Overview: This week we get into the weeds…or should we say the tall grass…and give our thoughts on the incredible new Pokemon Legends Arceus. Ian also gives his solo review of Halo Infinite, and of course there’s discussion about very tall people drinking very small drinks and how to properly lick sour cream off a baby’s head.
Contact us at yondercast@gmail.com
Episode Agenda with Time Stamps:
Credits:
Overview: This week we get into the weeds…or should we say the tall grass…and give our thoughts on the incredible new Pokemon Legends Arceus. Ian also gives his solo review of Halo Infinite, and of course there’s discussion about very tall people drinking very small drinks and how to properly lick sour cream off a baby’s head.
Contact us at yondercast@gmail.com
Episode Agenda with Time Stamps:
Credits:
Ep. 15 - Pokemon Legends Arceus, Halo Infinite
[00:00:00] Josh: This is probably like watching an episode of Mr. B.
[00:00:05] Patrick: More of like you were talking about the three Stooges.
[00:00:08] Josh: Oh, yeah.
[00:00:09] Ian: But Josh has all three Stooges at once.
[00:00:12] Josh: Somehow I manage it.
you know how you would her to go to like poke you in the eyes and you put your hand up and you could like block someone's eye poke with like a, a straight, like, I guess holding your hand out, like a
[00:00:24] Josh: Did that work for you?
[00:00:25] Patrick: no, cause some people, one of my friends, they had long fingers in champion.
[00:00:31] Josh: they have long fingers or do you have short hands?
[00:00:34] Patrick: oh, that's a good question. Actually, I have big palms. we always joke that I have like, bear palms have like shorter fingers, but big, big Palm.
[00:00:42] Ian: Hey me too.
[00:00:43] Patrick: like, you don't have some people have like really long fingers and they're like, yeah, It looks pretty like normal.
[00:00:49] Josh: I feel like I have tiny hands considering I'm six foot seven was a freshman this year that like, he held his hand up to my hand and he was able to curl his fingers around my fingers. I was like, I already feel like I have tiny hands. no need to like Paul my hand, like a basketball.
[00:01:08] Patrick: it's like when you see a, NBA player holding like a Gatorade bottle and it looks like one of the mini ones, dude,
[00:01:15] Josh: box.
[00:01:16] Patrick: when I was working at Starbucks and Twalliton Greg Oden came in one time, who's like like I think six 11 or something like that. And he came in and he ordered eight tall strawberries and cream frappuccino, which is literally like the smallest drinky.
Any walks out and it literally looks like he's holding this tiny, like size of like a shot glass drink. And he has it in a store is like he just walks out. Like it wasn't even like a big deal or anything, but I was laughing so hard cause it was like, you're kind of star struck a little bit like, oh my gosh, that's Greg Oden.
he's an NBA player and he orders a tall strawberries and cream frappuccino. Sips it on his way out. Just like nothing happened. Like you're was just an average person just getting a tiny little drink. It was so funny.
[00:02:00] Ian: Speaking of goonie behavior. Patrick, I have a, I have a question to ask you as someone who has had two babies in your past, did you ever, when your children were babies and you had to hold them all the time, did you ever drop food on their head?
[00:02:17] Patrick: Oh, yeah, yeah.
[00:02:19] Ian: other day I was holding Nora and I was trying to eat a taco, one handed and a big dollop of sour cream, just like right up the top of her head. But then the worst thing was is that I didn't even cause like I'm holding her right here, you know? And her like head is right below my chin. I didn't even think about it.
I just like licked it off the top of her. Like, oh, I got to clean that up and my hands are full. So,
[00:02:47] Patrick: Yeah. I mean, logical sense that that's the next thing you do.
[00:02:50] Ian: like, that was weird. I can't believe that just happened. And yet it didn't feel weird at all
[00:02:58] Josh: no other way to go about that. I'm trying to think of what you could've done instead of that.
[00:03:03] Ian: because they didn't want it to like run down her face, like into her eyes or anything like that. Like I had to get it cleaned up. My hands were full.
[00:03:09] Patrick: yeah, I'm pretty sure at that point, baby's just an extension of your body. It's almost pretty much like if you would have dropped the sour cream on your hand and just licked it off, I think it's just that that's pretty standard, but yeah. We'd drop stuff all the time. , cause if baby's sleeping, you do not speaking of
[00:03:29] Ian: That's a little
[00:03:30] Patrick: hi buddy. Yeah. Good thing. We're not playing FAS Fantasma, go for BIA.
[00:03:37] Josh: Before BIA.
[00:03:42] Patrick: but yeah, like if, if they're actually sleeping in your arms, like it is one of those things that you do not move, and if you're eating something and it drops, it might have to stay there for a little bit. I don't think that's goofy whatsoever. I think it's actually kind of endearing
[00:03:55] Ian: Well, thank
[00:03:55] Josh: mean, I don't have kids, but I've totally licked sour cream off the top of my dog's head. So same
[00:04:05] Patrick: the same.
[00:04:06] Ian: we talk about that more, I think we should start the episode. Hey everybody. Welcome to yonder cast. My name is Ian lake and I'm joined this week by a level 67 alpha Charizard, Patrick Leitch,
[00:04:26] Patrick: Hi.
[00:04:27] Ian: as well as a level three Bidoof Josh Baltzell
[00:04:33] Josh: actually. I grew to love Badu because the Pokemon company released that adorable cartoon.
[00:04:38] Ian: What cartoon?
[00:04:40] Josh: You didn't see. Oh, okay. So the Pokemon company released a cartoon and it's about a Badu and it's adorable. Highly
[00:04:47] Ian: actually really like Badu. I like the name. I like the Pokemon.
[00:04:52] Josh: Yeah.
[00:04:52] Ian: I'm quite fond of it as well. Wasn't it? It wasn't an insult.
[00:04:56] Patrick: And, but you've special attack of lik sour cream off cookie,
[00:05:01] Josh: no,
[00:05:03] Ian: Josh. He still sounded a little far away and I'm not, I'm not quite sure. Why , can you try rotating the microphone and just saying things
[00:05:11] Josh: How about now?
[00:05:12] Ian: that sounds a little.
[00:05:14] Josh: Okay.
[00:05:15] Patrick: is like my favorite thing.
[00:05:18] Ian: It looks like you're eating corn this whole entire episode. I'm just going to be like, Josh is eating. This is what Josh looks like when he eats corn, our listeners can't see it. Josh can't, can't find a good place for his stand. So he's holding his microphone, but the only way to hold it is like perfectly horizontal.
And it looks like he's holding a piece of corn that he's about to bite out.
[00:05:42] Patrick: That's great.
[00:05:43] Ian: We're going to get you a mic stamp. We'll get this figured out.
[00:05:45] Josh: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:05:48] Ian: well, to start things off, we, the yonder cast, we have a bit of an announcement to make, because we have done a little bit of soul searching. It's been over a year since we started this podcast believer. And, we're very excited to continue with the podcast and we've, reflected on our direction and we've decided that our existing concept for the show being a split of science and games isn't necessarily gonna work super well, because I don't know if our show appeals to a person who is looking for a source of really content heavy science news, because it's kind of diluted with a lot of banter and talk about games and talk about life and stuff like that.
But also, I don't know that the show appeals to a person who is really after banter. Game talk because they have to sit through a bunch of like scientific articles and discussion of scientific concepts. So, we decided to go a little bit more, focused with our podcast direction. And from here on out, we're going to be games focused.
So we're not entirely going to drop science from our lives because we're all science teachers. And I'm sure that we will talk about science. If something really exciting comes up, we will probably discuss it on the show, but more in the banter section, not so much a formal report on it. but we are going to go more games focused.
And in fact, we're going to have a name change. We haven't quite decided on a name change. So that is to be determined by the time we actually put this episode out there, we'll have decided on a name.
[00:07:31] Josh: It's still yonder cast though.
[00:07:32] Ian: It will still be yonder cast, but we're going to change our subtitle here.
[00:07:35] Patrick: Right? Cause instead of science and games, it will be something games, but it will not have science in the name. right there. Yonder casts, something games, but not science.
[00:07:48] Josh: I vote for that. It's catchy.
[00:07:52] Patrick: Yeah, all the specific, but it's good.
[00:07:54] Ian: I'll add that to the list.
So there you go. Just wanted to say that really quickly. And otherwise the show's going to stay the same. It's still going to be us. We're still going to have the same banter and general personality and approach, but we will be talking less about science and more specifically focused on games, So that's the big announcement . I know we've already announced changes several times in our history, but really we started this podcast, not really knowing what we wanted or where it was going to go. And so it was very natural that we are just like a Pokemon. We are evolving over time changing and eventually we will find exactly what represents us as podcasters.
So let's talk about lives. Let's talk about life, Patrick.
[00:08:43] Patrick: of the lives.
[00:08:46] Ian: so our last episode had a pretty big impact on us. I didn't actually talk to Sean about this. I've been meaning to message him and tell him that having him on the show, discussing his experience with indie game design, kind of like started this whole conversation between the three of them.
Why aren't we designing games, what's wrong with us. And I haven't really done anything with that, but I know that Josh and Patrick, you both have already started exploring coding and game design at kind of a fundamental level. What have you been up to your Patrick? I know you've been taking a class.
[00:09:22] Patrick: Yeah. So it kind of just hearing Sean talk. And I think the one thing he said is like, just anyone can do it. I was like, oh, I'm that I'm anyone like, I could totally try this. it kind of flared up that sort of excitement. I had the first trimester or the first semester when I was in college.
And so I started looking online of things that I could do. And there's like a pretty cheap Python class that has like some projects and some lecture videos and those sorts of things that I started taking. And I mean, I've really, really enjoyed it. find myself really drawn to that, like project based, learning of like trying to solve a problem and having all of these pieces that you've learned and like to put it together and make some, make some sort of product.
And so I've, it's gone slowly as you'll probably find out in this episode. My time has been shifted elsewhere, in terms of what my free time, but I've had a lot of fun. I think it's just a, another useful skill. Like I've started to think of like, how could I, I could actually use this in my classroom.
Like I could actually write a program to do something make a sort of a, like a demonstration or a simulation using Python or using some other tools to be useful. it was one of those things. I was like, this isn't just could be a leisurely activity if you will. But also something that's meaningful to my profession and meaningful to my career.
So it was, it was kind of fun and I'm like, oh, I want to make a game. And I think it was also like another layer of getting us together and putting our creative minds together to see if we could do something with it, which I thought was another layer to either the podcast or a friendship or anything else.
So it was, it was kind of like reinvigorating in a way, picking up something new and finding a way to connect it to everything I do is fun. I've really enjoyed it.
[00:11:04] Ian: made me really want to do the same thing that you're doing. Like the same as course I'll be behind you of course, or something similar, but yeah, Python seems like a great language to start with. that seems to be what everything I could find on the internet said about, you know, good first language.
And we've talked about this quite a few times, Patrick, since then, like, I would just love to understand computers at that level, even if I don't do anything professionally with it or anything like that, but just, you know, you use computers all day every day and just to kind of not have it be such a mystery, but to understand how it functions would be.
I think a very powerful thing. And maybe like you said, maybe there are things that you could build. Simple things that it just be another way to build yourself tools right. And build your students' tools. Sound very
[00:11:54] Patrick: What's funny is I was actually, I was in class the other day and I was helping a student with a project. And I had noticed on one of their tabs, it had something called replica, which is actually the online tool you use to write code. Like you can actually write Python code in it and I'm like, this isn't going to be weird, but like, you, are you writing code?
Like, not that it was during class or anything that I would care about, but he's like, oh yeah, our computer science class here at the school actually uses Python as well. Like T Smith teaches a class of computer science and actually uses Python as one of the languages that you can learn. And so it was interesting.
I was actually asking the student about like what they were learning and all this other stuff. I was like, oh my gosh, like I'm learning the same thing. Like, why am I taking a class from D Smith right now? So it was one of those things that was like pretty exciting to actually connect with my students on another level too.
Like, I didn't realize students could be learning that in high school. Like, it'd be interesting if I would have learned all of that stuff. Leagues ahead of any computer science class, I would have taken college because some of the skills are pretty transferable to other languages or, mean, just programming in general.
I think had this discussion how, like, you kind of build a mindset towards problem solving and coding and it's an, and it kind of just helps with all, all aspects of it. So it was kinda fun to actually connect with a student cause they were doing the same thing I was doing at the same time. It's like, oh, we're learning together.
Wait a second. Oh yeah, I'm the teacher. that's fine.
[00:13:14] Ian: That's funny.
[00:13:15] Patrick: Yeah.
I'm kinda like man kids these days, like they learn programming. I don't feel like I had a chance to do that when I was their age. And so now I'm like that old guy who's riding the bike with the training wheels and the little frills coming off of the handlebars.
[00:13:32] Ian: You know, all the kids are on mountain bikes and like I'm an old guy with elbow pads on a tiny little bike,
Josh what's been going on with you.
[00:13:43] Josh: oh my gosh, you caught me off guard. Super boring. I have like nothing going on right now. Trying to think of if anything's changed since the last time we recorded.
[00:13:55] Ian: It's only been a couple of weeks.
[00:13:57] Josh: Yeah. But that still makes me boring. Oh, I went and saw the new screen movie.
[00:14:01] Patrick: Oh like the remake,
[00:14:04] Josh: it. Yeah.
[00:14:05] Patrick: but same cast,
[00:14:07] Josh: yeah, they didn't really remake it so much as it was like a series closed. I mean, that means that they're going to have a sequel, but it was supposed to like wrap up the series and close the book on the story of ghost face.
I it's one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. Although a lot of people disagreed with me
[00:14:24] Patrick: I'm excited. I'm very intrigued, like scream. that must've come out. Like when I was in high school, I think like scream and I know what you did last summer. We're kind of like the back-to-back and like nev Campbell was like huge at the time Courtney Cox was I think just starting up and then I don't machine probably in friends at that time.
I can't remember,
but I'm dating myself. I don't even know it's shows was so old. Like, but yeah, I'm actually really good. That soundtrack was really good too. When it came out back in the day, there's like a, I remember having the actual CD, if we know what that is anymore, the CD of the scream soundtrack that I would listen to all the time.
Yeah,
[00:15:02] Ian: scream
[00:15:04] Patrick: yeah, I'm gonna have to look this up and talk about some of this. Like I think there's a less than Jake song. Like a Scott band did the, I think I love you song. It was like one of my favorite songs at the time off to look it up.
[00:15:16] Josh: Yeah. People that love horror movies like myself, scream is usually the movie that like introduces you to the horror genre.
I don't know. It has a lot of nostalgia for me. I didn't grow to like it until I married Chris and he made me watch it multiple times and he was. You'll you'll like this series and I was like, okay.
And then that's what turned me into a horror movie buff is that I I've just always loved that movie and grown from there.
[00:15:42] Ian: I like it too. I wouldn't consider myself a horror movie person, but I like scream because it is. I can't believe I'm going to say this, but it like has layers in terms of like, it's a horror movie, but like, it's also funny, you know? And it's like kind of lighthearted if I'm remembering it correctly, it's kind of lighthearted, especially at times between the horrible things that happen, horror movies are just so dark and, suffocating so often that it's kinda like, I don't really want to spend an hour and a half in that, but scream is still fun.
almost doesn't take itself too seriously all the time. I've only seen it once and it's been a long time, but that's what.
[00:16:28] Josh: the whole point of it is that it's supposed to be like this meta movie where, you know, what's going to happen next. And all of the suspects are cliche and it's still somehow excites you like killing drew Barrymore spoilers in the first five minutes of the original messed people up because drew Barrymore was supposed to be like this, and coming star.
She was supposed to be the main character it totally throws you off guard by killing her. And just sitting there watching the introduction to the movie, like, did they just kill the main character? Then you find out that she's just some side character that they never talk about ever again.
[00:17:10] Patrick: what I loved about it too, is like, it's almost satirical at points. It's almost like they're making fun of the horror drama, but they're not at the same time. Like it, it has that loose, loose, almost like reality slash fiction play in it. Like, it seems silly. Like there's no way that would actually fall for this, but it's at the same time, you're like, oh, it is.
That seems kind of like, it could legit happen, but I will say it was a scream. I just looked it up scream to soundtrack that has the lesson Jake song that I was talking about. So maybe not the original screen, but to add a bunch of it. Like had foo fighters ever clear less than Jake sugar, Ray, Dave Matthews, band, mouth Kings, master P and silk the shocker.
So a little bit of rap in there as well. So yeah, it was high quality in my
[00:17:57] Ian: That sounds good. That's pretty good. That's a good lineup.
[00:17:59] Patrick: Yeah. Was the soundtrack good in the new one, Josh?
[00:18:03] Josh: it good? I mean, did really think about it, to be honest. I was, I was distracted by all of the stabbing, but yeah.
[00:18:13] Ian: Well, speaking of music, music is actually what I've been working on, the last couple of months, actually. So I haven't really talked about it much on the podcast. I talked about it a little bit when we had drew come on, to talk about augmented reality and virtual reality because drew is the bass player in my band called space club.
And we have been on this multi-year journey towards producing something and we are finding. Producing something. In fact, we have five songs for our five song epi recorded, and we are in the final editing mastering and production phase for that project. So it's definitely happening. It's coming out.
our goal is to get it out, this month, no promises, cause there can always be setbacks, but we're, we're making, we're kind of right on schedule. So, that's been really exciting. Like we started this project in 2018 and it's taken up until this point, but we've been very active. I mean, in, in those three years we got together,
[00:19:16] Patrick: We have probably like more than a dozen sort of originals that we've put together. And this is all from a far, we live in three different cities As I was going to say, you should talk about how you recorded that as like comprehensive distance recording. Like that's actually impressive how you're able to get people to record stuff, send it to each other, do it almost like we're doing podcast right now from different locations. Like it's, it's crazy.
That technology I feel like is, is good enough that you could record something, but not actually all physically be together, which I find incredibly fascinating and awesome. It almost adds, um, scifi element to the space club EP It's kind of fun.
[00:19:54] Ian: honestly that probably accounts for about a year and a half of the
[00:19:58] Patrick: Hmm.
that we thought about going into a studio and recording, which is crazy expensive. and so we, we wanted to try doing things at home, but we all live in different cities. And so we had to go through this whole, I mean, it was a journey, Especially as the drummer, figuring out how to home record drums is really hard. I have seven microphones on my drums and figuring out how to like, get those all positioned and, leveled, and then figuring out how to process that audio, like signal within a digital audio workspace at DAWprogram and get them sounding good.
[00:20:37] Ian: And I have to give credit to, especially the guitar player in my band, Brandon, he did a ton of work and basically was like, Hey Ian, I think I solved your problem. I figured out how to do drums. So let's have a training session and he trained me on how to do everything. cause I was really struggling on just how to make it sound good.
[00:20:54] Patrick: It's a meticulous process,
[00:20:57] Ian: super meticulous. And like you said, we're doing it from different places. So it was like one person would record a guitar track and send it to the bass player and then they would record their bass track and then send it to me. And then I would record my drum track and then send it back. And the guitar player would rerecord their guitar track and then add some vocals.
And then we would like, we have to do the sending back and forth thing and like all recording and somehow make it all seamless and meshed together. And, it's been really fun. There's been some major frustrations, but I'm very, very excited about it. And, and I think that we're probably going to do a couple of like mini sodas, mini episodes to put on the podcast channel about the development process.
Because listening back to where a lot of these songs started, it would be pretty fun to do kind of a mini documentary on just like how, how the process of making music changes over time. It's funny how, really cool, you know, gets hard lead line that just like is shredding guitar may have started out as, you know, someone else on their phone recording a voice note, like, Hey Brandon, in this section, can you go and then it turns out, you know, really awesome.
[00:22:10] Patrick: So you're a scat band.
[00:22:12] Ian: So anyway, I'll I'll of course update you all, when that comes out and how to access it. But, that's been the major thing for me, uh, in
[00:22:19] Patrick: That's huge.
eating food off of my baby's head.
[00:22:24] Patrick: That's your inspiration, your muse, if you will.
[00:22:26] Ian: Well, Hey, if we're talking about muse, we should talk about the news. And that brings us to our new section of the yonder cast. It's the yonder cast news with our special news correspondent, Josh Balt cell Josh, take it away.
[00:22:48] Josh: Out in the field proporting life. yeah, I mean, one of the first things that I was going to bring up was just the fact that, if you might've missed it in the news, Microsoft purchased Activision and that news caused a lot of people to panic because it made them question, whether or not, some of their favorite studios are.
Going to be producing some of the same games that they've seen in the past, because blizzard, as everybody knows, is responsible for world of Warcraft, Diablo, Overwatch, a lot of really famous games. and nobody wants to see those games suddenly go under some kind of change.
[00:23:31] Patrick: Yeah. I, the first thing I thought I was like, Diablo for like, what is this going to do? of course, selfishly I'm like these they're going to push my game back. but I, I don't know if it's like going to actually push it back or pull it forward. Right. I mean, Microsoft has money to throw around and usually when you have money, that's one of the staking things of paying and testers and all that sort of stuff to get the production going.
But I don't know. It it's kind of though. I guess there's the Microsoft game pass, like who knows what could come out on it? I don't know if there's been any news on that. Like I'm sure that would be like way down the line, but like wow. On game pass, like, okay. I might actually subscribe a
[00:24:13] Josh: play that on X-Box. That would be fun.
[00:24:15] Patrick: Oh, I didn't mean, dude. I didn't even think about controller support would be kind of fun for that for sure.
[00:24:20] Josh: Yeah. Although don't get your hopes up too soon because there's actually been some recent news, as far as I can tell the article that I read, it came out today. apparently the FTC, the federal trade commission is, questioning the validity of this transaction. So Microsoft purchasing blizzard.
and apparently the reason is that they're really worried about monopolies in tech industries right now. And video games are considered a tech industry. So yeah, no, I actually thought that was kind of and weird to think about that the FTC might down this deal that exploded.
[00:24:59] Patrick: The gaming industry has so much money in it. Like it is incredible how much money video games make. Like, I think I saw a graph of like the, the film industry. I guess with movie theaters and stuff, that's kind of changed a bunch. Right? I think video games have seen a huge uptick, obviously because of staying at home and everything else, but like just the amount of money being pulled in from video games.
And now e-sports like, that's come up like a ton recently, which I'd be interested because like, I mean, blizzard has an e-sports too. but that just seems like you're right. Monopolies would just make so much money off of something like this with all the subscription services and all that sort of stuff.
So I wonder if they'll actually nix it.
[00:25:41] Josh: part of the thing that I find interesting is that Microsoft and actually we're going to talk about Sony soon. both of them are talking about how by purchasing these other large game companies, they're like, it's going to increase creativity and we're going to see lots of different kinds of games, but when it comes to monopolies, usually creativity goes out the window.
[00:26:04] Patrick: Yeah, we saw kind of saw that with blizzard
[00:26:06] Josh: yeah, seriously.
[00:26:07] Ian: it's weird. I'm going to do the thing that I normally do, which is change the conversation to talking about tabletop games. but there'sover the last few years, the, the tabletop game industry has also kind of like growing. It's not anywhere close to the video game industry, but, there's been a lot of acquisitions in the tabletop industry as well.
And it, it makes people really worried because it's kind of like, is every single game that comes out from this like giant umbrella company gonna like have the same feel instead of having this diversity of all sorts of games that, you know, have very different fields. There are different, different visual aesthetics and different, you know, design philosophies.
And instead is it just going to be like, we're going to get a ton of the same stuff. And so far it hasn't happened because the big company asthma day, that's been kind of buying up all these little companies has for the most part, kept those companies sort of doing their own thing. They just own them and like, I guess, profit off of them.
And they're sort of like trying to kind of bring them together and be their own like distribution service. I don't know. I shouldn't talk about it cause I don't know what I'm talking about, but, guess the hope is that Microsoft says, Hey, just keep doing what you're doing. We just want to own you. And like, you're like an investment, but we don't want to, we don't want to control you.
We just want to be your profit tier or, you know what I mean? I guess that's the, the good idea. But yeah, it
[00:27:40] Josh: Reverse daddy.
[00:27:44] Patrick: Yeah. interesting. That idea of. Collapsing people's creativity, but the association with stuff, right? Like when you say blizzard immediately, like this certain style of game comes into your head, you say bungee, like almost, you're like, oh, I know what games that Bungie created. I know like Sony PlayStation, right?
You have these connotations that you have with, with it. So when they do these huge mergers, like what does that become? Like, does it truly stay they're independent things and they're just kind of like departments within greater Microsoft area or do they mesh together? we start seeing a blending of those and styles and styles?
If you will. I don't know.
[00:28:25] Ian: Another thing I wonder about is guest. From the last episode, Sean, he made a move to independent development during a merger, right? Because he was saying that the merger sort of like ended his contract. And so he had an opportunity to jump in. I imagine that most people who work at blizzard are probably going to want that Microsoft money and are going to stick around.
But I do kind of wonder if events like this have a tendency to like for people to splinter off and for, you know, to see like kind of an uptick in new indie studios or new indie developers kind of forging out on their own. So I don't know, maybe in that way there, maybe there will be a diaspora of kind of new ideas from events like this.
I have no idea. That's just, that's just an idea. But speaking of bungee, Josh, I saw it a article today about Bungie what's going on.
[00:29:17] Josh: Yeah, actually, a Sony is purchasing Bungie. So. Yeah, no, it's kind of the same situation where, they're going to attain the rights to all of the bungee games that we know and love like halo and destiny. So, I don't know. I think that this is kind of an interesting situation. All I have to say is that, if destiny becomes a PlayStation exclusive, I'm going to be very upset
[00:29:42] Patrick: And I will be very excited. I'm I'm envisioning this like a slash mass effect mesh, mash up where it's like, sort of like the halo sort of combat play style with a little bit of mass effects, like a character dialogue and your choices mean like have different meanings and impacts and have alternate,
[00:30:05] Josh: lifeless faces,
[00:30:09] Patrick: Hey, don't talk to me like that.
[00:30:13] Josh: it was a good game. I'm just, uh, yeah.
[00:30:15] Patrick: Yeah. It's one of those things that like, that's a good connotation for me, I guess, but I'm a PlayStation guy and I know you guys are Xbox, so I dunno.
[00:30:24] Ian: it's considered myself more of a PlayStation guy,
but
[00:30:27] Patrick: I, I think you're the hybrid.
[00:30:30] Ian: I've been playing more kind of X-Box games because I have Xbox game pass on my PC, but more on that later, it's the news. Josh, what other news do you have for us?
[00:30:41] Josh: So actually there's kind of a blend of things that I wanted to talk about regarding steam. I kind of feel bad for this one thing that I wanted to throw in there because we're recording on today's Tuesday, right? Yeah. We're recording on Tuesday and, on Thursday, steam is going to be ending their lunar new year.
And I just, I feel like anytime that there is a steam sale, it's very important that we all inform our fellow gamers, so that we can spend a hundred dollars on 90 different little indie games.
[00:31:17] Patrick: And play three of them.
[00:31:19] Josh: Exactly. don't that hurt? I feel attacked.
[00:31:25] Patrick: Yeah, no, I, I do it too. Don't worry. That's why this steam deck is that a switch? Isn't it?
[00:31:33] Josh: Yeah. Kind of, I hate to say this because the switch is, begrudgingly one of my favorite consoles, looks like a better version of the switch.
[00:31:42] Ian: So we're
the steam deck now, right?
[00:31:45] Josh: Yeah.
[00:31:46] Ian: Yeah.
[00:31:46] Josh:
And so basically, it's, it's like a portable computer where you can play all of your steam games, that normally you'd be bound to a desktop.
You can actually play that. Like a switch in a nice little handheld with a beautiful screen.
[00:32:02] Patrick: yeah, it is tempting. I love the switch. Like
[00:32:06] Josh: yeah.
[00:32:07] Patrick: absolutely adore and love it, but if I could have my steam library on my switch, holy moly, like you might not be able to separate me that from that.
[00:32:17] Josh: And actually at I keep wanting to say sad part, but like it's exciting. Um, just like,I'm not going to get one as soon as they come out and that breaks my heart. they are, starting to report that because of some of their choices in development. they're going to be able to upgrade some of the quality the steam deck even more than they originally thought.
So they were talking about how like frames per second is going to be higher than anticipated. apparently it's just going to be this beautiful work of art that already has 100 confirmed games.
[00:32:50] Patrick: yeah.
[00:32:51] Josh: That's exciting. I feel like I'm accidentally advertising for steam, but I mean, I, I love steam, so
[00:32:59] Ian: It looks really cool.
I'm right there with you. Like, man, I love my switch so much. It is my favorite console. Like I just love handheld. Maybe it's because it's where I started when I was a kid is with a GameBoy GameBoy color. And like that has just always been kind of like the key to my heart when it comes to games and yeah, the concept of being able to play true, PC games, you know, brand new games on a handheld, uh,
[00:33:27] Patrick: I think the porting technology is pretty good too. Like if you wanted to put it into like a TV or else, like I think it, all of the frame rates and stuff kind of like the switch docking, like it's flawless too. Like want to speak for something I don't fully know about, but I've heard of people talk about how good that, that aspect of it too.
So if you needed to dock it and play it on the couch, you could totally do that too. So.
[00:33:50] Josh: This is just great because when I get tired of playing Stardew valley on the switch, can dock that and let it charge and play Stardew valley on the steam deck.
[00:34:02] Patrick: Can you the files over?
[00:34:04] Josh: No, I just own like four copies of that game. I own three. I'm not even joking. I have it on my phone. I have it on switch and I have it on the desktop.
[00:34:16] Patrick: That's impressive.
[00:34:18] Josh: Yeah. Or sad. There's Line.
[00:34:23] Patrick: Debatable.
[00:34:24] Ian: I heard they're all sold out, though. It's going to be a hard thing to get your hands on. That's probably going to be like a, you know, PlayStation five X-Box
[00:34:33] Patrick: No.
[00:34:33] Ian: X, whatever the new X box is called. It's going to be hard to get your hands on. I don't even know what the update is there. Like can people even buy PlayStation fives yet or are they still incredibly hard to get your hands?
[00:34:47] Josh: Apparently they're still difficult because I signed up for, one of those like random drawings. PlayStation to see if like you can have the opportunity to purchase one and they like just emailed me back. Ha ha.
[00:35:02] Patrick: that you have to win a lottery to have the opportunity to buy something
[00:35:08] Ian: slipI'm imagining the steam deck will be that way. So I'm not getting my hopes up about getting one anytime soon, but like hopefully a year or something like that, maybe there'll be in stock, but that's really exciting. What other things should we be excited about? Is there any other exciting.
[00:35:25] Josh: this is just for people like me, but dying light four also comes out on. Or for dying light too to
are hard.
[00:35:34] Ian: I never played the first one. What's the first one, like,
[00:35:37] Josh: I thought that it was pretty revolutionary in terms of zombie apocalypse games because they added the par core element. And I don't know. Yeah. I love the whole idea of crafting and dodging and avoiding danger rather than facing it face to face. And so I just thought it was really fun. And the second one is going to have a much larger human element to it where it's rather than facing hoards of zombies, your, uh, trying to distribute water for people in societies trying to keep everyone alive.
[00:36:14] Ian: Cool.
[00:36:15] Patrick: I don't know if that's like better or darker, like that's a more realistic sort of soppy apocalypse scenario
[00:36:22] Josh: be apocalypse. I feel like that's going on now. Like that's just,
[00:36:26] Patrick: too close to home on that dying light to,
[00:36:28] Josh: yeah, but yeah, that's it for the news.
[00:36:31] Ian: All right. That's it for the news.
you very much, Josh. We'll definitely have to come up. I'll have to find some sort of a sting, a news sounding Babbitt Tibet app out. Okay. So now, let's talk about what we've been playing and we specifically have all been playing one particular game that is going to be the main part of our conversation today, which is the new Pokemon game. But first has anyone been playing anything else that they want to get off their chest before we get to Pokemon?
[00:37:07] Patrick: Not me. I it's just been the Pokemon. Believe it or not. Like haven't even dabbled in Diablo 2 cents learning Python. I know it's, it's been a dry spell in Diablo too. It's pretty crazy. That's how engaging coding and Pokemon has been. So it's a good sign for both. Yeah.
[00:37:27] Josh: Yeah, I've just been playing Pokemon. I have so much to talk about with that game. So we're talking from morning till night.
[00:37:38] Patrick: Buckle up listeners. You're in for it.
[00:37:40] Ian: There's only one other game that I want to talk about. And I actually finished it a couple of weeks ago before Pokemon came out. I've only been playing Pokemon since that came out. Um, butmy winter break game that I played almost completely through winter break and then had to finish over the following week was halo.
Infinite. I actually got it like the day it came out and then it took me a couple of weeks to finish it. But I'm going to give you a quick review of my quick review of halo. Infinite have either of you played it at all.
[00:38:09] Patrick: I have not.
[00:38:10] Josh: have I, so I'm excited to hear this because.
[00:38:13] Ian: Okay. So halo, infinite. new halo game, you are playing as master chief as always. And you are back on a halo facing a new threat. And, the big, main changes are that by the way, I'm only talking about the campaign or the single player mode.
I did not, I'm not really a big like competitive shooter multiplayer guy. So I have not played the competitive multiplayer. I can't really speak to that, but I played through the whole campaign and there's now a big open world. and then the story missions are kind of like pretty traditional with an open world game where you like go somewhere and it activates a story mission.
You kind of like get transported into a new space where you go underground into a new space. That's not the open world. And that's where that story mission takes place. And, um, I think. I had a really good time. It was very fun.
[00:39:03] Patrick: Hm.
[00:39:03] Ian: I think that the game is crazy polished, especially the gameplay, like the, the, the guns feel really good.
Everything is super smooth. The enemies look great and move great. And it just like, it has that nice, like tactile feel. and there's a big diversity in the weapons, but they all feel good. And I don't know, I was just very, very impressed by like the core mechanics and the core gameplay. I was very engaged and I really, really enjoyed it.
And I'm not a big open world person, but I thought that being able to drive a wart hog around it open a big open world for a while was super, super fun. graphics were great. Like it was just, it was just a really good halo experience if you've been, if you've been looking for that halo experience. It's there and it's, it's beautiful.
my issues with the game were that I thought that the open world lacked diversity. It was really, really beautiful, but it was pretty much all one terrain type. It was actually kind of very specific, Pacific Northwesty is like this beautiful kind of pine forest terrain type. And that's it, there was no like snowy area.
[00:40:19] Ian: There was no like desert. There was no, it was just that. And I felt that was a little bit disappointing. and the open-world stuff was fun, but pretty repetitive. So after a couple of hours of doing the open-world stuff, I kinda got tired of that. And I sort of just focused on the story missions and the story was pretty good.
And I thought that the acting was good. But again, the actual locations that the stories took place, it pretty much the entire story took place in like metal hallways. you were just kind of like in these alien installations fighting and the environment seemed really repetitive and kind of monotonous. So, uh, I was a little bit disappointed with like the level design and the lack of diversity in level design in the game. but again, it was just really fun to, to shoot things and, you know, it felt really satisfying. So I can forgive some of that. The story was a little convoluted, especially if like I haven't played a halo game in a while. It's been years since the last halo came out. And I only played that once and they definitely pick the story up after that one.
And you kind of have to know that previous story. And so there was, especially at the beginning, I was kind of like. What are you talking about? What, what happened in the last game, please don't assume that I just like, know everything happened in all of the previous halos. So I don't know. I kind of wished that they'd just like, started with a whole brand new story or something, but, overall I think I would give it an 8.5 out of 10 it was just really, really fun.
And I enjoyed it. I'm not going to say it's for everybody or that you're like going to have a life-changing experience, but it was.
[00:42:04] Patrick: It seems like the way you've described it, they were going for a nostalgic approach for it. Like they really tried to focus on polishing a lot of the combat aspects that a lot of people remember from those original halo games. Like I know for me specifically, I love the first person multiplayer aspect playing like Counter-Strike halo, call of duty, all that sort of stuff.
if I were to play the game, I I'd want to like I'm submersed back in that combat style. Like the jumping, the shooting, all of that, that nice fluid gameplay. I don't remember anything about the story. So like, you I'd be like, well, what the heck? Like, w what does this mean? Like, am I supposed to remember this, that sort of thing?
And so I wonder if they kind of skimped on. The environmental aspects and the setting, just to put all of their effort into like that, the feel of the game, they want it to feel like a halo game feel like something completely different with a completely open world aspect, like an MMO or something like that.
So I wonder if they're just trying to like hit the nostalgic part, which unfortunately I've fallen victim to a lot with final fantasy and Diablo. What did that, I think that's kind of where people are going with like remakes and callbacks and like hitting people with the nostalgia. So I wonder if that's, that was their approach.
[00:43:14] Josh: That's kind of unfortunate because I mean, that makes me feel like if I do play it, I'm not going to understand it. I have a confession. I think I've maybe only played one hour of halo in my entire life.
[00:43:26] Patrick: That's impressive.
[00:43:27] Josh: and it was mostly be spitting in a circle shooting the ceiling. so
[00:43:31] Ian: Yeah.
[00:43:34] Josh: no, I, I, I'm not, I feel like I shouldn't play it now because I'm going to be like, when you said master chief, I was like, I don't know who that is. Is that the green guy or the purple guy? Okay.
[00:43:50] Ian: mean, it feels really good. It feels it's the best feeling halo game I've ever played. Like they really nailed the combat, like the pacing of the movement. There's some new stuff they added in, like they added in a grappling hook and it's so good. Like, you can look at something and grapple onto it and like pull yourself up.
And it's like, oh yeah, master chief definitely could do that. This is the first game he's ever been able to do that, but it totally feels natural. Like they definitely nailed it. Josh, I think that you would enjoy probably, well, I don't, you don't seem to be much of a first person shooter guy, but you'd probably enjoy just like, kind of running around in, in the open world for a little while.
[00:44:29] Josh: Yeah. Yeah, no, that is true.
[00:44:32] Patrick: think we should all three, get it. And riding the wart hog, just all three of us.
[00:44:36] Josh: Well, we still have to play Fatima Forza.
[00:44:39] Ian: fast boot forwards
[00:44:42] Patrick: Too fast to
[00:44:50] Ian: the fast and the Fez Morris Biest
[00:44:54] Patrick: Six.
[00:44:54] Josh: It's payback for me. Almost making you spit water out your nose.
[00:45:01] Patrick: don't do that.
It was halfway up there it was halfway up there.
[00:45:07] Ian: oh man. Okay. Well, we need to get to the conversation. Pokemon Legends Arceus. First question. Did I say that right? Is it RCS?
[00:45:20] Josh: I just heard today that it's Archaeus
[00:45:23] Ian: Archaeus okay.
[00:45:24] Josh: it was from a YouTuber, so they could just be lying trash, but
[00:45:28] Ian: Pokemon legends. Archaeus first of all, for anyone who is not super familiar with this game, it's kind of a big deal. And what makes it such a big deal is that it is the first time that they have really altered the Pokemon formula. Like Pokemon's been around for 20 years, 25 years, a long time, and let's face it.
They release the same game over and over again.
That's what they've been doing for decades.
[00:45:59] Josh: it.
[00:46:02] Ian: And this is not the same game. And Josh, as our resident Pokemon expert, you seem to be the biggest fan. What is new and exciting about Pokemon legends? Archaeus compared to those many, many games that were all the same that came before.
[00:46:16] Josh: Well, I think that you actually said what's the biggest thing for me is just that they finally ditched the normal story. rather than going and competing with, you can call them gym leaders. You can call them. I don't remember what the other names are, but it's always the same thing where there's some kind of leader and you battle it.
They give you a sticker and once you get through eight, then you go battle for really awesome people. And so they finally ditched that and to tell a new story. And they told it well, so that was amazing not to mention open-world aspect. I thought that that was going to be the most important thing.
It wasn't, and that's such a cool thing is that like, it was a big deal, but they did other things even better than that. So yeah, I'm already accidentally going into the, have accidentally started the next part, but yeah, no, those are the big, main things is OpenWorld and trying out a new formula for once.
[00:47:19] Ian: The big thing for me it finally felt like Pokemon existed in the world. The way that I have always envisioned them existing since I was a kid.
I've always been so disappointed that in Pokemon games, you're running around in the world and then you go into a Pokemon battle and it's like, Billy Lou, and then you're in a completely different like menu kind of screen that doesn't feel like it's in the world.
And you're just looking at your Pokemon from behind and the other Pokemon facing you. And like, that's, that's how you've Pokemon battle. And then as soon as it's over, you're like, let me loop back to the real world. And it just takes you out of it. But in this one, will you throw your Pokemon out? And it just appears in front of you and you can like run around it.
You can run away from it. Wild Pokemon are just out there and you see them and you can sneak up on them and you can throw poker balls at them without even battling them. It's the best.
[00:48:18] Josh: It is.
[00:48:20] Patrick: the aspect of just like randomly seeing something was super exciting. Like I'm not going to, I haven't probably played a Pokemon game game probably since the game boy, than legit, like Pokemon go, like when it first came out and my little one are my oldest now he was super, super little on go on walks.
And that was my experience with Pokemon recently. And I think you're right. Like, is what I imagined when I was little playing the game. Like I know if I were to go back and play the original games, I'd be like, what the heck? This isn't anything like I thought it was, it's a very different immersive experience.
Like, versus just like Josh was saying, like, you go to a trainer, you do this, you do that. It's the same repetitive thing. You're just getting better Pokemon or getting more experience or getting some accolades. This at that was like the part where you can run around. And I was like, wait, I'm not locked in position here.
Like I messed up so many times cause I was like, did I just leave my Pokemon back there to battle? Did I ditch? I'm like, what's going on? You can get. angles on the fight. Like it's almost like an artistic sort of viewpoint on things going on, you just run into some insanely powerful look upon that's like three stories tall and I'm like, what do I do?
And then it destroys you. So there there's some really cool aspects to it.
[00:49:33] Josh: That was one of the most exciting parts is that you can get beaten easily. Like number of times that I would run up to a Pokemon and think this is no big deal. And I'm like in level thirties and they're level 65 and I'm like, oh, you're going to destroy all of my Pokemon.
[00:49:55] Patrick: yeah. Yeah. I think I sent you guys a picture of the pre, engagement with that Pokemon. I don't want to give away like spoilers or anything else, but I remember literally just writing, like. This looks like a really special one. This is going to be fun. then it just literally torched me, like, uh, am I supposed to be in this area?
Because I know a lot of times in like open world games, you go into a new area and it's like, you're out of your league. And everything else within that area is just the same level on the same four different types. It was fun seeing like variants and things, as you're moving throughout the areas and stuff, it was like, clearly not going to go over.
Well, if you try and throw stuff at it like a acorn, which you like something with them, then just run off. I found myself doing that so many times, but gotcha. Images runaway, but
[00:50:48] Ian: I don't think that it's a spoiler. I really hope it's not a spoiler, but one thing they added into this game is alpha Pokemon, which are Pokemon that are actually genuinely scary. And that's kind of, one of the setups of the story is they're like, oh, wild Pokemon are dangerous. And you're like, nah, Pokemon are cute.
They're not dangerous. And for the most part they are, but then you run into one of these alpha Pokemon and their eyes are glowing red. They look like something out of a horror movie and they're huge. they're super powerful and like they're legitimately scary. and so it definitely like adds this sort of like challenge or this thing to like strive for is the ability to beat these kind of mini bosses, but you can also catch them. And if you manage to CA this is something that I didn't appreciate until recently, if you manage to catch an alpha Pokemon, it stays the same size. so when you have that Pokemon and you send it out to battle another Pokemon, it's still just as big as when you caught it. So like there was something, so I don't know why, but this, this is.
Little childhood, Ian, like coming out and being excited about these things, but like, there's something so great about the flex of being like, my Pokemon is a 15 foot tall flaming horse and you like throw it out there and it just dwarfs everything else around it. You like throw it to like collect some acorns off of a tree and it's as big as the tree and it just smashes it.
Oh, man, I love that. Like the Pokemon that you catch are different sizes and they keep that, that quality forever. And you can have Pokemon of like different sizes and, and different, visual. They can look different.
[00:52:33] Josh: And actually you brought up something kind of funny. I had never really thought about how terrifying Pokemon are, but like, first of all, if you do get the game highly recommend that you actually pay attention to this story, because it's a good story. but it's so funny because like you're in a village where everyone's terrified of Pokemon.
And I was like, why are you terrified of Pokemon? Same thing that you said, but it never occurred to me that like their mice are free car batteries. if you try to kill this mouse, that's in your house, it's going to electrocute you with the power of lightning bolt. And it's like, yeah. Okay. That is kind of terrifying.
like the little birds can whip up a tornado right in front of you. It's like, okay, Pokemon are terrifying. I get it.
[00:53:17] Patrick: Yeah, the flaming red eyes got me. I'm not going to lie. Like there is a moment I was sitting on the couch and it was walking away from me. I'm like, damn, that thing's big. This is cool. I'm gonna go get it. And it, Larry flips a 180 and locks eyes with me. And I was like, literally laying on the couch. Like I legit jumped a little bit.
Cause it was like terrifying. Like you're I was not expecting that to show up in this game. Like I was like, did I, did I do something wrong? So it was alarming to say the least.
[00:53:46] Ian: I think, you've been talking about the story, Josh and I also really enjoyed the story. what I've really enjoyed is that in previous Pokemon games, the setup, I really hope I'm not giving spoilers. I mean, you find all of this out in the first, like 15 minutes of the game, but. In previous Pokemon games, Pokemon we're fully incorporated into the world of humans.
And you basically start out as a, nobody like a tiny fish in a giant pond. Right. And there were super powerful trainers all over the world. Everybody has Pokemon and you're just a nobody. And you start out with one little Pokemon and the whole like arc of the story, what little story there is, is that you are kind of like ascending the ranks.
You know, you're going from rags to riches, being nobody to being one of the best and that's fun. But I really like in this one, you go into a world where no one is capturing and using Pokemon. In fact, everybody is terrified of them. And for some reason you are actually good at it. And so. Just the fact that you can not be afraid of Pokemon and kind of like go and try and catch them makes you special.
And everyone is impressed by you. Like, whoa, you, you went out there and you did that. You caught a little rat. You're amazing that that just feels so
[00:55:11] Patrick: weren't scared.
[00:55:13] Ian: Like you're cool right? From the beginning of this game, which I thought was.
so it's interesting, Patrick. I feel like, so we are, we have very different play styles. You are definitely kind of a collective. You like to collect everything, complete, everything, do all the side quests. I'm kinda like, eh, if a side quest sounds interesting or if it's convenient, I'll do it. But mostly I stick to the story.
but what I really like about Pokemon is that the game is collecting like normally collecting is this thing that just like is an enticement to keep you in the game longer. Like, there's a story, but Hey, you can go hunt all of these different things and, you know, trade their skins in and it will give you achievements or something, but like Pokemon, it is all collecting.
[00:56:01] Ian: You're collecting Pokemon, you're collecting achievements with those Pokemon to unlock new, like things you're leveling them up. Like every single thing that you do, you are just like accruing experience levels, new Pokemon, new points, money items, all this stuff. And. So it's like, it puts the joy in collecting, which I'm really enjoying.
I feel like, I feel like Patrick, when I played this game,
Yes. This is actually like, it's almost overwhelming to me. Like it stresses me out a little bit to play a game like this.Yeah, there,
there is a lot of information. If you, if you're worried about kind of completely. It can be overwhelming. Like there's a ton of side quests and there's ton of little tasks to do and like trying to do it all. You'll stress yourself out. The bonus though, is that if you're just kind of doing it casually, like I've been playing it pretty much everything you do is going to work you towards something kind of almost unknown.
Like you'll be out there and you're just like throwing polka balls at stuff. And they're like, Hey, you just caught the right number of these things to complete this. And you're like, oh cool. I didn't. Okay, cool. I just accomplished something wasn't going for it, but you're always accomplishing things because they put so many little things in there to unlock that it's always going to get you
[00:57:25] Josh: And they're intuitive things. so it's not like some weird obscure go fly, find the, Flegal flogging crystal and move it across the map and do something stupid. It's like stuff that I actually want to do. So I just love that there little things that actually feel meaningful.
[00:57:44] Ian: Josh. I want to ask you about the crafting cause you're a big crafting guy. And I think that this is mate. Is this the first Pokemon that's had a crafting system?
[00:57:52] Josh: It is.
[00:57:54] Ian: How do you feel about the.
[00:57:56] Josh: well, I think that it says a lot that it's their first go at it. And so I think that for a first attempt, it's pretty good. it's just boring. It's it's lackluster. when I craft something, I want it to be slightly a challenge. and I feel like this, this Pokemon game, they made it so that it was like, I could just go back to the starting place and get hundreds utensils and then just craft everything that I needed.
And it was no effort. There was kind of no point in even having shops.
[00:58:30] Ian: Um,
[00:58:32] Josh: it, it just, it felt like. It eliminated the usefulness of other things, because it was so easy that there really wasn't an incentive to earn it, which I'm not complaining about. Cause I mean, there was so many wonderful other things to do that it's not like it took away the value of the game.
It's just, I like it when crafting feels a little bit more meaningful. And this was like, you knew that there were going to be six different items with three different levels. And so you always knew what was coming next. And so time I learned a recipe, I was like, yep. I knew that that was coming. it got just a little predictable and I didn't feel like I actually utilized a lot of stuff that I crafted.
[00:59:16] Patrick: Hm.
[00:59:17] Josh: So I think for a first attempt, really fantastic job. And I'm like, thank you, Pokemon company for trying something different and doing a good job at something that you were doing for the first time. But. If I were to be mean and compare it to other games, which I don't think you should do, but if I did, not very good.
[00:59:37] Ian: Hm.
[00:59:37] Patrick: The, the bag space killed me. Like I'm literally was just tossing stuff I've, haven't spent anything monetarily except more bag space. Like I don't, I don't think that's a spoiler, but like there's a place where you can go to get an extra. And anytime I have enough, I'm buying another one, every single time.
And I'm still like, you can't pick that up. I'm like, really? That's a, that's a plant. I can shove that some come on now. yeah, there's like, I just hate the bag space thing cause that I don't mind inventory management on, on some levels like playing Diablo two, it's all about inventory management. But at the same time, like, it feels like I'm being punished for not spending the money to get more bag space need a lot of things to craft.
And I don't even feel like I've gotten that many recipes or anything else. I'm like, how am I going to have all this stuff? Like I I'm constantly throwing stuff and my stash or whatever. I'm not sure what it's called, but yeah, just that just frustrated me.
[01:00:40] Ian: Yeah. I don't know what the point of that was. I feel like they should've just given you unlimited space. Like it just, yeah, it was just like a nuisance that didn't add anything to the game. That was annoying for me. thematically. I liked that there was a crafting system. Like I liked that I was making my own Pokemon. To use, to catch Pokemon and making my own potions to heal my Pokemon. Like that kind of feels like it should I'm out here. it's DIY doing it all myself, you know? So like I liked the thematic of the, the crafting. I agree with you, Josh. It kind of just felt like you didn't have to try that hard to pretty much have everything that you needed to keep your stock of those basic items up.
So what's the point. However, at the same time, I think I would've gotten really frustrated if I was like, oh my gosh, I have to keep like scrounging around to have enough polka balls. I can't catch enough Pokemon or the Pokemon I want to catch because polka balls are so scarce. glad that they did not make that a scarce resource that would have heavily impacted the game in a negative way.
[01:01:48] Josh: Oh,
[01:01:49] Patrick: yeah, I don't think I've ran out once. Like I've always had at least one of something. it might not have been the exact type I was looking for, but I feel like I've always had something or could craft something if I needed to, which I've, I've appreciated a lot, like you're right. I would be like furious if I might all the way out somewhere and be like really my drive through a polka ball at something.
And I don't have any, especially when you accidentally toss him at everything, which I still do all the time.
I CA I forget.
[01:02:18] Josh: the rapid fire polka ball throws where you're not even aiming at anything. And you're like, no, go that way. No, no.
[01:02:26] Patrick: like, oh, this is something I'm going to use to collect. Like, I think it's the, I think it's the ball with a Pokemon already in it, so they can go collect something, but it's. And my brain doesn't register it the first two times. So I'm just hucking them out. They're like, why is this not working?
It's like, oh, good. Just wasted five broken balls out a tree. Didn't catch it.
[01:02:46] Josh: Or the opposite where you're just trying to complete the polka decks. And so you think you're throwing a poker ball at like a level two warm bowl it's your level? 75 Mon for an ape. You're just like, okay. Oops.
[01:02:58] Patrick: Yeah. I'm not going to run cause it looked like a chicken here. So, Workable
[01:03:05] Josh: He just obliterate it with a hyper beam,
[01:03:08] Patrick: Yeah. I know what the hyper beam feels like that Rapidash got me.
[01:03:14] Ian: Okay. So we've talked about w we've really gushed about a lot of great things about this game. We started to get into a little bit of maybe like some of the cons. Is there anything that you felt was a weakness or there was a bad point in the game either of you.
[01:03:30] Josh: bad things or weaknesses. I mean, so I would
[01:03:35] Ian: is the only one who's beaten the game. Right? You're
[01:03:38] Josh: Oh yeah, that's
[01:03:38] Ian: the game yet. Yeah.
[01:03:40] Josh: yeah. Yeah. I'm still working on the polka decks. I absolutely demand that. I complete that polka decks before I put this game down. is totally nitpicking. A lot of people were freaking out about the graphics and saying like, oh, the graphics are garbage. I disagree. I thought that it was beautifully done. I loved it. I do wish that they spent some time on the Pokemon models that like, each Pokemon had a different animation a move.
I get that, that would take forever. And like, I'm pleased with what I've got. But I think that it would be really nice and add some personality to the Pokemon. The other thing is that we already have movement mechanics for Pokemon in the wild. can't I have my Pokemon follow me around? I just want to play with them.
I want them to stand next to me, follow me along a path. And then we're just running together as a team. I know that I'm 32 years old, but I need that in my life.
[01:04:41] Patrick: That would be nice little pet system. Like it just, that makes sense. Like, why can't your, especially your, uh, like the first one you choose is, oh, at that point always you're just follower. It just kind of goes with you and maybe it doesn't even go into battle, but it can at least be there or you can just call it a straight, call it out.
That's a good one. Why wouldn't they be able to do that? I don't know what the limitations are, but
[01:05:03] Ian: Yeah. I want to be able to, walk amongst all of the Pokemon that I've caught or at least like one of each type, you know, like I want to, I want to have like a zoo or something where I can just like go and be like, oh yeah, I've caught all these Pokemon. I can see them in they're all there.
there isn't really. You still only get your year six Pokemon. And it's really cool that you can like throw the polka ball and it will sit there and you can actually throw all of your six polka balls and you can have all six Pokemon just like hanging out right in front of you. And that's super cool.
[01:05:34] Ian: Sometimes I just do that fun. but yeah, the following thing, I mean, my first Pokemon game ever, one of my first video games I ever owned was Pokemon yellow, where Pekichu follows you through the whole game and I'm right there with you, Josh. Like I just want to poke them on companion. Just one, just to just like always be there by the, by your side, you know?
[01:05:54] Josh: there's a part of me that thinks, Nintendo does this all the time, where they will release a game. And if you really think ahead, you kind of start to realize that it's a practice game, because then they're going to do something bigger later. And I almost get the feeling where like thought that let's go Evie and let's go peek at you was going to be that practice game.
And it kind of was for Archaeus. But now I'm thinking that Archaeus is a practice game where they're just giving their developers experience and they're going to do something even bigger next time, because I. based on what I've seen this game was a huge hit. And so I think that they're going to do something bigger, better, maybe merge all of the open world spaces together and just keep that seamless tie in where it's like no loading screen.
You run outside of that village and you see pony top running across a field Pika choose hiding in trees. know if he could choose hiding trees, just feeling that they came so close to with this game
[01:07:03] Patrick: Yeah, I feel like there's definitely an element of basic to it. Like, it feels like they could have done a lot more than it just felt like, kind of like a, I don't wanna say like a cookie cutter OpenWorld experience with like, going to this place, doing this thing, seeing them all walking about, I think there's some really cool stuff that they could do along with it.
[01:07:22] Josh: I feel like if they don't keep going down this path, it's a really stupid move this is what people have been asking for for decades. And now people finally got it. And really anytime I see people talking about it, they're saying how much they love it. And so I think that they should capitalize on that and be like, here's our next open-world game.
The crafting systems more complex. Your Pokemon will follow you. And oh man, the polka decks finally made sense to me in every other game. I've always thought that the polka Dex was the stupidest thing in the world. I was like, how does me catching one Pokemon, tell you all that. There is to know maybe that's a scientist in me, but it's like, that is stupid.
You're not going to learn everything in the world. If you catch one Otter and stare at it. And so it made sense and I hope that they increase some of that like biology aspect, where it's like observing Pokemon in the world, you get to feed them, watch them. have behaviors that you're supposed to witness.
Like what happens when a group of Pekichu get together. See if you can observe that and document it. I don't know. I want like the, what's his name? I almost said Rowan Atkinson. That's not right. That's Mr. Bean. um,who's the
[01:08:37] Patrick: Attenborough.
[01:08:38] Josh: Attenborough. Thank you so much. I want like a David Attenborough Pokemon experience.
That was hurting.
[01:08:47] Patrick: Pokemon earth.
[01:08:48] Ian: You want to have some Pokemon snap in your regular Pokemon games?
[01:08:53] Josh: Yeah, but I want outside of the car, this isn't fast before.
[01:08:58] Ian: Well, I, I have to jump in and say that I think my one doc against the game, I disagree with you a little bit, Josh. I think it's the visuals.
[01:09:08] Josh: Oh,
[01:09:08] Ian: Some of the visuals. I think that I actually think that the Pokemon look really great. The Pokemon have a lot of personality. I think that the animations of the moves in combat were, were good and like exciting.
I think that the town and th and the buildings look good, but there was just some real laziness when it came to, the people and the environments. the people are so stiff, their animations are the most basic animations I've seen in a long time. And this is Pokemon. This is one of the.
[01:09:37] Ian: Franchises ever. can make the humans look a little bit more human, but I think the bigger deal is that the open-world environments are pretty bland. they're mostly just like big open spaces with a bunch of Pokemon in them and some trees and the trees kind of all look the same, but like it's just open spaces, a little grass, some trees and Pokemon, and it works.
And the Pokemon are super exciting, especially when you see new Pokemon. And so like it works and I'm still having a blast in the game, but I don't think that the environments look that great. And it does take me out of it sometimes when I, when I realized that and like, I want to make the excuse of, well, it's a big open world and it's the switch.
It's a hard thing to do, but I mean, they put the Witcher three on this. So it's kind of hard to say that you can't make a really dynamic, beautiful open world on a hand held console. it's achievable. And there's also just some textures that are really bad. Like in that main building, I swear the floor is just like one solid color. there's not even like a carpet texture or anything. Like some of the environments you're just like, this is just one block. It's just one block that they just stacked over and over and over again, like it's 1995 and we're making video games, you know, but it's not, it's 20, 22 and things look better now and it's Pokemon and it should, it should be as good as it can be.
Cause it's one of the biggest games, so.
[01:11:09] Josh: Oh, I totally agree with you. Yeah.
[01:11:11] Patrick: The thing that bothered me the most was if you like in the water and you're swimming around, you're like go into like a weird mode he can't move. I might just might not know how to swim, like what what's going on here. And then it teleports you up to a spot and it never, maybe it's just me.
It never puts you in a good spot to be successful. So I'll like start running and fall on the water again. And I'm like, could you not have put me further away? Like if you're going to teleport me out of the water, can you at least give me like five feet of space? So I don't move the joystick in a weird way and get thrown back into the water in which I can't swim.
Oh, that's like my biggest gripe is like, I should be able to swim little bit,
[01:11:56] Josh: I'm not judging you, but I didn't, I didn't have this problem. So I'm kinda sitting here laughing at you.
[01:12:04] Patrick: Maybe it's just me. very, uh, liberal with the speed Mount. Let's just say that. I think that's like, my problem is I do not take my time. I'm just like, there was like a bridge and you can hammer a to speed up. I'm not stopping hitting hay going as fast as I possibly can.
[01:12:25] Josh: You're the guy that runs off the bridge at full speed on the Mount that can turn on a football field and you're going like stupid game developers.
[01:12:36] Patrick: Why didn't they make the bridge bigger? They could have done that now. Let's get to know it's just me.
[01:12:42] Ian: All right, guys, we have been talking about this for a long time. We have to wrap it up. Are you ready to give a rating or do you need to play it more?
[01:12:49] Josh: I could give a rating. Why
[01:12:52] Patrick: I'll give him. Yeah, I'll give a rating so far so far.
[01:12:55] Ian: I'm also ready to give her. Who wants to go first?
[01:12:59] Patrick: can go,
[01:13:00] Josh: Good.
[01:13:01] Patrick: I'll go. Don't need to defend it first. Or should I just give a number and let it.
[01:13:05] Ian: You can give us like a 32nd kind of pitch if you want.
[01:13:08] Patrick: Okay, I'm going to say, because I haven't played one for awhile and it was a very refreshing take on the game. I have a very, very positive viewpoint for the game. I think I can overlook the fact that I can't swim five feet in water to look into like the elements of games I traditionally enjoy in a game that didn't traditionally have those things.
I'm gonna go with like a 9.1. I'm gonna go with like a low a in my book. And I haven't gotten all the way through the story. Like I'm nowhere in the story. I feel like that that might help or hurt, I guess, depending on where it goes. But I think, I guess a solid low a opinion, very pleasantly surprised if it gets above what I was expecting from the game.
So I'm feeling pretty good about that, that 9.1 out of 10, let's just clear.
[01:13:59] Ian: I'll let Josh go last because has played the most of the game. And as the only one who has beaten the story, my tentative rating I'll do the same thing as Patrick I'll give a little explanation. So Pokemon yellow was my very first game boy game ever. It was one of the first games I ever played when I was a kid and it absolutely captured me and I love. And since then, just because of that nostalgia, every time that there's a generation of Pokemon games, I usually end up picking one up and I usually end up beating like the first two gyms and then giving up because I'm like, I've played this game before and it doesn't quite give me what I want. It doesn't really make me feel how I want Pokemon to make me feel.
And so I don't think that I finished a Pokemon game since I was a kid, though I've played a bunch of them, this game finally actually delivers on my nostalgia. It delivers on what I want to Pokemon game to be. It makes me feel how I want Pokemon to make me feel, and I'm having an absolute blast and I can't wait to play it.
I can't wait to collect more Pokemon and to see what's going to happen in the story. I'm genuinely intrigued by where the story's going, which is kind of a first for Pokemon. So I, I want to give you. A solid nine out of 10. I don't see myself giving it less than a nine out of 10. And once I've finished the story and kind of have a bigger picture of exactly where it goes and how the rest of it's paced out.
We'll see if it goes up from there. But yeah, this is definitely a top-notch game for me.
[01:15:33] Josh: Yeah.
[01:15:33] Patrick: Got goosebumps from that. That was good. Ooh.
[01:15:38] Ian: What do you think, Josh?
do I need to do the 32nd elevator
[01:15:42] Ian: Sure.
[01:15:43] Josh: The year was 1998. I was eating bread in my room.
Now
[01:15:47] Ian: Bread.
[01:15:51] Patrick: The year is 2022. was eating bread in my room.
[01:15:54] Josh: know you guys just don't sit in your room and eat bread.
[01:15:58] Patrick: Maybe tonight
[01:16:00] Ian: had to say this student, I just have to interrupt with this little anecdote. The other day, we had a, the other day, we had a fire drill at the school when the fire alarm rang a student, as we were like walking out of the room, a student said to me, Hey, Mr. Lake, can I bring my bread? And he just had this like whole loaf of bread in a bag. Go ahead. Come on. it along
[01:16:34] Patrick: lose that.
[01:16:36] Josh: It would've been great if he didn't even eat it, he just brought it with him and then brought it back.
[01:16:41] Ian: anyway. Continue Josh.
[01:16:44] Josh: Okay. 9.4.
[01:16:46] Ian: Wow.
[01:16:46] Josh: Yeah. thought I would go in reverse. I know that that is slightly higher what you guys have said. I don't think that it deserves an a minus. I think that it deserves a solid a, and not just like a solid a where it's like, just barely in the aid category. Like I think that it steps into that full a category.
Yeah. I wondering if over time that's going to drop for me because I am very self-aware that a lot of it has to do with nostalgia. A lot of it has to do with like my expectations. but I've beaten the game and I'm still playing it. And it's rare that that happens for me. There are so many games where I will beat it and I'm like, yeah, well that was great. cause like even I'm thinking back, the last game that I was this excited for was, Assassin's creed Valhalla. And right when I beat that story, I just put the controller down. It was like, oh, thank God. That's over. And it's not that I didn't like the game. It's that? I just was ready to be done.
[01:17:51] Josh: And this game, I am not ready to be done. I'm going to keep playing until complete that polka decks all the way through if I can. But yeah, I love it.
[01:18:01] Ian: Awesome. Great review. And I think that we should end on that note. I think we should wrap up the show. So everyone, thank you so much for listening to this episode of Yondercast. If you enjoyed what you heard, please rate and review us wherever you listen to podcasts, submit your questions and discussion topics to us using the form, linked in, our show notes, and you can always contact us at yondercast@gmail.com.
Go play Pokemon. Enjoy it. I'm sure that you will love it. And if you don't let us know if you do let us know, but don't be mad and please take care of everybody.
[01:18:38] Patrick: Bye-bye.
[01:18:39] Josh: get some bread.