Insights Into Things Podcasts

00;00;14;16 – 00;00;34;03
Sam
No credit to. Hello, everyone, and welcome to episode five of No Credits rolled for a fifth episode. I wanted to try something a little bit different. So for today I interviewed my pal Joe about two of our favorite games. All right, so for today’s review portion of the show, I actually brought a special guest I thought episode five Hey, that’s halfway to ten.

00;00;34;05 – 00;00;43;03
Sam
So let’s try to make it a special occasion. I brought on my friend, my pal, saver of human lives, Nurse Joe. How’s it going, Joe?

00;00;43;05 – 00;00;48;15
Joe
Hey, Sam. I’m very excited to be on your show. You sound excited. Listen, every episode.

00;00;48;17 – 00;00;52;02
Sam
Yeah, you’re one of our number one listeners.

00;00;52;04 – 00;00;59;02
Joe
Know every episode on the way to work. Lines up perfectly. Halfway there, halfway home.

00;00;59;04 – 00;01;21;03
Sam
I appreciate that. Yeah, we do. We actually, we have a call in line which I will plug now you can always call into the show at that’s 8562090713 and call in and leave a message. And when I made the call in line, I had a sneaking suspicion of the first person that would utilize the call in line. And it was it was my my best friend, one of my best friends, Joe.

00;01;21;05 – 00;01;22;28
Sam
And we’ll play the audio here.

00;01;23;01 – 00;01;49;23
Joe
Hey, Sam, this is Joe, a longtime listener, first time caller. Listen to your last episode in Astrakhan line. Super exciting is great episode. You jumped in at the end of Battlefront two for one or two, look for playing some ten year old games or something. I just wanted to tell you about that to make you feel a little old.

00;01;49;23 – 00;02;06;21
Joe
Those games are actually a 20 years old, so I wanted to give you a little bit of existential dread there. Have a good one. Her Keep making the episodes. Wish they came up more often. Highlighted them like two weeks. See you saying things.

00;02;06;25 – 00;02;26;02
Sam
We have two different games I wanted to cover and we’ve. I’ve been wanting to have you on for a while because we we have a lot of games we want to discuss. And I decided, hey, we’ll do a double feature today. So the first game we’re going to cover today is Hell Divers, too. I’m sure if you’re online at all, you’ve probably seen clips of this game sweeping the Internet, sweeping the gaming community.

00;02;26;04 – 00;02;32;10
Sam
And after much convincing, I was able to get Joe to buy it. So, Joe, what are your what are your top level thoughts on held over still.

00;02;32;13 – 00;02;49;17
Joe
Hold those two is awesome. It’s a lot of fun. Definitely a game you want to play with your friends, which is why you had to try so hard to convince us to get it. Sam tends to get us to try to convince us to get a lot of games. We play them once and we put them down and they’re all good.

00;02;49;18 – 00;03;15;08
Joe
It’s always like, samurai, I’m trying another game and they’re not all good. And then this one, you know, it’s good. I’ve got my nurse money and so I bought the game and a couple of rounds and was hooked pretty fast. I love sci fi media stuff, and then the Starship Troopers element is just so good. Barely making it out of a mission is just such a great feeling.

00;03;15;10 – 00;03;34;03
Sam
Yeah, I mean, I definitely agree. I think that if you like Starship Troopers, this is basically a Starship Troopers game, but they couldn’t get the license. So I think for off the bat, if you have any interest in that movie or that kind of tone that like mocking like military industrial complex stuff, I think you should definitely check it out.

00;03;34;05 – 00;03;47;02
Sam
Just some quick facts about it. It’s from Arrowhead Game Studios. It’s published by Sony Interactive. So it is a PlayStation exclusive. I don’t know if it’s on PC, but it’s definitely on PlayStation. If you want to check it out. It is.

00;03;47;04 – 00;03;50;07
Joe
I think it’s on PC. I think Patrick was My brother’s looking to get it.

00;03;50;10 – 00;04;10;27
Sam
Okay. Yeah, because Sony’s been branched more into the PC realm as well. But yeah, one of the biggest things like you said, it’s this is definitely a multiplayer shooter first, you know off the top it’s way more fun with friends. I’ve tried playing it by myself and I kind of you know, it’s not anywhere near as fun. I don’t know if you’ve tried.

00;04;10;27 – 00;04;13;22
Sam
You’ve tried solo, right? Do you have the same experience or.

00;04;13;25 – 00;04;34;26
Joe
definitely. It’s more just being able to communicate and yell and shout at your friend or pretend to orders. It makes it more fun, but sometimes you get a random hilarious to, I don’t know, talking voice chat, but some of it’s our mission Before even launch the pod, get three level safeties ready to carry you to victory, which is fun too.

00;04;34;29 – 00;04;57;16
Sam
Yeah. You mentioned hearing getting that voice chat one of the first games that Joe and I played, we had this Scottish guy and I think he thought the game was real life. He was very into it and it really made one of my first multiplayer experience in the game pretty special because the guy who like narrated everything we did, I don’t know, it was it was something else.

00;04;57;18 – 00;05;19;18
Sam
And I was like, okay, this this was what makes this game different, that that like communal aspect of it, which is incorporated in the gameplay too. Because when you’re doing these different missions, it might seem like it’s just the same, you know, five or ten types of quests, but it’s all cumulative with the whole player base that you’re liberating these planets and the world is kind of changing as you go.

00;05;19;18 – 00;05;29;29
Sam
It’s a really unique way of approaching that live service genre that we so often see with games like Destiny, where it can get kind of stale and you don’t really feel like you’re part of a big group, but in hell by as you really.

00;05;29;29 – 00;05;57;13
Joe
Do, especially with community missions like that, there’s all kinds of like means and stuff now, but like Malevolent Creek where all towers got destroyed in the by the boss because they were everyone’s go, I’ll find it easier bugs and beat things happen in that world map that affect the gameplay like you just liberate a planet and that’s how they when they release the next is after we liberate the planet that was in the Lord in charge of making them X.

00;05;57;15 – 00;05;59;10
Sam
really. I didn’t know that.

00;05;59;13 – 00;06;00;09
Joe
yeah, yeah, yeah.

00;06;00;09 – 00;06;01;06
Sam
I got to read a puzzle like.

00;06;01;06 – 00;06;09;14
Joe
For honor where you should. You should. It’s it’s very funny. I like all the major orders. Have, like, a reason for them.

00;06;09;17 – 00;06;12;14
Sam
really? Wow. Well, there you go. You learn some new everyday folks.

00;06;12;17 – 00;06;18;23
Joe
The the map reminds you of, like, for honor. Where is, like, the war going on? yeah. Taking.

00;06;18;25 – 00;06;19;28
Sam
Yeah, that’s a good comparison stuff.

00;06;19;28 – 00;06;23;26
Joe
But I’m sort of against each other. You’re all working together.

00;06;23;28 – 00;06;49;27
Sam
You mentioned with the the creek. That was before my time with the game, so I missed out on those memes. But it does speak to one of the things about the game that I love so much, and I think you mentioned it at the top, the intensity of it, right? I feel like almost every mission. I mean, we’ve gotten better at the game as we’ve played, but if you bump up your difficulty too hard or challenging, every mission has something new and something intense about it that keeps the gameplay feeling fresh.

00;06;50;00 – 00;06;55;24
Sam
It’s not necessarily realistic, but it’s very easy to get caught up in the moment of what you’re doing.

00;06;55;27 – 00;07;12;05
Joe
Yeah, the diving away from an explosion. Changing your loadout is a big thing that I enjoy about the game is when you’re going to a different planet, are you going to fight the boss instead of the bugs that you’re that I would be? Definitely. A flamethrower is great for the bugs, but not so much for the boss or the integrity.

00;07;12;05 – 00;07;22;09
Joe
Can’t destroy the bot creation facilities, but it can destroy the bug holes or the stratagems you call it. Even can make a big difference in the survivor or not.

00;07;22;12 – 00;07;39;11
Sam
Yeah, there’s the discussion of like the meta of the game. It is a pivot. You should you’re not fighting other players. So when the first initial patch came out, they nerved a lot of the good guns. Well, you are fighting your teammates when you blow them up by accident, but that’s really easy. The the initial patch when it came out unnerved a lot of the good guns.

00;07;39;11 – 00;07;59;29
Sam
And there was the uproar in the fan base because I think it opens up a wider discussion of the like gamer culture, which I cringe saying that. But like everyone’s chasing the metaphor for so many multiplayer shooters. Like, I think warzone is a big reason for it, but in held I it’s really not about that. It’s a it’s about what best suits the mission.

00;07;59;29 – 00;08;04;20
Sam
And sometimes you just want to have fun too and use a weapon that you enjoy just because it’s cool.

00;08;04;22 – 00;08;26;09
Joe
Yeah, I have not had good experience with like that shoulder mounted laser as far as killing the enemies goes, but it’s manifest. Callie has a shoulder mounted laser gun that kills, that doesn’t overheat. And then on cold planets always run that. I’m always running that laser gun on the goal plan because it doesn’t overheat as fast like little elements like that.

00;08;26;09 – 00;08;30;10
Joe
But they would have been just as good a game without it. But it really does add it.

00;08;30;12 – 00;08;44;08
Sam
Yeah. And I say this I say this a lot when I review games for this show. I think above all, as the game is a ton of fun, right? Like we did, which I tried getting everybody in the payday too. And in that game you’re doing the same missions over and over again too, or even a destiny as well.

00;08;44;08 – 00;09;07;02
Sam
You’re doing the same missions over and over again, but there’s a little bit extra sauce and holdovers too, that makes the fact that you’re doing the same things over and over again enjoyable and you don’t really notice. You don’t really get that fatigue. And I think a lot of that just comes down to the gameplay and the the intensity of it and how every every time you do a mission, there’s some X factor that kind of makes you like it, makes it feel different, even though the objective might be the same.

00;09;07;04 – 00;09;20;21
Joe
And that’s like the best way to say it because it is just fun, like getting to the last game we played together. That was just fun, just not for us. You know, you place apex and you get dunked on. It’s frustrating.

00;09;20;23 – 00;09;41;23
Sam
Yeah, it’s there’s not the, the human element where you get dunked on and then someone teabags you and like calls you a loser in Chad or something like that. Like it feels like an actual especially if you do the robot missions and I think they’ve got some gameplay footage. Maybe we’ll put that in the video version if I if I’m not lazy, but it’s it feels like you’re fighting like armor.

00;09;41;25 – 00;10;01;26
Sam
Maybe it’s the design of it, the bugs and the robots. There’s enough A.I. there to make them feel just smart enough that you feel cool taking them out. You know, it’s not they’re not like, super dumb. And, you know, technically, this is a double edged game. So there are bugs and glitches. Bugs is in, you know, not the crawly bugs, but performance glitches.

00;10;01;29 – 00;10;17;12
Sam
And that can take you out of a little bit. But also that Jank is kind of fun sometimes. Like yesterday at the time of recording, we were playing under the charm. Yeah, we were. We were playing and we had we had a couple robots get stuck in some rocks and they couldn’t move, but they could still shoot us.

00;10;17;15 – 00;10;33;20
Sam
And then we got calling and stratagems. And one is a big laser that locks on while the laser locks onto the robots. But because they’re in the rock, the laser is just shooting this rock for the entire time. It’s active and doesn’t really do anything. And you know, obviously that it’s not effective. But it was funny. And again, it goes back to the game being fun.

00;10;33;22 – 00;10;45;23
Joe
Or how about that bug we had where you were trying to swim and you died, but you didn’t. You stemmed in the water so you didn’t really die, but you can control it. So I to run across the map and shoot him in the brain.

00;10;45;25 – 00;11;03;28
Sam
Yeah, Yeah. I basically put myself in a grizzly that allowed me to not. I was between life and death by ordinary spawn. So yeah, you had to come back and then free me from my eternal sleep. And I was able to come back and there are, there are some bugs that I do find annoying again, bugs and glitches.

00;11;04;00 – 00;11;22;18
Sam
Like every time I’ve been playing recently, my Lola gets reset to like the default weapons, which are super annoying. Even though you can change it before you go out. It’s like, I don’t know. It’s it just bothers me. That’s really the only major thing I feel like. And even then they’re, they’re doing little patches pretty pretty frequently. No, no.

00;11;22;18 – 00;11;30;08
Sam
They have the servers under control because the game just blew up in popularity so quickly. Now they can actually work on refining it instead of just making it playable.

00;11;30;10 – 00;11;46;08
Joe
Yeah, that’s definitely a frustrating one. I’m trying to get in the habit of resetting my loadout before I drop out it reset your emotes to go to hug you. And what’s up? The little hill diver Salute Turtle. What the heck?

00;11;46;11 – 00;12;00;19
Sam
Yeah, I think I want something. I’m really looking forward to and we’ve already seen it with the addition of the bots because when the game initially launched, it was just the the, the bugs you were fighting. I’m excited to see where this game goes next. You know what they add. We already saw that with the added the mechs and that was a ton of fun.

00;12;00;19 – 00;12;17;12
Sam
And now that’s behind the strategy that you have to unlock. But it was almost like a free trial when it first came out. So I really think that the folks behind this game have a really good grasp on what the fans want and what makes what continues to make the game fun and different with gameplay elements. So I’m really excited to see, you know, new planets.

00;12;17;12 – 00;12;33;06
Sam
I was I’m the why I was in bed last night thinking about it and I was like, What if they had a jungle planet and there’s like Venus flytrap that you have to fight or like some sort of wildlife that is introduced or something like that, like a new new environments, new enemy types. Like, I really do see the potential here.

00;12;33;09 – 00;12;37;19
Sam
And I think the folks over at Arrowhead do too, because of how popular the game is.

00;12;37;21 – 00;12;42;21
Joe
I didn’t play hold. I was one. I don’t know about you, but I know there are other factors in that that could come into play.

00;12;42;23 – 00;12;57;27
Sam
I play it very briefly because it was I think it was free. It was like one of the first plus games that was free, I feel like. So I did play it a little bit. It was top down and it was more of like a twin stick shooter. Definitely not. Anyway, this is like the I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of it.

00;12;57;27 – 00;13;15;10
Sam
What was that game called? Risk of Rain. I think it was a similar transition where the first game was like a 2D, almost like a Terraria kind of thing. And then the second game they went for third person 3D shooter type and it’s like a big step up like that. And that’s kind of what happened when Hellboy was to here as well.

00;13;15;10 – 00;13;32;27
Sam
And I think overall the production and the budget is significantly higher than the first game and that definitely shows in a lot of the gameplay and that initial cuts in that looks like a deep, big that’s like the guy. It’s in the trailers too for the game. It’s like that uncanny valley kind of video.

00;13;32;29 – 00;13;40;05
Joe
Yeah, that which is another thing I think it resets every every time I do the game. Every time I love the game like that. Constantly. The next year.

00;13;40;08 – 00;13;41;22
Sam
I know that’s great. The first time.

00;13;41;22 – 00;13;42;05
Joe
On the team is.

00;13;42;05 – 00;14;00;17
Sam
Very funny and it sets the tone perfectly for the game. And like if you’re on your ship, you know, there’s like their version of Old Spice ads that play. The humor is very well done. Every mission you go into, sometimes it’s a helpful gameplay tip at the bottom of your screen. Other times it’s like a total joke that is, you know, like just does there to make you laugh.

00;14;00;17 – 00;14;15;12
Sam
And it’s rare that a game makes me laugh anymore. By the way, I feel like Borderlands, like, completely killed my humor when it comes to games. Like nothing makes me laugh in video games because that game was like so aggressive with its humor. But this game, I think pretty consistently is very funny.

00;14;15;14 – 00;14;21;01
Joe
Yeah, I’m trying to think of any of any of those. What are they called the bottom to the tips?

00;14;21;01 – 00;14;30;03
Sam
Yeah, well, there was the one we had yesterday was like the best way to demonstrate capitalism is to buy super credits, which is the real currency in the game is the premium currency.

00;14;30;06 – 00;14;34;20
Joe
Speaking of that premium currency, you can get that for free. And then by playing the game.

00;14;34;22 – 00;14;56;13
Sam
That is true. That’s a huge plus. Yeah. So the way they do your upgrades, they have, they’re basically like a little battle passes, but there is a free one initially and then you can get you can earn the in-game currency to buy the premium ballot pass, which gives you some of the weapons are locked to that premium tier and some of them are just modified version of guns you can unlock normally that are just stronger.

00;14;56;15 – 00;15;14;17
Sam
But yeah, that is a huge plus. And again, it goes back to that. It’s a game. You don’t have to worry about it being straight up pay to win where. well Timi paid $100 and he just has the best blueprint for Call of Duty and he can just dominate me. You can earn the credits in the game, and I’ll spend that on whether that be armor or I think.

00;15;14;18 – 00;15;19;12
Sam
Is it just armor in the in the shop for that currency And then you can otherwise you buy the battle pass.

00;15;19;14 – 00;15;30;21
Joe
I believe so, yes. Yeah. So if you want to look at Destiny or you can do that or you can buy the battle pass with some weapons in there too. I’m saving up to get the one just for the revolver.

00;15;30;23 – 00;15;45;19
Sam
yeah. Yeah, I was. I spent more money than I needed to when I bought it. As is my way. And I was able to get the revolver initially and it was very cool. So. But yeah, I think that’s pretty much everything I have to say about how old I was too. It’s a ton of fun, especially if you’ve got friends to play with.

00;15;45;22 – 00;15;53;02
Sam
Actually, That’s a question for you, Joe. If you don’t say you can only play this game solo, would you recommend purchasing it?

00;15;53;05 – 00;16;00;09
Joe
That is a good question. I definitely would not have if not for you being like, you got to play this game because.

00;16;00;12 – 00;16;02;11
Sam
You have great taste.

00;16;02;14 – 00;16;08;15
Joe
In this hypothetical scenario. You you’re a great taster. Just a shotgun.

00;16;08;15 – 00;16;09;26
Sam
Spreads like a buffet.

00;16;09;28 – 00;16;22;18
Joe
Of everything. Yeah, and like, but like a Buffy’s not like, gourmet. It’s not like, good taste. In this hypothetical, hypothetical scenario, are randoms joining me? Sure.

00;16;22;20 – 00;16;30;15
Sam
Yeah. I mean, I personally wouldn’t use voice chat because I like to talk to strangers on the internet. Yeah, we can say you’re. You’re talking to people.

00;16;30;17 – 00;16;34;16
Joe
Yeah, I would recommend it. Then maybe you can make a friend.

00;16;34;18 – 00;16;36;03
Sam
Why would I ever want to do that?

00;16;36;05 – 00;16;40;10
Joe
And the cast.

00;16;40;13 – 00;16;51;24
Sam
Yeah. You know, honestly, I think that’s a good point. It reminds me of when among us first came out before all the children got a hold of it, and you would play among us with strangers and like, you’d forge these relationships just in the moment.

00;16;51;26 – 00;16;58;00
Joe
Well, I love making little friends in games without talking to them. And as you know.

00;16;58;08 – 00;17;17;13
Sam
Yeah, that’s true. Joe is like the the diplomat or the ambassador. So whenever we go online with anyone and then maybe we’ll have Karim on at some point, shout out Kareem. He’s our other friend in the group. We, Karim and I typically try to immediately destroy those relationships as quickly as possible for a music.

00;17;17;15 – 00;17;38;07
Joe
Much to my dismay. But he’s definitely off topic and it can definitely cut it out if you want. But you’re playing with an apex and Karim and I started crashing at the last two enemies. Both took all our armor off. They were going to go faster to cut it out. Then boom, boom, wingman, wingman Karim, I got him free.

00;17;38;07 – 00;17;49;00
Sam
When? I don’t know. I mean, I feel like that’s pretty indicative, you know, a win the win. All right? But that’s everything I think we’ve got for hell by roster. Was there anything else you wanted to mention about health, David, before we move on?

00;17;49;03 – 00;18;02;27
Joe
I don’t think so. I think we pretty much touched on all the all the highlights of it.

00;18;02;29 – 00;18;18;25
Sam
All right, We’re back on No credits roll talking with my pal Joe. I’ve mentioned my friends before on this podcast. Joe is one of them. We just got done talking about hell divers, too. And now we’re going to talk about another one of our favorite games from this year. Another game just saying my batting average, pretty great of the game that I talked to.

00;18;18;26 – 00;18;38;01
Sam
On the bind that he enjoyed and that’s Baldur’s Gate three. I’ve talked about it on shows before. I think I talked about it on this show. Baldur’s Gate three is the best game ever in my humble opinion. It easily for me was Game of the Year last year and I think it’s a truly revolutionary game. But Joe, what are your thoughts on it?

00;18;38;01 – 00;18;38;27
Sam
Just off the top.

00;18;38;29 – 00;19;01;04
Joe
It really might be the best game of all time. As a avid and player, less avid nowadays, It doesn’t scratch that. Matt It’s I don’t even know it was running for game of the year, but that was an easy slam dunk. I’ve only had one really solid place where I’m giving a little break before I get back in there.

00;19;01;06 – 00;19;06;23
Joe
So sorry for your podcast namesake, but I have all the credits.

00;19;06;25 – 00;19;10;07
Sam
It’s like a year against it.

00;19;10;10 – 00;19;28;28
Joe
Absolutely phenomenal. Every character has something, something about them that makes them interesting. Every spell looks cool, sounds cool that the story can go so many different ways. It’s hard to even talk about the story because so many different things can happen.

00;19;29;01 – 00;19;52;09
Sam
Yeah, we’ll try to keep it like middle of the road kind of spoilers, you know? Nothing crazy. Maybe you know nothing past Act one, just in case, you know, maybe this convinces someone to go buy it, which I do recommend if you even have a passing interest in RPGs and fantasy Indian D and multi layered narrative stories that can go multiple different directions, I highly recommend you check it out.

00;19;52;16 – 00;19;59;20
Sam
Unfortunately, it’s probably not going to go on sale anytime soon because it won a bajillion awards. But hey, go support Larian because it made I’m talking like ten years to make this game.

00;19;59;20 – 00;20;08;22
Joe
So the only reason I play this game sooner was because Sam made me by Diablo four, which was read at best.

00;20;08;25 – 00;20;16;07
Sam
Hey, well, we’ll do a whole nother episode in Diablo four. We’ll do a whole five minute episode on Diablo four. Haven’t touched that since we played it last.

00;20;16;07 – 00;20;22;00
Joe
So yeah, I don’t think it’s even installed anymore, which is such a shame for $70 or however much it was.

00;20;22;00 – 00;20;33;04
Sam
Yeah, we’re not getting that money back. But hey, we do have a patron and if you subscribe to the page you’re on, I will give Joe his cut of Diablo. If you give me $70, that’s a promise right here.

00;20;33;04 – 00;20;35;02
Joe
Live on, please.

00;20;35;04 – 00;20;56;10
Sam
Quickest way of any way back the borders. Gate three. I just did some quick notes here before the show because I wanted to have a little bit of an outline. It really makes you it lets you explore things any way you want. And we talk about this a lot in games of do my choices really matter? Right? Is it going to end up being the same thing no matter what I do?

00;20;56;13 – 00;21;19;16
Sam
And I think one of the ways that Baldur’s Gate shines the most is in those choices where in even like the most minor decision, the most minor side quests can come back later in the game. At a moment you are definitely not expecting. And it’s those kind of things that makes it feel really special. It makes the world feel like it’s constantly evolving and changing, along with your character and your party.

00;21;19;19 – 00;21;41;15
Joe
The way everything can happen differently between playthroughs. Like if a character happens to die or you don’t happen to just don’t run into them, you can miss out or gain stories and outcomes later that you want to ever known. If you had done it the right in quotes, right way.

00;21;41;18 – 00;21;58;26
Sam
Yeah. My dad, he I think he said he’s done 12 playthroughs now and he’s still is like every time he doesn’t even play there, he experiences something new. And I really think that there are very few other games like that where and, and that’s kind of why I haven’t rolled credits on this yet. It’s because I know that I’m going to want to do more playthroughs.

00;21;58;26 – 00;22;04;26
Sam
So it’s like, well, I could just play this game until the end of time. So I’m not really in a rush, you know?

00;22;04;28 – 00;22;27;05
Joe
And it is such a like banality thing when you finish that the game, like, you know, like it’s, it’s over. You don’t see those NPCs anymore. You don’t see your character anymore. The game ends and that’s something that a lot of games I feel like don’t have anymore where after the game ends, you’re going to go back in the open world anyway and go and do little side quests and stuff.

00;22;27;07 – 00;22;30;25
Joe
But in this, like if you miss a side question, this is like quest, you get it next time.

00;22;30;27 – 00;22;50;05
Sam
And that’s another reason it’s taken me so long to get through is because I’m like, I’m like combing every inch of every map to make sure I don’t miss anything. I’m still missing things, and I don’t know how to complete the quests, but at this point I’m like, okay, well, we got to rush the story along. It reminds me a lot of Mass Effect, the Mass Effect trilogy, which I don’t think you played those games.

00;22;50;08 – 00;22;51;17
Joe
And I’m not familiar.

00;22;51;19 – 00;23;11;24
Sam
So the Mass Effect games, it’s not the same gameplay. It’s like a third person shooter. But in terms of these three games, build up these relationships with your party. And then in the third game, decisions you’ve made in the first game can alter the story. Now it’s not as like it’s not as open as boulders. Game three Like, I’m pretty sure Mass Effect the trilogy still has like the same three endings.

00;23;11;24 – 00;23;29;20
Sam
No matter what you do. But it’s that sense of the illusion of making a difference in mass effect case where your party and your allies come back at the end. Except bodies get free. Does that for real? Because there’s a lot more allies and there’s a lot more ways you can make those allies to come in for the for the end of the game.

00;23;29;20 – 00;23;35;08
Sam
Again, no spoilers, but it’s pretty obvious that this is all building to something towards the end.

00;23;35;10 – 00;23;42;11
Joe
absolutely. I cannot wait for you to do that final fight so we can talk about that. We should do a whole episode. We could do a whole episode.

00;23;42;11 – 00;23;44;11
Sam
On the spoiler questions.

00;23;44;12 – 00;23;55;02
Joe
For Baldur’s Gate and just talk about how our games are different, because I know just from talking about what we have done so far, we’ve kind of very different endings.

00;23;55;04 – 00;24;06;04
Sam
Yeah, that’s a good idea. Maybe we’ll do it as like a bonus episode If I finish this within a reasonable amount of time. Of course we’ll have we’ll have to make a whole new show called the Credits Roll and redo all the branding, but we’ll see.

00;24;06;06 – 00;24;08;26
Joe
Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, our deals and.

00;24;09;00 – 00;24;27;27
Sam
Another thing I want to hit is the voice acting in the game. It’s incredible. At least in the main cast. Some of the employees are, you know, they’re NPC, so what do you do? But now I know Neil Newborn, I believe as the guy’s name, he got the nomination and he won the Game award for best performance. Now unfortunately in my main played through a Stallion is Not Alive.

00;24;28;01 – 00;24;49;03
Sam
So I didn’t really get to experience Neil’s performance, but my favorite character is Carla and her performance is spectacular. I actually look at the actresses name. I should give these people the credit they deserve, but her performance is incredible. All of your campaigns are just the best. But yeah. Joe, who’s who’s your favorite companion?

00;24;49;06 – 00;25;20;00
Joe
Well, I feel like I’m out in my little myself a little bit. I really, really enjoyed Shadow Hard Story. Every time I got to play the Indy in a tabletop sense, it’s been years since I haven’t been the Forever. Dan but I love clerics and the plane is a cleric. I liked her that she was like not evil, but she was a cleric and one of the less she’s a cleric of Shah, which is like darkness, shadows and secrets.

00;25;20;00 – 00;25;41;21
Joe
Like I’m not a good person, but that you find out why she’s the follower. You find out and you get you get a lot of stuff for her character in Act two that I think really makes her shines. The character you like go from liking her to hating her to then liking her again or feeling a little over.

00;25;41;25 – 00;25;50;00
Joe
Yeah. Car like again definitely shines though. Yeah. I hope you get the same ending for her as I did.

00;25;50;02 – 00;25;52;27
Sam
Well, see, you’ve alluded that my choices.

00;25;52;27 – 00;25;53;16
Joe
May not like.

00;25;53;16 – 00;26;23;05
Sam
Me. Yeah. Now, really quickly, I have the cast list pulled up here. I totally mispronounced Neal’s name. It’s Neil. New Bond, not Neil Newborn. Sorry. Jennifer English Shadow Heart. The divorce a while this lizelle feel Solomon is will Tim Downey is Gael Samantha Bayard is Carla Matthew Mercer is in the game as a character that may be a spoiler, so I’m not going to reveal that he’s another one of the companions you meet, though Tracy Wiles is a hero who also does a really good job.

00;26;23;08 – 00;26;38;23
Sam
In particular, I wanted to shout her out and there’s a bunch of other characters, but those are like the main I’m pretty sure I’m forgetting somebody, but those are like a lot of the main cast that you meet. There’s also famous people in the game. Did you know Jason Isaacs is one of the three villains from the second act?

00;26;38;23 – 00;26;42;06
Sam
The one with black hair whose name? I don’t want to say.

00;26;42;08 – 00;26;43;05
Joe
No, I didn’t.

00;26;43;11 – 00;26;56;22
Sam
Yeah. And then, of course, J.K. Simmons is the first of those three. And he’s great. I mean, that’s that’s phenomenal. Yeah, he’s awesome. And it’s kind of a shame he’s not in the game more honestly. But. Yeah, yeah, that’s Jason Isaacs. How about that?

00;26;56;25 – 00;27;10;10
Joe
I do remember in your other episode where you mentioned that when you talk about the Game Awards, you had said like, I don’t see how you knew Ben could win. He was the only one you didn’t like. Give Butler’s Gate the green light for.

00;27;10;12 – 00;27;14;26
Sam
really? Well, I was clearly wrong. You you heard it here first, folks.

00;27;14;29 – 00;27;17;01
Joe
Are probably because you didn’t have a.

00;27;17;03 – 00;27;35;27
Sam
The character that I play. Yeah, but yeah that definitely was was definitely wrong on my part. I also, like I remember because it was I don’t remember the woman’s name, but the woman from Ellen Wig to which I hadn’t played, I really only knew Uri from Spider-Man. So then I was just like showing my bias on my sleeve the whole time for that.

00;27;36;00 – 00;27;56;18
Sam
But yeah, the voice acting is ten out of ten. There’s also a narrator who does a fantastic job as Amelia Tyler, and I believe she streams on Twitch as well. And she does like the narrator voice. Or she was for a while with the game. But there’s moments in the game where, like, the narrator voice will turn on you and isn’t necessarily the narrator, but it’s like your mind being manipulated.

00;27;56;21 – 00;28;22;11
Sam
And she tweaks the performance there. It’s very, very cool. So, yeah, this is definitely a game you want to listen to. And speaking of listening to it as well, you want to listen to it for the music, which is also incredible. There’s a reoccurring sort of motif which is like the Down by the River song and the way they remix that song and bring it back in subtle ways, in big ways throughout the game is really, really special.

00;28;22;11 – 00;28;39;15
Sam
And it reminds me of like Halo when like the main Halo theme, when that kicks in, it’s like, All right, well this is, this is like this like, defines this game. And I think that that song as well and Boulder Skate three it sort of is it goes hand in hand with my memories of the game as well.

00;28;39;17 – 00;28;50;16
Joe
Yeah, you’re definitely missing a lot of subtlety if you’re playing this game with your headphones off and Netflix in the background and your kid crying.

00;28;50;19 – 00;28;57;23
Sam
Or if you’re listening to a podcast like no credits rolled, you know, you wouldn’t want to distract yourself. But I will say you should turn off to.

00;28;57;29 – 00;28;59;17
Joe
Distract yourself from the podcast.

00;28;59;17 – 00;29;05;13
Sam
Well, yeah, you want all you pause the game, listen to the show, and then go play the game. I just wanted to touch on the music.

00;29;05;13 – 00;29;08;04
Joe
The podcast is a lot shorter.

00;29;08;07 – 00;29;29;26
Sam
Extra short this week. Maybe so, but yeah, I know. I just wanted to touch on the music as well because it’s also incredible. Essentially, every aspect of this game is incredible. I don’t really think it misses in any regard. Now, for me personally, I do think I had maybe like the bug iest playthrough of this game ever. I would still bugs, I still find bugs all the time or certain areas are just kind of busted.

00;29;29;29 – 00;29;42;05
Sam
I’ve had big boss fights that are just kind of busted. I’ve had Bob multiple big boss fights. Now they just don’t work. But again, I think that must be a me thing because I have not heard anybody else complain about that. I think I’m just unlucky.

00;29;42;08 – 00;29;52;29
Joe
It sounds about right. I do have a great run and any bugs like that and you had issues, all kinds of issues with phone order or Star Wars Jedi Survivor two Yeah, everybody.

00;29;53;04 – 00;30;09;28
Sam
Jedi Survivor was like a disaster on launch though. But I did have issues. But God of War Ragnarok that nobody else had either. So I think it’s because I got my ps5 from calls. I just think it’s cursed. Anyway. Yeah, the music is great. The voice acting is incredible. All the characters are memorable. Whether you like them or you hate them.

00;30;09;28 – 00;30;21;15
Sam
Some of the campaigns are more likable than others, that’s for sure. But yeah, it’s not only one of the best RPGs I’ve ever played. I would say it’s easily in my top five games of all time, maybe even my top three. If I had to make a short list. What do you think?

00;30;21;18 – 00;30;48;14
Joe
100% definitely is so unique. It takes the law and the law of danger. So it already has a background. It has a great story. No matter what way you take it, every class feels different, every race, like having different dialog depending on your race and your class. You got to pick that one like, I’m a Palin. I got to think of how the dialog can give you advantages that give you a disadvantage.

00;30;48;16 – 00;31;00;04
Joe
I think on the scenario, playing is like a cleric or a Palin in Act two. That’s all I’ll say with made you feel just the the ultimate power fantasy.

00;31;00;06 – 00;31;17;27
Sam
yeah, I bet. I can’t even imagine that. Yeah, that’s the other thing too. You mentioned the class dialog. I’m a sucker for that. Any time what I’ve done in my character creator comes back in gameplay in that way. It’s so sick. And even now with my character being more oblique, morally questionable, if a monk option comes up, I’m like, Hey man, just chill out, all right, center yourself.

00;31;17;27 – 00;31;21;18
Sam
It’s fine. Even though I’m like, you know, I’ve done horrible things.

00;31;21;21 – 00;31;30;03
Joe
Yeah. Especially, I guess, when your character’s actions in their class don’t exactly align. And the easiest way to do that is with a monk, for sure.

00;31;30;11 – 00;31;52;23
Sam
Yeah, the the character creator is I didn’t write this down in the notes, but the character creator you could spend like hours in. I think if you really want to commit to it, it’s it’s one of the most impressive character creators I’ve seen and especially if you’re a daddy fan, because just scrolling over the different classes and there’s like a little like demonstration animation for each class right away, you’re like, this is the coolest thing ever.

00;31;52;23 – 00;32;12;15
Sam
And you mentioned it earlier. When you’re casting spells or using abilities, the way they show the magic, in particular, the way they translate in these spells into gameplay is so cool if you’re adding the fan like there’s speak with animals, but when you cast the spell, you like cast it on your own mouth and then you can talk to animals or even just Firebolt or Red Cross.

00;32;12;15 – 00;32;44;06
Sam
They say like Gleek is an Ignis and it’s so it’s so cool and it’s it really never gets old even. Yeah. Even, you know, however many hours I’m in it still, it still never gets old to cast that spell and to hear a character like do like turtle power up before they fire it. Even if you’re not a fan of of turn based RPGs, I would still recommend checking this game out because I think the presentation really carries it and I think it really makes it stand out from maybe another turn based RPG you’ve played that didn’t really hit for you.

00;32;44;09 – 00;33;01;15
Joe
And it differs from other turn based RPGs. I think just by you having four or plus characters to control each and different initiatives. So you’re not waiting 20 minutes for all the enemies to take their turn. You get a little chance to play in between.

00;33;01;17 – 00;33;20;08
Sam
And it gives you a taste of the other classes, too. I talked about this with my dad the other day, talking about why garlic is my favorite character in the game. I liked her initially because in our Joe and I mean D&D campaign, I was a barbarian, so when I got the Barbarian character, I’d get a players. It was like, this feels right.

00;33;20;08 – 00;33;37;11
Sam
This is like, I probably should have picked this on the bat. But I was saving to make my dad character for my plate with Joe, which we ended up doing, but getting that character. And then later on like, say you start with a character, so your character isn’t a magic user, but you end up getting the wizard and the sorceress and the warlock.

00;33;37;13 – 00;33;53;24
Sam
You get the that gameplay flavor and you can change it up as you go, which I think is a really good idea because you’re not just pigeonholed into your character, which a lot of other games tend to do, where even in Final Fantasy seven Rebirth, which I was going to talk about, but we’ll probably save that for next week.

00;33;53;27 – 00;34;13;25
Sam
You can make your party leader, Barrett, who has a gun, or Tifa, who’s more melee based, but you always you’re mainly playing us cloud for a lot of that game and they’ve added things where you can lets you kind of branch off a little bit more. But with Borders Gate, I feel like each character feels so unique and you can level them however you want to, which is the other cool thing.

00;34;13;28 – 00;34;29;16
Sam
You can level them and you can swap out their spells or their abilities at will and you can really make them tailored to how you want to play. And that includes picking subclasses, which can totally change the character as well. So I think it’s just another element of the story that you play is however you want to make it.

00;34;29;16 – 00;34;38;21
Sam
There are big plot beats that you’re going to hit no matter what, but I think there’s such a level of individual customization and choice that not a whole lot of other games do.

00;34;38;24 – 00;35;12;09
Joe
That’s true. Gail For example, one one of my favorite characters, he might be my second or third. When you’re designing his wizard tree, you can like, I picked him as a divination wizard, so he had portent roles. You could change an enemy’s hit to a water, an ally, save to a 20, depending on what you ruled. And that could come in really clutch like I’ve never played a wizard in the or in ballers game, so it was cool to have that experience and be like, okay, yeah, totally have fun with this.

00;35;12;11 – 00;35;13;16
Joe
I do love to play through.

00;35;13;19 – 00;35;14;23
Sam
yeah. That was another thing to get.

00;35;14;23 – 00;35;16;16
Joe
A bard thing.

00;35;16;20 – 00;35;33;03
Sam
Yeah, that was weird, right? That is kind of strange. That’s another thing I did want to hit though, that I forgot to mention is that I think Ballers makes the tabletop Dee dee a better game. I think. I think it takes the mechanics of dandy and puts it in the game and so much of a more approachable way.

00;35;33;06 – 00;35;50;26
Sam
You and I are big pen and paper fans when it comes to playing the tabletop dandy, but in Borders gate it puts all your skills and abilities on different wheels like a game weapon wheel. And I think that that makes it so much easier to understand that and combine with at the bottom of your screen, it shows you how many actions you have, how many bonus actions you have.

00;35;50;26 – 00;36;09;16
Sam
If you have a special ability like a barbarians, the amount of rages that you can do, it shows it all very clearly and it makes it a lot easier to understand. And I think if you are hesitant to play the tabletop, the indie playbook owners gate first and then you will have a huge advantage going into the tabletop version.

00;36;09;18 – 00;36;32;12
Joe
I was just going to say that, you know, there are some differences in rules and classes and stuff, but the main gameplay of your actions, you’re having dialog or bonus actions, free action and movement you can keep track of is is similar to Tabletop, so it’s kind of like a tutorial of sorts.

00;36;32;15 – 00;36;49;07
Sam
Yeah, and I think it makes you better at playing the indie too, because the biggest thing with the indie when you play the tabletop version is you get out of it, what you put into it, and the more you think outside of the box and the more things you try in the indie. Now, obviously in Baldur’s Gate you are restricted because it is a video game.

00;36;49;07 – 00;37;07;09
Sam
It’s just going to make up something on the fly, but it does give you a ton of freedom that lets you think outside the box. In any given scenario, would that be in dialog or comment? And I think if you bring those those skills that you developed throughout Baldur’s Gate into the tabletop game, you’re going to be a better player and you’re going to be a better team.

00;37;07;09 – 00;37;19;06
Sam
If you’re crafting your stories and you’re learning how these different threads can overlap and how to make interesting characters, I think there’s a lot to learn as a DM and a player for the Indy from just Baldur’s Gate alone.

00;37;19;08 – 00;37;42;00
Joe
Definitely there’s times in the game where you’re like, I wonder, this will work. And it totally does. I would never work in any other game. You put a bomb down in a certain spot. Yes, Screw it. Let’s. Let’s give it a shot and then it works perfectly. The only thing I think it lacks is every element. Every now and then there’s a time like, Why can’t I just say this?

00;37;42;00 – 00;37;50;05
Joe
This would fix everything. Yeah. Why can I just explain myself this way? Yeah. Instead of the set four or five dialog options.

00;37;50;09 – 00;38;10;07
Sam
I think that that that ability and that opportunity to try and just see what happens is a lot of the reason why my character has gone down the path. He’s gone down because any time I’m tempted was a unconventional option or twist. I pretty much take it just because I want to see what happens. And that’s another thing I want to mention the Save mechanic.

00;38;10;10 – 00;38;28;07
Sam
Ten out of ten, you can like two buttons to quick save and you can try something because whether that be, you know, you want to like toss a grenade into a group of guys or you want to say some off the wall stuff and dialog, it’s very easy to experiment and it’s easier to do that when you’re by yourself because the game does have a multiplayer component, which we didn’t even touch on.

00;38;28;09 – 00;38;33;22
Sam
But when you’re by yourself, you can. It’s like having a time zone as I described. You can explore every possible option.

00;38;33;24 – 00;38;43;10
Joe
Because there are times in dialog where if you pick the option that usually it’s pretty clearly the wrong option. Whoever you’re talking to was kill you outright, right?

00;38;43;13 – 00;38;46;20
Sam
Or if you fail a check and it’s like, Well, now we have to fight.

00;38;46;23 – 00;38;52;13
Joe
Which is very dandy, like no taxes. But when the damned is sick of your craft, like I know taking that back.

00;38;52;20 – 00;39;08;10
Sam
Yes, but now you would kill. You wield all the power so you can do it. But yeah, again, I cannot recommend the game enough If, if, if you have a passing interest in it, any aspect of it, please go check it out. And like I said, it does have multiplayer. So you can, you can have your own Indian venturing party.

00;39;08;12 – 00;39;20;18
Sam
There is a little bit of Jank involved with the multiplayer side of things and it does kind of mess up the pacing. If everyone’s exploring everything at once, the game does its best to keep up, but I think the game really shines in the single player playthrough.

00;39;20;20 – 00;39;24;03
Joe
If you’re playing multiplayer, definitely stick together at the best you can.

00;39;24;05 – 00;39;25;17
Sam
Yeah, do not.

00;39;25;19 – 00;39;56;13
Joe
Miss out on any dialog. Any. Yes. Number one rule dandy in general to people is probably the best because you eat two or four because two people you get to compare and you can still get their stories and stuff. But three people you’re missing, you get one companion. So you’re going to do like one thing at a time, can slow things down, or especially if I like Shadow Heart and you like car, like we’re both trying to get their respective stories and you got to take turns or I don’t let you take a turn.

00;39;56;15 – 00;40;04;02
Sam
Yeah, that’s definitely true. I think that’s going to wrap up everything we have to do. Joe, is there anything else you wanted to talk about with Baldur’s Gate three?

00;40;04;05 – 00;40;13;06
Joe
I don’t think so. Definitely looking forward to doing a dark playthrough and I would love those golden days from honor mode, but I don’t know if I have that in me.

00;40;13;09 – 00;40;17;05
Sam
yeah, honor mode is very you like can’t. It’s like perma death, right?

00;40;17;07 – 00;40;20;00
Joe
Yes. There’s no quick saving, no reloading saves.

00;40;20;00 – 00;40;23;12
Sam
That’s so much pressure. I don’t think I could do that personally.

00;40;23;14 – 00;40;26;04
Joe
Yeah, a lot of pressure. But you get called dice.

00;40;26;06 – 00;40;36;04
Sam
The dice. We all love golden dice. Well, that’s going to wrap things up for episode five of No credits Roll. Thanks so much to Joe, my pal, for coming on the show. Joe, you have a good time.

00;40;36;07 – 00;40;38;15
Joe
yeah. Thanks for having me. Hopefully we do it again soon.

00;40;38;21 – 00;40;45;17
Sam
It sure makes the time go by faster. I’ll tell you what, it’s tough to get up here and talk for however long I can by myself. I really enjoyed having a co-host today.

00;40;45;19 – 00;40;47;01
Joe
Any time.

00;40;47;04 – 00;41;18;20
Sam
And thank you all at home for listening. I appreciate it. If you have any questions or comments, you can always reach out to No credits roll at gmail.com. We will read there. As we’ve demonstrated, there is a call in line as well. You can call and leave us a voicemail at 85620907138562090713. And we just going to play it on the air unless your name is Joe and then we probably won’t make sure to subscribe to no credits rolled on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcast, I believe were there or even on Deezer, which I’d never heard of.

00;41;18;23 – 00;41;27;15
Sam
There’s also a Patreon you can check out if you’re feeling generous. Every little bit helps. And yeah, that’s going to do it for no credits. Roll Episode five. I’ll see you next time.