Podcasts about Anthos

Featuring Britt Pham, Anthos, and TaliaWhat does it take to navigate this pivotal moment in human evolution? In this special episode of Tales for Social Change, we sit with three powerful Wisdom Keepers—Britt, Anthos, and Talia—to explore how reconnecting with ourselves, our communities, and the Earth can guide us through global conflict, rapid technological change, and deep spiritual awakening.Together, we explore:

Your favourite Aunties Ak, Farrah, Nana and Sade, are joined by the wonderful actress Rakie Ayola to break down this week's Enemies of ProgressAyesha Howard vs. Anthony Edwards - Is she a gold digger, or is the NBA star the real enemy?Trump's Wild Week Gaza takes, 104% tariffs, and… chlorinated chicken?!Young Spray vs. Anthos Corner Podcast drama BBC's Jonelle Awomoyi Claps Back “Judge my journalism, not my hair!”Ivory Coast Bans Wigs Is natural hair the new pageant standard?

This is a Vintage selection from 2007The BanterThe Guys discuss a new breakfast treat and questionable reviewer tactics.The ConversationThe Restaurant Guys have chef Michael Psilakis on the show to talk about earning a Michelin star for Anthos, the first Greek restaurant outside of Greece to achieve that. Hear about the passion, dedication and a dark day that changed a front of the house guy into a world-renowned chef.The Inside TrackThe Guys appreciate Michael's obsession with excellence and his quest to find staff that feels the same. He shares an interview question.“ When I'm talking to young cooks coming in, what do you like to do? There's only one right answer. And if, if you don't love to cook, if you don't think about it when you're in the toilet in the morning, taking a shower, doing your daily chores, if it's not about food 24/7, then how the hell are you gonna be able to compete at this level?” Michael Psilakis on The Restaurant Guys Podcast 2007BioMichael Psilakis is an American celebrity chef, author, and restaurateur.The same space on the Upper West Side, Manhattan has been home to many of his restaurants including Onera, Kefi, Gus & Gabriel Gastropub, Fishtag followed by Kefi returning to this same location. Michael owned and operated MP Taverna in Queens.For his work at Anthos, Psilakis was named Esquire magazine's Chef of the Year in 2006. In 2007, he received a Michelin Star for Anthos. In 2008 he was named Bon Appétit's Chef of the Year.He is best known for his Greek cuisine and appearances on television shows including Ultimate Recipe Showdown, Iron Chef America, The Best Thing I Ever Ate and No Kitchen Required. Michael served as a judge on Ultimate Recipe Showdown and was twice a contestant on Iron Chef America. InfoMP Taverna (Michael's current restaurant)https://www.mptaverna.com/Come see The Restaurant Guys LIVE with Chef Scott Conant at the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center on Thursday, April 17! VIP tickets include a Meet & Greet After-Party with Chef Scott Conant after the show. Restaurant Guys Regulars get a discount so subscribe here https://www.buzzsprout.com/2401692/subscribe Get tickets at https://secure.nbpac.org/scott-conant. Our Sponsors The Heldrich Hotel & Conference Centerhttps://www.theheldrich.com/ Magyar Bankhttps://www.magbank.com/ Withum Accountinghttps://www.withum.com/ Our Places Stage Left Steakhttps://www.stageleft.com/ Catherine Lombardi Restauranthttps://www.catherinelombardi.com/ Stage Left Wineshophttps://www.stageleftwineshop.com/ To hear more about food, wine and the finer things in life:https://www.instagram.com/restaurantguyspodcast/https://www.facebook.com/restaurantguysReach Out to The Guys!TheGuys@restaurantguyspodcast.com**Become a Restaurant Guys Regular and get two bonus episodes per month, bonus content and Regulars Only events.**Click Below! https://www.buzzsprout.com/2401692/subscribe

Ben jij gefascineerd door waargebeurde misdaadverhalen? Kijk je graag naar detective-series of verslind je spannende thrillers? Grote kans dat jouw antwoord ‘ja' is. Hoewel veel mensen zeggen niet van geweld te houden, is de aantrekkingskracht van mysterie en misdaad onmiskenbaar. In deze aflevering van 'De duistere kant van de mens' duiken Hans Jaap Melissen en Mark van Vugt in de intrigerende wereld van thrillers en onderzoeken ze waarom deze verhalen ons zo blijven boeien. In deze aflevering te gast: schrijfster en columniste Saskia Noort. Noort is gefascineerd door de duistere kant van de mens en verwerkt dit dan ook veel in haar boeken. Van haar thrillers zijn wereldwijd zo'n 3,5 miljoen exemplaren verkocht. Hans Jaap Melissen is een Nederlandse journalist/oorlogsverslaggever. Hij deed verslag vanuit vele oorlogsgebieden, van Syrië tot Congo en van Oekraïne tot Afghanistan. Daarnaast heeft Melissen verschillende boeken geschreven: 'Haïti, een ramp voor journalisten', 'IS-Tot Alles In Staat' en 'Van Oorlog Ga Je Houden'. Mark van Vugt is hoogleraar Evolutionaire Psychologie, Werk- en Organisatiepsychologie aan de Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Van Vugt heeft meerdere boeken geschreven, waaronder: 'Lucy, Darwin & Lady Gaga', 'FC Sapiens' en 'Mismatch'. Daarnaast is zijn boek 'de Natuurlijke Leider' in meerdere talen vertaald. Onderzoek van Van Vugt wordt wereldwijd besproken in internationale media, waaronder The Guardian, The Times, CNN, BBC en nog vele andere. 'De duistere kant van de mens' is elke donderdag te beluisteren in je favoriete podcast-app en via BNR.nl/duister. Leesvoer en referenties: Boyd, B. (2009). On the Origin of Stories: Evolution, Cognition, Fiction. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. Noort, S. (2003). Terug naar de kust. Anthos. Thornhill, R., & Palmer, C. T. (2001). A natural history of rape: Biological bases of sexual coercion. MIT press.

Al and Micah talk about Natsu-Mon 20th Century Summer Kid Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:02:30: What Have We Been Up To 00:12:54: Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home 00:29:22: Game News 00:54:46: Natsu Mon 01:41:16: Outro Links Tales of the Shire Delay Fantasy Life i on Steam The Garden Path “Co-op” Update Spirittea “Phantom Friends” Update Sugardew Island Patch Paleo Pines Roadmap Echoes of the Plum Grove Roadmap Contact Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Transcript (0:00:30) Al: Hello, farmers, and welcome to another episode of the harvest season. My name is Al, (0:00:36) Micah: My name is Micah. (0:00:37) Al: and we are here today to talk about cartridge core games. (0:00:41) Micah: Yippee. (0:00:45) Al: Welcome back, Micah. It’s actually not been that long. It’s only been about two months. (0:00:47) Micah: Thanks. No, it really hasn’t. (0:00:50) Micah: Yeah, which is wild because it feels like it’s been. (0:00:54) Micah: A lot like the last two months has felt like an entire year, so. (0:00:58) Al: Yeah, the last month specifically. (0:01:00) Al: Uh, but we don’t need to talk about that. (0:01:02) Micah: Yeah, yeah, no, no, no, yeah, of course. (0:01:06) Micah: I it’s funny because I was like, why has it felt so in that moment just now? (0:01:10) Micah: I was like, why does it feel like it’s been so long? (0:01:12) Micah: And then it clicked. So yeah, we don’t need to discuss. (0:01:14) Al: Mm, I wonder, uh, sometimes, uh, yes. (0:01:21) Al: Uh, and we still, we still don’t have any news on the story of seasons for this year, (0:01:27) Al: which I’m still expecting something. (0:01:30) Al: It’s been a very long time, but, uh, who knows. (0:01:30) Micah: Yeah. I’m too, I hear you. I’m expecting to. Yep, it’s bound to happen. It’s only a matter of time. (0:01:35) Al: I’m just waiting for that announcement and then we’ll be like, right. (0:01:37) Al: This is when we’re scheduling it in. (0:01:42) Al: Well, yeah, we have Micah here this episode because we are (0:01:46) Al: finally going to talk about Natsumon 20th century summer kid. (0:01:50) Micah: - Yay. (0:01:50) Al: We have pride a few times to actually record, uh, and things keep changing, (0:01:53) Micah: We did. (0:01:55) Al: but we finally got there. (0:01:56) Al: They didn’t shadow drop a story of seasons and we have to (0:01:59) Al: record about that instead. (0:02:00) Al: I’ve only had one case where I’ve noticed some news drop while I’ve been recording, (0:02:01) Micah: Could you imagine that it was, (0:02:04) Micah: now was when we got the story of season news? (0:02:15) Al: mainly because I’m not tend to be looking at the places where news comes in to see these things, (0:02:20) Micah: - Sure. (0:02:21) Al: but yeah, it’s never know one of these days. So we’re going to talk about that. We’ve obviously (0:02:28) Al: got the regular news. (0:02:31) Al: But first of all, maker, what have you been up to? (0:02:34) Micah: Oh, just busy. (0:02:37) Micah: Just got a lot going on. (0:02:39) Micah: I have been as far as games, though, I’ve been playing some (0:02:45) Micah: monster hunter wilds beta in preparation for that (0:02:50) Micah: at the point that we’re recording. (0:02:50) Al: and still not out yet. (0:02:52) Micah: It is going to be out next week. It’s about a week. (0:02:57) Micah: So I’m excited for that. (0:03:00) Micah: I’m also, you know, at that point in my life (0:03:04) Micah: a little bit anxious about a release for a game that I’m very excited about, (0:03:08) Micah: because then that means that I have to figure out time to play it (0:03:15) Micah: and also worry about how hyper fixated I’m going to become with it (0:03:20) Micah: and what that’s going to do to all of the other responsibilities in my life. (0:03:24) Micah: But I’m very excited for it. (0:03:28) Micah: I’ve also been playing Pokemon, I’ve been doing more shiny hunting. (0:03:32) Al: Are you still on your gen? Is it gen 2s? That’s what you were doing, I think, last time. (0:03:34) Micah: I was doing I was doing Gen three last time I was talking about it. Yeah. (0:03:40) Micah: I am doing that. (0:03:42) Micah: So I have some friends in a community that do like full odds shiny hunting, (0:03:48) Micah: which. Which adds an extra level of challenge. (0:03:54) Micah: And I almost kind of find it like a little bit more relaxing (0:03:56) Al: Sadness. (0:04:00) Micah: relaxing because it’s like it’s it you (0:04:01) Al: Interesting. (0:04:04) Micah: you settle in for it you know like it’s something that you’re doing while (0:04:08) Micah: you’re doing other stuff or while you’re like talking to people or while you’re (0:04:10) Micah: watching something because you know that it’s gonna take a long time so it’s just (0:04:14) Micah: like you kind of settle in and do your do your encounters do your resets do (0:04:19) Micah: whatever it is and don’t don’t really think about it until you know three (0:04:25) Micah: months later when you finally get the shine (0:04:26) Al: I just find that I get bored when I do it. I tried Shaiman in BDSP and I did… I can’t (0:04:32) Micah: Mm-hmm (0:04:34) Micah: Yeah, yeah Yeah, that tends to be what happens and that’s a very normal and I respect you for that (0:04:35) Al: even remember what I got to like 2000 or something. I just got bored of doing it every day and so I (0:04:41) Al: just stopped. (0:04:49) Al: I don’t think anybody has ever called me normal, but thank you. (0:04:55) Micah: But I have a I have some friends that do they they do these you know challenges throughout the year (0:05:01) Micah: They’ll have like a like this last week was (0:05:04) Micah: Shiny alpha week and it was everybody hunts in for alpha Pokemon and legends Arceus or (0:05:13) Micah: February was unknown challenge month. So (0:05:17) Micah: It was you know (0:05:19) Micah: You shiny hunt for an unknown and then whatever letter unknown you get then you have to shiny hunt something that starts with that letter (0:05:26) Micah: So like if I get it an unknown M then I can go hunt like Magnemite or something, you know (0:05:32) Micah: So yeah, there’s just (0:05:34) Micah: like fun little challenges and things to do when I’ve got, you know, if I’m like rendering (0:05:40) Micah: something or I’m watching something or in a meeting and kind of listening, but also just like (0:05:48) Micah: need something, you know, it’s just a little background thing I can do every once in a while. (0:05:54) Al: Fair enough. (0:05:55) Micah: I have downloaded a Rude factory pixel cross and I have not played it yet. So I mean, it just came (0:06:00) Al: Nice. (0:06:02) Al: Well, I mean, it only came out yesterday, so that’s fair. (0:06:04) Micah: out. Yeah. But I got to download it and I’m ready to try it. I’m excited about the potential new, (0:06:12) Micah: you know, like the positive changes to it from the story of seasons version. (0:06:20) Al: Yeah, I’m very intrigued. I’ve done a little bit of it. This is one of the games that I’ve (0:06:25) Al: played today, maybe like half an hour or so. So I’ve got a few, you know, the standard (0:06:32) Al: tutorial puzzles and a few of the ones that actually make you think. And so I’ve not (0:06:37) Al: got to any of the extra stuff like the customisation that’s in this one. But I did read on Fogu (0:06:45) Al: on there, posted about it, and it looks like it is just kind of. (0:06:50) Al: background customisation. It doesn’t seem to actually affect anything, which is what (0:06:54) Al: I expected, but a little bit more detailed and interesting than the story of Seasons (0:06:55) Micah: Yeah, yeah. (0:07:01) Al: 1. And I’m intrigued and excited to try one of the boss levels that they have. Have you (0:07:06) Micah: Oh yeah, I’m interested in that. No, I haven’t. I haven’t seen anything about it. I actually didn’t know that there were any improvements to the story of season model of it until you had mentioned it when we were talking about it on the game of the year episode. (0:07:08) Al: not seen the boss level stuff? (0:07:16) Al: Mm hmm. Yeah. (0:07:24) Micah: So I’m excited to try any of it because I haven’t seen any of it yet. (0:07:28) Al: Yeah, so I guess the big things for you would be there’s colour puzzles and the boss ones (0:07:35) Al: are timed and if you do something wrong, which, come on, who does something wrong? You’re (0:07:44) Al: just doing it too fast. It takes time off, the timer. So the timed, they have to do it (0:07:45) Micah: Okay, gotcha. (0:07:52) Al: within a certain amount of time, because obviously, technically, they’re all timed, right? You (0:07:55) Al: can see how long it is. And it’s always fun in the first few ones. (0:07:56) Micah: Right. Yep. (0:07:58) Al: to see like, Oh, can I get this one done in 10 seconds? Or can I (0:08:03) Al: get this one done in five seconds? I think I have one in (0:08:05) Al: eight or something like that. That’s the fastest one I have (0:08:08) Al: this game. But yeah, making you do it within a certain amount of (0:08:13) Al: time is an interesting different way of doing it. They do have (0:08:16) Al: two play styles. So you can skip that part of it if you want to. (0:08:21) Al: But yeah, it’s interesting. The boss stuff. Yeah. (0:08:22) Micah: Skip the the oh the bus skip the boss stuff I see okay. Yeah, I really liked them (0:08:32) Micah: Shoot I can’t remember the name of it. It was (0:08:36) Micah: Picto quest that’s what it was (0:08:39) Micah: and that was the (0:08:41) Micah: Nonogram game on the switch that and probably on PC. I don’t know but I played it on the switch and it was (0:08:47) Micah: very light RPG style of nonogram (0:08:52) Micah: like it had a little bit, you know, it was just like (0:08:54) Micah: You’re going across a map and then you challenge a goblin or whatever and then it’s just like a 10 by 10 puzzle or something (0:09:02) Micah: And then you would get upgrades if you did certain things. So they had like some there were a couple that were like, oh, it’s a boss (0:09:08) Micah: Thing, you know like a boss puzzle and I really loved that idea. It just was so (0:09:15) Micah: Bare-bones, I think such a like early idea, you know, like fresh and early idea that (0:09:22) Micah: There wasn’t a whole lot to it. So, um, I I kind of hope that there are maybe more (0:09:30) Micah: Like use cases of that like that kind of, you know adding quests and stuff to it because that adds an extra level of (0:09:38) Micah: Interest that I would I would really enjoy (0:09:41) Al: Yeah, yeah, I’m not far enough into to see whether that is there or not. One thing I (0:09:45) Al: did find interesting is that the puzzles are laid out like a map. So it’s not, it’s not (0:09:50) Al: just like you play this one, then you play the next one. It’s like, these are the ones (0:09:53) Al: you can do. And to unlock others, you have to to beat ones in specific positions, which (0:09:58) Micah: Oh, interesting. (0:09:59) Al: I thought was an interesting way of doing it. So it’s not the I think as you go further (0:10:04) Al: out, the difficulty does increase, but it’s not just like, constant, I think I saw some (0:10:08) Al: that were further away from the middle that were not hard. (0:10:12) Al: They were slightly easier, that sort of thing. (0:10:15) Al: So, yeah, interesting. See how that continues. (0:10:15) Micah: sure. Cool. Yeah. Yeah. I’m excited to try it. I’ve also been playing a Hello Kitty Island (0:10:24) Micah: adventure. Of course. Yes. Yeah. I played some on the mobile. I played some on Apple (0:10:26) Al: - Good, good, good. (0:10:26) Al: Are you on the switch for you? (0:10:30) Al: You twice, what are your thoughts? (0:10:33) Al: All right, yeah. (0:10:33) Micah: Arcade when it came out. Yeah. And yes. One hundred percent. And I’m glad that I waited (0:10:35) Al: You did the same thing as me. (0:10:36) Al: You went, “This is a fun game. (0:10:38) Al: I want a controller.” (0:10:45) Micah: much better experience on the switch, like with a controller. Becky has been absolutely (0:10:52) Micah: enamored with it. It’s her primary game that she plays now. And we did some of the multiplayer (0:11:00) Micah: together. So that was an interesting experience. It was fun just like, you know, wandering (0:11:07) Micah: around together and like doing things. There wasn’t a whole. There’s not like a whole lot (0:11:10) Micah: you can do multiplayer wise, but yeah, it’s it’s it’s great. (0:11:15) Micah: It’s such a good. I don’t know. I really I really like it. I’ve been enjoying it. And then I played (0:11:21) Micah: a little bit of vowed, but I have played a lot yet. I don’t know if you have touched it. (0:11:26) Al: I’m aware of it because I listen to a lot of different gaming podcasts and videos and (0:11:33) Al: stuff like that. (0:11:34) Al: So I’m aware of it. (0:11:35) Micah: Yeah. I like Obsidian, who’s the developer. They did Fallout New Vegas and they’ve done a lot of like (0:11:35) Al: I don’t think it’s my thing, but I can see why people like it and it sounds interesting. (0:11:47) Micah: older RPGs and stuff like that. I’m a big Elder Scrolls fan, so there’s some level of like (0:11:56) Micah: hoping that it is in some way close to Elder Scrolls, given that it’s, you know, (0:12:02) Micah: a team that has experience with Bethesda. (0:12:05) Micah: And it’s fantasy and, you know, first person and all that. (0:12:09) Micah: I really like it so far, but it’s it’s not open world. (0:12:12) Micah: It’s very, you know, like it’s it’s sectioned off, (0:12:16) Micah: which I think makes sense for the game. (0:12:18) Micah: But it’s, you know, it’s on Game Pass. (0:12:21) Micah: So you can’t really can’t really complain, you know, (0:12:27) Micah: they’re paying for. (0:12:27) Al: I mean, when is when has that ever stopped gamers before? (0:12:30) Micah: Oh, 100 percent. (0:12:34) Micah: But yeah, it’s. (0:12:35) Micah: I can’t I can’t really see myself having like bought it if it wasn’t available on game pass when it when it launched, you know, so yeah, what about you other than pixel crust? (0:12:42) Al: Yeah, that is fair. (0:12:48) Al: Yeah, well, not a huge amount this this week. I think the big thing, though, which obviously I need to talk about to you, Micah, is Harvest Moon Homes, Sweet Home. I have hit credits in Harvest Moon Homes, Sweet Home. (0:12:56) Micah: Oh, that’s big. (0:13:03) Al: Yeah, it’s the (0:13:04) Micah: Are you ready to do that all over again when it comes down on the switch or whatever? (0:13:08) Al: I will not. (0:13:12) Al: Let’s not even try and pretend that, unless there’s some way to transfer my save over, (0:13:16) Micah: Oh, that’s big. (0:13:18) Al: I’m not doing the early game again. I had a couple of thoughts that I thought might be (0:13:23) Al: quite interesting. I presume you didn’t continue playing it after our episode. No. (0:13:26) Micah: I have not played really much of anything from it. (0:13:29) Al: So I think the things, a few things I found interesting having now completed the game, (0:13:35) Al: although I’m in that annoying bit where I’m like, do I finish all these achievements or not? Because (0:13:40) Al: I have all bar. (0:13:42) Al: Let’s just let me just I’ve got it up here. (0:13:44) Al: Let me just double check achievements. (0:13:46) Micah: Now are these like in-game achievements or is it like Apple arcade achievements or whatever? (0:13:51) Al: It’s it’s it’s it’s Apple Game Center. (0:13:54) Micah: Yeah, oh yeah, sorry game center, yeah (0:13:54) Al: It’s not arcade because it’s made for, but yeah, it’s game center. (0:13:58) Al: So I have 48 of 68 achievements. (0:14:03) Micah: Holy smokes (0:14:04) Al: And I think about 10 of those ones I don’t have are just like shipping 50 of (0:14:12) Al: one specific crop. (0:14:14) Al: So I’m at the point where I’m like, I’ve basically got 10 left to do. (0:14:19) Al: But they’re things like (0:14:22) Al: completing the crops encyclopedia, completing the fish encyclopedia. (0:14:26) Al: I have not once fished in this game. (0:14:30) Al: So I’m like, I don’t know if I want to do those, but it feels like I’m so close. (0:14:34) Al: But it also no. (0:14:37) Al: So, yeah, let’s see. (0:14:40) Al: That is my, here’s my, I was in. (0:14:42) Al: Interesting thing. So I finished chapter 10. That is the final chapter and only 2% (0:14:48) Al: of players have earned this achievement, according to Apple, 2% have completed. (0:14:52) Micah: That’s incredible, you know, there’s something really interesting about this to me that (0:14:59) Micah: What was the game before home sweet home? Was it one world? (0:15:02) Al: No, one world was before that, the one before that, it was winds of anthos. (0:15:03) Micah: No one world was the one before that. Oh (0:15:09) Micah: Wins of Anthos, that’s right. And you know, it’s funny because I very distinctly remember you saying I am (0:15:17) Micah: Returning this or trading it in or whatever, you know, like as soon as I get the opportunity to (0:15:20) Al: Yeah. Yeah. (0:15:22) Micah: And here we are you have hit credits on home sweet home, which is (0:15:27) Al: Well, can I just point out, I think both of us hit credits in one world. (0:15:31) Micah: Yes, we did, yeah (0:15:32) Al: And because, I think, mainly because we were fascinated as to where it was going to end up, (0:15:38) Al: I will say that’s not why I finished this game. It’s not because I was like, “Oh, (0:15:42) Al: I really need to know what happens with this story.” The story is basically non-existent, (0:15:46) Al: right? Like it’s basically just you’re, you’re, you’re making this. (0:15:50) Al: This town more, more, that’s it. Like you’re, you’re making people happy and you’re, you’re (0:15:54) Micah: More and more (0:15:58) Al: doing things and that’s it. Um, what I found really interesting that, you know, the area (0:16:03) Al: that was like left of your farm that looked like it was a gated off area that you could (0:16:07) Al: access later on in the game. You never unlock that. That’s not, that’s not a thing. Is that (0:16:09) Micah: Oh, yeah. (0:16:15) Al: meant to come in an update or something? It’s even called, it called Alba Park. (0:16:20) Micah: - You know, I don’t know. (0:16:20) Al: And, and there’s a gate there. Why can I not go that way? I’ve completed. (0:16:27) Micah: It’s gotta, it has to be, right? (0:16:29) Micah: Well, let me ask you this. (0:16:31) Micah: Have they updated it at all since? (0:16:34) Al: Just the just the one update that came out like what a week after we recorded our last episode, which added the controller support and the well ads cloud save but the cloud says broken still. (0:16:40) Micah: Okay, that was the only one. (0:16:47) Micah: Okay, great. (0:16:48) Al: That’s the only update that I’m aware of happening. (0:16:51) Micah: ‘Cause I distinctly remember, too, that there was, (0:16:58) Micah: it looked like there were going to be spaces (0:17:01) Micah: or like placeholders for other languages, for text. (0:17:05) Al: Oh, yeah (0:17:07) Micah: And I remember thinking, oh, this is probably gonna come (0:17:10) Micah: in an update, but if they never added that either, (0:17:14) Micah: there must be a bunch of things that were just like, (0:17:17) Micah: We’ll add this in an update at a later date. (0:17:21) Micah: And maybe now it’s either they just are no longer touching it or (0:17:27) Micah: it is uh they’re just saving all those updates for the console release maybe? (0:17:32) Al: So this is where I break your brain yet again, Micah, and tell you that it has only been six (0:17:37) Al: months since this game I came out. It was August. (0:17:38) Micah: What oh (0:17:42) Micah: Yeah, that’s right (0:17:43) Micah: I remember this you did this to me on the game of the year episode two and I like (0:17:48) Micah: That blows my mind that that it’s only been that long. It feels like this game was two years ago (0:17:54) Al: So I don’t know, yeah, it doesn’t feel weird for there to be like, if we got an update (0:17:57) Micah: And that’s not just because of the last month isn’t it (0:18:08) Al: in a month, I wouldn’t be surprised that would be like, roughly about the time from the release (0:18:12) Al: to the last update. I don’t know. I don’t know if I actually believe this is coming (0:18:16) Al: to console. I feel like we would have heard something by now, right? (0:18:17) Micah: Yeah (0:18:22) Micah: Yeah, I think so too I I think I think if (0:18:26) Micah: They announce a new (0:18:29) Micah: Heart of harvest moon game that is not this I think it’s officially dead at that point, right? (0:18:35) Al: Mm hmm. No, no. (0:18:35) Micah: Like there’s no way that they’re going back to it. They are putting all of their resources into whatever (0:18:42) Micah: The new thing is if that’s the case. So either we’re (0:18:47) Micah: we’ll get something from them sometime soon, but it will either be this coming to consoles or (0:18:55) Micah: Something new and then it’s just confirmation at that point that this is completely dead in the water (0:19:01) Al: Yeah, I just I’m fascinated by this area that that doesn’t exist like I was fully expecting to unlock it at some point and it and it hasn’t. (0:19:07) Micah: This is extremely interesting (0:19:11) Al: The other couple of things I find interesting so you do so we’d complained about how it felt like you should be able to, you know, set a bunch of actions and get them to like water these 10 plants in a row. (0:19:23) Al: It feels like that’s what the interface was built for, but that didn’t seem to be an example of that. You do unlock that later on, but you have to like progress this. (0:19:31) Al: But the disadvantage of that over your standard up upgrading your watering can and now you can do like 20 at once instead you have to like individually press on all 20 and then it doesn’t manually the disadvantage of that is it still takes the same amount of time in game to water even when you have the highest level watering. (0:19:32) Micah: Oh, okay. (0:19:56) Micah: - Oh. (0:19:57) Al: So, because it’s just doing them all individually. (0:19:59) Micah: Oh. (laughs) (0:20:01) Al: Right? You don’t have to manually let go that one and now that one, you can like swipe (0:20:05) Al: over them and go like, want you to do all these or in the case of the controller, you (0:20:09) Al: can just press and drag, but it takes so long. Whereas in other farming games, you upgrade (0:20:15) Al: the watering can and you hold it down and then you’ve watered it all immediately rather (0:20:19) Al: than having to wait for your character to like go and individually water all of these (0:20:23) Al: 20 things. Such a weird decision. (0:20:28) Al: The other one is the, I unlocked sprinklers. (0:20:31) Al: And boy are the sprinklers weird in this game. (0:20:35) Al: First of all, you only unlock the top level of sprinkler after you’ve finished the game, (0:20:41) Al: which is the only one worth doing. (0:20:43) Al: Because your first level of sprinkler is just your four spots, top, bottom, left, right. (0:20:49) Micah: Yeah. (0:20:49) Al: Never do them. They are never worth it. (0:20:52) Micah: Oh. (0:20:52) Al: And your second level of sprinkler is three by three, so you get eight spaces. (0:20:59) Al: Okay, but you’ll do (0:21:01) Al: not unlock that until I think it’s chapter 7 of 10. And by that point, you probably don’t need it. (0:21:07) Al: Like, you’ve probably got most of what you need. And then at the end of the game, (0:21:08) Micah: - You just passed the point of, yeah. (0:21:12) Al: you finally unlock the one that’s five by five. But the problem is, it doesn’t fit in the plots (0:21:18) Al: properly. So the bottom plot is six by five. So you put it in there, and you’ve got one line of (0:21:24) Al: five that doesn’t get watered by it. And you can’t and you can’t put the sprinklers outside of it. (0:21:31) Al: You either have 24 fed by one sprinkler and then five manual, or 24 by one sprinkler and (0:21:39) Al: four by another sprinkler. It’s like, I’m not going to do a whole other because those are expensive. (0:21:45) Al: You have like, I think it’s 12 different gems, including diamonds, which you can only get in (0:21:49) Al: the bottom level of mine. I’m not going to waste all of those gems for four watered spaces. (0:21:56) Micah: Well, yeah (0:21:57) Al: And then you’ve got the other ones are… I know. (0:21:58) Micah: What a weird oversight (0:22:01) Al: The other plots that you unlock are something by four, not by five. (0:22:10) Al: So you’re just you’re wasting time. So I have one, which is eight by five. (0:22:14) Al: And I’ve got two watering cans on that. Sorry, two sprinklers on that. (0:22:19) Al: So they’re using up two spaces, which by the way, feels a lot more of space in this game (0:22:23) Al: than it does in any other farming game, because you’ve got such restricted space to use. (0:22:29) Al: I’m like, if it was late. (0:22:31) Al: out differently, it would almost all be covered by one sprinkler. (0:22:36) Al: It’s just such a weird decision. I don’t understand why they’ve made these decisions. (0:22:37) Micah: Hey, yeah, that’s really strange (0:22:41) Micah: And it it makes me wonder if it was like, I don’t know (0:22:45) Micah: I can’t even really think of a scenario for why that would be the kid like maybe they (0:22:50) Micah: Just missed it or like they thought that maybe it was like automated (0:22:55) Micah: You know (0:22:57) Micah: Calculations or something and it was just wrong for that. I don’t know (0:23:01) Micah: It’s it just feels like it would be something that someone would catch and be like, oh (0:23:05) Micah: We either have to like (0:23:07) Micah: Change the size of this plot a little bit or change the, you know, the ratio of spaces that this sprinkler covers, I don’t know, it’s odd. (0:23:17) Al: I think it would have been better to be like a sprinkler covers a row and then when you unlock (0:23:27) Al: the higher ones they cover more rows. So it would mean that you could have like one that would cover (0:23:33) Al: four rows and that would mean you could have one sprinkler for a section and you put it at the side (0:23:38) Al: so it doesn’t use up a crop space because crop spaces are so limited here and it would feel just (0:23:43) Al: much less frustrating in terms of the numbers. They’ve just taken (0:23:47) Al: a sprinkler in a normal farming game and put it into this game that is not done in (0:23:52) Al: a normal way because they’ve thought about it completely differently. (0:23:54) Micah: - Yeah, that’s very odd. (0:23:57) Al: The final thing I have to say is that I don’t know what we did we talk about the soil health (0:24:03) Al: in our episode. I can’t remember if we did. I don’t think we did because I don’t think (0:24:05) Micah: Hmm, I don’t remember I don’t think we did (0:24:09) Al: I don’t think we’d either of us had come across that. So soil health degrades in the get in this (0:24:15) Al: this game, which is (0:24:16) Micah: Okay. I don’t know that I even witnessed that on my, in my own. (0:24:17) Al: very much like a realism wins over fun part of this game. (0:24:24) Al: Yeah, so it does happen. (0:24:26) Al: You just probably aren’t noticing it because you don’t get told about it until (0:24:30) Al: you unlock a better fertilizer maker later on. (0:24:30) Micah: Oh, okay. (0:24:34) Al: And then they’re like, oh, your soil health. (0:24:37) Al: If you click on this fertilizer maker, you can see your soil health. (0:24:40) Al: You’re like, oh, everything is sad. (0:24:44) Al: And so you basically have to, after a– (0:24:47) Al: after a harvest of things, you have to let it sit for a bunch of days. (0:24:51) Al: And when I say a bunch of days, I mean, it feels like it’s like half a month. (0:24:54) Al: You have to let it sit for to go back to its full soil health. (0:24:58) Al: Or you can use some compost to speed it up, (0:25:01) Al: but the compost is like really awkward to craft or cost 2,500 per compost. (0:25:08) Al: It is so expensive. (0:25:10) Al: And so you spend the time rotating which plots you’re actually using for crops (0:25:16) Al: and not actually (0:25:18) Al: do anything about it, and it’s not actually doing what you want to do, and this is very much like, I understand you’re going for realism here, because that is what happens in real life, you have to rotate your crops, you have to rotate your soil, blah blah blah blah blah, but I’m not doing this for realism, right, like, it makes… (0:25:32) Micah: Yeah, if there’s I mean, I respect to the to some degree, (0:25:41) Micah: the the idea of making the the mechanics feel like they work (0:25:48) Micah: realistically the way that it would in the real world. But (0:25:50) Micah: like, if nothing else in the game really feels like it is (0:25:54) Micah: adhering very strictly to realism, then you know, I don’t (0:25:59) Micah: know that that’s really, I’m not really. (0:26:03) Micah: For realistic mechanics and I’m playing a harvest moon or like a story of seasons game, you know, like I don’t know. (0:26:10) Al: It’s always a balance for these things, where that very much is on the “no, I don’t want this” part of (0:26:12) Micah: Right. (0:26:17) Al: the thing. Oh, there’s one thing I just remembered. Horses, right? Neither of us have gotten far enough (0:26:23) Al: to buy a horse in the last episode. You can buy horses, you cannot ride the horses around the town. (0:26:24) Micah: Oh. Okay. What is the point? What do you do with them? Okay. Okay. All right. Again, maybe (0:26:34) Al: You can ride it around the paddock, but that’s it. Why would you do that? For fun, that’s it. (0:26:40) Al: That’s literally the only purpose. Why would you bother doing that? I have no idea. No idea. (0:26:46) Micah: something that was intended to be added and the future of it. Just never. (0:26:50) Al: But why can you… I don’t understand how you can ride it in one area and not in another area. (0:26:56) Al: It just has a wall, and you can’t go through it. Why? (0:27:02) Micah: It’s fascinating. I I don’t know him. Maybe there’s just some like maybe they couldn’t (0:27:10) Micah: get the pathing right or something and they just were like I will fix this later. I don’t know. (0:27:15) Micah: There’s there’s a lot in that game that feels to me like we’ll fix it later. (0:27:18) Al: Oh, that’s it, actually. So you know the press on the map and it will automatically go there. (0:27:25) Micah: Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah. So that’s either okay. (0:27:26) Al: I bet that doesn’t work with horses. That’ll be why you can’t do it. (0:27:33) Micah: We’ll fix it later or we can’t figure it. We can’t figure it out. So we’re just (0:27:38) Micah: not going to include it at all. One of the two. (0:27:39) Al: Yeah. Bizarre. Bizarre decision. But there we are. It was good enough for me to finish apparently. (0:27:50) Al: And I guess tune in next time to see whether I will continue trying to finish the achievements. (0:27:57) Micah: I wish you the best of luck, Godspeed. (0:28:02) Al: I’m definitely going to do the 50 of each crop one because that I’m nearly done with that. (0:28:07) Al: I literally have everything growing for that. Like in a week in game, that woman will be done. (0:28:14) Micah: Yeah. Well, I wish you the best of luck. (0:28:16) Al: But I don’t. (0:28:20) Micah: It currently I just was out of curiosity. (0:28:22) Micah: I wanted to see on the Google Play Store. (0:28:24) Micah: It currently has a three point two out of five, which is. (0:28:27) Al: that feels fair yeah I would say that feels fair (0:28:28) Micah: A thousand reviews. (0:28:31) Micah: Yeah, I kind of feel like maybe that is accurate. (0:28:35) Micah: Oh, it says it was updated on December 10th. (0:28:38) Al: yeah that was that update it dropped like two days after we recorded that was the one with the (0:28:40) Micah: Oh, was it? (0:28:43) Micah: - Oh. (0:28:44) Micah: - Got it, got it, got it. Okay. Yeah. Hmm. Yeah, interesting. I guess we’ll see what happens. (0:28:45) Al: cloud save and the controller support which is the only reason i’m playing the game because of (0:28:51) Al: controller support I couldn’t keep playing it on the touch screen but the controller support is (0:28:55) Al: It’s actually pretty good. (0:28:57) Al: Well, there we go. (0:29:01) Al: I rushed this week to make sure I’d finished so I could talk to you about it, because I (0:29:05) Al: was like, I’m so close, I must finish before I talk to Micah. (0:29:09) Al: So there we go. (0:29:10) Micah: I’m impressed that you completed it and I’m proud of you and (0:29:10) Al: Hit credits in that game. (0:29:14) Al: Well, yeah, it’s better than, it’s better than Sugardew Valley, Sugardew Island, sorry. (0:29:15) Micah: I hope that it was worth it. (0:29:19) Micah: It wasn’t intended to sound as meat as it did. (0:29:27) Al: Well, the problem is, it’s like five bits into the game news. (0:29:28) Micah: Is that a, is that a segue? Is that a, (0:29:31) Micah: I can’t tell if that was an intentional segue or not. (0:29:37) Al: So let’s just go through the, let’s talk about some news. (0:29:39) Micah: Okay. All right. (0:29:42) Al: Tales of the Shire has been delayed again. (0:29:45) Micah: Yeah. (0:29:46) Al: Can I just say, please stop putting a date on your game, right? (0:29:49) Micah: Yeah. At this point, at this point, just like wait until you are close enough (0:29:49) Al: Just stop it. (0:29:54) Micah: that you can say, Hey, it’s coming in a couple of weeks, you know? (0:29:59) Micah: Cause that’s always like a kind of a fun surprise too. (0:30:02) Micah: When something has a sudden release date like that, uh, I, yeah. (0:30:08) Al: Yes, it is murder for organizing a podcast about games but yes, I will agree I can see why people would find that fun. Yeah. (0:30:13) Micah: - True, yeah. (0:30:16) Al: It’s now coming out on the 29th of July. So, well, maybe we’ll see. That’s what they’re currently saying, but we’re on our third release date so far so let’s see what happens. (0:30:26) Micah: Yeah, I was looking at some of the, you know, against my better judgment, some of the discourse (0:30:35) Micah: under this post, just to see what, how people felt about it. Because my initial reaction whenever (0:30:40) Micah: there’s a delay like this is, okay, that’s, you know, if you need more time, take the time, (0:30:46) Micah: work on it, perfect it, whatever. And that was, I feel like maybe a good 40 to 50% of the sentiment (0:30:55) Micah: and the other. (0:30:56) Micah: 50 to 60% was in the kind of camp of worry that because this is the second time that they’ve delayed it that if things maybe are not going great development wise but I feel like. (0:31:11) Al: Yeah, I never understand that because it’s like, no, people are just being overly optimistic about (0:31:17) Al: these things. As someone who works in, not in game development, but in software development, (0:31:18) Micah: Mm-hmm (0:31:21) Micah: Yeah, oh, yeah (0:31:21) Al: that happens all the time, right? People will be like, oh, this is when it needs to happen. (0:31:26) Al: And then other people will be like, it’s not going to happen by then, but it gets set as the date (0:31:31) Al: anyway. And then the day comes around and it hasn’t happened. And it’s like, you can’t make (0:31:35) Al: it happen, right? Like, there’s only a certain amount you can actually do. And adding more people (0:31:40) Al: belong does not actually improve. (0:31:41) Al: And sometimes it just takes more time. (0:31:44) Al: Like I could, I find this, you know, with, with, with Pokemon every time, right? (0:31:49) Al: Where people are like, Oh, they just need to add more people. (0:31:52) Al: Adding more people does not speed up development times. (0:31:54) Micah: - Mm-hmm. (0:31:55) Al: Adding more people quite often slows things down. (0:31:58) Al: It’s not worth it. (0:31:59) Al: Right. (0:32:00) Al: And sometimes you just need the time. (0:32:02) Al: I just, you can clearly see this as a fight between marketing and development. (0:32:07) Al: Um, I don’t think, I don’t think it’s a sign of like serious (0:32:08) Micah: 100%. I don’t think so either. I think people’s gut reaction is to look at, you know, other games (0:32:18) Micah: that have gone into development hell and have never made them their way out. And that’s the (0:32:24) Micah: concern. And I, you know, I, it seemed, especially for the people that were kind of that had this (0:32:31) Micah: sentiment or it’s coming from a place of like concern because they’re excited for the game, (0:32:36) Micah: You know I’m like (0:32:39) Micah: concern because they want it to be really good which is like better than you know just saying like well I don’t you know this game’s doomed or whatever you know I’m just like not really just being a doomer about it just to be a doomer but I do think from my personal experiences with stuff like this too I do think that if they were looking at something that does (0:33:08) Micah: close to like a development hell they would probably not put a second release date on it it probably would be something along the lines of we need a little bit more time to work on it and we’ll update you in the future and then at that point we probably would hear maybe a couple things and then nothing ever again but because they are putting a release date on it it makes me think that you know maybe there’s if it hits a if we get another delay after this then yeah I think it’s time to be a little bit (0:33:38) Micah: concerned about it you know it I think because they have a release date that if they missed a second release date or a third release date now if they miss it then there’s gonna be you know it’s there’s a lot more stake in that which like you know kind of contradicts what we’re saying about like just don’t put a release date on it but (0:34:00) Al: I guess the problem is those are two different things. We’re talking about just in general, (0:34:04) Al: don’t give a release date unless you actually know when it’s coming out. I guess it’s difficult (0:34:10) Al: when you’ve given a release date and now you’re like, oh, we don’t know now that I get worries (0:34:16) Al: people. And so I get why they kind of have to do that now because otherwise people are going to (0:34:20) Al: start, as you say, assuming the worst. But I’ve said it so many times, I do not think people (0:34:30) Al: put a release date on it until you are at most a month away. Give us a year, sure, (0:34:37) Al: because when people go, oh, we need some more time, it’s going to be next year. People are (0:34:41) Al: generally fine with that, especially if you’re near the end of the year, they expect that that’s (0:34:44) Al: going to happen. And then when you’re like, oh, I’m pretty confident, then you can say, oh, (0:34:50) Al: it will happen in the second half or the quarter three or whatever. But don’t give us a date until (0:34:54) Micah: Yeah, yep, definitely. (0:34:56) Al: you know it’s if you wouldn’t release it today don’t get (0:35:00) Al: as a date because it’s not gonna happen and like there are so few companies that do that (0:35:00) Micah: Right. (0:35:06) Al: they give you a date and it comes out on that date and you know one of the big ones is pokemon (0:35:12) Al: and it doesn’t always work out well for them right they give you a date six months out and (0:35:14) Micah: Mm-hmm. Yeah, I think Nintendo stuff in (0:35:17) Al: they release on that date and then it’s not a great game i’m so excited to see what happens (0:35:21) Micah: Yeah, yep (0:35:23) Micah: Gosh (0:35:25) Micah: You know Pokemon days next week. So I guess we’ll see what happens with (0:35:31) Micah: with (0:35:32) Micah: You know it when they’ve got a little bit more time to cook it. We’ll see what happens (0:35:36) Al: Well, there’s a big assumption there that they actually have taken more time, (0:35:40) Al: because we don’t actually know when the when development started on this game. (0:35:40) Micah: Yeah, that’s true. You’re right. (0:35:44) Micah: You know, and this, this applies to Tales of the Shire too, I think, but, but also for Pokemon. (0:35:49) Micah: We’re also, something to take into account is that we’re in the midst of the, of a, um, generation (0:35:58) Micah: jump where like, you know, maybe that’s not necessarily the case as much for Tales of the (0:36:03) Micah: Shire, but I could see it being a possibility where they know that a large user base for cozy (0:36:11) Micah: games like this is on the switch. (0:36:14) Micah: Or on handheld, maybe like the Steam Deck or something like that. (0:36:20) Micah: And if they’re taking time because they know a little bit more about like maybe, I don’t (0:36:28) Micah: know, a release window for Switch 2 or they’re trying to, you know, co-develop a Switch and (0:36:31) Al: Well, that’s an interesting point. (0:36:37) Micah: Switch 2 version so that they can release it on both, you know, some of that stuff tends (0:36:42) Micah: to throw a wrench in the (0:36:44) Micah: things that is kind of like not expected. (0:36:48) Al: For most games, I would say there’s no way that that is part of this delay, but I feel like (0:36:57) Al: I could see them have it like I could see that if they are I could see they could already have (0:37:02) Al: a switch to dev kit because we know that some developers do that has been leaked. There are (0:37:04) Micah: - Mm-hmm, yep. (0:37:06) Al: developers that have it. Indies almost certainly won’t have it like there might be maybe some a (0:37:12) Al: couple of big indies like maybe silk song for example is maybe that team cherry that’s what (0:37:18) Al: isn’t it maybe they have one I could maybe see for example concerned ape having one (0:37:26) Al: I could see these developers having one and so maybe that’s part of it that is a big possibility (0:37:34) Al: I would say for most people it wouldn’t be the case but I could I could see Nintendo (0:37:38) Micah: Oh, yeah, 100 percent. (0:37:39) Al: I could see Nintendo going yeah no the the people that are developing a cozy game (0:37:44) Al: about Lord of the Rings, yeah, let’s make sure that they are ready for this. (0:37:46) Micah: Yeah, it’s the token property and it’s the what a workshop like that’s there’s a lot this. (0:37:48) Al: Yeah. (0:37:56) Micah: They’re not, you know, small money. So, but, you know, and if it is that they’re taking time to, to be able to have that ready for in the event of, you know, switch to or whatever they’re working on that. (0:38:12) Micah: get and that gives them the opportunity to make sure that it’s (0:38:16) Micah: a steam deck verified and stuff like that, that really (0:38:20) Micah: improves that experience for their core audience, I think. I (0:38:25) Micah: mean, they, you know, there’s always going to be people who (0:38:27) Micah: are playing on PC or PS5 or Xbox or whatever, but cozy games, I (0:38:34) Micah: think it’s pretty safe to say the, the, you know, the core of (0:38:40) Micah: the audience is, is playing either on the switch or handled (0:38:44) Micah: to some degree so. (0:38:46) Micah: Um, I could see that being a, again, we won’t know until it’s, till we see something (0:38:55) Micah: come of it. (0:38:56) Micah: Maybe there’s, uh, you know, things coincide, like we can kind of piece together, but yeah, (0:39:03) Micah: I guess we’ll see. (0:39:04) Micah: We’ll see what happens when July 29th rolls around. (0:39:08) Al: Yeah, I mean you never know we might I would say we don’t necessarily have to wait till then because if it is our switch to thing (0:39:08) Micah: I’m very excited for it though. (0:39:15) Al: There will 100% be some games announced in April (0:39:18) Micah: Oh, sure, yeah. (0:39:20) Al: They’ll be like, you know (0:39:22) Al: Stardew Valley is going to be a switch to version that does this or whatever and maybe this will be one of them (0:39:29) Al: Who knows? I’m not saying this will definitely happen. You’ve not heard it here first. We’re not saying (0:39:35) Al: The Tales of the Shire is going to be switched to… (0:39:38) Al: but I could see it happening and I’m excited for A-1. (0:39:44) Micah: - Yeah, me too. (0:39:45) Micah: I’m also excited just for this game in general. (0:39:47) Micah: I’m very excited for this game. (0:39:50) Al: Next we have, okay, I think it’s just meant to be fantasy. (0:39:55) Al: Is it Fantasy Life I? (0:39:56) Al: Is that how you’re meant to say these games? (0:39:58) Al: Because I know this is a series of games, (0:40:00) Al: but I don’t know if it’s just Fantasy Life I. (0:40:02) Micah: This is the first one that has I in the title. So I yeah, this is this is a new experience (0:40:06) Al: Oh, is it really? (0:40:08) Al: Amazing. (0:40:09) Al: Okay, perfect. (0:40:11) Al: No notes. (0:40:12) Al: Fantasy Life I, the girl who steals time, (0:40:15) Al: we have a release date for this. (0:40:18) Al: So it’s coming on the 21st of. (0:40:20) Al: May and also it’s now coming to Steam and PlayStation and Xbox. (0:40:26) Al: So it was previously meant to just be on Switch and I believe it was a 3DS game. (0:40:32) Al: The previous one. (0:40:33) Micah: it was they also had a mobile game that did not do too great um you know they did the the uh (0:40:36) Al: Oh, surprise, surprise. (0:40:42) Micah: classic level five maneuver of just kind of abandoning it once it you know didn’t really (0:40:49) Micah: take off the way they’d hoped it did so uh it is no longer functional as a as a mobile game so uh (0:40:54) Al: Well, this is only this, if you ignore the mobile game, this is only the second game (0:41:01) Micah: Yes. Yeah. There was a. (0:41:04) Micah: Like a the way that it released in Japan was it was fantasy life and they did fantasy life link which added extra stuff to it. So it was like, you know, a definitive version of it and then we got the West got the like full release of it. (0:41:20) Micah: So there’s some like kind of weird stuff with it, you know, but yeah, this is ultimately just the second one. (0:41:28) Micah: One of the best games on the 3DS in my opinion. (0:41:33) Micah: It’s a fantastic game. (0:41:34) Al: And this, I did not realize that this was the Yokai and Professor Leighton people. (0:41:40) Micah: It is. (0:41:41) Al: So there you go. (0:41:42) Micah: Yep. Level five big fan level five. (0:41:42) Al: Now we know. (0:41:44) Micah: I’m a little bit apprehensive about anything that they’re doing from this point on because they have been very deep in the generative A.I. (0:41:55) Al: Ow. (0:41:57) Micah: You know, they did like a they recently showed off their. (0:42:03) Micah: I guess spiritual successor to Yokai Watch, which is something hotel. I can’t remember some haunted hotel property and pretty much the entire trailer was like generative A.I. (0:42:14) Al: Is that holy hardware man? (0:42:15) Micah: So I am. Yes, that’s it. That is it. (0:42:19) Micah: So I’m hoping that because this was prior to their big like this game existed prior to their big like push into generative A.I. that like hopefully it doesn’t, you know. (0:42:33) Micah: I don’t know. We’ll see. We’ll see. I have a very strong love hate relationship with level five at this point. (0:42:38) Micah: So I’m very excited and also nervous about this because I love fantasy life. (0:42:47) Micah: It’s such a good game on the 3DS, but hopefully it’s good. (0:42:51) Al: Yeah, it looks interesting. I like the graphics and everything, (0:42:57) Al: and I’m excited to try it out when it releases in May. (0:43:00) Micah: It’s got cross play - which is (0:43:03) Al: Yes, across everything. Multiplayer across play. Very cool. (0:43:04) Micah: Always excited for cross play (0:43:08) Micah: Monster hunter is doing that. I’m very hopeful that this is the future of (0:43:15) Micah: Multiplayer in general that everybody’s gonna be doing cross play (0:43:18) Al: Yes, I can understand when you’ve got a competitive game, you don’t want keyboard and mouse players (0:43:26) Al: playing with controller players, but the problem with that argument is always, well, you can (0:43:32) Al: be a controller player on a PC. (0:43:36) Al: And so you can’t restrict that. (0:43:39) Al: So why restrict the other things? (0:43:41) Al: I do think if they do something like that, I like when they do options. (0:43:46) Al: You can either be just with people on… (0:43:48) Al: your system, or you can be with anyone. (0:43:51) Al: And in this case, it doesn’t really matter because it’s just co-op, right? (0:43:54) Al: It does not a competitive, you know, every millisecond counts type of game anyway. (0:44:00) Micah: Yeah jock i’m actually shy about that I guess because it’s not a like normal thing these days (0:44:01) Al: It also has two-player local co-op. (0:44:11) Al: No, it’s cool. (0:44:12) Micah: so that’s pretty neat (0:44:14) Al: And next we have the garden path have released their co-op update. (0:44:20) Al: So you can probably guess what that brings to the game. (0:44:24) Micah: Would you say that it’s co-op? (0:44:26) Al: Yes. (0:44:29) Al: Interestingly, so if you actually look in the patch notes, (0:44:32) Al: the first update is players can now hold hands in multiplayer (0:44:36) Al: by selecting the emote in the emote selector. (0:44:38) Al: like her. I love how they’ve put in the effort to allow you to hold (0:44:41) Al: hands. There you go. I haven’t played this game. That’s all (0:44:42) Micah: I love that. (0:44:50) Micah: - Yeah, I haven’t either, so it looks interesting. (0:44:56) Micah: I mean, I really like the art style and stuff. (0:44:59) Micah: I just, yeah, it hasn’t been on my radar enough. (0:45:02) Al: Well, a game that has been on our radar, but probably not as much as we originally thought it might, is Spirit Tea. (0:45:10) Al: They have released their Phantom Friends update, which brings you can now have Spirits as Pets, which is a fun little addition. (0:45:19) Al: I think if you’re enjoying that game, this will be a nice little addition to that. (0:45:24) Micah: It looks very cute (0:45:25) Al: Also, as always with the Spirit Tea update, there’s new Spirits and Quests as well. (0:45:26) Micah: It’s a cat spirit (0:45:31) Al: Bye. (0:45:32) Al: Oh yes, Sugardew Island. (0:45:35) Al: So I would. (0:45:36) Micah: - We made it. (0:45:37) Micah: - We got, we got there. (0:45:39) Al: Goodness me, I wouldn’t normally bring up an update this small for a game, (0:45:45) Al: especially a game like Sugardew Island, which I don’t think should exist. (0:45:49) Al: But they have updated a few things that I complained about in my last episode (0:45:55) Al: when I reviewed it, so I felt like I should bring those up because if those (0:46:00) Al: specific things and not (0:46:02) Al: everything else that I said about the game with the reasons that you’re not playing it, (0:46:05) Al: then maybe you will now. So selling items in the shop no longer requires energy. Hurray. Fantastic. (0:46:13) Al: Just what we want. And you can now craft energy bars so you don’t have to go and just buy them. (0:46:19) Al: You can craft them, which is good because that was a weird decision not to allow you to eat (0:46:24) Al: anything you grow. But as I say in my show notes here, it is still not. (0:46:32) Al: A good game. So there we go. (0:46:35) Micah: I- I’m so curious, I’m just so cu- oh there’s a demo so I guess I don’t need to be that curious. (0:46:43) Al: Yes, the demo is out now. If you want to try it, feel free. (0:46:43) Micah: I can just try it. (0:46:47) Micah: I- I feel like I have to, it’s just so fascinating to me and how like anti-SugarDew Island you are makes me want to try it. (0:46:56) Al: This is the thing, I don’t like being negative about games. (0:47:02) Al: And I was talking in the Slack to some of the patrons and I was like, I don’t think (0:47:06) Al: I’ve ever been this negative about the game that I’ve covered on the podcast. (0:47:11) Al: And it’s like, every example that people brought up about a game I was negative about, it was, (0:47:15) Al: I don’t like this, but it’s not for me. (0:47:19) Al: Other people will. (0:47:20) Al: I understand it. (0:47:21) Al: It’s like, I did not like my time at Porsche, but that was because I really didn’t like (0:47:24) Al: how the crafting worked. (0:47:26) Al: If we’re ignoring all of the Switch issues with that game. (0:47:30) Al: You know, and all the, like, the Harvest Moon’s… (0:47:33

Priscilla Envy transports us into her world of dark, romantic, gothic fiction, sharing her evolution from a middle school fan fiction writer to an accomplished author with her first fantasy series at 18. We traverse her creative journey, enriched by influences from fan fiction and anime, and get a sneak peek into her work-in-progress, "Project Starlight," featuring an enigmatic protagonist, Erwin. Priscilla's charming resistance to the digital age of ebooks and audiobooks adds an endearing layer to her old soul persona.Lashun Williams, also published under Madame Prusilla Envy, is an African American fantasy author and writer of romance, dark romantasy, and gothic romance. She's the author of the "Element Princess" series under her pen name, Jenaia Williams. In 2023, Lashun also published "Sea Comedies" with DG Sentinel, with Quillkeepers Press in 2024, and published poetry with Livina Press in 2024. She's currently working on her sea themed adult dark romantasy series, currently identified as project STARLIGHT.Book blurb: Eirwen Warrin never thought she'd leave her quiet life in the cliffside town of Pazolli. At 26, her world is small: a paranoid mother, a devout best friend, and the distant comfort of Titanus, the God of Love and Sea. But when cursed pirates with hollow eyes and peeling skin attack her home, everything changes. The Gods are silent, Pazolli burns, and Eirwen is left at the mercy of the Black Trinity—a fleet of cursed ships spreading death in their wake.Her unlikely savior is Anthos Azerbin, captain of the infamous ship Zakona, a man with his own dark past and one driving mission: destroy the Black Trinity before they can resurrect their malevolent God. Years ago, Anthos struck a fateful deal with Eirwen's father, promising protection in exchange for something far more precious than either could have imagined. Now, with their fates entwined, Eirwen and Anthos must navigate betrayal, forbidden magic, and their growing connection as they seek vengeance and answers.But as the Black Trinity's power grows, so do the dangers. Will they stop the cursed fleet, or will they lose themselves—to magic, to madness, or to the sea's endless depths?LINKS:Instragram: @madamepenvyThreads: @madamepenvySubstack: Prusilla's HouseAbout Victoria:Hey there, I'm Victoria! As a writer and developmental editor, I specialize in helping busy writers bring their publishing dreams to life without the overwhelm. Editing doesn't have to feel like pulling teeth—it's the magic that transforms your story from “meh” to masterpiece!Here's how I can help:

Good morning from Pharma and Biotech daily: the podcast that gives you only what's important to hear in Pharma and Biotech world. Novartis has paid $925 million upfront to acquire Anthos Therapeutics, a company it previously backed in February 2019. This acquisition is part of Novartis' strategy to buy back its drug, a blood thinner, and the entire company. In other news, Merck KGaA is in talks with SpringWorks for a potential acquisition, Lilly has signed deals with Olix Pharmaceuticals and Advancell, and there is a thriving shadow market of GLP-1s for weight loss causing regulatory concerns. Additionally, Vertex is expanding access for JourNavX, Pfizer has positive phase I data for a prostate cancer drug, and Inventiva is halving its workforce to focus on a specific candidate. Boehringer Ingelheim's lung fibrosis drug has scored a second late-stage win, Bain is investing in the Japanese market with a $3.3 billion Tanabe buy, and there is a decline in women leaders in biotech.

Al and Codey talk about Mini Mini Farm Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:01:33: What Have We Been Up To 00:11:26: I Know What You Released Last Month 00:13:57: Game News 00:28:37: New Games 00:41:43: Other News 00:56:24: Mini Mini Farm 01:33:42: Outro Links Piczel Cross: Rune Factory Release Date Space Sprouts Release Date Luma Island: Pirates Ranch of Rivershine “1.7” Update Horticular: Frozen Frontier Melobot: A Last Song OST Sky Harvest Pheonix Labs Layoffs ConcernedApe NPR Interview Reuters Cozy Gaming Interactive Article Contact Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Transcript (0:00:30) Al: Hello farmers, and welcome to another episode of the harvest season. My name is Al, (0:00:36) Codey: And my name is Cody! (0:00:37) Al: and we are here today to talk about cottagecore games. (0:00:42) Codey: Oh woo! (0:00:44) Al: It’s like a pack of wolves. (0:00:50) Codey: I’m never gonna un-hear that now. (0:00:51) Al: We this episode, we are going to talk about many, many farm because apparently we’re doing two (0:00:59) Al: mobile games in a row because you did Animal Crossing last week. And then we’re doing many, (0:01:00) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:01:04) Codey: Yeah. (0:01:05) Codey: Yeah. (0:01:06) Al: many farm this week. And yeah, I just realized that today. I was like, Oh, yeah, (0:01:08) Codey: Yes, I forgot about that. (0:01:13) Al: two in a row. Interesting. Oh, well, we’re making Cody work for their title of (0:01:19) Al: mobile correspondent. (0:01:20) Codey: Yep, I’m here for it. For sure. And I am still actively playing mobile games. (0:01:21) Al: Before that, well, yes, so before that we have news, I’m going to overview the (0:01:31) Al: January releases because it’s now February. But first of all, Cody, what have you been up to? (0:01:36) Codey: Um, so, uh, definitely been playing many, many farm. Um, because of the last episode. (0:01:42) Al: Oh yeah, that’s what MMF stands for. (0:01:44) Codey: Yeah. (0:01:44) Al: I was like, what’s MMF? (0:01:45) Al: Many, many fun, of course. (0:01:46) Codey: And many, many farm. (0:01:48) Codey: Um, because of Johnny, I am now cursed to be playing Animal Crossing pocket camp. (0:01:54) Al: A game which you hadn’t played for the podcast, you know, playing (0:01:59) Al: because of the podcast. (0:02:00) Codey: Correct. (0:02:01) Al: Oops. (0:02:02) Codey: Um, I had played it when it was like not the complete. (0:02:06) Codey: Like paid version. (0:02:06) Codey: Um, but because we were talking about it and I saw that it was like cheap and then it was possibly going to become less cheap. (0:02:14) Codey: And I’ve been doing really well with budgeting lately. (0:02:16) Codey: I was like, you know what? (0:02:18) Codey: I can, I can afford 10 bucks. (0:02:18) Codey: So, and I don’t, I don’t know. (0:02:20) Al: Yes. Do we have the actual date? I know that it’s very soon, or it’s, like, just in the (0:02:26) Al: past, but it wasn’t when the podcast episode came out. (0:02:30) Codey: And unfortunately I have now bought it. (0:02:32) Codey: So I have no way of checking because I’m pretty sure. (0:02:35) Al: Ah, it was the 31st of January. So, if you bought it when the last episode came out, (0:02:36) Codey: Okay. (0:02:38) Codey: So now it is what? (0:02:38) Codey: 20 bucks. (0:02:42) Al: or the two days after that, you were good. Otherwise, sorry, too late. And now it’s, yeah, $20. (0:02:48) Codey: So, I’ve been playing that. I’ve also been playing, still been playing Honeygrove, still (0:02:58) Codey: really sucked into Honeygrove. And I, you know, it’s so funny because we, whenever we would (0:03:01) Al: You’re just playing all the mobile games. (0:03:06) Codey: cover them before, it’s like, yay, I can uninstall it now. And the last couple ones, I’ve been (0:03:12) Codey: like, oh, no, I want to keep playing this. So, yeah, I do. (0:03:14) Al: Mm-hmm, oops. (0:03:19) Codey: But it’s nice because I’m, you know, nearing the end, the other thing, quote unquote, I’ve been (0:03:24) Codey: doing is is a PhD. And it is crunch time for sure now. So I pretty much like, I’m doing a lot of (0:03:34) Codey: stuff all the time. If I’m not doing specimens, I’m writing if I’m not doing that, either of those (0:03:40) Codey: two things I’m like, I’m always doing something. So this, this gives me a nice little like, okay, (0:03:46) Codey: I’m gonna sit down for like a half an hour and just like (0:03:48) Al: Mm, are you rotating through them or? (0:03:48) Codey: brain off play these silly little games. Yeah, so every (0:03:56) Codey: well, I guess I’m also playing too many games. I’m also playing (0:04:02) Codey: Pokemon TCG pocket and the new thing just released. And so I (0:04:08) Codey: always check that first. Let me look at my guess. I always (0:04:11) Codey: check that first. And then I do honeygrove because I can like (0:04:14) Codey: send everything off, like my little bees off on their (0:04:17) Codey: or expeditions. (0:04:18) Codey: And then I do pocket camp and then I do mini, mini farm for a little bit. (0:04:23) Codey: And then if for whatever reason, I am bored after that, um, or not (0:04:28) Codey: sucked into mini, mini farm, uh, I have my cross-stitch coloring out. (0:04:30) Al: Hmm (0:04:33) Codey: But yeah, that’s, that’s my, my, my brain off time now. (0:04:33) Al: Fair enough (0:04:40) Codey: Was it? (0:04:40) Al: Nice, I have been playing a lot of Pokemon. (0:04:45) Al: So I think last time we talked, Cody, (0:04:47) Al: I was just nearly finished, (0:04:47) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:04:50) Al: Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. (0:04:51) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:04:53) Al: I have now finished that, thank goodness. (0:04:54) Codey: Okay. (0:04:55) Codey: Yeah, you’re free. (0:04:57) Al: So that one’s done. (0:04:59) Al: And I was going to kind of maybe stop there, (0:05:02) Al: but then I was like, no, I need to do Let’s Go as well. (0:05:05) Al: So I did the Let’s Go Pokedex, (0:05:08) Al: and I rushed through. (0:05:10) Al: Uh, another save because I hadn’t recreated my Pokemon. (0:05:15) Al: Let’s go Pikachu save. (0:05:18) Al: So I did that. (0:05:18) Al: So that now is done. (0:05:19) Al: So all of my home DEXs are done except sword and shield. (0:05:25) Al: So I’ve got the let’s go one. (0:05:27) Al: I’ve got brilliant diamond, shining pearl. (0:05:29) Al: I’ve got let’s go. (0:05:30) Al: Arceus and I’ve got all this scarlet and violet ones. (0:05:32) Al: They’re all done. (0:05:33) Al: I haven’t done the sword and shield ones. (0:05:35) Al: Um, and I now have a post game. (0:05:40) Al: Save of every Pokemon Switch game, except shield. (0:05:45) Al: So I’ve recreated all my saves, except that. (0:05:46) Codey: Okay. Wow. (0:05:49) Al: And I have done a professor Oak challenge now of every pair of games, except can you (0:05:55) Al: guess? (0:05:56) Al: No, no, there’s certain shield. (0:05:56) Codey: Brilliant. I’m in shining girl. Oh, I don’t know. Okay. Okay. (0:06:03) Al: So, so at some point, I would like to do a professor Oak challenge in shield. (0:06:10) Al: Uh, and that does all three of those things. (0:06:12) Al: It does a professor Oak challenge in, in that series of games. (0:06:16) Al: It basically completes my home pocket X, right? (0:06:19) Al: Cause you’re catching everything anyway. (0:06:22) Al: Um, and it, it then me, it will mean I have a shield save in post game as well. (0:06:27) Al: But I don’t think I’m going to do that now because I’m worried I might burn out on Pokemon. (0:06:31) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:06:35) Al: And we don’t know yet when the new games coming out. (0:06:38) Al: I don’t expect it to come out until- (0:06:40) Al: november but we don’t know for certain and I don’t want them to be like come out and like me (0:06:46) Al: spend the next month doing this and then they come out and then I burn out and I’m like okay (0:06:50) Al: I’m done with pokemon for like six months and then they come out and say oh legends za is actually (0:06:57) Al: coming out in April and I’m like oh no that is really soon so uh but I’m also worried that they (0:07:05) Al: might do the release of pokemon for the home decks very soon and yeah sure I don’t- (0:07:10) Al: need to do it as soon as it’s done of course I don’t need to but I will feel the drive to (0:07:15) Al: do it at that point so I’m like do I actually just do the home decks just now and then leave (0:07:21) Al: the professor oak challenge for another time but then why why not just do the professor oak challenge (0:07:28) Al: but then I’m also the reason I was playing those games in January was because there weren’t any (0:07:32) Al: games coming out that I was planning on playing for the podcast and now we have a billion of them (0:07:35) Codey: Yeah, but it would be really inefficient to not just do it, do them together. (0:07:38) Al: them coming out in February and March. (0:07:40) Al: I’m probably going to just wait and do it all at the same time, probably next January. (0:07:54) Codey: yep. yep. (0:07:57) Al: Because January does tend to be quite a quiet period, but I guess that depends on when ZA (0:08:04) Al: comes out. (0:08:05) Al: Because if ZA comes out in November, I’m probably not going to want to do a Professor Oak challenge (0:08:08) Al: of SHIELD. (0:08:10) Al: In January, so maybe, maybe I’ll just wait till Pokemon Day and they’ll all they will almost definitely tell us the release date then right like there’s no way they’re not going to do that. (0:08:22) Al: That reminds me, we want to do Pokemon Day predictions. (0:08:26) Codey: Oh, okay, okay. (0:08:28) Al: And Pokemon Day reactions greenhouse episode that gets us to this month. (0:08:29) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:08:33) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:08:39) Al: so (0:08:40) Al: all that to say I have played a lot of pokemon in the last month and a half a lot a lot a lot (0:08:48) Al: of pokemon and I think like maybe like 120 hours over the last month and a half we’ve just pokemon (0:08:56) Codey: Mm hmm. I’m shocked. (0:08:58) Al: still not found a brilliant diamond shining pearl (0:09:02) Al: still a big big fan of let’s go great games love them second best pokemon game (0:09:11) Codey: Yeah, I really have been wanting to go back and replay. I have Eevee, but I also have (0:09:17) Al: Mm-hmm. Yes, fair, fair, fair. So yeah, I’m probably Pokémon’d out for now, but we’ll see. (0:09:21) Codey: else going on. So, yep. (0:09:30) Al: I’ve also been keeping up with Harvestmen, Home Sweet Home. Look at me actually playing a farming (0:09:36) Al: game a little bit a day. What a crazy idea. I know. So I’m now in chapter five, enjoying that. (0:09:37) Codey: Wow not guzzling (0:09:40) Codey: - I’m done. (0:09:44) Al: I don’t know. (0:09:45) Al: I don’t know what to do with that. (0:09:47) Al: Yeah, actually, yeah, no, I will. (0:09:49) Al: I’m enjoying it. (0:09:51) Al: I’m enjoying playing this game. (0:09:52) Al: This is a fun game. (0:09:53) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:09:54) Al: It still has issues. (0:09:56) Al: Absolutely. (0:09:58) Al: The Cloud Save still not working for me two months later. (0:10:02) Codey: I’m shocked. (0:10:04) Al: But controller support has made it playable. (0:10:07) Al: And it’s actually fun. (0:10:10) Al: It’s no Stardew Valley. (0:10:11) Al: I don’t care about the characters as much. (0:10:14) Al: But there’s a lot to like about it. (0:10:16) Al: and I’m hopeful for… (0:10:17) Al: and I have also started playing Hello Kitty Island Adventure, which I did play when it came to Apple Arcade, so I played it for about a month and enjoyed it. (0:10:33) Al: But then I was like, I am so fed up with playing on the touchscreen and let me tell you, playing with the controller infinitely better. So good! (0:10:37) Codey: Yeah. Okay. (0:10:41) Al: So I’ve been playing on my Steam Deck, I know that I know some people who are playing on… (0:10:47) Al: which may or may not come up in a future episode, but yeah, no, it’s a good game. It is way better than it had any right to be. (0:10:50) Codey: - Ooh. (0:11:02) Al: I completely forgot until I started the game how the game starts and I’m like, I just love… it’s so ridiculous that it basically starts with a plane crash. (0:11:11) Al: Because who would expect that in a Hello Kitty game? Alright, I think that’s everything. That’s what we’ve been… (0:11:17) Al: We are going to continue the new segment, the month’s releases and the previous month’s releases. We’re going to talk about last month’s releases. (0:11:18) Codey: Oh, woo. Oww, ow, ow, ow. (0:11:31) Codey: Last month’s what what was released last month? I got you (0:11:36) Al: Listeners, write in and tell us what this segment should be called, this monthly segment. What released last month? (0:11:44) Al: January 2025 edition. Or should it be fae- (0:11:47) Al: Maybe the 2025 edition, because last month would be January, but it’s like what would (0:11:51) Al: have- what released last month? (0:11:53) Codey: What are you what do you call it so like in? (0:11:57) Codey: Start in stardivale correlate whatever when you go to sleep, and there’s like that recap screen (0:12:02) Al: This summary… (0:12:03) Codey: That’s all you call it. That’s all it’s called (0:12:07) Al: He gla-la… (0:12:07) Codey: Like the daily summary listeners. Let us know (0:12:10) Al: I don’t know… (0:12:11) Codey: What do you call that screen like when it tells you what you did for the day how much all your stuff sold? (0:12:16) Codey: I think that whatever that is called is what this segment should be called because it’s like we just fell asleep on January (0:12:23) Codey: And we’re waking up and it’s February, but let’s like think about the things that occurred last last month (0:12:30) Al: I’m really struggling to Google this. (0:12:31) Codey: Don’t work yeah, don’t worry about looking it up. They got a listeners have to tell us (0:12:35) Al: Okay, so January, what released in January? (0:12:41) Al: We have four releases in January 2025. (0:12:44) Al: We got Harvest Hills, releasing mid-January the 15th. (0:12:48) Al: We got Into the Emberlands, Not Wonderful, released on the 20th of January when we had (0:12:54) Al: Hello Kitty Island Adventure on Steam and Switch that released on the 30th of January. (0:12:58) Al: my little life which is our first (0:13:01) Al: game of Rusty’s Like or as a developer of Rusty’s retirement is calling them bottom of the screen game (0:13:06) Codey: boss game which he he like talked it up on the um on blue sky he like was like y’all (0:13:06) Al: and that released on the 31st of January. So a kind of (0:13:17) Codey: should get this game and now i’m looking at it oh it’s only five dollars and 39 cents (0:13:24) Al: Yeah, it is dangerous. (0:13:25) Codey: oh no it’s only it’s only windows oh I almost clicked it y’all I almost we good okay i’m (0:13:34) Codey: I wish. (0:13:36) Codey: Let it be not just Windows, my little life developer. (0:13:39) Codey: I want to play this game. (0:13:40) Codey: Thank you. (0:13:42) Al: Yeah, so that’s the January releases, wild that I’m about to say this, but that’s a (0:13:47) Al: quiet month. Four games is a quiet month, apparently. (0:13:51) Codey: Yeah, not a lot going on. (0:13:57) Al: Okay, so we’ve now got a bunch of news. We’re going to start with the gaming news. So first (0:14:04) Al: up we have Pixel Cross Renfractory, they have announced a release date for this. So this is (0:14:09) Al: like the pixel cross Stodio seasons. (0:14:12) Al: It’s a Picross type game, but not Picross because Nintendo on the trademark to that kind of. (0:14:21) Al: Yeah, you do your nonograms. I think that’s what the generic term people have been using, (0:14:27) Al: nonograms. You do your nonograms and in the story seasons one, it like built up a farm (0:14:34) Al: in the background as you do it. Yeah, I don’t know. I don’t know if they’ve shown (0:14:36) Codey: is that is that what it is because it also says customize like in this trailer they say customize (0:14:40) Al: and I’ll see you next time. (0:14:42) Al: Yeah. (0:14:43) Codey: your farm and I don’t and it like looks like you choose what like where things are placed and so (0:14:50) Codey: that was one that was my only question was like I mean it’s coming some when it comes out folks (0:14:55) Codey: can tell me unless people have been playing I don’t know if there’s a dummy (0:14:57) Al: I don’t, I, yeah, oh, interesting. (0:15:01) Al: So it does look like you can change things in this one. (0:15:03) Al: So I’m pretty sure on the story of seasons one, (0:15:06) Al: you just saw the farm build up and things grow (0:15:09) Al: and you didn’t have any control over how it looked, (0:15:12) Al: but you’re right, it does. (0:15:13) Al: So it says customize your farm (0:15:14) Al: and it shows different animals or monsters. (0:15:17) Al: And then it shows you actually selecting (0:15:19) Al: what weapon you want your character to have, (0:15:21) Al: including a massive lollipop as an option. (0:15:25) Al: So yeah, it looks like it’s more in depth. (0:15:28) Codey: Well, I’m wondering if it’s just like you can control what it looks like in the background (0:15:34) Codey: while you are, yeah. (0:15:34) Al: I think that, yeah, I think that’s all it is. (0:15:36) Al: I don’t think you’re actually doing any farming (0:15:39) Al: or any battling, that just happens in the background (0:15:41) Al: as you’re doing it, but in the story seasons one, (0:15:44) Al: I’m pretty sure you couldn’t change how it looked. (0:15:46) Codey: is it like learn how to do a carrot by doing a carrot learn how to plant (0:15:52) Codey: carrots I like okay (0:15:52) Al: It wasn’t even that much in the study seasons when it was literally, you do stuff and things grow in the background you weren’t really. (0:16:00) Al: Yeah, there was nothing else. (0:16:02) Codey: Sounds good. Some people are probably jumping for joy that (0:16:06) Codey: there’s a new across game coming out. New an Autogram coming (0:16:10) Al: nonagram yeah yes yeah anyway space sprouts have announced that they’re (0:16:13) Codey: it’s like Kleenex. It’s like people say get a Kleenex but (0:16:17) Codey: that’s a brand. (0:16:21) Al: releasing on the 31st of March (0:16:24) Codey: Mm-hmm. They’re also participating in Steam’s next fest, so… (0:16:28) Al: Cody who isn’t (0:16:30) Codey: Oh, okay, fine. They’re also moving on to the next part. Uh, I guess the only thing… (0:16:33) Al: I mean I’d like I just I find the steam next fest stuff so funny because it’s (0:16:40) Al: it doesn’t really mean anything it’s like it’s it’s like it’s like being part of (0:16:45) Al: a sale right you can still do a sale whenever you want you can put your price (0:16:48) Al: down whatever but it’s like if you do it at a specific time you might get on a (0:16:50) Codey: Right. But that’s the thing, like there’s a specific list that they’ll get clicked on. (0:16:52) Al: list (0:16:55) Al: but the list is too long (0:16:58) Codey: Okay, but like not every it is still selective, right? Like not hashtag not everyone gets on the (0:17:02) Al: no I don’t I don’t think so I think anyone even get in the list (0:17:03) Codey: list. Well, anyways, that’s from February 27 to March 3. But they are also looking for playtesters. (0:17:12) Codey: So if you go to the show notes, go to the Steam page, etc, etc, you can figure out how to become (0:17:18) Codey: on my playtester for space sprout. (0:17:20) Al: Whoo! Yeah, what was this game again? I can’t… Oh yeah, it was like the 2D space. It was like, (0:17:28) Al: yeah, I’m not describing that very well. But yeah, it was a 2D world where you’re floating around, (0:17:30) Codey: Mm-hmm (0:17:33) Codey: 2D floating in space. Yeah (0:17:36) Al: yeah. Yeah, I’m very interested in this one. I wonder how it’s going to feel playing (0:17:42) Al: farming in 0G. Although it does look like some of it has gravity, and some of it has gravity, (0:17:44) Codey: Mm-hmm. I mean it’s interesting. (0:17:50) Codey: Well, if I learned anything from the Martian, farming in 0G contains the recycling of human waste. (0:17:58) Codey: So, very excited for that. (0:18:00) Al: for sure next we have a free update coming to luma island and this is called pirates (0:18:12) Codey: With an excolate your boy, pirates! (0:18:15) Al: just pirates um it’s literally called luma island pirates what uh although I don’t think (0:18:22) Al: the exclamation mark is actually part of the title because later down they say what’s coming (0:18:26) Al: in Luma Island Pirates without the exclamation mark. (0:18:29) Codey: Uh, I choose to believe, yes. (0:18:30) Al: Don’t you always? (0:18:32) Al: So this brings a pirate themed zone with new minigames, a new temple, traps and enemies, a new profession. (0:18:44) Al: Johnny and Dallin I think, they both play it. They’ll be excited about a new profession. (0:18:51) Al: A full screen map, that’s definitely something it needed. I was annoyed about not having the full screen map. (0:18:56) Al: three new game modes, (0:18:58) Al: including (0:19:00) Al: hero mode and cozy mode. (0:19:02) Al: I wonder what the third mode is. (0:19:04) Al: I love how they’d say three modes (0:19:04) Codey: I’m curious what the new profession is. (0:19:06) Al: and they mentioned two of them. (0:19:10) Codey: Is it piracy? (0:19:12) Al: Oh, interesting. Yeah, that’s a good point. (0:19:14) Al: It could be. (0:19:14) Codey: Like goats? (0:19:16) Al: Even if not actually, (0:19:18) Al: piracy definitely could be related to that. (0:19:20) Codey: Or like treasure hunting? (0:19:20) Al: Yeah, that is a good point. (0:19:22) Al: Yeah, well they do have a treasure hunter one already, I’m pretty sure. (0:19:26) Codey: Okay, so it is piracy. (0:19:28) Codey: Destroy this city and loot the people. (0:19:30) Al: Maybe. You never know. You never know. Also, new outfits, quests, NPCs, Lumas, powers, (0:19:34) Codey: Mutiny, mutiny your own. (0:19:38) Codey: I’m very curious. (0:19:44) Al: bonuses, and achievements. Yes, yeah, that is a free update. That is not a DLC. That (0:19:46) Codey: Ooh, that’s a lot of content in a free update. (0:19:52) Codey: Yeah. (0:19:53) Al: is a free update. Coming soon. No date yet. Coming soon. (0:19:58) Al: Speaking of updates. (0:20:00) Al: RiverShine have announced their 1.7 update. (0:20:05) Al: This is called Azure Coast Trail. (0:20:08) Codey: what? No, say it, say it how you say it again. Oh, that’s so cool. We just say Azure. I like (0:20:08) Al: Azure. (0:20:09) Al: Azure. (0:20:10) Al: How would you say it? (0:20:13) Al: Azure. (0:20:14) Al: Oh, no, Azure. (0:20:18) Codey: your way of saying it. Continue. (0:20:20) Codey: you. (0:20:21) Codey: You’re welcome. (0:20:21) Codey: You’re welcome. (0:20:21) Al: Thank you. (0:20:25) Al: This brings new competitions, horses, music, accessories, and loading screens. (0:20:30) Codey: Oh, whoo, the loading screens look really good, like the the art. (0:20:35) Codey: I mean, I’m betting that they have like a ton of humans that love this game (0:20:39) Codey: and just are like, take here, take my art. (0:20:41) Codey: The loading screens look really cool. (0:20:43) Codey: And the new horse is like a cool new wild horse species. (0:20:48) Codey: I almost look I. (0:20:48) Al: Rabi Rabbi Kano, Rabbi Rabbi Rabbi Kano, I think Rabbi Kano. (0:20:55) Codey: Let me it’s probably something like Robicano or Robic Robicano or something. (0:21:00) Codey: Um, yeah, I didn’t look up to see if those are actually like a thing. (0:21:06) Codey: I almost did and then I didn’t. (0:21:07) Codey: Oh, yep. (0:21:08) Codey: They’re a type of Arabian horse. (0:21:10) Al: rare horse coat color pattern that features white. (0:21:15) Codey: Oh, so it’s just a whatever. (0:21:17) Codey: It’s they’re really cute. (0:21:21) Codey: Yeah, and they also announced that the next update is going to introduce (0:21:27) Codey: a new character and that is the veterinarian. (0:21:30) Codey: Also introduce, you know, care for your horse. (0:21:34) Codey: So different, you know, that care like they might maybe they get sick. (0:21:39) Codey: Maybe they have certain nutritional needs and you didn’t need to make sure (0:21:43) Codey: you meet them. (0:21:44) Codey: I’m not entirely this is all just me. (0:21:46) Codey: Just I don’t know. (0:21:47) Codey: Just like trying to like think of what it could be, but that’s cool. (0:21:52) Codey: I’m all for it. (0:21:53) Codey: Can I be the veterinarian? (0:21:58) Codey: Aww. (0:22:01) Codey: We need a game where you’re like the veterinarian. (0:22:03) Codey: We don’t have that. (0:22:04) Al: Go make it. (0:22:05) Codey: No, I’m good. (0:22:06) Codey: Someone should make it though. (0:22:08) Codey: Or like a wildlife biologist. (0:22:08) Al: Let us know. (0:22:11) Codey: I don’t know. (0:22:12) Al: Is that not just research story? (0:22:14) Codey: Go play research. (0:22:16) Al: I mean, tell me if I’m wrong, you’re the one that’s played it. (0:22:17) Codey: No, I’m trying to. (0:22:18) Codey: Yeah, no, I’m trying to think of like, no, (0:22:20) Codey: like a game where you’re a rehabber. (0:22:22) Codey: Where you rehabilitate wild animals that people bring to you. (0:22:25) Codey: I think the only issue with that is that it’s sad because they die. (0:22:28) Codey: die, but hey. (0:22:30) Codey: There was a Bluey episode about a bird dying, so it’s okay these days. (0:22:36) Al: Blue can do anything. (0:22:38) Codey: Bluey did it. That means it’s child approved. (0:22:42) Al: Let me tell you, right, me and Craig watch Blue together, (0:22:46) Al: and he’ll be sitting and laughing at the jokes and watching it and stuff, (0:22:48) Al: and then I’ll just be sitting behind him, just sobbing. (0:22:50) Codey: stopping. Yeah. Yeah, I just just finished it. And it I am (0:22:52) Al: Like, “Oh, no, what is happening? What’s the doing to me?” (0:23:00) Codey: upset. And I need more. I watched all of it. Thanks. I’ve, (0:23:04) Al: Nice. Well done. (0:23:07) Codey: I just I crave distraction in the background while I run (0:23:11) Codey: meaningless analysis. They’re not meaningless analysis. They’re (0:23:14) Codey: just tedious analysis correction. But yeah, cool that (0:23:21) Codey: give me a game mode where I can play as the veterinarian and I (0:23:24) Codey: will play this game. Developers if you’re like, man, what do (0:23:26) Al: I mean, I feel like that’s just a whole different game, not just a different game mode, but… (0:23:31) Codey: people want these days? I bet a vet mode like a vet game would (0:23:37) Codey: crush. Yep. And I would pay probably $30 for it. So if it (0:23:39) Al: There’s at least one person who would buy it, that’s for sure. (0:23:45) Codey: takes more than $30 to make. I’m out. (0:23:48) Al: I’m not even promising there’d be two people because I’m not sure who the second person (0:23:50) Codey: Listeners. Let me know. Can you contribute $30 we can offer $60 (0:23:53) Al: would do it for the podcast. (0:23:57) Al: I’m sure there are I mean, look, if you could make a game for $60 you’d be rolling in it. (0:24:02) Codey: to developers. There’d be a lot of really bad games. Yeah. (0:24:14) Al: For sure for you. (0:24:15) Al: Well, yeah, you probably can make a game for $60. (0:24:18) Al: Absolutely dreadful. (0:24:21) Al: Just a Skinner box. (0:24:22) Al: All right. (0:24:24) Al: Next we have Particular have announced a free update and a paid DLC. (0:24:33) Al: They’re both releasing on the same day, 28th of February, and the paid DLC Frozen Frontier (0:24:39) Al: has a new story, world quests, new items and creatures. (0:24:45) Al: written snowshoe hair. Is that a creature? (0:24:47) Codey: Yeah, yeah, they specifically say snowshoe hair well, that is just one that they blurbed (0:24:48) Al: Is that a creature that’s there? Just one creature. (0:24:55) Al: blurb. No, I know what you mean. That’s a great example of verification. (0:24:55) Codey: It could be (0:24:59) Codey: Where did that word come from it is keep going I’m gonna look up what that where that came from (0:25:05) Codey: - Um. (0:25:07) Al: And the free update includes new creatures, some temp mechanics. What do you mean by that? (0:25:14) Codey: - Temperature, sorry. (0:25:15) Al: Oh, temperature was like temporary mechanics. Yes, temporary temperature mechanics, snow, (0:25:16) Codey: Now, (0:25:22) Al: And then obviously, quality of life improvements. (0:25:26) Codey: Yeah, so they both yeah, they both kind of include like, adding snow as a as a thing that you can see in the game. But one just adds like a whole new world. Also, I wanted to note that they say on in the beginning of this show notes, whatever, what is this called, like a, thank you. (0:25:48) Al: release notes or well it’s not really release notes because it’s not released (0:25:51) Codey: It’s a (0:25:51) Al: teaser (0:25:54) Codey: Teaser, they say… (0:25:56) Codey: “As spring arrives in the northern hemisphere, we’re not quite done with the cold weather. We got you southern hemisphere folks.” (0:26:02) Codey: Correction. We are also not ready for spring. (0:26:08) Codey: The United States weather predicting rodent has proclaimed that there are six more weeks of winter. (0:26:16) Codey: So, yeah, we’re not ready. (0:26:18) Al: Do I need to tap the sign? Seasons aren’t universal, Cody. (0:26:20) Codey: What’s the sign? (0:26:26) Codey: They specifically say “As spring arrives in the northern hemisphere.” (0:26:28) Al: Seasons aren’t universal in the northern hemisphere, Cody. (0:26:32) Codey: There’s six more weeks of winter. I don’t know what to tell you. (0:26:35) Al: Look, okay, so not every country has the same definitions of seasons. Not every country even (0:26:41) Al: has four seasons, and certainly not every country is going to listen to America when they say that (0:26:46) Al: that a rodent has decided it’s- (0:26:49) Codey: Okay, there’s like certain things that they should listen to us on and the majority of (0:26:54) Codey: things that other countries should just ignore Americans on, especially these days. (0:27:00) Codey: But one thing y’all should really listen to is our, our groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, (0:27:07) Codey: who is an immortal groundhog that has bespake unto the cultists or whomstever and told them (0:27:18) Codey: in Groundhog E’s! (0:27:20) Codey: There will be six more weeks of winter and a bunch of people just went. (0:27:22) Al: Yeah, I have watched Groundhog Day. I do know the idea behind it. (0:27:27) Al: Finally, in the game news in bit, we have MeloBot, a last song, have released their (0:27:34) Al: original soundtrack on Steam. It is $12.99 on its own, or it’s also included in the Deluxe (0:27:42) Al: Edition for which is more expensive. It’s actually a really good deal if you get the (0:27:46) Codey: Oh, whoo. Yeah. (0:27:49) Al: deluxe edition, though, right? Because it’s like… (0:27:52) Al: 20 quid for the game. I’m back into pounds here because you confused me with your whole (0:27:57) Al: dollars. 20 quid for the game or is it 25 quid for the 25 dollars for the game? (0:27:58) Codey: - Yeah, sorry, I put dollars, I put US dollars. (0:28:00) Codey: $13. (0:28:04) Codey: $25 for the deluxe edition and then $13 if, (0:28:08) Codey: for just the soundtrack. (0:28:10) Al: Yeah. Well, how much is the base game is that is that $20 then? (0:28:13) Codey: - Man, I didn’t look at that. (0:28:14) Codey: Let me look. (0:28:16) Al: See, it is 20 quid or 10 and 10 quid for 20 or 27 quid. (0:28:22) Codey: Oh I had it wrong! The game is 25. The bundle that includes the digital deluxe upgrade is 35. (0:28:22) Al: Ah. (0:28:32) Al: OK, so it’s still a good deal, but it’s not as good a deal. (0:28:35) Codey: You save 8%. (0:28:37) Al: All righty, so that is the game news. (0:28:41) Al: We also have two new games announced. (0:28:43) Al: Well, kind of. (0:28:44) Al: One of them is a new game. (0:28:44) Codey: - In quotes. (0:28:46) Al: One of them is actually two that are not– (0:28:50) Al: should we talk about the one that’s actually new first? (0:28:52) Al: So that is Sky Harvest. (0:28:52) Codey: - Yes. (0:28:57) Al: The blurb for this one is, “Armed with hand-me-down tools (0:29:01) Al: and some cash. (0:29:03) Al: You begin your new life as the chief farmer, a position your (0:29:07) Al: grandfather once excelled in. Can you honor his legacy and (0:29:10) Al: transform the overgrown, untamed and desolate floating island (0:29:14) Al: into a flourishing farm abundant with produce? (0:29:19) Codey: produce is weird in that trailer was was grandfather sleeping (0:29:26) Al: I didn’t actually watch the trailer give me two seconds. No, he did (0:29:33) Al: Again, yeah, no he did (0:29:36) Codey: so as a child you come upon your grand your beloved grandfather deceased at the (0:29:44) Al: Dead, at the kitchen table, reading his hopes and dreams. (0:29:47) Codey: kitchen table with (0:29:49) Codey: a book in front of him. (0:29:53) Codey: The book says, if I wish I could have gone back one last time and it’s got like a ticket and then it shows you taking that ticket and going and honoring his legacy. (0:30:04) Al: This is how this is how I know that he’s dead because if he’s not dead that is horrific. You’ve just stolen his ticket (0:30:05) Codey: But like, (0:30:12) Al: The one thing he wanted to do you’ve stolen his ticket and gone without him (0:30:16) Al: Let waited a while because you’ve grown a beard now. You’re an adult now (0:30:16) Codey: also, (0:30:20) Codey: Yeah, there’s a whole beard, a mustache, wild. (0:30:21) Al: Goodness me. That’s dreadful (0:30:23) Al: You (0:30:24) Codey: But like, if I came upon my grandmother deceased, (0:30:29) Codey: I say this because my grandfather is already deceased. (0:30:34) Codey: If I came upon my grandmother deceased, and (0:30:37) Codey: I don’t care what’s in front of her, I’m not looking at that. (0:30:42) Al: Yeah, he just like rests his head on his grandfather’s dead arm and sheds one singular tear before stealing his ticket, his boat ticket. (0:30:45) Codey: And then… (laughs) (0:30:50) Codey: I don’t know how beloved that grandfather was, if that’s your reaction, my guy. (0:30:55) Codey: Anyway, this is me just… (laughs) (0:30:56) Al: One, he’s one tear’s worth a little bit. (0:31:00) Codey: Alright, this looks cool though. So you’re on floating islands, you’re flying around with a jetpack, you can manage a restaurant. (0:31:07) Codey: It just says manage a restaurant, but it just shows you telling the person what the one meal that you guys are making in the day is. (0:31:20) Codey: Not what restaurants do. (0:31:23) Codey: And it’s a really bad restaurant. (0:31:24) Al: It’s what really bad restaurants. (0:31:28) Codey: And then it also says make friends, and then there’s a dog with a scroll in its mouth, so I’m guessing you befriend a dog. (0:31:36) Codey: And unfortunately that wasn’t in the trailer, it was in this thing. (0:31:40) Al: I mean the trailer didn’t show you much, lesbian. (0:31:43) Codey: Right, the trailer was very teaser-y, but underneath that, on the post, they have… (0:31:50) Codey: I watched that video where there’s a dog 10 times to see… I wanted to see more of the dog. (0:31:59) Codey: What kind of dog is it? All that. (0:32:03) Codey: It’s definitely a tricolor something, but other than that, no. (0:32:08) Al: So I will say I’m not particularly enamored by the graphics in this game. (0:32:17) Al: Not that it looks bad, it’s very definitely trying to look how it looks, I think. (0:32:23) Al: What I find a bit weird is the graphics of the game and the graphics of the heads-up display, (0:32:30) Al: like the menus and stuff, they feel like they’re from different games. (0:32:31) Codey: Mm hmm. Yeah, like they had two different people designing those, (0:32:38) Codey: and one understood the assignment and one didn’t. (0:32:38) Al: Yeah. Yeah, so it’s a little bit weird. Very, very. I do like the flying. The flying looks fun. (0:32:45) Codey: The character also looks lanky. This is a tall character. (0:32:53) Codey: Yeah. Mm hmm. Cosine. I don’t. (0:32:57) Al: Yeah, I don’t know what else to say. That looks interesting. I love how it calls it sky farming (0:33:01) Codey: It’s farming, but in the sky. Or are we? Are you farming the sky? (0:33:04) Al: when it’s just farming. (0:33:08) Al: In the sky? Okay. No, no, no, no, it’s just you’re on a sky island. Which I feel like this whole (0:33:12) Codey: Like is there part you’re like collecting the sky? (0:33:16) Codey: You don’t know that. What if they what if you collect the sky? (0:33:21) Al: let’s this game has sky islands was a fun idea five years ago and now half the games are doing (0:33:26) Al: it. Which is I guess the problem with game development, right? It was even before that (0:33:30) Codey: It’s the tears of the kingdom like. (0:33:35) Al: people were doing it. They didn’t. (0:33:38) Al: No, I know. Yeah, yeah. No, I get it. I feel like this could be possibly interesting. (0:33:46) Al: I’m not really sure what it’s… The flying is the thing that is most interesting to me, (0:33:51) Al: but other than that, I’m not really sure what it is that they’re doing that’s unique, (0:33:54) Al: which is always the problem with cottagecore games is why should I play you over Stardew? (0:34:01) Codey: I think that’s correct. I think like that’s the thing about this is it’s just to get your (0:34:06) Codey: attention and we will continue. It’s not like I saw this and I’m like, yep, not going to play (0:34:11) Codey: that because there’s not a lot here. I want to, I want to see more. They’re going to probably (0:34:15) Codey: release more. And so far they just say Q2 2025 in the trailer. (0:34:16) Al: Yep. Yeah, where did you see Q2? I just see 2025. Oh, in the trailer, okay. Because on (0:34:28) Al: Steam just says 2025. Okay, I will update my list then. I didn’t pay attention to the (0:34:31) Codey: Yeah, he didn’t watch the trailer. (0:34:38) Al: trailer, there’s a difference there. All right, we also have the brand new and exciting (0:34:39) Codey: Oh, my bad. I get that though. (0:34:47) Al: Harvest Moon, Skytree Village, and The Lost Valley are for some reason coming to Switch. (0:34:55) Al: The good thing about this is it is a bundle, so it’s like you’re not buying the game separately, (0:35:00) Al: which is good, because my word that would be not worth any sort of money. I’m not sure who (0:35:06) Al: wants these games. It’s like they went, “Oh, when we did…” Because they worked with… (0:35:09) Codey: Yeah, so you– (0:35:16) Al: Because the rights are complicated to the old Harvest Moon games, right? So they’ve done some, (0:35:22) Al: they released the original Harvest Moon on, what’s it called, Nintendo Switch Online, (0:35:31) Al: and they had to do that in collaboration with Marvelous, because Marvelous owned the game, (0:35:36) Al: but they owned the name, and so they had to both agree to that. Anyway, whatever, it doesn’t matter. (0:35:41) Al: And I feel like that combined with Marvelous redoing a wonderful… (0:35:46) Al: life has made them go, “Oh, people like when we remake Harvest Moon games and knock on which ones (0:35:55) Al: is it that people actually want to play, because I guarantee you it’s not Skytree Village in The (0:35:59) Al: Lost Valley.” (0:36:00) Codey: - Yeah, I will say, okay, so two things. (0:36:04) Codey: First of all, I looked, so one social media user, (0:36:08) Codey: to your question of who’s asking for this, (0:36:10) Codey: one social media user named Chrissy said, (0:36:13) Codey: “Cozy gamers have really been winning lately.” (0:36:16) Al: I wonder whether that person has ever actually played either of these. (0:36:16) Codey: To which another, (0:36:23) Codey: to which another user said, (0:36:25) Codey: “These games are more like a loss.” (0:36:28) Al: The funny thing is they did the whole, “Oh, we’re going to announce an announcement.” (0:36:34) Al: And they were like, “Oh, we’ve got an exciting announcement coming for you.” (0:36:34) Codey: Yeah (0:36:37) Al: And you’re like, “Okay, fine.” (0:36:40) Al: And then they did this and people were like, “Really? (0:36:43) Al: That was your… (0:36:44) Al: Please tell me this wasn’t everything.” (0:36:46) Al: Because it’s just, they’re like, I am not the sort of person who just hates on Harvest (0:36:50) Al: Moon, you know, Natsume, Harvest Moon games for the sake of it. (0:36:54) Al: You know, I am literally playing Harvestman, Home Sweet Home, as we’re recording. (0:36:58) Al: The podcast, right? And I’ve talked about how I like that. I’ve talked about how I like the ideas (0:37:02) Al: in One World and Winds of Anthos. I think they’re very interesting and I think that they’re very (0:37:07) Al: close to legitimately having a good game. These games are not that. These games are just bad. (0:37:10) Codey: Mm hmm. This ain’t it chief. Yeah, I will say so. I was listening to another podcast (0:37:22) Codey: about metal music lately and they were talking about I had there’s a point fault. Stay with (0:37:27) Al: I look forward to it. (0:37:28) Codey: me. They were talking about how this one band re like, is republishing like re thank you (0:37:37) Al: - Remastered. (0:37:38) Codey: remastering. (0:37:40) Codey: I think they’re actually just straight up rerecording an (0:37:42) Codey: entire album and like reproducing it. (0:37:42) Al: - Oh, okay. (0:37:44) Al: They’re Taylor-swifting it. (0:37:45) Codey: Basically, they are that’s the they literally made a joke about (0:37:49) Codey: that and they had the same question like what who’s asking (0:37:53) Codey: for this and a bunch of people on social media were like, (0:37:56) Codey: ah, this is thanks, but I’d rather have no music, etc, etc. (0:38:00) Codey: But they actually said they made a really good point, which (0:38:02) Codey: is if there are people who have not played these games or (0:38:07) Codey: listen to this music or whatever. (0:38:10) Codey: Kind of an introduction to that to that content for them (0:38:13) Codey: because there might be people who have heard of this Harvest (0:38:17) Codey: Moon thing, but they haven’t really played it yet or whatever (0:38:22) Codey: and then maybe they see this bundle and they’re like, oh (0:38:24) Codey: wow, there’s two of them in here. (0:38:26) Al: They’re first and last Harvest Moon games (0:38:27) Codey: And so it’s not. (0:38:30) Codey: Well, yeah, so that’s the thing. (0:38:31) Codey: So I mean that they were talking about an actually good album (0:38:35) Codey: versus– (0:38:35) Al: Yes, I think that’s that is the key difference here Cody (0:38:39) Al: I think like I am NOT against remakes. I think remakes can be really good (0:38:40) Codey: - Yeah. (0:38:43) Al: I think I’m doing a wonderful life last year was good because that is a very beloved game (0:38:43) Codey: Yeah. (0:38:47) Al: That is a lot of people’s first farming game (0:38:51) Al: And you just have to listen to Kevin for five minutes to know how much some people were waiting for that (0:38:55) Al: Nobody has that about (0:38:56) Codey: Oh, yeah. That’s fair. (0:38:56) Al: these games. (0:38:59) Codey: Yeah, I I’m trying to give them the benefit of the doubt, but, uh, yeah, (0:39:04) Codey: I think that the thing is that it’s not just if they’re not being remade (0:39:08) Codey: or or bundled in for the switch for the fans. (0:39:14) Al: No. This is the problem is there aren’t games that Natsume can nostalgia grab on. (0:39:15) Codey: It’s to try and get new people into the into the fandom. (0:39:26) Al: Because they’re all owned by Marvelous. They only own the name. And Marvelous aren’t going to do (0:39:33) Al: anything about it. I think it was very different when they did the original on Nintendo Switch (0:39:38) Al: Online because that is the actual original game. They’re just porting. (0:39:44) Al: It’s not even porting. It’s literally just an emulator. They’re just literally allowing (0:39:51) Al: the game to run on it. And that’s very different to remaking games. And there’s no way Marvelous (0:40:00) Al: have remade multiple. They remade Friends of Mineral Town, which was a fun one to do. They (0:40:05) Al: remade A Wonderful Life. I can’t remember if they’ve done any other remakes recently. (0:40:10) Codey: Yeah, I don’t know, because I’m not ever going to touch it, so. (0:40:14) Al: They want to jump on the bandwagon. They have to just release bad games again. (0:40:20) Al: This is the thing. So many people have this be in their bonnet about Natsume and they’re like, (0:40:25) Al: oh, they’re just jumping on the name and using it to sell bad games. And yeah, that’s kind of true. (0:40:31) Al: Or at least it was kind of true. I do think now they’re actually getting better and they’re (0:40:36) Al: actually trying to make good games. They’re getting there. But the problem is that releasing (0:40:42) Al: they’re bad games again. (0:40:44) Al: They’re not going to convince anybody that they’re doing anything other than money-grabbing. (0:40:44) Codey: Yeah, it’s like there’s someone at the company that remembers when all these games first (0:40:55) Codey: came out and like the hype the hype of it and they’re trying to like regain that the (0:41:01) Codey: glory days and the it’s sometimes you just got to let things go and like when Bluey and (0:41:08) Codey: Bingo had to get rid of a bunch of their stuffies. Yeah. (0:41:10) Al: Oh, we watched that the other day. That was a good episode. (0:41:17) Al: Yeah, it’s painful to watch what they’re doing, because it’s like one step forward, 73 steps (0:41:24) Al: back. Like, I just… Why do this? And I… Oh, goodness. Yes, right. (0:41:24) Codey: like the American government. So we have some other people one year forward 73 years backwards. (0:41:40) Al: So… Yeah, a section we don’t often have, because normally it’s just game updates and (0:41:41) Codey: We have some other news. Uh-huh. Oh. (0:41:47) Al: occasionally new games, we do have the other news section. So we have three pieces of other (0:41:53) Al: news to talk about. The first one is super… Let’s start off with the negative one, shall we? (0:41:54) Codey: You got to be more specific. Oh, oh, you’re right. You’re right. You’re right. I needed. (0:42:01) Al: There’s only one negative one. Okay. (0:42:04) Codey: I had to look through it again. Yeah. (0:42:10) Al: So Phoenix Labs, the developers of Fae Farm and Dauntless, and were creating other games (0:42:15) Al: until last year when they laid off almost everybody who was working on any game other (0:42:20) Al: than Fae Farm and Dauntless have now laid off almost everybody else. Huzzah! (0:42:26) Codey: - Yay. (0:42:27) Al: They’re like, “What’s the point in a game studio that makes games? (0:42:30) Al: We don’t want to make games. We don’t even want to continue making our existing games.” (0:42:34) Codey: Yeah, you don’t have yeah, but you know, they really said, the developer said, quote, It’s unfortunate, but necessary. (0:42:44) Codey: Yeah, so I did do a dive into this, more than just like, just the top of the of the article or whatever I start, I really got into reading this article and like kind of looking at some stuff because I was just like, what is going on here? (0:42:45) Al: Yeah, I guess the games aren’t failing then. (0:43:00) Al: - Were you rage reading? (0:43:02) Al: Were you rage reading? (0:43:04) Codey: I was so after basically, the developer, the Phoenix lab, whom’s ever the whole the whole Phoenix lab people. Correct. Thank you. You’re so good with the words today. So they, they were, they were acquired by a blockchain company called forte labs. (0:43:14) Al: the company. What can I say? I’m on a roll. Words is my whole thing. (0:43:30) Codey: And when they were acquired, they then laid off (0:43:34) Codey: as you already mentioned 160 people and quote the new owner (0:43:39) Codey: reportedly pressed developers to draft methods for integrating (0:43:44) Codey: blockchain technology in its games for the purpose of buying (0:43:49) Codey: and selling and trading in game goods, according to former (0:43:52) Codey: employees. So the crypto market has has joined games y’all. (0:43:58) Codey: Uh. (0:43:58) Al: are we back on NFTs? I thought we killed NFTs like four years ago, what are you doing? (0:43:59) Codey: Yeah. (0:44:04) Codey: NFTs and crypto, man, they’re here to stay, I guess. (0:44:08) Al: Well no, crypto isn’t dead, but come on, when was the last time you heard about NFTs? (0:44:14) Al: Especially in games, they’re so 2022. (0:44:18) Codey: I believe Ascentient Cheeto recently gave more NFTs. (0:44:24) Codey: Continuing on, apparently after releasing Dauntless, (0:44:28) Codey: they were “criticized by players for its new in-app monetization design,” (0:44:32) Codey: which was probably the blockchain, (0:44:34) Codey: but erasing previous progression with the new Awakening update. (0:44:38) Codey: So they had an update and it released, it erased all the previous progression. (0:44:38) Al: Oh no! No! What?! (0:44:42) Codey: The game still has an overwhelmingly negative number of reviews on Steam. (0:44:49) Al: I miss that happening. I wasn’t really aware of this very much. I was aware of it when (0:44:50) Codey: And the… (0:44:54) Al: it initially released because it was like, “Oh, it’s gonna kill Monster Hunter.” And (0:44:56) Codey: Yeah. (0:45:00) Codey: It did not. (0:45:02) Codey: It really had it was nowhere new (0:45:04) Codey: because when it first launched, there were probably about 3200 concurrent players like people playing at the same time online. (0:45:12) Codey: Nowadays, it’s only ever around about 150 people. (0:45:18) Codey: So yeah, not sure what they’re doing. (0:45:22) Codey: I would suggest well, I guess I would I would say that I would suggest them to back off the blockchain, but they are literally owned and acquired by a blockchain company. (0:45:32) Codey: So I don’t think that’s going to happen. (0:45:36) Codey: So I’m not not really sure what this means for Fae Farm. (0:45:41) Al: What I find really funny is like, so I think crypto is most often a scam. (0:45:48) Al: I do think there are some interesting applications for blockchain as a concept. (0:45:56) Al: NFTs is not it. (0:46:01) Al: It has never been it, even on their own. (0:46:04) Al: And then when people started putting them into games, I was like, I don’t even know why. (0:46:10) Codey: I mean, I feel like it’s to try and like have an introduction. (0:46:11) Al: Like, what is happening, and why would you do this? (0:46:18) Codey: It’s like when they put smoking in movies so that they would get more smokers, right? (0:46:23) Codey: It’s like a, it’s a, it’s a possible way to normalize something. (0:46:26) Al: It’s like the Transformers series for selling more Transformers. (0:46:29) Codey: Yeah. (0:46:31) Codey: Uh, which it’ll probably have a small, well, it would have a small bump if it wasn’t for (0:46:38) Codey: uh, cozy gamers. (0:46:40) Codey: Cause I don’t think cozy gamers are the people or, or monster hunters style players. (0:46:46) Codey: I, you really gotta go for like the call of duty people. (0:46:48) Codey: I feel like they, they would do NFTs because they basically, that’s basically all they (0:46:53) Codey: do with their, uh, skins and stuff on all the, all the guns and whatever. (0:47:00) Codey: So like, it’s not monster hunter people, uh, with dauntless and then cozy games with fave (0:47:08) Codey: farm. (0:47:10) Codey: It’

Welcome to episode 284 of The Cloud Pod – where the forecast is always cloudy! Everybody is in the house this week, and it's a good thing because since we've last recorded re:Invent happened, and we have a LOT to talk about. So let's jump right in!  Titles we almost went with this week: Amazon Steals from Azure…. We Are Doomed  The Cloud Pod Can Now Throw Away a lot of Code The Cloud Pod Controls the Future The Cloud Pod Observes More Insights We Are Simplicity X None of the Above Stop Trying to Make Bedrock & Q Happen My Head Went SuperNova over all the Q Announcements These are Not the Gadgets Bond Needed, Q!  A big thanks to this week's sponsor: We're sponsorless! Want to get your brand, company, or service in front of a very enthusiastic group of cloud news seekers? You've come to the right place! Send us an email or hit us up on our slack channel for more info.  AWS  08:12 It's the re:Invent recap!  Did you make any announcement predictions? Let's see how our hosts'  predictions stacked up to reality.  Matt – 1 Large Green Computing Reinvent LLM at the Edge Something new on S3 Ryan (AI) – 1 Improved serverless observability tools Expansion of AI Driven workflows in datalakes Greater Focus on Multi-Account or Multi-region orchestration, centralized compliance management, or enhanced security services Jonathan – 0 New Edge Computing Capabilities better global application deployment type features. (Cloudflare competitor maybe) New automated cost optimization tools Automated RAG/vector to S3 Justin  – 2 Managed Backstage or platform like service New LLM multi-modal replacement or upgrade to Titan Competitor VM offering to Broadcom Honorable Mentions: Jonathan: Deeper integration between serverless and container services New region Enhanced Observability with AI driven debugging tool Justin: Multicloud management – in a bigger way (Anthos competitor) Agentic AI toolings New ARM graviton chip How many will AI or Artificial Intelligence be said: 45 Justin – 35 Jonathan – 72 Pre:Invent There were over 180 announcements, and yes – we have them all listed here for you. You're welcome.  17:12 Time-based snapshot copy for Amazon EBS Now you can specify a desired completion duration, from 15 minutes to 48 hours when you copy an Amazon EBS snapshot within or between Amazon regions or accounts.  This will allow you to meet your time-based compliance and business requirements for critical workloads, mostly around DR capabilities.  We're just glad to see this one finally, because having it built in directly to the console to guarantee that EBS snapshots make it to the other region is a big quality of life enhancement. Announcing future-dated Amazon EC2 On-Demand Capacity Reservations

This week, we are joined by Laura Lazarus, Co-founder and CEO of Anthos|Home, a non-profit organization combatting homelessness and housing insecurity by partnering with local government, non-profits, housing providers, and private funders to help voucher holders quickly move into affordable housing.  Learn more about Anthos|Home here. https://anthoshome.org/ Email or DM Hear Our Voices to share your story or resources related to homelessness and housing instability: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠NYCHearOurVoices@gmail.com ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Hear Our Voices' ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ account links can be found on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Linktr.ee/nyc_hov⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. RESOURCES ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠NYC311⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://portal.311.nyc.gov/  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠DHS' Prevention Assistance and Temporary Housing (PATH) intake center ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠- apply for shelter   ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.nyc.gov/site/dhs/shelter/families/families-with-children-applying.page ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Brochure⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.nyc.gov/assets/dhs/downloads/pdf/path-brochure.pdf ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠HRA Guide for Housing Instability⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.nyc.gov/assets/hra/downloads/pdf/BK-9-SOI-NewGuideForRenters.pdf⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠      Housing Vouchers ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Section 8⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.nyc.gov/site/nycha/section-8/about-section-8.page⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠CityFHEPS⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.nyc.gov/site/hra/help/cityfheps.page⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠   ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠FHEPS⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.nyc.gov/site/hra/help/fheps.page⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠    ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Special One-Time Assistance⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (SOTA) ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.nyc.gov/site/hra/help/sota.page⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠   Check out other resources: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠bit.ly/40pB4p8

Welcome to episode 283 of The Cloud Pod, where the forecast is always cloudy! Break out your crystal balls and shuffle those tarot decks, because it’s Re:Invent prediction time! Sorry we missed you all last week – the plague has been strong with us. But Justin and Jonathan are BACK, and we've got a ton of news, so buckle in and let's get started!  Titles we almost went with this week: Not My Snowcones!  Lambda at 10: Still Better Than Windows Containers  A big thanks to this week's sponsor: We're sponsorless! Want to get your brand, company, or service in front of a very enthusiastic group of cloud news seekers? You've come to the right place! Send us an email or hit us up on our slack channel for more info.  General News   01:27 The voice of America Online's “You've got mail” has died at age 74 Elwoods Edwards, the voice behind the online service AOL's iconic “You've got mail” sound notification has died at the age of 74. He was just one day shy of his 75th birthday.  The “you've got mail” soundbite started in 1989 when Steve Case, CEO of Quantum Computer Services (which will later become America Online or AOL,) wanted to add a human voice to their Quantum online service.   Karen Edwards, who worked as a customer service representative, heard Case discussing the plan and suggested her husband Elwood, a professional broadcaster.  Edwards recorded the famous phrase and others (“Welcome” “File's done” and “Goodbye” among them) on a cassette recorder in his living room.  He was paid $200 for the service.   His voice is still used to greet users of the current AOL service.  AWS  03:04 It's Time for RE:Invent Predictions! Matt Large Green Computing Reinvent LLM at the Edge Something new On S3 Ryan (AI) Improved serverless observability tools Expansion of AI Driven workflows in datalakes Greater Focus on Multi-Account or Multi-region orchestration, centralized compliance management, or enhanced security services Jonathan New Edge Computing Capabilities better global application deployment type features. (Cloudflare competitor maybe) New automated cost optimization tools Automated RAG/vector to S3 Justin  Managed Backstage or platform like service New LLM multi-modal replacement or upgrade to Titan Competitor VM offering to Broadcom  Honorable Mentions Jonathan: Deeper integration between serverless and container services New Region Enhanced Observability with AI driven debugging tool Justin: Multi Cloud management – in a bigger way (Anthos competitor) Agenti

Al and Kev talk about the Sakuna anime Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:01:38: What Have We Been Up To 00:16:25: Game News 00:31:01: New Games 00:35:10: Sakuna Anime 01:18:00: Outro Links Winds of Anthos DLC Delay Wanderstop Delay Amber Isle Switch Delay Everholm Release Steamworld Build “Steam Fright” Update Disney Dreamlight Valley “Jungle Getaway” Update Hawthorn Contact Al on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheScotBot Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Transcript (0:00:30) Al: Hello farmers, and welcome to another episode of The Harvest Season. My name is Al, and (0:00:36) Kev: My name is Kevin. (0:00:38) Al: we are here today to talk about Cottagecore games! Wooooo! Well, both, like we do have (0:00:40) Kev: No, we’re here to talk about ‘an-a-me’! (0:00:46) Kev: Heh heh, oh. (0:00:46) Al: the news section, you know, which will probably be most of the episode. Kevin is of course (0:00:51) Kev: I guess so? (0:00:55) Al: referring to the fact that we are going to talk about the Sakana of rice and (0:01:00) Al: ruin anime that came out recently we tried to do this two weeks in a row one (0:01:09) Al: week the last episode hadn’t come out in the UK so I needed to wait for that one (0:01:15) Al: and then last weekend I was six so that did not work but here we are we’re gonna (0:01:18) Kev: sick (0:01:21) Al: we’re gonna we’re gonna actually do it this time we’re recording (0:01:22) Kev: finally, we made it (0:01:26) Kev: um, yeah, alright, but we’ll get to that (0:01:28) Al: We will get to that. (0:01:30) Kev: i- I have a lot to say, I like sakuna (0:01:30) Al: I look forward to discussing it with you. (0:01:33) Kev: did you know that? (0:01:36) Al: Before that, we have a bunch of game news. (0:01:39) Al: But first of all, Kevin, what have you been up to? (0:01:42) Kev: All right, um, not too much of note a lot of the same as always Marvel snap continues to be good (0:01:50) Kev: I’m sure you’re playing it still. Are you are you playing it? I’m assuming you’re (0:01:50) Al: Hmm (0:01:52) Al: I haven’t I haven’t played much this season yet (0:01:57) Al: Just because I was trying to put some of that time into (0:02:01) Al: Pokemon pocket instead, but I’ve realized I (0:02:02) Kev: Mm-hmm (0:02:06) Al: Not enjoying the battles in that so I’m not going to (0:02:08) Kev: Wait, is that already out ah (0:02:11) Al: Okay, so no it is not (0:02:15) Kev: Are you a New Zealand transplant (0:02:15) Al: It’s I’m I am in New Zealand just now (0:02:20) Al: I (0:02:22) Kev: Amazing you got your whole set up because identical set up real quick and you see (0:02:29) Al: Just happened to live in New Zealand, um, yeah, eh, I mean I guess for tax purposes. I’m not actually in New Zealand (0:02:38) Al: Just in case anyone’s listening (0:02:39) Kev: Hey (0:02:42) Al: Yeah, so I I don’t find the battling fun in that so (0:02:46) Kev: Okay, well (0:02:46) Al: Um, I’m probably going to go back to, uh, back to snap and. (0:02:50) Kev: Sick, um, I’m sure you can. Oh, it’s yeah (0:02:50) Al: Uh, see if I can get the season done in the, in the next two weeks. (0:02:55) Al: I’m sure I probably can. (0:02:57) Al: I actually, I quite like leaving gaps where I’m not playing because then you (0:03:00) Al: have loads of tasks to do in the, in the season, um, rather than like every, (0:03:02) Kev: Yeah (0:03:04) Kev: Sure. Yeah, you can (0:03:06) Al: every two days you get another two tasks. (0:03:07) Kev: Yeah, just the drip feed (0:03:08) Al: You’re like, great. (0:03:09) Kev: Yeah, that makes sense (0:03:12) Kev: Okay, well, you know what I was talking about like how does pocket play like (0:03:18) Al: Yeah, fundamentally, it’s not really different from the Pokémon Trading Card game. There’s (0:03:22) Kev: Uh-huh sure you attach energies your pokemons (0:03:25) Al: like a couple… Yeah, exactly, exactly. The cards are basically the same. Sure, they have (0:03:30) Al: some different cards, but fundamentally, they’re the same thing. The trainer cards are fundamentally (0:03:37) Al: exactly the same. The energy is different in so much as you don’t have them in your (0:03:43) Al: deck it’s like a separate thing and it randomly gives you (0:03:48) Al: energy each turn based on the energies that your Pokemon have. I do think I (0:03:49) Kev: Oh, that’s, okay, that’s an interesting way to approach it. (0:03:56) Al: prefer that and I think if I were to like play the game physically I would (0:04:02) Al: probably prefer to do it this way right like you take all your trainer cards (0:04:04) Al: and shuffle them into a second deck and you draw one of those each turn I quite (0:04:08) Al: like that but yeah it’s it’s not fundamentally different right like if (0:04:14) Al: if you don’t particularly enjoy playing the game. (0:04:18) Al: I think, I guess the reason I enjoy playing Marvel Snap is because one, it’s like super (0:04:24) Al: fast, right? (0:04:26) Kev: They are. It’s a limited pool, but every card does something different. It’s really interesting how they’ve managed to keep it dynamic and interesting with every week a new card. (0:04:27) Al: And two, the card effects are really fun. (0:04:44) Al: yeah exactly exactly whereas the pokemon is still just like you have your pokemon (0:04:49) Al: it has a move and the move deals damage maybe the move has a status effect that’s it right (0:04:51) Kev: - Yeah, yep. (0:04:55) Al: like there’s nothing fundamentally changed there and so I don’t find that particularly interesting (0:04:57) Kev: Yeah. (0:04:57) Kev: Yeah. (0:05:01) Al: uh you’re only using one pokemon to battle each time as you as you were previously um like (0:05:07) Al: fundamentally it’s the same it’s just kind of changed up a few things and I i think the reason (0:05:14) Al: way is so that they can like it’s compatible with the physical card game so if you wanted (0:05:20) Kev: Mm-hmm. Okay. Sure. All right. That’s that’s cool. I guess yeah (0:05:20) Al: to play the game this way you could absolutely play it this way so and I understand why they (0:05:27) Al: did that I i get that because if they want to like add it as like a second way of playing the card (0:05:31) Al: game and in tournaments wherever they can do that and that that might be fun um but that’s not what (0:05:38) Al: i’m looking for I was looking for something kind of fundamentally different I think part of the (0:05:42) Al: the problem is the expectations. (0:05:44) Al: People were comparing it to Snap with no real information, just going, “Oh, it’s (0:05:52) Al: going to be like Snap because they’re trying to make it more mobile and Snap worked really (0:05:56) Al: well. (0:05:57) Al: It was a good card game.” (0:05:58) Al: But it’s not. (0:06:00) Al: Fundamentally it’s not Marvel Snap. (0:06:03) Al: It’s not in any way. (0:06:06) Al: I guess you could argue the only thing it takes from Marvel Snap is the idea of quicker battles. (0:06:12) Al: It’s not fundamentally different. (0:06:14) Al: And the other issue I think is because it’s like there are 160 cards or something like that so far in the game. (0:06:25) Al: So to actually be able to get a decent deck that you can take people on with takes a lot of work. (0:06:32) Al: Whereas because there’s a lot fewer cards in Snap and there are so many different ways to get the cards without paying, (0:06:40) Kev: Yeah, yeah, it’s also what a well far deck in Snat, so yeah, that’s probably the biggest one. (0:06:40) Al: You you can get a decent deck pretty quickly (0:06:44) Al: It is yeah, so it’s 20. I think it’s it’s 20 cards in in pocket (0:06:52) Kev: Okay, all right. (0:06:54) Al: Because you don’t have the energy but yeah, it’s still I’m gonna keep using it and like opening and collecting (0:07:00) Al: But I think that’s what I’m gonna like unless they fundamentally change something about the battles (0:07:04) Al: I’m not gonna put any time into that and so yeah, I’ll do my five minutes a day of open the packets (0:07:11) Al: Do a wonder pick (0:07:13) Al: Check my collection (0:07:14) Al: And then close the app because I like collecting things, you know (0:07:18) Kev: There you go. Hit your dopamine hit. (0:07:20) Al: Exactly exactly and hopefully spend no money on it (0:07:26) Al: So, yeah, i’ll get back into snap this week probably try and get through as much as possible and see if it’s (0:07:30) Kev: All right, well, it’s it is still good. (0:07:34) Kev: The season’s been fine. (0:07:36) Al: Yeah, i’m excited (0:07:37) Al: I might I might try and go back to a destroy deck and try and add in some of the the new symbiotes (0:07:40) Kev: Yeah. Yep. (0:07:44) Al: Could integrate into any of my other decks. Um, they look they look quite fun (0:07:49) Al: They’ve been rolling them out slowly. Haven’t they? I think they’ve been doing one a week of those (0:07:52) Kev: Yeah, yeah, there’s there stay there. That’s what they do standard. Yeah, I want a weekend (0:07:57) Kev: Well, we’ve got like two or three left one the one I’m excited for I think is next week (0:08:02) Kev: Maybe we can I don’t know but the one the one wants not out yet. But um, they’ve been fine. Nothing earth-shattering. Nothing (0:08:09) Kev: Disrupting the game. I think the (0:08:12) Al: It keeps the good decks being good, and it doesn’t make anything else better. (0:08:12) Kev: It’s in a good place (0:08:15) Kev: Yeah, yeah (0:08:18) Kev: Yeah, pretty much pretty much they never (0:08:19) Al: Yeah, so we’ll see if I can get up to infinite again, and if I do it with the same deck or (0:08:22) Kev: white widow though. I’m sad (0:08:26) Kev: Hey (0:08:27) Al: a different deck or whatever. (0:08:28) Kev: Yeah, well, hey, you’re gonna start off at 70 right? So the (0:08:31) Al: Yeah. (0:08:32) Kev: Fights gonna be easier on you. There. Yep. There you go. All right (0:08:32) Al: 73. (0:08:33) Al: Come on, I know my deal. (0:08:36) Kev: Shhh, um, heh heh heh heh. (0:08:39) Al: The moment I hit infinite, I was like, oh, right. (0:08:42) Al: I need what I go down to, it’s like, because my worry was I don’t want to like battle (0:08:45) Kev: Okay (0:08:46) Al: and then drop out of infinite, but you don’t do that. (0:08:49) Al: Once you’re in infinite, that’s it. (0:08:50) Kev: Yeah, nope, you’re good which is so nice (0:08:51) Al: Which I really like. (0:08:53) Al: Yep. (0:08:54) Kev: huge (0:08:55) Kev: sigh of relief (0:08:57) Kev: But yeah snap aside (0:09:00) Kev: a lot of the usual zenless on zero I’ve talked about that so (0:09:05) Kev: There’s an arcade in zenless zone zero where you can play mini games or side games because some of them are not so mini (0:09:12) Kev: I’ve been spending a lot of time in the cause (0:09:16) Kev: Bizarre brigade that’s the name of the minigame. It’s their little version of bullet-heaven games vampire survivor type games (0:09:24) Kev: And so you’re just going through ways of enemies buying upgrades and partners and stuff like that (0:09:32) Kev: It’s it’s just addictive and it’s no danger of spending any money. It’s totally separate from west the gate (0:09:41) Kev: But other than that, I’ve picked up Sonic Frontier. (0:09:45) Kev: It is good. It’s still good. I like it. (0:09:50) Kev: I don’t know what else to say. It’s open-world Sonic work, somehow. (0:09:57) Kev: It’s fine. Yeah. Yeah, that’s fair. (0:09:58) Al: I’ve still, I’ve still, I’ve still never got into it. I played it for a couple of hours (0:10:02) Al: and we’re just, I don’t know what it was, but just like every, I think it’s just every, (0:10:08) Al: it’s the same as every 3D Sonic to me. This is something that doesn’t really jive with (0:10:13) Al: me in 3D Sonic. Except the 3D levels and generations, they worked. (0:10:15) Kev: It’s not. Well, hey, I mean, hey, that’s coming again. (0:10:19) Al: Yeah. Well, exactly. Exactly. Soon. Two weeks. (0:10:20) Kev: So get hyped. Yeah. Yeah. (0:10:26) Kev: That’s excited for that. But yeah, I think. Oh, and I’ve been playing the Luigi Mansion 2 on my 3DS. (0:10:36) Kev: Hey, well, you find me on a Mario Party podcast and it’s October. So guess what? That’s our spooky game of the year. (0:10:43) Al: We just got a spoiler as to which one of you is playing. (0:10:46) Kev: But yeah, there you go. What about you? What’s been going on? (0:10:52) Al: I have been playing Zelda Echoes of Wisdom and it is super fun! (0:10:59) Kev: Oh yeah, you look so fun, so many dank memes and just, ugh, all of games are just tools to do nonsense, I love it so much. (0:11:08) Al: I do there’s a couple of things I’m not a huge fan about it in so much as like it has (0:11:14) Al: a bunch of okay has two has two as far as I know I don’t think there’s gonna be any (0:11:19) Al: more based on what’s happened in the story but I’ve encountered two stealth levels and (0:11:27) Al: I do not like stealth levels I don’t like them at all I’ve never liked them I don’t (0:11:32) Al: like them in spider-man I don’t like them in this game I don’t like them in any game (0:11:38) Al: definitely not fun because well first of all it’s a different way of playing than the (0:11:42) Al: rest of the game and suddenly they’re like oh hey you got to do this thing that you haven’t (0:11:46) Al: bothered doing the rest of the time completely switch up how you think about the game and (0:11:51) Al: I also don’t like how they go like the step stealth is like oh you just throw you back (0:11:56) Al: to the beginning of the level and that’s that you know I don’t I don’t like that because (0:12:01) Al: it’s just then you’re just repeating the thing that you keep failing at which yeah okay sounds (0:12:06) Al: just like any game with levels. (0:12:08) Al: But there’s something about it that’s really– (0:12:11) Al: you get right to the end of a stealth level (0:12:13) Al: and you muck up one thing and you’re back to the beginning. (0:12:15) Kev: Yeah, yeah, well, that’s, that’s odd that they put it because I don’t know. (0:12:15) Al: I don’t know why that annoys me more than, say, (0:12:18) Al: a Mario platformer. (0:12:20) Al: I don’t know, but it’s really frustrating. (0:12:29) Al: It makes sense in the story, is what I would say, but I don’t want to spoil the picture. (0:12:29) Kev: It doesn’t, okay, sure. (0:12:34) Kev: Um, the question I have is, do you still have tools, right? (0:12:40) Al: Yeah, you do. (0:12:40) Kev: because there’s, there are some stealth levels where, or gameplay, where you. (0:12:45) Kev: Just, it’s just totally dodge all the, the lasers and spotlights or whatever, right? (0:12:50) Kev: Stay invisible. (0:12:52) Kev: And then some like Spider-Man, where you still have your tools and you can use them, doing (0:12:57) Kev: your stealth thing or whatever, right? (0:13:00) Kev: You can take out foes before you get detected. (0:13:02) Al: Well, I think Spider-Man’s a bad example of that. Spider-Man’s a bad example of that, (0:13:06) Al: because most of the stealth levels in the newer Spider-Mans, you’re actually playing as Mary Jane, (0:13:13) Al: not a Spider-Man. I know the ones you mean. I think there are some stuff, and actually, (0:13:14) Kev: Oh, oh my gosh, I forgot about Mary Jane. I was thinking about like when you know, you have a room of encounters. Yes (0:13:21) Al: those are fun, yeah, because that’s more of like a puzzle, whereas the Mary Jane levels are just like (0:13:23) Kev: Yes (0:13:26) Kev: Yeah, yeah (0:13:29) Kev: Yeah, just of you know, avoid the spotlights, you know (0:13:29) Al: hide behind this thing, wait for them to- (0:13:32) Al: not look at you, it’s just not fun. (0:13:35) Kev: Well, well (0:13:35) Al: They tried to make it more fun in Spider-Man 2 because they gave her a teaser, which did (0:13:40) Kev: Uh-huh (0:13:40) Al: improve it but was still not- I still didn’t enjoy it. (0:13:44) Kev: » Sure, sure that, okay. (0:13:45) Al: Because you’ve got this game about I’m, you know, spinning around the world, I’m like, (0:13:50) Al: you know, whip-lying, whatever, and then suddenly I’m just a person. (0:13:53) Kev: » But don’t you wanna play? (0:13:55) Al: Not fun. (0:13:56) Al: Yeah, no one’s buying the Mary Jane game, let’s be honest, right? (0:14:01) Kev: My gosh, but yeah, but no, that’s exactly my point. (0:14:04) Kev: That’s how far the spectrum goes, right? (0:14:06) Kev: Like there’s the good self and the bad self, but anyway, so (0:14:10) Al: So what I would say is you do have all those tools, (0:14:13) Al: so you can do everything that you could. (0:14:16) Al: But I found that when I was trying to do stuff like that, (0:14:20) Al: clever stuff like that, to like– (0:14:22) Al: they would somehow see me in the weirdest places. (0:14:25) Al: And I’d lose the level. (0:14:28) Al: And actually, it was easier just to hide, which is not great, (0:14:28) Kev: They can’t see you at the top of a tower of veg, you know. (0:14:33) Al: really. (0:14:34) Al: But yeah, I don’t– (0:14:40) Al: exactly. (0:14:41) Al: I will say the one good thing about these (0:14:42) Al: compared to other stealth levels is if you get seen, (0:14:46) Al: they chase after you. (0:14:47) Al: But if they don’t catch you, you don’t (0:14:49) Kev: Oh, that’s always nice, not an autofail, that’s… (0:14:49) Al: get put to the back at the start. (0:14:51) Al: So yeah, so I’ve seen people speed running them (0:14:57) Al: with throwing tables behind them to block the people running (0:15:01) Al: after them. (0:15:02) Al: And that, I think, is a good thing. (0:15:05) Al: But I didn’t see that until after I’d done them. (0:15:08) Al: I didn’t, I didn’t consider speedro- (0:15:10) Al: I was running it. Um, but yeah, I did try like, you know, I’m going to build beds over this area so I can, but they still saw me and I’m like, Oh, it’s not. So anyway, so been playing that. I’ve also played a bit of Bellattro now that it’s on, uh, mobile. (0:15:24) Kev: Oh mobile, I gotta get I gotta get it. I will (0:15:27) Al: This game, I get why everybody likes it and I don’t dislike it is what I will say. I don’t know how much I want to talk about this because people are just going to mock me for buying a rogue light again. (0:15:33) Kev: Okay (0:15:39) Kev: I mean, that’s the hope on this show. I think (0:15:41) Al: Actually, no. This isn’t even a roguelite. This is a roguelike. (0:15:44) Al: Everything resets between runs in there. There’s nothing that carries over. (0:15:46) Kev: Yeah, oh, yeah (0:15:49) Al: I knew it was a roguelite going in. I did. But I somehow thought the roguelike part of it was (0:15:55) Al: going to be different than it was. I think that’s all I’m going to say. It doesn’t mean I’m not (0:15:59) Kev: Okay, well… (0:16:00) Al: going to continue playing it until I beat it. I might. The actual gameplay of it is fun enough (0:16:06) Al: that it might, might override that. (0:16:08) Kev: Yeah. (0:16:09) Kev: Yeah, well, I’m excited. I’ll update you when I get it too. (0:16:14) Al: look forward to it. I just, I like how it’s nice and cheap, it’s like 10 quid. (0:16:14) Kev: Because I know when I get it, it’s over for me. Goodbye, world. (0:16:18) Kev: And Galacto only. (0:16:24) Kev: That is great. (0:16:25) Al: All right, well that’s what we’ve been up to. Let’s talk about some game news. First up, (0:16:33) Al: surprise surprise, the Harvest Moon Winds of Anthos great outdoors update has been delayed again. (0:16:44) Al: Last week’s episode when you talked about this, but my first thought when I saw this news was (0:16:49) Al: they’re delaying it by a week. A week is a very short amount of time to be delaying it. (0:16:55) Al: That seems weird and suspicious, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it get delayed again. (0:17:00) Al: It got delayed again. (0:17:00) Kev: I didn’t think about that but you’re super right like what is the difference gonna gonna make in game dev I don’t actually don’t know what we could do. (0:17:10) Al: The one thing I would think is they’d realized one game-breaking bug, and they knew the fix (0:17:19) Al: to it so they could do it, and the week was just to like get it through their testing and their (0:17:23) Kev: Mmm, sure. (0:17:25) Al: processes to get it actually into the stores. But that didn’t work. So either that’s wrong, (0:17:30) Kev: Sure, sure, yeah (0:17:34) Al: and they were just completely overly optimistic about what they were doing, right? Like who two (0:17:38) Al: weeks away from release, who goes. (0:17:40) Al: We’re not going to be able to get this done in time, but I know we’ll get it (0:17:52) Al: fine in an extra week. (0:17:54) Al: That’s a really weird decision to make, right? (0:17:58) Al: Which they’ve clearly decided because they haven’t put a new date on it. (0:18:01) Al: They’ve just said it’s delayed. (0:18:02) Kev: I said one week later, but not which week, huh? (0:18:10) Al: no so yeah if you’re waiting for that update i’m very sorry yeah and I guess we’ll see we’ll see (0:18:16) Kev: Wait longer (0:18:20) Al: when it eventually comes out uh speaking of delays because we are still in the season of delays (0:18:26) Al: because it is october uh wonder stop um have delayed they are going to be releasing next year (0:18:32) Al: this is the game that’s from the the creators of stanley parable uh (0:18:36) Kev: Okay, I’m looking let me see (0:18:40) Al: it’s the it’s about making tea (0:18:43) Kev: That that you know that is such a weird (0:18:47) Kev: Cell right it’s a T game, but it’s the Stanley Parable guy so (0:18:52) Al: No, I think that’s honestly I think that that like makes me more interested. So I like the (0:18:54) Kev: Unless it’s gonna give (0:19:00) Al: tea making aspect, right? Because I like the idea of a more focused game. That’s also a (0:19:08) Al: farming game, also a cottagecore type game is more focused. And it’s not I don’t, I don’t (0:19:10) Kev: Yeah, no, no, I mean like the tea game (0:19:15) Al: necessarily expect it to be like the Stanley Parable. I think it’s more just like the Stanley (0:19:19) Al: parable people understand. (0:19:22) Kev: okay tour yeah all right when you put like that yeah I that makes sense right (0:19:27) Kev: but you know just when you hear Stanley Parable your ex a lot of people was (0:19:33) Kev: thinking oh is there gonna be some weird meta narrative component to it how’s (0:19:38) Kev: it’s gonna break the fourth wall but like yeah no looking at the trailer (0:19:39) Al: Yeah, I understand. Yeah, I don’t think we’re going I don’t think it’s going to be that I think the Stanley Parable was them just breaking down games and showing because that’s all it is. Right. It’s just it’s it’s it’s basically a massive comedy essay about games, interactive comedy essay, right? (0:19:48) Kev: yeah (0:19:52) Kev: Yeah, yep, yeah. (0:19:56) Al: Like it does a thing that no other medium could do. Right. Like you can’t you can’t break down films in the same way that you consume films. (0:20:06) Al: you can’t break down reading a book in the say in reading a book you (0:20:07) Kev: well I don’t know I saw that mass unbearable weight of massive talent (0:20:09) Al: could you that has to be in the creation (0:20:16) Al: I mean that was excellent but that’s still about the creation of something not about the consuming (0:20:18) Kev: and that one they lit oh yeah oh true true (0:20:22) Al: of it whereas the whole point of the stanley parable it if you don’t have the user input (0:20:28) Kev: yeah yeah that’s true (0:20:28) Al: it it doesn’t mean anything it’s pointless it’s useless whereas a film even if nobody watches it (0:20:33) Al: it still has its value like its narrative is the same from beginning to end no matter who watches (0:20:35) Kev: Sure. (0:20:39) Al: it whereas games that’s not how it works and that’s what I really like about the stanley parable (0:20:40) Kev: No, it’s true. (0:20:44) Kev: Yeah, okay, but yeah, I mean, I looked at the trailer and it looks like a well made (0:20:49) Kev: competent game or whatever is this. Yeah, like, I don’t know, it takes a second to wrap my head. (0:20:55) Kev: Like, that’s why they’d be a good fit for it. But yeah, all right, I’m down for it. (0:21:00) Al: I understand that, but we’ll see what happens. (0:21:01) Kev: Do we have an ETA now? Okay, so. (0:21:04) Al: Early 2025 is all they’ve said. (0:21:07) Kev: Question marks, basically. (0:21:09) Al: Yeah, so May, May of next year. (0:21:15) Al: That’s what I’m saying. (0:21:16) Kev: So look forward to the next delay announcement in February 2020. (0:21:16) Al: We’ll see if I’m right. (0:21:22) Al: Speaking of delays, we also have Amber Isle. (0:21:25) Al: I’m sorry, Kevin. (0:21:27) Al: The Switch version is delayed. (0:21:27) Kev: NOOO! (0:21:30) Al: We have a date of 21st of October, not in October, November, November, sorry. (0:21:31) Kev: We have a date. (0:21:36) Kev: You know what? (0:21:37) Kev: I can live with that. That’s still this year. (0:21:39) Al: So, slightly over a month, slightly over a month. (0:21:39) Kev: I can live with that. (0:21:41) Kev: I- I- Wait, it’s a- (0:21:41) Al: It’s interesting because, yeah, so the Steam versions out now (0:21:47) Al: came out a couple days ago as we’re recording. (0:21:50) Al: The interesting thing about this is it’s slightly over a month delay to this. (0:21:56) Al: But they say it’s console specific performance issues. (0:22:00) Al: I feel similar to this, I feel about the delay to the wins of Anthos DLC. (0:22:08) Al: That’s a very specific date for performance issues. (0:22:12) Kev: Mm-hmm. Well, I think mmm-hmm (0:22:13) Al: Like performance issues can mean so many different things and (0:22:18) Al: can come from so many different places that there’s not gonna be one easy fix. (0:22:21) Kev: Through (0:22:25) Al: And it’s not like they’re gonna spend a month working on it, right? (0:22:26) Kev: So (0:22:30) Al: And we all know Nintendo are slow at getting these things through their store. (0:22:36) Kev: Heh, heh, heh, heh, yeah. (0:22:36) Al: So maybe they have two weeks extra to work on it, maybe. (0:22:41) Kev: Yeah, well, you know, I’m assuming, based off the way they phrase it, it’s not a game-breaking thing, right? (0:22:48) Kev: It just probably runs a little poorly on the switch. It’s, you know, it’s not uncommon. So… (0:22:55) Kev: They probably set themselves a date. We need one in out by this for the holidays or whatever, and… (0:23:00) Kev: So let’s just do what we can in this time. Um, that would be my guess. (0:23:05) Al: I yeah I don’t look I’ll be yeah I’ll be surprised if they don’t if people still don’t (0:23:12) Al: aren’t disappointed by the performance of this when it comes out right and and I guess (0:23:16) Kev: Well, [LAUGHS] (0:23:16) Al: the thing is like I guess I’m confused as to why they would be unhappy with it now but (0:23:23) Al: they’ll be happy with it in a moment like that just feels unrealistic (0:23:24) Kev: Hmm (0:23:26) Kev: that (0:23:28) Kev: Yeah, all right. You know what? That’s a good point. Yeah. I mmm. I don’t know. That’s a good point (0:23:35) Al: But we’ll see. We’ll see. Because Kevin’s gonna buy in day one. (0:23:40) Kev: No, gosh, I’m, I’m over here agonizing we’re going to do an episode. (0:23:46) Kev: Am I going to have to get down steam? (0:23:48) Kev: I don’t know, but boy, it’s going to be day one. (0:23:51) Al: Get it for what you want to play it on. (0:23:53) Al: The episode can wait. (0:23:54) Al: Next we have Ever Home. (0:23:56) Al: Ever Home, is it Home? (0:23:58) Al: Or is it Home, Home? (0:24:00) Kev: I do I think it’s whole either way. It’s basically the same thing is what I think (0:24:05) Al: Yeah, I think it’s Home. (0:24:07) Al: ‘Cause I think it’s kind of like a pun. (0:24:09) Kev: Yeah, yeah, yep, I think so (0:24:09) Al: Like it sounds like Home, H-O-M-E. (0:24:14) Al: But also a Home, H-O-L-M, Home. (0:24:19) Al: I clicked the pronunciation guide on Google (0:24:22) Al: and it said it in an English accent. (0:24:23) Al: So of course I parroted it in an English accent. (0:24:26) Al: Home or Home, as apparently that said, (0:24:32) Al: also means an islet, (0:24:34) Al: especially in a river or near a mainland. (0:24:36) Al: So is this based on an island? (0:24:38) Al: I haven’t seen anything. (0:24:40) Kev: I… I don’t know. (0:24:42) Kev: It probably is. (0:24:45) Al: Anyway, I should probably say what the news is shouldn’t I because I haven’t as I said that there they’ve announced their release date is the (0:24:51) Al: 11th of November this year. So there you go. If you’ve been looking forward to that (0:24:56) Kev: It’s a very pretty-looking game. (0:24:59) Kev: Isometric, I don’t feel like that’s one we see very often in our– (0:25:06) Kev: at least not in a 2D pixel one, so maybe a 3D one. (0:25:09) Kev: But I don’t know. (0:25:09) Al: Yeah, I think you’re right. I think you’re right (0:25:11) Kev: It looks– it just visually looks polished. (0:25:18) Kev: I think maybe there’s a narrative aspect that (0:25:21) Kev: looks interesting that might set it apart. (0:25:24) Al: I’m intrigued as to how the farming will feel when you’re doing it because of the isometric (0:25:24) Kev: But yeah, it died. (0:25:34) Al: view. I think it might be harder to hit the exact square you want. (0:25:38) Kev: that’s true but I like I saw they there’s a moment in the trailer when you (0:25:45) Kev: harvest pumpkins and like they’re all harvested at once so I wonder if they’re (0:25:50) Kev: designed around that (0:25:52) Al: Possibly, possibly. However, you might notice the watering, it did do it on a square by (0:26:00) Al: square basis. And actually I had a look, so when she does the pumpkins, it’s not all at (0:26:06) Al: once, it’s like six of them at once, and then the other three. So yeah, I just, it could (0:26:09) Kev: Okay. Uh… (0:26:12) Al: just be, yeah, that these things are done on a much more lackadaisical way, shall we (0:26:19) Al: right like oh, you kind of vaguely hit it (0:26:21) Kev: right. Yeah. (0:26:22) Al: we’ll just count it sort of thing. (0:26:25) Al: I don’t know, but we’ll see. (0:26:28) Al: That’s my only concern about this is how that will feel. (0:26:32) Al: But we will see because it’s coming out soon. (0:26:35) Al: There is a demo so I could play it if I cared. Find it. (0:26:39) Al: Next, we have Steam World Steam World (0:26:41) Al: Build, their final seasonal update is coming out or is out now is out now. (0:26:50) Al: and this is the Steam Fright Update. (0:26:52) Al: So obviously, Halloween based. (0:26:54) Al: There’s lots of glowing things. (0:26:57) Al: Glowing green lights. (0:26:57) Kev: As is, that’s what one does on Halloween. (0:27:01) Al: Yeah, the train is like radioactive looking. (0:27:05) Kev: As trains do in the real world during Halloween. (0:27:11) Al: Yeah, it looks like if you enjoy this game, that will be a fun game. (0:27:16) Kev: it does look like it’s doing the spooky thing well i’ll say that it looks very halloweeny (0:27:22) Kev: - Oh. - Oh. (laughs) (0:27:22) Al: Next we have another update for Disney Dreamlight Valley. They’re just pumping these updates (0:27:31) Al: out. This is the Jungle Getaway update. So, interestingly, one of the major updates in (0:27:39) Al: this is that you can go to the Lion King realm during the day. So, previously, I think the (0:27:45) Kev: Well, you couldn’t already, though, okay? (0:27:49) Al: The deal was that this was, (0:27:51) Al: it was just always night when you went. (0:27:52) Al: to the Lion King realm. (0:27:54) Al: So it wasn’t that you couldn’t go there during the day. (0:27:54) Kev: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get that just I’m puzzled by that decision. (0:27:56) Al: It’s just when you went, it was night. (0:28:04) Al: look I suspect it would have made sense narratively if you played it but I haven’t done that bit so (0:28:11) Al: I wouldn’t know for sure um it’s also really funny how like this is like the top voted thing (0:28:17) Al: is like hey daytime (0:28:20) Kev: Also, it steals me, but the Lion King takes place in Fabana, which is not a jungle. (0:28:29) Al: They also Timon and Pumbaa are added so they won’t so they don’t add every single character (0:28:36) Kev: wait they weren’t in art oh my gosh oh my gosh what do you (0:28:40) Al: that’s in every single film when they add the realms so a fair argument also some new (0:28:41) Kev: mine yeah but you know what you know what they should have been in there (0:28:45) Kev: before simba I don’t care (0:28:49) Al: backpacks. There you go. The final piece of standard news is (0:28:51) Kev: all right I like lion king so you know what i’ll give him props for that (0:28:59) Al: an interesting one from Paleo Pines. I don’t know if we want to talk much about this but (0:29:05) Al: I felt like it was something to mention. They’ve basically posted on social media saying that (0:29:11) Al: they’re struggling to find someone to help the future of Paleo Pines. Basically they’re (0:29:19) Al: looking for a production partner so I think this is like, I think it’s basically someone to give (0:29:25) Al: the money. I think that’s it. (0:29:29) Al: They’re struggling. They’re not managing to keep funding the game to get ad updates. (0:29:34) Kev: yeah well you know what that’s that’s hard um to to keep a game going right like honestly (0:29:44) Kev: if I were the paleopine step like they’ve they’ve done the derp feed model of here’s an update here (0:29:50) Kev: and there whatever I have would have just saved for one or two and called it a day like I think (0:29:55) Kev: paleopine’s uh the base level was already pretty solid as a package um so he (0:30:01) Al: Yeah, I agree. And it’s they’ve said that they’re working on other games, so it’s not like they’re only working on this. So yeah, it does feel like not every game needs to constantly have updates. And so maybe, maybe that’s it for Paleo Pines. I don’t know, mostly. (0:30:05) Kev: okay (0:30:16) Kev: yeah but uh but we’ll see um yeah i’m interested like or you know like this might be like I don’t (0:30:25) Kev: know all the obviously ins and outs of this but would a c a sequel at this point be better i (0:30:30) Kev: don’t know um I don’t know if they could get more groundswell for that because you know a new game (0:30:34) Al: Maybe yeah, maybe I’m sure they’re thinking all these things through, right? (0:30:37) Kev: sometimes yeah but uh regardless um you know it’s a good game I uh I do wish to see more of it (0:30:46) Kev: they don’t have all my dinosaurs that I want in there yet anyway so um number one reason to keep going (0:30:52) Al: It’s even possible to have all the dinosaurs. (0:30:57) Kev: no but they can try (0:31:00) Al: Fair enough. (0:31:02) Al: We also have one new game to talk about. (0:31:06) Al: This is a very interesting one. (0:31:08) Al: So this game is called Hawthorne, and I’ll just read their blurb. (0:31:14) Al: Former developers from Bethesda Bioware and Naughty Dog bring you sandbox RPG realm of (0:31:20) Al: anthropomorphic animals and fairies. (0:31:22) Al: play co-op or solo as you build a village of memorable NPCs, farm, craft, explore and celebrate the seasons in an ever-changing world bigger than you. (0:31:32) Kev: Okay, I’m, I have a lot of feelings here because, so this is Everdell, er, I’m sorry, um, what’s the, the book series, um, Redwall, Redwall, that’s not, Everdell’s a board game, it’s another thing, but Redwall, the, the game, basically, you’re all, you’re playing as mice and otters and, and little birds and, and you’re farming and crafting and stuff, um, and, okay, on that pitch alone, I think, (0:32:02) Kev: sounds incredible, um, especially the fact that they are going with, uh, uh, actual size. So the pumpkins are, that you’re farming are bigger than you, right? Um, uh, so that’s, uh, I, I love a lot of this. I mean, they, you know, these are anthropomorphic critters and they’re talking and so on and so forth. There’s birds with wizard hats or witch hats, whatever, um, uh, so it’s great. The only thing is right. Because of that, I guess that Bethesda (0:32:32) Kev: and Naughty Dog and Pyewear, I guess, actually, it’s realistic looking, right? Like Skyrim ish, um, which is, I don’t know, when you describe a game like that to me, I’d expect something cute scenes, stylistic or whatever. And it’s, yeah. (0:32:47) Al: It’s funny because it’s like a combination of weirdness with that, right, because yeah, (0:32:51) Al: it’s realistic looking. (0:32:52) Al: So you’ve got this realistic looking mouse next to a realistic looking pumpkin, but he’s (0:32:59) Al: standing on his hind legs holding an axe cutting down some corn. (0:33:04) Kev: Yep, yep. (0:33:04) Al: It’s like realistic but also really weird. (0:33:09) Kev: And guess what, when you’re dragging that pumpkin or that branch that’s bigger than you, it looks kinda goofy, ‘cause it’s kinda floating behind you, but your arms are kinda healthy. (0:33:18) Kev: Um, I don’t know, it’s… I guess the weirdest thing, like, it doesn’t look bad, but it’s just such a… unexpected art direction to go with for this kinda game. Um, right? (0:33:31) Kev: And, like, it’s very grounded, right? (0:33:35) Kev: I mean, their colors are nice, but they’re not, like, bright or anything like that. (0:33:39) Kev: Just a very nice outdoor setting. (0:33:41) Kev: Um, but, uh, you know, I’m not, like I said, I don’t think it’s bad, just unexpected. (0:33:48) Kev: And I’m still, uh, very enthusiastic about the premise. (0:33:52) Kev: There’s a lot of great things in here. (0:33:54) Kev: You’re dancing with an otter on a table while you’re drinking meat or something. (0:34:00) Kev: Um, you can swim as an otter. (0:34:02) Kev: You can fly on birds. (0:34:04) Kev: Um, I, I, I like a lot about it. (0:34:08) Al: Yeah, it’ll be interesting to see what comes from this. (0:34:09) Kev: There’s a weasel with a top hat. (0:34:11) Kev: I think that’s a weasel. (0:34:13) Kev: It’s Mayor Weasleton. (0:34:13) Al: Heh. (0:34:14) Al: Obviously. (0:34:17) Kev: I like, I like red wall and little rodent people, societies. (0:34:23) Kev: It’s cute. (0:34:24) Kev: Um, I will probably play this. (0:34:26) Kev: Did, is it steam only right now? (0:34:27) Kev: Do we know there’s anything about, uh, (0:34:30) Al: That’s a good question, I think I’ll see at the end of the trailer. (0:34:36) Al: Yeah, I’m just seeing I’m not seeing anything about. (0:34:40) Kev: well um okay well i’ll have to see um nothing else right those names they’re uh there’s probably (0:34:49) Kev: a lot of good talent right and hopefully not a lot of bad uh executive decisions so hopefully (0:34:56) Kev: this game will come out great um yeah oh I think it might be on xbox I don’t know I see on the xbox (0:35:01) Kev: reddit um but I digress um yeah i’ll definitely keep my eye out for it because I love the idea of (0:35:11) Al: Alrighty, so that’s all the news. We’re now going to talk about Sakuna of Rice and Ruin, (0:35:19) Al: the anime. So just to give a bit of background behind this, this is based on a game, Sakuna (0:35:24) Al: of Rice and Ruin, obviously. It was a rice. It is a rice, realistic rice farming game (0:35:28) Kev: get get ready if you thought I was a weeaboo before get ready I want to talk about japanese (0:35:34) Kev: animation um yes so (0:35:41) Al: based on, with a story, a very interesting story, which I’ll need you to confirm to me how much of (0:35:49) Al: the story in the anime is the same as in the game, because as mentioned in the episode… (0:35:52) Kev: I’d say 90 percent 90 to 95 percent it is (0:35:56) Al: Okay, obviously I know the beginning and stuff like that, but as I mentioned on the actual (0:35:59) Kev: Yeah (0:36:00) Al: episode we did with the game, I didn’t enjoy the game, so I didn’t get very far through it. (0:36:04) Kev: Yeah (0:36:06) Kev: Okay, I on the other hand yeah, we did that good good while ago. It’s not gonna has been out for a minute (0:36:13) Kev: Yeah, I did beat the game (0:36:16) Kev: Apparently not all the game though because there was some stuff I didn’t know that is something yet to make because (0:36:22) Kev: That was in side quests. I didn’t end up doing or they didn’t trigger for me or whatnot, but I’ll get to that (0:36:27) Kev: But okay, so the elevator pitch (0:36:28) Al: three years ago. Just sorry, just three years ago is when we did that episode. (0:36:31) Kev: Yeah, okay. Well there you go. Oh man. I’m so oh first of all let me just say I so I adored (0:36:37) Kev: Socken at the the video game on I know it got a novel like sequel it got a think of manga adaptation (0:36:46) Kev: I’m so happy got an anime adaptation because it was indeed perfect for one (0:36:52) Kev: And I mean overall, I think they knocked it out of park. (0:36:56) Kev: It’s a great anime in my opinion. (0:36:59) Kev: What’s your overall opinion on it now? (0:37:01) Al: Yeah, I think it’s super fun. The characters all feel very real. I know that they’re all (0:37:10) Al: pretty much based on the characters in the game, so obviously that helps, but the animation (0:37:13) Kev: - Mm-hmm, yep. (0:37:15) Al: looks great. The pacing of the story felt pretty good. Pretty standard, but pretty good. (0:37:22) Kev: Yeah, I have one or two quips where, uh, uh, yeah, uh, forms that they excuse me, (0:37:28) Kev: forms with it. Um, but in general, yeah, I know it’s pretty solid how they paste it out. (0:37:33) Kev: Um, yeah. Uh, all right. There you go. All right. Until next week, guys. (0:37:34) Al: Yeah, I really enjoyed it. (0:37:36) Al: I thought it was super fun. (0:37:39) Al: I don’t know what else to say about it overall. (0:37:42) Kev: All right. Okay. Uh, so here’s the elevator pitch, um, for both. Again, the, the plot is pretty, (0:37:49) Al: Oh wait, before you do, is this where we go spoiler alert? (0:37:54) Al: We’re probably going to talk about spoilers. We’re probably going to talk about the actual story. (0:37:56) Kev: Okay. Yeah, it it is a 13 episode anime (0:38:01) Kev: It’s not terribly long, right? You can knock it out pretty quick (0:38:05) Kev: And the game’s been out for three years. So yeah, I’m not gonna hold back on spoilers because it’s (0:38:12) Kev: Like there’s nothing tear I don’t think there’s anything super (0:38:16) Kev: One or two things but yeah, here’s your warning. I’m gonna talk about the whole game (0:38:21) Kev: I’m gonna try to go broad and the narrow or whatever but but yeah, I’m saying (0:38:26) Kev: here everything is fair game considering that again the plot is very (0:38:31) Kev: similar to the game so you know that’s been out and well established alright so (0:38:35) Kev: the elevator pitch okay so Sakuna is a the daughter of a war god and a harvest (0:38:42) Kev: goddess at the start so she has inherited powers and such from both and (0:38:50) Kev: at the start of the series she is living in what is referred to as the capital (0:38:54) Kev: work various days. (0:38:56) Kev: and in such live in what’s called the lofty realm, the upper realm where those (0:39:02) Kev: sorts of beings live, and she is a stubborn, spoiled, lazy brat who gets by (0:39:10) Kev: because of her parents, basically, the status she got from them. And so one day, (0:39:18) Kev: a bridge called the… was it the Bridge of Heaven, I think it is, appears and a (0:39:25) Kev: a group of humans. (0:39:26) Kev: Humans appear on said bridge, wandering from what’s referred to as the “lower realm”, (0:39:30) Kev: the world of humans, and they are crossing over to the capital. (0:39:36) Kev: It’s not going to go out to try to deal with it, but she ends up, and so the humans are (0:39:45) Kev: being chased by a bandit named Ishimaru. (0:39:48) Kev: She kicks Ishimaru off the bridge, quite literally kicks him off the bridge, and the humans get (0:39:54) Kev: Bye and call us a little bit. (0:39:56) Kev: It’s because of this, Sakuna is punished and sent to Hinue Island or the Isle of Demons, where her parents once lived, and she is sent there to fend for herself and to figure out what’s going on as there have been reports of demons coming from the island. (0:40:17) Kev: And so that’s how the stage is set. (0:40:24) Kev: Sasakuna is to learn (0:40:26) Kev: how to cultivate rice like her mom did and get along with the the band of humans who have also (0:40:32) Kev: been sent to the Isle of Demons as they try to figure everything out and eventually figure out (0:40:38) Kev: the demon problem. Okay um so with that I guess let’s see here so I guess we’ll just try to go (0:40:50) Kev: in and visit order unless you have other ideas or do you have any comments overall on the overall (0:40:56) Al: Eh, I guess if we’re talking about just like the setup of the story as a whole, you know, (0:41:04) Al: it’s a fun concept. Obviously, we experienced, we both experienced this part in the game, (0:41:10) Al: but I think I cared more about the story at this point, right? Because part of the problem, (0:41:17) Al: and this is a me problem, I understand that. You don’t need to come at me and go, “Ah, (0:41:22) Al: you should care more about the story and games, but generally, I don’t. (0:41:25) Kev: Mm-hmm, okay. (0:41:26) Al: Right? I’m playing games because I enjoy the gameplay. I’m not playing games necessarily for the story. (0:41:32) Al: If the story grabs me, that’s just a bonus. (0:41:36) Al: But the problem is, especially at the beginning of games, I don’t want a lot of story before I start playing. (0:41:42) Al: Right? I’m like, “No, no, just give me the game. I want to see how this plays before I invest lots of time into it. (0:41:44) Kev: Okay, sure sure (0:41:48) Al: Give me the game. Don’t give me the backstory.” (0:41:49) Kev: Okay (0:41:51) Kev: Yeah, you know and that’s fair (0:41:54) Kev: That’s fair (0:41:55) Kev: I think there’s a lot of people like that who want the gameplay before anything else and that’s very fair being the interactive medium it (0:42:02) Kev: is (0:42:03) Kev: and (0:42:04) Kev: Sakuna in particular right like the gameplay of the video game is very it can be tough to (0:42:11) Kev: to get her because there’s it’ll it asks a lot of you. (0:42:14) Kev: Right. There is both the rice farming simulation game and there’s also platforming and combat. (0:42:21) Kev: True to her nature is half harvest. (0:42:24) Kev: God is half war goddess. (0:42:26) Kev: The game reigns into both aspects of that. (0:42:29) Kev: So it’s asking a lot and might not appeal. (0:42:32) Kev: I think I would say it’s hard to appeal to everyone because those are two very different things, I think. (0:42:39) Kev: And in the game, a lot of the story is not so. (0:42:45) Kev: Front loaded. You don’t get into a lot of the meatier stuff until past the halfway point, I would say. (0:42:51) Kev: And of course, that’s, you know, the games given to you in cutscenes and whatnot dialogue. (0:42:57) Kev: But the majority of it, you’re spending farming and, you know, forming and whatnot. (0:43:04) Kev: So it might be hard for a lot of people to get through the whole story. (0:43:08) Kev: But I’m glad that that’s a big reason why I’m glad this exists, because now we can all enjoy the story. (0:43:15) Kev: Maybe a little straightforward, but overall, really nice. Well done. (0:43:20) Kev: And that’s in large part because of the characters. So, you know, let’s let’s talk about them a little bit. (0:43:25) Kev: We, you know, we mentioned Sakuna and she’s the star of the show by far. (0:43:31) Kev: She’s pretty comedic and they get animating like she is in the game, right? (0:43:35) Kev: Because she’s so ridiculous, cartoonishly stubborn and spoiled. Very, very. (0:43:41) Kev: Um, uh, she is always with her faith. (0:43:44) Kev: So companion slash steward, I guess, I don’t know what every servant, uh, his name is Tom. (0:43:50) Kev: He’s a little floating dog. (0:43:51) Kev: Um, he’s a guy kind of got old man voice and energies wise. (0:43:56) Kev: And then tries to keep her in line, but she’s still a handful. (0:44:00) Kev: Right? (0:44:00) Kev: Um, Tom is, well, I’ll get to Tom. (0:44:04) Kev: Tom is one of my favorite characters in the show by far. (0:44:06) Kev: Um, there, and then the human she’s now living with, there is, uh, Howie Mon. (0:44:13) Kev: a samurai who (0:44:15) Kev: stuck to the samurai because he doesn’t like to fight so he (0:44:19) Kev: Became a bandit, but he wasn’t very good at that either. He’s very clumsy (0:44:25) Kev: In fact he kind of messes up everything he does (0:44:28) Kev: Which was why Sakuna ends up having to do most of the farming, but he is at least rather knowledgeable about farming (0:44:34) Kev: Which is again the role he plays in the game. He’s kind of your (0:44:39) Kev: resource for any farming tips or knowledge that you need (0:44:44) Kev: He can help out around the farm in the game. So, you know, that’s I think they captured that to a tee (0:44:51) Kev: There is Mirta. She is a missionary from (0:44:56) Kev: What country did the Sakuna game in anime happen in Gyanatsu, which is not Japan and she’s from not Germany basically (0:45:05) Kev: And and yeah, so she’s a missionary originally (0:45:09) Kev: Just to teach folks about her her (0:45:13) Kev: beliefs and whatnot. (0:45:14) Kev: And to learn about other countries as well. (0:45:18) Kev: She’s sweet, she’s kind, she makes medicine, she cooks. (0:45:21) Kev: Looking is the big thing for her in the game. (0:45:25) Al: I just speaking of her, because I really like there’s a bit where Sakana says “are you going (0:45:27) Kev: Yeah. (0:45:30) Al: to teach the kids about me now?” and she says “no”. Like she does it in a really nice way, (0:45:37) Al: but it’s just really funny. It’s just like “no, I may have met a metagod now, but no, (0:45:38) Kev: Hey. (0:45:39) Kev: Yeah. (0:45:42) Al: I’m not going to teach them about you. I’m going to continue doing my time”. (0:45:42) Kev: Yeah. (0:45:44) Kev: Oh, yeah. (0:45:45) Kev: Oh, that’s good stuff. (0:45:46) Kev: Um, uh, so we have those two, then we have the kids. (0:45:57) Kev: There’s Kinta. (0:45:58) Kev: He’s a kind of a street kid sort of thing going on, right? (0:46:02) Kev: He’s, he’s smart. (0:46:04) Kev: He’s sassy. (0:46:04) Kev: He’s very street wise. (0:46:06) Kev: Um, blunt and to the point, um, he’s good at crafting some stuff and becomes eventually (0:46:10) Kev: a blacksmith making tools for Sakuna just like he does in the game. (0:46:14) Kev: Likewise, we have Yui, a small and sweet girl, very shy, very quiet, follows Kinta around a lot, and she’s more like looming and creating fabrics and equipment of that sort. (0:46:29) Kev: And that’s for Sakuna, which again, she does in the game. And then we have good old Kaimaru, the big baby. He’s basically a baby who walks around and he can’t talk. (0:46:44) Kev: He can’t communicate with animals though, and that’s how he helps out. (0:46:47) Kev: He’s the one who brings a lot of animals to the farm to help out, like Dr. Simutow and (0:46:53) Kev: the Kappa. (0:46:55) Kev: But yeah, that’s the main crew. (0:46:58) Kev: And obviously the first couple of episodes are focused on them, you know, introducing (0:47:03) Kev: them and see how they try to get along on their new island with nothing at all, right? (0:47:10) Kev: There’s a kind of broken down view buildings. (0:47:14) Kev: Where Sak and his parents live, but they have to start working together to kind of fix it up. (0:47:

Codey and Kevin talk about Township Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:02:17: What Have We Been Up To 00:16:25: News 00:40:52: New Games 00:52:11: Township 01:16:21: Outro Links Research Story “0.10” Update Horticular “1.1” Update My Time at Sandrock “1.4” Update Winds of Anthos DLC Delay Moonstone Island’s Fishbo now in Coromon Super Zoo Story Kickstarter Gaucho and the Grassland Cattle Country Forgotten Waters Contact Al on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheScotBot Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Transcript (0:00:30) Kev: Hello farmers and welcome to another episode of the harvest season. My name is Kevin (0:00:36) Codey: and my name is Cody. (0:00:38) Kev: And we are here to talk about cottagecore games whoo (0:00:44) Codey: are we here to talk about cozy games I just wanted to to trigger al a little bit (0:00:46) Kev: I hope not (0:00:52) Kev: I’m triggered (0:00:54) Kev: Doesn’t sound like coat. It doesn’t sound like a cozy game from what you’ve described sounds like an addiction (0:01:00) Kev: Stop welcome (0:01:02) Codey: a plague that needs to be released (0:01:04) Kev: Welcome to the the township intervention of podie today everyone (0:01:10) Codey: yeah for sure (0:01:14) Codey: I played Township, and when we needed a topic on a dime, I was like, “Can we please cover this game so I can uninstall it?” (0:01:25) Kev: Yeah, I mean, yeah, oh, yeah (0:01:28) Kev: if people only knew like it was like I (0:01:33) Kev: Mean first of all, I guess supposed to do an episode out and we had a pivot like twice and then he grew sick (0:01:39) Kev: It’s how the Cody had to join and then we had to pivot with that (0:01:41) Codey: He was very ill, yeah. (0:01:44) Codey: Oh yeah, we had to pivot. (0:01:45) Codey: I had a small breakdown because of personal reasons, (0:01:49) Codey: but I am here and I am queer. (0:01:50) Kev: » Yeah. Yeah, we’ll get to there after we talk about. (0:01:53) Codey: Okay, so township episode, that’s what today is. (0:01:58) Codey: And that’s what today is. (0:02:08) Kev: I don’t I don’t know if I’ll even I don’t recall if I’ll says it but we’ve got the you know how it works folks (0:02:14) Kev: We got the show notes. You got the transcript on the website all those good things (0:02:18) Kev: And speaking of good things. Hopefully what have you been up to Cody? (0:02:18) Codey: yeah. I have been getting healing from tearing my calf muscle. Yeah so I tore (0:02:30) Kev: Oh, oh, that’s not great. (0:02:34) Codey: my calf muscle. It is, at least it wasn’t the Achilles. We initially thought it was (0:02:41) Codey: the Achilles but it was not that. So tore that and then… (0:02:48) Codey: I am in physical therapy now and it’s honestly already so much better so it did (0:02:52) Codey: not it did not slow me down y’all. Last week, sorry what? I tried to run for four (0:02:54) Kev: That’s great. How did the tearing occur? (0:03:01) Codey: whole seconds. I ran for four seconds and I tore my calf muscle. And this kids is (0:03:08) Kev: just (0:03:09) Kev: immediate collapse (0:03:10) Codey: why you don’t exercise. No. I am a super clumsy human and super oxidized. (0:03:11) Kev: But. (0:03:18) Codey: I had a mini meltdown because I did not want to go through that again but it was (0:03:32) Codey: not it is thankfully not that it was just a calf muscle and it cannot keep me (0:03:36) Codey: down. I am already out of the boot. I’m already doing stuff though the the (0:03:40) Kev: Yeah, that’s great. (0:03:42) Codey: physical therapist today had me do lunges for a whole minute and I had to (0:03:48) Codey: go. I kept trying to go and she was like girl no you’re done like stop she’s (0:03:53) Kev: I’m going to tear it again. (0:03:53) Codey: like yeah basically she’s like you’re pushing yourself too hard and I was like (0:03:58) Codey: I should be able to do this and she was like girl no to come back next week. They (0:04:04) Kev: Silence. (0:04:04) Codey: love me there because they know me if they remember me from my ACL tear and (0:04:08) Codey: how like they would say like okay you can stop at 10 and I’d be like I’m gonna (0:04:14) Codey: to do 20, or like they would put (0:04:18) Codey: the weight on like 30 pounds or something. (0:04:20) Codey: And then they’d come back and they were like, did you make, (0:04:22) Codey: did you up the weight? (0:04:23) Codey: And I was like, 30 was too light. (0:04:26) Codey: I wanted 40. (0:04:30) Codey: So they’re, they’re very aware that they need to like reel me in. (0:04:34) Codey: Um, so that was the big thing two weeks ago. (0:04:37) Codey: And then last week I was at the B lab down in Maryland. (0:04:42) Codey: So there’s a gentleman down there who is the B God of the East coast. (0:04:48) Codey: And pretty much any B and he can identify it for you and tell you all about its (0:04:50) Kev: Yeah, I remember we talked about this (0:04:51) Codey: national history. Yeah, he is amazing and he’s so sweet. (0:04:54) Codey: And so we went down to have him identify some of our bees. Um, and I, (0:04:59) Codey: and when we go down, (0:05:00) Codey: he doesn’t accept payment because he’s he works for the government. (0:05:04) Codey: So he like can’t accept payment and he also can’t be on (0:05:09) Codey: like a, he can’t be an author on papers. It’s like too difficult for him. (0:05:13) Codey: He doesn’t want to. So usually when we go down to do stuff like that, (0:05:18) Codey: and he identifies things for us, we just do things for them. (0:05:21) Codey: So they basically had a bunch of bees that needed to be organized. (0:05:24) Codey: So we did that. It was very interesting. Unfortunately, (0:05:27) Codey: he got COVID very quickly into us being there while we were there. (0:05:32) Codey: He liked by the second day, he was very ill. (0:05:36) Codey: So we didn’t see him anymore. (0:05:37) Codey: And he still has our bees because he was not able to do them. (0:05:41) Codey: And I hope honestly that he as well, I actually have not asked for an update. (0:05:45) Kev: Wop wop, that’s rough. (0:05:46) Codey: I need to do that. (0:05:48) Codey: But I mean, we still did our part and so now we’re just waiting and now I’m (0:05:53) Codey: back and I am ready to hit the ground running with my research and stuff and (0:05:58) Codey: continuing to play Coral Island. Yeah, no, I’m not. I’m not gonna run literally for (0:06:00) Kev: Figuratively, please don’t run from the literally (0:06:05) Codey: a while. Still playing Coral Island and I am now, I have upgraded my home to the (0:06:14) Codey: max level. And I am I have proposed (0:06:18) Codey: to Scott once. Um, and he said no. So he said no. So I tried to propose to him one (0:06:22) Kev: Wait, they can say “no”? (0:06:25) Kev: Whoa. (0:06:28) Codey: day and he was in the thing was like, your house is in big enough. And so I was like, (0:06:31) Codey: okay, so I went and like updated my house. No, no, no, no. No, I upgraded my house and (0:06:32) Kev: Oh, that’s why. Oh, that’s how it is. (0:06:36) Codey: then I went back and he was like, you know, I’m just not ready to take that next step (0:06:39) Codey: with you. And I’m like, boy, you have 10, we have 10 hearts. Like I don’t know what (0:06:46) Codey: you want. (0:06:48) Codey: I tried to give him the diamond and everything and the diamond ring and he was just like “Nah.” (0:06:54) Codey: So I don’t know if there’s this magical other thing that happens or something. (0:06:58) Codey: So I’m just still throwing fossils at him and hugging him whenever I can and taking him on dates. (0:07:04) Kev: is diamond to your face! (0:07:08) Codey: I don’t know if I have to ask him at a certain point because then I went to the cavern recently and he was there. (0:07:16) Codey: And he was just like I… (0:07:18) Codey: just I always feel like magical when you’re here in the cavern with me and I (0:07:21) Codey: was like oh am I supposed to propose to you in the cavern so or or maybe in the (0:07:25) Kev: Oh? Oh? (0:07:27) Codey: museum I don’t know maybe he just didn’t want it under that tree with the doctor (0:07:31) Codey: watching so (0:07:32) Kev: you know what that would be that would be that’s actually kind of cool if it’s (0:07:36) Codey: a little awkward (0:07:39) Kev: like a location requirement or whatever right to be meaningful or special (0:07:41) Codey: yeah oh and I have also made it to the Savannah now (0:07:48) Codey: but fun fact you make it to the Savannah and then before you can enter the cave (0:07:53) Codey: of memories you actually have to like do another thing so I’m just perpetually (0:08:02) Codey: fighting these quests and these thresholds but I’m gonna get there I’m (0:08:06) Codey: still motivated to get there I’m still enjoying myself what about you Kev so (0:08:12) Kev: Sick what wait? I’m just think what it what is (0:08:18) Codey: memories there’s a couple other animals that unlock once you get to the Savannah (0:08:23) Codey: there was like ostriches there and there’s like some kind of kind of (0:08:26) Codey: buffalo and some other stuff I don’t know if you have to go to a certain (0:08:29) Codey: person there’s not a map and the fun thing about the cloud gaming servers is (0:08:40) Codey: sometimes if you do too much in a day it it protests and it just erases all of (0:08:48) Codey: the progress for the day so I have lost I’ve like and usually I’ll play for like (0:08:49) Kev: Oh, that’s great. (0:08:55) Codey: an hour hour and a half and then I hit the point where it like I it’s like (0:08:59) Codey: saving the game day or whatever and it says saving game and then it just like (0:09:04) Codey: shuts down and is like lost connection to the server and then when I start it (0:09:08) Codey: back up it just goes straight to the like loading up and it has to it starts (0:09:14) Codey: the day all over. So whenever, whenever I do something new (0:09:18) Codey: I usually like go like with the Savannah. I went to the (0:09:22) Codey: Savannah. I like progressed the quest for the Giants and then I (0:09:27) Codey: was like, this is not I like basically stood on the cliff (0:09:30) Codey: overseeing the Savannah and I was like, oh, this looks really (0:09:32) Codey: nice and then I went home and ended the day at 7 AM because I (0:09:36) Kev: Ha ha ha ha! (0:09:37) Codey: was like, I don’t want to do anything else today. I just (0:09:41) Kev: Sick. (0:09:43) Codey: want this to make sure that it saves the fact that I got to (0:09:46) Codey: to the Savannah. (0:09:48) Codey: Man, I have not attempted that, maybe I can, maybe I should try that, but I just always (0:09:50) Kev: Can you not save without the sleeping part? (0:10:01) Codey: go home and sleep. (0:10:03) Codey: I’m also at the point where, sorry this is suddenly coral island cast, I’m at the point (0:10:09) Codey: where I have the computer and all of the upgrades and so I can look whenever there’s, I can (0:10:13) Codey: look and see what insects are spawning, what critter ocean critters are spawning, and what (0:10:18) Codey: I don’t have in the museum, I can find it, but I’m in the middle of Spermanir, the end (0:10:24) Codey: of spring now I guess, and I’ve caught all of the spring stuff. (0:10:28) Codey: So I am kind of like almost at the point literally of just like starting the game, ending the (0:10:33) Codey: day. (0:10:34) Codey: Starting the day, ending the day to like get through spring because I just want to be in (0:10:36) Kev: Mm-hmm (0:10:38) Codey: summer so I can start getting the summer stuff. (0:10:42) Kev: Mm-hmm can’t can’t change that DS clock. Oh, I know crossing (0:10:46) Codey: No, I’m not going to do that, I would just start day and do. (0:10:51) Kev: Yeah, oh man good times good times (0:10:54) Codey: But what are you up to? (0:10:57) Kev: Oh (0:10:58) Kev: for (0:11:00) Kev: I actually I was somewhat ill last week and I just (0:11:06) Kev: You may hear me coughing due to it, but just a heads up for folks (0:11:11) Kev: Thank you bees. I consumed much honey during the recovery period so you know they helped (0:11:18) Kev: As I am (0:11:19) Kev: These cool (0:11:21) Kev: But when I do game the brief moments, I mean it’s it’s all (0:11:26) Kev: Right now. I’m in a very much like (0:11:29) Kev: I’m doing my dailies sort of thing for different games right like I’m not I (0:11:34) Kev: I don’t have… I think mostly the (0:11:36) Kev: time I would say to dedicate to a big (0:11:39) Kev: venture trying to clear stuff or (0:11:41) Kev: whatever so a lot of grindy mindless (0:11:44) Kev: stuff that’s fun for me right that’s (0:11:47) Kev: stuff like Marvel snap Pokemon unite (0:11:51) Kev: probably the biggest time sink is still (0:11:54) Kev: zenless zone zero are you familiar with (0:11:57) Kev: that one Cody okay so well I think I’ll (0:11:58) Codey: I am not, what is that? (0:12:02) Kev: talk about it here but brief recap for (0:12:07) Kev: it is a mi hoyo game which is the (0:12:09) Kev: genshin impact company so it is it is a (0:12:14) Kev: gotcha game much like genshin impact (0:12:17) Kev: and their other one honkai but this one (0:12:20) Kev: is a while genshin is kind of like (0:12:22) Kev: breath of the wild the honkai is a turn (0:12:25) Kev: based RPG sort of thing this one is more (0:12:28) Kev: character actually bashing stuff buttons (0:12:31) Kev: to beat up bad guys real-time that sort (0:12:34) Kev: thing. (0:12:35) Kev: It is a… (0:12:35) Kev: Um, it is uh… (0:12:37) Kev: It’s a very stylish and fun game, um, it’s also very heavy on the lore and the world, building a whole bunch of nonsense. (0:12:47) Kev: Basically, they live in a world where there’s just space-time distortions that’ll just pop up everywhere, and people turn into monsters in them. (0:12:56) Kev: And so, yeah, people trying to navigate life, that kind of risk around the corner, um, where it could just pop up anywhere and you can turn into a monster. (0:13:07) Kev: But, uh, yeah, that’s uh, they- that’s what I’ve been up to, I’m caught up with the story, it’s a relatively new game, it’s only started in the summer, so it’s only up to like the 4th chapter right now. (0:13:21) Kev: Um, and so, you know, each chapter you get a different crew that you can play as, they’ll give you trials, and then- or, you know, trial usages, and then later you can pull for them as part of the gacha or whatever, right? (0:13:33) Kev: And so there’s different factions and whatnot. (0:13:36) Kev: You have this fancy butler group, they call themselves a housekeeping group, but they’re really fun, so on and so forth. (0:13:48) Kev: There’s animal people in this world too, like it can vary from your typical cat boy/girl to full on wolf furry or just a bear. (0:13:58) Kev: You can play as just a bear guy. He’s Ben, I love him, he’s an accountant. (0:14:00) Codey: Oh my gosh. (0:14:02) Kev: Um, yep, um, the game (0:14:06) Kev: is quite uh because if it’s a bacha daily nature they fill it up with all (0:14:14) Kev: sorts of extra content lots of little minigame events and things like that to (0:14:18) Kev: keep you busy there was an event where I ran a restaurant for a little bit there (0:14:23) Kev: was there there’s an arcade with in-depth minigames that have sucked me (0:14:28) Kev: in lately and so on and so forth um but yeah so that’s one of my go-tos that I (0:14:33) Kev: just grind through and enjoy. (0:14:36) Kev: Mahoyo games are more or less designed to be on anything, including mobile. (0:14:46) Kev: This game will run on a strong enough phone or whatever. (0:14:50) Kev: I play on the Playstation, but it’s cross save and whatever, so you can play pretty much wherever. (0:14:58) Kev: I don’t think it’s on the Switch that might be the only one it’s not on because they don’t have Mahoyo games on the Switch. (0:15:04) Kev: Other than that, it’s on pretty much anything. (0:15:06) Kev: Uh, um, nah, so that’s roughly what I’ve been up to, like I said, just very zen me time, uh, no pun intended with the name there, but uh, but yeah, that’s roughly what I’ve been up to. (0:15:20) Kev: Um, oh, oh, no, there is one other thing, actually, just this past week. (0:15:26) Kev: Um, art, uh, so, oh gosh, I haven’t actually posted on, like, art account yet, but it is, uh, uh, Inktober or, you know, uh, League of Legends. (0:15:36) Kev: Inktober since that one’s taken and actually there’s this one guy who (0:15:43) Kev: organizes thing for pixel artists specifically in September since I (0:15:48) Kev: forgot about it last month I’m doing it this month and the theme is a quite fun (0:15:52) Kev: one it’s a monster maker not like a universal spooky monsters but as in (0:16:08) Kev: I put it on the Slack where we hang out with friends, (0:16:14) Kev: but I’ll be posting it soon on my art account. (0:16:17) Kev: I’ll be able to get that going. (0:16:19) Kev: So that’s certainly been fun. (0:16:22) Kev: But yeah, that’s roughly what I’ve been up to. (0:16:26) Kev: There we go. (0:16:27) Kev: All right. (0:16:28) Kev: Now let’s see what the world of Cottagecore has been up to, (0:16:31) Kev: shall we? (0:16:32) Codey: world of cozy. (0:16:33) Kev: So unfortunately, let’s go. (0:16:39) Kev: All right. (0:16:40) Kev: First, let’s talk about cozy researching, (0:16:44) Kev: because Research Story has an update. (0:16:48) Kev: I only had 0.10 update. (0:16:50) Kev: That’s– no, I thought they were farther in. (0:16:52) Kev: OK. (0:16:54) Kev: The cosmetic things, some small fixes. (0:16:59) Kev: But the next update, 0.11, will be a bigger one (0:17:04) Kev: that they’re hoping to complete by the end of the year, which (0:17:07) Kev: will include. (0:17:08) Kev: All NPC orange heart events, like similar to their dating stuff, the greenhouse, not (0:17:13) Kev: our premium show, but probably farming ad nauseam, uh, house upgrade 2, and, oh good, (0:17:21) Kev: gosh, timbers, we’re variant creatures, what, oh, you know how, you know how, you know how (0:17:24) Codey: Shinies (0:17:29) Codey: Your shiny shiny research story Pokemon (0:17:33) Kev: every farming game doesn’t have to have romance, so guys, every, mmm, mmm, oh come on, d- (0:17:38) Codey: creature collector. (0:17:38) Kev: does not need, does not need SHINEEES, if it does it, it’s- (0:17:44) Codey: I will say though that in the real real every now and then I do see like an actual shiny like (0:17:50) Kev: Yeah, sure. (0:17:52) Codey: Pokemon quote-unquote Pokemon like wild wildlife like every now and then at the Wildlife Center will get like an all-black (0:17:59) Codey: squirrel or an all-white raven (0:18:02) Kev: Yeah, yeah, I mean yeah for sure that right absolutely right like I mean I’ll buy noism (0:18:03) Codey: Yeah, and so they basically are like real-world shinies, but they do (0:18:11) Kev: Right like is the you know poster child for real life change, but even other odd color parents (0:18:13) Codey: Yeah, it’s albanism, albinism and melanism are the two. (0:18:18) Codey: So melanism is when things are darker and albinism. (0:18:20) Kev: Ah, I didn’t realize (0:18:21) Codey: Oh, and then leucistic is another thing. (0:18:25) Codey: It’s not, it’s like albinism, but it’s not as intense. (0:18:30) Codey: Like leucistic things will usually only have (0:18:32) Codey: either part of the like skin won’t be, (0:18:37) Codey: or like the fur or feathers. (0:18:40) Codey: So it won’t be all of them that are lighter colored, (0:18:42) Codey: but they also do not. (0:18:43) Codey: have the red eyes so albinism is like an entire lack of anything and so they (0:18:48) Kev: Right, right (0:18:50) Codey: don’t even have eye color so it’s just like red but so yeah there’s actually a (0:18:53) Kev: You right (0:18:55) Kev: Okay (0:18:57) Kev: Okay (0:18:57) Codey: secret third thing. (0:18:59) Kev: The secret third shiny very that’s that’ll save Pokemon go. Um, I (0:19:03) Codey: Leucistic. So yeah. (0:19:06) Kev: Yeah, I’m looking at the pictures right now. Okay, I see there’s obviously no albinism with the the total lack of (0:19:12) Kev: Pigmentation you can see the red shows up because of the blood vessels and all that right (0:19:16) Codey: Yep, yep (0:19:17) Kev: But yeah, I’m seeing these are (0:19:18) Kev: Some of these are just like white animals, but like look more normal. Yeah, I’m more shiny variance. That’s really cool (0:19:20) Codey: Yep (0:19:23) Codey: Yes, those would be leucistic so so I will say so so if they do exist (0:19:28) Codey: They’re not it’s not shiny (0:19:30) Codey: But the calling it the shimmers. I think is where we’re like, okay, come on (0:19:33) Kev: Mhmm. (0:19:36) Codey: I really am sorry. (laughs) (0:19:37) Kev: So… (0:19:38) Kev: See… (0:19:39) Kev: We’re a game called “Research Story”. (0:19:41) Kev: It would be co- (0:19:42) Kev: I would be… (0:19:43) Kev: Have the TOTALLY opposite reaction if they just went by these actual names, right? (0:19:48) Codey: Yeah, like find the loose the leucistic variant, the (0:19:48) Kev: Like… (0:19:48) Kev: Th-that would be so dope. (0:19:51) Kev: Yeah. (0:19:52) Kev: That would be so dope. (0:19:54) Codey: dude, so super zoo story should do that because it’s a wildlife (0:19:57) Codey: thing. Because so oftentimes melanistic or leucistic animals (0:20:03) Codey: depending on their habitat, like, it can really reduce their (0:20:07) Codey: ability to survive in the wild. And so some of them, like some (0:20:10) Codey: leucistic, like, if we get a super leucistic animal, like we (0:20:15) Codey: are a leucistic groundhog that was just (0:20:18) Codey: white like a white groundhog that thing’s not going to survive so we don’t end up releasing (0:20:18) Kev: Yeah. (0:20:24) Codey: those um melanism it depends so like we get melanistic squirrels all the time and we just (0:20:30) Codey: they’re fine and it’s a recessive trait so if you put we always release them on the property because (0:20:30) Kev: Yeah, sure. (0:20:36) Codey: then they’ll produce more melanistic squirrels with the melanistic population we already have (0:20:42) Kev: Yeah, I mean, yeah, yeah, that definitely sounds like a win-win, because yeah, if you’re, you know, like a white, like, literal walking target, um, yeah, and so you can hang out in a zoo and be a cool thing that people are gonna want to see. (0:20:52) Codey: Yeah, a hundred percent. (0:20:58) Kev: Yeah, no, that, that, uh, that seems like a win-win to keep those. (0:21:02) Kev: Um, oh, man. (0:21:02) Codey: Yeah. (0:21:06) Kev: Oh, you got small tangents around wildlife talk. I saw, where did they go? Katie? Katie did? (0:21:12) Codey: A katydid! (0:21:12) Kev: Those are the, yes, I saw one for the first time the other day outside. Um, the mmm, those are so cool. (0:21:18) Codey: Yeah, so you (0:21:20) Codey: Yeah, you can hear them. Um, I mean they’re basically nighttime crickets, right? So like crickets usually will chirp (0:21:28) Codey: um (0:21:29) Codey: during either dawn or dusk (0:21:31) Codey: Um, but katydids do it at night (0:21:34) Codey: And so they make and they’re called katydids because they sound like they’re saying katydid katydid katydid like whatever (0:21:40) Kev: Just like Pokemon! (0:21:41) Codey: Just like Pokemon. (0:21:42) Codey: And there’s some really cool ones we I actually saw one so they’re usually herbivorous so they (0:21:47) Codey: eat like plant material because they’re basically they’re kind of like a grass they’re super related (0:21:51) Codey: to grasshoppers and crickets but there is one that’s a predator it’s just a leaf with yeah they (0:21:52) Kev: Yeah, it’s just a leaf with a grasshopper head, that’s all it looks like. (0:21:58) Codey: do mimic leaves to like not getting um but I did see one in Costa Rica that was predatory (0:22:06) Codey: so it mimics leaves and it actually eats other things and it was on this it was eating beetle (0:22:06) Kev: Oh, oh dang. (0:22:12) Codey: on this one it was really cool and they are pretty they’re they don’t they are not (0:22:17) Codey: predatory very often so it was really cool to see that (0:22:22) Kev: - Yeah, no, that would be fascinating. (0:22:28) Codey: Yeah (0:22:30) Codey: It’s basically yeah (0:22:32) Codey: It’s basically like if you saw it if you found a cow in the wild and then the cow like ate like I guess (0:22:38) Codey: Well, so bird cows will cows and deer and everything they’ll eat birds (0:22:44) Codey: If they find like if they find baby bird a baby bird nest, they’ll eat them (0:22:44) Kev: they were really huh I hadn’t (0:22:50) Codey: They yeah nature is wild (0:22:54) Kev: what’s that family guy clip are you scary (0:22:58) Codey: Yeah, nature is scary, 100%. (0:23:02) Codey: Things do whatever they need to do. (0:23:06) Kev: hey that’s my pink sorry i’m just google image searching I didn’t know that that’s so cool (0:23:09) Codey: They can, there are some pink, pink kitty dead. (0:23:11) Kev: Thanks for watching! (0:23:12) Codey: There’s some really cool butterflies that have pink, (0:23:12) Kev: If you enjoyed this video, please subscribe and like! (0:23:13) Kev: Thank you for watching! (0:23:15) Codey: like pink edges on their wings and stuff too. (0:23:20) Codey: More shimmer Pokemon like it, or not Pokemon, (0:23:22) Kev: Yeah (0:23:23) Codey: life like in research story but (0:23:24) Kev: But the real ones dude do the real ones at least that’s research story (0:23:32) Kev: Look if it to me and Cody, there’s a good chance we’ll get into wildlife talk (0:23:36) Codey: Tangents! (0:23:40) Kev: She lives in it by her profession I live in it by my where I live (0:23:47) Kev: Okay, so that is research story again the original thing that (0:23:58) Kev: check the link it’ll be in the show notes um speaking of updates that are (0:24:02) Kev: out now Horticular our gnome game has an update um boy I don’t remember (0:24:18) Kev: So it focuses largely on community feedback with huge changes to how you can build and manage your habitats in your garden (0:24:27) Kev: because being the premise of the game is you’re a bunch of gnomes trying to restore a garden. (0:24:33) Kev: So yeah, there’s a pretty decent size, right? Like it’s 1.1. (0:24:43) Kev: A lot of UI stuff and how the creatures will interact with you. (0:24:47) Kev: Thank you. (0:24:48) Kev: There’s a pretty decently sized changelog to describe it, but I do appreciate the response, basically, because it’s all community feedback, so this sounds like a really nifty feature. (0:25:02) Kev: Good for them. (0:25:04) Kev: Apparently, one of the big things is creatures will let you know earlier if they don’t like their habitat. (0:25:12) Kev: And so on to it. (0:25:12) Codey: Yeah, so apparently before, like they would just move. (0:25:15) Codey: And so you would just like, you’d be like, (0:25:17) Codey: where did they go? (0:25:18) Codey: Um, but now they’ll let you know earlier. (0:25:19) Kev: It’s like Animal Crossing. (0:25:22) Codey: Yeah, you see, you see your person, (0:25:26) Codey: instead of just like them being gone, (0:25:27) Codey: you actually get to see them walking around (0:25:29) Codey: with a thought bubble now. (0:25:30) Codey: I’d be like, no, what are you, what do you want? (0:25:30) Kev: Oh, man (0:25:34) Kev: The good old days of og Animal Crossing where Oh (0:25:36) Codey: How, where you just got, you just got, (0:25:38) Kev: Ah. (0:25:40) Codey: you re-log. (0:25:42) Codey: You re-logged on after you dropped it for a while and then your favorite villager is like gone and you re- just… (0:25:44) Kev: Yup, yup, or if you play with friends the risk, the russian roulette that you lose your (0:25:48) Codey: Just… (0:25:52) Codey: Oh, yeah. (0:25:54) Kev: neighbor to the wild times og in a crossing, why, oh my goodness, um so there you go. (0:26:00) Codey: And then you gotta like… (0:26:03) Codey: and then you never like that friend again because they stole… (0:26:07) Codey: they stole blue bear from me. (0:26:13) Kev: Um, so there you go. Horticular off faster response time than animal crossing. There you go folks (0:26:20) Codey: Did you mention that it’s 20% off on Steam until October 21st? (0:26:24) Kev: Well, there you go (0:26:25) Codey: There you go. (0:26:27) Kev: All right (0:26:28) Kev: Next up actually I think stay at the time of recording (0:26:32) Kev: I think I saw like steams doing an animal fest thing that might be part of it (0:26:38) Kev: So yeah, yeah, there’s probably actually a handful of cottage core s similar (0:26:43) Kev: Games on sale on that people might like so I suggest you guys hop on steam and check it out (0:26:49) Kev: I really appreciate those themed weeks and and sales and whatnot (0:26:55) Codey: My wallet doesn’t appreciate them. (0:26:56) Kev: Wow true true well, you’re right. I appreciate in theory, but I can’t partake in it right now (0:27:03) Kev: - No, no. (0:27:03) Codey: Yeah, no, I don’t you like mentioned that it’s on and I was that there’s like that that sale and I’m like (0:27:03) Kev: Yeah, um… (0:27:09) Codey: I’m not looking I’m not gonna do it (0:27:12) Kev: Don’t look, don’t look. (0:27:16) Kev: Alright, next up we got my time at Sandrock. We got the 1.4 update dropping October 8th, which will already be out by the time you guys are listening to my voice, our voices. (0:27:30) Kev: You unlock brand new host marriage quests for Justice. Oh, uh, Grace, she, P, I don’t even know how to pronounce that, Logan. (0:27:40) Kev: Emora Feng, Mian Nia, and Unseo. (0:27:42) Kev: I appreciate doing stuff with your spouse. Hopefully. (0:28:10) Codey: Yeah I am actually feeling related to that. I’m feeling bad about trying to get Scott to marry me (0:28:16) Codey: because I don’t want him to just lose his entire autonomy. So it is nice to like think of or that (0:28:23) Codey: know that some games are giving them some form of after marriage life for sure. (0:28:30) Kev: Yep, so yeah, that’s one of the big things, but there’s a handful of other things in the (0:28:39) Kev: update, some Kickstarter designed stuff, including a new quest, some monsters, a bus system for (0:28:51) Kev: start running from Porsche. (0:28:52) Kev: I don’t know what that means, but some home furniture stuff and so on and so forth. (0:29:00) Kev: Yeah, all that is part of the free update. (0:29:03) Kev: There is… let’s see here… oh, new voice recordings, huh? (0:29:08) Kev: I didn’t know that. (0:29:09) Kev: That’s interesting. (0:29:10) Kev: Yeah, again, that’s all out, or should be up by the time you guys hear this. (0:29:16) Kev: Yeah, so go check it out. (0:29:17) Kev: Again, Steam page has all the details and whatnot. (0:29:20) Kev: Also, my time at Evershine, geez Louise, Kickstarter’s up to 1.8 million. (0:29:28) Kev: Juh-m-million! (0:29:30) Kev: Dollars with roughly two weeks to go as of this recording (0:29:30) Codey: Yep. (0:29:35) Codey: Yep. (0:29:36) Kev: Okay, good for you, Evershine. They’re they’re out there. They’re hustling (0:29:37) Codey: Wild. (0:29:41) Codey: They are… (0:29:42) Kev: Alright (0:29:44) Kev: speaking of (0:29:45) Kev: Hustling question mark. I don’t know because this feels like it should have been there already (0:29:51) Kev: winds of Anthos a (0:29:55) Kev: There’s been a slight DLC delay. It’ll be October 10 (0:30:00) Kev: Only a week late from the original date and again by the time you guys listen this will probably be out (0:30:05) Kev: And that’s you can camp wherever you are, which really feels like they should have been there at the beginning (0:30:10) Codey: Yeah and you can like bring your pets camping with you and like all this other (0:30:15) Codey: stuff it was it was a cute little sounding update and so yeah they just (0:30:18) Kev: Yeah. (0:30:20) Codey: they just gave it up an extra week to probably finish some stuff. You know I’m (0:30:22) Kev: Can you make curry with your friends, though? (0:30:25) Kev: Yeah. (0:30:26) Kev: Uh-huh. (0:30:26) Codey: sick of making curry in games. (0:30:30) Codey: I want to make macarons with my friends. (0:30:35) Kev: Oh my- backgrounds are real hard to make, aren’t they like- (0:30:37) Codey: They are, yes, that’s how you (0:30:40) Codey: test a friendship for sure. (0:30:42) Kev: Oh my- IRL over cooked the Macarons of Challenge. (0:30:46) Codey: Oh gosh. (0:30:47) Codey: Yeah. (0:30:47) Codey: That’s how that’s going to be me and my boyfriend this upcoming weekend. (0:30:51) Codey: He said that he’s going to make macarons for this party we’re going to. (0:30:54) Codey: And he is of the mind that like, if it is at all, not incorrect, but like not (0:31:00) Codey: to his standards, he just, he just tosses them and I’m like, they’re still delicious. (0:31:04) Kev: oh yes no no no yeah oh that’s how you grow that’s the training you gotta you (0:31:05) Codey: They just didn’t rise the way you wanted them to please let me eat them. (0:31:09) Codey: And he’s like, no! (0:31:10) Codey: They’re mediocre! (0:31:12) Codey: I’m like, no! (0:31:18) Kev: gotta take your licks and it’s usually not as bad as you think as someone who (0:31:20) Codey: No, dude, he’s such a perfectionist. (0:31:24) Codey: It’s never as bad, yeah. (0:31:24) Kev: likes to cook right like you’re your own harshest critic (0:31:27) Codey: It’s never as bad. (0:31:29) Codey: And we can just tell people I made them. (0:31:31) Codey: I don’t care. (0:31:32) Codey: Like, if they look bad. (0:31:34) Kev: » They got damaged in transit. (0:31:36) Codey: a couple of them lost their lives on (0:31:38) Kev: No, there’s no macarons in this update. (0:31:45) Kev: But what there is, is something else people aren’t probably sick of. (0:31:49) Kev: Fish bow, Moonstone Island. (0:31:52) Codey: ♪ Fish Bow ♪ (0:31:52) Kev: Continuing their tradition of crossing over with things and (0:31:57) Kev: fish bowing everything, yeah, they crossed over the hills. (0:31:59) Codey: Crossing over. (0:32:04) Codey: No, do you know crossing over with John Edwards? (0:32:07) Codey: Like, or whatever, whoever it was. (0:32:09) Codey: It was this show. (0:32:11) Codey: There was this guy who was a medium (0:32:13) Codey: who would help people, quote unquote, (0:32:16) Codey: help people talk to their loved one from beyond the grave. (0:32:20) Codey: So, and that was called. (0:32:22) Codey: He crossed he so like I’m like thinking about like fishboat like leading a séance like fishboat being the medium to like sorry I’m we’re off the rails y’all yeah pretty much Jesus you call fishboat to talk to grandma and figure out where the treasure was buried (0:32:34) Kev: Call California (0:32:36) Kev: Fishbows to get guidance (0:32:38) Kev: on your life and (0:32:40) Kev: finances (0:32:48) Kev: Sick, I’d be (0:32:50) Kev: be down for that. (0:32:52) Kev: I mean, you can have that idea and give us our medium… give us our psychic medium fish bow. (0:32:55) Codey: Just free, just completely free. (0:33:00) Kev: It wouldn’t be outlandish. There are psychic types in that game. (0:33:06) Codey: Dude, and he already looks like he already kind of has this like mystical look to him (0:33:12) Kev: yeah just put on a hat on the bowl oh okay fish boat is coming to chloromon (0:33:13) Codey: Just put on a hat yep, okay, but what about what about fish bow? (0:33:22) Kev: which is another creature collector that I didn’t really know existed until today (0:33:27) Kev: but it has nice key art i’ll say (0:33:39) Kev: uh there’s actually a few other ones including the standard avatar um the wizard guy forget his name (0:33:44) Kev: and uh but yeah fish bow uh what what’s interesting is so fish bow is is like the (0:33:51) Kev: fish bow with legs but here it’s a guy with the fish bow for the head um so you have full arms (0:33:57) Kev: and everything um so yeah koromon that’s only five dollars on steam right now um (0:34:12) Kev: um so yes oh so yeah that’s uh that’s I think that’s there’s nothing I think actually in (0:34:20) Kev: uh moonstone island in regard to this but they’re just announcing that fun little crossover (0:34:25) Kev: so go check out uh quorum on and get your your your fish bow for for you um okay speaking of (0:34:33) Kev: things for you and by for you I mean for me and probably cody super zoo story the kickstarter is (0:34:38) Codey: Whoo (0:34:40) Kev: Now Live! (0:34:42) Kev: So this is the game we’ve we’ve covered it before (0:34:46) Kev: Actually, but it’s a your (0:34:50) Kev: Typical cottagecore farming thing, but it’s focused on a zoo instead of a farm, right? (0:34:55) Kev: Which is a cool concept in my opinion or fresh spin on it. Um (0:35:00) Kev: The Kickstarter is now live. The goal has been crushed. We are at 60k. What was their original goal? (0:35:09) Kev: or no (0:35:12) Kev: The original goal was 60k. We’re almost at 100k at the time of this recording. Um (0:35:18) Kev: So, you know, it’s it’s going to be made theoretically (0:35:24) Kev: Currently only on Steam, but there are going to be stretch goals (0:35:30) Kev: When some which are we are they’ve already hit they’re adding some (0:35:34) Kev: extinct and rare animals (0:35:37) Kev: We’re getting the animal encyclopedia already. We are close to the bird aviary (0:35:42) Kev: So we can house the birds and the insects. That’s an important one. Go fund it guys. It’s only like 4k more. Come on (0:35:50) Kev: I want a two camp (0:35:53) Kev: So there you go, so put that in there and there’s several other (0:35:58) Kev: stretch goals (0:36:00) Kev: Consoles are pretty high up there. That’d be nice. But second island expansion. What does that mean? (0:36:08) Kev: Yeah, so yeah go check it out um if you (0:36:12) Kev: haven’t seen it like the whole Kickstarter has you know all the (0:36:15) Kev: details on the game um it looks pretty quality a lot of love in this one out of (0:36:19) Kev: you know if it’s going to be a Stardew like clone whatever um they are putting (0:36:24) Kev: a lot of effort into the zoo aspect of it all the animals look really nice it (0:36:28) Kev: looks like you know a lot of care and systems do that and of course you have (0:36:34) Kev: all your relationships and romances and so on and so forth and there is farming (0:36:39) Kev: of course. Festivals, all. (0:36:42) Kev: All that good stuff. (0:36:43) Kev: Oh, there’s dinosaurs! That’s already in there. Sick. (0:36:48) Kev: Super Zoo Story. I’m already locked down. I’m going to get this one 100%. (0:36:54) Codey: Yeah, so I’m I just figured out my Kickstarter I’ve been literally (0:36:59) Kev: I’m looking down the list as well. (0:37:04) Kev: It’s… (0:37:05) Codey: The whole time that you’ve been talking I’ve just been like trying to figure out my kickstarters (0:37:12) Kev: All these are quite reasonable $35 the highest there’s there’s not the 2000. Oh wait, those are all gone. Never mind (0:37:19) Kev: Oh wait, there they are. I was looking the wrong one. Oh, no, there it is. There’s the three thousand one. Oh (0:37:21) Codey: there we go. Okay, back. Back this project. Digital game key. Do I want to do I want beta (0:37:23) Kev: My god. Oh, oh you can design your NPC for marriage (0:37:29) Kev: You know if I had the money I’d love to do one of those one day just for the giggles (0:37:33) Kev: Um. (0:37:36) Codey: access? I don’t think I do. I don’t care about in game. I don’t know. I’m just going to do (0:37:46) Kev: Yeah, probably $20 usually a safe one to go with right that’s usually play the game and stuff (0:37:52) Codey: Uh, it needs my, oh, cool. (0:37:54) Codey: Nevermind. (0:37:54) Codey: My card is saved on this computer. (0:37:55) Kev: Hey, that’s your credits (0:37:59) Kev: Yeah, yep, yep, so check it out folks if you have it, you know 3k just sitting around (0:38:01) Codey: No, oops, that’s not right. (0:38:06) Kev: Drop it in and you know drop drop it in (0:38:09) Codey: What 3k. (0:38:10) Kev: Yeah to get to get to design an NPC for marriage candidate (0:38:14) Kev: So, you know for the (0:38:17) Kev: The sake of the podcast just just dropped 3k and you know, I could add fish bow in or or owl (0:38:23) Codey: I did it! I pledged. (0:38:24) Kev: You’re pick (0:38:26) Kev: There we go. One step closer to the bird sanctuary (0:38:30) Kev: So this has 23 days to go grab a couple weeks, but don’t forget (0:38:34) Kev: I know everyone will forget and we’ll remind you when it’s about to end but check it out (0:38:39) Kev: Back it looks like a great game (0:38:42) Kev: Very excited for super-easy story (0:38:43) Codey: I never I never back things. This is come on y’all join me (0:38:47) Kev: » Yeah, there you go. (0:38:50) Codey: I want the console releases at 210. Okay, and we’re almost at 100 we can do it. We got 26 days left. Oh (0:38:56) Kev: We got extinct animals, but which extinct animals did they get the good ones? (0:39:03) Codey: Yeah, let me look at that they had the list (0:39:06) Kev: Holy Marsupial wolf, the quagga. (0:39:10) Codey: Marsupial the marsupial wolf makes me (0:39:13) Codey: super-sack because that like we still have pictures of it like like it became (0:39:20) Codey: extinct so recently that we had photographs of it (0:39:26) Kev: Moas? I’d like a moa. (0:39:27) Codey: well it says they only list a couple what is a quagga oh it’s (0:39:32) Kev: Have you ever seen that show extinct or alive? (0:39:37) Kev: No, so it’s it’s about a guy like I think he’s the grandson of the guy who (0:39:44) Kev: Hey, you like found the the modern-day coelacanth or whatever, right? (0:39:48) Kev: So he’s dedicated to conversation (0:39:50) Kev: So the grandson’s dedicated to conservation all that and he goes out and tries to find animals that are supposedly extinct to see if (0:39:57) Kev: They’re still out there, which is cool. Yeah (0:39:58) Codey: Okay. (0:40:00) Kev: Yeah. (0:40:00) Codey: Wonder if there’s an Ivory Build Woodpecker episode. (0:40:03) Kev: I believe there is actually, yes. (0:40:06) Codey: That was, that was drama. (0:40:13) Kev: He actually has a pretty high success rate, all things considered. (0:40:16) Codey: Well, yeah, I’m not gonna bring it up. Let’s continue. (0:40:21) Kev: I mean, yeah, all right, all right. (0:40:24) Kev: But yeah, Super Zoo Story, you can enjoy extinct animals without all that drama, (0:40:30) Kev: the Wooly Rhino or the (0:40:32) Kev: the wolf okay I like in the notes even alcis my god is this game going to get me to kick start it (0:40:41) Codey: No, no, so I wrote that, sorry I wrote that, and yeah it did. (0:40:43) Kev: oh oh okay well there you go (0:40:47) Codey: You started talking about it again, or you started talking about it and I was like, yeah. (0:40:53) Kev: all right so that’s all for the updates and such um let’s talk about new game announcements um and (0:41:00) Kev: And we’re going to start off with one (0:41:02) Kev: And here and dear to me in whether I want to or not genetically speaking gotcha on the grassland (0:41:10) Kev: Where you play as a lot and cowboy in all caps per the steam page? (0:41:12) Codey: Mmm. (0:41:17) Kev: Where you farm the farm and there’s adventures grasslands and of course highlands they have to be cozy (0:41:24) Codey: They are cozy they are quoted as cozy (0:41:26) Kev: Yup, yeah, so it’s uh, I (0:41:31) Kev: I will say despite, y’know, all- (0:41:34) Kev: All the general, uh, or the usual, uh, descriptors, I think the game looks fun. (0:41:39) Kev: Um, it’s a 3D game, it has a very, sort of, cartoony art style to it, kinda reminds me of Fabledom, I would say. (0:41:47) Kev: Um, you can feel the Latin influence, the music, uh, some of the character designs and architecture, stuff like that. (0:41:55) Kev: Um… (0:41:56) Codey: even if even if y’all aren’t in the in the market for a new game go watch this (0:42:02) Codey: trailer it slaps that music that me I was like dancing (0:42:05) Kev: It’s pretty good. (0:42:09) Kev: It’s got a pretty dang good soundtrack or, you know, demo music, whatever you wanna. (0:42:15) Kev: Yeah, there’s a fire horse. There’s magical creatures. There is a Ponyta in this game. (0:42:22) Kev: So yeah, that is Gaucho in the Grasslands. (0:42:26) Kev: It looks very cool. (0:42:27) Kev: “Relief date aiming for February 2025.” Not terribly far away, to be quite frank. (0:42:33) Kev: I highly suggest everyone check this out. (0:42:35) Kev: I love the trailer, again, for nothing else for that sick, uh, music. (0:42:39) Kev: Um, yeah, that looks great, um, uh, obviously heavy bias here for the Latin stuff, but, uh, (0:42:46) Kev: you know, any sort of, you know, minority thing. (0:42:47) Codey: also the the dog has a mustache and the dog also has like those like eye tufts that you he like (0:42:51) Kev: Yeah. (0:42:55) Kev: As, as is in Mexico, as, (0:42:57) Codey: can’t see he’s just so cute (0:43:02) Kev: is pretty good. (0:43:04) Kev: It’s the, um… (0:43:06) Kev: Yeah, the, the, the… (0:43:07) Kev: Yeah, everyone knows that design now. It’s pretty popular these days. (0:43:10) Kev: The thick eyebrows and the mustache. (0:43:12) Codey: The thick eyebrows. (0:43:14) Kev: That you can’t… (0:43:14) Kev: Yeah, it’s good, good, good stuff. (0:43:17) Kev: Um, looks very colorful. (0:43:19) Kev: Very, very cool looking game. (0:43:21) Kev: Uh, and if, say, you need more cowboy-ing, (0:43:25) Kev: uh, you can also look at… (0:43:27) Kev: Seattle County. (0:43:29) Kev: Seattle Country! (0:43:31) Kev: Uh, I’ll read the blurb, um… (0:43:58) Kev: Should I have read that in a, in a, in a western twang? (0:44:00) Codey: Yeah, you should have you should have a hundred percent. Let’s do it. Please do it again (0:44:02) Kev: I can do it. (0:44:05) Kev: It’s like, oh, alright, here we go. (0:44:07) Kev: Here, here you go, Al. Here’s your editing work. (0:44:09) Kev: Alright, so, uh, here’s Cattle Country. I’ll read the blurb here. (0:44:13) Kev: Howdy, partner. (0:44:15) Kev: Welcome to Cattle Country. (0:44:17) Kev: The only cozy cowboy adventure life, Sim. (0:44:20) Kev: The trauma-determined pioneer traveling west to start a new life. (0:44:25) Kev: Make a home in the mountains. (0:44:27) Kev: Take on bandits. (0:44:29) Kev: Discover destiny plots. (0:44:31) Kev: Build a farm. (0:44:32) Kev: Develop your town. (0:44:33) Kev: and make friends with (0:44:34) Codey: I was not what I was expecting! (0:44:42) Kev: nailed it. (0:44:43) Codey: Nailed it. (0:44:45) Codey: I want you to talk like that forever now. (0:44:49) Codey: My dopamine just went through the roof. (0:44:52) Codey: Also, if you are… the word cozy was said in a title, take a shot. (0:45:00) Kev: Ugh, that’s already two sh*t. (0:45:04) Codey: I love water. (0:45:05) Codey: Take a shot of water. (0:45:10) Kev: So this one, unlike Gasho and the Grasslands, is more Stardew-esque with your top-down-pixel-ish (0:45:18) Kev: book. (0:45:21) Kev: They do try to, you know, have that more pioneer Western-y. (0:45:25) Kev: Not even Western, more pioneer I’d say, right, because when I think Western I think out in (0:45:30) Kev: more desert-y with the tumbleweeds and whatnot. (0:45:33) Kev: We got grassy areas, so they’re more pioneer-y. (0:45:36) Kev: But they got the music, they got some of the designs. (0:45:41) Kev: All things considered, like, it does look fun, you got guns and you’re pew-pewing at (0:45:46) Kev: other cowboy guys, I guess. (0:45:49) Kev: You got fishin’, you’ve got top-and-trees, lumberjacks, houses riding a horsey, mining- (0:45:57) Kev: although all of the usual, uh, fixings. (0:45:59) Codey: Oh yeah, it takes some… ugh. (0:46:01) Kev: Yup, there you go. (0:46:04) Kev: Um, so that is, uh, and with an open beta coming October 25th. (0:46:11) Kev: So get in the saddle. (0:46:14) Kev: Um, and wishlist now. (0:46:16) Kev: They should have, they should have hired me to do the western voiceover. (0:46:20) Codey: They really should. (0:46:21) Kev: Um, but yeah, no, uh, no, uh, actually. (0:46:33) Kev: Um, there’s a saloon. I mean of course there is. I like western cowboy motifs. I don’t (0:46:42) Kev: think they’re leaning heavily enough into it actually. That’s probably my biggest complaint. (0:46:48) Kev: The color palette just should be more brown and orange and whatnot, but I digress. Yeah, (0:46:55) Kev: check it out. It is one of those. Uh, all right, next up, uh, gone. (0:47:02) Codey: they don’t they don’t have it in this one this upcoming one (0:47:03) Kev: Well, actually I’m sure Cozy is, do they have Cozy in there? Oh, I don’t know if they actually (0:47:09) Kev: have Cozy. Nope, there’s no Cozy, but they do have another hallmark of several cottage (0:47:16) Kev: corgames as sexy fish people. Um, and we’re talking about forgotten waters and underwater (0:47:26) Kev: farm sim. Create your dream farm in an underwater world. Grow, build, and thrive under the (0:47:34) Kev: sea. Um, so yeah, you play as a fish person, uh, with feet, no, no more tail or whatever. (0:47:41) Kev: Um, think of like, uh, Luca. That’s what I’m thinking of. Yassified Luca. With an octopus (0:47:45) Codey: Yeah, okay, yep. (0:47:48) Codey: Just fine. (0:47:51) Kev: for hair. Like it’s, it’s like, it’s literally just an octopus sitting on your head. That’s, (0:47:56) Codey: Yeah, it is (0:47:57) Kev: that’s, that’s forming your dreamy locks. Um, so yeah, uh, you know, I digress. (0:48:03) Kev: It is underwater largely, but I think you can go to the surface because you’re having (0:48:07) Kev: dinner with what looks like a regular human. Yep. So this is, this is just Luca, the, the, (0:48:10) Codey: yeah at one point you’re in like a tavern that is like doesn’t seem like it’s under the water (0:48:15) Codey: looks like you’re dating a land a lander lander land lover I don’t know (0:48:23) Kev: the game. It really is. Have you seen Luca? Oh, well, it’s, uh, yeah, I enjoyed it. It’s (0:48:24) Codey: oh wow okay I have not you recommend it okay (0:48:31) Kev: It’s not bad, it’s not, you know, (0:48:33) Kev: not one of the top tier, but I enjoyed it for what it is. It’s a fun. (0:48:35) Codey: Right. I’ve been I’ve been making my way through them. (0:48:40) Codey: I just saw Princess and the Frog for the first time like not too long ago so and that’s been a while. (0:48:42) Kev: Uh, that one’s… Oh man. Like, that one’s not stellar, but the fact that it’s 2D makes (0:48:53) Kev: it so much better. Oh yeah, oh no, Dr. Facilier is top tier, and his song is such a banger. (0:48:54) Codey: Dude, but I I really liked that the villain and his songs they were (0:49:04) Kev: Like holy mackerel. Oh my god, yeah, he is. He’s fantastic building this song. Ah! Friends (0:49:10) Codey: Yup. (0:49:10) Kev: on the other side that’s what you (0:49:12) Codey: Oh, you’re pretty. (0:49:12) Kev: can have with you play for the other side so this is a Kickstarter on they (0:49:16) Codey: 100%. (0:49:22) Kev: have already they’ve just hit their goal of pen that’s a little over 10,000 (0:49:29) Kev: almost at 11,000 about two weeks ago or at least time recording October 23rd so (0:49:38) Kev: So wait, what? (0:49:40) Kev: One of the stretch goals is the jellyfish will assist- (0:49:42) Kev: I’m not sure if that guy in the bottom left, he’s kinda got a lot of metal going on. He might be a robot man- I don’t know. (0:49:44) Codey: I I need to see that (0:49:50) Codey: How do they do that I need to know (0:50:01) Codey: question mark (0:50:12) Codey: Okay (0:50:12) Kev: Girl person, I don’t know, Bernie. (0:50:14) Kev: Oh man, they’re running the gambit of fish people. We got one with no pupils, we got Amaya, we got- looks like just an air stewardess Lee. (0:50:28) Kev: Okay, yeah, there you go. And all sorts of other characters. Yeah, there you go. There’s all your attractive fish people and underwater crops. (0:50:42) Codey: I like so from looking at the trailer I was like really not sure what they were (0:50:42) Kev: What did I just date Sidon from Breath of the Wild? That’s the ultimate one, r

Like other cities, New York City has a growing crisis of homelessness, and a systemic challenge of using housing vouchers to secure housing. Our guest is Laura Lazarus, co-founder of Anthos | Home, which works to make every step of the voucher process easier for both future tenants participating landlords. For more, visit anthoshome.org.

Al and Codey talk about Coral Island 1.1 Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:04:04: What Have We Been Up To 00:20:18: Game News 00:42:25: News Games 00:48:02: Coral Island 1.1 01:28:16: Outro Links Tales of the Shire Delay Tales of the Shire Hobbit Day Announcement Sugardew Island Delay To Pixelia Delay Go-go Town “Build and Bustle” Update Harvest Moon: Winds of Anthos “Great Outdoors” Update Len’s Island “Controllers and Steam Deck” Update Danchi Days on Steam Sea Sniffers on Steam Garden Trills on Steam Piczle Cross: Rune Factory on Steam Contact Al on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheScotBot Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Transcript (0:00:30) Al: Hello farmers, and welcome to another episode of the harvest season. (0:00:34) Al: My name is Al. (0:00:36) Codey: and my name is Cody. (0:00:37) Al: And we’re here today to talk about Cottagecore games. (0:00:41) Codey: Woo! (0:00:44) Codey: It sure has, I went to Costa Rica and back. (0:00:49) Codey: You guys almost lost me because I almost stepped (0:00:52) Codey: on the most venomous snake in Costa Rica. (0:00:55) Al: Oh no. Well, I mean, you know, a snake isn’t an insect. (0:01:01) Codey: It’s not, but it’s like in the very first day (0:01:04) Codey: They were like, this is the ultimate– (0:01:06) Codey: pit viper. If you get bit by one, you need to go to a hospital immediately, and you still might lose your limb. (0:01:13) Codey: And they had all these things. And then literally the next day I’m walking on a trail, and I– (0:01:18) Codey: I’m from Pennsylvania. We have– or I’m not from Pennsylvania, but I’m in Pennsylvania. (0:01:23) Codey: There’s lots of rattlesnakes here, so I’m used to it. You’re walking on a trail. You still look down. (0:01:27) Codey: You don’t look around you. You look down. And I almost set my foot down, and I was like, “Oh, that’s a snake.” (0:01:33) Codey: She was very well camouflaged. (0:01:36) Codey: It was Epen, she remained Epen, but I told people, I was like, “Hey, don’t go that way. There’s a Tertio Pelo or, gosh, what is the other, Fertilance?” (0:01:44) Codey: And people, of course, were like, “Oh, I wanna see it!” (0:01:48) Codey: And then I came over, so then I stood there and was basically like a bouncer for this snake. (0:01:56) Al: I - this is why I don’t travel very much. I just don’t - we just - like Scotland, pretty (0:02:05) Codey: Ah. (0:02:06) Al: safe place. We don’t really - technically we have one venomous snake, but it’s like (0:02:13) Al: the sort of venomous that you’re gonna have an itchy leg for a while, like that’s about (0:02:18) Codey: Yeah. Yeah, I know this one. This one’s not good. And we were pretty far away from a hospital. (0:02:18) Al: it. Yeah, no, I’m all right. In fact, like I - (0:02:25) Codey: It was fun, though. (0:02:26) Al: I think I’ve only ever seen a snake in the wild like once ever because they’re just - like (0:02:32) Al: they exist here, but they don’t really exist. So anyway, I’m glad you’re not dead. (0:02:37) Codey: Yeah, so I’m back. If anyone if anyone has any questions about Costa Rica, let me know in the slack. (0:02:45) Codey: Gotta be a member of the Slack, gotta be a Patreon subscriber. (0:02:48) Codey: Patreon.com/GHSpod. (0:02:50) Codey: But we’re not here to talk about that. What are we here to talk about today, y’all? (0:02:52) Al: This episode we are kind of going to talk about the Coral Island 1.1 update (0:03:00) Codey: Kind of. (0:03:01) Al: They’ll understand why soon (0:03:04) Al: There’s a whole thing (0:03:06) Al: We’re gonna talk about that before that we have some game news a decent chunk of game news (0:03:11) Al: We’ve gotten it’s gotten busy again, and it’s not all game delays (0:03:16) Al: But we have hit that period and we have had that time in the year where there’s lots of games getting delayed till next year (0:03:18) Codey: It is getting to be mostly game delays, but not all. (0:03:24) Codey: Maybe like half game delays right now. (0:03:24) Al: No, no, it wasn’t, it’s not… (0:03:26) Codey: Next episode will be more. (0:03:29) Al: This is not even half, it’s not even half. (0:03:31) Al: There’s only three game delays this episode. (0:03:33) Codey: Uh-huh, for now. (0:03:35) Codey: But, but literally the second after we record this, (0:03:39) Codey: you’re going to hit, we’re going to hit the boop (0:03:39) Al: Oh yeah, oh, for sure. (0:03:41) Codey: and then they’re going to be two more, 100 percent. (0:03:42) Al: For sure. (0:03:44) Al: I mean, we currently still have… (0:03:47) Al: Okay, like 20, like 30. (0:03:48) Al: We still have 30 games that are meant to be coming out this year. (0:03:51) Al: And it is halfway through. (0:03:52) Al: So, um, there’s going to be a lot more, a lot more delays. (0:03:55) Codey: Here we go. (0:03:58) Al: It’s my favorite time of the year, uh, game delay season. (0:04:00) Al: Uh, yeah, cool. So we’ve got some news, but first of all, Cody, what have you been up to? (0:04:06) Al: Other than trying to die in Costa Rica. (0:04:08) Codey: Uh, well, uh, unsuccessfully dying in Costa Rica. (0:04:13) Codey: Uh, and then just a lot of research stuff. (0:04:16) Codey: Um, and I was very, so I was in Costa Rica to do fly school, learn about flies, (0:04:21) Codey: learn how to identify them. (0:04:22) Codey: So I’ve been like super jazzed about getting through some of my (0:04:24) Codey: specimens, which is great. (0:04:26) Codey: Um, also did, uh, just did the great insect fair, which is Penn state’s big, (0:04:30) Codey: um, outreach event. (0:04:31) Codey: We had about 3000 people from across the state come and visit, um, (0:04:34) Codey: and learn about insects. (0:04:36) Codey: And that was super cool. (0:04:38) Codey: Uh, but when I wasn’t, uh, crippled by stress about the great insects, (0:04:43) Codey: great insect fair, uh, I was playing, uh, coral Island, of course, (0:04:47) Codey: a dove back into this game with both feet. (0:04:50) Codey: Um, not deep enough, but let, but we’ll get to that. (0:04:53) Codey: Uh, also a Disney dream light Valley. (0:04:56) Codey: I still play it every day. (0:04:57) Codey: Um, I’m trying to get all the critters and they, whether or not they show (0:05:02) Codey: up each day as a, you know, tossup. (0:05:05) Codey: Um, so I check. (0:05:08) Codey: Log on every morning and I check and see like, Oh, are they here? (0:05:10) Codey: I think I still have two of the crocodiles that I want and then one (0:05:14) Codey: Fox, um, that I don’t have, but I have befriended all of the other critters. (0:05:19) Codey: I’m also just like 100%ing everything in that game. (0:05:23) Codey: So I’m trying to get all the achievements. (0:05:24) Codey: So I give it maybe like 20 to 30 minutes a day. (0:05:28) Codey: Um, and then, uh, my best friend, Devin and I have moved on from (0:05:33) Codey: Minecraft for now, we’ve just tabled it. (0:05:36) Codey: and we’re playing Call of the Wild. (0:05:38) Codey: the angler so it’s a very uh it is farmville fishing oh sorry not farmville um (0:05:45) Codey: farming simulator fishing it’s like that quality but fish where it’s like really detailed about (0:05:53) Codey: do you have a float set up do you have a spinner set up do you have a what kind of set up do you (0:05:57) Codey: have what kind of rod do you have it’s it’s pretty intense but i’m enjoying it (0:06:02) Al: That looks like a game I do not want to play (0:06:06) Codey: it’s nice because it’s it’s all (0:06:08) Codey: open world. So there’s like, a bunch of different maps that (0:06:11) Codey: you can go to. And part of it, you just like explore the world. (0:06:15) Codey: And you also find you tell the people like when you see the (0:06:20) Codey: invasive bark beetle or the invasive purple loosestrife, (0:06:26) Codey: which is an invasive plant that often takes over like around (0:06:29) Codey: ponds. So you find these things. And it’s really cool because a (0:06:32) Codey: lot of it is legit. Like they told me about oxide daisy and (0:06:38) Codey: be on the lookout for oxide daisy. And then I was like, (0:06:40) Codey: this plant is glowing. And this is an oxide daisy. This looks (0:06:42) Codey: like a loosestrife. And I was like, Oh my gosh, it is. So it’s (0:06:47) Codey: just another thing that I can turn on play for like, five (0:06:51) Codey: minutes and then turn off if I don’t want to play it anymore. (0:06:54) Codey: The problem with Coral Island and games like it is I start a (0:06:58) Codey: day and then I’m like committed to that day. And then after the (0:07:02) Al: Yeah, but the games aren’t very long (0:07:02) Codey: day, you’re like, Oh, I can make those days last man. (0:07:08) Codey: I think I’ve also isn’t this one of the games you can like make (0:07:10) Codey: the days go slower? I think that’s one of the one of the (0:07:12) Al: Maybe I mean coral islanders are yes, we will do everything that you suggest type of game. So probably (0:07:13) Codey: accessibility things that you can do. (0:07:18) Codey: So I think I’ve done that because that was one of my (0:07:20) Codey: issues with Stardew is I was like you blink in the days over. (0:07:21) Al: Yeah, oh (0:07:23) Codey: But (0:07:23) Al: No, I like I like the shortness cuz then it’s like bam done I can put it away (0:07:28) Codey: no, I need, I need to be able to do everything. (0:07:29) Al: We. (0:07:32) Al: But you’ve got another day. See, this is how, this is how I’m four years into the game, (0:07:36) Codey: And I’m not even, it’s true. (0:07:36) Al: and you’re not even one year into the game. (0:07:40) Codey: The FOMO is so hard. (0:07:43) Codey: Like I, I finally did the thing where you like write down what you need to do for (0:07:49) Codey: like the basically community center, but it’s the Lake temple. (0:07:53) Codey: Like I wrote it down in a notebook that I have in front of me at all times. (0:07:57) Codey: And I wrote down like when you find all of the things. (0:08:00) Codey: So I’m like, and I didn’t do this until fall. (0:08:03) Codey: So now I’m like, look at all these fish that are spring and summer that I didn’t (0:08:06) Codey: know that they were evening fish in the river forest. (0:08:08) Al: Yeah. The fish is the thing I don’t have the most, and oh my word. We’ll get to that. We’ll get to that. We’ll get to that. We’ll get to later in the episode. (0:08:12) Codey: Or that, or that one. (0:08:16) Codey: What have you been plucked to? (0:08:18) Al: This, just before I do it, I was reading reviews on Call of the Wild, The Angler, because the reviews are, shall we say, mixed. (0:08:21) Codey: Yep. (0:08:27) Al: There are lots of people really like it, but here’s a fantastic review. (0:08:32) Al: 4.1 hours on record, not recommended, posted 4th of September. Somehow they managed to- (0:08:38) Al: -capture the true essence of real-life fishing in this game. Boring as hell? Check. Managing gear is tedious as hell? Check. You can spend hours fishing and catch nothing? Check. (0:08:47) Codey: Uh-huh. Uh-huh. (0:08:51) Al: The only thing they failed to capture was what a chura is to clean the fish/gear at the end of the day, but I shouldn’t give the devs any ideas. (0:08:58) Codey: Correct! So if you like fishing I’m sure you’d love this game because then you (0:09:02) Codey: don’t have to clean it either but yeah it is TDM it is the TDM of like (0:09:06) Codey: having to pick like oh you’re like oh you want a rainbow trout you have to (0:09:11) Codey: make sure that you have the right bait the right gear you have to go to the (0:09:15) Codey: right place you have to do all this stuff the right way and then yeah you still (0:09:21) Al: I mean, I will agree, that sounds like not fun. (0:09:24) Al: It does not sound like something that I would want to have anything to do with, but it’s (0:09:29) Al: a fishing sim. (0:09:30) Codey: Yep. What did you expect? (0:09:33) Al: If you don’t like fishing, maybe don’t play a fishing sim. (0:09:37) Codey: Yep. (0:09:37) Al: It’s not like something like trying to be different and trying to be interesting. (0:09:41) Al: It’s trying to be realistic, right? (0:09:45) Al: play a realistic fishing sim if you don’t like fishing. (0:09:48) Codey: Yep. It was funny because after playing it, and Jeff watched me play it a little bit, (0:09:54) Codey: we ended up we were near a Bass Pro Shop, which is like a giant, it’s like a Cabela’s or a big (0:10:02) Codey: like hunting store, but for fit, but mostly just for fit. Well, they I guess they had they had guns (0:10:07) Codey: as well. And we went in there to just walk around. Yeah. And we went in and walked around and then (0:10:09) Al: Of course it’s America, of course you would. (0:10:15) Codey: and then someone tried to sell us a vacation. (0:10:18) Codey: We’re like, Oh, we’re done. It was a hunting trip. (0:10:20) Al: I do enjoy how you mentioned like a fishing shop, which I was like “okay, a shop that (0:10:25) Al: has everything you need to do fishing, fair enough” and then you try and explain it by saying (0:10:29) Al: “it’s like a hunting shop, but for fish” and I’m like “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a hunting shop”. (0:10:36) Codey: Yep. (0:10:38) Codey: Well, so I started explaining like, (0:10:40) Codey: oh, it’s like a Cabela’s. (0:10:41) Codey: And then I was like, I bet. (0:10:42) Codey: Al does not know what a Cabela’s is. (0:10:43) Al: I don’t know what that is either. Like I’m pretty sure shop that sells you fishing (0:10:50) Al: pretty self-explanatory. I know what that would mean. (0:10:54) Codey: but it does also have a hunting area and like you you can make bait bait traps (0:11:00) Codey: for your deer to like bait deer into your property like scent for deer like (0:11:04) Al: Oh. Classic fish. And also guns. What have I been up to? I have been playing Astrobot. (0:11:06) Codey: all there’s there’s more than just that yeah America anyway what have you been (0:11:21) Codey: You have to explain to me. (0:11:22) Al: So are you not aware of what Astrobot is? So, and he’s a little bit of background here. (0:11:24) Codey: I am not aware. (0:11:27) Codey: Okay. (0:11:29) Al: So Astrobot is a PlayStation character and he (0:11:34) Al: I think his first game was Astro’s Playroom, which was a free game that came with the PS5 (0:11:45) Al: and was basically like a tech demo of like all the things that the new controller could do. (0:11:51) Al: And it was super fun. And it’s like he’s this little cute robot. And the idea was you’ve got (0:11:55) Al: these little levels where you’re going around and you’re basically rescuing old Sony PlayStation (0:12:00) Al: stuff so you’re like getting a playstation one and then (0:12:04) Al: you’re getting like accessories for it you’re getting the original controller and then you get (0:12:09) Al: a ps2 and you get accessories for and it’s like that you end up building out this really nice (0:12:12) Codey: Grabbing the–grabbing those memory cards that you had to grab. (0:12:15) Al: yeah yeah exactly exactly loads of things like that and you’re built basically building out this (0:12:19) Al: museum and it was super fun um so they’ve built onto that and made a bigger game that they could (0:12:26) Al: actually sell um called astrobot and so it’s um I mean I basically it’s like (0:12:34) Al: way I would describe it is if sony decided to make a 3d mario game that’s basically what it is (0:12:42) Al: so it’s super fun i’m not very far through it because it came out a week ago and i’ve (0:12:46) Al: not had a huge amount of time so i’ve you know i’m through a few levels and um stuff but yeah i’m (0:12:52) Al: i’m enjoying myself it has the same fun whimsy of astro’s playroom it has the really nice controls (0:13:00) Al: of a good mario game it has the (0:13:04) Al: unique mechanics that mario wonder had um where lots of different levels have like one specific (0:13:10) Al: thing that doesn’t that level uh less kind of like trippy and more just like a mechanic type (0:13:15) Al: thing like oh sometimes you have monkey arms and you use them for climbing and sometimes you know (0:13:21) Al: the standard kind of mario stuff um so yeah it’s super fun um and it’s it’s I don’t know if it’s (0:13:28) Al: meant to be I don’t know if it’s going to be as nostalgic as the other one but it’s it feels like (0:13:34) Al: trying to do a similar sort of thing um in that your ship that you’re trying to rebuild is a ps5 (0:13:42) Al: and there’s a few things that i’ve kind of found that they’re not hardware stuff they’re like game (0:13:47) Al: based stuff this time so like you’re rescuing little robots like astrobot and there some of (0:13:53) Al: them are in costumes so I found the crash bandicoot one and I found the spyro one and stuff like that (0:13:55) Codey: oh my gosh (0:13:58) Al: so I think it’s more going for the nostalgia of the games this time which I mean makes sense (0:14:03) Codey: nostalgia machine activate. (0:14:05) Al: Um, I was wrong. They did have another Astro Bot game before Astro’s Playroom, (0:14:09) Al: and that was a PlayStation VR game for the PS4 in 2018 called… (0:14:14) Codey: So still showing off new technology. (0:14:16) Al: Yes, yeah, so I guess that’s kind of the same thing. But yeah, it does really fun stuff with (0:14:21) Al: the controller, and it’s enjoyable to play. And, you know, it’s a game for me to actually play on (0:14:26) Al: my PS5. [LAUGHS] There’s like 20 PS5-exclusive games, and half of them… (0:14:28) Codey: to justify that expense. (0:14:34) Al: And we’re four years into this console. (0:14:40) Codey: seems legit have you played a heavy rain have they remade that (0:14:44) Al: I have not. I don’t know. [LAUGHS] (0:14:49) Al: Fair enough. I remember when it came out, and I remember being like, “Oh, it’s great.” (0:14:56) Al: I’ve not made a remake. I’m not seeing anything about a remake. (0:15:02) Al: What else? I’ve also been… (0:15:04) Al: playing lots of Marvel Snap and this week, if people were listening last week, I was (0:15:09) Al: sitting kind of like ranks 70 I think. I am now at rank 100, infinity rank, so I’m at (0:15:15) Al: the top of the ladder. So wooo! Exciting. I know I’m not sure what to do. Well, yeah, (0:15:17) Codey: Woo. (0:15:20) Codey: Well, no, now that now the real game begins, right, max rank. (0:15:26) Al: I don’t really care. So the problem is, I don’t really care about grinding that number (0:15:31) Al: out because you don’t really get any good rewards for it. (0:15:33) Al: And so it’s– (0:15:35) Al: for the sake of playing, and I’m never gonna get up to the top. So I like goals that are realistic. (0:15:40) Al: So I’m just playing conquest instead, which is like you have to play a– you have to win a match (0:15:46) Al: in a row to get the first ticket, and then you get two in a row to get the next ticket, and then three (0:15:52) Al: in a row, and then you have to– so you essentially have to win, I think it’s like 10 battles in a row, (0:15:57) Al: and then you win a bunch of another currency that you use to buy something. So that’s what I’m (0:16:02) Al: what I’m doing just now, but it’s pretty hard. (0:16:04) Al: And the problem is that any time you lose you have to go all the way down to the beginning again (0:16:04) Codey: Yeah. (0:16:08) Al: Win one to get the next ticket and then win two to get the next (0:16:08) Codey: Of course you do. (0:16:12) Codey: Could you pay a premium currency to not lose your space? (0:16:16) Codey: Oh, that’s a that’s a missed opportunity from them. They (0:16:21) Al: you can grind out the lower tickets. So that’s what I’m doing just now, like grinding out (0:16:25) Al: as many of the silver tickets as I can so that I don’t have to keep going back down. (0:16:30) Al: And I can just like then grind out as many of the gold ones as possible. And then when (0:16:35) Al: I eventually win the gold one, then I can like try and grind that for the infinity one. (0:16:40) Al: I can’t remember. And I’ve been I’ve been getting back into reading comics. So as as (0:16:49) Al: As happens every year, I resubscribed. (0:16:51) Al: For a year of Marvel Unlimited when I should actually use this and went and read a bunch (0:16:57) Al: of comics. So I’m reading through the Ms. Marvel comics just now because I really like Ms. Marvel. (0:17:03) Al: She’s one of my favorite characters. And yeah, it’s been good. I’ve just finished the Inhumans (0:17:10) Al: versus X-Men comics line, which was good. I enjoyed that. But what I find really funny is, (0:17:17) Al: as you’re following stories. You come across characters that you’re not (0:17:21) Al: actively following, but you know some about. But then, because you’ve not been actively (0:17:26) Al: following them in the comics, their status is completely different from what you would expect (0:17:30) Al: it to be, right? And so you’re like, “I need to find out why, for example, why is Cyclops a child (0:17:30) Codey: Mm-hmm (0:17:35) Al: just now?” And so you look into the reasons for why Cyclops is a child, and you find out that (0:17:36) Codey: Yeah, see (0:17:40) Al: actually Cyclops went evil and died. And this is Cyclops from the past, who’s now having to deal (0:17:46) Al: with the fact that he knows that he grows up to be evil and dies. (0:17:52) Codey: Yup, this is classic Marvel to me, because like I mean, it (0:17:53) Al: Yeah. (0:17:58) Codey: requires it’s no longer like standalone, like it requires (0:18:02) Codey: that you have seen everything. I remember going and seeing one (0:18:05) Codey: of the most recent movies, like the multiverse of madness or (0:18:10) Codey: whatever. And I was like, wait, why is Scarlet Witch bad and (0:18:13) Codey: wait visions dead? And like it was just like, wait, what? (0:18:13) Al: think yeah I mean I’m not I think I think this is just one of these things (0:18:19) Al: where you just have to kind of if you’re not willing to do everything you just (0:18:23) Al: kind of have to accept that sometimes you won’t know the current state of (0:18:26) Al: things and you know I would go into these things I mean obviously I watch (0:18:30) Al: all of the Marvel stuff like all the shows and films because it’s not really (0:18:32) Codey: Mm-hmm (0:18:34) Al: on the level of reading all the comics like reading all the comics is basically (0:18:37) Al: impossible watching all the shows and TV series the films and TV series it’s not (0:18:37) Codey: Right (0:18:42) Al: that difficult, right? (0:18:43) Al: You have any sort of, like, time that you can do on a weekly basis. You can keep up (0:18:47) Al: to date reasonably easily, if you want to. But, well, like, this year, for example, so (0:18:49) Codey: No. (0:18:50) Codey: I’m going to do a little bit of a (0:18:54) Al: far we have had one 10-episode series in one film, so far, this year, and we’re in September. (0:19:03) Al: So it’s not… that’s not an unreasonable amount to try and keep up to date if you care (0:19:07) Al: about it. And the TV series was, like, an animation anyway. It was unrelated to the (0:19:11) Al: current multiverse, you don’t have to pay attention. (0:19:12) Codey: Mm-hmm (0:19:14) Al: There’s one film, that’s all that’s been so far this year. (0:19:16) Codey: Yeah, no, it’s good wait was the one film that the Deadpool okay, I did (0:19:17) Al: So, yeah, so I also enjoyed it. But yeah, so I don’t, I think it’s just kind of one of these (0:19:29) Al: things we just have to accept if you’re not willing to keep up with it. But why I find fun (0:19:33) Al: about it in the comics is it’s like, oh, this is a really weird situation. I just stop reading the (0:19:38) Al: comic, go find out why this person is in this situation, and then come back. Because there’s (0:19:43) Al: a lot of explanations for most things. And you learn more about other storylines that you’re (0:19:44) Codey: Yeah, no, my ADHD, I would be like, huh, I want to know why this is the way it is. (0:19:48) Al: not going to go and read. (0:19:56) Codey: And then I’d read that and then be like, Oh, because he went evil. (0:19:59) Codey: And I’d be like, huh, why did he do that? (0:20:01) Codey: And then I’d go down that rabbit hole. (0:20:03) Al: Yeah, and that’s one way to do it as well, you know, and it just like each their own and maybe (0:20:03) Codey: And then, yeah, that’s, yeah. (0:20:07) Al: you decide that means that you don’t read comics and that’s fine, you know? Like, um, that is, (0:20:11) Codey: Well, I’m glad you’re enjoying it. (0:20:13) Al: I am enjoying it. It’s good fun. So, uh, yeah. That’s what we’ve been up to. (0:20:19) Al: All right, time for some game news. First of all, Tales of the Shire has been delayed till 2025. (0:20:26) Al: Uh, uh, yeah, the, they’ve not really. (0:20:33) Al: Said much about it other than I want to make the game better. Um, the standard. Fine. Uh, but (0:20:41) Al: they announced that just after, it’s interesting. They announced it just after the announcement for (0:20:45) Al: the announcement. Uh, but yeah, they announced that they are having a showcase on Hobbit day, (0:20:54) Al: which is apparently a thing apparently has been a thing for years. Hobbit day, the 22nd of sort (0:20:58) Codey: Oh, I wonder why it’s Hobbit. (0:21:07) Codey: I thought it was because it was his birthday, but it’s (0:21:09) Codey: There we go. (0:21:10) Al: It’s the birthday of Bilbo and Frodo. (0:21:13) Codey: Make sense. (0:21:13) Al: Interesting, I didn’t realize I had the same birthday. (0:21:15) Al: That’s funny. (0:21:16) Codey: Yep. (0:21:17) Codey: Delayed. (0:21:18) Codey: Delayed. (0:21:21) Al: But yeah, we’ll have some more news about that. (0:21:23) Al: Maybe in the next episode, it’s the 22nd, which is the Sunday. (0:21:27) Al: I don’t know if I want to wait till after that’s been done. (0:21:29) Al: We’ll see. (0:21:30) Al: I’ll decide later. (0:21:30) Codey: Mm-hmm. It’s fine. It’s not going anywhere clearly (0:21:31) Al: We’ll, we’ll see. (0:21:32) Al: We’ll see. (0:21:36) Al: No, I know, but you know, this is our, you know, up to date. (0:21:40) Al: News podcast. (0:21:40) Codey: You know what we should totally do listeners let me know if you think this would be funny if ever there’s anything like that (0:21:45) Codey: We’re like we record or some news comes out after we record you could have a section. That’s like the (0:21:52) Codey: Breaking news and then you just like input that into the podcast, but you record it after their podcast (0:21:58) Al: So my my hesitation on that is that that involves like setting up another called (0:22:05) Codey: No, I’m just thinking like you have either you do it or you’re like, hey, (0:22:08) Codey: Cody, do a boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, breaking news about this news. (0:22:12) Al: But I but I think the fun thing about this podcast (0:22:16) Codey: I mean, people listen to me ramble by myself. (0:22:20) Codey: It happens. (0:22:22) Codey: It’s not unenjoyable, I guess. (0:22:23) Al: “Shookajoo Island have announced that they are delayed until early 2025.” (0:22:24) Codey: [LAUGH] Delayed. (0:22:29) Codey: Woo! (0:22:30) Al: I’m shocked about this one. I definitely didn’t predict this one at all. (0:22:30) Codey: Nope. (0:22:37) Al: So, I mean they’re using the excuse of a grant. (0:22:43) Al: Okay, fine. But presumably the grant means that you can do something for the game that (0:22:48) Al: you wanted to do for the game and have it in the release. So it’s something you always want. (0:22:53) Al: I just feel like this team, they just keep expanding the scope of the game. (0:22:58) Al: Because they added loads of stretch goals in the Kickstarter campaign and they were all (0:23:03) Al: things that just push out the release date. So, I wonder if this game will ever actually come out. (0:23:06) Codey: Yep, these are all things that (0:23:09) Codey: These are all things that could come out after the relief (0:23:13) Al: Yep. (0:23:14) Codey: But it’s I mean, I think it’s cool that they got money from the state that they live in in Germany (0:23:19) Codey: I think that’s really cool. Like the government’s getting involved. I don’t know how that happened (0:23:24) Al: Yeah, I don’t know if this is a thing in America or not, but it’s a reasonably common thing (0:23:29) Al: over here, where most countries have arts funds that they give out as grants to people. (0:23:35) Codey: Nah, no, it’s sports funds over here. (0:23:40) Al: Oh, funny. See, if I go on to Kickstarter, every time I go on to Kickstarter there’s a little (0:23:44) Al: banner up at the top that says, I’m just loading it up, of course the banner doesn’t appear the (0:23:51) Al: one time I actually talk about it. Literally every saying I’ve ever gone to (0:23:55) Al: this banner appears and it basically says something about their being. You can apply for (0:24:00) Al: Creative Scotland funding. So that’s the one that’s obviously in Scotland. So yeah they all have, (0:24:06) Al: most countries in certainly in Western Europe that I know of have similar sort of ideas where (0:24:12) Al: there’s a certain amount of their budget that they’ll put towards arts funding. (0:24:16) Codey: yep nope nothing here though I think it’s cool on the home page of kickstarter there have been (0:24:21) Codey: eight billion dollars put towards creative works wild look at us (0:24:24) Al: Nice. (0:24:29) Al: Yep, and they’ve also confirmed that their Switch version is started. (0:24:34) Codey: - Yep. (0:24:35) Al: So they’re started the porting. (0:24:37) Codey: - It’s happening. (0:24:39) Codey: - I think we need another delay, Al. (0:24:42) Al: Well, next we have two Pixellia, who’ve announced they’re delayed till 2025. (0:24:48) Codey: Oh, oh, so happy, thank you, I needed that. (0:24:53) Al: they are currently (0:24:55) Al: targeting March, April next year. (0:25:00) Al: So we’ll see. (0:25:01) Al: I like the wording there, right? (0:25:03) Al: It’s like, it’s not we’re planning to release then. (0:25:06) Al: It’s that that’s our target. (0:25:08) Al: And I think people are, I think people understand that difference in wording to (0:25:14) Al: make it like, oh, that’s kind of a wibbly, wobbly. (0:25:16) Codey: Mm-hmm a little bit of a hand wavy deadline. I did love (0:25:21) Codey: One of some of the reasons that they wanted to do it is they want to create (0:25:24) Codey: Quote customization options free from gender, which I like (0:25:30) Codey: Totally like that. I also like that. They wanted to quote add more crime (0:25:35) Codey: opportunities (0:25:36) Al: “Be gay, do crime”, that’s what you’re saying, right? (0:25:37) Codey: Be gay do crime (0:25:43) Al: Was that just a really long way of getting to that phrase? (0:25:45) Codey: I actually had (0:25:46) Codey: not even thought be gay do crime you said it and I was like oh my god but yeah yeah be gay do crime (0:25:55) Al: Oh dear, am I going to be brave enough to put that as the title for this episode? (0:25:59) Codey: please please i’m gonna add it in to mention it and everything (0:26:07) Al: Oh dear. (0:26:08) Codey: too pixelly I think I think i’ve had it with delays though so let’s maybe (0:26:12) Al: Well, have I got an exciting update for you. (0:26:15) Al: Gogotown have announced that their build and bustle update is technically not out right now, (0:26:21) Al: but it will be out by the time this episode comes out. (0:26:24) Al: I think it’s out in like three or four hours as we’re recording. (0:26:28) Codey: Oh sweet, okay. (0:26:30) Al: Because it’s Monday in Australia. (0:26:30) Codey: Which… (0:26:33) Codey: Oh yeah. (0:26:34) Codey: If I remember correctly, some of the things they’re adding (0:26:37) Codey: are things that you thought they should add, right? (0:26:40) Al: Yes, so they are, big things about this are that they, so it’s called the build and bustle update. (0:26:49) Al: They have the ability to buy more land to expand the town, which is good. And they are again saying (0:26:55) Al: that you can customize the industry zones. We still don’t have a huge amount of detail of that (0:26:59) Al: as far as I can see. They do talk about, I’ve seen something on their Twitter about moving (0:27:05) Al: the items within the zone, but not about, I’ve not seen anything about, (0:27:10) Al: moving the industry zone, which is, I mean, it could be just the one thing that makes me think (0:27:18) Al: that might not be what they’re doing is because there are big things that are like part of the (0:27:22) Al: ground, right? Like there’s a cave, which is part of the, which is the industry zone for the mining. (0:27:27) Al: And it’s like, are they actually moving the cave? I guess we’ll find out when it actually comes out. (0:27:31) Codey: They discovered a new cave that looks exactly like the old cave. (0:27:35) Al: And the first cave filled itself in. (0:27:38) Codey: And there, yep, the old cave. We just didn’t like it anymore. It collapsed. (0:27:41) Al: It just collapsed. (0:27:44) Al: So yeah, I don’t know. I mean, maybe they’re just going, (0:27:47) Al: “It doesn’t matter. Suspension of disbelief. The cave will move.” (0:27:50) Codey: Yeah (0:27:51) Al: Which they can do. I just don’t know if they’re going to or not. We’ll see. (0:27:56) Al: Hopefully we’ll get some details pretty quickly after it comes out. (0:27:59) Al: And the other big thing is they’ve added a subway system. (0:28:04) Al: So you can have up to four lines on your subway, which is cool. (0:28:10) Al: That’s cool. Allowing people to get around the town more efficiently. (0:28:14) Al: Because this was a little bit of my worry. If you make it bigger, which it needs to be bigger, (0:28:15) Codey: Yeah. (0:28:17) Al: but if you make it bigger, do you have a problem where nobody gets to the outer bits? (0:28:22) Al: But hopefully, this just means that some of them will go to the stuff in the middle, (0:28:27) Al: and some of them will immediately jump on the subway and go to different parts of the town. (0:28:28) Codey: I guess, is the subway system like do you see yourself riding it or do you just be like (0:28:37) Codey: I want to go over here and then it just like fades to black and then you’re like yay I’m (0:28:42) Codey: over here now. (0:28:43) Al: I haven’t seen any video of it happening, but I have seen there are some screenshots (0:28:52) Al: of inside the subway station. So I feel like you’re at least kind of going into the subway (0:28:59) Al: and I guess we’ll see what that means. (0:29:02) Codey: I hope it’s authentic in that one of the subway systems is really really dirty and has a lot (0:29:09) Codey: of graffiti and then the central one is like pristine and clearly is the one that’s actually (0:29:15) Al: Not everywhere is the same as America, Cody. (0:29:16) Codey: because I hope it’s America realistic. America being a new verb that I just made. (0:29:24) Al: We have exactly one subway system in Scotland, and it is very nice. (0:29:29) Codey: It’s not real. (0:29:30) Al: It’s the third oldest subway in the world, fun fact. (0:29:32) Codey: That is super cool. (0:29:33) Al: Yeah. (0:29:34) Al: Do you know what two subways are older than it? (0:29:37) Codey: London Underground, maybe? (0:29:39) Al: That’s one of them. (0:29:40) Codey: Something in India. (0:29:41) Al: Nope. (0:29:42) Codey: Okay, I don’t know, I give up. (0:29:42) Al: I’m not gonna guess anymore (0:29:45) Al: you just guess guess no I’m pretty sure it was Bucharest but I’m just double (0:29:46) Codey: I genuinely don’t, I genuinely don’t know what else there was. (0:29:54) Al: checking no not Bucharest I was wrong failed Budapest Budapest so I was so (0:30:01) Codey: Though oh, yeah, okay cool (0:30:07) Al: close same thing Budapest Bucharest ah (0:30:09) Codey: Well, I love how I (0:30:12) Codey: Love how your guys is (0:30:14) Codey: Like more the OG than ours, but when people think of subway they think of our subways (0:30:22) Al: Do they now? (0:30:22) Codey: I mean if you ever see someone use a subway in any movie, it looks like (0:30:27) Al: In American movies? (0:30:28) Codey: The underworld movies which I think they’re supposed to be (0:30:32) Codey: have (0:30:32) Al: What’s that? Sorry, Underworld. It’s an American film. (0:30:35) Codey: It’s okay, it’s an American film, but it’s not supposed to be in (0:30:38) Al: Uh-huh. (0:30:40) Al: I’m sorry, American people make films that have American-looking things and is not a surprise. (0:30:48) Al: Is it now? (0:30:48) Codey: Wes Craven is rolling over in his grave right now. Actually I don’t know if he’s dead. Anyway! (0:30:48) Al: - Mm-hmm. (0:30:49) Al: Mm-hmm. (0:30:52) Al: They also are adding car parks and vehicle racks for all of your vehicles that you use, which is cool. (0:31:00) Al: Because I mean, I was just like leaving them in the middle of the street. (0:31:02) Al: I don’t know what to do with this. It just goes there. So that’s nice. (0:31:06) Al: And a bunch of new items. (0:31:10) Al: Well, so you have cars that are vehicles that you use and you have bikes that are vehicles that you use. (0:31:16) Al: So one presumably is like, yeah, a car park is like a parking lot, as you would call it, yeah. (0:31:16) Codey: OK. (0:31:18) Codey: Cool. (0:31:22) Al: It’s a park for your car and the vehicle racks will be for bikes and trikes and stuff like that. (0:31:28) Al: So, yeah, we’ll see what that’s like once it’s out. (0:31:32) Codey: a 1.1, I guess it wouldn’t be a 1.1, but a second harvest. (0:31:36) Al: Yeah, they’re just calling it the build and bustle update, which is the major update one. (0:31:42) Al: I don’t know if they’ve got a version numbering scheme or not. I haven’t looked. We’ll see, probably. (0:31:48) Codey: Don’t look it’s probably disappointing (0:31:50) Codey: Cool no no don’t look numbering schemes are awful (0:31:52) Al: I mean, you know that I’m looking, right? (0:31:56) Al: I can’t find it. You’re lucky. You’re saved this time. (0:31:59) Codey: It’s for the best (0:32:02) Al: Yeah, it probably is. Steam seems to be really kind of unsure as to how it actually shows you version numbers. (0:32:08) Codey: aren’t we all version numbers are just a myth. Oh no he found it. (0:32:10) Al: Oh, here we go. Here we go. Here we go. (0:32:12) Al: So minor update five was version number. Are you ready for this? 0.4, 0.53. (0:32:22) Al: 0.16416EA. (0:32:25) Codey: Oh, ‘cause it’s early access, right, right. (0:32:30) Al: So it’s yeah, I don’t know why. So presumably this will be 0.5 because all of the minor updates have been 0.4 point something. (0:32:40) Al: So 0.5 point zero point. And then the last bit is, I think, a build number. (0:32:46) Al: So it’ll be 0.5.0 point something. (0:32:52) Al: You don’t need to put the build number in your version number that you publish, just (0:32:55) Al: letting you know, but fine, you can do what you want. (0:32:58) Al: I’m not in charge of you. (0:33:02) Al: Next we have, for some reason, a new paid DLC for Havrest Moon Winds of Anthos. (0:33:07) Codey: It’ll bring people in. (0:33:08) Al: The Great Outdoors. (0:33:11) Al: The weird thing I guess is that like, they’ve just released a new game, and now they’re (0:33:15) Al: releasing DLC for their console game rather than their mobile game, and yeah, I don’t know. (0:33:22) Codey: I mean, I like the idea of this DLC. (0:33:22) Al: Yeah, sure, so it’s a camping one, basically. (0:33:28) Al: You can go out and first of all, you can find treasure out and about, but you can also camp, (0:33:34) Al: so you can have a tent and camp wherever you are, so you don’t have to go home to sleep, (0:33:38) Al: which is cool. (0:33:38) Codey: I do like that a lot. (0:33:39) Al: We’re like this, yeah. (0:33:40) Codey: These games where you have to run all the way back home (0:33:42) Al: Yeah, yep. (0:33:42) Codey: are really flipping annoying. (0:33:45) Al: It doesn’t make the game fun, but it does, it would be, in a game that actually is fun (0:33:50) Al: come to play, this would be a nice addition. (0:33:52) Al: Look, if they want to make a game fun to play I will say it’s fun to play. You can (0:33:53) Codey: - The shade. (0:34:02) Al: also take… Oh yes, so apparently they’re also adding a new robot that will take care (0:34:08) Al: of your pets and animals while you’re away, so that’s cool. And then you can also take (0:34:14) Al: animals with you on your adventures, and I see there’s a screenshot of you with a bear, (0:34:20) Al: like just sitting by a big breath. (0:34:22) Al: Brown bear. I don’t think that’s safe. (0:34:22) Codey: Yep. They said that it’s not 100% do not condone sitting next to a bear ever, mostly because then if something happens and if the bear attacks you, then it becomes the bear’s problem, which is not great. (0:34:39) Codey: Yeah, I like the idea. They all it also mentions that like depending on which pet like each pet has a different boost or like benefit of coming with you. (0:34:49) Codey: no idea about the details of that, but maybe like. (0:34:52) Codey: It’s like, oh, if you bring this dog, this dog with you, they might find something. (0:34:56) Codey: Or I don’t know, but I think that’s cool. (0:35:01) Codey: And I just like the idea of not having to like end it at your house. (0:35:05) Codey: Cause like, what if you’re in the mines and you just really want to be in the mines, (0:35:10) Codey: but it’s getting to that time of night and you can just like go back to the (0:35:12) Codey: entrance of the mines and just camp. (0:35:14) Codey: And then when you open, when you like start the day again, you’re just at your camp. (0:35:18) Al: Yeah, I agree. I agree. The robot seems to be one that you put in your barn, and it will (0:35:25) Al: do all the kind of tasks that you want it to do, which is, I mean, good, but, you know, (0:35:30) Al: Stardew has had that for six years. So yeah, cool. That is coming out on the 3rd of October, (0:35:37) Al: and it is $10. Also, I hope the robot isn’t required to have the paid DLC. That’s bad. (0:35:40) Codey: I don’t know if I’d pay that, but… (0:35:46) Al: add quality of life improvements. (0:35:49) Al: Add content in DLC, bad boo, don’t do that. (0:35:54) Al: Next we have the Lens Island controllers and Steam Deck update. (0:35:58) Al: Hey Cody, can you guess what update, what this brings? (0:36:02) Codey: I think that it brings gay crime. (0:36:07) Codey: No, that’s super cool. (0:36:08) Codey: You’ve been wanting a steam deck compatibility, right? (0:36:12) Al: Yes. (0:36:12) Codey: Is this– are you going to start playing it now? (0:36:14) Al: Well, no, at this point, I’m just going to wait for 1.0, which is meant to come out, (0:36:15) Codey: Yeah, that’s– I’m the same. (0:36:17) Codey: I’m– yeah. (0:36:18) Al: this year, so it’s definitely, yeah, no, I’m waiting for 1.0 at this point. (0:36:19) Codey: Yeah. (0:36:22) Codey: They’re still making progress. (0:36:23) Codey: It’s really cool. (0:36:25) Codey: They also have said that now, if you put a bed in the dungeon, (0:36:30) Codey: This is a very… (0:36:32) Codey: similar to what we were just talking about. (0:36:33) Codey: If you put a bed in the dungeon, and then you die in the dungeon, (0:36:36) Codey: you actually respawn in the bed instead of, like, all the way back at your house. (0:36:39) Codey: Which is pretty neat. (0:36:40) Codey: Uh, and then they also said that they fixed, um, (0:36:44) Codey: apparently some of the enemies were targeting your bed, (0:36:46) Codey: and would damage your bed. (0:36:48) Codey: And, like, break your bed. (0:36:48) Al: Hahahahaha! (0:36:49) Codey: Which, honestly, kind of funny. (0:36:50) Al: Don’t break my badge! (0:36:50) Al: Hahaha! (0:36:51) Al: Hahaha! (0:36:53) Codey: Kind of wish that was still in there. (0:36:55) Codey: Like, you put a bed down, and then you gotta protect your bed. (0:36:56) Al: Hahaha! (0:37:00) Codey: I mean because if I was an enemy and i (0:37:02) Codey: saw someone lay a bed down i’m tagging that bed down like you don’t get to (0:37:06) Codey: respawn there again you gotta go walk your butt all the way back to the (0:37:09) Codey: beginning of the dungeon no no bed in the beginning but yeah (0:37:13) Codey: no so the enemies will no longer target your bed (0:37:16) Codey: um you can respawn I they just keep they’re really on (0:37:20) Codey: on it with these uh updates for this game and just (0:37:23) Codey: it has come so far and i’m so excited to play it when it’s a 1.0 (0:37:28) Al: Yeah, maybe this should be my, like, December game. Maybe. We’ll see. I mean, I already own it, (0:37:32) Codey: yeah (0:37:35) Codey: yep (0:37:35) Al: right? So I just need the time. So I think that I couldn’t find this when I tried to look for it, (0:37:40) Codey: happy holidays to you (0:37:48) Al: but I’m pretty sure I saw somewhere that this was their last update before the 1.0. (0:37:54) Al: But I can’t, I couldn’t find it when I tried to look for it. So maybe it was on Twitter or (0:37:59) Al: I dare not speak the name of. Well, it’s not the name of it, is it? (0:38:01) Codey: after speaking the name of. (0:38:04) Codey: Oh, you’re right, you’re right. (0:38:07) Al: OK, and finally, we also have Danchi Days. So we mentioned this in the last episode. This is the (0:38:15) Al: kind of Game Boy inspired 2D summer, Japanese summer game. They (0:38:26) Al: replied on YouTube to say that they (0:38:28) Al: have just launched their Steam page. So we’ll have that as a link in the show notes for you, (0:38:34) Al: and there’s a few more kind of screenshots and stuff like that. And the new information I get (0:38:40) Al: from this is they say the aim of the game is to invite 151 people to a summer festival. (0:38:47) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:38:49) Codey: For a lot of people who play Game Boy games (0:38:52) Codey: and hear the number 151, I don’t think so. (0:38:54) Al: Yep. Coincidental number? I probably think not. (0:38:59) Codey: But it is cool. (0:38:59) Codey: You are basically– you use the internet and the social media (0:39:03) Codey: to try and understand what those 151 people like. (0:39:08) Codey: They are actual people. (0:39:10) Codey: I mean, some of them might not be people. (0:39:11) Codey: You have a duck buddy. (0:39:13) Codey: But, um, oh. (0:39:14) Al: Docks are people, T. (0:39:16) Codey: Awwww. (0:39:17) Codey: I’ll be darned um so uh you use like social media and kind of like learn try and find see what (0:39:25) Codey: people like and make sure that they have it at the event and befriend them and invite them to (0:39:30) Codey: the summer event um it’s basically teaching people to be um advertisers (0:39:36) Al: Yeah and each of the different, so you have different the people you want to (0:39:40) Al: invite all have different websites because it’s very much set in the 90s (0:39:43) Al: right? So everyone has to have their own website and they all seem to have quite (0:39:47) Al: a lot of personalities so like there’s someone who’s an entrepreneur and then (0:39:51) Al: there’s someone who likes water and then there’s someone who’s like rules are (0:39:54) Al: meaningless do whatever you want and they just have three buttons that say do (0:39:57) Al: not press and then you can press the buttons. So yeah it looks like they’re (0:40:02) Al: all kind of quite unique, which is fun. I suspect 150. (0:40:06) Al: One of them won’t be unique, but there’s at least, you know, some personality there, which is cool. (0:40:07) Codey: Right. (0:40:10) Codey: I did, it did make me laugh like looking at it (0:40:12) Codey: ‘cause it says it’s a Y2K inspired game. (0:40:15) Codey: And that, (0:40:16) Al: Oh, so it does. Yeah, so not 90s. Sorry. 2000. I was I was close. (0:40:19) Codey: yeah, I mean, that’s late 90s. (0:40:23) Codey: But yeah, it made me laugh like to see that (0:40:23) Al: Don’t do this. Don’t do (0:40:28) Codey: press any button you want, like style thing. (0:40:31) Codey: ‘Cause that era was the era of like the impossible game (0:40:37) Codey: online that you were supposed to do (0:40:39) Codey: all these different things. (0:40:40) Codey: And if you do one thing wrong, (0:40:41) Codey: you’re set back to the beginning. (0:40:42) Codey: And it was just really silly things, (0:40:46) Codey: like hit the smallest circle (0:40:49) Codey: and it’s the dot on the eye and stuff like that. (0:40:51) Codey: Or another game that was really popular at that time (0:40:53) Codey: was Don’t Shoot the Puppy. (0:40:55) Codey: And it was literally, if you move your, (0:40:58) Codey: you start the game and if you move your mouse (0:40:59) Codey: that all this giant machine gun shoots a puppy. (0:41:02) Codey: So you literally just have to like click the button (0:41:04) Codey: and then do nothing until… (0:41:07) Codey: you can click the button again and classic Y2K game so it captures the vibe (0:41:11) Al: classic. We had one that we played in my school where we were - it was literally just (0:41:19) Al: a button that you press and it increases the number, kind of like the one in the thing. (0:41:23) Codey: Yeah like cookie clicker. (0:41:23) Al: And so we would like all be sitting - yeah, it was kind of like a clip but there was no like (0:41:27) Al: expansion to it. It was literally just number, one number, one click. And so we would like (0:41:33) Al: try and play it like in our computing classes without the teacher noticing and just see who (0:41:36) Al: who could get the biggest number in one period. (0:41:41) Al: It was… (0:41:42) Codey: back in our day kids you just clicked a button as many times as you could and that was entertainment (0:41:48) Al: Or in the case of “Don’t Shoot the Puppy” didn’t click a button! (0:41:51) Codey: or didn’t click a button and that was and you just watched this puppy and it went in one of (0:41:56) Codey: them it was like one of the things that like brought up the button that was like start the (0:42:01) Codey: level or whatever and then you’re like oh I forgot to click it and then you move the thing (0:42:05) Codey: and then it shoots the puppy and it’s like ah I didn’t forget to click it it just got me (0:42:09) Codey: me. (0:42:10) Al: And then there was the stuff with like Webull’s stuff, the cartoon, the flash. (0:42:12) Codey: No, weebles. (0:42:14) Al: Yeah, classic. (0:42:16) Codey: Uh. (0:42:17) Al: Anyway, we’re going to stop being nostalgic here. (0:42:19) Codey: What? (0:42:23) Al: That’s all the news. (0:42:24) Codey: Whoo! (0:42:26) Al: We do have three new games as well to cover. (0:42:28) Codey: Whoo. (0:42:31) Al: Wow. (0:42:32) Al: First of all, we have Sea Sniffers. (0:42:34) Al: All right, here we go. (0:42:36) Al: Sea Sniffers is a cosy diving game in (0:42:40) Al: the ocean with your trusty sea companion encounter strange creatures and exotic (0:42:44) Al: treasures and nearly nearly said a different word than exotic in sunken (0:42:49) Al: ships or hidden caves discover the deep sea and all its secrets. (0:42:54) Al: And I need to do my usual don’t call your game cosy. (0:42:56) Al: You don’t get to decide that. (0:42:57) Al: Yeah. (0:42:58) Codey: Also, don’t call your game cozy (0:42:58) Al: You. (0:42:59) Codey: when that seal is throwing hands. (0:43:03) Codey: That seal, like to fight off people (0:43:07) Codey: but also to like harvest things, (0:43:10) Codey: it just seems to punch. (0:43:12) Al: It is an interesting level of cosy, I will say, in the, you know, obviously a game doesn&a

JCO PO author Dr. Alok A. Khorana, MD, FASCO, Professor of Medicine, Cleveland Clinic and Case Comprehensive Cancer Center, shares insights into the JCO PO article, “Molecular Differences With Therapeutic Implications in Early-Onset Compared With Average-Onset Biliary Tract Cancers.” Host Dr. Rafeh Naqash and Dr. Khorana discuss how multiomic analysis shows higher FGFR2 fusions and immunotherapy marker variations in early-onset biliary cancer. TRANSCRIPT Dr. Rafeh Naqash: Hello, and welcome to JCO Precision Oncology Conversations, where we bring you engaging conversations with authors of clinically relevant and highly significant JCO POarticles. I'm your host, Dr. Rafeh Naqash, Podcast Editor for JCO Precision Oncology and Assistant Professor at the OU Health Stephenson Cancer Center at the University of Oklahoma.  Today, we are joined by Dr. Alok A. Khorana, Professor of Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic and Case Comprehensive Cancer Center, and also the Senior Author of the JCO Precision Oncology article titled, “Molecular Differences With Therapeutic Implications in Early-Onset Compared With Average-Onset Biliary Tract Cancers.”  At the time of this recording, our guest disclosures will be linked in the transcript.  Dr. Khorana, it's an absolute pleasure to have you here today, and welcome to the podcast. Dr. Alok A. Khorana: Thank you. It's an absolute pleasure to be here and thank you for highlighting this article. Dr. Rafeh Naqash: Absolutely. We're going to talk about science, obviously, and a few other things. So to start off, for the sake of our audience, which comprises academicians and community oncologists as well as trainees, can you tell us a little bit about biliary tract cancers, what we have learned over the last decade or so, where the standard of treatment currently lies. And then we can dive into the article that you published. Dr. Alok A. Khorana: As many of you who treat GI cancers know, biliary tract cancers for a long period of time were sort of the orphan cancer in the GI cancer world. They're not nearly as common as, say, pancreatic cancer, and certainly not as common as colorectal cancer. They're sort of also, in this weird ‘no man's land' between well known sort of adjuvant therapy trials in pancreatic cancer or colorectal cancer, but because they're not as high in volume, there weren't really large trials done in this population. What's really changed in the past decade, especially, has been the slow but sure realization that biliary tract cancers are in fact a target rich cancer, almost similar to what you would see with lung cancer, and that's only a slight exaggeration. And in some studies, as many as up to 40% of patients with biliary tract cancers can have something that's targetable. And that's really revolutionized the way we think of biliary tract cancers. It also separated this field from pancreatic cancer where formerly the two used to be lumped together, and even within biliary tract cancers, we are now slowly realizing that there are differences between intrahepatic, extrahepatic and gallbladder cancers. Big change is really afoot in this field, particularly with the identification of mutation directed targets. Dr. Rafeh Naqash: Thank you for that explanation.  Now, another question I have is, although I don't see any GI cancers, but I have good colleagues of mine at our cancer center who see a lot of GI pancreatic/biliary cancers, and one of the things that comes up in our molecular tumor board often is how certain cancers of unknown primary end up being identified or categorized as biliary tract cancers based on NGS. And again, the uptake for these NGS is perhaps isn't optimal in the field yet, but in your practice, how do you approach situations like that? Do you use NGS in certain cases where the tissue of origin or the patterns of the mutations indicate that this might be biliary tract cancer and then treat the patient accordingly?  Dr. Alok A. Khorana: Yeah, that's true. And that's certainly how I approach things, and I would say even in my own personal practice, that has been a change. I was a little bit skeptical about the benefit of sort of tissue of origin type of testing in carcinoma of unknown, primarily, especially if you can sort of narrow it down to one or other area of the GI tract. But with the identification of sort of targeted subpopulations, especially of biliary tract cancer, I think it's become imperative. And I know we're going to get into the paper, but if you want to learn nothing else from this 20, 25 minute podcast, one lesson I just want to make sure everybody gets is that any patient with biliary tract cancer should have NGS done as soon as possible. Dr. Rafeh Naqash: Thank you for highlighting that important aspect.  Now, going to the topic at hand, what was the driving factor? I've heard a lot about colorectal cancers, early onset versus later onset. What was the reason that you looked at biliary tract cancers? Is that something that you've seen on a rise as far as early onset biliary tract cancers is concerned?  Dr. Alok A. Khorana: Yeah. So we got into this subject also from starting out at colorectal cancer. And as you know, and I'm sure most of your audience knows, there's been a lot of literature out there over the past five, six, seven years suggesting and then documenting and then sort of proving and reproving that colorectal cancer is on the rise, and especially in people younger than age 50. And even in that population, it's on the rise in two different subpopulations, people in their 20s and 30s and then people in their 40s that are close to the screening colonoscopy rates. That's been investigated heavily. We still don't fully understand why that's happening, but it's not restricted to the United States. It's a worldwide phenomenon. You can see it in the United States, in North America. You can see it in western Europe, but you can also see it in many Asian countries with specific sort of subpopulations. For instance, in some countries, men are more likely to have early onset cancers.   And then a newer finding that sort of emerged over the past couple of years is that this early onset increase in cancers is not just restricted to colorectal cancer, although that's the one that sticks out the most, but in fact, is widespread across a bunch of different types of cancers. In my own research program, we had gotten into a sort of better understanding of early onset colorectal cancer a couple of years ago, driven primarily by the sort of patients that I saw in my practice. And it's just, as you know, when you have a couple of those heartbreaking cases and they're just impossible to forget, and it sort of just drives your attention, and then you want to do something to help them. And if you can't help them personally, then you want to do something that can change the field so that more of these patients are not coming in your clinic next year or the year after.  So a couple years ago, at the Cleveland Clinic where I practice, we created a center for young onset cancers, and at the time it was primarily focused on colorectal cancer. But as we are getting into colorectal cancer, we realize that beyond colorectal cancer, we are also starting to see more younger people with other cancers, including pancreas cancer, including gastric cancer, and including bile duct cancers. And we realized that because so much attention was being focused on colorectal, that maybe we should also be paying a little bit of attention to what was happening in this space. I want to, for your listeners, point out that the problem in bile duct cancers is not to the same degree as you see in colorectal cancer. Just a couple numbers to sort of, to set this in perspective: about 5%, 7% of bile duct cancers are young onset - it's not a huge proportion - 90%+ percent of patients are not young onset. But the impact on society, the impacts on those providing care, is obviously substantial for younger patients. And it is true that even though the proportion of patients is not that high, the incidence is rising.   And there's a very nice study done a couple of years ago and published that looked at what the cancers are that are rising at the highest rates. And bile duct cancer and gallbladder cancers were listed amongst the two with the highest rate, so about an 8% rate per year of increase. And so that's really what drove our interest was, as we're seeing early onset bile duct cancers, it's rising year by year, and what is this disease? Is it the same as you see in sort of the average patient with bile duct cancer? Is it different? How do we characterize it? How do we understand it? What are some of the causes precipitating it? And so that's what led us to sort of one of the investigations that we've documented in this paper.  Dr. Rafeh Naqash: Excellent.   So, talking about this paper, again, can you describe the kind of data that you use to understand the molecular differences and also look at potential immune signatures, etc., differences between the groups? Dr. Alok A. Khorana: Yeah. So the objective in this paper was to look at genomic differences between early onset and usual onset, or average onset biliary tract cancers. And this sort of followed the paradigm that's already been established for early onset colorectal cancer, where you take a bunch of people with early onset disease, a bunch of patients with average onset or usual onset disease, and then look at the profiling of the tumors. And we've done this for genomics, we've done this for microbiomics, we've done it for metabolomics. And the lessons we've learned in colorectal cancer is that, in many ways, the profiles are actually quite substantially different. And you can almost think of them as diseases of the same organ, but caused by different processes, and therefore leading to different genotypes and phenotypes and microbiomes. We had absorbed that lesson from colorectal cancer, and we wanted to replicate it in this type of cancer.  But as we discussed earlier, this is a relatively rare cancer, not that many cases per year. For colorectal, we could do a single institution or two institution studies. But for this, we realized we needed to reach out to a source of data that would have access to large national data sets. We were happy to collaborate with Caris Life Sciences. Caris, many of you might know, is a provider of genomics data, like many other companies, and they house this data, and they had the age categorization of patients less than 50, more than 50. And so we collaborated with investigators at Caris to look at all the specimens that had come in of bile duct cancers, identified some that were young onset and some that were older onset. It was roughly about 450 patients with the early onset or young onset, and about 5000 patients with usual onset cases. And then we looked at the genomics profiling of these patients. We looked at NGS, whole exome sequencing, whole transcriptome sequencing, and some immunohistochemistry for usual, like PDL-1 and MSI High and things like that. And the purpose was to say, are there differences in molecular profiling of the younger patient versus the older patient? And the short answer is yes, we did find substantial differences, and very crucial for providers treating these patients is that we found a much higher prevalence of FGFR2 fusion. And that's important because, as I'm sure you've heard, there's a ton of new drugs coming out that are targeting specifically FGFR fusion in this and other populations. And hence my statement at the outset saying you've got to get NGS on everybody, because especially younger patients seem to have higher rates of some of these mutations.  Dr. Rafeh Naqash: Excellent. You also looked at the transcriptome, and from what I recollect, you identified that later onset tumors had perhaps more immune favorable tumor microenvironment than the early onset. But on the contrary, you did find that FGFR2 early onset had better survival. So how do you connect the two? Is there an FGFR link, or is there an immune signature link within the FGFR cohort for early onset that could explain the differences? Dr. Alok A. Khorana: Yeah, that's a great question. So, to kind of summarize a couple of these things you talked about. So, one is we looked at these genomic alterations, and, yes, FGFR2 fusion was much more prevalent. It's close to 16% of young onset patients, as opposed to roughly 6% of average onset patients. So almost a threefold increase in FGFR fusion. And because there's so many drugs that are targeting FGFR fusion, and because the population included a period of time when these drugs had already been approved, we think some of the benefit or the improvement in median survival associated with being younger is likely driven by having more FGFR fusion and therefore having more drugs available to treat FGFR fusion related tract cancer with corresponding increase and increase in survival. And that was part of it. There was one other alteration, NIPBL fusion, that's been sort of known to be associated with a certain subtype of cholangiocarcinoma, but it doesn't really have a drug that targets it, so it's not sort of very useful from a clinical perspective.   The other two things you talked about, so transcriptome and immuno oncology markers, we found a couple different results on this. So one is that we found in younger people, angiogenesis was enriched, and why this is so we don't quite have a good answer for that. The other was inflammatory responses. So there's a couple of gamma interferon pathways and a couple other types of pathways that you can sort of do pathway analysis, and we found that those were enriched in the older patients or the average onset patients. But the benefit for immunotherapy was similar across the two groups. So even though we saw these differences in signaling in terms of which pathways are upregulated or downregulated, it didn't seem to translate into the current generation of immune checkpoint inhibitors that we're using in terms of benefit for patients. But we did see those differences.  Dr. Rafeh Naqash: I completely agree, Doctor Khorana. As you mentioned, that one size fits all approach does not necessarily work towards a better, optimal, personalized treatment stratification. So, as we do more and more sequencing and testing for individuals, whether it's early onset cancers or later onset cancers, figuring out what is enriched and which subtype, I think, makes the most sense.   Now, going to the FGFR2 story, as you and most listeners probably already know, FGFR is an approved target, and there are a band of FGFR inhibitors, and there's some interest towards developing specific FGFR2, 3 fusion inhibitors. What has your experience with FGFR inhibitors in the clinic been so far? And what are you personally excited about from an FGFR standpoint, in the drug development space for GI cancers?  Dr. Alok A. Khorana: Yeah, I think the whole FGFR fusion story sort of actually deserves more excitement than it's gotten, and it may be because, as I mentioned earlier, biliary tract cancers are a relatively low volume type of cancer. But the results that we are seeing in the clinic are very impressive. And the results that we are anticipating, based on some ongoing phase two and phase three trials, appear to be even more impressive for the very specific inhibitors that are about to hopefully come out soon.   Also, the possibility of using successive lines of FGFR inhibitors - if one fails, you try a second one; if the second one fails, you try a third one because the mechanisms are subtly different - I think it will take a little while to figure out the exact sequencing and also the sort of the rates of response in people who might previously have been exposed to an FGFR inhibitor. So that data may not be readily available, because right now most patients are going in for longer trials. But having that type of possibility, I think, kind of reminds me of the excitement around CML back when imatinib suddenly became not the only drug and a bunch of other drugs came out, and it's kind of like that. I think again, it's not a very common cancer, but it's really wonderful to see so many options and more options along the way for our patients. Dr. Rafeh Naqash: Thank you. Now, going to your personal story, which is the second part of this conversation, which I think personally, for me, is always very exciting when I try to ask people about their personal journeys. For the sake of the listeners, I can say that when I was a trainee, I used to hear about Dr. Khorana's course, I always thought that Dr. Alok Khorana was a hematologist. My friends corrected me a few years back and said that you're a GI oncologist. Can you tell us about your love for GI oncology and the intersection with hematology thrombosis, which you have had a successful career in also? Can you explain how that came about a little bit? Dr. Alok A. Khorana: Yeah, sure. So it is a common, I guess I shouldn't say misperception, but it's certainly a common perception that I'm a hematologist. But I'll sort of state for the record that I never boarded in hematology. I did do a combined hem-onc fellowship, but only boarded in oncology. So I'm actually not even boarded in hematology. My interest in thrombosis came about- it's one of those things that sort of happen when you're starting out in your career, and things align together in ways that you don't sort of fully understand at the time. And then suddenly, 10 years later, you have sort of a career in this.   But it actually came about because of the intersection of, at the time, angiogenesis and coagulation. And this is the late ‘90s, early two ‘00s, there was a lot of buzz around the fact that many of the factors that are important for coagulation are also pro angiogenic and many factors that are coagulation inhibitors. These are naturally occurring molecules in your body, and can be anticoagulant and anti angiogenic. A great example of this is tissue factor, which is, as you'll remember from the coagulation pathways, the number one molecule that starts off the whole process. But less widely appreciated is the fact that nearly every malignancy expresses tissue factor on its cell surface. This includes breast cancer, it includes leukemia cells, it includes pancreatic cancer. In some cancers, like pancreatic cancer, we've even shown that you can detect it in the blood circulation. And so for me, as a GI oncologist who was seeing a lot of patients get blood clots, it was particularly fascinating to sort of see this intersection and try and understand what is this interaction between the coagulation and angiogenic cascades that's so vital for cancers. Why is coagulation always upregulated in cancer patients? Not all of them get blood clots, but subclinical activation of coagulation always exists. So I would say I was fascinated by it as an intellectual question and really approached it from an oncology perspective and not a hematology perspective.   But then as I got deeper into it, I realized not everybody's getting blood clots, and how can I better predict which patients will get blood clots. And so I had both a hematology mentor, Charlie Francis, and an oncology mentor, Gary Lyman. And using sort of both their expertise, I drafted a K23 career development award specifically to identify predictors of blood clots in cancer patients. And that's the multivariate model that later became known as the Khorana Score. So again, I approach it from an oncology perspective, not a hematology perspective, but really a fascinating and still, I would say an understudied subject is why are cancer patients having so many clotting problems? And what does it say about the way cancer develops biologically that requires activation of the coagulation system across all of these different cancers? And I think we still don't fully understand the breadth of that. Dr. Rafeh Naqash: Very intriguing how you connected two and two and made it a unique success story. And I completely agree with you on the tissue factor. Now there's ADCs antibody drug conjugates that target tissue factor, both a prude as well as upcoming.   Now, the second part of my question is on your personal journey, and I know you've talked about it on social media previously, at least I've seen it on social media, about your interactions with your uncle, Dr. Har Gobind Khorana, who was a Nobel Prize winner in medicine and physiology for his work on DNA. Could you tell us about how that perhaps shaped some of your personal journey and then how you continued, and then also some personal advice for junior faculty trainees as they proceed towards a successful career of their own? Dr. Alok A. Khorana: Yeah, thank you for bringing that up. So very briefly, this is about my uncle. He's actually my great uncle. So he's my grandfather's youngest brother. And I grew up in India in the ‘70s and ‘80s, and at the time, I ran away from this association as fast as I could, because growing up in India in the 70s and ‘80s, it was a socialist economy. There wasn't a lot going on. There was certainly none of the IT industry and all of everything that you see right now. And so there were very few icons, and my great uncle was definitely one of those few icons. As soon as you mentioned your last name, that would sort of be the first question people would ask. But he did serve as a role model, I think, both to my father, who was also a physician scientist and a professor of medicine, and then to myself in sort of making me realize, one, that you can't really separate medicine from science. I think those are really integrated, and we want to ask questions and answer questions in a scientific manner. He chose to do it in a basic science world. My father did it in a clinical science world, and I have done it in a clinical and a translational science world. Again, sort of using science as the underpinning for sort of understanding diseases, I think, is key. And so that was certainly a massive inspiration to me.  And then after I immigrated to the US in the late ‘90s, I met him on a regular basis. He was certainly very inspirational in his successes, and I realized the breadth of what he had done, which I did not realize in my youth growing up. But this is a person who came to the US. This was before Asian immigration was even legal. So he got here and they had to pass a special bill in Congress to let him be a citizen that was based on the sort of work that he had done in Canada and in the UK before he came here. And then he sets up shop in the University of Wisconsin in Madison and hires tons of these postdocs and essentially converted his lab into this massive factory, trying to figure out the genetic code. Really just the type of dedication that that needs and the amount of work that that needs and the ability to do that in a setting far removed from where he grew up, I think it's just really quite mind boggling.  And then he didn't stop there. He got the Nobel for that, but I have these letters that he wrote after he got the Nobel Prize, and he was just completely obsessed with the possibility that getting the Nobel would make him sort of lose his mojo and he wouldn't be as focused on the next aspects of science. And he was just really dedicated to synthesizing DNA in the lab, so creating artificial DNA, which he ended up doing. And the offshoot of that work, so not just the genetic code, but PCR essentially was developed by his lab before it became sort of what we now know as PCR. And then ditches all of that in the ‘80s and ‘90s and moves to understanding the retina and just focuses on retinal disorders. And then signal transduction, essentially trying to figure out when a single photon of light hits your eye, what happens biologically. It's a completely different field. And just took that on and spent the next 20,30 years of his life doing that. So the ability to sort of change fields, I thought that was very inspirational as well, that you don't have to just stick to one question. You can get into one question, answer it as much as possible, and then find something else that's really interesting to you and that really grabs your attention, and then stick with that for the next couple of decades. So lots to learn there. Dr. Rafeh Naqash: Thank you. Thank you. And then, based on some of your personal lessons, what's your advice for junior faculty and trainees as you've progressed in your career?  Dr. Alok A. Khorana: I think, number one, and I can't emphasize this enough, and sometimes it actually causes a little bit of anxiety, but it is finding the right mentor. And for me, certainly that was key, because my mentor, who was Charlie Francis, was not an oncologist who was a hematologist, but was like me, sort of supported this idea of trying to understand, hey, why does coagulation interact with cancer? And so he approached it from a hematology perspective, I approached it from a cancer perspective, but he sort of gave me the freedom to ask those questions in his lab and then later on in the clinical setting and clinical translational setting, and then got me access to other people who are experts in the field and introducing you and then getting you on committees and making sure you sort of get into clinical trials and so on. And so having a mentor who sort of supports you but doesn't stifle you, and that's really key because you don't want to just ask the question that the mentor is interested in. And as a mentor now, I don't want to have my mentee ask the question that I'm interested in, but also a question that the mentee is interested in. And so there's a little bit of a chemistry there that's not always replicable, and it can go wrong in sort of five different ways, but when it goes right, it's really vital. And I mentioned it causes anxiety because, of course, not every day is great with your mentor or with your mentee, but over a period of time, has this person done sort of their best to get your career off to a start? And have you served that mentor well by doing the things that are– there's responsibilities on both sides, on both on the mentor and on the mentee. And if you can find that relationship where there's a little bit of chemistry there and both of you are effectively discharging both your responsibilities and satisfying your intellectual curiosity, I think that can't be beat, honestly. To me, sort of number one is that and everything else follows from that. So, the networking, making sure your time is sort of allocated appropriately, fighting with sort of the higher ups to make sure that you're not having to do too much, things that are sort of away from your research interests, all of that sort of flows from having the right person. Dr. Rafeh Naqash: Couldn't agree with you more, Dr. Khorana, thank you so much. It was an absolute pleasure. Thank you for sharing with us the science, the personal as well as the professional journey that you had. And hopefully, when you have the next Khorana Score, Khorana score 2.0, JCO Precision Oncology will become the home for that paper and we'll try to have you again maybe in the near future.  Thank you for listening to JCO Precision Oncology Conversations. Don't forget to give us a rating or review and be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can find all ASCO shows at asco.org/podcast. Thank you so much.   The purpose of this podcast is to educate and to inform. This is not a substitute for professional medical care and is not intended for use in the diagnosis or treatment of individual conditions.   Guests on this podcast express their own opinions, experience and conclusions. Guest statements on the podcast do not express the opinions of ASCO. The mention of any product, service, organization, activity or therapy should not be construed as an ASCO endorsement.   Disclosures: Dr. Khorana  - Honoraria Company: Pfizer, Bayer,  Anthos, Sanofi, BMS, WebMD/MedscapeConsulting or Advisory Role Company: Janssen, Bayer, Anthos, Pfizer, Sanofi, BMS Research Funding Company: Anthos, Bristol-Myers,  Squibb Travel, Accommodations, Expenses Company: Janssen, Bayer, Bristol-Myers Squibb 

Al and Micah talk about Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:02:09: What Have We Been Up To 00:12:01: Game News 00:39:50: New Games 01:15:05: Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home 02:18:35: Outro Links Let’s Build a Zoo “Monstrous Structures” Update Cat Cafe Manager 2 Kickstarter Super Zoo Story Kickstarter Wylde Flowers “Magical Creatures” Update BokuMono: Life and Love Mika and the Witch’s Mountain Boardgame My Time at Evershine Dreamland Farm Danchi Days Amber Isle Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home on Apple Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home on Android Contact Al on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheScotBot Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Transcript (0:00:30) Al: Hello farmers, and welcome to another episode of the harvest season. (0:00:33) Al: My name is Al, and we’re here today to talk about Cottagecore Games. (0:00:34) Micah: And I’m Micah (0:00:39) Al: Woo. (0:00:40) Micah: Yay (0:00:40) Al: So excited. (0:00:42) Micah: It’s still as much as I have heard you say cart cottagecore games, it’s still always those (0:00:50) Al: I keep like bouncing between like should it be cottagecore should it be farming (0:00:56) Al: it’s like I was running something over in my head today I was like games that (0:01:01) Al: quite often have a farming component but not always and are sometimes considered (0:01:05) Al: cozy but not always like we’d (0:01:06) Micah: I think it’s I think for me it’s because every time you have me on we are (0:01:15) Micah: talking about farming games specifically like you know the core the core farming (0:01:17) Al: Yeah, you have you have a niche. (0:01:20) Al: Ah. (laughs) (0:01:23) Micah: game groups the harvest moons the story of season (0:01:29) Al: Exactly. I mean, well, the thing is, right, most people don’t want to spend a lot of time (0:01:35) Al: on a lot of those games. I just want to go back to stardew. And this is the cheapest (0:01:37) Micah: understandable. I am more than happy to, uh, to bite the bullet for everybody else to be able to (0:01:46) Micah: experience, uh, you know. (0:01:49) Al: Harvest Moon game we’ve paid for in quite a long time. So, you know. OK, well, we’ll (0:01:52) Micah: Ah! Sure. Yeah, sure. (0:01:55) Al: get to that. So, before we get to that, we have… (0:01:59) Al: News. We’ve got a bunch of news to talk about. (0:02:03) Al: Oh yeah, I didn’t actually say… We’re going to talk about the new Harvest Moon game. (0:02:06) Al: Harvest Moon’s home to be home. (0:02:08) Al: But we’ve got news before that. (0:02:10) Al: First of all, Maika, what have you been up to? (0:02:12) Micah: I have been very busy. I have been (0:02:17) Micah: Very busy doing a few things I have work has been (0:02:22) Micah: Really crazy, and I I love that like I love when I’m busy, so it’s not a complaint. You know I love when I’m my time is (0:02:30) Micah: Caught up and preoccupied so I it’s it’s great, but it has not left me a lot of time for games (0:02:38) Micah: so (0:02:40) Micah: Primarily what I have been playing. (0:02:42) Micah: I have some personal projects that I’ve been working on too that are not work-related, (0:03:12) Micah: taking up a lot of time, which is great, and I’m really happy about that. (0:03:17) Micah: There is one where I have had some time to be able to play some older Pokémon games, (0:03:25) Micah: and I can’t really say why yet, but I have been enjoying that. (0:03:28) Al: I’m intrigued. I wasn’t intrigued until he said you can’t say why. (0:03:34) Micah: It is a big project that I’ve been working on for months now, and it is becoming a… (0:03:42) Micah: It’s one of those projects where you start and you’re like, “This is a really small, (0:03:46) Micah: fun idea,” and then it just grows over time, and you’re like, “This is getting really (0:03:49) Micah: out of hand, and I don’t know how I’m going to be able to get a hold of this.” (0:03:53) Micah: But it’s been really fun, and it has allowed me some time to do work and stay busy, but (0:03:58) Micah: also play games, play some games. (0:04:01) Micah: But primarily it’s been Pokémon, is what I’ve been playing. (0:04:04) Micah: I did download, I bought and downloaded Fields of Mistria. (0:04:09) Micah: I have not played it yet. (0:04:10) Micah: I’m very excited. (0:04:12) Micah: But I haven’t had a chance to touch it yet. (0:04:14) Al: I haven’t bought that one yet, that’s on my list of “I will probably pay this at some point, maybe.” (0:04:18) Micah: Yeah, yeah. (0:04:20) Micah: I just had seen, you know, the the most buzz around a farming (0:04:26) Micah: sim since I think maybe Stardew in like communities that were (0:04:32) Micah: specifically excited about like Stardew and you know that that (0:04:39) Micah: type of farming sim. (0:04:40) Micah: So I that. (0:04:42) Micah: Intrigued enough to be like, okay, if this is if people are like, you know, recognizing (0:04:47) Micah: it as a not a like competitor or anything or like the new Stardew or anything like that. (0:04:52) Micah: But if there’s enough interest there, then maybe it’s something to, to look into. (0:04:56) Micah: So, and I like the art style. (0:04:58) Micah: I like the pixel art and stuff. (0:04:59) Micah: So it’s a little, we’ll see have yet to play it. (0:05:02) Al: So, other than obviously Harvest Moon Home, Sweet Home, I have been trying to get back (0:05:02) Micah: So I can’t really say anything about it. (0:05:05) Micah: What about you? (0:05:06) Micah: What have you been up to? (0:05:13) Al: into Coral Island after their 1.1 update. Sometimes when you go back to a game, it takes (0:05:20) Al: a while to get yourself back into the zone. I spent over a month, I spent 100 hours in (0:05:29) Al: in Carl Island. (0:05:30) Al: So I’m not back at– (0:05:32) Al: at that point yet, but we’ll see. (0:05:34) Al: I mean that in and of itself might– (0:05:36) Al: will be interesting to talk about, you know, (0:05:38) Al: when we get to that, if I– if I don’t end up. (0:05:40) Al: But– (0:05:41) Micah: world’s biggest coral island fan. (0:05:42) Al: because– (0:05:45) Micah: As far as I know, at least he are. (0:05:48) Al: I like it! It’s a really fun game. (0:05:50) Al: But I think it’s interesting because if I– (0:05:52) Al: if I don’t manage to push myself back into it, (0:05:54) Al: that says something. (0:05:56) Al: Because I’ve managed to– I’ve managed to get obsessed (0:05:58) Al: about Stardew every single time I’ve gone back to it. (0:06:00) Al: to it. And (0:06:02) Al: that, you know, so if I can’t that says something, you know, like I started a new (0:06:07) Al: save for 1.6 when it came out and got perfection for the first time on it. So like, you know, (0:06:14) Micah: Oh, nice. That’s awesome. (0:06:15) Al: that’s how obsessed I got over it last time. So we’ll see. We’ll see. (0:06:17) Micah: Yeah. (0:06:19) Micah: I love that, though. I love when you… (0:06:22) Micah: That feeling of, like, finding a game that lets you do that, like, lets you obsess over it in that way. (0:06:28) Al: Yeah. (0:06:30) Al: I don’t know why does it happen though. (0:06:32) Al: Why do I keep coming back to stardew and keep playing it? (0:06:35) Micah: It’s your comfort game you know same reason why probably I’ve watched I don’t know the office (0:06:43) Micah: 18,000 times over not because it’s like incredible really and (0:06:48) Micah: Not because you know the a lot of the jokes are especially early on are not like questionable (0:06:52) Al: Heh. (0:06:54) Al: Yeah. (0:06:54) Micah: Especially today, but just cuz it’s Scott like you know (0:06:59) Micah: I don’t I don’t have to I don’t gotta think too hard about it. I just know what it is (0:07:05) Micah: It’s it becomes a comfort thing (0:07:08) Al: Fair. (0:07:08) Micah: Stardew Stardew Valley is your the office. I don’t let’s let’s let’s not use that let’s better on that comparison (0:07:14) Micah: I’m that I apologize that me. I don’t know why that made me think of it, but (0:07:18) Micah: I have been looking (0:07:21) Micah: looking at getting (0:07:23) Micah: back into (0:07:24) Micah: Pocket camp too recently cuz I kind of want to see it off (0:07:26) Al: Oh, good timing. Are you… are you gonna buy the offline version? (0:07:29) Micah: You know I’d put a lot of time into it (0:07:33) Micah: and money (0:07:36) Micah: I (0:07:37) Micah: Don’t probably here and there. I think part of it is that I just there were so many events that I (0:07:43) Micah: Didn’t feel like I could keep up with it as much. I will say (0:07:49) Micah: My wife Becky has is devastated. She is I (0:07:53) Micah: Think probably the biggest Animal Crossing fan (0:07:56) Micah: I I know like by far and I would have said years ago. I would have said that’s me (0:08:02) Micah: I am the biggest Animal Crossing fan that I know. (0:08:05) Micah: But that has, she has since taken that crown. (0:08:08) Micah: She has never stopped playing New Horizons. (0:08:12) Micah: She, she played New Leaf a ton. (0:08:14) Micah: She played through, you know, all of the, the previous (0:08:16) Micah: Harvest Moon’s, or Harvest Moon’s god. (0:08:19) Micah: I’m already in Harvest Moon Brain. (0:08:21) Micah: Uh, she’s played through the previous Animal Crossings, but (0:08:27) Micah: she has been, uh, nonstop playing New Horizons. (0:08:32) Micah: And I believe she’s literally, it’s, it’s Sunday. (0:08:35) Micah: So, you know, it’s her call, she calls her Goblin Day. (0:08:39) Micah: She’s literally out there playing New Horizons right now. (0:08:42) Micah: But in addition to that, she has never stopped playing Pocket Camp. (0:08:46) Micah: She has like thousands of hours, I would guess, in Pocket Camp. (0:08:53) Micah: And there are people that she knows only through Pocket Camp that (0:09:01) Micah: she’s like sad that it’s closing because she doesn’t know these (0:09:05) Micah: things outside of it. (0:09:05) Micah: Like she’s got, you know, hundreds of like friendship interactions (0:09:10) Micah: where they trade gifts or they trade, you know, items or whatever (0:09:13) Micah: in the game, but she doesn’t know who these people actually are. (0:09:16) Micah: So like when the game shuts down, that’s just going to go away, which (0:09:16) Al: Yeah. Well, and being a Nintendo game, it’s not going to have, like, free text, (0:09:20) Micah: is like an incredibly sad thing. (0:09:21) Micah: But like, how do you resolve that? (0:09:23) Micah: You know, like, what do you, right? (0:09:28) Al: so you wouldn’t have a way to be able to save that. Yeah. (0:09:28) Micah: There’s no social aspect to it. (0:09:31) Micah: Like broader social aspect to it that you can, you know, uh, (0:09:36) Micah: converse with the people outside of outside for good reason, right? (0:09:39) Micah: Like for kids games, but, but also in situations like this, it’s just (0:09:44) Micah: kind of, kind of weird and sad and like an interesting thing, but yeah. (0:09:48) Micah: So I, that has, has like touched me enough that I’m like, I kind of just (0:09:54) Micah: want to go back and see it off and, you know, be there when it shuts down (0:09:58) Micah: and stuff, because I’ve put so much time and unfortunately money into it. (0:10:02) Micah: so… (0:10:02) Al: Yeah, fair enough. Speaking of mobile games, I have gotten back into Marvel Snap quite (0:10:03) Micah: Bye. (0:10:06) Micah: So that’s next on the roster. (0:10:14) Micah: Oh, okay. (0:10:16) Al: a lot as well, like I have put so much time into it the last couple of months that I’m (0:10:26) Al: not quite at the top rank this season, but I’m close, and if I hit it, it’ll… (0:10:32) Al: be the first time I’ve hit it ever. So yeah, big. That’s big. 100. Or, oh, what’s the 100? (0:10:38) Micah: what is the top rank in marvel snap what’s the like the title for oh okay it’s not like a okay (0:10:43) Al: Platinum, I think. I don’t really pay attention to the names, I just pay attention to the number, (0:10:48) Al: right? Big number. Number go big. But I think it’s platinum. Oh no, it’s infinite. Infinite. (0:10:56) Micah: Oh, okay. All right (0:10:57) Al: So yeah, I’m at like 83 just now, so we’re… (0:11:01) Micah: Yeah, well I (0:11:04) Micah: Have heard nothing but good things about Marvel snap from those who play it, but I have never I’ve never (0:11:11) Al: Yeah, I find it really fun. I like its simplicity but also how complicated you can make it if (0:11:20) Micah: Mm-hmm sure (0:11:21) Al: you want to. Like I’ve got a deck that is like if I get the right cards basically unbeatable (0:11:29) Al: but you have to have a different way to win as well because you sometimes don’t get those (0:11:32) Micah: right yeah can I get those multiple win engines (0:11:34) Al: cards so it’s yeah, it’s fun. Exactly, exactly. (0:11:42) Al: It’s fun. I’m really enjoying it. They added a lot of stuff while I wasn’t playing it as well so (0:11:47) Al: trying to get back into that and being like oh they’ve got these alliances and leagues and all (0:11:54) Al: these cards that I don’t have because I hadn’t unlocked them etc etc but it’s good fun. Cool, (0:11:59) Micah: No, awesome (0:12:02) Al: so that’s what we’ve been up to. Now we’re going to talk about some news. First of all, (0:12:06) Al: Let’s build a zoo have announced a new update the (0:12:11) Al: structures update and this I mean it’s like there’s big balloons (0:12:21) Al: it’s interesting they call it a monsters monstrous structures I think it’s basically (0:12:26) Al: just because there are two massive balloons. (0:12:30) Micah: I do see, in the images, a giant warthog thing and a giant bear, but that’s the (0:12:37) Al: Exactly. There’s a lot of quality, well exactly, there’s a lot of quality of life improvements (0:12:40) Micah: extent of what I see. As far as monstrous goes, you know, (0:12:47) Al: as well, but like the name seems to be entirely hinging on those two balloons. Yeah, maybe. (0:12:54) Micah: Or just the concept that there’s a lot of stuff, you know, there’s like it’s a big update. Maybe I don’t know (0:13:01) Al: It’s a lot of little things, I think, right? Like you can now rename animals is the first (0:13:05) Al: thing in the patch notes, right? (0:13:07) Al: Like that’s not a mate, I mean, it’s fine, it’s good. (0:13:10) Al: Like I’m not saying it’s bad, but it’s not like this is a game changer. (0:13:10) Micah: Mm-hmm. (0:13:14) Micah: Right, yeah. (0:13:16) Al: Yeah, it just, there’s lots of quality of life improvements. (0:13:19) Al: So if you’ve been playing, enjoy those updates. (0:13:22) Al: If you haven’t been playing because you couldn’t rename your animals, now you can. (0:13:26) Micah: or because there weren’t giant monster balloons. (0:13:31) Al: Yeah, yeah. (0:13:32) Al: Next we have Cat Cafe Manager 2. (0:13:36) Al: big city bliss. (0:13:37) Al: The Kickstarter is now live. (0:13:39) Al: Micah, have you seen this game yet? (0:13:40) Micah: I have not. (0:13:41) Al: Had you seen the original Kat Kaffee manager? (0:13:44) Al: Kat Kaffee manager. (0:13:44) Micah: I have not. (0:13:46) Micah: I can’t say that. (0:13:47) Micah: I so I should what I should say is I have seen games that feel similar in that, you (0:13:56) Micah: know, I’ve been on the Switch eShop and there’s a lot of games that look similar, I guess. (0:14:03) Micah: But is this the the original? (0:14:06) Micah: Is this the OG cafe manager? (0:14:10) Al: a good question. That I don’t have the answer to. Yeah, it’s quite a big difference to the (0:14:11) Micah: I like the art for this much better than all the other stuff (0:14:21) Al: previous game. So the previous one came out in 2022. It’s not like it looked bad, right? (0:14:28) Al: But it’s different art style. I do prefer the newer one. It’s very, I guess, shiny Paper (0:14:39) Al: from REO. (0:14:40) Micah: Okay. Yeah. (0:14:40) Al: It’s how I would describe it. This one, right? I like the look of it. It’s interesting. So they (0:14:47) Al: seem to… I’ve noticed that they are planning on having like an actual story here in this one, (0:14:56) Al: because I think the previous one didn’t have that. So if you look at one of their updates on (0:15:00) Al: Kickstarter, they say “Cat Caffe Manager 1 had a nice but fairly straightforward storyline (0:15:06) Al: with the sequel, we’re excited to introduce more complex characters, mysteries and even (0:15:10) Al: somewhat of a villain. Well, yeah, there you go. Yeah, it’s in. I’m intrigued to see what (0:15:12) Micah: Oh a villain in my cat cafe? (0:15:18) Micah: I I there are a lot of things that that could mean and that scares me (0:15:24) Micah: We’re talking about like, you know adoptable animals i’m worried about who the villain is but (0:15:28) Al: happens. We’ll see. We’ll see. I’m excited to find out. (0:15:33) Micah: It’s really (0:15:35) Micah: It is a very cute art style though. I like it a lot. I do like that. Um (0:15:40) Micah: kind of flat 2D characters in a 3D space. (0:15:42) Micah: kind of thing. Obviously, you know, things like Snacko and stuff like that. Paper Mario, like you said. (0:15:48) Micah: I like that concept. (0:15:52) Micah: So, yeah, it looks really cool. (0:15:54) Al: it hasn’t hasn’t hit its goal yet but it’s going to let’s be honest it’s it’s (0:15:59) Al: 32,000 of 40,000 so it’s it’s it’s nearly there and it’s try (0:16:06) Micah: I should clarify too, when I had said, you know, I’ve seen games similar to this, I don’t mean art style gameplay, stuff like that, more just like the branding of it feels, you know, like it felt very, obviously cat cafe manager, it’s very straight to the point, you know, like, and I see a lot of like, I don’t know, whatever tycoon, whatever, you know, like, manager, whatever, it’s there’s so many of those that I just, I could have seen this and I wouldn’t (0:16:34) Al: So the first one does have an 84% steam rating, very positive with 1,500 reviews. So it’s (0:16:36) Micah: know, because I kind of, you know, (0:16:44) Micah: - Wow. (0:16:50) Al: obviously some people liked it, so that’s good. And the fact that they’ve successfully (0:16:55) Al: made a game before makes me much more encouraged about backing a Kickstarter. It’s not just (0:17:01) Al: one of these Skinner boxes that they’ve thrown together in a week and throw (0:17:04) Al: on the eShop, which happens so often. Yeah, it’s getting so much worse with that. (0:17:05) Micah: Right, God, the AI art, so much of it on there. (0:17:13) Micah: Yeah, they really gotta get a handle on that. (0:17:15) Micah: You know, nevermind. (0:17:17) Micah: I don’t wanna start to get riled up a little bit. (0:17:23) Micah: I’ll keep it brief. (0:17:24) Micah: Nintendo made a big deal about not having, you know, (0:17:26) Micah: shovelware on their systems like they did with the Wii. (0:17:29) Micah: And then they just instead opened up the eShop (0:17:32) Micah: to literally everything. (0:17:34) Al: Yeah, and it’s a bit of a balance, right? Because I think it’s important that we have (0:17:40) Al: open access to develop and share your games. But… (0:17:41) Micah: oh yeah for sure but like maybe some level of regulation like (0:17:48) Al: Well, this is the thing they do. It’s not like with Steam where it’s like you can literally (0:17:51) Al: just create it and launch it with no, like, oversight. On the Switch, you have to go through (0:17:56) Micah: Mm-hmm. (0:17:57) Al: a process where they approve it. That’s what’s weird is, like, how are they approving all this (0:18:02) Al: nonsense like they’re not they’re clearly not (0:18:04) Al: approving it they’re just clicking the button they’re not actually looking at (0:18:07) Al: it so why do they have the process there why do they bother (0:18:08) Micah: Or they have some like automated process that’s relying on some artificial intelligence to be like it checks these boxes. So it is approved (0:18:17) Al: yeah yeah maybe they’re just going is it a game does it run there you go that’s (0:18:21) Al: fine but I don’t know (0:18:25) Al: next we have super zoo story they have announced that their kickstarter goes (0:18:30) Al: live on the first of October. It’s just another… (0:18:34) Al: It’s another Zoo Tycoon game. Yeah, that’s it. (0:18:41) Micah: It definitely looks like a Z-Teku. (0:18:42) Al: Am I gonna play this game? I don’t know. It’s it. So I will say, I will see. The one (0:18:49) Al: thing that makes me more interested in this is it does appear to be like you… (0:18:54) Al: It’s an RPG style game rather than like a God style management game. And that (0:19:01) Al: interests me, because I am not a huge fan. (0:19:02) Micah: I agree, that- (0:19:04) Al: I am a fan of management games, but I am a fan of RPG management. (0:19:10) Micah: I agree with that. I’m also in that same boat where if it’s if it says tycoon and it’s got a you know (0:19:17) Micah: Like you’re you’re kind of like managing resources and filling a space and then (0:19:23) Micah: Making money. I’m not as interested in it (0:19:26) Micah: But the the RPG the added RPG element sounds more interesting to me (0:19:32) Micah: You know same way that like was a golf story like to be fair like loved Mario golf (0:19:36) Al: Yes, Golf Story is fantastic! (0:19:40) Micah: You know (0:19:41) Micah: Some of the like more goofy golf game games like (0:19:46) Micah: non-traditional golf games big fan of those but (0:19:49) Micah: Things like golf story sports story like that where they add an RPG element to it definitely makes it much more (0:19:55) Micah: You know exciting and more unique of an experience. So (0:20:00) Al: Yeah, yeah. I’m not a huge golf fan. I mean, I don’t even mean in real life, right? Because (0:20:04) Micah: Oh me neither. I don’t know. I don’t know anything about golf (0:20:09) Al: that’s a whole different discussion. I will rant about golf if you want me to, but I don’t think (0:20:13) Al: we want to. But game-wise, I like Mario Golf, and that’s probably about it. But yeah, Golf Story (0:20:24) Al: absolutely adored it. It was fantastic in so many ways. The actual golf was fun, (0:20:29) Al: But also, it was just– (0:20:30) Al: just my kind of humor. (0:20:31) Al: The story was just enough to be interesting, (0:20:35) Al: but not too much that you felt completely overwhelmed. (0:20:38) Al: It was my perfect RPG. (0:20:40) Al: It was just enough. (0:20:41) Al: Just enough RPG in– (0:20:44) Al: just enough RP in my G. Yeah, sports story was good as well. (0:20:49) Al: A little bit rushed, but I still really enjoyed it. (0:20:55) Al: Yeah, so I mean, I’m probably going to play this one purely (0:20:58) Al: because it’s rather than the kind of, you know. (0:21:00) Al: Tycoon style game, it is an RPG style game. (0:21:03) Al: It’ll be interesting to see how they balance that, obviously, (0:21:05) Al: because these things have to be on a much smaller scale (0:21:08) Al: because you’re doing everything every time. (0:21:11) Al: And will there be some level of automation to that? (0:21:13) Al: Like how, you know, Stardew adds that in as you go. (0:21:16) Al: We’ll just, you know, we’ll see what happens. (0:21:20) Al: Next, we have a new update from Wildflowers, (0:21:22) Al: which came out a few days ago. (0:21:23) Al: This is the magical creatures update. (0:21:26) Al: And can you guess what this brings to the game? (0:21:29) Micah: I’m gonna guess some magical creatures. No way (0:21:30) Al: You are correct. I know, imagine that. Go for it. I need to find if there’s a list. (0:21:37) Micah: Can I guess some of the magical creatures unicorn, oh, okay, never mind abort abort (0:21:48) Al: Oh, here we go. I can’t see a unicorn, but no, you’re correct. I think they’re trying to, (0:21:50) Micah: Okay, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s not there, you know (0:21:55) Al: you know, not spoil everything, but what I do see is what looks like a cross between (0:21:59) Al: a tiger and an elephant. (0:22:00) Al: This is like tiger legs, elephant head, but also the size of a small dog. (0:22:00) Micah: Mm-hmm (0:22:04) Micah: Don’t don’t know that I’ve I know that one don’t know that I (0:22:09) Micah: Do see that one. It is very cute though. Do you’re like (0:22:14) Micah: Description of it, you know tiger with the head of an elephant just (0:22:19) Micah: Was did not prepare me for what it looks like and it is very cute (0:22:23) Al: that’s what it is though, right? Like you can’t say I’m wrong. Yeah. And then like some sort of (0:22:24) Micah: It is you’re totally right, but it is it’s really cute (0:22:32) Al: lizard gecko type thing with chicken legs. And then a Shiba Inu, of course. (0:22:34) Micah: Yep. (0:22:35) Micah: Chicken Lizard? (0:22:37) Micah: The classic mystical creature? (0:22:40) Micah: Yep. (0:22:42) Al: It’s like, what makes that magical? I don’t know. That’s the main thing. There’s other things as (0:22:49) Al: as well. There’s some more story about the lighthouse. (0:22:51) Al: Um, I don’t know. (0:22:53) Al: So this is the time, I mean, well, when I mentioned it to him, he said, oh, I guess (0:22:58) Micah: Oh, okay. (0:23:01) Micah: Is Kevin going to be okay? (0:23:05) Micah: That this is their final update? (0:23:08) Al: I need to get back into the game then. (0:23:09) Al: Uh, so I think it’s been a while since he’s played, he’s played it. (0:23:12) Al: So we’ll, we’ll see, we’ll see how he feels once he’s actually played it. (0:23:16) Micah: Got it. (0:23:17) Al: The update. (0:23:18) Al: Be interesting to see what the studio do next. (0:23:20) Micah: Yeah, definitely. (0:23:22) Micah: And now that they have got such a, like, you know, well-loved thing under their belt, there’s… (0:23:27) Al: Yeah, the moment you see from the makers of Wild Flowers, you’re like “OK, I’m paying attention”. (0:23:34) Al: So next we have possibly one of the weirdest things I’ve seen in a while, and this is (0:23:40) Al: “Bokumono Life and Love”, which is a G-mode phone game from a long time ago that has been ported (0:23:50) Al: to Steam and Switch. (0:23:52) Micah: I cannot tell you how happy I am about this for a couple reasons just also for (0:24:02) Micah: full clarification it is not in English there is no English for this it is a (0:24:06) Al: Yes, I’m important to point that out. (0:24:09) Micah: straight-up port of the Japanese phone game that’s it they’re not doing (0:24:14) Micah: anything else with it (0:24:16) Al: The good thing is the Steam page does make that very clear, it’s above the buy button, (0:24:18) Micah: yeah (0:24:21) Al: it says “English language not supported” in red letters. (0:24:22) Micah: right (0:24:25) Micah: there is uh it looks like well it says partial controller support but it it (0:24:32) Micah: looks like there are controller controls like you know I see like L&R buttons and (0:24:39) Micah: the screenshots and stuff like that so you know there’s not like you won’t need (0:24:43) Micah: some t9 cell phone flip phone peripheral to control the game or whatever it’s (0:24:47) Al: Yeah. (0:24:52) Micah: it is straight up that port though and I love that there are a couple reasons (0:24:56) Micah: why I love that one really stupid really dumb right like really like unexpected (0:25:02) Micah: weird bizarre decision from marvelous great I love it but also because there (0:25:10) Micah: are so many lost media games that are caught in this like g-mode old Japanese (0:25:19) Micah: phone game that like… maybe this o- (0:25:22) Micah: opens the door for more of those to be able to release- get- be released like this? (0:25:24) Al: Well, that’s an interesting question. Are they going to make this technology that they’ve (0:25:30) Al: clearly built as an emulator or whatever? I don’t know exactly what they’ve done, (0:25:34) Al: but something. Are they going to be able to share that with other people? That would be really cool. (0:25:35) Micah: Mm-hmm (0:25:39) Micah: Right, definitely. Well, the other positive there is that (0:25:44) Micah: even just releasing the game gives way to a lot of (0:25:48) Micah: really brilliant people in the (0:25:51) Micah: homebrew community to be able to dissect it and figure out (0:25:56) Micah: what they did as far as you know emulation goes and (0:26:00) Micah: maybe be able to just find a way to (0:26:04) Micah: to… to… (0:26:05) Micah: you know, port some of that stuff themselves, or you know, I don’t know if there’s a lot (0:26:10) Micah: of opportunities here for some really interesting and really cool, like, lost games to be able (0:26:20) Al: So it looks like they’re not the first people to do this. (0:26:23) Al: So it looks like Gmail themselves (0:26:25) Al: released released a bunch of games on Steam a couple of years ago. (0:26:31) Al: So maybe this is, (0:26:34) Al: you know, because of this, like maybe that technology has then been used in this (0:26:39) Al: situation. (0:26:39) Micah: Mm-hmm. There are also some on the switch as well (0:26:44) Micah: But this I think is the like most (0:26:48) Micah: Popular franchise I could be wrong about this, but I think this is the most popular franchise to be (0:26:52) Al: I don’t think you’re wrong. I think saying a bokumono game on a really niche Japanese (0:27:03) Al: phone brand is possibly the most popular game on that. I believe you. I think probably. (0:27:11) Micah: yeah I I think that that’s possible to at least that’s my impression right is (0:27:17) Micah: that like that’s you know we’re we’re you know in a world now where like being (0:27:23) Micah: able to people people may be more aware of it now as being a thing I know that (0:27:29) Micah: there was a persona game that was like last year (0:27:32) Al: I was just… that is what I was just about to say. I have immediately (0:27:35) Al: changed my opinion on that. When I saw on their list that Persona 3 is one of them. (0:27:40) Micah: Yeah, well it’s so it’s a persona it and it is like a such a like small. I don’t know. Maybe I where is the the (0:27:51) Micah: The like chart that shows the growth between like persona fan base and (0:27:58) Micah: The like harvest moon fam, you know, that’s the story seasons fan base because I (0:27:59) Al: Yeah. (0:28:04) Micah: feel like you know prior to persona 5 that was definitely not like the you know (0:28:11) Micah: Either way (0:28:11) Al: Yeah, but I feel like people are going back to the older games, especially with, you know, (0:28:15) Al: 3 getting its Switch release. I feel like people are going back to the older ones when they started (0:28:18) Micah: oh yeah for sure it is a huge franchise now for sure I just don’t know if like (0:28:28) Micah: you know how big is the heart like how big is the harvest moon name you know (0:28:32) Micah: how big is the story of seasons name you know (0:28:32) Al: Well, and it’s more complicated obviously because like the name in Japan is as big as (0:28:38) Micah: it’s not right (0:28:39) Al: it has ever been, but like what does the main name mean over here? And they don’t use either (0:28:43) Micah: mm-hmm (0:28:47) Al: name because obviously they don’t have an English name for this, right? They obviously (0:28:52) Al: would be calling it Story of Seasons if they had, but then it would be like because it’s (0:28:57) Al: a port. They’ve not done a port, right? So this is the weird thing. They’ve not done (0:29:00) Al: on a port, so actually that’s not true. (0:29:02) Al: I guess they did. They did the original Harvest Moon on Nintendo Switch Online, didn’t (0:29:07) Al: they? And they called that Harvest Moon. They didn’t call that a story of seasons. So maybe (0:29:10) Micah: True. Yeah, you’re right (0:29:12) Al: they would, and maybe they would call this Harvest Moon then if they released it in the (0:29:16) Al: West. What I find interesting is they’re about this game, they have an English description (0:29:16) Micah: Yeah, I don’t know (0:29:20) Al: of this game on Steam. (0:29:23) Micah: Right, like it is it is on the the American Steam store like it is accessible (0:29:29) Al: Even if it’s not just that, it says “enjoy a heartwarming” and this isn’t auto-translated (0:29:34) Al: in Chrome or anything, it just says “enjoy a heartwarming farm life while growing crops (0:29:38) Al: and interacting with animals”. (0:29:39) Al: This title is a port of a title released in 2007 for feature phones in the popular series, (0:29:44) Al: which has been developed for numerous hardware platforms. (0:29:47) Al: It simultaneously includes For Boy, in which a boy is the main character, and For Girl, (0:29:51) Al: in which a girl is the main character. (0:29:52) Micah: No way (0:29:53) Al: Funny that they decided to just add them both and just like smash them together into one (0:29:57) Micah: Yeah (0:29:59) Micah: I’d be curious to like how that plays it like is it just a selection right? (0:29:59) Al: Fair enough. (0:30:03) Micah: Do you just like select which game it is or they kind of just like blood them together? Yeah (0:30:03) Al: I suspect so. (0:30:05) Al: I suspect so, yeah. (0:30:08) Micah: I can’t imagine. There’s a lot of you know (0:30:08) Al: Like, they’re calling it a port. (0:30:10) Al: They’ve not changed it. (0:30:11) Micah: Yeah (0:30:13) Micah: Development going on there. Yeah, so I don’t know I guess between persona and this (0:30:19) Micah: you know, and persona happening with (0:30:22) Micah: in the last within a like, a year, almost a year to date, I (0:30:26) Al: Yeah. (0:30:27) Micah: think. No, September 23, it looks like. But yeah, either (0:30:33) Micah: either way, you know, the fact that bigger games now are (0:30:38) Micah: getting these like G mode ports is kind of exciting. So I don’t (0:30:43) Micah: know, even beyond G mode, there are other mobile games from that (0:30:50) Micah: time period that are just like, you know. (0:30:51) Al: Yeah, I agree. I agree. I look forward to playing Gregory Horror Show, which is another (0:30:52) Micah: Completely lost. That would be great to be able to see some of that stuff. (0:30:58) Micah: Go this route, so. (0:31:04) Al: one, which comes out in October. (0:31:07) Al: All right. Can’t believe we spent that much time talking about a G-mode game. What is (0:31:10) Micah: I mean. (0:31:13) Al: this podcast? Finally, before we get into it, we’ve got a few new games to talk about. (0:31:19) Al: For that, we have. (0:31:21) Al: A board game based on Mika and the Witch’s Mountain that’s coming to Kickstarter. (0:31:28) Micah: Okay, I can’t could not have expected that honestly (0:31:32) Al: No. No. I don’t really know what to say. Yes, yes, I’ll probably buy it. Stop asking. It’s, (0:31:38) Micah: I don’t either. (0:31:43) Al: I mean, it’s very, with the intro, so, okay, I have, my brain’s doing the brain thing. (0:31:50) Al: There’s, it’s called Delivery Witches, right? But it’s not branded Mika on the Witches Mountain (0:31:57) Al: or anything like that, but it’s very definitely Mika, right? Like, it’s the same art. (0:32:02) Al: Chibig shared it on their Twitter, so it’s like very clearly in collaboration with them. And, (0:32:08) Micah: same fonts (0:32:09) Al: and all the characters are the same. They’ve got all their art, etc. Like, it’s very much, (0:32:15) Al: it is the Mika and the Witches Mountain game. They just didn’t call it that. (0:32:20) Micah: Right, right. (0:32:22) Al: Which is fair, I guess. Like, you don’t have to call it the same thing, (0:32:25) Al: But it just I just find it interesting (0:32:27) Al: Um, I. (0:32:28) Micah: yeah it is I i guess I didn’t even think about like you know I i think if I had seen this on its own (0:32:35) Micah: without you telling me um and without drawing that association I probably would have been like (0:32:41) Micah: this looks really familiar but it just seems weird that like they wouldn’t do something to (0:32:42) Al: Yeah (0:32:49) Micah: like further I don’t know maybe that’s enough or I just don’t know if that game is has the uh the (0:32:56) Micah: popularity to be able to. (0:32:58) Micah: to say, like, oh, it is very loosely referential to it, but that’s enough for people to know that it’s based on this game, right? (0:33:07) Micah: Like it’s not, I don’t know, I could see that with other franchises, but maybe not this one. (0:33:13) Al: I think what I find weird is like there’s not a single mention of the game or the game (0:33:19) Al: developer on this Kickstarter page so far. Now granted it’s quite small, like they’ve (0:33:23) Al: not gone live, but they still have like five paragraphs of text and not once does it mention (0:33:29) Al: that it’s based on a game. And the company that’s making it is not the same, right, they’ve (0:33:32) Micah: Yeah, it’s very odd (0:33:36) Al: I’ve obviously been farmed out to another company that makes games. (0:33:40) Micah: But it is the you said it like, how is the developer related? (0:33:47) Al: Well, presumably they own like they are because it is the same characters, right? (0:33:52) Al: They use the same character art that you see in game. (0:33:56) Micah: Yeah, I just meant not not in that way. I meant like how was the other than say the the (0:34:02) Micah: Chibig retweeted it or something, you know, like what what is their relay? (0:34:06) Micah: Is there any other relation to like if they said we’re collaborating with them. I guess I do see (0:34:12) Al: Yeah, I think they made it clear that it was a collaboration. (0:34:15) Micah: Okay, I because it (0:34:18) Al: I guess what I know, I’m not trying to say that it’s as popular as Stardew, (0:34:21) Al: but it would be like if the Stardew Valley board game came out and they called it (0:34:26) Al: “farming game”. Right? Like, it would just feel weird. (0:34:28) Micah: Right, like my immediate my immediate reaction would be like they’re ripping off (0:34:33) Micah: Stardew Valley not like oh, it’s a Stardew Valley game, but they’re but they’re calling it something else (0:34:34) Al: Yes, exactly. Exactly. Exactly. And there’s nothing that makes it clear on this Kickstarter (0:34:41) Al: page. (0:34:42) Al: This is an official collaboration, but it is. (0:34:44) Micah: And that’s why I was asking well, how were they related to this other than like, you know, but obviously they have cosigned on it because they’re (0:34:53) Micah: Sharing it and like the art, you know, like if it weren’t (0:34:57) Micah: Theirs, they would probably be in litigation with them or something. I’m sure so (0:35:02) Al: Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Like it’s not, it’s not even like, you know, close. (0:35:08) Micah: Yeah, it’s really interesting it’s very it’s a very pretty looking board game like every (0:35:14) Micah: Looks cool that some of the like, you know card effects and stuff look neat (0:35:19) Micah: The the character pieces are really really cute. I like almost want to get in on it just for the the little (0:35:29) Micah: What do you call those little guys from the (0:35:30) Al: You can’t call them meeples anymore. (0:35:33) Micah: You can’t call them meeples anymore no, I did not (0:35:35) Al: Oh, did you not hear this news? (0:35:37) Al: All right. Sidebar. (0:35:38) Al: So Carcassonne have trademarked meeples and they’re suing anybody that uses the name now. (0:35:41) Micah: Uh-huh (0:35:44) Micah: Oh (0:35:46) Al: So let me find out what they… (0:35:46) Micah: That’s (0:35:49) Al: It’s very, it’s very stupid. (0:35:52) Al: What is the name that is that people have kind of agreed they should call it instead? (0:35:59) Al: Oh, apparently it’s not. (0:36:00) Al: Not being trademarked in the US, so maybe they’ll continue, people will just continue (0:36:02) Micah: Oh. (0:36:04) Al: to use the word ‘meeple’ and make their games in the US. (0:36:05) Micah: Yet, at least. (0:36:07) Micah: Obviously, they’re trying, so… (0:36:08) Al: Can’t remember, because there was one in particular, so it’s an EU trademark ‘meeple’, because (0:36:16) Al: Carcassonne are German, and what? (0:36:19) Al: Oh yeah, so this was, so a company was making a game called ‘Meeple Inc’, and they were (0:36:26) Al: sued by Carcassonne, so they’re now calling it ‘Table Inc’. (0:36:30) Micah: Leave it to a, you know, a lawsuit to ruin the fun for her. (0:36:35) Al: I know it’s so like seriously nobody is confusing their game with carcass on (0:36:43) Al: just because it says meeple like come on I can’t see anywhere what the (0:36:46) Micah: but uh what do we call these um meekles because it because meika and the you (0:36:54) Al: which which which pole (0:36:55) Micah: know which pool um we’ll just we’ll call them meeples with the asterisk that it (0:37:03) Micah: spelled MI PLE because because meekah and the you know yeah yeah yeah they’re (0:37:06) Al: It’s my poles. (0:37:09) Al: Oh, meekles, meekles, yeah, okay, right, I get you. (0:37:13) Micah: really cute though they’re I that’s probably my favorite part of this whole (0:37:16) Micah: thing like they’re very cute game pieces and I hope that they don’t get (0:37:22) Micah: sued by Carcassonne (0:37:23) Al: Well they’re not using- I don’t see meeple being written anywhere and I don’t think they’re trying (0:37:27) Al: to like trademark the concept of having a meeple, it’s just the name that they’re (0:37:31) Micah: Not yet, at least, you know, it’s opens the doors, you know, the next thing, the next litigation. (0:37:39) Micah: This is, yeah, this is interesting, though, this is such a like strange thing, like a strange decision. (0:37:46) Micah: Maybe part of it is like that they are working with this team and they want to give them because that team is like working as hard as they are in this game and everything they’re giving all of the, you know, like they’re setting it up in a way. (0:38:01) Micah: So that undigital owns the rights to this without having to like, you know, there being any question about who owns the rights to their game that they’re working on because it’s related to something else. (0:38:14) Al: I’m sure they’ve got, I’m sure they have all their legal things in a row, right? (0:38:17) Al: Like it’s not like they, they launched this, they announced it on the same day. (0:38:22) Al: It looks like on Twitter, like it’s very clearly like done together. (0:38:26) Al: So I, I’m sure they know. (0:38:28) Micah: Oh sure, I just mean that, like, that would be a positive thing, you know, if they had given them the, you know, had them just change the name so that in the future there was no potential for any possible, like, you know, legal issues or something, and they could just claim all of the rights to this board game and the profits and whatever without having to, you know, answer to Chibig or whatever, which would be a cool thing for Chibig to do. (0:38:58) Micah: You know, people will say like, hey, just, this is yours. You make all the money from it. But who knows, I don’t, I don’t know what the decision was to do this, but it’s an interesting (0:39:08) Al: I have fallen into a deep dark hole of trademark stuff now. It looks like (0:39:16) Al: the EU trademark doesn’t actually cover toys and games, but there’s a (0:39:21) Micah: All for meeples? (0:39:23) Al: Germany trademark that does cover them. I’m so confused. (0:39:35) Al: What have I done? Why have I started reading this? (0:39:37) Al: Um… (0:39:38) Al: OK, right, no, we’re done with that, right? Anyway, game, uh, the Kickstarter isn’t live yet. (0:39:46) Al: You can go and save it if you want to get notified when it goes live. Link will be in the show notes. (0:39:51) Al: All right, we have a few new games as well. Uh, so a new My Time At game, My Time At Evershine, (0:39:59) Al: um, is coming out. The Kickstarter is launching sometime this month. You want another My Time game? (0:40:06) Micah: Uh, I am. (0:40:09) Micah: Yes, I do. (0:40:10) Micah: I do, because I think that my time at Portia (0:40:14) Micah: was such a like, what do they call it? (0:40:17) Micah: Bottled lightning or whatever. (0:40:20) Micah: For what it was at that time, which was, you know, (0:40:24) Micah: a time shortly after Stardew Valley is like massive success. (0:40:29) Micah: And shortly before the boom in. (0:40:36) Micah: Farm Sim type, like Life Sim type games, you know. (0:40:41) Micah: And I think that there were a lot of really positive things (0:40:43) Micah: about my time at Portia, but I think my time at Sandrock, (0:40:47) Micah: on the other hand, was not what I would have wanted it to be (0:40:52) Micah: or would have expected. (0:40:53) Micah: And just personally, not for me. (0:40:56) Micah: So I’m interested to see. (0:40:58) Al: Did you play it? Did you play Sandra? (0:41:01) Micah: No, I did not. (0:41:02) Micah: I from listening to (0:41:06) Micah: and watching things and seeing how the game played, and especially after my time at Portia Port, (0:41:12) Al: Yep. (0:41:13) Micah: I made the conscious decision not to, but just because I didn’t think that it was really for me, (0:41:20) Micah: you know? But I’m excited to see, like clearly they’re capable, right? That’s what I’m getting (0:41:26) Micah: at, is like they’re a very capable studio, and they have some really great ideas. I think there (0:41:34) Micah: there were a lot of really awesome ideas (0:41:36) Micah: in my time at Portia had that just maybe weren’t as fleshed out as they could have been (0:41:40) Micah: especially now that we have had this boom of, you know, Farm Sims and Life Sims and stuff (0:41:45) Micah: that have, you know, made a lot of differences in how these games are played and stuff like (0:41:53) Micah: that. (0:41:54) Micah: So I’m excited to see what they can do with more games, like, I’m always interested in (0:42:00) Micah: seeing, you know, a talented developer make new stuff. (0:42:05) Al: Yeah. So, I mean, just looking at some numbers on Steam. Yeah, well, that’s the thing. I (0:42:06) Micah: Um… (0:42:07) Micah: This is also- (0:42:12) Al: mean, we’re interested to see what they continue on and what they don’t. I mean, to me, Sandrock (0:42:16) Al: always looked just like the same game, but slightly more. And I was like, I’m not interested (0:42:20) Al: in that. But the, so looking on Steam, so they had, so they both have very, very positive (0:42:28) Al: reviews. So we’re ignoring Switch, right? The Switch debacle, we’re just ignoring that, (0:42:33) Al: Right? These things happen. (0:42:34) Micah: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. (0:42:35) Al: They should just not. (0:42:40) Al: So Portia had 33,000 reviews, and Sandrock had 20,000 reviews. (0:42:48) Al: But Portia’s alt, 33,000 versus 20,000. (0:42:50) Micah: Wait how many did Portia have? (0:42:53) Micah: That’s so close. That’s way closer than I would have thought. (0:42:57) Al: It’s a… Yeah, but interestingly, there are all-time peaks of concurrent players. (0:43:03) Al: Porsche was 13,000. (0:43:05) Al: 1.3, and Sandrock was 21,000. It was higher. (0:43:10) Micah: Wow, yeah, I mean, people, I think people knew that, (0:43:13) Micah: you know, by the time that Sandrock came out, (0:43:16) Micah: people had already known Portia so well (0:43:19) Micah: and have been like preaching it (0:43:20) Micah: that I guess maybe even beyond what Portia was, (0:43:24) Micah: people were more excited about it or interested in it. (0:43:27) Micah: I don’t know, I remember the conversation (0:43:30) Micah: around my time at Sandrock being like, (0:43:32) Micah: people were very excited about it. (0:43:34) Micah: I think a big part of it for me was that (0:43:36) Micah: I I’m not a like humongous fan (0:43:40) Micah: of the Southwestern American motif motif in like games and I get really (0:43:41) Al: Yeah, fair, fair. (0:43:48) Micah: really bummed out when I get to the point in games where it’s like okay now (0:43:52) Micah: you got to do the desert level and I’m like I just don’t wanna I don’t wanna do (0:43:57) Micah: that and it kind of looked like Porsche but in that setting and with the whole (0:43:58) Al: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. (0:44:02) Micah: the whole game is desert level basically is what it felt like so and it looked (0:44:07) Micah: Like a lot of the say I mean obviously a lot (0:44:10) Micah: more but you know it looked like a lot of the same of what Portia had that I (0:44:15) Micah: was kind of like I’ll just play Portia you know that’s more in my setting (0:44:18) Al: Yeah, you’re still, I mean, you’re still essentially a builder, right? Like, it’s the same core (0:44:20) Micah: that’s more me (0:44:23) Al: loop of building things, which, if you like, that’s good. I really didn’t like, so I’m (0:44:30) Al: obviously not gonna like it when it has the same core mechanic that I didn’t like. (0:44:32) Micah: - Right. (0:44:35) Micah: There is also something that about the character design (0:44:39) Micah: that I didn’t really love in Porsche or Sandrock, (0:44:44) Micah: but I was more like forgiving obviously with Porsche (0:44:47) Micah: ‘cause it was such a, like at the time it was, (0:44:51) Micah: you know, kind of like unique and exciting thing (0:44:54) Micah: where now this is a little bit more common of a game, (0:44:57) Micah: like a game style and stuff like that. (0:44:59) Micah: So, but. (0:45:02) Micah: It’s just, I don’t know. There’s something about the character design that I didn’t really love. (0:45:06) Micah: And I think for the new thing, this new thing, what is it my time at Evershine? (0:45:10) Al: Evershine, yeah. (0:45:10) Micah: The character design looks so different and like, more aged up. Right, right. (0:45:12) Al: Well, so we just have one image to go by, right? Just to point there, like this could (0:45:18) Al: - because if you look at, for example, the original image that was released for - what (0:45:24) Al: was that game you were talking about before? Why have I forgotten the name of it? The one (0:45:28) Al: you’ve bought but not played yet. The farming game. Yeah, it feels a mystery. If you look (0:45:30) Micah: Oh, fields of mystery. (0:45:32) Al: at the original image, that does not look anything like the game. So you can’t rely (0:45:36) Micah: Yes, you’re right. Absolutely right. (0:45:40) Al: on that first initial image. But yes, it does look very different to the actual art (0:45:48) Al: style of Porsche and Sandrock. So maybe that’s going to do something different? I don’t know. (0:45:48) Micah: Mm hmm. And I should say. (0:45:54) Micah: Yeah, I should say contextually, the you know, the looking at the (0:45:59) Micah: the key art illustrations they’ve had for Portia and for Sandrock, (0:46:03) Micah: the character design in those has matched what the character design is. (0:46:08) Micah: Roughly, you know, like proportions and facial, (0:46:11) Micah: you know, facial features and stuff like that. (0:46:13) Micah: So again, yeah, we don’t know. (0:46:16) Micah: There’s only one image. (0:46:17) Micah: We don’t know what the game actually looks like. (0:46:18) Micah: Based on that, contextually, this feels like it’s it’s going to be a little bit (0:46:25) Micah: more aged up, a little bit more mature looking, maybe feeling. (0:46:29) Micah: So that at on its own intrigues me that it’s, you know, kind of taking (0:46:35) Micah: like a little bit more serious tone with this key art. (0:46:39) Micah: So we’ll see. Maybe it’s not. (0:46:39)

Al and Jonnie go through all the news while Al was on holiday. Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:02:10: What Have We Been Up To 00:16:13: Game Releases 00:34:54: Game Updates 01:09:23: Other News 01:15:30: New Games 01:26:09: Outro Links Critter Crops Gourdlets Song of the Prairie Garden Witch Life Reel Fishing: Days of Summer Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home Natsu-Mon: 20th Century Summer Kid Usagi Shima Echoes of the Plum Grove Outbound Coral Island “1.1” Update Coral Island Humble Games Issue Roots of Pacha “1.2” Update Sun Haven “Teleportation” Update Moonstone Island “Cooking” Update Disney Dreamlight Valley Roadmap Cult of the Lamb “Unholy Alliance” Update Mika and the Witch’s Mountain Roadmap Fields of Mistra Roadmap Ova Magica Roadmap Horticular Roadmap Concerned Ape Promises not to charge for DLC Overthrown Steam Page Hearty Hank Plush Sakuna Anime Marvelous Restructuring Pathless Woods Everbloom Hamster Garden Ritual of Raven Cat Cafe Manager 2: Big City Bliss Contact Al on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheScotBot Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Transcript (0:00:31) Al: Hello farmers, and welcome to another episode of The Harvest Season. My name is Al, (0:00:36) Jonnie: And my name is Johnny. (0:00:38) Al: and we’re here today to talk about Cottagecore games. (0:00:40) Jonnie: Woo! (0:00:44) Al: What happened to diving, you might say. We’re not… not farmers, we’re divers. No, not this week, (0:00:50) Al: you’re not, because… complicated reasons, but we’re not doing the last episode of the day of the (0:00:56) Al: the day of the month today. We’re doing that probably in two weeks time. But who knows? (0:01:01) Al: You’ll find out why. I’ll explain it in the next episode why this is all changed. But (0:01:06) Al: yeah, I had all this organized and then something happened and now we’re changing things up. (0:01:13) Al: So that will come. Don’t worry, your final episode. Maybe a break might be good. I don’t (0:01:24) Al: know. I’ve still not heard from anyone whether they think it’s too much day of the diver (0:01:27) Al: or not. But don’t worry, we’re not going to go back to that. (0:01:31) Al: For most games, it was just a funny one-off thing. We’ll see what people think of it. (0:01:38) Al: Yes, stuff to come. Watch this space. This episode, I’m back from my month away, so we (0:01:45) Al: are going to talk about news. That’s it. There’s so much news. I didn’t count it the last moment, (0:01:50) Jonnie: There’s so much news. (0:01:52) Al: but there’s like over 20 pieces of news to talk about. It’s quite wild. (0:01:54) Jonnie: Yeah. (0:01:55) Jonnie: There’s a lot of news. (0:01:58) Jonnie: This is what happens when you go away for a month, Al. (0:02:01) Al: Oh, I know. But, you know, it’s fine. It’s good. What’s the worst that can happen? This (0:02:09) Al: is what the worst that can happen. Before that, Johnny, what have you been up to? (0:02:14) Jonnie: What have I been up to? I tried a cute little game called creatures of ever (0:02:21) Jonnie: Which is available (0:02:23) Jonnie: via game parts (0:02:24) Al: I feel like I’ve heard of this. (0:02:27) Jonnie: It’s uh, I I guess it’s kind of like a open world (0:02:34) Jonnie: Creature tamer with a giant asterisk next to it (0:02:41) Jonnie: a sort of an adventure-y style game. (0:02:43) Jonnie: Um… (0:02:44) Jonnie: And it’s kind of set out, it’s a game that’s set out into zones and I was playing through the first zone and I was having a really good time with it and I was like “this game’s like really cool” (0:02:55) Jonnie: So the core concept is… (0:02:57) Jonnie: I mean, there’s a problem that I have with the game and it’s part of the story that they’re telling. (0:03:02) Jonnie: I guess Mars blows for the story, but the concept of the game is that you are there to save the planet that is dying by capturing all of their animals. (0:03:14) Jonnie: And convincing the inhabitants of the planet to leave, which comes with a lot of… (0:03:19) Al: Is that saving a planet or is that saving what’s on a planet? (0:03:23) Jonnie: Well, it’s very much saving what’s on the planet. (0:03:26) Jonnie: And it comes with very strong, I guess, colonial style overtones of “look at me, the outworlder that’s here to tell you the locals what is best” (0:03:37) Jonnie: Which, you know, is… like, they are telling an appropriate story with it, but it doesn’t necessarily make it fun. (0:03:44) Jonnie: To be playing the character with the colonial vibes for a bit. (0:03:48) Jonnie: Anyway, that’s about the… they actually epic handle it in a way that’s likely fine. (0:03:53) Jonnie: The taming mechanic is music, so you have a flute and different creatures will respond to different songs and you form a bond with them (0:04:02) Jonnie: And you take them to the bot that zaps them up so you don’t permanently get any of them (0:04:09) Jonnie: But when you’ve changed something, you can pair with it and use it to explore the world. (0:04:14) Jonnie: And each of the creatures has different abilities, which I thought was a really cool concept. (0:04:19) Jonnie: You tame something and then it can help you access a new area. (0:04:24) Jonnie: And then I got to the second area, and all of the creatures looked slightly different, but they all had the same abilities. (0:04:31) Jonnie: And the game started to feel very copy and paste at that point, kind of like they had… (0:04:38) Jonnie: And there was only five different creatures in the first area, so it wasn’t like there was a massive… (0:04:42) Jonnie: Yeah, it was like I’d explored 20 (0:04:44) Jonnie: different creatures and then they’d run out of ideas and I explored five and (0:04:45) Al: Yeah, so I guess don’t go into it expecting lots of like, you know, if you go into it (0:04:47) Jonnie: then it felt like they ran out of ideas which was a bit of a (0:04:54) Al: because it’s a creature collector, you’re probably going to be disappointed, but… (0:04:58) Jonnie: Yeah, a hundred percent (0:05:00) Al: How’s the exploration and the movement and stuff like that? (0:05:03) Jonnie: It’s fine, it’s neither good nor bad it kind of feels like going back to (0:05:11) Jonnie: the sort of ps2 era of games like where (0:05:15) Jonnie: Exploration was largely just walking around the world and you had a jump and you would do certain things that would break down a wall (0:05:22) Jonnie: But until then that wall was kind of largely just there it fit the feels very (0:05:28) Jonnie: reminiscent of that (0:05:30) Jonnie: Which is yeah, it’s neither good or bad. It’s it’s good in the sense that it feels like intentional, but it’s bad in the sense that (0:05:38) Jonnie: Exploration games have moved well past that (0:05:42) Al: Yeah, you’re you’re not really exploring so much as following up maze. (0:05:48) Jonnie: Correct (0:05:49) Al: OK, it’s interesting. (0:05:51) Al: It looks quite nice. (0:05:52) Jonnie: Yeah, yeah, it does look nice (0:05:55) Jonnie: Also weird thing so I got to the end of the second area and when you finish the story there (0:06:00) Jonnie: The game basically tells you like (0:06:03) Jonnie: Once you leave you can’t come back to this area (0:06:06) Jonnie: So be sure you’ve done everything and I’m like but I’m not sure that I’ve done everything because there’s no (0:06:11) Jonnie: Tracking of whether or not I’ve done all of the things so that was unfortunate and at that point (0:06:12) Al: yeah. And you really can’t go back to the area. (0:06:18) Jonnie: I don’t know because at that point I was kind of like I think I’m I’m (0:06:23) Jonnie: Okay with the time but I had with (0:06:26) Al: Oh, OK, fair enough. That seems weird to have distinct areas, but then say you can never (0:06:34) Jonnie: Yeah, and I think I get why they did it in like I think it’s mild story spoilers (0:06:43) Jonnie: Is there justification for doing it, but I don’t think that’s a good reason for doing it (0:06:46) Al: Oh, are the areas destroyed? (0:06:50) Al: Oh. (0:06:50) Jonnie: No, no, I think it’s more to do with like characters leaving the area and needing to be in another area and (0:06:59) Jonnie: Then kind of just be like well the story doesn’t bring you back to this area. So let’s (0:07:04) Jonnie: not let you go back. (0:07:05) Jonnie: So. (0:07:06) Al: Okay. I mean, I guess maybe that’s why they don’t have a like completion (0:07:11) Al: percentage for that area, right? Because that would be frustrating. (0:07:14) Jonnie: Yeah, but there’s like things in the world that you can come across to find and interact. (0:07:21) Jonnie: They’re not collectibles as such, but they’re collectibles, right? (0:07:26) Jonnie: So that part really broke my brain and was slightly frustrating. (0:07:32) Jonnie: But I will say, I think the idea of playing music to tame animals was like a very cool (0:07:38) Jonnie: idea and I think that was well implemented where like the song. (0:07:44) Jonnie: The songs and the way you did that with the creatures of the world felt really good and (0:07:47) Jonnie: really clever and I kind of just wish that there was, yeah, you know what this game feels (0:07:51) Jonnie: like to me? (0:07:52) Jonnie: It feels like they had a really good idea. (0:07:55) Jonnie: They wanted to make a game much bigger than their budget allowed and so they had to copy (0:08:00) Jonnie: and paste a few things where I’m sure they had more different ideas, but making games (0:08:05) Jonnie: is really expensive. (0:08:07) Jonnie: That’s what this game feels like to me and I wish they had more money to make the game (0:08:07) Al: Yes, yep, yep. Fair enough. (0:08:10) Jonnie: they probably had in their heads. (0:08:12) Jonnie: But that’s what I’ve been up to. (0:08:14) Jonnie: How? What have you been? (0:08:17) Al: Well, so while I’m away for my month in the summer, I don’t have a huge amount of time (0:08:22) Al: for games, but what I did manage to play was Chicken Journey. I don’t know if you remember (0:08:28) Jonnie: Chicken, I’m tired (0:08:28) Al: this game, Johnny. I mean, it’s not Cottagecore. We talked about it on the podcast once because (0:08:36) Al: chicken. (0:08:38) Al: But basically it’s a side scrolling RPG where you play as a chicken with some mild platforming (0:08:48) Al: to it. It’s not particularly challenging, right? Like don’t go into it expecting platforming (0:08:55) Al: challenges. That’s not what there is. It’s more kind of puzzle-y in that you kind of have to (0:09:01) Al: figure out how to get through an area which involves some platforming and involves, you know, (0:09:07) Al: switches and stuff like that and making sure you do things in the right order and finding (0:09:12) Al: your way out of very simple mazes. It’s fun, I think. It’s not a hugely long game, so I (0:09:20) Al: finished it in, I think, 10 hours, which, I mean, for me is a good length of a game (0:09:26) Al: just now. But yeah, it’s not particularly long. And I basically have 100% of it. There’s (0:09:31) Al: one Steve achievement I don’t have and that’s just because… (0:09:37) Al: I need to go to like two different areas and go in the, what they call it, like the temples (0:09:44) Al: that I went into and get to the highest level again because I missed one thing in each of them. (0:09:50) Al: And I’m like, oh, can I really be bothered with that? It’s not like I’m doing something (0:09:54) Al: challenging that I’ve not done before. It’s just doing the same thing again and not missing one (0:09:59) Al: thing. So yeah, we’ll see, but… (0:10:03) Jonnie: then you will do it. It’s not a we’ll see, we know you will do it. Everyone’s been listening to this show. (0:10:07) Al: I don’t know, maybe I’ll forget about it and it won’t niggle at my brain the entire time (0:10:12) Al: I’m playing a different game. I don’t know. (0:10:14) Jonnie: really niggling at your brain now we all know how to sense we could pretend we (0:10:18) Jonnie: don’t if you want to do that like that’s that’s fine (0:10:21) Al: Yeah, so I think the problem is, right? Like, I very rarely 100% games. (0:10:29) Al: I’m trying to remember if there was a game I 100%ed before or not, but I 100%ed the newest (0:10:34) Al: Kirby game in the 3D one. That was the first game of (0:10:37) Al: the game. I’m like, I’m not doing that again two more times or a time and a half more. Like, (0:10:59) Al: that’s not fun, right? And oh, please. (0:11:02) Jonnie: Yeah. Have you ever 106%ed a game? (0:11:07) Al: Please don’t start this conversation with me. I will. If you’re going to disagree with (0:11:12) Jonnie: I just say these things to needle you out. That’s it. That’s it. (0:11:22) Al: me, whether you agree with me or not, Johnny, I know this because you will either disagree (0:11:25) Al: with me or you’ll agree with me, but you’ll find it more fun to disagree with me. But (0:11:29) Al: if you add stuff to your game that takes the completion to more than a hundred percent and (0:11:37) Al: add a second percentage, do not just add on to that. Because the whole point of a hundred (0:11:43) Al: percent is to say you’ve done everything, right? And if I’ve done everything and like say you (0:11:49) Al: play like, let’s take Hollow Knight, right? That’s a good example. I think that’s like (0:11:52) Al: 117% or something now. I can’t remember exactly, but there’s some annoying percent and it’s (0:11:57) Al: just, it might even be a decimal. I honestly think it might be a decimal, but I can’t remember. (0:12:04) Al: do you know when you’re done, right? This is the problem. (0:12:07) Al: Is that the whole point of having a percentage counter is when you get to 100%, you’ve done (0:12:12) Al: everything. Now, if you add more things and you either decrease the percentage for everybody, (0:12:19) Al: so you say, “Oh, you were on 100%?” No, you’re not on 100%, right? That’s one option. Or you (0:12:24) Al: add a second one and say, “This is for the new content that’s been added.” The idea that you (0:12:28) Al: would come in, and because it’s all very well and good if you played it at the beginning, (0:12:32) Al: and then you played the second update, and you played the third update. But me coming to it, (0:12:38) Al: and I hadn’t played it before any of the updates, literally, I have to google what (0:12:42) Al: the correct percentage number is to know when I’ve done everything. That’s weird, and confusing, (0:12:49) Al: and not fun! (0:12:50) Jonnie: Yeah, but like Hollow Knight’s a bad game, so it’s natural that they would have bad design. (0:12:59) Al: Oh, fun. Well, I mean, I don’t really care about that one. (0:13:00) Jonnie: I’m just trying to get you some hate mail here, Al. (0:13:06) Jonnie: But going back to Chicken Journey, whatever it is, I feel like you’re so close, right? (0:13:07) Al: Enjoyed Hollow Knight. (0:13:10) Al: Yes. (0:13:15) Jonnie: Because I’m kind of with you that I don’t really care about 100%ing games, (0:13:21) Jonnie: and then it’s kind of like, well, I might as well. (0:13:23) Al: Yes, you’re correct. That’s the real thing. That’s it. There’s no other reason why I would do it, (0:13:29) Al: is because there’s one achievement left, and I’ve got… I actually think I have two of the three (0:13:34) Al: things, I’m just not sure which of the two I haven’t done. I know which one I’ve definitely done, (0:13:42) Al: and I know there are two others, one of which I’ve done, one of which I’ve not. So it’s possible I (0:13:47) Al: go find the one that I’ve not found, and I find it, and I don’t have to do the second one, and (0:13:51) Al: and that’s me done, so it might only be one thing I’ve got left to do. (0:13:53) Jonnie: Yeah, you’re definitely gonna do this. (0:13:53) Al: Of course I’m going to do it, but not just now, because I’ve picked up another game, (0:13:55) Jonnie: It just makes sense. (0:13:59) Al: a game that Johnny is jealous I have access to now, and that is Mika and the Witches Mountain. (0:14:05) Al: I mean, you could have kick-started it. I kick-started it. Kickstarters got the code a week (0:14:12) Al: before release, so I have been playing that. I’m not going to give away too much just now, (0:14:18) Al: but I will say that I am having fun. That is what I’m going to say just now. (0:14:22) Jonnie: It’s a very ominous way of saying you’re having fun. (0:14:26) Al: Ah, it’s… (0:14:27) Al: OK, let me… I’ll say one other thing. The controls were not what I expected with flying, (0:14:33) Al: but I understood… In a initially bad way, but then I understood why they are doing what they’re (0:14:33) Jonnie: In a good way or a bad way? (0:14:35) Jonnie: Oh. (0:14:40) Al: doing, and it leads to more things to progress in the game. (0:14:47) Jonnie: I feel like my interpretation of what you just said is that flying has a limited (0:14:54) Jonnie: Time and you can add to that capacity over time, which would make sense (0:14:56) Al: Yeah, pretty much. Not quite, but kind of, yeah. It’s one of these things where I was (0:15:04) Al: expecting, and I don’t know why I was expecting this, but I was expecting that the flying (0:15:08) Al: is just like, you get on your broom and you can fly wherever, you can go up and down, (0:15:13) Al: but it’s not that. And so, because my brain was in that mode, I was expecting the controls (0:15:19) Al: to be specific things, but it’s not that, and therefore my brain had to get used to (0:15:23) Al: the fact that the controls are different. (0:15:25) Jonnie: Ah, interesting. I don’t think I had that expectation going in from a lot of the videos. (0:15:26) Al: And that’s fair. Yeah, no, that’s, and that’s fair. That’s probably just a me thing. But (0:15:33) Al: anyway, well, I’ll talk more about it in a future episode, maybe. We’ll see. (0:15:36) Jonnie: And by the time this episode’s out, I believe the game is out. (0:15:42) Al: Yes. Yeah, it comes out on Wednesday, the 24th. So Johnny will be playing it while this (0:15:46) Jonnie: So I hope your friend is enjoying playing Mika. (0:15:50) Al: episode’s out. I mean, I think you’ll enjoy it, Johnny. I really hope you enjoy it. I (0:15:58) Al: don’t think it’s not a bad game. It’s a good game. It just took my brain a bit to get used (0:16:04) Al: to it, but I think now I’m used to it, I’m very much enjoying it. And I will say more (0:16:09) Al: in the future! (0:16:12) Al: That’s what we’ve been up to. (0:16:14) Al: OK, so as I have done in some previous episodes, where we have just an insane amount of news, (0:16:21) Al: I have chunked it into different sections. (0:16:24) Al: So this is going to be the game releases section. (0:16:26) Al: So that’s games that either have released just about to release, or haven’t released (0:16:32) Al: yet, but is news about their release. (0:16:34) Al: It’ll make sense when we get to the next section. (0:16:36) Al: So first of all, we have 1, 2, 3, 4, 4 games. (0:16:42) Al: They’re out now, or given us the release– no, five? (0:16:46) Al: Right, three games. (0:16:47) Al: Why am I doing this? (0:16:48) Al: Right, let’s just go these one by one. (0:16:50) Al: I was trying to make it go quicker. (0:16:52) Al: It’s going to be confusing. (0:16:53) Jonnie: I really like the, like, there’s something about Krita Crops that when I first like watch a video or see something of it, I’m like, does this look good? (0:16:53) Al: Critter crops, right now. (0:16:55) Al: Anything to say on that. (0:17:07) Jonnie: And then the more I watch it, the more I’m like, I actually think I am very into this art style, it just takes a bit to get into and I don’t know, I like the idea of growing critters, what can I say? (0:17:17) Jonnie: This game looks kind of cute and silly and I… (0:17:18) Al: You are a sucker for creature collectors, let’s be honest. (0:17:24) Jonnie: Yeah, I am. 100%. Um, and the only other thing to say is that it’s 10% off. Oh no, that was till the end of July. Don’t worry, I can’t read. Why is it still on your Steam page? (0:17:33) Jonnie: Uh, we’re in August. Oh my god, I was… Okay, anyway. Uh, Krita Crops is out, it looks great. (0:17:33) Al: This is how long it’s been, Johnny! (0:17:40) Al: This game came out, I think, like two days after our last episode or something. (0:17:42) Jonnie: Uh… (0:17:44) Jonnie: Um… (0:17:45) Al: 22nd of July. (0:17:46) Al: Yeah, nearly a month ago this came out. (0:17:48) Jonnie: Yeah, that looks cute, very excited. (0:17:49) Al: Oh, it’s even better. (0:17:53) Al: I think it came out one day after the last episode was recorded. (0:17:57) Jonnie: » [LAUGH] (0:17:57) Al: Not released. (0:17:58) Al: Amazing. (0:17:59) Al: Fine. (0:18:00) Al: Whatever. (0:18:01) Al: Yeah, I agree with the art style. (0:18:03) Al: If you ever see it, you’re like “ugh” and then you go “no, no, this is a very deliberate (0:18:07) Al: and interesting art style” like because initially you just think “oh, it doesn’t look very (0:18:11) Al: good” but then you realize it’s different and I like it. (0:18:14) Jonnie: Yeah, that’s I think that’s exactly it, right? It’s not, um, I think you would like an initial glance, you could look at it and think, yeah, like you said, it’s not a good art style. I actually think it is an intentional art style and they’re just trying something that a lot of games are afraid to try. (0:18:30) Al: I agree. And it’s not pixel art, so. Not that I’m saying the pixel art’s bad, but I like (0:18:35) Al: when not everything is the same. Speaking of pixel art, Gurdlitz announced a release (0:18:42) Al: date and it’s now in the past. So Gurdlitz is now out. “You wrote IDO mode!” exclamation (0:18:50) Al: mark, exclamation mark, exclamation mark. (0:18:54) Jonnie: Yeah, gauntlets has idle mode (0:18:57) Jonnie: So like rusty’s retirement (0:18:58) Jonnie: You can have your gauntlets little island be just like a little banner on the bottom of your screen while you’re doing other stuff (0:19:04) Jonnie: Which is amazing (0:19:08) Jonnie: Gauntlets for those who don’t remember is like the (0:19:11) Jonnie: Chill city builder where you’re building a city for (0:19:15) Jonnie: vegetables (0:19:17) Jonnie: to come and live and (0:19:19) Jonnie: It looks super cute. There’s no real goals (0:19:24) Jonnie: but (0:19:26) Jonnie: What they do say in their release trailer is that (0:19:30) Jonnie: When gauntlets come to your island, they kind of come with a leaf and by interacting in the world (0:19:37) Jonnie: That kind of makes them happy and the more gauntlets you make happy unlocks more stuff for you to build (0:19:43) Jonnie: So there is a there is a little bit of a gameplay loop that they have built into it, which seems amazing (0:19:49) Jonnie: The idea of it having the little idle mode option is (0:19:54) Jonnie: kind of cool. I’m very excited to try this out as a little idle game. (0:19:59) Al: And it is five dollars. (0:20:01) Al: Go buy it like I’m not like with this. (0:20:05) Al: I’m not even I mean, it is on sale just (0:20:07) Al: now for is it minus 20 percent off, which is just wild. (0:20:11) Al: But yeah, I’m not waiting for like, oh, I’m going to wait until it’s 90 percent. (0:20:14) Al: No, go buy it now. (0:20:16) Al: Right. Unless you have real financial issues. (0:20:19) Al: It’s a fiver. Go buy it. (0:20:21) Al: There we go. (0:20:21) Jonnie: Pretty much, that’s what I’ll be doing. (0:20:25) Al: I’m doing it right now. (0:20:28) Al: Right. What is next? (0:20:29) Al: I have Song of the Prairie. (0:20:31) Al: There are one point all (0:20:34) Al: will be out by the time this episode comes out. (0:20:36) Al: But I think it’s oh, no, it’s out now. (0:20:38) Al: It is out now. (0:20:39) Al: This was August 1st. (0:20:41) Al: It’s out now. (0:20:42) Al: Woo! (0:20:44) Jonnie: I don’t know much to say about Song of the Prairie other than it looks like someone thought (0:20:49) Jonnie: what if Harvest Moon was kind of good and then they made the skin. (0:20:53) Al: I think many people have tried, have thought, had that thought process. (0:20:57) Jonnie: Yeah this looks very like Harvest Moony though. (0:21:01) Jonnie: I don’t know why there was something more about this one that kind of linked me to a (0:21:06) Jonnie: Harvest Moon than other games. (0:21:10) Al: Fair. Yeah, I like the look of this game, there’s nothing about it that makes me go (0:21:14) Al: a must play this though I think is the thing. Like if this came out maybe four years ago, (0:21:19) Al: I would probably be right on it, but I’m like okay, that’s fine. (0:21:24) Jonnie: I agree, it seems like it’s reviewing pretty well on Steam though, so that’s that’s good (0:21:30) Al: Oh yeah, that’s good. All reviews is very positive, nearly 80% SteamDB rating. (0:21:38) Al: Garden which life have announced that they? (0:21:40) Al: They’re releasing on the 12th of September, and I think that I believe that’s not early access. That’s just straight into. (0:21:48) Jonnie: Yeah, this, this is like the word salad game of like we, we took the words gardening and (0:21:55) Jonnie: witch and we put them together. (0:21:57) Jonnie: And I’ve said many times on the show that we don’t need any more witchy gardening games. (0:22:04) Jonnie: And unfortunately, that is how I feel about this game. (0:22:07) Jonnie: There is just nothing about this one stands out to me. (0:22:11) Al: Yeah, I hate the name. It’s a terrible name. Get a better name. I think I’m probably similar. (0:22:17) Al: I like the look of it. I feel like a broken record right now, but I like the look of it. (0:22:24) Al: But yeah, nothing is telling me I must have it right now. (0:22:29) Al: Real fishing days of summer have announced that their release date is the 28th of October, (0:22:35) Al: and that will be on Switch and PS5. I mean, I’m not going to buy a real fishing game now. (0:22:38) Jonnie: yep (0:22:41) Al: I’m sorry. (0:22:42) Jonnie: me either bluetooth fishing (0:22:45) Al: I’m not against fishing in general. I mean, we have this conversation time and time again. (0:22:50) Al: We’ve got another game to talk about later that’s adding fishing when it really doesn’t (0:22:53) Al: feel like it needs to. But what I definitely don’t want is realistic fishing. That just (0:23:01) Al: feels like the worst. So yeah, no, please, no. Thank you. Please, I’m thinking. (0:23:01) Jonnie: me either. Yeah. (0:23:08) Al: Harvest Moon, Home Sweet Home, speaking of Natsume. (0:23:11) Al: And no please no. Announced that their game is coming out on Friday, two days after this (0:23:18) Al: episode comes out, the 23rd of August, the day before my birthday. They say that they’ve released (0:23:26) Al: a gameplay trailer, but it’s kind of hard to see what the gameplay is because all they do in this (0:23:32) Al: is have people talking to people and running around. Like they’re not really showing a huge (0:23:37) Al: amount of things. There’s some cut scenes and stuff like that. (0:23:41) Al: I feel like we have different definitions of gameplay trailer but it looks pretty standard (0:23:47) Al: Harvest Moon game and I don’t really want that on a mobile device. We’ll see what happens. (0:23:55) Jonnie: Yep, I found it exactly the same way. I watched the trailer and I thought that sure looks like (0:24:00) Jonnie: some Harvest Moon gameplay but it did not tell me what the gameplay loop of this was at all. (0:24:06) Jonnie: So it feels like they’re basically saying if you like the idea of Harvest Moon and you want that (0:24:12) Jonnie: on your phone then this is the game for you and if you don’t know what any of those words mean then (0:24:17) Jonnie: you can probably give this one a miss. (0:24:20) Al: Yeah, probably. I don’t like to promise things very often, but we’re going to cover this (0:24:25) Al: game because I think this is the sort of game that it’s possible this could be good. I don’t (0:24:32) Al: think it’s going to be good, but it’s possible it could be good. But don’t buy this game (0:24:37) Al: yet. Wait. We’ll play it. We’ll tell you what it’s like. (0:24:39) Jonnie: Well, and it makes sense. It makes sense for us to cover because the Cottagecore game on (0:24:46) Jonnie: mobile, I think we would all love a really good version of that, and I don’t know that (0:24:53) Jonnie: there’s been one yet. So the hunt continues for something that sort of fills that niche in a way (0:24:59) Jonnie: that is very satisfying. (0:25:01) Al: Yeah, the problem is that what most of them are is just the same game but on mobile and (0:25:07) Al: that doesn’t… I mean, Stardew did it fine, but the problem is it’s still the same game, (0:25:14) Al: just different controls for it, and yeah, exactly. And so the problem is you need to (0:25:16) Jonnie: and generally worse controls, right? (0:25:21) Al: rethink what a game should be for mobile, and Stardew wasn’t trying to do that. Stardew (0:25:25) Al: was just “Oh, people want my game on mobile, that’s fine, let’s do that and see how people (0:25:29) Al: we’d interact with it and that’s that’s fine. (0:25:31) Al: That’s, you know, he wasn’t trying to reinvent the wheel for that, but if someone wants to make a good game, a good farming game for mobile, they need to think about the entire thing from scratch and this just looks like it is Harvestment in the Winds of Anthos with a different story and on a smaller screen. (0:25:50) Jonnie: I agree, yeah. We’ve talked a lot more about this game than I thought we would. (0:25:56) Al: Yeah, we’ll see what happens. Natsumon 20th Century Summer Kid, which, fun fact, they (0:26:04) Al: changed the name on the Steam page. So they’ve added the English translation to this game (0:26:09) Al: on Steam and on Switch, so that’s the news. But the funny thing I found is I’m pretty (0:26:14) Al: sure on Steam it used to be called Natsumon 20th Century Summer Vacation, because that’s (0:26:19) Al: the literal translation from Japanese. But then apparently when they’ve localized it, (0:26:24) Al: changed the name. Which is fine. (0:26:27) Al: It’s just weird that they added the name initially as a different translated version, (0:26:32) Al: and then decided that that wasn’t what they were going with for the name. (0:26:35) Jonnie: I mean the name still makes sense I guess so that’s (0:26:38) Al: Yeah, no, I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. It’s just, (0:26:42) Al: it’s weird that they had a name in English and changed what that was. (0:26:49) Jonnie: Yeah, I don’t know. I can’t get over the fact that this game is like a million dollars. (0:26:53) Jonnie: It’s so expensive. (0:26:56) Al: Um, yeah, it’s not cheap. (0:26:59) Jonnie: And it looks so bad for like… (0:27:02) Jonnie: And I get that that’s kind of like the style, but like… (0:27:06) Jonnie: Paying what? This game must be like 50 American dollars or something like that and it’s just like… (0:27:14) Jonnie: You could buy pretty much every other game that we’ve talked about (0:27:17) Jonnie: and still not have paid as much (0:27:19) Jonnie: as you could pay for this game (0:27:21) Jonnie: I just don’t (0:27:23) Jonnie: Who’s buying this? (0:27:23) Al: Me, apparently. (0:27:27) Al: Well, yes, we know that. (0:27:28) Jonnie: Well, Al, you have a problem (0:27:33) Al: We know that. (0:27:34) Al: Thankfully, my money is finite, so I can’t buy literally everything. (0:27:39) Al: Speaking of buying literally everything, Usagi Shima is coming to steam. (0:27:45) Al: Now, interestingly, so this was free on mobile, and I had ads and you could pay to get rid (0:27:53) Al: of the ads, but it was like five quid or something, so of course I did that. (0:27:56) Al: Oh, no, did it have ads? (0:27:58) Al: I don’t think it did have ads. (0:27:59) Al: It was just like an in-game purchase to get a bunch of… (0:28:01) Jonnie: think you could just pay to buy the like it was yeah it was just a hey do you (0:28:06) Jonnie: want to support me then you can do this (0:28:08) Al: Yeah, which was a no-brainer for this game. So it’ll be interesting to see whether that (0:28:11) Jonnie: yes (0:28:13) Al: will be the same for Steam or not. I don’t see any information about how much it will (0:28:16) Al: be yet, but the Steam page is up. It looks like it’s going to be on Windows and Mac. (0:28:23) Al: So yeah, it’s a fun game. I mean, if you’ve listened to us talk about Asagashima before, (0:28:29) Al: it’s exactly what you’re expecting, and it’s the exact same game. It’s just got (0:28:34) Jonnie: which is awesome I think that makes total sense and like I would say if it’s ten dollars or less (0:28:41) Jonnie: it’s kind of just an instant buy um if it if it does have a purchase price which I think would (0:28:46) Al: Yep. (0:28:47) Al: It’s different, right? Steam is different from mobile, and I think you can get away (0:28:47) Jonnie: not be a bad thing right to just say like hey give us five bucks for this game (0:28:57) Al: with charging money on Steam where you wouldn’t be able to on mobile, because I think the (0:29:01) Al: thing is that if you go free on mobile with an option to give money, you’re much more (0:29:05) Al: likely to get more people doing it, and therefore, people will go, “Oh, I like this game. Fine, (0:29:10) Al: I’ll put the money in.” Whereas if you don’t try it first, you might not be willing to (0:29:16) Al: pay for it upfront. Whereas on Steam, especially with the game now being popular, and people (0:29:21) Al: know it, and people like it, they’ll be like, “Oh, finally, it’s coming to Steam. I’m excited (0:29:25) Al: about that. Yes, I will buy that.” The smallest piece of news is the Echoes of the Plum Grove (0:29:26) Jonnie: Absolutely (0:29:30) Al: is now on Mac. Done. I still haven’t played this game. I really need to play this game (0:29:32) Jonnie: Cody you go play it (0:29:38) Al: because I love everything that it’s doing in terms of death. (0:29:44) Jonnie: Yeah. I can’t remember. Someone in the Slack, it might have been Cat, was playing it, and (0:29:54) Jonnie: they were saying they were having a really fun time with it, and this game weds me out (0:29:58) Jonnie: every time I kind of remember that it exists, because everything they’re doing around death (0:30:02) Jonnie: seems super cool and super interesting, and not what you expect when you first see the (0:30:06) Jonnie: now available on Mac. Picture is very cute, and you can imagine someone being like, “Ooh, (0:30:10) Jonnie: what’s this?” and looking into it and being like, “Oh my god!” (0:30:10) Al: Yeah, that’s the thing that’s most fun about it, is the art style is so cutesy, but you (0:30:17) Al: die in this game, and it’s hard not to die. It’s proper survival. You die and then you (0:30:24) Al: play as someone else, you know? Yeah, I guess the question is, I don’t know what happens (0:30:26) Jonnie: As your children, I’m pretty sure it’s like a generation. (0:30:33) Al: if you don’t have kids. Is that game over, or do you play as someone else in the village? (0:30:35) Jonnie: Game over. (0:30:36) Jonnie: I don’t actually know. (0:30:37) Al: don’t know. Anyway, yeah. (0:30:41) Al: That was meant to be the shortest piece of news. (0:30:45) Al: Outbound, cozy camper van exploration crafting game. (0:30:50) Al: That’s apparently what they’re listed as on Kickstarter. (0:30:53) Al: Don’t know why. (0:30:54) Al: They’re Kickstarters live now and they have well and truly hit (0:30:59) Jonnie: ah look this is a yeah I know you said I could have backed the me be here in the (0:31:05) Jonnie: witches mountain kickstarter but like how long ago did you have to back this that one because (0:31:09) Jonnie: like their their date for you know beta access is end of 2025 which makes total (0:31:14) Jonnie: sense like i’m not saying like that’s too long or anything like that making games takes a long time (0:31:19) Jonnie: but like and they’ve met the they’ve met the the kickstarter thing like don’t bother just wait for (0:31:26) Al: So I’ll tell you why. I’ll tell you why I kickstart games. I kickstart games because (0:31:34) Al: it’s like a little present to future me. I buy a game and then two, three years later (0:31:42) Al: I get a free game. It’s great. But it is, it is free. I haven’t paid for it at that (0:31:44) Jonnie: One, it’s not free, Al, and I know that you know this, and now you’re just saying… (0:31:52) Al: point in time. (0:31:54) Jonnie: You have paid for it, though, that is in fact how that has worked, (0:31:58) Jonnie: and you might not even get the game. (0:32:01) Jonnie: I would be pretty confident that this one is in fact going to come out, (0:32:05) Jonnie: because everything that I’ve shown looks very good. (0:32:09) Jonnie: Which, you know, there’s some tricky vertical slice stuff that people can do in trailers and stuff, (0:32:15) Jonnie: I would be shocked if this is a game that doesn’t see the light of day, (0:32:21) Jonnie: because it looks pretty good. (0:32:23) Al: Well, and it’s, it’s also, it’s the same developer that did Above Snakes. So they’ve proven that (0:32:28) Al: they can do a Kickstarter for a game and then release a game. Yeah, very different vibe, (0:32:30) Jonnie: Interesting, I don’t think I knew that it was the same developer, but uh, so yeah 100% (0:32:37) Al: which is always good when you’ve got like, get your developer who can do both, right? (0:32:42) Al: Very, very different. And I like that, but this is what I really love about indie game (0:32:48) Al: development, right? Is when they go, I’ve got a weird idea that I want to do for a game (0:32:53) Al: to do it. And then they’re like, and I’ve got this completely different idea for a completely (0:32:57) Al: different style of game. And then they do it. And if you’re successful, the first one, (0:33:02) Al: you will probably be successful at the second one because people like your first game, like (0:33:06) Al: this game funded in two hours. (0:33:08) Jonnie: Yeah, I mean that’s not a surprise like I think everything this game is doing is just really tapping into (0:33:14) Jonnie: Something that people are feeling (0:33:17) Jonnie: right now (0:33:18) Al: Yes this is the game that is for some reason adding fishing I don’t know why (0:33:22) Jonnie: Boo (0:33:23) Al: they’re adding it as a stretch goal away with your fishing don’t make me fish of (0:33:25) Jonnie: Boo (0:33:27) Jonnie: That’s a good reason to not back the Kickstarter (0:33:28) Al: course I’m gonna fish yeah yeah I’m like please stop we’ve no well the problem is (0:33:34) Al: right they’ve got fishing as the next one and then beekeeping after that and (0:33:39) Al: I’m like can we do the beekeeping and without the fishing but (0:33:42) Jonnie: 100%. Yeah. I think what I’m most curious with this game is like, what is the actual game? (0:33:50) Al: I deriving around and building your insane house on top (0:33:57) Jonnie: Right but like I said so in a lot of you know the games that we cover the gameplay loop is (0:34:02) Jonnie: very driven around you’ve got your plot of land and you are using that to produce (0:34:07) Jonnie: money or resources or other stuff that then enables all of those upgrades. (0:34:12) Al: Yeah, I see where you’re pointing. I think the point is exploration, and so you are going (0:34:17) Al: from point A to point B, via a million other points, and everything you do is with the (0:34:23) Al: goal of getting there, I think. It’s not particularly clear, which is fine because maybe they’re (0:34:30) Al: not 100% sure how it’s going to pan out, and they’ve very much been working on the core (0:34:37) Al: concept of the game. We’ll see. I’ve backed it, of course. (0:34:42) Jonnie: Yeah, look, I thought about it, and then I saw, I’m like, if I’m backing it, it would be to play the alpha. (0:34:47) Jonnie: And then I’m like, I don’t, why would I want to play an alpha? I’ll just wait for it to come out. (0:34:51) Al: Fair enough. (0:34:52) Al: Look, we know I have a problem with Kickstarters. (0:34:55) Al: Speaking of having a problem with Kickstarters, we’re now going on to the Game Updates section, (0:35:00) Al: which is about updates to games that are already out. (0:35:05) Al: The first one is Coral Island, the 1.1 is out now. (0:35:09) Al: I think this came out like just after the last episode came out, yet the 23rd of July. (0:35:16) Al: I think that is the day before the last episode where we had news. (0:35:21) Al: But we’d recorded like two days before that or something. (0:35:22) Jonnie: Yeah. (0:35:25) Al: So thanks, Coral Island. (0:35:27) Jonnie: And for those who don’t remember, this is 1.1 in brackets. Actually, it’s 1.0, and we’re now actually finished. (0:35:27) Al: Well, yeah, yes, they’re literally calling it Finale Land and Sea Update. (0:35:40) Al: They’re literally calling it the Finale, right? (0:35:45) Al: This is what the game was meant to be. (0:35:47) Al: They’re adding in stuff that didn’t exist in the first game that should have, like your (0:35:50) Al: town rank system. (0:35:51) Al: Finally added the top rank of it. (0:35:54) Al: They’ve added people in the sea that you can actually talk to. (0:35:58) Jonnie: When one of the headings in the 1.1 update (0:36:00) Jonnie: is storyline completion, we released a game (0:36:04) Jonnie: and the storyline was incomplete. (0:36:06) Al: Uhhh… (0:36:08) Al: Yes. (0:36:09) Al: Well, I- I- (0:36:10) Jonnie: But look, we’ll stop poking fun, (0:36:12) Jonnie: ‘cause I feel like this game has had some challenges (0:36:15) Jonnie: in the background, but there is a lot, I think, (0:36:17) Jonnie: to be excited about for 1.1 update. (0:36:24) Jonnie: Yes, it is finishing the game, (0:36:26) Jonnie: that there is, you know, like, I feel like they’ve– (0:36:28) Jonnie: I’ve also listened to a lot of feedback. (0:36:30) Jonnie: I’m just scrolling through all of the patch notes (0:36:32) Jonnie: because one of my favorite sort of spouse interactions. (0:36:36) Jonnie: For those that don’t recall, I think (0:36:38) Jonnie: when you get married in Coral Island, (0:36:40) Jonnie: your partner becomes a soulless husk (0:36:43) Jonnie: that stands in the house and does nothing. (0:36:46) Jonnie: And they have a bullet point that says you can now (0:36:48) Jonnie: hug and kiss your spouse once daily (0:36:50) Jonnie: to get some point in the relationship with it. (0:36:50) Al: Once, once daily. (laughs) (0:36:58) Jonnie: Uh, and I think it’s meant to reach, to get some points in the relationship, so you can, like, I think the implication is meant to be to feel like that you can continue to build the relationship, but to get some point in the relationship makes it feel like, “So the marriage is not entirely pointless, so…” (0:37:09) Al: Yeah, this is definitely a translation issue because they’re, I think they’re from the (0:37:17) Al: Philippines, the developers. So yeah, let’s not be too harsh on the English, but yes, (0:37:18) Jonnie: Uh, I believe that’s correct. (0:37:25) Al: it does feel a little bit perfect, accidental. (0:37:29) Jonnie: that one was just it was yeah that one was accidentally perfect um and when I was ready (0:37:33) Jonnie: through because it was about halfway through all of all of the updates it would give me a good (0:37:38) Al: like having some point in a relationship. But now we get to talk about the problems and that is that (0:37:46) Al: Coral Island was being published by Humble Games. And if you’ve not heard this already, Humble Games (0:37:52) Al: no longer humbles or games. It basically no longer exists as a thing. Humble Bundle still exists (0:38:02) Al: because Humble Games was separate. It’s like there’s the Humble company and then there’s (0:38:07) Al: this humble bundle and how– (0:38:08) Al: which is a problem for some things, including the fact that humble games were– the other (0:38:35) Al: thing they do as well as publishing is they did porting, so they were (0:38:39) Al: they were working on the switch port for coral island, no more. (0:38:47) Al: Shall I just use their own words? (0:38:51) Al: First of all, oh my word. (0:38:55) Al: I need to say that they were, they didn’t, the first apparently they found out about this was (0:39:00) Al: the same way everybody else found out about it. Nobody contacted them to say that this was happening. (0:39:06) Al: We’d like to say something to you today. (0:39:08) Al: We’ve been given that Humble Games’ recent “restructuring” - the most amazing word you can use for firing everybody - leaves consoles in a place of uncertainty. (0:39:16) Al: However, we see this as an opportunity to share what we can. (0:39:20) Al: To start, we share in your frustrations regarding the lack of an Incentive Switch port of Coral Island. (0:39:24) Al: Over the years, there’s a lot we’ve wanted to say in the spirit of transparency about many different things, but continue to be unable to do so because of the publishing agreement and NDA we have in place. (0:39:34) Al: The impact of Humble Games’ restructuring on Coral Island remains uncertain for all (0:39:38) Al: things related to consoles, whether porting or pushing hotfixes. I believe that they (0:39:44) Al: already have a port on Xbox and PlayStation, it was just Switch that was missing. So that’s (0:39:49) Al: why they’re talking about updates. (0:39:51) Al: As they are responsible for these platforms, we’ve been in communication with our lawyer (0:39:54) Al: since we found out about the restructuring on social media to figure out how to navigate (0:39:59) Al: this new situation. For example, we have an upcoming hotfix for the 1.1 update nearing (0:40:04) Al: release for Steam. We have no idea how to get this update out to other platform players (0:40:08) Al: and have a backend permission on console platforms to push updates out. We only have (0:40:13) Al: access to the Steam backend. Because of this, the only thing we can do for Switch Makers (0:40:18) Al: effective immediately is offer a key exchange to the Steam platform. We will offer key changes (0:40:23) Al: for as long as we are able to. Please email for a key change. Blah. Oh, and then they (0:40:28) Al: go, we will, I missed this last paragraph. We’ll keep you posted on developments once (0:40:33) Al: we have more information. We know it effing sucks, but we hope you understand. And they (0:40:39) Al: say effing, but this is still a family friendly podcast. There’s a lot of subtext and a lot (0:40:47) Al: of text in that update. (0:40:50) Jonnie: There certainly is. It’s just a tough situation for them to be in, right, like it seems like there is very little they can actually do about it. (0:41:06) Al: Yeah, it also sounds like they’re struggling to keep up with the the key exchanges (0:41:11) Al: There’s lots of people complaining in the comments that they haven’t had their key exchange. I (0:41:17) Al: Am very glad that I exchanged my key (0:41:22) Al: Two years ago when I when I got my steam deck and I was like I’m just gonna get this on Steam if I can (0:41:27) Al: And they let me do it. So I’m glad I did all the way back then (0:41:30) Al: I find it very interesting that they are very clearly saying that they (0:41:37) Al: I have not been allowed to say stuff because of NDAs (0:41:39) Al: But they’re saying they’re not allowed to say stuff because of NDAs possibly because they’re like well who’s gonna soon as nobody exists in the company (0:41:47) Jonnie: I feel like the NDA’s thing is normal, and it feels like we’re just seeing a frustration (0:41:54) Jonnie: over the last few years, sort of leaking out a little bit in this statement, which seems (0:41:59) Jonnie: totally understandable, because publishing games is hard, and publishing to multiple (0:42:04) Jonnie: platforms is hard, and sometimes you get in situations where the developers are not the (0:42:10) Jonnie: ones with the power in these relationships, and I think this is unfortunately what has (0:42:16) Al: Yep, and this is the thing you need to remember about Kickstarters. You are paying money (0:42:24) Al: for a promise of something that is not a legally binding contract. You are funding this and (0:42:30) Al: there is a chance that you get nothing out of it. So bear that in mind. Don’t be like (0:42:35) Al: me. Don’t Kickstart everything. I think I’ve only had two things that I just haven’t got (0:42:43) Al: from kickstarters. But it’s not fun when (0:42:46) Al: it happens. And there are a lot of disappointed people in the comments, (0:42:50) Al: because it’s all very well saying we’ll give you a key exchange. (0:42:52) Al: But if the switch is your only. (0:42:56) Jonnie: Anyway, it’s even harder, I don’t know, they said they’ve got a hotfix coming for 1.1 for Steam, obviously. (0:43:04) Jonnie: But if you’re a PlayStation or Xbox player, what does this hotfix fix? (0:43:10) Jonnie: You know, and the fact that there are potentially some significant bugs or glitches in those consolvations (0:43:20) Jonnie: that there’s no real idea of when or if they will even get this hotfix. (0:43:26) Al: Well, yeah, I guess we’ll just have to see what happens. (0:43:31) Al: Next we have the 1.2 update for Roots of Patria is out now. (0:43:36) Al: This is the one, I think we talked about this a few months ago. (0:43:40) Al: This is the one that adds child labour, I mean, isn’t that why we have children? (0:43:42) Jonnie: Hell yeah. (0:43:46) Jonnie: Finally, children will be useful for something. (0:43:51) Al: Not for child labour, but for adult labour in 18 years time, right? (0:43:55) Jonnie: Mmm, I don’t know. I feel like I feel like that’s inefficient get them started young (0:43:57) Al: We also have the sunnable, I mean, you played Roots of Patria? I can’t remember. (0:44:07) Jonnie: I I have played a little bit of roots of patcher. I (0:44:12) Jonnie: liked what it was trying to do but equally I was playing roots of patcher at the same time I was getting into coral island and (0:44:18) Jonnie: Coral island one out in that battle (

The year is already flying by, but that means tons of new music is on the horizon! In this episode, I'm counting down my top 5 most anticipated album releases of 2024! We've got Shoya Chiba's 1st single "Contrail", KAGARIBI's "Fushichou", Anthos*'s "MORE", IDOLiSH7's 3rd album "LEADiNG TONE", and one more surprise album you won't want to miss! Let me know what albums you're most excited about in the comments! More information about these CDs: Shoya Chiba's 1st single “Contrail” KAGARIBI “Fushichou” Anthos* “MORE” IDOLiSH7 3rd Album “LEADiNG TONE” Soma Saito's 3rd full-length album Did you enjoy this episode? Consider ranking this podcast or leaving a review on your preferred podcast streaming platform!

Al and Jonnie talk about Starstruck Vagabond Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:02:07: What Have We Been Up To 00:08:49: Game News 00:29:54: Starstruck Vagabond 01:04:07: Outro Links Mika and the Witch’s Mountain Release Tiny Garden Kickstarter Terra Nil “Vita Nova” Update Disney Dreamlight Valley “The Lucky Dragon” Update Moonstone Island “Pool Party” DLC Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home Screenshots Bear and Breakfast Information Farming Simulator 25 Trailer Contact Al on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheScotBot Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Transcript (0:00:30) Al: Hello farmers, and welcome to another episode of the harvest season. (0:00:34) Al: My name is Al. (0:00:36) Jonnie: And my name is Johnny. (0:00:38) Al: And we are here today to talk about Contachcore games. (0:00:41) Al: Whoo. (0:00:44) Al: As always, transcripts are available in the show notes and on the website. (0:00:48) Al: This episode, me and Johnny will be talking about Starstruck Thagabond, (0:00:52) Al: the new game by Yatsy Croshaw of zero punctuation fame. (0:00:57) Al: Although he doesn’t do zero punctuation anymore. (0:00:58) Jonnie: now fully Ramblimetic thing? (0:00:59) Al: That’s what it’s called. Yeah. (0:01:00) Al: No, it’s not fully ramb- is it not? He’s got two, because he’s got fully ramblimatic (0:01:06) Al: and a different one, which is… Oh, maybe fully- it’s fully ramblimatic than the standard (0:01:11) Al: one. Yes. Yeah, okay. Yes. Yeah, which is basically just all the video team from the escapist who (0:01:12) Jonnie: Yeah, that’s the new version under second wind, I think, is their new banner. (0:01:23) Al: got fired or quit. That worked out well for them. (0:01:28) Jonnie: But now you can support them much more directly, which is which is you know in some ways preferable (0:01:31) Al: Yeah. Yes, fewer management. I feel like they’ve been massively increasing the amount of content (0:01:39) Al: they’re doing. There’s so much stuff now, which, I mean, I don’t do it all because I don’t care (0:01:48) Al: about their TTRPG stuff, and I don’t care about their Let’s Play stuff, but I really enjoy most (0:01:55) Al: of their podcasts and a lot of the shorter videos they do. So, it’s good. (0:02:01) Al: Anyway, so yeah, we’ll be talking about Starstruck Vagabond. Before that, we obviously have some (0:02:05) Al: news, but first of all, Johnny, what have you been up to? (0:02:11) Jonnie: I have been up to a hidden game I came up with last year called Chance of Sinar, (0:02:17) Jonnie: and one of the things that I learned about this game is like, as a name written down, it looks (0:02:21) Jonnie: great. When you say it out loud, people have no idea what you’ve just said. It’s a confusing (0:02:27) Jonnie: jumble of terms, but it kind of works for the game because the game is all about translating (0:02:32) Jonnie: languages, and it’s a really fun game. I kind of completed it over the course of a weekend, (0:02:40) Jonnie: and I like it was one of those (0:02:41) Jonnie: games. I had a friend visiting me and just in our like downtime between doing stuff we would (0:02:45) Jonnie: just play a bit of it and it was a really fun game to play with someone else on the couch because (0:02:50) Jonnie: it’s a lot of working out stuff a lot of guesses about what you want what you think things mean (0:02:56) Jonnie: and having a second brain to like that that sees things differently I think was really valuable (0:03:02) Jonnie: for playing through the game but it was just a really fun experience great puzzles great story (0:03:09) Jonnie: Like really contained, you know, it was probably five or six (0:03:12) Jonnie: hours into it and it was just a really, really fun game. (0:03:15) Jonnie: I would highly, highly recommend Chances. (0:03:18) Al: Interesting. It has overwhelmingly positive reviews on Steam, and it’s currently on sale. (0:03:24) Jonnie: and it’s currently on Game Pass, which is where I played it. (0:03:25) Al: Fair enough. I do not have Game Pass because I have too many games unplayed anyway. (0:03:34) Jonnie: Yeah, I feel like you getting game paths would just be like, uh, you know, you would just continually be adding things to a wishlist of or a backlog that you’re never actually going to get to and you would never actually play anything. (0:03:40) Al: You know the funny thing is like, I’ve literally got my Steam wishlist open just now, right? (0:03:49) Al: Because obviously everything is on sale just now and I’m like, what am I going to buy? (0:03:53) Al: The problem is like half of these games, I can’t remember, like death’s door. (0:04:00) Al: I don’t know what this game is, but apparently I added it to my wishlist and it’s currently (0:04:04) Al: 75% off. (0:04:06) Al: When did I add this to my wishlist? (0:04:07) Al: I have no idea. (0:04:08) Al: Oh wait, it does tell you, doesn’t it? (0:04:11) Al: In 2021. Okay. So a while ago, um, yeah, I do feel like it’s one of these things (0:04:14) Jonnie: Wow, yeah, I feel like it’s time to let that one go (0:04:20) Al: where some of them when, when they’re like up at like 80, 70% off, if I’m not going to (0:04:26) Al: buy it when it’s that much off, I’m removing it from my wish list. So, um, yeah, I’ve got (0:04:32) Al: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven currently on my list that are 70% off and above. (0:04:39) Jonnie: Well, that could have been a fun new game. Is it buy or remove? (0:04:40) Al: Oh my. (0:04:47) Jonnie: It’s good it’s not like we’re under a time crunch this morning. (0:04:50) Al: let me finish. I have 77 on my wish list on sale just now. That is too many. I have 160 (0:04:58) Jonnie: I don’t think I have 77 on my wish list. (0:05:02) Al: on my wish list. Part of the problem, right, part of the problem is that I add every single (0:05:09) Al: farming game that we talk about on the podcast to my wish list to keep track of it, right? (0:05:14) Jonnie: That makes sense. Yeah, that does make- (0:05:14) Al: That makes it okay, right? Maybe. (0:05:20) Al: Okay, cool, great. What have I been up to? I have been playing Go Go Town. More coming (0:05:29) Al: about that later. I don’t want to talk about that just now, but I’ve been playing it. I’ve (0:05:33) Al: also been playing Dave the Diver. Have you played Dave the Diver? You have played Dave (0:05:38) Al: the Diver. I don’t know if you’ve actually started it yet or not. You’ve done it. You (0:05:40) Jonnie: I have downloaded Dave the Diver and I have done the tutorial of Dave the Diver. (0:05:48) Al: might want to hurry up. (0:05:50) Al: You’ve got probably about 10 hours of gameplay (0:05:52) Al: before you can even play the bit that you need to talk about on the podcast. (0:05:56) Jonnie: Oh my god. (0:05:58) Al: Just be thankful you’re not on the Godzilla one. (0:06:00) Al: You have to finish five chapters, and I’m halfway through chapter two. (0:06:03) Al: And yeah, it’s taking a while. (0:06:08) Al: I don’t know why it’s so far through. (0:06:10) Al: Probably because Godzilla is probably quite hard to do. (0:06:12) Al: Anyway, blah, blah, blah. (0:06:14) Al: Dave the Diver. (0:06:16) Al: I’m enjoying it so far. (0:06:18) Al: I feel like it’s about to get- (0:06:20) Al: very grindy where I am, but it’s interesting. (0:06:24) Al: And yeah, we’ll talk more about that in the future maybe. (0:06:28) Jonnie: I know you don’t want to talk about go go town, but I also downloaded the (0:06:32) Jonnie: Early access for go go town and and had a quick play off it and I was very quick (0:06:36) Jonnie: I maybe played an hour of it (0:06:39) Jonnie: That game does feel very early access (0:06:42) Jonnie: and (0:06:43) Jonnie: I think I see this in the slack, but it’s way more (0:06:48) Jonnie: Seems like resource management town builder II than it does Animal Crossing II which I don’t know I super loved (0:06:58) Jonnie: Interested in how that game develops over early access, but my initial take was like oh (0:07:01) Jonnie: I don’t really want to play this now. I want to put this down and play it (0:07:05) Jonnie: Play it a bit later, so I’m looking forward to hearing (0:07:10) Al: Maybe. Yeah, I think the only thing I’ll say just now is that they have posted a big update on (0:07:19) Al: Steam talking about what they’re going to do and how they’ve changed what they’re going to do based (0:07:25) Al: on feedback. So might be worth having a look at that. But yeah, I will talk more about that maybe (0:07:32) Al: in the future. I don’t know. I don’t want to spoil anything. (0:07:36) Jonnie: I do. (0:07:38) Jonnie: I love spoiling things. (0:07:40) Al: And I’ve been continuing playing farm RPG. I don’t know if I’m enjoying it, but I’m playing it. (0:07:48) Al: I just keep going. I’m at crafting level 95 now. Farming level 82, fishing level 77 and exploring (0:07:48) Jonnie: of bringing an endorsement. (0:07:57) Al: level 76. It’s quite a grind at this point, but I keep going. I guess the thing is that I’m not (0:08:08) Al: I’m not actually spending a huge amount. (0:08:10) Al: of time each day on it, right? Like it’s maybe a total of 10 minutes in a day. (0:08:15) Al: So we’ll see if I’m still doing it in the next episode. (0:08:21) Al: The right is a new regular section of the podcast. Is Al still playing farm RPG? Yes. (0:08:26) Jonnie: Look I feel like this is like when Cody was playing her cult (0:08:32) Jonnie: What was a cult game that she was playing we’re Tetris that’s (0:08:33) Al: Tetris. (0:08:36) Al: yeah but i’m not trying to get out not i’m not trying to win a cruise with my (0:08:40) Al: time um let’s just not talk about how much money i’ve put into the game so we’re going (0:08:41) Jonnie: Not yet. Not yet. (0:08:50) Al: to talk about some game news so first up we have the exciting news uh that uh johnny’s (0:08:59) Al: leaning on the keyboard in the show notes um oh no I hope this podcast recording works (0:09:02) Jonnie: I’m not leaning on the keyboard. I’m trying to work out what the hell’s going on with my computer. (0:09:05) Jonnie: It’s right. (0:09:10) Al: um we have the exciting news that mica and the witch’s mountain is releasing on the 21st of august (0:09:16) Al: on steam and switch (0:09:18) Jonnie: Whoo! Only like a year after their initial release date that they were very confident about hitting. (0:09:26) Al: Yeah. I think so. Yeah. I’m very excited, not least because it’s happening after my (0:09:26) Jonnie: No, this is this is very exciting. (0:09:34) Al: month long not being at home and not having to deal with podcast. Yeah. So I’m very excited (0:09:39) Al: that it’s not releasing just now because I might have cried. (0:09:42) Jonnie: And the way they did the announcement because I I don’t know if you follow them on Instagram (0:09:46) Jonnie: But it was they they posted the day before saying like we’ll answer the most asked question (0:09:52) Jonnie: Like that we get today tomorrow and I was like (0:09:54) Jonnie: I really hope they are announcing the release date for me crew the which is now done because that is by far away gonna be (0:10:00) Jonnie: Their most asked question and and in fact they were so (0:10:03) Jonnie: No, very exciting news for that game. There was a new trailer that came along (0:10:08) Jonnie: with (0:10:10) Jonnie: With the announcement. I don’t know that I picked up anything (0:10:12) Jonnie: New other than yeah, this game looks like what they’ve promised it’s going to be and it looks pretty fun (0:10:19) Jonnie: Let’s see how it plays (0:10:21) Al: Yeah, I think this game very much will come down to how the controls feel. That’s it. (0:10:26) Al: Like if it feels good to fly, it’ll be a fun game no matter anything else. If it doesn’t (0:10:31) Al: feel fun to fly, nothing will save it. Even the froggy chair. (0:10:35) Jonnie: Uh, I could not agree more. (0:10:38) Al: Next we have Tiny Garden. This is the Polly Pocket farming game. They’ve announced that (0:10:45) Al: their Kickstarter will launch on the 2nd of July. So, there we go. Another Kickstarter. (0:10:50) Jonnie: I still think this game looks like this game looks cool right because I’m curious how it is gonna manifest into a game because the the polypockets size of stuff is so small but this one has me like super intrigued because it’s doing the cool nostalgia thing and in a way that I’m very interested how it manifests in gameplay. (0:11:12) Al: Yeah, I suspect it might feel quite kind of Tamagotchi-esque, right? (0:11:17) Al: Where the idea is not playing the game for lots of time. (0:11:23) Al: It’s like dipping it out and, you know, deal with your fart. (0:11:26) Al: Like, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was real time. (0:11:30) Al: But I guess we’ll see. (0:11:32) Al: I don’t know if I want it to be real time, but we’ll see. (0:11:35) Al: And, you know, the trailer shows lots of different designs. (0:11:39) Al: I suspect you’ll be able to. (0:11:42) Al: I wouldn’t be surprised if you could collect lots of them and like you open up your different ones to see what your gardens are currently doing inside there or something. (0:11:51) Al: Rather than just changing the design of your of your tiny garden, right? Like it feels like you’re collecting gardens, but we shall see. (0:12:01) Al: Next we have Terranil. Their new update Vitanova is out now and they’ve posted a bunch of information about it. Have you looked through this at all? (0:12:10) Jonnie: I have not looked at this one at all, but since we recorded the, like, what did I record that (0:12:17) Jonnie: episode with? It must have been with Kevin. When we recorded the episode on Terra Nil, (0:12:22) Jonnie: I hadn’t finished Terra Nil, and I keep intending to go back, and every time I see something about (0:12:28) Jonnie: Terra Nil, I’m interested in going back. But I think this might be the update that finally (0:12:34) Jonnie: sort of lures me back in, particularly with Terra Nil being available. I think it’s available (0:12:39) Jonnie: through Netflix. (0:12:40) Jonnie: I’ve got some new missions, which I assume means new maps, to play on. (0:12:42) Al: it is yes that’s a good point I should try it because I have Netflix just now (0:12:47) Al: I should try it on mobile see what it’s like (0:12:57) Jonnie: I think there’s about 11 in the initial game, and they’ve overhauled the animal functionality, (0:13:06) Jonnie: which is really interesting. (0:13:10) Jonnie: The way the animal system worked in the past is that it was kind of like the last thing (0:13:15) Jonnie: you would do, and it felt very clunky. (0:13:18) Jonnie: You would effectively build a special building, and then you would have to ping certain parts (0:13:24) Jonnie: on the map, and if it met enough of the requirements for a particular animal, that animal would (0:13:29) Jonnie: show up. (0:13:30) Jonnie: So it felt like this very clunky thing, where I remember on the first map getting frustrated (0:13:38) Jonnie: because one animal I couldn’t quite bring (0:13:40) Jonnie: back because I was like you know half a point off of needing you know a certain (0:13:46) Jonnie: area in a certain radius to bring back the final animal but equally I had no (0:13:52) Jonnie: resources at that point to re-terraform anything so I was kind of just like I (0:13:55) Jonnie: feel stuck in a way this that wasn’t particularly fun and this change (0:14:01) Al: So, so was it quite binary then where it was like you either have them or you don’t sort (0:14:07) Al: of thing, you’ve either done the checklist to get the animals back or you haven’t. Right, (0:14:10) Jonnie: Correct, yeah. (0:14:12) Al: whereas here it looks like it’s saying so it says the habitat may be sufficient for (0:14:16) Al: them to survive but not ideal for them to thrive so it’s like you can get them back (0:14:21) Al: with less work but then you have to work more to get like I guess them to reproduce or something (0:14:27) Jonnie: yeah so be curious how it works you know um like and it was it was a really there was good bones (0:14:32) Jonnie: in the system right so it’s like you know one of the requirements on the first map for wolves to (0:14:36) Jonnie: appear is they had to be deer already in a location nearby right because they need something to eat (0:14:41) Jonnie: uh which totally makes sense so um I feel like there was good bones so this is actually a really (0:14:47) Jonnie: exciting change to um uh what was uh it was probably slightly frustrating because it was at (0:14:52) Jonnie: the end where you were sort of relatively low on resources it was just your ability to sort (0:14:57) Jonnie: at that point when you didn’t really know what you needed to be building towards um was was a bit (0:15:03) Jonnie: frustrating so I like the idea of what this is doing uh I know there’s a bunch of other stuff (0:15:06) Al: Makes sense? Cool. Looks like they’ve added a new world map as well for viewing things. (0:15:11) Jonnie: yeah yeah I don’t know that that changes much other than I guess making the world feel more like a (0:15:19) Jonnie: a real world that you are restoring um which is which is kind of cool but um yeah it’s a it’s a (0:15:22) Al: Cool, and that’s live now, so I guess it’s time for you to play Terranil Journey, again. (0:15:37) Al: Speaking of updates that we’ve got more information for, for Disney Dreamlight Valley, the Lucky (0:15:42) Al: Dragon update is now out, and they’ve detailed everything in the update. (0:15:48) Al: Um, I don’t know, I don’t know if I want to. (0:15:52) Jonnie: It’s Milan. (0:15:52) Al: To go through all this stuff because a lot of stuff, well, yeah, it’s Mulan, but we (0:15:54) Jonnie: It’s Milan. (0:15:54) Al: already knew Mulan, right? (0:15:56) Al: But like they detailed a bunch of the stuff around Mulan and it looks like they’ve also (0:16:01) Al: got some more stuff around Stitch, Lilo and Stitch, um, and there’s a new event around (0:16:09) Al: Inside Out 2. (0:16:11) Al: That’s probably enough information, isn’t it? (0:16:13) Al: Don’t want to go too detailed if people are wanting to play it, but there you go. (0:16:16) Al: So if you want Mulan, go befriend Mulan now then. (0:16:22) Al: » Ireland have a new free DLC, which is the pool party DLC. (0:16:27) Al: That’s it. (0:16:27) Jonnie: The snorkel floatie looks really dumb and cute. (0:16:33) Jonnie: I love that he’s wearing a snorkel, I don’t know, there’s something about it that’s very (0:16:36) Al: Yes yeah that’s funny. Go get it if you’ve been playing the game. Okay Harvest Moon Home (0:16:47) Al: Sweet Home. Dear goodness I really don’t know what to do with this game. So they’ve posted (0:16:55) Al: a bunch of screenshots of this game which I will remind you is iOS and Android only. (0:17:02) Al: So first of all, it looks like it’s going to be a horizontal game. (0:17:06) Al: Um, because all the screenshots are like widescreen screenshots. (0:17:13) Al: Interestingly, it looks almost identical to Winds of Anthos, the newest game. (0:17:20) Al: Um, so I’m starting to worry that it might just be that, but mobile. (0:17:27) Al: Uh, and they presumably like scaled down in some cases because (0:17:31) Al: it’s probably too much for phones. (0:17:34) Al: uh… (0:17:36) Al: I mean, I like the look of Winzvantos, so I’m not against it looking similar, right? Like, my issue (0:17:42) Al: with that game was not how it looked. I thought the game looked really nice. I just didn’t enjoy (0:17:47) Al: playing it, so I’m not particularly enthused about playing this game. We have no idea about gameplay (0:17:54) Al: because it’s just some screenshots. They do show some fishing, and some animals, and a bunch of (0:18:01) Al: buildings and characters. I believe there’s one character who was in Harvest Moon One World, (0:18:07) Al: I’ll be honest, I don’t remember any characters in Harvest Moon One World because they were so (0:18:11) Al: forgettable. (0:18:14) Jonnie: I’m gonna be honest, this game looks so ugly I thought it was Pokemon for a second. (0:18:18) Al: Wow, you don’t like the look of it at all. (0:18:20) Jonnie: No, it’s terrible. And these screenshots don’t show nothing about the game, like… (0:18:22) Al: Interesting. Wow. (0:18:29) Jonnie: This is like when you’re posting screenshots, like, because you think people are excited about, (0:18:34) Al: yeah yeah it’s yeah it’s like when it’s like when Pokemon post like a new a new Pokemon (0:18:35) Jonnie: like, just literally anything that you do. And I do not think that is the case of this Harvest Moon (0:18:40) Jonnie: Home sweet home like yeah, like I say it is that we need to actually see (0:18:48) Al: and people like wow it’s a new Pokemon expecting that sort of reaction yeah I don’t because (0:18:52) Jonnie: Yeah, exactly, exactly. (0:18:57) Al: I was expecting because it’s a mobile game something mobile specific but it’s just without (0:19:03) Al: any actual idea of what the gameplay is. (0:19:04) Al: It looks like it might just be Harvest Moon, Winds of Anthos with a different story. That’s (0:19:10) Al: what it feels like it might be, and I’m really worried if that’s the case because that wasn’t (0:19:15) Al: fun to play with a controller, never mind with a touchscreen. (0:19:19) Al: But we’ll see. They have reconfirmed that there will be no in-app purchases, which is (0:19:24) Al: good, and they are not planning any DLC, which is something that is information, I guess. (0:19:33) Al: Yeah. (0:19:35) Al: But no idea about how it plays, what’s happening with this game, what it is, why it exists. (0:19:42) Al: You know, it is what it is. We’ll see. (0:19:46) Al: Very weird, I will say, why they announced this game like three weeks ago with no information (0:19:51) Al: and then three weeks later they post screenshots. Like, are they trying to build the hype up but they don’t know how? (0:19:58) Jonnie: That’s what it feels like. (0:20:00) Jonnie: It feels like somebody said, (0:20:01) Jonnie: hey, we need to start marketing this game (0:20:04) Jonnie: and then people that have no idea about marketing said, (0:20:07) Jonnie: okay, and this is what we get. (0:20:12) Al: Well, it’s going to be fun because I’m probably going to dump a whole bunch of information (0:20:19) Al: about it while I’m on holiday. So we’re going to be really delayed with that news. It’s (0:20:22) Jonnie: I mean, you can rest easy in knowing that it probably won’t be very good. (0:20:28) Al: not like I’m not going to play it though, right? Let’s not pretend. Fair, fair enough, (0:20:32) Jonnie: Oh, you’re definitely gonna play it, but you know, it’s not like the rest of us will (0:20:37) Jonnie: be missing out on anything because we’re not hearing the news. (0:20:41) Al: Fair enough. (0:20:42) Al: Any excuse for a Micah episode. (0:20:46) Al: Next, we have an update on Bear and Breakfast. (0:20:49) Al: So for those who don’t remember or weren’t listening to the episodes when we talked (0:20:54) Al: about it, there was an update about the health issues in the team. (0:20:59) Al: So one of the team members was diagnosed with cancer last year, was it? (0:21:05) Al: The end of last year, I think. (0:21:08) Al: And that was like just before their console release, I think. (0:21:13) Al: But they managed to get that out in time, but that has obviously delayed the updates (0:21:17) Al: that they were planning on bringing out, which obviously almost everybody in the (0:21:20) Al: replies are, “Get better. (0:21:22) Al: We hope the update can wait.” (0:21:26) Al: But they obviously felt like they needed to give some more information. (0:21:29) Al: So they’ve kind of given some more information about the update that they’re (0:21:32) Al: working on, but no like details on the update itself, just like they’re still (0:21:37) Al: going on and they’re hoping to get some other announcements not related. (0:21:42) Al: To the update coming in about a month, which I’m intrigued by. (0:21:48) Al: So there we go. (0:21:50) Al: Um, there’s a bit more information about the update and what’s coming. (0:21:55) Al: Oh, wait, no, I’ve scrolled down the page. (0:21:57) Al: It’s, it’s a plushie. (0:21:59) Al: There’s a plushie of the bear. (0:22:03) Jonnie: I feel like I’ve scrolled down the page and I miss this plushies of a bear right now (0:22:07) Jonnie: Cuz it doesn’t remember the beer and breakfast episodes. Hey, go back and listen to them. Oh my god (0:22:13) Jonnie: Yeah, okay. Oh, it’s a it’s a it’s a good that’s a good tease of a plushie (0:22:18) Al: Yeah. He’s got the hat and everything. Yeah, whereas I just scroll all the way down and (0:22:19) Jonnie: Ah (0:22:20) Jonnie: I think I got to like the end of the paragraph and I just did not scroll down to the image (0:22:29) Al: saw the image and went, “Oh, there we go.” So presumably it’ll be a makeshift and presumably (0:22:35) Al: it’ll come up and Johnny will cry over whether he wants to get on. The question is whether (0:22:40) Jonnie: I would definitely cry. (0:22:46) Al: whether your world will cry or not as well. (0:22:48) Al: Next, we have a new game announced. (0:22:53) Al: The game we’ve all been waiting for, Johnny. (0:22:55) Al: It’s Farming Simulator 25. (0:22:59) Jonnie: Is it a new game? Does this count? (0:23:03) Al: Well, it’s a it’s a game that’s being released that you have to buy separately (0:23:08) Al: if you didn’t have the previous if you had the previous one and you want to play it. (0:23:12) Jonnie: I like that answer better. (0:23:13) Al: So that I think would be the definition of a new game. (0:23:18) Al: It feels very philosophical, but I feel like it would be incorrect to say this is an update to (0:23:18) Jonnie: Mmm, I’m not sure. I’m still not convinced. (0:23:29) Al: a previous game, because that would imply that you would get it without purchasing. And I think (0:23:33) Al: it would be incorrect to say it’s a DLC, because you don’t have to have a previous game to buy (0:23:38) Al: this one. So I don’t know what else you would call this. (0:23:42) Jonnie: I would say they’re re-releasing farming simulator say 2018 with some minor tweaks. (0:23:49) Al: Look it’s the FIFA of farming games, right? Although we’re gonna have to change that (0:23:53) Jonnie: Yeah, and I would make that save argument. (0:23:59) Al: metaphor though because it’s not FIFA anymore. So basically, you don’t have to follow football (0:24:03) Jonnie: Is it not? I don’t- I don’t follow. (0:24:09) Al: or football games to have been aware of this, but basically FIFA asked EA for more money (0:24:16) Al: for the trademark for the games. (0:24:18) Al: So they wear. (0:24:20) Al: I think a billion dollars a year and they were asking for two billion a year. (0:24:26) Al: And so EA said, no, thank you. (0:24:29) Al: And so they lost the trademark because of that. (0:24:31) Al: And so now they call it EA Sports FC, as in football club. (0:24:37) Al: And at first thought I was like, Oh, this sounds interesting. (0:24:41) Al: That feels like a mistake on EA’s part because like FIFA brand is so big. (0:24:46) Al: But then I realised, no one else is making a game. (0:24:49) Al: I don’t think people playing the game care about the name. They go in and look for the new game. (0:24:54) Al: And therefore, I think FIFA just lost a billion dollars a year. (0:24:59) Jonnie: That sounds like FIFA being FIFA. (0:25:02) Al: So, yeah, EA Sports FC is the new name for the games that were previously called FIFA. (0:25:07) Al: But it doesn’t roll off the tongue as well. It’s not a great name. (0:25:11) Al: But I don’t think people playing the game care about the name. (0:25:15) Al: care about the name, they go in and look for the new game. (0:25:19) Al: There is a football game that has a footballer on the front of it and says EA. If they go (0:25:26) Al: in and ask for FIFA, the people in the store are going to point to EAFC. They know what (0:25:33) Al: they’re talking about. It’s not just about being incompetent, it’s about being corrupt. (0:25:34) Jonnie: Yeah, I always feel like I should go and work for FIFA because it’s just like a place where you can be incompetent and get (0:25:40) Jonnie: Paid a lot of money and I feel like I would be really good at that (0:25:48) Jonnie: I mean, I’ll do whatever. (0:25:51) Jonnie: Cool. (0:25:52) Jonnie: I’m okay with that. (0:25:53) Jonnie: Just pay me. (0:25:56) Al: Anyway, Farming Simulator! (0:25:59) Al: So they’re releasing Farming Simulator 25, whatever you might call it. (0:26:04) Al: That’s a thing that exists. (0:26:07) Al: It’s coming out on the 12th of November on Steam, Mac and PC, and PlayStation and Xbox. (0:26:14) Al: And there’s rice. (0:26:16) Al: Right, let me read… (0:26:20) Al: We’ve got some information on Steam. (0:26:21) Al: I can probably read it all in about 30 seconds. (0:26:26) Al: Farming Simulator 25, new crops, animals, productions and more. (0:26:28) Al: 400+ machines included with enhanced graphics and physics. (0:26:32) Al: Farming Simulator 25 floods the fields with a host of new machines, gameplay features, (0:26:37) Al: visual upgrades and even fresh water to grow rice, adding even more agricultural depth (0:26:42) Al: and diversity to the family-friendly series. (0:26:45) Al: New crops, animals and other features. (0:26:48) Al: It says some more. (0:26:49) Al: I don’t think it gives any more information, but it has some more words. (0:26:56) Al: Spinach and other new crops. (0:26:58) Al: I love how they mention two crops, and then they say “and others”. (0:27:06) Al: And they’ve added mighty buffaloes and other animals. (0:27:10) Al: Again, that was a list of one. (0:27:13) Al: I’m not convinced that you have a long list when you say “buffaloes and others”. (0:27:20) Al: Like I’m not thinking that that’s a long list when you only chose one. (0:27:24) Jonnie: Yeah, I’m (0:27:26) Jonnie: It’s what I’m most fascinated by is like how big is the team that’s worth like (0:27:30) Jonnie: I don’t understand the economics of farming simulator at all because today’s (0:27:34) Jonnie: There’s just so much art that goes into these games is ridiculous. I don’t know how they do it all (0:27:42) Al: So yeah, so apparently the games have sold over 25 million copies combined. (0:27:47) Al: I don’t feel like a lot. (0:27:52) Al: Farming Simulator 22, which was their last big one, sold 6 million copies. (0:27:58) Jonnie: It’s not that many. (0:28:01) Jonnie: You know, like, Pokemon sells tens of millions of copies and they can’t even (0:28:06) Jonnie: draw good trees. (0:28:09) Al: the people in this trailer are very uncanny valley, I don’t know. (0:28:14) Jonnie: Oh, like, okay, and this is all, like, so Farting Simulator does these ridiculous cinematic trailers, (0:28:19) Jonnie: and it’s not just like they do these trailers, but, like, the game starts with, you know, (0:28:23) Jonnie: some ridiculous cinematics. They’re very uncanny valley. I’m just like, (0:28:27) Jonnie: how do they have the budget to make this? (0:28:30) Al: The buffalo looks great in the trailer. The people look creepy, but the buffalo looks (0:28:36) Al: great. It looks like his hairs are individually modelled. Why have they done this? This in (0:28:45) Al: itself probably wiped out their budget for the game, only selling six million copies. (0:28:51) Jonnie: Why have they done this is just a great, like, all-round question for farming similes. (0:28:56) Al: Like, it’s not even a very expensive game, right? Like, it’s like 30 or 40 quid, I think, (0:29:01) Al: brand new? Um, it doesn’t even, it’s not even like 60, 70. And so, like, 6 million. (0:29:10) Al: What? Are they making money? (0:29:14) Jonnie: We’ve got to be somewhere. Maybe it’s all the DLC that they do. (0:29:18) Jonnie: Maybe that’s the real business model. (0:29:20) Al: Of course. Of course, they have brands in the game. That’s exactly what it is. (0:29:26) Al: Because every DLC is like, “Oh, here’s a new brand of machine.” (0:29:30) Jonnie: Ahh, yes, and I did. (0:29:30) Al: A hundred and fifty brands. The brands are obviously paying to get in the game. (0:29:34) Al: That’s how they make the money. There we go. Done. (0:29:39) Al: Anyway, if you want a new farming simulator that has rice, there you go. (0:29:44) Al: But yes, this feels like a glorified DLC shoved into the game. (0:29:50) Al: I think that’s all the news. Interesting selection of news. (0:29:54) Al: Next, we’re going to talk about Starstruck Vagabond. (0:29:58) Al: OK, so where to start on this? So I guess first of all, just a quick reminder, (0:30:03) Al: this is the new game by Yatsy Croshaw. It is a delivery-based game, shall we say, (0:30:12) Al: where you have a ship or you get a ship and then you use that to make deliveries. (0:30:21) Al: And yeah, that’s it, right? (0:30:24) Jonnie: Yep, that’s… that’s the game. (0:30:29) Al: I feel like I’m going to struggle probably like you to explain my feelings about this game. (0:30:36) Al: I don’t think I dislike it. I think you have said you do dislike it. (0:30:43) Jonnie: I would like to say that I loathe this game (0:30:48) Al: Wow! That is quite a- (0:30:51) Al: Do we want to talk about the mechanics first, or do you want to talk about your feelings about it first? (0:30:56) Jonnie: Maybe I’ll talk about my feelings first and then we can use that as a segue into the mechanics and like (0:30:59) Al: Okay. Sure. (0:31:02) Jonnie: fundamentally (0:31:04) Jonnie: So I like the vibe of this game (0:31:06) Jonnie: I think the music in the game is incredible the art style is not for everyone (0:31:11) Jonnie: But it totally makes sense in terms of like both the scope of the development and and what the game is going for (0:31:17) Jonnie: This game is so unfun to play. I (0:31:21) Jonnie: Couldn’t like I have rage quit this game. I tried to play it like three or four times and every session after (0:31:27) Jonnie: 15 minutes ended up with me just like (0:31:29) Jonnie: Rage quitting the game and needing to play something else. I just never had fun (0:31:34) Jonnie: Trying to do anything in this game because mechanically it is so (0:31:42) Jonnie: clunky (0:31:43) Jonnie: There was just I couldn’t like it wasn’t like I you know, the first time I played it and I think I rage quit (0:31:48) Jonnie: I was like, maybe it’s just me right? Like you’ve got to give these things a chance (0:31:52) Jonnie: But the more I played the less I wanted to be playing this game (0:31:57) Jonnie: There was nothing enjoyable about it. And it’s it’s shocking to me that a game in this state (0:32:05) Jonnie: Made it to release. I just don’t see (0:32:08) Jonnie: Like I struggle to see where someone (0:32:12) Jonnie: Designing this game thought the fun lived because I cannot see it (0:32:16) Jonnie: You (0:32:16) Al: we’re definitely not getting a retweet from Yahtzee. he doesn’t strike me the (0:32:24) Al: sort of person that wouldn’t listen before he retweets something as some (0:32:28) Al: developers very clearly do when I post about talking about their game and they (0:32:33) Al: retweet and I’m like you didn’t listen to this because we just slag off your (0:32:36) Al: game okay I don’t feel the same as that it’s not that I love the game though (0:32:46) Al: goodness um I don’t know why I’m struggling so much to explain how I feel (0:32:52) Al: about this game let’s let’s go through the mechanics and maybe we can talk (0:32:56) Al: about individual things and maybe that will give me a better idea of how I feel (0:33:01) Al: about this game overall so the idea is you you have your ship and you go to a (0:33:08) Al: place and you pick up packages and you take that to another place and as you go (0:33:13) Al: you upgrade your ship and there’s (0:33:17) Al: story and things happen. But there are (0:33:20) Al: basically like four main mechanics and (0:33:25) Al: that is carrying things to your ship and (0:33:29) Al: away from your ship and then the three (0:33:31) Al: mechanics that are basically only ever (0:33:33) Al: on your ship and that is welding, (0:33:37) Al: cleaning and I’ve said wrenching because (0:33:39) Al: I’m not really sure how to describe it (0:33:42) Al: other than you’ve got a wrench and you (0:33:44) Al: twist things like things are (0:33:46) Jonnie: Yeah, that’s how I would describe it. (0:33:46) Al: out of alignment. And you have to make them in alignment. There’s never really any kind (0:33:52) Al: of like problem solving with this is very much like you can tell that the idea behind (0:33:59) Al: this was not to be a puzzler. Obviously it’s meant to be, you know, just doing things to (0:34:07) Al: upgrade things. Like it looks at Stardew and goes, how do I do that sort of thing, but (0:34:13) Al: not in farming, and… (0:34:16) Al: kind of replaces things like watering and mining and stuff with these things instead. (0:34:24) Al: And so like when you’re… when something happens and you need to use one of these mechanics it’s (0:34:28) Al: like very clear the icon shows you, right? Like you see a little welder or you see a little cleaner (0:34:35) Al: thing. I don’t even know what it is we’re using to clean. Is it like a high pressure? It’s not (0:34:39) Al: like a sponge or anything, it’s like some cleaning device. And there or it shows the wrench. (0:34:40) Jonnie: Yeah, I thought it was like some sort of like water gun. (0:34:47) Al: Um, these are always very reactive, I guess. So like if you’re traveling and you hit an asteroid (0:34:54) Al: your ship will stop and you have to go and fix everything. Or you’ll come across someone who’s (0:34:59) Al: sent out an SOS and you have to go about their ship and you have to help them. They’re not really (0:35:05) Al: used as… I guess maybe that’s kind of my issue with these parts is they’re… they’re about getting (0:35:12) Al: back to the state that you were in, rather than improving the state. (0:35:16) Al: Everything in a farming game is giving you something, either giving you crops or giving you a resource of some kind to build that up. (0:35:27) Al: Technically, the welding does give you resources when you go to planets. I forgot about that, but we’ll come back to that in a minute. (0:35:33) Al: But on your ship, there is no getting things. Your ship is just a way to get between places, and these mechanics are just about, (0:35:48) Jonnie: Yeah, and I think what you’ve hit on is probably my fundamental issue with the game is that (0:35:59) Jonnie: these mechanics entirely exist to stop you from moving in the game, and there’s nothing (0:36:05) Jonnie: particularly fun about them, and I think the insight that all it is is returning your ship (0:36:10) Jonnie: to a state where it can fly, rather than about making any improvement to it, is exactly right. (0:36:17) Jonnie: You know one of the times I write (0:36:18) Jonnie: about this game is my ship got (0:36:20) Jonnie: damaged flying from planet A to planet B (0:36:22) Jonnie: and I went to fix it (0:36:24) Jonnie: and I died while fixing it. (0:36:26) Jonnie: I have no idea why I was dying (0:36:26) Al: Oh, I know why you die. I know why you die because I had that issue as well. You were (0:36:28) Jonnie: I couldn’t work it out (0:36:33) Al: out of stamina. So, yeah, I think once you’ve done that and you realized it, it then becomes (0:36:34) Jonnie: Ah, that was super unclear to me. (0:36:43) Al: more clear. But yeah, I find it a bit confusing when that happens because you’re like, “Oh, (0:36:48) Al: I’m losing health.” And you’re like, “Oh, is this because I need to do things quicker?” (0:36:52) Al: like the, the life support system isn’t working. So I need to do it quicker. So you do. (0:36:56) Jonnie: That’s what I thought it was, yep. (0:36:57) Al: But that, but that makes you die quicker because it’s your stamina that’s the issue. (0:37:01) Jonnie: Uh, so like, that stuff, like, and that’s just like, I was already not playing the game, (0:37:08) Jonnie: and to then die and be told that you’re gonna be charged some amount of money, (0:37:11) Jonnie: I was just like, I’m straight up not having a good time with this. (0:37:13) Jonnie: I don’t, I was like, I didn’t want to work it out, I just wanted to not play. (0:37:16) Jonnie: That was, that was how that experience made me feel, (0:37:20) Jonnie: ‘cause it didn’t feel like a puzzle. (0:37:21) Jonnie: I’m already feel like I’m being punished for not being particularly good (0:37:26) Jonnie: at the kind of terrible piloting mechanics like just nothing nothing (0:37:31) Jonnie: mechanically about this game was like wow I feel like I’m you know having fun (0:37:37) Jonnie: being a space delivery man it all felt like I am I’m prevented from being a (0:37:45) Jonnie: space delivery man because I have to be a mechanic that keeps dying like yeah (0:37:49) Jonnie: and that was that was a huge point of frustration for me (0:37:52) Al: Mm hmm. I think it’s probably fairly accurate to how hard space travel is, right? Like just (0:38:03) Al: constantly things going wrong. Uh, because space travel is hard. That doesn’t necessarily (0:38:08) Al: mean that it’s fun. Yeah, I think I didn’t, it didn’t make me rage quit the game, but (0:38:13) Al: I certainly got frustrated when it was like, Oh, you’re going to another planet to do a (0:38:17) Al: thing and oh no, no, no, I have to spend five minutes. (0:38:22) Al: Going and clicking on 10 different things in my ship just to continue moving. And you (0:38:28) Al: get nothing from that. Yeah, I didn’t, I didn’t find that fun. Um, the welding, let’s talk (0:38:35) Al: about the, the welding on the planets. Did you get to a planet and resource grab, getting (0:38:40) Al: resources from that? I can’t remember how early that happens, but you do that in the (0:38:42) Jonnie: And not outside of the tutorial (0:38:44) Jonnie: There’s the there’s one in the very (0:38:46) Jonnie: Yeah, you get the what do they call it? That’s the the not worth anything in it’s not called that but it’s (0:38:52) Al: Yeah. Yeah. I feel like that’s the best part of the game personally, because kind of. I dislike (0:38:53) Jonnie: It’s something like that (0:39:04) Al: it in some ways as well, but let’s come to that. I like that idea. That’s kind of the thing that (0:39:10) Al: most I enjoy is the idea of you going to these unexplored planets and getting stuff from them. (0:39:17) Al: And that was certainly when I was having the most fun. What I didn’t. (0:39:22) Al: Like about it was how you have no inventory, right? And all you, well, not for those things (0:39:32) Al: you get on. You technically do have an inventory. Do you? No, I don’t think you ever have like, (0:39:39) Al: you can’t put things in pockets. You can’t put them in a bag. All you can do is grab something (0:39:43) Al: and put it on your, your platform. And so that limits you to taking three things from a planet (0:39:50) Al: at once, which it reminds me of. (0:39:52) Jonnie: And can we talk about the three things thing? (0:39:55) Jonnie: ‘Cause my God, that drove me insane. (0:39:59) Jonnie: Like the movement in this game, (0:40:01) Jonnie: where I get that like the space on your ship (0:40:04) Jonnie: is kind of meant to be one of the limiting factors, (0:40:07) Jonnie: but it’s so restrictive at the start. (0:40:09) Jonnie: I spent maybe, this is another time I rage quit the game, (0:40:12) Jonnie: was because I couldn’t work out (0:40:14) Jonnie: that I had the specific square on the landing platform (0:40:17) Jonnie: that you need to lower the landing platform, (0:40:20) Jonnie: blocked off with one of the things (0:40:22) Jonnie: that I’m delivering. (0:40:23) Jonnie: And like, that’s not a fun game mechanic. (0:40:25) Jonnie: That’s just a frustrating user experience, right? (0:40:27) Jonnie: Like, just let me put four things on the landing platform (0:40:31) Jonnie: that has the loading platform, that has four spaces on it, (0:40:34) Jonnie: and let that go up and down. (0:40:36) Jonnie: Like, just not be able to move around the ship (0:40:39) Jonnie: like so early on, because I’ve got three or four boxes (0:40:42) Jonnie: in there. (0:40:43) Jonnie: Again, nothing fun about that. (0:40:44) Al: Yeah. Yeah, and you have no real storage space on your ship to start with. And even after you’ve (0:40:51) Al: upgraded it at least once, because I upgraded it at least once, you still don’t have any storage (0:40:57) Al: space. You’re like plonking it in random places, blocking you off from getting to places. (0:41:04) Al: Ehm. (0:41:05) Jonnie: Yeah and I don’t mind like a bit of a Tetris puzzle to go with storage but again it didn’t (0:41:12) Jonnie: really feel like a puzzle as much as just like hey the natural place where you want to put the (0:41:16) Jonnie: stuff is the wrong spot to put the stuff and it’s just going to prevent you from playing more of (0:41:20) Al: - Hmm. (0:41:21) Jonnie: the game which is that’s how I feel about most of the mechanics of this game most of the mechanics (0:41:24) Jonnie: feel like they exist just to make sure that the game actually has some length to it. (0:41:28) Al: Yeah, yeah. So yeah, I found it, it felt a little bit when I was on that planet and I (0:41:35) Al: was gathering things and I was like, Oh, the realisation that I can only take three things (0:41:39) Al: from this planet. It felt very much like the first time I played Animal Crossing New Leaf (0:41:46) Al: where you’re like gathering like apples and stuff and you can only stack up to nine in (0:41:52) Al: your inventory. And I’m like, why? Why is that so restrictive? (0:41:58) Al: And I don’t know, maybe there are people that find that sort of thing fun, right? Because (0:42:02) Al: there are games based around these sorts of things that like strand games where it’s (0:42:08) Al: like you have to have, you know, very limited space in your bag. So you have to only take (0:42:13) Al: certain stuff. I don’t find that fun. And having that in this game massively reduced (0:42:22) Al: my enjoyment of that. I think if that in particular, like if you had an inventory. (0:42:29) Al: For everything, I guess, other than packages, right? Like I understand why the packages (0:42:32) Al: would be like physical things, because that’s the whole point of the game is you’re delivering (0:42:35) Al: things, right? But things like your upgrade units and your rocks and stuff like that, (0:42:42) Al: they still have to take up the same amount of space as a massive package. Like that doesn’t (0:42:46) Al: feel right to me and it feels unfun. (0:42:50) Jonnie: Yeah, I agree. I think it’s a really good point that I think is being missed in a lot of cottagecore genres. (0:42:56) Jonnie: Like, actually, inventory management is not fun, and I feel like this is something that has persisted, you know, because it probably existed due to technical limitations of games in earlier times. (0:43:10) Jonnie: That doesn’t need to exist anymore, because the games that I most enjoy that have an inventory management aspect is because there is some associated with it. (0:43:20) Jonnie: We’re having a limited inventory, kind of, you know, impacts the difficulty of the game, right? There are some games where it’s like, “Well, yeah, if I could take infinite healing potions, of course I could kill the boss.” (0:43:32) Jonnie: Like, that’s… But, you know, if I can only take three with me, then that becomes much more of a challenge. (0:43:38) Jonnie: Cottagecore games don’t have any… Like, it’s not like the game gets harder or more difficult because you’ve got limited inventory. It just becomes more frustrating if you’ve got a limited inventory. (0:43:49) Al: Yeah, and I suspect that the whole point was to be like, yeah, you have a small ship and (0:43:50) Jonnie: Which is not the same thing. (0:43:58) Al: you have to deal with that. But yeah, the idea that a rock is going to take up as much (0:44:02) Al: space as it does in my ship doesn’t make any sense. You can get a lot of rocks in a box, (0:44:08) Al: you know, I can put rocks in my pocket, but I can only put three of them on my loading (0:44:12) Al: platform. Silly. Okay, so that I feel… (0:44:19) Al: moves into the deliveries, right? Because we’ve talked about getting stuff from planets (0:44:22) Al: and the deliveries. I think I wonder… So your point about not being able to put four (0:44:30) Al: on the platform that has four slots. Yeah, that’s, that’s very annoying. I get that. (0:44:36) Al: I completely agree with you on that. And I think that that would make a massive difference (0:44:39) Al: to the game. I totally understand why the boxes take up space on your ship. And I think (0:44:45) Al: I would be fine with that if it were for a few changes and one of the (0:44:49) Al: would be your starting ship actually having somewhere to store stuff that isn’t just the (0:44:53) Al: corridors, right? Like one small space, like make it four spaces to start with, right? And then if (0:45:01) Al: you take on a delivery that’s more than four, then you have to deal with that annoyance, right? (0:45:04) Al: I get that. That’s the kind of not risk, right? Because it’s not really a risk, it’s an annoyance, (0:45:10) Al: but you’re balancing the annoyance with getting more reward in a shorter period of time. And that, (0:45:16) Al: I think totally works. (0:45:18) Jonnie: 100% right because I think the Tetris puzzle aspect of it is kind of fun in the idea that it’s like (0:45:25) Jonnie: Oh, I now yeah, like you say, I want to carry more (0:45:28) Jonnie: So I’m gonna overflow from my storage space into my corridors and now I need to build paths and stuff (0:45:33) Jonnie: So I can make sure I can still get around to everything (0:45:36) Jonnie: That’s totally fine. Right because at that point it feels like a choice. It was just never a choice (0:45:40) Al: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it doesn’t even need to necessarily have a new area on the ship. (0:45:45) Al: Just being able to walk around your storage area when it’s full. That would solve it. (0:45:50) Al: You’re not your storage area, you’re your loading platform, right? Because you have (0:45:53) Al: to walk through your loading platform to get to the back of the ship by default, right? (0:45:58) Al: So if you could just walk around it, that would solve the problem. And then you can (0:46:04) Al: upgrade your ship later on to have more storage space or whatever. (0:46:10) Al: I think that’s my only real annoyance about the deliveries part of it. Like, other than (0:46:15) Al: obviously I know you’re not a huge fan of the ship movement. I didn’t dislike that. (0:46:20) Al: I thought it was quite fun. I don’t know whether you realized this or not, but you didn’t have (0:46:24) Al: to do that minigame when you’re traveling. If you just exited out of it, your ship would (0:46:32) Al: fly itself. But you wouldn’t get any of the advantages of the minigame. (0:46:36) Jonnie: at their advantages to the minigame? (0:46:40) Al: You didn’t get to the warp core bit, did you? So basically, there are four things that happen (0:46:40) Jonnie: No. (0:46:51) Al: on that miniscreen. So one of them is the meteors that you have to avoid. Two is there’s (0:46:56) Al: clouds of dirt. And if you go through them, you have to clean your ship. Three is the (0:47:03) Al: S.O.S. so you can hear S.O.S. calls and go to them. That would be one of the advantages. (0:47:10) Al: You don’t get them if you don’t do the minigame. And going to the S.O.S. calls allow you to (0:47:16) Al: get more stuff. You can get money by fixing people’s ships and stuff like that. But the (0:47:21) Al: other one is the little orange clouds on the minigame screen. Those are actually things (0:47:28) Al: you can collect to get warp core fuel. So you can get free warp core fuel by flying through (0:47:38) Jonnie: Oh, I thought that they were… I think I was avoiding them because I assumed that they were bad things. (0:47:43) Al: It explains that once yeah, so it explains that once you get the warp core that you can fly through them and (0:47:50) Al: Replenish your warp core fuel. So because otherwise you have to buy warp core fuel, but that gives you that gives you more for free (0:47:54) Jonnie: Ah, right, so I never got the warp course. (0:47:58) Al: So like you you need the warp core to move between the planetary systems (0:48:03) Al: And you start off without warp core so you can only go between was it three planets in the first system? (0:48:08) Jonnie: Yeah, I think three. (0:48:09) Al: and then you need a certain amount of warp core fuel to get to (0:48:13) Al: one system away and a certain amount to get to two away blah blah blah blah (0:48:18) Al: So I actually quite like the way they do that (0:48:21) Al: Maybe they didn’t explain it well enough and that you can actually exit out of it and you you don’t I (0:48:28) Al: Think maybe it slowly builds up dirt that you have to clean off (0:48:31) A

In this episode, we talk to three active leaders who have been around since the very beginning of Kubernetes. We explore how Kubernetes has changed since its inception, with a particular focus on current efforts in Open source Kubernetes to support AI/ML style workloads.   Maciej Szulik is currently taking a seat in the Kubernetes Steering Committee. He's also leading Special Interests Groups responsible for kubectl, workload and batch controllers. Maciej has been contributing to Kubernetes since the early days, jumping from one area to another where help was needed. He authored the first version of audit and helped shape its current one, as well as touched multiple other places in apimachinery. He was also responsible for designing and implementing Job and CronJob controllers. In kubectl he was responsible for the plugin mechanism and several major refactors to simplify the code. Since May 2024 he joined the ranks of Production Readiness Review (PRR) approvers helping ensure high production standards for the future of Kubernetes releases.    Clayton Coleman is a long-time Kubernetes contributor, having helped launch Kubernetes as open source, being on the bootstrap steering committee, and working across a number of SIGs to make Kubernetes a reliable and powerful foundation for workloads.  At Red Hat he led OpenShift's pivot onto Kubernetes and its growth across on-premise, edge, and into cloud.  At Google he is now focused on enabling the next generation of key workloads, especially AI/ML in Kubernetes and on GKE.   Dawn Chen has been a Principal Software Engineer at Google cloud since May 2007. Dawn has worked on an open source project called Kubernetes before the project was founded. She has been one of tech leads in both Kubernetes and GKE, and founded SIG Node from scratch. She also led Anthos platform team for the last 4 years, and mainly focuses on the core infrastructure. Prior to Kubernetes, she was the one of the tech leads for Google internal container infrastructure -- Borg for about 7 years. Outside of work, she is a wife, a mother of a 16-year old boy and a good friend. She enjoys reading, cooking, hiking and traveling.   Do you have something cool to share? Some questions? Let us know: - web: kubernetespodcast.com - mail: kubernetespodcast@google.com - twitter: @kubernetespod News of the week Kubernetes 1.31 Code Freeze is on July 9th Links from the interview Kubernetes Working Group Batch Kubernetes Working Group Serving Blog: Introducing Indexed Jobs (2021) Docs: Kubernetes Jobs KEP: Elastic Indexed Jobs Docs: Kubernetes CronJobs KubeCon EU 2021: The Long, Winding and Bumpy Road to CronJob's GA - Maciej Szulik, Red Hat & Alay Patel, Red Hat KubeCon EU 2018: Writing Kube Controllers for Everyone - Maciej Szulik, Red Hat (Beginner Skill Level) Kubernetes Working Group Device Management Kubernetes Enhancement Proposal process README DockerCon 2014: The announcement of Kubernetes at DockerCon Blog: AI & Kubernetes (by Kaslin) Kueue - “Kueue is a cloud-native job queueing system for batch, HPC, AI/ML, and similar applications in a Kubernetes cluster.” Whitepaper: Large-scale cluster management at {Google} with {Borg} Email: “Containers: Introduction” - An email introducing the concept of Linux containers to the Linux community Links from the post-interview chat Blog - “Scaling Kubernetes to 7,500 nodes” - OpenAI Ray on Kubernetes  

Codey and Aislinn talk about Botany Manor Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:05:28: What Have We Been Up To 00:09:24: News 00:47:09: Botany Manor 01:19:53: Outro Links Steam Farming Fest A New Leaf: Memories Early Access Spirit Of The Island Mobile Release Len’s Island Questing & Camera Orbiting Update Snacko Tool Upgrades Update Sun Haven 1.4 Update Disney Dreamlight Valley Upcoming Updates Slime Rancher 2 Upcoming Updates Research Story 0.8 Info Tales of the Shire Trailer Codey’s Instagram Aislinn’s Linktree Contact Al on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheScotBot Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Transcript (0:00:31) Codey: Hello and welcome to another episode of The Harvest Season. (0:00:35) Codey: My name is Codey, and we are here today to talk about Cottagecore games. (0:00:36) Aislinn: And my name is Aislinn. (0:00:41) Aislinn: Whoo! (0:00:42) Codey: Whoo! (0:00:43) Codey: Cute! (0:00:43) Aislinn: Cute! (0:00:44) Codey: We did it! (0:00:47) Aislinn: Yay! (0:00:48) Codey: So as always, transcripts are available in the show notes and on the website. (0:00:54) Codey: Today’s topic we are talking about Botany Manor, which is a super cute little game. (0:00:59) Aislinn: Mm-hmm (0:00:59) Codey: a game that Aislinn has played. (0:01:01) Codey: So that’s what we’re going to talk about for our main topic. (0:01:03) Aislinn: Mm-hmm (0:01:13) Codey: We also have a lot of news. (0:01:17) Codey: But before that, Aislinn, who are you? (0:01:20) Aislinn: Hi, I’m Aislinn. I am here and I’m happy to be here. I guess things that I do to go into that, (0:01:30) Aislinn: I stream on Twitch, Ace Trainer, AIS, not Ace, like AIS Trainer, and also me and my fiance, we have a podcast called Moo & Coo, where we just talk about literally anything and everything. (0:01:30) Codey: Yep. (0:01:31) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:01:33) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:01:50) Codey: Why is it moo and coo? (0:01:52) Aislinn: Because he– so he really likes cows. (0:01:54) Aislinn: He’s a big cow guy. (0:01:57) Aislinn: So I was just like– (0:01:57) Aislinn: we joked around trying to think about a name for our podcast. (0:02:01) Aislinn: So we knew he wanted to do a podcast for a while. (0:02:03) Aislinn: And I was like, well, obviously, you’re like the moo-er. (0:02:07) Aislinn: You moo. (0:02:07) Aislinn: And I was like, what rhymes with moo? (0:02:08) Codey: That makes a lot of sense as to why you put the Pigeon filter on your Snapchat all the time. (0:02:10) Aislinn: Coo. (0:02:11) Aislinn: And I like pigeons. (0:02:12) Aislinn: So I’m like, now I’m coo. (0:02:20) Aislinn: Oh, actually, I actually love that pre-moo and coo. (0:02:21) Codey: Oh, wow. (0:02:23) Aislinn: I’ve always loved that pigeon. (0:02:25) Aislinn: And I mean, I’m a New Yorker. (0:02:26) Codey: Okay. (0:02:26) Aislinn: So me and pigeons were like homies, you know? (0:02:27) Codey: Mm-hmm, big, big, big facts. (0:02:33) Codey: Um, yeah, so I guess like how I know Aislinn is (0:02:38) Codey: through It’s Super Effective, Surprise Surprise, that’s how we know the majority of our people. (0:02:42) Aislinn: Yep! (0:02:46) Aislinn: We love it. We stan. (0:02:47) Codey: Um, we stand. I think, was it like, I think I like joked in, for Pokemon Go Fest last year, (0:02:54) Codey: I joked something about how we should get cardboard cutouts and then you were like “bet.” (0:02:58) Aislinn: - Yep, yep. (0:02:59) Aislinn: Once I, like, when a challenge that’s like relatively accessible is put in front of me, (0:03:03) Aislinn: I’m just like, yeah, let’s do it. (0:03:06) Aislinn: Why not, right? (0:03:07) Aislinn: Why say no, we can do it? (0:03:08) Codey: We did. So Aislinn, uh, ‘cause, uh, Steve and Greg, so two of the hosts of It’s Super Effective, (0:03:08) Aislinn: And we pulled it off and it was wonderful. (0:03:17) Codey: were unable to come to Pokemon Go Fest New York City last year, but a bunch of us did come, (0:03:22) Codey: and we, Aislinn printed out these cardboard cutouts of both of them, and then we were literally carrying them around all day, and like we had everyone sign them, so like everyone that it is fans of the pod. (0:03:31) Aislinn: - Oh gosh. (0:03:38) Codey: You know, friends of Greg and Steve, like we all signed the back of them and then you sent them to them, right? (0:03:43) Aislinn: Yeah, they I don’t I actually I have to still ask Steve and Greg like what happened with them cuz I sent them and I have no idea what happened after that I (0:03:50) Codey: someone in the mail is just like, “what the heck?” (0:03:56) Aislinn: Mean when I got it I was like what the heck it’s so tall and (0:04:00) Aislinn: Then having in my home was a whole different story. I’m just like this is not okay [laughing] (0:04:04) Codey: This is really weird. Yeah, for sure. (0:04:06) Codey: But that was, it was just so much fun to, because you’re a, you know, a New Yorker, and so you’re in that area. (0:04:12) Codey: It was just so much fun to like get to hang out with you, and you like let us around. (0:04:16) Aislinn: Yeah, oh my gosh, yes we are, yay, I’m so excited about that, don’t have to worry about carrying that across the freaking bridge, in the wind. (0:04:16) Codey: around. You showed us that really cool Korean barbecue place. (0:04:20) Codey: Um, so good. And we’re doing it again this year. Yeah. Except this time, we don’t have to cut them out and cardboard. They’re gonna be there. Yeah. (0:04:36) Codey: That was (0:04:39) Codey: yeah, it shout out to tone and oh my gosh, who was the other person that was carrying them? Vincent tone and Vincent for carrying them, like once the groups met up. (0:04:44) Aislinn: Vincent? (laughs) (0:04:46) Aislinn: Yeah. (laughs) (0:04:50) Codey: So that Aislinn didn’t have to carry them anymore because yeah they were they were blowing everywhere. (0:04:52) Aislinn: I was so tired. (laughs) (0:04:58) Codey: Oh my gosh so yeah that’s how we know each other and we just you know talk on snapchat and every day and didn’t share funny stories and stuff and so when I found out we were both playing botany manner I was like oh my gosh we need to talk about it. (0:05:04) Aislinn: - Yes! (0:05:11) Aislinn: perfect wow 251 streak on snapchat let’s go yeah I’m gonna go [laughing] (0:05:17) Codey: Oh we do? Oh my gosh, proud of us! (0:05:20) Codey: Look at us! That’s just about Pokemon Go Fest, isn’t it? (0:05:25) Aislinn: Just about. (0:05:27) Codey: Oh my gosh. (0:05:28) Codey: Okay, well, so that’s who you are and how we know you. (0:05:31) Codey: But what have you been up to? Like what in your life, like recently, what have you been playing? (0:05:36) Codey: Have you been doing anything super fun? (0:05:39) Aislinn: As of recently, I have been playing a lot more indie games. (0:05:44) Aislinn: I mean I’m still doing like, first stream, I’m still doing a Pokémon Crystal playthrough, (0:05:49) Aislinn: but like I’ve been playing a lot of indie games ever since PAX because I had the opportunity to meet some developers of some games at different companies and whatnot, and it’s been such a wonderful pleasure. (0:06:01) Aislinn: So that’s how I like got the opportunity to play Botany Manor, and I played like a little while ago unpacking and (0:06:09) Aislinn: another game that I’m excited about is Kamayaru, so like all these games that I never really played before, I’m now finally starting to play beyond just Pokemon. And even on the side too, I’m playing Spiderman, which is not anything indie, cozy, anything of that sort. (0:06:27) Aislinn: But it’s been fun to have the balance of the chaos and the cozy indie vibes as well. So it’s primarily what I’ve been up to is just kind of playing. And I think I’ve been playing (0:06:39) Aislinn: more like cozy indie games, also just to be less stressed because work life in general is a lot of stress recently. (0:06:48) Codey: yeah it do me that way um so you need that cozy cozy in your life (0:06:49) Aislinn: Exactly, but what about you? (0:06:58) Codey: well i’m right there with you I need that cozy cozy so I am playing so I most days um every day I play both my um coloring app so I have a cross stitch world is this like app that my grandma got me into years ago and then I deleted it on my app my phone because I was like this is taking way way too much in my life. (0:07:18) Codey: But now I’m using it again, but this time, like as a vehicle to help me overcome ADHD, like in social situations and like keeping me, keeping the part of my brain that wanders, like distracted so that I can focus on what’s going on in front of me. (0:07:24) Aislinn: Hmm. Yeah. (0:07:34) Codey: Um, so I play that every day. (0:07:37) Codey: And then I also have been playing Disney Dreamlight Valley every day. (0:07:40) Codey: I’ve been trying, I finished the main game and now I’m trying to like finish all the questlines for all of the characters and (0:07:48) Codey: level up all the characters to level 10 and then (0:07:52) Codey: Like just kind of have everything. I’m I also started thinking about (0:07:58) Codey: creating rooms in my house for each of the characters like having it having there be like a little mermaid room and (0:08:04) Aislinn: That’s so cute! (0:08:05) Codey: and a You know Beauty and the Beast room because you can buy like all of this furniture and stuff that is from those (0:08:11) Codey: realms I think is what this or those products and so (0:08:16) Codey: I was thinking about (0:08:18) Codey: where I just go into an empty room and just like filter all of my (0:08:23) Codey: Furniture to be like just the little room made furniture and then just put it all in that room and like (0:08:28) Codey: Make it work like make it an aesthetic room (0:08:32) Codey: Haven’t started doing that yet. Don’t know if that’s gonna continue but (0:08:37) Codey: Super fun and then always and forever working on my Fox my Minecraft Fox (0:08:43) Codey: Building up my little my little man (0:08:48) Codey: That’s playing with me. It has built like a really cool mountain on the back of it (0:08:53) Codey: The majority of my life right now is field work though, and actually today right after we record I’m gonna go grab a bunch of the traps that I put out a week ago and see what I caught. Oh (0:09:03) Aislinn: Mm hmm. I’m so excited. Can I can I get a Snapchat insight later? (0:09:08) Codey: You’re you’re going to (0:09:08) Aislinn: Because I just I am so fascinated with what you do. So sick. Awesome. (0:09:10) Codey: hunter hunter percent (0:09:14) Codey: Yeah, 100% and then yeah, so (0:09:18) Codey: and then other than that I do a lot of specimen work, so that’s what we’ve been up to. (0:09:20) Aislinn: Cool! (0:09:20) Aislinn: Whoo! (0:09:24) Codey: Okay, so we will jump into this pile of news. My goodness. First and foremost, (0:09:31) Codey: right off the top, Steam Farming Fest. So Steam has this farming like, it’s not a bundle, but it’s like a bunch of different games that are farming focused are crazy on sale right now. (0:09:48) Codey: Um, like at least some of them are 20 some of like one of this I’m looking right here, (0:09:52) Codey: this rise of industry game is 85% off. So it’s only $4.50 instead of 30 bucks. Crazy. Oh, wait, (0:09:55) Aislinn: Oh my gosh. (0:10:00) Codey: 20. Nope, that’s 30 bucks. I was like, it’s 20. Um, so yeah, I mean, there’s just so many games on this. (0:10:08) Aislinn: There is– I got an email from Steam being like, (0:10:12) Aislinn: all of these games that you are on your wish list are on sale. (0:10:15) Aislinn: And I was like, oh my gosh, what’s happening? (0:10:17) Aislinn: Oh, yeah, the Steam Farming Fest. (0:10:20) Codey: Yeah, there’s a lot that we’ve talked about on the pod before and then other ones that I’m like kind of interested in. (0:10:26) Codey: So one that we’ve talked about before is Rusty’s retirement. (0:10:30) Codey: So okay, let me dive it back. (0:10:33) Codey: If you go to the Farming Fest like page and then say browse games, it like comes up with different types. (0:10:41) Codey: So there’s like the automation and then the dating sim and then there’s just like regular ones. (0:10:46) Codey: So the automation one, Rusty’s retirement, we’ve already talked about Timberborne. (0:10:50) Codey: You’ve never seen this game before, but you are beavers. (0:10:53) Aislinn: that I just I just hovered over it that is so cute that is so cute (0:10:58) Codey: So add that here, actually, and I just like add it to my wishlist, like, right? (0:11:02) Aislinn: just do it right now (0:11:03) Codey: Bam. (0:11:04) Codey: Right. (0:11:05) Codey: Oh, I have to sign in. (0:11:06) Codey: Okay. (0:11:07) Codey: Oh, I gotta do something for my email address. (0:11:11) Aislinn: i’m just leaving the tab open on my uh on my computer for now and I was like i’ll figure it out later (0:11:16) Codey: Oh, yeah, I just I just jumped on to my email and it was like it I see the (0:11:22) Codey: Bunch of games you want are on sale (0:11:23) Aislinn: Yep, yep, there’s that email. (0:11:26) Codey: I’m like, oh leave me alone (0:11:30) Codey: See and it’s funny cuz like I just got paid today. So of course they’re like they’re like, hey (0:11:33) Aislinn: Sale time! (0:11:36) Codey: Okay, so there’s that I’m trying to see which other ones like we’ve talked about before (0:11:42) Codey: Some of these are so cute. Like what is plantabi? Little garden. (0:11:44) Aislinn: I saw that APCO was on sale and they just came out with the new the final DLC. (0:11:46) Codey: Yeah, sure did. Yeah, we talked about that in the last pod. So yeah, great time to jump into that. It now has the final (0:11:52) Aislinn: I have not played it yet, but I did see that. (0:12:04) Codey: update quote unquote, I feel like L is gonna, they’re gonna find something to do. Other things that we talked about on pod. Gosh, all of these. (0:12:15) Codey: uh I found (0:12:16) Codey: my time at sandrok, what the heck is booty farm? (0:12:34) Aislinn: Wait, where is that? (0:12:39) Aislinn: I don’t even know where that is. (0:12:41) Aislinn: I was just going to ask, what is Anna, my friends, and why is that a farming sim? (0:12:45) Aislinn: And why is it like, why is it a farming sim dating sim? (0:12:46) Codey: So some of these are just some of these are coming soon, but there’s booty farm has another one too. Oh my goodness Okay, I’m moving on other popular ones include (0:12:48) Aislinn: It’s just called Anna, my friends. (0:12:58) Codey: Stardew Valley Manor Lords (0:13:01) Codey: Farming simulator 22 light your frontier (0:13:04) Codey: Sun Haven Fay farm paleo pines. I don’t know what farm manager world There was another one that I saw I’m trying to go until I find the one that I saw that I was like I really want this one Rune factory 5 travelers rest (0:13:16) Codey: Story of seasons of wonderful life harvest moon the winds of winds of Anthos (0:13:21) Codey: Ooblets (0:13:22) Aislinn: I was gonna say, did you say Ooblets? (0:13:24) Aislinn: Cause that’s another game that I’m interested in. (0:13:25) Aislinn: That’s on sale and I’m like, do I just buy maybe? (0:13:29) Codey: 40% now’s the time pull the trigger (0:13:30) Aislinn: It’s a good sale. (0:13:33) Codey: Harvest Ella. Oh, I guess my time at Sandrock is not on sale. Why is it in this list? (0:13:38) Codey: Don’t get it if I don’t know what garden life a cozy simulator is, but it looks great. We’re adding that to my wish list Um… (0:13:46) Aislinn: This is just a wishless session right now. (0:13:47) Codey: Snacko, which we will talk about later. (0:13:51) Codey: Sakuna. I don’t know what cat tails is. (0:13:54) Codey: Oh my gosh, it’s like the warrior cats. (0:13:56) Codey: Where’s the one that I see? (0:13:57) Aislinn: there’s cat god ranch coming soon what is that I don’t know if you like cats as cat god ranch (0:14:04) Codey: Weed Shop 3. (0:14:08) Codey: Roots of Pacha. Where’s the cute one? (0:14:10) Codey: Littlewood, Wildmender, Graveyard Keeper. (0:14:13) Codey: These are all ones we’ve talked about. (0:14:16) Codey: There was one that I saw- oh, here it is. (0:14:19) Codey: Bun House. (0:14:20) Aislinn: BUN-house? I’m gonna actually google that one. What is BUN-house? (0:14:22) Codey: I had never seen this game before. (0:14:25) Codey: It came out October 19th, 2021. (0:14:28) Codey: Bun House is a cute, simple, bunny-filled game focused on growing plants and managing a greenhouse with fellow buns. (0:14:30) Aislinn: Oh. That’s so cute. (0:14:34) Codey: Take care of your leafy plant buddies by balancing the amount of water and light they get. (0:14:38) Codey: Play with friends and upgrade your greenhouse for wholesome, relaxing fun. (0:14:42) Codey: You are a bunny and you have a greenhouse. (0:14:46) Codey: You are a bird and you are delivering something to you. (0:14:49) Codey: I’m going to stop because I’m going to keep spending money. (0:14:52) Codey: I don’t have if I keep talking about it. (0:14:55) Codey: But definitely take a look. (0:14:58) Codey: If you have been interested in any of those games that we’ve talked about on the pod before, (0:15:02) Codey: they are likely on sale right now. (0:15:04) Aislinn: There’s a lot of good stuff on sale right now. Looks really cool. (0:15:11) Codey: Next up, A New Leaf Memories. (0:15:14) Codey: Uh, I don’t know if you’ve ever talked about- (0:15:17) Codey: I don’t- I don’t like that name. (0:15:19) Aislinn: You just don’t like it? (0:15:21) Codey: I don’t like it. Because I- (0:15:24) Aislinn: What did it do to you? (0:15:26) Codey: So I bought a new leaf and I was like gasp “New Animal Crossing game?” (0:15:31) Codey: It’s not- it’s not a new Animal Crossing game, you guys. (0:15:31) Aislinn: You know, that’s fair. (0:15:34) Codey: Um, so the early access for a new leaf memories is out now. (0:15:37) Codey: Quote, uh, the gameplay features, quote, (0:15:40) Codey: “Enjoy a range of exciting gameplay mechanics and features like building up a farm with 29 different crops, (0:15:46) Codey: bring 27 types of animals, choose from 21 pets to adopt, craft new furniture to put in your home, catch 4 types of fish.” (0:15:51) Codey: What? Why only 4? (0:15:52) Aislinn: Four. Why only four? (0:15:54) Codey: Cook- Cook 25 recipes! (0:15:57) Codey: “Mine, explore 8 main areas, and even drive around in a cute little vehicle, or take a ride in a floating bus. (0:16:02) Codey: While early access marks a major step forward, it’s important to note that our development journey is far from over.” (0:16:07) Codey: So, this is basically them, like, opening up to try and start pro- like, (0:16:11) Codey: like, ironing out the kinks of their bugs, of any bugs that you might encounter. (0:16:16) Codey: Um, why only four? (0:16:18) Aislinn: I don’t know. But hey, they’ve got 27 types of animals and 21 pets. So if you do the math, (0:16:25) Aislinn: I’m not doing the math. I’m not good at math. You’ve got more pets and animals than fish. (0:16:31) Codey: Also, the pets, so this is my issue, Coral Island burned me because you can only have one pet. (0:16:31) Aislinn: Take that as you will. Thank you. (0:16:42) Codey: So in Coral Island, you can only have one. (0:16:45) Codey: I got the one dog that looks like my dog because I was like, “Oh my gosh, I need to have my dog in the game.” (0:16:51) Codey: But then there was also a bearded dragon, and I went back to go get the bearded dragon and you can only have one pet. (0:16:55) Aislinn: What the heck oh (0:16:56) Codey: And I was like, “What the heck?” (0:16:58) Codey: ‘Cause I also have a beard dragon in my life. (0:17:00) Aislinn: Wait you do oh my gosh, I love (0:17:01) Codey: I do. I’ll send you a snap. (0:17:05) Codey: And listeners, I’ll post a picture of her in Discord or Slack. (0:17:11) Codey: So yeah, if you, I mean, if you’ve looked at a new leaf memories, (0:17:15) Codey: and you’ve been interested in it before Early Access is now available, (0:17:20) Codey: and you can check it out. (0:17:23) Codey: Spirit of the Island. (0:17:25) Codey: The pages for this game are now up on the Play Store and the Apple App Store. (0:17:31) Codey: It is $4.99, and it does support Crossplay. (0:17:36) Codey: And I did open this in the App Store so I could read it. (0:17:39) Codey: Oh, of course the App Store was like, “Oh, you want me to refresh? (0:17:44) Codey: I will refresh for you.” (0:17:46) Codey: Also, X is, gosh, what is it called? (0:17:52) Codey: When they promote it, it’s promoted up at the top of the App Store. (0:17:59) Codey: And I’m like, “No, get out of here.” (0:18:01) Codey: Okay. Spirit of the Island. It’s expected. (0:18:06) Codey: Oh, I love how it says coming soon. Expected, July 16th, 2024. (0:18:10) Aislinn: Oh, no, not the expected. (0:18:12) Codey: The word expected is doing a lot of heavy lifting there. Okay. (0:18:13) Aislinn: Awwww. (0:18:16) Aislinn: Awwww. (0:18:17) Aislinn: I mean, I get it. It’s tough. (0:18:19) Codey: Okay, do be that way. (0:18:21) Codey: Quote, “There’s an old tradition running in your homeland. (0:18:24) Codey: To become an adult and complete the coming-of-age ritual, (0:18:26) Codey: you must go on a journey of discovery. (0:18:28) Codey: begins on a distant land, deep in a tropical archipelago. (0:18:31) Codey: what was once a prosperous tourist destination is now a shade of its former glory and it’s your job to bring it back to life. (0:18:37) Codey: explore the archipelago, meet the locals, and lend them a hand to restore the tourist paradise while you try to uncover the mysteries of your past. (0:18:44) Aislinn: But what if I don’t wanna become an adult? (0:18:46) Codey: also like… no no I mean fair like fair but also like this tourist village is just dying and… (0:18:50) Aislinn: Sorry, I’m just being silly. (0:19:00) Aislinn: That’s that’s everyone’s path to adulthood. You all have your own small village that was a tourist destination that now you have to make it a tourist destination again. Everyone has their own journey. (0:19:02) Codey: a child just like shows up and single-handedly saves the village? excuse me? (0:19:18) Codey: I… today I learned I’m still a child. (0:19:23) Aislinn: Me too. I have done nothing to contribute to- (0:19:25) Codey: I have saved no one. I have done nothing. (0:19:30) Aislinn: society therefore I am child. (0:19:33) Codey: I am child. I have not single-handedly changed anything. (0:19:38) Codey: Okay, well that’s Spirit of the Island coming, um, releasing on the 16th of July, uh, as a mobile game. Uh, I might, I might play it. It’s only five bucks. (0:19:47) Aislinn: It looks cute as a mobile game. I will say like I actually like I like the aesthetics of it for a mobile game (0:19:50) Codey: Mm-hm, yeah, maybe by July I will be sick of cross stitch world, I have doubts. (0:20:01) Codey: Lens Island has their questing and camera orbiting update out now. (0:20:09) Codey: So this basically adds some questing features like some short, (0:20:13) Codey: some small quests of like starting out and doing things. (0:20:17) Codey: Previously, I just kind of like dropped– (0:20:18) Codey: you in the world and you figured stuff out which is chill but also I like completing quests and getting like a little gold star whenever I finish the smallest of tasks. I’m not gonna complain. Also the camera orbiting is kind of cool so like you can just 100% 360 like orbit around your person now. I guess not 360 but like you can orbit around your person now and like that’s cool. Mm-hmm and then in– (0:20:40) Aislinn: Yeah, that those those seem like nice quality of life updates for sure (0:20:49) Codey: in the update Julian, one of the developers or the developer of Lens Island said– I just loved this– “We have been very hard at work to get this out. (0:20:59) Codey: This is the first of several big updates in the pipeline over the next few months. (0:21:02) Codey: We are releasing this at 3 a.m. Australian time so I’ll probably pass out after writing this POS. Just kidding but I am very tired and we will need some rest before tackling the first patch. So just keep that in the mind of the next or two, don’t forget this update was crafted from all (0:21:18) Codey: of your feedback and we can continue to balance and alter the camera and questing if needed. I’d also love to get some more ideas on quests too. I just love how like this game is so like community the community is really helping to like develop it and not like develop ideas and be like, Oh, (0:21:34) Aislinn: Yeah. (0:21:36) Codey: but what about this? What about this? And like, even when they do give this update, these updates, like the questing and camera updates, he’s like, I still want more. Like if you still have more stuff, like let me know. (0:21:46) Aislinn: Yeah, that’s awesome. That’s really really cool to have a developer so involved with the community itself. (0:21:54) Aislinn: I have not, but especially knowing that the developer is interested, that is really cool to see, (0:22:00) Aislinn: and the game itself looking at the visuals is really nice. (0:22:02) Codey: Yeah, so we heard about it on the pod forever ago and then I started playing it. (0:22:11) Codey: This is my weekly “oh, I want to jump back into Len’s Island” because yeah, here it is. (0:22:17) Codey: I want to jump back into Len’s Island, you guys. (0:22:20) Aislinn: It looks really good. (0:22:21) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:22:22) Codey: It is. (0:22:22) Aislinn: It looks really, really good. (0:22:23) Codey: It is. (0:22:24) Codey: Okay, so next up is Snacko. (0:22:30) Codey: favorite little cute (0:22:32) Codey: cato. The 0.9.3 tool upgrade update is out now. So this update allows you to use a new crafting station called the jewelry station or jewelry table. I can’t remember. But you use that table and add gems to your tools. And the gems do different things. So like if you add, you know, a diamond or something, it’ll boost your your pickaxe in a different way than adding like a ruby would. And there’s eight different gems. And that’s just like, I love that. I love when a game allows you it’s not just like, oh, get the magical upgrade that does the thing like it actually kind of like takes your feedback and you’re like, I want more range on it or like, oh, I’m already pretty good at getting the, you know, the fish line out there. I don’t need that, but I want it to be more stable, you know, something like that. Like, I think that’s cool. And maybe eventually you’ll be able to add different facets so that you can just have a completely gem studded fishing pole that just has all the buffs on it. Very cute. (0:23:34) Aislinn: - Mm-hmm. (0:23:52) Aislinn: Yeah, very cute game. I remember I saw this game at PAX and I wanted to play the demo, but I got stuck at, um, ‘cause at the same booth, I got stuck at Kamayaru for so long that I had to walk away in general. (0:24:03) Codey: Mmm-hmm. (0:24:08) Aislinn: But hey, it’s on sale right now. I might just grab it anyways ‘cause… Cute cat. And cozy game. And it looks genuinely really good. (0:24:10) Codey: Mmm-hmm. (0:24:12) Codey: Mmm-hmm, mmm-hmm. (0:24:15) Codey: Mmm-hmm. (0:24:16) Aislinn: I do wanna play- Is there a demo for it? (0:24:19) Codey: Mmm-hmm. There is. (0:24:20) Aislinn: Okay, so I do wanna do that at least. (0:24:22) Codey: And I believe that we had a pod episode on it with the developer, so if you want to go back and listen to that. (0:24:28) Aislinn: I absolutely will, actually. (0:24:30) Codey: Um, if not… (0:24:34) Codey: Sun Haven! (0:24:41) Codey: Sun Haven! (0:24:42) Codey: So, uh, 1.4 patch update is coming out soon for Sun Haven. (0:24:46) Codey: It’s currently in beta, and the 1.4 update is currently in beta, (0:24:50) Codey: but it will come to full version when it’s stable on the public beta environment or PDE. (0:24:57) Codey: So this is the biggest update ever. (0:24:59) Codey: This gives so many so much content and so many bug fixes and stuff. (0:25:03) Codey: There’s a new area to explore called the Brine Stone Deeps. (0:25:20) Codey: You can now have kids as well. (0:25:22) Codey: There’s something called the Black Market. (0:25:22) Aislinn: Oh. Oh? (0:25:25) Codey: Two new romanceables. (0:25:28) Codey: And there’s other stuff too. (0:25:31) Codey: There’s other things as well. (0:25:33) Codey: There’s just so much that they’ve added in this update, and so if you’ve played Sunhaven and you ran out of stuff to do, baby get back in there, because dang. (0:25:46) Aislinn: And if you haven’t, it’s on sale. (0:25:46) Codey: There is. (0:25:48) Codey: Yeah, it is also… wouldn’t you know it? It’s 30% off. (0:25:58) Codey: Um, so yeah, I have not played this and… (0:26:03) Codey: I have other stuff to do. (0:26:05) Codey: But, um, oh, and Al also, um, laments. (0:26:09) Codey: “Is the Switch version ever coming?” (0:26:10) Aislinn: That is a big mood, that is a big, big mood. (0:26:13) Codey: That is a mood. (0:26:16) Codey: Okay, I am super excited about this next one. (0:26:19) Codey: Disney Dreamlight Valley. I’ve been playing this thing every single day. (0:26:22) Codey: And every single day, I’m like, oh no, I am reaching the end. (0:26:25) Codey: I am reaching the point where I’m not gonna have any more content to do. (0:26:28) Codey: What am I gonna do with my life when I can’t play DDV every single day? (0:26:33) Codey: All my favorites, and make a gross noise whenever my non-favorites, uh, walk by me. (0:26:41) Codey: Um, you best believe they have a new update coming out, a free update, (0:26:45) Codey: as well as they’ve explained some of the things that are happening in the second part of A Rift in Time. (0:26:51) Codey: So, they released a new developer update, uh, video. (0:26:55) Codey: Let me pause here. Have you, have you played this? (0:26:58) Aislinn: No, actually, but it’s on my list of games that I really don’t want to try and play. (0:27:04) Aislinn: So I’m very excited to hear about this in general through you as someone that is very passionate about it. (0:27:06) Codey: Mm-hmm. Oh (0:27:08) Aislinn: So I’m excited to hear your passion, to motivate myself to reprioritize games better. (0:27:13) Codey: Well, so the the best priority of this game is that it’s free (0:27:19) Codey: Completely free to play and then they just keep adding more stuff that is free as part of the daily like playing it every single Day thing like you get the in-game currency I think they call them like moon stones or whatever you get them and like then you can use them to do this (0:27:36) Codey: stuff where you can get access to more content like more skins or furniture items or (0:27:45) Codey: like quest lines and things like that and (0:27:48) Codey: I have so much about in-game currency like just from playing every day in general like it adds up real fast. So (0:27:55) Aislinn: But even if you don’t play every day, it’s still like a pretty good free game (0:28:00) Codey: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm, and it doesn’t it doesn’t like (0:28:00) Aislinn: Cool. Awesome. That’s all I need to know (0:28:05) Codey: punish you for not playing. (0:28:06) Codey: every day. So like, if you have a while where you’re not able to play it, that’s okay. Um, and you can just dip in and dip out. But if you dip in, you’re in, um, you’ve been warned. Uh, so, uh, they have the next part of the DLC, um, and this free update called thrills and frills, uh, coming out on May 1st. You heard that right people, as As you are listening to this podcast, this stuff is available to play. (0:28:07) Aislinn: Awesome (0:28:36) Aislinn: Whoo (0:28:37) Codey: So there’s also a new star path, um, which is called a day at Disney and it’s, it lets you like bring in rides, like the tea cups ride and all of this other stuff. (0:28:50) Aislinn: for real? Ooh! (0:28:52) Codey: Yeah. (0:28:52) Codey: Like you can build, you can, I’m assuming that they’re just going to be furniture items that you can like either purchase or build or I don’t, I don’t know. (0:29:00) Codey: And then you just put them in your park and then you can ride the teacups or ride the whatever. (0:29:05) Codey: and I think, like, some of the– (0:29:07) Codey: other villagers will probably jump on them too. (0:29:09) Aislinn: That’s so cool I’ve never been able to ride the teacups because it makes me so nauseous (0:29:10) Codey: Super crazy. (0:29:15) Aislinn: So I could play it and I could I could sit in it in a game and ride it in the game [laughs] (0:29:19) Codey: Yeah, you sure do and you can take pictures like using the camera they actually showed that with the developer update (0:29:27) Codey: That like you can jump in and take a picture and it like shows you spinning around (0:29:32) Codey: I’ve never been to Disneyland and I’ve hit the point in my life where I don’t like children And I will probably therefore never go to Disneyland (0:29:43) Codey: Unless there’s like a an adult only day in which case it’ll probably be full (0:29:49) Codey: And I’m not gonna spend the money on that (0:29:52) Codey: So I’m excited to kind of get a taste of Disney (0:29:57) Codey: Disneyland Disney World whatever Disney parks in this game also more content never upset about that as part of the free update (0:30:05) Codey: thrills and frills (0:30:08) Codey: So I guess the thrills is the star path and frills is Daisy duck finally (0:30:15) Codey: So poor (0:30:17) Codey: poor Donald (0:30:19) Codey: Has seen Mickey and Minnie just like (0:30:22) Aislinn: The fact that this has not been introduced and this game has been out for what feels like a very long time, I just kind of assume that Daisy Duck was in the game. (0:30:24) Codey: Living their life and he’s just been like, where’s Daisy? (0:30:38) Codey: They yeah, go for it. Mm hmm. So they like hinted at her a couple times. So how they did so when you first start there’s Mickey Merlin goofy and think that’s it Donald’s not even you have to like rescue Donald from something and then you get him. (0:30:38) Aislinn: And the fact that she’s not is confusing. (0:30:54) Codey: But then like Mickey starts like seeing what seems to be Minnie’s ghost. And then you end up like pulling her out of the in between area. It’s there’s a lot. (0:31:01) Aislinn: Oh? (laughs) (0:31:08) Codey: And the other thing about this story is there’s a lot to the story that explains, I don’t want to spoil it for you, you need to play it. So, so, so there’s a couple times where you see what seems to be Daisy duck, like, you’ll see like maybe her little ghost or you find her ribbon I think at one point, or her bow. And so you know that she’s going to be added eventually and like Donald is just kind of like man I wish she was here and it’s just like (0:31:17) Aislinn: Fair enough, fair enough. (0:31:24) Aislinn: Mm hmm. (0:31:38) Aislinn: Awwww. (0:31:38) Codey: Oh, she’s not here yet. Um, so yeah, this will be I think probably I’m assuming what’s going to happen is she’s going to start showing up kind of like Minnie did and then Donald’s going to lose his mind and then you’re going to help him get his little lady. And so when she jumps in, she starts she has a new shop called the boutique, and in it you can design your own clothing, dude the clothing in this game is immaculate. (0:32:06) Codey: The vibes are excellent. (0:32:08) Codey: They did not like skip on anything. Is that the right, they didn’t like, skimp, skimp, skimp. (0:32:12) Aislinn: I think, I think so? (0:32:15) Aislinn: Uh, oh, yeah. Wow. I’m looking at like the trailer on, uh, on Twitter, X, whatever. (0:32:18) Codey: Yeah. (0:32:22) Aislinn: That dress is fire. (0:32:24) Codey: Dude, just in general, all of the dresses like I was playing the other day my boyfriend was here and I changed from like one dress to another and he was like, wow, that dress is really cool. I was like, I know, right, like, and I showed him there’s a bunch of different dresses that you can get and they’re all super super cute. And they make me feel like a princess. (0:32:44) Codey: But there’s also like, like a whole like pirate outfit that makes me feel it’s just so it’s so much fun. So with Daisy, you’re going to be able to do these weekly design challenges and have a whole new quest line to build the boutique super cool. (0:33:00) Codey: You can also in that free update use your tools and multiplayer Valley visits. So if you have friends that have DTV as well. (0:33:08) Codey: And you want to go visit their Valley. I’ve not done this yet because I don’t really know anyone you should play so I can visit your Valley. (0:33:15) Aislinn: You got it. (0:33:16) Codey: But then, so then like I can run around with you and help you collect things on your island or Valley. (0:33:22) Aislinn: That way I can speedrun the game. (0:33:24) Codey: Yeah, I can help you speak. I wonder, that’s actually really interesting because I wonder like, like I have all the updated things. So I wonder if I could just like, (0:33:38) Codey: all the stuff for you. Oh, no, actually, now that I think about it, you don’t get the Valley visit, like the thing that lets you visit valleys until until you’ve unlocked the last area. (0:33:51) Aislinn: Oh, so no speedrunning. (0:33:52) Codey: No, speed running. That’s okay, though. So a rift in time act two. So this is I don’t remember what it’s called, but it’s the second part of the paid DLC is also launching. (0:34:08) Codey: As you hear this, it is launched. And so I thought it said something about how there was going to be a certain lucky character released or whatever in the ruins. And I was like, it’s going to be Milo thatch. (0:34:18) Codey: I don’t know why Milo would be considered lucky other than the fact that he seems like a clumsy guy and somehow is not dead. (0:34:28) Codey: I don’t know. But it ends up being Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, which makes sense. I wanted it to be my I know Milo thatch. (0:34:38) Codey: So yeah, it’s Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. So this is like one of the first film noir like Disney characters also knew Mickey. And he has this really like film noir like feel to him like he’s in black and white. (0:34:56) Codey: And apparently, like as he goes through the island through eternity isle if he like touches anything, it also becomes black and white. Yeah, so you can kind of see like (0:35:08) Codey: as he, you know, interacts with the environment, the environment changes a little bit. And so can make the cow was really excited that it could make the capybara black and white. (0:35:18) Aislinn: Oh, that’s cute. (0:35:20) Codey: Yeah, I love this game. Okay. (0:35:26) Codey: I just want to go play it but right now but I have to go do I have to go outside. (0:35:30) Aislinn: Hey, but after. (0:35:32) Aislinn: After it’s brain turn off and play time. (0:35:32) Codey: After you bet, because I gotta, it will be brain turn off in playtime you’re right (0:35:38) Codey: Uh, okay. (0:35:39) Codey: Three more news pieces to get through slime rancher two, um, next release coming. (0:35:45) Codey: Oh, so there’s a new, um, like update and it’s coming at the end of spring 2024. (0:35:50) Codey: They actually said that it was slated, like it was supposed to come out in the summer. (0:35:53) Codey: So it’s coming out early, just super cool. (0:35:56) Codey: And this adds, uh, the pronto Mart, which is a place where you can buy things that help you in adventuring and then the conservatory expansion. (0:36:05) Codey: Um, which I don’t remember what that does, but it sure does something. (0:36:08) Codey: Um, and the next, next release is going to come in the fall. (0:36:13) Codey: I believe this is on, nope, not on sale. (0:36:18) Codey: Just part of the, they’re just highlighting it. (0:36:23) Aislinn: I guess because actually I don’t know why is it not on sale it’s featured but why is it why would it not be on sale? (0:36:30) Codey: Y’all riot. Don’t. (0:36:33) Codey: I think maybe it’s because they have an update coming out. (0:36:36) Codey: So like they’re it’s showcasing that, but it’s not on sale. (0:36:39) Codey: Throw it on your wish list, people, if you’re interested in it. (0:36:43) Codey: Oh, excuse me. I need to have more coffee. (0:36:46) Aislinn: Gotta sip that donkeys. (0:36:49) Codey: Got to sip the donkeys. (0:36:51) Codey: I got people, people not on the East Coast are like. (0:36:55) Codey: What the heck? (0:36:57) Aislinn: There’s this don’t get on the west coast somewhere. (0:37:00) Codey: There’s a few, but also that we have an international audience too. (0:37:04) Codey: So Dunkin’ Donuts is an East Coast coffee place. (0:37:05) Aislinn: This is Dunkin’ in Spain! (0:37:09) Codey: Dunkin’ Donuts, but it’s like shortened to Dunkies, or my favorite is the Dunkies. (0:37:15) Codey: [LAUGH] I don’t know why I love the Dunkies so much. (0:37:20) Codey: So I have a mocha macchiato that I will actually sip from in this very moment. (0:37:23) Aislinn: Ooh, sounds good. (0:37:27) Codey: the ASMR of the ice clinking. (0:37:30) Codey: Okay, last two things. Oh my gosh. These are so exciting. Research Story. This is a game that I covered on a pod with Bev. So Research Story has a point 0.8 coming out in early May. In this you get something called the dormancy barn. So this this is another game where the developer is really working with the community and like taking their feedback and then incorporating it in a really (0:38:00) Codey: so they added this thing called the dormancy barn because people people were like whoa we’re playing this there are so many creatures that we’ve like tamed or or are researching or whatever and they’re on our farm and we have to like say hi to them every day or else they get mad and it’s just like kind of a lot to do. So you can put them in the dormancy barn and it’s just a place where they can eat and they can just like they just kind of like go dormant and they sleep and the barn has (0:38:30) Codey: to be cleaned so you don’t have to feed them and your you don’t lose your friendship with the animals at all while they’re in the dormancy barn which I think is so less stressful so if you have all these (0:38:39) Aislinn: That sounds incredibly less stressful. (0:38:50) Codey: “Put everybody else in the dormancy barn.” (0:38:52) Codey: Let ’em have a small sleep. (0:38:56) Codey: So I think that’s super cool. (0:38:57) Codey: There’s also four new creatures. (0:38:59) Codey: One is a moth that’s called Glimoth, and I love them. (0:39:02) Aislinn: That sounds so cute. (0:39:03) Codey: It’s very cute, you should totally look at the devlog on Steam. (0:39:07) Codey: And there’s also a creature compendium, (0:39:09) Codey: which I always am a fan of a journal that catalogs everything and tells you all the stuff about everything you’ve ever. (0:39:20) Codey: And also has empty spaces for things you haven’t found so that if you know, like that way you can know like, Oh, wow, (0:39:27) Codey: there’s a certain I’m trying I’m thinking about this, like in terms of Roots of Pacha, where they had like, oh, there’s all these different colors of boar. But I don’t know if I found all of them. But in the in the journal in Roots of Pacha, (0:39:42) Codey: there’s like an empty space where that’s like a boar another boar. So I’m like, okay, I know that there’s another boar color (0:39:50) Codey: not found yet. So super excited that Reesa’s story is getting that compendium. And I am I just really want to dive back into this game. I didn’t play it too too much. But I just because of the timing when we covered it on the pod, I would also play it a lot more if it was on Steam, not Steam Switch or Mac. But when it’s one point when it’s out for 1.0, I will likely jump back in (0:40:20) Codey: try and give it give it its due credit. (0:40:22) Aislinn: It definitely looks very cute, and again, it’s on sale! (0:40:25) Aislinn: That’s the theme of this episode. (0:40:25) Codey: It’s on sale. It’s on sale. Okay, last but certainly not least Tales of the Shire. So this is a game that has been greatly (0:40:28) Aislinn: It’s on sale! (0:40:41) Codey: anticipated within our community. Some of the hosts have fighting over who’s going to cover it on the pod. (0:40:50) Codey: But of course it’s going to be Al and it has to be Johnny so I will just cry in a corner. (0:40:55) Codey: There is a new trailer for Tales of the Shire and in it you actually get kind of a look at some of the gameplay, which is super cool. (0:41:01) Codey: And it just looks like it’s gonna be a cute little, I mean we knew this already, but like a cute little cozy simulator, cozy farming simulator where you’re just a hobbit in the Shire. (0:41:14) Codey: Um, yeah. (0:41:14) Aislinn: That is so cool. I’ve never watched, don’t come for me, but I’ve never watched Lord of the Rings. (0:41:22) Aislinn: But I had no idea they had this game coming out for it, and I’m like, this is so cool. (0:41:26) Codey: Well folks, this has been a great episode but I need to uninstall, delete Aislinn from me. (0:41:29) Aislinn: No, no, no, no, please. I know. (0:41:33) Codey: You have to watch Lord of the Rings! (0:41:38) Codey: No, it’s fine. (0:41:39) Codey: Um, but yeah, no, I mean, this is super cute. (0:41:42) Codey: It’s like a, you know, it kind of, I don’t, and I don’t know if they’re gonna have like little things sprinkled throughout the Shirelands, like where you can get information about, like I don’t know what time period this is in. (0:41:56) Codey: Is it in the first stage? (0:41:58) Codey: Well, it’s definitely not in the first stage. (0:41:59) Codey: Is it in the second age? (0:42:00) Codey: Is it in the third age? (0:42:01) Codey: Like, we don’t know. (0:42:02) Codey: Is this, you know, pre-frodo, post-frodo? (0:42:07) Codey: Is it just completely separate? (0:42:09) Codey: It does say that you’re in by water, so you’re not in… (0:42:13) Codey: You’re not in Hobbiton, but I wonder if they’re going to be like areas that you can go to eventually. (0:42:18) Codey: Or it can just be a completely separate thing, which is fine. (0:42:22) Codey: That would be fine. (0:42:24) Codey: So they have things like forage- (0:42:26) Codey: I got the feeling- Did you watch this trailer? (0:42:32) Codey: My ADHD is all over the place. (0:42:32) Aislinn: I’m looking at it right now. (0:42:34) Codey: I got the feeling that you can play with friends. (0:42:35) Aislinn: No, you’re fine. (0:42:38) Codey: Did you also get that feeling? (0:42:41) Aislinn: Um. I just blasted in my ear. (0:42:44) Aislinn: Oops, I meant to keep it muted. (0:42:47) Aislinn: I can’t tell to be completely honest. (0:42:51) Aislinn: You know, maybe. Yeah, maybe. (0:42:54) Codey: So this says “forage friendships” and during that time… (0:42:56) Codey: It seems like you and possibly a friend are running around, but it also could be an NPC that’s taking you foraging or something, so I’m not entirely sure, but it would be awesome if you could play this multiplayer. So you can forage, fish, cook, gardening… none of this is confirmed, (0:43:16) Codey: but just from the footage that you see looks like all of those things are available. You can also decorate your house. And then it also showed that there were (0:43:26) Codey: seasons. So yeah, I mean, I’m here for it. We’ve been here for it the whole time. There’s also an interview with the team (0:43:37) Codey: Weta Workshop, I believe it is. There’s also an interview with that team on YouTube on the YouTube channel nerd of the rings. I did not have time to watch that interview. So I am not entirely sure if they cover anything different in that. But (0:43:55) Codey: you should go take a look. (0:43:57) Codey: so is this does this like make you more interested to watch Lord of the Rings? (0:44:04) Aislinn: Oh, I I’ve been wanting to watch it. It’s just I have an incredibly bad like massive backlog of movies in general (0:44:11) Aislinn: Um that it’s just it’s just never ending (0:44:15) Aislinn: But it’s been it’s been on my list and i’ve had multiple friends that like want to do like (0:44:19) Aislinn: Lord of the ring watch parties and stuff and i’m like i’m down but also isn’t that like an entire day? (0:44:24) Aislinn: Thing like can we do it over multiple days at least? (0:44:27) Codey: Oh it would be over multiple days because it takes two days. So if you watch the if you watch the extended I believe they’re each about four hours long. And then you you also have you also have to watch The Hobbit then which is also at least three to four hours long for each movie. (0:44:32) Aislinn: Oh, oh (0:44:35) Aislinn: Oh (0:44:42) Aislinn: But honestly, I’m down though because I just I love just watching things (0:44:52) Aislinn: I mean, honestly, I’m down. It’s just it’s just the time I’m down for anything. The worst part is just finding the time for these things (0:44:53) Codey: So yeah. (0:44:57) Codey: Yeah, I throw them on in the background all the time. (0:45:02) Aislinn: But I want to watch it and then I can do that [laugh] (0:45:05) Codey: 100%, yeah, you have to do the full watch. (0:45:09) Codey: And even after you’ve done the full watch, even me having it on in the background sometimes, I’m like, I don’t think I ever realized that it’s not happening as much anymore because I’m on my 100th watch or something like that. (0:45:16) Aislinn: Yeah (0:45:21) Aislinn: Oh my gosh (0:45:22) Codey: [LAUGH] I put it on when I’m writing, so. (0:45:27) Codey: Cuz it just, again, turns off that part of my brain that wanders. (0:45:32) Aislinn: know how you do that. I cannot imagine having something with anyone speaking while I’m trying to read or write or something. I physically cannot do that. It doesn’t work. (0:45:38) Codey: - Mm-hmm. (0:45:42) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:45:45) Codey: Well, so sometimes I have to pause it, (0:45:46) Codey: but also like because, (0:45:49) Codey: so a lot of the time if anyone’s talking or talking or like if there’s any words at all, (0:45:53) Codey: like singing or talking, (0:45:54) Codey: like my brain like clicks into that because I want to know what they’re saying, (0:46:01) Codey: but because I’ve watched “Lord of the Rings” so much, (0:46:04) Codey: I know what’s gonna be said. (0:46:06) Codey: Like, I could probably do most. (0:46:08) Codey: So I, my brain doesn’t like that part of my brain. (0:46:10) Aislinn: I love that laughs (0:46:12) Codey: That’s like, what are they going to say? (0:46:13) Codey: What is, what are they going to say? (0:46:14) Codey: Like that’s, that doesn’t exist. (0:46:16) Codey: Like it just, it’s like, I know what’s going to be said. (0:46:18) Codey: It’s fine. (0:46:19) Codey: It’s kind of the same as classical music for me. (0:46:21) Codey: Like, cause again, no, no, no, no, we’re just like, yeah, just got to watch it a few million times the movies. (0:46:30) Codey: So that movie, uh, those, sorry, those movies, they’re just, they’re just, (0:46:30) Aislinn: Mm-hmm. I get what you mean. I get what you mean. I got it [laughing] (0:46:35) Codey: the movies so that movie those sorry those (0:46:38) Codey: movies, Cyrano, Puss in Boots the Last Wish, 2005 Pride and Prejudice, and I feel like I’m missing another one all of those movies are are those that movie for me like I can put on any of those and I can write write with them because I’ve seen them so much (0:46:54) Aislinn: Got a lot of hours. You can get a lot of hours of writing in with all of those movies. That’s awesome [laughs] (0:46:58) Codey: I yeah just tie them all together maybe that’s what I’ll have to do this weekend uh because I have a presentation next week that I have been putting off. (0:47:09) Codey: okay we are off the rails but we are back on the rails y’all it is time for our main topic botany manner (0:47:17) Codey: so first I just kind of wanted to like get our first thoughts and our experiences with botany manner so like how much have you played how did like when did you hear about it when did you start playing and kind of like what were your first thoughts. (0:47:33) Aislinn: So, I finished the game, I played it in one sitting, which took me, I think it was a nine hour VOD up on my Twitch, but it came down to like a seven hour, like somewhat edited YouTube VOD, so I would say it approximately took me about seven hours to finish the game, (0:47:56) Aislinn: but that’s just me being mean, being slow and everything with it. (0:47:59) Aislinn: I would say approximately you could finish it in probably five hours, give or take. (0:48:03) Aislinn: But yeah, maybe even less depending on how good you are, but so I finished the game, (0:48:08) Aislinn: I will not spoil anything, but first impressions, really, really, really liked it. Final impressions, (0:48:17) Aislinn: really, really, really liked it. Like that so much that I bought or I didn’t buy, I was going to buy, (0:48:23) Aislinn: but then my Chris fiance, he surprised me and got me the actual book from the game. And it’s like a sketchbook type of thing, and it’s pretty massive, and like… (0:48:33) Aislinn: It’s a really good quality too, like the paper quality I really like for drawing. (0:48:37) Aislinn: Well I actually draw on it, I don’t know yet, but the book itself is really, really pretty. (0:48:41) Ai

Episode 329 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Pano Anthos, Founder & Managing Director of XRC Ventures. I always love it when things come full circle. I first met Pano back in, what I believe was 2008 when he was building Hangout Industries. I was running a recruiting firm at the time and I stopped into their offices to discuss some of their hiring plans. Hangout was early to market as the company's technology in the metaverse lane was very impressive but not ready for adoption by consumers yet which apparently is still the case. It was great to come full circle years later to interview Pano for The VentureFizz Podcast and get up to speed on what he's been up to in the startup circles. Inspired by a discussion with his wife about the retail industry, Pano went off to start XRC Ventures, a venture firm & startup accelerator investing in retail tech, consumer goods and the consumer healthtech sectors. The firm's portfolio includes companies like Billie, ShopShops, Fillogic, and many more. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * A conversation about anti-dilution protection and why that is an important term for entrepreneurs to understand. * How Pano got into entrepreneurship by starting a company in the global trade industry and how the early days of the internet impacted this sector. * Other companies that Pano has been involved in like Pantero, Hangout, and others. * Launching XRC Ventures and how the accelerator works, plus what makes it unique like not having a traditional cohort program. * The details on the firm's Opportunity and Brand funds. * Thoughts on the Apple Vision Pro and spatial computing. * And so much more.

Join Miles Ward, CTO of SADA, and his guest Juan Orlandini, CTO at Insight, on the latest episode of Cloud and Clear for a deep dive into the future of cloud computing. The conversation highlights how businesses navigate the complexities of adopting cloud technologies as they explore the journey from traditional to multi-cloud and hybrid environments. They discuss the significance of adopting a pragmatic approach to cloud, the critical role of FinOps in optimizing cloud spend, and the dynamics of building a culture that embraces agile and DevOps methodologies.  The episode also touches on the exciting advancements in edge computing and AI, offering listeners valuable insights into leveraging cloud technologies for business innovation and efficiency. Whether you're a cloud enthusiast or a business leader looking to understand the cloud's impact on your operations, this episode offers rich insights and actionable advice. Migrating your workloads to Google Cloud seamlessly can be challenging, but SADA experts are here to help! Need additional support with modernizing your organization's infrastructure on Google Cloud? Book a meeting with our experts today! Tune in to this compelling episode, and don't forget to LIKE, SHARE, & SUBSCRIBE for more insightful content! ✅  

Al, Kevin, and Micah go through the games of the year and crown their winner for 2023. Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:01:42: What Have We Been Up To 00:27:56: 2023 Releases 00:34:54: Previous Winners 00:36:30: Our Nominations 01:53:00: GOTY Debate 02:08:06: Decision 02:15:50: Outro Games Mentioned Games released this year Above Snakes Before the green moon Everdream valley Fae Farm Farming Simulator 23 Flutter Away Garden Buddies Garden In Harvest Moon: The Winds of Anthos Hello Kitty: Island Adventure Homestead Arcana Innchanted Lego Fortnite Loddlenaut Mineko's Night Market Moonstone Island My Time at SAndrock Paleo Pines Roots of Pacha Rune Factory 3 Special Season: A Letter to the Future Silent Hope Smushi Come Home Spells and Secrets Spirittea Sprout Valley Steamworld Build Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life Sun Down Tchia Terra Nil Wildmender EA released in a previous year, 1.0 this year Ikonei Island Moondrop Sun Haven Coral island DDV EA released this year Cornucopia Fabledom Moonlight in Garland One Lonely Outpost Research Factory Song of the Prairie Snacko Previous Winners 2019: Doraemon SoS 2020: Summer in Mara 2021: Spiritfarer 2022: Ooblets Contact Al on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheScotBot Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Transcript (0:00:30) Al: Hello farmers and welcome to another episode of The Harvest Season. My name is Al. (0:00:39) Micah: I’m waiting, I’m waiting for you. (0:00:41) Kevin: Oh, I was waiting for you, too. I’m Micah. (0:00:44) Al: And we are here today to confuse you a lot. (0:00:46) Micah: And I’m Kev. (0:00:48) Kevin: There we go. (0:00:52) Al: It says, “We’re to talk about cottage core games.” (0:00:52) Kevin: Well, I mean, that goes without saying. (0:00:56) Al: Whoo! (0:00:57) Kevin: Whoo-hoo! (0:00:57) Al: Just, just in case people don’t know who they are, the names were the wrong way around there. (0:01:03) Al: So you know, they’re good luck. (0:01:06) Al: This is the fun episode of the year where I get two people on and we argue about which (0:01:14) Al: is the best game. (0:01:16) Al: And most of the time we come to a conclusion where we’re all accepting that that is our combined game of the year. (0:01:22) Kevin: Not this year. I refuse already. (0:01:26) Al: We will see where this year goes. (0:01:29) Al: But oh boy, oh boy, do I have some opinions. (0:01:34) Al: We’ll get to that when we get to that. (0:01:37) Al: Obviously transcripts are available for the episode and the show in general in the show notes and on the website. (0:01:44) Al: The game of the year stuff, Micah, what have you been up to? (0:01:46) Micah: I have been playing Dragon Quest Monsters 3 and I have also been playing Starfield quite a bit. (0:01:48) Al: Shock, shock harder. (0:01:52) Kevin: Good stuff. How many slimes are on your teeth? (0:01:59) Al: Interesting. What do you think? (0:02:01) Micah: I… (0:02:03) Micah: Okay. (0:02:04) Kevin: This, this is the response I hear every time I ask about it. (0:02:08) Micah: I very much understand two things. (0:02:14) Micah: I am a fan. (0:02:17) Micah: I am a fan of Bethesda game design and have been for many years. (0:02:22) Micah: So there is a level of comfort that comes with it. (0:02:27) Micah: I also understand that it is kind of dated game design. (0:02:33) Micah: And it all sort of feels the same as far as Bethesda goes. (0:02:40) Micah: But because I like that, I appreciate it. (0:02:44) Kevin: Yeah, no, that makes sense. I’m a Tetris fan, and Tetris hasn’t changed once in the 40 years it’s been out. (0:02:52) Al: That’s not true! That’s not true, Kevin. (0:02:54) Kevin: Yeah, I know that’s not true. (0:02:56) Al: We know, you know, you know that Tetris has changed. (0:02:58) Al: It has improved. It has moved with the times. (0:02:59) Kevin: Yeah, it is. (0:03:01) Micah: Tetris Effect is one of the greatest Tetris games of all time. Tetris 99. I would say, (0:03:04) Al: Exactly. Exactly. (0:03:06) Micah: I would actually argue that Tetris has done more changing than most franchises do. It’s kind of impressive. I don’t know, it’s kids. It can be cozy, right? Tetris can be a cozy (0:03:14) Kevin: You’re right, especially one we’re a fan of in particular. (0:03:19) Al: You don’t come, we don’t come for Tetris here, Kevin. (0:03:22) Kevin: I mean, we could. (0:03:28) Kevin: We could argue which one’s the best shaped piece. (0:03:31) Al: They also have their scam game that Cody’s playing. (0:03:31) Micah: Their scam game? No. (0:03:34) Kevin: Ah, well. (0:03:35) Al: Oh, have you not heard this, Micah? She’s playing a game that, like, you get points and then apparently once you hit a million or two million points you can win a free cruise, (0:03:45) Al: and I’m convinced it’s a scam. I’m waiting for the day that she gets to the right number of points and then, like, we never hear from her again because she’s, like, shipped off to have our organs harvested or something. (0:03:45) Micah: What? That does sound kinda scary. (0:03:49) Kevin: It does. (0:03:57) Micah: Dear God, all because of Tetris. (0:04:03) Kevin: Well, at least she had fun getting there. (0:04:05) Al: Anyway, so Starfield. (0:04:06) Kevin: That sounds like the game of the year to me. (0:04:10) Al: So what you’re saying is, if you like Starfield, you’ll like Starfield. (0:04:13) Al: That’s what you’re saying. (0:04:14) Micah: Yeah, if you like Bethesda games, Bethesda RPGs, (0:04:20) Micah: then you’ll probably like Starfield. (0:04:22) Micah: I think that there’s a lot of really neat things that they do with the. (0:04:27) Micah: Like space travel portions of it, there’s there’s a lot of really cool the like ship combat, space combat and stuff like that is very, very interesting. (0:04:37) Micah: It’s fun and the more that you kind of get comfortable with the how things function in the world, the you know, the more comfy of a game it is to. (0:04:49) Kevin: Okay, serious question. Have you played No Man’s Sky? (0:04:52) Micah: I have. (0:04:53) Kevin: to that (0:04:55) Micah: It is like if no man’s sky. (0:04:57) Micah: I had way more polished and was much more fleshed out and had much more like story elements to it. (0:05:09) Micah: I think that like primarily my enjoyment of Bethesda games comes from their writing. (0:05:17) Micah: And because there are just as an example, there’s a quest that I stumbled on by… (0:05:27) Micah: killing a space pirate and when I looked in his inventory there was a note and when I read the note that it unlocked this huge side quest that was like hours long. (0:05:40) Micah: Which is like I could have very easily missed that. (0:05:44) Micah: And I love that there’s such depth to like how stories play, like side stories even play out in Bethesda games like that. (0:05:57) Micah: So many times in Elder Scrolls games and things, you know, I’ll just stumble onto a cave and there’s a really deep story that’s written into this group that moved into this cave or whatever and it’s something that you could very easily miss. (0:06:16) Micah: It really makes me appreciate how much effort they put into writing things that people could never play in their, you know… (0:06:27) Micah: They’ll play through the game but there’s plenty of that in Starfield. (0:06:36) Al: Yeah, I think that’s fair. I’ve have enjoyed seeing a lot of the stuff online about all the kind of like side stuff, which has been for me, probably more fun than actually playing the game would be. So like, I totally get if you enjoy the game, then it makes it so much more fun, right? Because you’re finding all these things and just kind of stumble across this. But yeah, for me, it’s like, yeah, I enjoy watching someone post about it online or post a video or something like that. I think I know the side story you’re talking about, because that’s that’s the one that most people tend to go to. (0:06:42) Micah: Mm hmm. Yeah. (0:06:48) Kevin: Yeah. (0:07:12) Micah: Yeah, it’s a pretty important one because it, especially early on it, it gives you access to things that you would not have otherwise, that are pretty important. (0:07:22) Al: Yeah, you just confirmed it’s the one I’m thinking of. (0:07:28) Al: OK, well, I’m glad you’re enjoying it. That’s the important thing. That’s what we play games for. (0:07:30) Kevin: Yeah, well, we, we actually could do greenhouse. (0:07:32) Micah: And you know, I could talk about Dragon Quest monsters endlessly, but I’ll save everybody’s. (0:07:37) Micah: I’ll save everyone’s ears for… (0:07:40) Kevin: I didn’t all gladly listen to Dragon Quest talk for. (0:07:42) Al: Let’s discuss that later. (0:07:44) Micah: Yeah, I think that’s probably what I’m gonna be hanging on to that for is the the later (0:07:52) Al: Awesome. Kevin, what have you been up to? (0:07:55) Kevin: So it’s been a hot mince I’ve been on I think and the biggest life update for people who haven’t heard I have kittens now (0:08:05) Micah: kittens? No. When you okay, when you say kittens, obviously plural, how many are we talking here? (0:08:06) Kevin: Have I not showing you the mic oh I will text you a picture right now (0:08:11) Kevin: Yes (0:08:15) Kevin: We’re talking too so We started off with one (0:08:20) Kevin: So we’re looking for a new place to move into and at one of the places we’ve kittens they were giving (0:08:25) Kevin: away and so we took one home and then after some discussions we said you know what I bet this kitten could use a companion so we went back and got one got one of her brothers and so we now went from no kittens to two kittens pretty much out of the blue their names are teddy and daisy (0:08:52) Kevin: They are about seven, eight weeks. (0:08:55) Kevin: They are about eight weeks old. (0:08:57) Kevin: This is my first time owning cats. I’ve had a dog before, but never cats. (0:09:02) Kevin: It’s been enjoyable there. (0:09:04) Kevin: Fun, energetic, Daisy in particular is a little gremlin who loves to run around. (0:09:08) Kevin: Teddy, the brother, he’s a lot more chill. (0:09:11) Kevin: He is, yeah, I’m loving them so far. I love animals, right? (0:09:15) Kevin: And they were so little when we got them. (0:09:17) Kevin: They were only like four weeks old when we got them. (0:09:20) Kevin: So they were really little. They were like tripled in size. (0:09:23) Kevin: I took them to the vet for the first time. (0:09:25) Kevin: Yesterday, and aren’t they precious I I will have to find of us an alpix so he can post it with the show (0:09:26) Micah: Oh my god. (0:09:33) Micah: Who who’s the which one is the white and gray one? (0:09:37) Kevin: That’s Daisy (0:09:38) Micah: That’s Daisy. (0:09:39) Kevin: Mm-hmm and then (0:09:40) Micah: Daisy looks very much like my brother’s cat, zero, who is 18 years old. (0:09:43) Kevin: Oh really, huh Wow Wow, that’s strong (0:09:48) Micah: But the like identical like pattern and facial structure and. (0:09:51) Kevin: Yeah, yeah, Teddy’s really cute. He’s got a tuxedo (0:09:55) Kevin: pattern. He’s got gray fur, but like little white paws and, um, and Daisy’s black or black gray spots. Yeah, they’re adorable. Um, so yeah, they can be a handful at times as I’m sure cat owners know they can get all over the place. (0:10:10) Kevin: But, um, but I’ve been enjoying. Um, so, uh, yeah, that’s the big thing really. But, uh, (0:10:16) Kevin: other than that, probably the biggest things I’ve been playing lately. Um, I’ve really been getting through Tears of the Kingdom finally. I’ve pretty much (0:10:25) Kevin: at the finish line I’ve done all the big quests I’m just kind of going around hitting up all the shrines and filling out the map and so on and so forth but I could go take on Ganon anytime. That game is phenomenal it’s great I mean I don’t have to go in-depth about it I’m sure everyone knows how good it is right right but yeah very good game I yeah not much I probably could add and then the The other one is a… (0:10:42) Al: Speaking of games that have secrets. (0:10:55) Kevin: Street Fighter 6 (0:10:58) Kevin: So I am a fighting game fan. I am bad at them, but I love them (0:11:03) Micah: Hey, me too. (0:11:04) Kevin: I picked it up. Yeah, yeah, you got right. I’ve only played two weeks (0:11:07) Micah: On both fronts. (0:11:10) Kevin: Have you picked up Street Fighter 6? (0:11:11) Micah: I have not. (0:11:12) Kevin: Micah, okay (0:11:12) Micah: I have some friends that I have watched play. (0:11:14) Kevin: Okay (0:11:18) Micah: And I have some friends that are extremely good at Street Fighter. (0:11:23) Kevin: Yeah, yeah good. Oh man, hats off to them. (0:11:24) Micah: So I’ve seen some, you know, stuff that I’ve seen gameplay that I don’t fully understand because it’s too… (0:11:33) Micah: high level for my small brain to comprehend, but… (0:11:40) Kevin: That’s fine, I’m playing it and it happens to me. (0:11:45) Kevin: So yeah, the two big things, I mean Street Fighter, right? (0:11:47) Kevin: It’s the iconic series, (0:11:48) Kevin: so I’m sure people know what it’s all about, it’s fighting. (0:11:51) Kevin: But the two big things that it brings, (0:11:54) Kevin: the first is called modern controls. (0:11:57) Kevin: They have a new control scheme (0:12:02) Kevin: that simplifies basically playing the game. (0:12:05) Kevin: So traditionally you’d have to do a motion on your control stick and a button and all sorts of crazy combinations to get moves out. (0:12:15) Kevin: But they simplified it, (0:12:16) Kevin: where you can get moves out with just the press of a button. (0:12:20) Kevin: It’s very beginner friendly. (0:12:23) Kevin: Because of the convenience of that, (0:12:25) Kevin: they balanced it by reducing the strength of the moves and things like that. (0:12:32) Kevin: I think it’s great. (0:12:33) Kevin: I don’t play it much myself, I like the classic stuff, (0:12:36) Kevin: but it’s fun to see people use it and be able to play, (0:12:41) Kevin: get in without having to worry about not being able to do the moves. (0:12:44) Kevin: I say that as someone who is not always able to do the moves. (0:12:50) Kevin: And the second big thing that they have is called world tour mode. (0:12:53) Kevin: Have you guys heard of this at all? (0:12:56) Kevin: Yeah, oh man. (0:12:58) Kevin: So World Tour Mode is their single player campaign. (0:13:02) Kevin: The real kicker is that it’s a create a character mode. (0:13:08) Kevin: So you create your own fighter, but they’re sliders to your physical attributes. (0:13:16) Kevin: So you can be as tall, skinny, short, whatever you want. (0:13:19) Kevin: You can make monstrosity looking characters and it will affect your gameplay. (0:13:24) Kevin: If you have long arms, you will be able to punch farther or whatever. (0:13:29) Kevin: It’s pretty fun making your own character. (0:13:32) Kevin: I love it. You can hang out with the cast, which are filled with fun dumb moments. (0:13:46) Kevin: You can text all the street fighters. It’s really funny. (0:13:48) Micah: I am a big fan of a really ridiculous character. (0:13:48) Kevin: It’s so good. It’s probably the most ridiculous one. Just today I saw somebody look like a spaghetti with arms. (0:14:02) Kevin: It’s so good. There’s an online mode where you can bring your creative characters. You can have your freak matches. It’s great. (0:14:10) Kevin: Everything about that game is fantastic. The presentation, the music, the online play works great. I rarely have any bad connections for matches. (0:14:22) Kevin: I’m the character I picked up. Her name is Manon. She is a French supermodel. (0:14:32) Kevin: She is also a judo wrestler. She throws all of that in her move. She does struts, she does pirouettes, and she’ll grow you around. (0:14:40) Kevin: She’s very fun to play. That’s what I’ve been up to. (0:14:44) Kevin: Alright, Senor Al, what about you? (0:14:48) Al: Not a huge amount. It’s been a weird week, but I’ve been playing a bit of a Highland song. So for Micah, probably, who isn’t aware, it’s a platforming game based in the Scottish Highlands, and part of it is rhythm based. And it’s absolutely gorgeous. It has great music. The story is really good, and I don’t play games with the sound on, but I… (0:15:18) Al: can’t play this game with the sound off. Like, it’s just even outside of the rhythm, but it’s just so good. Yeah. Like, a Highland song. And it’s fantastic. So, okay, yeah, (0:15:30) Kevin: Okay, what are the rhythm portions like, because I know it was the Scottish game, but I don’t know what it’s like. (0:15:36) Al: okay. That’s a fair question. That’s a fair question. So, to preamble to that, the idea is that you’ve got all these mountains, and you’re climbing over them, and you’re trying (0:15:48) Al: to get to specific points. And there are places in the game where, as you are walking, (0:15:54) Al: it will tell you to press B to run. And then as you’re running across a terrain, there are things in the way, and the rhythm bit is you have to press it in time to the music to keep going and jump over the rhythm. (0:16:08) Kevin: Okay, that’s fascinating. Huh. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a rhythm platformer in the (0:16:19) Micah: This is beautiful. (0:16:20) Al: Right. Right. And the best thing is, so when you’re standing on, when you’re standing on a hill in the game and you can see all of the hills around you, all of those hills are hills you can go to in the game. (0:16:32) Kevin: Oh wow, that’s nice. (0:16:34) Micah: Wow. Yeah, this is a really pretty game. I’ve never heard of this. (0:16:38) Al: Yeah, it’s really I’m loving it. It’s great. Yeah, yeah, I came out a couple weeks ago. (0:16:39) Micah: Is it new? (0:16:44) Al: But it’s fantastic. And all the Scottish accents are legitimate. So no terrible Shrek voices. (0:16:50) Kevin: But, I mean, come on, don’t you want at least one Shrek in there? (0:16:52) Al: No, no, no. Definitely not. Never, never, never. Shrek is fine in Shrek. Not outside. (0:16:56) Micah: No, that was a very immediate no. (0:17:00) Micah: No, no, no, no, no, no. (0:17:00) Kevin: Ah, fair enough. (0:17:06) Al: We have enough fake Scottish. (0:17:08) Al: Voices in the world, there are very few things where we actually get proper Scottish voices. (0:17:13) Al: So it’s nice to actually hear some. (0:17:14) Kevin: Fair enough. (0:17:15) Kevin: Is David Tennant in it? (0:17:17) Al: I don’t think so, no. (0:17:18) Kevin: the- I’m sorry. That’s a missed (0:17:21) Al: His voice, there was something, I can’t remember what it was I was watching the other day and I was like, “Oh, that’s David Tennant.” Like I always, anytime I hear him doing his normal voice, (0:17:29) Al: it’s like such a distinctive voice for me that I’m like, “Oh.” It’s like, (0:17:33) Al: Every so often, somebody learns that David Tennant is Scrooge McDuck. (0:17:38) Al: And they’re like, “What? How’s David Tennant?” I’m like, “How could you not tell? His voice is just so distinctly his voice.” (0:17:39) Kevin: Yeah, yeah. (0:17:40) Kevin: - That’s… (0:17:47) Kevin: I, I didn’t know, I mean, I, I watched, I’m a big fan of the reboot of DuckTales, but I didn’t know it was David Tennant till a little bit in. (0:17:48) Al: Maybe that’s a Scottish thing, I don’t know. (0:17:57) Kevin: Um, and I didn’t realize he was Scottish. (0:17:59) Kevin: That’s, it’s really funny. (0:18:00) Al: Yeah, he’s not putting on a voice. He’s slightly emphasizing it, but that’s basically just his voice. (0:18:04) Kevin: Yeah, sure. (0:18:06) Al: Yeah, don’t do that again, Kevin. (0:18:06) Kevin: I like how he says “Gad-age” in the first episode. (0:18:09) Kevin: I always remember that one. (0:18:13) Kevin: That’s how he says it. (0:18:17) Al: So yeah, I’ve mostly been playing that and also been playing Pokemon because of the Flubbebe outbreaks, as I said, in the show notes. (0:18:27) Micah: Oh, that’s right (0:18:30) Al: baby baby. (0:18:31) Micah: Forgot that was going on. I forget it’s uh, well baby now and then (0:18:39) Kevin: Milsory in the (0:18:42) Al: So it’s current Flababy in Poldea. It is… no, it is not. It is Litwick in Kitakami. (0:18:48) Kevin: 3 in Kitikami. (0:18:52) Micah: Mmm. Yeah, because milsry is not in the game. (0:18:53) Al: Milcery isn’t in the game yet. Milcery will be in the Blueberry Academy when it comes out. So that’s why it’s not Milcery yet. It’s because it’s in the new region in the DLC. I think it’s just called the Blueberry Academy. Yeah. (0:19:01) Kevin: I haven’t gotten the DLC yet. (0:19:05) Micah: So just the new region, do we know what the new region is called? (0:19:07) Micah: Other than just, it’s the Blueberry Academy, is it just Blueberry Academy? (0:19:10) Kevin: That’s it. (0:19:11) Kevin: Yeah, it’s like an- it’s a- yeah, it’s part of- it’s Unovan territory, I guess, I know, (0:19:16) Kevin: but it’s like an artificial island sort of thing. (0:19:20) Al: Yeah, they call it like the. (0:19:21) Kevin: Terrarium. (0:19:24) Kevin: Yeah. (0:19:26) Micah: means I almost fear honest I mean it’s the like vibe that I got from it when I yeah we’ll see it’s always we’ll see (0:19:26) Kevin: Yeah. (0:19:28) Al: Yeah, it is pretty much, hopefully less evil, but we’ll see. (0:19:29) Kevin: now. (0:19:31) Kevin: Yeah, [LAUGH] I might get the DLC finally, the trit look. (0:19:40) Al: Oh, they are calling it the ceranium. (0:19:42) Al: They are calling it. (0:19:44) Micah: I was just recently finishing up my Pokedex, my like living decks in Violet in preparation for the DLC, but (0:19:57) Micah: there’s a lot of just figuring out how to who I knew who had the other Sinnoh starters, because you only get the like one egg. (0:20:11) Micah: And it’s dependent on, I guess, dependent on what starter you picked for. (0:20:15) Micah: For scarlet or violet. (0:20:16) Al: I think it was, or maybe it was random, I can’t- (0:20:20) Micah: I feel like it was, yeah, it seemed like from trying to track down where I would find a Piplup, it was, it was through like deduction power, the power of deduction (0:20:34) Micah: through who had what starter from the, from Paldea. (0:20:38) Micah: So I don’t know if that’s actually the case or not, but that’s, that’s how I managed to figure out who had. (0:20:44) Al: Yeah, I could probably find out if I cared enough. (0:20:52) Al: I mean, I still like, I don’t, I’m still enjoying it and I’m really looking forward to the new DLC, but Kevin, you don’t need to play it. (0:21:00) Al: You can just not. (0:21:02) Micah: It’s true. It’s true. I will say that I felt. (0:21:02) Kevin: Look, I’m– (0:21:09) Micah: I think we talked about this the last time I was on, actually. (0:21:10) Al: We did. (0:21:12) Al: We had a whole greenhouse episode about it. (0:21:14) Micah: I finally finished the DLC, the first DLC, because that was the right. (0:21:18) Al: Oh, yes. (0:21:19) Al: Yes. (0:21:19) Al: Cause you hadn’t finished it when we did the greenhouse. (0:21:21) Micah: And that is like rare for me, because I I go (0:21:25) Micah: pretty hard into Pokemon stuff when it launches for the first time. (0:21:28) Micah: So to not do that is kind of a new. (0:21:32) Micah: New and weird thing for me, but I finally finished it and I did enjoy it, but I did feel that it was a very, I don’t know, I just, I’ve, I’m still feeling like I’ve kind of become disillusioned with modern Pokemon to some degree, but. (0:21:49) Kevin: I mean and okay like to not I’m you know, I (0:21:54) Kevin: Notoriously nag on the game, but to pull the veil down a little to be you the more genuine here. I (0:22:00) Kevin: Do think the trailer for the upcoming one part looks good. I’m a bit excited for what I see (0:22:07) Kevin: the only part that (0:22:08) Al: Careful. (0:22:10) Kevin: Yeah, I know the only part that really irritates me is the flying thing how it’s locked behind the DLC because (0:22:18) Al: Yeah, I agree (0:22:19) Kevin: It’s just with knowing how the development cycle works and the timing of everything. It feels very intentional. They put bad flying (0:22:28) Al: Well, here’s the thing, I don’t care if it’s like, “Oh, we couldn’t get it done in time for release,” right? (0:22:34) Al: You still don’t have to lock it behind the DLC. (0:22:34) Kevin: Right. Exactly. Yeah. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yeah. Okay. But. (0:22:36) Al: They have updates. (0:22:37) Al: Every game has updates when there’s DLCs. (0:22:40) Al: So you absolutely don’t need to. (0:22:41) Al: It’s absolutely a very specific choice to lock that quality of life feature behind a purchase and that is bad and we should absolutely call that out. (0:22:49) Al: It’s not going to stop me buying the game though. (0:22:52) Micah: Yeah, I’m kind of in the same position. (0:22:56) Micah: I think there’s a lot of stuff that could just generally as far as the development cycle goes could have been changed for the better. (0:23:10) Micah: I had mentioned a little bit the like one time I’ve been on Twitter in the last like month after they talked about the they released. (0:23:22) Micah: It’s the new trailer this last week, I think. (0:23:24) Al: Yeah. (0:23:25) Micah: And they showed off the the like Pokemon control mode. (0:23:30) Micah: I forgot what they call it, but you can control the sync mode where you can control the Pokemon and run around as the Pokemon. (0:23:32) Al: Oh, yes, yeah, synchronize. Yeah. (0:23:32) Kevin: The sync mode thing. (0:23:40) Micah: And it seemingly has not much of a like use case other than you can battle Pokemon, but you just run around as a Pokemon. (0:23:50) Micah: And that to me, it. (0:23:52) Micah: Immediately, like I’d think back to when the games first came out and how much like disgruntledness there was with certain elements of the design that the games design, like how you couldn’t go into any of the houses. (0:24:09) Micah: But then they, you know, when they clipped out of bounds, then they found that there were like half designed internal locations like you could have gone into. (0:24:20) Micah: but it was very clear that they ran. (0:24:22) Micah: Out of time in the development cycle, just couldn’t, uh, so there are things like that where like I, it makes me feel like sync mode. (0:24:29) Micah: It was something that they just ran out of time on. (0:24:32) Al: So that’s possible, but I also think it could be along the lines of, like, let’s go Pikachu and Eevee to Legends, where we saw a clear direction they were moving. (0:24:43) Al: And it’s not necessarily, like, I don’t think anyone would say that the catching in Let’s Go was the way it was because they didn’t have enough time to do what they ended up doing in Legends, but it was more like a kind of moving in that kind of direction. (0:24:57) Al: And we see this with a lot of things in Pokémon where they do that, where it’s like, it’s It’s just a, it’s a. (0:25:02) Al: You’re prerequisite and the kind of like the game, it’s not like here’s a game, let’s build a game. Here’s another game. Let’s build another game, right? Like they’re constantly doing all these different things in these different games and having these different ideas. And that’s true. (0:25:04) Kevin: Yeah, baby steps. (0:25:16) Kevin: These I don’t think these are mutually exclusive either like (0:25:16) Micah: I think that I think that that I agree with that that makes sense. (0:25:22) Micah: But I do feel like there is a level of like (0:25:26) Micah: half baked development process for some of these things. (0:25:30) Micah: And I I am willing to, you know, give (0:25:30) Kevin: Oh, oh, they’re deaf at least. (0:25:34) Micah: well, for like like you said, for let’s go. (0:25:37) Micah: I think the the catch feature for let’s go was meant to more mimic Pokemon. (0:25:41) Micah: Go like it was very clearly there, like (0:25:46) Micah: the motion point between the main games and Pokemon go so that. (0:25:51) Micah: You know, catching style was intended to feel like I mean, it does feel like especially the motion control portion feels like Pokemon go. (0:25:52) Al: I mean, kind of, kind of, but I also like, with then we got only a few years later, legends, (0:26:05) Al: like it feels like it was what they kind of wanted to move towards and they were trying different things and this is what they ended up with. I don’t think it was just like, oh, (0:26:15) Al: let’s just make Pokemon go in a main series game. Like, I think it was, you know, they (0:26:22) Al: had a game which was legends where you were actually running around and literally just throwing Pokeballs at Pokemon, right? But, look, it’s not, yeah, I mean, it does show a flaw in how they developed their games and that these were almost certainly developed in parallel and therefore you can’t know what’s going to be popular and what’s going to end up working really well before you do it the next one. Yeah, I don’t disagree with you. (0:26:30) Kevin: And then they said, “Let’s go backwards at the next game.” (0:26:52) Al: I want that again. But anyway, we don’t need to keep talking about Pokemon. Let’s move on, shall we? This happens every couple of months we end up on another Scarlet and Violet delve. It did, it did. It did, but, you know, I need to save some of my Pokemon talk for a different podcast. Anyway, it’s, wow. Wow. (0:27:03) Kevin: But the trailer just came out. It was… it was gonna- (0:27:16) Kevin: We’re doing a worst games of the year pocket. (0:27:22) Al: Anyway, that’s what we’ve been up to. And I’m glad that we got a good half an hour out of that because there is no news because this is recorded out of time. Because I don’t know about you guys, but I did not want to record this on, you know, Hogman A. So we’re recording it a few weeks early. (0:27:46) Kevin: Where’s your dedication out? (0:27:49) Micah: What do you have things to do geez [laughs] (0:27:52) Al: So yes, yes, I do. So we are here to discuss our favourite games of the year and hopefully come to a conclusion on what the podcast’s game of the year is. So begins the part of the podcast where I read a bunch of words. So I am going to go down all of the games that were released this year. And at what point does this become ridiculous? I don’t know is this the most (0:28:22) Al: games we’ve had released in a year since we started the podcast? (0:28:24) Al: Yes, it absolutely is. (0:28:24) Kevin: Probably. (0:28:26) Al: Absolutely insane. (0:28:27) Al: One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, nine. (0:28:29) Kevin: More than three, I’ll tell you that. (0:28:31) Kevin: I didn’t know Homestead Arcana- (0:28:32) Al: So 30, 30, 30 games, (0:28:36) Al: 31, 30, 35 games, and then one, two, three, four, five, six, seven released (0:28:42) Al: into Early Access. So was that 42, 42 games in this list? (0:28:47) Al: So this is the first list is the list of (0:28:50) Al: that were released. (0:28:52) Al: Not into early access and they previously weren’t in early access. (0:28:56) Al: This is brand new games this year. (0:28:58) Al: Brand new games not early access. (0:29:00) Al: I don’t know why I overcomplicated this, but here this is what we’re doing. (0:29:04) Al: So this is Above Snakes, Before the Green Moon, Everdream Valley, Fae Farm, Farming Simulator 23, Flutter Away, Garden Buddies, Garden Inn, Harvest Moon, The Winds of Anthos, Homestead Arcana, Enchanted, Loddle Knot, (0:29:20) Al: Maneko’s Night Market. (0:29:22) Al: And this is me just double-taking. (0:29:48) Micah: Now if you thought that was it. (0:29:52) Kevin: I’m gonna feel bad when one of the real games of the year is in here and the ones that I didn’t play. (0:29:52) Al: Well, this is part of the problem. (0:30:00) Al: So next we have five games that were released in 1.0 this year and early access a previous year. (0:30:07) Al: OK, so they were already out, but they came to their 1.0. (0:30:11) Al: They left early access this year. (0:30:13) Al: That’s a better way of describing it. (0:30:14) Al: These games left early access this year. (0:30:16) Al: And we have Icone Island, Mindrop, Sunhaven, Coral– (0:30:22) Al: Island, and Disney Dreamlight Valley. (0:30:24) Al: And then we have the list of seven games that came into early access this year. (0:30:28) Al: And that is Cornucopia, Fabledom, Moonlight in Garland, One Lonely Outpost, (0:30:35) Al: Research Story, Song of the Prairie, and Snacko. (0:30:39) Al: Hey, Micah, is this the first time you’re learning that Snacko’s in early access? (0:30:42) Al: Or did you know that already? (0:30:43) Micah: Uh, no, yesterday when I opened Notion was the first time I learned this neck wasn’t really (0:30:50) Al: Well, surprise! (0:30:52) Al: in early access now. (0:30:55) Micah: I have I’ve played the betas or the alphas, sorry. (0:31:01) Micah: And I have decided that I don’t want to do much more with the game until it (0:31:10) Micah: they get a full release because I love it. (0:31:13) Micah: love it so far and I don’t want to overdo it. (0:31:16) Kevin: Yep, don’t burn yourself out on it. I know somebody who was a big fan of Hades, but they only played in the Early Access and they burned themselves out. (0:31:23) Micah: I don’t think I could burn myself out on it really as much as it’s just that like, I don’t want to miss out like because I backed it. And I want to, I don’t know, experience the full experience I’ve experienced so much of it at this point. (0:31:38) Al: I think that’s fair. I got to the same point with Coral Island last year where I was like, (0:31:43) Al: “And now I’m going to put it down into 1.0.” But I mean, that was like 40 hours or 50 hours or something like that. It was more than I play a lot of games, you know? And I didn’t feel like playing that much ruined the experience for me when I came to the final version, because I’ve put in more than… I’m up to 100 hours now in that game. So I think it depends on the game. (0:31:55) Micah: Mm-hmm. (0:32:07) Al: Uhh. (0:32:07) Al: Ah. (0:32:08) Al: But that is a fair point. (0:32:11) Al: I have not decided what I’m going to do with Snacko. (0:32:14) Al: I’ve not decided yet. (0:32:16) Kevin: Why did nobody tell me homestead arcana came out? I would have played it, I missed that. (0:32:21) Al: Kevin! (0:32:23) Kevin: I’ve been here. (0:32:24) Micah: Have I got news for you. (0:32:29) Al: Kevin, you literally, we literally have a shared list of all of these games and when they coming out, you can look at it all the time and I’m constantly updating it just to let you know that is a thing. (0:32:31) Kevin: Well, hey. (0:32:42) Kevin: You assume I read these even when we’re recording. (0:32:43) Al: Nope, I don’t assume that at all, but I will complain about it. (0:32:49) Al: So any thoughts before we get into listing our favorite games, any thoughts on the list as a whole? (0:32:56) Al: Here we go. (0:32:56) Kevin: Umm… (0:32:57) Kevin: Ugh… (0:32:58) Micah: It’s a good list (0:32:59) Kevin: It’s a very good list. It’s too good. (0:33:01) Micah: It’s a strong list that I (0:33:06) Micah: when I opened this this document and looked at it I was a (0:33:11) Micah: Surprised that so many games had come out this year and be a little bit (0:33:17) Micah: Concerned about how few of these games I actually played (0:33:20) Kevin: Exactly! (0:33:22) Kevin: Alright, time to strike out all the ones none of us have played. (0:33:26) Al: Yeah, no, that’s fair. And I think it is interesting, right? Because like, I’ve now been tracking these games. I think I have all of the farming games that have released ever now in my list. (0:33:36) Al: And so that’s 47 this year. Last year, there were 24. In 2021, there were 15. In 2020, (0:33:46) Al: there were nine. In 2019, there were 13. And then we’ve got like, between 2016 and 2018, (0:33:54) Al: were 16. (0:33:56) Al: So that’s like a three-year span, and they were the same number as they were in 2021. (0:34:03) Al: And then 2010 to 2015, there were 12 of them, half of which were just farming simulator, (0:34:10) Kevin: Yeah. (0:34:10) Al: and the other half were just harvest moon. (0:34:13) Al: That’s not true. (0:34:16) Al: There were three harvest moons, two rune factories in one story of seasons, and an animal crossing. (0:34:21) Al: So the rest were farming simulator. (0:34:23) Al: And then the five years before that, there were 17. (0:34:26) Al: It is wild that Stardew Valley is eight years old in February, just saying. (0:34:36) Kevin: Yup, thanks Stardew Valley. (0:34:43) Kevin: You changed the whole landscape of the genre of gaming, thanks. (0:34:50) Kevin: I thought it was older, to be honest. (0:34:53) Al: No, 2016. (0:34:56) Al: Right. (0:34:56) Al: Well, I mean, shall we get right into it then? (0:34:59) Al: Let’s go for one each around, what should we do around the table? (0:35:04) Al: One each. (0:35:04) Kevin: All right. (0:35:05) Al: And we can tell, say what the game is and tell me why you’ve got it in the list. (0:35:12) Al: And we’re not doing, no, it’s a terrible game. (0:35:15) Al: So Micah, would you like to go with your first one? (0:35:18) Micah: Uhhh… Can I go with my wildcard first? (0:35:20) Al: You can, you can go in whatever order you want. (0:35:22) Al: If you want to leave your strongest for last, go for it. (0:35:25) Al: if you want to start with your strong. (0:35:26) Al: Go for it if you want to do your crazy one first, do what you want. (0:35:29) Micah: I’m going to get my wild card out of the way because I know that it’s not going to go very far so. (0:35:31) Al: Let’s go for it. (0:35:34) Al: Never assume these things, you have no idea what’s going to happen. (0:35:37) Micah: OK, that’s true. You’re right. My my. (0:35:37) Kevin: I, I, yep, I. (0:35:39) Al: Oh wait, before we get into that, let me just quickly. (0:35:45) Al: I want to go through what we have had as our games of the year in the past. (0:35:51) Al: Last year, Ooblets won. (0:35:54) Al: 2022, Ooblets won. (0:35:57) Al: But it did. (0:35:58) Al: 2021 was Spiritfarer. (0:36:01) Al: 2020 was Summer in Mara. (0:36:04) Al: And 2019 was the Raymon Story of Seasons. (0:36:07) Kevin: Wildflower was robbed. (0:36:09) Micah: What year was Wildflowers? (0:36:11) Kevin: I don’t I (0:36:11) Micah: Oh. I mean. (0:36:11) Al: Yeah, Wildflowers last year. (0:36:13) Micah: Ooblitz though. (0:36:16) Al: None of the three of us had played it. (0:36:18) Al: And Kevin, you hadn’t played it by that point either. (0:36:20) Al: So… (0:36:21) Micah: Also- Also Ooblitz is- (0:36:21) Kevin: That is correct. (0:36:26) Al: Ooblets was the only… (0:36:27) Al: Well, you hadn’t played Ooblets, but me and Bev had. (0:36:30) Micah: Yes. (0:36:31) Al: And you had a wild card last year as well. (0:36:33) Al: So what’s your wild card this year? (0:36:35) Micah: What was my wildcard last year? (0:36:37) Al: Shinshan Summer Vacation. (0:36:38) Micah: Oh, I mean, that is actually I still stand by that. (0:36:44) Al: Look, I’m not saying it’s a bat, I’m just saying. (0:36:46) Al: Like it was a little bit out of life field, (0:36:47) Al: neither of us had heard of that game before you brought it up. (0:36:50) Micah: Well, let me tell you about my wildcard for this year, which I guarantee you have heard of. (0:36:55) Micah: There is absolutely no scenario where you have not heard of this game. (0:37:00) Micah: Are you ready? (0:37:02) Kevin: Is it the princess game? (0:37:03) Micah: It is Fortnite. (0:37:07) Al: OK, why? (0:37:08) Al: OK, so you– wait, no, no, right. (0:37:10) Al: OK, so, Micah, you’re telling me that over the past three days, (0:37:12) Micah: Uh-huh. Yeah. (0:37:16) Micah: Yes. (0:37:17) Al: you have played this game enough to consider it one of your favourite games of the year? (0:37:20) Micah: I would say that there’s a reason that it’s a wild card. (0:37:27) Micah: And I would say that it is probably the reason that it’s in my list is not because I would (0:37:33) Micah: personally consider it one of my favorite games of the year. (0:37:36) Micah: But I think that it is a very important bridge (0:37:42) Micah: for the wider Fortnite audience, which is massive, into the world of farming sims. (0:37:50) Al: Well, we will have talked about it in a previous episode, so. (0:37:50) Kevin: And hey, if we let them win… (0:37:52) Micah: For anybody that is confused by this and doesn’t understand why Fortnite is part of this conversation, (0:37:59) Micah: they just released… (0:38:02) Micah: Yes, the Fortnite, the LEGO Fortnite mode has been released as of three days ago. So… (0:38:10) Al: And for some reason, it’s basically Minecraft, but with more farming. It’s wild! (0:38:10) Kevin: Minecraft for tonight. (0:38:12) Micah: Yes, and also as Legos, and it’s in Fortnite. (0:38:15) Kevin: Yeah. (0:38:18) Micah: I don’t really know if there’s aside from skins and characters, there’s not. (0:38:21) Kevin: Wait, is it actually Lego brand? Lego? What? Holy moly. (0:38:24) Al: It is, it is. (0:38:25) Micah: Yes, it’s actually Lego brand. (0:38:28) Micah: And it’s you are just building Lego, (0:38:30) Micah: like a Lego like homestead basically of a village in the wild. (0:38:36) Kevin: That’s… (0:38:37) Micah: It’s essentially a survival, it’s more of a survival game than it is like (0:38:42) Kevin: Mm-hmm. (0:38:42) Micah: a farming sim. (0:38:43) Micah: So it’s more like you gotta eat and you gotta, there is, (0:38:44) Kevin: It’s all Minecraft. (0:38:44) Al: Yeah, but there does seem to be a decent amount of farming in it. (0:38:49) Micah: there is a decent amount of farming in it. (0:38:51) Micah: And I’ll say that I have played quite a bit of it because the team that I work with has been very into it. (0:38:59) Micah: So, and prior to that coming out, we had all been playing Ark, (0:39:06) Al: » Okay. Yeah. (0:39:06) Micah: the dinosaur survival game. (0:39:09) Micah: So we had a server that we were playing that on. (0:39:11) Micah: So when a new survive. (0:39:12) Micah: Survival type game released and it’s Fortnite and it’s free and it’s Lego then we were like, okay, well, let’s play this instead so we have been playing quite a bit of it and it’s I was a little bit shocked at how good of an experience it is because it’s it it’s just odd because it’s got other than the skins and the characters there’s and I guess the the game that it that you access it from there’s nothing related to Fortnite really it’s super obvious. (0:39:19) Al: suck (0:39:44) Al: No. Well, I think your character is in the beginning based on the main, the base Fortnite playable character, right? Yeah. It’s not Fortnite. It’s not Fortnite at all. So a couple of things I found interesting about this. So first of all, it made me realize that Fortnite is not just Fortnite anymore, right? Like Fortnite was just a battle royale, but that is just one of eight different game modes, right? Absolutely wild to me. (0:39:52) Micah: Yes. Yeah. So aside from the characters, I mean, it’s it’s really there’s not a lot of no, it’s not a (0:40:06) Kevin: Oh, it hasn’t been for a while. (0:40:08) Micah: Yeah. Right. (0:40:14) Al: That’s the point now. And second of all, not only is this, it’s like, it’s not just Fortnite, but Lego. It’s Fortnite, but Lego, if they made it Minecraft, but with more farming. (0:40:30) Al: And I am just, it’s just so fascinating. So I haven’t played a huge amount of it. I’ve downloaded it and I’ve started playing it and I’ve kind of done the first couple of things. And it’s not really grabbing me. I don’t think I’m going to spend a huge amount of time on it, but I think (0:40:44) Al: so. Minecraft, when we covered Minecraft on the podcast, it was, it was a bit of a stretch, (0:40:48) Al: right? There is farming, but it’s very limited. It’s like, it was four crops or something. There might be more now. Minecraft has done a lot since then, but it felt like a bit of a stretch. (0:40:58) Micah: Yeah, there is a significant differences between, you know, yeah, there’s quite a bit to do in Fortnite now, or in Minecraft, I mean. (0:41:05) Al: Yeah, but this feels like a legit farming game, but it’s not cottagecore. It’s survival farming game. (0:41:06) Kevin: Minecraft has not stopped growing, they do annual updates. (0:41:16) Micah: Mm hmm. (0:41:19) Micah: Yeah, so I guess it kind of it also is a little bit of like how you play it. (0:41:24) Micah: So like, granted, there is a survival aspect that needs to be taken care of. (0:41:29) Micah: But depending on who you’re playing with or the the you know, (0:41:32) Micah: there is a like peaceful mode that you can do similar to what Minecraft had, (0:41:36) Al: That’s a good point. (0:41:36) Micah: where it’s not really you don’t have to play the survival mode. (0:41:40) Micah: You can play it just for the sake of like, you know, (0:41:43) Micah: the kind of like sandbox aspect of it. (0:41:46) Micah: Where you’re building stuff and doing whatever you want. (0:41:46) Kevin: farming and whatnot. (0:41:48) Micah: Yeah. (0:41:49) Micah: But, you know, like with my group, I’m not as big into the survival aspects of it. (0:41:54) Micah: Like I don’t particularly care about, you know, min maxing food and water and so on and so forth. (0:42:01) Micah: I’m more into the like building and designing and, you know, farming and that stuff. (0:42:07) Micah: So I kind of take on that role while everybody else takes on the survival portion of it. (0:42:14) Micah: So there are different ways. (0:42:16) Micah: Is to be able to play it that make it a little bit more of like a comfortable experience. (0:42:22) Micah: I mean, I literally built a cottage, so I don’t know, you know. (0:42:25) Al: Yeah, that’s, I think that’s totally fair. I guess my point of what I was saying was, (0:42:26) Kevin: Nice. Well, there you go. (0:42:31) Al: was like, I think this is much more legitimate as a farming game than Minecraft was when, (0:42:38) Al: when we covered it. So I think it’s, it’s totally fair to count this as a farming game. (0:42:39) Micah: Right. (0:42:40) Kevin: Yeah. (0:42:42) Al: So maybe I should add it into the list as Lego Fortnite. Um, but here’s a question for you. Does this make Fortnite the most downloaded farming game ever? (0:42:44) Kevin: Oh, there you go. (0:42:54) Micah: That’s why I I’ve included it because I think it is important touchstone in the history of farming games where it (0:42:54) Kevin: Absolutely. (0:43:05) Micah: There’s a possibility I can see a world in which people who play this (0:43:10) Micah: Enjoy it enjoy the like farming aspects of it want more of that and branch out into other farming type games (0:43:17) Micah: because there is such a broad audience for fortnight that (0:43:21) Micah: You know and it’s there’s such a broad (0:43:24) Micah: Audience for Lego - that there is a good (0:43:30) Micah: Possibility that it creates more farming game fans, which I’m all for (0:43:35) Al: I’ve added it into the list and also I need to add one more that I forgot, which was Hello Kitty Island Adventure. (0:43:42) Kevin: Oh, yeah, well (0:43:42) Micah: I did see that that was missing from the list and I didn’t know if that was intentional or not so it just… (0:43:46) Al: Oh, you should have brought it up. Come on. (0:43:46) Kevin: Glaring a bit omission this entire show is a sham (0:43:51) Al: Look, look, we’re now up to 49 games, right? I’m sorry, I can’t keep track of the ball. (0:43:56) Kevin: It’s quick Somebody find one more quick Um one well, you know though what we have to do is we have to let fortnite win (0:44:03) Kevin: So we can get that sponsorship money. Welcome to the harvest season of fortnite podcast (0:44:06) Micah: - It’s true. (0:44:09) Micah: Of Fortnite, but I never, I just did not ever foresee (0:44:15) Micah: there being a scenario where in the farming game of the year discussion or just in general on a harvest season episode that I would be bringing up Fortnite in a like semi-serious way. (0:44:26) Kevin: Yeah, one thing I will I haven’t played Fortnite ever, but from what I understand, every time they bring in these new distinct modes or gameplay elements, it’s always very polished and good quality. (0:44:44) Kevin: Like they brought in Spider-Man swinging and Attack on Titan, so I’m not surprised that this is high quality and that’s a lot of money being thrown at this Lego money, Fortnite money. (0:44:57) Al: Alright, well, you’re probably right, it’s probably not going to win, but it’s there, (0:45:02) Al: it’s in the list, not many games get into the list. So, there we go. No, into the list of the two, there’s only nine. It’s only nine. Alright, Kevin, what’s your first? (0:45:06) Kevin: Nope just 48 others. Oh (0:45:10) Kevin: Our list, okay (0:45:15) Kevin: My first one I’m going to go with (0:45:19) Kevin: Manekos night market a shocker to everyone the game I’ve been pining for for how many years now. Oh (0:45:27) Kevin: gosh (0:45:28) Al: Like five, like maybe six. (0:45:31) Kevin: Yeah, I don’t know something like (0:45:32) Al: I think it was six years ago it was first. (0:45:33) Kevin: well (0:45:36) Kevin: Yeah, I think it’s I’ve the fact that I waited that long and still was happy with what came out I think is a testament to how good the game is (0:45:48) Kevin: Obviously, I haven’t played all these other games and it probably not even the ones on your guys list but I (0:45:54) Kevin: Out of the ones I see here. I probably I would argue it has the most personality and charm (0:46:02) Kevin: the art, the sort of craft book art. (0:46:06) Kevin: It has gone very, very enjoyable. (0:46:10) Kevin: I haven’t beaten it myself, right? (0:46:12) Kevin: It loses some points because it came out with a handful of bugs and rough edges. (0:46:18) Kevin: But it’s still a game that makes me smile every time. (0:46:24) Kevin: So yeah, I gotta give a shout out to Maneko because I think it actually did deliver. (0:46:30) Kevin: Um, obviously, you know, it’s not the scale of tears that– (0:46:36) Kevin: Kingdom waiting six years for that or whatever, but for the get what it set out to be from all the trailers and whatnot, I think it delivered. It’s very cute, which I appreciate now. I have cats myself. Yeah. (0:46:48) Al: Yeah, totally fair, and it is still the wallpaper on my phone and has been for like seven months, (0:46:57) Kevin: Yeah, there you go. Also actually one thing I (0:47:01) Kevin: Yeah, that’s the good stuff (0:47:04) Kevin: one thing I do want to add (0:47:06) Kevin: Go on as we talked about in the episode. We talked about it. Um, the (0:47:11) Kevin: titular night market part of it is very fun (0:47:15) Kevin: Auctioning going into little bid war with customers to sell who and make profits and whatnot (0:47:20) Kevin: I don’t think a lot of these other games are focused on that like making money (0:47:26) Kevin: So that was (0:47:27) Kevin: a refreshing angle approaching the whole cottagecore thing. (0:47:32) Kevin: And again, just very fun points for that. (0:47:36) Al: Awesome. (0:47:36) Micah: Uh, I, are, are we just for the sake of the structure? (0:47:43) Micah: Are we just going through our picks and then discussing them or are we? (0:47:48) Al: If you have more to talk about that game just now, then feel free. (0:47:53) Al: We don’t need to discuss whether it’s the winner yet or not. (0:47:55) Micah: Sure, uh, oh (0:47:55) Al: And don’t say whether it’s on your list yet or not. (0:47:56) Kevin: Yeah. (0:47:58) Al: We’ll get to that. (0:47:59) Micah: Okay, I (0:48:00) Kevin: Alright. (0:48:03) Kevin: Michael, what’s next on your list? (0:48:03) Al: Right, we don’t want to look, Micah, we have a collapsed list for the suspense. (0:48:05) Micah: Didn’t didn’t say one way or another (0:48:05) Kevin: I’m kidding, I’m kidding. Ow, ow. (0:48:11) Al: We’re keeping the suspense, even if it might really be obvious now. (0:48:12) Micah: Okay, you’re right you’re right you’re right (0:48:14) Kevin: Alright. (0:48:16) Micah: It’s not though cuz I’m changing it at the moment I’m typing no, I’m just kidding [laughing] (0:48:18) Al: All right. I’ll go with my wild card. No, no, come on. I’m going with my wild card, (0:48:24) Kevin: Alright, ow. (0:48:26) Kevin

Wherein we discuss the Game Awards 2023, Harvest Moon: The Winds of Anthos, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Adam's Italian vacation. Starring Ryan Scott, Adam Fitch, and Ryan Higgins.

Al and Codey talk about the games in the Wholesome Snack Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:01:50: What Have We Been Up To 00:09:38: Turnip Boy Robs A Bank 00:13:11: Pixelshire 00:13:57: Botany Manor 00:15:56: Roots Of Pacha 00:18:02: Tchia 00:19:29: Bear And Breakfast 00:20:23: Everdream Valley 00:22:11: Harvest Moon: The Winds Of Anthos 00:26:22: One Lonely Outpost 00:27:07: Stardew Valley 00:30:46: Disney Dreamlight Valley 00:35:44: Fae Farm 00:38:14: Wholesome Games Bundle 00:40:38: Wholesome Snack 00:41:59: Vivarium 00:45:37: Communite 00:47:13: Lightyear Frontier 00:49:05: Go-Go Town 00:52:21: Snacko 00:56:47: Usagi Shima 00:59:27: Eastward Octopia 01:00:56: Summer House 01:02:44: Bugaboo Pocket 01:07:36: Voyagers Of Nera 01:10:14: Outro Links Turnip Boy Robs a Bank Release Date Pixelshire Info Botany Manor Roots of Pacha 1.1 Update Tchia Steam Release and Updates Bear and Breakfast Everdream Valley Harvest Moon: The Winds of Anthos Update Harvest Moon: The Winds of Anthos DLC One Lonely Outpost Unrefiner Update Stardew Valley Concert New Dates Stardew Valley Big Chest Disney Dreamlight Valley Pumpkin King Update Disney Dreamlight Valley A Rift In Time DLC Fae Farm DLC Wholesome Games Humble Bundle Wholesome Snack Vivarium Communite Lightyear Frontier Go-Go Town Snacko Usagi Shima Eastward Octopia Summer House Bugaboo Pocket Voyagers of Nera Codey on Twitter Codey on Bluesky Codey on Instagram Contact Al on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheScotBot Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Transcript (0:00:30) Al: Hello farmers, and welcome to another episode of The Harvest Season. My name is Al, (0:00:36) Codey: And my name is Codey. (0:00:38) Al: and we are here today to talk about farming game, (0:00:42) Al: cartridge core games, games, lots of all the games. So many games. (0:00:45) Codey: Wholesome games that are snack related. Woo! (0:00:51) Al: Sure. Before we get into it, transcripts are available on the show notes and on the website. (0:00:57) Al: Go get them if you need them. (0:01:00) Al: We are going to talk just… I mean it’s basically all news, because we are recording this two hours after the wholesome snack came out. (0:01:04) Codey: Yeah. (0:01:09) Al: Which apparently is a short one, but it was half an hour long, so it wasn’t particularly short, but there we are. (0:01:14) Codey: Yeah, I wish there was a visual component because when you sit apparently it was a short one, my face was rude. (0:01:22) Codey: I was like, “Mmm, no.” (0:01:25) Al: Yeah. (0:01:27) Al: That’s what they said. I mean, like, the direct in June was… (0:01:30) Al: I know we’re long, so like, sure fine, it’s shorter, but shorter is not the same as short. (0:01:37) Codey: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. (0:01:39) Al: Anyway, so we’re going to talk about all that. There’s a lot of other news as well, so I think we’ll do all the other news first, and then we’ll get into the wholesome snack stuff. (0:01:43) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:01:47) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:01:48) Al: So we’ll just, we’ll take it as it goes. But first of all, Codey, what have you been up to? (0:01:49) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:01:53) Codey: I have been playing, uh, Disney Dreamlight Valley. (0:01:58) Codey: Um, yeah, I have also been playing, uh, that one thing, my Tetris game. (0:02:07) Codey: Um, I’m pulling, I’m pulling it up right now. (0:02:07) Al: Oh yeah. I was like, “What one thing?” Oh yes, that thing, the scam game. (0:02:09) Codey: They had, they, yeah, my scam game. (0:02:13) Codey: They have a thing going on right now. (0:02:15) Codey: I don’t know how long it’s going on for, but, like, you earn five times points. (0:02:19) Codey: Um, and so I’m actually at 887 million, or, sorry, 887,000 points. (0:02:20) Al: Ooh. (0:02:25) Codey: I am almost to a mill, I know, I’m almost to a million points. (0:02:25) Al: Oh my word. (0:02:28) Al: Get a cruise. (0:02:29) Codey: I’m going, though, I will say, I will say the cruises that they have right now, um, (0:02:31) Al: Where’s the current cruise? (0:02:35) Codey: Our two million points not one million points. So there are some there are some shifting baselines. (0:02:38) Al: Oh, see, I see what’s happening here. (0:02:42) Al: They just keep jumping up the prices when people get close to it. (0:02:47) Codey: Let me see. Oh yeah so for 13 oh no there’s there’s a five-day cruise to the Caribbean for 1500. (0:02:47) Al: Sneaky. (0:02:55) Al: Like 1.5 million, right? (0:02:56) Codey: Uh you have so correct sorry one and a half million. (0:03:00) Al: It’s like 1,500! Oh my word! You can get a lot of cruises right now! (0:03:04) Codey: No, and so yeah, it’s a complimentary five day cruise. (0:03:07) Codey: Uh, the cool thing about this one is that you leave Miami, Florida, you go, um, to Belize in Mexico, and then you go back to Miami, Florida. (0:03:15) Codey: So some of these cruises, like, especially once to Alaska, like they take, they grab you in like Washington and then drop you off in Alaska. (0:03:21) Codey: So you’re going to still have to like find a way back, but that one does not. (0:03:24) Al: Yeah, that’s not ideal. Yeah, but you have to go to Florida. (0:03:24) Codey: That one’s pretty good. (0:03:25) Codey: Um. (0:03:34) Codey: Um yeah so um bustin butt on that game for sure. Um also pokemon go and I think those are oh and pigman bloom but those are pretty basic um standard games. I also have been uh I upgraded to game pass ultimate so I have the ability to play some other games. Oh I played one game (0:03:59) Codey: that was like uh it like (0:04:04) Codey: built bent the world like worked on perception gosh what the heck was it called I don’t know it’s like me only like four hours to beat but it was really good yeah I’m upset that I can’t remember the subliminal super liminal something like that very good though yeah that’s yep super liminal so I think That’s what it’s called. It was very good. There’s (0:04:12) Al: Yeah, nice. That’s our Atlantic game I like. (0:04:32) Codey: It’s it (0:04:34) Codey: Yeah, very good. And I because there are games on game pass that I want to play like Coral Island and Echo Snipe Market. There’s like a bunch of games that are available, but I want to stay dedicated to Disney Dreamlight Valley for reasons. (0:04:52) Al: Speaking of Carl Island, I have been playing Carl Island a lot. I’ve almost hit 100 hours on that game now. I’ve just finished year three in the game and now I’m taking a wee we break to play some other games, but yeah, yeah, it’s not (0:04:54) Codey: So yeah, what about you? What have you wanted to? (0:05:07) Codey: Yeah, didn’t you say like you’re after your your you said you’re gonna take a break after year three? (0:05:22) Al: not. I mean, that gives you an idea of how much I like this game, because I don’t, I think stardew is the only other game that I went, I went to like at least two years, (0:05:32) Al: right? Like I don’t, I don’t do that often. It’s because it’s really hard to get through though to like actually sink a decent amount of time into these games. Um, this, this one just kept me going and I like how it kept me going the second time I came to it as well. (0:05:47) Al: Right, it wasn’t just like, I spent like what, 40 hours in the first time and I’ve (0:05:52) Al: stunk in another 60 hours, right? So like, that’s pretty good. Uh, you know, like it’s impressive to, for me to spend that amount of time on a game, a game which I have not spent that long in is Coa and the Five Pirates. Uh, so I have finished that game, but it’s a very nice short game. So it took me five hours. I’ve not like a hundred percented everything. (0:06:15) Al: I think you could maybe add on like another two to three hours if you want to a hundred percent everything but I was pretty happy. (0:06:22) Al: happy with it. So that’s the 3D platformer from the Summer in Mara people. So it was good fun. We have an extra story in that world and a fun platforming game. The bosses in particular were very fun, some good challenges and different ways of doing things. So it’s not just like the same thing over and over again. It really felt like each level they they kind of had crafted nicely. (0:06:23) Codey: Mm-hmm. Okay. (0:06:51) Al: So that was good. (0:06:53) Al: I have just started a Highland song, because that came out yesterday. (0:06:58) Al: That is a platformer based in the Scottish Highlands, but it also has some rhythm-based parts to it. (0:07:09) Al: It’s a really interesting game, and it’s really hard to explain, but essentially it’s a platformer, (0:07:14) Al: but it’s like an exploration platformer, kind of. (0:07:19) Al: But it’s also like a story game. (0:07:21) Al: the I mean everything about this game is just gorgeous. Like I love how it looks, I love how it plays, I love the music, (0:07:28) Al: like everything about it is just fantastic. And like real Scott, (0:07:30) Codey: Okay, that’s high praise, high praise it being about the Scottish Highlands and coming from a Scott, so. (0:07:37) Al: and it’s got real Scottish accents in it so. (0:07:39) Codey: Mm-hmm, awesome. (0:07:43) Al: And finally I’ve been playing the Beat Saber original soundtrack 6, so that just came out (0:07:51) Al: tonight today I think (0:07:52) Al: um so i’ve been playing that so that’s got a dragon force song, a lindsay starling song, (0:08:01) Al: a camellia song, and another song by someone I hadn’t heard of but I enjoyed it nonetheless. (0:08:07) Al: So now I just want more dragon force and more lindsay starling songs like they’re both really fun to play to. The camellia one and the other one were good as well but we already have a camellia pack so like there’s plenty of that I really want really want the others. (0:08:23) Al: Um yeah lots. I so I play it on the quest 2, the meta quest 2. (0:08:24) Codey: - What do you play that on? (0:08:33) Al: At this point trying with all my might not to buy the meta quest 3, especially as they just released an update for beat saber on the quest 3 that gives it 120 frames per second on which is just wild because it’s like the one thing that i’d not hugely a fact well the two things that i’m that I’m not a huge fan of with the Quest 2. (0:08:52) Al: one, the cameras to put you in the augmented part of it are not great, right? You can kind of see the shapes and everything. You can figure out where you are, but you can’t make out anything on it. And the Quest 3 has much better cameras. And sometimes it’s a little bit like, “Oh, that wasn’t quite the right kind of refresh rate, and I felt a little bit dizzy from that.” So it doesn’t happen very often, but it does happen enough to make me want to not have that. (0:09:22) Al: So yeah, we’ll see what happens. (0:09:28) Codey: Cool. (0:09:29) Al: What happens? (0:09:30) Al: Making you sound like it’s a surprise. (0:09:31) Al: Oh no! (0:09:32) Al: What happened? (0:09:33) Al: Oops, I bought it. (0:09:34) Codey: What? What could possibly… (0:09:34) Al: How did that happen? (0:09:35) Al: Shall we talk about some news, Codey? (0:09:40) Codey: Let’s do it. (0:09:42) Al: Let’s start off with Turnitboy Robsabank. (0:09:45) Al: They have announced that their release date is the 18th of January. (0:09:49) Al: Oh… (0:09:50) Codey: I just want, so like the fact that they’re making this turn up to all these illegal things (0:09:58) Codey: I really want the next one to be turn it boy breaks up a marriage just for you Al (0:10:04) Al: Why- Laughter (0:10:06) Al: No! Laughter (0:10:06) Codey: Like have you ever wanted to evade taxes? Have you ever wanted to rob a bank? (0:10:08) Al: Right, no, no, no, no, no, no [Laughter] (0:10:12) Al: I also don’t, like, in real life, want to break up marriages, right? (0:10:16) Al: Like, that’s- Laughter (0:10:18) Al: You’re making it sound like I’m a homewrecker! (0:10:22) Codey: You want to be a video game? You want the option. (0:10:22) Al: I just- Laughter (0:10:24) Al: In- in my- Laughter (0:10:26) Al: In my farming games! Laughter (0:10:28) Codey: No, I love, I just saw this title and I was like, (0:10:32) Codey: they’re making this poor turn up to all these things. (0:10:37) Al: No one’s making him do anything. He’s choosing to do this. He is crazy. (0:10:39) Codey: Yeah, he’s a goofy goober. (0:10:43) Codey: So, I mean, so you’ve played the first one. (0:10:46) Codey: Does this seem, is this like a sequel? (0:10:48) Codey: Like, do you get to continue on from the same? (0:10:49) Al: Yeah. (0:10:51) Al: Yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s the sequel. Like it’s a continuation of Turn It By Story. (0:10:59) Al: I mean, it looks good. It looks like it takes kind of what was in the first game and adds some more other ideas like the first game didn’t. (0:11:07) Al: Have guns, for example. (0:11:08) Codey: The picture of him, the logo when he’s holding a gun. (0:11:15) Codey: Oh my god. (0:11:17) Al: I mean, nobody robs a bank with not a gun, right? (0:11:20) Al: Like, that’s kind of a requirement to rob a bank. (0:11:22) Codey: I feel like people will rob banks in countries that don’t allow guns without guns. (0:11:27) Codey: There’s gotta be like… (0:11:29) Al: Yeah, they just get guns, right? Like, yeah, sure, guns are illegal. And, you know, this is not a political point, but it doesn’t mean that there are no guns, right? Like, you can still get guns. (0:11:41) Al: Like, do you think gun people, for countries that have no legal guns, still have zero guns, right? (0:11:46) Al: If you’re going to rob a bank, you can get a gun, right? It’s harder to get it. Like, I’m not saying that gun controls don’t work. They do. But it doesn’t mean that literally nobody can ever get to gun and therefore you got to rob a bank with a knife, right? Like, which would be significantly harder. (0:11:50) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:12:06) Codey: I feel like that would make– that’s like how you play this game on hard mode. (0:12:10) Al: No guns. (0:12:10) Codey: That should be what’s hard mode. There’s just no guns and you gotta rob the bank. (0:12:15) Al: There are a lot of guns in this trailer. Lots of different guns. And also a spaceship at the end. (0:12:18) Codey: There are. There are. There really are. Yeah, yeah, there’s an alien at the end. I didn’t know if like it was a character that you’ve already seen or something because, um, like they have the outline of the character. Yeah, they have the outline of the character and like you can see that it kind kind of has like maybe sunglasses on. (0:12:29) Al: The alien, no. (0:12:36) Codey: And I didn’t know if there was maybe like a link to the previous game. (0:12:38) Al: No, I don’t recognize that character. (0:12:41) Codey: Cool. (0:12:42) Codey: Cool, cool, cool. (0:12:43) Codey: How is the alien going to help? (0:12:45) Codey: Are they going to give you more advanced guns? (0:12:47) Codey: Is that how that works? (0:12:49) Al: Oh, I did see a laser gun at one point. (0:12:51) Codey: Are they, are they like also trying, they came from space to rob the exact same bank that you’re trying to rob? (0:12:58) Codey: Like are they competition? (0:12:58) Al: I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know. This game’s coming to Windows, Switch and Xbox, (0:13:02) Codey: Uh. (0:13:04) Al: and it’s also coming to Game Pass. And there’s a new trailer. There you go. Done. Right. (0:13:06) Codey: Mm-hm, January 18th, next. (0:13:10) Al: January 18th. Pixel Shire is no longer coming to Early Access and is releasing next year. (0:13:16) Al: Cool. Great. No real comment on that. Good for you. It seems like an interesting thing to be like, “We’re coming to Early Access,” and then be like, “Aha! No, we’re not.” But (0:13:16) Codey: Yep. Take your time. (0:13:21) Codey: Good for her. (0:13:27) Codey: Well, it’s not that. It’s not like a “ha ha, we pulled the rug from you.” (0:13:33) Codey: We were optimistic and life happens and that’s okay. That’s okay, Pixel Shire. (0:13:36) Al: No, I think their point is they don’t, I think what they’re trying to say is they don’t (0:13:42) Codey: That is true. In the thing, they’re like, (0:13:45) Codey: we’re not going to do early access. (0:13:46) Codey: at all, we’re just going to release 1.0 in the neck. (0:13:49) Codey: I don’t understand what the benefit of that is, but sure. (0:13:52) Codey: Cool. (0:13:52) Codey: You do you it’s, it’s your stuff. (0:13:53) Al: We’ll see what happens. (0:13:58) Al: Botany Manor is releasing in Spring 2024 on Steam Switch, Xbox and Game Pass. (0:14:05) Codey: Yeah and it is they mentioned it in the Twitter like someone asked if it’s going to be steam deck verified and they said yeah not going to be on PlayStation that’s another comment from someone on the Twitter Twitter post tweet (0:14:17) Al: I mean, I feel like Steam Deck verification is just kind of a default for these things now, (0:14:21) Al: like, if you’re not supporting all the Steam Deck stuff, get out of here, go away. I don’t want you. (0:14:26) Codey: Okay, okay. (0:14:28) Al: Right. Bare minimum. Bare minimum. (0:14:28) Codey: Um, look, looks really cool, though. (0:14:31) Codey: I don’t know if we’ve talked about this game before, but I hadn’t seen it and it looks really cool. (0:14:35) Al: We’ve mentioned it somewhere, but yeah, it’s like, you’re running a botany. (0:14:40) Codey: Um, a bot–a botany. (0:14:40) Al: No, why is it a botany? Botanical gardens, I guess, would be. Is that what it is? (0:14:44) Codey: You–you encounter a botanical garden place, like– (0:14:46) Al: Please. (0:14:49) Al: Running a botany. (0:14:51) Codey: You’re basically it seems like there’s like there was a botanist’s house. Maybe the botanist passed away (0:14:56) Codey: She’s like elsewhere on a vacation or something But like you come upon her house and then you kind of like using her notes try and find plants that are (0:15:06) Codey: Lost like plants that might have died out somehow or they’re just missing like they they’re like this plant should exist And then it’s like boom you can make it Looks really cool. I wonder if they’re gonna teach you how to take care of real plants because your girl needs it I’m pretty sure this is I always want this. I’m pretty sure that this game (0:15:22) Al: You’re always wanting that, goodness me. (0:15:27) Codey: Mmm, I should yeah, it’s it’s (0:15:32) Codey: Per published published by white thorn games, which is the same game publisher that published a pico (0:15:39) Codey: And I told the a pico people that I wanted this (0:15:43) Codey: Also white thorn games is like based in like three hours for me very cool (0:15:51) Codey: So cool excited we’ll get it on game pass Yes. (0:15:57) Al: Roots of Patcher have released their 1.1 update and are on Switch and PlayStation now. (0:16:03) Al: Codey, is there anything I need to care about this update because I’ve still not played (0:16:04) Codey: The update… (0:16:08) Codey: I think that the update only adds stuff to… (0:16:12) Codey: I don’t think it’s going to add anything that’s going to make people that haven’t played it want to play it. (0:16:16) Codey: I think it’s just a benefit if you’ve already played it before. (0:16:20) Codey: So they include a new animal, which is called the Oryx. It’s kind of like a bison-ish thing. (0:16:24) Codey: You’re able to sit down now. (0:16:26) Codey: There’s a new romanceable character. (0:16:28) Codey: And oh, you do get the ability to break up with people. (0:16:32) Codey: So like if you decided you want to date. (0:16:34) Codey: someone and then you’re like yeah then you actually can like go in and be like I think it’s a like disband Union or something like that and then you can (0:16:42) Al: Yeah, they don’t have marriage because obviously that’s a modern concept. They have unions instead. (0:16:46) Codey: unions and so you can disband that and like go be with someone else and it said something like your the people will be upset but they’ll get they’ll get over it you can now harvest meat from traps and there are new cutscenes and other things so yeah they’ll just get over it they’ll be fine (0:17:00) Al: They’ll get over it who cares doesn’t doesn’t matter Bye! (0:17:04) Codey: so yeah I think it’s it’s things that kind of enhance the world and the interactability and the choices that you can make which is really cool but I don’t think like you’re saying like someone who hasn’t played it I don’t think these are things that are gonna be like ooh you can that’s gonna bring me to the game well now there’s this cool update you can get an oryx you can ride an oryx I’m assuming you can write an oryx well it’s it’s a (0:17:23) Al: I mean I do want to play it, I’ve just not done it yet. Too many games. (0:17:29) Al: Whatever that is. Is that a real animal or is this a thing they’ve made up? (0:17:34) Codey: an extinct animal but yes it was a real animal yeah it’s like a bison so I said (0:17:37) Al: Oh it’s just like a cow with horns. (0:17:42) Al: Interesting. What do I look like? Someone who knows what a bison is? (0:17:47) Codey: known because your voice is not from America so there’s a lot of bison here yeah skeleton what’s crazy (0:17:52) Al: Oh, the skeleton looks creepy. (0:17:54) Al: I wanna ride the skeleton one. (0:17:58) Al: Hey, oh yes, that’s a bison, I recognize that. (0:18:03) Al: Tch, tch, chia. (0:18:04) Codey: chia mm-hmm (0:18:06) Al: Tch, chia is out now. (0:18:09) Al: Wait, no, we already knew that. (0:18:10) Al: Why are you adding that? (0:18:11) Al: They were already, they’ve been out for ages. (0:18:15) Al: Goodness me, let me try that again. (0:18:17) Codey: listeners behind the scenes I wrote that they’re out now he just had it that they were they were releasing on Steam in March and I was like is this are they not out I Chia okay on Bye. (0:18:22) Al: Tch, chia. (0:18:28) Al: Right, tchia, tchia, which is already out on PlayStation (0:18:35) Al: and in the Epic Game Store is coming on Steam in March. (0:18:40) Al: Is that better? (0:18:42) Codey: I wonder. (0:18:43) Al: And they’re adding a bunch of updates. (0:18:48) Codey: The updates that are coming are an outfit perk system. (0:18:50) Codey: So basically the items will now give you buffs, (0:18:53) Codey: like outfit, like items that you wear. (0:18:55) Codey: There’s also new cosmetic items. (0:18:58) Codey: The comment that I wrote is look like the clown that you are. (0:19:02) Codey: Because you can look like a clown. (0:19:06) Codey: Yeah, that’s because I’m a clown. (0:19:10) Codey: That’s the joke. (0:19:11) Codey: New soul melodies. (0:19:11) Codey: So basically it’s new ways to– (0:19:12) Codey: interact with your environment. (0:19:15) Codey: They– in the trailer, they show that you use a soul melody and it like blows something up, which is really interesting. (0:19:22) Codey: Yeah, that’s– that’s that. (0:19:25) Al: It’s Windows only, by the way, it’s not Mac. Sods. (0:19:26) Codey: Thank you. (0:19:27) Codey: I was about to look. (0:19:30) Al: Bear and Breakfast are coming to PS4 and PS5. (0:19:34) Al: I was funny when they say that it’s like, is there a PS4 version that you can play on the PS5 or is it a PS4 version and a PS5 version? (0:19:42) Codey: Mm-hmm (0:19:42) Al: I suspect it’s a PS4 version that you can play on the PS5. (0:19:45) Al: Anyway, whoever. (0:19:46) Codey: Yeah (0:19:48) Al: Just coming on the 12th of December next week. (0:19:53) Codey: There’s also a new trailer that they have that they put in it and that trailer was unnecessarily dramatic and I absolutely (0:20:02) Al: It is completely in fitting with their entire social media. (0:20:08) Codey: I love it. I want more. 10 out of 10 recommend that people watch it. And play that game. (0:20:16) Al: You played it, didn’t you? Yeah, you were on the on the app. (0:20:18) Codey: It’s a good game. I did. (0:20:24) Al: Everdream Valley, which is already out on other things, is coming to Xbox on the 15th of December. (0:20:26) Codey: it’s coming thank you (0:20:36) Al: It’s funny because they say our Xbox One version and the comments are like, oh, what about the other consoles? (0:20:42) Al: like that’s what they mean is they’ve done what I would talking about with beer and breakfast right it’s an xbox one version that works on xbox series x and s so they just they’ve worded it in a confusing way (0:20:54) Codey: And the more important thing is the release date of December 15th is also the day that Twitter user MrRedEyes19 was planning on proposing to his girlfriend. And so he’s saying that it’ll be the perfect engagement gift and I need the tea. I need to know if he– how that ends up. (0:21:14) Al: It feels really risky to tweet that beforehand. (0:21:16) Codey: Doesn’t it though? What if she saw that? Like what if she– (0:21:24) Al: There isn’t a huge amount on their Twitter to, you know, suggest who they are, so. (0:21:31) Codey: I need the tea though. I need the tea. I need to know if his girlfriend, or their girlfriend, if their girlfriend says yes and if she does, if they give her that game, or I need to know. (0:21:49) Al: I got so confused there. (0:21:52) Al: With your changing of what pronouns you were using, I just got so confused to say “see”. (0:21:55) Codey: Well, cause I don’t know. They say girlfriend, but I’m not assuming they’re genders. (0:21:57) Al: No, no, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know. (0:22:02) Codey: I’m not sure if it’s a good idea to do that. I’m not sure if it’s a good idea. (0:22:02) Al: I agree with that, it was just because you changed halfway through, (0:22:06) Al: I was like “what is, who’s who now in this situation?” (0:22:07) Codey: It was a self-correction. Speaking of self-corrections, Harvest Moon, the Winds of Anthos, is releasing a relaxed mode coming in an update. (0:22:14) Al: Oh (0:22:19) Codey: This update has, there’s less stamina lost as you’re maneuvering the world, and the days are longer. (0:22:27) Codey: or longer so to me this like means that you are able to do more and there’s it’s like (0:22:31) Codey: less on hard mode like and I get my question with that is does this address the concerns that folks had like did you play this game and was this a complaint that you had? (0:22:33) Al: Yeah… (0:22:37) Al: I mean… (0:22:41) Al: It addresses one of the complaints, but it’s like one out of like 50. (0:22:45) Al: I mean part of my problem with this game is it just didn’t even feel fun to play. Now, (0:22:51) Al: the stamina loss when you’re moving, yeah, I didn’t enjoy that, right? It’s one of these things where it’s like, yeah sure, (0:22:57) Al: that’s more realistic, but not as fun, right? And the point is we’re taking (0:23:03) Al: things that are like real life and we’re making them fun, right? Like I’m very much a… (0:23:08) Al: I’d rather more fun than more realistic, and that’s certainly the case there. So it is a welcome change. (0:23:15) Al: I didn’t particularly feel like the days were very short, so that doesn’t really make much of a difference, (0:23:20) Al: but I mean the game’s still not gonna be fun to play, I don’t think. (0:23:24) Al: But each to their own. (0:23:26) Al: I don’t… (0:23:26) Codey: Uh, is, is the introduction of pizza in the new DLC, uh, the new crops, fish and recipes pack available is, does that increase your funds? (0:23:33) Al: So, I’m really fascinated by this, right? Because, like, some of these things are like, (0:23:40) Al: “Oh, cool, they’ve added killer tomatoes, and they’ve added Nejog, and a bunch of new fish, (0:23:47) Al: and pla- right, pizza seem- I mean, it feels like a kind of base game food, right? Like, (0:23:54) Al: it seems like an odd one to leave for a DLC. I’m not, as some commenters are suggesting, (0:24:01) Al: it should all be a free update because… (0:24:03) Al: Stardew does that, right? (0:24:06) Al: Like, I mean, let’s not make Stardew the base for what you should be doing for your free updates. (0:24:14) Al: They are definitely the extreme for that and you should not expect 10 years of free updates to a game. (0:24:20) Al: Do not expect that, right? (0:24:22) Al: Stardew is one person who can afford to do that now. (0:24:28) Al: Most people can’t do that, right? (0:24:30) Al: Like, don’t expect that. (0:24:32) Codey: I do love one of the comments says, “Imagine making a pizza recipe deals.” (0:24:33) Al: The other stuff I can see why you would think that was an interesting thing to add, but pizza? (0:24:44) Codey: You’d pay for that? You’d pay for all that stuff? You’re gonna… okay, okay. (0:24:44) Al: Why? (0:24:45) Al: No, I’m not saying I would pay for it. (0:24:49) Al: I’m not saying I would pay for it. (0:24:50) Al: I’m saying I understand why they would add it as a paid update. (0:24:54) Al: I do not understand why pizza is in a DLC. (0:24:56) Codey: Yeah, I don’t understand. I mean it seems like there’s (0:24:58) Al: Such a weird, weird thing. (0:25:01) Codey: Depending on how I mean, do we have an amount for how much that DLC costs? (0:25:05) Codey: because I wouldn’t (0:25:06) Al: I mean, whatever it is is too much (0:25:08) Codey: Yeah (0:25:13) Al: Give me a minute. Let me look let me look (0:25:15) Codey: Yeah for it to just add like a more fish more flowers recipes and tomatoes that can kill you I’m assuming (0:25:24) Codey: Just doesn’t seem like you should have to be (0:25:26) Codey: for that. Oh! That’s not that bad. (0:25:28) Al: Two dollars. (0:25:33) Al: It is like, why why? (0:25:36) Al: It’s so odd. (0:25:37) Al: It feels like they wanted to bump up the number of DLCs. (0:25:43) Al: Because you can like bundle them all together, right? (0:25:45) Al: Like or you can buy them separately, fine, whatever. (0:25:47) Al: But like I just who’s going, oh, yeah, I want to buy the the pizza DLC, (0:25:54) Al: not the the animals DLC or like I want to buy them. (0:25:58) Al: The game that added tool upgrades as a DLC, which I do think is a ridiculous thing to be in your DLC. That’s definitely a base game thing. Don’t add tool updates in your DLC. (0:26:11) Al: That is bizarre. I don’t know. I want to start. Can I can I stop talking about this game, please? (0:26:14) Codey: What game? One Lonely Outpost? (0:26:18) Al: I’m done with this game. This stupid game. One lonely outpost. This is an interesting, (0:26:26) Al: small update. I don’t know why we’re talking about. (0:26:28) Al: But there we are. They’ve added a new thing to the game and it no longer pretends to be an oven. (0:26:29) Codey: It’s funny. (0:26:32) Codey: Well, so it wasn’t… (0:26:35) Codey: Yeah, that’s what I was going to say. (0:26:37) Codey: I don’t think that they’re adding it now. (0:26:40) Al: No, they did add it. The bit at the top is like, “Oh, hey, we fixed this in a patch on top of it.” (0:26:40) Codey: It’s… (0:26:45) Codey: Yeah, so they had something called, they had something called an unrefiner, (0:26:45) Al: But if you read below, they’re actually talking about it being brand new. (0:26:50) Codey: which I’m assuming just like takes a thing and makes it its base thing. (0:26:52) Al: Unrefined. (0:26:55) Codey: So, but apparently you would place it in the world and it would just become an oven. (0:26:56) Al: Yeah. (0:26:58) Al: No it doesn’t. Awesome. Stardew Valley. Codey, they added more dates for the Stardew Valley concert. And there’s one in Edinburgh, which is my city, and I have tickets. I have bought tickets. I got tickets. Oh my word. Let me tell you, this was so stressful. The The concert sold out in 90… (0:27:05) Codey: It doesn’t do that anymore, yay. (0:27:11) Codey: What? What? (0:27:14) Codey: They did. (0:27:16) Codey: And… (0:27:18) Codey: And… (0:27:20) Codey: Yay! (0:27:24) Codey: Okay. (0:27:28) Al: Nine minutes. The Edinburgh concert. Nine minutes. (0:27:28) Codey: Okay. (0:27:30) Codey: Okay. (0:27:33) Al: That was so stressful, let me tell you. (0:27:34) Codey: Yeah. (0:27:37) Al: But I got it. I got it. And I got… I mean, they weren’t the best tickets, right? (0:27:41) Al: But they weren’t what they called restricted view. They weren’t restricted view. So… (0:27:44) Codey: The worst tickets. (0:27:48) Codey: They’re not the best, but they’re not the worst. (0:27:51) Al: Exactly. So my word. And the Europe ticket… So they added a whole bunch more because it was (0:27:58) Al: one in Europe. So there was one London show and that was the only one in Europe. (0:27:58) Codey: Mm-hmm and that’s sold out. (0:28:02) Al: And they added… And it sold out within seconds. (0:28:06) Codey: I wonder how many people like imagine if if you’re someone from like Italy and you’re like oh my god it’s gonna be in London and then now you’re seeing that there’s one in Italy. Like are they gonna are they gonna riff on the London tickets and go to the Italy one? Who knows? I’m assuming these are all these are all gonna sell out these are all gonna sell out (0:28:12) Al: Yeah. Yeah. And you book your tickets together. Yeah, I know. I know. (0:28:22) Al: Oh, I suspect so. I suspect. They do ticket reselling. (0:28:28) Al: Well, most of them already are sold out, so the four of the eight are already sold out, and two haven’t gone on sale yet. (0:28:34) Al: So… [LAUGHS] (0:28:36) Al: But yeah, like, funnily enough, the only one in Scotland sold out within minutes, so… Yeah, I’m so glad I got there. (0:28:45) Codey: Oh, the website is not loading. (0:28:48) Al: Yeah, but they’re now up to eight, so they had one Europe showing, and now they’ve got eight. (0:28:52) Codey: Cool. Well, I’m excited that you get to go. (0:28:52) Al: So I’m so super excited. (0:28:55) Codey: Um… (0:28:58) Al: To run, I was like, do you want to go to a video game concert? (0:29:01) Al: And she was like, sure. (0:29:02) Al: And I was like, yeah. (0:29:08) Al: So, yeah, we’re going to have a date, a musical date. (0:29:12) Al: Because she’s a big music person. (0:29:15) Al: She’s a music teacher and she has like a billion different instruments that she (0:29:18) Al: plays, so she will appreciate the actual music part of it. (0:29:21) Al: And I will appreciate the stardew part of it and. (0:29:23) Codey: Right. That’s awesome. (0:29:25) Al: It’ll be fun. Yeah. (0:29:26) Codey: And they also have an update. (0:29:28) Al: Well, yeah, so they roll. (0:29:34) Al: As he continues to do, Concerned Ape has posted another random small tidbit from the upcoming 1.6 update, and this time, it’s a big chest, sorry, a larger container for items. (0:29:45) Codey: It’s… it’s called a big chest. (0:29:47) Al: It’s got a big chest. (0:29:49) Codey: It’s just called a big chest. (0:29:53) Al: What I find funny is that is, well I mean one of the things I find funny, clearly, is… (0:29:58) Al: It says, it’s description is, “It can store almost twice as much as a regular chest.” (0:30:04) Al: What does “almost” mean in this situation? (0:30:06) Codey: My favorite thing is the top comment says “Finally I won’t need 2 million chests” and concern Dave said “Nope only 1 million.” (0:30:12) Al: Yeah. So yeah, like, is it going to be like two times the normal chest minus one? Or like, (0:30:28) Al: I really like, what does it mean by almost? I need to know. I need to know, but we’ll find out. (0:30:30) Codey: Yeah, is it like one less? (0:30:34) Al: Well, you need to find out. I suspect. (0:30:36) Codey: I’m sure you will find out. I’m sure it will be double actually, but whatever (0:30:42) Al: So I suspect that’s funny wording. Anyway, Disney Dreamlight Valley. (0:30:50) Al: I wrote all of this before the stuff came out, but it actually came out today, didn’t it? (0:30:53) Al: So I don’t know if there’s been any changes, but the, so I guess the, the 1.0 is out for Disney Dreamlight Valley came out today, including the Jack Skellington. So the Pumpkin King returns update is out now, so is no longer in early access and is therefore more expensive. (0:31:12) Al: And the first DLC is also out, which is, like, okay, I’ve talked about this quite a bit. I don’t have an issue with them releasing DLC for this game, but they really didn’t think about the Optics well enough, right? So one, they announced the paid DLC on the same day they announced that the game was not going to be free. And two, they released the first paid DLC on the same day as the 1.0 release which just… (0:31:30) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:31:42) Codey: Yep (0:31:42) Al: Feels… (0:31:43) Al: Mmm… (0:31:46) Al: I don’t know. (0:31:46) Codey: Yep (0:31:48) Al: Have you played it today? (0:31:49) Codey: Nope Well, one thing that I’m curious about so like looking at the platforms it doesn’t say that it’s still available Oh, just kidding. It was initially planned (0:31:59) Codey: Nope, I still don’t know. I don’t know if the game pass version is still available Like I don’t know if it’s still on game pass or if once it came out (0:32:07) Codey: They just popped it off game pass now. It’s that is unclear to me (0:32:12) Codey: Cool. Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. It’s in another room. Also, launching that game takes so long. (0:32:12) Al: It does look like it’s still on Game Pass. (0:32:14) Al: Pass. Pass. (0:32:16) Al: I mean, you could just try and launch the game. (0:32:26) Al: It’s still on the Game Pass website. (0:32:26) Codey: Okay, cool. I don’t know, that game takes so long to load. And I am horrified to see how much longer it is going to take to load today. (0:32:28) Al: So, I’m guessing it’s still there. (0:32:38) Codey: Like, I literally, I literally… (0:32:38) Al: Just don’t just don’t get the DLC. Oh is the DLC on game pass? (0:32:42) Codey: Start the game… I’m not gonna pay for that. (0:32:44) Codey: It literally… Oh, I guess I wouldn’t… (0:32:46) Codey: It literally… I start the game… (0:32:49) Al: Do you want to start over there? (0:32:53) Codey: ADHD. (0:32:54) Codey: Um, I start the game from, like, my Xbox home screen. (0:32:59) Codey: And then I walk, I go, like, play with my dog for, like, five minutes. (0:33:02) Codey: And then I come back, and then I can click the button to, like, load my game save. (0:33:07) Codey: And then I go play with my other dog for five minutes. (0:33:10) Codey: and then I come back and finally can play. (0:33:12) Codey: She do be slow and I have a wired connection so yike. (0:33:16) Codey: Um, but yeah, so the DLC has a scramble coin, which is an in game board game that you can. I don’t really know how you play it, but looks really cool. (0:33:26) Codey: And you can collect figurines or yeah, so you collect like figurines of the care of your favorite characters and I’m assuming that they have different abilities. (0:33:28) Al: Yes, it’s a collectible (0:33:31) Al: It looks really cool (0:33:40) Al: Yeah, so I don’t care about the game, right? The game, I could take it or leave it, but like, (0:33:42) Codey: Okay. (0:33:44) Al: another collecting thing? I am in. Did I get to collect the villagers in my village and as figurines? Perfect. Just what I need. Give me more collections, please. No, I’m not being sarcastic. (0:33:52) Codey: Are you, are you being sarcastic? (0:33:59) Al: This is literally what I do in games. I am a collector. I collect things. I like collections. (0:34:02) Codey: My gosh, cuz also like I, not to get too, too into it, but this game, (0:34:12) Codey: I like much, I much like this game. (0:34:14) Codey: And my response to all of this news about the DLC, (0:34:18) Codey: the minifigures as a pumpkin king update, (0:34:22) Codey: like my comment was literally this game is too big, please Disney stop. (0:34:28) Codey: Because like I already, man they’re, (0:34:30) Al: They’re not stopping yet. (0:34:31) Al: They’ve got four upcoming updates next year and two more parts of the DLC. (0:34:34) Codey: They are not stopping, like because I started playing it in early access from Game Pass and it already was like. (0:34:42) Codey: I need to redact my thoughts because I might be giving them elsewhere. (0:34:54) Codey: So I need but. (0:34:54) Al: If you want to hear more about that, maybe tune in in a future episode, maybe. (0:34:56) Codey: Maybe do that. (0:34:58) Codey: Maybe do that. (0:35:01) Al: Look, I just I will say I will say one last thing. (0:35:06) Al: Feel free not to respond to this. (0:35:08) Al: But I think it’s very clear that they want this to be the game that people play, right? (0:35:12) Al: They want it to be, you know, a word of Warcraft or something like that. (0:35:12) Codey: Mm-hmm yep yep (0:35:18) Al: They want it to be the game that you play for years. (0:35:23) Al: And we’ll see you in a few years. (0:35:24) Al: Whether they’re successful or not, I mean, we know they’re going to be successful with certain people, obviously. There are certain people who will buy and play literally every Disney thing imaginable, but. Also, Jack Skellington’s in the game now, so. (0:35:36) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:35:39) Codey: Correct. (0:35:43) Codey: Yeah. (0:35:45) Al: Speaking of DLC, Fae Farm have released DLC. Oh no, not have released, are releasing. (0:35:48) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:35:54) Al: It’s coming next week, on the 14th of December. And this is called Coasts of Crocea, which is a great name. And, so I’m confused because it’s like, oh, here’s a frog. And I’m like, (0:36:11) Al: the frogs were already in the game. But then there’s a big frog. The big frog was (0:36:12) Codey: yeah. And it seems like the so this is the big frog opens like a portal in his mouth and then you go you jump into the mouth portal which gives me real (0:36:27) Codey: oh I can’t remember his name from Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time. (0:36:34) Al: Oh, I did not like that game, so I don’t know what you’re talking about. (0:36:34) Codey: Fish guy. I’d probably need to be way more specific than that. It’s the (0:36:42) Codey: job. I want to say like Jabba or something. Jabu Jabu. Oh I was close man. It’s been a hot minute since I played that game. He I mean he’s like a fish that swallowed the princess and you have to go into him and there’s like a whole freaking like world inside of him that you have to explore like you’re exploring his bowels and stuff. And I wonder if that’s like what this is like this this frog has a mouth portal and the portal takes you to what is called the Crosts of croquia, which I’d still hate that name. (0:37:12) Al: Can I just point out how amazing the phrase “mouth portal” is? (0:37:20) Codey: Am I wrong? Are you going to look at me and you’re going to tell me that I’m wrong? (0:37:23) Codey: It’s a mouth portal! (0:37:24) Al: No! No I’m not! I just… I just… I just love hate the name. That’s all I’m saying. (0:37:30) Codey: Yeah. So yeah, it looks like there’s just a bunch of new stuff for that. (0:37:38) Al: Yeah, this feels a lot bigger than I was expecting the DLCs to be, right? Because it was like “here’s the Deluxe Edition and it’s gonna have three DLCs” and I was totally expecting it was stuff like that. (0:37:49) Al: The Harvest Moon Winds of Anthos like “oh here’s some new crops” no no it’s “here’s a whole new world to explore with a new story” so I mean that’s cool. I really want to like this game, I really do. (0:37:54) Codey: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. (0:37:59) Codey: Yeah? (0:38:04) Codey: Yeah. Yikes. (0:38:05) Al: I really do. (0:38:07) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:38:09) Al: Anyway, if you’re enjoying it, there you go, go get your DLC in a week. (0:38:16) Al: And the final thing before the wholesome snack is the wholesome games bundle, because they did announce this before the snack, which is they’ve put together a wholesome and a humble bundle, (0:38:20) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:38:28) Al: a humble bundle of wholesome games, which include four games that we have talked about on the podcast, (0:38:34) Al: wildflowers, bed and breakfast, smishy come home. (0:38:38) Al: And there’s also Tinykin, which I believe is like Pikmin, Pikmin type game. Mailtime, (0:38:48) Al: which when I looked at it just looked exactly like smishy come home. And Passpartout to the Lost Artist, which I hate that name on so many levels. (0:39:03) Codey: Yeah. (0:39:04) Codey: Um… (0:39:08) Al: I mean, look, I’m saying if you have the money and there’s at least one game on this bundle that you don’t own, go buy the bundle. Go do it now. Because every single one of these games is more expensive than the price to get all of them. (0:39:15) Codey: Yeah (0:39:21) Codey: Yep, and each game has over an 85% or or higher positive rating on (0:39:27) Codey: Steam so that like even the quote-unquote maybe possibly worst of these games is still super highly rated Like this is a really cute little little bundle that they’ve provided Um… (0:39:40) Al: And all of the money goes to save the children who are doing very important work all over the world, especially currently in Gaza. (0:39:51) Al: So you can go buy your games and give money to stop children dying. Crazy, crazy ideas. (0:39:58) Codey: Yep, so if you’ve listened to our podcast and you’ve heard us talk about these games and you’ve been waiting to get it, what are you waiting for? (0:40:08) Al: There’s little if you don’t buy these games now, you’re not gonna buy them, right? (0:40:11) Al: Just don’t just admit that to yourself if you won’t buy this seven game bundle for was that $18 (0:40:17) Al: You’re not gonna buy any of these games. You just won’t do it (0:40:20) Codey: Yeah. (0:40:21) Al: So admit it to yourself or go buy it (0:40:25) Codey: Yep, yep, yep. (0:40:25) Al: If you don’t have the money I’m really sorry that’s very sad (0:40:32) Al: All right, whoa that was quite a quite a quite a news section and the news is over so the wholesome snack just came out a few hours ago and we have watched through it and we have curated I was gonna say we’ve curated the things that we should care about this is like half the things in the snack Oh (0:40:36) Codey: Quite a bunch. Mm-mm. (0:40:38) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:40:40) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:40:52) Codey: The things that seem important to or relevant to this podcast with the with the respect of cottagecore games in mind. (0:41:06) Codey: I will say that we will talk about the non cottagecore games that we are also excited about in a house that of the green variety may have. (0:41:17) Codey: So, we will talk more in depth about that kind of stuff then. (0:41:22) Codey: But, just the which which games seemed to strike the vibe of the pod? (0:41:28) Codey: And which which ones do you think? (0:41:30) Al: No, there were no, there were no which games. (0:41:32) Codey: Wow, I said… (0:41:33) Al: Not in this one. (0:41:37) Codey: Which W-H-I-C-H games, not W-I-T-C-H games? (0:41:43) Codey: You goob. Okay. (0:41:45) Codey: So… (0:41:45) Al: So I just before we go through these, we will have a link to the whole wholesome (0:41:46) Codey: Thank you. (0:41:50) Al: snack in the show notes, and also I will link each of the trailers for these games (0:41:56) Al: individually. (0:41:58) Al: All right. (0:42:00) Al: So first up, we have a vivarium, which is about a world inside a terrarium. (0:42:10) Codey: a vivarium. (0:42:12) Al: Is a vivarium a thing or is that not just the name of the (0:42:16) Codey: Terrariums are designed to raise plants and vivariums are designed primarily to be a habitat for an animal. (0:42:23) Al: So they said it was a terrarium in the game. (0:42:26) Codey: But the game is called vivarium. (0:42:28) Al: Yeah, it says missing terrarium. So why is a terrarium or is it a vivarium? I’m so confused. (0:42:33) Codey: Well, the game is called “vibarium.” (0:42:36) Al: Yeah, but in the trailer they said a missing terrarium. They use both words. (0:42:39) Codey: And given that inside of the thing is animals, I’m presuming, I think it’s a vibarium. (0:42:50) Al: Oh wait, so wait, so a vivarium is a type of terrarium or a terrarium is a type of vivarium. (0:42:56) Codey: Um, they are, they both do similar things or they’re a type of, of areum. (0:43:04) Al: Ah, a vivarium may be small enough to sit on a desk or table such as a terrarium or an aquarium. (0:43:05) Codey: Um… (0:43:14) Al: So terrariums are kinds of vivariums, but vivariums can be big. (0:43:19) Al: Oh, so like yeah, these big ones you get like are building size, they are vivariums. (0:43:20) Codey: Well, so the differences of vivarium will have animals in it, whereas a terrarium could be, so it houses plants. (0:43:37) Codey: It could be a vivarium, but it doesn’t have to be a vivarium. (0:43:42) Codey: So an aquarium is a type of vivarium. (0:43:44) Al: Anyway, this is both. This is both. That’s the important thing. (0:43:45) Codey: This is both. (0:43:46) Codey: It has plants and animals. (0:43:51) Al: So the semantics aside, I’m not really sure what this game is, but I feel like it’s probably a Cottagecore game, but it’s really hard to tell, because the trailer doesn’t really tell as much. (0:43:59) Codey: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, the trailer doesn’t really have much. Um, it has a lot of like, (0:44:08) Codey: I really like the design style and the way that it’s, it’s, um, the way it looks, it looks like an anime almost. Um, like one of the characters literally looks like a Hayao Miyazaki character, (0:44:21) Codey: 100%. Like he’s got this big mustache and the way that he smiles looks like, um, the Boiler Man in and spirited away. (0:44:29) Codey: So, if you like that kind of stuff, then this game basically is like, to me thus far from this trailer, looks like a little Hayao Miyazaki world inside of a vivarium that is inside of what possibly is an abandoned terrarium. (0:44:45) Codey: Yeah, not entirely sure what all the gameplay within that is going to be. (0:44:47) Al: And my question is, you being in a vivarium, is that going to affect anything? Or is that just like, because they said so, right? So like, if you’re just in a world and, and nothing’s kind of like, different about it because you happen to be this tiny little world, then that feels kind of pointless. So I guess we’ll just have, but literally we saw no real game. (0:45:17) Al: We just saw a few clips of your character walking around the world and that was it. (0:45:22) Al: So we’ll keep an eye on it, figure out whether it’s actually a cottagecore game, figure out if there’s actually any gameplay to it and whether it actually means anything. But I’m intrigued. (0:45:34) Al: Communite. So I’ve talked about this before, but just for people who aren’t aware, this This is a multiplayer city builder game, it’s like an online game. And they have announced that you can get your own server for it. So previously it was just like one combined server, but you can, they have 30 servers that they’re giving to

Al and Micah talk about Harvest Moon: The Winds of Anthos. Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:02:58: What Have We Been Up To 00:32:53: News 01:12:15: Harvest Moon: The Winds Of Anthos 01:50:34: Outro Links Disney Dreamlight Valley Upcoming Releases Disney Dreamlight Valley Apple Arcade Edition Roots of Pacha 1.1 Update and Console Release Ooblets 1.4 Update Everdream Valley 1.6 Update Slime Rancher 2 Update Echoes of the Plum Grove Kickstarter Snacko Early Access My Time At Portia Optimisation Concerned Ape Cool Fruit Contact Al on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheScotBot Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Transcript (0:00:30) Al: Hello farmers and welcome to another episode of the harvest season. (0:00:35) Al: My name is Al and we’re here today to talk about Cottagecore games. (0:00:37) Micah: And I’m Micah! (0:00:44) Al: And you totally didn’t forget and suddenly remember that you had to say your own name there, did you? (0:00:49) Micah: I just, I never know when to like, you know, it’s, I’ve got the brain of a five year old. (0:00:56) Micah: So I need someone to say, and now’s the time that you say your name. (0:01:00) Al: Well, the problem is, right, that you’re on like two episodes a year, right? (0:01:01) Micah: Yeah. (0:01:06) Al: It’s not like, you know, the others are on like, you know, once a month or something. (0:01:09) Al: It’s much easier to remember how it goes that way. (0:01:11) Micah: I feel like I’ve gotten better about the outro, (0:01:14) Micah: but yes, you’re totally right. (0:01:17) Micah: It’s not, you know, it comes to me again as we’re doing. (0:01:23) Al: Yeah, that’s the thing I could hear when you said, and I’m like, I could hear, you were like, “Oh yes, no, I need to say it now.” Welcome. Anyway, welcome. It’s been a while. (0:01:28) Micah: You can hear the gears turning You can hear the cogs clanking around in there Yeah, thanks. Thanks for having me. It’s always fun to be on Talk about some of my favorite genre my favorite genre of games (0:01:39) Al: Welcome back. It’s good to have you on. I notice how you said ‘favourite genre games, (0:01:49) Al: favourite games because well, we’ll see. (0:01:52) Micah: Not all of them, you know [laughs] (0:01:53) Al: Let’s not conclude on the game yet before we even said what it is. (0:01:59) Al: So, first of all, transcripts for the podcast are available in the show notes and on the website if you need them, although they’re whether you need them or not, but now you know where to go if you need them. (0:02:10) Al: We’re going to talk. (0:02:12) Al: You know what it’s going to be because we got Micah on. (0:02:15) Al: You know it’s going to be either Harvest Moon or Story Seasons. (0:02:17) Al: We’ve got a Harvest Moon, the Winds of Anthos. (0:02:21) Micah: We sure do. (0:02:22) Al: So we’re going to. (0:02:23) Al: We’re going to talk about that just as a preamble to that. (0:02:28) Al: I will not be playing the game during the episode because I’ve already sold it so that probably explains my feelings in summary, but we’ll get to that when we get to it. (0:02:38) Al: But, yeah, no, I. (0:02:39) Micah: Well I’ve got a digital so it’s not even an option for me, so… (0:02:41) Al: I know better than to buy a Harvest Moon game digitally. (0:02:45) Al: Come on. (0:02:46) Micah: I actually told you about this, but I’ll save it for when we get there, I guess. (0:02:47) Al: Yeah, yeah, we’ll go. (0:02:50) Al: We can leave that for the yeah, yeah, people can hear. (0:02:53) Al: The fun story. (0:02:54) Al: We’ve got a bunch of news, a bunch of exciting news to talk about. (0:02:58) Al: But first of all, Makar, what have you been up to? (0:03:01) Micah: Uh, I just recently got back from Japan and My partner and I went for about two Three weeks something like that something we’ve been planning since originally planned on going in spring of 2020 World event Happened and I don’t know. I just everything feels weird after (0:03:19) Al: Classic. (0:03:21) Al: Yeah, what happened in spring 2020? Nothing. Nothing happened. That’s the point. (0:03:30) Al: I know. (0:03:31) Micah: 2020 and I don’t know what it was. (0:03:33) Micah: I Yes, it was a great time. It was something that we’ve been looking forward to it for a long time. I put a lot of time and effort into the planning the itinerary and Making sure that we had a full schedule, but also a flexible schedule, you know, I for a bit there It was getting to the point where I like I’ve got you know (0:03:53) Al: Don’t do the minute. (0:04:01) Micah: some levels of ADHD and OCD that I have been formally diagnosed with that manifest itself in things like that where I’ll just lock in on an Idea and then I’ll just run with it and then I’ll just keep going and then I’ll get deeper and deeper And it was pretty much to the point where I was like Google mapping If I took the train from this location at this time of day in Japan (0:04:29) Micah: what train would I take and… (0:04:31) Micah: where would I transfer and how much would it cost and then like figuring out travel costs down to like you know the individual train ride and things like that. (0:04:42) Al: Oh, you’ve got to know the best way to pay for it, right? Do I get a travel card or am I buying individual tickets? You know, that’s important. (0:04:43) Micah: That originally was the plan but then you know it just got to the point where it was it was like things that you especially knowing now you would not be able to like (0:05:02) Micah: plan for really given like you know how travel works like mass transit travel works there but which beautiful by the way beautiful transit system could not say anything bad about that transit system and then we came back here where it’s just cars. (0:05:22) Al: Well, you presumably weren’t traveling in peak hour, peak time, you’re commuting hour. (0:05:28) Micah: Uh, there was a lot of it where we were, which was a little, you know, that was a little challenging being absolutely crammed into trains, like, just packed with people. (0:05:29) Al: Oh, OK. (0:05:46) Micah: It was an experience that I’m not used to, but yeah, it was an experience. (0:05:52) Micah: I did a lot of looking at retro games and stuff like that. (0:05:55) Micah: We did a lot of, you know, we did some– (0:05:59) Micah: theme cafes and things like that, Dragon Quest Cafe. (0:06:02) Micah: Went to the Dragon Quest Island. (0:06:04) Micah: Dragon Quest Island was a bucket list item. (0:06:06) Micah: And I was very excited to do that. (0:06:06) Al: Of course. (0:06:10) Micah: Very awesome, just like a real life JRPG. (0:06:15) Micah: You just like walk around a town and get quests and then go fight stuff and then come back. (0:06:21) Micah: And it’s a lot of, you know, like, (0:06:24) Micah: what do you call it, fetch quests, (0:06:25) Micah: but it still was a very cool experience. (0:06:28) Micah: And while I was there, they were promoting and releasing Mario Wonder. (0:06:35) Micah: So I picked that up while I was there because the exchange rate was absolutely in our favor. (0:06:43) Micah: So a brand new Switch game wound up being like $36 or something like that. (0:06:48) Micah: USD once you convert it. (0:06:52) Micah: And I’ve been playing that. (0:06:55) Micah: I picked up the metal gear. (0:06:59) Micah: Collection was there too, because it came out around the same time and I played a little bit of that. (0:07:05) Micah: But mostly it’s been I’ve been playing Super Mario Wonder and trying to get through the Pokemon DLC. (0:07:14) Micah: And I’ve picked up Disney Speedstorm and I’ve been playing a lot of Disney Speedstorm, which is their cart racer. (0:07:19) Al: Is it any good? (0:07:21) Micah: It is actually incredible. (0:07:24) Micah: It is remarkably good. (0:07:28) Micah: There is two mechanics that I think separate it quite a bit from being just like Mario Kart. (0:07:37) Micah: It does feel just like Mario Kart but with Disney characters. (0:07:41) Micah: But one of the mechanics is that you instead of having like just this selection of power, like item block, (0:07:53) Micah: you get the item block and there’s like a selection of items that you can get out of that. (0:07:57) Micah: I (0:07:58) Micah: And everybody gets the same thing. There is one item that is like your ultimate move For whatever your racer is and all the racers have different ultimate moves and Even beyond that there is a basic ultimate move and there is a charged ultimate move where if you charge you hold the button And charge it up then it’ll do something different So as an example, I’ve been playing a lot of Donald Duck and Donald Duck’s (0:08:05) Al: Right. Okay. (0:08:27) Micah: basic move. (0:08:28) Micah: The ultimate move is that he puts a shield around himself, and if that shield gets broken, then he has these energy fists that punch all the other racers around him. (0:08:42) Micah: But if you charge it, then it immediately does the fists, and it also boosts you. (0:08:50) Micah: So there’s different ways that your ultimates can come through. (0:08:55) Micah: The big thing for me I think is that there is (0:08:58) Micah: a combat mechanic to it where you can slam into other cars and push them into an obstacle or whatever and a lot of the power-ups and stuff like that or a lot of the items can be translated directly into combat So it really there’s a there’s a really (0:09:28) Micah: Powerful feeling of getting into a race and immediately shoving everybody around you into the wall as Donald Duck and then just like blasting your way through the finish line. There’s something so Kind of yeah, yeah, it does have it the especially in in the single-player because if there’s not, you know, if there’s (0:09:43) Al: So it’s basically it’s Mario Kart crossed with Barnett. (0:09:56) Micah: There’s opportunity. (0:09:58) Micah: There’s time for that. It slows down a little bit and shows the cart that you hit spinning out or whatever. (0:10:03) Al: Yeah, classic. Yeah, yeah, sure. (0:10:05) Micah: Obviously, you can’t do that in multiplayer, but that definitely makes it feel more like burnout in that way. (0:10:13) Micah: When you’re hitting something and it’s spinning out and you’re watching it in slow motion. (0:10:18) Micah: Yeah. It was good. (0:10:18) Al: Burnout was always my favourite racing game when I was younger, just because of that. (0:10:22) Al: I was never a huge fan of the realistic races, because it just isn’t fun. But Burnout was like, “Yeah, I can drive and smash people into walls.” Amazing. (0:10:26) Micah: Yeah. (0:10:28) Micah: Yeah. (0:10:31) Micah: It’s great and it’s yeah, that’s like the big difference for between it and Mario Kart like there’s obviously there’s combat Kart combat quote-unquote with the items that you get and things like that in Mario Kart, but this is like physical combat. It’s like It’s much more cutthroat it feels it is a really satisfying game and it’s doing the whole you know Like they’re they’re doing seasons and they have a battle pass and you can buy like a premium battle pass that gives you you know more or whatever. (0:11:01) Micah: It is not bad. A lot of it is very cosmetic focused because there’s outfits for racers. There’s different like paint jobs for racers and things like that. They have things like victory poses that you can get. There are some bundles where it’s like you can buy these upgrade packs for like the specific items that you need to upgrade your racers and stuff like that. (0:11:02) Al: So that’s my next question, how bad is that? Because obviously it’s free to play game. (0:11:31) Micah: There’s a lot of content to it. There’s like for the single player portion of it. There’s there’s seasons and every season has like a single player chunk where it’s all of these like kind of it. It’s like chapters and each chapter has, I don’t know, 8 to 10 races in it and the races will unlock it. (0:11:38) Al: Is that something you can get for free if you work hard enough? Or is that? (0:11:41) Al: Right, okay. See, that’s the key for me. (0:11:59) Micah: and the races will unlock. (0:12:01) Micah: You can unlock chests that have the upgrades and stuff like that in it. (0:12:05) Micah: But there’s like, I don’t even… (0:12:09) Micah: 10 chapters or something like that for each season. (0:12:11) Micah: So right now the season is highlighting Aladdin. (0:12:15) Micah: And you can select the battle pass. (0:12:19) Micah: Through the battle pass you can unlock Jasmine. (0:12:22) Micah: And you can unlock Genie as racers. (0:12:26) Micah: And you unlock them really early in the battle pass. (0:12:31) Micah: And you can get them early even without the premium battle pass. (0:12:38) Micah: But then all the way at the end of the battle pass you get special outfits and special car colors and whatever. (0:12:45) Micah: Like paint jobs and stuff like that. (0:12:47) Micah: But the single player portion of the season is all Aladdin based story content. (0:12:55) Micah: Where it’s like races that you have to do with specific conditions. (0:13:02) Micah: And there’s so much content for it. (0:13:04) Micah: There’s like an unbelievable amount of content that’s just like free content. (0:13:09) Micah: So there is a lot of opportunity to get that stuff yourself without paying anything for it. (0:13:17) Micah: It’s good though. It’s a really really good racer. (0:13:18) Al: OK, that’s good. That’s good. (0:13:22) Al: I’ll need to try it because I’ve tried a number of different car racers and most of them, I’ve just not enjoyed the controls. (0:13:31) Al: Like, they’ve just never felt like they’ve worked as well as Mario Kart. (0:13:34) Al: So I’ll need to try this one and see how that goes for me. (0:13:35) Micah: This definitely is the most Mario Kart similar I think Right Yes, I do too (0:13:38) Al: It doesn’t need to be the exact same. (0:13:41) Al: I just use that as an example because like I like the controls in Mario Kart. (0:13:46) Al: it’s very smooth and it’s very controllable. (0:13:48) Al: Every single version of it, whereas like, you know, if you take like crash team racing or sonic racing or whatever, I hate, I just, I know I don’t enjoy how they control. (0:13:56) Micah: Yeah, we’re in the exact same boat. (0:13:59) Al: I always feel like I’m just not in as, as control as, as I am with Mario Kart. (0:14:03) Micah: Yeah, given that and how similar I think our feelings are on that, I feel like you’ll probably like it because I’m very much the same way. (0:14:13) Micah: I did not, was not a fan of Crash Team Racing and Sonic Racing and how that felt. (0:14:19) Micah: It does. (0:14:20) Micah: Um, I think probably just because of history with it, I’m most attuned to- (0:14:26) Micah: to like Mario Kart controls and things like that. (0:14:31) Micah: And it feels the most like that. (0:14:32) Micah: Like, you know, there’s- you go off a jump and you can hit a button to do like a flare or whatever to like give yourself a little bit of boost. (0:14:39) Micah: And the drift feels like Mario Kart and there’s like drift chaining and stuff that- (0:14:45) Al: I have actually downloaded it on my switch. I’ve just not opened it yet because it’s like free to play game that I know I’m going to play at some point. Of course, I’m going to download it, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It came out of early access a few months ago, I think. So yeah. Oh, interesting. (0:14:48) Micah: Yeah, and it’s also, I think it’s on every platform now, but you can chain your account. (0:15:00) Micah: It’s like super easy to link your account between platforms, so that’s also really nice. (0:15:05) Micah: Oh, you know what it is. (0:15:07) Micah: It’s coming to mobile soon is what I remember. (0:15:10) Micah: So if, yeah, we’ll see how the game changes at that point, but you know. (0:15:16) Al: - Yeah, I don’t, having said I liked all the Mario Kart, (0:15:18) Al: I don’t like live, I don’t like Mario Kart live, (0:15:19) Micah: No, I don’t. (0:15:20) Al: I don’t like how, I just, no. (0:15:21) Micah: Not a fan. (0:15:22) Al: I want something like that, I want the new, (0:15:27) Al: I like everything that it does in terms of the live service stuff, (0:15:31) Al: I just want that on a switch with controls rather than the, no, I don’t like the, anyway, whatever. (0:15:36) Micah: Yeah. (0:15:37) Micah: Yep, no, I feel you. (0:15:42) Al: So I too have been playing Mario Wonder. (0:15:45) Al: No finished it, I think in the last episode I said I was nearly done and I just had one level to go. (0:15:51) Al: I have no finished that one. (0:15:54) Micah: Dang, I have not finished it. (0:15:56) Micah: I’m very excited to see that. (0:15:57) Micah: What are your thoughts now that you’ve finished it? (0:15:58) Al: I really love it. I think it is one of the best 2D Mario games they’ve done. I think it’s really good. I think what I think is amazing is see if we had this game and one in every four levels had a wonderful hour. We’d think that was a really cool idea and it was really interesting that they did that. The fact that they’ve done this in every single level and every single level has a different thing that the wonderful (0:15:59) Micah: It’s so good, isn’t it? (0:16:28) Al: flower does. Every single level is incredible. Yeah, I love it. I love it. I also feel like unlike most Marios, I feel like I could figure out most of the secrets myself. So there’s a few that I just didn’t quite get and I had to Google. But with most other (0:16:29) Micah: it’s insane. Yeah, it’s insane. And there’s like multiple methods through the levels to like, it’s just it’s crazy how much detail and love (0:16:58) Al: Mario’s, I’ve been like, I have absolutely no idea how to deal with this here. I don’t know where to go here. And maybe that’s just me getting better at figuring out their secrets. (0:17:07) Al: That’s a possibility. But I’ve just felt like, yeah, it just, and I feel like when I got to the end of the game, I wasn’t hugely far off 100% because it just felt like everything was really fun to continue doing. I like got close to 100% in each world that I did up to like four, and then five and six, I just was like, I just want to finish this now. So I did what I needed to, but I think, yeah, no, I think it was, and I think there are quite a few levels at the end that are like really difficult. And they’re not like, you know, Mario, Mario maker difficult, right? Like they’re not like insane. You have to have like split second reflexes to ever do this, but especially the very last level, (0:17:53) Al: which you know, when you get to it, that one in particular was so frustrating. (0:17:55) Micah: I had… (0:17:58) Al: I, I’m not joking when I say I, it took me 60 lives to get through that game, that level. (0:18:05) Micah: Holy smokes, I had actually read someone had had said that they felt like it was the closest to Mario. (0:18:16) Micah: An official Mario game has come to feeling like a Kaizo Mario game, which if you don’t know, Kaizo Mario games you like, they call them like Iron Man Mario games. (0:18:28) Micah: Like insanely impossible, like super, you know, reflex. (0:18:35) Micah: Heavy like you have to jump with a shell at the right time and then kick off of that shell at the right time so that it hits a wall at the right time and then jump off of that shell after the fact, you know, all of these like really precise movements and things like that. (0:18:51) Micah: And they said, well, it’s not a Kaizo Mario level. (0:18:51) Al: Yeah, there definitely are a few levels like that. I understand there are people who are like, “I want more like that,” and that’s fair. But yeah, I certainly think there are some levels in this that are some of the hardest that have ever been in a Mario game. So yeah, (0:18:54) Micah: It is the closest that a core Mario game has come to feeling like a Kaizo game. (0:19:09) Micah: Yeah. It’s really fun. (0:19:12) Al: I really, really enjoyed it. I think it was fantastic. Yeah. (0:19:15) Micah: It’s such a I was and I was really kind of like on the fence about the the the theme or like the aesthetic of it being like, you know, I don’t know, LSD induced, whatever is happening, whatever. Yeah, whatever hallucinogenic effects these. (0:19:30) Al: Yeah, I was thinking more magic mushrooms, but yeah, sure. (0:19:39) Micah: Wonder flowers have on these wonder seeds have on everybody. (0:19:43) Micah: I was a little bit on the fence of like, OK, I don’t know if I’m, you know, elephant Mario and whatever. And it just felt a little too wacky, maybe to when I first saw the like trailer for it and stuff. Obviously, it still looked good. (0:19:59) Micah: I was still interested in it. I’m happy that didn’t like deter me from it at all because it’s it’s awesome. It’s such a good Mario game. (0:20:07) Micah: and that like aesthetic is… (0:20:09) Micah: It’s really well done throughout the game without feeling overly wacky or whatever. (0:20:13) Al: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it’s been a really good year for games because I also have been playing Spider-Man 2 and I’ve been loving that. It’s a great game. I feel like I think I’m like 80% through the main story, but there’s still quite a lot of side stuff that I need to do. But I’m at the point where I’m like, I just need to like finish, I need to main line the story, finish that before I tidy everything up. (0:20:17) Micah: They’re killing it with Mario lately, huh? (0:20:28) Micah: Yeah? (0:20:46) Micah: I don’t know too much about what’s going on in Spider-Man 2, but from what I understand it’s both Peter Parker and Miles Morales and… (0:20:56) Micah: Okay. (0:20:56) Micah: Are you like swapping between them? (0:20:56) Al: So the first game was… Yeah, so the first game was Peter Parker and then there was a Miles Morales game where Peter goes on holiday, and that’s the explanation as to why you’re just Miles. Okay, fine, sure, whatever. So what you can do is there are specific things that need to be done by one Spider-Man. So obviously, the storyline with Miles’ mum has to happen with Miles, right? (0:20:59) Micah: Right. And then there was a Miles Morales game, right? (0:21:04) Micah: Okay. (0:21:08) Micah: Got it. (0:21:10) Micah: He needs a break. (0:21:24) Al: It doesn’t make any sense for it to be Peter. (0:21:25) Micah: Right. Right. (0:21:26) Al: And the stuff with Mary Jane has to be done with Peter, it can’t be done with Miles. (0:21:30) Al: And there’s like a few kind of like side stuff, like there’s one of the like collectibles thing is to do with Peter’s job, and one of them is to do with Miles’ uncle, (0:21:43) Al: and so those obviously need to be done with that Spider-Man. But other than that… (0:21:46) Micah: can’t be with Peter’s uncle but is that am I allowed to say that I don’t know I’m allowed to say (0:21:55) Al: Wow. (0:21:56) Al: Oh, my, but other than that, you can just freely switch between the Spider-Man. (0:22:06) Al: So you’re just floating around and you can just pause the game and press square and switch to the other one and they’ll pop in and you can do whatever you want. (0:22:14) Al: So I have generally just been going through the game because obviously the story switches you between them for different parts of the story. (0:22:21) Al: So I’ve just kind of continued with whatever (0:22:23) Al: and they’ve dropped me in on until they then switch me. (0:22:26) Al: Just because I felt like that’s the way that kind of felt most natural to me. (0:22:30) Al: But it’s been quite enjoyable doing that. (0:22:34) Al: Obviously, they have different powers. (0:22:36) Al: They’re not exactly the same. (0:22:38) Al: And they do some things that I’m not going to spoil to kind of level Peter up. (0:22:43) Al: Because obviously, Miles has his electricity powers, (0:22:47) Al: which makes him objectively better than Peter. (0:22:51) Micah: Oh, I didn’t even know that was a thing. (0:22:52) Al: Oh, do you not know this? (0:22:53) Al: this. Yeah, so miles can go invisible, first of all. (0:22:54) Micah: What? (0:22:56) Al: You don’t know this! Yeah, oh my word. There’s so much Spider-Man lore you don’t know. So miles can go invisible, but he also has electricity powers, so he can zap people and stuff like that, which Peter obviously doesn’t have. But those powers, one from a different reality. (0:22:58) Micah: I didn’t know this. (0:22:59) Micah: No. (0:23:10) Micah: What kind of spider did that come from? Sorry, never. (0:23:13) Micah: Oh, okay, well. (0:23:16) Al: No, I’m not even joking. That’s serious. Anyway, not important. How far deep do we need to (0:23:19) Micah: Yeah, I can see that. (0:23:26) Al: go with this? But that makes him objectively better to play as than Peter Parker. So they have had to do something to level up Peter Parker. And I’m not gonna say what that is, (0:23:39) Al: but they do it, and it feels great. Like, you don’t feel like you need to be miles. (0:23:44) Al: It doesn’t feel like he’s automatically better than miles. I think they’ve balanced it really well. So you feel like you can be either of them. And it will be interesting to see whether (0:23:57) Al: those powers continue on to the next game. I’ll be interested to see what they do then, (0:24:02) Al: but it’s been good fun. (0:24:02) Micah: I maybe this is what I thought I don’t know how I would know this is a spoiler but I thought I had seen me and maybe I’m like crossing the wires between other something else Spider-Man but this does Peter is like the was it the symbiote or whatever not in the that yeah like Venom’s like doesn’t just does Peter get because there’s like a symbiote suit for (0:24:23) Al: Venom. (0:24:25) Al: Venom is in this game. (0:24:32) Micah: isn’t there like in in Spider-Man lore I don’t know I don’t know is it I thought I like I thought this was in the trailer but also I don’t know for sure okay because that’s a thing that’s existed in Spider-Man lore for like a while right is that at some point Spider-Man has like a symbiote like suit right I don’t know okay all right we can cut all this out (0:24:34) Al: All right, so we’re just fully smiling this, then, are we? (0:24:42) Al: I mean, well, Venom is in the trailer, sure, (0:24:46) Al: but it doesn’t really talk about what that means. (0:24:56) Al: Yeah, I don’t want to say too much. I don’t want to say too much. I mean, people who know a lot of Spider-Man lore are going to be able to predict a lot of this story, right? Like, (0:25:03) Micah: I don’t know how to spoil anything but okay sure yeah (0:25:08) Al: it’s not fresh and new, but it’s still fun to do. And, you know, I think a lot of people don’t aren’t that deep into Spider-Man lore. What I will say is one really annoying thing. (0:25:19) Al: So yeah, Venom’s in this game. Do you know what Miles’ electricity powers are called? (0:25:22) Micah: electricity powers? (0:25:23) Al: No, they’re called venom. (0:25:24) Micah: Wait, what? (0:25:27) Al: He calls them venom! His venom powers! I don’t know why! (0:25:28) Micah: I’m confused. Wait, why does he… (0:25:31) Micah: Oh, that’s weird. (0:25:34) Al: So there’s two venoms in this game and it’s driving me insane. (0:25:36) Micah: What a weird decision. (0:25:39) Al: Also, my other annoyance with this game, right? I love the game, but my other annoyance is they just refer to each other as Spider-Man. (0:25:50) Al: So you’ll be like “Oh, hey Spider-Man, oh hey Spider-Man!” So they’re constantly just referring to Spider-Man when they’re talking. (0:25:56) Al: It’s worse because the subtitles will say “Spider-Man is saying this” so it’ll say “Spider-Man colon” and then what he says. (0:26:00) Micah: No way! (0:26:02) Al: But you’re like “Which one?” But they try and deal with that by having a little face, right? So there’s two little faces, right? (0:26:02) Micah: Oh, I see. (0:26:08) Al: But it’s of the mask. But the problem is, do you know what the masks are? The masks are red and black or black and red. (0:26:09) Micah: They’re both wearing a mask. (0:26:12) Micah: Okay. (0:26:15) Al: And these are teeny tiny little images on a 40-inch screen 12 feet away from me. (0:26:23) Al: I can’t figure out which one it is, it’s dre- (0:26:25) Micah: Yeah, this seems like an oversight a little bit (0:26:26) Al: It’s real bad! And I’ve turned the subtitle size up to max, because I like reading subtitles. (0:26:37) Al: It helps me understand what’s- But the picture’s still tiny! Why is the picture so tiny? And also, (0:26:40) Micah: ID too, same boat (0:26:44) Al: you change their suits, right? Nobody stays in the default suits in this game. That’s part of the fun of it, is changing your suits. So I needed to- Part of my problem is that I always- I have a very (0:26:56) Al: specific aesthetic of Spider-Man suit that I like, but I can’t put them both in the same aesthetic, (0:27:01) Al: because then I can’t figure out whose is who. So I’ve had to do like- So I have to decide that this is the colour for Peter, and this is the colour for Miles, and I’ve had to kind of stick with that, (0:27:11) Al: so that I can tell them apart on screen. I know, I know. But it’s- But it is really fun. It’s a really fun game. It has done the same thing, in my opinion, for Spider-Man. (0:27:13) Micah: What a nightmare. (0:27:26) Al: Spider-Man games, that Tears of the Kingdom did for Zelda games. I think it’s done- It has taken a game and done what you think is basically the same thing, but then layered so much more on top of it that it feels so good. (0:27:41) Micah: Yeah, huh It looks really good. I didn’t it seems like the reaction to it has been very good. I just saw today I saw it tick-tock that was somebody saying like I Don’t care what you say Miles and Morales and Peter Parker are my friends. They’re real people. They’re my friends They’re we’re we’re best friends. They’re the boys like And I think you know just saying that like the characters are done so well that it feels like they’re you know (0:28:11) Micah: um but I Not knowing really much about spider-man There is a part of me that wants to play it purely out of like seeing how much Like open world traversal there is for like I’m a big sucker for when there’s like true to life in-game recreations of like real locations So like being able to traverse New York City, I feel like would be (0:28:42) Micah: very fun, even if it’s just I Have not no I Uh Not no, not really that I can remember I mean I do I’ve seen people play them and I’ve seen like, you know, there’s a Again on tick-tock. There’s like occasionally I’ll see a tick-tock live of somebody. That’s just like No camera or anything. It’s just their their gameplay of them Swinging as spider-man and I’m assuming the like previous one but it. (0:28:43) Al: So if you don’t play any Spider-Man game, even like the early 2000s ones or anything, (0:28:50) Al: the Tobey Maguire tie-in film ones, no, that’s fine. (0:29:06) Al: Yeah. It’s absolutely incredible. It’s absolutely incredible, Michael. There’s no traversal in another game that is as fun as this, and they added extra stuff on to what the games had before to make it even more… You have a wingsuit now, so you can fly. So you can swing and swing and go high, and then you fly in your wingsuit, and you can… You’re gliding, right? You’re not flying, (0:29:36) Al: ages. And there’s slip streams around the city, so you can go so fast through the city if you catch the right slip stream, and they’ve added in a bunch of stuff. You can surf on the water for a short period of time and then jump back up and stuff like that. There’s so much in… It’s so fun. (0:30:00) Al: It’s just incredible. And there’s also stuff like you might have seen… Have you you haven’t seen any of the NPC conversations. (0:30:06) Al: There’s like full-on full-on 10, 15, 20 minute conversations that these NPCs have. (0:30:07) Micah: I don’t think so. I don’t think I’ve seen any of the NPC stuff or like (0:30:17) Micah: Oh, like, not like cutscenes, it’s just like listening to people. (0:30:18) Al: If you like just drop down onto the street, no, if you just drop down and there’s two people talking, they will have a full-on conversation for 15 minutes about the most random stuff. (0:30:29) Al: But it makes sense. (0:30:30) Al: It’s incredible. (0:30:31) Al: Like there was there’s ones that I’ve seen which is like, you know, people who were on a work site and they were complaining about their boss. (0:30:36) Al: And then there were people who were talking about like their children and then there’s just so many and it’s wild. (0:30:43) Al: I cannot imagine like it just feels like they’ve gotten in some voice actors and said riff on this and they’ve just spent 20 minutes talking about it. (0:30:50) Micah: Yeah, I can imagine that would be the best way to do that too is to just have people like That’s awesome Who’s the is it rocksteady as a developer Oh insomniac, okay (0:30:51) Al: But it’s incredible. (0:30:52) Al: Yeah. (0:30:54) Al: But they’re everywhere. (0:30:57) Al: I don’t understand how they’ve done it. (0:30:59) Al: It’s like so much. (0:31:01) Al: It’s not. (0:31:02) Al: It’s Insomniac. (0:31:06) Al: It’s incredible. (0:31:07) Al: And it’s also they’re doing a Wolverine game as well coming out in a we don’t know when but presumably like five years or something like that. (0:31:10) Micah: Oh, okay, cool. (0:31:12) Micah: Yeah. (0:31:13) Al: Who knows. (0:31:14) Al: It’s made me really excited for that because like I’m just yeah. (0:31:17) Al: Well I say so yeah having so much fun. (0:31:19) Al: And we probably don’t need to get into a huge conversation about this but also been playing the watermelon games. (0:31:26) Al: It’s a week out game or whatever they call it. (0:31:26) Micah: Yep. I think everybody at least has touched it at some point or see. (0:31:28) Al: It’s been good. (0:31:32) Al: If you haven’t played it. (0:31:33) Al: If you haven’t seen it go play it. (0:31:34) Al: Go watch a video of it. (0:31:36) Micah: And it’s like, what’d you say? $2? (0:31:37) Al: Yeah. (0:31:38) Al: Something like that. (0:31:38) Micah: I bought it when I was on the Japanese eShop. (0:31:39) Al: A thousand yen or something. (0:31:40) Micah: So it was like, I don’t know. (0:31:43) Micah: Yeah, it was like 200 yen or something. (0:31:43) Al: I do even know is what that means. (0:31:45) Al: Yep. (0:31:46) Micah: Yeah. (0:31:47) Micah: It was– yeah, it’s very cheap. (0:31:48) Al: Yeah it’s very cheap and loads of fun. (0:31:50) Micah: It’s like $2 on the– (0:31:54) Al: I like I play a couple of times a day. (0:31:56) Al: It’s good fun. (0:31:58) Al: Oh this is. (0:31:58) Micah: very good. Yeah, we there’s not a whole lot to say about watermelon. You drop you drop fruits into a bucket and they combine if you match them and just don’t overflow the bucket and that’s it. Yeah. It reminds me of there’s some like old arcade game I can’t remember what it was where you’d like shoot balls at each other and if you hit the same color balls then they would combine into like. (0:32:01) Al: We talk a little. (0:32:07) Al: Yeah. (0:32:10) Al: It’s like physics version of Candy Crush or whatever. (0:32:15) Al: Or marriage was the marriage marriage games. (0:32:27) Al: Yeah, I think there’s a few, yeah, there’s a few different games that have done this similar sort of thing. (0:32:28) Micah: a different color and it was like that same. (0:32:31) Micah: Yeah. (0:32:34) Al: This just does it really nicely and the physics aspect of it changes the game entirely because like you drop one and it bounces off stuff and you don’t know for certain where it’s going to go. (0:32:45) Al: So it adds a little bit of, you know, just randomness to that as well, which is fun. (0:32:49) Al: Oh my God, this isn’t going to be a short episode, is it? (0:32:51) Micah: No, I guess not. (0:32:52) Al: We’re going to talk about some news after half an hour. (0:32:56) Al: Um (0:32:57) Al: So, first of all we get Disney Dreamlight Valley. Um, so before we get into the brand new news about this, I just need to talk to you Micah. So, had you seen that the game’s no longer going to be free to play? (0:33:08) Micah: I did. You are actually not the only person to have reached out to me after the news dropped to ask me how I felt about it. Well, I mean, I feel like, you know, if I had to pay for it, (0:33:09) Al: How do you feel? (0:33:25) Micah: then everybody else should. I’m just kidding. It’s kind of a weird move to like start something and say like it’s free to play because usually it’s the other it’s the other way around right like something is paid for it’s like a paid experience and then eventually when it’s not performing the way that they want it to anymore then they move it to free to play like that’s usually the way it goes not the other way around where it starts free to play and they’re like actually you know what we’re gonna charge money for this kind of a weird thing but (0:33:30) Al: Justice! (0:33:30) Al: Or it’s going to be free to play, yeah. (0:33:55) Al: Yeah. Well, it’s also a bit weird because it never was and isn’t going to be now free to play. The weird thing is it’s not gone free to play too paid. It’s gone from paid but we’ll be free to play to actually, no, we’re not going to be free to play. (0:34:13) Micah: Yeah, yes, like free to play, but you have to pay for, like, (0:34:17) Micah: stuff to get access to it anyways, like. (0:34:22) Al: It’s wild, it’s weird, it’s weird, but anyway. (0:34:22) Micah: Yeah, it is a weird thing. (0:34:25) Micah: I don’t I don’t really know how I feel. (0:34:30) Micah: Other than that, like it’s it seems like a weird choice for them. (0:34:34) Micah: I now my concern is, are they going to charge me (0:34:34) Al: I mean you must be less frustrated about buying it now. So they’re not. So I guess what I should say, just a quick summary for people who haven’t listened. So the game is going to come out of Early Access on the 5th of December. There will be a new update at that point. We got more details about that. (0:34:42) Micah: again for the actual (0:34:43) Micah: game since everything that I bought was like basically cosmetic stuff and currency will there be an actual okay, all right good (0:35:04) Al: last week, so I’ll detail. We’ll go over that in a minute. But your early access will continue on. And in fact, you will get extra stuff because you were early access. So you will you get like there’s a few extra cosmetics, including you get capybara. So, you know, (0:35:16) Micah: Oh. Okay. (0:35:24) Micah: Oh Now I’m not upset at all I was a little bit upset but now I’m not Yeah I’m not like opposed to that, but I’m curious to see the I know we have a roadmap that we’re gonna look at But I’m curious to see how frequent paid is gonna come into play because that can kind of (0:35:27) Al: here we go. But, but, but. (0:35:34) Al: they are doing paid DLCs, which will (0:35:46) Al: Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So a couple small things first. So first of all, the soundtrack for Disney Dreaming Valley is out. You can go get, go stream it or buy it now. So that’s, that’s a thing. I feel like it’s a pretty standard thing for games now. Except Pokemon games. (0:36:03) Micah: That’s also interesting thing, because I don’t know. (0:36:07) Micah: That’s not like, you know. (0:36:10) Micah: Yeah, I suppose so. (0:36:12) Micah: I feel like the standard thing is like, they’re available, (0:36:16) Micah: or like you get the soundtrack with the game or something and not, you know, like, the soundtrack’s out and you can buy it if you want. (0:36:23) Micah: I don’t know, maybe that’s. (0:36:25) Micah: And I don’t know that there was anything really like distinct about the Dreamlight Valley soundtrack that had me like, (0:36:30) Al: No, no, it’s no, it’s no Stardew Valley soundtrack. (0:36:31) Micah: Oh, I got to get this. (0:36:33) Micah: But I don’t know, yeah, that on the other hand outpaid over and over for that. (0:36:36) Al: So the 5th of December update, the 1.0 update, if you will, has been detailed a little bit. (0:36:48) Al: So Jack Skellington will be coming. (0:36:49) Al: Weird that this is coming. (0:36:51) Al: I mean, I guess maybe it makes sense it’s coming between Halloween and Christmas, but I feel like why isn’t this out just before Halloween? (0:36:57) Al: I don’t know. (0:36:58) Micah: You know, I just had this conversation about Nightmare Before Christmas with someone that I work with who said that Nightmare Before Christmas is a Christmas movie and not a Halloween movie and I argued that it’s both. (0:37:12) Al: It’s both. It’s, of course, it’s both, right? (0:37:14) Micah: But then there were other people that agreed with them that said, yeah, it’s more of a Christmas movie than it is a Halloween movie, which like, it’s actually both. (0:37:15) Al: And it… (0:37:16) Al: No. (0:37:18) Al: It’s literally both. (0:37:22) Al: It’s literally both. (0:37:24) Al: This is not a diehard thing, and I’m not going to have that argument, (0:37:27) Al: because my argument about a diehard is, “I don’t care, shut up.” Right? (0:37:31) Al: But, like, this is not… This is literally half Halloween, half Christmas. (0:37:32) Micah: No, this is explicitly bold. (0:37:35) Micah: Yes. (0:37:37) Al: It’s about both holidays. (0:37:40) Al: It just seems like people… (0:37:40) Micah: Thank you, I feel vindicated. (0:37:42) Al: People feel this need to categorise things so that they feel they can watch it at Christmas, right? (0:37:48) Al: And it’s like, you can watch it at Christmas, you can watch it at Halloween. (0:37:53) Al: It’s both. I mean, you can watch it whenever you want, but like, no one’s going to look at it… (0:37:53) Micah: You can watch it whenever you want. Yeah. (0:37:59) Al: I watched it on… I hadn’t watched Nightmare before Christmas, before this year. (0:38:04) Micah: Oh, really? (0:38:05) Micah: Thoughts? (0:38:05) Al: Just hadn’t got around to it, so I watched it a few days before Halloween. Really liked it. (0:38:09) Al: liked it. It was good fun. Good say. I mean, (0:38:12) Al: some of the songs are incredible. It starts out particularly well. Like it’s like comes out of the gate crashing. Like I’m a, it’s really good. Very weird. I enjoyed it. Anyway. (0:38:25) Al: Uh, yeah. So Jax Galton coming to Disney Dreamlight Valley and also multiplayer. So if you really want multiplayer, I’m not going to play multiplayer. Don’t make me play multiplayer. But if you (0:38:36) Micah: I can’t imagine the multiplayer being super smooth based on the gameplay, but I don’t know, maybe. (0:38:45) Al: I feel like it’s going to be basically Animal Crossing multiplayer, like it’s not going to be like Stardew Valley multiplayer or anything like that, it’s going to be visiting someone’s village to see what they’ve done. (0:38:47) Micah: I don’t know. (0:38:49) Micah: Yeah, yeah, that probably. (0:38:54) Micah: Well, because there’s, I mean, they say in the, what’s the wording for that? (0:39:04) Al: enter the valley verse with your friends. Maybe that’s a special place then. (0:39:07) Micah: » See, when I had originally read it, I thought maybe that it was like interacting with Jack Skellington in the Valleyverse with your friends, (0:39:18) Micah: as if you can do whatever that story content is with them, but maybe I just read that (0:39:27) Al: So this update also introduces the highly anticipated multiplayer mode, allowing you and up to three friends to visit each other’s valleys. (0:39:34) Al: Oh, there you go, visit each other’s valleys. (0:39:36) Micah: Okay, yeah. (0:39:36) Al: From showing off your eye for design to checking ScroogeMcDuck’s stock in another v- It’s Animal Crossing. (0:39:38) Micah: Next. (0:39:39) Micah: Yep. (0:39:43) Micah: Okay. (0:39:45) Micah: That I can see a little bit more than like, (0:39:47) Micah: ‘cause when I’d read it, I thought it was, you know, (0:39:50) Micah: you could do story content with your friends, (0:39:52) Micah: and that to me felt like that would be a very not smooth experience. (0:39:56) Al: Yeah, that, yeah. (0:39:57) Micah: But if it’s just like, come check out my valley, (0:39:58) Al: Perhaps more exciting is the fact that the multiplayer mode would continue to evolve over time as new ways to interact with your friends are added in future updates. (0:40:08) Al: Okay, well we’ll deal with them when they come, but yeah, basically the launch version is basically what Animal Crossing does. (0:40:09) Micah: Hmm Yeah when they’re on a When they’re on a content roadmap, then we’ll look at it (0:40:15) Al: Yeah, yeah, yeah, give us the give us the details. (0:40:22) Al: So then we’ve had more information about the paid DLC so (0:40:26) Al: we’ve got a content roadmap with a lot of stuff in this. I’ll link this in the show notes so you can go have a look at it but we have detailed five free updates and three I’m pretty sure three of the same paid DLC updates so this is I think one pack that you pay for and you get these three updates I don’t think these are three separate paid things because it’s all part of one One story, basically. (0:40:50) Micah: Hmm, okay Oh sure (0:40:57) Al: So this paid expansion, which is called a Rift in Time, you visit a place called Eternity Isle, (0:41:05) Al: and you meet Rapunzel, Gaston, and Eve, and go through some adventures with them. And then the spring 2024 says, explore ancient’s landing to uncover more of its secrets and befriend a very lucky villager and you also see (0:41:26) Al: in that picture Gaston, Eve and Rapunzel and then it says some (0:41:29) Micah: Mm-hmm Who do you think the very lucky villagers I? (0:41:34) Micah: Couldn’t figure out from that. I don’t have enough Disney knowledge to based on whatever that door is to maybe look (0:41:41) Al: I don’t know and then summer 2024 it says foil Jafar’s schemes and fix the rift in time so that feels to me like three parts of this one paid day. (0:41:54) Micah: Yeah, that makes complete sense, I think. (0:41:58) Micah: I think that you’re totally right. (0:42:00) Al: Yes, yes, so Jafar being very clearly, he’s the big baddie of this DLC, and that’s interesting. (0:42:00) Micah: And obviously, introduction of Aladdin characters (0:42:13) Al: Interesting that Jafar is the first Aladdin (0:42:15) Micah: And also that it’s not like sticking to one series, like one movie. (0:42:22) Al: Yeah, yeah, yeah. (0:42:24) Micah: It’s like Rapunzel, Gaston, Eve versus Jafar. (0:42:28) Micah: It’s not like. (0:42:29) Al: And one other character, one other person that we don’t know who yet, like wild. (0:42:30) Micah: And yeah, a mystery character. (0:42:37) Al: Oh, yeah, actually, it does say so in these mysterious lands, you will embark on a new main story involving Jafar and the very fabric of time itself taking place across three acts all included in the expansion purchase. (0:42:49) Al: confirmation that those three updates between. (0:42:52) Al: December and summer will be the one purchase, which is thirty dollars, I think. (0:42:57) Micah: It’s not too bad if it’s like a yearly thing, like a yearly expansion purchase or like even, (0:42:59) Al: It’s not it does seem yeah. (0:43:06) Micah: you know, half a year or whatever, which it seems like that probably they’re doing here December 5th to summer 2024. (0:43:15) Micah: It’s like a six month, six months of content for like 30 bucks. (0:43:20) Micah: I guess that’s not too bad. (0:43:22) Al: It’s not terrible. It’s not terrible. We’ll see how it… And I think on top of that they are then obviously doing these other free updates. So obviously we’ve got the the 1.0 release in December which gives you Jack Skellington and the multiplayer and then late winter. It says 2024. It’s a very confusing saying winter 2024. What it means is January or February, right? (0:43:39) Micah: which yeah of 2024 yet. (0:43:46) Al: Yeah, it was just like don’t word it like that. Like this is just whatever. (0:43:52) Al: That is obviously some monster ink related stuff. We’ve got Mike Wazowski and it says scream with excitement as a new realm door opens. And then we’ve got early spring 2024, (0:44:04) Al: a vibrant new villager moves to the valley. I have no idea who… (0:44:07) Micah: Don’t either I was trying to figure that out, but it there’s like there’s like a daisy duck on the front on the like Mast of that ship and I don’t know what that I don’t know if this is like a again, not sure I have the Disney knowledge to know what that’s from but I’m sure it’s from some specific Mickey Mouse movie or you know (0:44:15) Al: Oh yeah, interesting. (0:44:32) Micah: episode or whatever something I’m sure it’s from something really (0:44:32) Al: They’re getting very vague at this point, realistically, right? Because then we’ve got late spring 2024 and it just says, “You don’t find a realm like this every dynasty.” And you’re like, “Oh, for goodness sake, where are we going with this? My word.” Like, someone will know this because there’s some insane fan who knows everything based on… I don’t I don’t know. (0:44:44) Micah: Which like, (0:44:46) Micah: I feel like that’s Mulan. (0:44:53) Micah: Is that not based on the word dynasty? (0:44:57) Micah: I don’t know. (0:45:02) Micah: I feel like that that’s probably Mulan, (0:45:02) Al: Do the flowers relate to that? Like, there’s flowers coming out the door? (0:45:05) Micah: but they’re just doing like, they’re, (0:45:11) Al: I feel like a Taylor Swift fan right now. And then we’ve got… (0:45:18) Micah: ‘Cause the Mulan is set in the northern Wei Dynasty. (0:45:19) Al: Yeah. (0:45:24) Micah: So I don’t know. I don’t know. (0:45:28) Al: And then we’ve got summer 2024, which that’s the princess and the frog. (0:45:32) Al: Right. That picture is the, I can’t remember her name. (0:45:33) Micah: yes. Uh, shoot. I forgot. Tiana. I think maybe, I don’t know what those are, maybe Benet’s, (0:45:35) Al: I’ve never seen it. (0:45:36) Al: Who’s the princess name from Princess and the Frog? (0:45:39) Al: Ba ba ba ba. Tiana. (0:45:42) Al: Good timing there. (0:45:44) Al: Both Googling at the same time. (0:45:51) Micah: which I like the, um, that like French. (0:45:55) Al: the French pastry thing. I think a lot of French stuff is pastry. (0:45:59) Micah: But it’s also like, it’s like a fritter, but it’s like a (0:46:12) Al: So that’s five updates, five free updates in the same time that we’re getting the three parts of the one paid DLC. (0:46:21) Al: So what I do have one small issue still that with this not free to play thing and and having paid DLC is that they’re still going to have their in game currency that you have to pay for as well, which just like you can buy the game, you can buy the DLC and you can also by around the world. (0:46:42) Al: And it just feels like they’re, you know, double dipping there. (0:46:52) Micah: Yeah, I don’t know. I I guess it my first thought was that it feels similar to like I don’t know like destiny or something where it’s like you have a Like expansion that you pay for and then they do like Event stuff throughout that like season quote-unquote like expansion season or it’s free stuff And you have to like still buy the main game and then the expansions (0:47:22) Micah: So like there is precedent for it It just is a really weird move to go from like it’s gonna be free to play - (0:47:30) Micah: It’s not free to play also We’re gonna charge you for it But also there’s gonna be paid expansions for it - like it’s like doubling down on charging for it like Interesting choice, but Especially interesting considering that I don’t feel like it’s a very like widely talked about game I feel like the fan base is… (0:47:52) Micah: …not massive for Dreamlight Valley. (0:47:53) Al: Yeah, I mean, let’s see, like, a lot of that may well be due to being early access, right? (0:47:54) Micah: So it seems like a weird move to like… (0:48:02) Al: And let’s see what happens over the next couple of months, right? Like, there might be a massive push for it, like, you never know what. (0:48:08) Micah: Yeah, I didn’t realize that Gameloft was the developer for it, they are also the developer for Speedstorm, so they must, I don’t know, maybe Disney is just buying them out or something. (0:48:23) Al: Well yeah, I think they’re still doing a lot of other stuff. But it’s interesting that they kept free to play with Speedstorm, and they’ve not done it with this. Well yeah, but it’s out of early access, and it is free to play. Disney Dreamlight Valley has not been, and

Al and Kelly talk about Pumpkin panic Join Al and Kelly in a quick journey through the world of cottagecore gaming. They share their experiences with “Pumpkin Panic,” discuss recent news, and leave you feeling cozy and inspired. Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:03:00: What Have We Been Up To 00:13:42: News 00:55:48: Pumpkin Panic 01:24:30: Outro Links Disney Dreamlight Valley Leaves Early Access Spirittea Release Len’s Island Roadmap Updated Moonstone Island Updated and DLC Released Stardew Valley Horseradish Juice Echoes of the Plum Grove Steam Page Echoes of the Plum Grove Kickstarter Pumpkin Panic Contact Al on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheScotBot Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Transcript (0:00:30) Al: Hello farmers and welcome to another episode of the harvest season. (0:00:36) Al: My name is Al, and we’re here today to talk about cottagecore games. (0:00:37) Kelly: And my name is Kelly. (0:00:38) Kelly: Woo! (0:00:43) Al: Two weeks in a row Kelly, what’s happening here? (0:00:50) Kelly: I know. It’s even funny because Kevin brought it up. I did last year’s Halloween. (0:00:56) Kelly: Which I totally forgot. Because I totally forgot Cult of the Lamb came out last year. (0:00:56) Al: Yes. That was last year, my word, wild. Yes. Yeah, yeah. I mean, why not? But hey, I’m on, I think this is, is this my first Halloween ep? No, no, I was on one with Rochelle, the original Graveyard Keeper one, I think, I was on. But I hadn’t played the game, so Rochelle I was basically just telling me. (0:01:01) Kelly: Yeah. It’s just my season. I don’t know what to say. (0:01:18) Kelly: I was gonna say Kevin brought that up last time actually, yeah. (0:01:22) Kelly: Okay. (0:01:24) Kelly: Well, welcome to your own podcast Halloween episode. (0:01:26) Al: about it and I was asking questions, but I think I’ve not been on any of the other Halloween episodes. So I’m here. Yay. Awesome. Well, thank you for joining us, Kelly. It’s good to talk to you again, even if Kevin did steal you from me for the last week. This one has been organized for much longer. Much longer. Yeah. Yeah. We have had a bunch of different ideas for last week and none of them were really like enough. (0:01:43) Kelly: Of course, thank you. (0:01:45) Kelly: I will say we planned this one. Yes. Last week was very impromptu. This is very much so planned. (0:02:01) Al: And there was a point where Kevin was like, I can’t do the recording time we have. And I’m like, well, I’m traveling the rest of the time. So so he kicked me off. He kicked me off my own podcast and and brought you on instead. So thank you very much for that. (0:02:16) Kelly: Always a pleasure. I did have to do a little, like, briefing on it though, because I hadn’t played Graveyard Keeper in, like, a year, and I was like, “Oh, what is this game again?” (0:02:19) Al: Oh, yes. Fair enough. (0:02:26) Al: Well, we don’t have that problem with this week’s game because it’s incredibly quick to play some of it and get a very good idea of what this game is. So this episode, we’re going to talk about pumpkin panic. And we’ll have lots to say about that later on in the episode. But yes, we’re going to talk about that just to mention that transcripts are available for the podcast in the show notes and on the website. So if you need that, that’s (0:02:57) Al: OK. Before we talk about pumpkin panic, we’re going to talk about the news. But first of all, Kelly, what have you been up to? (0:03:02) Kelly: I have been playing, I actually just finished this morning, I started playing the cosmic wheel of sisterhood. (0:03:16) Kelly: So this is an interactive story game where you play as a witch who has been banished from her coven, and you are kind of trying to make your way back. (0:03:32) Kelly: You play into your coven and you create tarot cards and you read the tarot cards to kind of create the gameplay in the world. (0:03:45) Kelly: And you have visitors. (0:03:48) Kelly: So I am not always great at story games because as much as I love reading, I also get very frustrated at a lot of stories in games. (0:03:53) Al: Yeah, yeah, yeah. (0:03:58) Kelly: And I thought this, they did this so good. (0:04:01) Kelly: I thought it was so much fun. (0:04:02) Kelly: Because you’re so hands-on with it. (0:04:03) Al: This seems a little bit more involved than a standard visual novel. (0:04:12) Al: Is it just mainly the one minigame that I’m seeing on this Steam page? (0:04:16) Kelly: Um, what is… what is… (0:04:18) Kelly: Um, kind of. So that’s like… (0:04:18) Al: with making the cards. (0:04:22) Kelly: You have that, you can do like there’s interactive stories within the story. (0:04:27) Kelly: Um, so there’s like different… I wouldn’t call them mini-games, but like the interactions are the rest of it. (0:04:33) Al: Right, OK. (0:04:33) Kelly: Um, and… (0:04:34) Al: But it’s not it’s not just like click a button and see the next. (0:04:36) Kelly: You kind of… like obviously… (0:04:40) Kelly: No, no, no, no. Yeah, there’s definitely… (0:04:42) Al: Here’s one choice sort of thing, right? (0:04:46) Kelly: You make the choices as to what you’re gonna do, who you would mite over to your little house. (0:04:50) Kelly: Um, and then… (0:04:53) Kelly: Even when you pull a tarot card, you have the choice as to how to explain the card. (0:04:57) Kelly: So, there is a lot of, um, leeway into how the interactions go and how the story itself is gonna go. (0:05:05) Kelly: So like I did a run, and I can do a totally different run next time. (0:05:06) Al: Okay. All right. (0:05:11) Kelly: So you do have you really do like you kind of write the story yourself as much as you can for you know (0:05:19) Al: It has very positive reviews on Steam, it has over a thousand. (0:05:23) Kelly: demo. There’s a demo which I would highly suggest playing because that’s definitely what I did and once I finished the demo I immediately bought the game and all of your stuff transfers over which is so nice because I hate when you start a demo especially for a game like this and you got to start it over. But yeah I thought it was like a very nice little like casual gameplay but like still very interesting. And like kind of emotional. (0:05:53) Al: Shocking when they make you feel things. How dare they? (0:05:53) Kelly: Right? What have you been up to, Al? (0:05:56) Al: Well, speaking of making you feeling things, before I get into games, I have watched the new film “Killers of the Flower Moon”. Have you seen… I presume you haven’t seen… (0:06:08) Kelly: I have not seen it yet, however I have owned that book for like a decade or so. (0:06:14) Al: Yeah, mm-hmm (0:06:15) Kelly: My dad bought it years ago. My dad’s a very big like historical novel kind of person and then we actually read it in my book club about two years ago or a year ago. I really enjoyed it. I thought the book was very good. I have not watched the movie yet, but I’ve heard very positive reviews. (0:06:28) Al: » Okay. Yeah. (0:06:38) Kelly: Even from the Native American community about the movie, of course there’s some things that probably could have been done differently, (0:06:45) Kelly: but I think that’s anytime it happens when you’re telling somebody else’s story. (0:06:46) Al: Hmm. I think, yeah, yeah, definitely. I think there’s a lot about the film that is obviously, (0:06:54) Al: you know, there’s some, you know, some racist stuff in the film, right? Obviously. But that’s the sort of thing where it’s like, well, yeah, but you’re talking about a, you know, a racist crime, (0:06:57) Kelly: Mm-hmm Yeah, yeah, you’re telling a story from 1930 or 20 or whatever (0:07:04) Al: right? Like, yeah, yeah, exactly. It’s, it’s, it’s, it’s not, don’t go into expecting a good time. (0:07:15) Kelly: Yeah, and unfortunately I don’t think the story would be accurate if those things are kind of left out because they do play a big role in what’s going on with the story itself. (0:07:16) Al: No, of course. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. So, you know, I enjoyed that. It’s very long. It’s very long. So that’s why I was up really late on Thursday night because of that. (0:07:26) Kelly: But crazy. Yes. (0:07:37) Al: Because I saw the showing started at half seven and like I wasn’t home until quarter past midnight. (0:07:44) Kelly: Wow. Wow. (0:07:44) Al: So. (laughs) (0:07:46) Al: I don’t regret going to see it, it was very good. (0:07:49) Kelly: Which I feel like is such a… it’s such a hard thing to achieve with some of this… (0:07:49) Al: And I don’t think it was… (0:07:51) Al: Like, it doesn’t feel like it was unnecessarily long, right? (0:07:54) Al: Like, I feel like he was doing something with every minute that you had. (0:07:58) Al: Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. (0:08:03) Kelly: these stories. Like, I mean, I feel like I didn’t see Oppenheimer, but I feel like that a lot of people talked about that. (0:08:09) Kelly: Feeling kind of like dragged out in a lot of spots. (0:08:12) Al: Interesting. Yeah, I suspect a lot of these things depends on how you feel about quiet moments that make you contemplate. Right. Absolutely. You can’t be talking about a massacre or about, (0:08:21) Kelly: Which I think these stories need those moments. (0:08:24) Kelly: So I don’t see anything wrong with that. (0:08:27) Kelly: Yeah, just on to the next scene. (0:08:30) Al: you know, wiping out of a city without having some moments to make you think, “Wow, that’s bad!” (0:08:40) Al: Exactly, exactly. So it’s quite great. (0:08:42) Al: So I enjoyed it. It was good. I don’t think I’m going to watch it a second time. It’s not like I’m going to watch this film again. But yeah. (0:08:54) Kelly: I will say on that note, the book is also extremely good. I know, Allie, you said you’re probably not going to read it, but if anybody out there is interested, very interesting. (0:09:05) Al: Yeah, people don’t really. Yeah. (0:09:10) Kelly: I think some historical novels can be kind of boring and dragged out because I do read a lot of history. This was very good. This was written in a way that like really you You just, you had to keep going. (0:09:24) Kelly: No matter what. It wasn’t, it wasn’t… (0:09:26) Kelly: Umm, oh my god, what’s his name? (0:09:28) Kelly: The Devil in White City guy, Eric Larson. (0:09:30) Kelly: I like some of his works. They can also be a bit cumbersome. (0:09:31) Al: Yeah. Fair enough. Yeah. I mean, just to make a point of it, like people don’t like when I talk about the fact that I don’t really read books, but I don’t really read books. (0:09:34) Kelly: So I don’t think it was like that. (0:09:47) Al: And it’s not like I read books as a child. And the problem is that I just I struggle because I don’t have like the visual aspect in my brain. Like I’m not I’m not able to see the things that are described. So so much of a book I just kind of skim over. (0:09:53) Kelly: Yes, yeah. (0:10:01) Al: Because it’s like descriptive stuff that doesn’t really mean anything because I can’t see it. (0:10:04) Kelly: Whereas I’m the complete opposite and I see everything in my head and then I get really mad when the movie comes out and skews my perspective on how I envisioned everything. (0:10:05) Al: Um… (0:10:12) Al: Yeah. I always found that hilarious when people were like, “Oh, it’s nothing like what it is in the book. It’s not like what I imagined it.” And I’m like, “What do you mean it’s nothing like what you imagined it?” I don’t understand what you mean by this. And now that I understand that people now make up images in their head, suddenly I understand what they mean now. They’re like, (0:10:22) Kelly: Mm-hmm. (0:10:32) Kelly: Yep Yep, it’s it’s so funny cuz like my roommate is like you she can’t see anything in her head and I’m like, well What do you what do you mean? What do you how are you living? I don’t understand Well, I am That is the that is the issue Thank you. (0:10:33) Al: “Oh, this isn’t exactly what I had imagined in my head.” (0:10:46) Al: Oh, I’m just like, how do you ever get anything done? Are you not constantly distracted by the things in your head? (0:11:00) Al: So I’ve also played a bunch of games, because I apparently haven’t been on the podcast for multiple episodes. So I have played and finished Sonic Superstars and Mario Wonder, and I have been playing through the new Spider-Man game. That is taking me longer, because just like It’s on my PS5, you have to kind of sit down and deliver. (0:11:16) Al: All those games are great, Sonic Super Star is good, Mario Wonder is fantastic, Spider-Man is fantastic. (0:11:28) Al: Both of those two games did things that I couldn’t, I just wouldn’t have expected what they did. (0:11:36) Al: It’s not just like, oh there are another version of this game, right? (0:11:41) Al: They both do things that are like, this is brand new stuff, really interesting. (0:11:41) Kelly: I think that’s so exciting, especially for the Mario games because I feel like, you know, (0:11:46) Al: That I really, really like. (0:11:48) Al: Yeah. (0:11:50) Al: Yeah. (0:11:52) Kelly: how long has it been? (0:11:52) Al: Yeah. (0:11:53) Kelly: How many games have come out? (0:11:54) Al: Yeah. (0:11:55) Kelly: Like, how do you keep reinventing the wheel? (0:11:56) Al: Yeah, definitely. (0:11:58) Kelly: But it’s still exciting to find out that they can. (0:11:58) Al: Yeah, and I think, I mean I don’t think they need to do that for every single game. (0:12:02) Kelly: No! (0:12:02) Al: Like I enjoyed every game in the new series. (0:12:07) Al: Like they’re all fun, they don’t have to be completely different, they all have new challenges in their different levels. (0:12:13) Al: levels but it is also fun to occasionally get like this is just. (0:12:16) Al: Just a completely different way of thinking and the the Wonderflowers just do just crazy things in the levels that make it just so different. (0:12:26) Al: You know it’s not just like oh here’s a different power-up and the new power-ups are fun as well but it’s not just like oh this one’s a bubble instead of a fire right and that’s that’s fun but it’s not like a radical idea whereas like the Wonderflowers are like what if this was a top-down game instead of a side-scroller and you’re like. (0:12:46) Al: Like what if apparently now we’re doing that you know like I think it’s the weird stuff that they did with that game and it’s like what if the Piranha plant sang you know. (0:12:57) Kelly: Oh my god, I saw the clips of that, they’re so cute! (0:13:02) Al: It’s just like I love the idea of that it’s just brainstorm a hundred and the weird thing is every single level has one right it’s not like this is the sort of thing that you wouldn’t you if if they told you but you’re like oh that’d be fun so like you know it’d be like all the boss battles. (0:13:16) Al: Have them or what like this. (0:13:16) Kelly: That’s cool. That’s very cool. (0:13:18) Al: A couple of levels in every world. (0:13:20) Al: Every single world has one. (0:13:25) Al: So yeah, good fun. (0:13:26) Al: I’ve also been playing Harvest Moon Winds of Anthos because I need to play that. (0:13:32) Al: So I’ll talk about that next week. (0:13:35) Al: I don’t think we need to talk about that just now. (0:13:39) Al: It is what it is. (0:13:40) Al: Cool. (0:13:41) Al: News. Should we talk about some news? (0:13:47) Al: Let’s start with the controversial stuff. (0:13:50) Al: Disney Dreamlight Valley. (0:13:51) Al: Have you played this yet? (0:13:52) Kelly: No, I have not. I think when it first like when they first announced it I was like oh this looks really cute If I’m not playing anything, I’ll probably play it Yes So I don’t think I will be playing Because like free to play You know, I know there’s gonna be some payment stuff, but you can kind of avoid it sometimes (0:14:00) Al: Yeah, were you waiting for it to go free to play? That’s the question. (0:14:04) Al: Yeah, well wait no longer! It is no longer going to be free to play! (0:14:08) Al: I think this is fast, so this is okay, so full context. (0:14:16) Al: Yes, yeah definitely. (0:14:23) Kelly: Or at least you can get an idea of what the game is before you decide to put money into it Yes, sorry jumping ahead (0:14:27) Al: so yeah so let’s okay well let’s put that let’s put the (0:14:30) Al: the discussion of that bit aside let’s let’s get into the actual news of it so the game is leaving early access on the 5th of december so that will be the first full version of the game whatever that means they have announced that it’s not going to be free to play anymore so you will have to to buy it they have also announced that there is going to be a paid dlc coming which they’re going to detail you’ll know more about this when you listen to this episode because they’re going to be saying more about it on the day this episode comes out (0:15:00) Al: that next week as well but they have also said that they are still going to continue to have free content updates so it’s not all going to be paid dlc I think that there are so many different ways to buy this game now it’s weird have you looked at the so in the main link on there they’ve got a list of the new ways to buy the game which is like you can just buy the game for $40 or you you can buy the physical cozy edition. (0:15:26) Kelly: Oh, I saw this. (0:15:30) Al: Which also gives you some stuff and that’s $50 or you can buy the gold edition, which also has more exclusive items and gives you the DLC or you can buy the DLC separately and these purchase options are on top of what the current purchase options are for early access, which you can still do until the 4th of December. (0:15:52) Al: I know it’s so bizarre. (0:15:53) Kelly: I think I got a headache just looking at this earlier. (0:15:58) Kelly: I was like, what is this, a streaming service? (0:16:00) Kelly: What the hell is this? (0:16:00) Al: I think I just it feels like so I think you can you can frame not being free to play as positive and negative right negative obviously a bunch of people who were like yeah I get to play the game without paying for it now don’t get to do that they either have to pay or they don’t get to play the game and that’s really frustrating I get why people would be frustrated by that. (0:16:22) Al: On the other hand obviously we know that free to play games are very manipulative and are very good at sucking. (0:16:26) Kelly: Oh, absolutely, yes. (0:16:28) Kelly: Well, so that’s what I was gonna ask, right? Like they’re not removing microtransactions from the game. (0:16:30) Al: But it’s not like there aren’t going to be ways to pay for things inside the game after you’ve bought it. (0:16:37) Al: No so I it feels like they’re just doing a bit of both worlds which. (0:16:42) Kelly: Yes, they want their cake and they’re gonna have their cake and eat it too kind of thing. (0:16:46) Al: Yeah yeah it’s not not great. (0:16:49) Kelly: And then the the $40 base price is kind of wild. (0:16:52) Al: It does seem let me so let me double check. (0:16:56) Kelly: To go from free-to-play to $40? (0:16:59) Kelly: Oh wait, so if you paid for early access, does that come out of the base? (0:17:00) Al: The early access prices. (0:17:02) Al: Because. (0:17:04) Al: So if you paid for access you have the game now so you don’t have to buy the game again and they’ve also said as a thank you to our early access players all unique cosmetic items included in the upcoming gold edition will be given free of charge to any player who purchases and claims of founders pack in game or on on or before December the 4th no matter the tier. (0:17:30) Kelly: Okay, that’s nice because I think… (0:17:30) Al: And not only that but all founders will also receive 2500 min stones to celebrate this that’s. (0:17:32) Kelly: Okay, that’s nice. (0:17:39) Kelly: Nice. (0:17:41) Al: So let me just double check the prices for… (0:17:47) Al: Yes, so here we are. So there’s three different versions you can buy in Early Access. (0:17:50) Al: Well, this is the thing. This is where it’s wild. So there’s the standard Founders Edition, (0:17:51) Kelly: Oh my god. But how many tears? (0:18:01) Al: which is the Early Access to Dreamland Valley plus 8,000 Moonstones plus a bunch of exclusive stuff, (0:18:08) Al: and that is $30. So $10. (0:18:11) Al: cheaper than the final price. And then there’s the deluxe founders rewards which gives you 14,500 moonstones. I don’t know why they insist on always like it’s not 15, why not 15? Weird. And a bunch of more exclusive items and that one I don’t have a price for but I think it might have been, it was either 50 or 60. (0:18:34) Kelly: Well, that’s 50 on here, on the regular one. (0:18:36) Al: Yeah. I think, I think… (0:18:42) Al: Yeah, it’s 50, 50. And then there’s the ultimate founders edition which gives you 20,000 moonstones and a bunch of extra cosmetic things. And that one was $6, $70? (0:18:58) Kelly: Okay, I think that makes sense because the gold edition for the standard game is (0:19:03) Al: So there are like seven different ways to buy this game. All with different things. (0:19:08) Kelly: Oh my god. (0:19:10) Kelly: And then the DLC is $30. (0:19:11) Al: So it’s like if you… Yes, which is only included in the Gold Edition, not as far as I can tell, (0:19:19) Al: any of the Early Access editions. So if you have Early Access, you still have to pay for the (0:19:25) Kelly: I have some things I’d like to say, and I’m gonna maybe keep them to myself. (0:19:31) Al: So I will say you do get a capybara companion if you buy the gold edition. (0:19:31) Kelly: It is very cute. It’s very cute. It has a flower crown. (0:19:40) Al: A flowery capybara companion. (0:19:41) Kelly: I mean, you can’t go wrong with the capybara. (0:19:46) Al: True that. (0:19:48) Kelly: Listen, the game looks so cute. I think that’s why this is kind of so disappointing. (0:19:52) Al: Yes, yeah, yeah, it is. (0:19:59) Al: So I think it is a good game and if you said to me this game… (0:20:01) Al: Why did they say that? Why did they even say that? (0:20:04) Kelly: Mm-hmm. (0:20:20) Kelly: Exactly. They made the promise. Yeah. (0:20:23) Kelly: And that’s so frustrating because that’s what they’ve been writing on since they announced this. Like why, why, why? And then to announce the changes a month before. (0:20:37) Al: Just why? (0:20:39) Al: I know, I know, I know it’s so… (0:20:40) Kelly: And then also, so if you buy the cozy edition, besides the flowery capybara and the expansion (0:20:50) Kelly: is there anything else you’re missing? Like are you limited from gameplay? Okay. (0:20:52) Al: No, no you’re not, you’re not. So the only gameplay, so everything that’s exclusive outside of the expansion pass, everything that’s exclusive is just cosmetics. If you buy, if you… it is, isn’t it? It’s not quite that bad yet, but it definitely feels like that’s where they’re going yes the funny thing is (0:21:07) Kelly: Okay, that’s a little bit better, but you know what? It’s giving me sims. (0:21:14) Kelly: No, but it’s getting there. Yeah. (0:21:22) Al: right see if you buy the base game and you buy the expansion pass that’s one cent cheaper than buying the gold edition which gives you the base game and the expansion pass I mean it also gives you the it does give you the capacity is the capybara worth one cent that’s the it just seems like why is the gold edition the same price as it seems weird (0:21:33) Kelly: Yeah, but no capybara. (0:21:47) Kelly: It does, like also, like okay so if you if you do really want to play this game, (0:21:51) Kelly: why would you buy the base edition and the expansion pack instead of just buying the gold edition? (0:21:55) Kelly: Again, this is just such a headache to look at. (0:21:55) Al: Yeah, yeah, well, that’s that yeah, so yeah seven different seven different ways to buy this game You either buy it in one of the three early access ways of buying it or you buy it in one of the three Non-early access ways to buy it if you wait till the 5th of December and then you either buy the expansion mass or not We don’t know what’s in the expansion pass exactly they’ll be telling us that on Wednesday today if you’re listening on the day this comes out (0:22:24) Al: There are some hints. (0:22:25) Al: There we’ve seen Gaston and… oh is that Rapunzel? I think it’s Rapunzel. (0:22:33) Kelly: Oh, yes, that’s Rapunzel in the back. And then, uh, Eva. Eve, Eve. (0:22:34) Al: Who’s the little robot? Oh was that from Wally? (0:22:38) Kelly: Eeeve. (0:22:40) Kelly: Yeah, from Wally. (0:22:41) Al: Okay I still haven’t seen Wally. I know, I know. So I went through a period of time of just not watching Disney Pixar stuff. (0:22:42) Kelly: What? (0:22:44) Kelly: Ugh. (0:22:47) Kelly: I mean, I’ve never seen Tangled, so whatever, but Wally’s so good. (0:22:52) Al: I have seen (0:22:55) Al: a few of them since, but I haven’t caught up on all of them. I just watched, what’s it called, Elemental today. (0:23:10) Kelly: How was it? I get clips on TikTok and it seems pretty cute. (0:23:14) Kelly: I feel like the trailer kind of made it seem like it was going to be like a knock-off uh… (0:23:14) Al: I enjoyed it, yeah. It’s better than the trailer that made me think it was going to be. (0:23:22) Kelly: How am I… I’m blanking on it. (0:23:24) Kelly: No, um… I can’t think right now. I don’t know. (0:23:25) Al: Anything can roll me on Juliet. (0:23:30) Kelly: It just felt very familiar, I guess, if that… (0:23:34) Al: Yeah, it is. There’s nothing particular about it that’s interesting on you, but I think it does a good job of being a fun and enjoyable and emotional way of exploring immigration and an immigrant’s family’s journey and some of those struggles. I think it does a good job. (0:23:50) Kelly: Mm-hmm. (0:23:52) Kelly: That’s uh, that’s like kind of like again, I watched a lot of clips on tiktok. I get so sucked into the movie clips on tiktok But I think that that’s exactly the vibe I got to I was like very surprised I feel like With the difference between the trailer and how the actual movie seemed to be See ya later. (0:24:03) Al: fair. (0:24:16) Al: Yeah. I don’t know what that trailer was about, because like the trailer came out and everyone went “this looks terrible, what are you doing?” and then the phone came out and people were like “yes, yes, sorry, it’s good, it’s good, it’s enjoyable”. Yeah. Yeah. I’m not going to say it’s the best Pixar film, but it’s certainly not the worst. It’s good. I enjoyed it. Yeah, so that’s, we don’t, we’ve seen Gaston and Rapunzel and would you say Eve? (0:24:19) Kelly: Bye. (0:24:27) Kelly: Yeah, I feel like every review I’ve seen of it, people really liked it, like they enjoyed it, so… (0:24:46) Kelly: Eve, yeah. I think that Eve, Eevee, something like that? Not Eevee, but it’s like that, yeah. (0:24:46) Al: And there’s a snake and a pig. So we don’t know a huge amount, we’ll see, but it’s, I don’t think so. (0:24:57) Kelly: Is that the jungle book? (0:24:58) Kelly: No, that’s not the snake from the jungle book. (0:25:03) Kelly: Oh, there’s a creature in the tree too. (0:25:05) Kelly: That is the jungle book. (0:25:07) Kelly: Look at the monkey in the tree. (0:25:09) Kelly: I’m pretty sure that’s the jungle book. (0:25:11) Al: Anyway, well, no more. It’s interesting that this is their first paid DLC, so they are locking content behind another paywall, which is what it is. I’m not saying that’s necessarily a bad thing. I’m just saying it is what it is. So don’t expect to pay the base price of the game and get all of the updates for free forever. That’s not going to happen. (0:25:22) Kelly: Which I think is just… (0:25:24) Kelly: Yes. (0:25:34) Kelly: I just think it’s a little wild to go from free to play to the base game is free and then the DLC is also the same price as like a game. (0:25:36) Al: It’s not Stardew Valley. (0:25:41) Al: Well, that’s the thing. If you want to now play everything that will be available on the 5th of December, it’s gone from zero to $70. Yes, you say there’s going to be more free content updates, but you know there’s going to be more paid DLC as well. (0:26:01) Kelly: Oh, and like you said, there’s transactions in the game probably too, right? (0:26:04) Al: Yep, yep, yep. So I never outright bought it. (0:26:06) Kelly: Do you have early access or no? (0:26:11) Al: Although I will now be buying it because I was waiting for it to be free before I got it on Switch. But I did have it on Game Pass for a while, and I was playing it on that. (0:26:14) Kelly: Well… (0:26:16) Kelly: Oh, uh, okay. (0:26:25) Al: The thing that I’m frustrated with free to play is not that I have to pay for the game. (0:26:28) Al: I’m fine with paying for the game. What I’m frustrated is I now have to decide what I’m playing it on. When it’s free to play, it would mean I could have it on everything and choose depending on how I’m feeling on the day or how they play on different platforms. (0:26:29) Kelly: - Yeah. (0:26:41) Al: Whereas now I need to go, or no, I need to decide do I want to on Switch or do I want to on Steam Deck. (0:26:45) Kelly: Mm-hmm That’s fair I just I think it’s just I’m mostly annoyed about being told the whole time that it’s gonna be free to play and then Getting the rug pulled out from under you a month before (0:26:46) Al: I think I’m going to do it. (0:26:54) Al: It’s bizarre. Never make these decisions upfront. Yeah. Wild. Never say, “Oh, next year when release is good.” Just don’t do it. It’s pointless. It is. I mean, it doesn’t feel like it should be that big a promise for, you know, one of the biggest companies in the world. (0:27:05) Kelly: It’s a big promise to make. (0:27:07) Kelly: No, no, no, no, it shouldn’t. (0:27:12) Kelly: I think that’s another point that I was trying not to bring up is like, come on, like of all people Do you really need to be charging this much? (0:27:21) Al: Yeah, I suspect. What I suspect is they didn’t expect it to be as popular as it has been and people to like it as much. Like, this is a good game, right? This isn’t one of these, like, “Oh, they’ve just thrown some money at someone and got a really rubbish game based on a film,” right? This is a really good game, and if you like Disney characters, (0:27:42) Al: this is a great game to play because there’s so much lore and you get to, like, be friends with the characters that you like in the games. It’s really good fun. (0:27:51) Al: And the farming is good. It’s not their best, but it’s good. It’s a good game. That’s part of the problem is I think they were probably expecting it to be a standard free to play game. The people who made those decisions, right? We’re expecting it to be like, Oh, (0:28:05) Al: this isn’t a game we’re going to manage to convince people to pay for. Oh wait, no people like the game. Oh, well, we’re gonna, we’re gonna charge people in, you know. (0:28:12) Kelly: And I think back to your point, like, I’m not… I mean, obviously I grew up on Disney, whatever. (0:28:19) Kelly: I’m not the biggest Disney person. I still wanted to play the game. Like, it looked like a good game. (0:28:24) Al: It is. It is a good farming game. It is a good cottagecore game. (0:28:26) Kelly: But I think now, like, someone like me, I’m not gonna play this game, to be quite honest. (0:28:31) Al: Yeah. (0:28:34) Kelly: Because I’m not gonna pay, whatever, 40 bucks at the minimum. (0:28:38) Kelly: I mean, to be honest, I’m mostly playing indie games, so like… (0:28:42) Kelly: He paying $40 is like, I really wanted to play this game. (0:28:42) Al: Yes, it’s cheap compared to some games, but… (0:28:45) Kelly: Yes. But by my standards, that’s a triple-A game. (0:28:52) Kelly: Literally. (0:28:53) Al: You could buy Stardew four times for that price. (0:28:55) Kelly: Literally. (0:28:59) Al: You could buy Stardew on all your consoles if you wanted, and you probably already have. (0:29:06) Al: Last couple of things, the Cozy Edition, as we mentioned, that’s the… (0:29:12) Al: physical edition. (0:29:13) Al: I do not know why they’re calling it this, it is a stupid name, but whatever. (0:29:17) Al: It has been delayed until the 10th of November, except the Switch version in North America. (0:29:25) Al: All the other versions have been delayed. (0:29:26) Kelly: How lucky. (0:29:29) Al: It’s such a weird… (0:29:30) Al: I mean, first of all, who’s buying this game physically? (0:29:33) Al: That is a weird decision to make. (0:29:35) Al: I don’t… (0:29:35) Kelly: I could see if it was released closer to Christmas or something. (0:29:36) Al: Why are you… yeah, okay, I guess that’s a good point. (0:29:39) Kelly: Like, does anything come with it? (0:29:41) Kelly: No, no, I mean like physical. (0:29:42) Al: Yeah, you do get a few cosmetics extra with it, but that’s all. (0:29:47) Al: Oh, no. (0:29:47) Kelly: No, then no. (0:29:49) Al: No, no, it’s just a case with the game and a code that gives you some extra cosmetics, (0:29:49) Kelly: Oh, not even… yeah, no, no, no. (0:29:58) Al: that’s it. (0:30:00) Al: I think, yeah, you’re probably right though, that’s exactly it. (0:30:03) Al: It’s because people will buy a game for people physically, right? (0:30:06) Kelly: Yeah. (0:30:06) Kelly: I was about to say, “Your grandma can buy a friend.” (0:30:07) Al: That’s why they always do that, because then your grandmother can walk into a shop and buy a game for you. (0:30:12) Al: Oh, they like Disney. (0:30:14) Al: Yeah, that’s exactly what it is, isn’t it? (0:30:14) Kelly: Exactly. (0:30:16) Kelly: Oh, Disney characters? (0:30:17) Kelly: This is perfect. (0:30:20) Al: Don’t buy this game physically. (0:30:23) Al: It’s weird decision to make. (0:30:24) Al: I mean, do what you want. (0:30:26) Al: I’m not. Anyway, and I guess the final point to say is that Micah has finally been vindicated because he bought the game not knowing it was going to be free to play. (0:30:35) Al: And turns out it’s not going to be free to play. (0:30:36) Kelly: Oh, really? (0:30:40) Al: So he gets the last laugh. (0:30:43) Al: I think. Yeah, he didn’t. (0:30:45) Al: It was really funny because we were I can’t remember when it was. (0:30:47) Al: But the first episode that I had him on after the game came out, (0:30:52) Al: we were talking about how he was playing it and then how he bought it. (0:30:54) Al: And then I’d mentioned that it was going to be free to play. (0:30:57) Al: And he was like, wait, what? (0:30:58) Al: It was very funny. (0:31:01) Al: I think he bought the Ultimate Founders Edition as well. (0:31:02) Kelly: Well, it seems like he was gonna pay the money no matter what, so… (0:31:03) Al: So that’s like he paid the seventy dollars. (0:31:06) Al: Well, yeah, that’s true. (0:31:08) Kelly: You know, I feel like in that instance, it doesn’t matter if it was free to play or not. (0:31:13) Al: That’s true, that’s true. (0:31:14) Al: I think that’s everything about that. Wow, we just spent 15 minutes talking about that. (0:31:21) Al: Cool, so there you go. 5th of December, that’s the important thing. If you want any of the special stuff that comes with only early access, go get that as soon as you can. If you don’t, (0:31:34) Al: then don’t. If you’re not going to buy this game, I’m sorry. There we go. (0:31:39) Al: Speaking of games coming out with less controversy. (0:31:42) Al: Spirit tea. So this is the farming game slash Spirited away type game where you are running a tea Once ago tea. Yeah. Yes And Yeah, I kick started it when I came out because I’m I thought I I actually have access to the game already I know right (0:31:55) Kelly: It’s like a tea house, bath shop. (0:31:58) Kelly: It looks so cute. (0:31:59) Kelly: I wanna get this. (0:32:01) Kelly: This is, I’m definitely getting. (0:32:08) Kelly: Oh my god. (0:32:12) Al: So, yeah, I kick started the game looking forward to playing it it is the is finally releasing on the 13th of November So if you have been looking forward to running your own little tea house tea shop wherever you want to call it with a bath house and Play with some spirits. I don’t I don’t know the right words to use with this game yet. Go go get it It’s mostly one guy who’s been developing it for a bunch of years. He’s working with a publisher But yeah, if you like game– (0:32:42) Al: games that are as indie as they come, go get it. (0:32:47) Al: Yeah, yeah, it’s not just your standard. (0:32:47) Kelly: It looks like a nice little spin on the farming game. (0:32:55) Al: Go plant some turnips and then you get better crops. (0:32:58) Kelly: Yeah. (0:32:59) Al: Lens Island have updated their roadmap, (0:33:04) Al: so they have said that their 1.0 is coming out in July 2024. (0:33:09) Al: I think this is the first official date we got from them. (0:33:12) Al: We had got some– they’d originally wanted to release it this year, (0:33:16) Al: and then at some point they’d said it would be next year. (0:33:20) Kelly: That’s nice to get a solid time actually. It always is. You’re talking to the person waiting for Silksong here, I know. (0:33:23) Al: It’s dangerous, but yeah, nice. So I look forward to Lens Island coming out in November of next year. (0:33:36) Al: They’ve also said there are going to be two more updates this year. One in November, (0:33:47) Al: which, oh look, it’s November now, and one in December, and then there’ll be a final. (0:33:53) Al: Major update before the final release in March of next year, and then the final release in July of next year. So if you are waiting for that one point of release of Lens Island, (0:34:06) Al: that’s when you’re going for it. I actually own this game as well, and I haven’t played it. (0:34:11) Al: It’s quite combat focused this game, and when I first got it when it first entered Early Access, (0:34:22) Al: because I kickstarted that. (0:34:23) Al: I need to stop kickstarting things. (0:34:26) Al: I kickstart all the farming games. (0:34:28) Kelly: You just want to be hip and say, “I was here first.” [laughs] (0:34:29) Al: It’s a sickness, Kelly. (0:34:32) Al: Yeah, I know, right? (0:34:38) Al: They didn’t have controller support at that point. (0:34:41) Al: And of course, I was playing it on my Steam Deck, so it was not fun to play with. (0:34:46) Al: So I spent like five minutes and went, nope, not doing this. (0:34:48) Al: I’m waiting for controller support. (0:34:48) Kelly: Wait, if it didn’t have– (0:34:51) Kelly: how does that work, then? (0:34:53) Al: I think you can map any button or any touchpad or anything to any standard PC controls. (0:35:03) Al: So you can say, if I press this button, (0:35:06) Al: I press this keyboard button or I press this mouse button or I do this gesture or there’s loads of clever things you can do, and it works really well for a lot of things, but it wasn’t working for this. (0:35:17) Kelly: That’s very fair. (0:35:18) Al: I was like, I need to wait for official controller support for this one. (0:35:19) Kelly: I do think it’s funny that the release date on Steam is November 26, 2021. (0:35:22) Al: So that’s what I did. (0:35:28) Kelly: ‘Cause it’s 2023? (0:35:28) Al: Why is that date funny? (0:35:31) Al: OK, well, that was the early access release date. (0:35:32) Kelly: I know, I know, but I’m just saying it’s funny to like sit here and look at the news about, you know, it getting released next year. (0:35:35) Al: OK. (0:35:37) Al: Yes, yes. (0:35:42) Al: Moonstone Island are I think I think you and Kevin talked about the DLC for that last week, they’ve announced that there is a free update coming with the DLC as well, which should be out now. (0:35:57) Al: So it includes an expansion to the green. (0:35:58) Al: House closing old mine holes. (0:36:01) Al: I don’t know what that means. (0:36:03) Al: Who knows? (0:36:03) Kelly: Umm, okay. (0:36:06) Kelly: I’m assuming monsters come out of the mine holes, maybe? (0:36:10) Al: I think it’s a creature collection game. (0:36:10) Kelly: I don’t know. (0:36:12) Kelly: Stop the children from falling down the mines. (0:36:13) Al: It’s a creature. (0:36:15) Al: Yeah, we do. We don’t want that. (0:36:18) Al: Inventory manage improvements and adjustable day length are the big things that they were highlighting. There’s I mean, the patch notes are much more detailed. I’m not going through them. (0:36:28) Al: There’s a lot of stuff. I’ll link it in the show notes. (0:36:31) Al: Go look at that if you care about it. (0:36:32) Al: Yeah. Yeah. (0:36:32) Kelly: Yeah, this is the one it had a ton of updates last week too or two weeks ago Okay, that makes sense, but it seems like they’re really working to you know update any of these little issues (0:36:37) Al: I think most of it was like bug fixing and stuff. (0:36:39) Al: This is the first kind of like content update, I think. (0:36:42) Al: Content and feature update. (0:36:43) Al: So this is. Yeah, it’s. (0:36:45) Al: Yes. Yes, they are. (0:36:51) Al: This is one of those ones that I probably do want to play at some point, but. (0:36:55) Kelly: It looks really cute, too. It really does. I would like to play this. (0:36:55) Al: It does. It does. (0:36:58) Kelly: I mean, me too. I’m a sucker for collection in general. (0:36:58) Al: It’s also creature collection, and I’m a sucker for creature collection. (0:37:01) Al: Well, yes, that too. That too. (0:37:07) Al: That too. (0:37:08) Al: Yeah. Stardew Valley. (0:37:12) Al: Concerned Ape is continuing to just trickle things out. (0:37:15) Kelly: He’s been just dropping things. Yeah, like he it’s like it’s making me so annoyed because I’m like I don’t want to play stardew. I like I always do I do I’m actively spending my life fighting the urge to play stardew valley [laugh] (0:37:17) Al: I know. (0:37:18) Al: No, you do. You do, though. You do. (0:37:25) Al: You don’t lie. You want to play. (0:37:28) Al: What I love is like some of them are like, “here’s the most tiny little thing like this one, which is just a screenshot of wild horseradish juice.” (0:37:42) Kelly: Yeah. (0:37:42) Al: And my reaction was, “Oh, is that not already in the game? Okay!” (0:37:43) Kelly: I literally when I looked at it I was like oh yeah you can’t do anything with horseradish can you? (0:37:51) Al: So some of them are like this tiny thing where it’s just like, “Oh yeah, the update’s gonna have horseradish juice!” (0:37:58) Al: And then there was the one a few weeks ago which was like, “Here’s just like detailed ten bullet points of what’s coming in the update.” (0:38:04) Al: And you’re like, “Oh, okay!” (0:38:05) Kelly: Yep, listen, I would take every single one of these, I’m like, cool, awesome, great. (0:38:12) Kelly: But yeah, no, I saw this one and I was like, oh, another thing for me to micromanage. (0:38:18) Al: ALICE (KEEPER) Kelly, did you ever play any of the 1.5 update stuff? So that’s Ginger Island and stuff like that. (0:38:24) Kelly: Yes, so I started with actually my first Switch game. (0:38:26) Al: ALICE (KEEPER) I mean, I think it was for a lot of people. (0:38:28) Kelly: Yes, um… (0:38:32) Kelly: But I got my Switch a year later, so I was a year behind everybody. (0:38:33) Al: ALICE It came out nice and early in 2017 and yeah. Fair enough. Yeah. That’s all right, (0:38:39) Kelly: But I played it then, yes, and then I played it two years ago. (0:38:41) Al: so were the updates. (0:38:45) Al: Yeah. (0:38:45) Kelly: Yes, so Ginger Island had come out, which was fun because that wasn’t in my initial playthrough. (0:38:47) Al: Yeah. (0:38:49) Al: Yeah. (0:38:50) Al: I’m not sure. (0:38:51) Kelly: So that was really fun to go out. (0:38:54) Kelly: I feel like that really opened up a whole new part of the game and like extended it nicely. (0:38:57) Al: Yeah, yeah. (0:39:06) Al: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, well, that’s what he’s doing, right? Like, just keep playing this game, please. (0:39:09) Kelly: Yeah. But I mean, he does it in such a good way. Like people would play this game even if he didn’t go out there and release, you know, updates to it. People would be replaying it it constantly anyway yep (0:39:12) Al: Here’s more stuff. I know. (0:39:21) Al: and people would pay for the updates and he just gives them out for free. (0:39:24) Kelly: yep what a good guy yes yes but I mean we might have talked about a game a few minutes ago that might have been doing a different thing no but I fully agree with your point you know it’s like (0:39:26) Al: I mean, he is a millionaire, so you know, like it’s easier to be a good guy when you’re a millionaire. But yes, it is. (0:39:38) Al: Absolutely. No, I don’t. Yep, I don’t. I’m not disagreeing with you. I’m not not trying to take it away from him. You’re absolutely right. (0:39:51) Al: I haven’t played the 1.5 stuff with Ginger Island and stuff like that. So I need to, (0:39:54) Kelly: Oh really? Okay. (0:39:56) Kelly: That might be the best, because especially it seems like he is adding quite a few things, so why not wait? (0:39:57) Al: it’s on my list of like, I really need to do this. So I’m trying to decide maybe I just wait for 1.6 to come out and do it all at the same time. (0:40:06) Al: Yeah, yeah, and I’m going to have to cover that. (0:40:11) Kelly: I will say there is one thing in Ginger Island, there’s like one thing that you really have to like hope for the luck of finding. (0:40:20) Kelly: So that can be a little frustrating, but I think if you kind of… (0:40:24) Kelly: I think the issue is more so when you don’t leave enough stuff to do at home to. (0:40:29) Kelly: And you kind of save Ginger Island for the very end and then you’re like, “Ugh, where is this thing? Come on, show me your…” (0:40:36) Kelly: Like, because it’s like one of those things where you can only collect a few things a day of it. (0:40:39) Kelly: Oh, I always do a new save. (0:40:39) Al: And then I need to make the decision of do I do a new save or do I continue my existing save. (0:40:45) Kelly: I know I should probably go back, but I love a restart. (0:40:49) Kelly: Like, I’ve got like five different room worlds because I just like… (0:40:52) Al: So mostly I have like one that I have done most of the things in, and then I have like a bunch of others that are like random challenges and a random multiplayer one. (0:40:52) Kelly: Could I go back and keep– (0:40:54) Kelly: I’m playing them sure. (0:41:12) Al: See I’m the opposite, I’m like I really should do a new one and see how it changes things because obviously it’s not. You don’t expedite. I need to do both realistically, right? Because it changes things. Exactly. Yeah. (0:41:16) Kelly: Mm-hmm. (0:41:18) Kelly: It’s like you get to see how you strategize and how you handle things differently and like, you know Going back in with like new knowledge and like all that stuff Like like this this the one I did two years ago, I have notes I take notes when I play this game So I have like field guides I’m like, you know the best things to do with this and each season and what you should pickle and what you should Kagan like blah blah blah like what Fisher what’s Oh Yeah Oh, no, I I love a (0:41:32) Al: Yeah, yeah. (0:41:46) Al: Yeah, yeah. Oh, see, I don’t pickle and keg because I just can’t be bothered. I just go, (0:41:54) Al: what is the most expensive crop? Like the most for selling. And I just go with that. (0:41:59) Al: Like, I’m just like, I do like mayo and cheese and stuff like that. But I’m like, I don’t, (0:42:04) Al: I can’t be bothered with like putting my crops and these other things and waiting. No, I just sell. Like, I know you can make more money, but I don’t, I don’t want to do that. (0:42:12) Kelly: I love a good micromanage. It’s not even about the money because I’m a third point I don’t need more money. It’s literally just about me having tasks to do. But yeah, no, I’m like, I… At certain points I was like, okay, so if I place this many kegs in the basement, can I still access them if I walk around this way? (0:42:31) Al: Yes, what’s the optimum strategy? I think the problem is that they figured it out. There is a right answer to that in everything. (0:42:43) Kelly: Yes, which I don’t, I don’t want to sound like I’m one of those people who are doing things to the T perfect, like gotta have every second count. (0:42:54) Kelly: Like I definitely do things in my own little stupid way. (0:42:58) Al: Yeah. Yeah. I also quite like trying different things. So there was one quite early on with the podcast where me and Rachelle were trying to see how much money we could make just from mining. It was good fun. It was good fun. Yeah. Yeah. (0:42:59) Kelly: But there are certain things that I try to make sure I’m doing them correctly, I quote unquote correctly. (0:43:07) Kelly: So that I can get money and stuff from them, especially early game. (0:43:10) Kelly: Once you get to a certain point, it’s like, oh my God, do I need money? (0:43:20) Kelly: that’s a that’s a fun challenge I think those are like fun ways to like how can I do this how can I do this differently oh yeah like I’m a I’m I do this in every like game essentially but I love fishing for So I’m always like a sucker for that, but I feel like (0:43:28) Al: Yeah, exactly. And it’s like, you can actually make a lot of money that way. (0:43:32) Al: And it’s just fun to try the different ways of doing that because (0:43:50) Kelly: My last one I tried to like avoid that more so but It’s always fun to just try different ways do different things (0:43:54) Al: Fair enough. (0:43:56) Al: I also saw someone do a challenge which was like you can’t leave the farm and that was quite interesting. (0:44:06) Al: So they didn’t get a lot of seeds is part of the point, right? (0:44:11) Al: So obviously you get them from foraging, you can get seeds just from foraging. (0:44:15) Al: But yeah, a lot of it was just having to like sell the things you find around the farm. (0:44:21) Al: They used the four carner’s farm. (0:44:22) Kelly: No chickens? (0:44:25) Al: They used the four carner’s farm, so you get a little bit of everything. (0:44:29) Kelly: uh okay okay but like no interactions with people unless they like literally come to visit you that’s crazy but I feel like you know that’s like the it’s like nose locking yourself into stardew it’s fun yeah but stardew yay (0:44:35) Al: Yep. Yeah. (0:44:38) Al: Exactly, exactly, exactly. Lots of different ways to do it. (0:44:47) Al: So yeah, wild horseradish juice. (0:44:49) Al: I will probably never make it. (0:44:52) Kelly: I i will say who is drinking this I love horseradish I love spiciness I love (0:44:53) Al: Yeah. But just pure horseradish juice. (0:44:59) Kelly: bloody marys I love burning my sinuses I would never listen there’s been times in my life where my sinuses have been really bad and somebody was like hey if you put apple cider vinegar up your nose it’ll help and i’ve done that this sounds wild I would never do this I have never heard of horseradish as being described as sweet (0:45:05) Al: No! (0:45:10) Al: It’s description is a sweet nutritious beverage. (0:45:23) Al: I think there’s lots of sugar in that. (0:45:25) Kelly: Yeah, it has to be like really pickled or whatever. (0:45:29) Kelly: That’s crazy. (0:45:33) Al: The final news is we have a new game announced. We don’t have a lot about it. It’s called Echoes of the Plum Grove and it is coming to Kickstarter soon and its little tagline is “Build a thriving community across generations in this cosy historical farm simulation”. (0:45:51) Kelly: I think that’s pretty cute, like that’s a different idea because I feel like you know in a lot of these you can have a kid or something or a family but it doesn’t really go anywhere. (0:45:58) Kelly: Like I feel like this is very much so not how I play The Sims but how a lot of people play The Sims where they’ll make generational things and like the generations start to interact with each other and it’s like really interesting, it’s a very long-term way of doing it. (0:46:08) Al: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. A few games have kind of done a little bit of this, like, I think the new Harvest Moon does it where you can grow. You still stay as your same character, though. (0:46:29) Al: But there was… Oh, what was the… A Wonderful Life did this as well, didn’t it? You can play as your child at a certain point, I think. (0:46:39) Al: So yeah, there is apparently a lot more information on Steam that I didn’t notice until now. (0:46:43) Kelly: I did have to go open the Steam page because the Kickstarter basically had nothing on it. (0:46:44) Al: I will link that in the show notes. (0:46:47) Al: Yes, well, that’s the thing, that’s why I didn’t think we had a huge amount, but it is apparently on Steam. (0:46:53) Al: Well, the page is up on Steam, and it says it’s coming out in 2024, but I suspect (0:46:59) Kelly: I would also. I like his little cute like

John Wynkoop, Cloud Economist & Platypus Herder at The Duckbill Group, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss why he decided to make a career move and become an AWS billing consultant. Corey and John discuss how once you're deeply familiar with one cloud provider, those skills become transferable to other cloud providers as well. John also shares the trends he has seen post-pandemic in the world of cloud, including the increased adoption of a multi-cloud strategy and the need for costs control even for VC-funded start-ups. About JohnWith over 25 years in IT, John's done almost every job in the industry, from running cable and answering helpdesk calls to leading engineering teams and advising the C-suite. Before joining The Duckbill Group, he worked across multiple industries including private sector, higher education, and national defense. Most recently he helped IGNW, an industry leading systems integration partner, get acquired by industry powerhouse CDW. When he's not helping customers spend smarter on their cloud bill, you can find him enjoying time with his family in the beautiful Smoky Mountains near his home in Knoxville, TN.Links Referenced: The Duckbill Group: https://duckbillgroup.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jlwynkoop/ TranscriptAnnouncer: Hello, and welcome to Screaming in the Cloud with your host, Chief Cloud Economist at The Duckbill Group, Corey Quinn. This weekly show features conversations with people doing interesting work in the world of cloud, thoughtful commentary on the state of the technical world, and ridiculous titles for which Corey refuses to apologize. This is Screaming in the Cloud.Corey: Welcome to Screaming in the Cloud. I'm Corey Quinn. And the times, they are changing. My guest today is John Wynkoop. John, how are you?John: Hey, Corey, I'm doing great. Thanks for having me.Corey: So, big changes are afoot for you. You've taken a new job recently. What are you doing now?John: Well [laugh], so I'm happy to say I have joined The Duckbill Group as a cloud economist. So, came out of the big company world, and have dived back in—or dove back into the startup world.Corey: It's interesting because when we talk to those big companies, they always identify us as oh, you're a startup, which is hilarious on some level because our AWS account hangs out in AWS's startup group, but if you look at the spend being remarkably level from month to month to month to year to year to year, they almost certainly view us as they're a startup, but they suck at it. They completely failed. And so, many of the email stuff that you get from them presupposes that you're venture-backed, that you're trying to conquer the entire world. We don't do that here. We have this old-timey business model that our forebears would have understood of, we make more money than we spend every month and we continue that trend for a long time. So first, thanks for joining us, both on the show and at the company. We like having you around.John: Well, thanks. And yeah, I guess that's—maybe a startup isn't the right word to describe what we do here at The Duckbill Group, but as you said, it seems to fit into the industry classification. But that was one of the things I actually really liked about the—that was appealing about joining the team was, we do spend less than we make and we're not after hyper-growth and we're not trying to consume everything.Corey: So, it's interesting when you put a job description out into the world and you see who applies—and let's be clear, for those who are unaware, job descriptions are inherently aspirational shopping lists. If you look at a job description and you check every box on the thing and you've done all the things they want, the odds are terrific you're going to be bored out of your mind when you wind up showing up to do these… whatever that job is. You should be learning stuff and growing. At least that's always been my philosophy to it. One of the interesting things about you is that you checked an awful lot of boxes, but there is one that I think would cause people to raise an eyebrow, which is, you're relatively new to the fun world of AWS.John: Yeah. So, obviously I, you know, have been around the block a few times when it comes to cloud. I've used AWS, built some things in AWS, but I wouldn't have classified myself as an AWS guru by any stretch of the imagination. I spent the last probably three years working in Google Cloud, helping customers build and deploy solutions there, but I do at least understand the fundamentals of cloud, and more importantly—at least for our customers—cloud costs because at the end of the day, they're not all that different.Corey: I do want to call out that you have a certain humility to you which I find endearing. But you're not allowed to do that here; I will sing your praises for you. Before they deprecated it like they do almost everything else, you were one of the relatively few Google Cloud Certified Fellows, which was sort of like their Heroes program only, you know, they killed it in favor of something else like there's a Champion program or whatnot. You are very deep in the world of both Kubernetes and Google Cloud.John: Yeah. So, there was a few of us that were invited to come out and help Google pilot that program in, I believe it was 2019, and give feedback to help them build the Cloud Fellows Program. And thankfully, I was selected based on some of our early experience with Anthos, and specifically, it was around Certified Fellow in what they call hybrid multi-cloud, so it was experience around Anthos. Or at the time, they hadn't called it Anthos; they were calling it CSP or Cloud Services Platform because that's not an overloaded acronym. So yeah, definitely, was very humbled to be part of that early on.I think the program, as you said, grew to about 70 or so maybe 100 certified individuals before they transitioned—not killed—transitioned to that program into the Cloud Champions program. So, those folks are all still around, myself included. They've just now changed the moniker. But we all get to use the old title still as well, so that's kind of cool.Corey: I have to ask, what would possess you to go from being one of the best in the world at using Google Cloud over here to our corner of the AWS universe? Because the inverse, if I were to somehow get ejected from here—which would be a neat trick, but I'm sure it's theoretically possible—like, “What am I going to do now?” I would almost certainly wind up doing something in the AWS ecosystem, just due to inertia, if nothing else. You clearly didn't see things quite that way. Why make the switch?John: Well, a couple of different reasons. So, being at a Google partner presents a lot of challenges and one of the things that was supremely interesting about coming to Duckbill is that we're independent. So, we're not an AWS partner. We are an independent company that is beholden only to our customers. And there isn't anything like that in the Google ecosystem today.There's, you know, there's Google partners and then there's Google customers and then there's Google. So, that was part of the appeal. And the other thing was, I enjoy learning new things, and honestly, learning, you know, into the depths of AWS cost hell is interesting. There's a lot to learn there and there's a lot of things that we can extract and use to help customers spend less. So, that to me was super interesting.And then also, I want to help build an organization. So, you know, I think what we're doing here at The Duckbill Group is cool and I think that there's an opportunity to grow our services portfolio, and so I'm excited to work with the leadership team to see what else we can bring to market that's going to help our customers, you know, not just with cost optimization, not just with contract negotiation, but you know, through the lifecycle of their AWS… journey, I guess we'll call it.Corey: It's one of those things where I always have believed, on some level, that once you're deep in a particular cloud provider, if there's reason for it, you can rescale relatively quickly to a different provider. There are nuances—deep nuances—that differ from provider to provider, but the underlying concepts generally all work the same way. There's only so many ways you can have data go from point A to point B. There's only so many ways to spin up a bunch of VMs and whatnot. And you're proof-positive that theory was correct.You'd been here less than a week before I started learning nuances about AWS billing from you. I think it was something to do with the way that late fees are assessed when companies don't pay Amazon as quickly as Amazon desires. So, we're all learning new things constantly and no one stuffs this stuff all into their head. But that, if nothing else, definitely cemented that yeah, we've got the right person in the seat.John: Yeah, well, thanks. And certainly, the deeper you go on a specific cloud provider, things become fresh in your memory, you know, other cached so to speak. So, coming up to speed on AWS has been a little bit more documentation reading than it would have been, if I were, say, jumping right into a GCP engagement. But as he said, at the end of the day, there's a lot of similarities. Obviously understanding the nuances of, for example, account organization versus, you know, GCP's Project and Folders. Well, that's a substantial difference and so there's a lot of learning that has to happen.Thankfully, you know, all these companies, maybe with the exception of Oracle, have done a really good job of documenting all of the concepts in their publicly available documentation. And then obviously, having a team of experts here at The Duckbill Group to ask stupid questions of doesn't hurt. But definitely, it's not as hard to come up to speed as one may think, once you've got it understood in one provider.Corey: I took a look recently and was kind of surprised to discover that I've been doing this—as an independent consultant prior to the formation of The Duckbill Group—for seven years now. And it's weird, but I've gone through multiple industry cycles and changes as a part of this. And it feels like I haven't been doing it all that long, but I guess I have. One thing that's definitely changed is that it used to be that companies would basically pick one provider and almost everything would live there. At any reasonable point of scale, everyone is using multiple things.I see Google in effectively every client that we have. It used to be that going to Google Cloud Next was a great place to hang out with AWS customers. But these days, it's just as true to say that a great reason to go to re:Invent is to hang out with Google Cloud customers. Everyone uses everything, and that has become much more clear over the last few years. What have you seen change over the… I guess, since the start of the pandemic, just in terms of broad cycles?John: Yeah. So, I think there's a couple of different trends that we're seeing. Obviously, one is that as you said, especially as large enterprises make moves to the cloud, you see independent teams or divisions within a given organization leveraging… maybe not the right tool for the job because I think that there's a case to be made for swapping out a specific set of tools and having your team learn it, but we do see what I like to refer to as tool fetishism where you get a team that's super, super deep into BigQuery and they're not interested in moving to Redshift, or Snowflake, or a competitor. So, you see, those start to crop up within large organizations where the distributed—the purchasing power, rather—is distributed. So, that's one of the trends is the multi-cloud adoption.And I think the big trend that I like to emphasize around multi-cloud is, just because you can run it anywhere doesn't mean you should run it everywhere. So Kubernetes, as you know, right, as it took off 2019 timeframe, 2020, we started to see a lot of people using that as an excuse to try to run their production application in two, three public cloud providers and on-prem. And unless you're a SaaS customer—or SaaS company with customers in every cloud, there's very little reason to do that. But having that flexibility—that's the other one, is we've seen that AWS has gotten a little difficult to negotiate with, or maybe Google and Microsoft have gotten a little bit more aggressive. So obviously, having that flexibility and being able to move your workloads, that was another big trend.Corey: I'm seeing a change in things that I had taken as givens, back when I started. And that's part of the reason, incidentally, I write the Last Week in AWS newsletter because once you learn a thing, it is very easy not to keep current with that thing, and things that are not possible today will be possible tomorrow. How do you keep abreast of all of those changes? And the answer is to write a deeply sarcastic newsletter that gathers in everything from the world of AWS. But I don't recommend that for most people. One thing that I've seen in more prosaic terms that you have a bit of background in is that HPC on cloud was, five, six years ago, met with, “Oh, that's a good one; now pull the other one, it has bells on it,” into something that, these days, is extremely viable. How'd that happen?John: So, [sigh] I think that's just a—again, back to trends—I think that's just a trend that we're seeing from cloud providers and listening to their customers and continuing to improve the service. So, one of the reasons that HPC was—especially we'll call it capacity-level HPC or large HPC, right—you've always been able to run high throughput; the cloud is a high throughput machine, right? You can run a thousand disconnected VMs no problem, auto-scaling, anybody who runs a massive web front-end can attest to that. But what we saw with HPC—and we used to call those [grid 00:12:45] jobs, right, the small, decoupled computing jobs—but what we've seen is a huge increase in the quality of the underlying fabric—things like RDMA being made available, things like improved network locality, where you now have predictive latency between your nodes or between your VMs—and I think those, combined with the huge investment that companies like AWS have made in their file systems, the huge investment companies like Google have made in their data storage systems have made HPC viable, especially at a small-scale—for cloud-based HPC specifically—viable for organizations.And for a small engineering team, who's looking to run say, computer-aided engineering simulation or who's looking to prototype some new way of testing or doing some kind of simulation, it's a huge, huge improvement in speed because now they don't have to order a dozen or two dozen or five dozen nodes, have them shipped, rack them, stack them, cool them, power them, right? They can just spin up the resource in the cloud, test it out, try their simulation, try out the new—the software that they want, and then spin it all down if it doesn't work. So, that elasticity has also been huge. And again, I think the big—to kind of summarize, I think the big driver there is the improvement in this the service itself, right? We're seeing cloud providers taking that discipline a little bit more seriously.Corey: I still see that there are cases where the raw math doesn't necessarily add up for sustained, long-term use cases. But I also see increasingly that with HPC, that's usually not what the workload looks like. With, you know, the exception of we're going to spend the next 18 months training some new LLM thing, but even then the pricing is ridiculous. What is it their new P6 or whatever it is—P5—the instances that have those giant half-rack Nvidia cards that are $800,000 and so a year each if you were to just rent them straight out, and then people running fleets of these things, it's… wow that's more commas in that training job than I would have expected. But I can see just now the availability for driving some of that, but the economics of that once you can get them in your data center doesn't strike me as being particularly favoring the cloud.John: Yeah, there's a couple of different reasons. So, it's almost like an inverse curve, right? There's a crossover point or a breakeven point at which—you know, and you can make this argument with almost any level of infrastructure—if you can keep it sufficiently full, whether it's AI training, AI inference, or even traditional HPC if you can keep the machine or the group of machines sufficiently full, it's probably cheaper to buy it and put it in your facility. But if you don't have a facility or if you don't need to use it a hundred percent of the time, the dividends aren't always there, right? It's not always worth, you know, buying a $250,000 compute system, you know, like say, an Nvidia, as you—you know, like, a DGX, right, is a good example.The DGX H100, I think those are a couple $100,000. If you can't keep that thing full and you just need it for training jobs or for development and you have a small team of developers that are only going to use it six hours a day, it may make sense to spin that up in the cloud and pay for a fractional use, right? It's no different than what HPC has been doing for probably the past 50 years with national supercomputing centers, which is where my background came from before cloud, right? It's just a different model, right? One is public economies of, you know, insert your credit card and spend as much as you want and the other is grant-funded and supporting academic research, but the economy of scales is kind of the same on both fronts.Corey: I'm also seeing a trend that this is something that is sort of disturbing when you realize what I've been doing and how I've been going about things, that for the last couple of years, people actually started to care about the AWS bill. And I have to say, I felt like I was severely out of sync with a lot of the world the first few years because there's giant savings lurking in your AWS bill, and the company answer in many cases was, “We don't care. We'd rather focus our energies on shipping faster, building something new, expanding, capturing market.” And that is logical. But suddenly those chickens are coming home to roost in a big way. Our phone is ringing off the hook, as I'm sure you've noticed and your time here, and suddenly money means something again. What do you think drove it?John: So, I think there's a couple of driving factors. The first is obviously the broader economic conditions, you know, with the economic growth in the US, especially slowing down post-pandemic, we're seeing organizations looking for opportunities to spend less to be able to deliver—you know, recoup that money and deliver additional value. But beyond that, right—because, okay, but startups are probably still lighting giant piles of VC money on fire, and that's okay, but what's happening, I think, is that the first wave of CIOs that said cloud-first, cloud-only basically got their comeuppance. And, you know, these enterprises saw their explosive cloud bills and they saw that, oh, you know, we moved 5000 servers to AWS or GCP or Azure and we got the bill, and that's not sustainable. And so, we see a lot of cloud repatriation, cloud optimization, right, a lot of second-gen… cloud, I'll call them second-gen cloud-native CIOs coming into these large organizations where their predecessor made some bad financial decisions and either left or got asked to leave, and now they're trying to stop from lighting their giant piles of cash on fire, they're trying to stop spending 3X what they were spending on-prem.Corey: I think an easy mistake for folks to make is to get lost in the raw infrastructure cost. I'm not saying it's not important. Obviously not, but you could save a giant pile of money on your RDS instances by running your own database software on top of EC2, but I don't generally recommend folks do it because you also need engineering time to be focusing on getting those things up, care and feeding, et cetera. And what people lose sight of is the fact that the payroll expense is almost universally more than the cloud bill at every company I've ever talked to.So, there's a consistent series of, “Well, we're just trying to get to be the absolute lowest dollar figure total.” It's the wrong thing to emphasize on, otherwise, “Cool, turn everything off and your bill drops to zero.” Or, “Migrate to another cloud provider. AWS bill becomes zero. Our job is done.” It doesn't actually solve the problem at all. It's about what's right for the business, not about getting the absolute lowest possible score like it's some kind of code golf tournament.John: Right. So, I think that there's a couple of different ways to look at that. One is obviously looking at making your workloads more cloud-native. I know that's a stupid buzzword to some people, but—Corey: The problem I have with the term is that it means so many different things to different people.John: Right. But I think the gist of that is taking advantage of what the cloud is good at. And so, what we saw was that excess capacity on-prem was effectively free once you bought it, right? There were there was no accountability for burning through extra V CPUs or extra RAM. And then you had—Corey: Right. You spin something up in your data center and the question is, “Is the physical capacity there?” And very few companies had a reaping process until they were suddenly seeing capacity issues and suddenly everyone starts asking you a whole bunch of questions about it. But that was a natural forcing function that existed. Now, S3 has infinite storage, or it might as well. They can add capacity faster than you can fill it—I know this; I've tried—and the problem that you have then is that it's always just a couple more cents per gigabyte and it keeps on going forever. There's no, we need to make an investment decision because the SAN is at 80% capacity. Do you need all those 16 copies of the production data that you haven't touched since 2012? No, I probably don't.John: Yeah, there's definitely a forcing function when you're doing your own capacity planning. And the cloud, for the most part, as you've alluded to, for most organizations is infinite capacity. So, when they're looking at AWS or they're looking at any of the public cloud providers, it's a potentially infinite bill. Now, that scares a lot of organizations, and so because they didn't have the forcing function of, hey, we're out of CPUs, or we're out of hard disk space, or we're out of network ports, I think that because the cloud was a buzzword that a lot of shareholders and boards wanted to see in IT status reports and IT strategic plans, I think we grew a little bit further than we should have, from an enterprise perspective. And I think a lot of that's now being clawed back as organizations are maturing and looking to manage cost. Obviously, the huge growth of just the term FinOps from a search perspective over the last three years has cemented that, right? We're seeing a much more cost-conscious consumer—cloud consumer—than we saw three years ago.Corey: I think that the baseline level of understanding has also risen. It used to be that I would go into a client environment, prepared to deploy all kinds of radical stuff that these days look like context-aware architecture and things that would automatically turn down developer environments when developers were done for the day or whatnot. And I would discover that, oh, you haven't bought Reserved Instances in three years. Maybe start there with the easy thing. And now you don't see those, the big misconfigurations or the big oversights the way that you once did.People are getting better at this, which is a good thing. I'm certainly not having a problem with this. It means that we get to focus on things that are more architecturally nuanced, which I love. And I think that it forces us to continue innovating rather than just doing something that basically any random software stack could provide.John: Yeah, I think to your point, the easy wins are being exhausted or have been exhausted already, right? Very rarely do we walk into a customer and see that they haven't bought a, you know, Reserved Instance, or a Savings Plan. That's just not a thing. And the proliferation of software tools to help with those things, of course, in some cases, dubious proposition of, “We'll fix your cloud bill automatically for a small percentage of the savings,” that some of those software tools have, I think those have kind of run their course. And now you've got a smarter populace or smarter consumer and it does come into the more nuanced stuff, right.All right, do you really need to replicate data across AZs? Well, not if your workloads aren't stateful. Well, so some of the old things—and Kubernetes is a great example of this, right—the age old adage of, if I'm going to spin up an EKS cluster, I need to put it in three AZs, okay, why? That's going to cost you money [laugh], the cross-AZ traffic. And I know cross-AZ traffic is a simple one, but we still see that. We still see, “Well, I don't know why I put it across all three AZs.”And so, the service-to-service communication inside that cluster, the control plane traffic inside that cluster, is costing you money. Now, it might be minimal, but as you grow and as you scale your product or the services that you're providing internally, that may grow to a non-trivial sum of money.Corey: I think that there's a tipping point where an unbounded growth problem is always going to emerge as something that needs attention and needs to be focused on. But I should ask you this because you have a skill set that is, as you know, extremely in demand. You also have that rare gift that I wish wasn't as rare as it is where you can be thrown into the deep end knowing next to nothing about a particular technology stack, and in a remarkably short period of time, develop what can only be called subject matter expertise around it. I've seen you do this years past with Kubernetes, which is something I'm still trying to wrap my head around. You have a natural gift for it which meant that, from many respects, the world was your oyster. Why this? Why now?John: So, I think there's a couple of things that are unique at this thing, at this time point, right? So obviously, helping customers has always been something that's fun and exciting for me, right? Going to an organization and solving the same problem I've solved 20 different times, for example, spinning up a Kubernetes cluster, I guess I have a little bit of a little bit of squirrel syndrome, so to speak, and that gets—it gets boring. I'd rather just automate that or build some tooling and disseminate that to the customers and let them do that. So, the thing with cost management is, it's always a different problem.Yeah, we're solving fundamentally the same problem, which is, I'm spending too much, but it's always a different root cause, you know? In one customer, it could be data transfer fees. In another customer, it could be errant development growth where they're not controlling the spend on their development environments. In yet another customer, it could be excessive object storage growth. So, being able to hunt and look for those and play detective is really fun, and I think that's one of the things that drew me to this particular area.The other is just from a timing perspective, this is a problem a lot of organizations have, and I think it's underserved. I think that there are not enough companies—service providers, whatever—focusing on the hard problem of cost optimization. There's too many people who think it's a finance problem and not enough people who think it's an engineering problem. And so, I wanted to do work on a place where we think it's an engineering problem.Corey: It's been a very… long road. And I think that engineering problems and people problems are both fascinating to me, and the AWS bill is both. It's often misunderstood as a finance problem, and finance needs to be consulted absolutely, but they can't drive an optimization project, and they don't know what the context is behind an awful lot of decisions that get made. It really is breaking down bridges. But also, there's a lot of engineering in here, too. It scratches my itch in that direction, anyway.John: Yeah, it's one of the few business problems that I think touches multiple areas. As you said, it's obviously a people problem because we want to make sure that we are supporting and educating our staff. It's a process problem. Are we making costs visible to the organization? Are we making sure that there's proper chargeback and showback methodologies, et cetera? But it's also a technology problem. Did we build this thing to take advantage of the architecture or did we shoehorn it in a way that's going to cost us a small fortune? And I think it touches all three, which I think is unique.Corey: John, I really want to thank you for taking the time to speak with me. If people want to learn more about what you're up to in a given day, where's the best place for them to find you?John: Well, thanks, Corey, and thanks for having me. And, of course obviously, our website duckbillgroup.com is a great place to find out what we're working on, what we have coming. I also, I'm pretty active on LinkedIn. I know that's [laugh]—I'm not a huge Twitter guy, but I am pretty active on LinkedIn, so you can always drop me a follow on LinkedIn. And I'll try to post interesting and useful content there for our listeners.Corey: And we will, of course, put links to that in the [show notes 00:28:37], which in my case, is of course extremely self-aggrandizing. But that's all right. We're here to do self-promotion. Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me, John. I appreciate it. Now, get back to work.John: [laugh]. All right, thanks, Corey. Have a good one.Corey: John Wynkoop, cloud economist at The Duckbill Group. I'm Cloud Economist Corey Quinn, and this is Screaming in the Cloud. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave a five-star review on your podcast platform of choice, whereas if you've hated this podcast, please leave a five-star review on your podcast platform of choice while also taking pains to note how you're using multiple podcast platforms these days because that just seems to be the way the world went.Corey: If your AWS bill keeps rising and your blood pressure is doing the same, then you need The Duckbill Group. We help companies fix their AWS bill by making it smaller and less horrifying. The Duckbill Group works for you, not AWS. We tailor recommendations to your business and we get to the point. Visit duckbillgroup.com to get started.

Don't miss out on our 10th Anniversary Special airing on October 27! Send in your top 10 lists before October 23 to be featured on the show! This week, we're talking Honkai: Star Rail, Harvest Moon: Winds of Anthos, Resident Evil 4: Separate Ways, Yakuza Kiwami, Bobby Kotick leaving Activision, Mario's new voice, and more! This week's cast: Adam Arinder Neal Bonham John-Michael Carley Renee Martin Stephen Martin Music credit: Outro -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwUJaa4j7fM RSS Feed: http://feeds.soundcloud.com/users/soundcloud:users:61611947/sounds.rss October 17, 2023

Com a consolidação das fintechs, os avanços do Open Finance e clientes cada vez mais exigentes em relação à digitalização de produtos e serviços, as instituições financeiras estão encontrando na tecnologia um caminho para inovar e se destacar em um mercado cada vez mais competitivo.  De olho nesse cenário, o Google Cloud lançou este ano a segunda edição do Finfacts - Descobertas e oportunidades que valorizam os serviços financeiros. Nesse estudo, foi analisado como é o processo de contratação de produtos nos canais digitais nas 21 principais empresas do setor no país e como a tecnologia entra para melhorar essa experiência. No episódio de hoje, convidamos o Banco BV para compartilhar um pouco da sua trajetória de transformação digital e repercutir os principais insights do Finfacts. Marisa Kinoshita, gerente sênior de marketing do Google Cloud Brasil e responsável também pelo Finfacts e outros estudos voltados para diferentes Indústrias, recebe Ricardo Sanfelice, Diretor Executivo de Clientes, Produtos e Inovação do Banco BV; Pedro Britto, Field Sales Representative do Google Cloud; e Fausto Novaes, especialista em Financial Services Industry do Google Cloud. No Conversas na Nuvem, recebemos empresas que estão transformando e inovando o setor em que atuam com a tecnologia em nuvem. Confira os links deste episódio: Finfacts - Descobertas e oportunidades que valorizam os serviços financeiros: https://bit.ly/3rIllFb  Banco BV modernizes its banking apps with GKE and Anthos: https://bit.ly/48MJsDe  Transcrição do episódio: https://bit.ly/495Z5Wy

The whole crew is here for another EXCITING episode of Gameware Express! This week, we're talking Cocoon, Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless, Harvest Moon: Winds of Anthos, Resident Evil 4: Separate Ways, Dead Rising 2, Yakuza Kiwami, and more! Be sure to submit your top game/top 10 games list for our 10th Anniversary Special airing Oct. 27. Submit your entries to gamewareexpress@gmail.com This week's cast: Adam Arinder Neal Bonham John-Michael Carley Renee Martin Stephen Martin Music Credit: Outro -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOaCFAB2nno RSS Feed: http://feeds.soundcloud.com/users/soundcloud:users:61611947/sounds.rss October 10, 2023

Audio roundup of selected biopharma industry content from Scrip over the past business week. In this episode: Novartis gives back Beigene PD-1; BMS revs R&D engine; Anthos changes course for Factor XI asset; the non-incretin pipeline for obesity; and a look at Q2's top-selling drugs. https://scrip.citeline.com/SC149111/Quick-Listen-Scrips-Five-MustKnow-Things

Ali Golshan is the cofounder and CEO of Gretel AI, a synthetic data platform for ML developers. They have raised $65M in funding so far from investors such as Greylock and Anthos. He was previously the cofounder of StackRox, which was acquired by Red Hat for about $450M. Prior to that, he was the cofounder of Cyphort, which was acquired by Juniper Networks. In this episode, we cover a range of topics including: - The need for synthetic data - Techniques to generate synthetic data - How can AI enhance the synthetic data generation process - Computational irreducibility - Differential privacy - Measuring the performance of the engine that generates synthetic data Ali's favorite books: - The Order of Time (Author: Carlo Rovelli) - The Coddling of the American Mind (Authors: Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt) --------Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-91047b19 Twitter: https://twitter.com/prateekvjoshi 

Thank you Factor and ExpressVPN for sponsoring this week's episode of What's Good Games! Go to http://expressvpn.com/whatsgoodgames to get 3 extra months of ExpressVPN for free. Go to http://factormeals.com/whatsgood50 and use code whatsgood50 to get 50% off. This week the ladies are joined by Bethesda superfan Emily Rose to talk about her experience with Starfield and how it holds up to other Bethesda Game Studios juggernauts. Britt spent some time at PAX West and Nintendo Live over the weekend and played a handful of super fun games including Like a Dragon Gaiden, Persona 3 Reload, Little Goody Two Shoes and more! She also saw a demo Harvest Moon: The Winds of Anthos that has her ALL sorts of excited.  Follow Emily! https://twitter.com/Frankly_Emily Thank you to this month's Patreon Producers: Chewy's Godson Faris Attieh Justin Foshee Punkdefied Listen to WGG Ad-Free on Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/whatsgoodgames  Subscribe to our channel and don't forget to hit the bell: http://bit.ly/2rAcJvF 03:32 - Brittney went to PAX West 2023!!! 05:51 - Super Mario Bros. Wonder 10:33 - Embracer Group has announced plans to close studios, cancel games, and lay staff off 16:15 - Final Fantasy XVI 19:51 - Break 20:11 - A Message from Factor 22:00 - A Message from our Sponsor 22:03 - A Message from ExpressVPN 23:30 - Harvest Moon: The Winds of Anthos 30:28 - Like a Dragon Gaiden 35:14 - Persona 3 Reload 39:05 - Little Goody Two Shoes 42:58 - Silent Hope 45:25 - Starfield Part 2 Discussion 47:35 - Emily Rose's Bethesda game-play history 57:08 - What stands out about Starfield? 59:19 - Environmental Storytelling 1:01:52 - Character Creator System 1:20:32 - Lock-Picking Mechanics 1:26:04 - Combat 1:29:23 - Does Baldur's Gate 3 compare? Want audio only? http://whatsgoodgames.com/podcast/ Merch: https://teespring.com/stores/whatsgoo... Follow on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/whatsgood_games Follow on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/whatsgoodgames Follow on Twitch: http://www.twitch.tv/whatsgoodgames Join our Discord community: http://discord.gg/whatsgoodgames Follow on Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/whatsgoodgam... Our website: http://www.whatsgoodgames.com  #Starfield #PAXWest #BaldursGate3  Follow the crew: Andrea: http://www.twitter.com/andrearene http://www.instagram.com/andrearene_ http://www.tiktok.com/@andrearene Britt: http://www.twitter.com/blondenerd http://www.instagram.com/blondenerd http://www.tiktok.com/@britt.brom Riana: http://www.twitter.com/rianatweetsnow http://www.instagram.com/rianagramsnow http://www.tiktok.com/@rianatiktoksnow Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome episode 226 of the Cloud Pod podcast - where the forecast is always cloudy! This week Justin, Matt and Ryan chat about all the news and announcements from Google Next, including - surprise surprise - the hot topic of AI, GKE Enterprise, Duet, Co-Pilot, Code Whisperer and more! There's even some non-Next news thrown into the episode. So whether you're interested in BART or Bard, we've got the news from SF just for you.  Titles we almost went with this week:

Al and Kev talk about all the new Harvest Moon: Winds of Anthos news and try out the original Harvest Moon. Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:01:53: What Have We Been Up To 00:17:35: News 00:45:31: Harvest Moon The Winds Of Anthos Medium Dive 01:09:27: Harvest Moon (SNES) 01:35:23: Outro Links Sprout Valley Release Date Moonstone Island Release Date A Tiny Sticker Tale Release Date Disney Dreamlight Valley Cozy Edition Spirittea Release Date The Wandering Village Birtdahy Update Stardew Valley Cookbook Fogu Winds of Anthos Info Contact Al on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheScotBot Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Transcript [00:00.000 –> 00:01.860] There you go! [00:30.760 –> 00:35.880] Hello farmers and welcome to another episode of the harvest season. [00:35.880 –> 00:37.440] My name is Al. [00:37.440 –> 00:38.920] I’m Kevin. [00:38.920 –> 00:42.000] And we’re here today to talk about Harvest Moon. [00:42.000 –> 00:44.660] Yeah, yeah, living up to the name. [00:44.660 –> 00:45.660] All the Harvest Moon. [00:45.660 –> 00:46.660] Our name, the harvest. [00:46.660 –> 00:47.660] Yeah. [00:47.660 –> 00:50.440] This is our Harvest Moon Bonanza episode. [00:50.440 –> 00:55.920] Yeah, we’re going to the old, the new, the good, the bad, all of it. [00:55.920 –> 00:56.920] Yeah. [00:56.920 –> 00:58.920] And we’ll not tell you which is which yet. [00:58.920 –> 01:05.980] So before we get into that, obviously, transcripts are, as always, available in the show notes [01:05.980 –> 01:07.360] and on the website. [01:07.360 –> 01:09.320] So they’re there if you need them. [01:09.320 –> 01:14.200] Yeah, we’ve got a bunch of news to talk about. [01:14.200 –> 01:21.240] And then we’re going to do a dive into a bunch of information that’s come up on Harvest Moon [01:21.240 –> 01:24.280] Winds of Anthos over the last week. [01:24.280 –> 01:30.620] Coincidentally, this was coincidental, on the week that we decided that we were going [01:30.620 –> 01:37.060] to play the original Harvest Moon, now that it’s out on Nintendo Switch Online. [01:37.060 –> 01:39.680] So we’re going to talk about that at the end as well. [01:39.680 –> 01:46.540] Yeah, that’s gonna, that’s really an interesting timing there, how it all lined up. [01:46.540 –> 01:47.540] It’s amazing. [01:47.540 –> 01:48.540] I love it. [01:48.540 –> 01:52.440] I wish more episodes worked like this. [01:52.440 –> 01:56.080] But before all of that, Kevin, what have you been up to? [01:56.080 –> 01:58.220] Oh, good question. [01:58.220 –> 02:00.160] So I’m doing early plug. [02:00.160 –> 02:04.440] I didn’t talk about last week, but the episodes already out. [02:04.440 –> 02:05.720] Things have been busy over at the other show. [02:05.720 –> 02:11.200] I’m now working with our dear friend Alex on Rainbow Road Radio. [02:11.200 –> 02:15.640] I’ve been play well, not this as much this week, but I’ve been playing a little bit of [02:15.640 –> 02:19.880] Super Mario Sunshine, because we covered that. [02:19.880 –> 02:25.560] There’s a big media episode for you guys to listen if you want to hear my in-depth thoughts, [02:25.560 –> 02:28.080] but my general consensus, I still like the game. [02:28.080 –> 02:29.320] I’m giving it a thumbs up. [02:29.320 –> 02:30.320] Yeah. [02:30.320 –> 02:32.200] Do I get to have feedback on your episode here? [02:32.200 –> 02:33.200] That sounds fun. [02:33.200 –> 02:34.200] Sure. [02:34.200 –> 02:35.200] Yes. [02:35.200 –> 02:36.200] I think it was great. [02:36.200 –> 02:40.320] I will say, I didn’t like the fact that there was a question over whether it was better [02:40.320 –> 02:42.760] or worse than Mario 64. [02:42.760 –> 02:45.000] Mario 64 is terrible. [02:45.000 –> 02:50.040] Mario Sunshine definitely has its issues. [02:50.040 –> 02:53.760] You can tell it’s a 20-year-old game. [02:53.760 –> 02:57.360] You can tell it’s a 20-year-old game, which by the way, it’s insane that something that [02:57.360 –> 03:00.220] looks like that is 20 years old, but that’s just time. [03:00.220 –> 03:04.560] It just keeps moving. [03:04.560 –> 03:06.040] It works both ways here. [03:06.040 –> 03:13.960] GameCube is a weird era because not only does the stuff hold up fairly well 20 years later, [03:13.960 –> 03:22.960] but if you look at what was out five years before, it’s insane, because 64 is not that [03:22.960 –> 03:24.040] far before Sunshine. [03:24.040 –> 03:25.260] It’s crazy. [03:25.260 –> 03:26.260] This is the thing. [03:26.260 –> 03:34.680] If you look at screenshots of Mario 64 next to Mario Sunshine, they look a decade apart. [03:34.680 –> 03:42.680] You can literally see the polygons on him in Mario 64, and in Mario Sunshine, it’s smooth. [03:42.680 –> 03:45.760] If it’s the sort of thing that was released just now, people would be like, oh, it’s a [03:45.760 –> 03:50.160] little bit outdated graphics, but they wouldn’t be like, oh, it’s horrific. [03:50.160 –> 03:52.160] It’s pretty good, still. [03:52.160 –> 03:55.720] You get an indie developer in this day and age who would release it and nobody would [03:55.720 –> 03:59.600] bat an eye, right? [03:59.600 –> 04:00.760] It’s not that far behind. [04:00.760 –> 04:01.760] It’s insane. [04:01.760 –> 04:04.200] Yeah, yeah, definitely. [04:04.200 –> 04:07.760] The biggest thing, I think, as you discussed on the episode, is the camera. [04:07.760 –> 04:08.760] Yeah. [04:08.760 –> 04:09.760] Real issues. [04:09.760 –> 04:10.760] It’s the camera. [04:10.840 –> 04:14.960] The Mario team have figured that out, and the newer games have much better cameras. [04:14.960 –> 04:17.760] Yeah, yeah, they are. [04:17.760 –> 04:23.920] It’d be nice to see that game get a proper remake, not just this weird half port that [04:23.920 –> 04:26.960] they do for the collection or whatever. [04:26.960 –> 04:31.580] I think I’d be fine with, I mean, I get why you would want that, but I think it would [04:31.580 –> 04:37.780] also be fun if they just had the flood in a newer game, because that was what makes [04:37.780 –> 04:39.200] it different, right? [04:39.200 –> 04:40.200] Absolutely. [04:40.640 –> 04:45.960] I know the whole, oh yeah, well, Bowser’s Fury is like the spiritual successor to Sunshine, [04:45.960 –> 04:49.040] and I get why people are saying that, but it’s not the same. [04:49.040 –> 04:51.120] No, absolutely not. [04:51.120 –> 04:58.440] I think it was, getting more in-depth, there was stuff in the code that implied it was [04:58.440 –> 05:03.000] very much more, not just going to be spiritual, it was going to be, they were working on a [05:03.000 –> 05:05.920] Sunshine sequel to some degree, but there’s no flood. [05:05.920 –> 05:08.720] And that’s the thing that makes Sunshine, Sunshine. [05:09.240 –> 05:14.120] It’s built on the same code base, similar in lots of ways, but without the flood, it’s [05:14.120 –> 05:15.120] not the same. [05:15.120 –> 05:17.320] Yeah, you’re super right. [05:17.320 –> 05:22.040] I said like a remake, because I don’t think I will ever see flood come back in a game [05:22.040 –> 05:28.760] in my lifetime, or a new game, let’s say, so that’s why I’m thinking of the remake, [05:28.760 –> 05:30.760] but of course that would be my preference. [05:30.760 –> 05:32.760] I would give for a new flood. [05:32.760 –> 05:34.760] That’d be good fun. [05:34.800 –> 05:42.800] Yeah, and again, a little tidbit from that episode, but there were like, seven? [05:42.800 –> 05:45.800] They originally had like ten different nozzles for flood? [05:45.800 –> 05:46.800] Yeah. [05:46.800 –> 05:51.800] I want to know, oh god, okay, yeah, I’d love to see a sequel with more stuff. [05:51.800 –> 05:52.800] That would be fun. [05:52.800 –> 05:57.240] Yeah, but regardless, Sunshine, that was a good media episode, go listen to it, thank [05:57.240 –> 05:59.720] you for listening, Al. [05:59.720 –> 06:03.720] And actually, I highly recommend the episode that we’ll be releasing, well actually it’ll [06:03.760 –> 06:08.840] probably be out by the time listeners are listening to this, because Mario Wonder, we [06:08.840 –> 06:16.200] got our direct, and so we got the content for you guys, we go in-depth into our thoughts [06:16.200 –> 06:17.200] on Wonder. [06:17.200 –> 06:19.960] This was a good time to start a Mario. [06:19.960 –> 06:28.920] I know, it’s so good, yeah, it was great timing, much like this episode. [06:28.920 –> 06:37.160] But anyways, aside from the Mario life, nothing too crazy, I’ve been Tears of the Kingdoming, [06:37.160 –> 06:39.160] guess what, still good. [06:39.160 –> 06:40.160] Shock. [06:40.160 –> 06:45.920] Yeah, Don-Don’s are cool, I met them, I saved the pirates, no, I killed the pirates and [06:45.920 –> 06:50.320] saved literally another way around. [06:50.320 –> 06:56.960] Other than that, nothing too exciting, Unite, Snap, oh, the Mewtwo raids, I guess we can [06:57.000 –> 07:01.360] talk about that, or Scarlet Violet. [07:01.360 –> 07:10.720] It’s fine, I guess, it happened, I did it, I mean, there’s a whole spiel here I could [07:10.720 –> 07:19.240] go into, but there’s just something about optimizing an event like this, a strategy [07:19.240 –> 07:24.120] so well that it kills the fun for me a little bit. [07:24.600 –> 07:31.840] I get that, I guess the problem is that I think is people’s problem, unless you just [07:31.840 –> 07:40.640] go like, well, the raid can do these 10 different things, and therefore you can’t plan for it. [07:40.640 –> 07:44.680] Unless you do that, I don’t think there’s really a way to not have that happen, because [07:44.680 –> 07:49.960] you have thousands of players who are like, I need to min-max this, I need to figure out [07:49.960 –> 07:52.080] how to solve this. [07:52.080 –> 07:58.840] I find it quite fun to see the crazy strategies, like, oh, why on earth is everybody setting [07:58.840 –> 07:59.840] up electric terrain? [07:59.840 –> 08:03.120] Oh, it’s because apparently electric terrain means you can’t sleep. [08:03.120 –> 08:04.120] Oh, that’s fun. [08:04.120 –> 08:09.560] That’s an interesting one, I did not realize that was a thing, that’s the kind of parts [08:09.560 –> 08:14.320] of the game that I’ve never really been bothered to be interested in because I’m not a competitive [08:14.320 –> 08:15.320] player. [08:15.960 –> 08:23.800] Yeah, and to get, I guess for people who don’t play Pokemon or don’t know, there’s an event [08:23.800 –> 08:28.720] where you team up with three other players and you can fight a big Mewtwo, well not actually [08:28.720 –> 08:31.080] big, but it’s a very strong Mewtwo, right? [08:31.080 –> 08:37.760] And if you happen to have a Mew on you, which they gave out in distribution, or you happen [08:37.760 –> 08:42.200] to have one transferred in for whatever, you get a boost to your Mew, because there’s that [08:42.200 –> 08:47.200] rivalry in Pokemon Mew vs Mewtwo or whatever, and that’s fun and all, right? [08:47.200 –> 08:56.080] And so yeah, so there’s these obviously very efficient strategies to be in the event, but [08:56.080 –> 09:02.880] the real kicker is Mew has the ultimate, or like the poster child for adaptability, can [09:02.880 –> 09:06.160] learn every move, do everything, whatever it wants to, right? [09:06.160 –> 09:13.440] So I would have preferred a weaker Mewtwo where you didn’t have to maximize your strategy [09:13.440 –> 09:20.120] to, because it is a difficult challenge if you don’t know what you’re doing, right? [09:20.120 –> 09:26.560] But if it were so weak that, if it were doable without having to do that, right, where everyone [09:26.560 –> 09:30.840] could just run different things, or you could plan maybe something with your teammates, [09:30.840 –> 09:33.440] where everyone didn’t have to be the same, I think I’d enjoy that more. [09:33.440 –> 09:40.680] But that is, you know, that’s just wishful thinking, Cela V, it’s min-maxing video games, [09:40.680 –> 09:42.880] it’s what you’re going to do. [09:42.880 –> 09:43.880] But that’s what I’ve been up to. [09:43.880 –> 09:44.880] What about you, Al? [09:44.880 –> 09:45.880] What’s going on? [09:45.880 –> 09:50.080] Yeah, well, obviously I was doing the Pokemon raids as well, I quite enjoyed the getting, [09:50.080 –> 09:54.040] I think it took me about four turns, and we finally got a team together that was actually [09:54.040 –> 09:58.200] knew what they were doing, and we still had to do, I think the fun thing about this one [09:58.200 –> 10:01.760] is like, yeah, you have a strategy, but you still have to do it, and you have to do it [10:01.760 –> 10:02.760] well. [10:02.760 –> 10:06.040] So it’s like, you know, it takes the whole, was it five minutes? [10:06.040 –> 10:07.040] Is that how long one is? [10:07.040 –> 10:12.920] It takes almost the entire five minutes to do that, even if you’re doing everything perfectly. [10:12.920 –> 10:18.600] And just seeing like four random people connecting online, not knowing each other, and noticing [10:18.600 –> 10:22.480] what the others are doing, and just adapting to that, and just going, that was really fun, [10:22.480 –> 10:23.480] right? [10:23.480 –> 10:27.800] Because especially in the one that I won, like all four of us set up light screen turn [10:27.800 –> 10:32.640] one, and I was like, Oh, no, it’s just a group full of support Pokemon, we’re gonna lose. [10:32.640 –> 10:37.440] But then it turns out that the other two of the people had leech life, which is the [10:37.440 –> 10:41.640] big, big hair that you have to take it down. [10:41.640 –> 10:46.360] And they just they just started getting to the strategy that would lead them to do the [10:46.360 –> 10:48.680] swords dancing and leech life, blah, blah, blah. [10:48.680 –> 10:58.240] And I had the right moves for both to be support or be technical and the other and so we kind [10:58.240 –> 11:02.480] of me and the other one kind of just tag teamed and it worked really well, which was good [11:03.120 –> 11:08.640] Yeah, see, I’ll say that to like, that sounds pretty fun. [11:08.640 –> 11:12.920] I did mine with a team off the bat of people I was talking to, like I didn’t do with random. [11:12.920 –> 11:17.840] So we got it one and done pretty much we had it on the bat. [11:17.840 –> 11:24.160] But I will say that it is fun, at least even we because with four people, like you said, [11:24.160 –> 11:26.680] there’s there’s different roles and different movesets you can carry. [11:26.680 –> 11:28.480] So there’s a little variability. [11:28.480 –> 11:33.440] And yes, as you could probably pack one of different move to kind of pivot if you need [11:33.440 –> 11:36.880] to in the middle of a battle, which I did as well at some point. [11:36.880 –> 11:39.160] So that that is a little then it’s kind of fun. [11:39.160 –> 11:40.880] And so yeah, I did that. [11:40.880 –> 11:46.600] I’ve obviously been playing some Harvest Moon, original Harvest Moon for the SNES on the [11:46.600 –> 11:47.600] Nintendo Switch. [11:47.600 –> 11:48.600] Of course. [11:48.600 –> 11:52.600] This is my first time playing with these, these virtual console, whatever you don’t [11:52.600 –> 11:53.600] play any of them before. [11:53.600 –> 11:58.060] No, I’ve never, you’ve broken the dam, you’re going to be all in on all of them. [11:58.060 –> 12:01.660] You kind of Yeah, now that I saw. [12:01.660 –> 12:02.660] It’s not too bad. [12:02.660 –> 12:05.780] I’ll probably pick up some of the other ones finally try that Pokemon trading card game [12:05.780 –> 12:06.780] for the game. [12:06.780 –> 12:07.780] Well, that’s so good. [12:07.780 –> 12:10.620] I think I think that has aged really well as well. [12:10.620 –> 12:13.500] Like obviously, the graphics are very clearly Gameboy. [12:13.500 –> 12:19.980] But that’s, that’s like, that’s a style people still do because they like it so much. [12:19.980 –> 12:23.620] And it’s just obviously quite a limited selection of Pokemon and cards. [12:23.620 –> 12:26.500] But the actual the gameplay is solid. [12:26.500 –> 12:28.360] Like the game works really well. [12:28.360 –> 12:32.860] Like I’ve gone back to that game multiple times over the years, which is wild to think [12:32.860 –> 12:34.820] about. [12:34.820 –> 12:39.340] Because card games can be kind of hard to do on like, or easy to mess up. [12:39.340 –> 12:41.300] Let’s say on on a video game. [12:41.300 –> 12:42.300] Yeah. [12:42.300 –> 12:47.540] And so yeah, I am very curious just to see that because yeah, I don’t I hear nothing [12:47.540 –> 12:48.660] but good things about it. [12:48.660 –> 12:54.300] So that’s why I really hope I really want them to bring the sequel, translate the sequel [12:54.300 –> 12:56.100] out because that was Japan only originally. [12:56.100 –> 12:57.100] Yeah. [12:57.100 –> 13:00.460] So I’ve never never played that because I know this fan translations and stuff, but [13:00.460 –> 13:01.460] it’s not. [13:01.460 –> 13:02.460] Yeah. [13:02.460 –> 13:03.460] Yeah, of course. [13:03.460 –> 13:09.260] So, um, and I fell back into Marvel snap, oops. [13:09.260 –> 13:13.100] I think last last week, last week when we were talking, you were talking about Marvel [13:13.100 –> 13:15.480] snap and I was like, oh, I played it for ages. [13:15.480 –> 13:19.900] And then I think you’d mentioned the daily, the daily bonuses we’re getting at that point. [13:19.900 –> 13:20.900] Yeah. [13:20.900 –> 13:23.140] So I went in and got them. [13:23.140 –> 13:30.380] And oops, within the last week, I did the entire season. [13:30.380 –> 13:31.700] So yeah, that was crazy. [13:31.700 –> 13:34.260] Although this is where my complaint about this game comes in. [13:34.260 –> 13:38.940] Yeah, apparently, they don’t give you enough experience in the season pass missions to [13:38.940 –> 13:42.340] get to level 50 in the season pass, which is very annoying. [13:42.340 –> 13:45.940] If that is wild, if you’ve been playing the whole month and doing daily missions most [13:45.940 –> 13:50.460] days and, uh, and that sort of stuff, then you can, you can easily get enough for free, [13:50.460 –> 13:54.660] but not if you just, if you do it all at the end, which is really annoying. [13:54.660 –> 13:58.620] It’s like, I feel like they should, I feel like they should be able if you do every single [13:58.620 –> 14:02.300] season pass mission, I feel like you should be able to get to 50 right. [14:02.300 –> 14:03.440] That’s that. [14:03.440 –> 14:07.660] It’s not like because they clearly, they’ve clearly built it up around that, right? [14:07.660 –> 14:10.880] Because it’s enough to get you to 45, right? [14:10.880 –> 14:14.660] It’s not like it only gets you to 20 and you have to do so much more work to get it. [14:14.660 –> 14:15.660] I didn’t know that. [14:15.660 –> 14:16.660] 45. [14:16.660 –> 14:19.260] Oh, that’s, that’s cold. [14:19.260 –> 14:20.260] Thanks. [14:20.260 –> 14:21.260] Oh, just right. [14:21.260 –> 14:23.880] Oh, that’s, that’s rough. [14:23.880 –> 14:28.340] So I’m trying to decide in the next day, cause I think we’ve got one day left of it. [14:28.340 –> 14:32.900] It’s literally a day and a couple of hours or something to decide if I’m buying the season [14:32.900 –> 14:36.340] pass because I can’t just buy the 10 quid season pass. [14:36.340 –> 14:38.280] You can’t, I can’t do that. [14:38.280 –> 14:42.060] So I’d need to buy the 15 quid one, which gives you the extra 10 levels and would take [14:42.060 –> 14:43.060] me up to 50. [14:43.060 –> 14:44.060] It’s just so annoying. [14:44.460 –> 14:48.420] Well, it sounds like it worked exactly as they planned on you. [14:48.420 –> 14:49.420] They got you. [14:49.420 –> 14:50.420] Yeah. [14:50.420 –> 14:54.060] They got me in with those dailies and then I had was just enough time to get through [14:54.060 –> 14:59.460] all the missions and then be annoyed and have to pay more money is genius. [14:59.460 –> 15:02.420] At the very least, this season passes. [15:02.420 –> 15:03.420] Okay. [15:03.420 –> 15:07.580] It’s at least for me personally, like I’m not, I wouldn’t be weeping if I didn’t get [15:07.580 –> 15:08.580] it. [15:08.580 –> 15:11.700] Next one seems much cooler, but regardless, that’s just a preference thing. [15:11.700 –> 15:12.700] Yeah. [15:12.700 –> 15:13.700] Maybe, maybe I’ll just, I mean, there’s, there’s, there’s. [15:14.340 –> 15:15.860] I mean, the thing is, right. [15:15.860 –> 15:16.980] It’s a good value. [15:16.980 –> 15:17.980] The season pass anyway. [15:17.980 –> 15:18.980] It is a great value. [15:18.980 –> 15:24.100] You get so much gold and you get loads of good stuff. [15:24.100 –> 15:28.580] And so it’s like, it is the best value thing to buy in the game. [15:28.580 –> 15:32.980] And it’s like, I’ve now, I’ve spent a week unlocking basically everything and it’s like, [15:32.980 –> 15:39.180] I can pay 15 quid and get all the, all these 55 levels. [15:39.180 –> 15:42.900] But anyway, whatever I’ll decide tomorrow, how long I’ve got one day? [15:42.900 –> 15:44.420] Time’s good right now. [15:44.420 –> 15:45.420] One day and eight hours. [15:45.420 –> 15:49.700] So I need to, I did basically need to decide by the end of tomorrow cause it flips over [15:49.700 –> 15:50.700] while I’m… [15:50.700 –> 15:53.940] Did you, did you play on PC or just on your phone? [15:53.940 –> 15:55.580] I’ve done about, I’ve done about both. [15:55.580 –> 15:59.780] And so I’ve not played it on PC cause I use, I use a Mac most of the time, but I, on the [15:59.780 –> 16:02.700] Mac you can use the iPad app. [16:02.700 –> 16:06.900] So I’ve been doing it on my phone and, and using the iPad app on, on my, on my computer. [16:06.900 –> 16:08.980] And it’s good fun. [16:08.980 –> 16:13.500] I do kind of want to, I mean, I’m currently on a windows machine, like talking to you, [16:13.500 –> 16:17.740] but this is, recording the podcast is the only thing I use it for. [16:17.740 –> 16:20.060] So I might install it after this and see how it looks. [16:20.060 –> 16:26.420] Cause I know it’s, it’s like widescreen, isn’t it? [16:26.420 –> 16:31.380] It’s weird because like, obviously Marvel Snap is a very mobily mobile game designed [16:31.380 –> 16:33.140] for mobile to fit that phone. [16:33.140 –> 16:34.140] Right. [16:34.140 –> 16:38.760] And so it is wide screen, but like the field of play isn’t that much wider. [16:38.760 –> 16:47.520] It’s still feels very much like they just uncropped the background, but the animations [16:47.520 –> 16:50.720] and all that stuff, it is buttery smooth. [16:50.720 –> 16:52.200] It is pleasing to look at. [16:52.200 –> 16:53.560] So it’s still worth checking out. [16:53.560 –> 16:55.080] Oh, here’s an important question. [16:55.080 –> 16:56.080] It’s on Steam. [16:56.080 –> 16:57.080] That’s how you get it, right? [16:57.080 –> 16:58.080] Yeah. [16:58.080 –> 16:59.760] Does that mean you can play on Steam Deck? [16:59.760 –> 17:01.660] I want to say yes. [17:01.660 –> 17:06.560] So the only, the only thing, the only thing on the compatibility is that it doesn’t use [17:06.560 –> 17:12.400] the, it uses the onscreen keyboard for some things, which is, means it’s not technically [17:12.400 –> 17:15.840] fully compatible, but it does mean it’s completely usable. [17:15.840 –> 17:16.840] Yeah, probably. [17:16.840 –> 17:20.520] Like how often, I mean the only text I think you input is names of decks, right? [17:20.520 –> 17:23.600] When else would you entering text? [17:23.600 –> 17:24.600] I guess so. [17:24.600 –> 17:25.600] Yeah. [17:25.600 –> 17:26.600] That’s pretty much it. [17:26.600 –> 17:27.600] Yeah. [17:27.600 –> 17:28.600] Interesting. [17:28.600 –> 17:29.600] I wonder how it would play on the Steam Deck. [17:29.600 –> 17:32.360] Well, maybe you should let us know next week. [17:32.360 –> 17:33.880] Maybe I should. [17:33.880 –> 17:34.880] Maybe I should. [17:34.880 –> 17:35.880] Okay. [17:35.880 –> 17:36.880] Yeah. [17:36.880 –> 17:38.520] So that’s what we’ve been playing. [17:38.520 –> 17:40.760] Let’s talk about some news. [17:40.760 –> 17:47.720] So first of all, we have three games announcing their release dates over the next month. [17:47.720 –> 17:48.720] Three games! [17:48.720 –> 17:49.720] That’s… [17:49.720 –> 17:50.720] Why? [17:50.720 –> 17:55.680] It’s not like there’s anything else in September you need to worry about. [17:55.680 –> 18:00.300] First up, we have Sprout Valley, which is coming out on the 8th of September. [18:00.300 –> 18:01.680] So that’s just in a few days. [18:01.680 –> 18:04.720] And two days after this episode comes out, that’s Sprout Valley. [18:04.720 –> 18:05.720] Okay. [18:05.720 –> 18:10.360] Before you even describe the game, naming that, that’s a dangerous game and they know [18:10.360 –> 18:11.360] what they’re doing. [18:11.360 –> 18:14.360] Oh, they absolutely know what they’re doing. [18:14.360 –> 18:15.360] That’s bold. [18:15.360 –> 18:20.880] That takes some chutzpah to do an SV with a valley. [18:20.880 –> 18:21.880] It’s not just that. [18:21.880 –> 18:24.280] Stardew Valley was originally called Sprout Valley before. [18:24.280 –> 18:25.280] Was it? [18:25.280 –> 18:26.280] Yeah. [18:26.280 –> 18:27.280] Oh. [18:27.280 –> 18:31.280] So, I don’t know whether they knew that or not, but that is a thing. [18:31.280 –> 18:32.280] Yeah. [18:32.280 –> 18:33.280] So that’s 8th of September. [18:33.280 –> 18:34.960] That one’s coming out. [18:34.960 –> 18:40.520] And then Moonstone Island are coming out on the 20th of September. [18:40.520 –> 18:44.400] Actually, can I back up to Sprout Valley because we’re just listening there, but I just want [18:44.400 –> 18:51.480] to comment like, for people who look at the video, it looks like a Tamagotchi farming [18:51.480 –> 18:52.480] game. [18:52.480 –> 18:53.480] Yeah. [18:53.480 –> 18:54.480] I guess the sprites are kind of Tamagotchi. [18:54.480 –> 18:55.480] Yeah. [18:55.480 –> 18:56.480] I can see it. [18:56.480 –> 18:57.480] It is cute, right? [18:57.480 –> 18:58.480] It is. [18:58.480 –> 18:59.480] Yeah. [18:59.480 –> 19:00.480] I will say that it looks very cute. [19:00.680 –> 19:01.680] Yeah. [19:01.680 –> 19:02.680] Moonstone Island. [19:02.680 –> 19:03.680] That’s a thing. [19:03.680 –> 19:04.680] Yeah. [19:04.680 –> 19:05.680] Moonstone Island, 20th of September. [19:05.680 –> 19:08.560] Do I want to complain about the summer thing? [19:08.560 –> 19:09.560] I don’t know. [19:09.560 –> 19:10.560] Yes. [19:10.560 –> 19:11.560] September’s not summer. [19:11.560 –> 19:12.560] Yeah. [19:12.560 –> 19:16.960] So they’re like, oh, we said we’re going to release in the summer, and it’s technically [19:16.960 –> 19:22.080] still summer on the 20th of September, and I’m like, if you’re going to go into technically, [19:22.080 –> 19:28.440] if you’re going to go, oh, okay, then I’m going to technically right back at you. [19:28.440 –> 19:32.000] Summer doesn’t have a universally defined, and no, I’m not talking about Northern Hemisphere [19:32.000 –> 19:33.080] and Summer of the Hemisphere. [19:33.080 –> 19:38.680] If we just talk about this Northern Hemisphere, there is no universally defined definition [19:38.680 –> 19:41.440] of summer. [19:41.440 –> 19:42.440] There are, there is like- [19:42.440 –> 19:49.040] Actually, the Equinox is on September 21st, whatever date it is, I don’t remember. [19:49.040 –> 19:50.040] This is the thing, right? [19:50.040 –> 19:52.240] Like, it’s people are like, oh, well, it’s still technically summer. [19:52.240 –> 19:55.000] It’s like, depends on your definition of summer, right? [19:55.000 –> 20:01.000] There’s the astronomical definition of summer, which, yes, does end on the 23rd of September [20:01.000 –> 20:02.120] this year, right? [20:02.120 –> 20:06.940] So yet, sure, it would be under that definition of summer. [20:06.940 –> 20:11.980] But there’s also the meteorological season, which has already ended. [20:11.980 –> 20:15.140] The 31st of August was the last day of summer in that season. [20:15.140 –> 20:19.660] And then that’s not to mention there’s the lesser used Celtic season, also sometimes [20:19.660 –> 20:24.460] named the solar season, which we, you know, defining the seasons by the sun is a crazy [20:24.460 –> 20:26.540] idea, right? [20:26.540 –> 20:28.700] Which does May through July. [20:28.700 –> 20:35.100] So if you’re going to start saying, oh, it’s technically summer, I’m gonna say, well, technically, [20:35.100 –> 20:38.540] it depends on your definition, so. [20:38.540 –> 20:46.540] So regardless of when it’s, it’s not releasing in summer, I don’t care what they say. [20:46.540 –> 20:51.820] People don’t remember, it’s, this is monster collecting card is farming, there’s a lot [20:51.820 –> 20:52.820] of things going on. [20:52.860 –> 21:02.700] It’s a monster collection farming game on like floating islands in the sky. [21:02.700 –> 21:05.420] There’s a lot going on. [21:05.420 –> 21:06.420] There’s a lot. [21:06.420 –> 21:12.420] I mean, to me, it does look like it could be a lot of fun, but I need to play it to [21:12.420 –> 21:13.420] see. [21:13.420 –> 21:14.420] Yeah. [21:14.420 –> 21:17.020] I can’t remember whether this one is one of the ones I kickstarted or not. [21:17.020 –> 21:21.540] I don’t. [21:21.580 –> 21:26.860] When you do so many things like this, sometimes it’s hard to stand out because it has all [21:26.860 –> 21:30.580] the buzzwords or whatever. [21:30.580 –> 21:35.940] But that said, looking at the trailer, there is, oh my gosh, they even have romancing, [21:35.940 –> 21:36.940] don’t they? [21:36.940 –> 21:37.940] Oh, yup. [21:37.940 –> 21:38.940] Yup. [21:38.940 –> 21:39.940] You’re going to go on a date there. [21:39.940 –> 21:40.940] Oh, goodness. [21:40.940 –> 21:41.940] On the sky islands. [21:41.940 –> 21:46.060] You got to go on dates in the sky islands. [21:46.060 –> 21:50.180] See what they should have done was just focused on their little monster designs are quite [21:50.180 –> 21:51.180] fun. [21:51.340 –> 21:53.700] There’s a very tall like tree log guy. [21:53.700 –> 21:57.260] There’s a cool robot golem you fight. [21:57.260 –> 21:59.780] There is, they put a lot of care into the game. [21:59.780 –> 22:00.780] I’ll say that. [22:00.780 –> 22:01.780] Right. [22:01.780 –> 22:02.780] Yeah. [22:02.780 –> 22:11.020] Whether I don’t know if other directions they wanted to go to and was the best call. [22:11.020 –> 22:12.980] They are putting effort into it. [22:12.980 –> 22:13.980] Yeah. [22:13.980 –> 22:21.780] Also I do like, I am, I like the card battle menu where you pick a card to do it and tag [22:21.780 –> 22:23.300] it even if it’s just flavor. [22:23.300 –> 22:24.340] I like it. [22:24.340 –> 22:29.900] It’s a nice looking thing, but, but yeah, you can look at your, look at the trailer [22:29.900 –> 22:32.900] yourself and decide if you want to pick it up on September 20th. [22:32.900 –> 22:38.140] But yeah, it does, it does feel a lot like it’s the, oh, we’re wanting this game to be [22:38.140 –> 22:42.660] five different games in one and that can work and sometimes it doesn’t work. [22:42.660 –> 22:46.980] So we’ll, we’ll see whether this one works or not. [22:46.980 –> 22:48.420] This one, I didn’t kickstart it. [22:48.420 –> 22:50.940] I don’t know whether it was a kickstarter or not, but I didn’t. [22:50.940 –> 22:52.700] I didn’t kickstart it. [22:52.700 –> 22:54.140] I did kickstart Sprout Valley. [22:54.140 –> 22:56.140] So I’ve got that coming. [22:56.140 –> 22:57.140] Yes. [22:57.140 –> 22:58.140] Free game. [22:58.140 –> 23:05.680] And the third game that’s announced its release date is A Tiny Sticker Tale. [23:05.680 –> 23:10.220] This is the one, I mean, it’s not really a Cottagecore game, but it is by the developers [23:10.220 –> 23:11.220] of Lonesome Village. [23:11.220 –> 23:12.220] So that’s why I’m mentioning it. [23:12.220 –> 23:15.220] I mean, it has the vibes. [23:15.220 –> 23:16.220] Yeah. [23:16.220 –> 23:17.220] Yeah. [23:17.220 –> 23:18.220] Yeah. [23:18.220 –> 23:19.220] Yeah. [23:19.220 –> 23:22.440] I think that would be what some people would call a cozy game, not necessarily a cottage [23:22.440 –> 23:23.860] core game. [23:23.860 –> 23:30.620] If we want to get into these definitions, we don’t want to get into these definitions. [23:30.620 –> 23:32.940] If we wanted to, that’s what I would say. [23:32.940 –> 23:33.940] Okay. [23:33.940 –> 23:37.260] So, um, but yeah, this is from Lonesome Village. [23:37.260 –> 23:41.460] We covered that game a while back, Johnny and I, they’re the Mexican developers. [23:41.460 –> 23:45.680] So of course I’m going to probably get this game regardless and support them. [23:45.680 –> 23:50.860] I will say, I don’t know what the Lonesome Numbers Village were, but this looks like [23:50.860 –> 23:55.440] they got a little more, uh, a little more love when maybe they had a little bit more [23:55.440 –> 23:57.140] money for some production value. [23:57.140 –> 23:58.140] Yeah. [23:58.140 –> 23:59.140] Yeah. [23:59.140 –> 24:00.140] Yeah. [24:00.140 –> 24:03.020] So for people who may not remember, Lonesome Village was essentially a puzzle collection [24:03.020 –> 24:04.020] of games. [24:04.020 –> 24:05.020] They’re very good. [24:05.020 –> 24:06.020] Good one. [24:06.020 –> 24:09.020] Um, like, uh, all sorts of different types of puzzles and whatnot. [24:09.020 –> 24:13.660] This one, you’re going through an adventure sort of thing. [24:13.660 –> 24:16.620] And as the name implies, tiny sticker tale. [24:16.620 –> 24:20.380] You’re using stickers to actually put stuff, like you put a sticker of a bridge to make [24:20.380 –> 24:21.380] a bridge. [24:21.380 –> 24:23.380] Um, it’s actually a clever, cute idea. [24:23.380 –> 24:24.380] Yeah. [24:24.380 –> 24:25.380] Yeah. [24:25.380 –> 24:30.620] And it’s on this, it’s really small levels, um, where you’re basically getting from one [24:30.620 –> 24:34.020] side to the other using stickers as a kind of, it’s again, puzzle-y, right? [24:34.020 –> 24:36.740] They clearly love their puzzle games, which is totally fun. [24:36.740 –> 24:41.220] Um, and what I really like about what they’ve done is it’s, it’s, it’s the same art style. [24:41.220 –> 24:45.380] And I don’t know if any of the characters are exactly the same, but like it’s clearly [24:45.380 –> 24:49.100] leaning into its strongest thing, which is the art style. [24:49.100 –> 24:50.100] It’s super cute. [24:50.100 –> 24:56.220] And I like when they can do that and it works well because then you’ve got a love of consistency [24:56.220 –> 24:59.420] across multiple games, which is good fun. [24:59.420 –> 25:07.220] And also their art style works really well for stickers actually, so, um, yeah, it goes [25:07.220 –> 25:08.220] great. [25:08.220 –> 25:11.360] Cause it’s like all, they’re all kind of like 2D sprites on the world. [25:11.360 –> 25:16.100] They’re big, bold shapes, round cartoons. [25:16.100 –> 25:17.820] So it works great. [25:17.820 –> 25:23.900] Um, and it looks like you can just spit ball, I haven’t read anything, I’m just off this [25:23.900 –> 25:24.900] one trailer. [25:24.900 –> 25:28.740] It looks like you can even decorate a little house or something with your stickers and [25:28.740 –> 25:29.740] that’s nice. [25:29.740 –> 25:30.740] Yeah. [25:30.740 –> 25:31.740] Um, which is good. [25:31.740 –> 25:36.740] I don’t think we see enough stickers in video games like gameplay wise, like actually doing [25:36.740 –> 25:37.740] something with them. [25:37.740 –> 25:38.740] Yeah. [25:38.740 –> 25:42.460] Last one I can think of was that Paper Mario game and that one did not work well with stickers. [25:42.460 –> 25:45.220] Um, yeah, it’s quite clever what they’ve done here, right? [25:45.220 –> 25:47.180] Cause they’ve made the whole game play about stickers. [25:47.180 –> 25:48.180] Yeah. [25:48.180 –> 25:50.460] Of course you can then use that as a collection and base thing as well. [25:50.460 –> 25:55.020] And it’s still, uh, it’s not one of these things where your collectible is, as I’ve [25:55.020 –> 25:59.420] said multiple times before, where your collectible is just the same identical thing a hundred [25:59.420 –> 26:00.420] times. [26:00.420 –> 26:01.420] You’re getting different ones. [26:01.420 –> 26:06.380] So the collection becomes its own fun thing rather than just a thing to complete. [26:06.380 –> 26:07.380] You know? [26:07.380 –> 26:08.380] Yep. [26:08.380 –> 26:14.060] Actually I should, uh, I should, that reminds me of a very, uh, personal experience. [26:14.060 –> 26:17.340] So I buy card games and whatnot, right? [26:17.340 –> 26:18.340] Um, yeah. [26:18.340 –> 26:23.260] I buy like, I mostly do it for playing the games, but every now and then I’ll buy something [26:23.260 –> 26:27.580] like, I enjoy collecting, I don’t go after sets, but people do that. [26:27.580 –> 26:28.580] Right. [26:28.580 –> 26:30.980] But you know, the only kicker is, well, the best thing you can do is like put it in a [26:30.980 –> 26:31.980] binder or whatever. [26:31.980 –> 26:32.980] Right. [26:32.980 –> 26:35.740] Like it’s a, it’s a little hard to display or whatever. [26:35.740 –> 26:39.740] But anyways, the point I’m trying to say is back when I was younger though, in, in Mexico, [26:39.740 –> 26:44.900] I lived in Mexico for a little while, um, appropriate for this discussion, um, they [26:44.900 –> 26:50.580] would, one of the things that was hot for the kids or whatever, you could buy similar [26:50.580 –> 26:52.420] to cards, but they were stickers. [26:52.460 –> 26:55.300] Um, and there were like different things and you could buy sticker books and you could [26:55.300 –> 26:57.900] like place your stickers on in the books and stuff like that. [26:57.900 –> 27:01.500] Like I had a Dragon Ball sticker book that I fondly remember. [27:01.500 –> 27:03.580] Um, so yeah, good, good stuff. [27:03.580 –> 27:05.420] This uh, it leans into that. [27:05.420 –> 27:06.420] Stickers are fun. [27:06.420 –> 27:07.420] Yeah. [27:07.420 –> 27:08.420] Good fun. [27:08.420 –> 27:10.500] October 4th, that’s the fourth. [27:10.500 –> 27:11.500] Is that the right date? [27:11.500 –> 27:12.500] Yes. [27:12.500 –> 27:13.500] Tiny little sticker, tiny sticker tale. [27:13.500 –> 27:14.500] That’s the one. [27:14.500 –> 27:17.940] October 4th on Steam and Switch again, doing that, uh, dual release like they did for Lonesome [27:17.940 –> 27:18.940] Village. [27:18.940 –> 27:19.940] Very good for them. [27:19.940 –> 27:20.940] Cool. [27:20.940 –> 27:21.940] Yep. [27:22.460 –> 27:23.460] Cool. [27:23.460 –> 27:27.460] So that’s the three new releases over the next month and just a very, very fast rundown [27:27.460 –> 27:29.140] of September. [27:29.140 –> 27:34.780] We have Rune Factory 3 Special is out now, it came out yesterday when this episode comes [27:34.780 –> 27:35.780] out. [27:35.780 –> 27:38.860] Fae Farm and Sprout Valley, both on the 8th of September. [27:38.860 –> 27:41.420] Moonstone Island on the 20th of September. [27:41.420 –> 27:45.660] Monechos Night Market, Harvest Moon, The Winds of Anthos and Paleo Pines, all on the 26th [27:45.660 –> 27:49.860] of September and Wildmender on the 28th of September. [27:50.780 –> 27:51.780] Boy. [27:51.780 –> 27:59.780] I don’t, obviously the cottagecore space isn’t, uh, how should I put this, right? [27:59.780 –> 28:04.300] It’s maybe not as well defined or cutthroat as other spaces, right? [28:04.300 –> 28:05.300] Because like… [28:05.300 –> 28:10.540] Sure, but I mean, none of those, I have not taken any, like I know that sometimes I’m [28:10.540 –> 28:14.940] like, oh, it’s not really like, you know, sticker tale, whatever, but like that list, [28:14.940 –> 28:16.700] they’re all farming games. [28:17.660 –> 28:23.340] Like there’s, there’s no, no end, artistic license taken with them. [28:23.340 –> 28:34.300] The three big games on the one day on the 26th, whatever you said, that’s ooh, somebody’s [28:34.300 –> 28:35.900] gloves were thrown down. [28:35.900 –> 28:39.620] They like, they, the gauntlet was thrown. [28:39.620 –> 28:47.100] They, Paleo Pines looked at Monecho and then called them out. [28:47.100 –> 28:50.500] But you know, at the end of the day, Monechos Night Market is all that matters, so, you [28:50.500 –> 28:51.500] know. [28:51.500 –> 28:52.500] Yeah. [28:52.500 –> 28:57.260] It’s funny because I noticed today that apparently Winds of Anthos, I hadn’t noticed, doesn’t [28:57.260 –> 29:02.100] come out on the same day in Europe, it’s coming out like a week and a half later. [29:02.100 –> 29:04.860] And I was like, oh no, that’s really annoying. [29:04.860 –> 29:09.100] But then I realized, I’ll just, I’ll just be playing Monechos Night Market for that [29:09.100 –> 29:10.100] week anyway. [29:10.100 –> 29:11.100] Exactly. [29:11.100 –> 29:17.100] And we’re doing the Monechos Night Market episode first, because Micah’s busy. [29:17.100 –> 29:21.140] So it all works out anyway. [29:21.140 –> 29:22.140] All good. [29:22.140 –> 29:26.540] I am totally fine with that, but we’ll talk about Winds of Anthos later. [29:26.540 –> 29:27.540] Right. [29:27.540 –> 29:28.540] More news. [29:28.540 –> 29:31.660] We’ve got Disney Dreamlight Valley have announced their Cozy edition. [29:31.660 –> 29:38.780] I like the, I like the implication that the other versions of this game are not cozy. [29:38.780 –> 29:43.960] I will say something, some of those, that game gets, if you think about it, it gets [29:43.960 –> 29:44.960] dark. [29:44.960 –> 29:45.960] It’s like, it does. [29:45.960 –> 29:46.960] It’s raw. [29:46.960 –> 29:47.960] It does. [29:47.960 –> 29:50.180] So the Cozy edition doesn’t come with any of the dark stuff. [29:50.180 –> 29:51.180] It’s just cozy. [29:51.180 –> 29:52.180] No. [29:52.180 –> 29:53.180] No. [29:53.180 –> 29:54.180] Everyone’s not dead from the evil vines. [29:54.180 –> 29:56.380] This is a little bit funny, right? [29:56.380 –> 30:01.900] Because it’s a, it’s a physical case you’re getting, but with a download code. [30:01.900 –> 30:05.740] Oh, don’t you love it when they do that? [30:05.740 –> 30:09.060] But you also get a sticker set, a sticker sheet. [30:09.060 –> 30:11.460] Do you know about Fallout 76? [30:11.460 –> 30:17.620] I mean, about the game or like the physical, the physical, the physical edition of Fallout [30:17.620 –> 30:18.620] 76. [30:18.620 –> 30:19.900] No. [30:19.900 –> 30:20.900] Was that the same thing? [30:20.900 –> 30:28.260] It was a similar thing, but the download code, they actually put a paper disc in the CD slot [30:28.260 –> 30:34.100] to say download it. [30:34.100 –> 30:36.280] It’s just salt in the wound. [30:36.280 –> 30:38.860] That’s that was uncalled for. [30:38.860 –> 30:43.320] By the way, Nintendo, make your Switch 2 cases, make them smaller, please. [30:43.320 –> 30:44.320] They’re still too big. [30:44.320 –> 30:45.320] Right? [30:45.320 –> 30:46.320] Why did they get tall? [30:46.320 –> 30:47.320] Right? [30:47.320 –> 30:51.460] The case, the cartridge is smaller than the 3DS one, but the case got really tall. [30:51.460 –> 30:52.460] That is real. [30:52.460 –> 30:53.460] What’s that about? [30:53.460 –> 30:55.600] It got thinner, but taller. [30:55.600 –> 30:58.900] It’s like, they’re like, we need to use the same amount of plastic. [30:58.900 –> 31:00.700] It’s I don’t, I don’t get it. [31:00.700 –> 31:03.220] Like I, you know what? [31:03.500 –> 31:07.460] That is, I want to know the thought process to get there. [31:07.460 –> 31:12.860] I suspect it was to make it the same height as the Xbox and PS5 ones because it is now [31:12.860 –> 31:13.860] the same height as them. [31:13.860 –> 31:14.860] I think. [31:14.860 –> 31:15.860] Is it? [31:15.860 –> 31:16.860] I think so. [31:16.860 –> 31:17.860] I need to double check. [31:17.860 –> 31:18.860] Have I got one? [31:18.860 –> 31:19.860] I’ve got PS3. [31:19.860 –> 31:20.860] It’s PS4 and 5. [31:20.860 –> 31:23.420] Are they the same size as PS3 or are they taller? [31

Al and Codey round up all the news, big and small, from the summer. Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:04:42: What Have We Been Up To 00:13:34: Releases 00:26:33: Updates/DLC 00:41:22: Other News 00:53:56: New Games 01:05:13: Outro Links Moondrop 1.0 Out Now Flutter Away Out Now Palia Coming to Switch Sprout Valley Release Window Palace on the Hill Delayed Ova Magica Delayed Wildmender Release Date Len’s Island Cursed Underworld Update Above Snakes 1.2 Update Sun Down Survivors 1.3 Update Traveller’s Rest Farm Animals Update Let’s Build a Zoo Aquarium Odyssey DLC New Harvest Moon Trailer Moonstone Island Ooblets Collaboration Mossfield Origins Self Publishing Roots of Pacha Soundtrack Research Story Soundtrack Stardew Valley Cookbook Chill Town Moonlight Peaks Loftia Contact Al on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheScotBot Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Transcript [00:00.000 –> 00:02.000] Do [00:19.360 –> 00:21.360] Do [00:30.080 –> 00:33.680] Hello farmers and welcome to another episode of the harvest season [00:34.360 –> 00:39.480] My name is Al and my name is Cody and we are here to talk about [00:40.000 –> 00:43.120] Cottagecore games all the cottagecore games [00:43.640 –> 00:50.600] So much a million of them so much news and we are also here to remember how to podcast [00:54.080 –> 00:57.560] Was the last episode you did with me the last one I did with you oh no [01:00.000 –> 01:02.000] The [01:02.560 –> 01:04.880] Last episode I did [01:05.800 –> 01:10.180] Think was no, I I don’t even know I don’t even know [01:11.160 –> 01:14.260] But the last episode is funny because people will be hearing [01:14.960 –> 01:17.900] The last yeah that we did and then they’re gonna hear this [01:17.900 –> 01:22.000] I was what so that’s what I was trying to ask was that last episode that you did [01:22.200 –> 01:27.440] The last episode that I did with you can record farming simulator with Johnny after in between. Oh, really? [01:27.440 –> 01:30.680] I honestly can’t remember though. How early did we record the last episode? [01:30.680 –> 01:36.360] I don’t know my word. I was just listening to it the other day because it’s so fun when for the listeners [01:36.360 –> 01:41.360] I usually don’t listen to podcasts. I’m on but if they were recorded months before [01:42.880 –> 01:44.280] Months [01:44.280 –> 01:48.320] Absolutely months. It’s like it’s it’s like a whole new conversation [01:48.920 –> 01:54.640] Cuz my brain has forgotten it and it was also really funny to hear like what have you been playing? [01:55.080 –> 01:57.240] Kind of things and I’m like, oh wow [01:57.520 –> 02:04.800] Like the last episode I was talking about the game pass and how excited I was and I’m like I have not done anything [02:07.840 –> 02:13.180] It was it was two months ago, it was the the 16th of June we recorded that episode [02:13.840 –> 02:14.960] which [02:14.960 –> 02:20.720] Which was what to be two episodes before the farming thing. I’ve done a couple since then as well [02:20.720 –> 02:28.160] But anyway, that’s my point is it’s been what about six weeks at least been a minute since either of us are podcasted [02:28.160 –> 02:30.160] So this is a hot mess [02:30.740 –> 02:32.740] Buckle in you’re here for the ride [02:33.680 –> 02:37.220] There’s transcripts on the show notes and on the website [02:37.840 –> 02:42.060] If you’re listening on YouTube, there should be there should be auto-generated transcript there as well [02:43.400 –> 02:45.400] Who knows how well it does with my voice? [02:47.000 –> 02:49.000] Does things do things not [02:50.760 –> 02:56.000] Things have gone a lot better in the last few years, but yeah, there was a point where like most of the like [02:56.600 –> 03:00.640] Voice related stuff just did not work at all for Scottish accents [03:02.120 –> 03:07.740] Like you would say something and it would think you said something completely different. Have you ever tried speaking properly? [03:12.920 –> 03:14.920] So, what are we talking about today? [03:16.680 –> 03:18.840] An American told me to speak properly [03:21.440 –> 03:25.100] You know right after I said that I was like is that the right way to phrase that word [03:26.960 –> 03:28.960] It’s a good thing you didn’t say proper [03:30.000 –> 03:36.340] I like to speak proper. You gotta talk right proper there. I don’t know why you went, Texas [03:39.000 –> 03:41.360] Listeners didn’t hear our conversation before this Cody [03:42.700 –> 03:46.320] Anyone not from Texas has a lot of disdain for Texas [03:47.140 –> 03:49.780] We love our Texan listeners. Mm-hmm [03:50.180 –> 03:52.920] Because we know that there are the good ones because I guess [03:53.740 –> 03:57.340] The amount of stuff we’ve said in this podcast the non good ones are not listening anymore [04:01.460 –> 04:07.500] Listeners who are listening to this will probably agree that Texas even the ones that live in Texas [04:08.980 –> 04:14.660] Correct, I’m just here because my family’s here and I love them and maybe we can make Texas better [04:14.660 –> 04:21.660] We’re gonna talk about news because it has been [04:22.260 –> 04:28.040] At least a month since any news and it’s been about six weeks since any instance a decent amount of news [04:28.300 –> 04:31.260] Because I completely forgot to go through the news for the episode that was four weeks ago [04:31.580 –> 04:35.540] So they just got three pieces of news that we could remember off the top of our heads [04:37.620 –> 04:39.620] So now we’ve got the rest of the news [04:39.820 –> 04:42.260] So Buckland’s gonna be great. But first of all [04:42.780 –> 04:44.780] Cody what have you been up to I [04:45.360 –> 04:47.620] have passed my comps and [04:48.600 –> 04:51.380] So now it’s all like getting work done [04:51.500 –> 04:57.600] So I’ve there are a couple of projects that I’ve had that I’ve like been on the back burner and I just I made [04:57.900 –> 05:03.700] Meetings for them and I was like, hey, I haven’t been able to do this because I was doing my comps, but now I’m done [05:03.700 –> 05:05.980] Let’s get this stuff done. Like let’s go [05:07.020 –> 05:10.280] And trying to get those off my plate. That’s really cool [05:11.000 –> 05:15.000] I haven’t really been playing anything that many game Pokemon go [05:15.560 –> 05:19.320] I’m actually going to go fast in New York City. So whoo [05:19.960 –> 05:26.760] You’re going fast go go to the fast Pokemon go to New York City [05:27.880 –> 05:32.860] yeah, so that’ll be I I’m gonna say it’ll be fun even if the game itself is [05:33.760 –> 05:38.920] Buggy or if there are issues or whatever, it’s still gonna be fun because there’s you know members from our [05:40.400 –> 05:44.320] It’s super effective community or going and we’re all gonna meet up and hang out and it’s gonna be great [05:45.400 –> 05:51.920] I’m super sad that I couldn’t justify the cost. Yes. It was like 700 quid to fly there. Yeah [05:52.720 –> 05:56.680] it’s easy for me because my partner lives there and [05:57.120 –> 06:01.720] So I literally just have to get a bus there and then I don’t have to worry about anything else [06:02.320 –> 06:04.640] because like I already kind of know how to do and I [06:05.360 –> 06:07.360] know how to get around I [06:07.900 –> 06:11.040] Can just stay with him because places there are super expensive [06:12.040 –> 06:16.800] And the buses yeah that I’ve also played this game Tetris [06:16.800 –> 06:21.880] This is the one that either might just be official Tetris or might be a scam and we’re not sure [06:22.400 –> 06:24.400] I’d still think it’s a scam [06:24.600 –> 06:30.840] Like anything that promises you a cruise for playing a game a certain amount feels like a scam [06:30.960 –> 06:34.720] Well, so I was talking to someone about it about how like basically how they do that is [06:35.200 –> 06:42.720] How you is you’re playing and as you’re playing you’re watching ads so they’re earning ad revenue sure sure sure [06:42.720 –> 06:44.400] But it’s a cruise [06:44.400 –> 06:47.080] right well, and I looked at the the [06:48.320 –> 06:50.920] fine print and basically pays for an [06:51.560 –> 06:53.560] inner cabin [06:53.560 –> 06:55.680] room so like you don’t have a window and [06:56.400 –> 07:03.260] It’s one of those rooms for you and one other person, but you still have to pay like all of these scam which [07:04.220 –> 07:08.740] The room itself I went the room itself is like $1,000 per person. Oh [07:09.780 –> 07:11.100] so [07:11.100 –> 07:17.900] I’m fine with saving two grand because the rest of the fees are like $20 a day for this dude [07:17.900 –> 07:20.340] did you do for this like things like that and [07:20.900 –> 07:25.640] basically if I can if I not if when I [07:27.020 –> 07:29.020] So optimist [07:30.020 –> 07:32.020] Or in this cruise and buy it [07:32.940 –> 07:38.960] Jeff is yeah, I’m it, but when I last played I was at like 30,000 points, and I’m now at almost [07:39.680 –> 07:41.360] 250,000 points so [07:41.360 –> 07:48.140] Cruises in sight y’all I’m a quarter of the way to one of the cheaper ones, but and what’s the deadline for it? [07:48.140 –> 07:52.780] Oh, I mean they have like rolling deadlines, so if you want to go, so what’s the deadline for the cruise? [07:53.060 –> 07:58.660] Yeah, there will be another one after after this step another cruise or another thing to replace the crew [07:58.700 –> 08:01.180] Another crew to your point. I feel like your points will release [08:01.180 –> 08:06.140] I don’t think the points if I wake up one day and these points are gone. I’m just honest [08:06.140 –> 08:11.840] I don’t I’m just I’m just so convinced that there’s gonna be a catch somewhere and it’s like [08:13.340 –> 08:20.020] Otherwise everything reset no I super agree so this one there is one here the cruise must be booked by [08:20.900 –> 08:27.780] September 25th, I believe the last time we talked about this the cruise had to be booked by August so they just have [08:28.920 –> 08:34.860] Current like rolling ones or whatever, but you go through all these different places in Alaska, which is cool [08:37.260 –> 08:41.360] But yeah, I’m also waiting for the catch all right well [08:41.360 –> 08:46.260] I look forward to hearing that you finally get on the cruise, and then you have to pay a thousand pounds to get off the [08:46.260 –> 08:48.100] cruise [08:48.100 –> 08:50.100] We didn’t say you could leave [08:52.740 –> 08:55.260] Pay for your freedom, so what have you been up to? [08:56.260 –> 09:02.420] I’ve been playing on my switch you and on holiday. I did go on holiday. I didn’t really play anything while on holiday. I’m so bad [09:04.420 –> 09:08.740] Doing anything while on holiday, but this is the first recording since you got your switch back [09:08.740 –> 09:14.020] So I think it is switch so so I got my switch back, but it wasn’t my switch [09:14.020 –> 09:14.880] It was another switch [09:14.880 –> 09:22.260] They just replaced the switch, but did you get like so I remember that you had a limited edition one did you yeah? [09:22.260 –> 09:26.980] Yeah, yeah, yeah, oh, yeah, they gave me a like for like but okay. I mean I wasn’t worried about that because [09:27.740 –> 09:32.060] like it was new enough that I would just like I would go back to the the [09:33.140 –> 09:37.540] Retailer that I bought it from like it’s been less than a year. I’m not I wasn’t worried about that okay [09:38.500 –> 09:44.300] What I’m sad about is that I had obviously no saves left on it because there were is a new switch [09:45.540 –> 09:49.620] So I had lost all of my Pokemon saves except [09:50.300 –> 09:54.980] My Pokemon sword because that is on another switch for shiny hunting and [09:55.780 –> 09:59.360] My Pokemon brilliant diamond. Yeah ones that I’ve just like [10:00.060 –> 10:05.700] That don’t really do anything with anymore, so I lost my scarlet which had a hundred fifty hours [10:05.700 –> 10:08.540] and I lost my violet and I lost my [10:10.500 –> 10:12.500] Pikachu, let’s go Pikachu [10:12.900 –> 10:17.620] Which I had like 300 hours on and my let’s go Eevee [10:17.620 –> 10:21.460] Which didn’t have a lot on it, but it was like halfway through a Professor Oak challenge on that one [10:21.460 –> 10:26.260] And it had two shiny Pokemon that hadn’t transferred off and I lost my legends Arceus [10:27.660 –> 10:32.540] What is the lesson to be learned there is no lesson to be learned here? There’s nothing you can do to fix this [10:32.540 –> 10:37.440] There’s no option because they don’t let you move the saves off right? That’s the thing [10:37.440 –> 10:42.460] That’s what so you can you can transfer Pokemon saves between switches, but you have to do that [10:42.980 –> 10:44.980] At the time your switch is working [10:45.660 –> 10:49.100] Right you cannot back them up there is no way to back up Pokemon save [10:49.100 –> 10:51.960] They just don’t let you do it and then when you go and send in your switch [10:51.960 –> 10:53.860] You’re like oh we might wipe your switch [10:53.860 –> 10:57.120] You might not be able to keep everything make sure you back up, and I’m like how? [10:57.860 –> 11:02.380] How am I meant to do that and then you send it in and they don’t they don’t back it up? [11:02.380 –> 11:07.800] And then they just give you a new switch because it’s like oh, we don’t actually care about this, so it’s just oh [11:08.180 –> 11:09.180] No, there’s no way [11:09.180 –> 11:11.700] This is the thing there’s no lesson to be learned the lesson to be learned is [11:12.140 –> 11:16.340] Nintendo and Pokemon both suck, and I hate them both. I’m very annoyed [11:17.020 –> 11:19.980] But so I played through Pokemon scarlet. I just kind of like [11:20.420 –> 11:27.340] Sped run it I got someone to pump some vitamins into my no vitamins some XP candy into my my Pokemon [11:28.780 –> 11:30.780] to speed run it and [11:31.900 –> 11:36.020] Just yeah, I did it so I’ve now got to the point where I can actually do all of the raids [11:37.020 –> 11:39.020] I [11:39.140 –> 11:45.340] I’ve not done Scott. No I was violated not scarlet was violated like that. I might do scarlet at some point [11:45.340 –> 11:49.860] I’ve done scarlet as far as I can like redeem online stuff, so I got the second [11:50.460 –> 11:58.360] But I don’t have energy for any I I haven’t even I’m still I still haven’t finished area zero [11:58.360 –> 12:00.740] I don’t even think I’ve gotten to areas [12:00.740 –> 12:01.900] Oh [12:01.900 –> 12:03.900] Cody [12:03.900 –> 12:05.300] I need to finish [12:05.300 –> 12:08.320] I know I’ve heard but yeah, so I played these games three times now [12:08.320 –> 12:11.860] And I’m going to end up doing a fourth at some point, but who knows when I have them [12:12.700 –> 12:20.020] So and today I started playing Pikmin 4 whoo which is interesting because I was talking about this in the slacks [12:20.020 –> 12:23.460] And I was like I don’t understand why this game has multiple tutorials [12:23.460 –> 12:28.260] So you start the game up, and it’s like a tutorial with a little bit backstory as to how you get to this game [12:28.260 –> 12:32.620] And you’re like okay cool. This is nice. This is a good tutorial because it’s like oh you got this little area [12:32.620 –> 12:34.580] You can run around and then it teaches stuff as you go [12:34.580 –> 12:39.500] It doesn’t ever stops you doing something it just kind of shows things on the screen and then eventually once you’ve done everything [12:39.820 –> 12:43.740] you then get through and you go through the next bit story, and then it takes you to the [12:44.260 –> 12:49.140] First level and the first level is a tutorial and you’re like I don’t understand. Why is this a tutorial and this is a [12:50.180 –> 12:54.260] Infinitely worst tutorial because you basically you walk ten steps [12:54.260 –> 12:57.340] And then it pauses shows a cutscene tells you how to do something [12:57.340 –> 13:02.780] They already taught you how to do and then you walk another ten steps it pauses have the cutscene [13:03.260 –> 13:07.120] Bunch of nonsense and then tells you how to do a thing that you already know how to do [13:07.120 –> 13:10.580] And I’m just like I don’t understand. It’s not even like other games have better [13:11.260 –> 13:18.260] Tutorials this game has a better tutorial than it does like I don’t know how do you make both of those tutorials one? [13:18.260 –> 13:23.220] Which is terrible one which is great, and then just keep them both. I don’t understand [13:23.860 –> 13:30.540] Bizarre so I was enjoying it now. I’m not enjoying it. Hopefully I can get through the tutorial and start enjoying it again [13:34.260 –> 13:37.700] Should we talk about some news yeah, we got a lot of news oh [13:38.600 –> 13:40.600] Right moon drop [13:41.060 –> 13:43.060] 1.0 is it [13:43.100 –> 13:48.180] Except it’s still in early access. Maybe no it looks like they’ve clicked the button [13:48.180 –> 13:49.820] It does look like it’s yeah [13:49.820 –> 13:54.780] So they had said at the end if you still see the game labeled as early to access on steam there was a slight hiccup [13:54.780 –> 13:57.980] With the price increase valve needs to approve the increase which I expect to happen later today [13:57.980 –> 14:01.700] So like that should be fixed now, so it should just be version 1.0 [14:01.700 –> 14:06.740] Yeah, and I don’t understand like at the top of their thing. It’s version 1.0 because I commit crimes [14:06.740 –> 14:13.980] I think I suspect this is our or it’s not the first version right because 1.0 is like the first version [14:14.180 –> 14:20.180] Okay, I think it’s pretty common to be like this is the point where we will hit like the first full version and [14:20.660 –> 14:25.440] Even though there might be news to like it’s yeah, I mean I can argue for hours about version numbers [14:25.440 –> 14:30.420] I don’t care like if you’re if you’re if your first version outside of early access is 1.0. That’s fine. I’m fine [14:30.420 –> 14:31.260] I don’t care about that [14:31.260 –> 14:36.400] There are so many more things to be annoyed about which I will definitely be annoyed about at some point. Yeah for sure [14:37.280 –> 14:44.960] The mutating mountain farm yeah, I’m not a huge fan of the look of this game like just the graphics [14:45.960 –> 14:51.480] It’s not and this is not to be mean, but it’s not like the cute 8-bit graphics [14:51.480 –> 14:57.000] It’s like yeah, the shifting mountain sounds interesting. Yeah, but there needs to be more [14:57.000 –> 15:02.360] I think I’m don’t think I’m gonna to me. It sounds chaos like which is going to appeal to some people [15:02.480 –> 15:04.920] Yeah, it’s a challenge, but for me. I’m like [15:05.400 –> 15:10.920] I would rather play a cozy catch butterflies and look at butterflies king [15:10.960 –> 15:13.280] What a coincidence do I have the game for you? [15:15.080 –> 15:17.080] Flutter away [15:17.120 –> 15:23.560] This game is also right now. I think this game came out like two days after the last episode where we had any news and [15:24.520 –> 15:31.300] Yeah, well no this isn’t released August 3rd, so yeah, yeah, it’s I mean it’s currently August 17th [15:35.160 –> 15:41.160] Anyway, yeah, this is the cute little there’s a capybara friend and you’re trying to find butterflies [15:41.280 –> 15:45.380] You’re filling a deck. Yeah, like kind of a decks like one of the [15:46.760 –> 15:49.640] pages of your journal that you saw I kind of like paused the [15:50.000 –> 15:53.160] trailer and I read a little bit and it was really cool because it was telling you like [15:54.160 –> 15:59.320] Information about the rainforest and about what the rainforest peoples calls these better call these butterflies. Yeah [16:00.200 –> 16:02.240] So yeah, it is now available on [16:03.160 –> 16:05.160] Switch for $12.99 [16:06.120 –> 16:08.200] and steam for $12.99 and [16:08.640 –> 16:15.560] I will say on steam will on Mac and PC which is always good to know for those of us that have max as their prime [16:15.880 –> 16:19.480] And you can pet the capybara. So if you’re a big fan of the Twitter [16:20.280 –> 16:22.420] Slash-x slash whatever we want to call it page [16:23.080 –> 16:25.080] Can you pet the dog? [16:25.320 –> 16:27.320] Happy bar it yeah [16:27.960 –> 16:29.960] This reminds me a lot of [16:29.980 –> 16:33.500] Yes, it does in a good way big thing. It’s on my maybe list [16:34.080 –> 16:40.100] Palio have announced that they’re coming to switch and I think this is the first time where they’ve said a release [16:40.960 –> 16:44.360] Timeline they’ve said that it’s releasing holiday season [16:45.120 –> 16:46.840] 2023 [16:46.840 –> 16:50.520] Which presumably it like this is just about switch, right? [16:50.520 –> 16:56.760] It says Palio will be available on Nintendo switch this holiday season to presumably that also means that the steam version will be released [16:56.920 –> 16:58.920] Some people are already playing it [16:59.120 –> 17:00.520] Yeah, it’s in early access [17:00.520 –> 17:05.320] But yeah, they do it like it would be weird if they released on switch because you’re not allowed [17:05.840 –> 17:09.800] Ignoring the fact that there’s new dreamlike Valley is in this weird situation [17:09.960 –> 17:15.200] And I don’t know why like I suspect the only reason that it’s allowed to do it is because it’s Disney [17:16.400 –> 17:21.240] It would be then you’re not technically allowed to have early access games on switch [17:21.320 –> 17:23.320] So they would have to say it’s finished [17:23.560 –> 17:28.440] Right and it would be weird for the steam version to still be an early access when I mean they do that though [17:28.440 –> 17:33.300] Like they have games come out and they’re available and then they have plans to port it elsewhere [17:33.440 –> 17:37.600] Yeah, but it’s not but that’s not that’s the wrong way. Like it’s already a wrong way [17:38.460 –> 17:40.460] Like isn’t it? [17:41.640 –> 17:43.760] It’s just their website you just do [17:44.880 –> 17:50.280] Interest. Okay, so it’s gonna be an exclusive to switch. I believe so, but it’s an open beta now [17:50.600 –> 17:55.040] But it’s only on the website. So yeah, I haven’t played it [17:55.600 –> 17:59.700] But I have a friend that has a reference code and she’s like gonna give it to me when [18:00.640 –> 18:05.720] Because I said I wanted to wait for it to be on steam or sorry switch. I want switch [18:06.400 –> 18:12.760] So once it’s on switch, I’ll I’ll jump into this game 100% so yeah, it’s gonna scratch that [18:14.000 –> 18:17.720] World of Warcraft itch. Yeah, cuz it’s Philly. Mm all isn’t [18:18.600 –> 18:20.600] Mm-hmm, which means that I probably [18:21.320 –> 18:24.640] But well, it’ll be all me and it’ll be cross play. So it’ll be great [18:24.640 –> 18:29.600] I look forward to hearing about it when you play it next. We have sprite Valley, which fun fact [18:29.600 –> 18:34.860] I don’t know how if I’ve ever said this in the podcast before I may have may have not stardew valley’s original name was [18:34.860 –> 18:37.460] Sprout Valley. This is not that this is a separate game [18:38.200 –> 18:39.840] Sprout Valley [18:39.840 –> 18:45.100] Is a pixel art one a pixel art farming game. Stop me if you’ve heard that before [18:45.100 –> 18:57.260] As an off-handed comment in our kickstarter update we are planning to release this fall [18:57.940 –> 19:01.660] Like it doesn’t it doesn’t say it’s not like it’s titled August update [19:01.660 –> 19:05.660] What are we working on and then they talk about a bunch of stuff and they’re like we’re planning to release this fall [19:05.660 –> 19:12.020] And then there’s just more words after that and I’m like, oh, okay. This is why I read all the words in these updates [19:12.860 –> 19:19.100] Specifically it’s specifically said this month is not much going on in terms of updates. We’re planning to release [19:20.500 –> 19:22.500] What are you doing then? [19:22.860 –> 19:26.380] Bizarre, so yeah, apparently that’s a thing that’s happening [19:28.260 –> 19:32.020] Cool nothing else to say about that one just now the palace on the hill [19:33.300 –> 19:37.740] We got the first information about release date and then that is delayed. So [19:38.660 –> 19:42.020] Well, they specifically said that so they have a prologue [19:42.020 –> 19:46.660] Yeah, you can play on Steam and they got a lot of really good feedback from the prologue [19:46.660 –> 19:51.900] and so now that since they’re trying to incorporate the feedback that they got from the prologue, they’re going to [19:53.420 –> 19:55.320] Extend the date [19:55.320 –> 20:01.340] Yeah, I’m not I’m not complaining about that. It’s funny how they had never publicly said that they were planning to release in August [20:01.900 –> 20:07.440] It’s just this tweet is the first time they’d said that and in the city in the next sentence and for same sentence [20:08.500 –> 20:12.860] They’re delaying. So it was just funny how you’re like, oh, they’re planning to release in August. Oh, no, they’re not anymore [20:13.660 –> 20:15.660] Like it’s just a little bit of whiplash there [20:16.740 –> 20:20.980] So yeah, there’s there’s there’s no date just now, but that’s fine [20:22.780 –> 20:29.140] That’s good that they’re taking the feedback from the prologue it still looks really cute is that Xbox news new yeah, okay [20:29.140 –> 20:34.580] So it’s coming to Xbox. We didn’t know that before I lose track. There’s too many games to keep track of 91 [20:34.580 –> 20:36.140] I know have in my list [20:36.140 –> 20:38.140] We can add to it [20:38.780 –> 20:40.780] Ova Magica [20:40.820 –> 20:43.940] Has been delayed so 2024. I’m not surprised [20:43.940 –> 20:47.060] I think we’re gonna get a lot of this over the next couple of months because we still have [20:47.860 –> 20:49.860] 22 that have just said [20:49.980 –> 20:51.020] 2023 [20:51.020 –> 20:56.180] And nothing else and then we have like another 15 that are meant to be coming out this year [20:56.740 –> 20:59.880] So I suspect at least 20 of them will be delayed [21:00.580 –> 21:03.640] Because we’re we’re in August now. Yeah [21:03.960 –> 21:10.920] And I just I commented that the for Ova Magica on the delay the update mention about this [21:12.360 –> 21:18.220] The response from all the factors backers was largely positive and I just wanted to shout out over magic here because that they are [21:18.560 –> 21:25.920] Doing really well about being having open open and honest communication about where the game is and what what exactly they’ve been working on [21:26.000 –> 21:30.920] Yeah, and it’s all stuff that people have been asking about. It’s not out of the blue [21:30.920 –> 21:37.160] It’s and everyone’s just like yeah. Yeah, take your time. Like we’re just really excited for this game. So yeah be [21:38.480 –> 21:40.480] Honest as we’ve discussed before [21:41.320 –> 21:44.000] Communication can do a massive thing, you know [21:44.000 –> 21:48.680] You don’t have to end up in the situation that some game developers do when they don’t say anything people get annoyed [21:48.680 –> 21:50.220] Well, and it’s not just game developers [21:50.220 –> 21:56.680] I was just having this conversation the other day with someone about authors because I read books and it’s often [21:56.920 –> 22:02.240] Multiple book series and then you have an author that just goes AWOL for a decade [22:02.760 –> 22:09.080] Where they’re like, oh I’m working on it and I’m like, okay in the time that you have been quote-unquote working on this one book [22:09.080 –> 22:14.720] This other dude has put out 20 books. So like what and it’s not even it’s not even nice [22:14.720 –> 22:17.380] also when they then go and do like other things like, you know, [22:17.380 –> 22:24.820] They make a TV series based on their book and then they write other books. And then there’s another TV series about their other book [22:25.340 –> 22:28.780] Not I was actually not talking about Martin [22:28.780 –> 22:33.100] I know but I know it but he is another great example of that of like, okay [22:33.100 –> 22:35.100] But like we are still waiting [22:36.580 –> 22:39.240] Like even just saying hey [22:40.220 –> 22:41.660] the [22:41.660 –> 22:47.620] Stories gotten away from me or hey, this is taking a little bit longer or something like that like yeah [22:47.620 –> 22:49.840] We know that these things happen writers block happens [22:50.480 –> 22:55.280] Literally our phrase that’s coined that’s used in other places because of that, right? [22:55.280 –> 23:01.880] You just need to say it like I’m stuck and I thought that doing a second project would be great like cool or hey [23:01.880 –> 23:03.880] I’m making lots of money on this other one [23:08.120 –> 23:12.880] Great annoy people but it’s less annoying than just saying nothing. Yeah [23:13.600 –> 23:16.220] But yeah, so over magica thumbs up [23:17.080 –> 23:19.080] for talking about agreed [23:19.280 –> 23:25.880] Thumbs down for having games that release on the 28th of September this week. Oh my word Cody, right? [23:25.880 –> 23:31.920] So wild vendor have announced that their game is releasing on the 28th of September 28th of September that might sound similar [23:31.920 –> 23:35.460] You say well, it’s not it’s not the day that [23:36.100 –> 23:41.220] Mannequins night market harvest me in the winds of anthos paleo pines and my time a sand rock is releasing. It’s not that day [23:41.220 –> 23:43.220] It’s not the same. It’s two days after that [23:43.220 –> 23:45.220] Oh [23:47.300 –> 23:49.700] My word that week is I just [23:50.340 –> 23:54.340] Heard we’ve got the Tuesday got four games coming out the Thursday. We’ve got another game coming out [23:56.060 –> 24:01.740] Look I’m sorry, but Mannequins night market still Trump’s ever. Yeah, not about Wild Mender [24:01.740 –> 24:06.240] Let me let me clarify the thumbs down is not for Wild Mender. It’s just for the date [24:06.300 –> 24:10.260] Yeah, and I hadn’t heard about Wild Mender. So I’m just gonna blurb it real quick [24:10.780 –> 24:14.680] Do you want me to no no, no, so I was just I was still just exact [24:15.380 –> 24:19.960] Exasperated by that week. I just like just before just just hate game developers [24:20.100 –> 24:25.100] See if you’re like, oh, I don’t know when other games are releasing right and I don’t want to overload things [24:25.100 –> 24:29.200] I have a list come and talk to me. I have a list of [24:30.220 –> 24:32.220] 91 games [24:32.420 –> 24:38.500] 91 and you know what actually if you pay to pay on my patreon you can get the list and see it I have [24:38.780 –> 24:41.740] 91 games if you’re a game developer come and talk to me [24:41.740 –> 24:46.980] I’ll tell you when there are games because there are a lot of games coming out and we don’t want you [24:47.500 –> 24:49.500] Releasing at the same time, please [24:49.500 –> 24:55.120] Yeah, well and not only because we are overloaded as players but like that’s not gonna be good for you [24:55.120 –> 24:59.140] I mean if you’re not at this point Mannequins night market then [24:59.900 –> 25:04.860] You’re gonna be like man release was really thin and be like, hmm [25:04.860 –> 25:09.660] There’s a reason for that and it starts with M and ends with an echoes night market [25:12.420 –> 25:19.220] Why wild vendor quote is a desert gardening survival game where you’ll get to start from a small spring in a [25:19.260 –> 25:21.820] barren desert and grow it into a blossoming oasis [25:21.820 –> 25:27.340] Search the desert around you for valuable seeds to grow a new place to craft a range of useful items as you explore the desert [25:27.340 –> 25:34.140] You’ll find adorable wildlife to befriend secrets to uncover an ancient deities to ally with just remember to take a full water bottle and fluent [25:34.420 –> 25:35.460] food [25:35.460 –> 25:41.660] Yeah, it’s basically an open-world game where you’re turning a desert into not a desert. Yeah, and there I mean first of all [25:42.300 –> 25:46.780] Mmm, sometimes deserts need to be deserts. They’re also an ecosystem, but second of all [25:48.660 –> 25:51.980] It looked really cool like there was like a magic system or something to it [25:51.980 –> 25:55.220] Like some of the creatures are like magical like little wispy things flying around [25:55.700 –> 26:00.620] You were flying around at one point and I don’t know if that’s with tech or if it’s just that you’re able to fly [26:01.420 –> 26:03.580] But it just yeah, so I’m guessing [26:04.500 –> 26:06.500] related to the whole like [26:06.500 –> 26:07.940] Don’t get rid of all the deserts [26:07.940 –> 26:13.660] I’m guessing that this is like a or this is not how the world used to be and we’re now kind of like [26:13.740 –> 26:18.280] Returning it to what it was which obviously still has its issues humans messing around with things [26:19.340 –> 26:23.820] Generally causes issues, even if you think you’re like fixing the problems that you caused in the first place [26:25.180 –> 26:28.480] But yeah, I don’t think it’s just like oh, here’s a desert. Let’s get rid of a desert [26:28.480 –> 26:30.480] Deserts are stupid, no they’re not [26:32.440 –> 26:33.700] Stupid deserts [26:33.700 –> 26:35.280] Awesome [26:35.280 –> 26:39.400] Okay, so that’s all of the release news for like games [26:39.840 –> 26:45.800] We then have a bunch of information about some updates slash DLC. So we have another lens island update [26:45.800 –> 26:53.400] This one is called the cursed underworld update and it’s releasing on the 10th of September and Cody you’ve you you’ve played this game [26:54.240 –> 26:56.960] It create includes a new mode [26:57.560 –> 26:58.800] And [26:58.800 –> 27:03.840] Instead of the underground cave network being static, which is what it was when I played it [27:03.840 –> 27:09.900] It is now gonna be procedural but you can also if you don’t want things to attack you you can have a peaceful game mode [27:10.360 –> 27:12.360] you can enchant weapons and [27:13.160 –> 27:16.520] There’s I don’t know what improved survival mechanics is, but I’m here for it [27:18.240 –> 27:24.040] It sounds good, I like to survive in a survivor game I like to survive and if it’s improved that’s cool [27:24.040 –> 27:26.160] No, um, I don’t know [27:26.160 –> 27:32.320] I just I haven’t taken the time to play this in a while as they creep towards a 1.0 question mark, right? [27:32.320 –> 27:37.560] They’re not ready. They’re not in 1.0 yet. They’re not. Oh, yeah. No, this is uh, this is a early access update [27:37.740 –> 27:42.520] every time I see new things, I’m just so jazzed and [27:43.340 –> 27:45.280] to see things [27:45.280 –> 27:47.280] Develop from where they started [27:47.680 –> 27:51.360] And know that even when it started it was a pretty fun game [27:51.360 –> 27:53.640] Like it was just that there were a couple things that [27:54.440 –> 27:59.760] That were closed off. But other than that, like yeah, I saw where to go. I saw what to do. So [28:00.320 –> 28:04.220] And I was enjoying doing it. So yeah super excited [28:05.280 –> 28:10.080] To play this and the trailer looks really cool. So I need to jump back in. Yeah [28:11.000 –> 28:15.800] Yeah, they’ve generally I think it’s been generally been a good a good early access [28:15.800 –> 28:20.000] My one complaint is they launched without controller support when I first played it [28:20.000 –> 28:23.920] I was like, this is horrific to try and play on my Steam Deck. Like this is just [28:24.680 –> 28:27.840] Horrible, they now have controller support. I’ve just not gone back yet [28:28.800 –> 28:30.620] above snakes [28:30.620 –> 28:32.620] Also has an update [28:32.960 –> 28:34.720] 1.2 update [28:34.720 –> 28:38.440] Which it doesn’t have a name, but does have some stuff [28:38.600 –> 28:42.360] So as usual they’re adding more pieces to add to your world [28:42.680 –> 28:46.220] because if you don’t remember above snakes is the game that it’s like a [28:46.220 –> 28:50.580] Cell based how would you piece like puzzle? [28:50.580 –> 28:54.820] It’s like it’s like a game board and you’re like adding squares to your board [28:55.300 –> 28:59.980] And there’s like a limited number of different things you can do. So they’ve added a bunch more and [29:01.540 –> 29:08.860] Japanese localizations, so if you only speak Japanese, which you probably don’t because you’re listening to this podcast you can now play the game [29:09.540 –> 29:15.460] Or if you are learning Japanese and you want to do that because I know some people like to do that [29:15.460 –> 29:19.140] That’s also a way to do that. Yeah, I guess like the one question that I have from [29:19.780 –> 29:25.260] This is oh, so there are two new desert world pieces specifically desert. I guess that was [29:25.900 –> 29:29.940] That answers my question. I was like, what what world pieces are there? [29:29.940 –> 29:31.740] Because if you just go based on this picture [29:31.740 –> 29:36.140] it would be like some type of foresty one and then some type of fossil e-desert e1 but [29:36.780 –> 29:44.380] It says added two new desert world pieces that unlocked after placing the first different kinds of desert because desert is important ecosystem [29:44.380 –> 29:50.460] I feel a theme sundown survivor. Sorry. Yeah, just sorry just the above snakes updates out now sundown [29:55.580 –> 29:57.140] Probably not [29:57.140 –> 30:04.780] 1.3 zone a I still don’t really know about this game. It’s a very stressful game. Yeah, it looks like it’s an intense [30:05.540 –> 30:10.660] I don’t know. I guess I haven’t looked at it more closely. I’m just reading the balance changes [30:10.660 –> 30:14.140] They did a lot of like some things got nerfed some things got that got boosted [30:14.140 –> 30:16.380] But then I saw this word mammoth [30:18.020 –> 30:20.480] Mammoth my moose. What is mammoth? [30:21.260 –> 30:27.980] Muth’s HP. Is it a mammoth and a cow? I you have my attention. I don’t want to play this game [30:28.980 –> 30:30.980] Listeners if you have played sundown [30:31.580 –> 30:36.140] Survivors, is it sundown or sundown survivors? It was called sundown [30:36.140 –> 30:42.060] It’s now called sundown survivors, but they don’t see have changed the name. It’s a roguelike. I don’t want to play it [30:42.100 –> 30:44.100] Okay, if you have played sundown [30:44.580 –> 30:49.860] Tell us tell us what mammoth is because I have a curiosity. I [30:51.220 –> 30:53.800] But limited time they did this annoying thing [30:54.360 –> 30:57.280] Where they changed the name and they never actually said they were changing it [30:57.280 –> 31:01.920] So they just like started referring to it as the new name and like at least do it consistently [31:01.920 –> 31:06.900] Your logo doesn’t even have the word survivors. I know that’s why I was confused. It’s also not in their blurb on Steam [31:06.900 –> 31:11.540] It’s just yeah, if you’re gonna rename it do it properly. Come on control F [31:12.540 –> 31:16.180] sundown survivors has a 1.3 update which is out now and it has [31:16.660 –> 31:21.880] Bug fixes and patches and that they nerf a lot of things down at the bottom. Yep [31:22.580 –> 31:28.300] That’s thing. Tell us what mammoth is. Yeah, we want to know what it’s a mammoth of some kind at me [31:28.300 –> 31:32.420] Well, I wonder if it’s just yeah, is it just a cow a weird name for a mammoth? [31:32.420 –> 31:35.860] Who knows travelers rest have a new update. It’s a farm animal [31:36.540 –> 31:38.540] added you farm so [31:38.780 –> 31:45.220] It’s hard to know when you’ve not actually played these games so if you watch the trailer she is hitting cows [31:45.620 –> 31:51.520] It 50 seconds into the trailer. She is hitting cows with a broom and the cows die [31:51.520 –> 31:54.740] Oh, don’t do that and her too [31:55.300 –> 32:00.940] She like kills the two cows and then gets the material from that but like is that no [32:02.140 –> 32:04.900] No, you see it. Oh, no [32:05.420 –> 32:10.980] With the pig one of the items looks like guts it does one of the eight for the pig [32:11.500 –> 32:18.180] Right when she kills the pace one of them looks like a ball of intense intestines pork and beef. Oh, no [32:19.180 –> 32:25.760] Nope, there was something else. Yeah, it did say something gonna have to pause it was up for like one frame into it’s called intestine [32:26.600 –> 32:28.600] Oh my gosh, I’m done [32:33.640 –> 32:36.300] You pick up pig intestines have you [32:36.960 –> 32:41.320] Listeners, have you ever wanted to use pig intestines in a game? [32:42.160 –> 32:48.920] Travelers rest is gotcha back. Oh, I wonder if you use it to like make sausage, right? Cuz it’s now [32:50.000 –> 32:51.320] Okay [32:51.320 –> 32:53.320] No [32:54.160 –> 33:00.300] Wine you do you are you a vegan don’t play this game definitely don’t oh my word. That’s [33:02.360 –> 33:04.360] The animal you put [33:04.780 –> 33:06.780] Look, I know I know [33:07.640 –> 33:11.400] Right. I don’t want pig intestines in my game [33:11.980 –> 33:14.240] Right, like this is the whole realism [33:14.760 –> 33:20.720] Versus like actually yeah, and it’s like it feels a little bit weird killing your fan at farm animals [33:20.720 –> 33:22.720] I know that that’s the thing that happens [33:23.600 –> 33:28.280] Yeah, why are you killing them with a broom? That is just the pain in their faces. Yes [33:28.720 –> 33:36.960] They look act like they’ve built sprites that are like pain face like flinching. This is horrible flinching. Oh my word [33:38.360 –> 33:42.580] Yeah, there’s so much detail here and then it pig intestines pop out [33:42.880 –> 33:48.100] This is someone who’s developed the game so much and they’re like, you know rabbit hole. No, I’m kidding [33:48.360 –> 33:53.940] Someone probably wants this someone’s interested in it. But with a broom, I don’t want travelers rest [33:55.340 –> 34:02.880] As as as you’re seeing this clip of this person hitting and killing these cows and pigs with a broom the narrator says [34:03.300 –> 34:06.840] Do it and your animals will be easier to take care of [34:08.620 –> 34:10.620] Take care of [34:11.620 –> 34:14.300] Can you go take care of the cow, please [34:15.020 –> 34:17.020] We need food for the dinner [34:17.660 –> 34:19.660] Take care of it [34:19.940 –> 34:21.660] Okay [34:21.660 –> 34:22.780] Wow [34:22.780 –> 34:25.020] Farm animal updates out now. Oh [34:26.380 –> 34:28.380] So, okay, right [34:29.640 –> 34:31.640] I’ve just seen a tweet from them [34:32.180 –> 34:33.340] saying [34:33.340 –> 34:39.740] That they are thinking about an animal cruelty free slash vegan method. They are working on it [34:40.460 –> 34:45.420] It is on there, oh, yeah, here we go. Someone says hitting the animals with the room really turned me off [34:45.420 –> 34:48.140] I’m buying the game. I’m looking forward to a more humane update [34:48.740 –> 34:50.740] Working on it. Oh [34:51.040 –> 34:52.900] my gosh, I [34:52.900 –> 34:59.260] Still bought the game because it looked amazing. I can’t put the controller down and then they say mission accomplished [35:02.480 –> 35:09.060] They’re like we’re working on it the prisons like I bought it anyway, and they’re like cool don’t have to do anything [35:09.060 –> 35:14.000] No, I’m kidding. They’re still working on it. They have a road map. Yeah, I can’t see on the road map though [35:16.300 –> 35:20.220] Insect collection all very long-term. Yeah, I can’t see [35:24.740 –> 35:27.380] Yeah, I can’t see you on there on their list so [35:28.300 –> 35:30.060] Let’s move on shall we will come back [35:30.060 –> 35:34.460] well, we’ll keep you up to date on when there’s a vegan option for travelers rest or even just a [35:35.380 –> 35:40.660] More humane way of killing your animals, maybe it’s new new farming mechanics [35:42.180 –> 35:45.660] Let’s build a zoo. Yep speaking of cruelty to animals [35:47.420 –> 35:53.260] Well, let’s build a zoo is the one that lets you like crossbreed into like horrific creatures, oh, yeah love this [35:53.260 –> 35:57.220] I just I love this game so much [35:57.220 –> 36:00.940] I wish I enjoyed playing management games and I would play this much more [36:00.940 –> 36:04.740] Anyway, the aquarium Odyssey DLC which adds a [36:05.900 –> 36:12.260] Aquarium is I know so you can go get it now. Oh, it’s apparently in my library. Did I already buy it? [36:12.660 –> 36:18.780] When did I buy this DLC? Is it free? Oh, no, I didn’t buy it’s all good. No. No, I did. No [36:19.140 –> 36:23.600] It’s part of dinosaur island the no it no. No, none of that. None of that [36:24.660 –> 36:29.720] It is that the news update was on the game itself. Not the DLC [36:29.960 –> 36:35.520] So when I said in library, man, we’re all good. I’m no longer confused 50 plus new animals [36:37.120 –> 36:43.520] Over 50 new fish and mammal species are ready for you to adopt and showcase to your visitors from dolphins to manta rays whales and [36:43.520 –> 36:45.880] starfish to lobsters a