‘Star Wars: Galactic Racer,’ ‘Ace Combat 8,’ and ‘Gears of War: E-Day’ Reactions | Button Mash

[MUSIC] >> Hello and welcome into the ringerverse, your nexus feed for all things Fanda. I am Marcus, excuse me, Ben Lindbergh, senior editor for the ringer and your host here at Button Mesh. Coming to you, as always, from our studio, inside Mike Tomlin's massive Minecraft city. >> With beautiful views, he's very cute, conscious. >> Coach, put some serious time into that place. >> Very high. >> With me is ringer senior audio producer Steve Wings of Steve, Almond. Hi, Steve. >> Good, I'm overlooking my aquarium in my master bedroom, along with the amazing view of the baseball stadium. Thank you, Mike Tomlin. Please go to our parks department and fix everything. >> Okay, I will not criticize him for spending time on video games. Not on this podcast, on the ringer NFL show, who knows, but not on Button Mesh. Also with us is ringer deputy art lead Matt Brumack. >> James, hi Matt. >> Hi, I too like an open floor plan, so I did not when I actually had to work in an office. But fortunately, that is no longer my lot in life. Guys, I am giddy. I am giddy about gaming. Often, we ease into our main topic on the pod with some banter about news. But there's no time for that today. We'd love to do a deep dive on Mike Tomlin's massive Minecraft city. But there's just no time. The news is video games are good, specifically three new ones. Not three new old ones, though it is as always a big time for remasters and re-releases. The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt Remastered. Dynasty Warriors 3 Complete Edition Remastered. Ghost of Yote Complete Edition. Those are out. People are playing those. They're having a good time. But we have three brand new games. Two of them in long running venerable franchises. One based on well-established IP. But nonetheless, hot off the presses, we will be discussing. The first Star Wars racing game in about 25 years. Star Wars galactic racer. And then we will be getting into Ace Combat 8. Wings of Thief and Gears of War E-Day, both of which are sequels to 2019 predecessors and prettier and longer and arguably better than what we have seen before. Has there been a better button mash week? This is just a wonderland. Our cup overfloweth. This is a cornucopia. I mean, I could stand to talk about how bad Sony and Microsoft are for 10 minutes if you know, not today. We can we can not do that for once. We can just talk about great video games for once. That sounds good to be. Yeah, I want to just take a moment. I think this pod will be pure appreciation. Obviously, we will have some quibbles and we will find some faults. But mostly we're going to be talking about three new games that we really liked. And just to pause and survey the landscape here for a second. Because we focus so much on the remasters and the remakes and the rear releases. And we do a lot of nostalgia centric content here at the ringer and on button mash specifically. We talk about some of the greatest gaming years. We do redrafts. We talk about November 2004. When every great game came out at the same time and we did an episode on, hey, Half Life 2 and Halo 2. Remember when those both came out at the same time where we did a whole 2004 video games episode, we're living in the good old days right now. I mean, it's hard to have that perspective and take a breath because we're playing three new games for every single episode we do. But this run of two or three months here, it's just so fast and furious. We knew that this was coming as everyone tried to cram in all their big games in before GTA 6. But there have been some games that have taken us by surprise that kind of came out of nowhere. And just a lot of the most anticipated games have hit and have really delivered. So last week we had to do three and one and we talked about control resonant and we talked about Silent Hill Townfall and we talked about Fire Emblem Fortunes Weave. And now we've got three more that maybe are even more up my alley. So we have no time to sort of take a breath and smell the roses and get our bearings. But I do just want to highlight that boy, games are good right now. It's insane. When I had to tell people that I had to like not hang out or not chat because I had to play games for this podcast. It was the most like champion problems that this job has ever fortunately been able to give me because it was the most time consuming and annoying that I've ever been to anybody that knows me. Yet nonetheless, you ditched us twice to make dinner. I had to make dinner for my girlfriend. All right, I've got a line there. We have culinary exploits. I need to know more about your culinary side here. When you're in New York for Comic Con, can you make me a home cooked Steve Almond Meal? I mean, I need to, how many courses are we talking here? Let me tell you something. The air fryer is basically the AI of cooking. There's no humanity in it, but it's basically cheating. I have an air fryer. You'll feel right at home, just come on over. We can play local co-op instead of online co-op. But yeah, it's just, it's an incredible run that we are on right now. And we're talking about these three sci-fi games that just grab you and don't let go. And we have all spent varying but substantial amounts of time with all three of them. And our theme for today will just be borrowed from Dr. Ian Malcolm, must go faster. That is the motto of these three games. And that's also our motto as we try to cram all three into one episode, which will be a tough assignment because any one of these games could carry an entire podcast. That's how much we have to say. So to quote another wise 90s movie icon, you must have Jedi reflexes if you host pods. I think that's how that line goes. There are weeks when I play games partly out of obligation. And it's just, hey, I host a video game podcast. These are the big video games. Gotta do it. Then there's this week when if I were not hosting a video game podcast, I would still just be seated in front of my TV for dozens of hours playing all three of these games. Great graphics, incredible sound design, lots in common here. So I am just happy as a pig and shit as as the saying goes, which as I understand it, pigs are actually pretty hygienic creatures. This is a a hurtful poor sign stereotype that they are happy and shit. But I was happy in whatever we're playing to work on here. And no, yeah, not at all, who will defend the pigs. The pigs are very smart. They got a bad rap, but really I'm happy in the opposite of shit because that is what we have been playing this week. So we have not finished all three of these games because how could we possibly? But consider these well informed impressions more so than maybe full fledged reviews. But we have seen a ton, though not enough. I want to see even more. And of course, we will be steering clear of spoilers. We'll be talking about some plot premises and just sort of the, the set up and how these games do on the story side, but we won't be giving away specific twists that you will not have access to very early in your experience playing these games. So the order is going to be galactic racer, ace combat and gears, not necessarily in order of quality. But honestly, it's tough to say because there's not a lot of daylight between these games quality wise for me. Maybe at the end, we can do our personal rankings of them if we can agonizingly choose. But let's begin with galactic racer, developed by Fuse Games, published by Secret Mode, out October 6th for Windows, PS5 and Xbox Series. As I alluded to, I believe this is really the first Star Wars racing game in about a quarter century. Because all the Star Wars racing video games were compressed within about a three year phantom menace inspired span. You had Star Wars racer, of course, the classic and 99, then there was racer revenge, also sandwiched between those two. There was super bomb bad racing, never let it be said that we forgot about super bomb bad racing on button mesh. There was also racer arcade. All those came out in the blink of an eye and then these games go away. And finally, they have returned in the form of Star Wars galactic racer. So guys, give me your high level takes, obviously we were pretty hyped for this, we're spoiled because we just played Star Wars Zero Company a couple of months ago and that was a great Star Wars game. Are we going two for two? Steve, thoughts on galactic racer? We are absolutely going two for two, Ben. I got to sample this very briefly at Summer Games Fest and I had to immediately tell you guys that this might be my game of the year, just on hype alone because there's a very specific feeling in the idea that racing games win done properly. It might be my favorite genre, only because I spend the most time in it, only so rarely. I think I've only spent this amount of time in probably burnout three and this game. It's incredible. I think that it's going to be like at jump kind of rub people the wrong way because this is not a racing game as you might imagine it to be. It's not like either it's neither open world. or like an arcadey forward game, even though like there are arcade modes, but it's essentially a roguelike. And I think that the idea behind making a sort of small mini story campaign around improving your vehicles and getting faster and getting better and learning how to build out a sort of hyper speed racing vehicle in a Star Wars setting is inspired. And I don't think there's been anything that's kind of close to this as far as racing games are concerned. Matt, what do you think? Well, I think this is a fantastic game and I've really been enjoying my time with it. I think that I'm probably of the three of us. I'm probably going to be the lowest one on it, which is surprising. I guess. But I really like the format of this being a roguelike racer. I think that's a smart way to do it. You still have ways to kind of weave in a little story there. And a lot of the upgrades, like the upgrade path is pretty engaging. And I will also say that the very game modes here are very good and useful and kind of inform one another. I just think it's a really well thought out and put together game. And the things that kind of rub me the wrong way are like minor gripes that I have that I don't think you guys have at all. Because this game is just the headline of it is that this is fantastic. And if you're excited about this, you should stay excited about it. Yeah. So Steve, if you like Burnout 3, then that's good news, because few games the developer of this game was founded by senior developers from criterion games. That's the studio that worked on Need for Speed and Burnout. So that lineage is very much on display here. It feels a little bit like that with the Star Wars bells and whistles and vehicles. And I think the structure is pretty brilliant. I guess I'd call it a rogue light as opposed to a rogue like really the distinction between those terms has been all but lost and they're used often interchangeably. But just in the sense that there is persistent progression. It's not that every run you are starting over from scratch. You do gain abilities and you level up and you take that into your next run. But just what I thought that we had had every possible mashup of rogue light or like meets genre X. Maybe this has been done before, but I don't know that it's been done as well or as prominently. And it feels overdue. It's like, why would this not have happened before? Because racing feels perfect for that. Because racing itself is a repetitive activity, right? You're going around it around the tracks and the same sort of selection of tracks. And so why not? It doesn't feel like they tried to force it into a rogue light mold. Not only do you get better because you know the scenery and you know the shortcuts and you know which things kind of look like a shortcut. And it turns out it's just a solid wall that you crash into because I had more than a few of those happen to me. But but also you can gradually just build out your abilities and build up your vehicle types and gain that sense of mastery. So it just it felt like a completely organic natural fit for this blend of genres. I couldn't agree more. I also think that a thing that this game does really well outside of the fact that this is a rogue light is kind of incorporating the feeling of what it's like to fly a spaceship in the fictional world of Star Wars because everything that we've known in Star Wars like take the Millennium Falcon, for example, it's basically a couple together, a hunk of junk that can go insanely fast, but you've got to like constantly maintain all of these systems and kind of like divert power to this X, Y, and Z. And that's kind of true when it comes to most other vehicles in Star Wars. And this is kind of no different where you have different ways of deploying speed. You basically have two turbo buttons of like, okay, make speeder go faster in the afterburner and the ramjet and both of these things because if that really goes depending on an additional boost. Yeah, exactly. And not only based on the type of build that you want to make for your vehicle, there are the ways that you have and attain, I get not so much power ups, but abilities for your vehicles are an interesting balance in things that are to be maintained and constantly manicured. And also, again, I think that might be why Matt bumped up against this so much because it is a lot to take in at the moment because there are so many things that you think about using, like I didn't think about using auto pilots for a while because I'm like, why would I want to auto pilot my vehicle? I want to drive the car, but then you go down this like weaving very narrow like threading needle tunnel. You're like, okay, well, maybe I do turn on the auto pilot for that. And knowing that like the auto pilot is like, you can do all of your pre-system checks if you possibly fit that one into your roster. It's a very kind of amazing balance of containing the chaos of what these machines in Star Wars is. And I thought that was really, really great. So what did you bump up against other than various surfaces on race tracks, Matt? Well, like I said, they're just kind of, I think that whenever you have like a road light, you're going to, you know, you're going to lose a lot, right? You're going to fail a lot. And that's good here. And there are a lot of complex systems to learn. So I think the the start of this game, the beginning of it for people, I think people are going to be surprised at how challenging it is to grasp all of these things. Like Steve, if you were talking about the, the fact that you have Afterburner and you have the ramjet, right? So you have basically a turbo button that will activate the Afterburner or whatever. And then you click the right stick in to switch over to Ramjet. And these things are kind of like recharging separately. And you have four different abilities on your directional on your D pad that you can each fire off with the L1 button. And there are so many different paths through each course that you have to learn, you have to learn the course. Every time you have to learn the course, you're not going to get through a new course, doing a good job the first time almost ever because they're almost designed to toss you off. And you'll have to learn the mirrored as well because they're all very often mirrored. So you have the tracks, you have to learn all the abilities that you have. You have to learn the ins and out of the kind of vehicle that you're racing. There's a lot to grasp. So this start of it can be a little challenging. And this game is constantly just filled with NPCs just being like, you suck. You're bad. But sorry, also there, like you run into them all the time and you're they're also kind of the homies. You're like, oh, what's up, you motherfucker? I beat you last time. I want to try out my new speeder bike. Yeah, okay, go for it. Yeah, I think it's the design of it is great in that, you know, I was saying you have to learn all of these things. So they have a mode, they have an arcade mode in this game that has just a bunch of different challenges that I think do a good job of helping you figure out the fastest way through particular courses. And then they have a scenario mode, which gives you a random sort of scenario with a character that is there to kind of teach you how to use all of these abilities. So there is just a tremendous amount of knowledge to learn to practice yourself to put into this. And it can be overwhelming at first. And this is without spoiling anything. This has several acts, right? So basically, you know, you have to go through this entire tour a few times to get to the very end of the game. And the very first tour is shortened sort of a training kind of thing. And then the game opens up a bit and you start seeing more of the systems and you see how deep and complex it is. And there are just a few little things here and there, like there's eventually a level cap on how many permanent upgrades you can have for your vehicle, which was a little frustrating when you hit it without knowing that it was going to be there. I will also say like, and this is, this is, it sounds nitpicky, but it's also kind of not my thumb hurts. When you're clicking in for a while, I'm saying yeah, yeah, because because you bit the accelerator is on let's talk PlayStation controller, the X button, right? And you're sort of the accelerators on the X button. No, R2 for me. You really? Yeah, R2, but mapping. Why? Wait, what? Oh, no, I'm sorry, the boost button, the the afterburner. Oh, yeah, afterburn. Yeah, okay. It might as well be an accelerator. Sorry. Yes. There are there are courses where you're basically using the rimjet for the entire time. So you're pressing this button like a tremendous amount. You're holding it down for this. Between this and Ace Combat, my my thumbs differently. I'm forming some calluses. So the afterburners on X and then the the square button is sort of like the hard turned button. So for me, at least I'm putting like the the bend of my thumb on the X and then the top of my thumb over the square button. And that that X button just ends up, I guess I'm pressing super hard, but you need to have your finger over both of those buttons like at the same time. I had the same sort of issue with Ace Combat because the the YAH is R1 L1 and then the throttle is R2 or break with L2, I think. And then I will sort of have to do on that Ace Combat. I will get back to that. Our fingers are our hands, our controllers, putting in some work this week for sure. Yeah. That's that's like a thing where I like would legit have to like stop playing after a while because the game is so intense that I guess I must just be just absolutely grinding my thumb into this controller. Yeah. It's been a while for you. That might be nine or ten hours though. But yeah, another reasonable amount of time. Yeah, probably doctors recommend that you take a break anyway. Yeah, you won't have this problem. Yeah, although, I mean, this is, you know, look, last week we talked about three really good games, but those were not games that I could just kind of get into a flow state and play endlessly. Those were games that were sort of heavier or had more natural breaks built in all three of these games just couldn't put them down really except when I had to pick up the next one because we had to podcast about it. Like these are the kinds of games that are built to suck you in for hours on end and they just propel you into the next run into the next level into the next act. So seamlessly. And I think the second to second moment to moment racing action of galactic racer is great. Yeah, it is. It entails that that F zero. The sense of this is so fast. It's almost uncontrollable, but not quite feeling. That's the sweet spot where you feel like you kind of do need Jedi reflexes to stay in control. And you're just always white knuckling it. And literally, I guess in Matt's case and just redlining on the screen and also in your brain. And that's what you want with with a Star Wars racing game, obviously. So all of that is great. It looks great. It nails the oh, this feels like Star Wars. This sounds like Star Wars. I know you were raving about the sound design, Steve. I mean, every time you you kick in the ramjet and then you feel it if you were playing on PS5 as I was with the dual sense and then you get the haptics and it's just and it's like, you know, your cheeks are are blown back. I don't know about you guys, but there are three perspectives that you can play this game from a third person behind the vehicle, a first person and sort of a intermediate. And I pretty much had to do third person just to get a little more distance from the blistering speed of the track because when you're pod racing, have you gone in first person mode? Yeah, it's it's it you can't see anything. You can't impossible to see. Well, you know, I know, but you have two massive jet engines that take up your three o'clock and nine o'clock and you just have to look through like a narrow, narrow window and it's it's hilariously impossible to see. That's what you want. You don't want it to be some stayed pedestrian pace. This is Star Wars galactic racer must go faster. So I think yes, the complexity can be a bit intimidating at first. There is a learning curve, but then that depth is a asset eventually because as you're as you're going run after run and you're upgrading the base stats of your vehicle and then you're picking up favors from your mechanic character, he be not that kind of favor like a favor that enhances your racing ability. That's what I'm referring to and abilities that you're unlocking and just all kinds of stuff that as you're racing, it's not purely the quick twitch just turn here, but you're you're balancing. Okay, my this boost is ready. That other boost the cool down is almost done. Okay, time to trigger that. Now my ability is ready. You know, there's kind of a PV well, PV, I guess when the PV self, but but also PV versus other racers and PC or otherwise where, you know, you're trying to ram them and avoid being rammed and still you get some kind of cool cinematic mini cutscenes when there's contact and someone goes spiraling, corigning off into a wall and then people blow up. And so there's all kinds of abilities that really enhance the experience and and helped me because I'm not that big a racing game guy as I've talked about before. And so having a little bit more meat to it helped me stay invested. I will say that the main disappointment for me and maybe my expectations were too high. When I play a racing game, I'm always thinking, what's my motivation here? You know, I'm trying to put myself into the character and I want some sort of narrative. And that is maybe part of the reason why racing games don't grab me often. And most people I think don't care because your motivation is going around the track faster than everyone else. And that is sufficiently fun for most people. But I'd like a little more. And that's why say the latest Forza kind of left me cold of it because as as cool and beautiful as it was and everything. The story is just so bare bones. And I think there's an opportunity there. There's that game clutch coming out in 2027 from Maverick games that's kind of taking on Forza and is aiming to be Forza plus a good story. And I was hoping that that's what we would get with Galactic racer. And maybe I was spoiled a bit by zero company because zero company has just one of the best Star Wars stories in gaming or just in Star Wars period in a genre that doesn't always lend itself to the best stories. I wanted something similar here. You guys have maybe seen a bit more than I have. I haven't finished this. But based on what I've seen, it's fine, but it's fairly flimsy. It's, you know, you're a character called shade. You're trying to get revenge on the race track against a character called Kestar. These are mostly original characters with some cameos and crossovers in moderation, much like zero company. This is set in the aftermath of the original trilogy. The new Republic Mandalorian era doesn't really matter all that much. And so I was hoping for a bit of a meteor narrative than we actually got here. I don't know whether that will bother other players. I don't know whether that bothered you too. I don't think it bothered me. I just didn't have that much of an expectation for a story in this game. And I think it has enough of a story. I think the worst thing you could have done would be to kind of bog down the player between races with narrative that's not particularly interesting. And I think that, you know, there actually is a little bit of that where you're kind of talking to some characters here and there. And you're just like, I don't care. Come on, man. Let me pick my thing. Right. Yeah. Obviously, I feel like there might have been too much of that at some points because most of that is broken up in between when you're like going to like once you finish like a certain circuit of races on a planet. You then go to another planet before you start, then you have like the opportunity to like go into this sort of hub world where you make repairs and talk to your like either benefactor or your mechanic and all these things. And I'm like, I kind of just want to, I almost wanted these to be menus and have like all of my stuff just to be sorted out at once because I wanted to get right back into the action. And to have to like physically walk from like one end of my ship to the end of the thing to get to my car. I'm like, okay, we could make maybe streamline this a little bit. But I don't think the story was the problem. Yeah. But because there wasn't much to it, I guess is why I wanted to skip past it. So yeah, maybe there should have been even less or could have gone the other way. And and maybe more and better because with a lot of road lights, you know, Hades, for instance, right? I almost look forward to dying in Hades because then I get to go back to the hub and I get to catch up with all the characters with the great writing and the great sound and and the great art design and do all my leveling and everything else and zero company. It's it's not the same sort of game. But you know, you go back to your hub and you wonder around and you listen to people and you talk to people. And it's just all quite compelling. And it wasn't so much here. And so when I run ended and I had to go back to this pretty small self-contained central area where you can wonder around and you can talk to a few people or you can just sort of overhear people as they talk to each other. There's just not much to it really. And so I guess it's a testament to how good the racing is that I just really wanted to get back on the track. But also it's semi in indictment, I think, of everything else than the racing. Then there wasn't much grabbing me. You know, there was occasional clever banter. You wonder around like, you know, you over here, Darius Pax, who's the the race organizer and he's talking about how he knew Jabba, but he didn't see the bad side of Jabba. He just kept his head down. And yeah, there was a man frozen in carbonites. But you know, the Jabba he knew wasn't so bad or in exchange about how maybe Siboba took down the huts and the empire because they banned him from racing. Can't put anything past Siboba. So some kind of funny stuff like that, but just not a not a ton to the core narrative. No, and it's it's basically just like, you know, you're you're from the same planet as the main villain, Turo. like from a humble background and he's a nippo baby rich kid. I don't know. I thought he was funny. I like that guy. I love, I love a rich like, like, I love the ski resort fully. I love that guy. He's like, you know what father is doing. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, kind of a one note character, but it entertaining tried him true note. Yeah. I liked he be the mechanic, the Ardenian, but yeah, it's yeah, don't go in expecting zero company or some mind blowing story. The fact that it has any story at all, even if it's somewhat window dressing, you know, I was just hoping for more, but maybe expecting too much, but that's okay because the game, the racing, the galactic racing, that's that's the hook here. And it's it's a very barbed hook. It's a great hook. It will absolutely hook you, but it will also absolutely frustrate you at times. And and I think that that is is good to a degree because you need some resistance to feel like you're making progress. And and you absolutely will get through sections and feel like, wow, I earned that. I absolutely earned that. I got way better at this track. I got way better using my skills. Like, I can't believe I'm actually as good now as I got. And that only comes through failure, right? Through through through not making it through. And I do think though that, you know, I haven't finished this game yet. I'm very late into it, but I decided when we're getting down to sort of the last few days before this pod and we had these three games to focus on, I didn't want to spend my time trying to like beat this game as fast as possible because it's a very frustrating thing to try to do to a rogue light because you don't know if you're right on the edge of finishing this or if you still have a way to go, right? Because ultimately it all comes down to like the end race of a tour, right? That sort of the structure of this is on each tour, essentially, you make your upgrades, you place as high as you can to get more assets. And then eventually there's one big race at the end. And you got to you got to take first in that race, right? And I think that towards the back of this game, these tours get very, very long. And there are mistakes you can make in a split second that have tremendous repercussions. And so you're going to have to be patient with this. You're going to have to expect to lose. You're going to have to expect to fail. And don't try to rush this game. Let it kind of come to you. If you're getting frustrated in one mode of the game, switch to another mode for a little while, all of the modes feed into each other. Like I said, really, well, you'll learn something in another mode that will help you in the other mode. It's just really well designed in that way. But I did find like I felt a little bit like they're back in the day and would you play NBA Jam? There was this feature called CPU assist, right? Which is basically the developers, you can disable it with a code. But it's in there by default where if you're doing too well, the programmers made it so that they'll be a little bit of a comeback on you from the other team, right? And I think I could kind of feel a little bit of that sentiment going in this where like I was absolutely ripping through a tour at one point. And I got this upgrade that was like every time you land, you get shielded and I was like, hell yeah, that's awesome. And I applied that. And like the second I hit a wall in this game, I have a critical malfunction. And that malfunction changes one of your upgrades, what it does. And so instead of landing and becoming shielded, that was like when you land, you become cussed. And I was like, that's what are you kidding me? Yeah. Yeah. So I'm having to avoid jumps entirely. And then that cascades into another critical failure, which hits another and like these things can just sort of layer on top of each other in ways that feel cruel at times. And can kill an entire run, which become like I said, very long by the end. So you're going to get absolutely frustrated in this game, but you'll also have moments of real elation and earned win brother. I had I had the worst malfunction happened where like one of I was doing like basically an afterburner ramjet build where I'm like, I can like harmonize both of those at the same time. So it's like once you fully deplete one, then it refueles the other. And I get a malfunction that says once you run out of if you fully run out of afterburner, your vehicle explodes. Yep. I wanted to throw the controller out the window. It completely screwed me. There's always an element of randomness. But I did appreciate that A, the status effect. So say you're on the ice planet and you can freeze and then you have to make a calculated decision. Do I want to drive through the heating arch knowing that I might well smack into the side of it and cause a crash or do I want to be in a frozen state, which means I'm just sort of slipping and sliding all over the track. And so I like that kind of decision. And then yes, those those faults, those impairments, it's a little bit different from some road lights. Obviously, there's always a trade off. And you know, you want to take this thing. There's a downside to that power. But here it's like they give you a power and then maybe take it away or it backfires on you sometimes literally. And it always pissed me off. But also I was like, all right, I see what you do in here, you know, you threw a little wrench into my path here. And this is actually kind of challenging and fun. And now I have to it affects how I race. And so yeah, there's some of that rubber banding that that goes on in a lot of racing games, I think. And also you have to make a decision. There's an elimination mode, a type of race where it's kind of like the elimination mode in Mario Kart World. Basically, like, you know, the the last people get locked off and you have to finish top three. And if you don't, then you're done, your run is done. And you also have to decide, like am I willing to do that? Can I can I skip around it? So there are a lot of interesting decisions and a lot of stuff that gets unlocked. You know, you sort of start with four planets. And then you unlock an additional couple. If you're wondering, is Tatooine in the game? Well, is it a Star Wars game? Then yes, Tatooine is in the game. But it's fine. It's a racing game. It should be. And there's kind of a cool little prologue preview teaser of what's to come at the start where you get to try out various vehicles quickly before you actually unlock really, really cool. Yeah, just wedded my appetite for more because otherwise you'd be waiting hours to unlock everything. So there are four vehicle types, which was yours because you you have your land speeders, kind of your basic ones, your speeder bike fast, but not durable. And then your skim speeders, which can kind of turn sharply and go up on their side. And then of course, pod racers, what was your vehicle of choice, Steve? It was absolutely the speeder bike. Basically because of the added speed, the fact that you can put a lot of efforts and points into cornering, that's basically where the sound design love of this game for me really kicked in because every time that you like hold square to like essentially drift, you when you release that, you have this like immediate boost of speed and the sound design that comes out of that is like basically like vents like pouring out and you feel like the heat come right out of the engine. And it was incredible. I love playing in the speeder bike. Pod racers are undripeable. Which is, which is correct. Which is the correct thing to do. Like pod racers are supposed to be incredibly good. Yeah. Matt, what about you? I was skim speeder all the way. That cornering me a skim skater. Yes. And the maneuverability. Yeah, I just I would dump a lot into resistance, which is essentially your like strengths. How easy it is for you to explode on the track. So I would dump a lot into resistance and go at the skim speeder a lot. The pod racer, yeah, is very ridiculous. Fast without spoiling anything. This game has an interesting dynamic here where when you're in that hub world, there is a character that you can talk to that has you sort of playing these flashbacks to the glory days of of pod racing. Because it's a set if you're playing galactic racer, you could probably guess what it is. But anyway, you play all these flashbacks and you actually get to spend some time with with those pod racers. And you have to do challenges in these pod racers, which can be very difficult. But you unlock new like weapons in the game through these flashbacks. It's a really smart smart like change of pace when you're on a tour. And you do this little like side mission podcast race to to maybe unlock weapons. It's a it's a really good like like rhythmic break in your tours that better there. Yeah. I was a skim speeder guy all the way to just love the tight cornering and the slim profile when you're up on your side. And you can go between those very narrow passageways. It's, you know, the nasty of the landscape durability, like at lower. But yeah, so, but a lot to choose from high skill ceiling. And it will support multiple play types and lots of little fun touches. There's, well, there's active reload in gears, of course. But there's also sort of an active reload here, a critical recovery feature. When you slam into a wall, but don't fully explode yourself. And you have to basically time a button press with a meter to recover more quickly from that. That was fun. I love that there's something to do before the race starts. Of course, there's the, you know, time, the pressing the fuel at the right. Perfect point. But also you can kind of prime your abilities and your boost, your afterburner by entering a little button sequence correctly in the seconds before the race starts. So that was sort of fun at a time when usually you're just staring at something. So that's a fun little touches like that side bet mechanic is really good. Oh, yeah, I do lament that there's no local split screen, which my daughter and I were disappointed to discover when we tried to play this game together. Now, one reason why we're not fully reviewing this or issuing some sort of final score here is because we played this in the pre release period when they were only a couple of windows in which to try multiplayer online, that is, and obviously that's a big part of the game. And Matt, you were able to try it out during one of those. So what were your multiplayer impressions? Man, people are good at this game. And you're going to do this game and other people are going to be good at this game. And the format of the multiplayer mode, the like, there are a few different multiplayer modes. But the main draws is sort of this tour mode where the structure of it is you have, I think 12 people in like a lobby, and you have a five race tour, which is sort of just a, a truncated mashed down version of the single player game, where everyone is racing these five races in between them. You're getting upgrades and you're, you're putting points into your, your build out and the character that you choose like starts with certain abilities and you go through all these five races. And then there's a sixth race where it doesn't really necessarily matter how you've done in the past five because it's all about who wins this sixth race. And it is really fun. It's a really cool mode and there are unlocks to, there are tons of unlocks to earn in the multiplayer mode that some are cosmetic, some are, you know, new characters, which can give you a different load out at the beginning. There's a lot to it, it's really competitive. I am a little bit concerned that with how high the skill ceiling can go with this game that you, you might end up with a situation where it could be hard for you to have fun with this game online if you're not sort of in it at the jump, but that's a concern down the road. I suppose the, the gist of it is that it's a really great fun structure. And you learn a lot about the game playing against other real people and not just the computer. And these, the, the, the length of this tour mode gives you like tie enough, just enough time to like almost form rivalries with, with people on the track. These people you don't know, obviously, but you've, you've been seeing them for five races. And you're like, oh, this motherfucker's going to try to hit me again. And it or like, oh, I don't have to worry about this guy because he's just going to hit the wall. Anyway, like, yeah, it's, it's a really fun experience. And I'm not typically drawn to multiplayer experiences online against strangers. And I could see that this is going to be a great time, stranger danger. That's good, better safe than sorry. Well, I hope that this game succeeds in that they continue to support it and produce new content for it. And hopefully we won't go another couple decades before the next Star Wars racing game. And you know, video games are kind of carrying the franchise in the latter part of this year. So I'm happy that to your company and Galactic Racer more or less lived up to the hype. And maybe we can get a starship racing game at some point. Where's, where's our Kessel run? Yeah, I don't know how that would work. Exactly. I'm just the idea is guy here. What is the parser? You know, you know, you know, yeah, from Pete to me, post the fewest parser. Alex and not get sucked into the mall. I don't know how that game will work. But anyway, we had some notes, but overall, really good game. I dug it. That's a simple species joke. Anyway, we should transition to now this is podcasting. All right, let us go to another type of vehicular combat and flying fast game. Ace Combat Eat, Wings of Thief, developed and published by Bandai Namco. Out now for Windows, PS5 and Xbox Series. And guys, is that, is that shadow squadrons music? Thought you guys were going to join me, but that's okay. I'll just go to the bad guy when I interrupt that. Those are the bad guys that's their music. You will get used to that theme song because every time you encounter your nemesis in this game, shadow squadron, they enter chanting their little theme song over the radio, which sort of sounds like Matthew McConaughey's money chant from Wolf of Wall Street. But look, I love Ace Combat. This game also supports multiplayer. It has a full-fledged single player campaign. Same goes for gears, of course, single player and multiplayer. And again, both of these franchises have been dormant since 2019. And that is too long. And I am a long time lover of Ace Combat. I go back as a lot of people do, I think, to Ace Combat for on the PS2 in 2001. You know, I've been into flight sims of various stripes my whole life as a gamer, but really got hooked on this kind of arcadey flight sim in that era with Ace Combat for Air Force Delta for Dreamcast in '99. Oh wow. What's that camp? Yeah. That's a good one. But wow, what a game that was. And so I am thrilled that Ace Combat has returned, again, Ace Combat 7 was back in 2019. So this game, I alluded to this earlier, but with Ace Combat, usually you're looking at a five to ten hour campaign. I mean, these things are in and out. This one is way longer. This is 30 levels. This is probably 20-ish hours depending on, on your playing pace. 24 for me. Okay. And look, maybe there are things that could be trimmed. We will talk about that in a second. But yeah, we have complaints at times about some games being a little repetitive or padded. And hey, maybe Onimusha would have been better as a 20-hour game than a 40-hour game. But I am not here to tell you that Ace Combat is better as a five-hour game than at least a 15-hour game. Give me more Ace Combat. This is almost the perfect amount of Ace Combat. Same goes for gears, but we'll get to that in a second. They really did go in on the story here. And that's the really winnings. There's a whole, I mean, there's like a prequel series of, like a mini series of videos that they made to kind of get you situated in this world. It's set in the usual alternate universe of Ace Combat, strange, real, you know, where it's sort of like kind of modeled on Earth-like countries and conflicts, but not exactly. And it's set in the near future. And everything is just a little bit more sci-fi and advanced and Japanese and sort of anime-ish. And so they really went all in on the narrative and the cutscenes and all of that here. And again, we won't spoil it, but just the premise, basically. The premise is quite cool, I think. So basically the setup, it's almost like a Battlestar Galactica sort of scenario where you are outmaned and outgunned and you're on the run and your Battlestar is the aircraft carrier endurance and you're sort of like the last survivor of this conflict, you know, been attacked by Sotoa and they've decimated your forces and you're just sort of, you know, sailing around and trying to survive and launching strikes and stuff. And the wings of theave that the subtitle refers to is a propaganda campaign, essentially a siop where they are trying to build up this not actual flying Ace into an Ace in order to inspire people and drum up the wings of theave's achievements on social media and it gets weirder from there because that's kind of a cool setup, but and this is really not spoiling anything that doesn't happen in the first few minutes. But the actual wings of theave as you start the game gets killed almost immediately and you become the new wings of theave except the old dead wings of theave is like possessing you or something. Like hanging around in your head. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just just doing monologues. around shooting stuff down. It's like interjecting what numbers he likes. Yeah, just lots of numbers and intoning just, it's, you know, it's like the expanse where detective Miller is like there, but not there. And it's like, right, I met this guy for five minutes. It's like, why is he inhabiting my brain? But it's just weird enough and over the top enough that it kind of works for me in a weird way. I have a theory about why they did that too. Okay, here it is. The main protagonist, the character you play is a completely silent protagonist. Yes. And I think that that's a bit of a mistake. And I think that the solve for that was, we'll have another character that is in your head. It's like your monologue. It's the dead guy's monologue. So that was I think a bit of an ineligant solve, but yeah, which is like ridiculous because they didn't need to do that anyway. You can't just been, you didn't have to make just make me that guy and don't kill him. Yeah, that's fine. Yeah. It's, it's so weird because it's like a lavishly produced campaign with, and I appreciate that it's not just mission briefing, mission briefing. There's some time between the levels and like first person scenarios and settings where you're kind of getting to know your, your wing people and getting to be on the ship and looking around and you know, yeah, I want to be gender inclusive here. And you know, just like you're on the ship and it's grounding you a little bit literally and figuratively. And so I like that except it is so strange and off-putting where everyone's talking to you and you are mute. You are silent. You are an old school video game protagonist who has no character and no dialogue. Your name is Rex but half the time people call you Ray for some reason, which is not entirely clear. It's clear. It's just that like she gets her name wrong and then she keeps saying it's the same thing that my mother-in-law did does to my sister. I got your name wrong at first and so you're just, you know, you're gonna follow you. Yeah, it's a cute nickname right? Yeah, it's like it's like the, you know, was the grink there, I guess, famous tweet where, you know, you mispronounced something once and it sticks to you. But it's weird because they talk to you and direct questions at you and you don't say anything and they just take your silence in stride and sometimes during missions. And they're like, let's get the same. Yeah, you're just classic. Classic Rex or Ray or whatever his name is. And during, it's just the strong silent type, I guess. And during missions, they will often ask you, like, should we do this or should we do that? Should we go after the planes or should we go after the ships? And you won't say anything, but you can on the deep head say yes or no. They're just like, all right, Rex says, let's do this. So it's a very strange choice. But sort of, it's almost an agronistic. It's like, you know, this is a series that dates back to the mid 90s. And so there are very much current gen production values. And yet there's also this sort of old school video trapping the tone of it and very like metal gear. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That was my first piece to unseriousness. Yes. There's also a subplot about this like fake oasis Britpop ripoff band called purple magic. And you hear so much about purple magic. And you hear some of the songs, which actually are kind of catchy. Yeah. But like, this one guy, Koster is constantly talking about purple magic. And someone says, Hey, Koster, why do you like that band so much? And he says, because they sing about the lonely skies and their songs take me to new heights. That's the kind of dialogue that we're dealing with here. And it's like law. I don't know if it's translation, localization, or whether it's entirely intentionally just strange and over the top. But either way, like if you're on the same wavelength as this game, like I wouldn't say the writing, the dialogue is good. Exactly. But it's it's memorable, I guess. And, you know, the larger overarching setup and plot is kind of cool. And I always appreciate that Ace Combat, when it really does go all in on the sci fi stuff, and you get like land battleships, which can just like, I don't even really know how they move. They just look like battleships, but they're on land as the name says. And they just go sailing or rolling around and you have to take them out. Or there are giant, massive planes that you have to take down and sort of, you know, almost like a bullet hell kind of boss battle where you're just taking down individual components of the planes. And then you have like space elevators. And you have rockets that you have to intercept on the way to space. And you have satellites that are shooting down projectiles. And you have to intercept them. All that stuff is actually really cool. And I love that that Ace Combat just has that that side to it. Because if it were too realistic, then it would be boring. I like that it's just totally I kind of, if I could say only one thing about this game is that this game is drunk. And I don't think that anything about this like if I could make this into like a personified character, this game, it's like, you see talent day and nights, you see like Will Ferrell's dad played by, oh my god, I forgot his name, but it's basically that it's like it's saying, if you're not first, you're last. And then it's going to do like a doughnut and peel out and drive off into the sunset. That's what this game is doing. Yes. And yes, only by the state of the whole time you have. Yeah. And you have Obi-Wan's force ghost talking to you and telling you where to go and what to do. It's just it's really something. Now, you know, it lasts a little long sometimes. And it's coming back to our our galactic racer discussion. There are times when I'm like, can we get back to the cockpit now? Can we get to our next mission? Because this is a little more background on this conflict that I necessarily need here, but I kind of enjoy the, you know, the squad mate stuff and, you know, otherwise they'd just be disembodied voices in your headset. So getting to know them a little bit is kind of cool. But yeah, the action itself is extremely ace combat. So if you've played an ace combat game before, you will have a pretty good sense of what you're in for here, which is good news for me. But the game looks glorious. It is. It's beautiful. It's stunning. Oh, goodness. Yeah. I mean, I'm playing on PS5 Pro. Congratulations. Bragg. Yeah. And you guys are ciling your shaders and upgrading your graphics cards and whatever else you, you know, PC master. Actually, I wanted to talk about that for a second, because yeah, we played on PC. This is the kind of like the rare PC experience where like I boot up a game on the PC. It auto detects some settings. I load into it. I forget to even ever check and look at them or fiddle with them ever. Yeah. Because it just instantly was like, oh, this looks amazing. It runs amazing. I don't need to touch anything. It's just it's one of the more console experiences I've had on PC, even if that was like medium settings. Would you care? Like yeah, really, it looks, it looks incredible. And it's not even like a lot of flying games where everything looks okay from 30,000 feet. And then you get up close and personal and it looks pretty pixelated. And the textures look ugly. No, it looks great to ground level. And the water looks great. And the sunbeams bursting through the clouds and the clouds, the clouds themselves. And yeah, so pillowy and the moisture on your, your, your plane. Oh my gosh, shield. The water droplets, the condensation that's that's dreams away as you're flying through moisture. It's oh my gosh, it's so beautiful. I don't know if you could technically, if you call it a sky box when you're playing the game in the sky. But it, it looks great up there and all the vehicles and, and planes and everything are very lovingly faithfully modeled. So, and it has like actual implications for the gameplay too, because sometimes you are visually finding your way to things. And it doesn't always tell you where to go, which I know you weren't in love with at times, Matt. But it was helpful because everything is rendered in such fidelity. Like there are times where, you know, your radars jammed or you just, you're in a bunch of clouds and weather and you just have to visually identify things. And, and maybe you have to, you know, you're escorting a certain plane or you're trying to hunt down certain planes and you have to track their controls or there are like, planes that are doing laser targeting for the satellite, etc. And so you have to follow the laser back to the plane or follow the controls in and out of the clouds to catch up with these planes. And it's all just perfectly clear because it's, it's just, it looks so next chance. It's just, it's beautiful. So, and it sounds great too, which is another theme of all three of these games. It's just the whole course is the soundtrack of this game is amazing. It's amazing. And it's a purple match. And they like some of the musical, you know, moments that accompany some of the more critical moments in the game are just really well choreographed and really raise the bar of like your experience. Just great music throughout. Yeah, you will want the expert control scheme in my opinion because there is the the standard and there's the expert which you don't have to be an expert to to play to be clear. So it's really going to be quite any kind of yeah, it's sort of like standard and easy. or simplify. Simplified hands or something. Right. Yeah, it's not even easier. Really. It's simpler, but it's harder. I didn't, in some ways, it's harder because you're just, yeah, you're, you're less agile because the expert you can roll and yaw, and you can turn more effectively. And so even if it's slightly more complex, it actually gives you better control over the planes. And you know, I, I love the range of planes. You unlock them. Of course, that's a big part of the appeal. And they, they feel really different and distinctive in terms of how they handle and how fast they go and what the loadouts are. There's a somewhat surprising amount of customization here when it comes to, I, I appreciated that. It's, you know, like there's all sorts of, it's not unlike galactic racer, I guess, where you unlock parts and you equip them and you can kind of tailor it to a particular mission. And there's even sort of a minimum standard you have to hit if you're doing a mission that's more air to air or air to ground. You have to kind of have the right, you know, wing planes and your own plane and loadout and all the rest of it. So, you know, it's not like full-on flight sim. It's still Arcadia and Ace Combat, but there's, there's a touch of that at least. I really like customizing my loadout for each particular mission. And I think that it's really great that there's a customization. But the reason why that customization is so great, I think it's because the ultimate star of this game to me is the mission variety that necessitates all of these different builds. I played, I finished this game. I played there out 30 missions and, you know, Ben, you were like talking about game length and like is this overstaffed or is it too much or is it too little? I could have, I could have just kept going with this 24 hours in 30 missions. The variety of what you're doing in all of these missions is just incredible. Like you never feel like you're just doing the same thing over and over and over again. They manage to keep it fresh. Like your objectives vary. Like you're just everything about it. Somehow each mission just feels so fresh and new. It's really the best thing about this game to me. Yeah. Yeah. Because that can be the pitfall of this kind of game because it can feel very rinse and repeat because you're just in a plane and you're looking at your radar. And then there's a green icon on the screen and you go that way and you fly to make it monotonous. Yeah. You fly until it goes red and you walk on and then you fire a couple missiles and then you go to the next target and rinse and repeat and there are some games where it's like that. But they really did. Yeah. If you're going to go 30 levels deep in an ace combat, it can't just be dogfighting as good as the dogfighting is. And I love in these games where you actually do get up close and personal. And sometimes it really becomes about the flight and you're kind of flying in and around things and targeting specific things on chips. And so yeah, that variety is really important, I think. And it's funny. I like hardcore flight sims too. And there are just little touches of that in ace combat, which always feels kind of grafted on where sometimes you can take off on your own or you can land on your own or there's a little ice refueling or icing and things like that. And it feels almost that a place because it's just it stays compact. It's not really complex. It's not like you're in the simulator, getting your your license here. But I always do those just to immerse myself more, you know, if there's because you can always press a button to skip the landing sequence. I never do. I always want to come in for the manual landing. There isn't a achievement for doing all of those. Yeah. Okay. And I'm glad that that my effort. I could do it. I know. Well, yeah, there's no time for fuel. It's pretty it's pretty darn impressive. And unlike galactic racer, I typically played this one in first person, although I would then go out to third person just to admire the view and the graphics and everything. Especially like, oh man, the sonic boom effect. When you go through the sound barrier, it sounds so cool. It looks so sick. Yeah, it's the best. I don't really know what the war is about. At this point, it's hard for me even to tell whether I'm the good guys or the bad news. Oh, we didn't care about that in Top Gun Maverick. We don't need to care about it here. Yeah. I mean, the Satowans dress in somewhat Nazi-esque garb. So I'm going to go with there the bad news. But you know what? I was confused a little bit too or just not certain that we're the bad guys. And then there's a certain point at the game where, which I once boil, where you're like, okay, well, they're definitely the bad guys. So by default, we are the good relatively speaking. Yeah. My one complaint, I guess, about the progression is that the skill tree, which is really a plane or parts tree, is sort of awkwardly laid out, I guess, where you have to kind of like zoom around this big map of parts that each leads to a different plane. And you have to unlock a bunch of stuff that I had no interest in in order to get to the stuff that I was interested in. And so, you know, it was laid out in kind of a convoluted way. But I think though that that actually kind of encouraged me to try things that I wasn't going to because I unlocked these parts that I had no interest in. There was eventually a mission focused on a certain thing where I was like, okay, well, I do have this like part that can make this better. So I'll try this. And so I, I agree that it is convoluted, the layout of it. But I also think that it did lead to me like actually doing some experimentation that I wouldn't have otherwise have done. Okay. Great game. Let's not go seven years between Ace Combat installments. Please, Bandai Namco. No. In fact, if people pre-ordered this game, which generally I don't really recommend, but there was a pre-order bonus of Ace Combat Zero, the Belkin War, the 2006 game, a port for modern platforms. This is the Belkin War, not the Balkan War. This is strange real. Remember people, but you know, the computer speakers or whatever, right? Exactly. Yeah. So that's a pretty good game too if you need a little bonus there. And I'm going to dive into that because I don't think I mentioned this, but this is my first Ace Combat ever. Oh, wow. I have some have never played it. Oh, wow. And I actually want to speak to that a little bit because I've heard for, you know, a long time that this series is great. And just haven't ended up engaging with it until now. And, you know, my review of this game is glowing. And I absolutely loved it. But I will say that in the first, I don't know, five to five, six, seven hours, something like that, there there was a bit of an adjustment. There was like I did sort of struggle with with with some things that that I think if you played Ace Combat before you, you probably wouldn't even register. But there are some things that like you're kind of expected to know that you maybe don't that it doesn't maybe explicitly tell you about too much or just like getting used to the the targeting system. Like there are things you have to kind of like learn before you really kind of get the the game I feel like. So if if you're playing this and you're hearing how great it is and you haven't touched an Ace Combat before, give it give it some time, give yourself some time to like really get acquainted with the controls and as well as like half one of my big one of my big things that I've pushed up against at the start was like the game during a mission will not show you like in your HUD like what your objective is. You have to really be listening to what everyone is saying over the radio, situational awareness. And you have to get a sense of like what they're saying like when it's important because I feel like a lot of the ways these missions work isn't like a finite thing. It's more like they'll be like oh we're getting attacked over here and you don't have to like necessarily like always get rid of all of that but you have to you have to work on that for now. And then they'll tell you oh this thing is getting and you have to go work on that right. And there's this learning that takes place over time of you like understanding what the game wants of you because it's not necessarily always so direct in telling you. Right because it's kind of like in a weird way overcooked because you have an objective but there's always these small things that are getting the way across genres. But I hope that's an apt one but like it's the fact that it's like it's a very small like hurdle or detraction from your main thing that keeps things lively and it's always something it's always about adapting to it. It's never like a distraction. Overcooked is what you were doing when we wanted to play Gears and you had to make dinner this week. Okay. All right. You can he might have been cooking the right now. Cool your Jets Limburg. I'm sure it was delicious. It's a great you know you're you're fostering some relationships and not others but you're probably making the right choice there. I would think my plans are measured in centuries Ben. All right. We can anyway. Glad you guys got your wings. two new flyboys on but mesh, many previous ace combats for you to explore now that you have gotten on board. And even if the original wings of Thief was a fraud at a fake, we aren't we're legit. We're we're aces many times over. We're totally with with Thief is just to clarify. Thief is the capital of the of the countries that you are aligned with and trying to restore and retake. So I love fake shit like that. I love your countries with dumb names. I would say anything for Thief. Yep. All right. Last but not least, Gears of War E Day developed by the Coalition and people can fly and publish by Xbox Game Studios, a few of which still exist including the Coalition for now. Yes. Yes. Yes. Out for Windows and Xbox but not PS5 because the console wars are back on again. This is technically coming out October 6 just like is combat. It's also available now if you paid for early access and of course it will be available via Game Pass. This is a prequel to the original Gears that takes us back to the beginning or before the beginning 14 years before the first game takes us back to the titular E Day Emergence Day when the grubs the locusts emerged from the planet core and and invaded and we are once again inhabiting the very big and heavy shoes of Marcus and Don as well as some new squadmates and I seem to recall Steve that you were musing about whether Gears still had the juice because we were talking about Xbox and Halo and Microsoft wanting to really devil down on its core franchises but a lot of them have seen better days and again there hasn't been a new Gears in a while and so we were wondering you know other than and ports and remasters and such and so we were wondering does Gears still have that sort of buzz and based on what we've played of Gears of War E Day I think the answer is yeah I think there's as much juice in this series as there is running through the veins of Dom and Marcus and it's absurd really because the first Gears of War came out for the Xbox 360 and I remember that being not only a fantastic game but a bit of a culture shift and the thing that like gave the waste high cover genre pretty much the its namesake because of the fact that its cover system was so innovative and really was great at giving a sort of battle encounters that were both like hectic and fun and incredibly strategic while being so action forward and that being iterated over the years it seems like it didn't really like it to me at least or somebody who hasn't been keeping up on it that much has innovated that well but given this game like I think we kind of needed a return to form and that's exactly what this is because like as many as many games as there are in the Gears franchise I really don't think that any for a while have had that big of an impact of staying power I tried the Xcom one that they put out and that was kind of fun but other than that like nothing in the Gears universe has ever really grabbed me or like I've been interested in at all so E Day is something that's really really interesting because it has all of these classic types of gameplay elements that have either been in Gears or in other games and it's just all solid enough to make the presentation around a Gears game excellent and I think I'll end with the fact that this might be the most gorgeous game of the year this might be like the best looking game I have seen a very long time a lot of confusion for that title this year. I was a stack of matter but yeah stack by how good this game looks yeah and this was one where Matt was compiling shaders but yeah I guess it was worth the win because we played this co-op the three of us and Ben was on his Xbox not pro yeah and I know but Steven and X yeah not not a pro Xbox I'm sorry Steve and I were on PC and Ben went to the bathroom or something at one point Steve and he came back and Steve and I were just like deep into like frame Jen and like upscaling talk let me tell you you run a benchmark on this thing and you're like oh mama this could look good yeah and that's and that's the great the game within the game tweaking that's what I'm saying being a PC gamer that's the second game from every game yeah yeah it's it's gorgeous now of course I remember gears games always looking gorgeous because they always did by the standards of the day and so in my mind I they kind of always looked like this but of course they didn't this is beautiful and we were just transfixed we were spellbound by you know I'd be like look at those flood lights over there look at how the lights are glowing or we would pause to admire the puddles which were just you know ray trace to the hilt and reflecting everything around them and looking like real puddles and of course it has the super stylized heightened kill zone slash warhammer meets doom design aesthetic that's just kind of iconically gears it looks like that but more so maybe and it's but yeah the fidelity of it is just yeah oh and the sound which again you know we focus on the graphics but we're we're given the sound design some some love this week because every I mean the the explosions every gun has some sort of M1 garander ground kind of cue where it's you know the ping yeah there's like a you know oh the clips almost empty I'm almost ready to reload here which is important to know sonically because active reload returns and I got to say active reload remains a really good gimmick I think you know it's really fun it just adds something to what otherwise would be wrote button presses and oh I'm out of ammo I'll just press the reload button it gamifies reloading and it's a simple little thing and you know when games go too heavy on quick time events or whatever and it becomes all about that well that's not great if it's based around that but if it's say pragmatta or gears or something like that where there's so much going on that when you also add a little sort of simple you know button pressing and directional stuff and timing mechanisms that actually enhances everything and keeps you super plugged into the action so yeah it looks great sounds absolutely incredible so feast for the eyes and ears and just so much fun Matt I mean we played this together when we could all three of us and then when Steve had to whip up some delectable morsels oh my god we substituted some some NPCs some NPCs but but really like when we were all playing together it was great when Matt and I were we're playing duo's it was great and one thing I like about years you know you're almost always with people you're with your squad and the NPC AI is actually pretty impressive they were they were reviving us when we were downed not always but but most of the time pretty reliably yeah when they could I'd say um and and the you know the AI of the I'm wishing AI but the the enemies will you know it is that's what we used to call AI before that before that was just like politically neutral term yeah the the enemies will occasionally you know swarm you from different angles and flank you and stuff yeah pretty nice I think just like in general like you said Steve this is this is like not trying to to reinvent the wheel here it's not trying to do anything like super bold or new with the gears franchise but man it's just a really freaking good campaign of gears it just feels really gears of worry and the set pieces and the like how many times would we be playing this game and like you turn a corner and you're like whoa look at this shit like yeah like it's the pacing of the whoa look at this shit moments is like relentless it's just like yeah yeah we had so many times where like we would clear a little area and then we'd just be like that was nuts yeah that was wild yeah and it's the moment to moment encounters that are really really fun and inventive and I wish I could remember the original gears of war feeling but I I feel like it was this where every encounter was kind of like oh man we we were really pushed up against it we almost got out of there or like we almost didn't make it out of that and I really really like that idea of like just riding that fine line of difficulty chaotic battles and a very like good enemy AI design to keep you on your toes because like I I'm the type of person that likes to equip my shotgun charge right into a battle and like make some dudes explode because it really sounds you know the rest of us will revive you and that's fine that's yeah and then you'll find game and then I'll do it again it's really really fun it's a cover system and then it's game for a reason. You shock and yeah. And yeah. And and that cover system is for the end of not for me. I don't think you're trapped in here with me. Yeah, exactly. Motherfucker. No, I don't think that there's I don't think there's anything that I can really do to sum up like how fun this needs to be with friends. And I think Gears knows that are these developers know that because they're heavily investing in both online and split screen couch co-op in the year of our Lord 2026. Yes. And you that is a lot of real big. No. Wow. But I'm glad that I mean, she just make her dinner and maybe that. Yeah, she turned five this week. Kathy birthday Sloan. I think she's maybe slightly young for Gears. But yeah, we'll get there someday. And it's nice that we have the ability to play that way. But yeah, it's just set piece after set piece after set piece, it's like the climaxes for most games are the pre-loots to the actual set piece in this game, where it's just like just when you think it can't go bigger, there is some more enormous monster, some huge or more elaborate boss fight, some backdrop of an entire city on fire and a huge army of locusts and grubs marching into battle. It's just amazing. And it's just like pure quick twitch adrenaline inducing pulse pounding. Not a second, you know, to take a breath before they're coming at you again. And you're just laying down some sort of suppressing fire or, you know, grabbing cover or Lee Roy Jenkins in in like Steve. It's just it's the best. And great. You know, I think, you know, per usual in the series just feels so good to shoot. And and lots of classics and staples from the franchise, your Lancers and Nashors and Long Shots, etc. I think my most valuable weapon combo here was the breach shot and the ripper and the breach shot. It's been around before, but it's it's kind of like in between the Lancer and the Longshot, where, you know, it's a more controlled fire and good over a distance, but not zoomed in in the scope quite so much. And then the ripper does what it says more or less. It's just full on, you know, heavy caliber assault rifle. And then, you know, some kind of more off the beaten path, like the incinerator, where you're just hurling acid, or the torque bow, you know, explosive arrows, basically just good variety there. And, you know, you never really run out of ammo. I mean, you do, but then you come across an ammo cash in the next 30 seconds, because this is a game about shooting, not about watching how many rounds you have left really. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it is never like, you're never out of ammo for that long pressure. Yeah, another impressive thing about the co-op, which you picked up on Steve, because you had jumped into this solo, I think, before we played together, is that it seemed like they recorded dialogue for all possible permutations of characters. So regardless of whom you want to play as the dialogue is the same, like they just had all the actors seemingly records, all or most of the lines. And so whatever you're, yeah, it's pretty impressive. It was really impressive, because of the fact that not only does that happen in the world, but also in cutscenes, because there's a moment in like the earlier parts of the game where I like I played solo and I played as Marcus Phoenix or our main character. And there's a moment where like an enemy like pins up like sneaks up on him, pins him up against a wall and then he's saved by another one of his teammates. And that's when you learn about like the types of enemies that can like just kind of grab you and then you need somebody else to help you. But Ben, you were playing as somebody else and you ran into that section before anybody else. And that character did that. And not only was there not a cutscene, but we had to just watch that happen to you and help you instead. And I think that was brilliant. I think that's a great like there are so many things that games don't think about when it comes to online experiences. And to know that a campaign, at least the story driven one is short as it may be. I think it's this has been like reported to and like as far as you guys might have been like around 15 hours or so. It's, it's incredible to know that like they're putting a multiplayer forward approach to these things. And I think that's wonderful. Yes. I'm accustomed to maybe eight to 10 hours ish for a gears game. And it's just nonstop balls to the wall action. This one though does seem to be more in the 15-ish hour range. And we're in right now. And we just started we started for a five. Yeah, your classic five that structure. So we thought that we were going to beat this thing in a couple of sittings. And then we realized there was more. And aside from the time pressure of podcasting, I'm thrilled that there's more because I don't want this to end yet. This is not overstaying. It's welcome. One bit. And it takes place mostly in and around this central city of Colona, which you guys kept comping to recoon city. But you know, it was a lot like recoon city. Yeah. And also, all of a sudden out of nowhere, there's a calamity. And you know, that's right. Yeah. But you also do go outside the city a little bit. And I guess it was, was it X three Matt where we were kind of wondering around the forest at least in the start. So yeah, there's a little bit of variety in the scenery. But it is very much just street-to-street building to building. And that's the other thing. So yeah, and this is sort of a synthesis or hybrid of previous Gears games where you had the early ones, which were very linear and a prescribed path. And then you had Gears five, which added an open world aspect, which was somewhat divisive. But I liked it. I liked Gears five. I liked the action I liked the story, which was written by But Mesh Guest, Tom Bessel. And it seems like they've ported over some aspects of that because, you know, in Gears five, some of those open world elements felt a little empty and unpopulated and that they just kind of wanted to do Gears, but open world, it mostly worked. But here I think there are, it's not full open world. But you have some pretty expansive zones when you're in the city. And you're just roving around and you're constantly coming across side quests and objectives that you can trigger or ignore. We always did them. And they were usually fun. You know, they're just like, Oh, there's a gear over here who's holding out and you have to support them or there's some civilians who are trapped and you have to go up onto a roof and help free them or something. And so you're just wondering around the city, like impressively large setting. And it actually feels like you're sort of, you know, worse, you know, the environment or developing in real time is amazing. Yeah, crazy. And there are some sequences where you're just, you know, clearing buildings and you're in hallways and it is more linear. But those sequences where you are just wondering around and you have some freedom. Pretty, pretty darn special, I would say. And, you know, from a story perspective, like, I guess it's good to catch up with Marcus and Tom again, you know, did you miss Marcus? But there are some new squad mates and they have their own stories and, and you know, I was a little less into that aspect of the story than just the basic premise and setup for the story, which is just, they have no idea what's happening because we, we know more than they do than the cog does here because they have no idea what's happening. It's just, you know, the locusts came out of the ground and we have the context and they don't. And they're just responding to all that in real time as this war is breaking out and they feel completely overwhelmed. And so that sense of urgency of like, who are these people? What is happening here? Are we about to be wiped out? Can we make a less stand? Can we hold this line? That was really cool, I think. So, you know, other than that, there's a lot of just kind of broy, you know, fist pounding and cursing some pretty effective swearing, I would say, but, you know, more or less, it could have still been 2006. I guess the grunts and he has been lots of grunts and yells, as you would expect, maybe this game theme was, but this isn't real in this game. I'm talking about you. Yes. It was honestly so fun. I will have a straight one in a moment. But, yes, but Marcus and Tom, this is younger Marcus and Tom. And I guess they're a little more limber because they really get down there on the ground when they're taken cover, just like a log on the ground, they can display themselves out and somehow ducked behind it. Yeah, it's so amazing because the environmental design is not only just waste high cover, but it's also like shin high cover. And to see your big guy just like completely get down, like he's laying on the ground, like huddled underneath this, this like little piece of plywood is really cool. And to see the destruction that comes right underneath your head is so awesome. Like I was really impressed with the amount of things that I would just instinctively run to to take cover on and you're you get you get down, you get low, as they said on the dance floor. Yeah. And and you alluded to this map. But I thought the the enemy smarts were pretty good where sometimes they would flank you. They're very quick on the smoke grenades, so they would often throw a smoke grenade. And then they would just emerge saying sapien from the smoke cloud. And that was kind of unnerving. And sometimes you can flank them too, because the level design does allow for some flexibility. And there was one encounter where We were totally pinned down by this flying ball sack character, which is that's how they described it in the game. That is. Yeah. Yeah. That's that. Yeah. Just like our check test. That tends to failing. They call it a ball sack in the game. Yes. Yes. They do. That's really. And. And we were like, where do we go? And it's wave after wave. And then we kind of did this end around and took them by surprise and we could fall back. And there was some real flexibility in how to handle that encounter. And so the combat just, and it feels like it's just developing in real time. If you love gears games and you are into gears or there's plenty of like Easter eggs and callbacks or call forwards, you know, if you want to know the origin story of the Lancer and figure out who and when and how they first grafted a chainsaw onto a gun. Well, we got that or figuring out how to close a hole for the first time with a maid. You know, like that stuff, I guess we'll tickle people who've been playing gears for for decades, but you know, I just think the game play is great. It says great as ever. If not greater, even little things like it's, it's so much about the cover mechanic, but you could actually shoot through tiny little gaps in cover. And so sometimes when I was waiting for, you know, how in a shooter, often you're just sort of waiting for the Jack in the box, enemy AI, it's like, okay, as soon as they stand, I've got my reticle there and I'll just, I'll pop them. And here sometimes when they were fully behind cover, which, you know, usually that's kind of seamless here, like there would be a little tiny gap in between rivets or something. And you could actually just shoot them through that, which was kind of cool. So yeah, just just a great game. So if we had to rank these three, I think we're, we're recommending them all. This is all mash, no pass this week. But if we had to make the agonizing decision of what order to put these three games in order, what are your hierarchies here with galactic racer gears and ace combat? I would, I would have to personally go. I would go gears racer ace combat. I think I would do ace combat gears racer. Interesting. I think I would go gears ace combat racer. But we all have different theories. We all have racer last, I guess, but that's really, don't take that as, as us being down on that game because that game is great. It's just, you know, all of these games are fantastic. And we are super spoiled here. And we haven't even played the multiplayer of ace combat or, yeah, I mean, yeah, which is why we're, I mean, we're not really reserving judgment. Our judge, our judgment is go get these games. They're all good. But that's without even playing much multiplayer because of when we were playing these. And he's combat is, I would say, a more single player centric series. And this campaign is so substantial that, you know, multiplayer is a bonus from my perspective. Gears, obviously, is, is more multiplayer dependent historically speaking. And it sounds like not every feature is, is ready right out of the box. But I assume that it will deliver the usual good Gears multiplayer action if you're, if you're into that, you know, PV PVP, et cetera. But just the campaign co-op or solo is, is absolutely worth the investment here. So boy, I mean, we're lucky, you know, we just have the access of great games. I guess if you are solely a switch to owner, then you're out of luck this week and you can't take us up on these recommendations. But everyone else just, you know, take your pick. You can't go wrong with any of them. And look, I mean, the industry itself may be all sorts of screwed up. And we bemoan that often and, you know, there was just a story from EuroGamer about how people at the coalition are worried that Xbox will shut them down now that they've shipped this game, which is something a pattern we've seen repeat, but they're just, is this really hope that kind of me of like, they're crushing it. Yeah. Yeah. And a good one, which is probably part of the course that they will get shut down. Yeah. I guess someone did ultimately, fortunately, but yeah, I mean, that's what we're dealing with where the games have never been better or more plentiful and yet so much of it about the conditions in which they're made and they'll lengthen the budget and all the rest of it. The sustainability of that is sort of screwed up at least in the West, but today at least we are accentuating the positive and the positive is that boy, three new great games to add to the pile and many more to come. Of course. Yep. And many more that will be covered on upcoming episodes, but the games are not for not at all, not even slowing. We've got a new Final Fantasy game resonance coming later this month. We've got a new Pennsylvania speaking of franchises that have been gone too long and Weldweller, which is out now, not hyped at all and another excellent Metroidvania seemingly to add to the pile. Maybe we'll cover that too. I got it. I got a tiny game. We're interested. Yeah. No one's heard about one of my favorite of the year, Draco in the seven scales. It's like, yes, links Awakening in a pirate setting. It's out on steam right now. It's if you like links Awakening on Game Boy. This is like, it feels like an all timeer Game Boy color game came out of nowhere, Draco in the seven scales. Check it out. Yeah. Yeah. It stinks. That anything has to get lost in the shuffle here. So much. So is coming out soon. I mean, we've got, you know, it's just like not only Call of Duty and war dogs and all the rest of it. Phantom blade zero is coming later this month. Then obviously the Acarina remake and a little game called Grand Theft Auto 6. So we will be there on top of all of it, not enough playing time, not enough podcasting time. Too many games, but that at least is a good problem to have. So thanks to both of you for joining me, both online, well, I guess we're always online more or less. Yep. We'll be offline when you're in New York City at Cava Con Steve. We'll meet in meetspace for a while. But thank you to both of you for playing and podcasting. Thanks to Devon Orlando for producing this podcast to Adrian Aram Gopal for his senior podcast management. We want to hear from all of you, please do write in. Tell us what you're playing and enjoying at ring of burst gaming at gmail.com. And Steve, could you take us out with your rendition of the endlessly entertaining bayonet charge sound that your character emitted every time we played gears? I think that would be a good way to charge into Friday. Right. This is exactly how I run to the kitchen to make dinner. Here we go. That was scarily active.