Shaun:
Dragon's Dogma 2, the new Capcom release from I don't know a couple weeks ago now, that people either love or hate. And I've played it and I have opinions on it too, and we're going to talk about those opinions and we'll give it a little review, talk about what a little controversy is and, um, yeah, I'll maybe go over and see if the game is right for you, the listener, Because there's kind of a right way and a wrong way to play this game. I feel like and we'll go over that too, Nate, what do you know about Dragon's Dogma 2? I've only played one.
Nate:
I've only played like the first one. I really wanted to play it, I was looking forward to it when it came out and yada, yada, yada and I took it home and I played it. And I played it for like a little over an hour and then I realized I hated my character. So I went back and redid it. Then I did it again and then I realized I hating my character again, because you gotta look at them all the time and actually I started playing them for this, playing the first one again for the, for this podcast, because I don't have the second one and I already hate my character. Well, and I really wish like well, it's like the character itself looks fine, but I like, for some reason, did war paint on her face and now it just doesn't look good it's all cosmetics it's called.
Shaun:
Yeah, it's totally cosmetic uh, yeah, uh, I don't know. I would just ignore how my character looks usually, because, yeah, right now I'm playing as a rocking a little old lady and sometimes the best armor I can afford for her are, uh, these kind of like thong looking pants, and it's kind of disturbing. I mean, she's got a nice ass for an old lady, but you know, when you actually know who it belongs to, it's's kind of disturbing. Yeah, I've run into that too.
Nate:
Like the best armor I have for my chick is like basically a bikini.
Shaun:
Yep, I kind of had that. Well, I didn't have the same experience of Dragon's Dogma the first one as you. Uh, I remember being really excited about it, picking up playing it, and I was fine with the way my character looked. I just couldn't get into the way it played, I don. I just didn't tingle my dingle properly back then and I played it a little bit and was like, hey, this is kind of hard and clunky, and never went back to it, even though I always wanted to. But then I heard dragon's dogma two is coming out and I was like, well, I'll just wait for that, Yay, Instead of going back to a game I may or may not like. Yeah.
Nate:
I don you know.
Shaun:
It just hurts so much deep down inside when something you want to love doesn't love you back.
Nate:
Well, because I'm playing it right now and it's just like okay, where am I going? You know seriously where. I know there has to be middle ground between Skyrim where they're like go that way, no matter where you are, no matter what you do, and you know the direction you're supposed to go. You know there is some mystery. Is there a mountain between you and that place? But still, there's like, go that way, and this has a circle on the map. I just found difficult to kind of figure out which way it's supposed to go and, you know, sometimes the instructions weren't very clear yeah, they just kind of give you a general direction.
Nate:
Be like, hey, northwest of here, and you're like okay yeah, and I just another that I know I know affected my enjoyment of the gameplay. It was just I didn't really care too much about the story. You know, a story really has to be like ooh and I don't know, for some reason it didn't grab me, so I'm missing some of the context in terms of, like, here's these pawns. I'm like, well, what are they?
Shaun:
Yeah, why does?
Nate:
it matter.
Shaun:
You. You know what's going on with those dragons. Those two reasons you brought up are kind of intertwined and we'll get into that in a moment. But first we'll go into a little bit of history on Dragon's Dogma. You excited about that, nate. Of course you are All right. We go to the early 2000s, tokyo, japan.
Shaun:
A man named Hideki Itsuno is working at his Capcom office trying to think of a new game idea. He's already been a director on such titles as Power Stone 1 and 2, and he's also pondering about the games he will eventually direct Devils May Cry 2, 3, and 4. He struggles to think of a new game idea and in an attempt to relax his mind he opens the window blinds to his office. Outside he witnesses a common sight in the Tokyo skyline giant mechs fighting kaiju. Today's is especially a fancy one because Godzilla's even there fighting alongside everybody, and Mr Itsuno watches his kaiju fight through the skyline and all of a sudden he gets a sense of longing and an urge to get away from his stressful job. He wants nothing more to climb up Godzilla making his way to the lizard god's ear, where he would whisper into its ear take me away from this, my scaly prince. Then the two would escape to Monster Island and raise their children in peace. This thought made Itsuno smile. It also got him to think what if, instead of climbing Godzilla to whisper sweet nothings in his ear, you climb up to his ear and stab him in it, and that would be part of the gameplay? And thus Dragon's Dogma idea was born.
Shaun:
He actually came up with the idea in the early 2000s, but they didn't actually give him the okay to make it until 2012, or about 2010, I think. Finally, it got released in 2012 and then, like shadow colossus, uh kind of does, but actually, uh, technically, he came up with the idea before shadow colossus came out. So, well, there you go. Yeah, there you go. So shadow colossus kind of ripped him off now, didn't it? Ah, there we go. They just did in a much more grand fashion. That's another game I never played, but I want to because everybody says it's so good. But I know I'll play it and be probably let down because it's been so overhyped yeah, I, I know I'll hate it.
Nate:
I tried to play. Once got to the first big giant monster climb halfway. Was leg got kicked off, did that?
Shaun:
you're just like times, and then I'm like this game you're like nope, nope, and then you start running with that never in your head. There's like there's no way a tiny person could take down a big person.
Nate:
Yeah, I do have a problem with that, like look, yeah like I said earlier, I told you about earlier like if I got, if a teeny, tiny person attacked me with like the exacto knife blade, it would hurt absolutely, it would cut me and I'd be like, yeah, but I can't imagine that you know, okay, flying around kicking you if it got me the jugular, just so you know.
Nate:
Okay, you know it definitely could. I'm not saying it's impossible, but I'm thinking if I was ready, I saw it stand there. It's like come get me challenge.
Shaun:
I'm pretty sure I'd be fine, I mean present to you as evidence the puppet master movies. Ah, remember that those little tiny puppets are you know about, you know, eight inches tall, taking down people. As evidence for what? The fact that tiny people could take down big people. You've seen those movies, haven't you? With the drill on his head.
Nate:
Oh, forever, I think I've only seen one or two of them, but they were. Oh, boo Lame, I call shenanigans.
Shaun:
I don't know, I call shenanigans Ha, I guess they did. Plus, also with that logic too, you know, the Death Star would never have gotten blown up. Plucky little rebels would have no hope of taking down the big baddies. Why do you hate hopes and dreams with people, Nathan? Hopes and dreams? Yes, you hate hopes and dreams Because hopes and dreams are for suckers.
Shaun:
Ha true that.
Shaun:
Anyways, the next year after Dragon's Dogma comes out is Dragon's Dogma Dark Arisen is released, and that gets better reviews and more critical acclaim than the original, which is kind of hit or miss with people, like we said and I don't really remember what Dark Arisen came out with, but I believe it was just basically like all the patches and a little bit of DLC kind of rolled into one for an extra $10 off the release price or on top of the release price.
Shaun:
This game was released on the PlayStation 3, xbox 360s, windows, playstation 4, xbox One and Nintendo Switch and on the PC. It became both Capcom's fastest selling and one of the three best selling PC titles in the company's history, which that's kind of impressive. I guess that's not bad. Yeah, not that Capcom releases a ton of stuff on PC, but still, I mean people buy their stuff, no matter where it's at. As of September 2023, that game uh, both the dark arisen and the original release the game has sold 7.9 million copies total, which sounds like a lot, but uh, pal world, which we covered before. I did that in about a week, so that that stinks.
Nate:
Yeah, I know I think I would. I know it bothered me if I spent years of my life on a video game and I finally released it and it's like no one gives a sh*t for some reference.
Shaun:
Uh, other games have sold roughly eight million copies though star wars, battlefront, ghost of tsushima, bloodborne and infamous second son. Yeah, I've seen a lot of those. Really good, they really are. But also it took, you know, 11 years for him to sell 8 million copies. So that seems like a while. And a lot of steam sells sales. I'm guessing, because I do know there's one of those games on Steam that goes on sale for like $6. A lot, oh, for real. Yeah, it went on sale pretty cheap a few times.
Shaun:
I noticed these sales numbers would be enough for Capcom to give the go-ahead for our subject today Dragon's Dogma 2. So this game gets released and first of all, people either really love it or really hate it. And some people are just like, hey, it didn't hit for me. I almost didn't get it because one of the podcasts I listen to, they're just flat out everybody on that show is like I don't know, it's just not hitting. I guess maybe if we stick with it longer, this or that. And I went online and man, people are really hating on this game for the microtransactions.
Nate:
We'll get into that in just a moment like how you're like people, they really love it, they really hate it, or they were just talking about it.
Shaun:
See, this game is weird. It made people feel the whole range of emotions, nathan, everywhere, from eh to uh to uh. Also the whole range of emotions, my friend, and three sound effects. So as I was reading uh reviews and stuff, I almost didn't buy it. But then somebody brought up something and this kind of goes uh to to why you didn't really like it and we're not going to change your opinion, but make you go. Hmm, somebody brought up the point that the creator of this game, what's his name? Mr Itsuno, ha close, mr Itsuno. He designed this original game and the second one he wanted to be Ah crap, what's the term? Hold on. Oh, he wanted these games to be an Isekai style game, or Isekai. You know that Isekai? There we go, nathan, he wanted these to be Isekai games. Nate, you want to explain what Isekai is to the people out there?
Nate:
Isekai is another world, you know. Your hero or heroine is either transported like they fall through a portal, as in they're summoned, or a lot of time, or reincarnated, whereas they die, usually by truck gun, um in one world and they resurrect in the next world, either as a baby or a lot of times. They'll like come to when they're like five, you know like.
Nate:
So they skip all those years where they're immobile you know, it's where they, where they're sh*tting themselves and stuff like that, right I mean sometimes they don't, though there are definitely ones where they start off as a baby, which I always kind of found creepy, just like I was a baby katana wielder.
Nate:
It just gets ridiculous, you know, and so I mean, but it's all ridiculous, so it's kind of this is more ridiculous than something else, but anyway, a lot of times when there is a guy, they go in either I mean, honestly, they have a wide spectrum of ways they deal with it either they go there and they're super powered and they get their harem, etc. Or sometimes, in the darker ones, they show up and they've got no power. They're totally, you know, basically trying to live in the hostile world. Those are pretty interesting as well. Um, I kind of like I don't.
Shaun:
I like that's okay that latter one is kind of what this game's supposed to be like, because for the isekai, a lot of the subject those is, you know they wind up in a world that they have no idea what's going on and they gotta learn along with you. That's the way these games are supposed to be. They want you literally to be dropped into a world with no idea what's going on, no idea on the story, no backstory. They don't want you to know what pawns are. You're supposed to figure that out as the game goes on. You're literally supposed to be as dumb in this game as you feel when you first start playing it. So, yeah, when you. And also, that same thing was like the quest, because I don't remember the first one, but they don't really have quest markers on where to go to. Uh, talk to people in quests, right, it's like yeah, I mean.
Nate:
You look at the map, there's like a circle, like someone drew yeah, like a colored circle where it's sort of like somewhere. Yeah it's still not super like descriptive of what you're supposed to be doing that's kind of what this one does.
Shaun:
This one's almost even less than that at the very start, because basically you go into a town and there's no quest markers, no, nothing in there. You have to wander around until somebody like flags you down, like hey, you, you look like an adventurer or you just overhear people talking in a group. You are designed to have to go seek those quests out, not just have like people run out to me be like here quest, yeah, I'm a quest giver. Blah, blah here.
Nate:
Take these you know, you're standing around with your uh friends and like, oh, what happened? You're like, okay, I didn't want to go to that party. What do I make? Um, oh yeah, my uh, my mother got lost in the woods and you know, we were trying to find her and some random adventure walked by. He's like your mother's lost the woods. You're like, no, wait, wait, no, it's fine, I'll save her.
Shaun:
Yeah, she's gone on time, I'll be back, sh*t. And he like runs off into the woods with no uh description of her or nothing, and you just hear screaming. A few minutes later he's coming back like I got her I'm like god damn that, that's not my grandmother. Damn it, that's a goblin, he's like. He's like ah, ha leave me alone.
Shaun:
He keeps following me around saying forsooth and asking if I need stuff done. But that's also kind of why the quests don't really give you much other than just like a little circle, because, hey, to the northwest of here is where, uh, you know this caravan was headed. Go find it. And sometimes it won't even really give you much of a quest marker other than just like, like you said, a little like circle, or sometimes not even that much, which does kind of make it pain in the butt but does make it slightly more realistic and does force you to get off your butt and do stuff, because sometimes, like Fallout and Skyrim, they literally do just have people run up to you non-stop and, you know, hit you up with quests.
Nate:
Leave me alone.
Shaun:
Yes, exactly.
Nate:
Goddamn quest.
Shaun:
Yeah, and then that one blonde dude who just follows you around constantly.
Nate:
I'll kill you. I'll kill your family.
Shaun:
Oh yeah, as far as the pawns and stuff that you're talking about, how you know, you don't really know what they are. They're kind of cool in this world Because see, pawns, basically you know. You just kind of summon them and they go off and fight for you and die. They basically know that's their role in this world. So they don't know where they come from, but basically think of pawns as people like you and me just sitting around another reality, and every once in a while your number comes up. They're like, hey, go to this extra world and go fight until you die and then you can come back to this world. And they just like show up in this world, fight until they die and then go back to their original world and because of that they have no fear of death, because they know if they die it's no biggie, they just go back to their previous life, which kind of sounds like a sweet gig for a pawn.
Shaun:
You know what I mean. Get to go on adventures and not worry about dying. Yeah, that would be pretty nice, yeah. Yeah, I mean I'm sure it's still painful to get stabbed to death and stuff, and it doesn't. You can kill yourself maybe.
Nate:
Or yeah, just slowly, like I don't know, someone catches you and just begins eating you alive.
Shaun:
Oh, very slowly, Like one of those praying mantises, just like grabs you and starts pulling off little chunks of you, little bits here and there.
Nate:
I was thinking more of a Hannibal Lecter?
Shaun:
Oh, that would work too. One thing that also this game's kind of hardcore at least to. One of the problems people had is fast travel is totally different in this than most games. In fact, closest I can compare fast travel this to morrowind, where, um morrowind, basically you had to hop on either a boat or like silt striders to get from place a to point b. I don't know if you ever played morrowind, did you? Oh, dude, so long ago I played a little bit.
Nate:
Um, I actually didn't like it because I didn't really know what was going on, whatever, and I, I come to like those type of games later, much like dragon's dogma. Well, I come to like those guys like type of games later. Um, oblivion was what did it for me, like I don't know, for some reason, the magic thing was, you know, yeah, oblivion was the first one that was slightly less hardcore than the previous ones.
Shaun:
it was one of the more accessible ones to come out of that genre Because, yeah, before that they were all kind of hardcore, especially going back to like the 1980s ones and the 1990s ones.
Nate:
Some of those were, you know, permadeath. Someone tattooed a quest on a sheep they didn't shear. He was like go out in this field of hundreds of sheep and find the one sheep that has the quest on it you sheared a sheep.
Shaun:
You she find the one sheep that you shared a sheep you shared another sheep.
Nate:
Your shears are broken. Go find another sheet. Oh my god, I can totally see them doing that too right? You shared two.
Shaun:
She was like breaks then you gotta go on another quest to go rebuild your shears again, over and over again if you do it too slowly, like the sheep will grow their hair back, huh, or their their whatever back.
Nate:
It's like they're like the people are like trying to say it's oh no, they show real time, you know the sun and weather and stuff and by the way hair grows it's like god and it's standard old game.
Shaun:
You're all these stupid sheep and it's standard old game fu fashion. There's like 10 sheep but there's only eight pairs of shears you can use, so if you mess up, you never get to finish the game. That's always a bummer in those games. It's like oh, you remember that item you didn't grab in Chapter 1? Well, you can't finish the game now.
Nate:
Enjoy. I mean, at least that's better than oh man. I can't remember the game, but it was a Terry Pratchett game and the way they did it was at the very beginning of the game there was a chest. If you opened the chest, you were permanently blocked from ever fully completing the game. There's no warning or nothing, but there was a chest that if you opened it there was nothing you could do to beat the game in a good way.
Shaun:
Probably the only clue you had was somewhere in the booklet for that game, on the last page. It was like oh, and don't open the chest. And they expected you to catch that Because, yeah, them old games. Actually, when we uh released the uh nine, the last resort, we'll talk more about those style of games, but anyways, the fast travel, it's not like normal games, because nowadays in skyrim and such and fallout, you know, you can just sort of like click on something and just go wherever, whenever you want. If you've ever been there before, or sometimes even people can just tell you about a place and then you can click on it and go there. Well, none of that. In Dragon's Dogma 2. Possibly Part 1 too Part 1 as well In order to get from town to town you basically have to ride on ox carts.
Shaun:
You have to walk up to somebody and be like hey, I'm going to pay you $200. And then hop in their ox cart and then you take a nap while your ox cart drives you from town to town. And also, too, sometimes you'll get attacked in the middle of your little ox cart ride, which can be fun right up until your ox cart gets destroyed in the battle. And then you're screwed and have to walk the rest of the way. Then you wake up like, oh, but then the other part of the fast travel is there are these things called void stones, I believe is what they're called, and there are. I've only come across one of these in like one of the major cities, so there's obviously not a ton of them around. And those ones you can use fairy stones to actually teleport to poof poof whenever you want. However, fairy stones are very expensive and hard to come by at the very start of the game but somebody noticed that in the microtransaction store you can actually buy one of those little void stones to plop down wherever you want on the map to teleport to.
Shaun:
And people assumed that this meant that you have to pay to fast travel. Like literally, they're just like you have to pay to fast travel. Like literally, they're just like you have to pay to fast travel to do any fast traveling. And apparently people didn't bother to try playing the game and verifying that. And boy, that lie just spread like wildfire and all over the internet you can get people still talking about the fact that Dragon's Dogma 2, first gamer you have to pay to fast travel. I think I heard about that. What was that?
Shaun:
I think I heard about that I think I did hear about that. Yeah, a lot of people very angry about that, and they're all very, very wrong, because the thing is you can buy one void stone, which really doesn't help you at all, Like I found one void stone On my own. Okay, there's five void stones in the game and the one you can buy makes it a total of six you can have. So that shows you how much it helps you Not a whole lot. I don't even know where you get the rest from either, because I'm not very far in the game, to be honest, because I've been thoroughly enjoying just wandering around, going on adventures on my own without doing quests. So I've been doing a lot of side stuff and not the main stories, which means that I'm significantly stronger than I should be for the storylines, missions when I get to them.
Shaun:
Like hey go beat these goblins and I'm like, oh god, oh wait. I just like looked at them and they all died. Because, yeah, it's like, well, this is like. You know, if I was level 12, I would probably have had trouble with this, but I'm level 35 now, so or it's worse, you start going down like you actually take the quest.
Nate:
you start doing the quest, then, like because it's hardwired to the mission, the tutorials are popping up Like okay, his stuff you learned hours ago. I'm level 50.
Shaun:
I don't need to tell you about this. I've had that happen on several games before. Yes, doesn't the game realize? I've been doing this all along? Stop teaching me stuff I already know.
Shaun:
But I do like this fast travel method because it does since it's limited items it does make you actually get out and adventure. And they wanted to make it hard to fast travel. So you adventure Because they actually built a pretty interesting world here with all sorts of little side paths and missions and stuff you can just come across randomly Like if you look at the map, there's tons of like main roads all over. You can go on those are the ones the oxcars travel on and bandits do but there's tons of little side roads. If you actually start following those, they usually lead to a little cave or they're very layered and you know, all of a sudden the path will look like it just goes a little way out, but all of a sudden it spirals up a tree or goes way down a little hole and leads you on a big old adventure, kind of like you know how Elden Ring did that. You played Elden Ring, didn't you?
Shaun:
yeah, I didn't beat it, you got it. But yeah, you remember how Elden Ring is like. Hey, this seems like a simple adventure and then all of a sudden it just kind of branches out into this huge area. They do that kind of this game, yeah, makes it enjoyable and also you can come across fun stuff too. One thing I really like in games this one does it well is when you just come across a group of monsters fighting on their own Nothing you did. Also, you come around a corner there fighting a big old group of goblins whomping their butts. I do like that, yeah.
Shaun:
It rewards them, yep, and it just adds some life and some texture to the world. And another thing too is, as you're walking around, occasionally you'll see like a giant shadow just pass underneath you, like a giant bird flying overhead Probably a griffon, I would guess. Downside is, though, every time I look up I don't see anything. So that's kind of lame, yeah. Yeah, I'm like yeah, I don't see it. I mean, maybe I'm just looking in the wrong direction or something, but those griffins, they will hunt you down and plop on top of you at the drop of a hat, which it's kind of a bummer too. When you're like fighting a cyclops or a troll and you're almost about to win, all of a sudden a griffin just decides to show up and steals your kill and then goes after you. Yeah, so, yeah.
Shaun:
So people with the whole pay to fast travel thing decided it's a good time to go review Bomb that Game on Steam. So Dragon's Dogma 2,. If you go look at the reviews in some places, like user reviews, it's almost all fives or ones. Pretty much all the ones are complaining about monetization of fast travel, but there are some legitimate ones, like I guess the frame rate on the PC version is really bad at times, depending on your hardware. Like, even if you have a super high-end computer, it's pretty chuggy and ugh.
Nate:
That's a legitimate complaint.
Shaun:
It is a legitimate complaint, that one I'm fine with people complaining about. However, I'm a dirty console peasant, so I don't have to worry about such things. I get what I get. I don't get any upgrades or nothing. No upgrades for you, no upgrades for me, other than a hard drive.
Shaun:
Maybe you want to hear one of the dumber controversies that I hear people. Well, not really a controversy, but I have seen a lot of people complain about this. Uh-oh, yeah, this scream. So if you're running around in a group and it's all guys in your group, all your partners are guys, because you can have up to three party members. Your guys have all sorts of idle chatter and stuff. And if you have a group of all men, one of your dudes will eventually say I can't help but notice that this traveling companions are all male. Does that speak something to your preferences? Hmm, which, uh, yeah, which man? Holy fragile masculinity. That sends some people online into a tizzy. Oh God, they will just lose their mind over that one, because you know they're just assuming they're being called gay by a woke game.
Nate:
You know, you don't have to.
Shaun:
Yeah, I know Well. Yeah, it's basically literally all on how you take that comment too. Also, I'm playing as a female and they say the exact same thing. Are they trying to say I'm a slu*t? Mm-hmm, this little old lady has nothing but men around her Burly cat men. Hmm, which men? Hmm, which is what I do, because I'm trying to role play like a crazy cat lady. So all my partners are, uh, cats. Oh, yeah, because when you uh, you get one partner you can create, and then you get to hire two more. And the cool thing is too, the partners you can hire are other people's, uh, other partners that people have made too. So, like, if you're playing the game, I could hire your partner and take them on adventures with me. You dare touch my partner, yeah, even better, though, after I send your partner back to you, uh, he'll actually have the information that he gathered with me, like he'll know where treasure chests were that I found with him and stuff.
Nate:
So like, if you load it up.
Shaun:
Yeah, so if you load up your game and, uh, your partner also ran, be like oh, I was here with another person here before, let me show you a treasure chest. And you can hit this like up on the d-pad and it tells them to go do what're going to do, and they'll lead you on this little roundabout path and be like, hey, look, there's a treasure chest. And point it straight at you. That is also something else the partners can do. That makes the whole questing thing a little bit easier.
Shaun:
When you hire a partner, when you hire one of the pawns, there's an option for, uh, what is it? Quest giver or a quest assistance? And it'll say yes or no. If it says yes, they are able to. They're able to help you with whatever quest that you have as your priority, because they've already done it before. So all you have to do is be like. The partner will be like hey, I know this quest. Do you want me to show you what to do? And if you hit yes, they will literally just like take you step by step through the entire thing, like come here, talk to this guy, come here, talk to that guy, follow me. Which, which is kind of cool because it's sort of like an easy way out if you don't want to try to figure it out on your own.
Nate:
Yeah, I like that.
Shaun:
Yeah, and also you can hire partners that don't do that, in case you don't want to have the story ruined, because sometimes there are times where it's like, ooh, I'm trying to figure this out on my own and all of a sudden your partner's like I know, I know, I know Is there just like hover on.
Shaun:
Like shut, be a big boy. Yeah, yeah, I want to do this on my own. I'm a big boy. Yeah, sometimes the idle chatter you guys have can get a little tedious because they'll repeat stuff over and over again, kind of.
Nate:
But I mean, I get there's only so many.
Shaun:
Yeah, there's only so many comments you can say, and since people get offended by a good third of them, it feels like the only other real thing you can buy in the microtransactions people talk about is cosmetics, which I don't know. That doesn't really bug me when you buy cosmetics in a game, because, eh, I don't really do cosmetics anyways, because I don't know.
Nate:
Honestly, I'm fine with cosmetics. You know, if you want to spend a little bit of extra money and make your character look badass, then do it.
Shaun:
Make your guy look like Darth Vader, do it.
Nate:
Yeah, I it. Yeah, I know. A single player game, even if you want to, okay, here's this god tier, win um, axe and armor. Who cares? If you're playing single player, who cares? Now, if you're playing like multiplayer, then it starts getting like okay, then just do something. It starts affecting other people. Looks cool, yeah, just it looks cool, and maybe even it's a minimal buff. People still complain about that. But just like I don't know, if it looks cool, that's fine. But if it's a minimal buff, people still complain about that. But just like I don't know, if it looks cool, that's fine. But if it's like a win button, then I start having problems.
Shaun:
As people say. With this, though, even with a single player, it's a slippery slope, nathan, because what's to stop them from hiding the best axe behind a paywall period Like you? Can't even find it in the game.
Nate:
Yeah, game. Yeah, I mean, that's the thing like it is. I I understand the slippery slope, but it's still like where's the line? Well, you know the line. When you hit it, you know I might not be able to say, oh yeah, this is the line that sheds me crossed.
Shaun:
No, yeah some people say that was the original horse armor. Nathan, that was the line that was crossed, the horse armor. Remember the horse armor?
Nate:
wasn't that cosmetic.
Shaun:
Uh, I doubled your horse's hit points, but who f*cking?
Nate:
cares.
Shaun:
I mean like I'm sorry, people complain about it, care I know, I know they care, they absolutely care they care a lot for it's the, it's the horse.
Nate:
If you, I can understand more complaints if it was a matter of like your character. But, come on, your horse isn't the main character. I mean the horse, if anything, is a narc like hey, I was trying to pick this lock and I got caught by the horse because apparently it saw me and told the town sheriff Now everyone's dead. Mr Ed has a goody goody, two shoes man. Mr Ed can eat a dick Just he ratted me out for no reason.
Shaun:
Two things about Dragon's Dogma 2. One I kind of like the fact there's no stealing. If you see something you can take it. Nobody cares which. I like the stealing in games. But sometimes I can get too wrapped up in stealing stuff. Or even worse, when you accidentally steal something and the whole world goes against you uh, that accidental stealing something, especially if you accidentally steal something that doesn't matter yeah, it's like oh, I actually stole a plate from this dude.
Nate:
I was just about to say a plate, literally about to say, like you know, I'm trying to pick up, you know, the legitimate thing that's mine on the table and then I accidentally grab the plate next. You know every guard is coming after me?
Shaun:
yep, because I actually dropped my battle axe on somebody's dinner table and I couldn't pick up something accurately I mean, do we have to do this?
Shaun:
I mean, we all know that I didn't mean to do that yeah, exactly, if I was going to steal something, you know it because it'd be gone. Yeah, oh yeah, the frame rates in dragon dogma 2 as well. Uh, some people realize too, if you want to up your frame rates in it, you can just go through and just kill all the npcs. So people would, before they play, would go through and just like slaughter everybody into town and then go about their adventuring because apparently it did help your frame rates. Yeah, that actually sounds kind of fun. I guess you can actually go around and like wipe out entire towns in this game too. And uh, I think it's like after a week of uh, in-game sleeping or something, they all come back. So yeah, could be something fun to do. Yeah, it's kind of fun to go around and murder everybody once in a while in the town in a game you're not supposed to like. Quick save yep, yeah, exactly the most terrifying thing for a guard to see in town. Oh, the hero, just quick saved.
Nate:
Yeah, I was just thinking that, oh no, a guard or I don't know anybody. Yeah, I mean seriously, if I was walking along I saw someone like suddenly pull up a giant menu and it said quick, save on there. I would run like a crazy right for first of all I'm probably going crazy anyway, because I'm seeing a giant menu pop out of nowhere.
Shaun:
But oh, my god, the neural link has gone active. I can see augmented reality now. Uh, thing I will say about the game weight limits is a pain in the total butt also, it turns out. I just realized, learned last night, that, uh, your storage in your little base also has a limit, which is also a pain in the butt that I don't understand. If I want to be able to hoard stuff in a game, damn it, let me hoard it. Yeah, that's a little weird, yeah, yeah, I can see it in some things like an online game or whatever, where, you know, digital storage space costs money, sort of-ish.
Nate:
But yeah, the game.
Shaun:
Drop the ball. It did. How dare it. But anyways, the game very enjoyable. I do thoroughly like it.
Shaun:
It's just you have to understand that, yeah, you're supposed to be plopped in this world and not know what's going on and just kind of figure out as you go, because I've been playing for about 35 hours and I still really don't know what the plot is, other than I had a dragon rip my heart out. I woke up in this world and there's another guy kind of like me, who might be the king and might not be, or it might be me, I might be here, I really don't know, it might be me. Well, there, it's weird, because they're like oh, the arisen, there's another one, oh, but why is there two? There should only be one. The one that we have is king. Blah, blah, blah. Could you be the true arisen? But then later in the game you just find arisen wandering around and like, hey, aren't you guys supposed to be like the Chosen Ones? They're like eh, that's what they say, but that seems like a pain in the butt. So I'm just a farmer.
Nate:
It's like oh okay, I was going to do that, but then I realized I really didn't want to, I realized.
Shaun:
no, I think I would rather just be a farmer with my cat wife and I'm happy for them.
Nate:
They found what.
Shaun:
They found the true meaning it'd be like marrying into the british royal family. It's for some people, but for others not so much right, because honestly that seems awful. No privacy, a bunch of assholes around you all the time, rampant racism, I'm sure.
Nate:
Oh yeah I mean, yeah, it's the, it's the british monarchy. They didn't exactly like you know they? They said, oh yeah, the uh son never sat in the British Empire. There's a reason for that.
Shaun:
Well, at least the British people will all die out now that the Queen's not around to lay eggs anymore. I'm not sure what happens after that. Doesn't one of them fly off and start a new colony somewhere?
Nate:
Something like that.
Shaun:
Yeah, something like that. I did have one fun encounter last night while I was playing Dragon Dogma 2. I was wandering around just looking for adventure and all of a sudden I heard what sounded like grumbling or snoring kind of, and I wandered off into the bushes and there was a giant cyclops just laying there asleep, not hurting a damn person in the world, just enjoying the sunbeam and life itself. And I was like, hey look, free experience points, though Me and my four guys just jumped on him and killed him within a few seconds, and I realized that must be awful for that. Poor cyclops like the equivalent of us, just like laying there, relaxing, enjoying the sun, like four bobcats jumping on us at once. Why?
Nate:
like I didn't do anything.
Shaun:
Nope, he did not do a damn thing. He was just laying there minding his own business, just relaxing, enjoying life, and then I just walk up just like, hmm, so yeah, I'm kind of the baddie in that one. I think I might be the baddie overall in the game, because I do go out of my way to murder people sometimes. Another fun thing they can do is so pawns, because you can hire pawns. They're also everywhere. They wander around the main paths all the time. So if you come across kind of or merchants will wander by and go fight them for you, which is kind of fun.
Shaun:
Yeah, and you just sit there and watch them fight and whoever comes out the winner, you get to take them on next and their weekend you get to crush them, mwahaha. So so far with Dragon Dogzma 2, it's doing pretty good on the sales, though. 10 days, 2.5 million sales, that is not bad. That means already sold a third of many as the original game and the series is now over 10 million sales, woo, which I believe means it gets a toaster for that celebration. Toaster, a toaster, yes, for 10 million sales. You get a toaster. For 30 million sales. You get a toaster. For 30 million sales. You get a brooch or a shirt pin or something like that.
Nate:
Whatever that thing is that you're supposed to stick on your date in the prom.
Shaun:
Yeah, there you go. Yeah, corsage, Ha ha yeah corsage yeah, how did I know that?
Shaun:
I never even went to prom? There you go. Yeah, I know they gotta be refrigerated. So there's that. You only know that because you saw it. Like the store, yeah, exactly. Or I saw it. Yeah, I think I saw it on a movie once too, or something like that. I'm like why is that flour refrigerated, paul? You know refrigerate flour, you refrigerate milk, that's how that goes. By the way, yeah, that's, that's, that's a conversation from my childhood why they got that flour in the fridge, paul.
Nate:
Like dagnabbit boy. Dagnabbit boy.
Shaun:
Dang nabbit boy, stop talking here. It is to be seen, not heard. Now go find me some firewood here, roll me some cigarettes, make yourself useful. You know one thing I've also noticed too constantly on reviews of this people love to hammer home the fact that this game is $70. They like to hammer home that all games are $70 nowadays.
Nate:
It's always $70.
Shaun:
Oh my God, Always $70. Honestly, they're still cheaper now than they've probably ever been in the world, if you think about it. Well, I remember.
Nate:
I bought a $70 game for the 64. It was the WCW versus NWO that cost me $70.
Shaun:
Phantasy Star IV is $90. On the Genesis Just a minute.
Nate:
My dogs are freaking out. Clearly I'm going insane, are you? I'm like her. What I thought was Violet, her high-pitched yip, like let me in, let me in, so I get up, I go out there.
Shaun:
They're both just laying there, so they either freaked out and just now settled back down, or I'm going nuts oh, anyways, uh, nowadays a modern call of duty game, you know, has over 100 people working on it and development and stuff, and those games are, you know, 60, 70 bucks. The original super mario brothers, uh, had five people working on the staff and that was 50 dollars when released. So which one seems more expensive now and that's. But yeah, you think about all those dollars.
Nate:
Adjusted, that's $50 as it was back then.
Shaun:
Right that was back then. So for adjusted you know. I mean you could buy like a house and a yacht for f*cking 50 bucks in the 80s. Pretty sure what is. Let's see to the googles yep, $39 from 1985 to now. So because, yeah, I mean the original NES and Genesis games. You watch the credits on there. It's like you know a couple dozen people at most. You watch like Witcher 3 and the credits go by. Those credits go by for like 45 minutes before they're over Nate. I mean I'm not saying I like $70 games, but I understand why they cost that much. They're not cheap to make.
Nate:
Well, I got this one that said Super Mario 3 cost $50 in 1990. Just for inflation, that was $120 for today.
Shaun:
Okay, I did $85 for Super Mario 1, is my thought.
Nate:
Well, I just talked to Super Mario Bros and that was the first thing that popped up. That's why I'm agreeing with you, but also saying like oh yeah, here's 3 in the 90s Money. It increases value. Yeah, it does Imagine that Sometimes it doesn't.
Shaun:
Let's see Super Mario Bros 3. It says it took a staff of over 10 people, was all. So I know right, staff of more than 10 people, it's like. Well, that's, it tells me nothing. Dragon's Dogma 2 had a staff of more than 10 people as well.
Nate:
Yeah, it sure did.
Shaun:
Was it 11 or 136?
Nate:
yeah right. Yeah, the numbers above 10 are pretty vast.
Nate:
Uh, he'd almost say it was a never-ending exactly never-ending story uh, the movie was so messed up yeah, also, it was just a lie too, because I mean that story did end well it not only did it end, but also, I mean, I guess at the end of it did he kill those bullies, you know? And also like, was everything real then? Like, because it was like, oh, it wasn't a book but wasn't a book and there was some kind of crossover a little bit isekai stuff yourself, but like I just assumed the whole there was some kind of crossover and a little bit isekai stuff yourself.
Shaun:
But like I just assumed the whole story was a child having a nervous breakdown and none of that really happened so when the end came, started like scaring all the kids.
Shaun:
It was actually him with a gun yes, exactly, and the whole adventure they had was him in his mind while he's getting molested by that bookstore owner. He was just going to his happy place. He just closes his eyes, like looked off in the distance R-TAC's sinking into the mud with something else happening in real life. You, you, I don't even know where I was going with that, but you.
Nate:
Let me say this is not an off-topic fact. This is just Sean being sick f*ck.
Shaun:
It is what I do well, oh, just Sean being sick, f*ck, it is what I do well, oh, by the way, fun video game news. Apparently, a new poll says that Lara Croft is the most iconic video game character. Who, lara Croft? There you go.
Nate:
I was like Lara Croft Is this a new spinoff. You heard of Lara Croft. She was raiding dungeons. Heard of Laura Croft, she was raiding dungeons. Now, laura Craft, she'll sit there and make a.
Shaun:
I don't know, like a wicker basket. She's a macaroni noodle. That's it.
Nate:
It's a buzz base. She is the world's greatest macaroni noodle artist Craft with a K. People come from all over to witness her creations. Behold the Eiffel Tower in macaroni and it's life sized? Yes, it's life sized in France and somehow was able to hide it from everybody before it was released, and then the rains came and you just find it with a big soggy noodle.
Nate:
Oh my god the rain came and she just like looks at the rain, looks at the macaroni as it slowly like falling apart. She was like the camera that she put the gun to her mouth that was my life's work.
Shaun:
Cheese sauce splatters all over the building behind her blood is just macaroni cheese sauce now. So it was a British Academy Film Awards pulled 4,000 for the uh, top character in video games and laura croft won. She beat out sonic and mario.
Nate:
I don't know how I feel about that I don't know like I. Just I did not have a playstation till later, so you only like her because of the boobs that's literally it yeah I mean because I don't know like she's fine.
Shaun:
But yeah, there's a lot more iconic video game type people than laura croft also tomb raider kind of laura croft kind of got sullied for me way back when, because when tomb raider 1 first came out I was at this dollar store or not dollar store but thrift store and the dude, like the mid-50s dude, started talking about tomb raider and then he got really weird and pervy, talking about how hot laura croft was and how much he loved walking her walk around and those tit* she had you know one of those where he's like he's getting like way too much description, getting like all sweaty on the brow and weird about it and it's kind of uncomfortable but I mean, it was polygons, like big polygons too, it wasn't.
Shaun:
I mean it didn't have much back then in the video game?
Nate:
no, we didn't, it's either that or pixelated. Really bad digital art that's scanned I mean, here I am about to get on my high horse go. Oh you poor. No, I was into it too. I mean, I'm not saying I wasn't yeah, don't like we all look.
Shaun:
It was bad, but we all did look and go like huh, that's not a fat little italian plumber.
Nate:
I mean, I was a straight boy. Nothing's really wrong with the other thing. That was my thing. That's my area of appreciation. I definitely noticed, but yeah, I never was like.
Shaun:
Once you start to get more polygons on her.
Nate:
Then we start talking. The original PS1 Lara Croft was kind of a.
Shaun:
Need to go from pyramid boobs to football boobs, kind of thing A little more rounding out, a little more rounding out. Also, I never liked the Tomb Raider games, to be honest, at least not the early ones. The remakes were good.
Nate:
I was never a big fan of them either.
Shaun:
Yeah, they were very hard and tank controls just suck nuts, suck nuts. Huh, what? Oh, just the fact Lara Croft is the world's most iconic video game character. Hmm, angelina Jolie probably likes that. She's probably all sorts of excited. Now I gotta play the most iconic video game character of all time.
Nate:
Badly. What's?
Shaun:
your bad in that movie.
Nate:
It wasn't her fault, it wasn. It wasn't her, it wasn't her fault, it wasn't her fault, it was the writing's fault. And I understand like look, I get it. You know it was a video game action movie about laura croft, like back when nobody took those seriously in the right. So I mean I give props to them, kind of you know, whatever.
Nate:
But this sums up my feelings that laura croft and like the f*cking how they did it, like the invader home she's for some reason jump around with wires and stuff, practicing something for something, and all these Marines, but like these people come to her home and they're shooting machine guns at her as she's flying around. She proceeds to unload her guns. Because she has guns on her, because she does and can't see the hitting of them, and she's supposed to be this awesome person and she does get a few of them and then like let me fast forward to my point she gets on a motorcycle and then she tries to go to a weapons locker and she tries to shoot the weapons locker that's literally in front of her. It is right, I mean she could reach out and just calmly just touch it and like she unloads her machine gun at the lock and misses, like almost all of them, until finally, like one stray bullet, happens like you're supposed to be.
Shaun:
Is it one of those where it does a close-up and like the bullets are going in a big circle? Yeah, yeah, it finally hits the dramatic slow-mo, you know oh my god, it just because I was just like, hey, watch me waste bullets in a very important time to not waste and also she's shooting other guys and just emptying clips at these people and it's all, just every single one of them is the miracle from pulp fiction.
Nate:
Yeah, they're standing there, the bullets are going around them. It's like I, I get it. I get it. This is not a rated r movie, I understand. Then do something else, right, if you're? If you can't show her unloading to these people like the, with robocop level violence and brains playing say she has rubber bullets and just don't show blood when people get that.
Shaun:
Even that like rubber bullets it's still knock them down.
Nate:
You're absolutely right.
Shaun:
Like they can hit the ground and scream and go oh god, ow, then you can, at least you know, be like okay, because getting shot by a rubber bullet sucks nuts. From what I hear, I mean oh, I mean it's it's pretty bad and you can still die from a.
Nate:
Oh yeah, have you been shot by a rubber bullet?
Shaun:
no, god, no oh, I just, I like the way you said. Oh yeah, it makes you sound like no, no, no.
Nate:
I'm just saying, like you know, in terms of from what I've seen, like some of the limited research I've done, there's like, oh yeah, rubber bullet, da-da-da-da. I think I read just yeah, no, it's not particularly like with the riots that happened or like the BLM riots, just like rubber bullets. That's when I was like, oh yeah, it sounds fun, but it is not rubber bullets.
Shaun:
Wow, that sounds like something a clown would shoot. Honk, honk. If the boys just hit you and they honk like a rubber nose saying rubber bullets sound awesome, we love rubber bullets. Yay, rubber bullets for kids of all ages. Rubber bullets uh, that's what we could do for, like nerf for one. Step up, step up nerf rubber bullet guns.
Nate:
Sorry, I'm just thinking ridiculous things, you know, just like yeah, I was trying to I'm stuck in my clothes, but thanks to rubber bullets I'm all good.
Shaun:
Good gun stuck in my clothes. Yay for rubber bullets. Kind of sounds like almost a Ren and Stimpy sort of bit.
Nate:
Rubber bullets.
Shaun:
Is it because of John?
Nate:
Crickfalusi. No, she just hated the animation style.
Nate:
Oh, gotcha it made her feel weird and I get that. I respect it. I'm not going to mock her for that. It's definitely not for everybody. I loved it. I remember watching some clip the other day about it and she's like see, it's just so uncomfortable. I'm like it's hilarious. Yeah, I mean, I'm sorry, I just I can't remember what we were with, like some tick talk about them, like you know how disturbing their stuff was and it's just. I get it, I do understand, I understand that point of view, but I thoroughly enjoyed.
Shaun:
Like space madness is still, to this day, one of the peak it's a slightly more disturbing when you learn about the creator and stuff and the weird stuff he was into. But yeah, I mean I'm talking purely of the work, yeah well, even some of his work too, where you know it's like footage of like 12 year old chicks with big bosoms and stuff like that, or you know adults who look really young, it's like yeah, yeah, I know you heard about what he was into, didn't you Nah?
Nate:
I've heard a little bit, but I'm not that versed in what's going on.
Shaun:
We could do an episode on it. Let's just say he did show up to his intern's sweet 16 birthday party with flowers for her. That's probably the nicest thing I could say about what went on there. Maybe we'll do an episode on that and we can have all sorts of awkward conversation about grooming. Yeah, there's also some weird clips of him on Howard Stern talking about it and stuff and Howard Stern being like boy, you're lucky being all around all them young girls, yeah, anyways.
Shaun:
I mean, I don't know, I both like it, just like howard stern, yeah he's a chode, but sometimes he's entertaining yeah yeah, I guess red stimmy guy mainly was big for like being fighting like 14 year old girls and offering them interns at his place, sort of thing. And then you know sleepovers and stuff like that oh, that's so gross, yeah, and I said there's even worse stuff too, from what I heard. I can look it up and we'll do an episode one of these days.
Nate:
Oh and think about, like you know, bad things. We were watching Better Off Dead. Oh yeah, there was a break so I got real quiet, opened my can Okay.
Shaun:
Oh yeah, I heard that break. I heard that yeah.
Nate:
I was was like and scene okay, um, anyway, um, we were watching better off dead, which, by the way, is pretty f*cked up looking at back nowadays like oh he's like, because it's like one of the more darker movies, because doesn't want to kill himself at one point legit, tries to kill himself like three or four times and no one cares. No, at one point like he's trying to hang himself and his mom like backs through the door and knocks him off.
Nate:
He's like he's dangling there, you know hung, and his mom doesn't even like glance at him yep, just like grabs his laundry and like heads back out, if I recall but you know, I thought of it, though it's like the movie makes a lot more sense if you change the narrative to the entire movie is through his eyes, like his point of view. He's the narrator. So all these crazy things that keep on happening makes sense in the context of this is happening in a sick, in his like twisted mind. That's why, although these things that are just really odd, would make more sense, like that kid chasing after him for two dollars and um, that the one of the weirdest scenes in that movie I never, I'd never noticed before.
Nate:
But he was in a math class. In his math the math teachers, what they're talking, and his entire class acted like they were part of a cult, like they were hanging on those math teachers every word. And he like, hey, bring out your your, uh, go ahead and take out your studies or whatever. And everyone whips out these like huge books that are all annotated, and one way I bust out a computer and meanwhile John Cusack pulls out one crinkled piece of paper with some gum on it yeah, yeah, it does actually work more, since you phrase it like that kind of thing, but anyway that the reason why I started going down that train was don't you remember that movie?
Nate:
so the french, the foreign exchange student, comes over and stays with the mom and her, her creepy kid yeah, that creepy kid is the nickelodeon guy the dan schneider dude yeah, he was. He was the like the creepy neighbor, the fat creepy neighbor who was kept on like perving on the the frenchley.
Shaun:
Yeah, that was him I didn't know he ever acted anything. I always just assumed he was like uh, behind the scenes guy, huh yeah, no I mean, let me double check, I'll make sure it's like, because I'm he.
Nate:
I know for a fact he was a nickelodeon guy. I looked it up while we're watching the movie yeah, the name sounds right. I just went like I'm like, yeah, it turns out.
Shaun:
No, it was, uh, I don't know greg nicholson yeah, when I saw the nickelodeon logo changed to a foot I thought that was kind of weird back in the day, like why a foot?
Nate:
that seems odd, yep that's not her yep, but yeah, we went slow. We're slowly having our kids see all the 80s movies and we're just like. Some of them are just like wow.
Shaun:
Huh.
Nate:
Ugh Oy.
Shaun:
They just look at it and they're like dad. Why was it okay for them to talk about this stuff, dad? Why?
Nate:
One thing I will say, though, is Jenny does have a little bit of a little two-pruder. Sometimes she's like oh, I can't believe they mentioned sex. I'm like Jenny, believe they'll like mention sex. Like jenny, they have youtube like huh, right, I promise you, they have. They. You know seen worse. Yeah, so this like little scene where you know it's a little inappropriate or this it's whatever I mean, yeah, it wouldn't fly nowadays, like you definitely wouldn't see a movie with it. People say the things, so the things they say or do, as they're not 90s movies, and sometimes those 80s, 90s movies are straight up rape yes, they are revenge of the nerds, and that was just that, yeah, exactly revenge on the nerds, just like they do terrible things, and even the revenge of the nerds.
Nate:
The one gross guy from revenge of the nerds is on better off dead dan schneider was also on.
Shaun:
Head of the class. Remember that show back in the day. Head of the Class.
Nate:
Yeah, what was that?
Shaun:
It took place in a school. It had the one teacher.
Nate:
I sure hope so. It was a police procedural Sorry.
Shaun:
Head of the Class. It originally had Howard Hessman as the teacher, but then some British dude took over, or Scottish dude later on. Okay, I got it. Yeah, I'm just like.
Nate:
I know that sounds familiar, but it was not one of the shows I watched regularly.
Shaun:
I it wasn't that great, I've seen clips, you know, I I just, but yeah, I've never really like watched it, mainly I learned from head of the class is that if you take too many vitamins, your hair might start to fall out and it might get misdiagnosed as leprosy. So there you go leprosy. It was an episode where, like the scottish teacher, he's like run his fingers through his hair, like this big clump comes out. He's like, oh my god. And they may like grab, like grab a science book or something. They look at him like it could be leprosy, dun dun, dun. And then it turns out he was just eating flesh-nosed chewable vitamins like candy all throughout the day and apparently the vitamins were messing with his hair. So there you go. Don't eat flesh-nosed chewable vitamins like candy all day.
Nate:
Kill that kill that kid who said leprosy. No, you lose your, you lose your right to life.
Shaun:
I don't know, it's it sounds bad, but it's no different than web md telling you everything is cancer I was fair enough it's cancer. My head it's cancer.
Nate:
I stubbed my toe could be cancer or heart attack. Yeah, you know I'm um. You know she was freaking out about something. It's like something like oh, I feel the weird thing here. It's like it's not a heart attack, I don't know.
Shaun:
It said oh it could be a heart attack about.
Nate:
The worst is when these articles come out and they're like oh, this woman only had one symptom and she caught her aggressive um heart attack in the form of cancer.
Shaun:
It's like and then she only had one symptom before she died.
Nate:
What she died of car crash is like well the one symptom that uh, I don't know that beam that went through her f*cking face. That was the one symptom that took her out natural causes.
Shaun:
She died from narcolepsy. How'd that work out?
Nate:
she was driving, yeah uh yeah, jay's just like oh my god, I have this twinge right here and I just read this article on facebook where this woman said she had a twinge and the next thing you know, she had cancer of the everything literally, she just turned into a giant cancer, it's just going around like she turned into cancer between her and the rest of the cancer just nothing.
Shaun:
She just turned into cancer and she was like chasing after her family, I would infect you. So yeah, it's yeah. So yeah, 80s movie problematic. I also thought it was weird back then how much they talked about kids virginities back in those movies. Right, like yeah, it's cause. Like, oh, you're a virgin, you don't want to die a virgin? Oh, that's a virgin. Yeah, it's like what the hell?
Shaun:
like um, you guys are really invested, yeah sometimes it's fun to watch, like gen z, kids react to like stuff from our childhood. Sometimes they watch stuff it's like why are they obsessed with kids virginities? Back then, people, what, what's wrong with you? People are like we don't know. Yeah, sometimes when they watch it they're like is this normal? It's like well, it felt normal back then. But yeah, looking back, no, no, yeah, I didn't. I didn't really think about it. Yeah, it's like, didn't you know? Well, the virginity thing kind of seemed weird to me at the time a little bit, just how often it got brought up.
Shaun:
f*ck, oh yeah especially um that one movie uh, not the witches of eastwick, but uh hocus pocus.
Nate:
Oh god yeah I watched that recently too. It was like the virgin of a child. We must get a child virgin like, um, hopefully, yeah, a child they would be a virgin right.
Shaun:
Well, maybe they're just wound up in diddle kid, massachusetts, where no kid is a virgin past the age of 40.
Nate:
We don't want any kid touched by a pedophile. Yeah Well, that's a third of the population off the board, ha. Ah, yes, diddle kid Massachusetts, Trauma Ha.
Shaun:
Ah, childhood trauma, it never goes away. I was just looking at this stuff for Better Off Dead, trying to figure out if Booger is still alive. He is, and he's 70. Yeah, better.
Nate:
Off Dead Trying to figure out if Booger is still alive. He is, and he's 70. Yeah, he had a pretty big part in Supernatural.
Shaun:
I've never seen that. I know it's really good and I probably should see it, but it's not going to happen. Let's be. There's a lot of movies I really need to go see, but I don't know if I ever will.
Nate:
Well, movies are easier, you know, versus like have you seen this tv series?
Shaun:
that's you know, 10 years in, yeah, that's a little bit more of an ask. You should sit down to marathon one piece one of these days. It won't take long. You're like what?
Nate:
yeah, I actually there was a guy I work with. He had a one piece like pull over on. I kind of mentioned to me like yeah, you know, I I am. I'll admit I'm a little curious, but I'm never going to cause I just can't dedicate that much time. He's like he just went COVID lockdown. I'm like I was like, okay, that's good.
Shaun:
But then in my head I'm like I mean this everybody's like oh, all this stuff with covid. My life did not change one bit during covid. I went to work every day just like normal.
Nate:
Everybody's life changing moments didn't do anything to me yeah, I mean I went from uh working from an office to work from home and never went back until yeah so if anything it improved your life possibly.
Shaun:
Oh yeah, absolutely like we I don't have to drive in drive f*ck yeah, we need more plagues.
Nate:
I'll tell you what man, it really does. It's like I keep on. I keep on feeling bad because a lot of people suffered, but I mean that lockdown was one of the best times you know just the time of the world, the introverts reigned right, but we were just also just saving so much money like yeah yeah, it's true, that's one of the things that we struggle with is, just like you know, we're spending. What we need is another places and do things it's like we need outbreak of leprosy?
Nate:
yeah, I don't know, like the next, yeah, the next thing that sweeps through, I don't know it's. I don't think you don't want that to happen because, like it's like, yeah, I want a bunch of people to die so I can be better off financially uh, hey, maybe you'll be an illness that gives people superpowers.
Shaun:
That'd be kind of cool. Yeah, that would be cool. That would be cool, it could happen.
Nate:
It's unlikely, but it could happen, fair enough yeah, be like the x-man, except for it's a transmissible instead of just born with it.
Shaun:
Exactly, there you go. Mutant superpowers is an STD. Oh yeah, how many episodes of X-Men are coming out? Because I figure we could talk about that halfway through, if you would like.
Nate:
Well, because I've caught up, I'm to the point where they are now.
Shaun:
Yeah, me too. So I just wanted to see how many episodes there are going to be. Total Ten episodes. So I just want to see how many episodes are going to be. Total 10 episodes. Currently, four have been released.
Nate:
And, like I was saying last night, storm's like oh, get off me, I can't believe you did this. It's like listen, he didn't say he made that one thing. He said he was, you know, bamboozled To make a prototype.
Shaun:
He made the prototype that somebody else did something with that. Somebody else did something with that. Somebody else made that gun that gave to somebody else.
Nate:
I mean yeah, I mean so I mean like he probably should have done that. Yeah, he probably shouldn't like a little smarter, but he didn't like. Oh, I'm gonna make this gun, so I'm gonna take away, you know, this bitch's powers that's yeah.
Shaun:
That'd be like me writing an angry letter to henry ford over being like somebody I know got hit by one of your cars I will say, though, I would have saved until after, you know, I had helped her.
Nate:
He's like oh yeah. He's like, oh yeah. I love you. By the way, I did this to you, but I still love you yeah, he could have like picked a better time or something, and they were a little bit too blase about what happened with phoenix or her.
Shaun:
You know g gray like oh yeah, that godlike power that they're just like. Oh yeah, that's a footnote, that happened godlike pat.
Nate:
Well, it's like she's a clone, they. And they openly say they didn't know when she was cloned. And so gene gray just kind of took her memories and like kind of pieced together, but with the full knowledge, like that wasn't all her memories of the clone. So and then they took the kid. That still wasn't gene gray's kid, that was the clone's kid so, but I mean technically, the genetics are the same.
Shaun:
So therefore, no, the genetics are the same, but you I would.
Nate:
It would be, I don't know that's. I don't know. I get what you're saying, I'm just being difficult. And then they're like we don't know who even married. What you're saying, I'm just being difficult, and then they're like we don't know who even married Scott. So it's like what are we not going to address this? Are we just going to say, oh yeah, the, the, the clone just left and so she's just going to be gone now and we're going to keep on rolling with G gray Like nothing happened?
Shaun:
I'm like that too, where Scott Summers is like or Cyclops is like I will not abandon them. You don't know what it's like to be abandoned. I will never abandon anybody. And then, all of a sudden, he just like abandons his clone wife. He's like well, bye.
Nate:
Yeah, he's like oh well, you're just close, back me up, scott. He's like uh, right. It's like wow. Scott's like oh, dude, this is a little bit too heavy for me. I love, yeah, yeah, I'm out, I'm out.
Shaun:
I don't want to deal with this. This is kind of emotions I don't know how to handle. That's more of a havoc kind of thing.
Nate:
He remembers when you were bitching, maybe the that this is the other day.
Shaun:
Well, now's the time where I say uh no, and from Clone Gene Grey's perspective, if I got that kind of reaction, I'd probably want to turn into a bad guy too. Oh, y'all just shun me now instantly. Well, fine, f you, I'm taking the kid and gonna go do evil stuff. And also, the first episode did something, and this isn't just to this series alone. It tends to happen a lot in X-Men cartoons and stuff. The fact that they always hype up Sentinels as these great, all-powerful, mutant killing machines and then as soon as they show up, they're like oh, beware the Sentinel. And Cyclops is just like nope, ooh, look, it's dead. Took me half a I-beam to kill it.
Nate:
I don't know, with all the hype they do of sentinels, they sure go down easy. Well, they go down easy. And then they're like oh, this is a safe humanity, we're like you're. They're giant war bots. Like safe humanity. From who like? I would think these giant, nasty robots are a lot bigger threat than the mutants ever could be. And then, right the one time, whenever they start like winning against the mutants, it's like a master meld or whatever. It's like oh no, they're overwhelming us. I'm like this is why zombies are dangerous, because it's not the one zombie, it's the million zombies.
Nate:
And so you're sitting here trying to say these giant sentinels, you could have saved all that time and effort and made them smaller like human size, and then you use the same amount of like materials and then you flood them, I mean, but I guess they're not big, scary, whatever machines yeah, right, yeah.
Shaun:
And where does all the financing come to make these? Because those things aren't cheap. They gotta be millions of bucks each to build for something that gets taken down by, you know, wolverine's claws in half a minute I didn't, I don't know, I'm not a huge fan of how of the wolverine representation kind of a whiny bitch for being a old, mature man. In theory, uh, he just kind of comes across as I don't know.
Nate:
Yeah he's kind of petulant, he's like he is oh gee, you know how I feel about you. That she's like, oh, scott, he's like, oh, like, come on. And then I don't know he just why is it hanging around? And he's just being there, being, he's just being a little whiny bitch, and so I saw someone like someone commenting about that, and they're like, oh, wolverine's always been like that. Like I disagree, you know, this seems to be oh, he's not always been kind of like this.
Nate:
He is kind of in here yeah, they, I don't know, like I don't necessarily he doesn't mean the murdery wolverine, like you know, that we're all familiar with in the comics, like the crotchety wolverine, who just like sitting in a corner drinking and having a cigar, kind of thing yeah, that's what I that's what I normally more uh wolverine for is just like kind of being the loner who didn't want to be hanging out with the crowd and being liked he's just kind of a I'm just there to be there kind of guy.
Nate:
Well, there was also that scene where he's like Gene, look into my mind. She's like, oh, and that's the whole thing, like one thing about Wolverine like this also, him dumbing him down. His mind was too chaotic, like they've had times where Gene has tried, or people have tried, to go into his head before.
Shaun:
And they're like his mind is too dark and horrible, all the pain that he has felt through the years, that kind of stuff, right. Yeah, or he's too feral kind of thing. I've also heard that, where he's like, his mind is too feral to be able to control, or so on.
Nate:
Right, right, and I mean I'm glad they whipped up Mr Sinister, but because he I actually he is one of my favorite like villains.
Shaun:
They needed to spend more time on that horror reality goblin queen thing. They were onto something there because that was pretty cool, but I don't know. I felt like they just, like sped, run through that little part of the story. Why goblin?
Nate:
queen, I don't know, it's what she called herself in the comics. I mean, yeah, I guess I mean that's yeah.
Shaun:
So you know, we got to go way back in time for that one. I still I have no idea why. I mean um gene gray, I mean it makes a lot more sense.
Nate:
I can see them like my guess this kid. This took place in, like I don't know, 80s or 90s, when this oh uh, early 90s. Oh, you didn't read this storyline thing.
Shaun:
Huh, I kind of you didn't read the x-men around this time. Well, I kind of did because this is actually all like, based off the comic stories.
Nate:
So it depends on when. It was, because I got an x-men after age of apocalypse, like before. Then I didn't get into it much. I mean, I've seen bits and pieces of it, but I I picked up x-men for a while after that. Then it's kind of fell off again, just because it started getting too. It was too much.
Shaun:
You know, like there's too many comics coming out, it's too convoluted in just you have to buy uncanny x-men, x-men, x-factor, x-force x, this x that new mutants in order to get the storylines, that kind of stuff yeah yeah or just whatever they're like.
Nate:
Oh hey, here comes bob, and then there's a little panel that pops up. Remember bob, remember Bob. He showed up in X-Men 538. He looked at, he saved a rogue from a random shuriken that was thrown by Squirrel Girl because she was taking away from a ninja. I don't need all that. You're overloading me with information. Please don't give me all that.
Shaun:
Okay, inferno took place in 1989. That's when I was reading that. That was that. Yeah, that was when we were about in fifth grade. That tracks because I was about fifth grade when I was reading comics a lot I was dc at that time.
Nate:
Okay, because I did.
Shaun:
I did take, I was collecting comics back then, but it was dc I didn't really deal with yeah, I was all about the x-men back then, although not all my x-men were like the new stuff. Some of it was like older comics because I used to go to like dollar or not dollar stores but like antique stores a lot, and remember back in the day when they had like that big box in the corner of like 10 cent comics that you could buy. Yeah, yeah, you can't find those anymore, nate, for obvious reasons. Yeah, yeah, so, yeah, uh, all this story that's going on in x-men 97 is, uh, late 80s ish, so yeah, it makes sense, because that's that's their thing, they're picking up yep.
Shaun:
So in case you didn't know, yeah, all the stories going on in x-men 97 is actually based off of x-men comics stories and they're they're kind of speed running it, though like the whole like an arc that takes all year in the comics. They're doing in like one episode on this.
Nate:
It feels like yeah, like the master mill that that seemed like to go real fast yeah I was kind of annoyed by that, though, because they're like she's like huh, I see this vision, and it's a vision that's like oh okay, this is, this is the arc. Yeah, this, this is the arc for the rest of the season. You know, they're gonna go here, which is gonna lead them somewhere else, which is gonna take them somewhere else, somewhere else. They're finally going to get the Master Bowl, and then it's going to be a big battle. They're like nope, this is it. We're wrapping up in five minutes.
Shaun:
Yeah, I do feel like each of these episodes feel like they each could have been like their own three-episode arc to help flesh stuff out and make it a little more sense, because a lot of it I'm enjoying the series so far, but it does feel kind of rushed and I don't know it's like we're getting the cliff notes of these stories I mean I do, yeah, like I was.
Nate:
We were talking off air and for it took me. It took me a minute to get into it because I was watching it. It was just it was doing the same old like oh hey, here's a new kid, hey, new kid. Here's this person.
Nate:
Oh, there's this person, and look at who's being a dick for no reason, like he throws him on the ground and like threatens to chop his face off. It's like oh, haha, I'm kidding like no man, you just. This kid was traumatized. He was kidnapped by anti-mutant people. He obviously is a thing because he's not showing his mutant powers. He's trying to be aloof. He's clearly scared. So you're gonna knock this dude down and threaten to cut his face off f*ck off.
Shaun:
It would be more like just sitting there grunting at the new kid and be like, ah, another one, huh, and then drink his booze. Yeah, I mean, I don't know like wolverine feels more too much like a petulant teenager, I guess in this or something he really does yeah, it's for being the oldest and most mature of the group, supposedly, or at least the oldest, you know that. And also, uh, magneto really does look like f*cking a uh, like a uh daytime soap opera star. Yeah, he does, it was nice like that costume he has.
Nate:
I don't know why he's decided to go with that, you know, disco costume or whatever, but like it's. That is what he was wearing back then. So, yeah, it's comic accurate. Yeah, and I will say this though, like the animation looks pretty good, it is really noticeable sometimes that it's all um cg. Yeah, you know, like the cg anime, once you, once you see it, you can't see it. And like sometimes the way they turn, the way the light hits their character or the way, just the way it's different. It just it becomes really really noticeable that these are 3d or CG characters, with you know the their um textured is as an animation.
Nate:
I figured they're more cel-shaded, but yeah, which, again, like a lot of times, if it's done well, I don't mind it, it looks really good. I mean I've seen a lot of anime. Again, like a lot of times, if it's done well, I don't mind it, it looks really good.
Shaun:
I mean, I've seen a lot of anime like they use that in anime a lot uh chainsaw man does a really good job with it.
Nate:
Yeah, that it's. It's a varying quality. Like overlord, for the main characters it is 2d, but sometimes when they do like the big giant battles, they use the cg and it is painfully. Have you seen?
Shaun:
uh, have you seen chainsaw man, yet? What have you seen Chainsaw man, yet? What have you seen Chainsaw man, yet? The anime Chainsaw man.
Nate:
Yes, I know of it. I've seen bits and pieces of it, but I haven't actually sat there and watched it. I have access to it. I have Crunchyroll. It's also on Hulu, Is it? It's been on Hulu for like a year now. I need to log back into it. It logged me. It's been on Hulu for like a year now. I need to log back into it, Log me out. And I haven't got a chance to get around to logging back in, because I hate bothering you about stuff like that. And then I don't really. I only really pull it up when I'm like oh, what am I looking for? Oh, I really want to see that Shogun show. And I go to try to pull it up. I'm like, oh man, it's went out started watching.
Shaun:
Uh, I started watching shogun, I wanted to get into it, but uh, I don't know, I don't know, it's a lot of build-up and the end of the episode payoffs don't seem worth it, kind of thing. Oh, that sucks. Yeah, I don't know. It's just like hey, this is gonna turn into something intense by the end and it's just kind of like a little, a bit of a. Yeah, I mean, maybe I don't know, maybe I'm just taking it wrong or something. There are some really cool scenes in it, like there's a part where, like a female ninja assassin gets to go crazy, sneaking around, offing people very Ghost of Tsushima-y. But yeah, it's just I don't know. It's a shame because everybody keeps talking about how amazing it is. Oh, it's the next great, you know drama show with all sorts of fun stuff to watch. But ah, ah, ah yeah, you know what I mean when it's like I want to like this but I can't. Ah, maybe I'll go watch some more episodes.
Nate:
I'm being prevented from liking this.
Shaun:
Yeah, it is a conspiracy, it is. Somebody is out to get me on this and I don't know what it is.
Nate:
They're putting something 97 uh animation to archer. I can see that I mean with minus the you know crew humor, but isn't archer like actual 2d and hand-drawn animation, not like cg? So I'm just saying, like you know, comparison to, because, again like I said, that's I don't know yeah, no, no, it's a 2d hand animated show, the x-men 97, according to the producer of it I call sh. Stanigans Sends you the link that you can. I don't believe you. I mean, I believe they said that.
Shaun:
You're like, I believe they said that. I also believe they are lying, which is true. I mean, sometimes it's like, hey, they did say it, but they were also wrong. No, apparently a lot of people were bitching online about it. So one of the head guys, one of the head guys, what the f*ck did they? I am happy to clarify this. This is a 2D hand animated show, our overseas vendor, studio Mirror. They are just that good, you know, combined in tandem with our in-house animation team, blah blah, blah, blah, blah.
Nate:
Yep, I mean I see they're saying that and I don't know, they did a really good job. It looks like CG. I mean, yeah, I guess they, like they, did a really good job, it just looked.
Shaun:
I mean, it looks like it does. I mean yeah, I guess they're saying is it is cel-shaded, so it might have like a cg filter over it. Maybe I don't know, or at least I saw somewhere somebody's using the term cel-shading, but but now we know I know it's at the battle yeah, also jubilee. Useful x-men member or not, right? I mean yeah, because I remember in the comic books occasionally should do something really bad-ass, but I haven't seen it yet in the cartoons.
Nate:
I mean I do. I do appreciate they're doing a magneto love storyline.
Shaun:
Yeah, with him in rogue.
Nate:
Cause he's one of the people who can actually touch her.
Shaun:
Yeah, uh, did they explain why he can touch her? Really, they had a small hint, like whenever he goes to touch her. There was like a little spark because magnets.
Nate:
Okay, yeah, that's probably you know what I mean. Well, yeah, he reasons. Why can you?
Shaun:
touch her reasons.
Nate:
We'll think of it later well, per like, uh, age of apocalypse, because they actually, like, were married and had kid they. Um, he has a like a, basically he has a shield on him using magnet, magnet or whatever he like he. He isn't actually touching her. He's got kind of like a shield condom over his body, if you will. So they can get off Gotcha. Yeah, so she's touching him but they're not actually touching. But she can't tell the difference.
Shaun:
Gotcha, so he's basically just got on like a bare skin condom all over his body this is exactly right can't even notice it. And then poor gambit's like I don't even need one of those.
Nate:
All right, no poor gambit like they really did, like kind of do them dirty yeah, also, I don't know it.
Shaun:
He seems I don't know person not personalityless. Uh, I don't know something about his personality, just doesn't seem as gambity to me. Yeah, he seems more domesticated. There we go, that's a good term. He does seem more domesticated. He's not like the wild Cajun that you would think and know and love. Also, fun fact, I used to have the comic book that was like the first appearance of him worth a ton of money. My cat shredded it and peed on it. That's fun. Yeah, it wasn't worth money back then. It was, you know, like a brand. Of course not, it's not worth. It's not worth money when everyone has it. Yeah, yeah, the reason it's worth so much money is because everybody else's cats shredded and peed on it too. So, yeah, I mean, that's literally why that's worth money. That's why them old video games weren't so much money too, because everybody's like who's gonna want these plastic pieces of crap?
Nate:
I really I need to do I was gonna do it this week but I didn't. Um, I need to go downstairs and like, uh, I have this, uh, the closet downstairs. It's just trashed and a lot of stuff. That's like all the way the place is um comics, but they're like the thing is like, oh, I want to see how much this sells for, like well, it's not graded or it's some a lot of our plastic bags, but they're not sealed.
Shaun:
So I don't know. A lot of it is, you know, getting a grade and everything that costs money.
Nate:
I mean, I have a and you know it is.
Shaun:
If your comic's not great and everything, it's like hey, this comic for 200, how much can I get for it?
Nate:
like 40 probably yeah, I was just talking to, um, a old friend of mine, um that we happened to run to the target yesterday or a few days ago, not yesterday, a few days ago. It's like he uh collect transformers and like control characters like that, and he just goes yeah, um, I have what is supposed to be they say are very valuable figures, he's like, but if no one's gonna buy them off you, then it doesn't matter how valuable the book says they are, it's not worth anything.
Shaun:
Yep, yeah, if the book says you're a comic book's worth a trillion dollars, that's nice. Nobody's got a trillion dollars to buy it, right? Yep, I'm kind of enjoying X-Men 97.
Nate:
I mean, I'm not like chom. Like I said, I had struggled to sit just because of how cheesy it was.
Shaun:
So many abs. Did you notice in the background one of the so many abs like stomachs? All of them, oh, all of them. I mean especially, like you know, gambit with his little cum gutters With his little half shirt, but no, I feel like everybody's got abs in that. Uh, series, bishop, uh, cyclops oh, I do like cyclops is a little using his blast to scoot himself around the battlefield.
Nate:
I feel like that's something.
Shaun:
I don't remember. I feel like that's something I don't remember from the comics.
Nate:
So well, I mean, it's kinetic blast, so they're not lasers, they're kinetic blast, which a lot of people forget. So he's you know I I still don't remember him doing it in the comics so it's kind of cool that he does it.
Shaun:
Though oh, what was the other thing? Oh yeah, I guess you know when uh gambit hopped on wolverine and uh connectically charged his claws, I guess that was the first. I guess that's the first time it has ever happened in x-men lore supposedly. Huh yeah, you would have thought that would have been something that happened a long, long, long time ago.
Nate:
But apparently not. I never really was a huge Gamma fan. He was okay. I just I don't know. It is a bummer that I never explored his character like in a movie.
Shaun:
I agree with you. I remember everybody else seemed to really like him and he was super popular, but I was always just like eh, he throws playing cards, that's neat, I guess. Yeah, he's fine, I mean whatever. Yeah, he can kinetically charge stuff and throw it at you. If you ever wanted to die by a kinetically charged condom, ah, my god, it's a kinetically charged condom Run.
Shaun:
Kinetic rubber. We have veered way off Dragon's Dogma. We have Sure. We're pretty much done with Dragon's Dogma 2. Yeah, yeah, we gave our opinions. It was good, it's worth it. There is a bit of an asterisk behind whether or not you should play it, though, because it is definitely one of those games. Either you're going to really really like it or you're going to be like, well, this is a little too obtuse for me, I am looking for a game, though I'm looking for another game that can substitute.
Nate:
Like, I love Ghost of Tsushima, I love the multiplayer because we played a lot, and I like the single player because it was awesome, and it's one thing about it, though, is like it was one game that you can kind of like shut your brain off and just enjoy it, and so I'm looking for a replacement for that game.
Shaun:
Try Horizon Zero Dawn, the new one of those. I mean that's kind of got the same-ish gameplay Stealth around, shoot stuff with an arrow, remember when you get like scan people and pick off body parts off of them and stuff. Thank you, yeah, I think you'd like it. I mean, honestly, I was starting to plan getting into it until dragon's dogma 2 showed up and was like hey, you want to play me? And I was like not really, he's like are you sure? And I was like no, not anymore. It's like pay me. And I was like okay, fine.
