Phantom Blade Zero Hands-On & Hellraiser Is BRUTAL | Between Levels Podcast Ep. 15

WheelieAverage: Hello everyone, welcome back to the Between Levels podcast. This is episode fifteen. I am of course Wheelie Average, joined by my two co-hosts. We have Sarthe down below. How are you doing, sir?

Sarthe: Doing great. Excited today?

WheelieAverage: Good, good. And over on the left there you saw him wave. His name is Cowboy with the really blue eyes. How are you, Cowboy?

FightinCowboy: Yeah. I'm good. I'm good. We're just we're chilling.

WheelieAverage: We are, we are. I mean, Cowboy Cowboy says he's chilling, but let's just say he's put out his Dragon's Dogma 2 Darker review and he's had to deal with some interesting characters commenting on it.

FightinCowboy: Well we w so we were we were talking about this at the start. but honestly, I mean this is just a greater problem in general about media literacy and people like not listening to stuff or fully comprehending it before speaking on it. 'Cause I had somebody like I mentioned in the review that loot is fully random now. Like, you know, loot was random in in bitter black, like when loot would drop, you didn't know if you were gonna get a a dagger or a sword or whatever. But Like Ferme Blades were the top tier daggers, either those like Heaven's Key. And so once you got your Ferme blades and you gold rarefied them, you had your daggers for your character best in slot. Everyone could get those daggers. Now it's more like if Ferme blades were to drop, the actual attack stat is going to vary between them. And then there's going to be your knockdown, it is also going to vary. And then there's going to be individual perks on weapons. So similar to how something like Diablo or Neo, when you roll gear, it's like you could have a you know, this it gives you 200% damage to seismic slam. It's like that now in Dragon's Dogma. Whereas before, we didn't get stats like that on weapons. We had some some rings that gave us modifications. but there was like a set number of rings with modifications. Now it's it's way more RNG. And I explained, I was like, you know, I don't like having that additional layer of RNG with zero manipulation. And I have people that are like, no, we don't want that in the game. Stop trying to push it. I'm like, no, no, no, you don't understand. I'm not saying it should be like this. I'm saying it's now like this, and I do not like that. I also had people try to to gaslight and be like, no, it was always like that. And I'm like, no, it it wasn't. I literally have fucking footage of Darker Risen, the original, on the channel. I did a full playthrough of it. I streamed it for hours and hours and hours. It's one of my favorite RPGs. And people are like, No, you just never played it. I'm like, all right, I I give up. There's no arguing. It's like it's it's it's it's it's how do I even describe this? It's like forced ignorance where people despite not having the knowledge to speak on something, will insist their right. And it's fucking baffling, dude. It's it's so like, how do you even how do you argue against that? You know, it's like

WheelieAverage: Yeah, I know. I think I think part of it, as I mentioned to you, you know, pro before we started recording, is that the problem nowadays is people will take one segment of what you say outside of the entire context of what you're saying and use it to strengthen whatever weird position they

FightinCowboy: For form their entire opinion. Yeah.

WheelieAverage: have. Yeah. And it's just that's that's context is important, people. You need context.

FightinCowboy: Well, no, I mean even like if even in the review, like the opening of the review, I said, you know, I've put a bunch of time in, I've done everything. I did all the side quests, I've done the post-game, had an absolute blast. But there's a couple things that I think pulled down the experience. So I'm gonna get my criticisms out of the way, and then I'm gonna talk about everything I've enjoyed. And like there was even a time in the review where I was like You know, at the end of the day I still put X amount of hours into this. I had a blast. It is more dogma. I love Dragon's Dogma. There's nothing else like this. Like lots of of glazing. And I have people in the comments that are like, Yeah, you fucking hated it. That's what I would expect from you. You don't understand these games. I'm like, Are you in a different fucking reality? Like, I I've I feel I don't know. I just get so angry. I wish I could grab somebody. you ever you ever seen the boondocks? Not not the movie. I'm talking about the boondocks, the cartoon by Aaron McGregor, where

Sarthe: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: he he holds the book and he's like, read, motherfucker, and he's putting the book into his face. I want to do that when people make these dumbass comments. Cause like it's clear, it's like a concentrated effort to not fucking listen. And I'm like, man.

WheelieAverage: And it's also and it's also it's not just them having a different opinion, it's them twisting your opinion into something that it's not.

FightinCowboy: It it's yeah, dude, it's it's fucking crazy. It's so baffling to me. That that's that's what we that's what we live in these days.

WheelieAverage: Yeah, yeah. I mean I was I was in your stream last night at time of recording and I I noticed you were trying to explain it to people in there and they were just like not getting it

FightinCowboy: Well that 'cause we were we were in the middle of you know, we were moving and grooving in

Sarthe: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: gears and then I had people show up and they're like, I don't get this and I'm like, All right I'm gonna try to try to explain this. Yeah.

Sarthe: All right, let me explain it. All right, let me explain it. All right, let me explain it. 'Cause it was like every every ten minutes another person like, Do you not like Dragon's Dogma?

FightinCowboy: Yeah, dude, I fucking hate it's dude, it's it's the biggest curse of being a streamer. and it's it's just something you have to come to terms with is you're you are going to say the same thing and explain yourself eight thousand times. It just it is what it is. That's part of being a streamer.

WheelieAverage: Yeah. Yeah. I think the biggest curse that I've noticed so far of being any sort of content creator is you're gonna get people who don't understand that everybody's allowed their opinion and they just wanna like say some crap anyway. Like I don't know, we're talking about gears, but like obviously last week's show I said that I think Gears is a must-play game, right? And I still stand

Sarthe: Mm-hmm.

WheelieAverage: by that, I do think it's a must-play game. But Some of the comments that we got when I released that as a separate clip were like talking about, you know, this is a gay game and all that stuff. And it's like, I don't care. I don't care.

FightinCowboy: god, yeah. I I so we I you would probably appreciate it, Wheelie. We had the I knew I knew that was gonna come up after the all the arguments that I was getting into with the P idiots on Twitter. so while I was waiting for Sarthe yesterday, the whole st I it was like a thirty minute soap

Sarthe: It was yeah.

FightinCowboy: box for the start of the stream just explaining all of this to people. I was like addressing every all the points people were coming up with. I was I was like, you know. Basically saying everything I I could to be like, this is this is is it. This is you know, let me explain stuff to you.

Sarthe: Mm-hmm.

WheelieAverage: Yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean I just look, I'll put it simply this way. You cannot like stuff being in a game, that's fine. But it's not there for you. Representation matters, and

FightinCowboy: It's it's there for other people. Yeah.

WheelieAverage: Yeah, it like you're not the only person in the world. You're free to think whatever you want. We might we might think you're an idiot, that's okay. But you know, it's Not all of these things are there for you, but let's get back to gears because I do want to talk about this game. Obviously I've finished it. You guys are still playing through it, but you how you are coming towards the end now, let's say. So

Sarthe: We're very close to the end. Yeah.

FightinCowboy: We're we're we're on act five. So we're we're through we're through the majority.

WheelieAverage: so so far, impressions, what what do both of you think?

FightinCowboy: personally I I don't think I enjoy how open it is. I know five we had some more linear sections and some more open sections. Sarthe has been like a collectible gremlin example. I didn't even until yesterday, I didn't even

Sarthe: My ADHD I my ADHD is just like

WheelieAverage: I've noticed.

FightinCowboy: understand how you were finding this. And then you were like, No, look at the map. There's like a little X that's marked on the map, so there's probably something

WheelieAverage: Markers. Yeah.

FightinCowboy: over there, and I was I didn't even Noticed that. I thought I just assumed that was just you know scribbles on the map. so

Sarthe: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: we're going around, but there's there's so much stuff, and I think it's just it's more I think part of it is just open world fatigue, honestly, because I'm I'm coming off of I'm coming off of dogma, I'm coming off of control, so I'm coming off of two very big open world games, and my

WheelieAverage: Mm-hmm. Yeah.

FightinCowboy: brain was like, I'm just gonna kill some fucking grubs. And it's like, actually, hold up, but you're gonna run over here and get this fucking collectible. I'm like, damn it, I can't, I can't.

Sarthe: But that's 'cause

WheelieAverage: And

Sarthe: of me.

WheelieAverage: and and to be fair,

FightinCowboy: I can't escape it.

WheelieAverage: I I wanna say a couple of things. So I'm not I'm not as negative on the open world parts as some people. The biggest issue with them for me is that they do affect the pacing massively.

Sarthe: Yeah. Well, only if you like fall for the col I mean, also like the the it's the if yeah, which

WheelieAverage: If you're Sarthe, basically.

Sarthe: I've made this comment so many times about so many games, but like one of the big ones, Ghost of Yote, you would see this like, my god, look, the bird starts flying by. I would have to chase this bird. I would be on a mission to go do something, and then it'd be six hours later because I started chasing birds and like collecting the most meaningless things. And and in gears, a lot of the collectibles, I I don't even I'm not gonna 100% the game. So I'm not like, why am I picking these up? But my brain is just like, ooh, there's something. What if there's and like

WheelieAverage: Yeah.

Sarthe: when there's the the little chest, like if there's an open area, like I have to check it. Cause what if the chest has like the next unlock for my sniper? So like it's I wish my brain didn't work that way, but it works in like RPGs, but I also like don't

WheelieAverage: To be fair though, what

Sarthe: want to like I don't want to spend the time and and waste the pacing. And so it it's definitely like me influencing it and it's does it massively slows the pacing. And I don't

WheelieAverage: Although

Sarthe: think you have to do it at all. It just like I I do.

FightinCowboy: Well, I mean I I I don't know 'cause I want those fucking upgrades. So like at the at at a minimum I want those hard

Sarthe: Yeah, right.

WheelieAverage: And and that's what I was gonna say, to back

FightinCowboy: cases.

WheelieAverage: yeah, like to back you up a little bit, the hard cases and collecting those I don't think is an i an issue because you're gaining something by doing that, right?

Sarthe: You have to go to those areas. So, like, it would actually, I think, be a fix if it was only collectibles and like you got the upgrades at certain points or something. So that you if you didn't want to have to explore every nook and cranny, you're not missing out on actually upgrading your character. Yeah.

FightinCowboy: Yeah, if if the the hard the hard cases were more on like critical path.

WheelieAverage: Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense. That makes sense. Yeah. Cause 'cause I do think, as you said, if you're someone who falls into going and looking for those collectibles, it's definitely going to impact the pacing more. But you can, even with it being a more open game, you can still basically A to B linear this all the way through if you want to, right?

FightinCowboy: No, you could, but I think a lot of the the upgrades you get, yeah. Yeah, and the upgrades are cool. Like you can do some some

Sarthe: You'll miss out on all of your upgrades. So, like, yep.

FightinCowboy: cool ass build stuff.

WheelieAverage: You can, you can. I I was quite

Sarthe: So

WheelieAverage: surprised by how many different upgrades and stuff you can get, and then you've obviously what what I really like about this game, and I wish more games would do this, the the first time you pick up a weapon, you can then equip that weapon at any point in the game through one of the supply caches, you know?

Sarthe: I love that. Yep.

WheelieAverage: And it's like that's really cool because It just means that you don't have to worry about finding that weapon off an off of an enemy again or whatever, you know, and it's yeah, I I really, really like it. Is there anything other than the open world parts you don't like about the game, Cowboy?

FightinCowboy: Mm-hmm.

Sarthe: I have one.

FightinCowboy: Not yet.

WheelieAverage: Okay.

FightinCowboy: But I I and I

Sarthe: The yeah, go.

FightinCowboy: mean this will well discover this tonight when we play, but I really hope we get a direct tie in to why Marcus is in jail at the start of Gears One.

WheelieAverage: Interesting, okay.

Sarthe: Yeah. Same. And also I I love when when games do I I mean andor tied into like Rogue One, which tied into fucking Star Wars episode one or whatever, four. I loved that.

WheelieAverage: Yeah, those tie in elements are always nice, aren't they? Yeah.

Sarthe: but the the the only other thing that I think affects the the pacing, I think the gameplay is so sick. When you get to experience like new, like epic boss fights or like you see something, like everything is amazing. Aesthetically, cinematically, it's it's so dope. And like it actually feels so good to play. there are times when you're like at a door and they have to I've said this in my review, they have to like have this full conversation where it's like sometimes not meaningful. It's just like kind of like joking with each other before you can open the door. And like I wish they could just

WheelieAverage: Yeah, it literally will not let you. Yeah.

Sarthe: yeah, I wish they could just continue the conversation While I take a few steps forward instead of like standing there.

WheelieAverage: Yeah. So I agree with you. I think what's happening, I think that's a technical limitation. I think they're hiding a load at those doors. Right?

FightinCowboy: Yeah.

Sarthe: That actually might be really true. Yeah.

FightinCowboy: Yeah, safe safe load screen.

WheelieAverage: And I think that's basically what it is, is that conversation is their way of hiding a load. So therefore that's why you can't open the door. Because let's be honest, this developer has never done a game quite this open, with quite this much space and things like that, right? So

Sarthe: I wasn't Gears 5 like way more open when I was speaking to them. They they said they like they toned

WheelieAverage: Gears five was open but

FightinCowboy: Yeah, so so

Sarthe: down the open areas for sure because of that.

FightinCowboy: Well so so you had you had big big snowy regions that you actually like were in a sled and going around.

WheelieAverage: But they were quite barren.

FightinCowboy: yeah, yeah. So it was it was basically like big open

Sarthe: Yeah, that's not great.

FightinCowboy: stretches between more linear portions. That would be a good way to describe it. I dude, it's I've

Sarthe: Yeah, but the

WheelieAverage: Yeah, for sure.

FightinCowboy: I've actually so a while ago, just during a slow season, I ended up I finally was like, you what, I've never played Gears 5, I'm gonna play it. and I actually enjoyed it because it goes so in depth into like Queen Mira and the backstory, and you learn a lot

Sarthe: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: about the locust. with all the the drama surrounding E Day, people were like, Gears five fucking sucked. And I'm was Gears Five like I enjoy Gears 5. Is this like

WheelieAverage: It didn't suck. It

Sarthe: You're like, I just played it. Yeah.

FightinCowboy: and I want to say it reviewed.

WheelieAverage: Like it

FightinCowboy: Pretty well? Like

WheelieAverage: didn't suck. I think the problem f as being a longtime Gears player, I think the problem

FightinCowboy: Yeah, I mean it's it's sitting at a an eighty four on Metacritic, like that's not a bad score.

WheelieAverage: No, and I think but I think the issue with four and five specifically is they're tonally quite different to the original trilogy, whereas

FightinCowboy: Well yeah, I mean you're moving away to fr you're moving from you know he he's g he's literally Grandpa Phoenix at that point.

WheelieAverage: Wh whereas whereas E Day is more obviously being a prequel, they're able to connect back to the original roots. There's some there's some horror-ish feels in this game at times.

Sarthe: There's absolutely it feels like you're playing through Resident Evil at times, which is epic.

FightinCowboy: It does, yeah.

WheelieAverage: Yeah. So but and I don't want to get too far into spoilers obviously, but I do want to bring up one thing from the very early game. It's that first boss fight when you're outside like the city hall and that big thing comes along and it bites the guy's head off and then

FightinCowboy: The dinosaur?

WheelieAverage: sh Yeah

Sarthe: We've already talked about it. The dinosaurs.

WheelieAverage: It's just like that was so cool.

Sarthe: That was so epic. That was like one of the most fun things like for us, too. We we out of nowhere, there's this giant dinosaur. So me and Cowboy are like, my god. And it starts chasing cowboy so I can attack it. Then it

FightinCowboy: Yeah.

Sarthe: starts

WheelieAverage: Yeah.

Sarthe: chasing me so he can attack it. But this thing is fast. Yeah. So

WheelieAverage: And then it whips you with that chain as well.

Sarthe: if you don't, if you're not paying attention. All of a sudden you're reloading or running to grab ammo and cowboy turns around, it's right on top of them and it grabs him and just bites his head off. This

WheelieAverage: Yeah.

Sarthe: was like such an epic moment. And I was like, man, I love this. I I I have to say, like, we've met we have we started out by mentioning like the things we we dislike, but I'm genuinely having like so much fun. There are like some pacing things, right? but like the gameplay when you're in it, you're just having a blast, and we're just like There's a good amount of challenge, but it's not like the Halo challenge where you're just like, and I'm dead. and I I peaked.

WheelieAverage: Yeah.

Sarthe: I missed that shot. I'm instantly one shot. And then you have to restart all the way. like we have died. There's times when like a grenade just hits you or you throw a grenade and they run on you. you missed me. You missed me falling into some pits at the beginning.

WheelieAverage: Y is usually cowboy dying from what I've seen.

FightinCowboy: Yo, no, whoa, whoa, whoa. It's been Yeah.

WheelieAverage: I have seen that as well.

FightinCowboy: I I think Sarthe Sarth's pitfalls are are probably comparable to the amount of ungabunga rundowns I've had.

Sarthe: Yeah, 'cause Cowboy runs in and I snipe. So it's a perfect duo.

WheelieAverage: I I will say though, I always laugh I always laugh when I've seen cowboy get blown up by like a boomer and and like the the dismemberment of the body is just like okay you know like they'll just rip you in half.

Sarthe: I always see like his his body parts fly onto my screen and you hear him like, no and I'm like, was that you? Was that you? Yeah.

FightinCowboy: no. Every time. no.

WheelieAverage: But yeah, it's it's brilliant.

Sarthe: so it's a it's a blast to play with friends. Honestly, I'm I'm having a great time and we're gonna play horde later today. So it's good, yeah, I'm excited.

WheelieAverage: Yeah, I mean you guys gotta finish that campaign first, but yeah, once you've once you've done that, let me know. And I will

Sarthe: Then we can all hop in. Yeah.

WheelieAverage: Yeah, yeah, I'm I'm more than happy to hop in because this game from a gameplay perspective, there's not really anything I would personally complain about with it. I think the gameplay feels like the smoothest the smoothest version of gears that we've ever had, you know?

FightinCowboy: yeah, dude, the the

Sarthe: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: my one of my favorite things has been doing shotgun slides. Just sliding in and boom and

WheelieAverage: Ha ha

FightinCowboy: blasting something. That shit feels real good.

WheelieAverage: Yeah, for sure, for sure.

Sarthe: And he's using the incinerator, so it's like the emulsion shotgun that like shreds

FightinCowboy: the the the emulsion shotgun?

Sarthe: through like three of them if he gets the perfect shot. It's it's so fun. yeah, the game the gameplay

WheelieAverage: Yeah. Yeah, for sure.

Sarthe: and the and the graphics, the gameplay, the graphics are absolutely gorgeous and the horror elements are

WheelieAverage: It it's probably the best

Sarthe: just phenomenal.

WheelieAverage: it's probably the best Unreal Engine five looking game that I've seen so far. Like actual full game.

Sarthe: I didn't even realize it was Unreal Engine because it just like it plays so smooth. You don't feel like there's all of those artifacts that you usually have.

WheelieAverage: Yeah. I think the thing is these guys, Coalition, a lot of them come from Epic, right? So they have a lot of history with that engine. So

FightinCowboy: Yeah, yes, they they they know how to fucking cook with hunters.

WheelieAverage: so yeah, it's it's easy

Sarthe: That makes sense.

WheelieAverage: for them. But we

FightinCowboy: Yeah.

WheelieAverage: mentioned how gory this game is. And I've played something else that is very, very gory as well. neither of you are gonna be creating any content for it, I don't think so, which is Hellraiser. And let me tell you, this game at times actually made me feel sick. Like

FightinCowboy: That yeah, that's that's on brand. Well, I think I think of a Hellraiser

Sarthe: That's yeah.

FightinCowboy: compared like when you think about so so I I should preface this by saying I am a huge, huge horror junkie. In fact, before the kids were born, me and my wife had a holiday tradition where we would binge watch all of a particular franchise. So like one year we did all of Friday the thirteenth, one year we did all the Hellraiser movies, et cetera. And Compared to a lot of horror films, especially films that that were were older, you know. But look thinking more modern, you have like Saul and stuff. but Hellraiser, I think, was one of the the earliest big emphasis on body horror. Like hooks in the flesh, flesh being tort like really stuff that's gonna make your fucking skin crawl. And

Sarthe: Yeah.

WheelieAverage: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: you know, I I I obviously haven't played the new game, but I would imagine It it's a lot of that,

WheelieAverage: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: you know.

WheelieAverage: So I so I can't discuss this game without having some spoilers. So if you want no spoilers, please leave now and come back later. But

Sarthe: Yeah, time this section out.

WheelieAverage: but the game essentially starts with you who are you're you play as Aiden, right? And you're having sex with your girlfriend and she's got this

FightinCowboy: Starting it off throwing some pipe, okay. Scene one

Sarthe: That's how it starts. Yeah.

WheelieAverage: She she's got she's got

Sarthe: Some Gears of War. Like, remember first, not

WheelieAverage: this

Sarthe: Gears, God of War, and you're like, all right, press

WheelieAverage: Yeah.

Sarthe: A to make the bed go like this. Yeah. Okay.

WheelieAverage: But yeah, this is a bit more graphic than that. This isn't press something.

Sarthe: Yeah, sure.

WheelieAverage: It's just like this is straight. And and she's got this Genesis configuration, okay? And they're let's just say they're fiddling around with it. it opens up. Here comes Pinhead and all his goons. And they essentially and

Sarthe: All the gooners come right as you're having sex.

WheelieAverage: and they essentially rip her apart with chains, okay?

FightinCowboy: Yeah. Yeah. Well that's I mean that's Hellraiser. You're trying to to you know, the the idea is that just the the sheer pleasure from sex isn't enough. You want the pleasure from pain as well. You want to reach new heights of feeling that you couldn't before. There's there's a lot that

WheelieAverage: Yes. Yeah.

FightinCowboy: like it it really ties into the darker side of like S and and sexuality and I mean I love Hellraiser as as a franchise. I think it's it's really fucked up.

WheelieAverage: yeah. Yeah, yeah. And And then the first gameplay bit you do is you go through the labyrinth, which is for for people who don't know, it's basically like another realm. Okay? It's it's like a realm yeah. Yes.

FightinCowboy: A living realm. A living realm with that. The labyrinth itself is the ent if I remember correctly, it's been years, but if I remember the the labyrinth itself is the entity that Pinhead and all of his gang basically adhere to. Like it's their god.

WheelieAverage: Yes. Yeah. And and so you go in there and you know, suitable to the name, it literally is a labyrinth, and you're like puzzling your way through different different bits and and things like that, using the Genesis configuration to basically move elements of the world around or light up different things to activate different paths. So all of that is actually

FightinCowboy: Wait, wait, when you when you s genus are you talking about the the lament cube? Okay.

Sarthe: The cube thing? The

WheelieAverage: The cube. The cube. Yeah. In this game they call it a a Genesis configuration, it's called.

Sarthe: cube! I can use this cube. And you can like grab things with it. You get like superpowers with it.

FightinCowboy: Hmm. Yeah, 'cause it's always it's yeah, I've

WheelieAverage: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: never heard it called Genesis configuration. So it was just it was throwing me off.

WheelieAverage: Yes. so you're using that to basically manipulate the environment in in sort of platforming and puzzling, which is quite cool. It's quite, you know, it's on brand for Hellraiser and it does some interesting gameplay stuff. But then this is where it gets really interesting. Again, this is all within like the first 15 minutes or so, okay, so I'm not this isn't massive spoilers. But you end up getting cat. By this gang of people who basically worship Pinhead and his goons and and all that kind of stuff, okay? and then you're strapped to a chair and tortured, and your

FightinCowboy: Yeah.

WheelieAverage: arm is sewn to your body, and you've you've got a nail put through your hand, and you're

FightinCowboy: Yeah, I just

WheelieAverage: f full full nudity down below. Like, this game is going deep. Yeah.

FightinCowboy: Yeah. Your dick's getting torn in half. Like this is just Hellraiser to me. I'm like, Yep, yep, okay. Okay, yes. Checking all the

WheelieAverage: So

FightinCowboy: boxes.

WheelieAverage: so and

Sarthe: Yeah, I didn't see any of that in the preview I did.

WheelieAverage: yeah, no, it's it's yeah, is it's crazy and if you're if you're a squeamish person, do not play this game because it will make you sick. I quite like horror, so it made me feel sick, but not in a way that I'm not used to. Does that make sense? It's like, that's disgusting.

Sarthe: I like tension a lot. I love horror, but but not body horror specifically. I love like tension and suspense.

WheelieAverage: Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense. But and then in terms of gameplay, because many people will be wondering what's the gameplay like here. So you've got the puzzling elements using the Genesis configuration, you've got the combat elements, which are basically like first person Resident Evil kind of. Like you're using a gun, you've got limited ammo, the inventory system is the grid-based system out of Resident Evil, you're picking up different resources to craft healing items and and other things. So you've got Resident Evil inside the kind of when you're not in the labyrinth. And then when you're in the labyrinth, it feels very similar to Silent Hill in many ways. It's got a lot of Silent Hill vibes. There's there's repeating corridors and if you miss something you need to pick up it will literally do the PC thing. Of you will just repeat the same bit that you've just walked through.

FightinCowboy: Mm.

WheelieAverage: so it's doing that kind of stuff as well. So they they take some really good inspirations here. And I want to

Sarthe: Mm-hmm.

WheelieAverage: be clear, nothing they do is done badly, in my opinion. It's all like decent to good on a mechanical level, okay? The problem it is single player, yes. The the the

Sarthe: Mm-hmm.

FightinCowboy: This is is this single player? Okay. Yeah, 'cause I think some people I I know, even myself, I thought it was gonna be another one of our isometrics like

WheelieAverage: Yeah, no, this is a fully single player story driven game. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

FightinCowboy: It's a single player horror game. Okay. Might get it for the wife then. She'd probably enjoy it.

WheelieAverage: and the my so my only issue,

Sarthe: Who wants to see some dick split in half, so

FightinCowboy: Sure. It is easy, dick gets slit. Yeah.

WheelieAverage: and I think the issue that a lot of people will have with this game, and I'm not actually sure what the price point is because I got a code for review, obviously, but it's that thing of all the mechanics that are in here. Are either identical or very similar to mechanics you've seen in the other horror franchises that you love. Okay.

FightinCowboy: Forty bucks. Forty bucks or fifty for deluxe.

WheelieAverage: Okay, so that's actually not bad pricing. That's interesting. That might change my opinion slightly. but everything mechanically is something you've seen before, and obviously the the franchises that they're taking inspiration from for each of these mechanics. Do those specific mechanics better. Does that make sense? So it's it's one of these

Sarthe: Yeah.

WheelieAverage: situations where it's like you're gonna play this game and feel like you've played it before, but if you like these kinds of games, you're going to enjoy it. But what I would the people I would mainly recommend this to is if you are a Hellraiser fan, I have never seen any movie IP tie-in game. That has captured an IP quite as well as this one. And the developers here, Sabre Interactive, clearly knew that

Sarthe: No you double a seven.

WheelieAverage: 007's great, but that they clearly knew what this game needed to be, and they didn't shy away from it. And I'm I'm actually it's to the point where I'm shocked that this game isn't banned in certain territories in the world. Like that's how.

Sarthe: And probably will be. The way you're describing

WheelieAverage: It probably will be, yeah.

Sarthe: it, like I'm pretty sure that will happen in specific

WheelieAverage: Yeah.

Sarthe: territories that ban these types of things, right?

WheelieAverage: For sure. I would imagine Australia would be the one. Because they usually ban quite things quite easily. But yeah, I

Sarthe: China's not big on nudity and stuff too. Like, yeah.

WheelieAverage: Yeah. Yeah.

FightinCowboy: I was thinking China's always

WheelieAverage: So

FightinCowboy: funny when they censor shit, the the blood all turns white, so instead it just looks like

Sarthe: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: just looks like your character's being covered in ejaculate. Okay, it's a certainly a design choice.

WheelieAverage: But but yeah, basic basically the simple point of it is if you're a Hellraiser fan, because of the way it captures the IP, I would say for you, if you're a Hellraiser fan who likes survival horror games, then this is a must-play game. But if you're not a Hellraiser fan and you just like survival horror games, it's a bit more like you've kind of played this game before. To to a certain extent, you know? So

Sarthe: But what if you want more survival horror?

WheelieAverage: Well this is where this is why I asked about the price point, because if you want

Sarthe: Yeah.

WheelieAverage: more survival horror, actually for that price point of forty dollars, I do think this game is worth it. If this is your genre and you're looking for something spooky to play right now, you know, we're in October. It's

Sarthe: Mm-hmm.

WheelieAverage: you're n I have never played a horror game quite like this, you know? But that's to do with how far it goes with certain things. It's not to do with the mechanics.

Sarthe: See, but at the same time, you're like, but I've I've played every other horror game and this has everything. So it like has the elements, but it also has like a uniqueness, which I I I think is cool. It's it's not for me personally, because body horror, not my thing. I'm kind of a pussy. And so, but like I think that's cool that they lean in really hard into what Hellraiser is. It they're true to it

WheelieAverage: Yeah. Yeah.

Sarthe: and they know like they they know like this isn't like a universally popular thing that's gonna happen. They go far. And they that's you know, that's fair.

WheelieAverage: Yeah. They're they're making this game for the fans of the IP. And I think that's the right thing to do. And also, if you look into the development of the game a little bit, they actually based this on the on the book, on the Hellraiser book. They didn't base it on any of the movies specifically. And I believe it's it's set around 20 to 30 years after the events of the first movie, I believe. Something like that. I'd have to check. That. I don't know it off the top of my head exactly, but but they actually based more of what they do here on the literature rather than the things that have already been put to the screen, you know? So it it does give them some leeway to do their own sort of interesting things with it as well. So yeah, I it's it's a really hard one because you know, I don't want to sit here and say, Yeah, go and play this game where you're gonna see like people cut in half and God knows what else. But if you're a survival horror person Yeah,

FightinCowboy: I mean it's just not just not for not for everyone. Yeah, it's fine.

WheelieAverage: yeah, absolutely, absolutely. So there's that. But now Yeah.

Sarthe: You know what game I think everyone should play? and I think this game is gonna take over the whole wide world. If you like action at all, and by the time this comes out, Phantom Blade Zero. my god. The game that I think every time a trailer came out, especially when it was first announced, like no one believed this was a real game. Everyone was like, that looks way too smooth. Like, there's no way that's actual combat, that's just a cutscene. That's just like cinematics for this trailer promotion. And every time I play the game, I'm blown away by how they're making it better and better. And it literally is that. Like you the combat that is so fluid, so fast, so cinematic is you playing. It's it's completely going off of your inputs and it blows you away. I had six hours.

FightinCowboy: I mean it's it's been my most anticipated

WheelieAverage: Cowboys having like an orgasm over there.

FightinCowboy: so I'm just I'm just though I mean this is like I've like so so I they had invited me to go out to China back in I think it was June to play it and it was just

Sarthe: Yeah, we would have been there together.

FightinCowboy: well it was just such a short trip. I was like, dude, I can't I I want to, but like I really I can't make this this turnaround. I can't go. for a turnaround this short. I just I can't physically can't afford the time away right now.

Sarthe: My China I went to the earlier China trip that was like a week and a half or a week long, yeah.

FightinCowboy: See, it's it's hard because you you know, I've kids now and it's harder to be like, sorry babies, daddy is fucking off to Daddy's fucking off

Sarthe: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: to go to China and play video games. So

Sarthe: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: you know, it's it's just it it's different. It's different. and but I you that they sent me footage and everything and I was like, This looks fucking good, and everyone that played it's like, this looks fucking good and more people are playing, like this looks really fucking good, and I'm like, dude, just Fucking injected into my veins already.

WheelieAverage: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: Because it sounds like it ticks every box I look for in a game.

WheelieAverage: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: I mean, it's got it's got an a Asian aesthetic going on here. It's got tight as fuck combat. I've heard that the combat has like that dance that Sekiro has that makes it so enjoyable.

Sarthe: Mm-hmm.

FightinCowboy: you know, tons of weapon variety. I'm just like, dude, this sounds like it's gonna be a the just absolute banger for me. So and I my

WheelieAverage: Yeah, I've

FightinCowboy: my only I I usually try not to get excited for games because I don't like setting myself up for disappointment. And I've already gone too far. I'm already like, this has

Sarthe: Yep.

FightinCowboy: to be, it has to be, it has to be the goat. Because if it's not, I'm just gonna be really sad. Like it has to, it has to blow me away when I finally do play it now.

WheelieAverage: Yeah, yeah. I I will say, and I don't want to add to those expectations even more, but everyone I know who's played it and and had considerable time with the game, and I know someone who's actually got to play it three different times, and I've never heard a bad thing about this game.

Sarthe: I've played it five different times.

WheelieAverage: That's crazy. That's crazy. So so having played it.

Sarthe: I might have the most game time on this game out of anyone outside of the company, unironically, since I was go on, sorry.

WheelieAverage: T tell us more Tell us more then about how it actually plays because I think there are some misconceptions about this game. People are still a little bit confused about is it a Souls like, is it not a Souls like? All those kinds of things. So tell us a bit

Sarthe: Yeah. So

WheelieAverage: more about it.

Sarthe: I think they're really adamant on letting everyone know Phantom Blade Zero is not a souls like game. It can have all of those challenges, and there are bosses that are really hard, but you can get stronger. You can upgrade your weapons, you can change your weapons. There's a lot of things that I think Cowboys are gonna appreciate this, but a lot of reviewers will be frustrated almost. There's a lot of fights where you're like, Well, if you just use a weapon design for this fight, it's so easy. And there's literally zero, zero downside to completely respecing a weapon. Yeah, yeah, 100%.

FightinCowboy: I've I've heard you can yeah, free free respects, right? Yeah.

Sarthe: So, like you can upgrade your favorite weapons, you'll find items out in the world that'll be specific, like this will upgrade this type of weapon and whatnot. But there's z zero downside to just respecing it at any time and fully respecing into another one. So if you're struggling with a fight. You can go and do that at the same time, it's not a souls like they're gonna have like a mod for this or something. I was talking to the CEO about it. and and not they're gonna have, but people will have mods probably. But if a fight has like different phases, it's not a souls like, so you you'll go back in if you lost to the second phase. And again, I think the souls like community will just make a mod where you'll start it all over, but for

FightinCowboy: I don't know. I think I think people I I like that personally. If it's a super

Sarthe: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: hard fight and I get through phase one and I die and I have some kind of mechanic that allows me to resurrect, like, all right. There's unless the boss also has resurrection

WheelieAverage: To me that's good design.

FightinCowboy: mechanics, like keep keep that fucker dead.

Sarthe: Yeah. So like there's there's there's those things that I I think that a lot of people will really appreciate. And it's also not this like ridiculously open world game. They do a lot of really, really, really good level design because they have a ton of architects working on there. So so there's a lot of times where like You'll kind of almost loop around to a new area, or you'll get like an ability that will bring you to a new area that'll unlock it and you can go back and do that. But it but you can kind of see it in the distance. But also you can kind of go straight forward. The game itself and the story for the first time, this most recent preview. We've actually played the story. So I played six hours starting from the beginning. And then once I got through a lot of stuff, I like moved forward to some like late game, not late mid-game bosses. Where I had like a ton of options of weapons. And so, like, you'll be kind of like going from A to B, not necessarily like straightforward, but you have like ways to go around things, but they they really make every moment feel visceral, feel really cinematic, feel badass, and also like you don't feel bored ever. Like every moment and second of this game feels like really fun and good. And then My my favorite thing, I always loop this back, is is the combat because that's what people see. And and there's I think now a total of 52 weapons. I'm not 100% sure, but there's like 30 main weapons, and then you have a secondary weapon that you can use when you get charges. So this will be something like a bow or a giant like mace that comes out and slams the ground, does a bunch of aoe. All of those combine really well, but the main weapons. You have two equipped at a time. And so your stamina bar actually will go down as you're using attacks, obviously, and blocking and stuff. But if you switch in the middle of a combo, which you can do, you can actually get a new stamina bar, and then the other one will start recharging and like behind the scenes.

WheelieAverage: Well.

Sarthe: So you can extend your combos really well when you get used to that. And there's this thing in Wu Xia and and Kung Fu where a core aspect of The martial arts is attacking and defending at the same time with this like flow. So you'll actually notice if you're watching any of the trailers or any content about it, you'll hear like little like ding ding ding ding while people are attacking. And that's them literally input parrying at the right time while attacking. And I love that aspect. It feels really good. Every single, every single weapon that they added took about a month of full. Dedicated motion capture in their fully dedicated mocap studio because they have a unique move set for all of them, unique specials for all of them. They all feel super different and do different things. And they motion captured every single move in this game, with not only the main character having a to a specific motion capture artist, but they also had If there's ever a female character that uses it, that ought to be motion captured. If a boss uses it, that ought to be motion captured. So it's it's not a soul's like. I know I went on a massive tangent there, but it is a just like it, it keeps blowing my mind how much love and care is put into every aspect of this game. And it feels incredible, like actually incredible to play. It is so addicting. I think people are gonna love it. And and you can go like if you don't want it to be hard, you can just change the difficulty. There's difficulty sliders and you can go on like in a much easier difficulty or the hardest difficulty, where the bosses actually have a completely different move set and they learn from you. So if you're fighting them a bunch of times and you react a certain way during the fight, they'll notice that and start learning from that and combating it. But it but you don't need that challenge. That's just if you want it. It's not necessary at all.

WheelieAverage: Yeah. It's it's nice to have those choices though, right? Like I know Cowboy

Sarthe: Mm-hmm.

WheelieAverage: is big on player choice. I'm also big on player choice. Being able to have an easier experience if you want it, or a harder experience if you want it, that's cool. But every single thing you just said about this game makes me want to play it right now. Do you know what I mean? And and that is a really positive sign. And we're getting so close to the to the release of this thing now, you know? Like

Sarthe: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: we still got we got we got a month. We got we got a hot minute still.

WheelieAverage: I I mean I mean technically we got three weeks, which is less than a month.

FightinCowboy: it's that's it's close. That's that's a month and it's it's I got Yeah.

Sarthe: That's a month in my time in dog years.

FightinCowboy: And in in and parent years that's a month until until it's like until

Sarthe: Yeah.

WheelieAverage: That's fair. That's fair.

FightinCowboy: it's time until it's release.

WheelieAverage: Yeah, for sure,

Sarthe: Yeah.

WheelieAverage: for sure. And you know, hopeful

Sarthe: And you were mentioning music earlier, Wheelie. You were saying, like, someone in the comments asked that what do we think is gonna be like the the best mute soundtrack of the year? And I brought this

WheelieAverage: Yes.

Sarthe: up. I I think genuinely for me so far, I don't think there's been like something that was crazy standout until playing Phantom Blade, where you have these traditional Chinese aspects during certain fights, even The they've shown off in one of the trailers the the dedicated state of play. There was this dancing lion fight. And they had the the most, the best traditional family for dancing lions in all of China doing this. They have been doing it for like 10 generations. And they also

FightinCowboy: They brought them in to do the music. Jesus Christ.

Sarthe: have a dedicated team of like drummers that do it for all of their performances. So they brought them to the motion capture studio. And to the music studio to get all of that together. And then halfway through the fight, because this is it starts with like Kung Fu, then it goes to Kung Fu Punk. The the fight in phase two turns into like this crazy metal fusion of it. And so it's just it's so awesome. And when you're

WheelieAverage: Mm-hmm.

Sarthe: playing, you get so hyped as that transition happens, and that happens a lot. You have this like really, really incredibly curated music for every encounter. and I think people are gonna really enjoy that. I do. I definitely do.

WheelieAverage: Yeah, I mean I mean I've heard I I had heard about that from my friend Keith, who you got to meet recently, Sarthe. and he is so hyped on this game as well, to the point where I'm pretty sure that all three of us and him are gonna be playing it. So I might I might get him on the show. He's editor in chief of the Outer Haven. He might come on the show to do like a special review episode with us because he's been waiting for this game for years and He's played it like three or four times already. And like I say, everything he said to me basically echoes every single thing that you just said. And I think I haven't played it, but I think everybody should clearly be excited about this game

Sarthe: Yeah.

WheelieAverage: based on what you just said, you know? So so that is amazing. I'm sure you're gonna have more content for for what you've played as well, right? So people can check you out.

Sarthe: Yes, so check out the the Sarthe channels everywhere if you want to see more and see footage and all of that of what we've played. There's just there's just so many also epic weapons. Like a a a f when we got moved to a late mid-game boss, there's this sword that like dual swords that one is lightning and one is wind, and you like build up the like kind of like a gauge to then like use an ultimate that like infuses them. But also I had like a secondary weapon that spewed water, which I would use when the boss would use fire and it would like kind of like burn them out. And then I would go in with the lightning doing extra damage. And and that wasn't even like I talked to to S, Soul Frame of S Game and the CEO and founder. And he he literally was like my favorite weapon isn't even like shown here because it's later and like you we had like probably like 15 different things to try out and I was like this is so cool. This is just so cool.

WheelieAverage: Nice. So I'm gonna ask you obviously go on. Go on, cowboy.

FightinCowboy: I I just I I just really, really like that there's gonna be free respec because I I feel like that's

Sarthe: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: such a good thing. Like they they made that change with Neo3, like hey, just change your build if you want. And I feel like it's so nice. It

WheelieAverage: Yeah. It allows you to experiment, right?

FightinCowboy: does. It does. And there's there's so much people are like, you should accept your choices and move on. Like, dude, come on. Like we we make enough we make enough hard fucking choices in life already. Like, let me just experiment with my If I'm playing a game where build diversity is a core tenant of that game, let me fucking experiment. I'm not I'm not asking for much.

WheelieAverage: Yes. Especially with a brain like Cowboys, he needs to. He's 'cause he's always making his little notes in his notebook and he's like

Sarthe: For Mortal Shell, when we had those like dev the dev builds, so we could just respec after beating it and just like

FightinCowboy: Dude, I had so much fun.

Sarthe: try everything. I was like, this is just it's the best. It's like the best.

WheelieAverage: So I do wanna ask you a question though, because obviously everything you've said has been very, very positive. Is there anything in what you played that ha that concerns you in any way? Are there any concerns that you have about the game?

Sarthe: I think my biggest concern is in all honesty, like my actual biggest concern right now is probably, and this is like a small thing, but it's something that bothered me in like Wukong too. is that there's sometimes invisible walls or some areas that look like what if I jumped there? Could I land on that ledge and there's there's something in there? and then I you would fall through it. That But understanding how large the game is and everything put into it, I think it's like such a small thing. But that was like the one which is crazy. That was like my one criticism I've had so far of the game, and I've played many times.

FightinCowboy: Is there is there a because like so they they actually fixed that with like at launch, that was one of my complaints with Wukong as well. Cause there were areas where you would be like, I wonder if I can go there. And then you would like fall down and it's like, I can go here. There's a there's a cave under here. And then there would be other areas that looked similar, but it would just smack you with the invisible wall. And then

Sarthe: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: later, you know, post launch, they actually like started designating those bounds on the map for you. Which I think

Sarthe: Mm-hmm.

FightinCowboy: was an improvement, but you know, so is there do we have a map or is it gonna be closer to Wukong where you're just gonna wander and then be like, Oopsie can't do this?

Sarthe: We do have a map, and it's actually an extremely traditional Chinese style map. it's like this hand-drawn, beautiful map. And as you find your like fast travel points or save points, which are these bells you you'll end up dinging, those will unlock those those sections of the map around you. So it'll clear like the fog of wars, so to speak. So there is a map,

FightinCowboy: Got it, got it, got

Sarthe: but it it's It's it won't give you like a one-to-one exact of like what the routes are. You kind of learn to interpret it because it like is an extremely aesthetic, perfectly fit in the game. but it's not like your traditional map that'll be like click this and then it'll go to like the upper area and the down area, and like this is the but you'll see the roads, you'll see all of everything really well. And it and once you like understand it and like take a second to look, really, you'll be like, I fully get this. But that I don't think yet designates like those areas incredibly well. but again, like I feel like that's such a a minute detail, but I think it's something that like people will hearken on. it will be like there once you've beaten the game, once you've completely beaten the game, you unlock the 66 days mode. And the main character as part of the story only has 66 days to live. And So at the end, the harder once you've beaten it, there's a new game plus mode that you have all of your stuff unlocked that you had before, but you only have 66 lives total. You can be on the last boss and lose your 66th life, and boom, you have to restart. and so it is it

WheelieAverage: That's actually super cool. I really like the idea of that.

Sarthe: yeah, me too. And it's awesome. And I actually appreciate that you can't do that right away because you would get frustrated trying to jump. To an area or something, and then like you would fall down and be I'm not done. But you don't like drop your souls or anything. It's not like you lose anything for deaths. so I think you'll you'll know that better by the time you get to that. And I know that there's gonna be some bosses because every preview before this was only side content. You didn't have to do it. So there's gonna be some bosses, if not a boss, that is extremely challenging. that. no one we haven't seen at all but like have kind of like been hinted at so that's gonna be really interesting for like the 66 days mode so i'm I'm excited about that.

WheelieAverage: Interesting, interesting. Well now I want to go on to kind of community comments and obviously you mentioned the main one we had from this week which was about what we think might win like the best soundtrack or best music of this year, right? You obviously mentioned PBZ like possibly possibly we'll have to see when it comes out. This person who gave this comment, Daniel, thank you for your comment, says that They think possibly Ace Combat, because you know, Ace Combat is known for for having good music. And

Sarthe: It does.

WheelieAverage: maybe, maybe, you know, maybe it will maybe it will be in there. I can't say what mine currently is, because it's a game I'm playing I can't talk about yet, but there is a game I'm playing that I think the soundtrack is brilliant, and that could also be For the awards. Cowboy, what about you? Anything you've played that stands out in

Sarthe: Mm, yeah, really insightful there.

WheelieAverage: music terms?

FightinCowboy: So I was actually I was looking through my playlist of of games this year to try and figure like what was there anything that like really, really stood out to me, music wise and

Sarthe: But it's not their own music.

FightinCowboy: I mean, well I I ironically enough, I actually really enjoyed the music in in Beast of Reincarnation until I realized there was like four tracks in the entire game on loop.

WheelieAverage: It was just looping. Yeah.

Sarthe: Yeah, until you re I did too, and then it was like, Wait, wait, I know this one.

FightinCowboy: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that kinda was like, that's a little unfortunate there. Yeah.

Sarthe: I thought Doom had a sick soundtrack. I know they had like some drama around and some people didn't love it as much. I I really enjoyed it, but I didn't play the last Doom. I because I'm newer to games.

FightinCowboy: I well, you know what? It didn't come out this year, but I played I played Dispatch this year. And

WheelieAverage: my god, yes.

FightinCowboy: Dispatch,

Sarthe: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: there there were some songs in Dispatch that like I put them bitches like they they got added into my playlist. Like they're good, good songs.

WheelieAverage: Yeah, yeah, so did I. For sure. and speaking of l uses of licensed music like that, I actually think Control Resonant has some interesting uses of music and and things like that, so it could it i like

FightinCowboy: Yeah, there there were a couple couple moments in control, I agree. Yeah.

WheelieAverage: like I don't think it's necessarily gonna win best soundtrack or anything like that. But I can see it being brought up in those conversations because of the way that it uses music and and, you know, does some interesting things with it. So

FightinCowboy: Yeah. I I think the thing is so so far there's been like this year at least, there's been no Expedition Thirty Three. You know, there's been nothing like holy shit this soundtrack is Yeah. I mean Witcher Witcher three Witcher Three Remaster for counting remasters, the Witcher Three has a pretty fucking banger soundtrack.

Sarthe: That one will stick with me forever.

WheelieAverage: Yeah. There's there's been none where we go

Sarthe: Galactic Racer, Star Wars Galactic Racer has these moments with in the soundtrack where you're just like, my god, let's go. So that actually I I that one kind of like blew me away, but it's very Star Wars y soundtracks, but like they're like epic, epic moments. I wish there was like more variety to it, but but when those moments happen, you've like you really, really feel it as well.

WheelieAverage: So there is a game as well that I want to give a nod to just because it's it's a more indie game that I've played recently but has really good music and it's fully story driven, so it's not really your guys' thing. It's called Forever Ago, okay? And it's it's not a walking sim, but you're basically playing as this old guy that's on a road trip and you're you're going through the memories of his life, okay? And you're taking photographs and you're finding different items and then you're living out some of his memories, and it's a really good story about grief and love and losing someone that you love and all these kind of things, right? But the music for that kind of game has to be really powerful, and there were a few tracks in that where even I caught myself tearing up, and I was like, okay, the music's quite like. They've used it really well here. It conveys the emotion it's supposed to convey at the time it's supposed to convey it. And, you know, with those indie games, they can often get a nod in things like art and music, because that's

Sarthe: Yeah.

WheelieAverage: what people notice more from them. So I could have I could potentially see that one getting, again, at least a nomination, if enough people have played it to actually nominate it, you know, because we know how these situations work. If go on.

Sarthe: I've I have one that like really I I forgot that like the the sound design more than like the music, which is like an interesting thing in this conversation, but like because it's not this crazy different music than something you've heard, kind of how I mentioned with Star Wars Galactic Racer, like there's these like tones and these motifs that you're used to and they bring them to life in these epic ways. Double O seven First Light is just like the after the intro, even the prologue. At the end of it, I when you first hear the the James Bond theme, it just it still gives me goosebumps and it was so epic. Their sound design and how they used the theme songs during different aspects played phenomenally through this game. So that's one I think that they like, I just think they knocked that game out of the park.

WheelieAverage: Yeah. And and to be fair, what I think is really clever about the music in that game specifically is they're using the iconic Bond theme, but they have their own music as well, which fits

Sarthe: Yeah.

WheelieAverage: seamlessly within that and and feels like it's just part of Bond, you know? From their

Sarthe: Yep. Yeah.

WheelieAverage: from their title sequence theme with Lana Del Rey, which was really cool that they actually got

Sarthe: Yep.

WheelieAverage: to do their own like James Bond theme in that way. yeah, so I agree with you. I think that's another one that people maybe don't think of off the top of their head, but when people start thinking back to things. Yeah.

Sarthe: But then you think and you're like, wait a second, that was great music. The whole time like it

WheelieAverage: Yeah.

Sarthe: it played so well into what was happening with the game. Like

WheelieAverage: Yeah.

Sarthe: it was just so well curated and like it made you feel like James Bond. And the James Bond theme, like the the like stabs of the horns, they're like would come in at the most like crazy epic times. And you're like, Whoa. Yeah.

WheelieAverage: Yeah. Yeah. And and they'd also even have the the Bond theme sometimes would just subtly play while

Sarthe: Yeah, yeah.

WheelieAverage: you were doing like stealth and stuff, you know? And it wouldn't even be super loud, it would just be really low in the mix and

Sarthe: And you just yeah, they that's why I'm like sound design specifically in that game,

WheelieAverage: Yeah.

Sarthe: like phenomenal. This yeah.

WheelieAverage: Yeah. It it almost felt like a movie in the way it was sound designed. yeah.

FightinCowboy: The the sound design and gears has actually been pretty good.

Sarthe: yeah. If only I didn't have this omnidirectional headphones on and I could actually hear

WheelieAverage: Yes. Yeah, for sure. For sure. But

FightinCowboy: You

Sarthe: what was coming from different directions. But yeah.

WheelieAverage: But there is there's a lot, you know, there's a lot of games to talk about and things like that. I do agree with what both of you have said though, where I think the one issue this year with music but also with some of the other categories as well that are going to be awarded at the end of the year, is we've had so many banger releases in terms of overall banger quality games, but it makes it harder for them to stand out as well. You know? So

Sarthe: Yeah.

WheelieAverage: it's I I do think it's gonna be really interesting. Like I can I've mentioned it before, but by the by the time we come to let's say early December and we're doing our game of the year before we take a little break for a couple of weeks over Christmas w with the with the podcast, we're we're probably all gonna have a different game of the year unless we all end up having PBZ by the end. Who knows? You know? But it's like It's so so I think it's gonna be really interesting to see that conversation this year with how many major releases we've had and how many different things they're doing, because there are games like Double O seven that came out earlier in the year that I think people are forgetting right now just how good those games were because we're in such a busy period, you know? So

Sarthe: Yeah. Well if if music doesn't just encompass like original score, if it's like music curate curation, then mixtape is gonna blow it out of the park too. Cause that was just

WheelieAverage: of course.

FightinCowboy: See, I I I fucking hate that though. I feel like if your soundtrack

Sarthe: but but I don't

FightinCowboy: is primarily composed of licensed music, I don't feel like you should be in the consideration person.

Sarthe: That's why I didn't like think about it before too, yeah.

WheelieAverage: Yeah. A and and I also think I think it's not just that, but for me, it's also it's a bit of an unfair comparison because mixtape, music is core to that entire experience.

Sarthe: That's their whole thing. That's the whole yeah.

WheelieAverage: So therefore it should be doing that better than anything else, you know?

FightinCowboy: Like if if we're gonna by that same logic, I would be like, best

Sarthe: Yeah, it's the whole game.

FightinCowboy: best soundtrack of the year, fucking the new rock band game coming out. Yeah.

WheelieAverage: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: Like like, did you what what is it what is it called? Stage Stage Store? Yeah, stage tour should get

WheelieAverage: Stage tour, I think.

Sarthe: Stage story.

FightinCowboy: best music of the year 'cause it is all the shit I fucking love to listen to, you know? Like

Sarthe: Yeah, no, yeah, yeah,

WheelieAverage: Like yeah. A and don't get

Sarthe: completely.

WheelieAverage: me wrong, I can I can understand nominating something that uses licensed music alongside original music. Something like a Yeah. Yeah.

FightinCowboy: Yeah, like 'cause there I can get there's moments, you know, like you think fucking Armageddon and Aerosmith and Armageddon. It's iconic. Like it matches the scene perfect, you know, but you know, that that's

WheelieAverage: Absolutely.

FightinCowboy: not like I'm not gonna give it best score all of a sudden.

Sarthe: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

WheelieAverage: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely agreed with you there. I just it's it's it's so interesting, and I am gonna be interested to see who wins the awards this year, because like I said, it's it's been such a crazy year. Like and things are weirdly starting to slowly calm down a tiny bit now, and then we and then we only for about two weeks. yeah

Sarthe: Yay, yeah. Phantom Blade Zelda World of Warcraft GTA. Good luck, everybody.

WheelieAverage: We we've got about a two-week break right now. and then we you know, it gets a bit crazy again. But I want to end with a couple more

FightinCowboy: We do not have a two week break. What are you what are you talking about?

Sarthe: Yeah, no, we're screwed. Dark Horizon just came out.

WheelieAverage: I mean, yeah, but Cowboy's finished his you finished your content for that, right, Cowboy?

Sarthe: Star Wars Galactic Racer

FightinCowboy: Yeah, but for everybody else, so yeah, Darker Risen just released.

Sarthe: just came out. What

FightinCowboy: Castlevania Belmont's Curse. Castleva Castlevania.

WheelieAverage: Yeah, but I'm talking from our perspective. I'm not talking about

Sarthe: Castlevania. my God.

FightinCowboy: I I have I'm not no. Fuck no. Complete hundred percent disagree. I have Castlevania on deck. I haven't had a chance to play fucking Galactic Racer yet. I haven't had a chance to play Ace Combat yet. I have to get through Vol Valor Mortis still. I wanted to take a look

WheelieAverage: True, true.

FightinCowboy: at Final Fantasy Residence. Probably not gonna be able to, just I'm not gonna have time. And then I got PBZ on deck. And Wolf of Us Remastered is coming out. There's there's no fucking break. December. December I get a break.

WheelieAverage: Yeah. Yeah.

Sarthe: And and then we have WoW Zelda GTA.

FightinCowboy: Yeah.

WheelieAverage: Yeah, no no I know, I know, but to me, like, maybe it's just me then, right? But I've I

Sarthe: Yeah, maybe it is.

WheelieAverage: I I've put I've put out three

FightinCowboy: Maybe it's just you. Yeah. I don't think it's getting slow at all.

WheelieAverage: I've put out three reviews this week, okay? So I put out three reviews this week. I've got another one that's due next week. Then I should have a game coming in next week, but that's not gonna be due till the end of the month. And then Because I'm not I think what it is is because I'm not doing Castlevania, I kind of have between the start of next week and until PBZ comes, I basically have nothing. So

FightinCowboy: No, I mean I I don't have anything I'm I'm worried about recording until PBZ, but I

WheelieAverage: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: have I have so much shit that I'm trying to stream right now. It's it's insane. and Shrouded And Shrouded's getting full launch. I'm like I don't

WheelieAverage: That's true, that's true. Yeah, for sure, for sure.

Sarthe: my god. I didn't realize how close Castlevania was.

WheelieAverage: I forgot that was happening.

FightinCowboy: Shrouded one point zero and Belmont's one point are

WheelieAverage: Castlevania's super close. Yeah.

Sarthe: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: those are both next week.

WheelieAverage: Yeah. Crazy, crazy times. But I wanna I wanna there is one more comment which I think is it is brilliant to end this show on, okay? Cause it was just it highlights how funny things can be here sometimes. So I'm just finding it. It is it was from Tiger Claws and he basically said cowboy mispronouncing words is a feature, not a bug.

FightinCowboy: Yeah, basically.

Sarthe: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: He's he's right. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna contest that.

WheelieAverage: So and then and then, you know, we got a couple of other people like finding it funny, the the way that it was like outliers and like yeah.

Sarthe: Yeah. But then right right after when I when I said that, I was like, but I all I like purposefully mispronounce some words because it's just fun to me, not even to to other people, like just to myself.

WheelieAverage: Absolutely. Absolutely.

Sarthe: I think that's how it should should be said.

WheelieAverage: Yes. Yes. and then yeah, we we you know, this I said this would be quite a fun episode because someone on here said that they love how every week we often we often end with like we should have some fun stuff to talk about next week. And then he was like, I'd listen to you guys break down the nutrients in raw veggies. So

Sarthe: That's our conversations off off the podcast.

WheelieAverage: You know, so it's like, yeah. It's it's

Sarthe: Yeah.

WheelieAverage: very funny because we've got we somehow have built a dedicated audience here, so you know, we appreciate all your comments and we're starting to get so many comments now that I might have to start putting out a specific like question thread for the episodes just because it's hard to now look through the number of comments we get and actually find the things. So I'm probably gonna start putting out A question thread every week, so look out for that on YouTube or on our social platforms. but I will say, and this is true, I can't tell you what it is yet, but I'll have a rather big release that I can talk about next week that is coming in 2027.

FightinCowboy: Mm-hmm.

WheelieAverage: So you can look forward to that and

Sarthe: He's playing Fable already, Final Fantasy, the third chapter.

WheelieAverage: Put put your put your predictions in the comments of what you think I'll be talking about next week. It'll be interesting to see what you guys come up with. And f

Sarthe: Kingdom Hearts for

WheelieAverage: for now, I think that'll be it. We

Sarthe: four now.

WheelieAverage: will we will see you next time. And thank you for joining us as ever. But for now, goodbye.

Sarthe: Peace.