A lot has transpired this past week and we saucy siblings have a Joygasm of a time combing over each development! Our Topic of the Day focuses on play impressions of both Rare’s Sea of Thieves for Xbox One and EA Games / Hazelight Studios A Way Out, which you don’t want to miss out on. We also discuss the new Deadpool 2 trailer that dropped this week, Indiana Jones 5, Shazam official movie poster, Chris Evans making comments about his future involvement with Captain America, Star Wars soundtracks getting remastered, a Star Wars Unreal engine demo, Peter Dinklage appearing in a HUUUUGE movie this year, and more…
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Russ / Xbox Live Gamertag: T0ASTER360
Steve / Xbox Live Gamertag: Stevavitch
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BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
Russ: 00:00:20 Hello and welcome back to the Joygasm podcast where we geek out about video games, movies and pop culture, I’m Russ, xbox live, T0aster360 and with me is Steve Xbox Live Stevavitch as we commence episode 64 today, March 24, 2018.
Russ: 00:00:37 To get the most out of Joygasm, follow us on your social media of choice and youtube. Just do a search for JoygasmTV – in addition to itunes and android, you can listen to our podcast on tune in radio, stitcher and soundcloud.com/joygasmtv. Also for exclusive access and some sweet goodies, check us out at patreon.com/joygasm. We have a smorgasbord of developments to cover today. Gaming News includes a star wars unreal engine demo, cyber punk 2077, And the universal game challenge. Movie news includes Indiana Jones 5, Peter Dinklage appearing in a movie that’s going to be huge, a new deadpool two trailer, Shazam official movie posters, Star Wars Soundtrack remastered, and what Chris Evans had to say about his involvement with Captain America after Avengers Infinity War. Our topic of the day is sea of thieves and a way out play impressions, but Steve, how are you doing?
Steve: 00:00:37 Russ is it “Shazaaaam” or “Shazam?”
Russ: 00:01:43 For the longest time, I thought it was Shazaam. However, after playing injustice 2, Shazam exactly when he says it in there, I have a feeling that the good folks at Netherrealm Studios did their due diligence with DC and probably made sure that, uh, the superhero name was said correctly. So I know I shall be referring to that muscular man. A shazaam. Not Shazamm, but eh, it probably goes back and forth, but yeah. So how are you doing?
Steve: 00:02:23 Well, currently, Russ, my ears aren’t as sweaty since we’re a try a little something, something new here. We’re, AH, we’re “earphoneless”. So, uh, I don’t hear you echoing in my noodle.
Russ: 00:02:40 Normally, I like having it the other way around.
Steve: 00:02:41 I’m looking at you as I always see you
Russ: 00:02:45 I always enjoy getting inside your head, messing with you. You feel distant.
Steve: 00:02:53 uh, across from you about a three feet
Russ: 00:03:00 to Shay? And so what are you going up to?
Steve: 00:03:03 Well, I’m just, uh, I guess I would say figuring out, wow, when we’re actually going to get to the movies next, you know, planning this, planning that.
Russ: 00:03:03 Yeah.
Steve: 00:03:16 Uh, your birthday’s coming up.
Russ: 00:03:17 Oh, it is. It is.
Steve: 00:03:20 You don’t look a day over 17.
Russ: 00:03:23 Thanks you, Thank you. Especially if that 17 year old would be uhh well on his way to balding,
Steve: 00:03:32 *Chuckles* at least you’re not graying yet.
Russ: 00:03:34 Ah, well I’m getting a little salt on the uh, the tips, the very slow compared to me. No, no, no, no, but I’ve, I’ve gone way beyond the widow’s peak stage and now it’s just kind of a battle zone. Taught something that if there was ever a metaphor for no man’s land from World War One, that would be the top of my head.
Russ: 00:04:02 But yeah, no, my birthday is right around the corner. It’s uh, it’s pretty crazy. Haven’t hit 40 yet. I will be turning 39.
Steve: 00:04:12 So you’re still, you’re still in the cool phase once, once you reach 40, it’s like midlife crisis. Maybe.
Russ: 00:04:24 I tell you what
Steve: 00:04:26 also, I don’t know where Russ bought himself a porsche and started riding a skateboard. I don’t know what happened to him.
Russ: 00:04:34 He bought himself a helicopter. I don’t understand.
Steve: 00:04:38 Started dying is goatee different colors. Darker colors.
Russ: 00:04:43 Yeah. We’ll have to see what happens with that. I’m hoping that it’ll just be something. Here’s a healthy way of looking at it: perhaps Joygasm itself could be my midlife crisis. Being able to create something that is entertaining, It’s fun. We get lots of people involved and everyone just has a grand old time. I don’t want to be in that situation where if I have a midlife crisis that I ended up having to go out and buy some sort of exotic car or something stereotypical like that, I, I hope it’s going to be something where it’s like, no.
Russ: 00:05:15 In fact, I’ve actually thought about this, come to come to think of it, Steve.
Steve: 00:05:15 Do tell.
Russ: 00:05:19 I had been thinking about how due to the fact that I’m a, you know, 40 is just running around that proverbial corner. I, uh, yeah. Now I’m thinking about that because I, because it has become more and more in the forefront of my mind, but the cool thing is I look at it as what do, what exactly do I want to do with the second half of the, you know, the part two of my life, if you will, and I want to be able to, to learn as much as I can. I want to be able to travel as much as, uh, the budget will allow, you know, I want to be able to just be able to experience more and more, as a, the twilight years or not so far –
Steve: 00:05:19 golden years!
Russ: 00:06:05 Golden. Yeah. Because yeah, they’re pretty crazy to think about how even like, I mean that means that uhh 50 is uhh well technically speaking I will after my birthday and I was only 11 years away. That is beyond just, well, yeah,
Steve: 00:06:26 we don’t have to think about that right now, Russ.
Russ: 00:06:28 I don’t remember. But back to you, what have you playing
Steve: 00:06:36 Well, while I was going to download the full throttle onto my phone, but uh, it looks like they’re waiting on a update because you can only get so far into the game home and uh, the reviews on the game where spectacular and up until that point, everybody started changing our views around and I actually checked with, uh, the company who released it and who was, uh, who was drawn in all the new crispy lines and everything. And they were like, yeah, we’re working on it. And I’m like, OK, I’m going to hold off until they actually released that update until I get it on my phone.
Russ: 00:06:36 Yeah.
Steve: 00:07:08 Um, so other than that, I’ve just been a over watching it
Russ: 00:07:08 As well you should
Steve: 00:07:08 Forza-ing it…Clash of Clans-ing it…
Russ: 00:07:08 You’re just loyal.
Steve: 00:07:08 I am.
Russ: 00:07:08 You keep playing those games –
Steve: 00:07:24 and it’s part of my personality, Russ – it’s who I am. I’m a loyalist.
Steve: 00:07:29 Oh, I did finish house of cards and sure enough you spoiled it. And I knew it was common and there was, uhh so, but I, but I am looking forward to see what happens in this next uhh season. Cause uhh man at the uh…Sorry. I can get. I can put words together without the, “uhhs”, Russ. I can, I really can. I was thinking back, I was thinking back to cook to Claire in the show. They left, the doors open for quite a lot to happen as they always do. The writers are very good.
Russ: 00:08:02 They are. And that’s – actually now you are officially ahead of me because I have not watched that particular season. That’s on my to watch list. I’m glad that you said that actually because maybe I can try and get that started next week. I’m thinking about actually taking some time off from the old day job. Maybe take like a week off or something. Get caught up on some of this must watch.
Steve: 00:08:23 Have a stay-cation?
Russ: 00:08:28 Oh yeah. Especially, you know, going back to the age thing at my age actually, I honestly really enjoy stay-cations too. That’s something that’s just, you know, if I have some free time I can play some games, I could watch some things that are, that are, you know, just on my to watch list. I’m happy.
Steve: 00:08:44 I started thinking to the midlife crisis thing again and then I thought, no real cars aren’t really your dealio. But then speakers might be a might walk in here day and be totally decked out. Like Whoa, I would’ve asked you last night with the bare walls and now all of a sudden this place looks better than cinema. You’re like “You see, Steve?! You see what I did? This is awesome!
Russ: 00:08:44 There’s nothing wrong….there’s nothing wrong! I figured why wait, why wait?
Steve: 00:09:16 It was just 25,000, not 27. It was 25,000. Oh my goodness.
Russ: 00:09:16 Want some popcorn? Huh? How about a hot dog?
Steve: 00:09:16 I got both right here! Over here!
Russ: 00:09:22 Ballparks. Yeah. Anything else?
Steve: 00:09:22 Uh I think that does it, Russ. What about you?
Russ: 00:09:33 So as you’re well aware, I’ve been putting in my time with overwatch and I got to say, and, and, and you’re, you’re already aware of this, but I got, I got to tell the joygasm listeners out there, I’m getting a little frustrated with the competitive play because I’m in kind of a stagnation where I’m just, it’s the whole “win some, lose some” and as a result my overall score it, it’s constantly fluctuating between 1500 and like 1550. It’s like, we’ll win a couple and I’ll be making my way out of the pit that is the silver league
Steve: 00:09:33 Win a couple, lose a few. Win a couple, lose a few.
Russ: 00:10:14 Yeah, pretty much. So I’m hoping that I can just claw my way out. I know you actually end up placing for season nine that you got up a little bit higher than I did. I think you were in the 1700s or something. My actual career high was 1999. And believe me when I got that, I felt like partying like it’s 1999.
Steve: 00:10:14 There you go.
Russ: 00:10:36 But uh, but no, ever since that time, I think that the players in overwatch have just continued to get better and better. That’s typically what happens with a lot of the blizzard games is like you’ll just have players that that’s all they play is they’ll play, only play starcraft or they’ll only play warcraft or Diablo or whatever it is, but they just continue to get better and better. And I’m hoping that they don’t get so good that suddenly folks like me where like, I don’t have hours upon hours to play the game. Like I, I won’t be, uh, an old relic.
Steve: 00:11:12 Well, I think that’s where the rank is because those people will start to get into the silver class, gold class platinum class, and then we’re just never going to be there. Let’s just face it.
Russ: 00:11:22 I’m going to stay positive. That’s what I’m going to do.
Steve: 00:11:22 You do that…
Russ: 00:11:27 If I could hit gold, I’ll be very happy. And I realize that there are several classes above gold, but I just, if I can get that, that’s going to be a milestone. I look forward to it. And people who I’ve watched on youtube who are just super good at the game, they have actually talked about how frustrating it is when you’re in the copper class and the and the silver tier. Just because you don’t have people who necessarily work together as a team. You’ll see times when that will happen, but it’s not the rule. It’s more of the exception. And so it, it can be tough to like kinda claw your way out of there. But we’re going to get there steve. We’re going to get there.
Steve: 00:11:27 I hope so.
Russ: 00:12:15 Now I wanted to make sure you were aware that I have also bought you and I, it’s going to be a “bro date!”, to go see the avengers infinity war, only it won’t be on Thursday, April 26. We are going to go Friday, April 27th just because I looked and it’s sold out –
Steve: 00:12:15 Oh man
Russ: 00:12:40 – for Thursday. So no dice. No. But the good news is is that the very next day we’ll be able to go and it shall be a day long remembered at this point. I’m going to be absolutely – I’m going to write off cinema if that movie is no good, which I, I think it’s gonna be the complete opposite. I think it’s going to be fantastic.
Steve: 00:13:01 I think we’ll have to do some facebook live while we’re there. We might have to grab one of the people sitting next to us and be like “Hey! What’s up, man?! Are you excited for this? You want to do a facebook live session? Yeah Bro. Let’s do it!”
Russ: 00:13:01 “Who are you? Why is your arm around me?”
Steve: 00:13:18 OK, here we go. Facebook live and let’s go. You want to take a selfie and let’s take a selfie, brah?
Russ: 00:13:18 You get maced…
Steve: 00:13:18 …right in the mouth.
Russ: 00:13:32 Uh, so in addition to that, of course I’ve been playing “Sea of Thieves”, which I’m going to – I’m going to stave off from giving too many details at this point in time since that’s part of our topic of the day as well as “A Way Out”. I decided to buy the xbox game pass and if you recall, that’s the subscription model that they released and it’s really cool in terms of the fact that essentially it’s, I think it’s like 10 bucks a month. I think it equates out to basically as if you were to buy two games a year, which is pretty cool because if you think about in terms of the first party titles, Microsoft tends to release what like between two and three first party titles a year. So I mean it basically pays for itself. I was like, OK, well I know it’s going to be going, going to come out, eh, might as well just do it that way. Plus you get all the different first party titles for both Xbox One and Xbox 360, so there are – I think there’s probably a handful of titles out there that I have not played. It kind of got by me and I can play him for free now.
Steve: 00:14:34 I’m sure you’d have to get an extra hard drive because I, I probably couldn’t do that. I, I only have the, what came with the system
Russ: 00:14:43 I’ll have to take a look. I’m not exactly sure. I know. I, I think the external hard drive I got for my Xbox One is like an eight terabytes, right? External drives one.
Steve: 00:14:52 No, no, no. I have 500 gigs. I have half a tera-
Russ: 00:14:57 Steve, it’s, it’s time that we, we just, we get you upgraded, you know, I think you’re overdue, especially because they’re the fact that, uh, there’s gonna be many more games on their horizon and I don’t think you want to uninstalled what you already have. Now, I have also continued watching season one of the sopranos.
Steve: 00:14:57 That’s right.
Russ: 00:15:21 And so I’ve been enjoying that.
Steve: 00:15:23 Right – My discs were piece of junk. I have to upgrade so we have no clue. I don’t know. I uh, I, yeah. I just want to get, just get the blue ray and be done with it. Be done with the dvds.
Russ: 00:15:34 Yeah, it’s, it’s, uh, it’s kind of becoming a thing of the past anyway. You need to, of course, I say that now. And then if you would get the blue rays then at that point then those will be a thing of the past because it’ll go to 4K, and then 5K, and then 8K.
Steve: 00:15:47 You know what? No, you gotta do. If I’m not, we ever have another giveaway. Uh I can give away my seasons of the Sopranos!
Russ: 00:15:47 “Hey does anybody want my regular 720×480 DVD resolution?!”
Steve: 00:16:05 People still buy dvds, especially when they’re signed by Stevavitch, OK.
Russ: 00:16:14 Sure. You never know. There’s probably someone out there who will probably be interested. Now, there is a particular story that I wanted to cover during this segment just because it’s not really – It doesn’t fit in gaming news or moving news, but did you hear that the Toys R US founder Charles Lazarus died?
Steve: 00:16:14 Yes, I did.
Russ: 00:16:35 I just thought, I think it’s worth talking about. He, he was 94 years old. He opened the first location in Maryland back in 1957. And uh, I actually saw this, this, um, on ign. Brian Barnett reported that when he was a child, Lazarus helped his father repair broken bicycles and sell them. And then later when he took over his father’s shop, he began to sell baby furniture before switching to selling toys. Originally the store was called children’s Supermart, but when he expanded and open the first toy specific location in Maryland, he changed the name to Toys R Us.
Steve: 00:16:35 And that’s quite the, uh name change.
Russ: 00:17:21 Yeah. I could just see him going, you know, there’s something about –
Steve: 00:17:21 This sounds awfully generic…
Russ: 00:17:28 – children supermart. I know it doesn’t sound fun. It doesn’t, and it’s, it sounds kind of funny to, to actually say this, but for some reason seeing Toys R Us close its doors and fold up – It just seems un-American. It was just the weirdest thing because you and I grew up back in the eighties and that was like the Mecca for kids. Like, like the place to go. There was no internet, there were no smartphones, smart devices, nothing. There was no Amazon. I mean like, like it was all brick and mortar style, uh, places of business that you would go to to make your purchases and Toys R Us was the place. I mean that was the place where it like if your parents agreed to take you there, you were in hog heaven. It was just amazing to be able to walk in there as a child and just be completely blown away by just…and thinking about it too, back in the day, like Costco wasn’t around, you didn’t have a Walmart and Target as prominent as they are today, and really in a lot of locations they didn’t have any, um, different buildings set up to be able to do some shopping and whatnot. So really like your one-stop shop for dedicated toys in addition to like KB and those types of places. But Toys R Us was like the big 500 pound gorilla in the room –
Steve: 00:18:55 …and the only place you can buy big league chew chewing gum.
Russ: 00:19:00 I think there were places like K-mart that carried it.
Steve: 00:19:02 I never saw it at K-mart. I knew I always defaulted to Toys R Us for big league chew.
Russ: 00:19:07 Oh my gosh. No, but that was, that was the, the place of choice for us to get our Sega Genesis Games and our master system games and our Sega Game Gear games.
Steve: 00:19:07 Right. And the Sega Game Gear itself.
Russ: 00:19:20 So I remember walking over to that one row. I remember distinctly like how we have to walk into the Toys R Us that was in our neck of the woods. We had to make a right. It was on the far right side of the building and then kind of like diagonal right. And then the games they had were behind the plexi glass, do you remember that?
Steve: 00:19:41 Actually, they had to come unlock it. You know, all those people, all the employees look like they hated working there though. I always had such a blast going in there as a kid, but I remember everyone’s face, no one looked like they had a good time working. I don’t know if it was just our Toys R Us or what. But…
Russ: 00:20:04 Yeah, I mean I can see how they would just be irritable, especially by the end of the day. I mean they’re getting pestered and accosted by children all over the place and parents that just have that crazed deranged look in their eye because they’re trying to find like that one toy that was big –
Steve: 00:20:18 …or they’re just trying to entertain their kids for the time being until they get home.
Russ: 00:20:22 Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, I, I, I, without getting too, just depressing with the story though, I can’t help but wonder if his death had to do with the fact that he saw that his baby essentially was, was coming to a close, I mean that, that can take a toll on a person and maybe it’s coincidence that he was 94 years old, but I also think too, that just when you have someone who starts out with a passion and idea of sorts and there they’re able to have it flourish and expand and just have families all over just absolutely love what they’re seeing and the experiences and all of a sudden have that come to a close. I don’t know. I hope I’m wrong, but I just, uh, I don’t know for, for, for nothing else, I just want to give a, a posthumous thank you because Toys R Us was a big part of my life and it was a big part of your life.
Steve: 00:21:23 Very sweet, Russ. Very sweet. So anyway, you want a tissue and so you want some milk and cookies. You want to take a nap for a couple minutes and come back to their show?
Russ: 00:21:32 Nope. Nope, I’m good. All right. Let’s get into some gaming news here. To kick things off – The unreal engine has uh this brand new update where they can show off reflections in real-time and also involved is raytracing, have you seen this?
Steve: 00:21:53 I have not.
Russ: 00:21:54 OK. So they released a video earlier this week where it’s essentially a star wars based demo and um, they used it to provide a glimpse into an unreal engine, real-time ray trace demo. So you see these two storm troopers and it’s, it’s kinda like the star wars battlefront two style where you see them doing their thing or whatever and they have captain Phasma from the latest episode seven, eight, and nine. And essentially it’s showing how in the latest patch for the unreal engine, they can actually have reflections like, like they go through like an elevator and they see like different types of lights that are passing by and you can see how it’s reflecting on all their armor and the weaponry and even the floors. And if you think about it, it actually makes a lot of senses because in the death star, just about every surface is reflective. And so they want to show off just how articulate and just accurate the reflections are, whether it’s coming from the ceiling lights or it’s to be from just any kind of ambient lighting in general. So I’m excited because those types of things, we’re only really available for, for 3d pre-rendered sequences, like, for me, if I were to go into Maya or 3D Studio Max, those will be some of the render settings without have to choose in order to get just super accurate lighting, reflections, that sort of thing. So I’m telling you, I think when the next gen systems come out, I think that there’s a very high probability that we’ll be able to see some of that going on. And I think that’s going to be fantastic.
Russ: 00:23:27 Now another thing is that the CD Projekt Red, they have opened – and this is something for you, Steve, but they’ve opened the third studio to work on Cyberpunk 2077 – their third studio…CD Projekt Red announced the new Wroclaw studio is made up of 18 veteran game developers and are largely comprised of former members of Wroclaw based developers, Strange New Things. It was created by former Techland and IO interactive developers, and I have a quote here for you. “We’re pretty hyped to be on the spearhead of this new office” Head of CD Projekt Red Wroclaw said “We know Wroclaw inside and out and it’s an amazing place to make games. The team is strong and I’m sure we have both the experience and the creative firepower to make Cyberpunk 2077 an even better game. So I think that they are putting together quite the manpower behind this. It’s going to happen. I cannot wait for this game.
Steve: 00:23:27 It’s gonna be huge. I think it’s going to be good.
Russ: 00:24:39 Do you think that they’re going to have a revealed trailer of the game at this year’s E3?
Steve: 00:24:39 I think they gotta. They’ve been keeping their lips pretty tight about it for quite a long time. There’s little to no game play footage out there.
Russ: 00:24:52 Yeah, there’s no actual gameplay footage like they’ve only been releasing certain teaser trailers that have pre rendered cinematics.
Steve: 00:25:01 They listed something and it looks like some kind of detective-like in a way, so we shall see. I mean – it was like beta footage so…
Russ: 00:25:27 Ok! Shabana Arif reports, unity has teamed up with universal pictures from Universal game Dev challenge, announced at GDC 2018 this week. Game Industry Dot Biz reports, participants will be given access to five iconic universal ips and they have to create a concept for games based on just one. The titles the indie devs will be able to use include Hollywood franchises like Back to the Future, Jaws, and Battlestar Galactica as well as Turok and Dreamworks’s Voltron Legendary Defender. The developers have a month to prepare their pitch with a panel of judges selecting 6 finalists, the successful studio stand to win a cash prize of $250,000, a consulting contract with Universal, and the chance to make their game concept into reality. “Universal, who initially came to unity with the idea to give developers the opportunity to interact with the iconic brands”, Unity’s vice president of marketing Katrina Strafford told GamesIndustry.biz. “We then brought Microsoft and Intel into the conversation, as we knew they would have a lot to offer the community as well. Ultimately, all of us are committed to providing great opportunities to our developer community, so it was a natural fit.” I thought this particular article was a bit interesting, it piqued my interest and it’s kind of uh, it’s uh, it’s a positive, but it could be a negative thing too because it definitely strikes me as them wanting to partner with indie developers or certain smaller groups to see like what kind of incubator programs they can put together and if they see an idea they like, then they’ll be able to snag that particular IP and turn it into something bigger. I don’t know, like I just, I liked, I liked the premise of it. I just hope the developers who win don’t get screwed over in the process.
Steve: 00:25:27 RIght. Just trying to picture everything in my mind, I agree.
Russ: 00:27:44 Segueing over to some Movie News, Steven Spielberg, Indiana Jones Five – count ’em: one, two, three, four, five – to begin shooting next year during the empire awards, Steven Spielberg said he would “come back in April 2019 to make the fish Indiana Jones right here. I think I have a typo here. I think it’s the “Fifth” Indiana Jones.
Steve: 00:28:07 Yeah, I would hope it wouldn’t be like some Finding Nemo, Indiana Jones, Russ.
Russ: 00:28:13 No, no, but it’s come back in April 2019 to make the 5th Indiana Jones movie right here, meaning the UK of course. Now a little tidbit that I thought was fun was that John and I always get his name wrong. John Rhys-Davies? He’s Davies. John Rhys-Davies.
Steve: 00:28:13 Sure, Russ! [chuckles]
Russ: 00:28:30 Anyway, he was the one from the original Indiana Jones trilogy, you know, the, the, the bigger guy? He was the one who played Gimly!
Steve: 00:28:30 Right!
Russ: 00:28:39 Yeah. He reportedly said that he would love to work on the film, so I don’t know, whatever that’s worth. It’s not confirmed, but I for one would love to see him come back in just because I consider him part of the Indiana Jones family.
Steve: 00:28:39 Of course!
Russ: 00:28:53 He really made up a large contribution to the persona of the Indiana Jones franchise.
Steve: 00:28:58 I just don’t want him to be CGI. It’s part of the reason why I have yet to watch the Crystal Skull. Because of the CGI.
Russ: 00:29:06 You’re not missing much with the Crystal Skull.
Steve: 00:29:06 I didn’t think so.
Russ: 00:29:10 While it is nice to see old Harrison, you know, just donning the duds, the Fedora, the whip, all that. Not to mention the fact that the same punching sounds are badass. They had some best punching sounds, but ah, Avengers, Infinity War poster confirms that Peter Dinklage is in the film. I am a big Peter Dinklage fan, and looking at the cast credits at the bottom, you will see his name listed. Now it’s not known which character he will play. People who are kind of going back and forth on that, but seeing Peter dinklage added to the roster of the already impressive cast puts a smile on my face.
Steve: 00:29:59 Steam in your stride.
Russ: 00:30:01 Absolutely. Now going back to Shazam – DC Shazam official logo revealed. I don’t know if you’ve seen this or not, but Warner Brothers and DC revealed the official logo for the upcoming Shazam film and surprise STEVE! It looks really close to what the actual logo Shazam looks like!
Steve: 00:30:01 Oh snap!
Russ: 00:30:26 They had to make some 3D text so, it does look slightly different, but it’s basically just, yeah.
Steve: 00:30:26 SHAZAM!….SHAZAAAAAM! Tomato, tomaaato…
Russ: 00:30:36 We’ll find out soon enough! Now, the original six Star Wars soundtracks are going to get remastered. John Williams, original six star wars soundtracks are currently available to pre-order and will be rereleased on Star Wars Day, May 4th. They will come on CDs and feature new artwork and a collectible mini poster.
Steve: 00:30:59 You know, cds. I wonder why this was – I remember they came out with a super audio cd back like 2005ish, 2003, and I wonder what happened to that because that’s the perfect opportunity to release his remastered music on DVD, audio or super audio disc. That whole format kind of fell by the wayside.
Russ: 00:31:21 I have no idea. It’s a good question. Uh certain popular compositions were retouched, including imperial March and Duel Of The Fates. I hope that it gets John Williams seal of approval on there. Hopefully he has uh creative control over that. I’d hate to see these remastering additions uh –
Steve: 00:31:21 be modified by Rian Johnson?
Russ: 00:31:21 Yeah.
Steve: 00:31:46 I’m sorry – I’m probably the only one who thought that was funny.
Russ: 00:31:49 Oh No, there are many other people who would be inclined to agree with you. Now. Chris Evans expects Avengers 4 to be his last MCU movie.
Steve: 00:31:49 He might be dying.
Russ: 00:31:49 What’s that?
Steve: 00:31:49 He might be dying.
Russ: 00:32:03 In an interview with the New York Times, Evans revealed he expects to not be renewing his contract with marvel studios and we’ll be finished playing captain America after next year’s fourth avengers movie. He says, quote, you want to get off the train before they push you off? Evan said it’s like they did, so we’ll have to see what happens with that. At least based off of this particular article, we know that he’s alive until the next Avengers movie because you know, it’s a two parter. So [inaudible] OK, so as you’re going to kick the bucket this time or not, so that suddenly kind of – I don’t know. In my mind there was a chance that maybe iron man, may be the sacrificial lamb for this part one and then part two maybe Captain America goes the way of the Dodo.
Steve: 00:32:55 I’m telling ya, yeah, King, uh T’Challa is not going to take – no king is going to be taking orders from one of the avengers and people like, dude,
Russ: 00:33:01 I know, I know. I gotta turn the music down here. Our next segment into movie news has to do with a certain trailer. Now, have you seen the latest Deadpool two trailer, Steve?
Steve: 00:33:01 I believe I have, buuuuut I wouldn’t mind seeing it again.
Russ: 00:33:19 I wouldn’t mind seeing it either. I’ve actually seen it a couple of times. My self control lately has been uh weak. So, uh, there are two versions. I just want to have a disclaimer before we actually start watching this. The more memorable version of this trailer is actually a red band trailer, but since we have certain listeners who may be a little bit younger, we’re going to go with the non red band trailer. So for those of you who want the full Deadpool experience, you can head on onto youtube, give it a looksey, it’s pretty awesome. But even this one, this one’s good as well. So let’s check it out.
TRAILER: 00:33:19 [WATCH TRAILER]
Steve: 00:36:27 That’s a good song too.
Russ: 00:36:27 It is, yeah, It is a really good song.
Steve: 00:36:30 Perfect for that movie.
Russ: 00:36:31 And again, if you watch the red band trailer, it’s even better. Like just just a lot of the lines were a little too harsh for the typical movie trailer watching folk.
Steve: 00:36:41 That’s the superhero movie that’s not for the kids, Russ.
Russ: 00:36:45 That’s very true. That’s very true. But I mean that, that means he’s the Merc with a mouth, right. That, that’s all part of who he is. That’s part of his dirty charm.
Steve: 00:36:54 You know, the actor who, I can’t think of his name because I’m terrible at names, but he is also playing Thanos. He’s the voice of –
Russ: 00:36:54 He is! Yeah, absolutely.
Steve: 00:37:05 He also has another movie coming out. It’s uh Sicario 2.
Russ: 00:37:10 I don’t think I’ve heard of that.
Steve: 00:37:11 You haven’t seen it.
Russ: 00:37:11 What’s it about?
Steve: 00:37:11 It’s more of like uh, a Mexican cartel. A good shoot ’em up with Benencio Del Toro
Russ: 00:37:20 I’ll have to check that out. Alright, Steve – you know what time it is? Yeah, that’s right. THE TOPIC OF THE DAY!
Russ: 00:37:51 So our topic of the day is actually going to be a double feature. That’s right! We’re going to be talking about both Sea of Thieves and out. Both of these games were dropped earlier this week and I gotta say I’m uh, I’m a pretty happy man. I always like when all of a sudden we get, not one, but two titles of interest that have been on my radar. So which one do you wanna do first?
Steve: 00:37:51 Let’s do The Way Out first, I think.
Russ: 00:37:51 A Way Out, Steve.
Steve: 00:38:29 A Way Out. The Way Out is a movie with Kevin Costner. A Way Out is the game we just played.
Russ: 00:38:32 Thank you for that clarification! [lauging] Oh boy. Umm so, yeah, A Way Out. We started –
Steve: 00:38:32 Wipe that nose!
Russ: 00:38:45 I’m going to go ahead and make sure I can breathe properly before I get into this Topic of the Day, I tell you what. So we started playing away out just today and we’re not too far into it. We’ve put it in just a few hours, but it’s a game that you and I definitely were salivating over when we looked at [Steve begins making salivating noise] last year – that was disgusting. [laughter] And so here we are, it’s out…
Steve: 00:38:45 And we’re quiet about it! [laughter]
Russ: 00:39:13 Well, I was trying to decide if I should go into my thoughts, but I think I’m going to actually pass the buck to you because I’ve been talking quite a bit.
Steve: 00:39:13 It’s out and uuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhh [laughter] yeah!
Russ: 00:39:33 And that’s it, moving onto the next one! So what exactly is your first impression?
Steve: 00:39:33 I like it!
Russ: 00:39:37 Steve likes it.
Steve: 00:39:38 I think it’s very, it’s not gonna be good to play on twitch. I will, I will say that because if people. It’s a little slow pace. It’s a little deep. I think if people on twitch, I think they want a little more fast action kind of Gameplay, which this is not.
Russ: 00:39:38 Right.
Steve: 00:39:53 So. But for you, you and me, I think it’ll be good.
Russ: 00:39:57 I think this is a type of game that you and I had been waiting for for a long time.
Steve: 00:39:57 We have.
Russ: 00:40:02 Just from an old school style of playing right next to each other – that has really become a rarity of sorts just because with how far the online maturity of multi-player has come, it’s just you don’t really get too many options or opportunities really to actually have more of that localized co-op type of play. I mean, yeah, you, you’ll have a game here and there that comes out every once in a great while, but by enlarge it’s just the multi-player thing and I’m not dogging the multi-player experience at all. I think it’s a fantastic point that we as a gaming community have reached,
Steve: 00:40:02 …but there’s still a subtle separation.
Russ: 00:40:02 Yeah!
Steve: 00:40:44 It’s different having someone that you sit next to on the couch and still playing the game. However, I will say that I, I think I’m going to take back my twitch comment because when we were sitting next to each other on the couch, I can tell you, “OK, someone’s coming, look out”, but however if I’m away from you and I’m telling him what to do over the, over the headset and I can’t see your face and I can’t see your screen so I can’t, you know, cause right now it’s split –
Russ: 00:40:44 Right.
Steve: 00:41:11 With us on the same console. I think it’ll be a little more interesting because people are gonna be able to hear our reactions and, and uh, me telling you what to do and yeah, yeah, yeah, I think that’d be a little – I think that’d be pretty entertaining.
Russ: 00:41:21 Well and I think that you touched on something important with, with this game, is that like just the small amount of time that we have played, we were looking toward each other, trying to coordinate whatever our next move was going to be. It wasn’t just us talking, but I think it would still work and I, I’m, I’m actually really happy to say that A Way Out supports both local co-op play as well as online play.
Steve: 00:41:21 Right.
Russ: 00:41:45 So that’s a big thumbs up from me in order for it to work and I’m curious to see how that’ll, that’ll work out in terms of when you and I give that a shot.
Steve: 00:41:45 Right.
Russ: 00:41:53 I do think that that’ll be fun as well. But I do think that the sweet spot, and this is really what the, uh, the director of the game was talking about at last year’s E3, which is just, they designed this game with having someone sitting next to you playing in mind like that was, that was their kind of go to was one of the other pillars of the game itself. And you can tell like as you’re playing the game, what is super cool is just having someone physically sit next to you while you’re playing the game and really like how they have created this unique screen experience where you’re, you know, it’s a split screen game, but the way that they have injected the cinematics where it’s almost like this kind of subtle nudging, if you will where certain items of importance or plot progression, whatever it is, I, I absolutely love how the screen will go from being like 50/50 to all of a sudden like a certain side will then start to push over and you’ll get two thirds will be of one player screen versus one third on the other side and I just, it’s cool because it introduces a bit of a graphic novel, Comic Book Style Framing into it, but it’s not limited to just that I think was also super cool is just, it almost, it just really immerses you as a player. I don’t know, like, like it just, it’s, you could tell that this is a story driven game and I don’t know, like, like it just, it creates a more lively, organic sensation for me as I’m playing the game. For instance I’ll be like, oh man, something else that’s happening and like literally it’ll be a, it’ll be a, a positive distraction where like I’ll stop walking on my side of the screen to see what’s going on on your side of the screen and then of course they’ll have moments where like the screen will come together so it’s full frame and then we’ll be able to kind of help each other out and see what’s going on.
Steve: 00:43:57 Which if we do it online, I think it’s, it’s full screen for both. I don’t think it’s gonna be split screen anymore, so that means you’re not be able to do that. You’re just gonna have to trust that I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing.
Russ: 00:44:05 Absolutely. And that is a really good point, which is it goes back to the whole idea, the whole notion that they want to have – ideally speaking, have your buddy playing right next to you because you do get a really unique experience. Talking about it right now, I think I honestly, I’m anticipating that I’ll be playing through the game at least two times. One, to be able to play with physically in the same room so we can get that type of on-screen experience and then play through it again to get that constant full screen experience. I would see that this game would completely be something that we could do. Um…
Steve: 00:44:44 Have you noticed the audio gets a lower when, uh, like for example, if I’m doing something not important, like I’m just trying to distract somebody and you’re trying to get an item, it’ll, my question to distract whoever it is is not so important as it is listening to you try it, you know, listening for your proper moment to escape or grab something or whatever, whatnot. I keyed on that, but that’s, that’s kinda cool.
Russ: 00:45:12 Well, it’s smart. I mean it’s, it’s, it’s clever design. When you think about it, where they’re pushing, they’re beginning to push the envelope again as it applies to storytelling. And I really appreciate that because I feel as though when it comes to storytelling there are there, there, well there really haven’t been as many forward leaps in terms of “OK, how can we go about telling a story In a way that isn’t traditional”, not that anything’s wrong with the traditional approach to storytelling, but just I think when it comes to a video game, a video game opens the door to all these different possibilities as to how you want to tell a story. In fact, Quantum Break, which is a game I played for the xbox one, they also really pushed the envelope in terms of exposition as well, just because you were swapping back and forth between playing the protagonist and the antagonist and then making decisions that would ultimately impact how the story progresses through the game. I mean that’s another game that I need to replay through because I beat it once based off of certain decisions I made and then it left the door wide open to see, oh my gosh. Like what else could I see in terms of like how this story arc would be from a trajectory standpoint, I just, I really found myself appreciating what was done with that game and this game takes its own approach and it’s not as – again, this is just based off the the few hours that we played, but it doesn’t strike me as we have to or we’ve come across any type of choice in the, in the storytelling itself where if you choose, if you go left versus right, what’s going to happen? That sort of thing. Not to say it doesn’t exist. Maybe it does in the game. I don’t know.
Steve: 00:46:58 Yeah. I have one concern with it which is after we’re done playing it. I don’t know if we’d ever go back to it because we – I mean unless it’s an extremely long and there’s a lot going on there and one thing on this, let’s go through it again. You know, it might be fun. I think it’s going to be very linear and there’s not going to be like different choices you can do besides saying different stuff to different people. So after we were done playing with it, it might just go on the shelf unless there’s some dlc that comes out.
Russ: 00:47:26 Yeah. I don’t foresee this to be a title that will have a lot of replayability to it, but that’s OK. There are titles out there that maybe I only play once or twice and that’s it and there are other games that are more specifically designed for replayability and that’s OK. I mean for me, you know me, I am a sucker for –
Steve: 00:47:26 No I don’t.
Russ: 00:47:26 [Chuckles] Who are you again?
Steve: 00:47:47 I just come here and talk to you once a week.
Russ: 00:47:48 You invite me into your house and uh….
Steve: 00:47:52 …every once in awhile, you give me some food.
Russ: 00:47:55 Actually I keep trying to escape.
Steve: 00:47:55 Yeah [Chuckles]
Russ: 00:47:55 A Way Out.
Steve: 00:47:55 I’m looking for…A Way Out.
Russ: 00:48:05 Yeah! [Chuckles] But that’s OK. Just in terms of the story driven game is one that I’ve always celebrated, like if you can give me a compelling story that I’ll always remember and it just man that was like –
Steve: 00:48:05 It’s like a good book!
Russ: 00:48:19 Exactly, exactly. It’s just, it’s just a, it’s a good book. It’s a good read and it’s something that will stick with me for a long time. Hey, that’s perfectly fine. And really what we’ve seen so far with this game does exactly that. I mean I’m digging so far what has been going on. I can’t wait to play more of it and I think it’s great too how my understanding is that the developer of this game is a newcomer. I don’t think they’ve really done anything else as big as this, and I think if I remember correctly, didn’t they come from some sort of EA incubation program?
Steve: 00:48:19 They did.
Russ: 00:48:50 OK. So very excited about this just because it goes back to what we were talking about when we saw this game at last year’s E3 where we were able to identify, look, the graphics are not like some huge next gen AAA title thing. In fact that, you know, the graphics are not cutting edge – you know, they’re standard. They’re not bad, but they’re not amazing either.
Steve: 00:49:10 They’re almost like in between Xbox 360 and Xbox One graphics. Xbox 360, enhanced!
Russ: 00:49:16 There you go. World exclusive!
Steve: 00:49:21 Uh, at. In the beginning I thought it was pretty neat where you’re deciding who’s going to play who and they list all the personality traits of in a little bit of background. And at first he chose that one dude and I chose the other guy in there like reading what they had to offer. I thought you know what? You’re this guy and I’m the other guy!
Russ: 00:49:40 That was a really cool moment too where I’m glad that we took the time to read over the quick little synopsis of each character and finding out what their personality traits are, finding out what their backstory is just even though it was very brief, but it’s cool. I mean, again, just taking the time to get into the character, figuring out OK, which character is more like you versus which characters more like me and I’m glad that we took the time to do that and move forward from there. Also the music so far is absolutely fantastic. I’m not sure who they hired for the, uh, the actual score. But so far I’m digging everything that I’m hearing.
Steve: 00:49:40 Yeah it’s well done for sure.
Russ: 00:50:17 And even the voice acting is pretty good too. Like there’s, there are some, some of the guards for instance that are just kinda just is what it is. It’s pretty standard fare. But overall I’m curious to see like how, once again it plays out and I think, I think one of the biggest selling points of this game is that it’s prison life.
Steve: 00:50:17 Right.
Russ: 00:50:40 And I think for a lot of folks it’s just, I know I can speak for myself like there, there’s a, there’s a natural curiosity as to like what kind of shenanigans go on. I mean you hear about some things of course, but just seeing something, being able to play in a role like that. I think that was one of the draws for me as well.
Steve: 00:50:59 It’s been awhile since I’ve seen the shawshank redemption, but I, from what I remember watching
Russ: 00:51:02 Aww that’s such a good movie
Steve: 00:51:03 of this kind of reminds me a little bit of it. Ah, yeah.
Russ: 00:51:03 Now [long pause] I…
Steve: 00:51:03 [Chuckles] “Now [Gasps] I……..uuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhh” [Laughter]
Russ: 00:51:03 You’re just, you’re just merciless!
Steve: 00:51:03 He’s gonna say something!
Russ: 00:51:20 He’s picking on me as I go into my brain fart situation. Do you have any other comments about A Way Out?
Steve: 00:51:26 No, I can’t wait to get back to it actually. Yeah. I actually look forward to playing it as well and I’m glad that is a game that just for you and I specifically, I just, I think we’re going to have a blast playing. Like that’s, that’s totally up our alley. We should pop some popcorn. I think. That’s the game where you should have some popcorn. The game play mixed with the cinematics.
Russ: 00:51:47 Right. Yeah. Well, I think we’re going to have a grand time and we’ll have to circle back around on the Joygasm podcast once we beat it and be able to give some some final thoughts on it. Now the other game that came out is Sea of Thieves.
Steve: 00:51:47 Now the other game.
Russ: 00:52:05 I wonder what Steve thinks of this game? So this is a game that I bought. You have not purchased it. I’m planning on actually getting it for you because I do want you to actually play with me on this particular title. Sea of Thieves is the first original Rare title to come out in quite some time for it and this is actually – I want to be able to start off with this particular comment. Once Microsoft bought Rare, I was surprised at how they really didn’t have Rare working on any kind of original ip then. Everything that they were doing were kind of remastered additions of previous rare ips and so I was looking forward to this particular title just because, I mean Rare is a very respected developer in the community. They’ve made quite a few games that have been celebrated over the decades.
Steve: 00:52:05 Which is rare…
Russ: 00:52:59 Indeed. And I think that pun was intended.
Steve: 00:53:01 I couldn’t pass it up.
Russ: 00:53:05 So I have played it only a couple of times, but I have put in quite a few hours. I would say I’m about six or seven hours into the game.
Steve: 00:53:14 Six or 72 hours, you know.
Russ: 00:53:20 Um, but so first impressions for me from a standpoint and really, you know, let me, let me back up a little bit. I would say overall there is, it’s a mix.
Steve: 00:53:20 Yeah.
Russ: 00:53:37 I’m going to say this so far. It’s a mixed bag for me.
Steve: 00:53:37 Yes.
Russ: 00:53:37 It applies everywhere.
Steve: 00:53:37 Right.
Russ: 00:53:44 It’s, it’s just, ah, I think there are things in the game that work incredibly well.
Steve: 00:53:44 There is.
Russ: 00:53:54 And I think there are other parts of the game that are shortcomings that are, not thought all the way through.
Steve: 00:54:04 Yes, there are.
Russ: 00:54:08 When I think of the graphics, there are certain aspects of the graphics that are phenomenal. The water is one of the big stars of the show.
Steve: 00:54:21 The best so far that I’ve seen.
Russ: 00:54:24 You could tell that they really took the time to put TLC into this water. It’s seriously some of the best oceanic water I’ve ever seen
Steve: 00:54:33 …and it’s not just on the surface. If you like jump in the water and you look back up towards the stars, it looks all watery, like if you were going to do it or if a wave goes by your middle of the ocean, you can see the role as the – I mean, I’ve seen tons of nat- who hasn’t seen tons of nature shows underwater, are under water nature shows, so I love watching your shows underwater. So uhhh [Laughter]
Russ: 00:54:33 Nature! Underwater! Water! Nature! [Laughter]
Steve: 00:55:02 So anyhow, yeah, wherever you look or if you’re on the ship and you’re sailing along, you’re just gazing up at the stars. You could see little twinkle twinkles and sometimes the sky looks rich blue. Sometimes it looks real, very dark black. Other times you can see the northern lights. I mean it’s beautiful.
Russ: 00:55:21 Yeah, that’s really nice. Also, there’s just the small touches of like when you’re sailing on a ship and you look at the lower deck area that’s outside, you can actually see a little bit of the spray that’s made it over the the ship’s hull and so the water’s kind of see sawing back and forth on the planks and those types of things are great. When it comes to the actual characters, I am not a fan of the art direction when it comes to the characters. I feel that they are too crude in terms of their appearance. I liked the idea that you can have a variety of different characters to choose from. Honestly, I’m surprised that there isn’t a customization to the character creation. I was really anticipating this game to actually be able to like have some very drilled down customization as it applies to the head shape. You know, in terms of like the, the mouth, the chin, the neck, you’ll have the body types be able to to to, you know, if you want someone who’s morbidly obese versus someone who’s anorexic looking or something in between. It doesn’t matter. Just having that level of customization, I was really surprised that they didn’t have support
Steve: 00:56:35 For that for a game like this and in 2018 for crying out loud to have that not be a custom factor they dropped the ball.
Russ: 00:56:43 Well, and not to mention too that this is by and large, it’s an MMORPG. I mean, yeah, it doesn’t have all the RPG elements itself. It’s more of an adventure game. I get that, but it is by and large and MMO. Right? So yeah. When it comes to the gameplay, again, it’s – there are – There are two sides of the coin when it comes to this, when you’re playing with other people. So, so just to give our listeners an idea of what I was doing with the first time I booted the game, I didn’t know what I was doing. I just, I got in and right away I decided to choose like a larger ship over the smaller ship and then choose a crew, that sort of thing. Instantly I got an invitation from – I don’t even know who it was to to join the crew that they were at and I was like, Oh wow, OK, and so we, we jump in, you could tell that they wanted to invite me to a party and so eventually I got my headset and did it and that was really cool. The people that we were with, I think like one of those was one of the guys names like royal gonads or something like that? And, his wife was playing with them and then there was another guy as well. Great people. Like there were four of us who were manning the ship. We were trying to figure out how everything worked and it was very cooperative. Everybody was supportive, there was a good sense of humor that was going on. In fact, there was another player who tried to join us as well and he refused to accept our party invites. And so one of the things that’s actually really brilliant about the game is that you can vote to lock one of your members of the crew into the Brig.
Steve: 00:58:28 Ah, that is cool.
Russ: 00:58:30 And so we’re trying to get this guy’s attention. He wasn’t doing things right. I remember, um, at one point I had found this barrel of gunpowder and I’m swimming toward the ship and that guy who didn’t have his headset on, he just started sailing away and I’m like, dude, I’m like out here in the middle of nowhere. And then finally I had a mermaid, uh rescue me and put me back on the ship. But anyway, I think that that is actually a really brilliant game play mechanic in the sense that if you have someone who is being a jerk or they’re just not being a team player or whatever, you can vote, have them going to the brig and then they are stuck in that brick until one of two things happens. Either the, the crew within vote to have him come back out so that he can be released from the brig or he’s just going to have to exit the game.
Steve: 00:58:30 That’s funny.
Russ: 00:59:23 But what’s crazy is like for us it was Kinda, it was kinda messed up. But we had him in the brig and he was trying to get out, he was trying to use the kind of, the basic forms of communication that the game offers, kind of the wheel house of “Ahoy!” and “Hey what’s going on?” [Chuckles] and what ended up happening was we actually poked um, a couple of holes in our, into the ship itself. And so the, the lower deck started to fill up with water and we ended up drowning him to get him out of our ship!
Steve: 00:59:51 Oh, good grief.
Russ: 00:59:52 So that was pretty messed up, but –
Steve: 00:59:55 I remember that happening. I mean, I was going to be pretty brutally honest. I was bored out of my mind because basically I didn’t have a headset. You were talking to three other people except for me. I’m sitting here watching you figure everything out, bringing up the wheel, putting the wheel back of what you can do, what you can’t do every once in a while and brings out an accordion. And I’m like, what is going on? I’m so bored out of my mind. And then yeah, someone, something happened with his ship and I think he’s on whatever happened. I don’t know if someone blew up a thing, I don’t know you were on the top deck. All of a sudden, we hear a [makes an explosion sound] and the screen starts to shake and it’s like, “woah what was that?! I don’t know” and go and you go down and now I’m focused because something big happens and the guy and the guys in the cage and the brig and the water starting to glug, glug, glug and you can come up and he starts jumping around like “HEY! Let me outta here!” [Laughter]
Russ: 01:00:56 Yeah, it is definitely a a game where if if you’re not playing actively with a headset then you’re going to be bored, but it’s a game that I want you to pick up because –
Steve: 01:00:56 I was about to fall asleep to be honest…
Russ: 01:01:09 I think you did fall asleep at one point, but in terms of the game play itself, like the that is yet another game where like you and I would have a blast. I would go so far to say we would have a blasty blast playing this game because it encourages coordination and team game play. Really like when we, especially on those larger ships like you need to have someone who’s manning the – I can’t remember what it’s called. I was going to call it a steering wheel, but it’s like being able to drive the ship. Essentially, you’re going to have to have someone who’s down in the map room giving the other person directions as to where to go because I mean otherwise you’re having to like sprint down to the map room to see if you’re going the right way and then sprint back up to like trying get a handle on where the boat’s going because the ship will begin to veer off course if no one’s manning it and then you have to have someone who’s up on the crow’s nest and make sure you’re not going to hit any boulders or whatnot or look for other ships that may be trying to attack you. That sort of thing. If you. If you do hit a rock or if you uh crash onto the land for instance, you also have to have someone who’s down below who’s able to use their bucket because again, going back to some of the abilities that you have as a character, your ship will just – it will get damaged. There’s no way around it. Whether if you hit a rock or you go ashore or, or if you have cannon balls that are hitting your ship, one of the abilities is that you have a bucket and you can all run down there and try and feverously trying and uh, scoop up the water and prevent your ship from sinking and then just just splash it out, that sort of thing. So that’s a lot of fun. Another thing too is that you, you each have your own little spyglass that you can whip out, which I find to be very helpful just to see what’s at, what’s on the horizon. Just be able to look out for those pirates.
Steve: 01:02:52 I’m sure the sailors thought it was helpful to back in the day.
Russ: 01:02:55 It’s amazing how some of those things are replicated in this game. It’s almost like they meant to do it, but there are a lot of other abilities in there as well. Now here’s where the mixed bag comes in. So, that part of it is great, like when you’re playing with the game, the part that gets irritating for me is the combat, excuse me, had a burp come out of nowhere. Now the combat itself is really crude. I mean, you have a sword, you have a gun, there’s really not a lot to it. It’s just – It’s really kinda just hack and slash your way through it. That sort of thing. When I find to be really obnoxious and annoying is you have certain players who just play the game to try and fight. That’s all they want to do. Like they, they have no interest in taking on the certain missions, whether it’s looking for gold or buried treasure or doing like the more the business side of things like capturing wildlife and bringing in or whatever it is. All they want to do is find other players to attack.
Steve: 01:04:01 Of course you’re always gonna have those people.
Russ: 01:04:03 And so I had an experience like that last night where I was um, back at one of the little merchant outpost places and I, I, my ship is by the dock. And Luckily I was able to get all of the items of value off the ship and sell them to the merchants and be able to get leveled up and that sort of thing. But as I’m coming back out to my ship and by the, by I have to preface this with, um, this particular play through, I was by myself, so I chose the smallest ship of the ship class structure and I didn’t have anybody with me and these two guys actually followed me. I, I was actually in a, in a different part of the whole world map. And they tried to get me back then and I escaped. I actually was able to get past them and thought, OK, well I don’t have to deal with that because I was pretty far away. They ended up just tracking me all the way back to this place and then proceeded to cannon ball the crap out of my ship and kill me over and over and over again. Like, it was the most like just irritating thing because here I am were like-
Steve: 01:05:16 …that was probably the guy that you locked in the Brig.
Russ: 01:05:19 really? No, it was somebody completely different. This is a completely different play through. But um, yeah, they literally stopped me halfway across the world map, like, like they were trying to get me before somewhere else they’ve failed, which was crazy. They literally tried to do the whole like boarding my ship thing as I was getting like my last little treasure thing placed onto my ship, but like they were, they were like launching cannonballs at my ship. They hit me a couple of times but they missed me quite a few and then they both like jumped in the water. They were trying to like swim over and get on my ship – luckily, Uncle Russ knows how to sail, so I was able to get my ship up and running it and just ditched him big time. So I mean it took them awhile to get back for them to catch up to me basically.
Steve: 01:06:04 Did you harpoon them while they were in the water?
Russ: 01:06:06 No, I mean I had no interest in fighting. I’m just like, look, I’ve got a ship full of valuables now. I want to go and get my, my, my sailor leveled up and whatnot, so I evaded. I took evasive action. I was able to just get out of there and I cannot believe –
Steve: 01:06:06 I’m all about commerce. [Chuckles]
Russ: 01:06:26 I am
. I’m like one of those sailors were I’m just, yeah, I’m just trying to make a living over here and so they probably put two and two together and just, oh, he’s probably going to go back to the merchant island. Let’s go that way. So I mean I’m all for some of the swashbuckling adventures. That’s part of what makes the game unpredictable, if you will predict both predictable and unpredictable. It gives a little intensity to the game because you never know. If you see the ship on the horizon, are they friendly? Are they going to be attacking you now? Well, going back to the irritate – irritate? – irritating aspect to the game play mechanics of the combat. So I was trying to get my ship to sail away from that island, but at that point they had already just blew it to high heaven. So like there were just holes everywhere. I was getting water onto the ship. It was starting to sink
