Biggest Gaming Turnoffs

0:02 Welcome to plug in for player 4. Where are you, the viewer or the player? 4 I'm player 4. I wasn't fucking done yet. Oh gosh. Well damn, Jackie, I don't control the weather.

0:18 Anyway, I am here with Mark and the very very very tired even. Hi. No, hi. 180 on Us is completely energetic, dominates the episode. The other one sounds like this and he's very tired and doesn't know what to do. We're not these. Are my 2 personalities. We're not a damn ASMR channel. We are now. That's where the big bucks are, don't you know? I'm going to hate listening to this. You're going. To hate me. But for today's topic, biggest gaming turn offs. So who wants to begin? So I want to go 1st and this is more less less about a specific I mean, you know, this is gaming turn offs, but like this is less about the game itself and more about how games present themselves.

1:24 But it's when you're watching a trailer a lot of Times Now I love pixel art. I'll I'll start off with that. I don't I really don't mind any specific art style. Sure, there's ones that like more, sure there's ones that like less, but it's when the trailer is like a 2D animation, maybe a 3D animation, something like that where it's showing you all these visuals and maybe it's just like the introduction to the game. That's fine, whatever, but it's kind of doing something that is not. And then all of a sudden you look at the screenshots or you look at another like actual gameplay and it's pixel art.

2:06 It's like I feel like I was misleaded and it just makes me not 'cause I, I'm going based off of your like Steam discovery queue. That's when I noticed it the most because I'm just clicking the games, like just seeing what's out there. And I, I try to give a game a fair chance. If there's a video, I'll watch it. But as soon as I see that where it's an animation and then everything else is pixel art, I, I just instantly clock out of, I don't care for it at all. It's, I don't know, I just feel like I'm being lied to.

2:39 I mean, I can see where it feels like you're being misled on that. Good, because I mean you'll have a your initial reaction based off of the style and feel of the trailer. Then you get into the actual game. It's totally different. Right. And I I've played plenty of pixel art games, like there's plenty of roguelakes that are pixel art. Plenty of them. Oh yeah. But just going from because usually the first thing, if there's a video, it's a video on Steam. Yeah. So you watch that first, like, oh, OK, like this is what the game is about.

3:16 That's cool. And then this is nothing. What the what I was just shown? Yes, yeah, and I could see where you'd be upset about that. It I don't know why it just it, it doesn't make me mad, it just irks you. Makes me disappointed. No. I'm not mad, I'm disappointed. God. When they hit you with that quote. God, we wouldn't. God damn. It. I just, it's just, it's, there's more to it than just, I feel like I was lied to that I, I feel it's just something about it just makes me not care for whatever they get.

4:00 It could be a great game. And that's not to say I won't revisit the game. Like, for example, I'm like, oh, I'll just write this off. And then I see something about it and I come back to it. It it's just in the moment, I just click away and I just don't think about it. I don't even want to see what this game has to offer right now. It just, yeah. You'll revisit, you know, revisit later if. If it crosses my mind if it. Crosses your mind, But yeah, I can. I can see that. Yeah. Yeah, that makes perfect sense.

4:30 What about you, Mark? What grinds your ears? Oh, I can talk so much. I'll take I'll take a jab. Pedophiles in your game 'cause fuck you, Roblox. Oh, you right. Yeah, at the time of recording, this is really starting to blow up on Roblox with the whole schlep situation. So there's a little jab at them, but no, in all seriousness, I'll save discussions on that for another video topic that that just came to mind. So the stuff that turns me off about your about games going into just what you have your games announced and the company just uses tons and tons and tons of just marketing buzzwords.

5:27 So in the past it was always infinite. Replayability. Infinite replayability, live service. It's going to be open world, it's going to be battle Royale, it's going to have crypto, and just all of it is just marketing doublespeak. That just informs me that you don't care about what the player base is going to say. As long as your sales numbers are fine and you're being impressive to the shareholders. For me, that just screams, OK, you're going to have a soulless game that you're going to shuffle out to people.

6:10 OK, but like an example of this, a big example is Borderlands 3. Oh God. I didn't see much of the like this stuff so. I I heard it got better after a launch this but our our first impressions were at. Launch. No, this is 1 specific thing that didn't even matter in the game. They promised there was 1 billion different guns. Oh yeah. When I remember the because in Borderlands 2 there was a part system. This could be like barrel stock, maybe a scope or I think that's an attachment or something as well as grip and maybe something else.

6:50 Yeah, yeah. And this kind of all changed whatever the gun did or maybe not did, but or even the shield or the grenade, all these different parts actually affected the gun. But you go into Borderlands 3 and it's kind of like a sub menu at this point. It's not even just a gun. You have to go to a menu and say, oh, here's the barrel, here's the stock, here's here's the primer, here's the primer of the bullet, here's the cocking mechanism. Like here's the ejection tray, whatever it's called, and just it's why are these here?

7:30 Is it like this is all here just to bloat the numbers? And I'm sure it's just all cosmetic. It doesn't even matter because I in this game I've I've cared less about just picking up on a gun and and using it. Because they all felt pretty much the same. Yeah. No, really. I mean, like maybe there was, you know, there were, there was some parts that actually affected. Like there was, I know at one point early on in the game, there was a really strong, it was a blue rarity shotgun, like a torque shotgun that if you play this flak, you could just melt any boss you really came across.

8:05 It was like. That's how you carried us through the game. But yeah, as soon as I saw 1 billion different guns, I'm like, OK, they're just going for, you know, this number and they're just trying way too hard. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, it's yeah. When they throw around these words and shit, like it's like Mark said, they don't really care about you, Blair. They just want to see that fucking number tick up. Yep, and line go up. And it's like like back to Borderlands for a second. Borderlands 4 not even out yet at the time of this recording.

8:52 Insult your player base. That's really smart. OK. Like if you're a true true Borderlands fan you will buy this game regardless of the price and the price would be $80.00 for the standard edition. Fuck you, I'm not buying it. Like insult me and then you expect me to then like no, fuck you, I'm not doing. That like, I was already turned off from the game after they released it just after the Borderlands movie came out. I guess at that point I was like, oh, I'm going to be very concerned about the quality of the story determining how bad the movie really is.

9:34 My, my thing is, I already got burned after three. Like, yeah, I went back and played Wonderland's way after it came out. Yeah, never finished it, but that's, that's something else. But with three, I got like the Super Deluxe edition, the $100 version. And it was like, oh, look at all these new things. And yeah, it was such a mess. I mean, you got you got the Unicorn grenade. Yeah, the butt selling grenade, but as soon as you redeemed it to be minimum level 10, it went to your level. As soon as you redeemed it, it went to your level.

10:10 For example, in Borderlands 2 there's a thing called the Firework grenade. It's scaled with your level. You it does not have a level, it scales with your level. Even if you level up while you still have it equipped, it still scales with your level. Just make it do that. You've already done it. Before. Yeah, why do I have to wait till the end of the game to use it? Windows already have a better grenade at that point. Yeah, at that point, yeah. And by level 10, it's useless because I don't even use grenades.

10:37 Like I'm I'm still figuring out my abilities. I don't want to see what my abilities, my skill tree. I could worry careless about the grenades. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's kind of tragic with. Like at this, like that was kind of the game that made me realize, OK, I'm not going to pre-order a game. Yeah. It's not. Yeah, I definitely say it was that game that really burned Emma and I on just pre ordering games in the future. Yeah. Because I mean, I, I think we did it for Fall, for Fallout 76 as well. And that's really what started to change our opinions on just being mindless about what we were doing.

11:24 What did? I'm curious what did what did you guys pre-order from like 76? Was it just the game? Just the game. Oh, OK, so. Yeah, we we didn't get wrapped up in the Hulk collectors. That that's still valid, though. It was it was a mess on long. Oh man, there was a lot of things that people wanted that wasn't there and. Again, this was like the very first high profile instances of the pre-orders really going awry because you had you had Fallout 76, which which just it didn't take it it you really suffered at launch and then you had a cyberpunk.

12:07 Yeah. You had cyberpunk that really just kind of had a huge TV page. I mean, that was kind of the same thing with No Man's Sky. But to be fair, both Cyberpunk and No Man's Sky came back, yeah. Yes, Fallout 76, Brandon, you said it also kind of came back too. I would say so, yeah. I played it. I played it probably a couple years ago, but definitely after we stopped playing and once they added MPCS. I wasn't the biggest fan, but it was. It definitely from launch to let's say today, or actually, how about this from launch to when me and Devon started playing it in 2020.

12:46 OK, massive difference. Oh yeah, and the game is

12:54 finished, you know? As much as they can. As much as it can be. And now it's like they're it has become a really good game. I mean, it's like that, you know, be my opinion being a Fallout person, that's, you know, me. But yeah, no, it's suffered at lunch. It was really bad. I saw what it was like at lunch from Mr. Wade Lord Minion when they like literally day of release. That was awful. Yeah, there there was no reason for the game to be released in that stage and. Yeah. You won't. Need it another couple years in the incubator.

13:40 Yeah, but it was just bad. But like I said, now being someone who is now picking it back up again after a little bit of a hiatus because I was burning myself out with it because I was playing it so much, But coming back, you know, there's a brand new area now. So that's cool playing with friends is great, but 76 at least now. But I think it's it's deserved an another chance with people and it looks like that a lot of people have really jumped on to it when like the Fallout TV show came out I. Mean.

14:23 Influx of people, Oh my God. I mean, don't get me wrong, I mean the interest for having a decent multiplayer Fallout experiences there, it's just that at launch it was handled so poorly that it really just soured a lot of people's taste to it. Yes, and rightfully so, yeah. But yeah, with the TV series probably definitely helped it as well because I remember after this the the TV series came out, I was still heavily playing it. I would see new people everywhere. Yeah, I've even had new people come in my and house and shit and I'm like, oh, who are you?

15:03 You know, that's why I lock my doors now. I mean, to be fair, I had an open, like, I personally had an open floor plan. Granted, it was just like you go in, you go up the stairs and you're at my vendors platform. Yeah. Like I pretty much I had no turrets, nothing. I invited people to come in. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, that's like I said, now nowadays you don't worry about the whole griefing thing because I think if I'm right, they put measures in the like, fucking stop that. Yeah.

15:32 Because now it's all people just helping each other, just having fun, you know, saying hi. You know, it's, it's honestly nice playing with people, you know, when you're doing like an event or whatever, especially the Fosch not event, which is basically a parade and you get these cool masks, which I unfortunately missed out on that because it was a week ago that they had it. But you just hang out with people, you know. And yeah, I mean, you're all, you occasionally going to get that person. That's just, but I mean, that's any game.

16:06 That's any game. But it's fun. Yeah, it's fun. It's intriguingly like to me. Like, I love the world to fall out. I can talk about a fucking day. Yeah. But that's not what this episode is about. Just just real quick, I want to point out you mentioned how 76's numbers kind of surged a little bit after the the Fallout TV show kind of launched. Funny enough, another game experienced that same sort of phenomenon. It was Battlefront 3. So E no, it was Battlefront 2E, as Battlefront 2 saw a resurgence in its player base after indoor Season 2 was launched.

16:54 Oh, you're right. Yeah, it did. Yeah. And now you see lots of people still making calls for EA to do a third Battlefront. I mean. Because it just reinvigorated the player base. Yeah, I weird little coincidence that media from other sources can reignite interest in the gaming sphere. Honestly, that could be an episode. Oh yeah, I think if there's enough there if. There's enough if there's enough to talk about. Yeah, we'll, we'll have to look into it. But yeah, no, I, I honestly, I like that because really quick and I will get back on topic here again.

17:35 Battlefront 2 had some issues as well. Yeah, one of those being kind of a pay to win bullshit. Yeah. But that all got solved and now what you have is fun. Yeah. You know, like, I wouldn't mind playing that with you guys like that. Yeah, I remember trying to play a Battlefront 2IN a first release and just. All it was not. It was not. It was riddled with pure bullshit. Yeah, now it's totally different. And like I said, it's more fun now, yeah. That's because the sad thing is that he doesn't put any support into it, so it doesn't receive any updates.

18:17 Well, The thing is I'm I could be wrong, but I'm sure at the time it was that one guy that all he wanted was greed and money. Oh. Yeah. There's and that's why it was like that. Yeah, this whole. Oh, we're going to have you pay a dollar to respawn. Yeah, dumb shit like that, which I will. The pay to win thing, we'll go into that shortly. But it's just nice to see some games go from being kind of a shell of what it wants to be to coming back to life and being better. Yeah, you know, instead of just completely flopping and disappearing.

18:56 Yeah, you know, like it. Some games don't deserve a second chance. There are some. Oh. God no. But Concord? Oh, that, that was dead out of the fucking gate, Yeah. No. First chance. Yeah, not even a first chance. It was brought out behind the stables even before it launched. They Old Yeller did before that. God. It's just nice. That was a prom night dumpster baby.

19:27 God imagine like being like like hyping it up and you know getting like 4 of your friends to play it but then it dies a week later like OK cool we just we all just wasted 60 bucks I. Don't understand the thought process of the Sony leadership being like yeah this is gonna take off and be the new Star Wars before anybody even got a hold of the IP. It it brought nothing to the table other than, hey look, a hero shooter with all these wacky weird characters that nobody knows, huh? With weird. For 60 fucking dollars.

20:01 That people don't like. Yep, $60.00 that these people will never get back. Yeah. For a game with really poor mechanics for a hero shooter too. And also the hero shooter thing like Kinder out a little too late like I. Mean that game was in what development hell for eight years? Something like that, yeah. Like that game was planned in like 2016 after Overwatch. Yeah. And then you just completely missed that mark. You missed that mark. Like there's a point. Where you're like, even on top of that you've got Marvel Rivals, which just stole the whole market from Overwatch.

20:41 Boy, you had a solid gameplay plus free yeah yeah, with these quags of characters that everybody knows and knows and loves. Yeah, like you just can't beat that recipe for success. No, unless you really flop. But now it just sometimes timing and design and just everything can go wrong. Yeah, and it's a dumpster fire when it goes wrong. I still can't believe they dumped what was a 400 million into it. Something like that, yeah. And that's like 400 million gone, you know? And it goes to studio, too.

21:24 It's even make any sort of daint into it. Nope like it. It's just. Sony said bye. Wasn't one of the developer like plates found at a Goodwill where it was like the game case, the disc and something else? Oh. I think there's something like that. Yeah. Yeah. That sounds familiar, yeah. Like you can't, you can't even resell the game to make any money off of it. It's just. It's a frisbee. It's a frisbee. It's a fucking Frisbee. It's like the original Overwatch. It's a fucking Frisbee, Yeah. I'm gonna talk about that later.

21:54 We need to move on to the next topic. Yes, Sir. We're we're, we need to get moving. All right, well, let's see. I guess for me, we are honestly, we're we're gonna we're gonna go to pay to win because we were already kind of talking about it. Yeah. All right. So stupid. Just dumb. If you want to get better at a game, you play it. Yeah, that's just that. That's how it should be. You can't. I hate it when you're able to spend money to make yourself better than everybody else. It is a dumb concept. I get it.

22:32 These companies want to make money. That's fine. But it's dumb. I'm sorry. Yeah. You cannot change my. Mind, especially when your games are the competitive atmosphere. I think I'm thinking back to when EA Sports invested heavily into putting microtransaction into multiplayer games. Yes. They gave you bonuses to like, I, I think that one of the big offenders was like it's MMO game. It was like it was one of its fighting games and you got bonuses to resistance to your health pool and your damage output.

23:06 It's like, why would why should that? Why would that even be a damn thing for a competitive game? Like it's quite literally just a cash grab in just in plain sight. Like I, I don't understand why that was even a thing. And I mean, now, correct me if I'm wrong, I don't know if there's any games at this point that that. Oh, Ubisoft does it in Assassin's Creed, a single player game. Oh, you right? Yeah, that's right. You can buy to boost your DM experience points. Why would you need experience? Why would you have?

23:46 Why are you buying this? To make yourself better where you could just play the game? Yeah, I mean, you paid the $70. No, you're not even playing with other people. It's just yourself. Why would that even matter? And even then you're just playing you're, you're playing yourself, you're playing your wallet like. Yeah. Literally no one's no one's winning here. The. Only the only winner at that point is Ubisoft and they're still doing shit. It's like. Yeah, that's sad. Yeah, it's like people who throw money at card games just to feel like money at, you know, these expensive cards and then build these expensive decks and, you know, just the pubs dump people.

24:22 It's like. Why? You know, except for in video games it's even worse because usually more often than I it's limited items. Yes. Like oh pay $15.00 for three of these things or something. Like for a loot box when back when those were big, it's like. Buy gems in order to boost the production of your buildings. Like it's, it's just it dumbfound me. Like why? OK, so you're going to pay for this game 60-70 bucks a pop, then you're going to spend more money to not really play the game. Like you're just like, I'm just going to do this because why not?

25:00 Yeah, so you bought the game again, 60-70 bucks and you're going to not play it? You're just going to spend more money to make yourself more powerful or what have you? I'm. Going to feel good. Like why'd you buy the damn game in the first place? OK. But like based off this in certain contexts, play to win. There's like a couple games like that come off the top of my head, like Bleeding Edge, if you guys ever played that way back when, or friends versus friends, if you guys heard of that. Where as you play you can get card packs or some sort of similar idea where as you play you can get these cards and if you get enough of the cards, you could level them up and make them better.

25:53 Well, if someone's been playing for a year or two and then you just can now get the game and their cards are like level 510, whatever, how high they go, and you're just starting off, you may play a card that they have and you know, you're like 10 seconds behind how long their ability lasts. And it's just like, it's at that point. It's not fair. Like there's no, that's a pet peeve of mine. Is that just what's the point of me playing if I'm not on a level playing ground? Yeah. That's true. Even if like yes, even I just, I bought the game.

26:26 I just have to play the game, but I have to play the game to catch up. Yes, and they're still playing the. Game. Why should I? Why? Why? At that point that that to me screams this poor game design at that point. Like it, it, it's an idea that makes sense. It makes sense. I get it. But like in a, in a, in a multiplayer sense, it really doesn't. Maybe as the game progresses you can get experience points or you know, as you get killed out. Of power creep that just was not counted for. Because like Gigantic does this where you can upgrade your abilities but you have to play the game.

27:03 Oh well, this is not Rush. I can't remember the other one clash. I think it's clash. Where as you play you get experience and you can upgrade your abilities but you start off at 0 every game. I'd be fine with that. Yes, because everyone's on an even playing field. Yeah, You're not feeling like you're getting just stomped by somebody who's been playing longer than you. And it's like it's not fair. There has to be some kind of fairness there because that's like, OK, new people, they're just going to get fucked.

27:33 New players are just going to get screwed. Yep, they're going to get pissed off and they're going to stop playing. And that's what happened to me in both those cases and. That's why Destiny changes power system.

27:45 Wow, really? That's why they changed it, Yeah. Holy shit first of all power creep was getting really bad before they changed it with I mean the new expansion it we were up to like 2000 level light. Oh my. Really. Yeah. Tell you how long I. Had the point. It started off at 200 is the cap and now we're at 2:00. We were at 2000. I mean, like there's a certain point where, yeah, even if you're at 2000, like you can kind of drop everything down 1000 levels cause you're not, nobody's going to get 1000 level like light level.

28:15 But I I get. I get what you're saying though. They they change things up. So then when you start an activity, now your buddy's power levels can be boosted to the the person who is on the who's got the highest power level on the team. So that eliminates a lot of grinding for people for most of the stuff. And then they they also brought the caps back down and they're saying, OK, now the caps actually at 200 for your soft cap. And then you got to upgrade your armors at every expansion to get yourself up to the 4:50.

28:57 And then it just resets itself at the next expansion so we don't get to obscene numbers. Yeah, 'cause like I remember back when I played with you guys, like I think the the pinnacle cap was like 2 like 920 or something. Yeah, yeah, I know it it. It shot up with light fall and final fee but it just exploded. Yeah, I remember all that grinding I had to fucking. Do, yeah, But yeah, no, a lot of that's been eliminated. There's still some grinding you'll need to do. Which I mean, that's that's. Fine, that's fine.

29:29 That's fair. It it it makes it more digestible to casual players, which is kind of what the game needs right now. Yeah. But again, just game design choices that in hindsight make sense but just balloon out of proportion because yeah, you, you don't hindsight is is in 2020. Your hindsight is 2020. You can't really tell what's going to happen later on. Yeah, that's fair. Yeah. But yeah, to finish that off, Yeah, it went sucks. Yeah, I like, I don't care what anybody tells me. It is stupid. You should.

30:12 If you're going to buy a game, play it. It's the whole point. You bought it. Yeah. And get yourself better, because it makes you feel better that you actually took the time to get yourself up to a point where you're happy. Unfortunately, there's going to still be that niche of people that don't care. Which I mean, it's kind of. It's kind of the same sort of sentiment that hackers have. They A lot of hackers say that oh, I'm not going to have fun unless I'm breaking it. Yeah, I mean, yeah, and. Ruining it for other people, it's just you're going to have that demographic of people that just will never be.

30:52 Satisfied. Satisfied with just doing it. Yeah, as long as you keep that, keep people like that at Bay so you're not screwing everybody else over. Yeah, you know, but that's my opinion. Yeah, what you got, Mr. Ethan? This is something that we've all dealt with something like no matter what game you've played, you've seen it, even if you haven't played it, somehow managed to dodge this battle passes. Now there's a lot of arguments you can say just like just ignore it. You know, like you, you don't, you don't need to buy it.

31:29 Like it's just, it's more that it's exhausting to see it more than anything because it's been in so many different games. Whether it's paid, whether it's free doesn't matter. It's just it's so exhausting. Like the at this point, the only game that I'll play that has battle passes is Fortnite, but that's because I play with my girlfriend. Yeah. And we just mainly play it for fun. Like at this point, I have so many cosmetics. I'm just like, you know what, I don't even need to pay the $20 or doesn't matter anymore.

32:02 Yeah. Really. Like the, the more cosmetics I get, the less it really matters. Yeah. My. Like I'm satisfied with the amount I have. My thing on this just funny, going back to Fallout 76 for a minute, they have, I don't, it's not really a battle pass, but it kind of is. But I forgot exactly when this started. But they were called scoreboards, OK. And the scoreboards would always come out with every season. Yeah, they were free. OK, Free. You get like you can get cosmetics, you could get special things to special items to put in your camp, probably decals for guns, stuff like that.

32:54 OK. And you come to keep going through your scoreboard. You would do different challenges that the game has, like your dailies and your weeklies, and you keep going. It was like 100 levels. Yeah. Well now I don't hate this and it feels like it's less grindy now but they completely overhauled this. Now you if you have fallout first, which is a subscription. I have it because I play the game enough it gives you this the season so you don't have to pay for it separately.

33:33 Now, it's not a scoreboard, it's literally just fucking I don't know how many pages of every time you complete a challenge and you're going through your levels, you get tickets. Every time you go through a level on this season pass, you get 25 tickets and you just rack these up and then you spend these tickets on stuff that the season is offering at that time. And like I said, I think it's 100 levels still, but you're not grinding as much. But I don't know. But The thing is like it's the it's the same thing with Deep Rock Galactic.

34:19 Yes, it's a fun game. Yes, I do enjoy playing it, but one I kind of played it to the point where I'm just like, OK, I'm good with it. But also 2 they introduced not like a battle pass per SE, but it's more like a cosmetic pass where it's completely free no matter what and there's even an option to turn it off. But it's just like and and like it'll either go to the shop or it'll go to like a random like loop pool that you might be able to find in the mission. Just depends on how it loads in. But, and like this is kind of me, just like old man yelling at clouds, like, dude, just get off your high horse.

34:56 There's there's an option to turn it off, yes, but like, if I'm going to play deep rock, I might as well turn it on and you know, get this, get that progression. I'm going to. Make my shotgun look a little cool. Yeah. I mean, I might as well go for that progression. But also at the same time, it's just like, I've I've seen this before. Yeah. And it's just it's so exhausting. Like I said, there's the option to turn off. That is a valid, that is a completely valid argument to tell me. And I will just tell you, shut up.

35:22 Let me be angry.

35:26 We stick at Cloud. Yeah. Now we are getting older, huh? Yeah, I mean, I do this show time. Starting to push 30. Yeah, I'm old. Ethan just turned 26, so. Old man over there, who's the green? Guy, no wonder I'm so tired all the time. I have to go to at 7:00 PM. Bro man, that's how I fucking feel Oh my God, falling asleep in my chair at like 7:00. You know, like a God damn old man. And then you wake up to your dad changing the TV show. I was watching that. Why is that? My dad love you pops. But yeah, I don't.

36:15 I know a lot of people were kind of against Fallout 76 changing to having to pay for quote UN quote a season pass, but I didn't hate it and I have gotten some pretty cool stuff out of it. Honestly more than what the the like old scoreboards were. Doing and isn't it? Isn't it like just cosmetic stuff? Like you can maybe change the way a sign looks or how maybe how your gun looks or something. Your guns, maybe some like furniture items that you can put in your Cam. Yeah, like it's a lot of it is just cosmetics stuff.

36:56 It's not anything that's going to help you be better. I guess there are some. Right. So it's just like deeper at Galactic in the sense. Yeah, like there are some like mods that you can put on your guns that you can get. OK, But it's with this game not being a competitive shooter, it's more of Co-op helping each other. Yeah, Co-op PV. Yeah, yeah. So like I said, I don't hate it and I've gotten some pretty cool stuff. I really love that they added weather machines to the game so you could change the weather in your camp.

37:38 You can change it. Like right now I think I have Rad Storm. Will that actually affect you or just like just? It's it's just cosmetic, it doesn't actually affect. You that's still cool though. That you can do snow, which I it it literally the item like that you put down and you connect to your like power is a fucking snowman. OK. Can you have multiple of these out at the same time? No they don't. Oh damn. I I know it that kind of sounds like shit, but it would be really fucking weird if you have like rad storm and then all of a sudden fucking rain and Thunder.

38:13 And I guess, I don't know, it'd just be kind of weird. Hey man, the thundering rad storm might not. I mean, I guess it would be. Far off. Yeah, which it already kind of does that anyway. Yeah, but this is in the radius of your camp. Oh, of course. So once you leave your camp it goes away but comes back when you go back in. Those are fucking cool. The snow one that came out around Christmas. These guys know I love my holidays. Yes, you do. You can hate me for it, I don't care. How you express yourself.

38:45 Yeah, I fucking love Halloween, Christmas lunch, but yeah, I was just smiling from ear to ear when I saw this snowman weather machine and I'm like, Oh my God, that motherfucker. Down fucking money. I threw that motherfucker down, started snowing. I was sitting in my fucking house by the fire. I live, I have a fireplace in my house and I sat down and just, yeah, this not playing the game as I should be, just sitting here. Just vibing. You know I got fucking challenges I got to go do and shit, you know fuck that.

39:20 No or vibing. But besides that, the thunderstorm one pretty fucking nice too. Yeah, only thing is I and I, I know this is stupid to probably say, but the Thunder could be a little quieter. I know that sounds odd as hell to say, but it's really fucking loud. No, I get it too loud. I mean, there's the there's the one chase music and security breach with the DJ. Oh that's loud as shit. Yes it is, and it could be quieter. It. Definitely could. It's I like it. Me too. Like I don't mind it being loud.

40:04 Like it, it really intensifies, but it's at a point where it's just, it's annoying and it takes you out of the game. You want to be in the game. Yes, that I can understand. Yeah, But no, I, I, I, I guess I kind of like the way that Fallout 76 is going. And they said Bethesda has announced that they're actively working on Fallout 5. Yeah. Oh, really? Yeah. OK, so. Finally have confirmation that it's happening. But how long this it's going to be before this game comes out? Who down? At least five years.

40:42 Because at this point they even have, you know, said elders. Elder Scrolls 6 is in development. It's. Been a while and it probably still is in development. And I mean, you take all the time you need, I mean. I mean, you know, I think developers at this point in age are realizing that. Yes. Finally. That you need more fucking time because if you release a bad game, it's bad forever. Yeah, this is something that's quoted by somebody. I can't remember if it's. I'm pretty sure that's Kojima no Hideo Kojima.

41:15 I don't think it's Kajima, it's someone. I know who you're talking about though. It so this is not my quote. But Nintendo? Someone from Nintendo? Something like that, yeah. It's it's someone from Nintendo. When you release a bad game, it's bad forever. But if you release a late game, it's good. Like you can wait. Oh yeah, you know, And I know waiting can sometimes be a pain in the ass, sure, but I'd rather the game be finished and not as buggy then have someone, a developer, release a game that literally could have used another year or two.

41:52 I mean. The quote is from Miyamoto. Thank you. That's who it is. The late game is eventually good. A bad game is bad forever. Honestly, I don't. I personally don't. I agree with the quote, but I don't think it's gospel. No it. Doesn't have to be gospel. For example, we talked about it Cyberpunk and No Man's Sky. They have. They have bounced back. They have and like, you know, a lot of people came back when, but maybe not everyone, but a lot of people came back, especially the cyberpunk once things, you know, settled down, they're all settled.

42:28 Like holy shit it's great. Yeah, like it's some games. Obviously not all. Not all that's. Imagine there's also been delayed games that have turned out to be really bad. Oh yeah. Yeah, like this quote from Miyamoto, It's, it's not meant to be like even, say, gospel, but it's, it's just something to think about. Yeah, 'cause you want your product to be as good as it can be, you know? I mean, first impressions is everything. Oh, of course. It is a thing, yes. And if it's. That's that's kind of my first point that I made.

43:08 It's first impressions, like Mark said, yeah, it's everything. And sometimes, even when a game can bounce back, it might be too late. Yeah. You're you're always going to have that demographic of people that you'll never win back. Yeah. But it was nice to see, well, like in Cyberpunk's case, because they were refunding people, well more the storefront. Refund people. The fact that it bounced back because of how long it was in fucking development, I think it was over 10 years like it was. I mean, to be fair, just looking at the game.

43:53 Yes, yeah, but it just makes you question what the fuck went wrong if it was that long in development, you know? Well, I mean that. There's a lot that we don't know. From what I understand, it was a lot of reworks, a lot of design. Usually when it takes more than I would say four years, there's stuff being redone and a lot of. It decision making going wrong or ideas changing. I mean, look at Skull and Bones. I am. Look at what happened to that game. Like you, you could you could have just made a simple we're going to take the ship mechanics of Black Flag and some of the off board mechanics of Black Flag and we're going to make it into a pirate game.

44:37 So it's not going to be. Used the ship mechanics from Black Flag. That's the problem. You could have just copied, pasted and you could have the game right there. You had the game already there and then you just kept Eddie War and new things somehow got the Singaporean government involved. I don't know what the fuck. Is 75% of your game is being on that ship, you need to make the the ship. Work. Yeah, yeah, like then if you don't, what the Hell's the point? Yeah, like fucking Sea of Thieves, man.

45:12 They, you know, I, I know how people feel about Sea of Thieves. There are people that like and people that are like whatever, what the fuck is this? Yeah, yeah, I'm kind of in that whatever. But it's it's more so because like the amount of time it takes to do something in that game, I could be doing something else. Yeah, it takes it. It's definitely a. Pirate game he's. Going to have a. Pirate game's going to have a hit or miss nature. Yes, see that's. Never a surefire thing. That's why like when me and the Bond would play it like we both kind of feel the same way about the game and we don't mind, you know, having to take a little bit of time in the ship because it takes a little while.

45:47 For you to play, yeah, that's perfectly fine. But it can be annoying at times because you just want to get moving. Yeah, but that's why, like me and Devon, we always fuck with each other. Like, he'll be up at the God damn fucking wheel and shit and I'll be behind him with an instrument, fucking with him. Done it, done it, you know, just not play the full song. I'll just keep you know, that's how we pass the time and I was also the one that was navigating because I'd be down. Yeah, and like, OK, well, southwest.

46:17 Wait, that's not southwest. No, I'm sorry. Wait, weast, go weast, like and then fucking define hits a God damn rock. Dude, I I know this is off topic. When you hit a fucking. Rock. Oh, it's hard to get off those rocks. It's hard, like what? It is hard but it's fucking Bunny as shit. Just because you hear the vine like wait this water starts pulling in. Like God there were so many memories. I got to show you guys that compilation I made. Oh yeah, yeah. It got as funny as fucking. Back on topic, I think I'm good on on my thing.

46:58 So who was the gold? I think I went last because I was talking about battle passes. OK, so shit is back to. Me. I mean, this is going to be a rapid fire. Pretty much, yeah. But pretty much like I'll close off my talk about battle passes with it. Like yes, even if it's free, completely free and 100% cosmetic, it's to me. It's just I've seen it so much to where it's just at the point where it's annoying and exhausting. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah, and it's like just try something else. Yeah, 'cause they're beating a dead horse.

47:32 Oh yeah. Yeah, this. There needs to be some change. Like I don't, I don't, I don't mind the level up mechanic where if you have a specific character you have to level up 'cause I think Exoprimal did that, where if you levelled up a specific character then you got traits for that character. Yes, you definitely got new weapons, different traits. Yes, I remember and like. Yeah, that's kind of in a similar vein to the card system. But no matter what that card system is across the board characters, that's just the character.

48:03 And usually if it's a character they level up pretty damn. 'Cause I I remember the I remember the gamma and the beta character sets that they were doing. Yeah. Oh yeah, that's right. They did the they had the normals and then the alphas and the betas. That's right. I forgot about that 'cause I remember. I played as the shield guy a lot. I remember I was pretty good with that flying healer. Oh my God, you were amazing. Even though I guess she's dog shit, yeah, healing wise, yeah, I still, I still played a mean fucking healer with her.

48:34 Yeah, I just remember with the the the alpha, the beta characters, it was like I was playing as a shield guy. All of a sudden he's like, he's only doing shotguns and oh, you're right. I'm like what is this? The thing with I think I was getting her name was like Skywave or something. Maybe that's a transformer, but her either her alpha or beta, one of the two pretty much went from healing to just straight damage. Yeah. Why is she still in the healing class? Yeah. At that point, yeah. Why? Yeah, it's.

49:11 Oh. Yeah, there there are some choices that they made with that game that just didn't make sense. And they only had like a, they only added content for a year and then they were like, OK, something else. I mean, yeah, it was more of an experimental title. Yeah, and it, and I mean, I think it, it didn't do it. Could have worked though. But if they I I loved the aspect of oh it's primarily APVP game, but all of a sudden you and the entire lobby's thrown into a PVE environment and all hell is breaking loose.

49:44 Well, that's 'cause you're fighting against a boss and now instead of the entire lobby, yeah, racing against each other and they got all these checkpoints, now you're fighting with each other. You're like, wait a minute, hold on, record, scratch, pause, freeze frame, hold on. I. Was getting ready for PvP game, holy shit. Man, now I'm gonna you you saying record scratch now I now I need to go find. A Yeah, now you get sound. Put a sound effect in it. I gotta start. I gotta. I've got some things boiling up.

50:15 Here, by all means, please do. Yeah. Where's my phone doing I need my phone for? My list, I guess we can start wrapping up tonight with one of my final topics, I guess. Or or what were you doing? I was just grabbing from my phone from my list in case we needed more OK filler content. Filler content. Filler, just kind of throw one in there is the unnecessary pursuit of technology that a lot of these games have been, a lot of these gaming companies have been really throwing themselves into. Speaking of buzzwords.

50:49 That is another. Pretty much. I mean, one of the bigger ones is just the relentless pursuit for graphical fidelity, just trying to make your game look like real life. Well, here's the thing. A game can look really pretty, but if there's nothing to do, what? What's a game? Yeah, what the fuck's the point? Like this? I'm kind of worried about that with GTA6. Or or or even even another counterpoint, if your game looks like real life and all other games are trying to do that too, what what separates you out from the rest of the other games at that point?

51:27 Then you just point. In you have nothing thing that makes you stand out. You're all becoming the same thing. Yeah, and that gets exhausting. And then it just adds bloat to the game cuz now you have to increase your storage space size just to handle for the amount of graphics it becomes. It becomes an ecosystem where all your games are now competing for the limited space on your devices. Well, it's not only that, but it's also like map size. Usually with, you know, more games in the series comes a bigger map.

52:01 Yeah. So not only are you improving the graphics and are you making the map bigger, but what's going to be in the map? Because now if you have the same density or if you have like let's say you take a map and just increase it in size, doesn't matter the size, but yeah, you have the same same map, same points on the map. Now you're just increasing the distance. Yeah, sure, it looks prettier, but you're increasing the distance between these item or these quests, these items, whatever you're doing.

52:32 And. It's just like. Travel time. Again, going back to GTA6, yeah, you have like what, a four times bigger map than? Something like that. It's five. It's like. And five was already fucking. What's What's the substance? Yeah, Am I just going to be driving, slash, flying, or God forbid teleporting everywhere? Like you're making this pretty game. I want to see this pretty game. I don't want to trash travel. Everywhere or like a lot of the Assassin's Creed games since they went over open world. Yeah.

53:05 Like like I know Valhalla, it was a huge offender of this where it was just tons and tons of open space and not much really substance or whatever's. There is really just a ton of busy work that doesn't make it that doesn't really satisfy you. Yeah, You need substance that's worth doing. Yeah, right. And that, you know, it's fun. Yeah. Is that the whole point of playing a video game is having fun? But making a larger and larger space when there's not enough content to just throw into it, it's just it's a waste of money, it's a waste of resources and a waste of time.

53:39 I'm just scared to see what the fucking size of GTA 6 is gonna be. Yeah, this game, you're gonna have to delete every game. If I swear to God, if I. You get this one full terror plate right for the game. Oh, you. Might. I it's gonna I don't think it, I don't think that's gonna go that. Far, I think. They said it's at least 500 gigs. Fuck. Oh hell no. I. That's that's most storages. That's most storage on a fucking console right now. I mean, yeah, you have like some have a TB. Now, yeah, but literally half of your storage goes to.

54:11 One game and let's say let's say you have that plus Call of Duty, plus whatever else is relevant at the time. You won't be able to support them all. You'd have to pick and choose. OK. Yeah. So, so Call of Duty, sorry. Yeah, the newest Call of Duty. Yep. GTA6, Red Dead Redemption 2 and maybe some other game. That that would already be two terabytes. Yep, you wouldn't even be able to probably at this point. You wouldn't even be able to install Red Dead. No, seriously. I the game better not be that big yeah, because that like will I get GTA6 at some point?

54:51 I don't know yeah, I played a lot of 55 has kind of some meaning to me. Yeah, cuz it when it was my first Grand Theft Auto game. Yeah. And it was the Grand Theft Auto game that I played a lot with Devon. Yeah. So that game holds a special place to me. Yeah. And I didn't hate it like I don't play it nowadays because I've kind of done everything I want. Yeah, you know, but six, I I just. I don't know. I don't know. I know I'm gonna be end up getting it, but that's because Emma and her brother have a huge soft spot for that game.

55:24 That is a game that they played with their dad all the time. It is something that they grew up with. It's something that I know that they're not going to live without and I'm going to respect it, but it's just it's hard to justify. If a game is that fucking big like. What is the base price of that too? I know it's going pretty high, but that's also because they're putting. People. They will pay for it. I know people were holding their breath, waiting to see if they were going to be the ones to crossover and to, OK, we're going to make games to do $100.

56:00 Yeah. Because a lot of game, a lot of game companies are waiting for that decision to base the price of their future projects. And it's like if you're going to make me buy or I shouldn't say make me, if you're going to make your game $100 base. That better be perfect. I ain't buying it. Yeah, 'cause that's $100. You you really have to justify it to me like it's it would already be a hard sell at $100. I mean, like it's, it's all, it's all. I'm fine and dandy if the game is especially. Since you don't even own the game, yeah.

56:39 Yeah, that too. That's that's the way we're going too. And that kind of that's another. That's another topic. Yeah, Honestly, that's that's a. It is a gaming bit. P or turn off. That could be its own episode. Yeah, it can. Be its own series of real yeah, I guess let's move on from just the the graphical fidelity another part of just unnecessary technology. They want to remember back to when Ubisoft was pushing crypto and NFTS and they're you. Crypto bruise. Yeah, you're going to have to bring me up to speed because I don't, I don't really.

57:17 I don't know this either. I don't play anything from Ubisoft. I just don't. That's just, and it's not even anything against them. It's just not your interest. No, I don't really like the I. Mean there's the one game I'm interested in, Morbid Metal, but I I also thought about it because it looks it's a rogue like. It looks interesting. Yeah, but then that means I would have to sign in using Ubisoft. Yeah, you'll be forced. And their own ecosystem games. That's kind of a turn off for me. It's more of a pet peeve, but.

57:44 It's a true that failed, so they came crawling back to steam, but in. EA as well I think. Like I was even thinking about this with Trials. Any of them. The trial series is made by Ubisoft. Great series, especially Fusion and I read the reviews and if I want to play it I just sign in every single time and it doesn't remember your sign in information. I'll screw that. Yeah, so I'd have to do the same thing with Morbid Metal. The demo doesn't do that, but it's a demo. So it's a demo. But yeah, anyway, go on.

58:19 NFTS What the hell is this about? So I think they finally kind of realized that that's a dead ship for them and they kind of dropped it. I think it was like a year or two ago, they got really big into pushing players to try to start up their own cryptocurrency for Ubisoft that would be useful used on all of their games as well as an NFT project. Or you can bring assets from one of their games into another one of their games. And it it it was just, oh, yeah, we're getting into the Krypton NFT stage because you have all these, yeah, you have all these grifters promoting it.

59:07 And look at all the money they're making. And it's going to be so good for stockholders going back to marketing buzzwords. But. And it just turned out to be just a huge, expensive waste of time that nobody in the gaming sphere wanted. Oh yeah, everyone wants to play games. Not. I, I, I don't see the appeal to, oh, I'm going to play a game to earn money. That's just work. And it's not even. That's literally what it. Is no. As soon as you make a dollar off something, that's work. Yeah, yeah, that literally.

59:40 Yeah, yeah. It's like, it's like, why would I be wasting my time on a game when I can be doing something productive and actually making a lot more money at a reasonable expense to? Myself and actually doing something that's meaningful, I guess. Yeah. Way you know, like. But it's like, it's like I'm not going to sit through just this rain, just this rain of application that you made that supposedly is going to make me rich by just devoting my time to watching advertisements or having my data being sold or just.

1:00:17 Turning my device into a calculator for whatever the fuck you're doing. Crypto mining. Yeah, I love games that turn my computer into a crypto. It's there's just so much wrong with just with the gaming industry. We've gone this over or we've gone over this. Hey, hey, I'll put it on the docket. Sins of the industry. Yeah, sins of the industry. That's a good one. Yeah, so the darker aspects of the gaming industry that people don't talk enough about. Gaming's industry let's. Go gaming's industry.

1:01:01 I like the game industry. Ethan, go write that down. Write that down like right now, because we're we're gonna forget. Yeah, we will.

1:01:14 But you know, that's, it's funny, I did not know about this with Ubisoft. Yeah, I did not. And. Oh, yeah, they, you know, they pushed it hard for a couple of years. Granted, it's like, I don't play their games, so how am I gonna know? Yeah. You're not gonna know, but they tried really desperately to be like, hey guys, we we have this cool new idea and it's gonna games are gonna be running off of crypto in the future, so you might as well just get onto the bandwagon and it's. It's so. Dumb. Dude, they were so fucking disconnected on just how much people actually hate this stuff.

1:01:50 Yeah, Is they got lost in their own sort of delusions with it. Yes, it was so bad. And partly I want to say it's part, it's a huge portion of the blame for the position, the financial positions that they find themselves in as a fleet because of because of poor choices with their games, poor choices with their technology and poor choices with just forcing their games onto single ecosystems. Yes. Is really tarnished their reputation in their in their bottom line. Yeah, no, I totally agree. It's like I I miss the days of like you buy a game.

1:02:36 You get the whole. Game. You get the whole game and you put it in your fucking console physically, you play it. There's no bullshit. I I just know downloading from some third party server. Updating the fucking game. I have to update my game all of a sudden or oh, I can't play the game anymore because the DM server was turned off. We'll talk about that more in this industry. I I miss, I miss the days of plugging in a console, turning on the TV and playing the fucking game. Or or even even better, you know, updating your game, you know, buying the game physically and not even half the game is on the disc.

1:03:22 Yeah, now you have to go download this update that has like the other 50 gigs that you need, you know, and it's, it's just dumbfounding to me. I don't understand. OK, but would you rather have this or would you rather have to put your game back through the mail because there was a recall or whatever it was called back then? Oh, what are you talk about? Fuck GameFly. It's a GameFly. No, I'm just talking like because there was some games wouldn't like some cartridges or discs, whatever would be released or sent out with maybe a game breaking bug where your game wouldn't save even though you have a saved cartridge and you have something like that where you have to send it back to get a working copy.

1:04:09 That's sort of the devil's advocate, isn't it? You had a devil's advocate, honestly. I don't think it happened too often, but it still happened. You have to. Warrant it. Be a problem. I mean. But to be fair, there's also way more games coming out, way more bugs because they can, they can't afford to do that. Yeah. Cuz back then they put it out, update it later. Yeah, expect then they couldn't. Yeah, back then when you had to have a fully polished product. Yeah, or it's or God help you. Yeah, like that.

1:04:42 I I hate the mentality of just put it out now. We'll update it later. Why don't you just finish it? I, I, I want to redirect on that and be like, it's not a problem of, oh, the game's not polisher, the game isn't up to snuff for me. The more of the problem is I don't even own the game. Yeah. You're telling me I'm buying a license for $60.00 that you can just take away and Yep. Yep. It'd be like, OK, have fun with your experience that we sold you that you can never play again. But like when you when you buy, when you bought games in the past, it was oh, I'm buying my own copy of the game that I own.

1:05:26 Yes, then I can just have my own children play now. I now you just can't do that. It's oh, you're just buying a license and you're groveling at the feet of large game corporations to keep your experience around so you can get your money's worth. Yeah. And I mean that's. Industry. Yeah. And I mean, there's a lot of things that need to change, and unfortunately, those things will not change unless something catastrophic happens when they're forced to change. To after die. Yeah. Yeah, that means another crash.

1:06:12 So be it. So be it, because then it wakes everybody up. Yep. I mean, that's how, that's how innovation and. Yep. Modernization kind of takes place since what's there has to burn at some point. So you can then innovate more.

1:06:32 But yeah, no, I think I'm good. You guys got anything else before we end this? They're thinking, they're thinking. They're thinking. They're thinking. More games need to have sex. Attitude sex. No, I'm kidding. I just go on like eagle yeast. Games be censored by Visa and MasterCard. Well, this took a turn. Yes. Why don't we have a podcast again? We're three guys in the podcast and serve our motto. OK, sure. Yeah. All right. It's like that one company, 2 guys in the truck.

1:07:20 That is so far from what we're doing. Dude what? You know, two guys in the truck, three guys in the podcast. Barbecue and foot massage. OK, we should. OK. That's going too far. That's gone too far. Honestly, I think we've gone further. So that ain't no, that ain't no goddamn way that that's. Far, you know, dude, man, I got guys in the truck, three guys in the server podcast. I got nothing else and I don't. Think Mark got anything else? Mark's just saying. Stuff out of this surprise. God damn it, that was good shit.

1:08:04 Then Mr. Funny Mark over here. All right. Well, if that's it, then that's it. Yeah, yeah. That's it. That's that's it, That's it. That's it. Yep. No more. That's it. All right, Player 4, you may unplug now and run. Run far away. And I mean far away. I'll find you.

1:08:28 Bye everybody. I'll see you soon. Run.