December 15, 2024 • 53 mins
Luke and Alex venture into the rain-soaked world of Against the Storm, a roguelike city builder developed by Eremite Games. Released in November 2023, this highly acclaimed game invites players to balance resource management, exploration, and the survival of diverse species—all while contending with the endless storms that threaten their settlements.
At the time of this recording, Against the Storm boasts a Metacritic score of 91. According to How Long to Beat, playtimes vary widely, with 31 hours for the main story and up to 267 hours for completionists who dare to brave every tempest. Luke played entirely on his Steam Deck, while Alex split his time between Steam Deck and PC.
Join the hosts as they discuss the game’s unique mechanics, including its roguelike replayability and dynamic city-building systems. Hear how Against the Storm stacks up to other city builders, what strategies they employed to weather the storms, and why this game is worth the hype.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Luke (00:21):
Welcome and hello to Low Five Gaming.
I am Luke, and this is myco-host and brother, Alex.
Yeah, what up, bro?
How you doing, Santa man?
You got cute little hat.
We love it here.
Alex (00:32):
Ho ho ho.
I'm doing well, Doug.
I'm doing well.
I do have my Santa hat ontoday.
It is December, bro.
Luke (00:39):
It is December.
And uh, you know, we'regathered here today to deck the
halls and play games, dude.
I don't know what to say there.
The Santa theme only can go sofar with me.
But uh, we are here to talkabout against the storm.
Yeah, I tell you what, man,things have been going good, but
the rain's coming.
The rain is coming, not thesame.
Alex (00:59):
I got my I got my folk making more freaking raincoats
and shit.
I got the tavern going.
Luke (01:05):
You got your production chain popping.
Yeah, you got your productionchain popping.
Uh yeah, you know, this is uhyou do a few for them and then
you do you do one for youoccasionally.
And this is you know, when weget into niche retro, future
retro games, we're in the Alexzone, and when we're doing some
grimy ass city builder typestrategy games, we're in the
(01:25):
we're in the Luke zone, and herewe are, man.
How'd you do?
Alex (01:28):
How'd you survive good times?
I feel like I'm firmly inLuke's pocket, that's how I
feel.
Yeah, but uh not good, man.
I uh I do love this type ofgame uh as well.
Uh you I would say in ouryouth, like it was something
that I was like super into thesereal-time strategy type games,
uh, with you kind of over myover my shoulder watching, uh,
(01:48):
and then you kind of you knowtook a you you run with them.
I would say I would say that inour adult life you you have
given yourself fully to the RTS.
Luke (01:59):
And this one's like even more like niche city kind of
builder-like, but also uh needsto be mentioned that this is
firmly within the realm of gameswhere if you're playing it
before you go to bed, I'll wakeup and have like weird obsessive
thoughts about this game andhow things are going.
So just a general warning thatuh, you know, if you want some
weird psychotic half dreams,this is the type of game to get
(02:20):
your brain working a littleharder and addicting.
Against it is addicting, dude.
Alex (02:26):
It also, I'm not gonna lie, it uh it gets my anxiety
going from time to time.
Luke (02:31):
Yeah, you know, and it's a different it's got some cool
mechanics into it that make iteven more stressful.
Uh, not in a bad way, more of astrategy way.
But we'll get into that in alittle bit.
Uh so if you're like, hey, whatis Against the Storm?
It is produced or developed byEmirate Games, uh, not the
United Arab Emirates or SaudiArabia or anything like that.
(02:51):
You can see where you mightthink that though.
And published by Hooded HorsePublishers, which they have some
cool other nerdy strategy gamesI've enjoyed in the past as
well.
Like Old World is a really coolCiv competitor made from the
guy who um was like the lead onCiv 4.
So if you're an old headstrategy pro, you might be into
Old World if you haven't heardof it yet.
(03:11):
And then a super niche anddeeply nerdy, awesome Soviet
game about communism citybuilding.
And lastly, Manner Lords, whichwas like a pretty big smash hit
through Xbox Game Pass and suchwithin the last year or so.
So yeah, well known for thiszone, um, as released back in
2023.
You and I talked earlier.
There's a big DLC that hasdropped that uh has boosted its
(03:34):
recent popularity too.
Right.
And it's had frequent updatesthat just keep adding free
content to the game as well,which I think is pretty awesome.
Alex (03:43):
Yeah, it's cool.
It was fun to see.
I mean, we're you know nearingthe end of the year, and I
didn't know much about thisgame.
I was I think you maybe hadmentioned it to me, or maybe
that you were like I don't know,curious about it.
Right.
So uh so it's cool, you know.
You you actually gifted to meon Steam.
Thanks for that, bro.
That's tight.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
You know, but you know, so itwas it was fun to to get into it
(04:07):
and like learn a little bitmore about it.
Definitely fun to play thegame.
I I think I was telling youoff, Mike, that this is one of
those games where I poured uhnot a ton of time into it.
It's one of those games that Iput about 10 to 12 hours into it
for this pod.
Of course, I was peaking onyour hours, so I know that you
put in about three times that.
Luke (04:25):
Yeah, just got over 30.
Uh, it's funny, I play italmost exclusively on the Steam
Deck though.
So, like there's some timeswhere I've thought I've played
upwards of 50 because you leaveit on sleep, and then for a
second it says so.
I thought I had like some crazyhours at once.
I was like, I wasn't timetraveling that hard.
Alex (04:41):
But uh, you know, I bring it up though, like the the time
put in though, because one,you're right, it is a one of
those time traveling games whereyou get into the groove and
you're like, oh shit, like uh afew hours has passed, it's time
for me to shut this thing down.
Yeah, uh, but more so it is agame that I feel like I have
finally started to wrap my headaround how to do things.
(05:03):
It took a few hours to, andthat's that's pretty typical of
uh you know a city builder-esquetype game like this.
Um, starting to feel morecomfortable with the things that
I'm doing, also realizing thatI am only just scraping the
surface.
I think that this game lendsitself to hours and hours of
gameplay.
It is reductive, but true thatthis game is considered a
(05:25):
roguelike city builder, I thinkI've heard floating around the
internet.
Luke (05:28):
Yeah, so my description is actually handheld tactical city
building roguelike.
That's what I wrote down.
Yeah, that I feel like thatcrystallizes it.
And uh, if you read on itssteamy page, they would tell you
that it's a dark fantasy sildercity builder where you must
rebuild civilization in the faceof apocalyptic rains as the
Queen's Viceroy lead humans,beavers.
(05:50):
Did you think those werebeavers before you read it?
Or were you like the fuckinglittle uh I mean I can see the
beaver thing, but it's more likea dwarf, it had door vibe for
me.
So when I first read those werebeavers after seeing the art, I
was quite confused.
But anyway, lizard foxes andharpies to reclaim the
wilderness and secure a future.
Um, it's a pretty crazy game,pretty obscure, but yes,
(06:13):
roguelike city builder iscorrect, which is two genres
that aren't often mixedtogether.
No, um, so that's kind of partof why, and the setting is cool,
like as much as I, you know.
Alex (06:24):
Yeah, there's uh definitely like an overarching
story to it that that brings itall together and kind of works
like there's this weird you'rethe viceroy in the sense that
you're like going out and you'reI don't know what you say, you
like you're the going onexpeditions, they call them to
close gates or something.
Luke (06:40):
Uh the Dark Fantasy does some it just kind of helps set
up the gameplay loop, which isyou know, you go on these little
runs essentially like you wouldin a roguelike, but you know,
city builders can get and Idon't know if it's fair to call
them little dude, like yeah.
Alex (06:55):
I have no time runs, yeah, right.
Luke (06:59):
And I think in the in the world of a city builder, though,
like in City Skylines 2, I'veprobably pumped 10 hours into
highway traffic of one run.
So, like in this, like a runprobably takes you about an
hour, hour and a half.
Um, right, but a scale, yeah,it is medium, but it gets
gnarly.
Alex (07:16):
You're not wrong, which is weird though, dude.
Like, and that that's whatmakes this game so much
different for me, anyways,compared to different city
builder real-time strategy gamesthat I've played, in the sense
that you pour an hour, an hourand a half time into making your
your new expedition, your newlike city work, and then you
basically accomplish the featthat you set out for on that
(07:36):
run, and they're like, Okay,come back to you know, come back
and let's do it all over again.
And it's like, whoa, whoa,whoa, you can you can mind you,
you can choose to continuerocking and rolling with it,
yeah.
Luke (07:46):
But like that that's or the first couple of times for
Zen and like fluidity, butthere's I think it'd be helpful
if you're a listener who hasn'tplayed the game or watched a
video.
Um, I think about it a lot whenI play it, is there's three
main gameplay loops.
There's like keeping your dudesalive, building up your typical
production chains.
Like you made a joke earlierabout getting coats, but like
(08:07):
getting the preferred type ofmeats, keeping them happy,
keeping them alive becausethere's different events that
keep happening in the game andlike storms and like bad things.
So that's like the one of themain loops.
Then there's like a constantexploration task type of loop.
You send your loggers out andyou clear and you find these
things called glades or likeareas in whatever generated map
(08:27):
you're in with the differentbiomes.
Getting pretty niche here, butit's helpful.
Um so there's that aspect whereyou're like you're completing
tasks to complete your mission,which is keeping that, you know,
getting enough points orwhatever to complete the mission
and quote unquote build thesettlement, versus what they
call impatience, which is likethis ticking clock that you can
(08:47):
slow down or revert.
But this ticking clock wheresometimes you like literally
fail said mission, you don'testablish the colony.
And regardless of your outcome,though, it feeds back into the
third loop, which is like theoverworld.
You come back to that afterwinning or failing, and you give
like these resources that youcome back with you as a reward,
and then you build up differentupgrades, kind of build up your
(09:09):
keep essentially, and likethings that go out into those
expeditions, and that's wherethe roguelike part comes in
because you're constantly havingthese missions, these
settlements, and then you'rebringing it back and you're
upgrading all these differentsystems back home.
And let me just breathe afterthat one.
But I felt like it's gonna bereally helpful to people
enjoying listening to this gameand what we're going about and
(09:30):
doing.
Alex (09:31):
100%, dude.
For the people, the quick plotbreakdown from the wiki.
This game is set in a fantasyworld eternally ravaged by the
blightstorm.
The only safe haven in thisworld is the smoldering city
ruled by the scorched queen.
Occasionally the stormsubsides, and the scorched queen
sends her viceroys to establishsettlements with the purpose of
gathering supplies for thesmoldering city until the blight
(09:52):
storm hits again, destroyingall settlements in the process.
Luke (09:57):
Yeah, so you do those three things, and it's done.
That's your little predicting,and it's kind of hard.
And I've been playing it for 30hours, as you said earlier.
And even to this point, likethere's entirely new systems
that the game's like, you'reready for this now.
And I'm like, No, no, I'm not.
Alex (10:14):
I do feel that this is a game I'll keep in my rotation uh
for quite some time because,like I was saying, I have only
scratched the surface, I cantell there's more to it, and it
is an addicting game loop.
Like, I do like going in, and Ido feel that um there's a
there's a lot to be squeezed outof this game.
Are you playing on your desktopor the steamed?
Luke (10:33):
Both, uh, but I do prefer playing on the desktop, if I'm
being honest.
Oh, really?
Oh, because part of the reasonthat it's gonna remain in my
rotation, and then one of thereasons I picked it because I've
specifically heard this gameruns really well and was
optimized uh really well on theSteam Deck.
And a Steam Deck verified.
I'm pretty nerdy about mystrategy games, so you'd think
the Steam Deck would help mewith that.
(10:54):
A lot of the games I'm into arevery mouse-centric, and like,
yeah, you can get an attachmentfor the Steamy D, but like
laying in bed, I'm not trying toalso bust out the mouse.
Sure.
So this game, dude, runs sonice on the Steam Deck.
It's gonna get some extra playfor me simply because it
scratches a specific itchcombined with the handheld.
I can be like a time traveling,grimy strat city building nerd
(11:19):
boy in bed.
Alex (11:21):
Nah, I feel you 100%.
They they optimize it quitewell uh for the Steam Deck, and
it utilizes actually all of theaspects of the Steam Deck
nicely, including the trackpads.
Yeah, so the trackpads isactually the most I probably use
a trackpad on the Steam Deck,and it just works so well.
Yeah, um, so I I'd have to givekudos to them for figuring that
out.
It does super work reallynicely.
(11:41):
But that said, uh, I do I meanit's it's still a real-time
strategy game, and it's stilllike very nice with the with the
mouse, uh tell you what.
Luke (11:51):
Yeah, and I'm sure like looking around the map, and
yeah, I should do it on heretoo, just to let like just to
know what it just to know whatthe next level is, man.
Like if I play it on like ahigher difficulty, because then
you just like the rewards foreach run or settlement are
scaled based on the difficultyyou're playing on.
Alex (12:08):
So, like I have the tendency to be pretty anal and
pretty like particular aboutthese things.
So, like for me, uh once I likefigured out how to set up these
camps in in little cities,whatever these um then I was
like, okay, well, now I wantthem to look pretty and I want
my paths to like go the rightway and like that kind of thing.
You lay down baths likeconsistently.
Oh, hell yeah, dude.
You got to it.
(12:28):
It speeds up the uh speeds upthe time that you guys like take
to get to two and from whenthey're collecting resources and
shit.
Luke (12:34):
It's so chaotic for me because those missions I talked
about.
There's like the missions arecrucial for surviving, quite
literally, to get like thepoints to move on, but also like
you get the crown essentiallylike sends you a bunch of
supplies for completing missionsto help your little fledging
settlement.
A lot of times, what the map isgiving me, because it's
randomly generated, right?
What the map versus what I needfor the mission versus what I
(12:57):
need to keep my villagers happyare all frustratingly a little
different.
Uh, when you first played, it'salmost like the deck building
ones, how you have differentcards that like do different
like abilities and things,because like you have to select
which upgrade or package you'regonna get all the time.
So, like with the buildingsthat you need to do the
different tasks, do you wait forthe missions before you start
(13:21):
picking those?
Or were you just picking thosebased on what's around you?
Uh that that was a big turningpoint to surviving for me was to
waiting on all those upgradesand choices to figure things out
first.
Alex (13:33):
Yeah, it kind of depends.
Like, as I've learned thisgame, because it over time, like
because I think they kind ofthrow you in.
It's not super, it's it's it'stricky overwhelming, right?
Because like I was like, I getit, I it was happening.
Then I would probably be 45minutes into my settlement, like
this is fucking likeridiculous.
I don't know what's going onhere, and slammed by events,
yeah.
Totally, but then you start tolearn once you learn, and once
(13:56):
you learn, like if you hoverover buildings and stuff, or you
hover over resources, it tellsyou what buildings, you know,
then the little info bubble thatpops up or whatever will tell
you what buildings you can useto extract those resources, and
like you start to figure out howto get the game to work for
you.
Uh, but to answer yourquestion, I have a better
relationship with those cardsthan I used to because that
(14:16):
they're on a timer, so theyunlock as you go through.
I can't remember the the fullnumber, but you basically get
two to three at a time that youget to select, and then they
give you three options where youget to choose.
And it took me a while torealize, okay, I can look at
this and I can figure out, okay,I know that my map has this
type of thing, or I'll see thatlike they're asking you to do a
(14:38):
certain thing or like have acertain amount of items, and
then I can realize, well, Ialready have you know 75% of the
items I need for thisparticular task, so I'm gonna go
with that one because I know Ican accomplish it.
Or I realize that if they'reasking me to do something that
there it's gonna be a long asstime before I have the buildings
that I need to produce acertain thing that they're
asking for in this task, so I'mnot gonna go with that because
(15:00):
it doesn't make sense for me.
But that was a learningexperience.
Luke (15:03):
It's a learning curve, and that's kind of why the whole
like roguelike you do asettlement and maybe your
settlement fails, maybe youpass, but regardless, you're
moving on, even if you'recrushing it, you're moving on.
I think that makes the learningcurve, and then you go back to
the settlement, do your fuckingupgrades, and then you're kind
of excited about how theupgrades are gonna help you the
next run.
(15:23):
So that's why the the themarriage between the roguelike
elements and the city building,it's a unique, it's a unique
combo.
And this podcast was gonnacover a game like that because
we have covered a decent chunkof roguelikes, or at least in
our side questing and stuff,sure.
And we uh we are not afraid ofthat or a city builder.
So what do you think is reallynot a crazy game?
Alex (15:44):
100%, dude.
I think an interesting part ofthis gameplay loop too is that
you get dropped on your map andyou have a certain you're in
confined to a certain amount ofspace and you're surrounded by
wooded areas, and you you sendyour logger camps out, and you
basically there's thesedifferent pockets that you can
see.
They're they're covered, uh,they're shrouded in mystery, and
they might tell you thatthere's like some sort of danger
over there, right?
(16:05):
Yeah, and it might it might bemarked that there is no danger,
it's just a pocket.
And then when you when you logthe trees and enter that area,
it reveals that part of the map,and then each one will either
have new resources or it'll havelike a new task or a new like
challenge within that I thoughtwas really interesting.
Luke (16:21):
Yeah, yeah, it's spicy and uh very stressful, but once
again, big rewards forcompleting the tasks, and you
have to like send your villagersout specifically to either
gather the materials uh separatethan like resource, it's like
crates essentially, or likecombating something, and
sometimes it's cool when youlike rebuild structures that
helps you like with the benefitswithin the map.
(16:43):
So, yeah, you're doing like alot of different crazy stuff in
the game.
So I really like it, but I cansee where strategy games already
take like a few hours of stressbefore you have even the
smallest amount of fun.
This game is definitely notsaved from that.
So things you're frustratedabout, like that's gotta be it,
dude.
Alex (17:01):
It's funny, and you know, I meant I'll mention again, like
the you know, I I basicallystarted to get the hang of
things feeling good about it,and then it will, and I'm not
even to a point like I knowbecause I've seen the overworld
map, and like I've only unveileda little bit of it, so I know
there's gonna be more and moreto do.
I know that you mentioned thatthere's more characters.
I basically had the I just I'mstill sitting with the main
(17:23):
three the humans, the beavers,and the lizards.
So I think you you listed offthere's two more.
Is that right?
Luke (17:29):
Yes.
Um, I have the harpies, I thinkI no, I have the foxes too, and
I think that maybe even withthe update, there might it's
update of the DLC.
There's like another race aswell.
Um, so it keeps keeps gettingdeeper and deeper, right?
Alex (17:45):
So that's just it, dude.
Like, I know for a fact thateven though I finally got my my
head wrapped around what I'mdoing, kind of in this like base
level stuff, it's gonna justkeep slapping me with more
layers of gameplay, which is onepart exciting and one part like
a little bit of anxietydriving, because I'm like, oh
man, or it's anxiety inducingrather, because it's like, oh
man, this game is like it's justgonna hit me with like more
(18:06):
complex stuff as I keep going.
But but that's also kind offun, you know.
Luke (19:08):
Yeah, no.
If it was back in the day too,like when I was a little
teenager, I probably would havegotten all to the deep, deep,
nitty-gritty.
But you know what?
I didn't think I was gonnaspend the insane amount of hours
in Slay the Spire that I did,and here we are.
So sometimes sometimes the gamestarts off and you don't think
you'll be there, and then itkind of kind of hooks you with
different stuff.
(19:28):
But there's like a whole blightsystem that I got introduced to
like 10-15 hours back, and I'vejust ignored.
So is that the blight stormstuff where you have to pay
attention to how the storm'sworking, or um it's like you
connect like these geysers,geysers, geysers, not geysers,
silliness.
At least that correctly.
Yeah, at least I knew somegeysers that like connect up
(19:53):
some water system to like somesteampunk stuff, because it's
like dark fantasy, and there's athere's like a steampunk, steam
engine type element that boostsyour efficiency, but like this
thing called blight, which isthis corruption, so you have to
balance that.
To me, that just sounds deeplyoverwhelming on top of
everything else we've beentalking about.
But maybe on a higherdifficulty, like that,
(20:15):
efficiency is so key that it's aworthy gamble.
So insane depth.
Alex (20:22):
I think it's you know, even by because it took me quite
a few hours before I startedgoing in and reading reading
what my different buildings weresupposed to be doing and making
that connection and resourcesand everything.
And it's like, dude, I don'tknow what's going on with me,
but like every game we I'malways like, and it's not like
dude, I'm an English major, Iknow how to read, dog.
Like, I'm I'm not like beyondreading, and I don't know what
(20:45):
it is about video games, but I'mlike, I ain't gonna read that
shit.
And then I find myself once Ifinally like read whatever, and
then I'm like, okay, and theneverything starts to come
together because I spent thetime to read something.
Oh man.
Yeah, but I think it's funny,like it's like I haven't reached
some of this stuff, but just byreading some of the things
about different buildings andhow things work, I'm like, oh
(21:06):
man, I'm gonna get interestedbecause there's the you kind of
mentioned it a little bit, butthe whole like there's all this
technology that apparently I'llbe able to unlock later that is
powered by the rain and thestorms and stuff.
And like right now, I'd havelike little rain collectors and
whatnot that I'm not evenentirely sure what they do.
Actually, I do know what theydo, like they use for some of
the mills and other things tomake certain products, but it
(21:26):
took me a while to figure outtea and ale and things like
that, yeah.
Luke (21:29):
And then you're like, All right, I need beer.
So you like unlock the thingthat like makes you brew beer,
and then you're brewing beer,and they're like, Hey dude,
we're out of jars or likeleather sacks to put this beer,
and I'm like, dude.
What do you what do you callthose leather sacks that you
draw and drink?
Dad is such a dork, he likewould drink out of those on like
vacations and shit, like theleather wineskins or whatever.
(21:51):
Yeah.
Alex (21:52):
Sorry, I just had a dunk on dad real quick for his dorky
old man hydration back in theday.
Nah, dude, it's 100%.
And it's like all the differentbuildings you as you move on.
That's there's so many layersto this game, dude.
It's it's so deep.
And uh you you unlock newerbuildings, and then different
buildings will have differentefficiencies than others.
So you might need like planksearly game.
Like plank, like producingplanks was such a headache to me
(22:15):
until I figured out that youknow, okay, like I can make uh I
forget what they call it, butthere's like a uh like a
makeshift camp type thing whereyou can make some planks, but
then you can get a lumber mill,which helps you make uh like
produce faster planks.
You also can and lowerpriority, yeah.
Yeah, and you can alsoprioritize certain things
because like the mill will beable to allow you to make a few
(22:36):
different things, and if you areshort on planks or something
like that, you can prioritizeplanks.
There's all there's a lot ofthere's a lot of depth to this
game, like you have a lot ofcontrol over how things are
going.
Luke (22:45):
Have you ever gotten like a uh like a pub and a church and
like another function, likecity function, all up and
running in a run, or no?
Alex (22:56):
Uh no, because I uh well I mean yes and no.
Like, what do you mean?
Like, where where are yougoing?
Luke (23:03):
Just the point where like you you have all the services
and your people are just likemax happy and you're actually
just like crushing it, likebecause that does feel good.
There's been times where theypull you out the game because
it's a roguelike, yeah, yeah, itis true.
Like everyone's finallyhappening, like happy, whereas
other times I'm playing, peopleare like dying and leaving, and
I'm like, no, we need to finishthis task, get back.
(23:25):
I suppose that's how acolonization and settlement
would really work, though.
Alex (23:29):
Sir, have you um are you able to go back to uh uh to one
of your settlements after you'veleft them?
I don't think you can.
Luke (23:37):
No, I don't think you can either.
You interestingly enough, likeit's like a overboard, kind of
like a board game kind of likelook to it aesthetic.
Yeah, it's got that aestheticto it, and like you trade, like
traders come.
I wanted to talk about thetraders.
That was another thing thatkind of traders are lifelines
and just like a whole thing thatyou really are helpful.
(23:58):
But then when you set up somespecific trade routes with your
other settlements in your themain smoldering city or
whatever, like that's an elementof the game that you can take
it or leave it.
I kind of use it to completespecific missions sometimes if
I'm set up for it.
But like you trade with yourother settlements the deeper in
you go.
And then I guess we couldmention like another roguelike
(24:19):
factor is you get like a certainamount of settlements out, and
then there's a big storm, andthat wipes out that overworld
map that we just talked about.
And you start off at just thecity, and then you move out from
these tiles for your newsettlements to try to get to one
of those gates, which I canconfirm is like a special event
game that you play where youhave like different tasks.
(24:40):
You have the city's tasks, butyou also have like the gate
tasks, and then that lets youbuild more settlements slash
attempts before the big stormhappens, if that makes sense.
Interesting.
Alex (24:52):
Yeah, I'm not this far in that respect.
Again, I've been I was kind ofcurious too, because as you as
you move out on that overworldmap that I mentioned kind of
looks like Katan, or if youplayed like Civilization, like
it's very similar, like tilebase in a way.
Yeah, or written like kind ofin a way.
On that overworld map, there'syou know, it's it's kind of
similar to in-game where thingsare shrouded in in mystery,
(25:14):
they're shaded off or whatever,right?
But you have little littleinterest points that I assume
that you want to, and again, ifI probably would have done a
better job of like reading whatI was supposed to be doing,
maybe I would know why I wasgoing a certain one.
Good, you friggin' nerd, dude.
Luke (25:29):
Yeah, they're like uh modifiers to your game,
essentially.
So when you pick up like itlets me get close to the one I'm
trying to head to.
If I haven't just not likeuncovered enough of that area,
or maybe you're not closeenough, but maybe the question
mark, like if you do thehexagonal tile next to whatever
it is, you're getting the theboost or benefit or drawback,
(25:51):
whatever it happens to be in thegame, the modifier, so to
speak, and like sometimes it hasto do with affecting the biome,
sometimes it's like a blessing,so to speak, sometimes it's
like a curse or like somethingthat deals and makes it harder
for you.
So it's just kind of kind ofalways keeping it fresh, which
goes back to the roguelike partwhere if you're it kind of
(26:12):
always gives you different andnewer challenges so you don't
have to come up with them onyour own or get bored in a
sandbox, you know what I mean?
Yeah, interesting.
Like it goes away from yourtypical city building sandbox
stuff, uh, with that, which is areally cool device.
Can you w can you beat thisgame or is it go on forever?
Man, I thought about lookingthat up before this podcast, and
(26:34):
that's what a professionalwould have done.
Yeah, you don't want to spoilit for yourself either, though.
Considering the massive, I'msure, I'm sure there's some sort
of roadmap with the massive DLCand stuff.
I'm sure there's multipledifferent things, right, that
you can accomplish or do.
And I have so much more of thatlike base building stuff to do,
like all those upgrades to do,even and it's yeah, there's so
(26:55):
much so much going on.
Alex (26:57):
It's wildly complex, uh, which is part of its, you know,
part of its charm.
I that's definitely part of itscharm, but it can be a lot.
Overall, it's been a prettygreat experience, I would say.
And like I said, I wouldsomething I want to continue to
to like continue to delve into.
Like I probably I guess Iforesee this game being played
for a long time.
Luke (27:17):
Hell yeah.
If you had to rate it out of afive, category five hurricane
type storm, dude.
Which uh category?
Which category would you giveit, dude?
Alex (27:29):
Uh, you know, I'm tempted.
I'm tempted to I'm gonna I'mgonna go four.
Wow.
Luke (27:37):
All right.
I hope I hope to see youplaying it.
I hope to see those hourscreep.
That's encouraging.
I'm gonna give it a full five.
I'm not saying it's a master,I'm not saying it's a
masterpiece, like one of myfavorite games ever, but the
fact that it's so playable andenjoyable, like not just
playable, but like downrightenjoyable on the Steam Deck
(27:58):
really enhances the amount ofhours I would put into this
game.
And it is super complex, butyou do become fluid and it is
fun and fast-paced and likerefreshable enough to the point
where like if I'm goingtraveling, if I'm away from the
house, all those types ofthings, the fact that I can
bring a strategy game that killsthis much time with me.
Like, if I were on a plane,dude, I'd just crush this game
(28:19):
for two, three hours straight,and it'd be sweet.
Alex (28:22):
For sure, dude.
And when I said I was tempted,I was tempted to give it a five,
but I go for, and I'm glad yougive it a five because that
brings us to four or five, fourpoint five rather, and I don't
like doing halves, but ouraverage will bring us there, and
that's perfect, dude.
Uh what a dork.
Good 100%.
But then the and the knocks arethe knocks are purely, it's not
(28:46):
necessarily against the game,and it's actually kind of a
benefit to it.
But I I mentioned that I got Ithink it was pre pre-recording,
but I mentioned that I gotbooted from uh from a run that I
was in uh because they hadpushed through an update, which
the updates that's great.
I'm glad that they're doing theupdates, but it also means that
it's not a hundred percentthere quite yet.
(29:07):
Um, but they're working on it.
So like that's um it's it's alittle unfair for me to give
them a knock for that.
But I was bummed when I gotkicked out of like you know, a
settlement that I had spent 45minutes to an hour in.
They're like, uh, but in theirdefense, they let me keep all of
the boons that I would have gotfrom that run.
Um, I just didn't get to tofinish it.
So that's you know, that's um,you know, I think I think you
(29:30):
know, I'm I'm kind of talkingmyself into a five here, but I'm
gonna stick to my guns on theboard.
Luke (29:35):
Maybe you do a 4.5 and we give it a 4.75 average, dude.
I'd say it's sick, and mycriticisms of the game all come
with the territory, like it'sjust like it can be stressful.
Well, that's actually kind ofpart of the fun.
That's part of it, right?
Yeah, and like there's a hugelearning curve, but that also
(29:55):
means that it's in depth andthere's more and more and more
to do.
It's actually pretty, prettyeasy to learn if you give it an
hour or two.
It's faster than some of theother ones I've played, that's
for sure.
Right on, but I don't know.
Alex (30:06):
I think it's unique, dude.
I think it's unique too.
That's you know, which uh thereare a lot of these like uh city
builder strategy games, likethey got um, you know, I'm not
gonna say that there's they'renot also unique ones out there,
but I think there's this likeit's just wild to me, like the
weird story that they'veincorporated to it, and it kind
of just makes everything workand it it puts you in a nice
little situation.
Luke (30:27):
Uh roguelikes, your late 20s to 30s.
Right.
It's just roguelikes, just ourera of life.
I feel like roguelikes havethat's been like the newest,
like the coolest innovation thatgaming has done and really
focused on, I think, in the lastsince we've been podding, I
feel like, is roguelikes.
So I I like to see that one wasexecuted so well with this
(30:49):
genre mix up.
Yeah, I can dig it, man.
Alex (30:52):
With that, you want to take a little break, come back
uh with our unsectioned sponsor.
Luke (30:56):
Yes, sir.
Me and the boys, dude.
Well, the wife, the boy, thefamily and the boys, dude.
We uh met the Grinch the otherweekend.
Right on.
And we knew we were gonna meetthe Grinch.
So we had recently bought theGrinch Dr.
(31:18):
Seuss book, which he's not evengreen in the book.
So when did he become green?
Just a cartoon, I presume.
Uh yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I guess so.
The boys are at an age wherethey get really excited to like
if they learn a word and theyremember the word and they see
the word out in the wild, theyjust love to say it.
North St.
Paul.
We got a big snowman, nobody,no man, and they get super
(31:38):
pumped when we drive by.
So we watched the Grinch.
And what I wanted to watch wasJim Carrey's Grinch, but he was
kind of scary a tiny bit.
So I was like, not sure if theboys are ready for that one.
The the Grinch we met wasmodeled after that Grinch, to be
fair, but he was cool, it wasall good.
But we watched the Grinch, andI just want to shout out the Jim
(31:59):
Carrey Grinch because I lookedit up as we watched the new
Grinch, and people and criticswere hating on Jim Carrey's
Grinch.
And what the fuck?
That is the Grinch.
That movie is a top five Chrismovie all time.
Let's fucking go, dude.
This has been brought to you byJim Carrey's Grinch.
What's up?
You're here for the Grinch,Miss Dude.
Alex (32:20):
All right.
It's funny.
Luke (32:22):
Argue against it.
Try me.
Alex (32:23):
Dude, my boy's uh my boy is a year behind your boys in
age, and the Grinch is a littlemuch for him.
I tried, I was like, becauseit's you know Christmas time.
Ass book, or you're justtalking about the movie.
Oh no, I read him the book.
I I also recently picked up thebook.
I was at the old Target, and uhthey got like, dude, I was at
(32:44):
the E Dia Target because I wasout in that area.
That place is wild, dude.
I was like, dang, not alltargets a bit the same, and Idia
Target is ready for Christmas.
I will tell you what.
Fuck yeah, dude.
But they've got a whole likethey had a whole like little
miniature, not even miniature,but they had this like little
deal going on with all thesedifferent Christmas books, and I
(33:04):
was like, I'm buying, I'mbuying Elton the Grinch, I'm
gonna do this.
But I had tried watching uh thecartoon with him, like the
original cartoon.
Yeah, that's also like kind ofcrazy.
They got a lot of Grinch outthere now, dude.
They got Jim Carrey Grinch, Iagree, it's good shit, but it's
a little much for for aone-year-old to be trying to
take in a movie that long, andalso like Jim Carrey.
I mean, he he brings someenergy to that to that movie
(33:25):
that maybe not Elton not readyfor.
Luke (33:27):
It's Ron Howard directed it.
Fun fact.
Alex (33:30):
Oh, weird, yeah.
Luke (33:30):
Okay, and uh at first it kind of reminded me of like that
era Tim Burton, obviously wayturned down, but like man, he's
recently said that he would loveto be the Grinch again, but he
has to do motion capture becauseI guess putting all that makeup
and crazy stuff on wasexcruciating for him.
Uh, it's so haunted, I justlove it though.
Like, I'm uh I'm verypassionate about that Grinch.
(33:53):
The new one was cool enough,though.
It's Benedict Cumberbatch.
No, I haven't seen this newone, I've only heard about the
the new brief.
It's fine.
It's fine.
Is it live action or like theno, it's a cartoon, it's like a
nice animator.
It's like 2018 Pharrell is thenarrator.
Um interesting.
I love it.
I hear it's not as creepy.
Alex (34:10):
I hear it's not as uh no, it's more like cute anime.
Luke (34:13):
I think it's made by the same place that did uh the new
Mario movie.
Alex (34:18):
Okay, cool.
Luke (34:19):
That animator, if you know what I mean.
Yeah, Illumination or somethinglike that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So uh, you know, we who knowswhat's happening with
Unsanctioned Spox or any typicalmonth, but this one, I was
like, I just really have to capefor Jim Carrey's Grinch right
now.
And you're wearing a Santa hat,so it was all fair.
It was all fair game.
Alex (34:39):
Dude, I can dig it.
The book though, it is long.
You are you are not you areyou're not wrong about that.
I don't think it's uh so it'snot a book that I can just sit
down and read to without it onmy lap, but it is a book that I
can get to the end to with himwhen he's uh when we're putting
him when when we're doingbedtime or whatever.
Uh so that works.
Luke (34:57):
Yeah, I also am amazed how they've stretched it out into
so many movies because eventhough it's like a quote unquote
long book, like each movie haslike a different interpretation
as to what Cindy Lou's deal is.
For sure.
And in the book, she's just thekid that woke up and was like,
Why are you stealing my shit?
And he's just like, ah fixingthe tree, dude.
Yeah, and like how the movieslike explain all of that is just
(35:18):
hilarious.
Alex (35:19):
It is good, they've definitely stretched that story
out, and you're right, it's along book.
But when I it had been a longtime because we had that book
growing up, dude, and it hadbeen a long time since I
actually had read the bookproper.
Yeah, I felt like when I'veread it just recently, I got to
the end, I was like, Oh, that'sit.
Like, yeah, it's long, but likeI'm I'm used to like the the
cartoon and Jim Carrey's movieand stuff, so I was like, Well,
(35:41):
where's all this other stuff?
Luke (35:42):
Where's the part where the lady's kind of horny for the
Grinch?
Right?
Alex (35:47):
What part of the book was that, dude?
Oh man, I can dig it though.
We actually had growing up toothe uh we had the Grinch record,
which I which I pilfered frommom and dad.
It's in my my record stashright now, which is uh there's a
really great like reading ofthe Grinch story, was kind of
fun as well.
Good Christmas content rightthere, dude.
I think I have it too.
Right on the stolen one Grinchmiss.
(36:10):
Grinch miss.
Luke (36:11):
Jim Carrey, Jim Carrey Grinchmas.
Alex (36:22):
Yeah, you've been side questing, bro?
Luke (36:24):
Yeah, sorry, I was just finishing this uh who roast
beast.
Alex (36:32):
I don't actually know what this good like the little
hoobil song is, but cute cute.
Luke (36:37):
Uh yeah, um, I've just been on the nerdery.
I I'm not gonna talk about SEAAfootball, that's not allowed,
but um people on the Redditrefer to when they make up the
storylines in their head asheadcanon.
So I'm not positive if I'vesaid that on the internet
previously with you before, butI just wanted to say that uh I
appreciate that nerd taxonomy.
Headcannon?
(36:58):
Headcannon.
I just I think that's a greatway to describe just playing
sports games and coming up withweird dorky storylines all on
your own the whole time, uh,which is great fun.
Um, my other bit is that I'vebeen playing Ratchet and Clank,
the new PlayStation 5 one, buton uh the Steam Deck, which is
it's a good game for a SteamDeck, uh, which is the theme of
today's episode.
(37:18):
But it's weird because I was wewere PlayStation Boys for a hot
minute there, so all theRatchet and Kank Clanks I played
on PlayStation.
So it's weird to not have likethe high poweredness of it, but
it's not a game that trulyreally needs it.
And it's really good meat andpotatoes game of just like it's
an action 3D shooter platformerpuzzle, collect the thon or no?
(37:40):
Collect yeah, there's differentelements of that, like
upgrading and stuff.
So, like you have thesedifferent fun, wacky guns,
that's a big part of it.
One thing that I've appreciatedabout the series going back for
years is like your guns upgradebased on use, so it's like
another thing to encourage youto always be flipping around
through the goofy differentguns.
Like in the first game, I can'tremember if it was the sheep
(38:01):
and aider in the first game orthe chickenator, but like you
would turn your enemies intochickens or sheep, which back in
2004 was super cool and fun.
And the game's always done likegoofy twists like that.
You could throw out disco ballsand like all your enemies start
dancing and get distracted, andthen you mop them up.
So there's always like funarcadey stuff to do with that.
And uh now as I'm playing lateron in life, I like that like
(38:23):
cycle of upgrading your guns andlike upgrading them both
through resources and upgradingthrough use, and it's just
really addicting and fun andcool, and like you know, I don't
have to think much when I playit.
I just lay down and I play somenice wholesome ratchet and
clank, and I know the storygoing on in that game, sure.
And it's and it's fine, andit's got some silly cheeky
(38:45):
humor, and uh, it's just likeexploring a map, running into
enemies, just the whole loop isso familiar and good and still
fresh.
That uh good game, dude.
What are you side questing on?
What do you got for me?
Alex (39:00):
Yeah, man, I got some side quests, and we uh we bowed not,
I don't know, we bowed, but wemade a kind of a gentleman
handshake across the internetnot to talk about our sports
games, but you weaseled inthere, so I'm gonna weasel in my
2K experience.
I got the new 2K, bro.
Uh if it's new though, you cantalk about it because I'm
curious.
Luke (39:17):
Did you did they upgrade anything?
Is anything new, or is this aroster refresh?
Alex (39:21):
Are there new definitely a roster refresh?
There is some elements to thegameplay proper that uh I'm used
to now.
It took me a little bit.
The way that you shoot is alittle bit different, so like uh
seems to be, yeah.
Yeah, so like the three-pointshots uh nerfed a little bit in
this game.
It's a big thing that they theydid uh because in 2K24 uh they
(39:45):
made it a little too easy to hitthrees.
So they've nerfed that a littlebit with the with the timing.
Uh they have added a ton ofmotion capture animation to that
is specific to players likeplaystyles and and games.
So what that's reallydifferent, players feel a lot
different.
You run around, it's like crazybecause it's not something that
(40:08):
I noticed while playing 2K24,but juxtaposing the two 24 feels
a little bit arcady with howfast you can sprint around the
court.
Uh, whereas like there's anelement to that here, but each
of the players they play likethe players in in real life,
more so because they've spent somuch time getting those
(40:28):
animations down.
So, like their dribbleanimations, uh, the way they
move, the way they take theirshots, etc.
But you can't just like I don'tknow, it's a little bit more
finesse going on in this game.
Luke (40:38):
Uh, funny thought, but like the funniest thing about
sports games is that the newerthey get, the slower.
Yeah, like the more advanced itis.
Like, I've been saying the gamein a good way feels slower
since like ever.
Every new game is always like,well, it's a little slower than
I remember, and it's but that'slike a good thing because it
looks more lifelike and human,right?
(41:00):
So you saying that kind ofgeeked me out because I was
like, no way, they keep it.
Yeah, it's true.
It's it's uh that is definitelythe case.
What's the emphasis on?
Is it on like my team?
Is it on park stuff?
Like, what are they pushing youto?
Alex (41:12):
I'm sure they changed a bunch of that bullshit.
Uh they probably did a bunch ofthat.
I always like I just don't playthat though.
I I do my I do my uh seasons,like I do my you know, my air.
They they've got what I like inthat game.
My pocket is within the eras,so like I I set up my team, I
play through a season, I do theplayoffs.
Like, that's just that's myshit.
Luke (41:30):
I feel so I feel like such an old man when I'm like, Yeah,
I played GM mode or likedynasty mode through the years,
and I'm just I'm offline, butit's fine.
And then I talk to you, andyou're like, I'm doing seasons.
Alex (41:42):
Oh, they don't even call it seasons anymore, though.
But like essentially that'swhat it is, it's more or less
the GM mode type thing that youdo, and like I do a little less
of that stuff because you canget in the weeds uh with that
stuff on a tree.
Luke (41:53):
I don't even fuck with that dude.
I just play.
That's what I'm saying.
You do you do a seasoning?
Don't hit me with them drafts,young man.
Alex (41:59):
You know what's funny is I'll play through a shortened
full season and I will playthrough the playoffs, and then I
will re-I don't even continuebecause you can continue, I'll
just restart because I'm moreinterested in playing with the
folks like the the players thatI have for the current season in
the Timberwolves.
Sure.
Are you playing other gamestoo?
I am indeed.
Uh so you know it's that timeof year, dude.
So we got Steam sales, we gotBlack Friday, etc.
(42:22):
So I picked up a couple gamesover the past couple weeks here.
Uh, one of those games that Ipicked up on the cheap is a
recent one, Robocop.
Robocop.
What's this about?
So Robocop is a triple, whatwould it be?
Not triple A, it's a double-Agame.
Can't even remember who put itout.
I've actually never seenRobocop, but I've heard some
I've heard some rumblings aboutthis game being uh really true
(42:44):
to the source material.
A lot of people that are bigRoboCop fans loving the game,
and dude, it's fun, man.
Uh I've been playing on theSteam Deck primarily, but it
works great on on both the SteamDeck and the you know and the
PC, obviously.
It's a first person shooter,but it has um it has RPG
elements to it, so you go aroundand you like kind of increase
your your Robocops like stats,that kind of thing.
(43:06):
So like a boomer shooter typeof thing, vibe.
Uh yes and no.
Like I wouldn't yes, but it'slike I don't know.
I would I wouldn't say it's aboomer shooter, but it's
definitely a shooter.
You know, it's a little bitmore polished than what I would
consider.
It doesn't have the similar artstyle, it's a little bit more
realistic, uh, than like a lotof what I consider to a boomer
(43:26):
shooter to be.
The fun thing about it that sofar is that you are pretty you
move pretty slowly, like youknow, Robocop is from what I do
know about him.
I mean, he's not sprintingaround the place, he's like a
big like Android type thing,right?
Yeah, and and you feel that inthe game.
You like you feel a littleslow, you can move faster by
like this sprint thing orwhatever, which like the the way
(43:49):
you move around, it's it's it'sinteresting, like how it works.
And I've been having some funwith that one.
And then I also recently pickedup, I finally pulled the
trigger, I wanted caught thelamb on uh for my switch for a
long time, and it's only 20bucks.
But I like just haven't forwhatever I've been like waiting
for a deeper sale, and I don'tknow if it'll ever come because
Black Friday came around andthey're like Black Friday sale.
(44:10):
And I was like, That's what youalways sell it for, which is
like which is like the funnything about Black Friday these
days.
Uh, but I I didn't get a ton oftime into that, but that's a
really fun one, dude.
Like, um, it feels a lot likeuh Turnip Boy in a in a way,
like mixed with Animal Crossing.
Um, so like that's that one'skind of cool too.
And then the other big news,dude, is that I we we gave up
(44:34):
Game Pass some time ago, andI've uh a couple months back, I
reached a threshold because Iwas buying the games that are on
Game Pass that I wanted to bepart of my Xbox collection.
So, like Starfield, Forza, thattype of thing, like games that
you can play on Game Pass, but Ididn't want Game Pass anymore.
But I wanted to have thosegames, like I feel like those
(44:56):
are cornerstones of the Xboxlike experience, right?
Sure, yeah.
So I wanted to have those, andit's interesting because that
put me into a that put me into aspot now where I have enough
Xbox games physical, but the waythat these new systems work is
like they don't play off likewhereas your Switch is actually
playing games off the cart.
It's not the case withPlayStation and Xbox.
(45:17):
They're taking the entire allthat information on the disc and
they're loading it straight tothe hard drive of your system.
And it has to do with likethat's how we get the uh quick
resume and the the quick loadtimes and stuff because you're
not playing off the disc, you'replaying off your system.
That also means my Xbox, I gotthe Series X, and I've only got
X amount of space.
I think it's like uh twoterabytes, maybe or one
(45:38):
terabyte.
I don't remember.
I have enough games now where Idon't have enough space on my
Xbox to keep all the games onthere.
So I ended up buying theexpansion thing, the terabyte
expansion that you can plug intothe back of it.
Oh word, and with that came afree month of Game Pass.
Oh, so you're playing indie.
Indeed.
(45:59):
Nah, so that's like that is theprimary game on Game Pass that
I'm happy to have this freemonth, and I might end up just
buying indie because having GamePass back and having you know
Halo and some of these othergames that I consider
cornerstone pieces of the Xboxexperience, I have no desire to
keep Game Pass, dude.
(46:19):
Like the thing, the caveatbeing Indiana Jones, and like
and the beauty of Game Pass isbeing able to dabble and see
some games before buying, right?
Let's being able to give alittle taste.
But like, dude, as far as thelibrary goes, I've been able to
go through my favorite thingabout Game Pass is being able to
stream those games onto mySteam Deck, and then also to
being able to dabble in stuffthat maybe I wouldn't be able to
(46:41):
try unless you kind of give alittle sampler of everything.
But I I can't justify a $30 amonth spend or what is it.
Is that what it is now?
I think it might be 20.
But like I can't can't justifya 20-ish dollar a month spend to
keep to keep Game Pass becausethe vast majority of the games
on Game Pass I either don't careabout or I have I already have,
(47:03):
or I already have becausethey're available through like
epics free games and things likethat.
Like a lot of them are alwayshanded out for free on for PC.
But what about Diablo 4, dude?
Well, see, but Diablo 4 wouldbe a purchase, but I want to go
back and play Diablo 1 firstbecause I've never beat Diablo
1.
And shout out to the main questpodcast, which is back.
(47:25):
They just covered Diablo, andthat has me horny for Diablo,
dude.
I am trying to play someDiablo, uh horny for Diablo,
yeah.
Uh and I and I have Diablo, Ihave it on Gog.
And I I did fire that up too.
It's another little mini sidequest.
That's a game that, like, dude,it's um it's see, like I I
(47:48):
would be tempted to have us playit, but I know that you've kind
of moved away from the mouseand uh the mouse and keyboard,
and it is definitely a mousegame.
Like, I feel like I've heardthat the PlayStation port, and
then likely there's likelypatches where you can use a
controller, uh, which means youcould likely get it rocking on
your Steam deck, but um, nooffense, but like there would be
some tinkering probably thatneed to be done that I don't
(48:11):
expect you to do.
Luke (48:13):
He thinks I'm thick, he's right.
Um, but yeah, Diablo.
I mean, I would probably do itjust uh Diablo's a game where
you kind of just gotta figureout what's the deal with at a
certain point of your life.
So totally uh I'm gonna getfour for the Steam Deck, but um
at some point I wouldn't mindplaying some Diablo, so I
(48:34):
understand the deal, you knowwhat I mean?
Alex (48:36):
Right.
But dude, Indiana Jones, youbring up in that game I played
about 45 minutes of, I wouldsay, and it's it's cool.
Like I've been reading the umreviews and everything like
that.
It's a lot of people loving it,and I can see why.
It's uh it's got some reallygood graphics going on, like the
voice acting is actually quitegood.
The graphics are great.
Um, I think you know it's beena while since Xbox had a win,
(48:59):
and I would say Indiana Jones isjust that.
Luke (49:03):
Yeah, um that's cool to hear.
I wish listed it because I knowmyself, and I'm not gonna Xbox
Game Pass.
Maybe, maybe, maybe you'll giveme good.
I'm gonna see if these gamescome on sale first.
Alex (49:15):
Um the game pass is I just don't see it being in my life
past like the you know, becauseI'm able to get this free month,
I'm like, of course, like I'lluse that for like but I want to
play flat simulator 24.
No, you don't, it's trash.
Oh no, it's not good, dude.
I'll tell you why, becausethere's no US Bank Stadium.
US Bank Stadium's been inMinneapolis for eight years, and
(49:38):
they still haven't integratedinto the map.
It's like, come on, I realizewe're flyover country, but fuck
off Xbox, fuck off Microsoft.
Luke (49:44):
Is everywhere just behind, or just certain pockets are
behind?
Alex (49:48):
I'm sure New York is updated.
I'm sure, I'm sure LA's likecool, but Minneapolis, they they
like how you not have US BankStadium.
Luke (49:57):
Well, that was a bummer.
I remember showing that topeople and they're like, where's
US Bank?
I'm like, I don't know.
On the last game, but this gameyou're supposed to like it had
the jobs-based, like flightjobs-based element to it.
So I thought that looked cool.
Did you try that?
Alex (50:12):
Uh, I haven't yet.
No, I just set up a flight tofire on Minneapolis, and then I
was pissed off that US Bankwasn't there.
And well, it's all burnt down,dude.
What the hell are you talkingabout?
Oh, Minneapolis, yeah, yeah,yeah, yeah.
You know, there's nothing tosee.
They're just that's what itused to be, man.
I'm gonna look out my window.
Yep, checks out.
(50:33):
Diablo's been here.
Diablo.
Oh man, so it's uh it is abeautiful game.
Like, of course, that that isstill the case, but I was just
gonna put out a forest fire andthen you get back to me.
Luke (50:46):
All right, yeah, that's fair.
Alex (50:47):
Those game, those that the those new gameplay access uh
aspects do look cool, so Ihaven't deleted it off my Xbox
yet.
I will I will play it a littlebit more before my trial is up
or whatever you want to call it.
My gotta use up all themterabytes, Doc.
Come on.
Yeah, dude.
It's crazy, man.
These games, like I have anextra terabyte, and I've already
(51:08):
like with all the with all mygames, like I'm already up to
85% full again.
Luke (51:12):
Uh, you can reveal next month's game, but I downloaded
it right because we bought thediscs because they were on sale
specifically on the disc, whichis always an interesting part of
Black Friday.
Um, but it was a 72 gig filesize.
Alex (51:27):
I was like, yeah, yeah, and that's like that's kind of
like hard.
That's actually kind of smallfor for a Series X game these
days, dude.
Like, I guess.
Uh and that game is, and thegame we'll be playing.
And for folks that have beenfor the past what year and a
half, two years, just going,man, I wonder what the lo-fi
boys think about.
Fucking what's the game we'replaying?
Luke (51:48):
Elden Ring.
Alex (51:51):
If you're wondering what they think about Elden Ring,
they can't even remember whatthat game's called.
No, dude, we're we're finallyjumping in.
Luke (51:57):
Two worst people to play the game, dads.
We'll find out how it works.
No interruptions.
Alex (52:04):
I'm stoked though.
You but dude, Elden Ring, EldenRing's on the docket.
I'm excited.
If you haven't played EldenRing yet, if you're like us and
you've just been waiting, yeah,hit that Discord.
Let's talk about it.
In fact, you know, even if youhave played and you just want to
revisit it, you just want totalk to me, you want to catch
our insights before we talkabout it.
You join that Discord.
Don't put you out therelistening.
(52:24):
We love that, we love you.
Hit that Discord.
And before signing off, ace.
Luke (52:58):
Oh.
You're the freshest savedSanta.
Oh wow.
That's a you're the freshestshaved Santa I've ever done,
mate.
I'm not gonna do that intro.
That was bad.
That was bad.
Ah, Trisha, who's not payingattention, just down there
laughing at me, dude.
This is brutal.
Alex (53:21):
I swear I've been podcasting for two or three
years now.
Luke (53:24):
Right, but fresh shaved Shanna, all right?
That's a hard one for me tosay.
It's like customer.
Yeah, that's not easy.
See, all right, so there we go.
That's why you've got a beard.
Yeah, the fresh shaved is a isa tough transition.
Hello, hello.
It's just it's just uh infectedmy brain now.
(53:44):
Can I get up and do some dummyjacks or something, dude?
Like now I'm gonna
Welcome and hello to Low Five Gaming.
I am Luke, and this is myco-host and brother, Alex.
Yeah, what up, bro?
How you doing, Santa man?
You got cute little hat.
We love it here.
Alex (00:32):
Ho ho ho.
I'm doing well, Doug.
I'm doing well.
I do have my Santa hat ontoday.
It is December, bro.
Luke (00:39):
It is December.
And uh, you know, we'regathered here today to deck the
halls and play games, dude.
I don't know what to say there.
The Santa theme only can go sofar with me.
But uh, we are here to talkabout against the storm.
Yeah, I tell you what, man,things have been going good, but
the rain's coming.
The rain is coming, not thesame.
Alex (00:59):
I got my I got my folk making more freaking raincoats
and shit.
I got the tavern going.
Luke (01:05):
You got your production chain popping.
Yeah, you got your productionchain popping.
Uh yeah, you know, this is uhyou do a few for them and then
you do you do one for youoccasionally.
And this is you know, when weget into niche retro, future
retro games, we're in the Alexzone, and when we're doing some
grimy ass city builder typestrategy games, we're in the
(01:25):
we're in the Luke zone, and herewe are, man.
How'd you do?
Alex (01:28):
How'd you survive good times?
I feel like I'm firmly inLuke's pocket, that's how I
feel.
Yeah, but uh not good, man.
I uh I do love this type ofgame uh as well.
Uh you I would say in ouryouth, like it was something
that I was like super into thesereal-time strategy type games,
uh, with you kind of over myover my shoulder watching, uh,
(01:48):
and then you kind of you knowtook a you you run with them.
I would say I would say that inour adult life you you have
given yourself fully to the RTS.
Luke (01:59):
And this one's like even more like niche city kind of
builder-like, but also uh needsto be mentioned that this is
firmly within the realm of gameswhere if you're playing it
before you go to bed, I'll wakeup and have like weird obsessive
thoughts about this game andhow things are going.
So just a general warning thatuh, you know, if you want some
weird psychotic half dreams,this is the type of game to get
(02:20):
your brain working a littleharder and addicting.
Against it is addicting, dude.
Alex (02:26):
It also, I'm not gonna lie, it uh it gets my anxiety
going from time to time.
Luke (02:31):
Yeah, you know, and it's a different it's got some cool
mechanics into it that make iteven more stressful.
Uh, not in a bad way, more of astrategy way.
But we'll get into that in alittle bit.
Uh so if you're like, hey, whatis Against the Storm?
It is produced or developed byEmirate Games, uh, not the
United Arab Emirates or SaudiArabia or anything like that.
(02:51):
You can see where you mightthink that though.
And published by Hooded HorsePublishers, which they have some
cool other nerdy strategy gamesI've enjoyed in the past as
well.
Like Old World is a really coolCiv competitor made from the
guy who um was like the lead onCiv 4.
So if you're an old headstrategy pro, you might be into
Old World if you haven't heardof it yet.
(03:11):
And then a super niche anddeeply nerdy, awesome Soviet
game about communism citybuilding.
And lastly, Manner Lords, whichwas like a pretty big smash hit
through Xbox Game Pass and suchwithin the last year or so.
So yeah, well known for thiszone, um, as released back in
2023.
You and I talked earlier.
There's a big DLC that hasdropped that uh has boosted its
(03:34):
recent popularity too.
Right.
And it's had frequent updatesthat just keep adding free
content to the game as well,which I think is pretty awesome.
Alex (03:43):
Yeah, it's cool.
It was fun to see.
I mean, we're you know nearingthe end of the year, and I
didn't know much about thisgame.
I was I think you maybe hadmentioned it to me, or maybe
that you were like I don't know,curious about it.
Right.
So uh so it's cool, you know.
You you actually gifted to meon Steam.
Thanks for that, bro.
That's tight.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
You know, but you know, so itwas it was fun to to get into it
(04:07):
and like learn a little bitmore about it.
Definitely fun to play thegame.
I I think I was telling youoff, Mike, that this is one of
those games where I poured uhnot a ton of time into it.
It's one of those games that Iput about 10 to 12 hours into it
for this pod.
Of course, I was peaking onyour hours, so I know that you
put in about three times that.
Luke (04:25):
Yeah, just got over 30.
Uh, it's funny, I play italmost exclusively on the Steam
Deck though.
So, like there's some timeswhere I've thought I've played
upwards of 50 because you leaveit on sleep, and then for a
second it says so.
I thought I had like some crazyhours at once.
I was like, I wasn't timetraveling that hard.
Alex (04:41):
But uh, you know, I bring it up though, like the the time
put in though, because one,you're right, it is a one of
those time traveling games whereyou get into the groove and
you're like, oh shit, like uh afew hours has passed, it's time
for me to shut this thing down.
Yeah, uh, but more so it is agame that I feel like I have
finally started to wrap my headaround how to do things.
(05:03):
It took a few hours to, andthat's that's pretty typical of
uh you know a city builder-esquetype game like this.
Um, starting to feel morecomfortable with the things that
I'm doing, also realizing thatI am only just scraping the
surface.
I think that this game lendsitself to hours and hours of
gameplay.
It is reductive, but true thatthis game is considered a
(05:25):
roguelike city builder, I thinkI've heard floating around the
internet.
Luke (05:28):
Yeah, so my description is actually handheld tactical city
building roguelike.
That's what I wrote down.
Yeah, that I feel like thatcrystallizes it.
And uh, if you read on itssteamy page, they would tell you
that it's a dark fantasy sildercity builder where you must
rebuild civilization in the faceof apocalyptic rains as the
Queen's Viceroy lead humans,beavers.
(05:50):
Did you think those werebeavers before you read it?
Or were you like the fuckinglittle uh I mean I can see the
beaver thing, but it's more likea dwarf, it had door vibe for
me.
So when I first read those werebeavers after seeing the art, I
was quite confused.
But anyway, lizard foxes andharpies to reclaim the
wilderness and secure a future.
Um, it's a pretty crazy game,pretty obscure, but yes,
(06:13):
roguelike city builder iscorrect, which is two genres
that aren't often mixedtogether.
No, um, so that's kind of partof why, and the setting is cool,
like as much as I, you know.
Alex (06:24):
Yeah, there's uh definitely like an overarching
story to it that that brings itall together and kind of works
like there's this weird you'rethe viceroy in the sense that
you're like going out and you'reI don't know what you say, you
like you're the going onexpeditions, they call them to
close gates or something.
Luke (06:40):
Uh the Dark Fantasy does some it just kind of helps set
up the gameplay loop, which isyou know, you go on these little
runs essentially like you wouldin a roguelike, but you know,
city builders can get and Idon't know if it's fair to call
them little dude, like yeah.
Alex (06:55):
I have no time runs, yeah, right.
Luke (06:59):
And I think in the in the world of a city builder, though,
like in City Skylines 2, I'veprobably pumped 10 hours into
highway traffic of one run.
So, like in this, like a runprobably takes you about an
hour, hour and a half.
Um, right, but a scale, yeah,it is medium, but it gets
gnarly.
Alex (07:16):
You're not wrong, which is weird though, dude.
Like, and that that's whatmakes this game so much
different for me, anyways,compared to different city
builder real-time strategy gamesthat I've played, in the sense
that you pour an hour, an hourand a half time into making your
your new expedition, your newlike city work, and then you
basically accomplish the featthat you set out for on that
(07:36):
run, and they're like, Okay,come back to you know, come back
and let's do it all over again.
And it's like, whoa, whoa,whoa, you can you can mind you,
you can choose to continuerocking and rolling with it,
yeah.
Luke (07:46):
But like that that's or the first couple of times for
Zen and like fluidity, butthere's I think it'd be helpful
if you're a listener who hasn'tplayed the game or watched a
video.
Um, I think about it a lot whenI play it, is there's three
main gameplay loops.
There's like keeping your dudesalive, building up your typical
production chains.
Like you made a joke earlierabout getting coats, but like
(08:07):
getting the preferred type ofmeats, keeping them happy,
keeping them alive becausethere's different events that
keep happening in the game andlike storms and like bad things.
So that's like the one of themain loops.
Then there's like a constantexploration task type of loop.
You send your loggers out andyou clear and you find these
things called glades or likeareas in whatever generated map
(08:27):
you're in with the differentbiomes.
Getting pretty niche here, butit's helpful.
Um so there's that aspect whereyou're like you're completing
tasks to complete your mission,which is keeping that, you know,
getting enough points orwhatever to complete the mission
and quote unquote build thesettlement, versus what they
call impatience, which is likethis ticking clock that you can
(08:47):
slow down or revert.
But this ticking clock wheresometimes you like literally
fail said mission, you don'testablish the colony.
And regardless of your outcome,though, it feeds back into the
third loop, which is like theoverworld.
You come back to that afterwinning or failing, and you give
like these resources that youcome back with you as a reward,
and then you build up differentupgrades, kind of build up your
(09:09):
keep essentially, and likethings that go out into those
expeditions, and that's wherethe roguelike part comes in
because you're constantly havingthese missions, these
settlements, and then you'rebringing it back and you're
upgrading all these differentsystems back home.
And let me just breathe afterthat one.
But I felt like it's gonna bereally helpful to people
enjoying listening to this gameand what we're going about and
(09:30):
doing.
Alex (09:31):
100%, dude.
For the people, the quick plotbreakdown from the wiki.
This game is set in a fantasyworld eternally ravaged by the
blightstorm.
The only safe haven in thisworld is the smoldering city
ruled by the scorched queen.
Occasionally the stormsubsides, and the scorched queen
sends her viceroys to establishsettlements with the purpose of
gathering supplies for thesmoldering city until the blight
(09:52):
storm hits again, destroyingall settlements in the process.
Luke (09:57):
Yeah, so you do those three things, and it's done.
That's your little predicting,and it's kind of hard.
And I've been playing it for 30hours, as you said earlier.
And even to this point, likethere's entirely new systems
that the game's like, you'reready for this now.
And I'm like, No, no, I'm not.
Alex (10:14):
I do feel that this is a game I'll keep in my rotation uh
for quite some time because,like I was saying, I have only
scratched the surface, I cantell there's more to it, and it
is an addicting game loop.
Like, I do like going in, and Ido feel that um there's a
there's a lot to be squeezed outof this game.
Are you playing on your desktopor the steamed?
Luke (10:33):
Both, uh, but I do prefer playing on the desktop, if I'm
being honest.
Oh, really?
Oh, because part of the reasonthat it's gonna remain in my
rotation, and then one of thereasons I picked it because I've
specifically heard this gameruns really well and was
optimized uh really well on theSteam Deck.
And a Steam Deck verified.
I'm pretty nerdy about mystrategy games, so you'd think
the Steam Deck would help mewith that.
(10:54):
A lot of the games I'm into arevery mouse-centric, and like,
yeah, you can get an attachmentfor the Steamy D, but like
laying in bed, I'm not trying toalso bust out the mouse.
Sure.
So this game, dude, runs sonice on the Steam Deck.
It's gonna get some extra playfor me simply because it
scratches a specific itchcombined with the handheld.
I can be like a time traveling,grimy strat city building nerd
(11:19):
boy in bed.
Alex (11:21):
Nah, I feel you 100%.
They they optimize it quitewell uh for the Steam Deck, and
it utilizes actually all of theaspects of the Steam Deck
nicely, including the trackpads.
Yeah, so the trackpads isactually the most I probably use
a trackpad on the Steam Deck,and it just works so well.
Yeah, um, so I I'd have to givekudos to them for figuring that
out.
It does super work reallynicely.
(11:41):
But that said, uh, I do I meanit's it's still a real-time
strategy game, and it's stilllike very nice with the with the
mouse, uh tell you what.
Luke (11:51):
Yeah, and I'm sure like looking around the map, and
yeah, I should do it on heretoo, just to let like just to
know what it just to know whatthe next level is, man.
Like if I play it on like ahigher difficulty, because then
you just like the rewards foreach run or settlement are
scaled based on the difficultyyou're playing on.
Alex (12:08):
So, like I have the tendency to be pretty anal and
pretty like particular aboutthese things.
So, like for me, uh once I likefigured out how to set up these
camps in in little cities,whatever these um then I was
like, okay, well, now I wantthem to look pretty and I want
my paths to like go the rightway and like that kind of thing.
You lay down baths likeconsistently.
Oh, hell yeah, dude.
You got to it.
(12:28):
It speeds up the uh speeds upthe time that you guys like take
to get to two and from whenthey're collecting resources and
shit.
Luke (12:34):
It's so chaotic for me because those missions I talked
about.
There's like the missions arecrucial for surviving, quite
literally, to get like thepoints to move on, but also like
you get the crown essentiallylike sends you a bunch of
supplies for completing missionsto help your little fledging
settlement.
A lot of times, what the map isgiving me, because it's
randomly generated, right?
What the map versus what I needfor the mission versus what I
(12:57):
need to keep my villagers happyare all frustratingly a little
different.
Uh, when you first played, it'salmost like the deck building
ones, how you have differentcards that like do different
like abilities and things,because like you have to select
which upgrade or package you'regonna get all the time.
So, like with the buildingsthat you need to do the
different tasks, do you wait forthe missions before you start
(13:21):
picking those?
Or were you just picking thosebased on what's around you?
Uh that that was a big turningpoint to surviving for me was to
waiting on all those upgradesand choices to figure things out
first.
Alex (13:33):
Yeah, it kind of depends.
Like, as I've learned thisgame, because it over time, like
because I think they kind ofthrow you in.
It's not super, it's it's it'stricky overwhelming, right?
Because like I was like, I getit, I it was happening.
Then I would probably be 45minutes into my settlement, like
this is fucking likeridiculous.
I don't know what's going onhere, and slammed by events,
yeah.
Totally, but then you start tolearn once you learn, and once
(13:56):
you learn, like if you hoverover buildings and stuff, or you
hover over resources, it tellsyou what buildings, you know,
then the little info bubble thatpops up or whatever will tell
you what buildings you can useto extract those resources, and
like you start to figure out howto get the game to work for
you.
Uh, but to answer yourquestion, I have a better
relationship with those cardsthan I used to because that
(14:16):
they're on a timer, so theyunlock as you go through.
I can't remember the the fullnumber, but you basically get
two to three at a time that youget to select, and then they
give you three options where youget to choose.
And it took me a while torealize, okay, I can look at
this and I can figure out, okay,I know that my map has this
type of thing, or I'll see thatlike they're asking you to do a
(14:38):
certain thing or like have acertain amount of items, and
then I can realize, well, Ialready have you know 75% of the
items I need for thisparticular task, so I'm gonna go
with that one because I know Ican accomplish it.
Or I realize that if they'reasking me to do something that
there it's gonna be a long asstime before I have the buildings
that I need to produce acertain thing that they're
asking for in this task, so I'mnot gonna go with that because
(15:00):
it doesn't make sense for me.
But that was a learningexperience.
Luke (15:03):
It's a learning curve, and that's kind of why the whole
like roguelike you do asettlement and maybe your
settlement fails, maybe youpass, but regardless, you're
moving on, even if you'recrushing it, you're moving on.
I think that makes the learningcurve, and then you go back to
the settlement, do your fuckingupgrades, and then you're kind
of excited about how theupgrades are gonna help you the
next run.
(15:23):
So that's why the the themarriage between the roguelike
elements and the city building,it's a unique, it's a unique
combo.
And this podcast was gonnacover a game like that because
we have covered a decent chunkof roguelikes, or at least in
our side questing and stuff,sure.
And we uh we are not afraid ofthat or a city builder.
So what do you think is reallynot a crazy game?
Alex (15:44):
100%, dude.
I think an interesting part ofthis gameplay loop too is that
you get dropped on your map andyou have a certain you're in
confined to a certain amount ofspace and you're surrounded by
wooded areas, and you you sendyour logger camps out, and you
basically there's thesedifferent pockets that you can
see.
They're they're covered, uh,they're shrouded in mystery, and
they might tell you thatthere's like some sort of danger
over there, right?
(16:05):
Yeah, and it might it might bemarked that there is no danger,
it's just a pocket.
And then when you when you logthe trees and enter that area,
it reveals that part of the map,and then each one will either
have new resources or it'll havelike a new task or a new like
challenge within that I thoughtwas really interesting.
Luke (16:21):
Yeah, yeah, it's spicy and uh very stressful, but once
again, big rewards forcompleting the tasks, and you
have to like send your villagersout specifically to either
gather the materials uh separatethan like resource, it's like
crates essentially, or likecombating something, and
sometimes it's cool when youlike rebuild structures that
helps you like with the benefitswithin the map.
(16:43):
So, yeah, you're doing like alot of different crazy stuff in
the game.
So I really like it, but I cansee where strategy games already
take like a few hours of stressbefore you have even the
smallest amount of fun.
This game is definitely notsaved from that.
So things you're frustratedabout, like that's gotta be it,
dude.
Alex (17:01):
It's funny, and you know, I meant I'll mention again, like
the you know, I I basicallystarted to get the hang of
things feeling good about it,and then it will, and I'm not
even to a point like I knowbecause I've seen the overworld
map, and like I've only unveileda little bit of it, so I know
there's gonna be more and moreto do.
I know that you mentioned thatthere's more characters.
I basically had the I just I'mstill sitting with the main
(17:23):
three the humans, the beavers,and the lizards.
So I think you you listed offthere's two more.
Is that right?
Luke (17:29):
Yes.
Um, I have the harpies, I thinkI no, I have the foxes too, and
I think that maybe even withthe update, there might it's
update of the DLC.
There's like another race aswell.
Um, so it keeps keeps gettingdeeper and deeper, right?
Alex (17:45):
So that's just it, dude.
Like, I know for a fact thateven though I finally got my my
head wrapped around what I'mdoing, kind of in this like base
level stuff, it's gonna justkeep slapping me with more
layers of gameplay, which is onepart exciting and one part like
a little bit of anxietydriving, because I'm like, oh
man, or it's anxiety inducingrather, because it's like, oh
man, this game is like it's justgonna hit me with like more
(18:06):
complex stuff as I keep going.
But but that's also kind offun, you know.
Luke (19:08):
Yeah, no.
If it was back in the day too,like when I was a little
teenager, I probably would havegotten all to the deep, deep,
nitty-gritty.
But you know what?
I didn't think I was gonnaspend the insane amount of hours
in Slay the Spire that I did,and here we are.
So sometimes sometimes the gamestarts off and you don't think
you'll be there, and then itkind of kind of hooks you with
different stuff.
(19:28):
But there's like a whole blightsystem that I got introduced to
like 10-15 hours back, and I'vejust ignored.
So is that the blight stormstuff where you have to pay
attention to how the storm'sworking, or um it's like you
connect like these geysers,geysers, geysers, not geysers,
silliness.
At least that correctly.
Yeah, at least I knew somegeysers that like connect up
(19:53):
some water system to like somesteampunk stuff, because it's
like dark fantasy, and there's athere's like a steampunk, steam
engine type element that boostsyour efficiency, but like this
thing called blight, which isthis corruption, so you have to
balance that.
To me, that just sounds deeplyoverwhelming on top of
everything else we've beentalking about.
But maybe on a higherdifficulty, like that,
(20:15):
efficiency is so key that it's aworthy gamble.
So insane depth.
Alex (20:22):
I think it's you know, even by because it took me quite
a few hours before I startedgoing in and reading reading
what my different buildings weresupposed to be doing and making
that connection and resourcesand everything.
And it's like, dude, I don'tknow what's going on with me,
but like every game we I'malways like, and it's not like
dude, I'm an English major, Iknow how to read, dog.
Like, I'm I'm not like beyondreading, and I don't know what
(20:45):
it is about video games, but I'mlike, I ain't gonna read that
shit.
And then I find myself once Ifinally like read whatever, and
then I'm like, okay, and theneverything starts to come
together because I spent thetime to read something.
Oh man.
Yeah, but I think it's funny,like it's like I haven't reached
some of this stuff, but just byreading some of the things
about different buildings andhow things work, I'm like, oh
(21:06):
man, I'm gonna get interestedbecause there's the you kind of
mentioned it a little bit, butthe whole like there's all this
technology that apparently I'llbe able to unlock later that is
powered by the rain and thestorms and stuff.
And like right now, I'd havelike little rain collectors and
whatnot that I'm not evenentirely sure what they do.
Actually, I do know what theydo, like they use for some of
the mills and other things tomake certain products, but it
(21:26):
took me a while to figure outtea and ale and things like
that, yeah.
Luke (21:29):
And then you're like, All right, I need beer.
So you like unlock the thingthat like makes you brew beer,
and then you're brewing beer,and they're like, Hey dude,
we're out of jars or likeleather sacks to put this beer,
and I'm like, dude.
What do you what do you callthose leather sacks that you
draw and drink?
Dad is such a dork, he likewould drink out of those on like
vacations and shit, like theleather wineskins or whatever.
(21:51):
Yeah.
Alex (21:52):
Sorry, I just had a dunk on dad real quick for his dorky
old man hydration back in theday.
Nah, dude, it's 100%.
And it's like all the differentbuildings you as you move on.
That's there's so many layersto this game, dude.
It's it's so deep.
And uh you you unlock newerbuildings, and then different
buildings will have differentefficiencies than others.
So you might need like planksearly game.
Like plank, like producingplanks was such a headache to me
(22:15):
until I figured out that youknow, okay, like I can make uh I
forget what they call it, butthere's like a uh like a
makeshift camp type thing whereyou can make some planks, but
then you can get a lumber mill,which helps you make uh like
produce faster planks.
You also can and lowerpriority, yeah.
Yeah, and you can alsoprioritize certain things
because like the mill will beable to allow you to make a few
(22:36):
different things, and if you areshort on planks or something
like that, you can prioritizeplanks.
There's all there's a lot ofthere's a lot of depth to this
game, like you have a lot ofcontrol over how things are
going.
Luke (22:45):
Have you ever gotten like a uh like a pub and a church and
like another function, likecity function, all up and
running in a run, or no?
Alex (22:56):
Uh no, because I uh well I mean yes and no.
Like, what do you mean?
Like, where where are yougoing?
Luke (23:03):
Just the point where like you you have all the services
and your people are just likemax happy and you're actually
just like crushing it, likebecause that does feel good.
There's been times where theypull you out the game because
it's a roguelike, yeah, yeah, itis true.
Like everyone's finallyhappening, like happy, whereas
other times I'm playing, peopleare like dying and leaving, and
I'm like, no, we need to finishthis task, get back.
(23:25):
I suppose that's how acolonization and settlement
would really work, though.
Alex (23:29):
Sir, have you um are you able to go back to uh uh to one
of your settlements after you'veleft them?
I don't think you can.
Luke (23:37):
No, I don't think you can either.
You interestingly enough, likeit's like a overboard, kind of
like a board game kind of likelook to it aesthetic.
Yeah, it's got that aestheticto it, and like you trade, like
traders come.
I wanted to talk about thetraders.
That was another thing thatkind of traders are lifelines
and just like a whole thing thatyou really are helpful.
(23:58):
But then when you set up somespecific trade routes with your
other settlements in your themain smoldering city or
whatever, like that's an elementof the game that you can take
it or leave it.
I kind of use it to completespecific missions sometimes if
I'm set up for it.
But like you trade with yourother settlements the deeper in
you go.
And then I guess we couldmention like another roguelike
(24:19):
factor is you get like a certainamount of settlements out, and
then there's a big storm, andthat wipes out that overworld
map that we just talked about.
And you start off at just thecity, and then you move out from
these tiles for your newsettlements to try to get to one
of those gates, which I canconfirm is like a special event
game that you play where youhave like different tasks.
(24:40):
You have the city's tasks, butyou also have like the gate
tasks, and then that lets youbuild more settlements slash
attempts before the big stormhappens, if that makes sense.
Interesting.
Alex (24:52):
Yeah, I'm not this far in that respect.
Again, I've been I was kind ofcurious too, because as you as
you move out on that overworldmap that I mentioned kind of
looks like Katan, or if youplayed like Civilization, like
it's very similar, like tilebase in a way.
Yeah, or written like kind ofin a way.
On that overworld map, there'syou know, it's it's kind of
similar to in-game where thingsare shrouded in in mystery,
(25:14):
they're shaded off or whatever,right?
But you have little littleinterest points that I assume
that you want to, and again, ifI probably would have done a
better job of like reading whatI was supposed to be doing,
maybe I would know why I wasgoing a certain one.
Good, you friggin' nerd, dude.
Luke (25:29):
Yeah, they're like uh modifiers to your game,
essentially.
So when you pick up like itlets me get close to the one I'm
trying to head to.
If I haven't just not likeuncovered enough of that area,
or maybe you're not closeenough, but maybe the question
mark, like if you do thehexagonal tile next to whatever
it is, you're getting the theboost or benefit or drawback,
(25:51):
whatever it happens to be in thegame, the modifier, so to
speak, and like sometimes it hasto do with affecting the biome,
sometimes it's like a blessing,so to speak, sometimes it's
like a curse or like somethingthat deals and makes it harder
for you.
So it's just kind of kind ofalways keeping it fresh, which
goes back to the roguelike partwhere if you're it kind of
(26:12):
always gives you different andnewer challenges so you don't
have to come up with them onyour own or get bored in a
sandbox, you know what I mean?
Yeah, interesting.
Like it goes away from yourtypical city building sandbox
stuff, uh, with that, which is areally cool device.
Can you w can you beat thisgame or is it go on forever?
Man, I thought about lookingthat up before this podcast, and
(26:34):
that's what a professionalwould have done.
Yeah, you don't want to spoilit for yourself either, though.
Considering the massive, I'msure, I'm sure there's some sort
of roadmap with the massive DLCand stuff.
I'm sure there's multipledifferent things, right, that
you can accomplish or do.
And I have so much more of thatlike base building stuff to do,
like all those upgrades to do,even and it's yeah, there's so
(26:55):
much so much going on.
Alex (26:57):
It's wildly complex, uh, which is part of its, you know,
part of its charm.
I that's definitely part of itscharm, but it can be a lot.
Overall, it's been a prettygreat experience, I would say.
And like I said, I wouldsomething I want to continue to
to like continue to delve into.
Like I probably I guess Iforesee this game being played
for a long time.
Luke (27:17):
Hell yeah.
If you had to rate it out of afive, category five hurricane
type storm, dude.
Which uh category?
Which category would you giveit, dude?
Alex (27:29):
Uh, you know, I'm tempted.
I'm tempted to I'm gonna I'mgonna go four.
Wow.
Luke (27:37):
All right.
I hope I hope to see youplaying it.
I hope to see those hourscreep.
That's encouraging.
I'm gonna give it a full five.
I'm not saying it's a master,I'm not saying it's a
masterpiece, like one of myfavorite games ever, but the
fact that it's so playable andenjoyable, like not just
playable, but like downrightenjoyable on the Steam Deck
(27:58):
really enhances the amount ofhours I would put into this
game.
And it is super complex, butyou do become fluid and it is
fun and fast-paced and likerefreshable enough to the point
where like if I'm goingtraveling, if I'm away from the
house, all those types ofthings, the fact that I can
bring a strategy game that killsthis much time with me.
Like, if I were on a plane,dude, I'd just crush this game
(28:19):
for two, three hours straight,and it'd be sweet.
Alex (28:22):
For sure, dude.
And when I said I was tempted,I was tempted to give it a five,
but I go for, and I'm glad yougive it a five because that
brings us to four or five, fourpoint five rather, and I don't
like doing halves, but ouraverage will bring us there, and
that's perfect, dude.
Uh what a dork.
Good 100%.
But then the and the knocks arethe knocks are purely, it's not
(28:46):
necessarily against the game,and it's actually kind of a
benefit to it.
But I I mentioned that I got Ithink it was pre pre-recording,
but I mentioned that I gotbooted from uh from a run that I
was in uh because they hadpushed through an update, which
the updates that's great.
I'm glad that they're doing theupdates, but it also means that
it's not a hundred percentthere quite yet.
(29:07):
Um, but they're working on it.
So like that's um it's it's alittle unfair for me to give
them a knock for that.
But I was bummed when I gotkicked out of like you know, a
settlement that I had spent 45minutes to an hour in.
They're like, uh, but in theirdefense, they let me keep all of
the boons that I would have gotfrom that run.
Um, I just didn't get to tofinish it.
So that's you know, that's um,you know, I think I think you
(29:30):
know, I'm I'm kind of talkingmyself into a five here, but I'm
gonna stick to my guns on theboard.
Luke (29:35):
Maybe you do a 4.5 and we give it a 4.75 average, dude.
I'd say it's sick, and mycriticisms of the game all come
with the territory, like it'sjust like it can be stressful.
Well, that's actually kind ofpart of the fun.
That's part of it, right?
Yeah, and like there's a hugelearning curve, but that also
(29:55):
means that it's in depth andthere's more and more and more
to do.
It's actually pretty, prettyeasy to learn if you give it an
hour or two.
It's faster than some of theother ones I've played, that's
for sure.
Right on, but I don't know.
Alex (30:06):
I think it's unique, dude.
I think it's unique too.
That's you know, which uh thereare a lot of these like uh city
builder strategy games, likethey got um, you know, I'm not
gonna say that there's they'renot also unique ones out there,
but I think there's this likeit's just wild to me, like the
weird story that they'veincorporated to it, and it kind
of just makes everything workand it it puts you in a nice
little situation.
Luke (30:27):
Uh roguelikes, your late 20s to 30s.
Right.
It's just roguelikes, just ourera of life.
I feel like roguelikes havethat's been like the newest,
like the coolest innovation thatgaming has done and really
focused on, I think, in the lastsince we've been podding, I
feel like, is roguelikes.
So I I like to see that one wasexecuted so well with this
(30:49):
genre mix up.
Yeah, I can dig it, man.
Alex (30:52):
With that, you want to take a little break, come back
uh with our unsectioned sponsor.
Luke (30:56):
Yes, sir.
Me and the boys, dude.
Well, the wife, the boy, thefamily and the boys, dude.
We uh met the Grinch the otherweekend.
Right on.
And we knew we were gonna meetthe Grinch.
So we had recently bought theGrinch Dr.
(31:18):
Seuss book, which he's not evengreen in the book.
So when did he become green?
Just a cartoon, I presume.
Uh yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I guess so.
The boys are at an age wherethey get really excited to like
if they learn a word and theyremember the word and they see
the word out in the wild, theyjust love to say it.
North St.
Paul.
We got a big snowman, nobody,no man, and they get super
(31:38):
pumped when we drive by.
So we watched the Grinch.
And what I wanted to watch wasJim Carrey's Grinch, but he was
kind of scary a tiny bit.
So I was like, not sure if theboys are ready for that one.
The the Grinch we met wasmodeled after that Grinch, to be
fair, but he was cool, it wasall good.
But we watched the Grinch, andI just want to shout out the Jim
(31:59):
Carrey Grinch because I lookedit up as we watched the new
Grinch, and people and criticswere hating on Jim Carrey's
Grinch.
And what the fuck?
That is the Grinch.
That movie is a top five Chrismovie all time.
Let's fucking go, dude.
This has been brought to you byJim Carrey's Grinch.
What's up?
You're here for the Grinch,Miss Dude.
Alex (32:20):
All right.
It's funny.
Luke (32:22):
Argue against it.
Try me.
Alex (32:23):
Dude, my boy's uh my boy is a year behind your boys in
age, and the Grinch is a littlemuch for him.
I tried, I was like, becauseit's you know Christmas time.
Ass book, or you're justtalking about the movie.
Oh no, I read him the book.
I I also recently picked up thebook.
I was at the old Target, and uhthey got like, dude, I was at
(32:44):
the E Dia Target because I wasout in that area.
That place is wild, dude.
I was like, dang, not alltargets a bit the same, and Idia
Target is ready for Christmas.
I will tell you what.
Fuck yeah, dude.
But they've got a whole likethey had a whole like little
miniature, not even miniature,but they had this like little
deal going on with all thesedifferent Christmas books, and I
(33:04):
was like, I'm buying, I'mbuying Elton the Grinch, I'm
gonna do this.
But I had tried watching uh thecartoon with him, like the
original cartoon.
Yeah, that's also like kind ofcrazy.
They got a lot of Grinch outthere now, dude.
They got Jim Carrey Grinch, Iagree, it's good shit, but it's
a little much for for aone-year-old to be trying to
take in a movie that long, andalso like Jim Carrey.
I mean, he he brings someenergy to that to that movie
(33:25):
that maybe not Elton not readyfor.
Luke (33:27):
It's Ron Howard directed it.
Fun fact.
Alex (33:30):
Oh, weird, yeah.
Luke (33:30):
Okay, and uh at first it kind of reminded me of like that
era Tim Burton, obviously wayturned down, but like man, he's
recently said that he would loveto be the Grinch again, but he
has to do motion capture becauseI guess putting all that makeup
and crazy stuff on wasexcruciating for him.
Uh, it's so haunted, I justlove it though.
Like, I'm uh I'm verypassionate about that Grinch.
(33:53):
The new one was cool enough,though.
It's Benedict Cumberbatch.
No, I haven't seen this newone, I've only heard about the
the new brief.
It's fine.
It's fine.
Is it live action or like theno, it's a cartoon, it's like a
nice animator.
It's like 2018 Pharrell is thenarrator.
Um interesting.
I love it.
I hear it's not as creepy.
Alex (34:10):
I hear it's not as uh no, it's more like cute anime.
Luke (34:13):
I think it's made by the same place that did uh the new
Mario movie.
Alex (34:18):
Okay, cool.
Luke (34:19):
That animator, if you know what I mean.
Yeah, Illumination or somethinglike that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So uh, you know, we who knowswhat's happening with
Unsanctioned Spox or any typicalmonth, but this one, I was
like, I just really have to capefor Jim Carrey's Grinch right
now.
And you're wearing a Santa hat,so it was all fair.
It was all fair game.
Alex (34:39):
Dude, I can dig it.
The book though, it is long.
You are you are not you areyou're not wrong about that.
I don't think it's uh so it'snot a book that I can just sit
down and read to without it onmy lap, but it is a book that I
can get to the end to with himwhen he's uh when we're putting
him when when we're doingbedtime or whatever.
Uh so that works.
Luke (34:57):
Yeah, I also am amazed how they've stretched it out into
so many movies because eventhough it's like a quote unquote
long book, like each movie haslike a different interpretation
as to what Cindy Lou's deal is.
For sure.
And in the book, she's just thekid that woke up and was like,
Why are you stealing my shit?
And he's just like, ah fixingthe tree, dude.
Yeah, and like how the movieslike explain all of that is just
(35:18):
hilarious.
Alex (35:19):
It is good, they've definitely stretched that story
out, and you're right, it's along book.
But when I it had been a longtime because we had that book
growing up, dude, and it hadbeen a long time since I
actually had read the bookproper.
Yeah, I felt like when I'veread it just recently, I got to
the end, I was like, Oh, that'sit.
Like, yeah, it's long, but likeI'm I'm used to like the the
cartoon and Jim Carrey's movieand stuff, so I was like, Well,
(35:41):
where's all this other stuff?
Luke (35:42):
Where's the part where the lady's kind of horny for the
Grinch?
Right?
Alex (35:47):
What part of the book was that, dude?
Oh man, I can dig it though.
We actually had growing up toothe uh we had the Grinch record,
which I which I pilfered frommom and dad.
It's in my my record stashright now, which is uh there's a
really great like reading ofthe Grinch story, was kind of
fun as well.
Good Christmas content rightthere, dude.
I think I have it too.
Right on the stolen one Grinchmiss.
(36:10):
Grinch miss.
Luke (36:11):
Jim Carrey, Jim Carrey Grinchmas.
Alex (36:22):
Yeah, you've been side questing, bro?
Luke (36:24):
Yeah, sorry, I was just finishing this uh who roast
beast.
Alex (36:32):
I don't actually know what this good like the little
hoobil song is, but cute cute.
Luke (36:37):
Uh yeah, um, I've just been on the nerdery.
I I'm not gonna talk about SEAAfootball, that's not allowed,
but um people on the Redditrefer to when they make up the
storylines in their head asheadcanon.
So I'm not positive if I'vesaid that on the internet
previously with you before, butI just wanted to say that uh I
appreciate that nerd taxonomy.
Headcannon?
(36:58):
Headcannon.
I just I think that's a greatway to describe just playing
sports games and coming up withweird dorky storylines all on
your own the whole time, uh,which is great fun.
Um, my other bit is that I'vebeen playing Ratchet and Clank,
the new PlayStation 5 one, buton uh the Steam Deck, which is
it's a good game for a SteamDeck, uh, which is the theme of
today's episode.
(37:18):
But it's weird because I was wewere PlayStation Boys for a hot
minute there, so all theRatchet and Kank Clanks I played
on PlayStation.
So it's weird to not have likethe high poweredness of it, but
it's not a game that trulyreally needs it.
And it's really good meat andpotatoes game of just like it's
an action 3D shooter platformerpuzzle, collect the thon or no?
(37:40):
Collect yeah, there's differentelements of that, like
upgrading and stuff.
So, like you have thesedifferent fun, wacky guns,
that's a big part of it.
One thing that I've appreciatedabout the series going back for
years is like your guns upgradebased on use, so it's like
another thing to encourage youto always be flipping around
through the goofy differentguns.
Like in the first game, I can'tremember if it was the sheep
(38:01):
and aider in the first game orthe chickenator, but like you
would turn your enemies intochickens or sheep, which back in
2004 was super cool and fun.
And the game's always done likegoofy twists like that.
You could throw out disco ballsand like all your enemies start
dancing and get distracted, andthen you mop them up.
So there's always like funarcadey stuff to do with that.
And uh now as I'm playing lateron in life, I like that like
(38:23):
cycle of upgrading your guns andlike upgrading them both
through resources and upgradingthrough use, and it's just
really addicting and fun andcool, and like you know, I don't
have to think much when I playit.
I just lay down and I play somenice wholesome ratchet and
clank, and I know the storygoing on in that game, sure.
And it's and it's fine, andit's got some silly cheeky
(38:45):
humor, and uh, it's just likeexploring a map, running into
enemies, just the whole loop isso familiar and good and still
fresh.
That uh good game, dude.
What are you side questing on?
What do you got for me?
Alex (39:00):
Yeah, man, I got some side quests, and we uh we bowed not,
I don't know, we bowed, but wemade a kind of a gentleman
handshake across the internetnot to talk about our sports
games, but you weaseled inthere, so I'm gonna weasel in my
2K experience.
I got the new 2K, bro.
Uh if it's new though, you cantalk about it because I'm
curious.
Luke (39:17):
Did you did they upgrade anything?
Is anything new, or is this aroster refresh?
Alex (39:21):
Are there new definitely a roster refresh?
There is some elements to thegameplay proper that uh I'm used
to now.
It took me a little bit.
The way that you shoot is alittle bit different, so like uh
seems to be, yeah.
Yeah, so like the three-pointshots uh nerfed a little bit in
this game.
It's a big thing that they theydid uh because in 2K24 uh they
(39:45):
made it a little too easy to hitthrees.
So they've nerfed that a littlebit with the with the timing.
Uh they have added a ton ofmotion capture animation to that
is specific to players likeplaystyles and and games.
So what that's reallydifferent, players feel a lot
different.
You run around, it's like crazybecause it's not something that
(40:08):
I noticed while playing 2K24,but juxtaposing the two 24 feels
a little bit arcady with howfast you can sprint around the
court.
Uh, whereas like there's anelement to that here, but each
of the players they play likethe players in in real life,
more so because they've spent somuch time getting those
(40:28):
animations down.
So, like their dribbleanimations, uh, the way they
move, the way they take theirshots, etc.
But you can't just like I don'tknow, it's a little bit more
finesse going on in this game.
Luke (40:38):
Uh, funny thought, but like the funniest thing about
sports games is that the newerthey get, the slower.
Yeah, like the more advanced itis.
Like, I've been saying the gamein a good way feels slower
since like ever.
Every new game is always like,well, it's a little slower than
I remember, and it's but that'slike a good thing because it
looks more lifelike and human,right?
(41:00):
So you saying that kind ofgeeked me out because I was
like, no way, they keep it.
Yeah, it's true.
It's it's uh that is definitelythe case.
What's the emphasis on?
Is it on like my team?
Is it on park stuff?
Like, what are they pushing youto?
Alex (41:12):
I'm sure they changed a bunch of that bullshit.
Uh they probably did a bunch ofthat.
I always like I just don't playthat though.
I I do my I do my uh seasons,like I do my you know, my air.
They they've got what I like inthat game.
My pocket is within the eras,so like I I set up my team, I
play through a season, I do theplayoffs.
Like, that's just that's myshit.
Luke (41:30):
I feel so I feel like such an old man when I'm like, Yeah,
I played GM mode or likedynasty mode through the years,
and I'm just I'm offline, butit's fine.
And then I talk to you, andyou're like, I'm doing seasons.
Alex (41:42):
Oh, they don't even call it seasons anymore, though.
But like essentially that'swhat it is, it's more or less
the GM mode type thing that youdo, and like I do a little less
of that stuff because you canget in the weeds uh with that
stuff on a tree.
Luke (41:53):
I don't even fuck with that dude.
I just play.
That's what I'm saying.
You do you do a seasoning?
Don't hit me with them drafts,young man.
Alex (41:59):
You know what's funny is I'll play through a shortened
full season and I will playthrough the playoffs, and then I
will re-I don't even continuebecause you can continue, I'll
just restart because I'm moreinterested in playing with the
folks like the the players thatI have for the current season in
the Timberwolves.
Sure.
Are you playing other gamestoo?
I am indeed.
Uh so you know it's that timeof year, dude.
So we got Steam sales, we gotBlack Friday, etc.
(42:22):
So I picked up a couple gamesover the past couple weeks here.
Uh, one of those games that Ipicked up on the cheap is a
recent one, Robocop.
Robocop.
What's this about?
So Robocop is a triple, whatwould it be?
Not triple A, it's a double-Agame.
Can't even remember who put itout.
I've actually never seenRobocop, but I've heard some
I've heard some rumblings aboutthis game being uh really true
(42:44):
to the source material.
A lot of people that are bigRoboCop fans loving the game,
and dude, it's fun, man.
Uh I've been playing on theSteam Deck primarily, but it
works great on on both the SteamDeck and the you know and the
PC, obviously.
It's a first person shooter,but it has um it has RPG
elements to it, so you go aroundand you like kind of increase
your your Robocops like stats,that kind of thing.
(43:06):
So like a boomer shooter typeof thing, vibe.
Uh yes and no.
Like I wouldn't yes, but it'slike I don't know.
I would I wouldn't say it's aboomer shooter, but it's
definitely a shooter.
You know, it's a little bitmore polished than what I would
consider.
It doesn't have the similar artstyle, it's a little bit more
realistic, uh, than like a lotof what I consider to a boomer
(43:26):
shooter to be.
The fun thing about it that sofar is that you are pretty you
move pretty slowly, like youknow, Robocop is from what I do
know about him.
I mean, he's not sprintingaround the place, he's like a
big like Android type thing,right?
Yeah, and and you feel that inthe game.
You like you feel a littleslow, you can move faster by
like this sprint thing orwhatever, which like the the way
(43:49):
you move around, it's it's it'sinteresting, like how it works.
And I've been having some funwith that one.
And then I also recently pickedup, I finally pulled the
trigger, I wanted caught thelamb on uh for my switch for a
long time, and it's only 20bucks.
But I like just haven't forwhatever I've been like waiting
for a deeper sale, and I don'tknow if it'll ever come because
Black Friday came around andthey're like Black Friday sale.
(44:10):
And I was like, That's what youalways sell it for, which is
like which is like the funnything about Black Friday these
days.
Uh, but I I didn't get a ton oftime into that, but that's a
really fun one, dude.
Like, um, it feels a lot likeuh Turnip Boy in a in a way,
like mixed with Animal Crossing.
Um, so like that's that one'skind of cool too.
And then the other big news,dude, is that I we we gave up
(44:34):
Game Pass some time ago, andI've uh a couple months back, I
reached a threshold because Iwas buying the games that are on
Game Pass that I wanted to bepart of my Xbox collection.
So, like Starfield, Forza, thattype of thing, like games that
you can play on Game Pass, but Ididn't want Game Pass anymore.
But I wanted to have thosegames, like I feel like those
(44:56):
are cornerstones of the Xboxlike experience, right?
Sure, yeah.
So I wanted to have those, andit's interesting because that
put me into a that put me into aspot now where I have enough
Xbox games physical, but the waythat these new systems work is
like they don't play off likewhereas your Switch is actually
playing games off the cart.
It's not the case withPlayStation and Xbox.
(45:17):
They're taking the entire allthat information on the disc and
they're loading it straight tothe hard drive of your system.
And it has to do with likethat's how we get the uh quick
resume and the the quick loadtimes and stuff because you're
not playing off the disc, you'replaying off your system.
That also means my Xbox, I gotthe Series X, and I've only got
X amount of space.
I think it's like uh twoterabytes, maybe or one
(45:38):
terabyte.
I don't remember.
I have enough games now where Idon't have enough space on my
Xbox to keep all the games onthere.
So I ended up buying theexpansion thing, the terabyte
expansion that you can plug intothe back of it.
Oh word, and with that came afree month of Game Pass.
Oh, so you're playing indie.
Indeed.
(45:59):
Nah, so that's like that is theprimary game on Game Pass that
I'm happy to have this freemonth, and I might end up just
buying indie because having GamePass back and having you know
Halo and some of these othergames that I consider
cornerstone pieces of the Xboxexperience, I have no desire to
keep Game Pass, dude.
(46:19):
Like the thing, the caveatbeing Indiana Jones, and like
and the beauty of Game Pass isbeing able to dabble and see
some games before buying, right?
Let's being able to give alittle taste.
But like, dude, as far as thelibrary goes, I've been able to
go through my favorite thingabout Game Pass is being able to
stream those games onto mySteam Deck, and then also to
being able to dabble in stuffthat maybe I wouldn't be able to
(46:41):
try unless you kind of give alittle sampler of everything.
But I I can't justify a $30 amonth spend or what is it.
Is that what it is now?
I think it might be 20.
But like I can't can't justifya 20-ish dollar a month spend to
keep to keep Game Pass becausethe vast majority of the games
on Game Pass I either don't careabout or I have I already have,
(47:03):
or I already have becausethey're available through like
epics free games and things likethat.
Like a lot of them are alwayshanded out for free on for PC.
But what about Diablo 4, dude?
Well, see, but Diablo 4 wouldbe a purchase, but I want to go
back and play Diablo 1 firstbecause I've never beat Diablo
1.
And shout out to the main questpodcast, which is back.
(47:25):
They just covered Diablo, andthat has me horny for Diablo,
dude.
I am trying to play someDiablo, uh horny for Diablo,
yeah.
Uh and I and I have Diablo, Ihave it on Gog.
And I I did fire that up too.
It's another little mini sidequest.
That's a game that, like, dude,it's um it's see, like I I
(47:48):
would be tempted to have us playit, but I know that you've kind
of moved away from the mouseand uh the mouse and keyboard,
and it is definitely a mousegame.
Like, I feel like I've heardthat the PlayStation port, and
then likely there's likelypatches where you can use a
controller, uh, which means youcould likely get it rocking on
your Steam deck, but um, nooffense, but like there would be
some tinkering probably thatneed to be done that I don't
(48:11):
expect you to do.
Luke (48:13):
He thinks I'm thick, he's right.
Um, but yeah, Diablo.
I mean, I would probably do itjust uh Diablo's a game where
you kind of just gotta figureout what's the deal with at a
certain point of your life.
So totally uh I'm gonna getfour for the Steam Deck, but um
at some point I wouldn't mindplaying some Diablo, so I
(48:34):
understand the deal, you knowwhat I mean?
Alex (48:36):
Right.
But dude, Indiana Jones, youbring up in that game I played
about 45 minutes of, I wouldsay, and it's it's cool.
Like I've been reading the umreviews and everything like
that.
It's a lot of people loving it,and I can see why.
It's uh it's got some reallygood graphics going on, like the
voice acting is actually quitegood.
The graphics are great.
Um, I think you know it's beena while since Xbox had a win,
(48:59):
and I would say Indiana Jones isjust that.
Luke (49:03):
Yeah, um that's cool to hear.
I wish listed it because I knowmyself, and I'm not gonna Xbox
Game Pass.
Maybe, maybe, maybe you'll giveme good.
I'm gonna see if these gamescome on sale first.
Alex (49:15):
Um the game pass is I just don't see it being in my life
past like the you know, becauseI'm able to get this free month,
I'm like, of course, like I'lluse that for like but I want to
play flat simulator 24.
No, you don't, it's trash.
Oh no, it's not good, dude.
I'll tell you why, becausethere's no US Bank Stadium.
US Bank Stadium's been inMinneapolis for eight years, and
(49:38):
they still haven't integratedinto the map.
It's like, come on, I realizewe're flyover country, but fuck
off Xbox, fuck off Microsoft.
Luke (49:44):
Is everywhere just behind, or just certain pockets are
behind?
Alex (49:48):
I'm sure New York is updated.
I'm sure, I'm sure LA's likecool, but Minneapolis, they they
like how you not have US BankStadium.
Luke (49:57):
Well, that was a bummer.
I remember showing that topeople and they're like, where's
US Bank?
I'm like, I don't know.
On the last game, but this gameyou're supposed to like it had
the jobs-based, like flightjobs-based element to it.
So I thought that looked cool.
Did you try that?
Alex (50:12):
Uh, I haven't yet.
No, I just set up a flight tofire on Minneapolis, and then I
was pissed off that US Bankwasn't there.
And well, it's all burnt down,dude.
What the hell are you talkingabout?
Oh, Minneapolis, yeah, yeah,yeah, yeah.
You know, there's nothing tosee.
They're just that's what itused to be, man.
I'm gonna look out my window.
Yep, checks out.
(50:33):
Diablo's been here.
Diablo.
Oh man, so it's uh it is abeautiful game.
Like, of course, that that isstill the case, but I was just
gonna put out a forest fire andthen you get back to me.
Luke (50:46):
All right, yeah, that's fair.
Alex (50:47):
Those game, those that the those new gameplay access uh
aspects do look cool, so Ihaven't deleted it off my Xbox
yet.
I will I will play it a littlebit more before my trial is up
or whatever you want to call it.
My gotta use up all themterabytes, Doc.
Come on.
Yeah, dude.
It's crazy, man.
These games, like I have anextra terabyte, and I've already
(51:08):
like with all the with all mygames, like I'm already up to
85% full again.
Luke (51:12):
Uh, you can reveal next month's game, but I downloaded
it right because we bought thediscs because they were on sale
specifically on the disc, whichis always an interesting part of
Black Friday.
Um, but it was a 72 gig filesize.
Alex (51:27):
I was like, yeah, yeah, and that's like that's kind of
like hard.
That's actually kind of smallfor for a Series X game these
days, dude.
Like, I guess.
Uh and that game is, and thegame we'll be playing.
And for folks that have beenfor the past what year and a
half, two years, just going,man, I wonder what the lo-fi
boys think about.
Fucking what's the game we'replaying?
Luke (51:48):
Elden Ring.
Alex (51:51):
If you're wondering what they think about Elden Ring,
they can't even remember whatthat game's called.
No, dude, we're we're finallyjumping in.
Luke (51:57):
Two worst people to play the game, dads.
We'll find out how it works.
No interruptions.
Alex (52:04):
I'm stoked though.
You but dude, Elden Ring, EldenRing's on the docket.
I'm excited.
If you haven't played EldenRing yet, if you're like us and
you've just been waiting, yeah,hit that Discord.
Let's talk about it.
In fact, you know, even if youhave played and you just want to
revisit it, you just want totalk to me, you want to catch
our insights before we talkabout it.
You join that Discord.
Don't put you out therelistening.
(52:24):
We love that, we love you.
Hit that Discord.
And before signing off, ace.
Luke (52:58):
Oh.
You're the freshest savedSanta.
Oh wow.
That's a you're the freshestshaved Santa I've ever done,
mate.
I'm not gonna do that intro.
That was bad.
That was bad.
Ah, Trisha, who's not payingattention, just down there
laughing at me, dude.
This is brutal.
Alex (53:21):
I swear I've been podcasting for two or three
years now.
Luke (53:24):
Right, but fresh shaved Shanna, all right?
That's a hard one for me tosay.
It's like customer.
Yeah, that's not easy.
See, all right, so there we go.
That's why you've got a beard.
Yeah, the fresh shaved is a isa tough transition.
Hello, hello.
It's just it's just uh infectedmy brain now.
(53:44):
Can I get up and do some dummyjacks or something, dude?
Like now I'm gonna
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