Welcome back, everybody to the Game Informer Show, a weekly podcast covering the video game industry.

Join us every week for a discussion of the latest gaming news, reviews, and exclusive reveals, alongside Game Informer staff and special guests from around the industry.

I'm one of your hosts today, Alex van Aiken, joined by Marcus Stewart.

Hey you knowing, Marcus, I'm doing well.

You can insert a witty remark here.

I don't have one yet, but I assume them, so just put on yeah.

Yeah, Well we'll get Yeah, I've got a ton of AI tools that can implement witty remarks.

Well, it'll sound totally natural and only burn two bottles of water for for one three word sentence, but.

It'll be good if.

We can.

We got that tool too.

Don't worry about it, man, you will.

You will sound and look like Woody, but also you will have your own own corporeal form.

Welcome to the show, Eric Van Allen.

How you doing, Eric?

I think you described one of my nightmares.

I think that's that's one of my my terrors that has awoken me in the middle of the night.

Snake in my boots.

Yeah, yeah, you become Woody like, yes, you become a doll.

Rounding out the show this week, Brian Shay, how you doing.

Brian, somebody's poison the water hole.

Somebody has We were talking about this right before the show started.

Many people.

Is either a gas leak or poison in the water hole or not sure which in Minnesota right now, you guys gotta yeah, you figure that out.

Perfect time for me to move there.

Yes, absolutely well.

Welcome all to the Game Informer Show at the top.

I just want to say this show is brought to you by a Game Informer magazine subscription.

Eric has the new one in his video there ready.

If you want to support the show, to Gameminformer dot com slash subscribe and consider picking up a Game Informer magazine subscription.

You can get tent issues a year, either delivered to your mailbox or delivered to you digitally.

There's also lots of fun goodies that come in with the physical version with no added charge, so that's very cool.

We also want to say that we have announced as of today, we aren't going to be getting into it until next week, but we have announced that The Outer Worlds two is going to be the next Game and Former cover story.

So you can look forward to that.

We're also going to have a ton of online and video content and features for you to check out all that GameInformer dot Com check it out.

Let's get into the show proper, guys.

We've been playing.

I mean, there's a lot of games that are out that we're talking about.

We're going to be getting into Skate, Early Access, Sonic Racing, Crossworlds, Battlefield six.

I went hands on with two of the biggest maps in the game, including Operation Firestorm, which is a beloved be A three map, two x KO and Hurdling.

But let's get started.

Skate, Eric, you and I played skate.

We live streamed it.

That's another thing.

We're now live streaming on Wednesdays and Fridays every week.

But if you missed the stream on Wednesday, Eric and I played Skate, Skate Foard Skate early Access, Skate period.

I was gonna say it technically skate period, I think which it is.

It is choice, Yeah, yeah, but I'm I'm you know, we dove into it.

We played it for a few hours.

I don't know if you've had a chance to play it anymore, Eric, I have not.

I've I've found myself wanting to go back.

But I said this on the stream, and I mean this complimentarily.

I promise it's it's kind of a friends slop game in that it's for for those who aren't aware of the lingo.

Friend slop is a game that you probably aren't going to play by yourself, but maybe you're going to play with a group of your friends, and it becomes a social situation, the social medium, and I feel like skate is really aiming for that.

It has individual things that you can do that are challenges that direct you towards doing objectives or you know, hitting different areas that they kind of give you control, but you really just kind of impress the local skate gangs and you build your influence and things like that.

But it really I kept being reminded of track Mania in a lot of ways because of the number of people on the map at the same time and how you would just kind of follow where people were going.

You'd see somebody doing a really sick line, or building up a cool ramp somewhere, or climbing a tower to get to this really cool spot, and you would kind of go where the people are going.

And I think that's the more interesting part in this new Skate is how free form and open and interesting the city is as opposed to a lot of this single player, more oriented stuff, which is a as I understand, I've not played the original Skate games, but I think that's a departure for the Skate series.

I know a lot of people in the chat that day were saying, oh, you know, are there single player things?

Are you building your stats up?

And stuff like that?

Does not really seem like it, so no as sight aficionado's like, how do y'all kind of feel about the shift and focus?

I you know, I played, I've played every Skate game.

The one I played the most is two.

Actually, I know a lot of folks are on the same boat.

I know, Skate three obviously has lived on, especially like in online spaces like social media, where like there's a lot of just ridiculous stuff that people do in that game that's fun to watch.

But it it it does feel like a bit of a departure, but it feels natural to me.

It kind of feels like a natural evolution.

I know, once some games go from you know, there's obviously all these you know, big companies want the next live action, live service game that hits.

Yeah, yeah, sorry, everyone wants f m V coward everyone.

Back.

It's yeah, everyone's kind of chasing these games of service still, and it can often feel soulless, especially when it's a series that you love that's transitioning to those spaces.

But I think skate makes the transition pretty naturally it, you know, I think it does e a well.

Uh and what Full Circle Studio.

I think to kind of have this entire city that is designed around skating, right, It's called San Vansterdam.

It's an amalgamation different Pacific Northwest.

Representation.

Guys are the co mayors of.

Alex San Vansterdam Aiken and Eric San Vansterdam Allen as we are.

Those are our Christian names.

Yeah yeah, yeah, are given names by the skate God.

I think having this space that feels it still feels like a city that you might stumble upon, you know, there there are still cars driving around roads, and like there is a natural flow to the city that feels I was very quickly kind of finding myself not having to consult the map as much, kind of knowing where at least in the first section of the game that they kind of drop you in the cities divided into four sections, and the first section that you put into we spent a lot of time in there, you know, climbing around doing like parkour stuff as well as obviously skateboarding, and you kind of like start to get a familiarity with the space.

That is fun and it kind of feels natural.

And I think had this come out in some other form, as like a Games of Service, I think it would have felt a lot more or at a lot more jarring.

But to me, it feels pretty natural.

I like Eric said, it's honestly really invigorating to see other players doing their lines, you know, coming up with you know, seeing them do tricks, you know, seeing I saw some folks do tricks.

I was like, oh, how do you I want to know how to do that trick, like the line and going yeah, and that's kind of like a classic skate thing you can do.

But I couldn't remember the button sequences, and so like figuring that out through asking folks yea to be clear, texting a friend who was in our lobby.

There's not voice chat to my knowledge or anything like that, but it was still like this, it feels very lively in a really fun way.

And while I think there is still a general lack of content and the sense of kondas not even necessarily the right word.

There's a lot of things to do.

I just think like they're the like central motivation to continue playing the game really kind of lies on you as the player, like what do you want to be doing, and less so on a character.

Really kind of like there's not there are like there's a through line.

You know, there's like some characters who will have you do challenges and stuff, but there's not really there's not a story really or anything like that kind of propelling you through.

It's just kind of like, you know, similar to a game other online games, or similar to like almost like a sandbox game, where like the onus to progress really is on you as the player, uh and just purely based on your own enjoyment and fulfilling that like skateboarding Fantasy.

Yeah, it's probably worth noting too that this is an early access launch.

Like it is, it is early it's.

Still very much a big development, so they could certainly, Yeah, they could certainly add stuff to it and will for gameplay wise.

I I am a big Tony Hawk fan.

I never really got into skate like the most Skate I think I've played was like a demo of the original Skate and I kind of was.

I was kind of turned away because of how less arcadie it was, like it it's a lot more technical, And I always got the impression from as a onlooker that Skate was kind of the Grand Turismo of skate games, of like, oh, it takes itself more seriously and maybe like too seriously for me, but watching you guys stream it looked a lot sillier than I Maybe the impression I ever got from the Skate series is the gameplay still like the same level of technicality as the old ones, or have they made it a little more arcadie.

Or I was talking to Eric about this on stream, and that Skate One when it first came out felt so much more radically semish, not the sims but.

Like simlish, yeah, yeah.

Like simlish on like real skateboarding.

Yeah.

And I think at the time didn't have any other references for that in the game space.

We had, you know, Tony Hawk for the most part, and you know, other sports there was like Kelly Slater and stuff, but those were all very arcadie, you know, And I think by comparison, Skate felt like such a stark contrast, and it felt it kind of had a lot of those labels as being you know, more realistic, you know, more more semi and you know, and and for folks who aren't aware, you are really performing your tricks on the analog sticks on your on your controller and so like an ali is down on on the right stick and then up on the right stick, and yeah, and so you're kind of and there's a lot more complicated ones and there.

I think that naturally was like a barrier to entry for some people.

I always it kind of really captured my attention when that mechanic first came out.

I think it feels really good, But I wouldn't say these days that it necessarily feels like a sim skateboarding game.

I think like there's so many other games now like Session skate sim.

There's others I'm forgetting the name of, but that have really kind of dialed in the very grounded I mean, some games are even like cutting skate tapes together and it's all very grounded, whereas Skate has some of those elements with its mechanics, but the world and the activities and and all of that are much more what's the right word, you know, surreal and kind of arcadie.

I guess right, it's in the lack of a better.

Term, it's in a fantasy world essentially.

You know, it's in this magical city where everybody skates.

I was going to mention earlier.

That's why I didn't think about it until now.

But it's kind of weird that there are cars there.

Like, we made a city where people are going to be riding around on their skateboards all the time, but we made sure there were still cars that do not break for pedestrians.

I think they do that so that I imagine when the servers are emptier it might feel a little isolating or lonely without those cars.

I think that would be core personally.

But yeah, yeah, one big player.

I do think it gives it like a real city feel, having actual cars there, right, And I imagine you can kind of grab onto the back of them and ride.

I don't know.

I was sitting on the back of one of the flatbed trucks for a while, just riding it around town, using the city emote and just kind of observing the town as it went by, and that was kind of neat, but I think this game does do a lot of really interesting stuff in that way.

Like you were saying, to take the what would normally feel kind of semi kind of hardcore, you're doing all these precise stick inputs to do certain tricks and things like that, and instead it puts it against this very open, freeform world that wants you to just find really interesting lines, find cool things.

I think they give you a really good example early on with that hedge jump that you do, because it's just a couple hedges on a slight elevation, but you can see the visual language of oh, I bet I could do a really cool looking trick off that, and the game encourages you to look for more of that.

I think my biggest frustration and the thing that I think they need to address in Early Access is the ways in which the structures of monetization and free to play are actively inhibiting the fun of the skating.

And by that I mean there's a lot of I mean there's like a pseudo loot box.

I couldn't really tell what it was, but there's some sort of thing in there that's got cosmetics that you can put money into or currency and of course, there's different kinds of currency that are accrued in different manners, and there's all that kind of stuff.

You can buy an additional pack for this game that is out there as well.

There's a Founder's pack if you want that.

And that's that's one thing set that to one side is like, okay, that's that's the free to play.

It's it's it's that we we did this really cool section uh in skate where I'd found this tower that just went straight up into the sky, higher than any other tower in skate Van Francisco or whatever, and we spent so long climbing it, and it's a really cool climb.

It's a really fun puzzle that there's there's a climbing ability that feels like Assassin's creed when you're going up the sides of the Basilica's and Assassin Assassin.

That was really weird to watch, you guys, like I didn't know this game had like straight up parkour your characters or just.

It's it's cool.

It's fun because you get to see yourself go further and further up and you keep thinking, as you get up there, there's gonna be something cool up here.

There's gonna be something so sick up here.

And when we get to the top, there's a fast travel point and it says locked, get a higher level to unlock this fast travel point.

And I just felt my stomach sink into my feet because.

It was like a twenty minute climb.

It was a really long climb.

I did it twice because I did it once before the stream it was like, we should do this on stream, it's sick, And then we did it on stream and both times it was like, right, I did this whole thing.

We get all the way up here.

We had such a fun time trying to raise each other up it and stuff like that.

And you get to the top and the game is like, you could fast travel here again if you'd like to, once you're high enough level.

We're not going to tell you what that level is though, come back later.

Maybe Who's just because you.

Had leveled up and you were thinking, oh now we.

Can maybe now we can unlock it.

No no, yeah, no.

You can you buy progression?

Is there?

Not?

To my knowledge, I couldn't see a way to do it.

In my end, I feel like all this stuff surely cosmetic.

Yeah okay, yeah, but that's the thing is.

I understand that if it's a free to play game, you need to find your way to get your revenue stream to pay everybody.

That that is just a base level of making games and publishing them.

But some of the progression stuff, I think, especially if it gets in the way of people actively wanting to explore the zones and spend time playing your game.

I think it's cool to have the structured challenges if you want to go chase those, if you need something to kind of guide and signpost you along and say here, go do this, go do this, we have cool things here, go do this.

But then also let people just explore and get rewarded for that exploring, you know, find things, and don't feel like you're approaching it in the wrong way if you go off the beat.

Not all the rewards have to tie into the microtransaction.

System like that.

That's something that like, you know, the best open world games, it's like, Okay, I'm gonna go over there and there's gonna be something cool waiting for me, and like it sucks that, Like you do all that effort and you get there and it's like come back when you don't suck Lol.

Yeah, yeah, gain gain or story quests, like that's that's a weird thing to do in a game.

At least it would normally let you just plant your flag but then be like, oh, hey, you're like not supposed to be here yet, like maybe go do some stuff, but we'll let you.

Like you got the point you got here.

But it's weird to know that I'm going to have to eventually hit some unknown level and then go climb that tower again just to get that fast travel point.

Yeah, whereas like that would have been a great reward that's not tied to monetization, like just let me have this fast turble point and that's like more of it.

It's like it's it's a game design flaw, but it does tie.

It does relate to the micro transactions, because the only way that you are getting rewarded in the game for completing things is you're getting points to spend in in the shop or getting loot boxes, where it'd be great to have these more natural rewards like cli to the top of the tower and get in the fast trouble point.

I just think that weirdly enough progression in this game.

If it's going to be an open world, free explore Go do things.

Maybe it's being updated over time, and they add kind of it'd be cool if they did some rotations and oh, you know, kind of like what Fordye does with their map, where they change it out every once in a while and the city changes and new things pop up and new lines uppear.

Having any part of that be gated by a metagame progression where you have to be a certain level to access certain things, or you can get there, but it's going to be actively detrimental if you get there before the game things you're supposed to.

Is that that's going to get in the way of the free form nature of skates, of finding these cool lines, of doing these cool things and feeling really awesome about discovering this fun way to explore the world with, you know, this piece of board under your feet and yeah, or rolling, you know, we should talk about the rolling.

Yeah, the roll.

The rolling is super fun.

Is ridiculous.

Yeah, you can essentially roll up into a ball off of your board and you can Eric calls the Blanca roll.

Shade would like it to be called the Sonic role.

I say, Blot in the comments below.

No, listen, listen.

Blanca does not use his role for transportation.

He uses it to attack opponents.

Sonic uses it for both.

He used it to attack opponents and to get places.

What is an attack but transportation closer to your opponent.

That's what I was saying about when when I get in a car, I'm like, this is an attack if somebody is in the wrong place at the wrong time.

But it is primarily a form of transportation, which is how Sonic uses it.

He goes places fast.

But then he can also attack enemies using the.

Role when I'm playing for it, so I attack that pavement, I attack that asphalt.

I'm on there, attack that assphalt.

Skateboarders are rolling up into ball.

Is this a real skateboard move?

Do people do this in real I've not seen Tony Hawk comporting itself this way.

No, No, it's it is.

Rolled up in a ball, going much faster than anybody can actually skate, Like you are going faster.

Speaking goes faster than skating.

It's it's kind of funny, and I hope they never change it.

I hope it just stays that way forever because it rules.

Yeah, but I mean, we haven't really talked about like the actual like act of skateboarding We've talked a lot about the world and all of that, but I I think skate and this game, this game definitely holds onto this element of past games where the best moments, the best time the game feels its best in like the little moments where you're just hitting a little hitting a flip, hitting a grind and landing and it just feels crisp.

The sound effects, you know, the difference in the different I've got actually got a skateboard next to me, like hitting, Yeah, I'm gonna do a trick on string, the difference in like grinding at the top of your board versus like the middle.

They've done a great job kind of capturing the various sound effects that that kind of change, and just there's like a really satisfying element to just like these little moments.

And your reward is like, you know, you get points, of course, and it tells you, you know, great job, but it's also just like the satisfaction of this of completing this more involved trick than you would in like a Tony Hawk and a Tony Hawk where you'd press X to kind of ali and then X plus left to do like a flip trick, and then you land it right, and you only have to worry about like your rotation when you land, whereas in skate you are one button.

You're pushing forward on your on your skateboard.

Then you're kind of pulling back to ready yourself with the trick, flicking forward to Ali or or another accommodation to like do a different trick and then hitting that grind, worrying about your balance and like a there's not like a there's not like a meter or a bar that you're like, there's not a mini game.

It's purely like their physics engine.

You are balancing yourself on the board, and you know, it's just it feels really great.

And also when you land, you know, and Tony Hawk, if you if you land and you're kind of just you know center, you know, you're kind of like ninety degrees to the ground, You're gonna land the trick right, as long as you aren't like at a weird angle with skate, even if you do that, if it's a really you know, with physics involved, if it's a really big jump, you have to actually change the angle of your board like forward and backwards exactly exactly, like to make sure that your trick is kind of landing on the back wheels so that you don't well you know you aren't and if you do it too much then you'll kind of the bord'll go out from underneath that kind of thing.

So it's a lot more.

There are a lot more considerations in completing a line, even a simple one, but there's it's just so satisfying to do that those those little things.

That's something that I found myself really surprised by, and maybe the main differentiator between the Tony Hawk game and a skate game, at least for me in these specific games, is that I found so much more enjoyment in just going somewhere, setting a session marker, which I think is a really smart, useful tool that you just drop a point that you can always zip back to, and saying, I see this really cool line where I can go down this ramp off here, grind the hit the ground, do a trick, and it would look really cool if I nail all that, And it's all about the locomotion.

It ends up being all about the getting from point A to B and just doing this very simple line compared to, like you said, some of the stuff that you might be able to do in Tony Hawk, but is Tony Hawk's more of a You're racking up really high scores like pinball, where the ball's going everywhere and the scores rising up and you're getting millions of points.

You're like, yeah, cool, cool, cool, and that does satisfy a really good itch in my brain.

But skate feels like the opposite.

Where do you all remember Marble Madness where you have to get the marble across different stuff.

It's that's the difference.

It's pinball versus Marble Madness, where in one case, I'm trying to get this really cool high score with all the tricks in ways I know I can link the entire park together, And in skate it felt like I was, Okay, how do I navigate this whole thing without beefing it and get like a really sick line that just feels like it connects together really well, like everything's moving, and when it is moving in motion, it just feels fluid and it feels expressive and like you've kind of mastered these very basic levels of locomotion that create this really cool flow state and that I do think works really well in this new skate, And I think they have mostly gotten that there's still a little bit of iffinus.

Sometimes every once in a while, you know, there's a little bit of hitching because it might be server side, or sometimes you just feel like you hit something a little bit weird and your guy just beefs it out of nowhere.

But mostly I found that the skating is very solid and an enjoyable to undertake and has a very different vibe than you would normally expect from other arcade skaters.

Yeah, say it's really good.

Yeah, I'm looking forward to the early access roadmap.

They've kind of laid out that each new season, which they each last about two months, the first season's coming on October, then season two in December.

But they have said that each season includes new skatable areas obviously, like new challenges and like events based on seasons, new like partners and cosmetics and stuff and oh one thing, the soundtrack's really good, and they've said that they're going to be adding new new tracks each season they do.

They've got McGee on the put Pearl jams even flow on it.

I haven't seen that yet, but I did see they've got McGee on there are you looking up?

They've got Turnstyle, Yeah, they've got some good stuff, and it was so good that we demonetized our stream yesterday because I was just looking through looking at them.

That's all right, though, Yeah, but I know that later on.

Yeah, and in twenty twenty six.

I'm just going to read off a couple of the things that kind of my eye and my ears perked up when I heard that they were kind of doing this.

There's an in season two in December.

There's party Voice Chrat coming, which sure, that's that's actually pretty good to have.

There's a replay editor.

There is a replay editor that I haven't messed around with in the that is out right now, but I guess they're gonna be like improving it in season two is their plan.

But there's a new it says, new co op game mode coming in season two and the season three and beyond.

They're talking about open world collection, more character customization slots like tattoos and that kind of thing, player created parks, new game modes, that kind of thing, leaderboards.

So like they're still certainly and as well as like you know, new tricks and stuff.

But I think this the foundation is solid.

I think there's some you know, we've kind of described some of our qualms with some of the progression stuff that I do think, Yeah, I'm gonna give them benefit.

The doubt will likely be ironed out in some way with us being early access.

But I think if you're just looking for that skate experience, and you you know, you don't necessarily want to go play the old games, but you're you want to, you're on the on the fence about checking this one out.

I do think it's worth checking out.

I mean, it's free to play.

So yeah, I'm gonna check out.

I'm not a skate guy.

But yeah, I think I think, I'm I'm I'm pretty positive on it.

Honestly, you know, all things considered, it it is is, it's it's a lot of fun.

And I'm thinking about how, like this weekend, I'd love to convince some friends to sit down and just spend an evening playing skate, you know, just doing stuff.

So I'm I dig it.

I'm I'm a fan so far.

But awesome, Yeah, forward to it for a while.

I Mean, it feels like we've known about this thing for so many years at this point, because they announced it super early and then we're just like waiting, and I think they sent me like a care package like two and a half years ago.

They had like a beanie and like just a T shirt that said skate and I just it's just like a shirt that I wear around the house.

But like it's not like it did have the period, yes, but it was like, Okay, well they must be gearing up to like release this thing.

And it was like two and a half years later and it's still was not out and finally it's here.

Yeah, I'm curious to see what you think of it, Brian.

I think I'll be jamming on this.

I think as updates come out, I'm certainly going to keep playing this, you know, in the coming weeks.

For this skate series is kind of I've bounced off it, similar to I think it was Marcus that said it where it was like yeah, not like I obsessed over the Tony Hawk franchise for a lot of like the late nineties and early two thousands, as a lot of people did.

So when I saw that like EA was putting out a skating franchise, I gave like the first couple a shot, and I was like, this is not quite like the arcade style action that I enjoy about the Tony Hawk franchise.

So I always kind of like bought the games or like found like a used copy of them and then played them for like an hour, and I was like, Nope, maybe not for me.

So I would like to try this because it seems like there they took a lot of lessons for like modern game design conventions and like the directions they want to go and kind of forged a unique identity for this particular game.

So maybe it's maybe it's worth giving a shot.

Yeah, my last warning, heed this, heed these words.

Do not climb the big tower until you got to pop up that says you can unlock fast travel points now because it'll unless you really just want to see the sites.

But can a leap of faith off the tower?

You you actually yeah, you actually cant And there are actually I don't know if you saw this, Eric, there are different moves that you can do when you're falling in the air, and I did like a Superman died.

You can also do like spread your spread your wings out and just like but at the end of the day, you're falling to your death and.

It's well, now you're dev like just yeah.

You are immortal, You're an Immortal Being.

Yeah.

Yeah, Yeah, it's.

A different game than I was expecting the Parkore, there's Assassin's Creed climbing, there's apparently.

Yeah, you get to the God.

Yeah, so it's like Astrobot.

It's just different games.

I thought the visual novel portion was a little strange, but I think it really propelled the story for.

Yeah, the horror mission actually is like really highlight this year.

And pay homage to your solid as well.

It was really cool.

Yeah.

Uh, Brian, keeping the keeping the sports games train moving, You've been checking out what is probably one of the most beloved sports, uh, Sonic Racing, specifically Sonic Racing Cross the World.

I watch it weekend.

Is this the Game Awards where we're lumping sports and the same category.

Yeah, we're putting for the Netflix documentary.

That's really gonna get me hooked on Sonic Racing.

Yah.

The Bill Simmons to Survive Sonic Racing episodes.

Yeah yeah, I mean, don't they have like some collaborations with like actual racing leagues.

I thought they had like a Sonic Racing Crossworld's car in one of the.

Some friends and I were talking about this recently that I think Danica Patrick was in a previous Sonic Racing game, And that's that's a real crazy poll when you talk about the crossover characters, because in Cross Worlds you have SpongeBob and things like that, but you don't have Danica Patrick in there.

Where's a Max verstappin sons World.

It's almost like Multi Bobby and Sonic Cross World.

Yeah, but Ricky Bobby.

Like Lebron James being in Multi Versus was also kind of one of those weird ones.

But like, yeah, Danica Patrick being in one of the previous I think it was Racing Transformed.

But yes, while yeah, but speaking.

Of Racing Transformed, this is probably the best Sonic Racing game since that game, which you know, a lot of people really love Sonic Sonic and All Stars Racing Transformed.

I think it's called it's a long told title, it is, and I know it was like Sega Racing or I don't know Sonic and Sega Racing originally, but yeah, Sonic Racing Cross Worlds.

I think they have created a kind of like the poll quote from my review is it's the most well rounded cart racer of twenty twenty five, which is saying something seeing as how we got a Mario Kart game and a Garfield KRT game this year.

I've not played still include Garfield and that yes, I honestly a full disclosure.

I have not played Garfield KRT.

So maybe I'm maybe I'm assuming that it's better than Garfield Cards.

But yeah, so it's like you know, it's it's like, unlike Mario Kart World, there's no like open world area that you can explore in Crossworlds.

There's no like there's no like real battle mode.

There are some like side modes that you can do, like some kind of like party style competitions, but like the meat of this game is just like the straightforward races that like I think there's twenty four courses, and then in the middle of it, like the second lap of every race is a Crossworld's lap.

So you do your first lap on like the normal that the regular track, and then the person in the pole position chooses between two courses like rings pop up in like at the end of the first lap, and they choose what track you want to go to next, and it pulls from a like a list of like fifteen crossworlds that you can go to, almost like Ratchet and clank style, so like it it whoever the first the person in first chooses, the entire second lap takes place on that course, so it teleports you to the second course where you do this other the second lap, and then these are like fully fledged courses too.

It's not just like, oh, this is like bare bones and like nothing really going on.

It's like, no, this is These are actually probably more involved than like the standard tracks.

So like there's one that you go and there's like actual like dinosaurs running around, like like that's my favor There's like one that's like you know, there's there's water and like there's like a bunch of like ships and everything that you have to like drive through.

There's not a candy Land kind of style one.

I mean there's a lot of different ones.

There's one that almost reminds me of like Rainbow Road.

Actually are any of these based on Sega games or are they just for this game?

So that's the thing is like when you look at like Mario Mario Kart, like most of those levels are based on something at least like adjacent to a real world mar you like level this, I would say it's you know, maybe sixty percent based on Sonic stuff.

So there is like the rooftop Run from Sonic Unleashed has a level and like you're so you're going through I forget what what the Greek name, it's like a pop botast or something like Socrates Socrates that's yeah, so so yeah, it does play like that.

And then there's like there's various other levels that are like from Sonic games.

But like there's a cool one from like Sonic Adventure with the whale you know that jumps up.

There's Radical Highway from Sonic Adventure two.

So like, yeah, there are some that are from Sonic levels, but there I think a lot of them are just kind of like, hey, this would be a cool cart racing level.

And that's the same as like the power ups.

Like there's some where it's like the Wisps from Sonic Colors and like they give you like the boost and some other some other abilities and like attacks that you can perform.

But then there's others that it's like, oh, this has like no thing to do with a Sonic game.

It's just something that they created for Sonic Racing Crossworlds or a past Sonic Racing game.

So like I would have preferred like there's plenty of power ups that they've that Sonic has had in the past.

It's like, why do we have to kind of outsource them?

But I understand, like there's certain archetypes that they wanted to have for these power ups and for these levels, So it makes sense in that regard that it wouldn't be like strictly tied to Sonic lore.

But yeah, like the racing is super sound, the levels are extremely creative, and it just feels like a very streamlined kart racing experience.

And there's also like a rival system when you play like the Grand Prix or if you go to Race Park, which is like kind of like the more special condition races, Like there's one where it's like, yeah, you get points for finishing first, but also the tea it's like team based since like the team that collected the most rings over the course of the race also gets like bonus points for their ranking.

Or like there's one where it's like if you run into your teammate while you're racing, you get a speed boost, So it makes sense to kind of stay grouped up because you just like play off each other with like boosts.

But yeah, like the Grand Prix they'll they'll have like a rival that you are designated to actually beat, and that ends up being like kind of like an alternate objective to just finishing first, although the rival typically is like the one that's going to be leading the pack, so it ends up just being like, all right, get get in first.

But there the weird thing about the Grand Prix is that the final one, so it's four races of three lap race four three lap races.

Yea.

The final, the finale of each Grand Prix is just like it's just like one lap of each of the preceding courses.

So it's not like a track on its own.

It's like, Okay, you played these three courses already in this Grand Prix.

Now you just do one lap of each of those courses for the final.

So it's kind of a.

Strange anyway, it's just here's it.

Here it is.

I mean, there are fewer collectibles because like each track has like the red rings from the Sonic franchise that you can collect, but like it doesn't really it removes them for that Grand Prix finale.

But no, they're not like it might be like because in the final lap sometimes like the tracks are a little bit more chaotic, so I think it's just like the final lap variant of that, so like there's more going on, but it's not really like anything you haven't seen before, which is a bit of a disappointment, but it's also kind of cool to be like, Okay, yeah, I remember all of these tracks that we just raced through, and now it's.

Like, yeah, a tour.

I didn't mind it as much when I was capturing for the review.

The it was kind of like a chance to kind of you know, almost like the oh, okay, we've been racing on these these tracks, let's put your knowledge to the test.

Obviously, you know, twenty thirty hours in you aren't going to have really that knowledge test is kind of null and void because you've probably memorized the the tracks at that point.

But as somebody who was just jumping in and was like, oh okay, yeah, I think I remember like my strategy and like what I what my moves were.

Did it work out or not?

Let me try to you know, uh, you know, get ahead.

Yeah.

And that's that's the thing though, is that like the Mario Karte franchise and kart racing are so synonymous with one another that I didn't like.

I always try whenever I'm reviewing a game to not do too much comparison, but it's like Mario Kart is such like the standard for kart racing that it's impossible not to, like at least make a little bit of a comparison.

Especially Yeah, it came out this year, It's it's still top of everyone's mind.

Yeah, came out.

Three months ago, so like it's it's difficult to avoid that.

But at the same time, it's like I wanted to like judge it on its own merits, but then you look over the fence at Mario Kart World and you're like, oh, well, like you know, they were able to do a different course for every entry in the Grand Prix, so it's I don't know, it gives it a different flavor, But it's also like, it would have been nice to have like another track here.

Yeah, that's fair.

I think I like, speaking of like that comparison to Mario Kart World.

I think I like the the general experience of Mario Kart more like the actually like racing mechanics.

It feels more polished to me than Sonic Racing Cross Worlds.

But I can't deny that the amount of content and cross worlds is.

There's so much more there going on, and like in terms of like modes and the customization of the machines that you're riding on, Like that's a cool piece and I like that the what would you call it?

What is it called the gadget system, Yeah, so that's that's cool.

So there's there's aesthetic and like cosmetic customization where it's like, all right, you've unlocked these carts.

You can swap out like the different body parts.

You can apply different paint jobs, you can apply different auras that like you know, like all right, well I want like this red glow to be all around my car.

You can farm in this game, yes, but uh that stuff like you can go too far with that pretty quickly.

And there are many sponsored decals as well, So if you want to add like your favorite Ramen brand to the side of your car, you can do that.

There are a lot of those.

But like the stuff that I mostly did was the gadgets, which are like basically like these like granular customization, so every character is is sorted into these different classes.

So like speed, acceleration, handling, boost, and power.

Those are the five classes, and like speed is just all right, You're you have the highest top speed out of anyone.

Handling is exactly what it sounds like.

You can go around corners a little bit more precise, and like the it's a little bit tighter to go around.

Boost is kind of like the extreme gears from Sonic Riders if you ever played that game, it's like the hoverboards and those are back, which is kind of cool, but it's I would say that's the most technical of the classes because it's all about like maximizing your boosts, because your boosts are really great, so like your boost seems to charge a lot faster when you're drifting, but also if you get like a boost, it it's a lot more effective.

And then power you can kind of like ram into other racers while you're while you're racing and it will cause them to kind of either be bullied or actually just lose rings while you hit them.

And what was the other one that I didn't touch on?

Handling, power, speed, boost.

Acceleration, acceleration.

So yeah, that's simple.

It's just you get up to speed faster.

So all of the characters fit into one of those five and all the carts fit into one of those fives.

You can mix and match.

So if you want, like to do Sonic as a like he's a speed character natively, but if you want to give him like a power cart, you can do that and it'll adjust his stats accordingly.

And if you really want to get granular with like your play style, you can also make this gadget plate, which is this customizable like load out essentially, So the one that I have that I use all the time is in each each gadget that you put on this plate takes up a different amount of space on the plate.

It's almost like a resident Evil inventory where it's like you have to like fit it in the way that like it's it's less much less complicated than a resident Evil inventory.

But like you know, there's like six slots I think on like a fully upgraded plate, and you upgrade it by completing laps using the gadget plate.

And so like I wanted one that's like I want to have it so I can hold three items instead of just two when I'm racing, And so that took up two slots on the gadget plate.

And then there's one like I want more defensive items to show up in my in my my racing, So that took up one spot.

And then it's like, all right, well, if I fall off the track and I have to be put back on the track, that like kills my momentum.

Here's this gadget that I can install that gives me an automatic boost when I land from being like falling off the track, so it helped me recover faster.

That takes up one spot.

So it's like kind of like figuring out how you want to tune your character and like what perks you want to give your character.

So there is a lot of customization you can do that is not only cosmetic but also like it impacts your performance as well.

Yeah, it sounds like there's a lot more single player meet on the bone here than what I would have expected because Mario Kart World, you know, again to draw comparisons, there was stuff to do in that game in terms of finding challenges and things like that in the open world.

But when you pick your cart in Mario Kart World, you're not going in and giving it RPG stats.

You know, you're not changing its inventory.

It has kind of a set you know, stat line, and that's what you roll with.

So it's interesting to hear this describe this way.

That seems like there's a lot more to do on that end, especially if you're a single player.

But does that, like, do you think that might make it a little bit unapproachable for a multiplayer situation when somebody just says I want to play tails, I just want to raise his tails?

Is it's still easy to just pick up and go.

Yeah, there's pre load outs, like there are like like ones that they've done that are just like, all right, well here's a plate.

You can just choose that, and like you just choose from like one perk.

The extra slots open up once you level up the thing, so if you just want to jump in with a friend, you can do that.

And there's also like carts or machines I think they're called in this where it's like, yeah, there's these three stock ones that you can choose from, similar to Mario Kart.

So I think that it's more it's as approachable in that regard, and maybe even more approachable because you don't have like the open world element to consider.

I think it's interesting because in my review I called out that there's not as much meat on the bone in racing in Sonic Racing Cross Worlds.

But that's only because there's no like story mode, there's no open world mode.

But and somebody asked me about this, like, you know, what content are you even referring to in Mario Kart World, because you know, the open world doesn't have like very compelling challenges, And I'm like, well, you know, I still think that, you know, regardless of if you like the open world, it's still content.

It's it just may not be compelling content.

So that's where I think Racing Cross Worlds excels, is that it has a higher concentration of compelling content.

Whereas you know, Mario Kart World, I can jump in and explore that open world for hours on end and never even do like an actual formal race.

Now what I want to do that that's another question.

I much rather jump into like the the I even forget what the Battle Royale mode is called, oh, knockout Knockout mode, Knockout Tour mode.

I would much rather do that.

But at the same time, you know, if I wanted to jump in and mess around with friends and like the open world, and I wanted to get like, you know, a party of twelve to just roam around and like be goofballs in the open world.

You don't have that option in Sonic Racing Cross Worlds, but there is like a it's much more focused of an experience.

So it's nice that, like we have these two pretty good cart racers.

I think Mario Kart World is a very good cart racer for what it does, and I think Sonic Racing Cross Worlds is also a very good cart racer.

So it's cool that both of them have released this this good product in the same year.

But they also approach the genre from different different angles, even if like the core experience is pretty similar.

Mm.

Yeah.

I one thing that I explicitly don't like is in the in the cosmic in the not in the cosmetics and the carts that you can unlock at the with your tickets that you get from from racing at the very end is a really cool cart.

It's like a dragon, and the model is like like it's in the game, but it says coming in November, and it's like it's in the game though it's right there, just like why would you show it to me if I can't have it?

Yeah, it's it's in the menu.

It's got its own, like it's in the UI, I can I can rotate it around and it's like eight again, I.

Could say I can rotate the object in my mind.

I can comprehend it in the three D space.

Yeah, yes, there's.

I mean they're they're doing seasonal content.

That's probably why.

But why would they show that to you?

Well, like it's in the game now, Maybe keep you playing of like, oh man, that looks cool better you know, stick around for.

That play until November.

Yeah.

Yeah, I guess like if people didn't have social media and they weren't following the game, this would be a way for them to see that there's more stuff coming.

I guess the kids hooked.

I was.

I was like, just let me if you already put it in the game, let me race with his damn vehicle.

Also this dragon, Timmy, you can race that dragon in no.

Opportunity to not just have that cart be Kureu with wheels on him.

Huh because it's a dragon.

Oh, like it's each riding on top of Kirau is.

Like, where where are the wheels on?

Here?

You's body in this Maybe.

He's like Axle from Twisted Metal.

Yeah, he's got his eyes out, or maybe he's like kind of bent over and he's got like a wheel in each hand and then wheels on his.

The real pants on the dogs.

It's like Michael Jackson and Moonwalker when he turns into a motorcycle at one point.

Yeah, or like when the the two Shivas in Final Fantasy thirteen become the motorcycle.

So then we have Eachy Bond and Kirry you kind of slammed together and turn into a motorcycle.

And this is a weird game or series in general.

They could get away with it.

I think this is I think this is the first time this idea has ever been floated.

Is Sonic riding on top of a motorcycle made out of kurru and Ichi bonds.

Congratulations on having a completely original thoughts on this podcast.

That does You.

Said axel, but talking about a different axle.

I'm talking about crazy taxi axle.

Why is crazy taxi not in a racing game.

It's a good point.

They're too busy, they're too busy working.

You know, Super came into the city and yeah.

You know taxi driving crazy about Uber and Lyft would go kind of crazy.

You know, it would be funny as if they add the fake Axle from Infinite Wealth, like they put that guy in the game but not actual.

Axel Axel Rose.

I was thinking that too.

It was like Axel Rose and then November Dragon, November Rain, Connect the dots people, It's it's been there.

Yeah, it's been there the whole time.

He's the new Danica Patrick.

Yeah, everybody's saying that about Axl Rose.

He's the new Danica Patrick.

Final just just one more piece of evidence.

Yes, yes, well what Sonic Racing is out the twenty fifth?

Is that right?

Check?

That's correct?

Cool, so look forward to that.

You can go check out our review on game reformer dot com or watch our video review on YouTube dot com Slash game Informer.

You should definitely go watch that because the reason I'm yawning is because I was up late editing that video.

So got it.

And you can also see the game see gameplay of everything we're talking about.

But yeah, well let's get into really quick.

I wanted to dive into Battlefield six again.

We talked about it a few weeks back when the open beta was happening.

I was invited to a preview event, a virtual preview event, and the whole point was to show us Battlefield six's two biggest maps, and that is a new map called Merrick Valley, which is the biggest map in the game, and then Operation Firestorm, which is a level it takes place in oil field.

If you've played Battlefield three, you've probably remember it or look up screenshots you're like, ah, yes, I remember that one.

A lot of folks like that one for its kind of it's a classic battlefield where it's all out warfare with vehicles.

There's jets flying over top of you, there's attack helicopters, there's various there's like two different two or three different kinds of anks.

You know, You've got you know, smaller like rovers with like turrets on them.

There's a lot going on as well as like your typical like you know, infantry level, you know combat that's happening alongside all of that.

And Murk Valley is also the same.

It's got like that all out battlefield experience, and playing these two maps has just kind of skyrocketed my excitement for Battlefield six.

They feel.

I think one of my criticisms coming out of the open beta was that it feels great to play Battlefield six.

It just doesn't always feel like Battlefield.

It feels like Call of Duty, especially in like the infantry only maps, and of course like there are that is like, you know they are going to try to take Call of Duty's lunch this year and sides they're pointing to the fact that maybe they will.

They at least, I mean, the reception on social media and YouTube and everything has been like absurdly good for Battlefield six so far.

Yes, yeah, it feels that series has had.

In a while, Oh for sure.

Yes, yeah, especially after like the last one, which.

Forty two set a pretty low bar to clear, if I'm being honest, and there were some good maps in that one.

There's I love the big tornado with wing suit was pretty sick like I when.

It would happen.

Though when it happened, I will never forget.

Maybe the funniest stream I've ever done here was me and former editor Dan Tack playing that game when it came out, and I was.

There, was were you there?

I titled the stream I think like we're gonna be fighting or dodging tornadoes in Battlefield twenty forty two, And we played for over an hour and didn't see a single tornado.

I swear I swear we played two hours it was a single tornado.

That makes it more ridiculous.

But we're just like, yeah, we're gonna do cool tornado stuff like they've been shown.

We were on Tornado Watch, we'd be like, oh, is there a tornado forming in the background, And.

Then it was just be getting shot and Dan making fun of me is like trying and.

Ask for heal like that's that's the thing is.

I played Battlefield for fifty percent the big strategy, you know, having the feeling of or kind of pushing across a map or moving lines.

There's a feeling of even if you yourself are not you know, putting up huge kill numbers and all that, you're kind of fighting as part of the unit and working together and things like that.

And the other fifty percent is raw spectacle, just the craziest, dumbest things.

And I did have a moment where I thought Battlefield six might have it when I saw when we were playing the open beta a dude getting a helicopter take off and immediately just rainbow arc that thing into the ground, just completely slam that thing into.

Oh that's why footage of me using anything that leads to ground in battlefield.

That's but that that to me is that's that's beautiful.

That's that's battlefield happening in motion in front of you.

Of its poetry.

And listen, if you're playing on mouse and keyboard and you're gonna get into a helicopter, remove your hand from the mouse.

Left hand goes on Wazdi, right hand goes on your arrow keys.

You will have a much easier time flying a helicopter.

That way.

Tips for people like me, No, just get good man.

Yeah, I fly jet with mouse and keyboard and I use the mouse to control pitch and yaw because I'm crazy Seco.

Yeah, but that's how I learned to play on Battlefield too, So that's how I've always played it since.

But I I am interested.

So it's a larger map.

Did you feel like the vehicle counts and there there was a lot more involvement there with it, because the stuff that we played in the open beta definitely had some stuff.

There were a PC's occasionally, tanks and jets and things like that, but I felt like it was still infantry focused game.

No, it was like the it felt like the battles were fought in one by vehicles, you know, like there was Obviously infantry was important, like especially engineers, having anti tank having people repairing your engines, but like the tides shifted whenever, whenever, you know, a vehicle would enter the battle, and but there was I want to say, like, so they're all if you play battlefield, you know that, like all the vehicles along are on cool down timers, And when you look at the spawn screen, you can you can spawn in your teammate, you can spawn on points that you control.

You can spawn at your HQ, which is like all the way back at the start of the of the match where you started, and at the HQ is also where your vehicles spawned in.

And I want to say there were at any given moment there were like ten vehicles, like at some variation on cool down t into twelve vehicles, and it felt like there was always like you know, new vehicles during the battlefield and it felt amazing, honestly, Like when I was playing this this event, it was firing in all cylinders, you know, I remember one.

You know, there's there's a lot of cool new mechanics that are at play that we've talked about, like being able to like drag people as you're reviving them, like dragging.

I had like so many cinematic moments where like we're pinned down by snipers and like my guy runs out, gets knocked and I'm like I'm gonna get you up and you know, dragging him back together.

Yeah exactly behind.

Oh yeah, like that was happening.

There were you know, just like the all of the vehicles were like just felt so good, like me and my my career.

I was playing with uh, some of the game Spot folks, Jean Luke.

We we kind of like hit each other up.

We're like, oh, we're both in this preview event.

Let's get some people and get a squad going.

And like we were like either doing two and two in two tanks and like kind of like going around points from like two directions together, or at certain times we were all in a helicopter together.

Like it was just like the antics were like cranked to eleven, but everything felt fair and and like that we were in control of our destiny.

You know, people were playing their roles correctly.

I remember I got downed.

There's this one moment that I was like, oh my god, like this is this is incredible.

Is when I get downed in Murk Valley, which that map is two large construction sites surrounded by kind of mountains like hills and and like it's very much an indevelopment place, but a lot of the combat happens in and just outside of those big you know there.

It's almost like they're building like big not necessarily skyscrapers, but very large industrial buildings, but it's all in development, so it's like this big construction site.

Anyways, I get downed one of my tea mates.

I think it was either it was like a snow bike mic from kind of Funny, or I think Jake Lucky was on my team.

It was like a streamer guy.

But one of them, I can't remember which one of them got me up.

And I had been like I had been paying it forward.

Let me tell you, I had been anytime people were down.

I was playing medic.

I was like, Doom, Doom, get you up, You're back in the game.

I was feeling like I was like my team loves me, you know.

I was getting like folks like, you know, waving their gun at me, like to say thank you and stuff like I don't know, just like wiggling your your that's the little a little army yeah yeaheah, or like the double crowd really quick to say like thanks.

That's what that means.

But they were dead body though, which is weird.

But eventually I switched to I switched to recon and I was sniping and I was just like, this is like one of my best games.

I've ever played a battlefield and I was like, oh my god, I'm capturing all this.

This is great, and there's one moment and I'll have to find it.

In the footage where I get down, somebody comes and revives me and like they're they aren't a medics, so they're like hardly like slow reviving me and dragging me away as a guy is running at us, like firing at us, and I'm like, oh, we're both dead, but like I'm gonna, you know, I see what's happening.

I'm gonna try to fight.

My teammate pulls me up.

They get down.

As soon as my gun comes up, I scope in and one shot the guy and like he falls to the ground and then I get my teammate back up and we keep moving.

But it was like it was the most cinematic thing ever.

I was like, oh my god, we're dead.

We're dead, and then I get up Boom save us.

Then we get back up together and we keep moving, you know.

But it was just like a there's so many cool moments like that.

It was call an ambulance, but not for me.

Yeah exactly, exactly.

Yeah, but both of these maps kind of going back to my original point, it has felt you know, there's it hasn't necessarily felt like battlefield.

There's some some bigger maps that were in the open beta.

There's one bigger map which is like the Snowy Mountain area that like kind of felt like more traditional battlefield, but a lot of the other ones were kind of like a weird mixture between like Call of Duty and and and still battlefield, but like it just didn't have that feel.

These both of these maps have that battlefield identity in them, like fully, and I think that gave me the confidence and like, okay, you know, the infantry only maps, I can I can tolerate those if if you know, I'm going to be playing a lot on these bigger maps, and I imagine they're gonna have playlists and everything.

I imagine they'll have like infantry only playlists and like all at war playlists and that kind of thing, and it feels good to know that, like as they are kind of setting their sights on the broader market, they aren't forgetting the people who you know, who have been with a series for a while, and like that those experiences that people are expecting, they're still there.

You just have to like go to the right places to look for them.

But those maps felt substantial.

They felt like, you know, every every match felt different, you know, and I feel like there were so many points on those maps.

We were playing various various game modes.

Is a new one called escalation, where the whoever has the majority of the points of the control points.

Once you have that majority, then a ticker starts going up, and eventually the longer you were holding a territory, like that territory will just permanently become yours for the rest of the match, and then the number of points that you're fighting over dwindle, but you were still fighting for that majority.

It's it's a cool mode, and I forget where I was going with at but there's that there's you know, we were predominantly playing Breakthrough, which is my favorite mode.

It's where there's an attack and defending team the defenders have unlimited lives and the attackers start with like think two hundred lives that they share with each other.

And the attackers are just like trying to get to time to capture A and B and have them held at the same time.

And then you kind of you move forward to you.

Push the line with the Eyeah, you're pushing the capture.

Yeah, yes, you're.

Pushing the line forward.

And in those moments, really, in all the game modes on these two maps, like there are places I just didn't have time to explore really and fight out because I was really focused on like, Okay, I've feel like I've got this point down, I'm gonna like help my team here.

So like it still feels like even after playing for hours on these maps that there's still a lot to learn and kind of master.

And yeah, I'm really positive on Powerfield six.

I'm yeah, I'm really excited for the game.

I'm so excited for this guy.

I did not play any of like the betas or whatever, but like it, all the footage I've seen has looked incredible.

And like I skipped twenty forty two because I heard such terrible things about the launch.

I know they did make some improvements.

Like through the spread with bugs, they added more tornadoes.

Yeah, but like, yeah, I enjoyed like the old school Battlefield games, Like Battlefield three was great.

I loved Battlefield two back in the day, so it'd be it'd be really nice to get back into it.

Like Battlefield one was fine.

I don't know, didn't really enjoyed it.

Yeah, but like it was, it was a perfectly fine entry in the series.

But like, yeah, this seems like the one that I'm going to like give an earnest attempt at getting back into the Battlefield franchise.

I want to play.

There's that.

I know I'm wrong for this, but I'm interested in the campaign.

I'm that guy.

No, yeah, yeah, I think the three campaign was phenomenal from what I remember.

The last one I played was Hardline.

Played was interesting as a way to put that, yeah yeah, yeah.

It was set in Florida, so I got that out of it.

It's like a whole point.

There's like a whole sequence.

You do a shootout during a hurricane, like yep, just like Home that company slaps, I those are my I'm not the biggest bats, but I love the two battle the Bad Company games.

Yeah, I'm I'm I'm hopeful, you know, obviously, like they are putting all their chips on the table Battlefield.

They've got what like almost ten studios working on Battlefield something like that under the guys Andretti Studios.

Yeah, yeah, so I hope it does well for them, for for the studio's sake, but also as a fan, you know, I would like to see Battlefield kind of back in its prime again.

You know, it stinks, you know, going you know, four or five years in between entries, you know.

And what call of Duty is doing every year.

Yeah, I don't necessarily need it to be annual, but like more frequent would be nice because I really enjoy Battlefield.

So fingers crost.

You know, we don't have much longer less than a month now, I believe, so.

Yeah, but uh, well that's Battlefield six.

Eric.

I want to toss it to you and and Marcus and Brian.

You'll probably have to, you know, help carry this conversation because I'm not a fighting game guy, even though I really want to be, but I'm just so bad at them.

But two x KO is out in beta.

It's like in perpetual beta, kind of like how they launched Valerant, Ye, like, yeah, yeah, it's just gonna be you can play it and then eventually there will be a launch at some point.

But like it is, it is kind of out and and playable.

Not all the content is necessarily there yet.

But is it an open beta or so for for those at home, let's let's set the stage here.

Two x KO is the League of Legends fighting game made by Riot Games.

Unlike Valorant and some other stuff that I think they had maybe talked about at some point, Uh, this is entirely set within the League of Legends universities, eg of Legends characters.

It does seem like they're responding to the popularity of Arcane a little bit by getting a lot of Arcane characters in there early so Jinks, Vy Echo are all in there.

It is it Like Vinnikin said, it's in a Valorant style closed beta that you opt into and they're kind of rolling invites and you might even be able to get some drops from people that are streaming it or something.

But also if you were in any of the previous alphas that have existed for this game, you are in the closed beta already.

They just opened it up to everybody who has already play tested or previewed this game in some manner, So it is.

I mean we were talking earlier about Skate and how long that's been in development.

Two XKO has been in development for ages.

I've been I've worked at several games websites over the course of two xko's development life cycle, and it is largely made by a lot of fighting game people, a lot of people involved in the scene, involved in the fighting game development scene.

The most like, most well known is probably the folks behind Rising Thunder, which was a very approachable fighting game that was all about trying to take the concepts of a fighting game, your basic street fighter style game, and make them easier for people to understand and grasp because you take a fighting game anywhere and the first thing people start to say is, well, I can't do fireballs and I can't do dragon punch motions and things like that, and that's totally fair.

And so a lot of this game is based around the idea of it is a two on two tag fighter in which you pick two characters.

You have one that's out and fighting on the screen street fighter style, and you have one that's your back character that can come in for assists and can also tag out, and there's kind of your basic attack buttons.

You have a sist button, and then you have special buttons, so much like Super Smash Bros.

Or other Honestly, a lot of fighting games have been doing this recently.

I think Grand Blue Fantasy Versus did this as well, having a dedicated special button.

Persona kind of did this with having normal attacks and then having Persona attacks.

You have the ability to instead of having to do dragon punch motions or quarter circle forward, quarter circle back type stuff, you just do some input of a direction and special and that is how you access some of your special abilities, like your fireballs, your projectiles, your special moves.

And I think in that respect it's a really solid interesting game to get involved with if you want to learn how fighting games work.

Because the current batch of fighters in there.

So one of the big critiques of two XKO right now is that the roster is not very big, especially for a two on two fighter.

I think it is ten or eleven characters at the moment, which when you start to do the math of how that shrinks down, it's not a huge roster compared to games.

How big it's going to be.

It's it's it's going to grow, it's it's just going to keep going because it's a live service game like League of Legends.

Yeah.

There, there's there's not really a theoretical endpoint as far as anyone can tell, until they run out of lead characters.

You know.

Also you mentioned Rising Thunder.

That is a game that I previewed, I think for Game and Former my first year at Game and four.

Let's go seth Killian.

I want to say it was Packs West that year, or it may have been E three, and like he walked me through, I'm like, wow, this is really approachable.

And then that game never came out because Ryan acquired the team basically and they started work on two x KO, which I have also played preview events for two x KO.

I played it at Riot's campus in Santa Monica and it has a lot of that same DNA.

Yeah, and it's I think the roster that's in there right now is kind of interesting.

There's a good mix of different what you would call archetypes within fighting games.

You have your zoners, like Jinx is kind of a zoner slash trap character who wants to kind of set up all these different gadgets and tools and keep you controlled from a distance.

Whereas you have Blitzkrank, who's the newest character.

He's a grappler.

He's got the Zangie valariat that he just walks you down with, and he's got if you've played blitz Crank in League of Legends, you know he's got the hook and then the uppercut into the air, and he can do that into XKO as well.

He's going to move that grabs you and pulls you closer, and then he can uppercut you to do a launcher and then put you into a combo.

Ari is kind of a mid range, a little bit rushed down, but also just kind of like tricky, being able to do all these sorts of air combos with her Spirit dashes and setups with her Spirit flares.

They all feel very similar to their League of Legends counterparts.

I think the ways in which they have taken these concepts from of Legends.

I think one of my favorites is actually Yasuo's wind wall, which in League of Legends blocks projectiles.

In this game, it blocks projectiles, and that's a very straightforward thing.

But seeing those concepts recontextualize in a fighting game and what it means for that design space and that strategy space is really really cool, I do.

It still feels a little rough at parts, especially like super animations, the one for Vi, which Vi is also one of the newer characters that's in the game, her Level three super was kind of getting some jokes about it because she's kind of just punching somebody that's off screen and you don't really like see stuff involved.

It could use a little bit more or just panache a little bit more, like like jushing up of some of the animations and stuff.

I think that is happening over time, because I've already seen some of those animations get better over time and more character be added to these characters over time, so I kind of expect that to change as time goes on.

But I think the one part that you can really tell it's still close Beta is a lot of the infrastructure around the fighting game.

So there's a lobby system that's very much like the Arc system Works style lobby system of the other Little Avatar and you walk in and everybody's playing at stations.

You go sit on the couch and that's how you ready up and I've never really I know some people hate those.

I like them.

I think they're fine.

I n't say I love them, but they work, they function, they're kind of goofy and fun.

But there's some menus and some user interfaces and just pieces of locking in and playing a game that still feel kind of funky and like they're still kind of being put together.

And I hope that improves because once you're in the game and playing, it's a really enjoyable fighting game that I think does feel more approachable than I would have expected, especially a tag fighter to feel, because if you're talking about games that feel approachable, street Fighter is kind of middle of the ground.

I think Street Fighter is easy for people to pick up because they've probably played it before, but you can feel a like a skilled differential between yourself and a good Street Fighter player very fast.

This has got me in trouble for This got me in hot water, but I'll put it on the pod.

I think tecans really easy for anybody to pick up and play.

There there is a much higher skill ceiling.

I always have to say.

Techan is also a very difficult game to get very good at, and I think the skill differential is much higher there.

But for somebody to just pick up and play a game, Techan and soul Caliber have always been kind of my my ones that I go to of if somebody doesn't really play fighting games, they're still going to have a good time playing it because it's a very.

I played a lot of soul Caliber growing up.

Yeah, had a great time.

I wasn't playing you know, I played techans at our arcades and stuff, but I was never any good, but I would agree with soul Caliber was like, yeah, yeah, soul Caliber was always like, oh, I know, my comments.

Into Yeah, I had got into hot water because I said the normies love techan and I'd stand by that, but apparently that's that's.

A but the experts love techan as well.

Yeah, yeah, everybody loves.

Literally, I walked out of a tech and Aid event with Justin Wong, so it's like, you know that the the the officionados love it as well.

Everybody loves Tecan.

You beat I did not beat Justin Womer?

Okay, uh so so there's that.

And I would say on the opposite end of the spectrum, tag fighters have a very high level of entry and a very high level of skill, where where I think, no matter what, you're dealing with so many factors.

There's I mean, Dragon Ball Fighters I think was maybe the closest we got to it feeling a little bit more approachable for new players.

But Marvel versus capcom is a lot for anybody to handle.

And you can kind of button mash and have some fun, but the second you start playing anybody who kind of knows what they're doing, you can get overwhelmed by what is happening on the screen.

If you play someone that knows how to tag reliable, yeah, man, you are screwed, which is always I've always found out to be the biggest barrier for new people in tags, like how do I tag?

Like what is the tag button?

If they're thrown in hyper combos and and they got cable ripping a viper beam from across the screen to check your your jump and things like that, Like that's it's a different world, man.

That's you're you're entering into the zone, the zone of Tag Fighters, and I I'm really impressed by what two XKO does to lower that barrier of entry.

Now, of course that's going to come with some controversy of is it courting casuals too much?

Is it too casual of a game?

I think this discussion happens around every single fighting game that has ever come out in the history of ever.

Is a game comes out, it does a few things to try and say, hey, let's make it easier for new players to do, as.

Simpler control scheme that you can choose from, and people, Yes, I'm unreasonably upset about that.

Yeah, And honestly, like, I love the simple control schemes in both Street Fighters six and Tech and eight.

I think they did a great job of that.

And I'm somebody who's been playing Street Fighter since street Fighter two and Tech and since Tech and three, and it's like, yeah, like, I think these are great.

I think allowing more people to play a game is awesome, Like whether it's like if you want to play Persona five on easy, I think that's cool because you're still just enjoying a game, Like I don't think we need to gatekeep.

And the interesting thing is, there was a belief that was going to change the way that Street Fighter was played, and there was I think it was Evo two years ago, a Street Fighter six player who used Chunley specifically on simple inputs because of the way in which it simplified some of the kamba routing there, but broadly it's still kind of the same character.

I think other things like the introduction of hit boxes or leverless fight pads have done more to shift the talk about how a fighting game is played than any sort of input system on the software side.

I know this is getting crazy technical.

I'm sorry, but I I always say I wait for the tournaments.

I wait for when Combo Breaker comes around, when EVO comes around, when CEO comes around, I watch what players do there because that gives me an idea of what is the upper limit, what is the upper potential of this game?

And sometimes like games do sinker swim at that moment, you know, we there have been a lot of games that have come out that have been pretty solid, interesting fighting games, and then the competitive scene doesn't really latch on and they just kind of don't really go anywhere.

That happens sometimes, but I'm interested to see what happens there with two XKO.

But I think for a casual standpoint, which I do think is what Riodte is going for, because you have to keep in mind that Riot is not just trying to make a fighting game for fighting game players.

They absolutely are, and they've got a lot of people on staff who are doing that.

They're also trying to get some Legal Legends players in the door.

They're trying to get some Arcane watchers in the door.

They're trying to get people who enjoy this IP but don't want to engage with it in a mobia to engage with the IP.

I think it's a smart play from them, and I think there's some really good foundational work done here to build that up.

And yeah, I find it a really really interesting, fun game that I've I've run sets and had a good time doing it.

I need to get back to it at some point, but it it's in kind of a strange place because of the close beta situation.

You have to find people like, Okay, are you in the close beta.

I'm in the close beta.

Okay.

Let's like, you know, meet up, make a lobby, all that kind of stuff.

But I do find it really interesting, really compelling, and they need to add more of my favorite le characters so I can play as them, because there's there's a few I'd like.

Vi VI is really fun.

VIB basically, yeah, give me chow Goth.

I'm going to need I need Shavana in there, and I need to be able to turn into a dragon for my ultimate that'd be.

Pretty what's the short little furry teo?

Yeah?

Is he would he?

I guess he wouldn't.

He's too short?

Probably right, Like, you can you can do that.

You got serve Bot in Marvel versus Capcom.

You can absolutely do ye.

Make him the serve bot.

Yeah, making the serve bot so you can just kill him in a one touch situation.

Well, unless you're good excuse me, you know.

I mean there there are some people good with serve Bot.

I won't won't discount that, But I Timo.

I would be surprised if Timo doesn't appear at some point, just because there's always the room for some some quote unquote joke characters, and I could see them doing some cool stuff with him.

But I think here's the legends, who's the the Dan of leg I don't that's a really van aken?

Are you thinking of anybody?

Off the top of your head, like, who's the the the goofy jokes?

I feel like Shako might be that character.

Shako.

There's there's an old adage about Shako who is a clown Prince Jester uh.

In League of Legends, Shako, the Shako team is always going to feed and flame everybody in the chat and do terribly and the Shako on the enemy team is going to terrorize you and end the game at twenty minutes because that's just the paradigm of Shakos.

The same with Trenders, the same with Mortekaiser's uh.

Mortekaiser would be the most insanely toxic character they could add to that game.

There's a cool character in League called nar Nar sick.

Nar is like a little guy and he has a little boomerang.

But when he gets enough, when his rage meter fills up, he transforms into this giant beast and like starts bullying people.

But like at the start, his first form is just like a little guy with a boomerang.

He's just a little guy.

But he let him transform.

Then it's like, oh, we're in trouble.

That could be a cool mechanic.

There's a guy named Cled who rides a like.

A chocobo night, essentially Chocobo night.

Yeah yeah, uh, this is a cool, cool thing they could definitely pull from.

If you told me all these names were completely made up.

I would never know.

Have you what League of Legends media have you engaged with Brian Jay.

Two xko playing for twenty minutes at Riot Headquarters?

Have you watched hit animated series Arcane yet?

Because I because I guarantee you that there is too much media to consume in the year twenty twenty five that I will never catch up to my list of stuff that I want to watch.

Season one of Arcane is worth a watch.

I will say that season two, jury I feel is still roiling on that one.

I had a good time watching it, but I would not be surprised if most of their early editions go that way, just because it was it was incredibly popular.

I mean, people who don't play a League of Legends watched Arcane and fell in love with the characters.

My mom.

Yeah, and so imagine we'll get Jase at some point, Jace.

I think Victor.

I would love himer Dinger.

I think heimer Dinger would be he's got to have the banjo, he's got to play a little tune, play a little ditty exactly.

These are all AI generated names I can tell.

Yeah, yeah, I'm actually AI generated.

What I said at the start of the show, what I said one of us on this podcast is an AI.

I find out the whole time is.

Going to be in there.

Well, I know, Shay, you have to head out, You've got a heart out here in a couple of minutes.

So we would just want to say thanks for joining us this week.

Of course, if you want to follow Brian online, you can follow him at Brian pch on Instagram and Blue Sky and Shay, we'll talk to you soon.

Yeah, thanks for having me and uh I'll see you guys hopefully in a new episode very soon.

Yeah, all right, bye, lea, all right, nobody stopped.

All righty, welcome back to the Game and Former show.

We're gonna close it out with Marcus telling us all about Hurdlane, which is a cool game.

I actually played it, I think last year at Packs West, and I think it was when they were first showing it off and it seems cool at the time, but I haven't really kept up with it.

Marcus, can you kind of give us the rundown on what it is and how far you are, what you're thinking all that?

Yeah, well you know it's a tale as old as times but a boy and as calicorns.

Yes, yes, more than one of them.

It turns out I.

Have good memories being on the Calicorn calicorns farm.

Yeah, home on the range where the deer and the calicorn play.

Yeah, you know the ones.

Yeah yeah, Yeah.

This is a So this is the no game from Ocomotive, who was the developer of the what do we call it the far series Far Loan Sales and Ye are Changing Tides where you were piloting a big, old, complicated ship over a desert, which I like those games quite a bit.

So I was really interested in this because this is completely different than those two games.

So it's it's the setup is strange because it really just kind of gets going with little to no context, where you play as a boy in a city, which I was not expecting just watching all the trailers.

You just see kind of like, you know, big majestic landscapes.

For us and then mountains and stuff.

But it starts in this like dingy city and you wake up as this kid in a hoodie and immediately you know there's no dialogue.

But he finds this like a stick and is exploring a city and he finds one of these giants sort of like they kind of like yax or wilderbeasts, like a weird kind of like fantasy take on them and called calicorns.

He finds one in the city, a media tames it and just starts ordering it around, and he makes his way out of his city into the big open world, and ostensibly the goal is to get not only this calicorn, but other caliicorn that you find along the way to the summit of a mountain off in the distance.

Yeah.

It's uh, it's it's strange.

I don't know, like why, like why this kid has taken upon himself to do this.

It's messed up because he does this and it becomes a video game.

But I try to tame an animal and suddenly I'm banned from the San Diego Zoo and I just think that's wrong, you know, Yeah, apparent to the animals out, well.

Did you have a big stick, because that seems to be like a symbol of authority, So I think if you had the shepherd stick, they'd be like, oh, we know what this guy is.

It is it a big shepherd cane, like what you would hook people off a stage with if they're telling bad jokes.

Uh, well, maybe not like a candy cane shape.

But it is like a a big old stick that shoots.

It's glowy.

He's got a little bit of a glow to it.

The glow does help for establishing authority.

Yeah, and so the game is it's pretty simple so far, but it's kind of like it's challenging and it's simplicity, I guess.

So you're you're finding these calicorn along the way, and the way that you guide them, it's very like there's a cursor that you're kind of moving, and the closest comparison I can think of is maybe Pickman, but it's not as precise as Pickman, which is actually one of my kind of issues with the games is kind of steering these things is is tough because basically, like you're it's in front of you, like they tell you, like you want to stand behind your herd, and you see the curse in front of you, but it moves any opposite direction that you are aiming it.

So if you are aiming left, it's the cursor's going to go right, and so is your herd.

Does that make sense?

It's almost like yeah, horizontally inverted a little bit, okay, Yeah, yeah, and you know, combining that with like swinging the camera around so that you kind of keep not only your self in view, but kind of the cursor to make sure you're not guiding them into hazards because they because the caleicorns can get hurt.

I don't know if they can die.

I have not lost one yet.

I have five currently.

But yeah, like it's like a lot of the challenge is trying to just kind of keep everyone oriented the way you want to go.

I'm I'm almost embarrassed to even admit how long it took me to get the first calicorn out of the little area you found them and down an alleyway because of how like I just thought like, oh, it's like pickman, like wherever I point is, you know where it's going to go.

But then he was going every which win.

I'm like, wait, how is this targeting system work exactly?

It seems like just give it some cup pet tutorial vibes.

Uh okay o, listen, we can joke about listen the games.

If this game is on game Pass, you download it and you see how hard you see to get that first caliicorn out of there.

Caliicorn Challenge.

So yeah, and I I have a better handle on it now, but I do wish it was maybe more straightforward.

I don't know if the way to control scheme works now really serves anything other than maybe be a little more complicated than I think it needs to be.

But eventually you get you know, you get used to it.

You can and you can command them to stop.

You can make them move at like a brisk pace.

You can have them slow down.

You can like along the way, you can have them eat this fruit or run through these special flowers that basically give them speed boost that you can just kind of spam.

It almost feels like like literally you can collect them to where it feels like hitting the Mushroom power up and Mario Kart where you're just like, all right, I'm just gonna boom boom boom, and they're just like flying, which when you get to a big open field in a game, like like you know you're gonna go have a good time, and you get to a big open segment and there's like flower patches in the distance and you're like, oh, we're schmiant to just sprint through this, and you're just like flying down this majestic hill and the music starts to swell and you're like yeah, And also because it's wide open, is less difficult to or it's easier to not have them running into something.

It's I'm I'm enjoying it so far.

I'm not loving it as much as I did the Far games.

Again, very different games, but it is there is something like relaxing about it once you wrap your head around the controls.

Like initially I was frustrated with it in a way that was disappointing.

Was like, oh, it seems like something I would be into, but I just wish this controlled better.

But once I kind of got my head around it, I'm it is fun to just sort of like explore and just sort of, I don't know, just kind of chill out with these these weird acts, like you're not really doing anything super crazy, like you're like some of the obstacles have been as simple as like, oh, there's like this this door that I need to find a way to get around, Like you can separate yourself from the herd and go exploring your own like, which is generally been assemble as like oh, I need to climb up this thing and maybe jump across this gap and then open this door so that they can come through, or I need to push a box so I can climb it, or to fill a gap, and sometimes the calicorns can help with that because it's too heavy for you.

Where I'm at in the game, which is probably a halfway point, because from what I understand, the game isn't very long.

I think I've seen people say it clocks around like four hours ish, Like I have not finished it, but I've gotten to a point where they introduced like an actual enemy, Like it was like this like hawk, this big old It kind of reminded me of the owl from the Oriy games a little bit.

Oh sure, yeah.

Yeah.

You're going through an area where it's kind of stealth, where it's like you're in its domain and you're very carefully trying to guide your herd and not have it.

Have any of them knock over these like rock pillars, that's gonna alert the owl, and then it's gonna come swoop down and start swiping at your herd and they can get like bloody and stuff.

Again, I have not lost anyone yet.

I don't know if any of them can die.

I assume they can, mainly because there's an accessibility option to make them invincible if you want.

Ah.

Yeah, So I was like, I assume they can die, but so far all five of them are intact.

Are these are?

They can name them?

When you tame a new one, you get the option like a.

Little don't name them, that's gonna make it worse when they die.

I think you have to name them.

So I've named all five of mine so far.

Just what are the names?

Well, the first one because he's like, he's like the biggest one in the party so far, and I was like, oh, he kindos like a yak and then immediately I was like, well, you're gonna be yacko.

And then because of that, the subsequent two have to be whack and Dot, which it worked out sarendipitously because they creased in height as they went, So the middle high, the middle tallest is Wacko, and the smallest is dot.

So I like to think the game was accommodating in that sense.

My next one kind of had like he's like extra shaggy.

He had kind of like a shaggy dog vibe to him, but he kind of made him look older, So I named him Gramps, and then there was one after him.

His horns were twisted in a way.

There's no real reasoning for this one.

Just for whatever reason, I saw his horns and I was like, you're a herald.

You're gonna be Harold.

And I think the most recent one I got, I rescued he was falling from a cliff and I had just gotten there in time and pulled him over the edge.

I don't know if I could have failed that, if he could have just like gone over, because I got an achievement for doing it.

But I was like, man, you almost went over that cliff.

You're gonna be Cliffy.

What No, No, no, you can't like, oh you almost got hit by that car.

I'm gonna call you room like I'm gonna call you car.

I like naming people after their near death experiences.

Finds like this is your personality, trade is how you always die.

I always name mine after my animals, and so it's probably not a good game to do that with in case they do get eaten.

Yeah, well you can name your favorite ones.

You know, you can play favorites, especially because you can decorate your calihorns, like along the way you can find these ornaments that you can hang under horns, and you can put one on each horn, or if you really like them, like yacko, who I've decided He's like, okay, you're like my pack leader because you're the tallest and you're my first, so you're gonna get two on your horns.

So he's the only one that has that is dual rocking these like almost like Christmas ornament looking things.

One of dot has a harness I believe they called it.

It's like it just covers all over horns and it like like light up, so just like little lights.

So everyone looks pretty.

I think everyone has an ornament now.

So Mike gets to the point where more than one of them are gonna have like you know, double horns or double ornaments.

But yeah, you can decorate them, name them, you can pet them, of course.

You can stop and give them pets, and you can clean them off when they get dirty.

There's times and you kind of have to plow through shrubs and they get branches of them, or if they get hurt, they get covered in blood and you can kind of like, I guess.

Is this like a DS game where I'm using my stylist to kind of like wipe away the dirt.

No, you're just holding the white button until meter fills and then they're good to go.

But they also gonna have personality traits like if you can look at your menu, some of them don't have anything, but I have two that have other like like one of them is affectionate and then the other is I forget what it is.

It's something mischief like a lot.

I don't know what the exact where to use, but it's basically like, oh, this is like the mischievous one.

And I haven't seen these traits translate into gameplay, Like I was like, Oh, it's like, is the mischievous one?

Is he gonna like wander from the pack a lot?

Is he gonna get in in trouble or something?

And I have something?

Yeah, it's like, what do you It's that gonna mean anything.

I haven't noticed anything dramatically different about them, so I don't know if that's something that comes later or if it's even something like like I don't I wonder how much petting them matters, like are they gonna play favorites?

Like can I bond more with some of them than the others?

I didn't pet them enough.

I kind of make a habit, not only in this game but in other games where you can you have a constant companion, they can pet that.

I usually pet them after we got through like some rough like patch, like, oh that was like a rough sequence there, All right, good job, everybody, everybody gets a pet.

And I don't know, that's just I feel bad when I go long links without petting a companion.

Yeah, yeah, like it feels like, oh yeah, it's like if this is my dog, I would pet them, you know, regularly.

I would do the same thing with my fall Up four companions, you know, you would pet them.

Valentine.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I.

Mean I would pet him.

He's great.

Yeah, and he's a robot.

So I don't know if it's it's not as weird right anyways, but yeah, it's it's I said, it's not the most complicated game.

Like again, the challenge is just trying to navigate the weird steering system and keep your calicos from running into spikes or off a cliffs and stuff like that, and just enjoying the scenery along the way.

I don't like the story is pretty minimal.

It seems to just be like, for whatever reason, just get to the top of its mountain.

Don't know why.

But it's almost kind of like similar to like, I guess, like for loan sales, Like it's kind of almost feels like it's more about the journey than what you're trying to get to.

Yeah, yeah, but I'm enjoying it.

It's it's like, if nothing else, it's kind of like a nice little chill pill game in between the big review game I'm currently playing.

Nice.

Well cool.

Well, that's hurdling if you were trying to remember which game we're talking about, folks.

I'll give it up the next week on how many of my calicorns actually survived.

The journey, okay, and I hope for all of our sakes they are all remaining at that point.

Will have a terribly somber update.

I've become very attached guys.

Bad news guys.

Yeah, Cliffy and Yaco are doing okay, take care of them.

Well that's the show for this week.

Everybody, make sure to follow the guys here on social media.

You can follow Eric at c moussy that's s E A M O O s I.

You can follow Marcus at Marcus Stewart seven, and you can follow me at It's Van Aiken.

Don't forget to follow Shae at Brian p Sha and follow Game Informer wherever you're on on social media.

It's a great way to keep up with what we've got going on and what's happening in the world of magazines.

That's gonna do it for the show this week.

Don't forget head over to Gamingformer dot com, slash subscribe, pick up a print or a digital magazine subscription.

That's the best way to help us keep the lights on, and we'll see you next week.

Goodbye, everybody,