Jusant

Luke and Alex Talk Jusant.

Step into the enigmatic world of Jusant, a game that blends action and puzzle elements with a serene yet challenging climbing adventure. Developed by Don't Nod, Jusant offers gamers a unique, meditative journey to the top of a mysterious tower, filled with flora, fauna, and a peaceful soundtrack. Released in 2024, it stands out for its innovative climbing mechanics, breathtaking biomes, and the presence of a guiding creature made of water, Ballast.

Jusant had a Metacritic score of 85 at the time of this recording. According to howlongtobeat.com, completing the main storyline takes about five hours, but with its explorative design and alternative paths, players can delve deeper into the game's mysteries.

Both hosts played on the Xbox Series X via Game Pass. Alex also played some on the Steam Deck.

This episode is unofficially brought to you in part by the three point line.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:21):
Hey, hey, welcome to low five gaming.
I am your favorite host, luke,and here is my cohost and
brother, alex.
Hello, sir, introduce yourself.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Yeah, what up everybody.
I am the superior low five hostand I said first Thank you for
joining us.
It's important to the low fiveexperience.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
We are nothing without each other, says our
mother.
Anyway, thank you for joiningus once again on whatever, the
fuck day that you have decidedto listen to.
Regardless, we are happy tohave you.
This is our backlog book cluband we're happy to have you, man
.
What's up, we are indeed.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
you know just, my fingers hurt, my biceps are
throbbing.
Oh, my climbing gear is dirty.
Oh, I was like what.
Yeah, I could not.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
Somebody that fucking towered in, no doubt.
So our game is just all ourFrench little climbing game,

(01:38):
which is, you know, you make theclimber joke.
It's funny that you know videogames are this window into
different worlds.
I hate climbing and I hateclimbing Specific.
I have never liked that gymclass Rope not a fan like cool,
I get to be fat today.
Like basketball completekickball.
Good time, the teacher got thatrope out and I was like oh,
you're a piece of shit today,dude cool.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
I'll dox him.
Mr Swack was like climbing thisrope and I was like you, climb
this rope.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
Mr Swack, he would not climb that rope you once a
year once a year a kid gotdetention or a slap on the wrist
for telling because he wouldlike mock kids for not being
able to climb this rope.
But he had a robust belly, soonce you get a kid would be the
legend of their class and tellthem to get his fat ass upon the
rope.
But I digress.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
I like that dude, but I like that, oh shit was not
not the kid, because probably totalk about this is all right
yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
So climbing dude not a huge fan Even in games, I find
oftentimes is the lame part ofthe game.
So when you make the whole gameabout said mechanic, is it
going to be any good Not tospoil the pod?
But yeah, yeah, it's reallygood.

Speaker 2 (02:44):
I like that Dude, just to just to get thrown
another like some more personalbackground flavor in this.
We were adventuring in CostaRica.
This is my adult life.
You were there too, bro, yeahthat's true, and venturing
venturing in the sense thatthat's what they call it.
When you go out in a littleouting and you know the locals
bring you around in differentplaces, you do silly stuff, like
do it.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
Zip line was dope.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
The horses.
The horse didn't like me sothey didn't bring me another
horse.
But that's the end of thisthing that you would ever do
that.
They thought I'm a big dude.
I'm pretty sure that horse waslike what's up with this thick
boy?

Speaker 1 (03:20):
I didn't sign up for this.
On the substance, you'd be likedude.
I'm two days from retirement.

Speaker 2 (03:24):
I'm not doing this Dude for real.
But the lady to the zip line,all that stuff like this, like I
don't know, like the kayakingstuff, money.
And then they finished thisthing off with a rock climb.
And boy, I am not.
That is not what I signed upfor.
I was like I don't.
I hate climbing, I'm not afraidof heights, but I'm not like in

(03:45):
the heights in my adult life.
I'm not going to do withoutends.
We're climbing this thing.
I don't have a lot ofexperience rock climbing.
And good for you If you're arock climber.
You go do that rock climbingshit like power to you.

Speaker 1 (03:56):
No not for me, not for me.
It's a great workout, I'm sure,but I'm not about it, and you
will not get us to join yourrock climbing cult Intense
forearms, like good for you,like that's awesome.

Speaker 2 (04:05):
But here's the deal, dude, so I'm climbing.
I don't really know what I'mdoing.
I get about.
Oh, very key important part ofthis story is we got lit the
night before, dude.
Like we woke up early for thisthing.
I was probably still drunk, hadway too much drink prior to and
I'm way over exerting myself onthe side of this cliff.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
Yeah, it was an all inclusive stay thing for our old
brothers wedding.
So like, did I get as lit?
No, but was I probably in thebest condition at any point in
time?
No, but continue.
I'm about to go this way upthis thing just dying.

Speaker 2 (04:35):
I'm like you know what, I'll just fall off the
sound care.
And then I realized, then Irealized I just went limp, kind
of like I'm I'm probably youknow fourth.
I'm almost there, dude, just alittle bit away left, and I just
didn't have it.
I just didn't have it in me andit's like I was there.
I was just like you're up, it'sthere, I'm like nah, dude, I'm
done.
And then it's like I think thenwas that a choice.

Speaker 1 (04:58):
It was a choice wasn't it, Dude it was a choice
and I wasn't going to go, causeI just know I wouldn't like it.
So Ellie made me do it and sheshe sprang up that wall like a
spider monkey, like it wasinsulting.

Speaker 2 (05:10):
She killed it.
I mean never heard.
No, she flew up that thing.

Speaker 1 (05:12):
She's like that was fun and like the dudes, they
have you on a harness cause theydon't want us to fucking die.
And they, they help you out alittle bit.
So they're helping me out alittle bit, and then I'm not
moving anymore and I was like,hey, a little help.
They're like, no, we are.
I was like, bro, I'm cooked.
Yeah, pull me up.
That happened to me too.

Speaker 2 (05:28):
The last time I was in the car I was like I'm not
moving anymore.
The last, the last, like fifthof that thing that is, that has
hoisted me up there.
And you know what I did?
I went straight to the bathroomand threw up everywhere I
couldn't.
I just over excited myself.
Not everywhere.
I was clean about it, I wasvery good, but I did do it.

Speaker 1 (05:44):
I got sick.

Speaker 2 (05:44):
I was like I couldn't believe it, man.

Speaker 1 (05:48):
So, now that we have our athletic prowess and prowess
out of the way, we are indoortypes, we are outdoorsy types,
but I just feel like he's notgoing to catch me climbing
anything, dude.

Speaker 2 (05:57):
That's for Alex.
I'm not a good lo-fi, bro.
Yeah, sure.

Speaker 1 (06:02):
That's just.
That's just a different levelof shit, and God bless you, but
I don't have that upper bodystrength.
But you saw, you saw most time.
The French word for thereceiving tide, I believe.

Speaker 2 (06:14):
Oh, there you go, good job.

Speaker 1 (06:16):
They tell you that the first reading it in the game
.
It's just whether or not youremember it is yeah, okay, okay.
But you know the French, theFrenchiness, it is a French
slash Canadian studio, don't not?
I think they're officially outof France, but I think they're
split into Montreal as well.

Speaker 2 (06:33):
It is a Canadian shout out to our Canadian fans.

Speaker 1 (06:37):
Hell yeah dude, hell yeah dude.
We did this for you guys.
All right, it is a climbingadventure explorer simulator and
I say that because, like theyall drop what they say it is in
a second.
It's very much a climbing sim.
No, not about that.
Like, the main mechanic of thegame is climbing and the
climbing feels and just playsreally great it is, it's cool

(06:57):
game.
It's really that.
Explore exploration in the gameis really really cool.
So I think that was a hugehighlight from them.
They have a very simple littletwo sentence deal.
They first just say to Sante isa brand new action puzzle
climbing game and a meditativejourney to the top of a tall
tower.
Keeping it brief shots outApparently they're not doing a
pot on their own game and thenchallenge at your own pace,

(07:20):
explore different paths andunravel the secrets from a
bygone civilization.
I didn't know there wasdifferent paths and now that I
think about it, there's timeswhere I'm supposed to be going
over there or over here, and Iwas like it doesn't matter.
And the puzzle is kind of justhow are you're interacting with
the rock face and yeah, so likeif you're thinking I'm not into
puzzle games, it's not.
It's just a really chill vibeyfun, climbing, exploring game.

Speaker 2 (07:44):
I would say more of a brain teaser than a puzzler.
You know, because there aredefinitely points where you look
at the side of the cliff orwhatever at the tower that's
what they refer to it in the, inthe game.
You look at the side of thisthing.
You're like, well, how am Igoing to get up there?
And you got to jump around andtry some stuff.

Speaker 1 (07:59):
I'm going to get over this fight.
You don't call a game a fightpuzzler, it's just you're
fighting a cliff with yourrocking equipment.
Okay All right, I'm just sayinglike I just kind of scoffed at
the puzzleness but I, like I,love the game, so that's not
really I'm just getting into theweeds about my description of
what it is.

Speaker 2 (08:17):
There's some silly stuff that I would say you could
.
I mean I wouldn't.
I wouldn't say it's not apuzzle game.
There's some silly things youdo, you flip certain switches
and we'll get into it later, butyou hate the.

Speaker 1 (08:27):
Tomaster more or the windmill more now.
I think, the Tomaster will godown in lo-fi lore as the worst
enemy of all enemies.
But that windmill had youpretty heated.

Speaker 2 (08:38):
It did, dude.
I almost dropped this gamebecause of the windmill.
More on that later you see thatfucking tease.

Speaker 1 (08:43):
We shouldn't be a podcast, we should be a radio
show.
But anyway, more about don'tnot?
The French studio that came outwith this game.
They are an independent videogame developer and publisher
based in Paris and Montreal,creating a powerful and
immersive narrative experiences,and they've been around since
2008.
So other titles that you mayhave known this isn't even the

(09:05):
most famous game at the life ofstrange one and two are pretty
big cultural games, so thatwould definitely be the biggest
right.
Looking at the little likescreenshots of the different
games, it appears as if they'reworking in the same engine for a
lot of these and the engine isvery pretty.
They're kind of famous for likethe walking sim narrative type
game.
Is that fair?
It is indeed.
You know, looking through thewebsite, it's a nice little

(09:27):
website here and it's just likethey're very much about like
gaming impact and like tellingemotional stories, and this game
delivers on that, although farmore subtly so, I guess, to lead
us off, why'd you song?
You were giving me a lot ofhype.
It dropped on the game pass.
It's probably, you know, thelast game I'll play on game pass
for a while because I'mdropping it.

(09:48):
But game pass.
You know we've talked a lotplayed gris on there.
Grease, gris, whatever, I'llstill call it gris, grease.
Thank a lot of really good likeindie games and this is just
another one where I just lovethat they threw this one on
there and you were really hypeabout it.
You're really excited.
I remember seeing it in theNintendo Direct or was that in
the agnose in the Xbox's littleshowcase a while ago and I was

(10:11):
like that looks like breath ofthe wild type, shit, I'm into
that and I was excited to playit.
Since them Came out later.
A lot of encouragement for you.
And then other media I won'tname all the different podcasts
I heard it on, but it was atleast like three separate
Podcasts were like I love thisgame.
So I was like gotta give it ashot, instantly loved it and
then, instead of getting caughtup in all the other different

(10:31):
games I was playing, I was likeif I make this the pot of the
month, I'm gonna beat it.
I'm gonna really be happy aboutthat.
And then it's definitely whatcame true.
What drew you, sir, to justsalt, other than the fact I made
you finish it.

Speaker 2 (10:42):
Yeah, I had forgotten about that.
But you're right, it was partof that Xbox showcase.
So I think that's where I firstsaw.
You know, it was the first timethat it was introduced to me
and I thought it looked prettycool then.
But it wasn't really on myradar.
But the way I kind of approachedgame pass as often if there's a
game that drops that looks kindof interesting, I will stream
it like just, you know I won'tdownload it but I'll check it

(11:04):
out real quick to see what'sgoing on with it and this one
was really charming, dude, itwas.
It's chill, dude.
There's parts that can befrustrating, but the whole
climbing thing was it they, theyreally it really did feel the
way that they.
They're short explanation, youknow that's kind of meditative,
you're kind of just making yourway through.
It was a nice for me.
It was a nice back burner game.
You know, it was a nice game tohave going on with the other

(11:25):
stuff I was doing at the time,just play little spurts of it,
and I was like, dude, you gotcheck this out.
This is I did not think.
You know, we just told ourstories about how shitty
climbing is.
So I didn't think that that youknow I'd be super into a
climbing sim, but this one'sjust done in such a way that it
had just enough going on with itwhere I was.
Like you know, this game ispretty tight, like you got to

(11:46):
check this out.
I'm glad that we did.

Speaker 1 (11:48):
Yeah, it's like the landscapes are incredibly pretty
and the environment is pretty,incredibly pretty and, like the,
the world building is reallycool.
Like this a bit.
You're like you're in thistower in the desert and you're
slowly climbing up this towerand it's like pretty clear that
the tower has been Abandoned andas you go up, like people lived
on different Levels of it andthe whole Jusant is like a

(12:11):
receding tide, as previouslybriefly mentioned.
But People would live indifferent areas of the tower up
and down depending on how highthe tide was, so like you're
seeing different parts of acivilization.
So all that was just likereally cool.
And that's kind of what I meantby exploring.
Like as I played it, I was likethis game is really cool and
just like walking around it andthat's the meditative part.

(12:31):
But it's also like it reallyscratches an itch that Breath of
the Wild did and it's acompletely different game other
than the climbing, but like themechanics of climbing, we can
get into that.
Briefly, you have the righttrigger and the left trigger and
it's just your left hand andyour right hand and you can
swing off of your little harnesslike you.
You anchor, I don't know, the,the pinions or whatever the.

Speaker 2 (12:53):
I think term is a piston.

Speaker 1 (12:55):
It's just a piston yeah, that's something I should
have been able to pronouncemoving forward and yeah, like
Uncharted has like climbing, butit's kind of obvious and it's
kind of just a cool down frompoint A to point B and it also
just gets you to stop and lookaround and pretty.
So the comparisons are kind offair death stranding, just like

(13:17):
what I did like about a verygoofy game.
That that was what I really did.
Like is sometimes that is Love,the challenge of getting to
point A to point B and likeinteracting with the terrain.
This game did that really cooland just like going up a wall,
felt very much Exploring theseenvironments and like this
abandoned, like little, not evena town because there's little

(13:38):
outposts, almost it was justreally cool.
How would?
What would?

Speaker 2 (13:41):
you say on any of that.
You know it's interesting.
You bring up Breath of the Wild, because climbing and Breath of
the Wild and, in turn, tears ofthe kingdom is it's fun, right.
But what's interesting, if youjuxtapose the two games against
each other, is that Even thoughI wouldn't say climbing in Zelda
is difficult, like climbing inJuson is easier.

(14:01):
Like it's, it's made veryapproachable, like you do have a
stamina bar but like they makeit, you're set up for success,
like there's definitelychallenge, right.
So you can't fall, you can'tdie in this game.
It's not damage no enemies andif you run out, if you run out
of stamina, you basically justgo back to wherever you you know
place your piston or whereverthe you know the climb, that

(14:23):
that little piece of the climbstarted, just to you know, and
then you just try a different,you try a different route and I
think that part of it was reallycool too.
Like I, you know, I love lots ofdifferent types of games and
you know we're just coming offof Greece, which is another
interesting one where you can'tdie.
But like this, this genre ofgames that's kind of pushing you
to explore and pushing intointeraction to the game that you

(14:46):
know.
Obviously there's a ton ofgames out there that that don't
Punish the player for for doingthings.
But, like you know, if you lookat a traditional like, if you
were to ask someone who's notmaybe involved with video games
you know what they think ofvideo games they might think of
a 2d side scroll, like Mario,where you can easily die and you
have to start over.
So it's really interesting tohave a game like this where
you're kind of pushed you tomake it to the summit, uh, over

(15:09):
the course of the time, and Ithought that part of it was
really cool, man.
I thought it was like aninteresting experience.

Speaker 1 (15:15):
Yeah, it's very much like an evolved walking sim,
which is right is like aderivative term almost by some,
but then eventually just becamean endearing acceptance of no,
this is game and they're cooland it's just the way.
It's really just about movingaround.
Sounds so simple, but like theenvironment, so pretty and cool
to explore and like I've I don'tknow a lot of episodes.

(15:39):
I talk about whether or not agame, I'm just gonna listen to a
podcast or not, and if I'm justgonna be in a more vegetative
state when I play the game.
In this game I was kind of likeI wouldn't listen to a podcast
but I Wouldn't like have thevolume up really loud.
I just kind of like soaked itin and that's where that
Meditative really comes in.
Is like you just kind of walkingaround, like these ruined areas

(16:00):
or these really cool likeartifacts that you're stumbling
into.
You piece together littlethings.
It's a narrative.
Like the storytelling is donepassively through these journal
logs which you know if you'vebeen listening.
This isn't the brainiest pod.
We weren't reading those verygood, if at all, but we
definitely read an explainerafterwards.

Speaker 2 (16:20):
Right, those are cool little bits.
I just that's not what I waslooking for in this particular
experience flavor and people whoare into it, are super into it,
and they should be.

Speaker 1 (16:29):
It's just you and I I'll speak to me more directly
like it felt says a really greatcool down, like I'd play
something stupid before thisgame and then, like the last
half an hour or hour before I'dgo to bed, I'd play this and
it'd feel really relaxed andlike Just in a different mode
before I went to bed.

Speaker 2 (16:49):
Again.

Speaker 1 (16:51):
And or something else .
Yeah, okay okay.
Like you know, I said the samething about grist, who I believe
, though, or like I liked tofinish a gaming session with
that when it's not an addictivegameplay it's not like Combat or
anything like that.
There's no tension, I think, isthe word I'd use, for it was.
This was just like a very nicelow tension, beautiful,
experienced yeah, it wasdefinitely immersive, man.

Speaker 2 (17:13):
I think that it was interesting because it's one of
those games where it's I'm, thegraphics is 3d, you know
Third-person, and it has this,you know, kind of cel-shaded
they go now not even cel-shaded.
Yeah, no, I guess it would be,but anyways, you, you're
climbing and you know we'vementioned this, they caught the
tower in the game, but thisthing it's it's not even fair to
call it a tower, dude it's likea massive, like huge, like it

(17:35):
goes so far into the sky thatyou can't see the top.
That type of deal Like it'shuge getting mountain.

Speaker 1 (17:39):
Yeah, right, yeah, totally so it is.

Speaker 2 (17:42):
It is a tower but that almost belittles, like the,
the size of this thing andyou're climbing up but you don't
, you have no idea how far it is.
There's six chapters in totaland, like each stretch of the
climb, there's differentenvironments in each of these
chapters and, you know, as youprogress you enter a different
part of this tower, which isreally cool because the
environment shifts quite a bit.
But I think in like that firstthree chapters, you, you're,

(18:05):
you're moving up and you'relooking over and we didn't
mention him quite yet, but it's.
It's definitely like apost-apocalyptic feel like you
mentioned the, was it you sayJusson's rising tide or a
receding tide?
What did you say was thereceding time?
Yeah, so there's a waters, a bigpart of this game and the story
part of this game, right?
So you look around and it'slike this desert area and I
found myself quite often in thefirst feet you know those first

(18:28):
three chapters just stopping andlook like gazing out over the
barren wasteland and looking atthe abandoned ships and like
that was just like a cool.
Like you know, you spoke to theworld, building a little bit
and it doesn't force feed it toyou.
It's something that I think itreally like seeps in and like I
think that part of it was reallycool, right, and you can really
feed into that if you'rereading those stories that were

(18:50):
left behind by like what's hername?

Speaker 1 (18:52):
I don't know what we got here.
I only know from reading theafter-end.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (18:58):
So, bianca, like I read some of those, I didn't get
nice skim most of them.
So, basically, it's the peoplethat came before you, right?
So, bianca was the one that wasleading a lot of the are
leaving a lot of these lettersand that gave you an idea of
this.
You know, that really fed intothis idea of the water.
Like there, from what I gather,these people like there was no
water, so people started goingup the the tower and then, I

(19:21):
don't know man, at some point,like people started going down
the tower but there's no people,dude, there's no you doing this
thing all by yourself.

Speaker 1 (19:28):
They used to go up and down with the tide receding.
Okay, sure that makes sense.
No, and then one thing that kindof plays into what you're
mentioning.
Mentioning is just like kind ofthe vibe he's storytelling is,
like you pick up.
So some of the weird littlemechanics is like so you find
the little letters, you readthose.
Sometimes there's just like apile of rocks.
There's got to be like anofficial term for like those

(19:49):
little like kind of isle ofrocks where it's just like
almost like a sculpture and youjust add another rock to it and
that's just like a fun littlelike.
Hey, you found this.

Speaker 2 (19:58):
Right, it's not a rock here.

Speaker 1 (20:00):
There we go, look at this dude in his research.
But lastly, there's like thenice, like the large seashells
or conscious, that you pick upand you listen to and it kind of
like it.
Essentially, instead of youhearing the ocean, it holds the
memory of a time past and youjust kind of see like this
little vignette almost of whatwas going on in that area that

(20:21):
the conscious left behind and Ithought that was like Cool,
moody and artsy.

Speaker 2 (20:26):
It was cool.
It was in a loop, which Ithought was weird because I
would sit there a few times yeah, okay, so it's done.

Speaker 1 (20:31):
Yep, and that's the brain moment from us.

Speaker 2 (20:35):
I think it was like you know we were talking on the
graphic.
We were talking on the graphicsa little bit.
It's a beautiful game, but Idon't think it would be as
successful without the ambienceof the music.
You know the music in this game.
It's like there's not, it's notlike something I would listen
to, though as tea I wouldn't goout of my way to listen to
soundtrack.
Not that it's bad, it's notlike a major score or anything

(20:57):
right, but it's but, it worksright.
Yeah, it works super well withwhat you're doing, which is cool
.
I think it this game wouldn't.
It wouldn't be as good as it iswithout the music.

Speaker 1 (21:09):
No, not at all.
The music and the sound designare both pretty cool and you
definitely get that when you gointo the different Chapters,
like I remember bemoaning to youwhen you first get into the.
So you're, you're outside ofthe tower for the first three
chapters and then chapter fouryou're like inside the tower.
So it's like these kind of likethese glowy cave vibes and it
was like it was jarring at first, because I kind of liked being

(21:32):
outside and the big brightsunniness and some of the game
mechanics were actually cool,like if you were in the
blistering sun, you guys I don'tactually know if there's a
gender there your person'sStamina meter would deplete more
rapidly and like you do theselittle kind of how do you even
how do you even describe thoseinputs where it kind of like has

(21:53):
like an environmental response.
So you like press up on yourd-pad and there's almost like a
pulse and like different thingsin the environment will respond.
Do you like a vine will grow ora plant will do something for
you to grab as a whole?

Speaker 2 (22:05):
Because this game is not heavy-handed like.
It's kind of hard To explain,but you end up finding this
little companion along the way.
Right, you don't have a wholebunch of at least I didn't pick
up what the story was behind itbut you end up pretty early on
meeting this little companionthat you throw on your back With
your little time perhaps it's awhile ago.

(22:25):
I'm excited with you if it wasalways with you.
That's dope too it's.
I know it's a right at thebeginning, but it gives you a
couple extra powers.
You press the directionalbutton on the d-pad to see it
shows different colored circlesto give you a little cue on like
what areas to hear somethinginteract with.
Here's where you're supposed tobe headed.
But then the other thing isit's almost like a this aura

(22:47):
like boost thing that shoots out, and that's what I bring it up,
because when you do that thatwill interact with different
environment things.
It almost gives life to thingson the mountain right, or the
tower rather, and so they'relike almost like flowers or
plants where you hit that littlemagical little burst and they,
they show up.
And when it's not in directsunlight they'll stay, but in

(23:08):
the direct sunlight areas they,they start to wither away.
So it's a time thing, kind ofinteresting little things like
that going on with theenvironment.

Speaker 1 (23:15):
So then you're in the cave and I love the glowy vibes
, after initially feelingstifled by it.
I think the the cavecivilization was just like
really beautiful type of looks,and the little floating
jellyfish.
Don't know what that means asfar as how you have air floating
jellyfish, but it looked cool.
It's a video game, all right.
And then, lastly, your secondto last chapter.
When you get out of the cave,you're like whoa, it's very

(23:37):
different up here.
Right Before you get to thefinal chapter, which I won't
necessarily yeah, we'll take alittle.

Speaker 2 (23:43):
We'll let people know we'll talk about the final
chapter, but we'll let folksknow when this happens, so they
can, because it is that that's aspoiliest part.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (23:53):
So to dive into that more, that exploratory feeling,
as these abandoned buildings andthings within the tower, or,
like you also have these giantmurals that you're kind of
uncovering, did you like find?

Speaker 2 (24:04):
maybe you were One.
They show your stats at the endof the game and I only did one,
something I totally miss,except for the one.

Speaker 1 (24:12):
Did you never just hit the pulse near them, or did
you literally never run intothem?
I?

Speaker 2 (24:17):
hit one dude.
I just like I just didn't hitthe pulse near them, and then
towards the end I was like Iwonder if I hit the pulse next
to this.
And then I got it saw themright.
Yeah, yeah, whether or not youactivated them.

Speaker 1 (24:27):
Okay, I thought you never even found them.
I was like dude, what game areyou?

Speaker 2 (24:32):
I would look at them.
I just didn't, I just didn'ttake the time to interact with
them, which I'm, you know, isone of those things.
But I will say that, you know,at the end of the game it's cool
because it allows you, eventhough, if you miss things, if
you're a completionist, they,they let you go back to each
chapter to to collect whateveryou want to collect.

Speaker 1 (24:49):
Yeah, there's like this spinny temple thing that
was really cool to activate.
Did like at least two of thosemaybe more.
Those are cool and it's justthat Exploratoryness, like some
of my favorite games, like notjust Breath of the Wild, but
like any Zelda game.
I'm like the environment andgoing through it and just
adventuring and palling around,like that's been around since
the 2d for other people but forme as a kid like since Ocarina

(25:11):
of Time, so like I thought ofthat game a lot, oddly enough,
when I was playing this game,because it's like one of the
only other games I can reallythink of where I was so happy to
be In an environment if thatmakes sense, like I guess the
essence.
Greed taps into that for adifferent reason, but like just
Exploring and working your waythrough and climbing up these
different structures andswinging on your little uh, what

(25:35):
do you even call that rope?
Just your rope.
Your rope swinging under open.
It just felt really good.
It was a really cool game.

Speaker 2 (25:42):
Anything you didn't like about it and had a double
jump, bro.

Speaker 1 (25:44):
That's how you know it's a good game, kind of had
the double jump Is that when youuse the environmental thing he
used to carry you up.

Speaker 2 (25:51):
No well, I mean, it's not like a double jump, in a
sense of like a hollow night orsomething, where you jump on
random air and you get higher,but you, you can jump and you
tap, you you probably did abunch without realizing it, but
you, you jump and then you jumpagain.
Your character like, doesanother burst optically.
If it helps, you get a littlefurther.

Speaker 1 (26:08):
Hmm, but something that makes you kind of tell that
this isn't from like a massivestudio is like did you ever get
a situation where your personwas kind of caught up in the
environment and like literallycouldn't move or you're briefly
stuck or almost like frozen orlike stuck on an asset?

Speaker 2 (26:27):
Yeah, 100 percent man , you jump on to something and
it wouldn't actually let you getoff of it and you're like
literally kind of frozen therefor a bit, usually just when I
was poking around in cavestrying to figure out where I was
going and stuff, because Iwould try jumping on areas that
wouldn't let me through withthat kind of thing.

Speaker 1 (26:41):
Yeah, because that that jank was not exactly my
favorite.
And then, other than that, thefloor is yours for the windmill,
my guy.

Speaker 2 (26:49):
Doug, I was enjoying this game.
It is such nice flow.
When you're hitting thatclimbing flow you feel like Alex
Arnold, did you like justscaling up a mountain like a
beast it's, it's dope.
And then I spent a solidprobably an hour of my life, not
and not one sitting.
It's the only part of the gamewhere I got so frustrated that I

(27:10):
like had to take a break and Iwould come back to it.
And I had to come back, maybethree, maybe on the fourth time.
I was like, screw it, I'm justgoing to figure out what's going
on with the walkthrough andwhat to do in this spot.
There's a spot in maybe chapterthree or four where you
encounter this windmill.
Three, yeah, and it do it.
It was probably halfway throughour play, through halfway

(27:33):
through the month, and I didn'teven want to continue.
I was like this game was great,now it sucks, can't, can't even
do it.

Speaker 1 (27:38):
Crazy is like right before, like in that whole thing
, like you're crying, you'reclimbing up this really cool set
piece and you're working yourway up on the side of the cliff
and it's really cool.
And then, like you look overand you're like, am I supposed
to land on that?
And then you try to do it asyou swing over to it and it's
like no, that's not it.
But you were, but you're likethat's not it.
And then you try to do thisginormous swing like all the way

(28:00):
across and you're like thisspacing isn't right, like this
isn't working and like you, Ispent way too long doing it.
And then in this game you can'texactly, like I don't.
I'm a weirdo.
I don't like watching videogame guides.
When I'm stuck on something,I'd rather quickly read what the
solution is.
But sure, with the moderncontent creation it definitely
skews heavier towards the video.
But in this game, like goodluck reading about what to do

(28:23):
next, that make any sense.

Speaker 2 (28:26):
Well, I was seeing a video and I was like that
fucking windmill.

Speaker 1 (28:29):
I knew I should have fucking grabbed it, and I'm not.

Speaker 2 (28:31):
I'm not above a guide dude.
You know certain guests and itjust kind of depends on what
vibe I'm going forward and thisgame is so approachable that I
was enjoying not needing a guide, not using guide and, like you
say, it doesn't really presentitself to a guide.
There are chapter breaks, butit's you'd have to get pretty
like granular about this was.

(28:52):
I was able to find it because Ijust looked up.
I was like you know what thisis so ridiculous?
I'm sure there's a bunch ofother people having the same
problem.
So I googled just on windmilland, sure enough, like there was
some videos that I scroll, youwas able to scrub through and
find out what was going on.
And it was just one of thosedumb little things because, like
you're kind of saying, I hadtried a whole bunch of different
stuff and it's just frustratingin the sense that this game did

(29:14):
such a good job of havingmultiple different ways to
approach you know, multipledifferent solutions for whatever
you know climbing problemyou've been given for this one
to be so ridiculous and, like Idon't know, I just feel like
that was a misstep.
I feel like there could havebeen a couple other ways to get
around that windmill.
I didn't make you do the pod.

Speaker 1 (29:35):
You never would have finished.
I do this is true.

Speaker 2 (29:37):
If we weren't doing this for the pod, I probably
would have been like you knowwhat I'm good on this game.
I think I got what I needed outof it, but I'm very glad that I
did Figure that out, becausechapters five and six are very
strong.
The caves were cool, but fiveand six I thought were short but
super cool.
Well, six is like five minutes.

Speaker 1 (29:55):
Yeah, but it's dope, it looks beautiful yeah.
It's very cutscene of you.
Well, I think with that, whydon't we, why don't?

Speaker 2 (30:04):
we, for the folks that want to play this game and
want to to have those finalchapters unspoiled, come back at
the.
Alex will insert a time here.
Mark 33, 36.
That's 33.
36, that's 33.

Speaker 1 (30:45):
It's a soft spoiler wall because really I read about
it and I kind of get what wasgoing on.
I read about what I wassupposed to read in those notes,
sure.
The water was gone, as we knew.
And these big old whalecreatures that you start seeing
in the murals?
It turns out your little homieon your back is a baby version

(31:06):
of one of those.

Speaker 2 (31:06):
Right and they're called ballast.

Speaker 1 (31:08):
Yeah, I did read a note about how people were
arguing whether or not theyshould hunt them or not and how
that's going to be helpful ornot, and interesting to be like
God, like creatures.
But you get up and like, whenyou get out of the caves it's
like intensely windy and you'relike rainy and you're in this
like crazy cloud, likeatmosphere.
And then you keep going up andat the top, like how would you
describe the top?

Speaker 2 (31:29):
Chapter six it's wild , did you go from like
everything's really green, rainy, windy, like you said, in five,
and then you get to the nextpoint, which is six, and it's
almost ethereal.
You but here's the big spoilerpart, dude, is you run in to one
of those, one of those ballasts, and it's a very for those of
the folks that have watched,like Star Wars Rebels or some of
the different Star Warscartoons, or even some of the

(31:51):
new Star Wars live action,they're basically just big
pergoles dude, so those hugeflying whales that can jump
through hyperspace.
It's like basically the samething, but it's dope.
This is big mythical creatures.

Speaker 1 (32:02):
I forgot about that thing, how that you got to jump
and grab onto it.

Speaker 2 (32:05):
Right, and that was a really cool scene.
Dude, can you climb on that?
It was wild.
This whole game is like kind ofchill and then you're flying
through the sky on this bigwhale dude, it was dope.

Speaker 1 (32:15):
I was like I don't know what I'm playing anymore,
but this is fucking dull.

Speaker 2 (32:17):
Yeah, dude, you climb to like a lands and lands and
there's a big crater at the topof the tower Crash lands.
That's crash lands, exactly,almost like, it's hard to say,
might even die or looks like itdies.
But then there's another tower,another big tower, not like a
tool, tower thing.

Speaker 1 (32:32):
So you run down to that yeah, and then that's kind
of cool and the different.
You know, there's nevermentioned but you'd be blowing
these horns up the cliff as yougo.
And it's like the ceremonialthing and like the environment
responds to it Doesn't matter.
But you do it at the top ofthere and you got to give it
your mightiest little thing.
It's not going to go and yourlittle, your little squishy
homie is like dying.

Speaker 2 (32:53):
Yeah, dude, it's sad.
I know I was like what, why?

Speaker 1 (32:57):
And then, though, you blow real good, and then all
the whales come out of the dustor something and they're all
like what is up?
And you're like what is up?
And, like you, save the world.
I think, whatever, I don't know, it starts raining again, bro.

Speaker 2 (33:11):
The water comes back, they all come up and yeah, the
water's back.
And I was like, yeah, all thepergoles go into space and the
rain comes.

Speaker 1 (33:18):
That was fucking cool , kind of like Chris, where I
was like I don't know what thisis about.
That was fucking cool.
I like had that like with Chris.
I was like I don't know whatthis is about, but it seems like
some drama or something.
When this game, I was like Idon't know what that was about.
I'm like what Cool?

(33:46):
Will you usually say, like whatwould you rate this game?
Most of the games that we play,so that it becomes who
specifically is this game for?

(34:06):
You want to go first or shouldI lead off?
Go?

Speaker 2 (34:11):
ahead bro.

Speaker 1 (34:12):
That's the pregnant pause dude.
I was like whoa, what does hehave cooking here?
I would recommend this toeverybody who already has Game
Pass, without any doubt.
I think it's pretty awesome foralmost any type of gamer, I
would definitely say oldergamers as in above 25.

(34:35):
And I don't think someoneyounger shouldn't play.
I just think that you wouldhave patience and respect for
something like this, more sowhen you're a little bit, but
not too dramatically older.
And then, lastly, I think,because of its ease and its lack
of tension and all those things, kind of like a new gamer Like
I think life is strange pulls ina lot of newer gamers or

(34:57):
non-traditional gamers.
I think this game is awesome.
So, if it goes on sale, do youknow what the price point even
is?
I don't know.
I'm going to check that superquick.
It shouldn't really matter.
But usually with games like Idon't love recommending like
super expensive games thataren't very long to a lot of
people, but like 25 bucks.
I'd say that's well worth it forhow pretty and awesome it is If

(35:19):
it ever goes on.
Even like a gentle sale, it's apretty aggressive full send.
What do you think?

Speaker 2 (35:26):
Yeah, I agree.
I, like you said, if you're onGame Pass, definitely check it
out.
It's worth even, honestly, thefirst 20 minutes to 30 minutes.
It's fun, dude.
Yeah, there's a teaser runningright now that shows that swing
to the windmill.

Speaker 1 (35:42):
I looked up the price .
They're like.
We've done our best to let yousoft brains.

Speaker 2 (35:48):
No, man, that's something else, dude, it's it.
I like kind of what you said.
To be honest, it's, I think,even though there's some
conflict, there's never eventhat complicated mechanics, but
I think that it teaches you.

Speaker 1 (36:00):
So it does a good job .

Speaker 2 (36:02):
It does a good job, though, of telling you how to
use the buttons and what yourstuff is, and you get into good
flow, like of hitting thetriggers to climb up.
So a lot of games kind of justexpect you to know that you're
using the triggers to do this,where I think, at the very
beginning, they do a good job ofexplaining how to climb, what
you're doing, how to look around.
So, yeah, I think, for you know, if you're, if you're, new to

(36:25):
gaming, I think it's worthchecking out.
Like I don't think it'snecessarily, I think it's for a
little bit for everybody, youknow, but I think that I would
go into it.
Yeah, I think you know I don't.
I also think that I'd be reallyinterested to know the
completion rate of this game.
It's not a long one, it's about10 hours.
I'd say it took me about 10hours to beat right around there

(36:47):
, 10 or 11.
But I would love to look atsome of the stats on how many
people complete it, because I dothink it doesn't overstay its
welcome, but like it doesn't andmaybe it's because I wasn't
super invested in the story, butI feel like it didn't, like it
doesn't have a super drivingforce.
You know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (37:08):
Yeah, that's kind of why it's like a side game or
like a companion game for me.
So if like, maybe, dude, ifyou're playing Elden Ring or
like one of those games oryou're really bashing your head
against a wall, maybe you shouldplay a little bit.

Speaker 2 (37:20):
Dude, and I think that's.
I think that is what myrecommendation would be.
Then it would be not it likeit's not one that I would say,
hey, go out and play this game,you need to play, just like I
think it's.
I do think that people shouldcheck it out.
I think it's a really prettyawesome fun, but you know it's a
fun hang, but I like having tobe a back burner game dude, I
think it's like one of thosegames that, like you do to
decompress or if you're justlooking to put your into your

(37:42):
different mind space, that kindof thing.

Speaker 1 (37:44):
You have open world fatigue, which is like a gamer,
gamer thing.

Speaker 2 (37:47):
We're like it's true.

Speaker 1 (37:49):
You'll get into it in your one more thing.
But like I don't know, a lot ofpeople are real excited with
the same.
That's a different body we doside question yeah.
The Hogwarts legacy, but likethat's like I have a little bit
of open world fatigue, so thatgame just does nothing for me
there.
So, like a game like this, I'mjust like hell.

(38:10):
Yeah, dude, give me like, justgive me like a nice linear,
fucking exploring game.
It's fucking sick.

Speaker 2 (38:17):
That's.
I do like that part about ittoo.
Man, I you know I love a goodlinear game and this one is a
good linear game.
I love that it's not.
I love that it didn't like itdidn't punish me for not
collecting everything.

Speaker 1 (38:30):
You're seeing everything, but it was very
rewarding to let go of thatcompulsion to do everything.
It was very easy for me to letgo, and I like that.

Speaker 2 (38:38):
Right.

Speaker 1 (38:39):
I appreciated that.

Speaker 2 (38:41):
So so yeah, I guess that's kind of it.
That's like a loose.
Like you know it doesn't have ascreaming like you need to go
out and play juice up, but Ithink you really might like it.

Speaker 1 (38:51):
Yeah, I did not put together a formal list of my top
games played this year, but itwould be top five.

Speaker 2 (38:57):
That's dope.

Speaker 1 (38:58):
But I should say, last year we're on 24.

Speaker 2 (39:02):
Now, yes, sir, but with that, why don't we take a
little break and hear from ourunsation sponsor?

Speaker 1 (39:08):
All right, so what do you got dog?
Who's bringing us?
Who's bringing us the spottoday?
Who's paying these metaphoricalbills?

Speaker 2 (39:24):
Yo, you want to know who's not giving us any money at
all to put on this podcast, butis making it happen.

Speaker 1 (39:31):
Because we love it so much and it motivates us and
moves us forward.

Speaker 2 (39:35):
I want you to imagine you're playing basketball.
I'm worried.
I want you to imagine thatyou're down by three points,
with three seconds left.

Speaker 1 (39:47):
I was like this is getting weird with three seconds
left.

Speaker 2 (39:50):
Ok, and I want you to put up a shot From 22 feet away
from the basket.
All right, the three pointerperhaps, but I want you to
imagine that the year is 1979.
And it is pre-October 12th 1979.

(40:12):
Do you win that game?

Speaker 1 (40:16):
You make the basket, the three point line was
reinstated in the NBA.

Speaker 2 (40:22):
This episode is unofficially brought to you in
part by the three point line.
You know, you know the threepoint line.
No one's playing basketballwithout a three point line.

Speaker 1 (40:37):
Yes, dude it is so dope.
Really, what one Watching?
Any basketball, or is this justfrom 2K?

Speaker 2 (40:45):
I haven't played less 2K, but this is specifically
about the three point line andthere are things about 2K that
we can maybe talk about withthree point line, but you play
basketball.
Do you try to play basketballwithout a three pointer, without
that three point shot?
You try to watch basketballwithout a three point shot.
Yeah, actually I kind of misswhen people would do some mother
and jack up threes I am notcosigning this.

Speaker 1 (41:05):
I'm not cosigning this.
On Sanction Sponsor.
I will come up with my ownbootleg underground on Sanction
Sponsor that will go right afterthis one because, just like how
the shift made baseball reallyboring, jacking up three
pointers made basketball alittle harder to watch.

Speaker 2 (41:20):
You're talking about modern NBA and you're not wrong
the game has changed, people'sphysiques have changed and the
three point it's a little.
It's a little too overpowerednow, because everybody can make
a three point.
They mathed it up, dude, no,they just mathed it up.

Speaker 1 (41:34):
It's just three is better than two, so why would
you ever shoot two pointers?
They mathed it up.
I don't like math.
That's never good at math.
That's why I'm doing a podcastabout video games.
I'm not going to math.
I'm talking about specificallysomething that happened.

Speaker 2 (41:45):
This man is so mad, so LeBron James not too long ago
.

Speaker 1 (41:52):
All right, and.

Speaker 2 (41:52):
I'm talking about the three point line coming through
, standing on it.
Yeah, the MinnesotaTimberwolves.

Speaker 1 (41:58):
Okay, I was like all right, I'm back on, baby, I'm
back.
No, you can be.
You can have your grace at thethree point line.
That makes sense.

Speaker 2 (42:09):
But you know what?
Watching a good three pointcontest, but, and you know what,
that shipped pretty dope andyou bring up 2K.
Here's the deal, man, you canplay.
Speaking of goats, we gotMichael Jordan 2K 23.
We got the Mamba and 2K 24.
But you can do some Jordanstuff and you have some Mamba
know, but you can do some.

(42:29):
Yes, this was the NBA getsOctober 12th 1979 or some shit
like that.

Speaker 1 (42:36):
That was when the first that's when the first
three point shot was made in the.

Speaker 2 (42:39):
NBA Got that.
The rule changed around thatsame time.
What's that?
Who made it?
That was Chris Ford of theBoston Celtics.
But here's the deal thoughCollege didn't have the three

(42:59):
point line around the same time,so the NBA brought it first
right.
So you can play all those likethe Jordan stuff in 2K23 and
there's a couple of those oldgames you can play and dude.
It is weird playing a game ofbasketball without the three
point line.

Speaker 1 (43:16):
The college three point line is smaller than the
NBA three point line.
Totally I as an adult whodoesn't work out anymore.
I've been during my prep hours.
I've been sneaking down to thegym because I'm tight with the
gym teacher how was good, andthey just kind of have like an
open gym hour.
So I just be shooting somehoops of some kids.
I humbled one this one time,but I usually don't do anything

(43:38):
other than shoot around.
It was nice, but, man, youreally need your legs under you
to shoot three pointers.

Speaker 2 (43:45):
And you need to get that toe off the line, bro.

Speaker 1 (43:49):
That's an excellent memes about the new LeBron's
coming out, and this is shoeswith this ridiculous curve going
up.
And I didn't understand itbecause I didn't get it like a
recap on what happened at theend of that game for a while.
And then when I got the recap,I'm like these memes are great.
So, yes, let's go.
Let's go.
Not LeBron, You're a goon dude.

Speaker 2 (44:09):
Three pointers.
Do not tell you what it has ledto your right, though it
changed the game, it's led tonew scoring records of the NBA.
You got Ray Allen, stephenCurry Sorry, stephen Curry,
shooting chasms.
You got Ray Allen, stefan Curry.
You got Ray.

Speaker 1 (44:25):
Allen Stefan Curry.

Speaker 2 (44:28):
Who.

Speaker 1 (44:29):
Steph Curry's name is Warnell Stefan Curry.
I did not know that.

Speaker 2 (44:34):
This episode is unofficially brought to you by
three point lines and Warnell.

Speaker 1 (44:39):
And Warnell and LeBron go Timberwolves.

Speaker 2 (44:43):
Let's go.
I love it.

Speaker 1 (44:45):
I love it.
All right, welcome back fromthe break.
I'm going to go first becauseI'm so excited to tell you about
all the time I spend laying inmy bed playing with my steamy D.

Speaker 2 (44:58):
Sniffing it too.

Speaker 1 (44:59):
Huh, you sniff it too , dude I sniff my steamy D every
time I play it and then thatarticle that came out telling me
that apparently they told menot to sniff my steamy D.

Speaker 2 (45:10):
I'm like I'm just validated.

Speaker 1 (45:12):
Other people be sniffing.
They sneak me D's, so get itEveryone.
Let's inhale together.
I would just like to say thatwhen I play with my steamy D, I
lay a boppy for the parents outthere.
A boppy is, you know, a babyholding pillow.
It is a toilet you shaped deal.
I put one on my back and then Iput one around my big old belly
into the front and then I restmy little forearms and I play

(45:34):
with my steamy D and I get allnosled in and it's pretty great.
You double bop and play withyour steamy D, double bop and do
.
The amount of times that I'vealmost shirtlessly sent you
little videos of my tittiesbusting out is I lay with my
double boppy's playing with mysteamy D at night laying in bed.
It's great.
I have been playing MarvelMidnight Sons, which has been

(45:56):
fairly acclaimed as being agreat game.
Lost.
It came out at the very end of2022.
Correct, so it was basically a2023 game.
But way more famous gamescontinued to come out in 2023
and Marvel's got a little bit ofa rut going on.
People got a lot of really big,heavy MCU fatigue, which is

(46:18):
fine.
This isn't in the MCU and three.
I think that it's not a gamefor too many normies.
I don't think it's too crunchyby any means, but it's not like
a shooter.
It's not like a super simpleopen world or like a familiar.
It's a strategy game.
You've played a little bit ofit and I love it.

(46:41):
Long time fans of the pods wouldknow that I'm a big strategy
game guy, so I love the termbased shit.
It's also a card turn basedgame and slay the spy or anyone.
Let's go, dude.
Now I'm getting all steamy deed, so it's a lot of things I like
and what is really gripped me,which I thought I would give
zero bucks about, is therelationship system and talking

(47:03):
to the different superheroes inbetween missions.
That has been way morerewarding and cool and
interesting.

Speaker 2 (47:09):
Oh, that's interesting for you to say,
because at one point you told meyou had mentioned that that
some of that was getting alittle.
Maybe it's because you had toredo something, but you
mentioned that it was a littlefrustrating.

Speaker 1 (47:21):
And classic gaming since I was born and I didn't
save well enough and I had anolder save point.

Speaker 2 (47:26):
It was some lost, so there's some TDM.

Speaker 1 (47:30):
I see some TDM for sure.
No, I love it, dude.
And that's like I am a hugecomic book kid, like I read
comic books at various phases,like in throughout college and
then the MCU.
I absolutely loved it at firstbut I was like one of the first
people to get super burnt out byit.
And this game has me likelooking up seeing if I can find
like a good run of like agraphic novel of something or

(47:52):
like a blade comics and I'venever cared about blade as a
character, but like oh yeah,cool in this game and I've never
played movies, or tight Dude.
I've never seen him.
I was super young when I cameout and, like I have no
allegiance, I never bought ablade comic.
I can't think of all the comicsI've bought and I bought
hundreds.
I cannot think of a singularblade reference or appearance.

(48:16):
So like the fact that I'm likedude, what's up with?
Played like let's see if I canget it.
And it turns out he's not likesuper prolific within like
different runs, not the mostused character, but anyway, sick
game dude, full send a littlebit of a hidden gem, which is
kind of hard given the nature ofanything Marvel these days.
It's on sale all the timebecause it underwhelmed.

(48:38):
It's made by Fireaxis, whichmakes Civ, so I'm already
Fireaxis.

Speaker 2 (48:41):
Okay, interesting.

Speaker 1 (48:43):
Yeah, so I'm perhaps not the best person to talk to
about it.
I think the combat's good.
The mission structure isn't toowild between the different
types of missions, so it'sreally the gameplay loop of
doing the missions, interactingwith the heroes, building up
your relationships.
There's all these differentupgrade systems which are
actually kind of exhausting fora little while, but once you get

(49:05):
the hang of it it's prettygreat and it's just a full send
recommend for me, love it.
And then the only other steamy Dgame I'm playing is cursed to
golf.
Have you played any of that?
I know you bought it.
Have you actually played it?
It's hard.

Speaker 2 (49:16):
I went kind of hammer on the steam sales so I've got
a pretty.
My backlog is bloating rightnow but I have a little bit, not
much.
I just wanted to give a littleflavor of it and I like I just
yeah, I need to give him moretime.
I can tell that I'm going tolike it a lot.
I like a good golf, a good golfgame.

(49:36):
It takes it, takes the four manand does some fun stuff with it
.
It's not like golf.

Speaker 1 (49:41):
You know, and it's side to side, yep.
So it's, it's really cool.
I like it.
It's fun, it's a nice change ofpace.
I like it when I'm likewatching football or something
passively.
Sure, just some quick hitters,because I spent a long time
talking about how much I likedMarvel midnight suns.

Speaker 2 (49:56):
Dude, let me say I'm Marvel midnight suns.
Real quick, I played about anhour, hour and a half of it and
I am with you 100%.
I'm down, dude, but my biggestgripe with it is that it doesn't
let you it like.
It doesn't let you pause duringthe cutscenes.
Yeah, dude, so like that storystuff, dude.
And I can't believe theyhaven't patched that yet,
because that is 100% the reasonthat I was like I can't play

(50:18):
this game because I have anewborn, and it's one thing.
If I can pause whatever's goingand it's set down because I'm
playing on the deck as well, youknow you pause it and you come
back to it, cool.
But, dude, like I was missingstory bits and stuff because I
would pause it or I would eventry and put my steam deck to
sleep and when I would take itoff of sleep it would have
passed whatever cutscene wasgoing on.
And it's not like younecessarily need those cutscenes

(50:39):
, but I try and play a game likethat without being able to see
the cutscenes.

Speaker 1 (50:43):
Yeah, I would say that there's like I haven't had
the same issue and I'm usuallythe biggest stickler for that.

Speaker 2 (50:48):
I will say it's still a noise Me, I was trying to
play the game when my boy, likehe's gotten a nice groove, but
when I was trying to play he wasa little bit more.
You know, labor intensive.

Speaker 1 (51:01):
Yeah, Now, when you get into a nice little routine
around his sleep and you get alittle bit more, I think it's a
surefire pickup.
I should have probably made itthe game of the month, but I
just wanted to get into thatjuice on and I wanted to get
something new.
I'm not even close to beingdone with Midnight Sons.
Real quick on the daddy Xbox.

(51:21):
The Lumberjacks have moved onfrom Alaska.
We brought the title toAnchorage but we've moved again.
We're now in Mexico City andwe're the Armadillos.
The jerseys are hilariousbecause it looks like McDonald's
colors.
It's like yellow and red andjust the tone of McDonald's
colors.
It just looks like I'm themighty McNuggets or something

(51:42):
out there, and it makes me laughall the time Is this a new
franchise, or did you move theteam?
It's the same.
I just moved them again.

Speaker 2 (51:50):
There's no penalty for it.
This year they just kind of letyou into the game, those poor
Anchorage fans bro.

Speaker 1 (51:55):
Dude, I brought them a title or two, what else?

Speaker 2 (51:57):
did they ask for?
You know.

Speaker 1 (51:59):
I don't know.
They can take a trip down tosunny Mexico to see their team
play down there too.
It's still mad and it's stilljust mindless gaming, and I
still enjoy myself, doesn'tmatter.
Lastly, though, before my XboxGame Pass expires, I am getting
some tread on a roller drone.
Shouts out to Ace.

(52:20):
Hit him with the noise, alex,oh he will.
He's got a real big boner forthis game.
It was in his top 10 that hedropped into the Discord.
Nice little right Nace, exceptfor the weird formatting of your
numbers.
I don't know how you made alist in the numbers.

Speaker 2 (52:34):
I think Discord automatically formatted his
numbers for him and, instead ofgoing backwards, it thought he
was.
Yeah, it doesn't matter, it washappening there at Discord.

Speaker 1 (52:42):
But anyway, he had a nice little list that he was
gracious enough to drop with us,and he loves roller drone.
You really want me to play it.
It's cool.
I suck at it.
I still enjoy it.
I like doing a little run ortwo.
It's kind of like Tony Hawkmeets roller blade shooting.
I don't fucking know, it'sweird.
It's fucking cool though.

Speaker 2 (53:00):
So if you have game, pass Some cool tricks and stuff.

Speaker 1 (53:03):
Yeah, and the gameplay loop is just cool.
So like just play it.
I don't know Whoever you areout there.
If you were like what's thisabout?
Just fucking send it for a goodfew hours.
It's fun.
It's just like great, it's acool.
Like whoever came up with thisgame idea and then the execute
the mechanic of it like greatjob.
I love the creativity.

Speaker 2 (53:20):
Solid physics for what they're doing.

Speaker 1 (53:22):
It's fun physics, it's really cool.
And if you grew up playing themTony Hawk games, not just like
the first two famous ones, butlike kind of Tony Hawk 3, like I
like that era, so I thought itwas really cool.
Nice, nice, right, man, there'smy Rants.
What do you got Dude.

Speaker 2 (53:36):
I've been side-quested.
You know I've been side-quested.

Speaker 1 (53:39):
I've been doing a really good job of side-questing
is a lifestyle for you, Doug.

Speaker 2 (53:43):
Doug.

Speaker 1 (53:44):
You're the wanderer.
I do.

Speaker 2 (53:45):
I've been doing a good job of wandering, but
spending a good chunk of time ateach location.
This time Sometimes I just, youknow, I get a little taste.
I move on.
This time I've been doing agood job of taking care of
business and each of my, each ofmy locations.

Speaker 1 (53:57):
We'll sort out that.

Speaker 2 (53:59):
Well, here's a deal, though.
So I'm starting off with someMario Rabbids Kingdom Battle.
Cool game it is, but it's notthe coolest.
It's a nice.
Like you know, we've called acouple different Nintendo joints
like babies first, you know,like babies first, whatever, and
I feel like this is babiesfirst tactical game.
And I think that's fineActually for it's, but dude for

(54:24):
a tactics game it's harder thanMarvel Midnight Suns, I promise
you think so and no so, but youcan, you've gotten, but it's
about a halfway through.

Speaker 1 (54:35):
Of which world the game.

Speaker 2 (54:39):
Are you sure?
Yeah, I've looked at how manyhow many worlds are, because I
played a good chunk of it once.

Speaker 1 (54:45):
It's longer than I thought it would be to be fair.
It's, it's hard.

Speaker 2 (54:49):
It gets harder, but it is harder for sure.
But you know what it's.
Two, it's one of those thingswhere it's got built in cheat
codes and that's fine.
I like that for accessibility.
But it's also one of thosethings that, like, if I'm it's
long enough, it's not.
I haven't put that many hoursinto it.
It's like I'm probably like 12in some like that, but that's
far enough into the game where Ifeel like I haven't progressed

(55:10):
the story or progress along init enough.
Anyways, it's like I get to apoint where I feel like, ok,
like I want to keep this moving.
I want to like this is fine,this is fun, but I have other
things I want to do.
So I want to keep on moving andit will let you, at the
beginning of any battle, tobasically nerf it, to give you
extra your health at 100 percentand to give you I think that
does at least that.

(55:30):
I can't remember the other.
It does two things, I think,but it basically makes it so
each battle is easier and thenmaybe even too easy, and I think
when games become too easy,they also like for me at least,
like they also makes it so it'snot fun.
And because you can't likestraight like, because it's so
easy, because it's a question atthe beginning.
It's like at at the beginningof every tactical fight that you
start.

(55:51):
It's like whole day tobasically do this and I don't
remember that.

Speaker 1 (55:55):
Yeah, well, it's on there since I picked it up.

Speaker 2 (55:57):
But that's just it.
It's like one of those thingswhat's you know about?
You're like, oh, this one lookskind of hard, so maybe I'll
just do it like because I don'tknow, because it's so accessible
, like I wish it was harder tolike choose.
I like I almost wish that itwas like what made me go to a
menu screen to make that choice,and I think that maybe that
would put that.
Whatever that's, who cares, Ijust want to bring that one up
because I put a chunk of timeinto it and I think it is really

(56:18):
well done.
I just like.
I'm just not sure how I feelabout the mid game and then two,
two of the same.
I mean the challenge is cool andthe apps are cool, but I just
it's fun Running around thatthing, I think, like the, the
rabbits and the Mario Mets up ispretty cool, like the
animations and everything.
It is a.
It is a dope game and I wouldlike to to roll the credits on

(56:40):
it eventually, but it's notsomething I'm trying to plow
through because it feels alittle grindy almost, and I'm
just not here for a grind.

Speaker 1 (56:47):
The next one's supposed to be really good, but
I think it also got lost withother games around it.

Speaker 2 (56:52):
Right, yeah, for what it's worth, though, those games
, like you know, if you are aTexas gamer, like if you like
that kind of stuff or if you'rejust interested in it, like they
go on some pretty deepdiscounts all the time.

Speaker 1 (57:03):
So check them out and I know, yeah, they let that up.

Speaker 2 (57:05):
So yeah, yeah, structure win.
Other two games that I haven'tput a ton of time into, but I've
been enjoying both immensely.
First, hogwarts legacy this isI know that you're maybe not
into it, but you're also aweirdo who never watched the
fucking Hogwarts movies or theyou've never watched any of the

(57:25):
Harry Potter movies, so likeyou're maybe not invested.

Speaker 1 (57:28):
I have to do is I was talking trash at work, talking
about how, like before I was toocool to finish the MCU, I was
too cool to finish the HarryPotter movies.
They're like, dude, you're suchan annoying hipster I go.
I know it's part of thepersonality Shoot you're on one.

Speaker 2 (57:44):
This is where it started.

Speaker 1 (57:45):
I was like this is where it started.
To be honest, I got super burntout on the movies and I was
fucking sick of the franchiseand I've just been burned out of
the blood.

Speaker 2 (57:52):
The movies dude, the original six, which I think that
did seven or something likethat.

Speaker 1 (57:57):
I think I made it to four.
I don't even know if I've seenfour or three.
Might have been the last Dudeyou're a wild one.

Speaker 2 (58:01):
You read all the books, didn't you?
100%, all right, well, themovies are actually a good
adaptation of the books.
And you know what JK Rowlingkind of sucks, but like that's
what you create with the storyPretty cool.
Actually, if you like, pickingapart, there's some shit that
kind of sucks in there too, butlike, whatever I digress, it's
great Worldbuilding.
It's great Worldbuilding, right, and you know what.

(58:23):
So this game it is, you knowit's open world, it's fun, it's
fun to be running aroundHogwarts, it's fun to be doing
the magic stuff, like it is fun.
And I wanted the one thing Iwant to play because, like, I
put a couple hours in this gameand I'm obviously going to, I'm
going to like, work my waythrough this one because it's, I
think it's, it's, it's a coolone.
But what I want to bring up,dude, is I got sorted right.

Speaker 1 (58:44):
They sort you in this game, because you dumb as fuck,
ain't it, dang you?

Speaker 2 (58:48):
hate, not a lot of.
Here's some love to all theHufflepuffs out there.
Like geez, listen to Luke overhere.
Love to the Hufflepuffs yeah,the houses got.
Love for all the houses.

Speaker 1 (58:58):
Hufflepuffs are the participation trophy of Hogwarts
.
They're like the you just madeit in.

Speaker 2 (59:03):
God bless you little one the dumbest house, oh my god
, if you're a Hufflepuff, I loveyou.

Speaker 1 (59:11):
Drop out of school.

Speaker 2 (59:12):
if you're a Hufflepuff dude, You're just
they're just anybody listeningis like they're milking you for
tuition brother milking you fortuition Continue.
Yeah, this is going to make anysense after that, as I'm like
holding it down for theHufflepuffs, but I got sorted
into Slytherin for the firsttime in my life.
Dude, I've done a variety ofdifferent sorting head deals

(59:32):
throughout the years to sort you.

Speaker 1 (59:34):
That's a couple questions, just a couple
questions.

Speaker 2 (59:38):
All those sorting things were always set up to
give you the answer that youwanted, so of course you were,
of course it's like apersonality test, so they they
ask you questions that like leantowards whatever you know,
whatever house, but it's, Ithink there was like ambition
was one of the things I selectedfor this game, like, and I
think that like pushed metowards.

Speaker 1 (59:54):
So you're going to lose to your little brother in a
video game?

Speaker 2 (59:56):
Do you use his controller?

Speaker 1 (59:57):
because losing to him is death and you're like yes.

Speaker 2 (01:00:00):
No dude, but dude, it's funny.
So I'm totally about it, thoughI'm like you know what?
Because every other sortingthing I've ever done I've landed
in Gryffindor proud Gryffindorover here.
But I tell you what, landing mein Slytherin, I was like you
know I can roll with thisbecause they actually give you
the option to like you know, Idon't like where, that's so to
me, so like I'll go whereverShit, yeah, yeah.
So I was like you know what?
I'm going to embrace this.

(01:00:21):
So I'm going at the game andI'm role playing like a big,
like a morally ambiguous wizard.
That will ultimately be good inthe end.
I don't want to go towards liketwo, towards like the dark
wizard wizarding world, but Iwant to dabble in it and I want
to do some some questionable thechoices from time to time.

Speaker 1 (01:00:41):
I think it's very snap of me.
I think the next game they makeis going to be an absolute
heater.
I think this game was reallygood.

Speaker 2 (01:00:49):
And it's yeah.
I've seen some rumblings.
I think they might have justannounced something.

Speaker 1 (01:00:53):
They sold.
This game sold like crazy forlike two years straight now.
So, like I, think this game wassimilar to and I've mentioned
this before but like Assassin'sCreed, one was like a good idea
and then it just wasn'tperfectly exceeded.
Then two came out and it was aheater, like Mass Effect,
famously.
It was really good for one, buteveryone's like, oh two.
I think this game, the secondgame, will be way better, so I

(01:01:17):
look forward to it.
Maybe I'll jump in there.
But if I sort me intoHufflepuff I'm auto sorting into
he's like you know what.

Speaker 2 (01:01:25):
I started to never playing this game, never
watching Hogwarts.

Speaker 1 (01:01:29):
Dude, hold my control at my Xbox and not play anymore
.

Speaker 2 (01:01:32):
Third, third major side quest game called Returnal.
So this was a PS exclusive butat recent not even recently it
came out to PC not too long ago.
I skipped it in the steam saleand I haven't put a ton of time
into it, but it is really goodand it is pretty much just rogue
light Metroid, dude, it's justrogue light Metroid and that's a

(01:01:54):
bull hell, isn't it?
No, it's rogue light, metroiddude.
So like the, basically it'sthird person.
You go in this, you crashedyour ship or whatever, and
you're in this alien planet andyou go out and you're basically
running around.
You start to run into, likethese bodies that you find out,
are you?
So it's on a death loop thing,like into the gungeon, almost
like into the gungeon.
So there's a death loop idea.
Yeah, yeah.

(01:02:15):
So basically, when you die, yougo back to the ship, everything
starts over and she's startingto figure it out.
But, dude, it's okay, clearlyit is.
You know, the controls arereally nice.
The thing was the like.
The shooting is really great,it's all like it's.
It's more polished than anyMetroid game that's ever been
out there.
But you look at the map on your, on your screen, and how that

(01:02:37):
is.
Do you see a headlight,headlight ship.
Well, you can.
It's not 2D though, so so it's3D game.
Nice little joke, I get you.

Speaker 1 (01:02:49):
But so serious I was like dude, that was a good
Metroid joke.

Speaker 2 (01:02:54):
But dude, it's just.
It's just funny though, becauseeven the way the map it looks
like a Metroid map is like veryMetroid Prime map.
You know, you have, you getsuit, upgrades, you're going
around, dude, it's like it'spretty because you're a space
lady Doesn't mean this metro,dude.
I mean that's a, that's apretty big Metroid flavor.
But you're like upgrading yoursuit, you have these like
different doors that open, likethe Metroid doors, dude, but

(01:03:16):
it's tight.
That doesn't be a little gameand that's not actually a knock
on it, because I do not loveMetroid, so like.

Speaker 1 (01:03:22):
I think, any developer would be like cool, I
just made another Metroid.
That's great, dude.

Speaker 2 (01:03:26):
and so I'm looking forward to playing more.
And it's but my biggest sidequest that I had as I rolled the
credits on a game called theForgotten City, which is a
really fun one that wasrecommended by the homey ace boy
.
He loves that one forever, dude, I know I can't even remember
Like I think he told us a longtime ago in the discord to check

(01:03:46):
out this game and I was like,yeah, I got a big backlog, we'll
see.

Speaker 1 (01:03:49):
And then you did take your time getting there because
even I played it.
It was like it's cool andyou're like I'll get there soon.

Speaker 2 (01:03:55):
Well, dude, I've got a big backlog, I know, but I did
get there, dude.
And then, you know, at first Iwas like I don't know, the
dialogue is a little clunky.
It definitely.
I played on the steam deck,which is great, and, man, it
really grabbed me like themystery of it all.
Really.
Quite good, there's not a lotof combat.
There is some combat in there,and some of it is actually
optional, but I'm going to goback and like uncover more of

(01:04:16):
the stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:04:17):
Are you like pretty like?
Because that's the thing islike he went back and like dug
in and found all these differentalternate things and I was just
like that's a cool story andhe's yeah, so I'm not going to
give you, I'm not going to talktoo many spoilers for the folks,
because it is a super easy tospoil game, but there are
alternate endings and I'm goingto, which is a spoiler in itself
.

Speaker 2 (01:04:35):
So sorry about that, folks, but here's the deal.

Speaker 1 (01:04:37):
Whatever, that's a fair enough.

Speaker 2 (01:04:41):
Yeah, I'm going to go back and figure him out to you
know, to not to not, you know,give too much into it.
But I am going to continue alittle bit.
But I also have a save point.
That's like right at a pivotalpoint, where you can do a couple
of different things, and I kindof exhausted a lot of different
of the options before decidinghow I wanted the end game to
roll out.
So I'm in a good point where Ican go back and pretty much get

(01:05:02):
those final.
You know all the differentbranches tied up pretty quickly
I think.

Speaker 1 (01:05:09):
Nice.
It was a.
I'm not always the biggestreader or dialogue guy when I
play games, but it was a reallyfun reading a dialogue game.

Speaker 2 (01:05:17):
There's a really good choice tree.

Speaker 1 (01:05:19):
It started off as a Skyrim mod.
You know that right.

Speaker 2 (01:05:22):
I didn't know that and actually it kind of reminded
me how smooth and how nice itis to run around in Skyrim and I
think that they actually inthis like did a really good job
of you know, because it'ssmaller, it's not nearly as big
of a map and it's a little newerand polished so like.
But it's like, dude, I know wehad like Starfield come out,
dude, but it's like I'm readyfor a new Skyrim.

(01:05:44):
I think like just polish me upsome some Skyrim or just like
throw me back in that world.
But that's what was cool aboutthis dude is I felt like you
know it's that you run around ina similar fashion, like even
the combat parts felt like youknow, with the use of bow and
arrow and like some of that feltlike a little Skyrim me, but a
little bit more polished and andthe but it takes a dialogue to
the next level, because you'rereally talking to all these

(01:06:05):
different characters runningaround and figuring out what's
going on with this time loop andand yeah, dude, I really
enjoyed that one that was.
That was a major like.
I'm always side questing you,but I don't always like just
knock one off the backlog duringa side quest.

Speaker 1 (01:06:20):
Yeah, and this is the flow of the game is nice.
You can play it for five tolike 25 hours pretty seamlessly.
I feel like so.
Yeah, I got like that five to10 hour window and I liked it a
lot.

Speaker 2 (01:06:31):
But it takes about 10 hours to beat.

Speaker 1 (01:06:33):
OK, then I at least did that.

Speaker 2 (01:06:36):
Totally.
Well, cool man that does it.

Speaker 1 (01:06:39):
Announce our next game Marble man Night Sons dude.
Thanks, man, dude, that'sawesome.
Dude Can't believe.

Speaker 2 (01:06:47):
Now we do have a game picked out though.
So, ladies and gentlemen, boysand girls, get ready to go back
in time for another time loopgame.
We are playing Majora's Mask.

Speaker 1 (01:07:01):
Yeah, we're Zelda boys, so Trotted Territory, but
just got to get that funky music, dude, I don't know music white
boys, dude, it's like.

Speaker 2 (01:07:09):
I'm excited, dude, lippy, I'm excited, I'm manga Do
you want to?

Speaker 1 (01:07:12):
do you want to read the manga?
I do they actually like.
I'm not going to get into ithere, but maybe next time.

Speaker 2 (01:07:20):
Tune in next time.
Everybody, Join us it is cool.
Yeah, join us in the discord.
Go to wwwlow5gamingcom.
You can find links to all ofour social medias.
There's also an invite to ourdiscord there where we'll be
talking about Majora's Mask andall those little side quests and
other things we got going on.
But that is the best place toget at both of us.

(01:07:42):
Luke ain't really participatingon any social medias but he is
in the discord, so if you wantLuke's here, that's a place to
get it.
Low five gaming on just prettymuch all the social handles.
You know your true social onlykind of bullshit.
Yeah, low five gamingSecretively.

(01:08:03):
And hey, we know we know youlisten, LeBron.

Speaker 1 (01:08:05):
It was a two pointer.
Get over it.

Speaker 2 (01:08:07):
Yeah, I see the tape.
Your toe was on the line, man,I would thanks everybody If you
got this far.
We appreciate you.
We love you.
If you've already given us afive star rating on a platform
that has ratings, man, I loveyou even more.
Big old fucking internet hug.
But yeah, in this case, yournext side quest is to tell one

(01:08:30):
of your friends about us so theycan give us a five star rating.
It helps with the algo, helpsus get out to more people and
played our egos.
You know those numbers.
Hey bro, till next time.

Speaker 1 (01:08:43):
Yeah, see ya.