The Mind of Ethan

Well, hey guys, welcome my guest to plug in for Player 3.

I can't believe it's been a week since he's been gone, you know? Yeah, right. Brandon this.

Is going to be. Kind of lonely. It's going to be a really weird dynamic here. We're going to do our best. We're going to try to talk to She'll Be Your Emma, see if they can Co host until we find another permanent host. Behold the power of A. Ginger Oh, hey guys. How you? Doing what the fuck? What? Where'd you come from? The the door. Did you not hear it open? No. OK, I I must be pretty sneaky then, man. What's up? Uh, reborn, your death. Death. Do you not even remember what the hell happened? I I mean, there was a, there was a horse, but then all of a sudden there was a skeleton.

And like he just as, as soon as I saw the skeleton, he was like, stop, I've got a bone to pick with you. Like a fucking cracking jokes and whatnot. But then she just wouldn't stop. He was like, I'm just kidding. You want some ribs? Oh, tough crowd, huh? Well, let me, let me. Don't let me step on your bones toes. Never mind.

Anyway, that was a close one. I felt into me boned like he knew about this horse or something. Anyway, get back there. Don't be a dumb skull. So I came back and he would just would not shut up. I tried to interrupt him. He was like shut up. I'm not done. Oh OK, my bad, my bad. Anyway, that's how that's that's where I was. Dude. What? I'm so confused we had a full on open casket funeral and everything I'm. Starting to. Question. I do remember I was in the ground at some point. I had to dig through.

Strange. What is this fucking thriller? What is going? On. Oh, well, I I got to see your back and it's your episode. Do you want to go ahead and lead us in? Yeah, sure. I mean, well, first, how how are you guys doing? Like, besides mourning my death, what have you been up to? I'm gonna. Have to cancel that appointment for that one guy. He was doing an audition. Yeah, really. Shit, wow. Fucking I told him he was really well. Was he a ginger? Oh no. Yes. Oh, OK, I was gonna say you can't replace them, but yeah, you can I guess.

Yeah, well, yeah, besides all of that shit. That bone guy, I don't know about him, man. I don't know. I don't know. Chatter in the teeth, man I. Don't know, every single time he cracked a joke is like, it's like he was laughing or something. I don't know. It was, it was weird. It got old after a while. No, I'm sure it did. Yeah, I was pressing and you just fucking punch him. Just fucking break apart. Thing to do, yeah. Strike. Strike.

I mean, I'm, I'm good. That's evaluating life currently, but yeah. I mean, I, I guess I don't blame you, believe me. No, I just, I just remember a horse and then a skeleton and no, you know, I kind of climbed out of a casket and I was like, oh, huh. I kind of walked home. Took me a while that. 'D be one hell of a God damn walk. That's a couple hours. Yeah, really. Huh. I'm here now so. OK, well, what do you want to talk about this week? I want to talk about the mind of me because, you know, while I was talking to the skeleton, I was, you know, thinking of a lot of things.

Yeah, well, doing a lot of inner, inner searching, OK. And and of how I play games because I I mainly roguelikes. Yeah. Yeah, I am kind of like addicted to trying to breakthrough the luck barrier and beat these fucking game against all odds that this game throws at you. These games, I should say. Man versus luck. Pretty much. But also like kind of a power fantasy. Like I want to fucking annihilate anything in my path. Yeah, yeah, just delete it from even existing in the first place. I think you're so strong.

He got rid of the memories. We we can, we can start off with Abyss really 'cause I played that game for probably a week and a half and I maybe 2 weeks and I 100% of it, at least for now until the winter update comes out. Fair, Yeah, No, you, you were bullying that pretty hardcore for a while. Dude, it was funny because Jack was like, hey guys, I have a game that we can play. Like you mean that I can play just? Like plow through all the. Achievements. Thank you for this game that I can play I. Don't even remember when Jack last played.

I don't remember either. He hasn't played it in weeks. I think the. Last time that you played at Brandon was the last time that Jack played as well. I think so, yeah. Oh. I mean. That was. Like originally I had 96 achievements, but then they added four more. I'm like, no, it takes even four more to get the I have a roll costume, which I mean, do before I got it now, so whatever. But it's, it's a great game and I even saw a a short by the developers and they're genuine developers 'cause they in the short, they said they want the player to get everything just from buying the game.

Yeah, there's the supporter packs of the Brian Hunter and the Brian Dweller some. Yeah.

But anything they update into the game they want you to be able to get just from playing which. That's that is an awesome. Thing. Yeah. That's how it should be. No microtransactions. They're like crap. But yeah, it it got to the point where in order to beat Deep Water 30, which that was, I was having aneurysms trying to beat that. Not actually. For your speech. Yeah, it. Every single time I played Deep Water 30, I would get farther and farther and then I would hit the final boss and I got on one day.

It was funny because my girlfriend texted me. You know, whatever you choose to do today, you will do it. And it took me 3 four tries like half hour each to beat this final boss. And at the end out of like maybe 800 health, I had 40 left. One more hit would have Kod me. Oh my God. That sucked. Erg. But I yeah, I do have power fantasies and even in Bro Tato I played the baby and had a bunch of sticks. About that. Yeah, sticks. So like any and all questions or situations you want to ask, go for it.

You got anything more? Well. Don't pass them back to you. See if you've got ideas cheering around that noggin. Oh, that's just a hamster wheel. And the hamster's currently dead, so he'll be back. Eventually. Yeah, I don't it's. It's your pet hamster, stinky. He's definitely that. He's definitely that. I mean, I guess I can say that like it's also about, like I, I said this before, overcoming the odds, but I've been playing Rogue Legacy 2 a little bit recently. And in that game you have to fight through a bunch of different enemies, through a bunch of different randomized rooms.

Even the enemies are randomized. So sometimes just the room combination plus the enemies you get can just be a pain in the ass to get through just a get to the boss. Yeah. Fair, I know this isn't really a like probably pertaining to this, but there is something I have been playing.

It's called gory, OK, And you're basically this cat on a hoverboard that kills like evil unicorns. And it is, it is super violent. Like, it's it, it kind of has like the art style of Borderlands. OK. But you're like in this like kind of like cyberpunk, kind of like esque world that like, I guess humans no longer exist, Like they're all dead. But this cat man, like it's fluid as hell and killing everything. Like there are certain moves you have to use to actually kill some of these enemies because there's some enemies in like these like glass bubbles.

You have to like take your fucking board and smash it on them and shit. It it's it basically kind of reminds me of just Tony Hawk, but killing shit. And the the the board has its own like personality and it like it's swears a lot. Yeah.

But that's that's actually, I don't know if that'd be a game you guys would like. Yeah, but I mean, I didn't have to see. It take a look at it like even if you don't play it like it's amusing as hell. Like it it definitely is something that I think I I want to like really try to finish because it it has been a lot of fun. But yeah, now from Plank.

Good. All right.

I mean, like another aspect of games is fluidity like Rogue Legacy. Rogue Legacy two kind of does have fluidity to it in terms of like going from room to room fighting enemies. And there's so many different classes in each class has a different way to approach these and like slightly different way to approach these enemies depending on range or height of attack.

But also you can't have too much fluidity like because I tried to play haste during the next fest the demo. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. And yeah, it was fun, but it was solely focused on how fluid it was and you had to jump and Clyde and dive downhills to get momentum and speed and everything. Like everything had to be perfect. And I'm just not sure even now I could buy it. But also. Are you going to play this? The is the question. Right, I had like, I had fun with it, but I'm not sure if it's exactly for me.

I can understand that. So in that sense, I guess the game can't be solely focused on the fluidity. There has to be something else besides just that to keep everything fresh because you don't want to get super bored super quickly. Right, if the whole game is based off 1 gimmick. Unless that gimmick is super fleshed out and super good. Granted it is fleshed out. Yeah, but it's still the same, you know, I you want you, you want diversity in the game, you. Want to be able to actually like the hardest I can get is dodge obstacles and land well.

Yeah. That's really it. See, what you need to play is drain cleaning Simulator. No, no, I, I really thought I was going to fucking hate this because I'm looking at this. I'm like, oh, this is going to be bad. You know, I hate myself so much. It's actually not bad. Oh no. But you know what's not bad? Power Power Wash Simulator 2. Oh, that finally came out. Came out this week. Oh wow dude they definitely the pacing like how the levels are laid out. They are. They pace them pretty well. That's saying the first game didn't pace them well, but it was like after like the second or third map you're cleaning this giant like jungle like tree house thing and that yeah fucking time.

But with the second game it seems like they paced things a lot better. I mean, I like the first one, but it's just like. It was also very tedious. Oh, it's. Very tedious. It certainly is I. Got to the playground level and I I think I stopped there. I'm not it's. Just so. Big, that's I can understand. I I get it. God, you would have hated the fucking subway. It was the entire subway you had to clean. Yeah, that took me multiple days because I just, I was getting burnt. I bet. No, I bet. I love the game so fucking much, but it was just, it was too much.

OK. No, but yeah, let's pick that brain. Yeah, there's gonna be questions or 'cause I mean, you, you guys have seen me play plenty of roguelikes, different roguelikes as well, or rogue lights really, 'cause that's I play those more than I do rogue likes, Yeah. Yeah, I. Guess let's start with what got you into rogue lights and rogue likes first. Oh, that's a good question, yeah. Boom, I'm. Trying to think of the first game I played that would have even resembled that.

I guess just the nature of how older games played. It's just go and do a run, try again. That was with, I mean, I was going to say Spyro, but that's not really a crash. Crash Bandicoot especially return Wrath of Vortex Cortex I think it was. Yes, yeah. Town was insanely hard, especially for a child. Yeah, it still tops some difficulty charts and trying to overcome that, I guess that would be kind of be the thing I. Mean crash has always been hard. It has, but some are easier than others. I just so happen to be one of the top five, maybe 3 hardest Crash video games.

Yeah, as a child. Yeah, but in in the rogue legs, I really couldn't say. I think it's just because I played playing, I played Wizard of Legend. What are some of the I did play Binding of Isaac. Like I'm trying to think of some of the earliest I played. Yeah, definitely Binding of Isaac. Oh yeah, that was that was especially 10 years ago. Yeah, that was big. Yeah, really. That's why when I was biggest I tried to enter the gungeon when I was on Xbox game pass at some point. Nuclear throne as well I guess.

Just that like learn the patterns, get better as you go attitude. Something that I know I can do with your repetition. Yeah. I mean, yeah, a lot of things you have, you get, you know, repetition. You keep doing it. Eventually you're going to be like, OK, I know how to do this. Right, because other games it's it's a puzzle, which I don't mind puzzles, but it's a puzzle and move on. Yeah, yes. Or fight through an area, which, I mean some FPS roglikes can be like that. Yeah, Yeah. I just have to say that, you know, overcome the odds mentality.

OK, interesting. I guess I'll throw this at you. What was your first rogue? Like I got. That's exact same question that I asked. This was what God have been doing. I know, I mean yes, but don't try to think about that. But like the the the first rogue like you can actually remember that you played. I'd have to say Binding of Isaac, Binding of Isaac. Yeah, OK. I, I, I remember you were so big into that, that that was definitely one of your first true. I mean if if there if I really had to dig deep for my first rogue light.

Probably a flash game. That sounds right. Yeah, and I played plenty on congregate, plenty on armor games. There's just so many games I played on there could not begin. So I'm just going to go ahead and say Binding of Isaac because that was one of the first ones on my that I played on Xbox. That was one of the first ones that I had on Steam. I've tried playing it and I do like it. It's hard. But it's hard as fuck. It's hard. It's. Yeah, it's it's just the fact that it's one of those bullet hell games.

But it's funny, there's one of the DLCS for the game that makes it harder. Yeah. And I'm like, what the fuck? So I uninstalled that. Oh wow, this is actually kind of doable for me now. No, I I understand why it's like that. Like it's, I like it just for the like the story is kind of fucked up. Oh my God. You know, and it and it's just interesting and the gameplay's great. Yeah, you know, it's a lot of fun. It is. I just cannot get far enough in it. My thing is, I have gotten to Satan and the Lamb and all that.

I've gotten pretty damn far into the game and down to the chests, everything. My problem is there's too many items that just don't feel like they do anything. And I've played it so much that what else am I to do? Did you ever 100%? God no. OK, I was going to say because there's a lot of achievements. Yeah, like holy. Shit. I know, Patrick. Plus I don't have, I only have one of the I think 3 DLCS because there's Repentance. Yes. There. I don't remember that third one, but then there's also afterbirth.

Yes, yeah, I think I had after birth I didn't have. Repentance. It was Rebirth the DLC? Or was that or was that the original title?

I think that was the. I think Rebirth was the original title. Yes I had after birth I did not have repentance and there's another one I can't I don't know cuz I didn't keep that. I was long gone, not playing Isaac after that point. Yeah, I it's the Repentance DLC that makes the game even harder. Yeah, so that's the one. I said fuck you, I'm going to play. This, that's the thing, like games just can't be too hard for me either. I do love a good challenge again. I'm so well you don't like a hopeless struggle.

I've beaten yeah, I've beaten Robo Quest Guardian for difficulty S rank. I got all the achievements in that game as well.

I Isaac, was just. Again, I think I think it was the too random. I think that's what it was. Just too random. Yeah, I could see it because I most of my time with Isaac was more watching Patrick play it because he was into that for a while. Yeah, I played. I watched a lot of huts back when he was huge. Yes, yeah. God, I forgot it. Yeah, he played. He played plenty of Enter the Dungeon, which that was also a fucking hard rug light. It looked hard, like it I it was. I wasn't going to touch. It I love bullet Hells.

There's a there's a game called I think Epic Bosh Rush 2. It's a flash game. You wouldn't know of it unless you actually do know of it, but. It sounds. Familiar. If you know, you know a thing. But in all it is Bosh rush bullet hell. I don't think I've actually ever beaten the game. Technically, no, I have not because the final boss dumb. But I loved bullet Hills. Yeah, and Gungeon was fucking difficult for a Bullet hill.

And as I've gotten older, I kind of fell out of Bullet Hills because I tend to run into bullets. I'm like, oh, I got it, I just got it. Run into it. A dodge even into it. Yeah. Oh my God. I feel you. And that pisses me off more than just simply not dodging and getting hit. It's. It's no longer the lizard brain taking over, it's the moth flame moth brain lamp. Lamp shiny light. Captain, we're going towards the lighthouse. Fuck yeah, we are. It's Moth piloting the boat. Well, Speaking of like difficulty, so the the angry video game nerd, he has another game out.

It's called it like it's 8 bit and it's really good. OK, it's kind of in the style of Mega Man in a way. I love it, but the difficulty is kind of inconsistent. OK, like it it gets hard. Like if you want something hard but fair, yeah, that's definitely something. But reading some of the reviews of the game, people are saying it's just a little too. Short Oh, OK. Yeah, I can see that. There's a lot of games like that. And like it's but how many levels it has but it's like 20 bucks. But like, short, short.

Yeah, sweet. Yes. And I feel like that's what that has. But yeah, I will definitely say inconsistent difficulty, like with every level. Like it's kind of annoying. Yeah, that would piss me off. But it's like they give you different difficulties to play on, which I'm on the easiest because I'm a little bitch. But if anything like it's not a bad game. It's not what I'm saying. But if you want to play something that's like a side scroller game like that just and it's a VGN, just go play the what's it a VGN game?

One and two deluxe, something like that. Those two games are good if you want a challenge. Man, he should have made that into a rogue like that actually would have been kind of cool. Now did I think about that missed opportunity?

Damn it, I really wanted them. That that actually would have been cool, but. What about you, Mark? You got questions? Yeah, what about you? Another. Question I should say. This man over here. You tired EP baby. I don't know why I can't stop Yummy. Today, don't. Don't make me make you. I was dead for how long? And you can't stay awake. It's just a flood of emotions man, Sometimes you just gotta start yawning about. Wow, as he does it again. Hey, man, everyone takes it differently. Yeah. I mean, I guess I can't be too mad.

Nope. I will say though, out of besides roguelakes, there's a certain subset of games. Jesus. There's a certain subset of games where I'm going to contradict myself. Games can't be too hard. There are certain, and I can't tell you what pattern. Maybe you guys can figure out the pattern, but there are like certain games where I crank the difficulty to the absolute limit. And one of them was Remnant from the Ashes. It's a Dark Souls. Yeah. Yeah, it's a Souls like game. Yeah. I love this game to bits.

Hell, I probably would still pick it up and play it to this day. And I tried to collect everything, like, get all the rings, get all the armors. I think I succeeded in all the armors. But yeah, get it. Like, just replay, get all the abilities and Max out my weapons that I like to use. And I remember playing with my friend Nick and one of his friends at the time or not, but playing it at the time, not his friend at the time. Yeah.

And they're both were like, this is too hard. Even though I really desperately wanted to beat this on Max difficulty, just just told this game, fuck you, I'm the king. It was the same thing with Beck for Blood. I wanted to crank the difficulty to Max, tell this game fuck you I'm the king. Yeah, but I mean, granted how the game is just not left for dead and I think that's what people were comparing it to that. That that was a really big point of the, the market for it was it was a spiritual success.

But like, I've never played Left for Dead. Yeah. Which I think you would you would like left. For dead and but I think this is this being my first experience with left 4 dead. I played it like it was left for like people would sorry like people did play left for dead when it first came out or when they first discover it. They just want to fucking play it. And that's what I wanted. I wanted to play black for blood but nobody after like 2 weeks wanted to play black for blood. I'm like God damn it, A. A big problem I personally had with black for blood was the control seemed very liquidy, like very loose when you're trying to aim and aim at specific things.

Yes, I can. I can agree with that. Yeah, OK. And then there was just the card system felt really out of place. I really like the card system though. But with again, with what you pointed out that, you know, I I personally played Left 4 Dead 2 with my girlfriend at the time, yeah, Emma, who has become my wife recently. But yeah, at at the time, yeah, that's what I knew Left for Dead the formula for was and going into back for blow with that mindset of just oh, it's the new heyday. It's it's Left for Dead, but under a new name and it's being brought into modern gaming and it just, it felt like a culture shock from what Left for Dead functions as as opposed to what Back for Blood was.

Doing both, both games are totally different, they have the same foundation but are like mechanically and everything else is really. Fundamentally different. Is fundamentally different, Yeah, I mean. The the I think that's sort of the issue that cholesterol protocol had as well. Yes. Because you had who was it the the the creator for the Dead Space series trying to do a new project? Yes. And people were saying, oh, it's going to be the new Dead Space. Yep. And it just was completely different. People set their expectations onto something else.

I was going to say their expectations are too high for those type of things. Like it's not going to be the same game. Yeah, but people think it's going to be. Yeah. And you can't do that. Getting this back on track though, like something about I'm I'm not sure if it's these types of games or it's just specific. Maybe it's multiplayer online games like Pve kind of deal where you're trying to survive just the world and just make you want to punch the game in the face and then you're not the boss of me.

Fair. Yeah, I see it. I mean, but like it's if if we go back to. Gungen. Fuck that game too hard. Nuclear Throne? Even harder than gungen, and gungen's difficult. Yeah, God, I would love the idea of Nuclear Throne, but it's just so God damn hard. Yeah, I don't mind like the the difficulties in games, but when they like, when they get to the point where it's just like, OK, this is kind of unfair, like there's some bullshit going on here, that's when I'm like, now fuck this shit, I'm done. Yeah, like and and.

I I can see that. Like I, I remember finishing, what was it, Gears. Gears 2 on the hardest difficulty with a buddy of mine. Yeah, that was fucking relentless. Gears 2 is probably one of the hardest campaigns in the game, yeah. Yeah, boy, was it good on that difficulty, though. Oh, yeah. But you had to be careful, man. If those little, I forgot what you call them, but they're like the little guys that explode. I got what you call those. Oh. My God it's been ages since I've played Gears so I don't really remember.

That we need to do an episode on like gaming pet peeves or whatever and we kind of just almost something similar, but oh, as big as gaming regrets, I think, but like we need to do like a pet peeves one because that enemy type pisses me the fuck off. The one that explodes like that. Small swarming exploder type enemy. You have the small silent swarming exploder that dies in one hit, Yeah. Yes, 'cause that was a death sentence in the hardest difficulty engaged. I'm sorry but every game seems like oh oh oh new idea exploding enemy that's silent that dies in two hits oh this is going to be great.

I'm just getting flashbacks to all the exploding thrall and exploding screams. Oh God in Destiny that I. Deep rock that has exploded I. I'm just thinking about you because I in Destiny I play as a Titan and my natural instinct is to punch. Dude same dude I did that to a fucking cursed thrall and I thought that was a. Bad day and you're dead. Oh, I see my hubris again. Yeah, no, I hate those. Yeah, that type is just so annoying. It's like Jesus Christ. Although if you if you group that enemy type together and you get 1 to pop off, it is really satisfying.

You see the whole group go oh. Yeah. Yeah. It's like popping pimples. It's just it's just annoying to see in literally every single game I saw. I saw it in a axolotl. I saw it in Deepak Galactic I believe. Enter the Gunge and there's there's just Robo Quest. There's just every fucking game. Yeah. Yeah. Although it with all due respect, that's kind of a a steeple hallmark in sort of enemy archetypes. So it's not really something that you can get away from, but. The thing is, I don't. It's something that people can probably tone down.

About you can have the tough brew, you can have like the silent sniper or whatever, like the OR the sneaky sniper or like and maybe in the melee enemy that'll sneak up on you or something. Yeah, something about the exploders piss me off. It's because they're, they're, they're kind of cheap because you know, if it, if you can't hear it, that's one thing, you know. Until they're right up on you where they go and then explode like. Man, that sounds like something. Creepers. Creepers, but creepers are they kind of stick out.

You kind of see, you usually see them usually. Yeah, usually if you're if you're paying attention to your surroundings. But I know what those were called in fucking gears. I think it was clickers. I think that was what they were called. I can tell you but. I don't know, 'cause when I hear clickers, my brain goes to look for or or last. Of us, that's yes, yeah. But though at least those enemies, yeah, they exploded close to you. Yeah. But like, as annoying as they can be, you can hear them 'cause they are kind of loud when they're walking around and they also don't detonate right away.

They take like 2-3 seconds where you're able to kind of react and like go back. But if there's a group of them.

Although there is AI actually just thought about this subset of rogue lights that aren't really like FPS or reaction based or whatever like loop hero or what's that one name? He is coming, I think. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Where you have more a time based mechanic, yeah, or a move based movement, number of movements that you have because in loop hero, as you go around in a loop, you get cards to do things with and then at the end of the game you can you have this settlement that you can help build up.

It's been a while since I played. I want to go back to it. Funny enough, I got it free on Epic back when I was. Yeah, Epic sometimes gives good games. Oh, so they do they. I have some good games. Yeah, like I got Borderlands anyway, not not the point, but. And you can place tiles down and as you, you just figure stuff out like you can put down mountains in a I think 2 by two grid or hills or something. You can get a mountain and then it's either 3 by 3 or 4 by 4. You can get maybe it's a mountain range or like a bell tower.

And every so often, like a vampire spawns from it. It's it's weird. Gargoyle. It's weird. And like, oh, that's a thing. So what I started doing is I started doing grid style

alternating planes and mountain. So I didn't, so I didn't get any. I don't think the spawn 'cause you can also get spider's nest and there will be wolves on the trail and you have to fight them and kill them and you know, you maybe get armor or something and weapons. It's it's pretty cool but I I dropped it relatively fast for a rogue light and kind of same thing with he is coming. I do like the game and I have beaten the first one in the forest I think but the swamp it is a completely different item set and I don't understand how to play it.

It pisses me off because I can get easily to boss too if I'm actually trying on the forest, but I'll be lucky if I can get past the first boss on a swamp. Wow. I don't know what when you. And these are more, these are more games where I have to think. Yeah. Fair than React.

Like so this game, I don't know why it's this is not that like one game that Seekers made, right? That was something totally different, I think. Yeah, Zekers made like another horror game. Not there was one that you said was scary as hell, like because it was lethal company and then he made something else. What it steals. It that's what? Yeah, OK, two different games. I don't know. For some reason he is coming. Made me think of that. I don't know why. I. Can see like. A reason? Why he is coming isn't really much of A horror.

It's not. No, no. I can see why though, because. The titles are kind, not similar, but they're. Well the way the way it steals plays, I can see why he is coming fits. That would, yeah. But and he is coming, you have this grid and you have these paths and you can only stick on the paths and he has to go around the paths moving around. You have a certain amount of time moves each day and night and every single time night rolls back over to day, you have to fight a boss. But also at night, certain things happen, like enemies will chase you down instead of staying in their spot.

Or maybe a graveyard will open up and you can go in there for a hero's stash. Only at night. But during the day, you know, it's safer travels. You get to pick your fights better because enemies won't move. But yeah, it's it's. And you can even see the next boss in case they completely shatter your build. Maybe you're going for an armor build, but then you get the grizzly bear. The grizzly bear ignores armor and die. Be screwed, God. Jesus, you. Guys, got any other questions?

What are some upcoming roguelikes that you're getting excited for? Oh has not come out yet that you want to play? OK, this could lead into some questions. Let's see, can I see my wish list? So I mean, I kind of buy them as they come out. I'm not sure if this counts, but there is a risk of wearing two DLC coming out called Outload Collective, which is going to add three more characters. 1 is going to be drone based which is going to be pretty cool. Not sure how that's going to work out. People are saying no not chef.

I think enforcer is coming back and somebody else handy how there's multi handy is the Bailey version. OK. People are saying he Handy is coming back. That's clever. That's pretty neat.

I mean mega bunk that already came out but I'm still thinking debating if I actually want it. What is AB Solemn? Mega bunk. Oh, I guess AB solemn is out. It's like a, it's cool. It's like 2D but also like a 3D moving area. So you can like move up, but you have a 2D Sprite up and down, left and right again, that one's out. I haven't looked into it, but it's also a Co-op. Well, local Co-op, but still. Now that came out October 9th. That's not too. Old OH. Wow, what else is on here? Dungeon of Maternity.

I think that's one, you know, not too many because if if I see it the I mean, the last time I really played a Rogue lake that came out recently before it came out. Was it here? He he is coming, Yeah. And I played the demo and I love the demo. OK.

Question, Mr. Raymond. So do do you like like first person rogue likes more than third person? I can do either or do I or it, it just depends because with Abyss or Roboquest I just got to think more in a 3D sense. Usually if I'm playing a third person it's top down, so I got to think more so in a 2D sense. Like how? How does this affect how I can move in a 2D space versus what surroundings are in my 3D space that I have to keep track of since I can't see everything as well?

OK. Hard to think of questions. I thought it'd be a little easier. Yeah, energy is not really flowing today, no. It's not the weather. No, that's fair. You just everybody's so lethargic right now, toughy.

Do you ever prefer art style? Oh, that's a good one. That's a good one. Yeah. I mean, I guess normally 3D games don't tickle my fancy. OK business Roboquest again, going back to that mine. Those are fine, but there was slash is or are whatever word rogue lakes coming out. There's Wizard of Legend 2 which the first one was a top down 2D Wizard of legend is like a top down isometric 3D and just the way it looks, it looks cheap. Same thing with Moonlighter too. It's a top down isometric the the first one it was a top down 2D again, just like Wizard of Legend where you go room to room yeah Wizard of Legend is more open, but this one is more like Isaac.

Moonlighter is more like Isaac where you go room to room yes and you figure stuff out. Moonlighter 2 is I assume it's still dungeons during the night or day whenever you want to go inside the dungeons and then shopkeep by day. However you have these like platforms you have to dash across and they will fall and I think they will fall until you beat the area. Maybe it just something about it being 3D kind of like shatters what I've kind of known about the games. But also in the other sense. Risk of rain 2.

I didn't play Risk of Rain one before I tried 2, so I don't prefer Risk of rain one like the the the because it's like extremely minimalist pixel art. There's like 7 pixels per character. Oh, OK. It's like that. OK. Yeah. Makes sense? Granted I don't mind pixel art but it's just I think it's just the the gameplay more so then I associate the gameplay with the R style.

OK. How do you prefer your narrative to be delivered to you? Do you want something that you kind of have to piece together more or something that's a little bit more on? Yeah, well, on display. In terms of specifically roguelikes, I could care less. Oh, like, I'm not really story. Like there's one I play Ember Nights where there's this guy called Praxis and he comes and he's trying to fuck up shit. Yeah, but you know, you're you're Ember Night. You're a guy that was basically born from a tree and trying to fight and kill Praxis.

OK, yes. And he's like, ha ha, I'm evil, come fight me. Very simple premise.

But then there's also a basis, which pretty much has no story. It's like, hey guys, you want to go dive and bait some enemies? Come like, let's go, come on, we'll have fun. Like Cheerio, guy. Like Cheerio, but in terms of outside that, like, what is it? I've been playing Sea of Stars. Yeah. I've started to get more into RPGs and in a sense, more into their stories. OK. But really, I've never really been a story person. You can tell me straight to the face. I'm Monster Hunter Wilds. Halfway through I was like, skip, skip, skip, skip, skip, skip, skip, skip, skip, skip.

I just want to fight monster. Skip skip, skip, skip skip. Brain. Dead just pretty much. I think I just wanted to be done with the story and be like, Oh my God, I finally said I can. I've beaten the game. Whatever, Yeah. Fair. That is fair. Because like, that's when I think of monster, and that's what I think of monsters. Monsters, not story. If I wanted to play story, I'll play Monster Hunter Story. Yeah, yeah. Which is an RPG. You get a point. They're making another one of those, aren't they? Yeah, there's a third one now.

Yeah. Yeah, I still need to get. Into two. I haven't played any. I haven't. I've gotten like an hour in, so I'm basically in the same boat. Yeah. All I know is that there's a rock paper scissors mechanic. Hell yeah. What the fuck? Yeah, it won't play rock paper scissors with like a game. I think that's why it kind of shut me down because I'm like, this is boring fair. If the game isn't going to hold your attention. Yeah, I mean stories is much more of a a dense story driven experience, so. It is and I mean there are some people who there are puzzle games I played where I think what is it?

It starts with an EI. Can't think of it.

Anyway, there's you go from room to room solving puzzles, kind of like Portal, Yeah. And in order to really find story, you won't have to play the game because you see shit as you play. And two, there's also computers around that you can check for messages and you can read those messages kind of like how you can do with Doom yes. And Doom, like there's all the story is that you're just fucking shit up. But you in I think Eternal, you can find PD FS or something, PDAs, something like that where you can get more story if you really look for it, which I don't really care.

Yeah, that's fine. Yeah. Like my gameplay. Like the gameplay is my game, not the story. Yeah, OK. It it's really just you're only there for more of the mechanic than any of. The other, yes, I am completely. Open. That's. Like a a story is a nice sprinkle to it. Yeah, like for example, robo quest, how as you beat a boss, you'll get a cutscene like oh look, wow Iris, wow hi, how you doing? Shut the fuck up anyway, boop shut down like. But you, you personally really don't care if it's got like a really deep narrative or.

No, I've been meaning I've been meaning to play some of the Far Cry games, but just. Yeah. So much story. That's why it's really story driven. Here's a perfect example. Horizon 0, Dawn. I have to play that game in our long bites. Yes, because there's just so much dialogue you have to get through. Yeah. You would not like Death Stranding. No, I wouldn't. Oh God no. Cut scenes also kill me. Was it kind of like an infamous 30 minute cutscene or something Is? It an hour? I thought it was an hour. It was either an hour or 30 minutes.

It's a Kojima game. Yeah, one of those have an hour long cutscene. Oh God, fuck that and I. Swear to God it's Death Stranding. Oh yeah, it definitely is Death Stranding. I just can't remember the length of time of what scene and then over half the narratives contained in documents that you have to read yourself. What's funny is for some reason I just started watching Jacksepticeye Blade S training. Granted, this was halfway through the story. Whatever. Yeah, I'm like, well, huh, I might actually get this game.

No, I'm fucking not. Anyway, my mother came into the room, my room for some reason and was like asking me a question like oh, what's this game? I was like, something about the cutscenes, like that's stupid. I just want to play the game I like. I feel that. I get that. Yeah, when there's so much dialogue and so many cutscenes, yeah, that that starts to wear me down. Right there was a. At that point, you're. Starting to play a movie? That's literally it. Which is what a lot of the the PlayStation games have kind of leaned more into.

Yeah, there was a, there was a episode of Doom Eternal that Markiplier put out where he was just reading a bunch of lore and at one point my girlfriend was like, just shut up and like started like fast forwarding through it, then get back to the fucking game play 'cause he just kept reading and reading and reading and reading. And then he himself was like, OK, I've been reading for like half an hour. I want to get back to the game. Reading and reading, it's like, Oh my God. Did with all due respect, would I play do eternal?

That's also what I did too because I was like, this is really neat. That's fine. You're definitely a story driven person. You want you want to know why? Yeah, you want to find all the gaps you can fill is possible and really build this and really find the story. In the story Build the build the Universe. Yeah, me. I just want to see blood. Me too, I want to see all these like mecha machines or these demons die. Well, real quick, Speaking of Doom. So Doom to Dark Ages. Yeah, fucking I told Mark this.

You know that Steam Deck verified. Apparently Bethesda put in a specific graphic setting for the Steam Deck. That's awesome. And yeah, it's it runs at like 30 frames, which. Fine, that's not bad. That's dude, I played an entire level and I'm like, I love this. Oh my God. Like how did they fucking do it? Really. Yeah. Now now, does it look actually pretty decent? Oh yeah, it looks decent. So it's not like a oh, we made a switch port for. No, no, it the game, like definitely you can tell the game's graphics are down, but no, it doesn't look like shit.

That's pretty cool.

The top half won't come out, so I'm just not going to worry about it. Oh, OK. But yeah, that's that's just my little thing since we're talking about Doom, right? I need to play more of that. Oh my God. I mean, so we've definitely figured out that I like gameplay story. I mean, that was kind of hinted at the beginning where I was talking about fluidity, where I just, I mean, it also depends on the game, where it's like if it's a goofy funny story, like for example, ISO Pod, yeah, yeah. Where there's this fire Ant conglomerate that you're trying to fight against like that, that's pretty entertaining.

And it's only like 4 hours, so not that, but I mean, that's maybe like 2 if you really tried to just do the story specifically. But I was doing some extra stuff, yeah, So not bad. That's not bad. I mean, plus it's like it's bite size. Like you'll do something story, do something story, like just 5 seconds of story. And that's all right. I can do that. I can do that. Like I'll do like I'll get immersed into a story if it's a franchise I really, really like. Yeah. Like that, that's about probably the only time that I'll really get into that because besides that, yeah, I just want to want to kill.

Shit, I mean, that's also the kind of games that I grew up with. Thinking about it, Crash Bandicoot play the level, Spyro play the level. Battleblock Theater play the level the funniest. The story is fucking funny in Battleblock in 17 O 6917. O60. 9 Is this the number 17 zero 69 that you know what, never mind. That brings me back, man. Said nothing. Lucky wasn't there. Hatchie Hatchington. And then Posada was like, woosh, woosh, woosh, woosh. The boat's like going upside. Down God, that's gosh, that brings me back.

I played a good. Thing And then it was Storm and then Poseidon came back.

This is the absurdity. Yeah, that's what makes it. All give hugs and drink hot cocoa. But Hattie didn't say anything. In fact, Hattie wasn't there. Where did he go? Where was Hattie? Yeah. Story. Hopeless. If you spend that around, you get sloshed pee or. Something or peace? The peace loss. Oh. Yeah, so peace loss. But you know what? That's not even a word. God damn it. Yeah, it's safe to say it over the care for a story. Yeah, that's. Understandable. Yeah, there's like a lot of a lot of these games, the story kind of gets, I mean, crammed down your throat.

With how fast my brain thinks too. It's going to be bad for me, man. It just ain't. Going to work, I can't sit still. Yeah, that's fair. Like for like me, it has to be interesting. Like it, like it has to be something I'm going to like, you know? I like, that's the one thing with like Fallout, like you, the story is there, but there's a lot of dialogue, you know? Yeah. But I guess at least with Fallout, you, you really don't have to talk to anybody. You can just go do what the fuck you want. Yeah.

That's true. Like, you really don't have to,

but it's the dialogue that can get kind of irritating. I'll say this, it's even to the point where a little Gator game and that has, you know, not very much dialogue. In all honesty, some of those main story stuff really pissed me off in terms of dialogue. Not not pissed me off, but like I was just like, this is a bit too much. Do we get a move on basically? Yeah, like maybe like 3 less speech bubbles when we're good. Yeah, I just, I, I hate it like when like 76 is kind of bad for this Fallout 76.

Where? OK I get it. OK I get it. OK I get it. I've pressed this button 8 times. Can we get a move on? OK, well that's the thing. I didn't play that. Oh, OK. No I did play when at some point after those NP's were added and I talked to one of them like this is fucking stupid and I turned the game off and I have not played. Like the the NP season of dialogue have gotten better. They've they've made like a lot of the characters nowadays, like more interesting. Yeah. It's still a bunch of the early on characters trying to get you in.

Yeah, and they have definitely changed a lot of these characters. Yeah. And like, the dialogue wise, like, I can deal with it, but you just see a dude. Just come on, man. I wanted to do this mission. I want to get this thing that you're telling me you're going to give me. That's kind of cool. All right. You know, but I guess with with 76, yeah, you could just spam and and literally it spams as fast as you can go. So you can just kind of would, you can kind of just spam and get out of it, you know?

Oh hey, fuck. Fuck. Anyway, it goes back through it. Oh hey, fuck. God, dear Beck, I'm back in the building again. That just made me think of something. Fucking was it Leslie Zelda, Ocarina of Time, the fucking bird in the beginning of the. Game I couldn't tell you. I never played that one. So this all I have to say is he tells you what you need to go do and then after he'll go. Would you like me to repeat? Oh my fucking God. And I remember accidentally hitting repeat or whatever the option was and I'm sitting my the.

Same thing happened in Witcher right at the beginning. Granted I was playing a death March difficulty so like this is also my fault too. Oh dear God. But honestly, I, I would have had no problem. But every single time the first encounter, you have to re talk to that first person again and their option to leave, you had to click down once you reach the once you reach the branch and then be like, OK, like, let's get a move on with this story. Otherwise it's like, oh, I want to make like basically want me to explain that again?

Yeah, it's. And so I had to slow down, go down, click that option, do a couple more dialogue texts, then I can hit exit. Yeah. It's like, can we just go back to the fight? Yeah I literally it was like 4 or five times I dropped it down to the the next hardest difficulty, instantly beat the encounter. What the fuck? I never played it again because I was like this is dumb. God. Which granted, I did it to myself, but like this is fucking dumb. Now which? What's your game? Was this three? Oh, it's three.

OK, yeah, I hate that that's that could be a pretty good. If you're going to put a loop in, make sure the first option or the option that you default to, yeah. Your highlight is. Leaf Yeah. Oh God, that that is a pet peeve. That is definitely a. Especially me not being a story person. Yeah. Even then, what I can see it being a better solution is give it a moment to load in the options before then so that way somebody can be like all right, I need to actually look at the options. I mean, yeah, there's there's ways of fixing that, but I don't think, I don't think a lot like besides like the Witcher there.

I don't think there's really any games I play personally that do that. Yeah. Like you probably want to pay attention to what they're telling you and then they throw you in. Yeah. So if you don't pay attention, well, have fun, you know? Good luck because I have mercy on your soul. I've I've done that where I'm just like, I don't want to get to the game. I want to get to the game. I want to get to the game. And then the game is trying to tell me something I need to know. Yeah. And then I'm sitting here like a dumb ass like I should have waited.

I could definitely say that was my first experience with playing Monster Hunter with Jack. Ohh that is a game that you don't. Skip. Yeah, certain. Things because oh, Oh well, I was just trying to get into world. Yeah, you got shoved into world and they shove. They shove so much information. Yeah, they do. They shove a shit ton. The problem is that that's how you need to know to play the game. I still don't know how the cauldron works with all you put in the charms or one. Of the melding. I still don't understand how melding works because I'm like fuck this I'm not going to use it.

I I'm still figuring that out, but what I'm coming to is that it allows you to actually. Yeah, get rid of garbage charms and get something better. Garbage charms, but allows you to actually forge better ones. Yeah, which is, I assume that's like, you know, that was what it was. It's. Just not a system that I interact with enough for me to get have a perfect understanding, right? And same with affinity because that still confuses the hell out of me. What? We're doing by affinity, affinity, so weapon affinity.

That's just basically Critz. OK, yeah, I've had it explained to me by Jack so many times, and my brain, my monkey brain just keeps going back into being. Oh yeah, it's it's tied to your elemental damage. Yeah. So affinity is they give it like this, the higher their percentage, the more likely you're going to crit. OK, doesn't mean what all I need to do. Doesn't mean 100% affinity. Means that you're going to get. 100% if you're. Yes, 100% crit, Yeah. It's just you'll have a way more likely to get a crit.

Affinity is your chance to just critical. Because like there's some weapons that I use that's just like, it's just raw damage. Yeah, yes. And then there's somewhere I use where it's, it may be raw damage, but a hidden element, but it also has like -30 Infinity. Yeah. And it's like, OK, so we're going to go with status. So we're going to get that hidden hidden gem going. And we're going to get that, you know, hidden element going. And we're going to apply some status.

Big brain time. What's? But yeah, I had AI thought this episode was going to go a little better. That's all right. No worries. Maybe we can do a Part 2 or something. Part 2 Part and spirits are raised. When we're all used to the fall and winter weather. Yeah, yeah. Or maybe not. Maybe this was just a fail of an episode because, I mean, I was just dead. So yeah, that'll give me a little bit of time, guys, give me a little bit of time. But we're just going to leave it at that and don't die. You might get a skeleton that might just make jokes for 5 minutes.

It might be entertaining, but then it gets boring after a while. It gets old real fast for all the jokes. Just bone related, yeah. And stay away from horses. I mean, you're soft that's. The last thing I remember, probably. Yeah, not soft enough. It depends on the horse. Maybe. If it's a friendly horse, go give it. A miniature horse, it's. Not a friendly horse. Miniature horse That's that's cute. Yeah, that's cute. Yeah, they're typical ponies. Ponies, ponies. Ponies. Ponies, Ponies.

Rain you OK? Nope, Nope. He's he's about to cut me off real quick, like.

The Story