The Player's Perspective: Overcoming Self-Doubt and Conquering Video Games

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The following description was written by  A.I.

What's the secret to overcoming imposter syndrome and recognizing your own accomplishments? We cracked open this intriguing topic, sharing our personal trials, triumphs, and how we've harnessed failures as stepping stones to success. It's a lively dialogue filled with in-depth perspectives, laughter, and anecdotes, all set to the backdrop of a nicotine-infused cloud and the ethereal notes of absinthe. 

Ever found yourself lost in the expansive universe of Grand Theft Auto 6 or the intricately challenging world of Souls games? We sure have, and we can't wait to share our thoughts about GTA 6's technical brilliance, along with our personal experiences on navigating the boss fights in Souls games. We also threw in our two cents about cooperative multiplayer games, microtransactions, and the undeniable allure of video games like Baldur's Gate 3. 

In our candid chat, we also touched upon the delicate role of romance in video games, sparking an engaging debate around People Magazine's choice of Game of the Year. We promise you, it's not all serious talk! We wrapped things up with a light-hearted banter about energy dynamics in conversations. So, tune in for an episode filled with humor, nostalgia, and a unique camaraderie. Sit back, relax, ready your gaming consoles, and let's hit play!

If you enjoy our episode's content, come check us out on twitter @KDratiopodcast, YouTube as The KD Ratio Podcast! or on Instagram KDratiopodcast

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:02

And we're live, boys, woo, how we doing, we're live. I'm hearing double feedback.

Speaker 2 0:11

What is it? We are officially live.

Speaker 1 0:15

Listen. We had some great feedback from the last episode. We had one of our listeners hit us up and they said what great nostalgia we were talking about snow, the snow storm. It was great nostalgia. It was a lot of fun, a lot of energy. Let's keep it up, are you sure?

Speaker 3 0:30

I'm positive I'm doing good. You guys are doing good Life is moving forward, it's.

Speaker 1 0:35

Christmas season.

Speaker 3 0:37

I don't believe you.

Speaker 1 0:38

He does everything to stifle progress.

Speaker 3 0:40

Oh yeah, that's me Stifler.

Speaker 2 0:44

That's their new nickname the stifler.

Speaker 3 0:46

You should see me with the government. All I do is stifle their progress. Wait, that took a weird turn.

Speaker 1 0:52

I'm a progress stifler, Listen. I accomplished something quite large in my life this past weekend with the help of these boys. We have some fun plans tonight. We've got glass encased. You make it sound a little dirty. We have some fun plans tonight.

Speaker 3 1:06

We're going to light those stovies up and we're going to enjoy the shit out of them, because I feel like this is my thing now To eat into the microwave.

Speaker 1 1:14

There's so much mastication happening, I'm going to eat into the microwave.

Speaker 3 1:19

I'm going to eat into the microwave.

Speaker 2 1:20

I'm going to eat into the microwave. I'm going to eat into the microwave.

Speaker 1 1:24

There's so much mastication happening into that microwave. I know it is savage.

Speaker 3 1:30

I'm going to remember that I am on the mic. I'm going to put it away.

Speaker 1 1:34

I know we're not live in our normal time, but thanks for being patient with us.

Speaker 3 1:38

Yeah, all the thousands of people that are waiting.

Speaker 1 1:40

Hey man, there was multiple people that hit us up. We're late, so let's keep it real. You want the stifler Tax back? It's the second time You're on notice. Oh, don't you dare. People just tuned out. Billy's the optimizer, I am the, because, let me tell you, I'm the elementary school playground peacekeeper.

Speaker 2 2:04

You're the hype man.

Speaker 1 2:08

I like that role.

Speaker 3 2:10

I'm the feel-good, I'm the hype man.

Speaker 1 2:14

I like that role.

Speaker 2 2:17

I'm introspective too.

Speaker 1 2:18

You can be multiple things.

Speaker 2 2:20

You can dive into it. I finished it a couple months late from when it released.

Speaker 1 2:26

Maybe just two months and Newsflash spoiler it blew his balls off, okay.

Speaker 2 2:32

See, that's the hype man. It was good you guys know me.

Speaker 1 2:38

There's nothing here.

Speaker 3 2:40

You're a car salesman, oh God don't you dare. You sell everything that is so fucking hard. Something that could be like averagely good Could be like the most amazing you've ever experienced in your life.

Speaker 2 2:56

Or on the flip side of that, Melania. It's so bad.

Speaker 3 3:00

On the flip side of that, if it's just like not that good, it could be the worst horseshit you've ever seen in your life too.

Speaker 1 3:06

Dude, my life is binary. I think it's a positive thing. I look everything through that lens. It's just a bad thing, and I translate it to that always, and it's either a net good or a net bad, and then that's how I, that's my guiding light. There is no gray, alright. So look, he was good, kyle is still a fucking simpy boy that's never seen it.

Speaker 3 3:30

That doesn't apply.

Speaker 1 3:32

Anti-sim. What would you call that Hater?

Speaker 3 3:36

No he's a hater. What's the opposite of a simp Hater?

Speaker 2 3:42

Marvel's two main stream now for Kyle.

Speaker 3 3:44

No, Marvel has been dog shit lately.

Speaker 1 3:48

I hate to admit it.

Speaker 3 3:50

I'm a huge fan but they've been disappointing me. But I haven't seen Loki's stuff. I'm not going to chime in on this conversation.

Speaker 1 3:56

I called my boy, kevin Fye yep, and you know he talked to me. He said hey, we're delaying everything in 2024, 2025. We're pushing it out. That's what he told you.

Speaker 3 4:06

He did.

Speaker 1 4:08

Yeah, B.

Speaker 2 4:10

B. Can you imagine hey Kev.

Speaker 3 4:16

He's like hey B, what's up?

Speaker 1 4:20

The grown man called me B In the series. I'm looking thought Alright tonight, folks, you might notice that we are on one. We smoked the tiniest cigars already. That's a euphemism? No, it's not. We actually did a very bad thing. We cut up a cigar in the thirds and we're very disappointed. So we went out to the store, we got some new ones and in the cup tonight we are rocking some some very mild-mannered absinthe, Sprite and absinthe. So we're feeling good.

Speaker 2 4:58

The vibes are high 55% alcohol content and I'm eating pretzels.

Speaker 3 5:04

No joke.

Speaker 1 5:06

These guys are absolute rock stars. Dylan less so, because he didn't finish the project with me. Kyle was there Actually three times, dylan was only there once.

Speaker 2 5:16

So let's remember that.

Speaker 1 5:19

He was there, but no you know what. I was there from the beginning. This was such a colossal undertaking, from learning everything to accomplishing it and seeing it through and visualizing what we wanted, and I'm happy to have be done with it. And you know, have you guys ever, like, accomplished anything in your lives? Did we mention to them what we did.

Speaker 3 5:44

Yeah, I started off. Now to go back to your other question.

Speaker 1 5:48

Have I ever accomplished anything in your life? No, but you guys know, like I didn't even get this, I'm gonna. This is kind of a. This is kind of a detour.

Speaker 2 6:00

We're gonna talk about look.

Handling Accomplishments and Self-Evaluation

Speaker 1 6:02

Oh, I don't give a shit about look, they don't care about look, we care about this. At least a little off the rails. I'm off the rails. And the reason is I want to give you insight in how I think. When I graduated college, I was not proud of myself. I, it was like yeah, there's nothing to be proud of. I know right, and I was like it was everything, was. I did it and moved on. So tears fell down. I kind of saw it's just like I didn't see anything needed亲.

Speaker 1 6:34

I just felt sorry, selfish, I, I was ashamed For he coming over was cruel and and I was just really, really Elmo over the years they've been on the edge over the years and I always hated that in my life because I always felt like I was doing a disservice to myself.

Speaker 1 6:51

Oh, not appreciating like that, for it might seem like a very stupid thing, but it is a way for me to take a second stop everything. And every time I have a cigar in my life it denotes a big moment, whether I'm having a good time with my friends or accomplishing something that I started with knowing nothing about, learned everything I could about landscaping, how to plan, visualize, you know, put things together. I mean zero to 100, it was blank slate to what exists out there now, which I'm very proud of. So closing that out with enjoying a cigar the other night and then doing it again tonight with you guys that it's, as silly as it may seem, that is my way of maintaining, like mental health, balance, because I've never appreciated my accomplishments Before, I've never taken the time. It's always what's next, what's next, what's next, what's next. I do this in video games, I do this in my achievements in life. It's just okay, dr Dahl, you know I take no second.

Speaker 1 7:55

So this is my way of forcing myself to slow down and say, hey, take a second breathe in Jigglebeast says it's not silly. I totally agree. It is a learned thing and it's a forced action that I take upon myself, but it feels so good.

Speaker 3 8:11

And also refusing to write checks.

Speaker 2 8:14

Yes as we learn tonight. That is the moral standpoint.

Speaker 1 8:19

That one is about as dumb as it gets. I'm sure you guys have like silly things about yourselves too, that you just refute.

Speaker 3 8:27

No, you guys are flawless, none.

Speaker 1 8:28

But I don't know, do you guys and we could get back to look if you want but like, do you guys have you? How do you handle like accomplishment, success, things like that, like because I suffer from imposter syndrome pretty heavily and I struggle with like recognizing things in myself like hey, you're actually killing it, like you're doing a really good job, and like do you guys have like a ritual around celebrating successes, appreciating other people's successes? Like I try, like I remember when you decided to go back to school, I think I called you up and left the voicemail and you thought it was like the weirdest thing ever.

Speaker 1 9:04

No, but also it was so cool.

Speaker 2 9:06

I would say I'm not the best at recognizing like what I've done and what I used to do when I was a manager is and I still have this portfolio. I should look at it more. But I kept a file of like all the compliments or all the things I got from my tellers, like nice letters from customers, and I would from time to time I'd take it out and then read it just to like kind of remind myself that, yes, you are doing good Like it's. You know you don't, man, that's extraordinarily healthy.

Speaker 3 9:38

I know I haven't done in a while I need to do it.

Speaker 2 9:41

I need to and my new job. I don't get that type of praise anymore. Public feedback, public feedback like that. And plus, where I used to work, we had these pins. They got rid of them, but that was amazing too. I still have that in my room, but it's just it's. I need to get back at doing something like that, because that was very fulfilling and helped drive me. Yeah, wow. What about you.

Speaker 1 10:08

I feel like you're similar to me. I don't think I. I do suffer from imposter syndrome.

Speaker 3 10:15

To this day. I feel like to get to the point where I'm kind of that right now in my career I've kind of faked my way through everything and then I slowly started to realize that's kind of what everybody's doing. So I don't feel as bad about it, but I usually I have a problem with hanging on to nothing, but I usually I have a problem with hanging on to negatives more so than the positives. I mean, I'm sure I've gotten compliments throughout my career, but I don't remember those. Like I don't think about those. I think about everything I've ever f-ed up on, you know, like everything I've ever done wrong.

Speaker 1 10:52

That's what I focus on when you receive negative feedback, whether it be like in an evaluation.

Speaker 3 10:58

Oh, you mean like every day?

Speaker 1 11:00

Like negative feedback, whether it's an evaluation, like somebody saying something to you like man, you always f-ed that up, or man, you need to be better at this. Whatever, like some kind of feedback that is is like an opportunity for growth. How do you internalize that? Is that something that you dwell on for like a long time, or do you rationalize with it and like I've become very comfortable, and this is not.

Speaker 3 11:26

I mean, this is going to sound really like I don't know. It's going to sound darker, like more emo than it really is. But I've become very comfortable with failure because that's the number one way I'd improve myself. Everything I've ever learned, especially in my career, everything I've ever learned was because I did it wrong the first time. And it's slowly but surely. It's like evolution. It's slowly but surely made me like a master, yeah, and that thing. So like I don't think I dwell on it too much, but I definitely give more credence to my failures than my successes. But I'm not like losing sleep.

Speaker 1 12:05

Yeah, yeah, yeah, kind of compartmentalize it.

Speaker 3 12:08

Yeah.

Speaker 1 12:09

See for me, like I, I am such a solutions and I think that this is why I never celebrate my success, because it's like when bad things happen to me, it's like, okay, that happened, what do we do when it can fix it, and my brain like immediately jumps to that, it comes to me and like challenges with work, challenges with school death, Like I just I I okay, this happened, what are we going to do? How do we launch from here? What is the next step?

Speaker 2 12:36

Yeah.

Speaker 1 12:37

And you know, like in my role, in my job now I, I, my job is basically to serve a whole host of stakeholders and they're different parts of the business that are represented across a very varying group of people, and there's particular individuals and those that that really challenge me, and it can be like a very and my boss is always providing me this feedback but like it could be very challenging in the sense of, like the conversations get a little hairy and a little frustrating and there's tensions back and forth and you're kind of like not running into the roadblocks and you're kind of running into roadblocks that are just like showstoppers. You can't even get off the launch point. Um, but the way that, like I internalize that and like my bosses encouraged me to not think this way but I can't help it which is I? I like I hear this, like I'll have this negative interaction with, like a with this, with this stakeholder, and it will be like they're completely acting irrational, like I presented my case. They're acting completely irrational, but I can't accept that because there's nothing, I can't do anything with that. Like, okay, they're irrational, what do I do? I go back and they're rational, that's it. Wash my hands clean and move on. No, I don't want to represent myself that way, I don't want somebody to think of me that way and I also I want to ultimately help this person. And so, like I'm always trying to internalize it like, okay, they're irrational.

Speaker 1 14:10

But I also see their frustrations and this is how I can kind of try and help. And like my boss is all the time is like no, no, no, let people be crazy, like that's gonna, you're gonna have that, you just have to live within that space. You're never gonna change that and I agree with that to some extent. But, like the solutions person in me where it's just like how do we solve this problem that you're having? How do I help you? How do I fix that? My brain is always like I'm very critical of myself, to like, okay, this problem sucks, what did I do to create this problem? How am I assisting this problem to continue? How am I going to solve this problem? Because if I don't, it's just gonna be this constant feedback loop. It's not gonna get better. So how do I get to that? What is that next step and how do I get there? And it's like that's. I'm always driven towards that and it can be honestly, very negative for myself.

Speaker 3 15:02

I also. I feel like I compare myself to others a lot and like. So I find myself comparing myself to someone who's had my position for like 20 years and I'm like you know, why do they have it all down, you know? And I'm like why don't I? And I'm like I've only done it for like a year and they've done it for 20 years. So I don't really think about that. And then also, if I feel like I'm doing something right and I do, like I get praise for it, there's always that, no matter what it is, there's always that part of my head that I'm like okay, I did my job.

Speaker 3 15:33

Like why am I getting praise for doing my job? It's like when someone's in balance in their drawer at the end of the day it's like congratulations, you did the bare minimum. It's what it feels like, at least to me. I never give that vibe to other people, but that's how I've always felt about it, like you met requirements.

Speaker 1 15:50

Yeah, I met requirements. You didn't go above and beyond. Yeah, that's interesting. I identify with that entirely. What about you? Go for it, dylan? Do you had?

Speaker 3 16:00

it. You looked like you were ready to go.

Speaker 2 16:03

I got nothing to add.

Speaker 1 16:04

So do you guys have any rituals? So like this is a learned discipline and it's very recent, like we're talking literally the last two years, because I did not like I didn't like how I felt about myself and my accomplishments, because when I would remove myself from the situation I was like okay, here's a guy who's X years old Income is this, this is what you've accomplished, married house, blah, blah, blah. Dog. Here's the boxes you've checked. Are you happy? Or why aren't you happy? Like where would you expect their happiness level to be? And it was not lining up. And so like I had I don't know my last job. We had like a life coach that was part of the job. It was like the owner's daughter was kind of weird.

Speaker 1 16:46

It was like an attritionist, but it was like they were also this whole thing. Yeah, it was kind of stupid, but like they set goals and I think I've mentioned this to you guys before like she was really, she like addressed all these areas and was like, okay, you know, you're like financial happiness, whatever might be fine, but it's like all these other areas you can't neglect. And it seems like you've neglected those. And so, like I set a goal at the beginning of that year, which is before I joined the podcast, or you guys even started the podcast, which was to find best friends, cause I didn't feel like in my life I had that.

Speaker 1 17:20

I've told you guys this before I know you have, but like, so, like that was an active goal that I had to set in my mind and, in reality, to go and achieve. And so like I've. This is like a planned discipline of like when you get something, when you, if there's anything that you accomplish, stop and celebrate it, whether that's going to end or not, you just ended that, stop yeah.

Speaker 3 17:45

And you're done.

Speaker 1 17:45

You're done, but like I just never did that before and so it's like a forced thing and I do. I do really enjoy it. It's like really good for my mental health because like after the fact I can think about it and go. You know what? I wrapped that up and I celebrate it and I feel like it's it's taking the time to recognize, dude, you put in a lot of effort into that. Love yourself.

Speaker 3 18:09

That is an extremely healthy approach, and I've yet to find my solution to that.

Speaker 2 18:19

Now that I'm thinking on it, what happens with me is I just happened, cause I'm always I'm very proud of like the friends I've made in my friend group and stuff like that.

Speaker 1 18:29

You have a very healthy social life.

Speaker 2 18:30

And what I found when it comes to like praise I was just thinking on it here is that I I've surrounded myself with friends who, if I accomplish something and I tell them, they're like oh, let's go celebrate. When, like that's not a thought to me, I'm just like, oh, yeah, you know, I got a promotion. And then Billy will be like well, shoot, man, that's awesome, let's celebrate. Or like Julian Cowell will be like let's go to dinner. So it just happened to be where I got set up like that. So I'm that's how I'm getting that fulfilled is my friends happened to outwardly recognize my accomplishments Because I tell them but that to me I'm just like it's just something that happens. Why do you guys hate Grand Theft Auto?

Speaker 1 19:16

6? Yeah, we should have addressed that right, let's get into it. We hate it cause it's not coming out tomorrow.

Speaker 3 19:21

Wow.

Speaker 1 19:22

So click baby. What up, daniel, how you doing.

Speaker 3 19:25

That is a. Are we those people now?

Speaker 2 19:29

Just trying to get people to watch.

Discussion on Grand Theft Auto 6

Speaker 3 19:32

So we're saying Billy, no, but we actually do have a discussion Billy he's not into it. You don't like Grand Theft Auto.

Speaker 1 19:39

I'm not into. Okay, so I'm not into. I am not into games that, like rely heavily on role play. I'm all into combat systems. There's really not combat in-. Yeah, there is, come on, you're gonna call that there's shooting, not combat.

Speaker 3 19:58

Grand Theft Auto.

Speaker 1 19:59

I'm sorry I should. I need to expand combat gameplay. What Hear me out? I?

Speaker 2 20:06

am very I am very flood argument Hear me out.

Speaker 1 20:11

My whole enjoyment from playing video games comes from. What is the gameplay? And GTA's gameplay model is not interesting to me.

Speaker 2 20:20

That's better than it has a model. There's no gameplay.

Speaker 1 20:22

I didn't say, I never said that you interpreted it that way. You jumped it.

Speaker 3 20:26

There's a lot of syllables in interpreted, but I do not, I do.

Speaker 1 20:33

Yeah, I'm not a fan of like role playing.

Speaker 3 20:35

Have you ever played Grand Theft Auto?

Speaker 1 20:37

Yes, a little bit.

Speaker 3 20:37

What was the last one you?

Speaker 1 20:38

played GTA V, gta V. I hosted a LAN party All my buddies came over.

Speaker 2 20:42

Wait, did you play online? Yeah, that to me, and I don't know Kyle might have a different opinion, but to me I've never gotten into online and I think that's the weakest part of GTA V. Yeah, what I was saying, and we were talking in Discord earlier about it and I was mentioning because Billy said he didn't like it, and then I asked like, have you ever played Red Dead? And I was like I would argue personally, to me the story is what's the best part of those games? Now, gta V, the story was good, it was weaker than four.

Speaker 2 21:14

It was weaker than four, but like Red Dead Redemption 2, that story, one of the best stories out there and the gameplay itself. While fun, it's a lot of go from point A to point B on your horse and you talk to a character on the way she's a bad guy. Third person shooter and then, yeah, it's just that over and over. But to me, a big part of it is that story, because they like to tell stories that we don't get to see, often of like bad guys.

Speaker 1 21:45

Yeah in video games.

Speaker 3 21:46

I guess, that would make sense. I mean story aside it looks very technically impressive the trailer looking at it, like there's some shots that looks like it's real life, Like until you zoom in on some NPCs but like some of those, like those wide shots and those like scenery things like what engine does Rockstar use? Do they have like their own engine or do they use? I'm curious because it looked super crazy.

Speaker 2 22:13

Have you guys seen how much the budget is for this? Oh, dude, it's probably a billion dollars, like a billion dollars probably. I think it's two billion.

Speaker 3 22:19

Yeah, I believe that it had 80 million views in like 18 hours. The trailer, which is more than Cyberpunk. I was reading an IGN article. It was like more than Cyberpunk, god of War and like one other big launch, like combined.

Speaker 1 22:39

GTA V on launch day made 600 million dollars. I'll never forget that. It was like the most insane stat I've ever heard. They use the Rage game engine, which is called the Rockstar Advanced Game Engine.

Speaker 3 22:54

That's a pretty cool title. Yeah not gonna lie.

Speaker 2 22:59

Like you didn't even like to drive around in GTA and just drawing people.

Speaker 1 23:03

No, there's a time and place for me, like, I'm not saying it's a bad game or anything like that, it's just that those types of games don't appeal to me.

Speaker 2 23:12

Gotcha.

Speaker 1 23:13

Like I would spend next to no time in it. I played GTA V and I basically would try to trigger like a five star alert, drive out of the military base and see how long I could survive. I've watched countless clips of people role playing and having fun that way. I've seen people do these crazy, like jumps where they'll hit this ramp and then fall off this mountain and like glide perfectly through these two buildings and land on this little spot or whatever. Those are like really cool to me. But just having like a sandbox environment to just sit there and kind of waste time, I don't know, that's not. This is wild. I looked up.

Speaker 3 23:54

GTA 6 trailer. There's articles from Bloomberg, npr, cbs News Like it's transcended video games Like Grand Theft Auto's. On another level, I think it looks fun. Story wise I think Dylan, you're the one that said it kind of looks like a Bonnie and Clyde type thing. Yeah, how do you think the gameplay? Like are we gonna switch back and forth or I thought.

Speaker 2 24:19

so it's either we switch back and forth or Kyle brought up a good point before the podcast here is that it might be like Far Cry, the most recent one, where you get to choose right at the beginning male for female. But I don't see why, if they have two protagonists, why they wouldn't just let you switch, like because they already have that technology for the previous one.

Speaker 3 24:42

But that was actually one of the things people didn't like is they felt like it instead of like it. Like, don't get me wrong, people fell in love with characters like Trevor and stuff like that, but everyone at launch everyone felt like it was kind of three almost good stories rather than one great one.

Speaker 2 24:59

Yeah, versus, like Arthur.

Speaker 3 25:01

Yeah.

Speaker 2 25:02

Focus is on Arthur great story. Maybe the dude's just a supporting character and he just plays the chick. It could be. Maybe she's the main character. The only thing with that is why. My question then would be why did they show both of them right at the end of the trailer?

Speaker 3 25:16

You know they have them like upfront, it's true. Maybe the next trailer will be the guy focused Could be, it's not?

Speaker 2 25:21

the girl, but I think it's cool. This is gonna be Rockstar's first female protagonist.

Speaker 3 25:28

Have they ever, as any other game in the past, had a female protagonist?

Speaker 2 25:31

I don't believe so.

Speaker 3 25:32

I mean, red Dead had some pretty strong female characters that you couldn't play as them. So that was I mean. It looks like a lot of fun. And I wasn't hyped for GTA at all because I didn't wanna let myself get hyped, especially for some of us. I'm gonna come out and hold anytime soon.

Speaker 3 25:53

But after watching that trailer I'm like, oh damn, this does look like a lot of fun, not gonna lie, and it kind of put me on board the hype train a little bit. But I'm still I don't wanna let myself get too hyped because I don't wanna sit on the hype for like two years.

Speaker 2 26:07

When you don't wanna pull a cyberpunk.

Speaker 3 26:09

It's very likely that I don't think they're not gonna flop.

Speaker 2 26:12

Yeah, that launched.

Speaker 3 26:12

There's no way. Rockstar is just too established. But it's very likely the game will get delayed into 2026.

Speaker 1 26:20

You think so?

Speaker 3 26:21

Yeah, Red Dead happened to Red Dead and Grand Theft Auto. Both of their announced trailers said it would come out like a year before it actually came out.

Speaker 1 26:29

These guys probably have some of the most good faith that exists. Right in terms of, if they did, let's say, like take two wanted to get a little sloppy and push the game out when it wasn't done and I'm not just speculating here I feel like this would be a. They would even have a longer leash than CD Projekt Red.

Speaker 3 26:51

Oh, they 100% do already. Yeah, that's what you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 26:54

So like if it was a total flop, they'd be like no, we're gonna make it right.

Speaker 3 26:57

And then Rockstar will have controversy at release because it's Rockstar 100% and they always do, but the game is not gonna be broken.

Speaker 1 27:06

There'll be like one bug and everyone will be flipping out how.

Speaker 3 27:10

They always have controversy over like lower sexes Well with. Grand Theft Auto. The controversy is there's like this torture scene with Grand Theft Auto 5. And then with Red Dead there was a controversy that like because one YouTuber took like a feminist woman that was like calling on for women to vote and he like fed her to a crocodile and you could do that oh.

Speaker 3 27:32

I saw that and that turned into this huge thing and like so that's the type of controversy that's around Rockstar games, but it's never like yeah, their games sometimes have bugs, but it's never like the bugs. Yeah it's never an issue.

Speaker 2 27:46

And I do wonder do you guys think it's gonna be like? How much do you think it's gonna be?

Speaker 1 27:52

The game.

Speaker 2 27:53

Yeah, I think it's gonna be 70 or $80. Oh, it should be at least 70.

Speaker 3 27:57

I heard a rumor that it's gonna be a monthly subscription and that would be. I don't think they'd get away with that no.

Speaker 2 28:06

But maybe just for the online portion Credit.

Speaker 3 28:08

Maybe just for the online portion.

Speaker 2 28:09

That would be understandable, which I wouldn't even do, yeah.

Speaker 3 28:13

I'm not interested in the online, but Well, what's.

Speaker 1 28:17

Grand Theft Auto. What is the game called? Like their multiplayer.

Speaker 2 28:21

GT Online GT.

Speaker 1 28:22

Online. It is Do they have a subscription now? No, Is there a battle pass or?

Speaker 3 28:27

anything, they have shark cards. There was a lot of controversy around. Yeah, the shark cards.

Speaker 2 28:31

And there's a casino.

Speaker 3 28:33

Well, they have like a crazy, you could spend a lot of money on that game.

Speaker 1 28:36

Yes, and you have a crazy monetization.

Speaker 3 28:38

Yeah, and a lot of people didn't like online because it took away focus from, like In times past, grand Theft Auto and Red Dead, like they had DLCs, like single player expansions, like Undead Nightmare.

Speaker 2 28:53

Yep. Or in Grand Theft Auto 4, there was like how about a gay Tony?

Speaker 3 28:56

There was like three different expansions and then Grand Theft Auto 5 and Red Dead 2. Red Dead 2 didn't get anything Cause they were like well, let's focus on the online, Cause it's just too lucrative.

Speaker 2 29:06

Yeah, they made way too much money, but Red Dead Online was not.

Speaker 3 29:10

Red Dead Online, I think is dead now. Are the servers down or are they still hosting? I?

Speaker 2 29:14

don't know, I don't know about that, but I know GTA Online is still Very popular, very popular, but Red Dead did not, was not what they thought it would be.

Speaker 1 29:24

It'd be interesting to see if there's a Like coming from a game as successful as GTA 5, right, it'd be interesting to see if they can follow up on that success and engage in like an online community as strongly as they have, because that whole GTA Online it's like up there with Roblox and Minecraft in terms of like generating revenue. Right, I mean, it's crazy, probably.

Cooperative Multiplayer and Game Preferences

Speaker 3 29:53

I don't really know how much Roblox generates, but I know Minecraft. Like 5 million a day or something. That's insane. I agree with Chat. Danil says I feel if you had a group of friends playing Grand Theft Auto it's way more enjoyable. But I also feel that way about any game. If you're playing with a group of people, you can get through pretty much anything, as long as the people you're playing with are fun.

Speaker 1 30:17

I just wish I played some pretty shitty games with a group of people that it felt enjoyable because I was playing with those people Do you think if games just went Like let's use that as an example you feel like if games just had a cooperative, like online multiplayer, like an online campaign, where you could just group up with one, two, three, maybe four friends and they were just dropped in to help you go through the campaign and there was like Really not even an explanation as to why they were there, or there was never any direct dialogue. So it wasn't like any additional overhead to make the game, it was just an ability to sort of go through the campaign together and play cooperatively. You feel like that would be acceptable, Like on a game let's just make it crazy like God of War, like you could link up with your friend and it was like Kratos' fishing buddy.

Speaker 1 31:14

You know, and they made like one mention of it, like at the very beginning, when you group up and then you just can go through the whole crowd campaign.

Speaker 3 31:22

I think that could be a lot of fun, but it wouldn't work in a game like God of War or Uncharted or last, like games that are really focused as an individual thing but like, for instance, games that is super successful at that is like Baldur's Gate. You know Baldur's Gate or I think I always thought that, like Elder Scrolls, like Skyrim, would have been fun to play as a co-op game, like Couch Co-op or something.

Speaker 3 31:52

Or even not like massively multiplayer online, but like it'd be fun to play a game like Skyrim with like two of your good buddies.

Speaker 1 32:00

Did anyone ever mod in like server capability?

Speaker 3 32:02

Oh yeah, I mean mods have been made but like never like an official release of that. So I think it depends on the game. Like that could that would make that's how I felt about.

Speaker 1 32:14

So Victory says that's how I felt about with online with Red Dead. Not fun by yourself, but when you group with a bunch of people it totally changes things. Is Red Dead online?

Speaker 2 32:24

Yeah.

Speaker 1 32:25

I had no idea. Yeah, we were just talking about that. It didn't.

Speaker 3 32:29

It wasn't nearly as successful as GTA Online though.

Speaker 1 32:32

Oh, that's what you're saying.

Speaker 3 32:33

they abandoned and store it, yeah, I mean they still have servers, I guess, because I looked it up but they haven't released like content for it a long time and-. Versus.

Speaker 2 32:42

GTA Online. They're releasing steady updates Real quick. So in 2019, GTA Online had made 600 million 600 million In 2019?

Speaker 3 32:55

Just in micro transactions 2019.

Speaker 1 32:57

It's bigger now, I think.

Speaker 2 32:58

Yeah, but just in micro transactions, it's nuts.

Speaker 3 33:02

No wonder they don't do any expansions anymore.

Speaker 1 33:04

Well, it's just so lucrative to just sell skins in games. It's unbelievable how much money people will spend on stuff like that.

Speaker 3 33:12

Yeah. Minecraft, I Minecraft is fun to play with friends. I've really-.

Speaker 1 33:19

I've never played Minecraft.

Speaker 3 33:21

I tried to get us to play that one time and you were like I'm not playing Minecraft and I was like all right, whatever.

Speaker 2 33:26

Well, now it's especially easy because they have cross play. They've had cross play for a while, yeah for a long time, and I've just started playing it again. It's so different than-.

Speaker 3 33:37

I don't like playing creative mode, because that's like not really my thing.

Speaker 1 33:41

Survival is way more fun.

Speaker 3 33:43

I like just basically doing farming simulator and then surviving.

Speaker 1 33:50

See, I could play a game like that, but I would have to be online with you guys. I would never like. All right, I'm gonna go build the house. Just by yourself, Click, click, click, click, click click.

Speaker 3 34:00

With the super calm music.

Speaker 2 34:03

Yeah, the piano in the background.

Speaker 1 34:06

I have no idea what Minecraft is about.

Speaker 3 34:08

Like I literally know Like I know people At its core, it's a survival game. There's a week. But like if you see it in there it's like zombies are coming after you At night.

Speaker 2 34:16

Yeah, okay, there's like in the end well, not even the end goal, but there's just a goal is you can beat the ender dragon and then, but there's like so much other stuff you could do, Like you could have a farm, like Kyle does, you could do. Like what me and Jinglebees are doing is we built our house right next to a ravine and we go in the ravine and we mine for diamonds and stuff, and there's like monsters and lava down there, yeah, and you get that diamond pickaxe and make an obsidian portal to the nether world and you fight demons and it escalates really quickly.

Speaker 3 34:52

Yeah, it's a farming simulator. Slash demon hunter, slash doom.

Speaker 1 34:58

Damn.

Speaker 2 35:00

I wanna look up if there's I know there's a doom mod.

Speaker 3 35:04

Oh, there has to be, that'd be fun.

Speaker 2 35:06

Just have Minecraft.

Speaker 3 35:08

Play the music.

Speaker 1 35:09

Rippin' to you. Dylan got lava happy with his bucket. Oh yeah, I love the bucket. Well, you feel lava in Minecraft?

Speaker 3 35:17

Yeah, so you do?

Speaker 2 35:19

you know how buckets work in Minecraft?

Speaker 3 35:21

Do you know how buckets work in real life? In real life?

Speaker 1 35:24

I don't either.

Speaker 2 35:25

So in Minecraft, a bucket is like a you know Like a weapon, not a weapon, but it is way cooler than in real life. You can put lava in and it's fine, like you could, and what it does you go to the source.

Speaker 1 35:39

I only buy really good buckets in real life so mine can hold up, I don't know, but you go Stainless steel.

Speaker 3 35:45

Made by a car heart. A car heart Like you would stay.

Speaker 2 35:48

No one, you need to fill up your lava bucket, it's built up.

Speaker 3 35:51

It's built by a Duluth trading company.

Speaker 2 35:55

But you can. You go grab some lava, you place it anywhere and it's an infinite stream. It creates a stream source. So like you can get lava or water and you place it anywhere and it's just a waterfall.

Speaker 3 36:09

now Interesting you can also have. If you have a bucket of water, you could jump off of like an insanely high cliff and then throw it on their ground right before you hit the ground and the water breaks your fall.

Speaker 2 36:21

That's I set up. So down into the ravine, I set up a hole, we dug straight down, and then I put water at the very bottom and then so we just fall and we hit the water, and then we're there, and then I put lava.

Speaker 3 36:35

So let's see, grant us out of the.

Speaker 1 36:38

Minecraft comes with game pass right.

Speaker 2 36:41

Yeah.

Speaker 3 36:41

Yeah isn't it? Is it? I thought it's free to play. You know what is? I don't know, maybe no, I don't know.

Speaker 2 36:48

You know what's on game pass what Remnant to. I know you want to play that I need to play that. I'm fine getting it, as long as it's free, dude 100%.

Speaker 1 36:57

Did that just come in into game pass? Pretty recently yeah dude, I watched Austin stream that I Was actually blown away with how good the game looked. It was it looked like a lot of zero to ten Billy.

Speaker 2 37:09

He's at ten.

Speaker 1 37:11

But for a game that I was just like oh, what you know remnant to what. What's this all about? There was some puzzles in that game that looked so much fun. They look like so much fun.

Speaker 2 37:20

I'd be down to try it, though, now that it's free. Yeah.

Speaker 1 37:24

Liza P, would you ever try that I?

Speaker 2 37:26

Yeah, I'm not that interested in it. I don't really like Victorian Stuff, like that time period it doesn't interest to me. So unless I know the game is like really good, it's not my vibe.

Speaker 1 37:40

I want Austin to play Elden Ring so bad. Wouldn't he, he will. It's just needs to go on sale for PC, which they. I don't know if Elden Ring. I feel like Elden Ring's gone on sale, like once before.

Speaker 2 37:54

We need the DLC for Elden Ring dude.

Speaker 3 37:58

I am not gonna let myself get hyped until it's like a month from release.

Speaker 1 38:01

Yeah.

Speaker 3 38:03

From software is notorious for not really giving a fuck. They know do what they want to do.

Speaker 1 38:09

I literally think they always tell you the truth, like they're of. They're one of the studios that will just tell you the truth, because when they accepted that award, the Miyasaki was what's his name.

Speaker 2 38:19

Miyazaki yeah.

Speaker 1 38:20

Miyazaki. He literally stood on stage. He's like we'll consider, we'll start to really think about maybe doing a DLC and I he literally said that on stage as he's accepting the game of the year award.

Speaker 3 38:32

I'm like, well, fuck, didn't have one planned then and then at that moment every Like game designer at from software was like fuck yeah.

Speaker 1 38:43

Gotta kick into it. Shit's wild man, absolutely wild, but it God, that game was so phenomenal, man. Oh, Elendering it was the best of all souls. Yeah, but Liza P, I think was harder than any souls game that I played, even I. It's been so long since I played Dark Souls 2.

Speaker 3 39:04

It's definitely harder than Dark Souls 2.

Speaker 1 39:06

That one's the easiest really everyone says that's like the hardest.

Speaker 3 39:10

No, you're. You're reading from the wrong sources.

Speaker 1 39:12

Really Dark. Souls 2 is 100% the easiest of all the souls games can, even considering, like a lot of the cheap bosses and the fact that, like you, lose humanity every time you die.

Speaker 3 39:20

Yeah, people still think Dark Souls 2 is the easiest. I think. Interesting the kind of accepted hardest souls game is Bloodborne.

Speaker 1 39:29

Yes, you're absolutely right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but Dark Souls 2 would be considered the easiest. Mm-hmm, I would say you. Elden Ring is the easiest.

Speaker 3 39:36

I bet you, if you well mimicked here kind of is Is like a nerf. There's a way to choose.

Speaker 2 39:41

Elendering can be the hardest and the easiest Depending on how you play.

Speaker 1 39:45

That's true.

Speaker 3 39:46

If you don't use mimic tears, then it's can argue, arguably is the hardest. But then mimic tears kind of like souls game, easy mode, but I only play.

Speaker 1 39:58

Dark Souls 2 with the ladle, so no.

Speaker 3 40:01

I Bet you, if you Google right now what's the easiest souls game, dark Souls 2 be the number one thing that Interesting, and I'm on consensus.

Speaker 1 40:09

Yeah, but I keep pushing him to play, to play Elden Ring, and I hope he gets it soon because and I want to watch him stream it because that game might in is it actually is flawless.

Speaker 3 40:21

Elendering is like the magnum opus of there, like all of their.

Speaker 2 40:27

But see, couldn't you say that about any of the souls games like they could be the hardest, if you just make it hard for yourself?

Speaker 3 40:35

Not necessarily. No.

Speaker 1 40:38

People are saying hardest and then blood-borne.

Speaker 3 40:41

And then Dark Souls 2 is second that's insane to me, because every, every community I've ever Like come across, everyone always says Dark Souls 2 is the easiest Secure a speedrun I can like no hit.

Speaker 2 40:54

I can kind of see because it's a very much one it's totally one gimmick pony.

Speaker 1 40:58

Yes like.

Speaker 2 40:59

You need to learn, perry, and if you don't, you can't, you can't play it Like there's bosses where that's an essential mechanic and you're just gonna have a real bad time.

Difficulty and Boss Fights in Souls Games

Speaker 3 41:08

I feel like Elden Ring. The reason I feel like Elden Ring is the Eight. Like I said, it could either be the hardest or the easiest and it's not the same With other souls games and there's no clear cut like easy mode.

Speaker 3 41:26

But mimic tier really scales back the difficulty especially at launch like, for instance, melania is Considered the hardest boss in any souls game ever. But with the mimic tier it's not nearly as hard as like, say like orphan Acas and blood-borne. It's not even on the same level. But if you play it solo, all of a sudden it's like okay, actually this is hard, but like mimic tier is like a huge nerve.

Speaker 1 41:55

Yeah have you beat the game, though, daniel, I haven't beat Melania. Um, I actually don't like using any summons for Melania because I feel they just she just life steals off of them, and Like when I'm on, that's not my experience.

Speaker 3 42:10

So I beat her solo and with mimic tier and I have a way easier time with mimic tier.

Speaker 1 42:14

So I had to beat her solo when I went through it on new game plus seven, because her level seven hundred thirteen, her life steal Was Busting. No, she would hit like once and gain back like five to seven percent of her health. And she had so much health that you're like, you're just think, think, think, and I literally ended up having to just fully. She would almost full heal from her. What is it foul dance? What is it water foul?

Speaker 3 42:44

water foul dance.

Speaker 2 42:47

Oh my god see, I've never had issues, dude, she's so easy to stagger.

Speaker 3 42:53

Yeah and you know when you go fight with giant ass blades that you're basically wielding like skyscrapers so for For you guys, when I, when we originally played Elton ring, this asshole, she has no poison.

Speaker 2 43:10

Billy and Kyle. We were all on discord together. They had already gotten to Melania. Billy thought it was the hardest boss ever. He goes on live train. He beat it, but it took him quite a few tries, yeah. And then I get to her and I beat her second try and I tell him he's like bullshit.

Speaker 1 43:33

He didn't yeah second try on literally the touted hardest fucking boss ever Designed by front soft.

Speaker 2 43:41

It just happened that my build was, like, specifically designed to mess her up.

Speaker 1 43:47

I Shit, I still like. A part of me hates you and Admires the hell out of you, I mean that's just that is literally like you could put that on a tinder profile Be my second try, try yeah.

Speaker 3 44:01

I still, though, to this day, I beat her within five tries, though I didn't think she was as hard as as as orphan, a cost and blood born, that one I spent like all day on, but I still, to this day, I can't beat her with great sorts. I the only way I can beat her is with Rivers of blood yeah yeah, because I stagger her with the, the special.

Speaker 3 44:28

Yeah, she staggers pretty easy attack. That's the main thing with Melania is, once you realize that she has no poise, you can't, you can't be hesitant you have to be super aggressive, and well, it's like Ranala.

Speaker 2 44:44

Yeah, I didn't even know there was a second phase, like I didn't know there was phases to her fight, because you stagger her right at the beginning. She's done. Yeah, she's Literated.

Speaker 1 44:56

The. The hardest boss, though Okay, the longest I ever spent on a boss was smelter demon from Dark Souls 2 by far, because that run back from iron cape is the worst in any fucking game ever.

Speaker 1 45:09

I actually hated it so much so you could kill. If you killed every enemy in the same area 12 times, they would stop spawning. I cleared that area 12 times. I cleared that. I cleared that area 12 times. I cleared that area 12 times. I cleared that area 12 times. I cleared that area 12 times. I cleared that area at 12 times. I cleared that area 12 times. I cleared that area 12 times. I cleared that area 12 times. I cleared that area 12 times. I cleared that area 12 times. I cleared that area 12 times. I cleared that area. If you think that the game is pretty segúnable, thanks. Gonna save you 24 hours to watch the video on all these fun feature in the selon. Hello, hello, hello, we're back, we're back. Yeah, so I don't know where it cut out, but I spent like four to six hours on Smelter Demon because that Iron Keep run back was so bad. But Liza P, I didn't spend, I think, more than half hour on a boss the hardest boss.

Speaker 1 46:11

Go ahead.

Speaker 2 46:12

What did me once say with that, though I think that's honestly just because we've we've gotten better at Souls games Hundred percent, like. It's. Like I think if you were to go and you were, and like Liza P was the first one you played then it, then it would be much harder. But it's because we've played so many Souls games now that we're more used to like the formula. We know, we know how to figure it out, we know the equation.

Speaker 3 46:38

Why? Also, it was the first Souls game we played. Yeah, got to keep that in mind, and that was a totally different type of game than anything we've ever played before. Yeah, if you go back to Dark Souls 2 now, I think you'd be shocked at how easy of a time you have.

Speaker 1 46:51

Interesting. Yeah, I think so.

Speaker 3 46:53

Oh, absolutely. I played through Dark Souls 2 like a year ago just for shits and giggles and I think I beat every single boss. First try it really yeah way, it was nothing. Wow, I also. You have a ton of hours in that game, but I hadn't played it in like maybe four years at this point, wow, and I went through and I just smoked them.

Speaker 2 47:17

See, so give yourself credit. It's you that's gotten better, I've grown I also won't?

Speaker 3 47:23

I spent a few nights. So my then girlfriend was in college, she was studying for some tests, doing homework, watching me fight fume night, and I consistently tried to beat this guy from like 12 o'clock noon and I finally beat him at like 9 30 that night. Wow, that's, without it out, the longest I've ever spent on a boss, and I was stubborn, I didn't farm I didn't do anything to better myself.

Speaker 3 47:56

I just tried it over and over and over again and then I went through. Like I said, like a year ago I fought fume night. I beat him so easily that it was almost kind of disappointing where I was. Like man, did I just suck that bad back then? Or like I just know from software now I just know how to play those games.

Speaker 1 48:15

See, I don't know like I'm at a point now with these games where I won't I won't sit there and bash my head against the table for like more than an hour. If I'm dying on a boss, I just I won't. And with Liza P, like I, I walked through it pretty much the bosses pretty easily. There was a couple of the like mini bosses that were actually harder than bosses. It was like a clown king one that was just a fucking nightmare. I actually had to do a whole consumable strategy for him. It was. It was a lot, but the the actual fights weren't that bad and I actually played Liza P to fight this one boss because I thought it looks so cool. I watched Austin stream it and it was like I think it's called looks Sassia, lack Sassia, lack Sassia or lack Sassia or something like that. And she's like this lack Sassia. You know the forest of the giants from Dark Souls 2, that boss that you fight with the big, heavy sword on like it's like a night.

Speaker 2 49:15

It's like a night, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 49:16

The pursuer, yes, the pursuer, if the fight is very similar to that and that gave me kind of nostalgia. So I wanted to go back and play that and I loved that fight in Liza P. I thought it was very fair, it was very clean and I got I. I actually I made it through that fight really quickly, in about 30 minutes and everyone considers her to be the hardest boss in the game but I and I thought it was the most fair boss and it was like a very clean, there was no gimmicks with it and I loved that fight so much. I wish more fights of that. There was some like some of the pub, like blood. Liza P is like a game where you really have like OK, this is a puppet, so you got to apply this grease or this, this they call blitz, whatever you have to play this blitz and it only lasts like 45 seconds. Then you have to have like these kids. It's a very consumable game like a lot of one use things.

Speaker 2 50:10

I really hate. I hate that. I know I never used to.

Speaker 1 50:14

And I really hate that. Blocking and pairing is a huge core part of the game and I really don't like that either, but this lacks ass you would like secure.

Speaker 3 50:24

No. No, I try to get in a once you get the peritiming done, that game is not that hard.

Speaker 2 50:28

No Well, sword saying ishon Well yeah, I mean the end he pulls out a gun. The whole time you've been fighting swords, he pulls out a gun. At the end you're like what?

Speaker 3 50:38

There's some like straight up anime moments that can happen in secure though. It's kind of love I'm talking about it now.

Speaker 2 50:44

I want to go back and play it, actually try and do a fresh play through, because there's I wonder if we'll do a second one. I want them. Maybe left it open.

Speaker 3 50:52

They might. I think they'd soon. Not that I don't know if they'll do a sequel to either, but I think they'd sooner do a sequel to Bloodborne.

Speaker 2 50:58

Yeah Well, bloodborne came out first.

Speaker 3 51:00

Yeah, so it makes more sense older.

Speaker 2 51:02

But, yeah, I, I want to go play through Secure again because, billy, I would recommend you try and do it?

Speaker 1 51:12

Do you like the the the Perry was? It was fun to learn it was and especially once you get it.

Discussing Challenging Bosses in Video Games

Speaker 2 51:19

There's one boss, so you'll get it. It's a souls game up until you reach Ganeechiro, and he's like the gate, he's the filter. You know, like most soul games have a filter where it's like you need to learn, otherwise you aren't going to. You're going to hate yourself and he's like you need to Perry, otherwise you're going to have that time. But once you get it down with him, it feels so good, it feels like an actual sword fight.

Speaker 1 51:46

You feel like you actually did something, and well, because what it causes.

Speaker 2 51:50

The way they have it built is so. It's, it's Perry, timing right, but also it's the stag, or it's the, the poise bar which Will long. What was the game you?

Speaker 1 52:01

play along long. It had a progress bar.

Speaker 2 52:03

It's the pair, yeah, the. The poise is what they call it in sick you but same thing, like they stole it from secure. And so what that causes you to do in that sword fight in particular, and many more after that, is you can't just do like Elden Ring and dodge, attack, attack and like kind of play it safe. No, you have to be up in his face.

Speaker 2 52:24

When he's not attacking, you have to be attacking and it's, it becomes so much more involved in a dance and it feels so good once you get it down because it feels like an actual sword fight, like you're like ting ting ting, ting, ting, ting ting ting, it looks like that too.

Speaker 3 52:37

Yeah, they animate it in a way like it's the only sword fighting game I've ever played. We're like You're not just bashing each other, like your swords actually like they contact.

Speaker 2 52:50

Oh, okay, yeah, yeah, and it's, it's you beat it.

Speaker 3 52:53

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 52:54

I've only played there once, though it's probably the one I played the least and there's multiple endings that have, you know, like any Souls games, but there's like, depending what ending you choose, there's different bosses for it. Like, if you choose a bad ending, I did the horrible mistake of choosing the bad ending and then not playing for like a Year and then trying to go back and I'm like I can't, I can't beat this boss, I don't remember how to play at all, and so I never beat the hard ending, but I beat the main ending.

Speaker 3 53:21

Hard ending was hard, though I do know that bloodborne had three endings to there was Bloodborne was a weird game, man but you have to like the fetuses. So, and then like you could either eat them or destroy them or or something like that. But there's, like there was, you could be killed by the last hunter. That was kind of the easy ending, where he just kills you and you wake up and you're no longer in the hunter's dream.

Speaker 3 53:52

Or you can fight the last hunter and then become the new last hunter, or you can fight the last hunter, kill him and then fight the moon the moon spirit and then become like the, a new God, like so, like that was like the hardest ending, and so when I found out that out any existed, I was stubborn and I was like I'm not gonna not get that ending.

Speaker 2 54:17

So I want to go around what's the hardest boss in any game you've ever fought and shoot.

Speaker 1 54:25

Mechanically hard or just like the one I struggle with the most Like maybe in that time.

Speaker 2 54:30

You might be better now, but then like for me was smelter demon smelter demon.

Speaker 1 54:35

He had such an aggressive attack set and I was running At the time.

Speaker 1 54:41

I had a heavy roll Because I was wearing habels armor and I wasn't leveled for it, and I also then I also was a mage cast Such a weird build animals, armor because I like, yeah, it was terrible and it was so bad, dude, it was so bad because I didn't get the lion's cloth until the very end of my first playthrough and then I just wrapped that the whole time. But I yeah, I just remember that was such a fucked build. There's no, there was no resources online. We were just winging it. Yeah and the arena was so small and there was really no place to hide.

Speaker 3 55:22

Like to get behind was and also if you stood too close to smelter demon, you took fire damage.

Speaker 1 55:27

Yes, forgot about that.

Speaker 3 55:29

Yeah, so that it kind of sucked for melee players too.

Speaker 1 55:33

It was this weird dance and I'll never forget. Kyle and I were grinding it all night and he went to bed and I stayed up for like another hour or two and I got it and I remember I went to bed and I woke him up.

Speaker 3 55:44

I'm like I killed him and then he was pissed, but then I got him in like the next yeah, you got in the next morning.

Speaker 1 55:52

I can't. He's like I got him.

Speaker 2 55:54

What about you, kyle? What was your hardest boss ever?

Speaker 3 55:57

I don't know, right few nights, the one I spent the longest on. But Weirdly, I don't know if that's because he was the hardest boss ever fought or if I just approached it very stupidly.

Speaker 1 56:07

What about that one boss that you were hitting and you were only doing one damage to and you thought that he was just super tanky. But you had to really get that item or something.

Speaker 3 56:15

You're on the giant from Dark. Souls 3. That I, so I I that boss is very easy if you do it right. It's like kind of like Right card where if? You if you don't use that spear, you're like holy shit.

Speaker 3 56:35

It's the same kind of concept. So I beat that boss like the wrong way and so again, that was me kind of being stupid about it. But man, I Guess I would say fume night, because that's the one I spent the longest on. But like that boss is really not that hard if, like, if I Would have just few nights a day on C boss.

Speaker 3 56:57

Yeah, if I would have just farmed a little bit, leveled up or changed my tactics at all, I would have cut that time, just bullied by like eight hours. But I was severely underleveled, I Was not equipped to fight this guy and I didn't change my tactics, I didn't farm and I was just stubborn. I didn't do anything about it except try over and over and over again, like, logically, right, if you're having a hard time in a boss, you might think, well, let me go do something for a little bit.

Speaker 3 57:29

No, I was like. I was like I need to do this. So I guess I guess fume night is the one that I probably struggled with the most, even though he's not the hardest boss I've ever beaten.

Speaker 2 57:41

Okay, I would say mine. Have any. Have any of you ever played Hollow Knight? Yeah, did you fight the radiance?

Speaker 3 57:50

Mm-hmm. The radiance that was really tough.

Discussion on Challenging Video Game Bosses

Speaker 2 57:53

He. So it's an option, it's like the secret ending right, you have to do you. Every time you lose you have to fight two phases of one boss, then fight. I Think the radiance might be two phases, it might be three, I don't know. But if you lose you have to go back all the way to begin, fight the two phases to get to the radiance. And he's, he's the god of this, he's the son. You fight the son.

Speaker 2 58:19

It's pretty badass. You're this little bug and you, like, you're like, come on, fucker, but it so Hollow Knight itself. Do you know that game at all, billy? So like you don't. You can farm a little bit, but pretty much it's. You have all the, all the skills After you get them and then like that's it. And so it's like you're dashing, and it was just such a. You had to be like frame perfect on His fight because he would have, like the screen, it was almost like bolt hell mixed with like dark souls. So it's like you're dodging all this stuff and you have to make sure you dodge it at the exact time and make sure, and then the platform starts to fall and then they fuck you in the end, because the whole time you're fight. You're fighting on this one platform and then all of a sudden starts to go up and there's little platforms, so you have to jump in between while dodging and if you mess that up.

Speaker 2 59:17

You go all the way back to fight that first boss and he's not. He's Once. You get him down, easy, but he's not easy. Yeah, he's difficult in himself. Nothing about that, that's easy. Yeah, but I just that was difficult, that was so hard. In the, every time you go to fight the radiance, there's this like companion bug that like grabs the first boss and she yells at you every time she yells get good. And then you go in and I heard that so many times.

Speaker 1 59:48

So I wouldn't change my answer. I thought we were limiting for some reason.

Speaker 2 59:52

I think it's souls game.

Speaker 1 59:53

So it's gonna be a raid from get worse to okay. The boss is called bill guardian and the reason why it's the hardest if you go back and play the game now, it's a fucking breeze. It's super easy because power creep. But when this launched Gilbours to at that point was only five man content. This was the first time raids were introduced and raids introduced 10 man content and in that 10 man content you were. Everybody was trying to figure out like the optimal, how do you share buffs and boons? Because everything was shared, generally speaking, across five people. So you had to have a lot of duplicate roles and stuff like that to share boons and buffs and Figure out these bosses.

Speaker 1 1:00:31

This boss called veil guardian was very, very interesting Mechanically in my opinion. I played the first four wings. I think there's like seven or eight now, but I played the first four or five wings before I ultimately quit. Vail guardian was the most mechanically dense fight and you really had to know yourself. It became super trivial because people were just really practice on it. It was the very first boss but it was very involved. So there was. It was a Visually a gorgeous fight and also mechanically involved one. So there was multiple colors. There was red was conditioned, green was pulsing damage and blue was a Was a boon that the enemy got that you had to strip before you could do any damage and and at any time that so the fight there would be. So the fight starts.

Speaker 1 1:01:29

Phase one there's portals that spawn under the boss and they're at random. They're random spots and if you get stuck in a portal or if you're standing on a portal, when it closes it teleports you to a different part of the arena and all the while the arena is pulsing damage, so you're getting spread out and then, as the fight goes on, when you get in the final phase, two-thirds of the platform it rotates clockwise is lit up with insane heavy damage. There's also seekers that pulse out Unfathomable damage, that are Attracted. There's their seekers that they're attracted to. Any people like it, the closest person, so it'll just track you and follow you and if you can stand within its bubble or like, let's say, you're taking the boss and a seeker makes it into your area, it'll pulse damage on everything around it and it literally can wipe your team in like three, two or three seconds. It's very quickly. You have to react and you have to see, see it or like use spells to push it away and move it. You have to like snare it and stuff. And Then there's this screen circle.

Speaker 1 1:02:31

That occurs that if you don't have four people at least so 10 man content, four or I can't remember, I think it's four, maybe five people standing in the circle it spawns and is only there for like three or four seconds and it could be random in whatever, whatever one-third section you're standing on this circle, it will spawn randomly in there. So let's say you're tanking on the one side of it, it might spawn all the way on the other side and you have like three or four seconds to get there. If you don't stand in that, everyone's max health is whatever your max health is, you might not even be at max health. You could take 80% of your max health damage. So it's almost a party wipe if you basically miss and they're just insane pulsing damage.

Speaker 1 1:03:14

And so when this content first came out, builds were bad. The power creep in the game was so tight like you had to execute as a team, a 10 man team, lawlessly to pull off this fight and we had a very good guild doing it and it took us Multiple days to get this done and we had to ultimately had to like watch strategy guides and people who would like oh, if you, you know, tank here, rotate here, go early. Whatever it is, it was so involved of a fight, it was so much fun. It was awesome.

Speaker 3 1:03:46

I almost feel like like raid bosses, though is like a different category, true, like this is group content designed. Yeah, to be tackled as a group, so obviously it's gonna be harder than anything you could ever do solo. Yeah but because it's designed to be approached as a team thing. So I almost feel like that like deserves its own category. True, like raid bosses versus like single player bosses.

Speaker 2 1:04:11

So all of question unless did you guys have anything else to say around that?

Speaker 3 1:04:15

I think the hardest boss in any game is gravity Mmm.

Speaker 1 1:04:19

It gets you every time about just life smacked up life.

Speaker 3 1:04:24

It's undefeated time. That's why I fall asleep.

Speaker 2 1:04:26

Time like.

Speaker 3 1:04:27

Rocky says Time, time beat Apollo Creed. It's undefeated. It takes everybody out. That's the truth.

Speaker 2 1:04:35

You know that was that made me think, billy. Do you think if they release Guild Wars 3, do you think you would get into it as much as you were into one and two?

Speaker 1 1:04:46

if I have kids at that point probably not. The old guild would probably get in, get back on and I'd probably vibe with them hard and those guys are sweaty, sweaty boys, so I would get sucked in.

Speaker 3 1:05:02

How heartbroken would you be if Not not saying this would happen, but how heartbroken would you be if it came out and it was dog shit, would that? Was that the kind of thing that would really hurt you? Or do you be like yeah, I still like one and two, so it doesn't affect me.

Speaker 1 1:05:17

Yeah, I always have that perspective about games. It's like what I really enjoyed the first one, but the second was ass right, so it wouldn't. It wouldn't hurt me from, like, I don't really give a shit about the lore or anything like that. So the story was. I Would kill for them to remaster the original Guild Wars with like modern day combat techniques but why not just a three?

Speaker 1 1:05:40

They won't ever do that. Rena nuts been pretty bashed around and they're kind of just milking Guild Wars 2 at this point. Still like a top five in, though, so I mean, will the work after still?

Speaker 2 1:05:55

see, the reason I ask is because and correct me if I'm wrong, though but you Still don't like have expansions for Guild Wars 2, right, like?

Speaker 1 1:06:07

you're not caught up. Oh no, I'm definitely not cut so how would like you?

Speaker 2 1:06:13

you?

Speaker 1 1:06:13

think you'd be as involved in Guild Wars 3? Yes, Guild Wars 2 is like so you guys and you never really played in MO, so like I've, I've accomplished.

Speaker 3 1:06:24

I played. I played destiny.

Speaker 2 1:06:29

Billy hold on please hold my beer.

Speaker 1 1:06:34

I've accomplished everything that I've wanted to. I have multiple legendary weapons. I have legendary armor that I went back for and got. I've rated at the the highest levels. I've done PvP. Yet Mid to low tier levels I never was really crazy into into PvP. I've done it all in that game. The new expansions are really just additional story. Maybe some new skills.

Speaker 3 1:07:00

Oh, that's boring story. Yeah, and a game. I hate that. Yes, you know.

Speaker 1 1:07:06

I mean give us to as is free to play and it's got like a solid 150 hours of story, but it's. It is Like I've done everything that like it doesn't really. I Don't know. Again, for me, mmo is like one of those things that you have to be like all in or you're all out. I and Guild Wars 2 is meant to be like played casually, but that's not how I approach it. Like you know, I did all. I sped, ran Dungeons constantly. I did fractals, which are like a Competitive dungeons, I guess, if you want to call it that I don't know what you would call that and I Did it all. I mean, I spanked that game. Guild Wars 3 would definitely 100% pull me right back into it because I really love arena.

Speaker 3 1:07:56

I love. There's kind of weirdly never been an expansion guy, though. No, I feel like every game I've ever played. Once you accomplish what you want to accomplish, you're like meh except for Elden Ring. He really wants the elder ring yeah but you never played the expansions for Witcher. You never play the expansions for Dark Souls. You never play the expansions for any other game that we've ever played. You've always been like Even if it's a game you loved, you still never played the expansion.

Speaker 2 1:08:24

Yeah, I killed Warwick. You're like meh.

Speaker 3 1:08:26

Yeah, and what's weird is like Elden Ring was such a just a perfect game, though. Yeah, it's hard to not want more. It's about as perfect of a game as you can make yeah, and Guild Wars got like really formulaic with their expansions.

Speaker 1 1:08:39

It was like you, they had what's called specialization. So you have like a whole new line that you could spec skills into or spec your attributes into and you could like use new weapons and stuff. And I Just never. It never intrigued me to keep that that grind going. I Could easily turn that back. I mean, I could literally get into Guild Wars 2 tomorrow and Turn it back on and play 8 hours. How?

Speaker 3 1:09:04

high would you be if Dylan and I were like so we've put about 10 hours into Guild Wars 2. We're really loving it. Do you want to play with us, dude? I would. Would you shake my nipples? Would be rock hard.

Speaker 1 1:09:18

I Would love that. I just I would love it if you, if you guys, are truly having fun. I would love it because it is my. It's like sharing that with you guys. Like that. That is one of my, it's my favorite title of all time Guild Wars.

Speaker 3 1:09:31

You've been trying to give me to play Guild Wars for like 20 years 2005 6 Like almost 20 years. This is crazy to think about crazy.

Speaker 1 1:09:41

You said that and you were like that's exaggeration, but then you really think that's like actually not that much An exaggeration. Fuck world.

Speaker 3 1:09:50

No, when did that happen?

Speaker 2 1:09:52

Over time.

Speaker 3 1:09:52

Yeah, wow, really that's yeah time always wins.

Speaker 2 1:09:56

It's undefeated, undefeated, but it you know, guild Wars is cool.

Speaker 3 1:10:00

I got a poll because you could.

Speaker 1 1:10:03

You could literally. You could literally have max gear in a day, like if you played the game and hit just organically, you played through the campaign and stuff. You could literally have max gear. I Literally could I have so much wealth in that game. I could literally just Give you some money and you would have max gear. And that's what I love about, like it's not this now that the games kind of evolved, like I Can go back into it tomorrow and be just as effective as somebody who's been grinding it for the last five years, and that's one of the things I love. That core principle Is it's not this like gear treadmill that you get on, that you're like, oh fuck, I got it going.

Speaker 3 1:10:44

Would you be? Would you be upset or heartbroken if I was like I have a confession, I have 3,000 hours in Guild Wars 2. I definitely 3,000 hours.

Speaker 1 1:10:57

I'm like you, fucking asshole. Thought the veil guardian raid was easy.

Speaker 3 1:11:02

I've been playing daily since lunch.

Speaker 2 1:11:04

Yeah, do you want to tell Billy something? Uh-huh.

Speaker 3 1:11:07

I've been playing Dude. I have a good killed I have a good 22 hours In Guild Wars 2.

Speaker 1 1:11:18

I was actually just talking to wife. I'm like I hate how much TV we watch. We need to get into a game that we can like use our brain.

Speaker 3 1:11:24

I ballers gate 3 has a couch co-op, did you see?

Speaker 2 1:11:27

the update, really, really trying to get a baller game, yeah what oh? Hey, I added a bunch of quality life.

Speaker 3 1:11:33

Is it cross play yet?

Speaker 1 1:11:34

No, but it's quality of my nothing yet Fuck, but it's quality life stuff.

Speaker 2 1:11:41

They added the stuff kind of you were asking for, like it now a short rest, fully, fully, does everything.

Speaker 1 1:11:50

Already, that's in the game.

Speaker 2 1:11:52

I think I'm like 99% sure that.

Speaker 1 1:11:55

Like a different addition that we not know. It's in the past change.

Speaker 2 1:11:59

I added a whole different ending or four different endings.

Speaker 1 1:12:02

That's exactly the quality that's. You have no idea as a spellcaster, that is a huge quality of life up. Yeah, all of my fucking spells are one time use until I go roleplay. Talk to everybody in camp.

Speaker 3 1:12:17

Okay.

Speaker 1 1:12:20

Oh god.

Speaker 2 1:12:20

I'll. While we're on Baldur's gate, I want to ask you an opinion, kyle. Yeah, so Starting, so I'm playing through it now. Okay, I Feel like the romance is kind of rushed. I Don't feel like it's rushed.

Speaker 3 1:12:38

I feel like it's a little too easy.

Speaker 2 1:12:41

Okay, well to eat, just like. All of a sudden it was like oh, now I'm able to romance Carlac like right now.

Speaker 3 1:12:47

Yeah, like if you get her infernal. Yeah, and I'm like whoa.

Baldur's Gate Romances and Game

Speaker 2 1:12:52

You know versus, like Mass Effect took the whole game.

Speaker 3 1:12:55

Yeah, so I think the my my only issue with Baldur's gate romances is like you know, feel earned it feels like there's nothing wrong with that, but like it feels like why does everyone want to get my pants? Yeah, you know, like if you accidentally say something wrong, like oh man, they love me, like, and A part of why I don't like that is I feel like I'm constantly breaking people's hearts and it makes me feel guilty. I'm like I don't, I don't see you that way with everybody.

Speaker 2 1:13:28

Yeah, that's. That's a big reason. You know, like, why I think Mass Effect works so well, as it gives you a lot of time of like Do you want to romance them? Yeah do you want to? Are you sure I?

Speaker 3 1:13:38

think the best? Well, mass Effect, obviously, but I think the best design romance in games which is up there, but also cyberpunk. They have CD project right now that you can snuggle they have earned. I feel like the romances are much more earned in those games Like think about all the work you have to do for Pan Am or Judy just to get them to finally like Both of them don't even really like you at first, when it feels natural.

Speaker 2 1:14:08

It feels, natural in those games whereas, and I mean, and like Baldur's Gate, it feels like I'm like with shadow, with a fucking, I must just be a sex. They're like I wish I could hug you so much right now.

Speaker 3 1:14:21

I'm like I don't, I barely know you like shadow heart, like we've been missioning together for a couple hours and I'm like how am I holding up? And she's like how are we holding up? Don't be modest. I don't think I've ever met anyone like you in my entire life. You're like and I'm like I.

Speaker 1 1:14:36

Don't know.

Speaker 3 1:14:38

I don't know if I really did that much for you. I've barely known you for like two days like yeah, so I like the romances in Baldur's Gate 3, but they do feel Like their heartfelt and they're sweet, but they don't feel Realistic, you know. So I can. I can definitely support that opinion, for sure.

Speaker 1 1:15:01

Well, we got some stokies to like.

Speaker 2 1:15:04

I did. I wanted to bring up one. One more thing, just quick. Did you hear who people's choice word, no people magazine announces number one game of this year? Hold on, let me think.

Speaker 1 1:15:16

Hogwarts legacy you know people.

Speaker 3 1:15:18

A magazine.

Speaker 2 1:15:21

They said they did. That's why I can't even wrap my head around.

Speaker 1 1:15:23

That's why I chose Hogwarts, because it's they did it random Alan Wick 2.

Speaker 3 1:15:26

Oh, oh well people magazine said it's a good game, but that almost feels like they just looked up reviews and they're like well, this one looks like, yeah, like what's people magazine.

Speaker 2 1:15:41

Yeah, I saw that article is like that's so weird, love that game. I, so I beat it and brag about it. Do you think it's game of the year or is it just good? I think it's game that you're worthy. I don't know if it should win, but I think it should be included because it is an amazing game and I I want more from them and I want more like that. It is a very bill. You would hate the game. You would, absolutely you would.

Speaker 1 1:16:07

I watch the stream. It is not you hate story, it's story. It is story with jump scares.

Speaker 3 1:16:13

Yeah.

Speaker 2 1:16:14

Yeah, you would hate it.

Speaker 3 1:16:16

I think it'll go to Bob but I hope it goes to balls, yeah.

Speaker 2 1:16:18

I think you should play it Kyle Game there especially play down like one because I don't like to. They have some really cool ideas in there and you play control right, mm-hmm, they are a hundred percent connected. No, like it's, it's all in one universe. And it is for sure, like near the I don't want to spoil too much, but near the end, you're like partnering up with the FBC, the federal Bureau. Interesting handle stuff and so like it's, it's.

Speaker 3 1:16:48

Everything's a shared universe. Now that's yeah new thing.

Speaker 2 1:16:51

But it it makes sense and it's really cool because I I like what they're doing with that, like it's the closest I think we'll ever get to an SCP game.

Speaker 3 1:17:00

Yeah, like a, not a Indie. Yeah, not an indie isn't a level control.

Speaker 2 1:17:05

So, yeah, I think you'd really like. It's really heavy story focus and, if you like, like or like Stephen King.

Speaker 3 1:17:11

Yeah, I might have to check it out, but I I I've been buying there's, so games are so expensive now.

Speaker 2 1:17:18

Yeah, just put on your list of to get to maybe after Christmas. Yeah, well, with that you can find us on Any major podcast listening platform YouTube where we're streaming right now. Billy was ready to sign off, but I'm gonna go into what was taken from me.

Speaker 1 1:17:37

Yeah, I know, I know, we got negative feedback last time.

Speaker 2 1:17:41

But yeah, you can find us on Spotify, instagram, any major podcast listening platform.

Speaker 3 1:17:46

I did upload the last episode of Spotify rather quickly this time, so good yeah check it out, just in case you missed the stream.

Speaker 2 1:17:54

You can go.

Speaker 3 1:17:56

Listen to it without contact, without Spotify without seeing our beautiful faces.

Recorded Energy Suck and Antagonist Conversation

Speaker 2 1:18:00

Or you could go to YouTube, if you go to live section Guess what? These are all recorded. Yeah pretty crazy Wow.

Speaker 3 1:18:08

And I'm the negative one.

Speaker 2 1:18:10

Yeah, over here.

Speaker 3 1:18:12

How dare you sir?

Speaker 1 1:18:14

There's a difference between being a an energy suck and a antagonist you know what?

Speaker 3 1:18:20

they say are you an energy suck?

Speaker 1 1:18:22

No, he is.

Speaker 2 1:18:25

I think, you are too. Right now, I feel just drained. Wow, imagine that.

Speaker 3 1:18:29

I think you're up against me. I think you're pretty good at sucking. I Remember with a good Katie you get the.