0:03

Hey, it's Mae Whitman, and I play

0:05

Frankie in the new Realm podcast The Sisters.

0:08

The Sisters is about a museum

0:10

curator of medical oddities who investigates

0:12

the origins of a mutated skeleton

0:14

with two layers of bones. Soon,

0:17

she uncovers an extraordinary mystery

0:19

that connects her present with

0:21

one family's tragic past in

0:24

hauntingly dangerous ways. Welcome

0:26

to The Sisters, wherever you get your

0:28

podcasts. Beyond

0:46

that alone, welcome once again to IGN's weekly

0:48

PlayStation show. I'm your host, Max Scovill, and

0:50

joining me today are my good pals, Jada

0:53

Griffin. Hey. I'm

0:55

Keemla Watson. Hey, everybody. How's it going?

0:57

What's up? Yo. What's

1:00

up? How you doing, Max? I'm

1:02

feeling a bit better. I'm a little sniffly still. monster

1:05

of the week disease of some sort,

1:07

and there's slime on everything. It's

1:10

Lovecraftian, really. Now

1:13

it's a labor of love. We got

1:15

some cool stuff to talk about today. There

1:18

are games that are coming out. We got that demo for Stellar Blade. I

1:20

want to talk about that a little bit. Suicide

1:22

Squad got its first big DLC content

1:24

drop. There's a ... What do

1:26

you call it? A big update for Helldivers that

1:29

added snow, I think? Blizzard?

1:32

Blizzard. Added Blizzards.

1:34

Sure. Why not? Wow.

1:38

Blizzards. First things first, I want to

1:40

get into this. There's been a lot of talk about handhelds.

1:42

There's been a lot of talk about other

1:45

companies making handheld video gaming devices.

1:47

We've seen the rise of the

1:49

Steam Deck. I

1:51

don't think anybody expected Valve to be making a handheld, let

1:53

alone for one to be a runaway success

1:56

that is now part of

1:58

the standard video game console. ecosystem, the

2:00

switch again, which was sort of a sort of

2:02

a dark horse before it launched. We weren't really

2:04

sure where that was going. That took off, went

2:06

gangbusters, one of the best selling consoles of all

2:09

time. Microsoft has been talking a

2:11

little bit about doing a handheld. There's an

2:13

interview that Phil Spencer did with Polygon

2:16

from a while back from I think

2:18

a couple weeks ago around the game

2:20

developers concert conference, not concert. Anything basically

2:22

he wants his Lenovo Legion go to feel like an

2:25

Xbox. He talked about how he's played, you know, he's

2:27

played the Steam Deck. He's played the Lenovo Legion. He's

2:29

played the, the, the, the raw,

2:31

the raw gases. What is it? The

2:33

ROG? Hold on. ROG,

2:35

raw gases. You

2:41

know what I'm talking about. Little, little handheld

2:43

gaming PCs. But basically he talks about

2:45

how, you know, that these are, these

2:47

are cool, but they're like, they're missing

2:49

that, that feeling of

2:51

being part of the Xbox ecosystem. And, you

2:54

know, there's been other talk about, you know, maybe

2:56

they're going to explore new form factors for how

2:58

people can experience the, you know, Xbox brand, yada,

3:00

yada, yada. And there's of course those

3:02

leaked, you know, government documents that just sort of

3:04

had like a little, a little thing on the

3:06

Xbox hardware, you know, timeline of handheld. So

3:09

it seems kind of like signs are starting to

3:11

point that maybe Xbox is going to make its

3:13

own handheld device, which puts us in a weird

3:16

situation as PlayStation fans, because, you

3:18

know, PlayStation has a wonderful track record making handhelds.

3:20

You know, we had the, the PSP and the

3:22

Vita, great little machines. You know,

3:25

Sony also has like a legacy of making handheld

3:27

entertainment devices. They made the Walkman, they made the,

3:29

you know, the transistor radio. Like these are things

3:31

that they even made

3:33

portable laptops. Like, yeah, like, well, portable, I

3:35

mean, like handheld laptops, I used to have

3:37

one. Yeah. I call like a bio or

3:40

so little, little baby by on. Yeah. Yeah.

3:42

I mean, Sony has a long, long history of

3:45

making kind of cool gadgets. But it's

3:47

kind of weird at this point, because in the gaming space, it

3:50

seems like they're the only ones not

3:52

really doing that right now, which I

3:54

guess, I guess what I'm wondering is competition

4:00

caused Sony to kind of throw their hat

4:02

in the ring or will the presence of

4:04

competition may have Sony just be like no

4:06

it's not worth it let them fight it

4:08

out we've we're covered making PS5s like we

4:11

just obviously there was the the remote play

4:13

the portal which is a handheld by very

4:16

little definition but as far as something that you can

4:18

take on the go you know

4:20

it's not quite that you know like I actually I got my

4:22

hands on one of these you know cuz

4:24

that's how you're supposed to hold it but like

4:26

it's it's really cool I like it I actually

4:28

I've been meaning to kind of get more time

4:30

with it and really kind of get a feel

4:32

for it but like when that thing works it

4:34

works it's really cool like I've you

4:37

know playing it it really feels good

4:39

just having that in your hands but you know I

4:41

mean the thing is again it's it's only remote play

4:43

so that that's like that's honestly that's the setback for

4:45

me I mean I have an 85 inch screen

4:48

television I'm not bragging or anything but like

4:50

honestly like I would rather play if I'm

4:52

going to be at home remotely playing my

4:54

video games I would just play it on

4:56

there as far as like

4:59

you know Sony PlayStation feeling like left out

5:02

with like the competition also getting into

5:04

the the whole handheld fray we've

5:07

been there done that right you know I feel like I don't

5:09

necessarily think that this might

5:11

encourage them but like with the with the

5:13

PlayStation portal it shows that they maybe

5:16

they are interested in getting back into

5:19

into the the fray because like why

5:21

create that you know when you have

5:23

a history a track record of creating

5:25

actual portable handheld devices I

5:28

think the the big thing for for them

5:30

is yes they have a track record and

5:32

man I would love to see a new

5:34

Vita I would

5:36

love to see a new handheld whatever it ends up being

5:38

from Sony I would love that hands down a portal

5:42

is one of those devices it's one of

5:44

the it's a great device if

5:46

you have all the right ingredients super

5:49

fast internet you know you're going places super fast

5:51

internet and good connections and stuff like that it's

5:55

great for that but it is limiting you know as

5:57

you stated a key and it's kind of like doesn't

5:59

make a thrill sense to play on your, when you've got

6:01

a big TV at home, unless, you

6:04

know, somebody else you're sharing the TV with somebody else in

6:06

your household. I

6:08

think the market is too

6:11

saturated at the moment for Sony to want

6:13

to dive into it meaningfully.

6:16

I think the portal was their way of

6:18

kind of testing the waters to see how

6:21

interested the community still was

6:24

in playing on a portable handheld

6:26

console. And based on like, I

6:28

don't have sales numbers, but based on how fast they

6:30

tend to sell out whenever they go in stock, it's

6:33

selling pretty well on that measure.

6:37

But that's not an actual metric other than like,

6:40

Hey, we only stock 10 at a time, but we

6:42

sold all 10. Great. Let's put another

6:44

10 on Amazon. But

6:47

I think it's okay for Sony to

6:50

sit out this generation for handhelds. I

6:52

think come next generation PS6, they're already

6:54

in design and work

6:57

for it. It kind of makes more sense if

6:59

they launch it with that and maybe do something

7:01

not exactly switch style,

7:04

where it's a combo handheld and

7:07

home console. But

7:09

maybe there's something that does dock

7:11

and works that you can take on the go

7:13

that functions as a part of your console away

7:16

from home. Yeah,

7:18

I could definitely see that. The

7:21

portal, it came when you mentioned it this way,

7:23

like the portal is being sort of

7:25

an experiment does make sense. Like if it's selling

7:27

well, and it wasn't that huge of a, you

7:29

know, an expenditure or risk, the

7:31

fact that it does feel so limited in terms of features,

7:33

like, you know, it can connect to your PS5, it's cool.

7:35

It doesn't have a browser, which you could chalk up to

7:37

them wanting to keep you from hacking it. It

7:40

doesn't have Bluetooth. That seems like an odd choice. They want to

7:42

sell their own proprietary headphones. I get that. But

7:44

again, it feels like it feels like kind

7:46

of a hollow device. Again,

7:50

the thing that made it click for me is like, this isn't a

7:52

handheld, this is a controller with a screen

7:54

on it, which is very subtle sort

7:56

of difference there. But like, if it's selling well

7:58

enough, maybe that does maybe that does kind

8:00

of nudge Sony towards exploring the idea

8:03

of a dedicated handheld. The funny thing is we

8:06

say handheld, but the whole thing that Nintendo changed

8:08

with the Switch is that that's not really what

8:10

it is anymore. With the Switch's

8:12

Nintendo's flagship console, they put all of their proverbial

8:14

eggs in one really big basket and that

8:17

paid off. That used to be, you had

8:19

the whole, the DS ecosystem, the Game Boy

8:21

ecosystem, whatever, and then the Nintendo home console,

8:23

and they were like, they are now one

8:25

and the same, and it worked.

8:27

And it also demonstrated that people are like,

8:29

cool playing, you know, maybe older stuff. Maybe

8:34

it's not the most powerful machine out there. Maybe it's,

8:37

you know, kind of plays some last gen stuff

8:39

with maybe it looks terrible. Maybe

8:41

it looks all right. Maybe it's a really good indie machine.

8:43

Honestly, in a lot of ways, the sort of, the idea

8:45

of a really, a handheld device with

8:47

a crisp OLED screen that plays really cool

8:49

indie games, that's kind of what

8:51

the Vita was doing before the Switch. It was

8:54

a wonderful little indie machine. I

8:57

mean, I'm wondering, you know, Sony was

8:59

toying with this with the Vita. The idea of a

9:01

sort of remote play device, you know, Kojima came out

9:03

on stage and they tried to explain the idea of

9:05

trans-faring, which was a wonderful portmanteau of, I

9:08

don't even know what that was. He's playing your games on the

9:10

go, I guess. That was the hook there. Yeah.

9:13

You know, it could have just said remote play, but

9:16

yeah, we're all so far kind of past that at this

9:18

point. And yeah, there's, bless

9:21

your heart for having a little Vita on hand right there. I have

9:23

it on my desk. I have it on my desk.

9:25

It's got a little stand and everything. I

9:27

love that thing. I mean, the thing I wonder

9:29

if Sony was kind of early

9:31

to the party on and, you know, the

9:33

PSP was a success enough. It did well

9:35

enough. But again, it was doing the

9:38

sort of same approach the PlayStation took where it's

9:40

like, this is not just a video game system.

9:42

This is an MP3 player. This plays, you know,

9:44

movies on your dedicated UMD. You can use it

9:46

to look at photos

9:48

and videos. I wonder where you got those. I wonder what those

9:50

are of. But then like, you

9:53

know, that was, again, sort of a thing,

9:55

a hard thing to grok because you're like at the time, you

9:57

know, if you buy a handheld gaming device, it's a Game Boy.

9:59

It's a, you know, It's a toy. But

10:01

now it's sort of, I wonder if the generation

10:03

that was sort of gravitating towards that has sort

10:06

of grown up a little bit. Maybe they're willing to throw a little

10:08

money around. Maybe

10:11

the upside of a

10:13

generation that grew up with a switch getting a little bit older is

10:15

suddenly they got a little walking around money and maybe

10:17

they wanna scoop up a more powerful handheld

10:20

device that happens to be in

10:23

the same sort of ecosystem as a console. That's

10:25

the thing that really I feel like this needs

10:27

to be is if Sony's gonna come out with

10:29

a new handheld, whatever you wanna call it, it

10:32

needs to play PlayStation games. It doesn't, we've

10:35

had the Vita, we've had the PSP where

10:37

it's sort of the scaled

10:40

down diet version, the portable version. But

10:42

with the switch changes, yeah, maybe it's like a lower

10:45

resolution, maybe it looks kind of janky, but it's

10:47

your, you know, it's a

10:49

full fledged game. And then I

10:52

mean, I was gonna say that the thing

10:54

is we don't even know like, maybe there's

10:56

a method to PlayStation's madness. Maybe there's a

10:58

reason why they came out with this, with

11:01

the PlayStation portal first, just to kind of

11:03

like, just to test the

11:05

wires to see if there is interest. And apparently

11:08

sales are doing well for it. Who knows, maybe

11:10

the PlayStation portal plus or pro

11:13

might be something that we can take on the

11:15

go. And it's not necessarily remote play. Who knows?

11:18

Because again, we do know that they have the

11:20

technology and the means to create something that it's

11:23

not just tethered to your

11:25

wifi, your internet and your PlayStation 5

11:27

at home. So I don't know. I'd

11:30

be curious to see if that is

11:32

something that they could be cooking up.

11:34

They're still cooking up that like, that handwarming controller

11:36

I'm assuming, right? Yeah, it's a little bit. It's

11:38

a hand held. That's the hand held one. It's

11:40

gonna be the new handheld. It's

11:43

like a bag full of cat skeletons. Just, there you go.

11:46

No, the- That's something earlier. But

11:49

yeah, I think Max, your

11:51

point about having just a more paired

11:55

down version of games that plays actual

11:57

PlayStation games is the thing that kind of

11:59

makes the most sense. Because I think

12:02

one of the, well, there's a couple

12:04

downfalls with Vida. A, the proprietary tech

12:06

that you had to buy, you know,

12:08

proprietary charger, proprietary memory cards

12:10

and all that stuff. PSP

12:12

had proprietary, you know, UMD

12:14

cartridges. I think a

12:16

lot of what Sony is,

12:18

we've noticed Sony trying to do is they're

12:20

trying to pull everything into one space instead

12:24

of dividing too much. Because when

12:26

you start dividing your resources so thin,

12:28

it slows down production on everything. And

12:31

so I think that's how they have to do

12:33

it if they're going to move forward. I think they have to go

12:35

with that, I don't

12:38

want to say switch business model, but that

12:40

same business model that the Switch is using,

12:42

where it's the same game that you're playing,

12:44

whether you're playing it on handheld or on

12:46

your home console or while docked, but

12:49

while docked, it's a better version. I think that

12:51

you have to go that route now. I

12:54

mean, we can sit here all day and just shout until

12:56

a blue in the face about things we'd want from a

12:58

Sony handheld. But one thing that keeps sort of popping into

13:00

my head is the, and this is not

13:03

a smart, this is not like a good business

13:05

track record here, but the Sega Nomad is one

13:07

I always think of, which was Sega's

13:09

handheld that came out kind of in the, it

13:11

was sort of a swan song for the Genesis,

13:14

where the Mega Drive, whatever, when that

13:16

was on its way out and

13:18

people still had stacks of those games kicking on,

13:21

they had their whole library, suddenly it was like, hey, you

13:23

can play all of those games on a

13:25

handheld device. All you need is

13:28

36 AA batteries to

13:30

play it for 20 minutes. It was a really cool

13:32

little machine, and the idea of getting more mileage out

13:34

of your existing library, I

13:37

don't see them being able to affordably

13:39

slim down a PS5 into a handheld

13:41

device, but I could see that happening to a

13:43

PS4. And it would be kind

13:45

of wild if the thing they put out was, hey, the

13:48

PS4 is finally, we're finally sunsetting that, but

13:51

hey, look, it's a new thing. You can play your PS4

13:53

library on the go. It plays all of those things. Oh,

13:55

but wait, there's more. It does remote play with your PS5,

13:57

and it's future proof for the PS6. And

14:00

those really fast-paced next-gen games, you can

14:03

play them anywhere you go, asterisk,

14:05

with a stable Wi-Fi connection because it's only

14:07

through remote play. Like have the stuff that

14:09

it can run locally, run locally, but anything else,

14:11

it just cloud streams it, which again,

14:14

that's, I feel

14:16

like they were playing around with the remote

14:18

play aspect with the Vita and that

14:21

idea of sort of hopping between games. We got

14:23

a handful of games where it was, you know,

14:25

there was the like Metal Gear Solid Collection where

14:27

it was, you know, your saves would carry between

14:29

your Vita and your PS3 at

14:32

home. It would be so cool to

14:35

see, I don't know, something along those lines, taking the sort of

14:37

idea behind the Switch, but, you know,

14:40

the PS4 is a massively successful

14:42

system that has a huge

14:44

library and, you know,

14:46

to its credit, the fact that we're still getting PS4

14:49

games is because so many people jumped

14:51

onto it and picked it up. You

14:54

know, obviously, I don't know, if

14:56

somebody came out and was like, hey, we're selling a handheld

14:58

that plays PS4 games on

15:00

the go, we're also selling a PlayStation 5

15:03

Pro. I would immediately go for

15:05

the former over the latter because it sort of, it feels

15:07

like a new product, even

15:09

if it isn't necessarily pushing things forward. I

15:12

mean, that's just me. I don't know what kind of market

15:14

research that provides, but it's, you know, it's fun to think

15:16

about. I

15:20

got to say this, Max, so you

15:22

would get that even though they're not going to

15:24

be updating the catalog, the back catalog of the

15:26

PS4 portable console. I

15:29

mean, again, this is all hypothetical. I

15:33

think if it comes out and it's like, if

15:36

this is our backwards compatibility machine,

15:39

then yes, I think that would be something

15:41

that would interest a lot of gamers

15:43

out there. If this is

15:45

going to play, this has access to your

15:47

whole PS Plus premium library

15:49

and it streams all that stuff and it's

15:51

going to add, keep adding stuff and it's

15:53

just that, I think that'd be fine. Yeah,

15:57

again, it's not so much like... I'm

16:00

not saying that I want Sony to make a handheld

16:02

that plays ps4 games so that people can keep making

16:05

ps4 games I think at some point they should stop

16:07

making ps4 games and start making ps5 games But

16:09

there is also that sort of like Xbox has was

16:11

it like smart delivery? Where they

16:14

don't really they're kind of they kind of fudge and it's like it's

16:16

out for Xbox Not

16:18

it's not like a I mean their numbering convention

16:20

over there is completely wackity to begin with but

16:22

the idea that this High-powered box can figure out

16:25

how to best run this software You're giving it and at the

16:27

end of the day these things are all sort of like PCs

16:29

under the hood and at a certain Point you're gonna have so

16:32

many different variations on it Figure

16:34

out which one which versions of those you can run it

16:36

and just let it do its best like I the idea

16:38

that like you look at some of the you know some

16:40

of the indie games that come out and They'll

16:42

come to ps5 and they're made for

16:44

ps5 there You know they pass cert for ps5, but you

16:47

know looking at some of them. It's like this could run on ps4 Yeah,

16:49

like like I mean I think I

16:51

think Dave the diver is I feel like that's

16:53

coming to ps5 and ps4 I'm

16:56

sure there's some there's some again. I

16:58

don't make games. I don't know what goes on under

17:00

the hood I'm sure there's some very considerable differences between

17:02

what the ps5 version does or the ps4 version does

17:04

but looking at that game It can run

17:06

fine on both like that game.

17:08

I'm I wonder maybe that could run

17:10

on a Vita I don't know. I don't make Vita games, but like

17:12

it's it's At a

17:14

certain point. It's it's like He

17:17

I don't know whose call it is to figure out where where

17:19

these things should run And it's not as simple we always joke

17:22

about that's not as simple as like renaming the file name to

17:24

like dot ps4 to dot ps5 but like you

17:26

know it's Make it make

17:28

a little poor little portable thing and play some play some games

17:30

on the go It's fun to think about

17:32

I'm curious what our audience thinks what that what they

17:34

would want from a new handheld That's actually a handheld

17:36

not just not just the portal, but

17:38

it's Yeah,

17:41

yeah, yeah, let us know what you guys are thinking are

17:44

there enough screens in your life Let us know on

17:46

that note. We just got news that Sony

17:49

is playing around with a new

17:51

feature. They're doing a beta test

17:53

called Lore which is a

17:56

feature to be part of the PlayStation app

17:58

and basically it's a little

18:00

section that would accumulate sort

18:02

of in-game information

18:04

like voice recordings or

18:07

codecs entries or database files or

18:10

in-game emails or cutscenes. The kind of stuff where

18:13

you're going through the game, it's that sort of

18:16

ancillary storytelling

18:18

that's scattered throughout so many games and

18:20

let you check it out on your phone. So like when

18:22

you're playing your game, you can play your game, but when

18:25

you go and you pick up some

18:27

crumpled letter on the corner of a burnt down building

18:29

in The Last of Us, maybe you don't stop

18:31

and read that while you're playing on an 85-inch

18:34

TV. Maybe you check it while you're on the

18:36

bus or taking a crap, which I

18:38

think is a phenomenal feature and I would love to

18:40

see that applied to more things. Right

18:42

now, I think it's only with The

18:44

Last of Us. Yeah, Last of Us Part II Remastered.

18:48

But yeah, this is one of

18:50

the things I would love to see more... I'd

18:52

love to see this become

18:55

commonplace among games. There are so

18:57

many... such a big push, what,

18:59

like five years ago for second

19:01

screen experiences where so many developers were

19:03

trying to build in the second screen. It's

19:05

like, you can use your phone to check

19:07

this thing and message with friends and stuff

19:09

like that. I'm like, I do that all

19:12

through my console pretty seamlessly. That's fine.

19:15

Also, the PS app is great for

19:17

messaging people. Sometimes it's quicker to type

19:19

on my phone than it is to

19:21

type on the digital keyboard. But this

19:24

is something where second screen actually does

19:26

make a lot of sense. I 100%

19:29

agree, Max. This is something I

19:31

would love as I'm... maybe I

19:33

picked up a bunch of notes

19:36

in a game at the end of the day and

19:38

I'm like, you know what? I actually want to read

19:40

one of those books from Baldur's Gate tonight before I

19:42

go to sleep. Let me read this as a bedtime

19:44

story. Instead of... especially

19:46

with Baldur's Gate, it's something that you're playing co-op

19:48

with a bunch of people and it's like, you

19:51

don't want to hold up the action for other

19:53

people, but you find a collectible. Like,

19:55

oh, I can go back and read this later

19:57

now. Like, ingenious. It's a way of keeping

19:59

the action... moving and keeping you playing while

20:01

you want to be playing. Like I

20:03

love the auxiliary or ancillary storytelling

20:06

in games, but like there's so

20:08

many times where you find

20:10

a note and it's like four

20:12

pages of written dialogue. And I'm

20:14

like, I usually, I like, I'll

20:17

read the whole first page and then I'll look and I'm

20:19

like, oh, there's four pages of this. And then I move

20:21

on and I either will, if

20:23

I'm like really digging the game, I'll go

20:25

back and read it. But most of the time I

20:27

just forget about it. Cause I found the next book

20:29

that was six pages now. And

20:32

so having a way to just look at it on my

20:34

phone in between sessions would be great. Yeah,

20:36

I think that's a brilliant idea. I mean,

20:38

like so many Resident Evil games. So,

20:41

you know, Alan Wake 2, like all

20:43

these games that just have like these things you can pick

20:45

up and you can, I mean, don't expect

20:47

me to read while I'm playing a video game. I just

20:49

want some action. That's all that I'm getting into. But I

20:51

think the fact that you can actually, you know, just like

20:54

pick up your phone, pick up an iPad and just go

20:56

back and read it. Also I would love maybe

20:58

even like have it like like an

21:00

audible type thing where it's like, it's read by,

21:03

you know, the soothing voice of some

21:05

actor. Meryl Streep, read you notes from the

21:07

Last of Us Part 2. So

21:11

then I was getting stabbed and

21:13

hit over the head. Good

21:15

God. Another

21:18

game I would love this in, and it's

21:20

a recent release. It's Dragon's Dogma 2, because

21:23

I would love to be able to pull up on

21:25

my phone. Okay, I'm supposed to go

21:27

find Sven. Who the hell is Sven? And now I'm

21:29

looking through this NPC glossary in the game

21:32

and I get the game is supposed

21:34

to like fight back and it's, you

21:36

know, antagonistic to a degree by design.

21:38

But man, it is such a pain in

21:40

the butt trying to like remember where each

21:42

NPC is. And yes, you can find it in the

21:44

game, but I would love to have that on my

21:46

phone as well. So that while I'm running to

21:48

a place, I can have my phone open and like, okay, now I

21:50

know where I'm going. Yeah, that's-

21:52

A little Google Maps in the game. I mean, that's

21:54

where you're getting more ambitious. Obviously I would love a

21:56

second screen app that incorporates the maps and all that

21:58

stuff. I think, you know,

22:01

just plug, plug, plug, check out Map Genie. It's a great

22:03

way to look at maps and stuff at the front of

22:05

IGN's Wikis department. They got all sorts of great information there.

22:07

If you're trying to find Sven, they can help you out.

22:10

Uh, but it's more, it's like as

22:12

a very sort of, you know, low expectations, realistically, where

22:14

could this come into play? It's

22:16

the, it's like the audio

22:18

files and the, the, you know,

22:21

the emails, the notes, like Cyberpunk, the fact that that's

22:23

a game where you wake up in your, you know,

22:25

futuristic apartment, and then you can walk over to your

22:27

desktop computer and check your email and there's just a

22:29

bunch of email. And like the funny thing

22:31

is like, I will read email on my phone. I will

22:33

read email on my laptop. I will read email on my

22:36

desktop. I would not eat them on a

22:38

plane. I would not eat them in South of Spain. I

22:40

don't know. Eat your emails? I won't eat my emails. No,

22:42

but Green Eggs and Ham, all that. Um, but no, like

22:44

it, I don't, the one place

22:46

I'm not going to read emails is on my TV. When

22:48

I'm playing, it's, I think this is a disconnect between

22:50

people who make games on a desktop computer and you

22:52

know, Cyberpunk is very, you know, PC gaming forward and

22:54

I get that. And it's, it feels more natural to

22:57

like, you know, click over with your mouse and scroll

22:59

down. It's a little different when you're using, using a

23:01

controller to do that. And that's, you know, that's no

23:03

fault of the developers. That's, that's honestly just how

23:05

we're, how we're consuming the game. But

23:08

that said, like, if I had, if I

23:10

was like totally in, you know, in Cyberpunk mode,

23:12

and this, this logic also applies to, I don't

23:14

know, fallout, like more, more recently I was

23:16

playing, um, like a dragon, I mean, kind of

23:18

jumping back into that and checking out little side

23:21

things I miss, there's like an entire thing in

23:23

there about, you know, curio's ancient past and there's

23:25

database entries about everybody in there, every little tidbit

23:27

of his, you know, his, his ancient history and

23:29

his legacy and his memories and all that stuff,

23:32

memoirs of a dragon or whatever, and then, you know,

23:34

going through that, like scrolling through that when I'm not

23:36

sitting at my computer, like, cause I, or not sitting

23:38

in my, you know, PlayStation playing games, like I would love

23:40

when I'm playing the game to play the game, but when it

23:42

comes time to stop playing the game and I'm like, oh, dang,

23:44

I have to go do something else. You know, I

23:47

have to go sit on the couch in my

23:49

in-laws house. Like I would love to pull out my phone and be

23:51

like, okay, so what, who was that character I was

23:53

talking to? What was his deal? Or like there's a question

23:55

that in that game where you're supposed to listen to a

23:57

bunch of podcasts and I haven't figured.

24:00

out how to do that because I'm not really stopping

24:02

down to like add audio files to

24:04

my in-game cell phone. Like it's funny because

24:06

you have an in-game cell phone to do

24:08

this and it seems

24:10

made for a second screen app. That whole second screen app

24:12

craze from like 10 years ago. I

24:15

don't think that was a great idea. I think that was sort of a waste

24:17

of resources. But if it becomes

24:19

a feature of the, you know,

24:21

of the PlayStation, hell yeah, absolutely. Roll

24:23

it in there. I would love that. I think

24:26

that's a wonderful, wonderful feature. Yeah,

24:28

I hope we get more of that. The

24:32

real one though is, oh man, Metal Gear Solid 5. That

24:35

game has, I think if you open

24:37

up my file in that used and you go to my like, my,

24:40

uh, iDroid or whatever, you're still going to

24:42

find little blinking like yellow and white dots

24:44

next to like every audio file in there

24:46

because I haven't gone through and like skipped

24:48

ahead and it's like that sort of, you

24:51

know, it's that OCD like uncheck, get the thing out of

24:53

here, clean the, you know, make them all the same. And

24:56

I think I just was like, no, I'm not dealing with that. I

25:00

love the kind of endorphins you get from checking

25:03

all that stuff off, but also I wish more

25:05

games had just like a check all or clear

25:07

all, which some games don't and

25:09

they give you so many things to check

25:11

off. But

25:14

yeah. Now, I

25:16

don't know how you, I guess Metal Gear Solid 5

25:18

has all sorts of great running and jumping and rolling

25:20

and taking care of your mother base. That was actually

25:22

a thing they did on the second screen app for

25:24

that. There was a whole like weird mini game where

25:26

you manage your, manage your mother base. Uh,

25:29

Helldivers doesn't have that. Let's talk about Helldivers. Well,

25:31

before we do that, I was actually just thinking

25:33

though, I was thinking about something

25:35

I was thinking and I rarely think, but

25:38

we know that the game, I

25:40

was like, I was just thinking, I was like, you know what,

25:42

this is a great idea, but what

25:45

if I, I need to disconnect from the

25:47

game? It's,

25:49

I feel like it's, I feel like, you know, this might

25:51

make it so that we are not like, you were just

25:53

talking about Max. Like, you know, if you're, you're with your

25:55

in-laws, you're going to be looking at, You

25:58

know, the lore of this character. It's like, you're. Never

26:00

disconnected from the game then? isn't there

26:02

like some Black Mirror episode about this

26:04

or something out there of us not

26:06

disconnect the mean like mirror the original

26:08

streaming service One Afflicts, which has a

26:10

streaming up on everything including your Smart

26:12

Fridge. Oh. My goodness you are new and

26:14

are in the Matrix. You you know it all down in

26:17

the Matrix. You know it also had worked

26:19

for for the second strengthen his experience. If we

26:21

had a handheld you could take with you play

26:23

games. Where he lived his oh that's how you That's

26:25

how you get stuck in the game like a team

26:27

is saying. I don't want to get stuck in the

26:29

game handheld us to my take back what I said

26:31

I want his eyes all the I want to read.

26:33

I want to read the lowest the are going to

26:35

have made when I'm not playing skier and will in

26:37

place. Carmona Place car model got time for books, lessons,

26:39

collecting a bunch of the drop him off the side

26:41

of a mountain cause it's only A and it was.

26:43

Look speaking of funny how diverse as a wacky as

26:46

X what's going on over it held my first these

26:48

the his yeah. There there's a new paths just

26:50

dropped. This morning Ah, read level cap

26:52

from fifty to one hundred and

26:54

sixty which is a massive jump

26:56

on good news for all those

26:58

like me that aren't had grinding

27:00

past fifty just to help friends

27:02

are defined. As you love the game,

27:04

Years three carries over. I lived in this

27:06

morning of level Sixty Two immediately. I

27:09

know a fleet. Admiral Admiral.

27:11

Hammer. He answers were great. yeah

27:13

I'm. Ah there

27:15

is new box that are showing up so

27:18

keep an eye out for that were in.

27:20

Be working on some videos and suffer that

27:22

there's also blizzards and sandstorms. Sell more

27:24

things to block your bucy. can't see

27:26

the the robot shooting. At Ill Ah

27:29

the bile. Titans can't be stunned.

27:31

Ah, Anymore which is terrifying because this was

27:33

a giant spiders that usually like it was

27:35

helpful to be able to stand them fully.

27:37

Didn't spend. On you immediately until you ah

27:40

I'm but now they can't be son So.

27:42

The. Bugs are evolving yell. And.

27:46

Fire. Damage has been increased. These are just a

27:48

couple of the like. The

27:51

of beauty of be very few there's a

27:53

giant patch notes culture of that's know I'm

27:55

free all of my help my fellow democracy

27:57

spreaders out there. Ah but. this

28:00

looks awesome. There's so many great fixes, so

28:02

many great things that they're enhancing.

28:04

They've tweaked a bunch of difficulty in

28:06

some of the missions and stuff. Just

28:08

really great stuff. I love that clip.

28:10

Eliminated everybody. For

28:12

our audio watchers, those

28:15

are videos. Somebody just completely blowing

28:17

up the ship as they're about

28:19

to board the Pelican. But

28:22

yeah, no, I love what

28:24

Arrowhead is doing with this game. They're doing such

28:26

a good job of keeping up the momentum. Just

28:29

non-stop. I feel like we

28:31

just got new weapons last week. This week we get a

28:33

huge patch that is buffing a bunch of things and nerfing

28:36

a few other things. And yeah, games get

28:38

that, but this is also they're just

28:40

expanding on everything. So kudos to Arrowhead,

28:42

man. You guys are just nailing it.

28:46

It feels like they found a sweet spot of just

28:49

doling out updates without

28:51

making a big, huge, seasonal affair

28:54

out of it. It's not Fortnite

28:57

where they're like, oh, yeah, Naruto's here.

29:00

It's incremental. We added sandstorms and blizzards. And

29:02

it's just enough to keep people kind of

29:04

interested. It's happening at this cadence that it

29:06

makes it feel like it's very much alive.

29:10

Yeah, that's awesome. I think it's all around

29:12

the game design throughout the major orders. And

29:14

it's really pulling the community together. Everybody wants

29:17

to focus on one thing, and it gives

29:19

them a reason to kind of D&D

29:22

story tell by pushing people in the

29:24

direction of where they want the story to go that they've

29:26

written. I love this because

29:28

I've been behind on this game. I wanted

29:30

to play more of it, but I just for whatever reason haven't.

29:32

I've been listening to

29:34

podcasts in Yaga's or what have you. Hi,

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we're visible. We're the wireless company with

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the choices just visible switched today at

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visible.com Great with service on the Visible

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30:09

I'm Jenny you Onions and I'm Kristin

30:11

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30:16

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30:44

Buffering Cast. Stellar

30:49

Blade got a demo this is a gave it a

30:51

lot of people are really very sad about of lot

30:53

of strong feelings about the demo is gorgeous it as

30:55

a. Very. Pretty looking game. Is.

30:58

It is sort of are hard a sort of a

31:00

hard game to talk about because as the very I'm.

31:03

Just. Incendiary discourse around. I

31:05

guess we're conversations all surrounding this

31:07

game like. As I booted

31:09

up the dem over the weekend and.

31:12

It's good. It's the game from what I

31:14

can tell so far you know. Played the

31:16

demo and then did the extra boss battle

31:18

which the extra boss battle did a lot

31:20

of the selling work for me as the

31:22

like. The initial level demo is a little

31:24

bit. And want to see lacking? Does it's

31:27

meant to be like. Early game where you don't

31:29

have anything in your like starting to get

31:31

stuff which I get us a point. ah

31:33

I'm. But. I like that x are

31:35

baffled is what kind of sold me on. I

31:38

think for me that the game is this. I.

31:42

Like it, but it feels like it's lacking

31:44

his own sense of self. at times. I

31:46

feel like it's trying to be so. Many

31:49

other games on data. It's.

31:51

Not. Kneeling. What? It's.

31:54

not kneeling being itself being authentic to

31:57

itself i'm and it's it's a weird

31:59

thing and talk about like off of

32:01

a demo. But like

32:03

we talked about this early on when

32:06

we first saw the preview trailers

32:08

and stuff during the Sony showcases. I

32:10

was like oh this looks awesome. It looks very fast

32:12

paced, very heavy action, very Devil May Cry kind of

32:14

looking. And you get in there and it's it's

32:17

got some decent action but it's

32:19

slower. It's a lot you have to

32:21

be more deliberate with your actions almost as if you're

32:23

playing a Soulslike game. It's not a Soulslike game. It's

32:27

Soulslike-ish, Soulslike-like. It's Soulslike-like.

32:30

But and it's that's fine and I

32:32

like it. I think the boss battles are very intense.

32:34

I think the action is great. I

32:36

still need to see you know what it looks

32:38

like in a more like

32:42

high-density kind of like action

32:44

scenario. But

32:46

overall it's a solid demo and it gives

32:48

people an example and there's a lot of people that are hyped

32:51

about this game. So I'm happy it's doing

32:53

well. I just hope that

32:55

you know it does well you know without

32:59

people bringing the incendiary

33:01

conversation like it's good because of this.

33:03

Like no it's that's great

33:05

but the game's not good because of

33:07

this. The game is good because of

33:09

the action, the storytelling and such. It

33:12

feels as though it's

33:14

we can't have a conversation that

33:17

addresses any criticisms of the mechanics

33:19

itself without being accused of getting

33:22

mad that it has a sexy lady protagonist.

33:24

What have you. Which is... I

33:26

don't know. What do we do about that? Well

33:29

it's weird because like so many people are

33:31

like there's no like they're bringing

33:34

sexy protagonists back. This is how a woman's supposed

33:36

to look and blah blah blah. I'm like where

33:38

have you guys been? We've

33:40

had Lady Dimitrice a few years ago.

33:42

Like she's like everybody wanted them to

33:45

step on her or her to step

33:47

on them. Like that was obviously doing

33:49

it for people. Bayonetta. We had

33:52

Baldur's Gate last year with Carlaq and

33:54

Shadowheart, Laezel. Final Fantasy just

33:56

dropped. Everybody was eyeballing Tifa and Aerith

33:58

in the beach scene. Like

34:01

Cammie, Street Fighter 6, 2B

34:04

from Nier Automata, Juliana

34:06

Blake from Deathloop. Like there's just so

34:08

many great looking characters and people are

34:10

like, finally there's a good sexy looking

34:12

character. I'm like, no, we've had sexy looking

34:14

characters. Just get better at the character creator because

34:16

there's so many characters. This is the thing though,

34:18

Jada. All those games that you mentioned, I feel

34:20

like they have a lot more substance than

34:24

this particular game, Stellar Blade. Stellar

34:26

Blade, it looks awesome. It looks phenomenal. Like

34:28

you said, it's trying to be a lot

34:30

of other games. And even the CEO, when

34:32

he was talking to IGN Japan, he mentioned

34:34

all the inspirations, all the other games that

34:36

this is kind of like, I guess, aping

34:38

from or taking inspiration from is what

34:40

I'll put it in quotes. But

34:44

the story, it's a super simple

34:46

story. It's the earth is in

34:48

turmoil with these aliens and there's

34:50

this group of super soldiers who

34:52

come and there's

34:55

one that's named Eve who meets a

34:57

dude named Adam who takes her to

35:00

a place called Zion to

35:02

meet Oracle to

35:04

recruit the people of Zion to kill the

35:06

aliens. It's a super simple story. It's like,

35:08

there's, you know what I mean? Like all

35:10

those games that you named have a deeper

35:12

story. But with

35:14

this particular company, they came out with a game back

35:16

in 2022 called

35:22

Goddess of Victory, Nikkei, which had a very

35:24

similar premise, only it wasn't aliens,

35:27

it was like robots. So

35:29

it's, in that game, you know, they had

35:31

one thing in mind. They knew who their

35:33

audience was with that particular game. That

35:36

game made over $400 million in

35:39

less than a year of its release. I

35:42

feel like that game definitely crawled so that this one could

35:44

walk. This is like the true form of what they were

35:46

trying to make. In my opinion,

35:48

this is just my opinion. I

35:51

have no problem with this game, Stellar Blade,

35:54

but all that discourse that we're talking

35:56

about, I

35:58

don't get it either, but... The thing is, it's like those

36:01

games you just named with all those sexy

36:04

pro tags, those games had a lot

36:06

more substance. This one is kinda like, you know, this

36:08

is just built for men of culture, is what I

36:10

would say. I'm just gonna

36:13

say that. We should also clarify,

36:15

it's just a demo. The full game is an outro, we

36:17

haven't played that. Yes. You know, it remains to

36:19

be seen. Also, you know, a lot of

36:22

the games you listed are from like

36:24

Japanese developers. There's sort of different sensibilities about

36:26

what, and I think that's the root of

36:29

the problem is a lot of people accuse

36:31

Western studios of having like a woke

36:34

agenda or whatever you wanna call it. But I

36:36

don't know, like the thing that bugs me is

36:38

aside from who's being represented or how

36:40

they're being represented or any of that, I

36:42

just, the art direction doesn't work for me.

36:46

And the style, it's, again, this

36:49

is a gorgeous game graphically. I think the

36:51

application of what they're trying to

36:53

do in terms of bringing these visuals to life,

36:55

it looks amazing, it looks phenomenal. It

36:57

is a phenomenal use of the PS5 as a

37:00

machine. Everything

37:02

looks exploded or shiny or

37:05

beat to crap or sexy or whatever. Whatever it's

37:07

supposed to look like, it looks like that. I

37:10

just wish that the, I don't know,

37:12

I wish the character designs were doing

37:14

something different. I'm not

37:17

saying the character. Again. How

37:20

do you, Max, you're big on like creatures and

37:23

monsters. How do you feel about the monsters? So

37:25

I think I like the monster design. I think

37:27

they're very grotesque and like kind of, those

37:29

are kind of new and interesting. How do you feel about

37:32

the monsters? They're, I

37:35

don't, they feel kind of generic. I

37:39

don't know, that's, it's hard, it's

37:42

what's the old quote about pornography, like I know it

37:45

when I see it or obscenity or whatever it is.

37:47

Like I'm like that with good monster design. It's hard

37:49

to be like, yes, that. They

37:51

look like, they all sort of remind

37:54

me of, Pokemon

37:56

evolutions of like doomsday from Superman. They're just,

37:59

you know, they're. they're all there there's that

38:01

big boss that uh looks sort of

38:03

like a i don't know

38:05

the what's it what's it called the the

38:08

the flower the piranha plant

38:10

monster from stranger things if you cross that with

38:12

a with a uh big

38:15

phallic bladed weapon i don't know what

38:17

we're looking at right now on screen looks

38:20

like uh i don't know it looks like

38:22

an obese nemesis from resident evil there

38:24

are i mean those are big slimy monsters none of them

38:26

really i mean they didn't they didn't blow me away they're

38:28

not i don't i don't i don't hate them

38:30

nothing in this i don't hate anything

38:33

in this specifically i don't like her little necktie

38:35

i think her little necktie is stupid i think

38:37

if you're going to do an orbital drop what

38:39

are you doing wearing half a necktie like you're

38:41

at like a flight attendant or

38:44

something who wears those what are those for my

38:47

dog wears neckties like that when i want to embarrass

38:49

him it's a silly little necktie i don't get it

38:51

it's a stylistic choice somebody thought it was cool good

38:53

for them again this is all i have the beholder

38:55

that's all this ever is i guess

38:57

i'm just it's frustrating that it's we can't have a

38:59

we can't have a conversation about what it is or

39:01

isn't or what it what's what we are doing or

39:03

isn't because there's a you know and again

39:06

people are going to be just getting

39:08

real mad at us on the comments probably no matter what we

39:10

say well let me just say this

39:12

though shift shipped up is actually a south korean

39:14

game developer i just want to put that out

39:16

there um just putting that out

39:19

there so i mean it's it's different cultures

39:21

out you know different cultures we we actually

39:23

have some interviews that we've done with the

39:25

ceo uh kind of just like explaining um

39:27

the the art direction and the direction

39:29

the overall direction they took uh

39:31

for this game and why they they went

39:34

that particular direction with the game um

39:36

but i don't know like the like like you said

39:38

max this is just a demo that we played i

39:40

didn't i didn't have a problem with with anything pertaining

39:42

to the game i mean like the combat system was

39:44

great i love the parrying system

39:47

uh i love like that it's color coded yeah

39:49

yeah i love the aesthetic of the characters um i

39:52

love the long hair i love the

39:54

skin tight costume you're gonna let me keep going i love

39:56

about the next time what do you think about the next

39:58

time i'm gonna keep on going okay No,

40:01

I think this game is going to be solid.

40:03

I think it's going to come out. I think the audience

40:07

that really like these very

40:09

deliberate action games that focus on

40:11

parrying and stuff like that, like

40:13

if you're a fan of Team

40:15

Ninja's parrying systems and stuff

40:17

like that, they usually use in

40:19

combat that's very important in combat.

40:21

I think that audience is really

40:23

going to love this game. I

40:25

just hope that after

40:27

the demo, I just hope I get more

40:30

out of the story. I came from what

40:32

you were describing earlier. It sounds very simplistic,

40:34

and I'm really hoping that they surprise us

40:36

because that is my favorite thing

40:38

when it comes to games is just being

40:40

surprised by something I wasn't expecting, but

40:43

it's still believable in the realm of what

40:45

the story. I don't want them to be

40:48

like, Oh, ha ha, actually, these people,

40:50

these robot ladies are actually crab people. Like

40:52

I don't want anything like that, but like

40:54

I want something like a surprise that

40:56

makes sense. I got to tell you, Jayda,

40:58

Max, the one thing that this game surprised me is the

41:01

commonality with GTA six,

41:03

which is coming out next year. Did

41:05

y'all know? Did y'all see the

41:08

commonality of the two games? It's

41:12

in regards to the, um, has

41:14

a female protagonist, the jiggle physics.

41:17

Oh, let's break this down. We're going

41:19

to move on. No, no, no, no.

41:21

Let's move on. I'm talking about Suicide

41:27

Squad. Um, something that

41:29

doesn't have as many jiggle physics, um,

41:31

thankfully, because mostly you'd be looking at,

41:33

you know, boomerang or King shark jiggles. Um,

41:37

so I'm happy to not have one

41:39

big problem with this game is you can't see captain

41:41

boomerang's ass. I want to see more of his ass.

41:44

He's got that big coat in the back. It's hard to see his

41:46

ass. What can you, what can you do about that? So

41:48

I jumped in back into this cause season one just

41:51

dropped with the Joker. Um, and

41:53

I, the writing is still very

41:55

good. Um, and this is something that,

41:57

you know, Akeem and I were getting into in our.

42:00

planning meeting yesterday and he disagrees. There

42:02

is, from what most people are probably

42:05

seeing of the season they had, they released like the teaser

42:07

trailer where it's kind of like stop motion,

42:09

kind of like just art, kind of like

42:11

cinematic, not cinematic, but kind

42:13

of like a just a design type thing. I forget

42:15

what the word is. It's a motion comic. Yeah, it's

42:17

like a motion comic, thank you. And

42:19

it's like, and that's fine, that was okay. But

42:21

for me, what really shined is once you

42:24

unlock the Joker and you bring him back

42:26

to the Hall of Justice to meet the

42:28

rest of the Amanda Waller and everybody else,

42:30

that cutscene just reminded me

42:32

of why I love the writing in this

42:35

game so much. It's clever, it's crude and

42:37

all the best ways possible. And it just

42:39

finds that balance so perfectly. I

42:42

finally got around to messing around with it, co-op with a bunch of

42:44

people, doing a bunch of the new, not

42:46

necessarily new mission types, but doing

42:48

the new seasonal content to get the

42:50

new weapons, which are all like scarecrow,

42:54

mostly scarecrow based, dealing

42:57

with poison and such. But

42:59

I'm really enjoying diving back into this

43:01

one. And I know a lot of people are gonna be

43:03

like, oh, Suicide Squad, but she

43:05

has bad taste, but I also like Stellar Blades,

43:08

so you guys gotta pick a lane. I

43:11

think both games are solid, Akeem. Yeah,

43:13

Jaina, and I was gonna say, I don't think you have

43:16

bad taste at all. I just honestly

43:18

think maybe you don't have as much of

43:20

a connection to these characters. I

43:23

mean, you're probably familiar with the Joker

43:25

and Amanda Waller. I'm familiar with all

43:27

of these characters. But

43:30

how engrossed are you

43:32

in the DC franchise and

43:35

the lore behind these characters? So I

43:37

will say that I always

43:40

have a hard time picking a favorite DC hero,

43:43

because I just find so many of

43:45

them very boring to

43:47

a degree, because they're literal gods

43:49

and stuff. Like Superman-

43:52

Batman's not a god. I know, most of

43:54

them. So Superman, literally like a

43:56

god, it's kinda boring to me. You have

43:59

this one weakness. and other things that mess

44:01

with them some time to time. Batman is great, because

44:03

he's got some, you know, I

44:05

love detective stories and I love that

44:08

kind of detective element that he uses

44:10

for his crime fighting. But

44:14

what I love most about DC is their villains.

44:17

And I think DC does villains best. And I

44:19

think that's why I connected with this game so

44:21

well, is because I love being able to play

44:24

as Harley Quinn and King Shark and Deadshot. And

44:26

like, I really hope we get some other really

44:28

cool characters in future seasons. Well,

44:30

yeah, I love the villains just as much as

44:32

I love the superheroes. The reason I bring that

44:35

up is because I feel like this did a

44:37

disservice to all of the

44:39

villains involved. Like the motion comic

44:41

in the beginning, I mean,

44:44

it sets up season one, you know, but

44:47

it doesn't necessarily explain why Brainiac

44:49

would turn Metropolis into, would sprinkle

44:51

Metropolis with like all of these

44:53

Joker fixings. Like

44:56

why does Metropolis need to suddenly

44:59

look like it came out of the Joker's mind?

45:01

So the way they explain it and the

45:03

way I took it from the explanation on that

45:05

was the fact because Brainiac is

45:08

harvesting, you know, Joker's brain power and

45:10

stuff like that. And that's how things

45:13

manifest. It's just like how he manifests

45:15

enemies and infuses enemies with flash powers

45:18

and Batman powers, which A, doesn't make

45:20

any sense, but they also have a dialogue about

45:22

that, which is silly. That doesn't make any

45:24

sense. There we go. What

45:26

we saw doesn't make any sense at all.

45:28

And even the ending, after you grind to

45:31

unlock the Joker, or you pay the

45:33

$10 and you unlock him from the beginning. Even

45:36

that whole, like, I get it, Jada,

45:38

like the dialogue was really, it's funny. That

45:41

cut scene is funny, but it doesn't necessarily

45:44

like showcase the Joker

45:46

in the best light. Like

45:48

who is, first off, like who is he? We

45:51

know he's an Elseworld's Joker,

45:53

but what about his actual

45:55

relationships with these characters? Like

45:57

one person in particular that we know that he has a

45:59

big. very deep connection to is

46:02

Harley Quinn. And they didn't even talk

46:04

to each other. Harley just cracked a

46:06

joke about how she's

46:08

over dating comedians. That was it. Why

46:11

does Joker have Ace Ventura's pants on?

46:13

What's going on with that? I'm

46:15

going to tell you right now. This is the thing.

46:17

This is my problem with this game. This is a

46:19

rock steady game, right? Am I correct in assuming that?

46:22

Yes. Is that what the box says?

46:24

OK, well, my question, I'm going to start

46:26

from the beginning. And that's with Joker's voice.

46:29

I'm just kind of curious. Was

46:31

Troy Baker unavailable? Or did Rocksteady just

46:34

lose their Rolodex that had his number

46:36

in it? I just don't understand. Don't

46:38

get me wrong. I

46:40

understand that this is a different Joker from a different universe.

46:43

But there's just a through line that I think

46:46

every single iteration of the Joker, be it on

46:48

screen, or be it in game,

46:50

whatever. Be it in games, TV shows, or

46:52

movies, they were dark, menacing,

46:54

and sadistic. There was nothing dark, menacing, or

46:56

sadistic about this particular Joker. This was as

46:58

if, I would say, the

47:00

Riddler had a baby with the Joker and

47:03

gave birth to the Joker. The

47:05

Joker. He's not menacing

47:07

at all. So

47:10

I'm going to say this. The Joker, is

47:13

it the best iteration of Joker? Probably not.

47:15

Thank you. Is it the worst iteration? Definitely

47:17

not. Yes. What's the worst iteration of the

47:20

Joker? What's the worst one? I'm going to

47:22

hear this. So personally, I am not a

47:24

fan of Leto's Joker from movies. Oh, OK.

47:27

Let's talk about the video game Jokers,

47:29

though. Now, if we're talking Jokers just

47:32

all across the line, you

47:34

also got to go back and look at

47:36

Adam West, the Joker during Adam West era.

47:38

That was very embarrassing. It's not menacing. No, no,

47:40

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

47:42

no, no, you can't see. You

47:45

can't see. You don't have a connection

47:47

to these characters, to the comics, and

47:49

everything else. And then throw out, when

47:51

I put out evidence about TV shows

47:53

and other iterations of media. Adam West's

47:55

Joker was great. It

47:57

was great. Don't do what I like, because we had a. He

48:00

had a little mustache, but he just paid it

48:02

over it. So yeah, yeah, but was it menacing?

48:05

No, but i'm not besmirching it, but was

48:07

it menacing to your point? I was like joker is

48:09

supposed to be menacing like no Clown

48:12

that scared people in the 50s Well,

48:15

it's a friend of the color of the television. They couldn't

48:17

even comprehend it. They didn't know what's going on there That's

48:19

because clowns sound coming out of it. They were they were

48:21

used to the old No,

48:25

it's I

48:28

think this joker is fine. I think he's very middle of

48:30

the ground No, I think the worst

48:32

in video game form. I mean like let's go

48:34

back to mortar combat 11 Remember remember when we

48:36

saw that joker. It looked like it was a

48:38

party city joker. Remember that I

48:40

I So I

48:43

hear what you're saying. My issue is why

48:45

does why do people want the same thing

48:47

over and over again? No, no, I

48:49

enjoy seeing other variations hearing seeing different

48:52

people's performances different people's takes. I enjoy

48:54

seeing these different things I'm tired of

48:56

seeing the same thing. I don't I

48:58

like I love mark hamill's joker But

49:00

do I need to have mark hamill's

49:03

joker in every single joker iteration? No,

49:05

no, we do not No, we do

49:07

not and look again if we look

49:09

at like the animated Movies

49:12

that uh that wb has released over

49:14

the years We've seen varying versions of

49:16

the joker play out and that have been

49:19

their own Like dark and menacing

49:21

versions of that character that are separate

49:23

from mark hamill's version You should do

49:25

a joker who only throws boomerangs at

49:27

people, you know, maybe he's australian for a

49:29

change that could be funny I

49:32

just the joke boomer. I just

49:34

I think that this joker is Very

49:37

psychotic and that's what they're going for. I

49:39

think he's just very the way they they

49:42

Um animate like his eyes and his

49:44

facial expressions when he's talking to people

49:47

It is very psychotic and it's scary in

49:49

a different way It's menacing in a different

49:51

way and I think I think a lot

49:53

of people aren't looking close enough

49:55

at The game itself. They're

49:58

so caught up in the discourse that

50:00

surrounded this game ahead of launch, that

50:02

they're missing out on the little details. And I think that was

50:05

one of the things that Suicide Squad does best is

50:07

the details. The devil is literally in the details

50:09

in this game and just looking at just the

50:12

character models, some of the best character models out there

50:14

right now you can look at and play and just

50:16

really looking at their expressions and stuff. It's fantastic. You

50:18

know what I just can't get past though is the

50:20

Joker. He's just got this stupid little necktie. Like he's

50:23

getting a stupid little green necktie. Why would you wear

50:25

a little necktie when you're out doing the supervillain stuff?

50:27

That's just ridiculous. I think I swapped

50:29

mine to a yellow necktie specifically. Who's designing these neckties

50:31

for video games? What's going on over here? I don't

50:33

know what to make of this stuff. It's

50:36

funny, I was comparing this Joker, Kill

50:39

the Justice League's Joker to a Mortal

50:42

Kombat 11 Joker. And people,

50:46

they make a lot of assumptions just based on appearances.

50:49

But when, at least for me, I guess I'll

50:51

speak for me personally, when I played

50:54

the Joker in Mortal Kombat 11, I

50:56

was actually thoroughly surprised with

50:58

how much I enjoyed this Joker. He may not have had the look

51:01

that people were expecting, but

51:03

the thing is you can also change his costume and make

51:05

him look however you want to. But it was his voice.

51:09

His voice just really kind of instilled fear

51:11

in you. And that's the thing

51:14

with this Joker. There's no fear that his

51:16

voice instills. It's

51:18

just too lighthearted. It's

51:20

not the Joker. That's all I'm talking about. Throughout

51:22

the history of Joker. Sometimes the Joker just wants

51:25

to joke around. It's just a clown guy. I

51:28

think the issue is you're

51:31

going into it wanting a specific

51:33

thing and not getting the thing you want out

51:35

of that character instead of just kind of taking

51:37

it for what it is. And that's totally

51:39

a valid stance

51:42

to have. That's totally like you're so, I

51:44

don't know where Joker ranks on

51:46

your favorite DC characters, but if he's high up on

51:49

the list, I can understand you being not excited

51:51

to play as this Joker

51:55

because it doesn't vibe with what you were

51:57

hoping for or expected out

51:59

of the Joker. I like the jokes. I

52:01

like the psychoticness of him. I think it works

52:03

well with the team dynamic Funny

52:06

than me the funny thing here is

52:08

that's just gripe number one Okay.

52:11

Well, we don't get started. We

52:13

actually we actually we should probably I think we're

52:15

about we got a graphic There's no watch on

52:17

your hand max. What are you looking fit? I'm

52:19

trying to watch my figure. What do you want?

52:22

I'm just I'm just curious what where are they

52:24

gonna go with this Joker? Like, you know, I'm

52:26

waiting for episode I'm gonna wait for episode 2.

52:28

I'm still I'm still going to and willing to

52:30

give kill the Justice League a

52:32

chance It's just that you know when when you

52:35

unlock the Joker All right, where do we go from here? Is

52:37

there gonna be something more that we get and you

52:39

know episode 2 like we're gonna get a Superman brainiac

52:41

pipe Oh, we're gonna fight brainiac

52:44

skin that Superman that's gonna be awesome

52:46

I'm gonna get new infused enemy types

52:48

Which are just the same enemies that

52:50

likely perform the same but they look

52:52

slightly different and then an ever-changing metropolis

52:54

whatever that means Well, I mean

52:56

that's the ever-changing metropolis. That's the Joker stuff. They're

52:58

gonna sprinkle you up on it. I know that's

53:00

fine I do hope that they evolve it

53:03

a little bit in season 2 and I do hope that they build

53:05

upon the new characters Like I hope that Joker does

53:07

have more dialogue and stuff when the news Whatever

53:10

the next villain that gets it gets introduced

53:12

that you can recruit and the

53:14

next story stuff I do hope you get to involved

53:16

in that stuff. Yeah, I hope you'll the Justice League

53:18

gets better. I do. Okay. I Yeah,

53:21

I would can agree on something Thank

53:25

you both for hanging out and joining me this is a this is a treat

53:28

Hopefully there's some more character development on these characters

53:30

this show between now and next week. We'll be

53:32

back then Jada Kim Thank you so much for

53:34

hanging out and beyond Hey

53:46

folks I'm yen and I'm Nat and we're the

53:48

host of comic fans the podcast about comics for

53:50

those who are sans knowledge Comic sans is a

53:52

show for people who know nothing about comics like

53:54

me and people who love them like me and

53:56

want to learn more About them. What makes you

53:58

an authority on comic books? I read

54:00

them, write them, live them, breathe them. What

54:03

makes you the authority on knowing nothing? Honestly,

54:05

Yen, two seasons in, I actually know a

54:07

little more than I used to. You're welcome.

54:10

The reason for that is that every episode I

54:12

make Nat read one of my favorite comics, like

54:14

Daredevil Saga or This One Summer. And then he

54:16

tells me what makes that comic so special. And

54:18

then I hear what Nat thinks and I try

54:20

to avoid a pulmonary embolism. Well, I actively try

54:22

to give him one. You can listen to the

54:24

second season of Comic Sans now. With new episodes

54:26

every two weeks. Wherever you get your podcasts. You

54:28

know, Yen, I think I know so much

54:30

about comics now that this might have to be our last season.

54:33

Nat, there will forever be more comics than you will

54:35

ever know. What does that even mean?

54:37

I don't know if you prefer that. Alright.