuff.

Generous.

We're looking for overall.

Yeah.

Right.

Yeah.

Not just accomplishments, but also personality.

Yeah, like sweet, kind.

Like, you have like, oh, here's a news article from when they were a kid and they and they had a bake sale for a kid down the street who was sick.

Like you just like find the the world's best human.

This person is perfect in every way except weird mold under their shoulder blade.

And you know what?

Bumps them down just enough.

But here's what you do.

Actually, here's so it's not, you don't start.

You do one of these shows in every country.

That way you get the winner of each country.

And then for the world one, you get them all competing together.

That's how you do it.

That's great because that also gets jingoistic.

Yes.

Which

always it's also interesting because you would learn about natural

the sort of natural handicaps of the lottery of birth.

Like

I'm pretty sure that like the kindest person in Norway may be kinder than anybody ever raised in America just because of the like philosophical differences of

like being indoctrinated as like a socialist versus being indoctrinated in a world where it's like, look, kid, you've got to, you've got, you've only got yourself and everybody is out to get you.

And if you aren't pushing 24-7, you will get run over by this country.

Also, I don't know anything really about Norway, so it's just out of my hat.

Well, also, part of the competition would be like just a fist fight.

I think America would do pretty well in.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, if it comes to throwing hands, you got it.

Yeah.

All right.

We should, we should, we should answer some questions because we've gone way too long.

Yeah.

It's, yeah, go on.

No, I was going to say, you can do it.

I was just going to say it's.

It's one of the question blocks.

Thank you, Resident Evil Merchant.

These are all from our Discord, discord.gg slash get played.

This one's from Waffles.

Hi, Waffles.

Hi, Waffles.

Hi, Waffles.

Last month, an ongoing manga had a plot beat that caused several of us in the manga channel to take a break from it after 123 chapters of reading.

Has there ever been a creative work, manga, TV, books, etc.,

that you were really into and suddenly suddenly dropped when it went somewhere you didn't like/slash couldn't stun it.

I have a

straight-up answer about this.

Wow.

Which is that I loved Walking Dead.

This was my answer.

Wow.

And

I felt

like

I thought I was tough as a person.

And then after a certain episode of the show, I was like, I'm guess I'm

not.

I never, so like when I watch a horror movie, I'm just like, oh, look at those guys doing that stuff.

Or like when I play a horror game, I'm like, haha, look at that, look at this scary stuff that's happening.

When I read a book, I'm like, I can get emotional reading a book.

Like I've fucking sobbed during a little life, but like generally speaking, I feel like a detachment when I'm consuming fiction.

And this one episode of Walking Dead like fucking made me feel sick.

And I was was just like, I wonder if you made it further than me.

Because I think there was like a story beat that wasn't necessarily like, I couldn't handle it.

I was just sort of like, I don't like this anymore.

I'm done.

And then I stopped watching it.

Mine was, and I don't want to spoil a show that's been running for forever.

That honestly, I still have nothing but respect for, like, like full respect.

Like, I would love to get back into it.

Yeah.

Like, I have nothing bad to say about the show other than there was a threshold that the show crossed that I could not join it.

And

yeah, I miss, I miss it.

Yeah.

I've never watched.

I mean, I've seen the pilot.

It's a good pilot, but I never, I was like, I can't pilot to this.

It's going to be too long.

My answer on the TV side is Game of Thrones.

I think this is probably a lot of people, but like, I really

was in on that show in the early going.

And

the final two seasons or final season that was split into two, whatever the fuck it was.

I was like, this is so off the rails.

They have so gotten away from what's cool about the show.

Clearly they are lost without the books as source material.

And they've also just sort of violated the rule, their own, like, they've established, they spent so much time establishing like how long it takes to traverse the King's Road.

And now we're just at a point where, ah, any character can be anywhere at any point.

We'll just, like, we'll just assume that like basically air travel exists.

And that completely kind of ruined the suspension of disbelief.

And also just like characters were behaving contrary to how they'd been established.

I'm trying to think of it, so Game of Thrones is my, my big recent answer.

I'm trying to think of a video game where that's happened.

I mean, there's certainly been like, hey, this latest entry is not as good.

I'm trying to think of one that's not Final Fantasy 16.

But

I get, you know what?

Banjo Tooie kind of lost me.

Banjo-Kazooie, I really liked.

Banjo Tooie

was just sort of like, this game is so overstuffed.

This is the most bloated collect-a-thon.

This is the point, this and Donkey Kong 64 were both the points where I kind of tapped out of that N64 platform or format of just like, I just don't want to get all this shit.

I am not going to 100% this game.

In fact, you know, I think Banjo 2I didn't even finish.

Donkey Kong 64 I finished, but I was just like, this is fucking too much.

I feel like when it comes to like...

Not with games, because I'm obviously always putting games down and like starting different games and like not finishing them.

But like with books and TV and movies, I am kind of a completionist.

Like I watched all of Dexter like to the end.

Wow.

And like even though for like maybe four, like

how many seasons were there ultimately, like seven in the original run, and then there was an extra season

last year.

For like three of the original

seasons, I was like, this is a bad show.

96 episodes have been made.

Yeah, and I watched all of it.

Like, I don't know.

Like, and I'll,

I dropped off of...

My girlfriend's better about

stopping.

We watched the first season of Westworld, and I loved it.

I thought the first season of Westworld was so great.

Oh, I had the same, I popped off of Westworld too, same thing.

I was about to start season two, episode one, and my girlfriend is just like...

I can already tell it's going to get too, it's getting too complicated.

There's just too much going on.

I can't watch this anymore.

And I was like, okay.

And I just never went back to it.

But, like, as for as a one-season show, Westworld's great.

And I think it works as a one-season thing.

You can sort of like see it, you know, going.

You can implot, you can infer what's going to happen

later on and not be disappointed by, you know, ultimately what goes on.

And now you can't watch it if you want to.

It's not available to screen.

So

I missed the boat completely.

But yeah, with games, I fall off all.

And I just want to say one more time in case my answer was construed in a negative way.

I didn't, I did, I respected the choice that the show made.

Like, but I, but I couldn't handle it,

which is not like,

it's not like when in X-Files, when Mulder and Scully fucked, and I was like,

this sucks.

Like,

that was a choice where I'm like,

I'm not into, that's not what I want to see from this show, right?

Like, there are, there are character thresholds, but this this was like a plot threshold that I was like, oh man, this is,

oof, this is too much for me.

Even though I completely buy that this is a thing that would happen.

I'm going to have to find out what the moment was after.

This next one is from DVA with a handgun.

It's been almost four years since Death Stranding came out.

How do you feel it still impacts the way you view games, the world, media, et cetera?

This is a great question.

First off, four years, Jesus Christ.

I mean, like, for me, I just, I am so dialed into traversal now.

And I should shout out my, my, my buddy who

is a, what, what a game developer I used to share an office with when I was in the industry.

And he recently got into Death Stranding.

And it took him a while, but he like, he was like, holy shit, I'm all in now.

He's completely into the, you know, just that gameplay loop and can really appreciate how it's constructed.

So for me, it's like,

for me, it's just like,

how, how fun is it to traverse this world?

How fun is it to just walk around?

I think that's a big part of what I appreciated about Tears of the Kingdom, even though I bumped off of it for a bit because it's just overwhelming.

It's just like great running around, great walking around, great getting on mounts, great, you know, building stuff that lets you get places.

It's just more than the combat, this game is about movement.

And I really did appreciate that.

That's an interesting thing because, like,

comparing the last big game that I played, which was Final Fantasy 16, if you're comparing the traversal in that game versus Death Stranding,

it clearly sucks.

Like, it's like, that's like a bad part of the game.

Also, not, yeah, also a much more linear game.

Yeah.

Like, it's just, you're just kind of running down tunnels for a lot of it.

It's,

yeah,

I guess, yeah, I'd like, I don't want to just just mention big games, but I think like playing Elden Ring, I was like, you know what?

Like this, this environmental design, this open world is really well constructed in terms of how you can navigate it, the points where it feels like you can find a shortcut or a dead end, all that sort of shit is very death-stranding in terms of, okay, I'm kind of cul-de-saced here.

Oh, I can't get directly from here to here.

I got to figure out how to go around.

And

yeah, I guess just navigating open spaces is a thing I'm more conscious of of now post-Death Stranding.

I would say that I still think about Death Stranding enough that when the

Gresham Blake Death Stranding collaboration came out, I considered selling something from my collection of stuff so that I could get a $300

track suit.

Because I was like, man, it would be pretty hype to have that fucking track suit.

I don't know where I would wear it.

I don't know why I would wear wear it, but I could sell, like,

I could probably sell a couple of like Pokemon games and just get this track suit for free.

So I still, just stranding.

I'll buy them.

Huh?

I'll buy him.

Sell them to me, I'll buy him.

Stranding still, still is in my head a lot.

I also think about how

well it handled a bat shit story.

Oh, yeah.

Great point.

Like, when I think about,

you know, comparing it to the most recent game I finished, Final Fantasy 16,

like

Final Fantasy 16 is not really

wild comparatively.

Like, one of my complaints about the game when we covered it, Final Fantasy 16, was that it wasn't weird enough, right?

Like, I think about how Final Fantasy VII has a giant talking red cat in the party.

But, like, stranding is exclusively weird stuff.

It is only the talking cat in the party.

And it, and I don't feel like I was ever alienated by the way that story was told.

I was like,

What

is happening?

Okay.

Like, that first time that Sam looks up and sees the giant, ghastly, towering thing.

I still think about texting you guys when I saw that thing.

Holy shit, this game is incredible.

Yeah.

It's a good game, man.

Fucking,

I also have been following Kojima on Twitter and

now X.

Following Kojima on X.

Boy.

God damn it.

And

there have been stories about how he had to rewrite sections of Death Stranding 2 because of the pandemic.

And I think about that a lot too.

Like, I just, I'm like, what?

What?

What does that mean?

Yeah, that's interesting.

Yeah.

This next one's from Music Man Hills.

Hey, Music Man.

And they write,

I'm in the biggest video game rut I've ever experienced.

Wow.

I get home from a hard day of work and play the exact same meaningless sports game over and over again on my PS5 with no interest in seemingly every new game being an open world RPG.

What would you recommend playing that is both relaxing and rewarding while still feeling meaningful?

And have you ever been in a video game runt where nothing seemed to interest you?

Yes, 100%.

And honestly, if it wasn't for this podcast, I probably would have had, over the past few years, because I've always had kind of fallow periods, I probably would have had some longer stretches where I just wasn't playing games and wasn't doing my, I mean, that's, that's a

I'll let everyone answer that while we think of recommendations.

Because not knowing your taste beyond that you regularly play a sports game, um,

it's it's maybe a little tough to give you any specific guidance.

Yeah, I'd say sometime in like the PS3 and even PS4 era, I had a pretty big rut.

Like, I feel like I've been doing the most gaming I've ever done in this console generation, uh, like just playing, playing games non-stop.

Um, But I don't know.

I feel like anybody could play Vampire Survivor.

Yeah.

Oh, that's a great rank.

Yep.

And get and get something out of it.

I know Heather didn't like it that much, but like, even then,

I totally see your point.

I think it's a great point.

Yeah.

Like, because it's like, it's just an easy, like, pick it up and feel like you did something kind of game.

Maybe Hades is a little more challenging, but like

that to me is like a pretty rewarding game for what you can do in it and feels like a good use of time.

Um, but those would be those would be my two biggest recommendations.

Vampire Survivors is a great call.

I, I, I'm looking at Game Pass right now, and I did, did you mention PlayStation, so I, I, I'm, I don't know if you have an Xbox or a game PC, but um, sometimes when stuff turns up on Xbox or on Game Pass, it means it's also on deep sale on other platforms.

So, a short hike is one.

Like, that's like a super relaxing game that's also short.

And so, you could be like, all right, I'm going to play this game.

It's, it's two to three hours of playtime or however long it is.

And I can just, I'll play this.

I'll commit to this.

I can get through this.

And maybe that'll kind of shake me out of my red.

Another game that I really like is Celeste.

That game's a little bit more challenging.

I mean, that game I'd say is a challenging platformer, but it's aesthetically really

calming and cool and has a great story, has a

great look to it.

So

that could be something to try.

Or maybe fucking try Death Stranding.

I don't know.

Yeah,

I would even say

go back to a classic.

It doesn't have to be a new game.

Like something you've even played before.

I feel like I've done that where like, you know, in the last couple of years, I played through some of the Kingdom Hearts games again, and maybe I was in a rut then and I needed to get pulled out of it by, you know, experiencing Kingdom Hearts again.

And I, and I'm, I'm glad I did that.

Maybe I'll also throw Fortnite into this list.

Oh,

I don't know if you're a competitive gamer, but

the people who've listened to me

preach about to extol the virtues of Fortnite and have joined us on the Battle Bus on Discord have all been like, I never expected to have this much fun in a game.

And

if it is the kind of game that you would find fun, there's so many ways to have fun in the game.

So

I'd put my token in for Fortnite.

Maybe you could take a step back.

That is a good answer.

And take a step back also and be like,

why do I play this sports game?

And why do I feel bad or unsatisfied when I'm playing it?

Because if there's an element of I feel guilty because I should be experiencing other big games, but I actually enjoy this game, I think that's maybe more of a thing of like, well, you know what?

If you're having fun doing this, you don't have to

get to feel like

you're using your hobby time productively.

Like that's an illusion.

You know, there, there is no, there isn't anything particularly productive about getting all the achievements of the big new release.

So if you're enjoying yourself now, maybe that's more just like a thing you need to, a thing to work on and figure out.

But that said, if you're not enjoying yourself, if you feel like you're just habituated to unwinding in this particular method and you want to try something else, yeah, just shake it up.

This last one is from Ryan T.

Hi, Ryan.

Ryan T.

Ryan T.

Hi, Ryan T.

Ryan T.

How do you manage your feelings about a game that is announced but never updating?

The De jour example right now feels like Hollow Knight Silk Song.

Is it disappointing each time a direct or game con comes through with no news or have you gotten more Zen over time?

I no longer give a shit because I'm just like, it's going to come out when it comes out.

I've got so much to play that are like, what's the rush?

What was the game?

There was a game they delayed.

Was it Elden Ring?

I can't remember what it was, but there was a game they delayed substantially, and then it finally came out and it delivered.

But I think like everyone was just sort of like, yeah, fucking whatever.

I got other shit to play.

Cyberpunk was delayed.

And

that one was way

longer.

Could have used another delay.

Again, we like that game.

Yeah.

No, yeah, I think that's a good.

That's good.

I would actually like them to stop,

just stop making games for a year.

I don't think we need any shutdowns.

Full shutdown.

Let me just catch up.

Let me have some time.

You know, get back to

just get back to basics.

What do we like?

What are we doing?

What's going on?

You know, touch grass a little.

See what's out there.

And then come back to some games later.

Like, okay, like, yeah, like, uh, there's, I didn't play, you know, I didn't ever go back to the Ghost of Tsushima

DLC.

Let's go see what's going on there.

Sure.

Uh, and that kind of stuff.

I don't know if I need new games to be happening all the time anymore.

I'm excited for new games, but I don't,

yeah, I don't, I don't, I'm not following like a particular games release because

you only open your you only open your heart for disappointment in that regard.

Because

am I excited to eventually play the Prince of Persia, Sands of Time,

remake, remaster, whatever they're calling it?

Yeah.

Do I ever think it's coming out?

No.

There's no way it's coming out.

Yes.

They'll never make that.

I felt that way.

I know you guys know that I would text you about Pokemon Sleep.

For like a couple of years, I texted about Pokemon Sleep and how excited I was.

And it fell off the radar and never, it seemingly was never going to come back.

And then it did.

And I was so bummed out by the execution that I, that I, I wish I had never given any of my hype to Pokemon Sleep.

There was another Nintendo game that came, that was announced and then disappeared.

And it had a finger sensor on it.

And it was going to be for the Wii, where you could, it was like going to test your blood pressure or something while you played the game.

And it was announced.

And I was like, oh, shit, I love metrics.

I love peripherals.

This is going to be for me.

And then it never, ever, ever came back.

And I was like, oh,

well, but, but I wanted to see what they were going to do with that thing.

So, yeah, my.

They knew people were going to put it somewhere else.

My advice is to never get excited about anything.

Yes, wait for it to come out.

And also, I think the other thing is that the

opposite of the hype cycle is the game that comes out of nowhere and was on no one's radar.

And you're like, oh shit, this is great.

I like that more.

That's better.

Yeah, I love that.

So just wait for that.

And that's it for the question block this week, everybody.

Thanks for writing in.

Wow, that's this week's Get Played.

Our engineering is by Alex Gonzalez, Dead Air Alex G on Twitter and Instagram.

And also, check out our paywall show, Get Animated.

Heather, we're making our way through the melancholy of Harui Susania.

Think the episodes that are about to air,

we're watching six, seven, and eight of the Endless Eight arc.

And the boys have had a good time.

It's been a fun adventure.

Come and join us on

patreon.com slash get played, where we talk about anime on get animated.

I have a small plug.

oh it's actually not a small plug it's like a big it's good like a it's a nice thing

I worked on I produced this show with our pal Jacob Waisaki called Expo Expose and it's a podcast where we went to four different expos in southern California and it's a limited run podcast

we interview we interviewed people there and it's it's a it's a comedy podcast but it's like

It's more sincere than anything that I've ever made, that I think we've ever made.

And

it's on the Earwolf Presents feed.

So you just search that.

You can find Expo Expose there.

And the first one dropped Friday,

August 11th, as of this recording.

So go back and you can hear it.

And they'll be coming out for the next couple of weeks.

And I worked really hard on it.

And Jacob's great on it.

And I think you should check it out because I think it's a lot of fun.

Yeah, it's definitely check that out.

It's a really cool thing y'all have done.

I was trying to find it in a podcast app.

I think if you just search for Earwolf in whatever your app of choice is, it will come up with a few.

But there is a feed just called Earwolf Presents.

Exactly.

And there's a bunch of different stuff in there.

But yeah, that's where your show will live over the next four weeks.

Exactly.

Go check it out.

We went to a reptile expo, an anime expo, a boat.

expo and a tattoo one and it was they were all they were all strange it was it was a really it was a great time

Congrats, Matt.

I hope people check that out.

Yeah, me too.

Thanks.

And I hope people listening to this are aware that they got played.

Oh, shit.

Heck yeah.