PAX West, Caput Mortum, The Rest of 2025's Games | Noclip Crewcast

Thank you.

Hello friends and welcome to episode 243 of the Noclip podcast.

It's a crewcast, but the J's are down.

You're down a J, Jeremy Jane.

Yeah, I rolled a J to replace Jesse, to smoke one down in his honor and to replace him as an honorary J.

That's really good.

I like that.

It's very appropriate.

Jesse's at the dentist.

Yeah.

He had a dental appointment, which is either the world's laziest excuse or the world's most appropriate excuse.

I, for one, hope he's not getting like a root canal.

I hope it's like a just a checkup.

You know what I mean?

I was pulling public domain pictures of teeth for a game development project that I was working on.

And I was digging through all of these pictures of teeth.

And when you search like teeth and gums in the public domain, a lot of it is like medical images.

Awesome.

And I swear to God, making a horror game is the best decision I've ever made for my health, because every time i look up an image of a body part, i i'm like i should, i gotta go brush my teeth.

Um, or i was looking up images of lungs and i was like man, i should go like for a walk.

I gotta go like work on my lungs.

Man, oh man, those cigarette packets would work in those european cigarette packets.

Right that's, that's some good stuff.

Um frank, what's your favorite thing to do at the dentist?

Uh, I always like.

At the end you always ask for the free bag of like toothbrushes and floss and all that stuff.

So they, they usually don't always give it out.

They've like been really skimping out on them or they only give it for kids.

So I always, yeah, I always ask like, Hey, wait, can I get the free bag of stuff?

Like, okay.

And, You know, so I have like six toothbrushes piled up, but there are still nothing.

You never know.

When I was a kid, we used to get like a balsa.

When I was a boy, like we used to get balsa wood airplanes.

You know what I'm talking about?

Really?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It was like a folded up thing, sort of the dimensions of like a comb in like a plastic tube, and you would unfold it and it would separate and the wings and the body were two separate things and you'd slide them into each other like a cross shape.

Yeah.

And then they would fly like really well.

I mean they were styrofoam so they probably ended up like in the street everywhere, but it was awesome.

I mean, it's more fun than playing with a toothbrush.

Yeah, I said balsa wood and styrofoam.

They were made of styrofoam, but I am aware of the similar thing that's balsa wood.

They should switch over to that so it decays instead of just stays there for a thousand years.

I always felt like you could push the styrofoam ones through a little bit less gingerly.

You know, it could be a bit rougher with those ones because they weren't going to break.

It would bend a little bit.

But, like you said, that's why we're all got like forever plastics in our everything that we drink or breathe or anything now.

So hooray for that.

Thanks, dentists.

You fixed our teeth. and ruined the world.

I have a great PFAS story while we're talking about forever chemicals.

I was reading a terrifying article about this, and a woman who worked at, was it 3M?

I feel like it's 3M is the company.

3M, listen, if it's not you, I'm sorry, kind of.

I think it's 3M.

A woman who was working there.

She was a chemist and was sort of like one of the early canary in the coal mines about like This is maybe bad and it's ending up in everyone's blood.

So she was analyzing all these blood samples of people who worked at the plants and people who work nearby.

And every single one of them was turning up positive for having, like microplastics or forever chemicals or whatever, in their blood.

And and so her coworkers, you know, this was also I think it was like the 70s, too.

So there's like an element of misogyny.

And they're just like, this dumb woman is telling us to stop doing science.

She's being uppity. yeah yeah exactly uh so one of her superiors was like hey will you analyze this blood sample and see if with your little test there and she tested it and was like yeah this has pfas too and he's like well you're an idiot because that's blood from my horse and i live like miles away uh and they all laughed at her uh-oh but it turns out there there was pfas in the horse because it's in like every organic being on the planet now um but i i always think that that's like if you ever feel like uh i don't know if you ever like do good work and people are like you're an idiot just know that like i don't know that story gives me heart whenever i feel like i'm in the right end of the world it's like you're you're a fool for doing what you're doing i'm like well maybe i'm just maybe i'm just ahead of the curve like that pvass lady it also sounds like a great opening five minutes to like a horror movie like yes like they're all laughing at her and she's like sad and then like it zooms in on the thing and it's like the horse's eye and then it shuts the black and you're like oh no it's in everything or the end of a movie in fact it could also yeah the the boss who did that to her ends up having like a chest burst or 35 minutes into the movie just a big like um what a 3m make like a big you know whiteboard that sticks directly to the wall just bursts out of his chest.

Or maybe all the people who work at the factory just start sticking to walls.

They just can't seem to.

They're like, we're fastened amazingly.

It's incredible how much strength this is, but I can't get down.

You know.

I love it.

Something like that.

I'm full of dad jokes at the moment because we just spent the weekend at PAX and I was with my daughter for the whole thing.

Very different PAX experience.

Myself and Frank are going to be talking about our time at Penny Arcade Expo.

I'm going to talk about some of the games we played there.

Germany's got an indie game we played this week.

Uh jesse, as we said, he was going to talk about poe too, a little bit, i think more, but then he realized he had a an appointment so we had to head out.

Um, but yeah, let's talk about.

We're also going to talk about all the games coming out between now and the rest of the.

Well, maybe not all the games, but like the games we know about that are coming out between now and the end of the year, because we're kind of entering silly season.

It is september.

It is the month of our birthday as well, september 12th.

Never forget, It's Noclip's birthday.

We're excited to celebrate it next week.

It'll actually be on the next podcast.

It'll be our birthday.

So that'll be pretty cool.

But yeah, none of this, we're turning nine years old.

So we're entering our I guess we're entering our 10th year technically because, you know, zero is a year, I guess.

Math is hard.

But none of this would be possible without our incredible patrons over at patreon.com.

Slash new clip, including our beautiful battle pass holders.

Love Priest.

Yes.

Dwayne the Rock Lobster.

Anthony Thomas.

Nico Passateri.

It's a me, Ferrario.

Senator Armstrong.

Reed Dredge.

Harry Flanagan.

Joosh.

Arno.

Matt Pearson.

James Brown.

Mark Ross.

Copernicus.

Quote.

Tucker Morgan.

Goddison.

Sven Huster.

Pez.

John Akers.

You Innate.

Tim Robinson, Forrest Pruitt, Jonathan Kremen, Eric Hamilton Schneider, Christophe Vitui, Cameron Ladd.

Shout out to everyone who saw the hidden Cameron Ladd on the poster for our PAX panel.

There was one in there.

Zachary Snader, Alex Goucher, George Sakotis, Jacob Godserve Entheogen, James Med Tohir, Tillyev and Rysen.

Thank you all so much for supporting us.

You crazy kids.

We love you.

We met lots of you at the PAX panel as well and at PAX in general.

Lots of patrons around.

We had patrons showing off games.

There was patrons playing games.

There was folks hanging out at the PAX panel.

There was folks who didn't realize it was a PAX panel, which is great because we filled the room.

So they did actually end up turning some people away.

So we were not happy about that.

But otherwise, it was a pretty great show.

Frank, let's start with you.

Your PAX.

How was your PAX experience?

You arrived on Friday and left on Sunday.

First of all, actually, no, I'm taking it back.

How are you feeling?

Because like when we started the PAX panel, it was a 5 p.m. on Saturday.

And it was only then that I realized that you had like you were still on Japan time.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

I woke up at 2 a.m. the day of our Pakistan.

I couldn't sleep.

So, you know, I got some readings out of my hotel room and all that.

Yeah, it was.

It was again like I went to Japan for like 11 days, came back, did a few days of streaming no clip stuff.

And they immediately went to Seattle.

So Seattle felt like a blur.

It felt like a, like, like, I don't know.

It felt like such a quick thing.

I was very honored and happy to go.

I actually changed my flight.

I got in like Thursday night at midnight, my friends and I in Seattle, we went to a round one.

So I filmed a bunch of like D DDR and beat mania footage.

Again, the secret go to any round one after midnight, the arcade is empty.

So it was like three, four of my friends had this entire arcade ourselves.

We played a bunch of DDR.

What time do they close?

They close at 2, but it really is like once they kick everyone at midnight the employees start doing inventory.

Like they're shutting – they mop the bowling alley.

So like they start shutting down services, but the DDR machines are in top condition.

And then yeah, Friday was the good day to roam around PAX, because I was blown away.

How packed Saturday was.

There was kind of an effect with PAX.

Like once COVID happened, it took a few years for PAX to bounce back.

And it felt like this was the year where finally, it's like, oh my God, people are fully – it's kind of back now.

But Friday I got to roam around and there were a few cool indie games I saw and noted down on the wish list so I could – you know sound the alarm once they close to coming out.

There was one game I think called Mr. Sleepy.

Oh yeah.

I saw that one.

Yeah.

I didn't get a chance to play it.

I was trying to queue up for it, but yeah, it was pretty, pretty packed.

That, that felt like a very like N64, very silly, really cool, unique art style.

Yeah.

Mr. Sleepy man.

That looks really cool.

So I, I, I played that a bit and that was really fun.

But yeah, roamed around, checked everything out.

And then, yeah, my plan kind of with PAX is I know all conventions have an arcade free play room.

And sure enough, there is a Dance Dance Revolution cabinet at the PAX free play area.

So the rest of my PAX was just me and my friends just hanging out there.

And I got so much footage.

And conveniently, one floor away from the DDR machine was the Red Bull Creators Club which, if you had like a media badge or anything, you just had 24-7 well not, you know daily access to a fridge of Red Bull.

So, I don't think anyone else did the convention like I did.

Play DDR, take a break, get a free Red Bull, come back.

And it was just I would play DDR, get a Red Bull, play DDR, get.

So it was the insanity where like, i pushed past any sense of reasonable, like energy limit because i just had infinite red bull.

So now when i came back i am like crash, i have a sore throat, all that.

But i had a lot of fun.

He's got the pax pox.

I finally i finally caught it, which i'm thankful.

I didn't get sick in japan.

I didn't get sick.

It was like at the airport or like once i landed i felt the small tickle in my throat and was like oh crap, damn it.

I'm waiting right now because i know also like covid rates have gone up a bunch in the past month or so.

I've i've, I have a friend who works as a nurse in a hospital as well.

She was like oh yeah, it's like there's loads of folks.

I have a friend whose kid was in school, my kid for a while, they all have it, so you know there was sort of a decent amount of people.

I feel like pax is a place where a lot of people wear masks anyway um, which makes complete sense.

But it felt like i yeah, it was the one one time in the past few years i was like i wonder, i wonder.

So i'm kind of waiting now to see um, if i got, if me or my wife and daughter came as well.

But yeah, fingers crossed, fingers crossed, everyone at pax did all right Those big rooms.

Maybe it's not as stuffed.

I'm pretty sure I caught it.

Saturday night we went to a wrestling show that was held in a bar and I'm like oh, that's 10000 where I got it?

Yeah, you just have a sore throat, though.

You're all right, eh?

Yeah.

It's not like brutal.

It's not.

Cause like when you have COVID, your voice is like mangle.

Like, so it's like, Oh yeah, yeah, I can.

But yeah.

So it's like, I mean, I do have the test.

I should test, but yeah, it's yesterday was pretty bad.

And like usually it'll travel up to my sciences, but it's like okay, again I'm just.

My throat is layered with like cough drops and syrup.

So yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

But that's good though.

I'm home.

I'm actually drinking water for the first time in like a week.

I will say like, Seattle compared to Tokyo sucks because there's not a convenient every corner.

It's it's true.

It also there's very few quick food options in Seattle.

It's all like very expensive downtown area for sure.

Yeah.

So I was like I was so used to like in Tokyo just any time of the night, being able to get like chicken or whatever I wanted.

Whereas in Seattle, it was like.

Oh, man.

Thankfully, the convention itself had like cheap pizza and like, again, not healthy food.

But I'm recovering this week.

Nice one.

Yeah, yeah.

It was it was funny.

It was like super busy.

Saturday was like rammed busy.

And then Sunday, you didn't go in Sunday.

Sunday was like crazy quiet again, like like it seems like friday maybe was busier than sunday even was, and then monday was pretty much like sunday, so it was.

It was funny how much of a drop-off there was between saturday and and sunday.

Um yeah, had a.

Uh, do you have fun at our panel?

I mean you, you were.

You were able to to muster up enough energy for it.

Apologies for anyone who was at our panel.

We're probably going to thread some common ground on this one.

Uh, with stuff that we did.

I already mentioned that the panel.

My greatest achievement there was they have this steel battalion room.

It's like it's kind of like a PAX tradition.

There's just like this one crew of psychopaths.

We should like do a doc on them.

That would be great.

I think they've done like every PAX for the past 10 or 15 years.

They always have a steel battalion room.

Original Xbox, like mech, fighting game, popular multiplayer component to it.

You could hook up eight local Xboxes and play it.

If somehow you had eight friends, seven friends who also liked Steel Battalion.

But the weirdest thing about the original Steel Battalion is that they released this like 200 controller for this relatively obscure mech game on a new console which not many people were adopting.

This very specific controller which has like 50 buttons, that's like two control surfaces, has all of these dials and toggles so you can play this mech game, and then also has the coolest save game system of all time, which is a little toggle flip like a toggle red button that glows you have to hit.

That's under like a protective you know plastic cover.

You have to flick up first, which ejects your pilot.

If you don't eject your pilot in time, they get killed in the game and your profile in the game gets destroyed.

The game erases your profile.

You starve from scratch.

If you do eject in a multiplayer game, you actually get to respawn as well, which is pretty cool. i love that so much i feel like more games need to do unconventional like i someone needs to do like a like a cryptocurrency wallet equivalent of a save system or you have like a usb stick that you have to carry around for some reason on your person and your day-to-day life kojima famously wanted to do a game like that right he was like a he was like a um like a game that like deleted your save game but like literally steel battalion does that and it's like it's so awesome it's like it adds this layer of of dread to to everything and like the big flashing red button um but i i think i played save battalion once like i played the 361 a bunch i remember because that had like it was like connect support or something i forget there was some weird thing with that 361 i think it was connect yeah it was um uh but uh and i but i played the original like a long time ago with a pad for like five minutes so i'd never really played it and so we were walking past the room and i was with my wife and my daughter and i was like oh let me just show you this crazy thing it's this weird controller and we will go in for two seconds or whatever and then as we do they're starting a game there's one place left and there's no one else there so i'm like uh and they're like yeah go ahead so I played still Italian and I fucking destroyed everyone I won I won the tournament I was uh I was I had five kills and I got killed right at the end but I just kept picking off people that were in duels I killed the first one and then I just like booked it over to you know you set you set your your gears you've gears you go super high when you hit fifth gear you're just like like fucking you know Naruto running across the field like after burning across the the desert to the other ones and then i would find two other people fighting and just pick on one of them and then hope that when the that one died the other one was also pretty banged up and i hit them and i felt so good man i was like that is like that is peak pax for me is winning a steel battalion lan in front of my wife and kid i was like they're they do not care about this game i feel like they would be proud if they were different people so that's good enough for me so they were like yay good job like you play you won this weird game with with people who've never played it before as well so it's not like you know not like you're going pro with this that'll be a great grandpa story someday you know what i mean like that's a dad moment but that's a grandpa story 100 back in the war when i was like i'll i'll think it was like you know i controlled real back somewhere in the world if i didn't eject you wouldn't be here today you know They would stand there with guns and kill you if you didn't eject.

You had to press lots of buttons on the menu to get into the game.

The guys – yeah, it was really cool.

I love the crew who does that, because it's just like they're giving – like what a weird – like it's in the spirit of Steel Battalion.

Like Steel Battalion is sort of like –

It's it's in one way a meme game like people really like it.

And, you know, it is a good game and it has this hardcore following.

But it also is this sort of like thing that will never die because we've all decided as a society that it is cool and it cannot die.

So it still has a room at PAX for some reason.

They um at the video game history museum.

When we used to go, they had a steel battalion set up that was in like uh well, it was like a vault or something.

What was that giant metal case?

Like a diving bell or something, wasn't it like you'd like you got into and it's like a diving.

And then it was huge, it was really big, and then apparently it's still.

I asked cefaldi, because he was at our, our panel, and it's at the new location uh still, apparently.

Oh nice.

Yeah.

And wasn't there something with that one where, like you could have somebody on the outside talking, like giving you strategy or something, like they had a radio.

There was something like that.

I forget what it was, but you couldn't see each other or see the same screens or something.

That's awesome.

I love that.

Just because like having a controller is not nerdy enough.

You need to take it like another step forward.

Um, before you continue.

Pax, you reminded me with the steel battalion stuff with the eject button of uh.

I was talking to jesse over the weekend about this um i i've been learning um wood frame house construction and so i was reading the like the icc, like the international building code.

Uh, recently and in 2021, there's like the icc has like patch notes where they're like this is we've updated the building code.

Here's the.

You know we've nerfed nails by 20 percent.

Um, in 2021, they added a provision for puzzle rooms, like escape rooms.

Oh, because they need special rules for like fire escape situations.

And i was laughing so hard imagining you're in like a puzzle room and they're like there's a fire attention, there's a real fire and you're like oh, did we, did you check under the drawer?

It's like no dude, we need to get the fuck out of here.

Yeah, i was just imagine you're trying to solve the puzzle and now the stakes are life or death.

Yeah yeah, exactly the.

How do you?

That is a good point like, have you ever done an escape room?

Did they have to tell you that sort of stuff?

I've never done one.

Jesse used to work at one.

We'll have to ask oh yeah, of course he's the perfect person to talk about this.

Um, i was at a connor i don't want to ruin.

I was at a connor o'malley gig in san francisco a few months ago.

Um, and it was absolutely.

It was one of the best stand-up ones i've ever seen.

Um, but he had a whole bit and I don't want to.

So if you're going to see Conor O'Malley, don't listen to this.

He had a whole bit where they did They stopped.

You know he's like very fourth wall breaking with his comedy.

So like somebody from the from the theater shouts up like, oh, you have to do the thing.

And he's like, do I really have to do it?

OK.

And they go instead of a fire drill, they go.

He does like a 15 minute bit.

That's basically what happens in an active fire, like an active firing situation in a comedy club.

Like he's like, so no one's coming in to shoot you all.

But like we have to go through and like the tension in the air.

It was so like, like it felt very like nervous and weird and fucked and hilarious uh, because so many people maybe didn't know like, what conor o'malley's thing is like and then he, like like a presentation, comes down and everything.

It was active shooter yeah, active shooter in a comedy club.

Um, drill was basically what he was going through.

Um yeah, it was.

It was absolutely brilliant.

I love the super absurd.

That's awesome.

Conor o'malley's the best.

Yeah, that guy's.

Uh, they broke the mold and they made him.

I'm trying to think other things, non-game things.

I did a packs.

I went to one of those.

Um oh, i bought these ducks.

They were selling ducks of uh, of uh, of video game characters.

So i got majima and i got, you know, dark souls man.

What do we call dark soulsman?

Uh, i don't know.

I don't know if he has a name like the, just the protagonist, or like the hollow, i guess.

But that's not accurate because you can be unhollow.

I got my solid snake here, so that was what i.

That was what I got myself.

My daughter was just like covered in handouts for every single game.

You know, she kept winning pins and stuff.

My experience of PAX has never been like this, but like she did all the photo ops which, of course, she's seven and she was at a gaming thing and she doesn't want to really play anything.

She played some games.

She played this little game about a corgi that she really loved.

And then there was a family gaming room where they had a bunch of just PC set or computers and consoles and PCs and everything set up to play.

Let people just chill out and relax and play games that are good for kids.

And she was playing this little gator game, I think it is, on PlayStation and she really liked it.

So we're going to download that here.

But yes, so I have pictures of her like climbing the peak thing that was in the aforementioned red bull creator lounge and uh, we got a picture with a, a mind flayer from baldur's gate three.

It was like the three of us and the mind flayer was really nice to her because like it's freaky looking right and she's seven.

She's like, will you do it with me?

I'm like yeah, of course.

Um, uh and uh.

He was like, do you want me to do some magic?

He like had a voice and everything.

He was really good and like did like a little magic trick where there which was cute, and i'm thinking about all the mind fire fucked up stuff that happens in baltimore's game three um what's, is it dawn dawn, dawn breaker, blood of the thing.

What the fuck is the name of that cd project?

X cd project, is it?

No, what the fuck is that game called sorry?

Everyone's screaming at their podcast again.

It's like set in Europe, but it's like vampire stuff.

They put out a trailer last year.

I can't remember the name.

I know exactly what you're talking about.

It has one of those names that I think.

When it came out, I was like I'm never going to remember this, that game, that looks pretty great.

Um, they had like a.

I think they said do you want to sacrifice your child?

And she was like yeah, let's sacrifice me.

And then there was like a little blood cauldron thing where you take pictures but you do all this stuff and they just give you pins and stuff.

So she was just like she had a million like little.

She won an Alienware plushie.

She's an Alienware plushie now.

It's the blood of Don Walker, is that right?

There you go.

It's like Mad Libs.

It was almost there.

Just had to mix it.

The blood of the Don Walker.

Is it the blood of Don Walker?

I think it's the blood of Don Walker.

I don't even think there's a second the in there.

I don't like that name.

There's a Marlon Brando film about the dock workers.

Is that what it is?

The blood of the dock workers.

Yes.

I hope Marlon Brando is not in this.

It probably cost them five million for five minutes like in Superman one.

And yeah, the blood of is that what it is?

Yeah.

Rebel Wolves.

Yeah, that's the yeah, that's it.

Blood.

I don't like that name.

It's fine, though.

It's like I bet we felt that way about the Witcher or something.

You know what I mean?

I don't know.

Probably not.

That's two words.

One of them's the.

I had a game title Mandela effect moment with In the Valley of Gods, the Campo Santo game.

I thought it was In the Valley of the Gods.

So did I. For years now, and I had to reference it the other day, and it's In the Valley of Gods.

In the Valley of Gods.

I thought it was In the Valley of the Gods, too.

I had a real Fruit of the Loom logo moment with this shit.

Yeah, Berenstain Bears.

In the Valley of Gods.

Okay.

Yeah.

There you go.

Well, you never... This game's never coming out anyway, so... Yeah, exactly.

It doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter, yeah.

I'll never have to refer to it, except to say that I'll never play it.

I was having drinks with one of the people who made that game on Saturday night and I can tell you, Oh really.

That game's never coming out.

Damn.

Yeah.

Yeah, it was kind of fun.

I caught up with a load of people, and...

Uh, the whole time I was there, it was, uh, yeah, it was fun bumping into folks.

Like you don't see very often, all that sort of stuff.

Um, I want to talk about some of that in a second with the?

Uh, with the?

Um, the video game stuff, because one of those was a was a was a game that uh, we did a documentary on.

But first i want to do actually one thing that was funny was um uh woosh, who is the guy who picks up?

He's like balatro's lead guide, play stack.

He's the guy who like, had to go up a million times and collect all the prizes, all the awards on behalf of local thunk.

I walked into the?

Um, into our hotel, and he was right there and he was like oh hi, danny.

And i was like, oh hey, what's going on?

Welcome, welcome to pax.

It was just like constant bumping into people.

There was like a valve indie meetup as well in our hotel lobby.

At one stage my wife was having lunch there.

I was back at pax.

She was like there's this whole thing going on here.

Do you want to come back?

And it was just cool.

It was.

The whole weekend was really fun.

Um, i did buy two games, two obscure games um, at a, at a video game store that i saw.

I think neither of these games got european releases, which is why i I'd never heard of either of them.

One of them is called, I don't, have you guys ever played the plan or seen the plan, Frank?

No, that looks cool.

What is it?

The plan with like a backwards, uh, E like a three almost like it's the third plan.

I don't know if it is.

I think the plan has three parts.

The Heist, The Betrayal, The Revenge is a PlayStation 2 game.

Somebody's going to pay.

When a band of thieves conspire to steal two Rembrandt paintings in exchange for a valuable diamond, one member succumbs to greed and betrays the rest.

The person left behind has had five years to plan his revenge.

Now you'll have to mastermind his escape from prison.

Take control of up to three players simultaneously from three perspectives.

Wow, they did GTA V before GTA did it.

Your missions will call upon your ingenuity and stealth.

Pick locks and pockets, take photos, shut down surveillance, hack computers and create diversions using a variety of high-tech gadgets, like oceans or something.

You'll need to watch your back to see if there really is honor among thieves.

And it says, an excellent addition to the PlayStation 2's lineup from WorthPlaying.com.

So there you go.

Check it out now.

It's from, I don't know who made it.

It says, Monte Cristo games.

Is that right?

One to three players.

The plan.

If anyone's ever played The Plan, please mention it on the Noclip Discord or in the comments.

And the other one I got was Saturday Night Speedway.

Whoa, that looks cool.

Yeah, unsurprisingly, Frank is enjoying the midriff that is on this.

Does it say Ratbag Games at the bottom?

It actually does say Ratbag Games.

That's awesome.

It's owned by, it's an Atari joint, Ratbag Games.

Wow.

Of course this is just a regular racing game about Saturday Night Speed Race, which I go to, a Saturday Night Speed Race all the time now in Petaluma.

So I was like, oh, I want to play this.

But it does have, of course, because this is a PlayStation 2 game.

The logo of the game is on a lady's shirt and she is showing her midriff, her toned midriff, with a I think that's a car key belly button ring, which just seems like you know the the xenobites would love to pull on that one.

Um uh yeah, bash fenders and pro stock races, plow through packs of late models or kick up the mud in open wheel midgets.

It's three styles, that is, that is a class of car.

I just want to say i still it's probably based on.

It doesn't really matter, i guess, but it has a.

It's a proper noun as well, according to the back of this box.

So there you go.

It's three styles of all-out racing on a variety of high-speed dirt tracks.

Hit the gas and fire to the front.

So I want to play and record both these games.

I might do it on Noclip 2 or something.

It seems pretty stupid.

I'm looking up if they've determined a new name for that style of car.

No, I can tell you they haven't because I go to a Speedway every other weekend.

And let me tell you.

They don't feel like I feel like the car community is probably last to update the nomenclature.

If I were to guess, it's probably in the bottom tier of, like you know, people that are like really into cars are probably pretty, pretty late to update the terminology.

I would assume I don't know the etymology of that word.

Not that that matters, but I would assume that it was around people.

Like that.

It wasn't just.

I've never heard it used in any other context except racing, which I hear twice a week.

It is a bit weird though.

It's like, it's like, I don't know.

It's like, it's like, uh, if there was a, uh, I'm not going to do it.

You can, you can, you can connect to the dots on this one.

Yeah.

So your listener, it is a bit, that is, that is true.

Um, video games we played though.

I played though.

Can I tell you about some of them?

Absolutely.

Uh, Valor Mortis.

I got to play this.

Have you guys seen this?

This is a big, made big waves at Gamescom.

I had an appointment to play it.

It's made from One More Level Games, who are based, I believe, in Krakow in Poland.

It is a first person Souls-like sword fighting game set during the Napoleonic Wars from the folks who made Ghostrunner, and it is fucking good.

Um, you play as an english uh, like foreign legionnaire basically, who was joined up uh, with the napoleonic um endeavor.

During the game starts and basically there has been a horrendous battle slash massacre uh, pretty much all.

You're just surrounded by dead napoleonic um troops and presumably whoever else they were fighting.

And the game is first person.

You have a sword.

The sword has a parry.

You can do light attacks and heavy attacks.

At a certain point you pick up a gun but it's not used to parry, it's used to shoot, sort of like shoot its weak point for massive damage, like big glowing orange things that are on enemies And the enemies can hurt you pretty fast.

There is lanterns that when you get to them you spend your Napoleon bucks or whatever to upgrade your character.

Like it is unabashedly, unashamedly a souls like game and in the vein of something like bloodborne i think it opens up a bit more in later levels they were saying they obviously the part that i played was the start of the game and fairly linear but even so there was like an enemy that i met at the start that was clearly way too difficult for me i tried to beat them and couldn't um the demo itself ended with a boss fight that was pretty gnarly and intense um i got it down to half health on No, I didn't actually not even on the, on the second, it had second, a second phase.

The first phase was easy enough.

I completed the first time, but the second phase was, it was super challenging.

Um, I think they said only three people all weekend had done it.

So I was really trying to do it, but I ran out of time. um yeah it's uh it looks gorgeous it has a really good visual style to it which i'm not surprised considering these are the the ghost runner folks um and the audio direction was was particularly notable like napoleon's like speaking to you in your head like and the first syllable of every sentence comes out of one ear and the rest came out of the other which really fucked with me um and yeah the the a lot of the visual the audio with the weird sort of it has this like supernatural feel to it.

Um, you know, by the end of the demo that I played, which was about 30 minutes um, I was even able to, like you know, use fire spells on people and stuff like that.

Um, but yeah, real good sort of, uh, combat chest feel to the whole thing.

You know, when you should power you, who should attack, what order you should get people in.

And I just loved the vibes of it.

It was really cool.

Yeah.

It's gorgeous.

I, I looked at this when you put this in the pod doc yesterday, I watched the whole trailer.

Um, I I'm always like first person melee combat is such a difficult thing to make satisfying.

Uh.

So when I hear first person souls like, I'm immediately very skeptical.

But uh, I was won over by the trailer.

I watched this.

It looks great.

Yeah.

The, the, they have like a Dodge in there as well.

The priority windows are.

I can't, you can never tell if they're tuning this stuff easy as well for for shows, which I suspect you know.

I mean I got to the first, you know it was not particularly hard.

Um, same thing.

If you die, you drop all your whatever's and then you can pick them up again next time through.

Um, But you had the power windows felt very.

Actually, what I will say is one of the things I think that sucks the most with first person stuff is that you always have to have the camera needs to be facing the enemy.

And one of the things in souls like games is that like.

You can sort of have multiple people and kite them around and dodge and do all that sort of stuff.

You can still lock on to one person in this and circle them kind of like you can in other Souls-like games.

But at least in this one, what I found interesting was that they were designing the levels in a way where it was sort of even when ones came out of nowhere which is sort of another trope of the genre, right is that you walk in an area and there was one hiding behind the door and now you'll know every time that they're there.

Um, even when they did that it was it was sort of taking into account the uh placement of the camera, like it.

It just felt really well designed, like it sounds like they're going to have a game.

Uh, you know, they've they've worked really hard on the start of the game.

They said they have basically the start from the, from the finish, kind of in gray box at least, or close to it.

Now they think it's going to be around 15 to 20 hours, which is pretty good.

And I assume some of that is replaying levels because it's one of these types of games.

But yeah, I was wholly won over.

I understood immediately why people were talking about it at Gamescom.

Like, this will be a game when it comes out, loads of people will play.

So yeah, I think it feels, If they manage to keep it as interesting and the combat as novel and cool as the demo, they're in for a good shout.

And there was one part as well where I was walking through a sort of an open, a more open landscape of bodies and stuff.

And there was a couple of places you could go.

And I kind of I stayed enough to the critical path.

At one stage I looked over to the left and there was like this absolutely horrendous, looking like spider man who was made of different body parts and stuff.

Like they're doing all that stuff really well.

Like the final boss you fight is grotesque.

Um, and then there's another guy I fought who was just like, who was completely clean like, like more on the.

You know, like Elden Ring has your sort of your, your millennia, looking uh, uh or what's her name?

Millennia.

Yeah, what is it?

How do you say her last name?

Whatever, uh it is, what is it?

Just now, i'm thinking of millennium, like the fucking will smith song or something.

Will smith song, the robbie williams song um, whatever her name is, like like really polished looking, you know, clean lines, beautiful costume, that type of thing, and then also your sort of grotesque weird shit as well, like this game has both in.

Uh was showing off both really well.

So yeah, valor mortis, it's called V-A-L-O-R Mortis.

First person Souls-like.

Super good.

Any questions about it?

You got it?

It looks awesome.

I am a big Souls fan, and I... i also like so many times on this podcast we've talked about um time periods and like historical events that haven't been covered in games and i feel like i i haven't i don't know if i've ever played like a napoleonic war and there's like the napoleon total war games but other than that there's i don't think there's a lot of napoleonic games are there no i'm trying to think even visually like i guess the order 1886 whatever that had that sort of look to it i feel like but yeah i don't know if this is yeah this and this has like its own thing going on too like the napoleonic s aspect of it is sort of one layer and then there is this very you know i don't know what you'd even call it ptsd imbued um hyper reality on top of it it's it's it's pretty gnarly um yeah it's pretty cool i like it and you're sort of a fish out of water in a way because you're an english troop who doesn't speak french very well in in a fighting for for a foreign legion as it were um so yeah looks pretty nice looks pretty nasty looks pretty good valor mortis Quickly, I want to mention Ambrosia Sky.

I played that yesterday.

I think I played what was the demo they had up for Summer Games Fest, which I believe is now available again.

Yes, it is.

So this is the.

I think the way they pitched it was that it was like a power washing simulator meets Metroid Prime which, after I played it was was pretty decent as a way of capturing it.

Essentially you play a character who is a deep space disaster specialist.

So you go into ship and then ship is full of nasty, crud and weird goop and stuff and you have a gun that fires kind of water and other stuff and you can use this to solve puzzles and get through the spaceship.

So it's not just like you're cleaning for the sake of it, it's not like viscera cleanup detail or something like that.

Um, you're using it to basically like uh, path your way through and then there's like puzzles within uh, that um, during.

Within those areas there's pickups, there's um, you know, logs and stuff for the story aspects of it.

It's got a really interesting look to it.

The key art is straight out of um uh, what is the name of that mtv show where with the lady with the who blinks and catches the eye?

I keep thinking apex twin.

But it's not a, it's not, obviously not a fixed one.

It's uh.

I think my brain is going.

I can't think of any references anymore.

You know, it's like that thing.

I might have dementia or something.

I don't know.

What the fuck is Aeon Flux?

There we go.

Aeon Flux.

I got it.

It came eventually.

Aeon Flux.

Got an Aeon Flux looking ass key art.

And the graphics themselves are pretty out there.

It's pretty wild looking.

Yeah, I like the demo.

It was fun.

You had to get in and get out when you got the final thing.

You had to rush out of there before it all went to shit.

The demo is available now.

I assume that's what I played was the first level or so, but uh yeah, it was pretty pretty neat looking and i think it's coming out later this year so i want to keep an eye on.

Very cool.

It reminds me a little bit of prey as well.

I don't know if you said prey in the in the touchstones there of games listed off, but that's what reminds me of.

It's very systemic.

Yeah, it's very like.

Plug this into this, try this with this water electricity doing this thing, turn the gravity on.

Turn the gravity off.

At least, you know, in the first level there's a it, it it gets uh, increasingly that way.

There was no like and there was no like enemies.

I was fighting, you know, it was just like the goop was the enemy.

So i'm not sure if that continues to be the case.

Like you could get hurt by it if you didn't like.

Like some of it grows back quickly in a certain way, so you have to sort of anticipate and stuff like that.

Um, but yeah, ambrosia sky uh, worth a wish list for sure.

And then the last thing i played was star seeker from our good friends At System Era, who of course, made Astroneer.

This is the latest game from them.

I got to talk to Adam Brommel, who was there.

He's the lead.

I don't know what they got.

He's the guy who head of studio, I guess.

I know now they're owned by Devolver Digital, of course.

That buyout happened, I think, last year.

He showed me a version of this years ago when they were during COVID, when they were spitballing what they were going to do next.

Um, he kind of gave me the pitch deck on it and it's landed pretty close to what he was uh talking about basically.

Uh, this is not an astroneer game.

So astroneer is very much a survival crafting game where you are trying to expand your base on a, on a planet uh, procedurally generated planets playing, you know, co-op with lots of people, that type of stuff uh, star seeker.

The subtitle on it is Astroneer Expeditions.

I think the reason for that is because it shares a very similar art style and I suspect they want.

You know, Astroneer is a very popular game and they could have easily done Astroneer 2, as Adam was telling me, but they wanted to do something that was interesting and was a different genre to what they're used to.

And I suspect they're keeping Astroneer in the name to you know.

Make that connection for fans of Astroneer easy.

But this is not an Astroneer game.

This is very different.

So the sort of the meta layer of this game, and it sounds like this game was in development while Helldivers 2 came out.

So I think...

There's some stuff that they had here that also appeared in Helldivers, because I got pitched on all this stuff years before Helldivers came out too.

But basically what it is is there's a space station called the Starseeker.

They want something like 100 players to be able to live in that hub, to be in that hub and sort of –

It's full of like screens and, you know, of live play.

And you're going to be kind of like in Helldivers, I guess, where there's like a sort of a global thing, a global mission that you're trying to do, you're trying to achieve.

And that's all going to happen there.

But that layer of the game was not in the demo.

This is just something he was talking to me about as well.

The game itself though, is like you basically get sort of.

You know your, your starship is in a galaxy.

You get shot down to a planet and then the planet is the same planet.

It's not procedurally generated.

It is a planet.

And on that planet, you are getting quests.

So it's very different to Astroneer.

You can play with up to four people.

The weapons that you have are like not really weapons, because Astroneer is not, isn't sort of a non combat game as well?

They're probably trying to get that.

E10 plus or whatever.

But they are, each, each character had like a different thing.

Like one could, everyone could bury into the ground.

I had one where it was basically like a like a gun.

That like was almost like the gravity gun.

Second button, where I could just like yeet people or like push things away.

There was another one that was able to like make blocks of earth in front of a person.

There's climbing like Zelda.

When you jump off stuff, you can glide.

Little wings, Buzz Lightyear wings come out of you and you can glide down.

And the quest that you were given in this demo was basically to go and forget this MacGuffin, this little radar thing, and then to bring it above 200 feet.

So to do that, we had to go down into a valley where there was an enemy.

Get this thing, try and escape the enemy or destroy it.

There was only two of us playing the demo, so we didn't try and fight it.

And then basically carry this thing up high enough.

So to do that.

You were basically, like you know, it's hard to climb if you're carrying it, you can't really jump as well, so the other person has to like basically dig through the terrain, terraform you up there um, and then it was just like super systemic and fun, like that's what they do at system era, like astroneer is a very systems heavy game you mentioned prey before.

Like these games are, are massively into that type of emergent sim stuff um, and it was the same in this where, like you know, different systems of different animals and planets or plants, and the different objects that we had and the weaponry that we had.

And it was making all of these crazy sort of um events happen so the mission was pretty simplistic but the sort of japes and nonsense that happened on the way was uh was a lot of fun so they're aiming this to be similar thing to astroneer in a way in that you play with mates like it's a it's you can play up to four people i believe in those in those levels um and then this was the first time they've shown gameplay and it was playable and i suspect that they're going to be peeling the layers off of the sort of space station aspect of this in the future it's got a 2026 release date apparently according to Steam at least and yeah it was a pretty tight experience from what I saw and I'm excited to see more of it but it looks promising Yeah, it's very cool.

Astroneer was a game that I it didn't super catch with me but I like I have always really appreciated sort of the technical prowess that has gone into it.

The like marching cube deformation stuff.

There's some very.

I can't remember if I watched these when I was doing marching cube stuff myself or when we were doing the Astroneer doc, but there are some super, super early videos of um, of Adam and the original crew working on, just like dashing together sort of like the tech demo for it.

Uh, and you can like instantly tell in those early videos, with no like textures and no anything, that it's immensely, you know, like impressive technologically, just kind of like in its bare bones state.

Um, so I've always sort of admired their like you know, the ambition to do things that are not just like oh, this is like a fun game, but also this is like a crazy engineering project behind the scenes.

Yeah, and i think that's what i'm excited to see the space station stuff as much as possible, because i think the idea is that you're going to be like unlocking planets, like planets are going to unlock and and they're i like, i kind of like the idea that that procedure generated they're also bigger than the astrodeer planets like you.

You can still see that curved horizon, which is very astroneer, but it was much bigger.

Um, But I like the idea that it's like level mastery can now happen, right.

Like it's every time you go down, the planet resets effectively, right?

And I thought that was cool.

But what I also like is just how far into the systemic stuff that it seems like they're going to do.

Like I only played one demo, so it was hard to tell.

But like, for instance, one of the things I saw where there was these little like carrots, like carrot creatures that were around the planet.

And you could like like anything in the game.

You could pick it up, you could, you know, throw it, you could do lots of stuff.

And uh, adam was saying like, oh yeah, those things like if you, if you mess with them too much, they get angry and they start chasing after you.

But also you can like feed them, just like i fed one to.

Uh, he said you can use them to like distract other uh enemies and and things like that.

Or you can get them hassled and then yeet them in there so that they end up disturbing an enemy and taking their you know, or doing whatever.

But then i was, i just picked one up and i there was like a venus flytrap looking thing.

So i just went over to and i was like i wonder if i can feed it to this thing.

There was literally a button said feed and i fed it and i got clean bones from from the venus flytrap.

So um yeah, i'm excited just to see how they, how deep they go with all that stuff and and yeah, how technically interesting all the stuff on the space station gets.

So Yeah, it could be a good.

It's a game that I've been following for a long time and I know Adam and the studio pretty well, so I wonder if it's something we could get some cool preview stuff on actually over on Noclip2.

So I'll have to keep an eye on that one.

Yeah, so Starseeker Astroneer Expeditions, if you're interested. release date apparently 2026 let's see it was also weird seeing them with like a huge booth because like Devolver now backed them so they had like a big booth with a bunch of Devolver people helping and stuff massive line though as well so you know I'm with you Jeremy like I think the i love astroneer as a i'm i don't play a lot of those types of games i i sort of admire it a lot from afar um but i've always also admired the community and the like people love that game like and and also like a lot of younger people love that game like it's it's it's cool they've they've really carved out a really awesome um uh community with that thing so yeah hopefully they'll make that jump over if that game is interesting to them.

Jeremy, you've played at least one indie game, possibly two we can talk about.

The second one is not an indie game, but maybe we'll get to it.

Oh, the second one is W Place.

You've been messing around with W Place?

A little bit.

I have a very specific thing that you reminded me of earlier.

Let's start with that.

Let's make time for it.

Let's make time for it, okay.

So when you were mentioning um running into uh, someone affiliated with uh balatro um, it reminded me it brought it all rushing back that um weeks ago i was looking at w place and uh drew a bunch of pixel art on there w place.

For people who haven't seen, it is a um a giant.

It's google maps of the whole world, but people can do pixel art over it.

The whole world is sort of like split up into an invisible grid of pixels and it is a you know, global collaborative art project where people can draw pixel art.

Um, you know, sometimes this results in people going like Oh, let me find my house and draw like a little guy from Pokemon.

Sometimes it results in people drawing, you know, like hate symbols or weird shit.

It is as with any sort of like public thing.

It's some.

Some people treat the graffiti wall as a place for public expression and And some people treat it as a place for throwing ideological trash.

So it's a mixed bag with any of this stuff.

But it has been sort of like endless for like the first couple of weeks that it was popping up.

It was endlessly fascinating to me because it's just like, you know, it was 80 percent Dalsarun art.

But the remainder, I think that's a little better.

You can go anywhere in the world.

Like I go back to my hometown.

It's like just covered in, like like anime, like it's always anime stuff, like free palestine and like ghost nichelle and like like that's, there's a disco elysium kim picture here, like nice, you know the gamers are out there.

That's what i like about it because, like it's not like when you go to my hometown.

Well, the palette pro palestinian stuff is for sure a big thing in my hometown but but it's not like we.

It's full of anime lovers.

You know what i mean.

But maybe it is, but they're the ones that are on here obviously using uh, using w plays.

Yeah, it's interesting because obviously anyone can draw anywhere.

It's not like geo location locked.

So you know there are places where it's like you'll see a place called, you know whatever, chicken Island.

And then a bunch of people draw chickens or whatever.

It's clear that they just like word searched a word and drew the thing.

But, um, but then it's also interesting where like, you'll go to Boston, which has a, you know, historically Irish American population.

And there's a ton of things that are like up the rod, like source it on fallacy and stuff.

Uh, which is it's like.

It's interesting to see sort of like cultural emergencies tied that are like actually have sort of historical roots in these areas.

Um, um but the the reason i wanted to bring it up is this is such a throwaway thing but i thought it was so bizarre something i saw an absurd amount of was uh ballatro erotica oh really jokers from ballatro but as pornography which is this was not invented for w plays this is on the internet i was just shocked at the uh the conversion rate of people who were like oh a global pixel art arena let me draw a sexy clown from ball i didn't think i'd seen any ballatro fanfic anywhere frank is nodding frank back me up on this what you got what you got frank tell us no yeah as i was scrolling around las vegas i did see uh volacho stuff but also as someone who's like very familiar with icp i'm very used to the cross-section of like sexy clown girl i'm well aware yeah i'm well aware yeah it's not it's not new territory the sexy clown thing um but uh yeah i'm trying to think what else i saw it was cool to see you know like i'm in northern massachusetts it was cool to scroll up and see like a huge signalis banner over maine oh that's awesome um you love but yeah it's cool i mean you know it's like it's a mixed bag like with anything the the internet is a place where people sometimes just like to throw tomatoes at the wall to stain it but um there's a lot of uh a lot of greenland open folks want to fuck around with that greenland's just like nada absolutely nothing yeah it's i i've just enjoyed it i put a i right after i played ooh is when i was sort of like at the height of this so i drew an ooh bomb caterpillar in boston and stuff like that right over my old neighborhood in boston um but i i don't know there's something very satisfying when you're just like scrolling around and you see a reference to a game that you're like oh that's wild that like you know someone in the middle of nebraska has also played this like obscure indie game that i like um speaking of obscure indie games Yeah, should we use that as a segue into... Let's do it. okay um so i played a game this week i've not completed it but i have played uh probably like a third of it i don't think it's particularly long uh it is a latin name i'm going to attempt to pronounce it this is the second time this week i've had to say a video game name that was in latin and has mispronounced it did an interview yesterday with someone that made a game that had a latin name yes um i know what i know what person on what game so i i think i need to learn latin uh phonetics in order to not make a fool of myself but it's um uh, Capit Mortem, I think it's a Latin term that means deadhead.

It's an alchemical term for um uh.

It is the quote the useless substance leftover from a chemical operation such as sublimation, and the epitome of decline and decay.

Um, this is a uh.

So Capit Mortem is a uh, first person horror game sort of set in like a semi fantastical but largely historical um, kind of like medieval ish tower.

Um, there's like a town that's fallen into decay with an evil tower at the core of it and you were going into the tower to figure out what happened to this town.

Um, and it's basically like an alchemy themed horror game.

Oh cool, which is, i mean, that's enough to get me in the door, like that's a.

That's a cool, unique setup.

But the thing that's really interesting about cap and mortem is the control scheme.

Um it's, it's very hard to explain.

I think i'm, i think i kind of just have to explain how the game controls and you'll just have to virtualize this in your mind.

So uh, first person horror game.

You would imagine like oh, the joysticks are moved, the right joystick is look around, etc etc.

None of that.

Uh, it is the the.

The r2 and l2 are to turn left and right.

You have to play this with a pad.

You can, it said, you know, it gave you the real Yakuza use a gamepad thing in the beginning.

Oh, okay, okay.

But you can play it on a keyboard.

I did not because I just figured I don't know, I figured I'd just give it a shot, the way they intended, the way God intended.

So the rear triggers are to pivot left and right.

R1 and L1 are to look up and down.

Oh my gosh.

So already just imagine, okay.

So imagine you're in a calm puzzle scenario.

This is already like a lot to take in.

Now imagine there's like a fucking monster chasing you and you're just like like all of the muscle memory goes.

Suddenly you're using a controller, like you were six again.

You can't, you know, you don't know how to.

Yeah, left and right, one being up and one being down on.

That is the night.

That's a nightmare, oh my god.

It's terrible.

It's like system shock one.

It is.

You're right.

Yeah The uh, the right joystick moves your hand around.

So you see your hand in front of you like any first person game, but the right joystick moves it around the screen.

Like if you want to grab something, you have to move your little hand.

That's like floating out in front of you to grab stuff and interact with it.

Um, that there's more controls, but those are, that's sort of like the mainstay of it, and then you move with the other joystick.

Um wow, but it's so.

It's like you not move the oh no, the camera is the, the buttons.

Oh, so that only.

That is only there, because they wanted to make the right stick your hand.

Yeah, basically.

OK, OK.

It is an interesting question that I'd love to ask the dev someday.

Is the chicken and the egg scenario?

Was the?

Was the idea of an abstracted control scheme, the seed that was planted that yielded this idea, or were they like, like you said, it'd be interesting to control the right hand with the joystick?

And then they're like oh, but then what do we do with the camera?

And then it kind of emerged from that.

Okay, without getting into spoilers, I have one question.

Is this game a little bit like Arx Fatalis then?

Because there's a couple of things that are making it sound like you've got alchemy.

I feel like tonally kind of similar a little bit, but I, in terms of gameplay, very, very different.

I've not played a ton of arcs of Talos.

It's a game I've just played the beginning of.

Um, but, uh, yeah, maybe like aesthetically, but I, and thematically, but not mechanically.

Um, but this, so this is a first person horror game.

Um it, like I said, when you, you sort of like I felt like I had a good handle on these controls for a minute and you're kind of doing the intro puzzle and you're like, all right, like this isn't so bad.

Like, you know i've played moon cat and ufo 50 i can fuck with unorthodox control schemes but as soon as a monster comes out it just all goes out the window um the first sort of serious monster that chased me i was carrying a puzzle item and i'm running from this thing and like i like horror games i don't i don't really play a lot of like first person horror games like um like condemned or amnesia and stuff i just i it's not that i don't like them it's just that like they they They scare me in a way that isn't like psychological horror.

I just feel like someone's chasing me in real life.

And that it's it's so intensified by the control scheme to the extent that I was running from this monster.

And you're like in this alchemy lab and there's like a shelf falling over.

And I'm like, all right if I can just run and I can crouch under that and run through, he won't be able to get through.

So I'm running and I press the button to crouch, which is either L3 or R3.

But the other stick press is to drop the item you're holding.

Oh, no.

So I'm running in and I'm like running for this dude and I'm like, all right, I'm home free.

I just got to crouch and go through there.

And then I just drop the puzzle piece and then crouch and run through.

So now I have to go back into the room where the guy is because I fucking like fumbled the controls and dropped the puzzle piece at his feet like an idiot.

So that's kind of the fun is like.

You know we talked about this with Mooncat and UFO 50 and obviously Bennett Foddy did this with QWOP and stuff.

And there's a lot of games that have unorthodox control schemes.

But the fun of it is that, like sometimes in a video game, you pick it up and you know instantly what to do.

Like a first person shooter anyone who's played a video game kind of intuitively knows how to control it or like a 3D platformer or like any Mario game.

This is the opposite end of the spectrum, where the fun is being an inveterate video game player and and just being like now, how do i being like someone's grandma who got handed the controller uh, and it's like i don't know, it's fun.

It's fun being like out of your element, like video games are often such a comfortable space for me.

Even challenging games, even like a dark souls, is like the.

The challenge isn't being out of my element, the challenge is being very in my element against the odds right, against like difficult odds rather um, but yeah, i don't know, it's fun, just like fucking fumbling around this world.

Um, i won't spoil anything, but the game does some really interesting shit with the hand movement oh cool okay, scared the piss out of me.

Uh, it is.

It is very, very it's a scary game and like i don't know, it's not just like things growling at you, it like it does some really weird subversive shit is all i'll say.

I'm gonna, i'm gonna at least download the demo.

There's a demo of it here, so i'm gonna, i'm gonna do that.

It's freaky i.

I'm enjoying it a lot.

It uh, i was very unnerved last night playing it and i uh, i thought that that was uh, you know, i i didn't expect it to be as scary as it was.

I don't know, maybe it's because i don't play first person horror games, but the first dude was chasing me and i was like.

I was like tense and i was.

I felt like someone was behind me in real life.

It was fucking.

I don't know.

I usually horror games don't get under my skin, but just feeling like I was driving a car on icy roads or something made it 10 times worse.

Capus Mortem, available on Steam for the low, low price.

It's, yeah, $10.79 it looks like at the moment.

That introductory offer will be over, so you'll have to pony up the extra $1.20.

It's $12 on Steam.

It came out just last week, yeah?

Yeah, August 27th.

Very cool.

Capus Mortem uh, make sure you leave your reviews, of course, if you're playing any of these games, downloading any of these games.

I actually had an idea for doing like a.

Do you remember feedbackula over at game spot uk?

I remember the name it was.

Uh, johnny did a show.

It was based on um, this thing that used to be on the bbc where they basically read out people's comments from videos and stuff.

Um, i thought it'd be funny to do something like that for like, steam reviews um, but maybe just like highlighting indie game steam reviews and sort of you know picking, recommending games through reviews, maybe from our community as well.

That might be something cool we could do over on the second channel.

So maybe yeah, i like that frank speaking of hot new indie games.

Oh wait, this is the opposite.

Megaman x collection um how, this is the one that came out like a good while ago 2018, i think.

Okay, wasn't there an earlier one of this?

I forget, and there's like there's, there's.

So there's like megaman collection, which is like the original nintendo ones megaman x collection.

Then there's like battle network collection and then legacy collection there's, so it's.

It's like, you know, capcom every six months exactly Yeah, so I talked about like a little bit last week where I went to the Capcom Museum in Nagoya and it was so incredible.

But I realized my biggest like gap with Capcom's lineage is Mega Man.

Because as a kid, like it was huge because they were like actively coming out in the 90s.

But I was like a little kid.

Those games are so hard as a kid.

I had Mega Man X. I like the music.

I like the pixel art.

Like that era of Super Nintendo, Capcom games, Street Fighter 2, like the music, art style, everything that like defined video games for me, but I was never good at the Mega Man games.

The only way I ever played, the only way I ever beat Mega Man X was using save states on an emulator.

But now, like I don't know like, let's say like 25 years later, it's like okay, let me, let me try this again.

Again, I was so blown away by all the Mega Man stuff at the museum.

So I bought Mega Man X collection and, um, I still haven't beaten any of them yet.

I'm not touching the Sigma levels, because the final levels are always boss rush stages.

But what I'm doing, so far I've just done it with Mega Man X and Mega Man X2.

There's X3 and X4 in the collection.

It's just go through the first eight bosses, and that in itself has been a very fun and rewarding experience.

Because these games are kind of like, in a way like the Metroidvania search action games, where it's like you go through a stage.

The first time you go through it, it's like, oh, I can't get to this ledge.

I can't get this heart item.

You do a few bosses and then that gives you an ability to then go back and get the item.

And as you're playing the these games, it's like oh, you are, you are, you are powering up megaman, you're acquiring armor, you're acquiring all these abilities.

I think as a kid i didn't, i never even knew there were secrets.

I i did like they were so hard because i didn't realize, like how you're supposed to play these games.

Like there's a boss order weaknesses, all this stuff.

And so now it's so funny coming back to these games as an adult and being like oh, wait a minute, and strategy guys and all this stuff.

And um yeah, i'm having so much fun the way these.

And again, like I don't know, it sounds weird to review a game so many years later, but it's like the way Mega Man games, control are so tight and precise, everything about it.

Again, the pixel art, the music is so phenomenal.

Even at the Nintendo Power exhibit at PAX there was a lot of American Mega Man X art and stuff, because Nintendo Power featured it all the time.

So it was just like, Oh my God, there's so much in this world.

And, yeah, I kind of want to go through all the Mega Man games as much as I can.

I'm not going to get mad at the Sigma levels.

But, yeah, it's been really, really cool.

So right now I'm almost done with Mega Man X, X2, and then I'm excited to dive into X3.

I haven't touched the PlayStation ones.

Those are the ones I'm most interested in because, like, I'm so familiar with the 16-bit stuff.

Which ones are those?

I, so I think it's X four and eight.

And so like, yeah, so Mega Man games are so, so nonsense.

Cause it's like, I don't know.

I don't know where Jeremy might know too.

Like is Mega Man one through seven.

Are those all Nintendo games or some of those game boy games?

Cause the X series are like super Nintendo.

And then there's PlayStation.

And then eight no, mega man.

Nine was like an xbox 360.

I don't know, the series is insane.

Yeah i, my experience with mega man is more through mega man x.

Uh, i'm looking at the list right now mega man through mega man.

Six uh, are nes, and then seven is super nintendo, eight is playstation and sega saturn.

And then nine ten, eleven are like ps3 ps3 ps4 um, but the the X games X, the X games, you know biking skateboarding, Tony Hawk.

I like what, I like what proto man gets on his skateboard.

Um, Mega Man X one, two, and three are some of my favorite games growing up.

Um.

Mega Man X especially, I played the absolute shit out of um.

An interesting element of it is that it's sort of has like a stage select thing.

Uh, and it has non-linearity in a very sort of like innovative way for the time where um, there's strategy to which bosses you fight first because you get their weapon and their weapon is useful against like.

Mega Man has this thing where he steals like abilities from people.

He defeats kind of like, I guess kind of like Kirby.

I guess it's the same as Kirby.

Now that I think about it.

Um uh, but but you'll get, like you know kill fucking whatever the penguin guy, or like drill mandrill or whatever.

Um, and then, though they're uh, their weapon is used specifically like the weakness of another boss, but also the stages transform.

So i think if you do an x, if you've beat the snow level before you do the lava fire to like industry level uh, it like freezes over the lava and makes the level easier.

Oh, that's cool, it's really really cool.

So as a kid it was wild to be like to start the game over multiple times because you would see these strategies emerge, and it was fun just to see the different levels transformed into their different states.

Um Yeah, I always liked Mega Man X better than the base Mega Man series as well, because it just has more sort of like finesse.

I don't know if the base Mega Man games have like the air dash and stuff like that.

I always liked how Mega Man X was about, sort of like, you know, you dash and then jump, and then it creates like a momentum jump and then you air dash and it has this sort of like, you know, tricking to it.

Not unlike the X games.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Yeah, and the wall, the like.

I feel like i cheese every single boss by just it, just constantly dashing on the wall, jumping up in the corner yeah yeah, and like i'm, i'm getting again.

I, i like locked as a kid, like the only way you can beat is using save states.

But like, once you know how a level works if, even if you go through like your four lives and you have to start the level again, you can get to the boss pretty quickly because you're not looking for power-ups, you're just getting there.

And then, once you're at the boss, there's like And you have like three lives to get it.

And like it is that Dark Souls that I mean, like even doing Dark Souls if you get killed, you have to run back to the boss.

So it's like I'm dying a few times as well, like teaches you what the Mega Man bosses are.

You know, it's yeah, same as anything dying, you know, just trying to read the patterns and figure out how they move and all that stuff.

And that elation that's so, when you finally kill the boss, like I stand up and scream.

It's so exciting.

Are you doing all this?

Because you're trying to play all the Mega Man games before Pragmata comes out?

Maybe, maybe.

Oh, my God.

No, I'm so obsessed with Capcom.

Capcom, Ichiban.

I told the producers on Emushi that.

You tell every producer Ichiban.

Dude, oh, I didn't say this.

Tokyo Extreme Racer, Genki, they had a booth at PAX.

So I went up to them.

I was like, oh, Tokyo Extreme Race, Ichiban.

This game's awesome, Ichiban.

And they're like, oh, thank you.

And then one of the producers was like, Joshi Purores, they saw my T-shirt.

I was wearing a Ram Kai Chao shirt.

I'm a stardom hat.

Oh, yeah.

And then I flipped.

I showed them my backpack.

They freaked out.

And then one of them asked the most specific question.

It was like, how do you feel about Mayu Iwatani leaving stardom?

And then I was like, hold on a second.

I opened up my phone and I showed them.

I showed and I was like, and I showed them the picture of me with Mayu Iwatani.

That was only possible because she went to a lesser promotion.

And in order for that promotion to make money, they have to force her to do meet and greets.

So I was like, it's awesome.

Cause I met her and they were like, what?

And I was like, yeah, it's Tokyo last week.

And then I was like, okay, back to the game.

Yeah.

I like your game.

Cause it's like being in Tokyo, whatever.

But it was so funny just to be like, oh my God.

It's, it was like, it felt so cool.

My wife would kept saying like, I thought I saw Frank.

She's like, there's like a lot of guys who look like Frank at PAX.

And I'm like, just if the hat says stardom, it's Frank.

And if it doesn't, it's not Frank.

Yeah.

Yeah yeah um, so yeah, i don't know.

I think what it is is like it's fun to read.

Also again, being in japan, there's so many megaman figures and stuff and it's like it's like now i'm like damn it, if i was now, i gotta go back and get megaman stuff.

But um, it's always fun to kind of re rewrite your opinion on something again, especially opinions you formed as a kid.

Like yeah, i always thought megaman was too hard, but it's like wait, i've spent 30, you know decades playing games, i can do this.

Now he's starting to believe right?

So so Yeah, and again, the soundtracks are so good.

They're so good, dude.

The soundtracks shaped my.

I have three specific music core memories in my life as a child and they were the Mega Man soundtrack.

A little toy I had that was shaped by a guitar, like a guitar.

And it would like playback little, like super compressed guitar samples.

Uh, and, and all three of these are kind of the same aesthetic.

The third is the first time I heard Daft Punk as a child.

Um, they all have this like sort of like crunchy sampled guitar, like fake guitar thing, that just like I don't know.

It, it shaped my whole aesthetic as a child.

Um the uh Mechaman X uh.

Also like the character design in X one, two and three was so like I don't know there was.

I always liked the base Mega Man characters.

Like I had figures of Proto Man and Guts Man and Mega Man as a kid that I should, I should dig up and see if they still exist somewhere.

Um, but Mega Man X was like the cool version.

You know what I mean?

That's what the X indicated is that it was cool.

It felt like Mega Man was very like chibi and cute.

It was like eight bit and like big eyes.

And then X was like, okay, let's get into the attitude.

You know, like back when, like Nintendo versus Sega.

And so it was all, that was what the nineties tone was.

So it felt like X was like, all right, Mega Man's here too.

And now he's got the edge.

And, um, yeah, it's so sick.

Yeah.

When I can't, I think it's X two or something in the intro.

Maybe it's an X one.

I can't remember.

You could tell me maybe, if you've played these recently, that uh like uh, megaman gets into trouble and like zero saves him.

When zero comes out with the sword and the cape yeah yeah, the music kicks in.

That was like the fucking coolest.

That, like i played that scene a thousand times as a child just to hear the music and see zero it's it's, it's megaman x, because it's like a boss fight you're supposed to lose.

Yeah, that's like my most hated trope in video games me too because he gets locked up and it's like freaking out.

Yeah, it's so good.

Those games are great.

Um, I also.

I was.

I said this the other week when we were talking about Metroid.

But like they fucking, they need to.

The way to bring Mega Man back is to make a Mega Man Metroidvania.

It's like, there are so many Metroidvania elements in the Mega Man games.

And also they control so similarly to, to Metroid.

Like Samus has a fucking gun arm.

Um, yeah.

Like how, yeah.

You, every time you kill a boss, you get a new item. you know yeah and just just take ever just take megaman x and put all of the levels in a world together it's that easy it's not i was like yeah like i don't know that that sounds like some like hack rom hack yeah we'll take all eight stages and have them all connected there is a um i was looking at this the other day is it's megaman corrupted i think it's called megaman x corrupted this is a fan project i believe this is the right one yes so this has been in the works for for years and i think the estimated release date is 20 oh no is it like every game in the same world or something no no it's like a totally original megaman x game made by fans and if you watch there's a uh i can't remember if it's like a trailer or like a a gameplay sample um but the the music the sprite art the like everything about it is is as good if not better than the original megaman xr it is this is the sort of stuff we need to start doing reporting on because it's like this is no one else is going to cover this nonsense like that is true all man this looks crazy oh my god i'll reach i'll see if i'll see if there's contact out there i'm sure they would love the coverage because this is a this is like a decade-long project i can't remember how long it's been in the works but i i remember hearing about it a long time ago yeah jkb games i just look at the most recent video from like five months ago and the pixel art is like it's like tribute games it's like a mind-blowing it's like this is insane this looks incredible this is crazy it's so good um yeah i'll uh i'll see yeah i would love to talk to these folks Man, oh, man.

OK well, speaking of games that are coming out in the future, let's talk about games that are coming out in the future.

We're in September.

There's only four months left in the year, right?

September, October, November, December.

Sure.

Two thirds of the way through 2025.

It's been a roller coaster.

But the games, most of the games are about to come out.

That's kind of how this weird industry works.

I guess it's all about Christmas and Thanksgiving for some reason.

Um, so let's go through some of them.

I'm not going to have absolutely all of them, of course, but uh we'll we'll, we'll.

We'll get through a bunch of them, as many as we can.

Uh, you guys tell me if there's anyone you want to talk, I'll do a month.

And then, if there's any month, anything in that month that stands out to you, that you're looking forward to uh uh, just jump in.

Uh, so let's go through September pretty quick.

Uh, hell is us, I think is coming out tomorrow.

No, the next day.

And so it'll be out by the time this podcast is up.

The Indiana Jones and the Great Circle DLC is also out this Thursday, which is good for us because we have a bunch about that DLC in our Indiana Jones documentary which will be out in about a week after that.

Silk Song is out on the 4th, of course, but Silk Song, of course, had to make way for Frank's favorite game, Everybody's Golf Hot Shots, which is coming out on the 5th, which is the day this podcast goes up.

Borderlands 4 is coming out September 12th, would you believe massive.

Uh um, what the fuck were they doing?

Or smashing glass or something frank at the?

Yeah, they had, they had this, they had a.

You could hear it like from a mile away.

There would just be a loud smashes.

So borderlands four's booth was they had calling like a rage room, which these are similar like escape rooms.

You dress up in like slipknot suits and you just with a baseball bat smash smash, like plates and stuff which is like it's.

It's literally just making noise to get attention to your booth.

So i was like all right, it made it made my me and my family think that somebody had gone crazy when we went into the booth and go the opposite direction.

That's just out like on the streets of seattle or inside.

Yeah, like the streets of seattle outside of the convention center are pretty gnarly.

So um, lego voyager, is that september 15th?

Dying light the beast is that september 19th.

And then baby steps is out on september 23rd, as is consume me, which won a bunch of awards at the igf this year On the 25th, same day as Silent Hill F, Sonic Racing, Cross Worlds is hitting the consoles and PC on September 25th.

We have EA Sports FC 26.

They're riding high on that, no longer calling it FIFA.

Didn't seem to make a difference.

And that's coming out.

Pac-Man World 2 Repack.

There were a lot of people playing that at PAX as well.

That's coming out around the end of the month.

Final Fantasy Tactics.

The Invalis Chronicles.

NBA Bounce.

And Lego Party.

Lego Party was fun.

We played that at SGF.

That was good fun.

NBA Bounce.

I did not know about this.

It is a family-friendly game. nba game which makes me think wait what's what's not family friendly i was thinking the same thing base basketball yeah i don't know um yeah september any particularly fancy there lads uh i consume me i've been psyched for i've been i kind of know i want to play it so even though it's got a lot of coverage i've kind of um intentionally blocked it out Baby Steps as well.

I like Bennett Foddy a lot.

Oftentimes his games are too frustrating for me.

Getting over it, I was like, wow, this is a fantastic piece of art.

I will never complete it.

Yes, I'll watch streams of people playing it, but I will not play it myself.

Yeah.

Agreed.

Uh, but I think baby steps might be the one that gets me to go all in on it.

Um, it seems like, I don't know if it's more approachable, but for some reason I get the sense.

Yeah.

It feels that way to me.

I just I don't know if that's a Trojan horse for Bennett Foddy's evil genius to work its way into my life.

Um, and then silent hill half.

Yeah, definitely i.

I did not click with the silent hill 2 remake um, but it wasn't because it didn't, it's not because it wasn't made well, it's not because it was bad, it was just like i.

I personally have my silent hill 2 experience and it was recent, like it's not, like i have like a nostalgia for this game.

I played it like two, three years ago for the first time and loved it.

Um, i just didn't need to go back to that world and i especially didn't want to see a different version of it because it was still like so fresh in my mind.

But um, But you know like technically it was.

It was brilliantly made.

So Silent Hill F having a similar presentation?

At least you know from the trailer or whatever, I think.

Yeah, I fingers crossed it's good.

Silent Hill has a mixed track record.

Yeah.

And then, yeah, I'm excited for Hot Shots Golf, Silent Hill.

There's two games not listed on that Hotel Barcelona, which is the new Swery and Suda 51 game.

It looks like a micro.

It's like a side scrolling hack and slash.

But I'm curious.

Yes.

And then the Mortal Kombat Trilogy Collection comes out September 29th.

It was on all the PAX lanyards as well, wasn't it?

It was cool, yeah.

It was pretty cool.

Yeah, looking forward to that one.

That'll be good.

From our good friends over at Digital Eclipse as well.

New games for October 2025.

Ghost of Utoi kicks it off October 2nd.

Then we have Battlefield 6 October 6th sorry, october 10th.

Little nightmare's tree is out that day as well uh.

Jurassic world evolution 3 is october 21st and my wife will be very excited to play that.

She's a big fan of that series.

And ninja gaiden 4 is also coming out that same day, as is vampire, the masquerade, bloodlines 2 again, we've talked about a lot over the years which has had a tumultuous development.

Several studios touching that one.

I believe the chinese room has been the ones finishing it.

Um, and i really much enjoyed their scottish oil rig game that came out last year.

What was that called?

Again, it's too many games and i have dementia so i don't know anything anymore.

Why are we all forgetting the names?

Terrible we're.

What uh?

The, the something the, something deep, the what the fuck is it called something?

I'm just googling.

The something deep, scottish something underscore deep Still wakes.

The deep.

Still wakes the deep.

There we go.

Thank you.

Once Upon a Katamari is coming out October 24th.

The Outer Worlds 2, the third game released by Obsidian Entertainment in the year of our Lord 2025, after Avowed and the sequel to Grounded, is coming out October 29th.

Ark Raiders is coming out October 30th, a game that we are very familiar with because we're doing a secret tape project about it.

There will be a three-part documentary series coming out quite soon after that release date.

All about that game.

So I'm excited to see what the reception to the game is.

And Mina the Holler is coming out October 31st as well.

So some good stuff coming out in September.

Anything for you guys?

There's also Terminator 2D.

I mentioned it last week.

But again, Terminator 2D No Fate, October 31st. which looks very cool.

Yeah.

Moonlighter 2 as well.

Oh, excellent.

I enjoyed the first Moonlighter, one of the like six games I played on my Nintendo Switch.

Yeah, Moonlighter is a game where you do like a little dungeon delving and then you come back and run an RPG shop and it's bouncing.

It's like the first of those, wasn't it?

I feel like Dave the Diver and all those came out after where you do like doing two games, you know?

They're all sort of also taking inspiration from, I think it's called Reciteer.

It's like a, Frank, what's it called?

Is it Dojin Soft?

What's it called when Japanese developers are like the hobbyist developers that end up making you know what I'm talking about?

Yeah, I think the broad term is Dojin because that's what like Toho is and all that.

Like it's all fan-made games.

Yeah, Dojinshi, that's the word.

And what does that mean?

They're like fan-made games that become commercial games.

Uh, doujinshi is japanese term for self-published print work, such as magazine manga and novels.

There is a video game equivalent, but i don't know if it's a different.

So it's like a different layer of indie that sort of exists in japan or something.

Yes, so the reciteer was a series that i think predates moonlighter.

I'm pretty sure that is a incredibly similar like dungeon delving and then coming back and running a shop.

But um, it was a sort of like bunch of people were like, let's just make a game for fun.

And then it blew up into this thing okay, and was Moonlighter, the same people no no no, Moonlighter is like, the genre is like identical.

Yeah, I that that like dungeon shop duality was sort of uh, the similarity excellent.

And then in November, Europa Universalis 5 is out for all you sickos on November 4th.

Uh, Karn is out on November 5th.

I think we've talked about that a bunch on here.

Unbeatable, i think, was that act.

No, people were talking to me a lot about unbeatable actually.

Um, i don't think it was that packs, but we, that was the one that had a really sick trailer as well.

Um from uh, from play stack.

Um, what else we got?

Uh, black ops 7, if you're into that type of thing, is that november 14th?

Uh, demon school coming out november 19th.

Now Got kicked a few months down the road by Silksong.

We'll have a preview of that on Noclip 2 in the next little while.

We'll talk to you about Noclip 2 soon as well.

I know I keep saying Noclip 2, but we're getting there.

Kirby Air Riders, which had a big presence at PAX as well, November 20th.

And I'm trying to see if there's anything else on this one that stands out.

It's actually a relatively sleepy November now that I look at it.

I know 117 is there.

Goodnight Universe.

Anything else that I didn't pick up on, Frank, from your list?

Yeah, nothing on November.

I have, like, yeah, nothing immediately.

Okay, well, there you go.

And the only one I have for December is Octopath Traveler Zero early in the month, which kind of tracks, I guess.

There is some other stuff that hasn't gotten...

Release dates, of course, for the rest of this year.

So we don't know if Marathon's coming out, Metro Prime 3, or sorry, 4.

I guess Skate just came out of, or it's in early access now.

Have you played this, Frank?

I think it comes out like the 16th or something.

I was, I was so angry because I've had so many friends get accepted to this.

I had a friend who's been on it for like two years.

And like, I never got access.

I was so angry.

And I always make jokes because there's like every month they'll, they'll have like a feedback form.

And I'm always like tell them to send me an invite code.

I i, it makes me so mad.

I feel like i'm the biggest skate fan.

I never got access me.

Neither i'm like let me, i have a.

I have a lot of time with like indie uh, skateboarding games on steam and i was like surely, and like and tony hawk, of course, but no, nothing either.

So I don't right.

I feel like I can get in there and help.

Let me, let me, I don't know.

So, but thankfully I was at my friend's place and yeah, I got, I finally got to play it and see it.

And it's so funny.

Cause he has the alpha and there's 6,000 watermarks.

Like it has your player ID, your name.

So I like, I think now it was like the, the August 28th, they lifted.

So you could share clips.

And then, yeah, I think it's like the 16th.

It's finally gonna be open to everybody.

Um, yeah, it's, uh, man, it felt exactly, I picked it up.

It felt really cool.

One thing they have now is I'm sure you could turn up and in the in the bottom of the screen it has like the little uh right thumb stick.

So it shows you exactly what your inputs are doing.

Cause that was always a thing with skate is you'd have missions.

That's like do a 360 flip and you're, it's so hard to get the exact motion.

So on screen, it is literally showing how specific your movements are, which is kind of neat.

And there's a lot of silly movements.

It still seems like kind of silly, which is what skate three was, which I'm not a big fan of.

You can like, you can like, like, uh, roll around like Sonic and just, I don't know.

There's so much silly movement stuff, but, um, it's always online.

So there's just random people in the, in the lobby.

So you can skate with, there's co-op missions and stuff.

I only got to play for like 10 minutes, but, um, I'm dying to like dive in and chill out with it.

There's like micro there's, there's cosmetics my friend had vans like there's all a bunch of stuff that's licensed in here, thrasher and stuff.

Again, this is from my the best demo i played at pax was playing the skate alpha at my friend's house.

Um so, which?

Yeah, it's.

So it's coming to early access, i believe on the 16th, which is two weeks from today, on tuesday, so that's a tuesday.

Sorry, i should stop saying today, because this comes out on a friday.

Uh, we were corporate early in the week.

Um so yeah, it'll be the 16th, so tuesday week, basically it'll be coming out.

So uh yeah, We'll definitely be diving in at that stage.

I know for sure.

I know Gerstmann played some as well.

I saw him post something on his Patreon.

So I got to go check that out as well.

So, yeah, those are at least the games that, you know, we know about.

Obviously, indie stuff drops that doesn't get added.

So we were pulling from a games radar list, which hopefully Jesse will put in the show notes.

I checked a couple of other lists and it seemed like the one that had a bunch of stuff on it.

Um, but yeah, obviously that won't be everything exhaustively, but at least that's a bit of a heads up on what's coming out for the rest of the year.

Hey frank, i got one.

Sorry, go ahead, jump into the next thing.

Uh, mouse pi for hire, of course yes 1930s, like rubber hose.

Uh, you know, steamboat willie, first person shooter, public domain.

Yeah yeah, exactly public domain.

I don't know.

I don't actually know if it's an msim or like more of a boomer shooter.

I think it's more of a boomer shooter, but regardless, it looks.

Uh, looks amazing.

Yeah, it does, it looks amazing.

Hopefully it plays good too, because the the art style is really it's like cuphead levels of holy shit.

I need to see what this looks like.

Yeah, it's pretty cool.

Uh Frank, you want to take some emails?

Oh, yeah, yeah.

I was going to say there's one game it's worth mentioning.

The trailer for this came out a while ago.

It says release date quarter four, 2025.

It's called Sweet Hamster Days.

This is a Japanese dating sim.

The premise is you get hit by a bus and you're reincarnated as a hamster in a home of three sisters.

And it's like a romantic dating sim, but you're a hamster and i.

But it's the craziest fmv game.

Yeah yeah, are you sure this isn't one of those steam nsfw games?

Well, so it's produced by friday, which is like japan's leading graver magazine.

It's like a weekly thing, but it's not nudity, it's So Graveur is the line.

Japan has very strict pornography laws.

So Graveur is like everyone's wearing bikinis and stuff like that.

They're not bikinis, but like underwear.

But it's produced by like a legit studio, like a photo studio, whatever.

So I'm really interested in that.

But there's no release date, but quarter four, 2025.

I'm legitimately excited for this.

Well, keep an eye out for Sweet Hamster Days.

Yeah.

Uh, and then now as we keep our eyes on Frank, thank you.

I, that, yeah, that was what I was going to, whenever that's out, I'd love to wait.

It has the same publisher as and Roger, the incredibly sad game that Jesse mentioned the other day.

I just want to point that out.

Wow.

Apropos of nothing like a, like a, you know, wasabi and a bit of ginger.

You know what I mean?

Yeah.

I think they do.

They're, they're good.

Uh, okay.

Emails.

If you want to send us an email, write to us podcast at noclipvideo or in our Patreon Discord in the podcast chat channel.

That's podcast at noclip.video.

Our first question comes from Catherine asking about insect games.

Hi all with hollow night sequel coming out.

I've been wondering, are there any games that really make you feel like an insect?

They don't necessarily have to have you play as an insect.

Time flies is the only one I could think of these, but games that give you a worm's eye view of the world.

I mean, I have the ultimate answer to this.

Can I go first?

Mr. Mosquito.

Yeah.

Oh, that's a great one.

Frank's not into PlayStation two.

I want to say uh, I'm not sure if I've ever I don't think I've ever actually played it, but I've seen video of it over the year.

You are, you play a mosquito and I, if I'm right uh, You spend, I think, the entire game in this one house, with this one family, and you're basically just trying to suck blood, as much blood as you can from them in various situations.

I feel like that game whenever I see video of that game.

That is the game that makes you feel like an insect because everything's big.

You're like a little mosquito.

They're all moving around in like fast paced world and you're trying to.

Sort of you know, not get in their way or get squished and harvest your blood from these giant behemoth humans.

So that's my one for sure.

One that came to mind, isn't Jet Force Gemini the N64 game?

Isn't that like, aren't you on an insect planet or something?

I just know you're killing a bunch of bugs.

Yeah, all the enemies are bugs in it, yeah. yeah i yeah i think you're aliens you land on earth and you're fighting bugs or something i don't know but that's yeah true that's an interesting flip on the premises instead of humans that are small it's bugs that are large by that metric body harvest also is a good earth defense force as well i mean they're all that yeah uh chibi robo isn't you're not a bug but you're bug sized uh which is i mean it you know it's like If the fantasy you're after is being small in a world where like tables are the size of mountains, then Chibi Robo.

Hey, just play Unreal Tournament then, you know, get level order.

That's true.

There's an Astro's Astro Bot, the new one level.

There's a couple of them where you get really small, which are very cool.

But I feel like tomorrow that's more mouse sized or something.

I think the aesthetic they use is very mousy.

I feel like there's a bunch of like. early pc games like sacrifice and and maybe giant citizen kabuto that feel kind of earthy there's like there was like there was like an era of pc game textures that exist there that feels very earthy and insectoid like xeno clash as well like games that had this sort of like i don't know like hyper colorized textures for ground and stuff i don't know they just felt like very very earthy in a way it makes me feel like insects i don't know why it gives me the vibe true uh sim ant also of course you're not it's it's kind of defeats the purpose because it's like an omniscient perspective of little bugs so it kind of is like being a human looking at bugs but that's the thing worms and worms 3d neither of them make you feel like you're a worm like that's a good point you're just a person but like hogs of war it doesn't make you feel like a pig either it's just like yeah they're worms but yeah i'm trying to think other games like digging around i don't mean like i don't feel like grounded is an obvious yeah we talked about grounded earlier in this podcast but i've never even played those games but they seem cool yeah i guess the same thing where it's like you got to play with a bunch of people or most people do so i don't i don't mess with them but yeah maybe if my daughter gets old enough to play those games you could do them it's like honey i shrink the kids or whatever yeah anything else coming to mind I think of like wet and fleshy and that sort of thing.

Games don't really do that.

You know what I mean?

Games don't do a lot of gross.

Like people don't like being in gross places.

So.

Yeah, there's like Devil May Cry I forget which one, I think it's DMC3 but in one of them you're like fighting.

You're inside like a monster's body.

So all the walls are just disgusting dripping flesh and it's like yeah, that's gross.

I feel like my maybe it's just a very human like perspective is that when I think of being an insect, I think of gross and I think of things being bigger than me, but like to an insect, they probably don't give a shit.

They're probably just like you know, so like It's like planets.

Look at us and go whoa.

It must be weird being a human.

You can't even fly through space.

You know, because planets talk.

True.

If planets could talk.

Webbed, another one by S-Bug Games, where you're a little tiny spider.

Webbed.

Platformer, 2D platformer.

Okay.

Oh, yeah, Webbed.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I forgot about this thing.

God, that's a blast.

Not the most recent past, I guess.

Yeah, there you go.

And then M asked about our Machine Games doc.

Watching the most recent Machine Games series, I was astonished by what a tumultuous time the studio has faced.

From having their first game canceled, joining with another studio, making a self-admitted bad game, being dropped by their publisher and going through a laundry list of many other challenges and disappointments, through multiple other publishers and restructurings, they've ended up making some really fantastic games and they've come out the other side of it with their ambitions intact, to great success.

My question is do you think that there's a level of unpredictability and chaos that's almost inevitable in an industry that's arguably even more of a clusterfuck than Hollywood?

It feels miraculous that any game ever gets made.

So do you feel that ambitious games are always going to necessitate a pretty high degree of instability, like this?

I don't even know if it's ambitious games.

I think just like the industry has always been this tumultuous.

Like most studios we've talked to, I feel like had a rough time of it uh, at some stage, um along the way.

Uh, and if we didn't talk to them, it's cause they don't exist anymore.

And they had a rough period and stopped.

I mean one of the things that was really sad when we were me and Frank were doing the, the panel is uh, a couple of folks came up and asked questions during the Q and a section and it also talked to us afterwards had recently been let go from monolith and like that's.

That's a studio which we could have easily done a documentary on at any stage over the past couple of years and it would have been.

It would have been just stories about that, like they've been around for 20 something years and had loads of you know they had like great days but like early games, like blood and all these like awesome games they made.

And then, you know when, when the shadow of mordor game came out and i remember one game of the year at game spa, like that was such a big moment for that studio again to be like, you know, this game did really well and and they were, you know, critically and commercially successful, and then obviously the was a wonder woman they were working on, you know.

So i feel like this is just like every studio, you know it.

The same thing happened with, you know the, you know io interactive we interview, we talk to them arcane definitely, you know, especially austin um, So I don't even think it's like, I don't even think it's necessarily their ambition.

But I do think at a certain point, when you've had all this bad stuff happen and you've been making safe choices, I think some people just get you know well, fuck it.

If we're almost going to die and we're doing things that we think are going to work, let's do something crazy and see if that works.

And sometimes it works out.

And those are the studios we still talk about.

And sometimes it doesn't.

And those are the studios that get lost or forgotten about.

Yeah.

The funding instability thing is also like a front loaded or back loaded problem, where if you get funding then it's about like meeting milestones and meeting expectations and like managing that, or like studios closed down or publishers closed down.

Uh, whereas you know a lot of indie developers.

Now it's about sort of like we'll make this thing and hope that it makes enough money or recoups its costs, or that we can get funding, or we can get it, like you know, 80 of the way to the finish line and then pitch to publishers.

Um, And so it's kind of just like, yeah, pick your poison.

Do you want to try to like pitch an idea to people based on speculative stuff and get investment?

Or do you want to just like.

I don't know.

I mean, it's it's not feasible to sort of just like make things on spec to a lot of the times.

Like if you're, if you have five employees for three years.

You know, multiply five yearly salaries times three.

And then that's like that's a crazy amount of money already for a small game.

It's nuts how.

The other problem with the, with all the investment stuff, is that, like that only works for really big games.

Is that, like most you know, anyone who has money doesn't want to invest in?

Like.

I feel like if any of us had that much money, we would invest in 20 great, interesting looking ideas rather than one games of service to rule over them all.

Right.

But that's of course, that's the world of investment.

They are always going to be going for the big ticket.

And that's why we've constantly seen these big projects that have run for four years and cost hundreds of millions of dollars and they come out and they don't work and it's like, oh well, of course you know.

It's like you stayed really close to the status quo because you had all this money and this massive amount of people, you were going to have to get in through the door and it didn't work out and it's just a shame that there is no pipeline for that on a smaller scale.

Like i don't know, maybe there is somebody doing it somewhere.

But like, surely if you were like a big fan of games and you were a billionaire, just like fucking go fund a bunch of cool looking shit, like what's wrong with you?

Like i don't understand.

Yeah, whatever people who, people whose main motivation is money, i guess are motivated by the money and they're not motivated by making cool shit.

So sort of self-defeating, i guess, maybe.

And then Steven Rodin asked I was wondering if any of you have a favorite old game that you replay on a regular basis, or have you played a recent new game inspired by an older game that made you go back and play that old game again?

I feel like that's Jeremy, every week is playing an old game because of a new game or a new game because of an old game.

Yeah, I'm not big on replaying games, but I am big on like yeah, play.

If i play an old game, then i'm like oh, i need to see what people are doing in this genre space now.

Or if i play a new game, i'm like oh, i need to see the origins of the genre.

Um, super metroid i've talked about a lot recently because it was just, you know i, i was a blind spot.

I'd never played a metroid game and i'd played a ton of metroidvania, so that was fun.

Uh, and then that conversely, i just rubber banded back and started replaying hollow knight for the first time.

Um Yeah, I don't know if I don't have like a comfort game.

I'm trying to think like if there's like a game that I just like fire up sometimes.

I do a lot of going back and playing Quake 3 or Quake Champions or Quake Live or something like that, like Unreal Tournament.

That'll that's my comfort game.

I'll go back and play like 30 minutes and then be like yeah, video games, and then get on to the next one.

I wish that I could have a more healthy relationship with competitive shooters.

It just, I have no breaks on the car.

Uh, like I wish I could fire like deadlock got a new update and has a bunch of crazy big update.

It looks like, and it's huge.

Like um, it's not back up to where it was peak, wise for concurrent players, but it's like I had a last.

I checked.

It was like halfway back up there and climbing.

Um, but uh, it's having a second wave and i'm like, should i get back into it?

And then i look at my time plate and it's like 130 hours and three weeks or whatever, and it's oh my god, oh yeah i've i've, i've had to hide it on my steam library and install it because i was, i just was, it was like that, and balatro or like the only things that are hidden on my steam library uh, i just fucking.

There's no, i'm all or nothing.

I'm like a.

I'm like an alcoholic.

When it comes to competitive shooters, i just like I can't have like two beers and hang out with the boys.

I'm like, let's fucking let's get a bag of Coke and hit the next bar.

That's my relationship to competitive shooters.

THPS might be the other one.

I don't know.

Oh, yeah.

You know, that's that's a that's a pretty good time.

I like to turn the soundtracks off, play my own music and do that stuff.

I had a buddy come over to my friend Dale.

My friend Dennis came over, obviously, for QuakeCon and we did the road trip.

He brought my daughter some cool little gifts.

He brought her like a little Mario Kart RC car thing, which was cool.

But he also got her Sonic Origins on the Switch because she's been playing Mario Kart and stuff like that.

And he was like, you know, he's a Sega boy.

So he was like, you got to play some Sonic. some sonic stuff um and he was like admittedly he's like a lot of these games are probably going to be too hard for her right now she's seven um so i've been playing a bit of that and it's it just reminded me how fucking difficult sonic's games sonic games were or they can be um but yeah there's a hell of a bunch of games on those so it's a good time can you play mr mosquito on anything new that's what i want to play now oh there's a playstation 4 version came out 2024 playstation 5 no fucking way playstation 5 mr mosquito are you for real oh and it's part of playstation premium so dude dude and there are trophies for it whoa yeah it's right here holy shit i've never played it i think i might have to do a little video on this god be careful of the air current coming from the air conditioner suck three tanks of blood there is one ex tanks here oh my god i have to play this mr mosquito i'm gonna download it right now is mr mosquito is like a bit of a horny game is it not i think it might be yeah there's there is a level where a girl's in a taking a bath you know i feel like every screenshot oh yeah wait hold on is this a real i feel like every screenshot i look up is like a woman's feet oh really Yeah, there's a box art.

I can't tell if this is real, but is the Japanese box art for this just a woman's foot with a mosquito on it?

What?

I have to look this up.

Is this a real box art?

If you just Google Mr. Mosquito and go to images, there are several instances of a Mr. Mosquito.

There's also a part where there's a guy lying down in a bed.

But you know he's in it, but he's not.

Well, i was gonna say he's not desirable because he has like a comb over in glasses.

But maybe that's your type.

Don't yuck my yum, sorry.

I'm so sorry.

You're right.

I don't know if the, if the japanese box has it has a lady's feet on it.

Do you see?

There's multiple results that say there's an amazon.

Oh my god, is that it for real?

That looks like an old person's foot.

I assumed it was a woman's foot, because there are also screenshot of a woman with cartoonishly large feet.

But it could be a trick of perspective.

That's fair enough.

Yeah.

Look, this looks like a it's like a it's like a painting of a foot or something.

It's not a photograph.

It's not gameplay.

And it has an actual mosquito on her small toe, which is creeping me out.

Yeah.

Sitting on a tatami mat.

It's very authentic.

Wow.

That is.

There you go.

Yeah, you might be right, because there's another box art, or for Mr Mr Mosquito too, where it's on her face, it's on a lady's face.

There you go yep, and then the american one just has like a big 3d looking mosquito guy.

Because we can't, we can't fuck with that stuff.

Um, thanks for the uh emails.

Everyone that was a good time appreciate it.

And one game i played at pax that is not a video game is uh.

All the canadians are gonna love this game called crokinole.

Ever play crokinole.

It's like a shuffleboard kind of thing.

It's like a circular, it's spelt as it sounds, but with a K, Crokinole.

It's like a four-player competitive shuffleboard kind of.

Well, I mean shuffleboard's competitive, but there's like a hole in the middle where you slide discs.

You like flick discs across it.

And so it's kind of like the curling a little bit where you're knocking other people's discs off the thing, or shuffleboard.

But me and my daughter got really into it.

It was really good fun.

It's a shame that the coconut boards cost like 300 bucks or something.

They're only made in Canada.

But it was good fun.

I really enjoyed it.

Are you trying to sink one of the pucks into that center hole?

If you get it in the center hole, it's worth 20 points.

If you get it in the middle area, it's 15, then 10, then five.

But the key thing is that you have to.

If someone else has a, has a puck or whatever it's called on the play board, you have to hit it.

If you don't hit it, then your, your point is invalid.

So you're trying to, so so it's almost like, it's almost like um, it's like track position in in racing.

It's like having dominance on the board is almost more important than actually getting the points in there.

But yeah, it's a good time.

If you get it in the middle, it gets 20 and then you pull it out and you put it to the side.

But yeah, Crokinole, had a good time on Crokinole.

It's good shit.

Canada, there you go.

They made high sake and Crokinole, probably at the same time.

They're kind of similar.

And that's the podcast, folks.

That's it.

Thanks for coming to our panel.

Our MachineGames documentary series continues.

The Wolfenstein series doc should be out by the time this is up.

Go check that out over on Noclip.

We'll have some news on Noclip 2, the second channel, pretty soon.

Thanks to everyone who found the second Patreon and signed up to it.

I think maybe Patreon sent out emails to people by accident.

I was like, fuck.

Um, but we'll have, we'll have announcements for all that stuff.

Um, and all of our big plans, unless you were at the PAX panel, and then you saw a lot of those big plans, including an announcement of a documentary we're filming later this year that we haven't told you about yet.

Yeah.

So we'll, we'll be, we haven't even told the patrons about that one actually.

So only people at the panel know about that.

So, um, I'll talk about that on this month's patron show as well.

If you're a patron over at no clip.

Um, yeah.

Uh, so expect all of that. goodness what are you guys doing for the rest of the week frank i'm assuming sleeping yeah i gotta i talked about in our meeting but like i i want to edit this big japan video and i wrote like all these these pages of voiceover but i have a sore throat so it's like i can record a temp track i'm gonna have to re-record it but yeah i have to literally walk to cvs i don't even feel like i can drive because i'm so night cool so i have to walk to cvs get more medicine um but yeah just recover and then uh yeah but work on the japan video and then um dude hot shots golf on friday i'm so excited that's it move over silica song uh i am let's see i did a very cool interview yesterday i'm excited to start editing that um we'll talk about that soon it's for noclip too um very talented game developer who i admire a lot uh so gonna start on that do some game dev myself uh take that inspiration actually it is funny working on a game and talking to game devs for work because then they'll they'll say things that i'm like oh that's great for the interview but my primary thought before that is like oh shit like i need to like i need to like write that down and like think about that when i'm developing games so it's a it's a fringe benefit i'm recapturing that energy for ulterior motives um and yeah taking care of some business and hopefully getting i want to go to the beach one more time if the weather gets nice but it hasn't been super hot here so i'm hoping we get a little uh a little i think all indian summer i feel like if i say native american summer that feels over corrective and and not right i always thought indian because of the india country but i don't know i have no idea whenever it's american and they say indian i always assume it's just like 1898

Oh, no, you're right.

The term is originally from a variety of sources.

I'm not reading the fucking AI stuff.

What am I doing?

Indian summer.

Yeah, you might be right.

It's got to be.

It's a term I've only ever learned when I moved over here, so that must be it.

Yeah.

Yeah, well, we'll find a better term for it.

And, as Slavoj Žižek tells, the anecdote was talking to a Native American, about Americans saying the term Indian for Native Americans.

And he said I prefer the term Indian to Native American because, at the very least, it is a testament to the white man's ignorance, which is which is very, very funny.

Yeah, I like it.

There is something to be said about.

Native American is a very is a term that is explicitly from the perspective of the colonizer.

You know what I mean.

It's because it's not just american, exactly.

Yeah, it's like one level like, if anything, they should be american and we should be like a colonial american.

It's like the word vagina, i think, was not originally what i think a vagina is like a sheath for a sword, so it's like oh really, yeah.

So it's like a very male perspective uh word anyway sorry, i was listening to some, i was gonna google that, but then i realized immediately you should yeah, you should.

If i'm wrong, then hey look, that's it.

Folks, it was fun knowing you, that's it.

I'm out canceled, but i thought i read that or heard that.

I read that.

Whenever i say i read that, i meant i heard on a podcast, because i don't read shit.

I got, i got.

I got a weird brain.

I can't read stuff too good.

But you know what i can do.

I can play mr mosquito, which i've added to my fucking library here uh, because it's on ps, whatever streaming thing that i'm connected to, um.

So i'm gonna play some fucking mr mosquito this weekend.

I don't have a lot of editing to do.

They're gonna do a lot of editing and a lot of prep uh, also for our birthday, which is in two weeks time.

It's uh, or a week's time by the time this goes up, september 12th.

So i have to do some fun for that.

I'm actually really excited i'm not going anywhere for like six weeks, which is the first time in a while, because it's just been a busy year, flying around and my parents were here and then vacation, and then quake con and then pax and like i'm really happy and fortunate to do all these things.

But also i need editing time.

So it's nice to have like a six week period where basically get out all the machine game stuff, get all the disco stuff done um, some other white label stuff that i've been working on as well as getting wrapped up at the moment, And then I'm off to Australia for a week for South by Southwest.

So we'll be doing some sort of Patreon meetup in Sydney, for sure, while I'm out there, because I'm out there for like 10 days.

And I might be going to Melbourne as well.

I'm trying to see.

I'm also trying to see if I can swing over to Adelaide, if those Team Cherry folks are going to be a little bit less busy.

Maybe they could be interested in doing something, but I'm still trying to reach out to them over that.

So we'll see.

We'll see.

But that's it for this week.

Thank you so much.

We will be back next week.

And until then, have a fantastic video game week and we'll see you next time.

Bye.

[Noclip Podcast Episode 243: PAX Highlights, Retro Gaming Nostalgia, and Future Indie Gems]-[PAX West, Caput Mortum, The Rest of 2025's Games]

📋 Summary

PAX 2024: A Return to Form and Unexpected Adventures

Deep Dives into Indie and Retro Titles

Industry Reflections and Future Outlook

🎯Key Sentences

📝Key Phrases

📖 Transcript

[Noclip Podcast Episode 243: PAX Highlights, Retro Gaming Nostalgia, and Future Indie Gems]-[PAX West, Caput Mortum, The Rest of 2025's Games]

📋 Summary

PAX 2024: A Return to Form and Unexpected Adventures

Deep Dives into Indie and Retro Titles

Industry Reflections and Future Outlook

Deep Learning with ListenLeap

🎯Key Sentences

📝Key Phrases

📖 Transcript

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