Project Geekology
Embark on an epic journey with Anthony and Dakota as they delve into the vast realms of geek culture, from cherished classics to cutting-edge creations. Join us for an exhilarating adventure of exploration and nostalgia, as we unearth hidden gems and reminisce about the moments that have shaped us. Welcome to the ultimate celebration of all things geeky!
Project Geekology
Star Wars Outlaws
Can a video game protagonist's appearance really make or break the entire gaming experience? Join us on Project Geekology, episode 95, where we tackle the buzz surrounding Star Wars Outlaws, focusing on our early adventures and the thrill of side quests. Dakota and Anthony share their firsthand impressions, including a fun detour to a local convention where Anthony snagged a One Piece-themed glass mug. The excitement doesn't stop there as we dive into the latest casting news for the One Piece live-action adaptation, featuring Joe Manganiello as Crocodile and Lera Abova as Nico Robin. Spoiler: We're thrilled about these choices!
Balancing adult life with our geeky passions isn't always easy, but it makes for some interesting stories. From tackling a construction job and an OSHA 30 course to managing research on Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra, we discuss the everyday struggles of finding time for video gaming. We also address the mixed reviews of Star Wars Outlaws, particularly the commentary on protagonist Kay Vess’s looks, and defend how her character design complements the game's gritty world. Plus, we break down the emotional impact of the "Leaves from the Vine" scene, proving that some moments in animation can touch our hearts deeply.
Ever get lost in the excitement of open-world RPG side quests? We do too! We explore the backstory of Kay Vess in Star Wars Outlaws, her interaction with the Rebel Alliance, and her journey across fascinating locales like Canto Bight, Toshara, and Akiva. Discussing the ship's intricate design and the multi-faceted syndicate reputation system, we examine how the game stacks up against other RPG titans like The Witcher 3 and Red Dead Redemption 2. Despite some critiques about enemy respawning and the main story's urgency, we revel in the expansive world and anticipate deeper character relationships unfolding as the game progresses. Don't miss out on this packed episode filled with insights and updates from the geek universe!
Twitter handles:
Project Geekology: https://twitter.com/pgeekology
Anthony's Twitter: https://twitter.com/odysseyswow
Dakota's Twitter: https://twitter.com/geekritique_dak
Instagram:
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Geekritique (Dakota):
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBwciIqOoHwIx_uXtYTSEbA
Twitch (Anthony):
https://www.twitch.tv/odysseywow
Welcome one and all to Project Geekology, episode 95. Today we're covering basically the Star Wars Underworld, the seedier side of all things. Star Wars, as we discuss, star Wars Outlaws, a new game that we're going to be talking all about later in this episode. But my name is Dakota and I'm joined, as always, with Dakota.
Speaker 2:Oh wait, no, I mean Anthony.
Speaker 1:Yes, we're joined by Kay Vess and my buddy Nix. Actually, you might hear Nix meowing every now and then.
Speaker 2:Was it you changing the name of your cat to Nix now?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's Nix for this episode. It was Umbra previously, but it's Nix now.
Speaker 2:It's Nix for the episode.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you might hear him. He's on the prowl tonight. Guys, we have a exciting show for you today. But, anthony, what have you been up to these past two weeks? Because we decided to take a little extra time to record this one yeah, we took a little bit of extra time for this one.
Speaker 2:We wanted to kind of marinate a little bit on this game, although dakota and I, you know, we I mean we have busy schedules, so we're still fairly like maybe in the beginning of the game but still like well past the point of like tutorials, like we're kind of we're in the game but I would say I'm probably about maybe like 10 hours into the game.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I think I've. I've put according to my save file. I've put like 13, 14 hours into the game. But my issue with gaming is that I get so bogged down with like side stories and all that that and just like side quests and just exploring that I basically save the main story for like later in my playthrough. So I've only just gotten to like the Sabacc tables. You know, like I'm only just playing Sabacc for the first time, so I'm still fairly early in the game, like I. You hear nix in the background yes he's got a lot to say.
Speaker 1:But yeah, we'll talk about that in a little bit. But yeah, so we, we took an extra week off just because we're both busy guys, we both work full time and we both got our stuff, stuff going on. But, anthony, what have you been up to?
Speaker 2:so this weekend I actually went to like a little mini convention in like my local area it was its first year.
Speaker 1:It's so many you can't even find it on the internet.
Speaker 2:Well, you could. But you know, like, unless unless, like you somehow heard about it, like you wouldn't have known about it. You know it's not like there is.
Speaker 1:there is no videographic or photographic proof that this ever happened. That's how many this is.
Speaker 2:Well, you know I took a couple of pictures, but no, no, it was fun, man, like every once in a while, you know I'll go and I'll check out a small convention and it's really cool what a small group of people can pull together and do Like. It was absolutely like. I'm pretty sure they're gonna do it again because it was like filled with people. There was a lot of vendors. I knew a vendor there and they said that that was like one of their like best events in our like immediate area that they've done. So it was. It was cool to see that. I bought a couple things. I have a a glass mug that have some of the uh crew of one piece the straw hats, oh snap and yeah, we, we have some.
Speaker 1:We have some one piece news today. I don't know if you saw that they they announced some of the cast for the upcoming one piece live action, season two oh, yes, yes, yes, we've got the casting for korea.
Speaker 2:We've got the casting for vv yeah, they've. They've been announcing that. You know it's. It's interesting how it's gonna all. We've got the casting for Kareya. We've got the casting for Vivi. Yeah, they've been announcing that. You know it's interesting how it's going to all come together.
Speaker 1:Today they announced that Hold on.
Speaker 2:I know that they casted Vivi's father too. Yeah the king.
Speaker 1:So Joe Manganiello is going to be playing Crocodile.
Speaker 2:He played, didn't he play Deathstroke? Yes, in Arrow right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and if you look at him he definitely looks the part I could see it.
Speaker 2:He plays a pretty good villain Like. I actually liked him as Deathstroke. I'm not going to lie Like I think he did pretty good.
Speaker 1:And I think that he can do the campy tone really well.
Speaker 2:You know, he just seems like the kind of guy who will get the assignment for that. Well, he kind of guy that, like he's, he's a bit of a geek, so I think that he would look into this character if he hasn't, or he might be a fan of one piece, who knows?
Speaker 1:yeah, they also cast nico robin today okay, okay, that I didn't see. Yeah, I didn't see those castings this is a rather unknown actress, as far as I'm aware. I don't recognize her for anything, but it's Lira Abova. You can kind of see it, those of you listening.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Dakota's showing me a bunch of pictures.
Speaker 1:I'm showing him pictures via Zoom so and that's like over my phone, Like I'm just putting it into the camera. So it doesn't always like pop up, but I've done the same to dakota, like it's. It's been vice versa. Like you know, I for some reason, whenever you show me the screen, I see nothing but white, like it's just like blinding. But oh yeah, that's cool man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I definitely. Oh, it's funny also like I got a bunch of those like gibbets for like the crocs and it's like one piece, oh cool.
Speaker 1:I literally I have the same crocs dude, just not not with all those one-piece gibbets and then I got a couple more on this one with some pokemon on it also yeah, yeah, dude, you barely have any like yeah, seriously basically like filled it all up but yeah, oh, whoa, something that I haven't told you yet is that I am in the process of interviewing.
Speaker 2:I'm on my third interview for a so I work for a bank and so I'm interviewing for a IT position within that same bank, and so I'm on the last. I have like one more interview before they decide like who, who it is that they want to like bring on. So the fact that like I've made it this far is like really promising, and I mean like dude that's awesome, dude.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's awesome, I mean like dude, like you, you know, like I'm into tech, like I I've built my own pc. I do a lot of my own troubleshooting, so you know it's something that, like, I'm pretty excited for. It's a work from home position, so I'm like, give me that work from home position please. But yeah, I'm pretty.
Speaker 1:Oh wow, yeah, that's that would be sick. Is it a pay increase or it's kind of?
Speaker 2:just yeah. Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's a pay increase that would be dope. If you get that, I'm really rooting for you, yeah, yeah so, yeah, I'm pretty excited about that, that I have that, and then something that I should who are you interviewing with?
Speaker 1:is it people that are currently working with you, or like people that know you, or it's just like the bank itself is interviewing you for this position?
Speaker 2:oh, it's, it's people within the it department, like supervisors within the it department.
Speaker 1:They're not necessarily going to know you right, right.
Speaker 2:Well, I do know one of the it guys that comes out. I asked them. I was like hey, I'm interviewing for this position. If you talk to them, you know, just let me, you know, just kind of let them know about me a little bit.
Speaker 1:You know, and so you know so yeah, I have a little bit of an end.
Speaker 2:But yeah, I'm, I'm pretty excited, I feel pretty good that I I may get it, but nonetheless, you know it's.
Speaker 1:You know you're putting your foot in the door absolutely this time. You know it could work out at a future point. And also you're, you're getting the like, the knowledge of, like what they, I guess, want to hear from you in interviews and stuff exactly for other potential positions in the future. So take it as you know a victory either way yeah, just take it as like you know. You learn something from the experience either way that you can take to the future.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:Anthony, I see you have something in your hand and I feel like you want to show me very badly what is it?
Speaker 2:It is my phone, man. No. So today I received an early birthday gift. I mean, my birthday is not until October, but my dad nonetheless wanted to give me an early birthday gift, and it is the 2024 players handbook for dnd and I got the alt cover and it looks so sick, man.
Speaker 1:look at this thing it's actually bigger than I expected it. It's like it's thicker it's like a textbook. Yeah, it's. It's way thicker than the core rulebook of the players handbook of you know, 2014 it's super.
Speaker 2:Yeah, dude, I'm super stoked. Yeah, this is. I'm gonna try to see if I can that this picture right here. Okay, that's what the actual that's the actual.
Speaker 2:That's the actual cover. Yeah, I'm showing dakota the the actual cover. I mean, if you all want to look at what the 2024 dnd handbook is, just look it up. And then if you want to see what the alt cover looks like, just look for the alt cover. It's this green and like gold book. It looks dude. I actually I love this version. It looks like it looks like a dnd book, like it feels like an old dnd book but just like updated, and the artwork is just like absolutely beautiful dude yeah, I, I've seen, I've seen quite a bit of it.
Speaker 1:I'm so surprised, actually, that it's so big. I just assumed it would be around the same size of the 2014 one and it's just, you know, like right, yeah renovated and you just like reorganized, but it looks. It looks almost double the size of the original.
Speaker 1:It's gonna pull up my player's handbook right now. Actually, let me, let me just like we're gonna compare via zoom everybody. Oh god, I'm making noise, guys, I'm sorry. Players handbook okay, so my players handbook is skinny in comparison. It is literally. What is the page count of that? Just I'm curious, I'm very curious last page is 384 384. Okay, so this one is 316 is the last page, so it's not double, but it's it's it's quite a bit like that's still a chunk.
Speaker 2:You said 316 and I'm at 384 like last. But yeah, dude, that's a lot so they've added a lot.
Speaker 1:So that's, that's really cool yeah, that's really cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's been 10 years since they did the release, the last one. The last one was 2014. So, yeah, man, I'm super stoked to kind of like crack it open and well, I mean I already have but kind of like really dive into it. And they've been updating a lot. They've updated some of their like free stuff too, like the, I think, the player's manual or something like that. They've been definitely updating a lot. I mean, I'm in the middle of a campaign right now too, so it's interesting so it's not.
Speaker 1:It's not like something you can like change while you're playing your character, but in future campaigns you can use this new information and potentially I don't know, I mean like you might actually be able to use some of the new information in terms of, like, how you play the game, if your DM will allow that right, yeah but my, I know the the D&nd campaign that I'm playing and I'm playing under the eberron setting and he does not.
Speaker 1:He's not open to like changing the dynamics of gameplay with the new core rulebook, but, you know, in the future I would like to definitely play with that. So that's, that's pretty cool.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, definitely. That's why I think it's essential to keep the 2014 rulebook, because, I mean, it's still all within dnd 5e, so yeah, yeah, totally cool bro, that's awesome yeah, man. So yeah, that that's. I feel like I've I've been doing quite a bit, you know, with dnd and gaming, you know convention and potential new jobs. So you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And how about you? What have you been up to I?
Speaker 1:know that you've been dying to tell us everything that you've been up to. I feel like I come with the same exact stuff every week at this point. Whenever I like get really deep into a project, I always tend to kind of like get stuck in the study mode of said project for a long while. So I'm still going through the Avatar, the Last Airbender and Legend of Korra stuff, trying to just compile as many notes in terms of like the histories of all of these characters and place it in a chronological timeline outline so that when I eventually start like writing my script proper, I have like delineated notes of everything I want to say. So that's what I'm going through right now. I'm still actually doing my like notations for the shows and I'm like almost done with season two of avatar, the last airbender and yeah, so I'm excited. I just yesterday I watched the Tales of Ba Sing Se with that one scene with Iroh Leaves from the Vine.
Speaker 2:Dude.
Speaker 1:It's so sad and like it's a sad scene to begin with because for those of you who haven't seen, you know, Avatar, the Last Airbender, the tales of Ba Sing Se, takes all of the cast and puts them on individual journeys and individual stories and they're each like four to five minutes long. And Iroh, the elderly fire national, mourns the death of his child on the day of his birthday and he sings a song called leaves from the vine and he starts talking about, like you know, in the show he's, he's helped zuko, his nephew and current antagonist, to kind of find his way yeah heidniks and he sings about or, like you know, like he kind of like you know in mourning his, his lost son.
Speaker 1:He wishes that he could have helped him in return.
Speaker 1:But that scene is particularly special from a meta perspective because the actor who played iroh his name is mako he realized he was going to die and that was his last ever recording you know, after almost a century of like being in film and tv so you can hear like he's crying in the show, but he's crying in real life, like it's a goodbye and you know it's it's such a powerful moment. If you ever watch avatar the last airbender or don't care to watch avatar the last airbender, look up the leaves from the vine scene either on youtube or just go to that episode.
Speaker 2:Season 2, episode 15 I know that that scene is like. For those of us that are like fans of avatar the last airbender, that scene always breaks us oh, my gosh, dude, I can't help but cry.
Speaker 1:It's, it's because it's real tears that you hear. You know it's not just like an act, it's, it's a guy mourning his career in the form of. You know him, you know playing this character, and it's, it's such a powerful moment. Yeah, it's, it's so good, it's so good. Otherwise, I have been you doing a whole bunch of other Avatar stuff that I don't need to talk about at this point. But I'm also and I guess part of the reason why I didn't get to put more hours or as many hours as I wanted into Star Wars Outlaws is that I have a lot of work stuff going on as well, like with my construction job. I have to take an OSHA 30, which is a literal 30 hour online course, so I've been trying to chip away at that over the past couple weeks alongside doing my like timeline notes for Avatar and then you know, just living my life.
Speaker 1:So you know finding time to play video games is hard these days. It's hard as an adult man. But especially I've noticed that video games are hard for me to get into when I have a project that I'm working on, because I will, nine times out of ten, choose the project that I'm working on to spend time on over the video game, if that makes sense.
Speaker 2:That does make sense. I wish I shared that sentiment. Sometimes, you know, just because I'm a gamer, I can get lost in in video game world. I'm pretty sure that you can understand that when it comes to a piece of media that you really enjoy, like maybe a book or like a tv series, oh yeah, totally yeah totally, and I've experienced that with video games too, you know, and we'll talk about that in a little bit.
Speaker 1:But but yeah, that's, that's pretty much all that I think I've been up to. I'm looking around my living space trying to figure out if I've done anything else, but nothing of note. So yeah, let's, let's talk about star wars atlas for a little bit yep, star wars atlas man so this game kind of has been on the receiving end of a little bit of hate. Not as much hate as like, not nearly as much hate as the acolyte yeah but it's definitely on the receiving end of.
Speaker 1:Like that side of the fandom. There's been a lot of like specifically misogynistic hate. I've seen online, you know, like I've seen a lot of well k-ves isn't like a pretty protagonist yeah, yeah, that that's versus, that's something that I've noticed too yeah I'm not even gonna like entertain whether or not this character is like pretty or not. It's just kind of dumb criticism for the sake of dumb criticism.
Speaker 1:You know, Star Wars is full of beautiful women and I honestly like nine times out of ten when I see KVS in a cut scene. She is modeled after a pretty woman. You know, like there's the standards that, like people expect from video games, is so, so warped, you know? Yeah, comic book brain.
Speaker 2:I would say that the character of Kay Vess, especially the way that she looks, actually fits very well with the theme of the game. You know she's like somebody that she's in the in the underworld. You know she's a smuggler I'm pretty sure they're not going to really care about, like maybe throwing on makeup. Or like doing her hair.
Speaker 1:You know she's putting on chems, you know whatnot, but that's because dude she's in an underworld, that's.
Speaker 2:That's the world she loves. I think that this game is disney's attempt at kind of making up for the loss of 1313, because we were supposed to get an underworld game. That kind of took place in the underworld of coruscant remember star wars, 1313 yeah, how could I forget the game we all wanted? The game that we all wanted but never got yeah, basically you know I it.
Speaker 2:But yeah, I totally agree with you. I I think that that there are some petty gripes. I mean, there are some valid gripes. It's not a perfect game and I would say that, like between this and then maybe a game like the Jedi series, I like a little bit more. To me it's a lot more fun. But the thing is is that both games are very different. Also, the Jedi Fallen Order or Jedi Survivor games, it's more of like an adventure You're hacking and slashing away. But this game is like heavily like it's a stealth game, dude, like it's it's ubisoft. So I see some elements of like assassin's creed in there. I see a little bit of a tiny, very, very tiny bit of an influence of like red dead redemption in there. I feel like this game is definitely a step in the right direction. It's like they're trying to do something and I I dude, like what I would love to get and I feel like this is a step into that direction is a no man's sky star wars game. No man's sky now as it exists now. It's really fun, it's an awesome game I mean when it came out it sucked, but now it's a really good
Speaker 2:game. But like the way that you leave the planet and you go into the atmosphere, they cleverly hide loading within that. You know, I kind of wish you got that in this game. You a little bit get that, but you get a cut scene. I mean it's a lot better than Starfields. When you go to a planet you get a loading screen. At least with this you get a cut scene of you landing. But I mean it's cool, though, like I feel like it's a step in the right direction. You know, there were certain things at first that I didn't understand, but then the more you played you understood a little bit more. Like the data spike minigame that you got, I was like dude, like what do I do? But what you have to do is like line up with the beeping, and I was like oh, okay, okay, I get it now.
Speaker 1:Yes, so there like a couple like little mini game things that you have to do to and like to progress in the story. Yeah, there's, like you said, the data spike thing we talked about it last week where you have to synchronize your button mashing to the rhythm of the beeps.
Speaker 2:It is button yeah, you're right, dude, you're like r2, r2, r2, yeah, yeah I feel bad for those who have like no sense of rhythm. Oh man yeah.
Speaker 1:It's, it's, it's going to be an impossible game at that point. You know, like there's sometimes it is frustrating to like I think I have the rhythm and it's just like what am I doing?
Speaker 2:It throws you off yeah.
Speaker 1:It throws me off, and then I have to like wait like two or three cycles before I can like try again yeah, um what I will say is that this is, for me, that's a unique thing that I've never done in gaming, yeah especially not in a game like this. Using you know sounds to indicate when, to you know, press a button or whatever right, right, and I think that quite a few people have said that before.
Speaker 2:Like you know, I haven't experienced anything like that. So yeah, it is interesting, it's. You know I. I appreciate the experimentation, you know it's. I know a lot of people gripe about things, but it's like you know they're trying something different, you know it's. It's not like it was.
Speaker 1:It's completely terrible, you know and then there's the splice mechanics, which is you know, you're like you're, you're you're playing wordle dude, it's wordle. It's wordle with like symbols, you know, and it took me a long time to realize that we spoke about it last time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we did. We did dude at first. I'm like dude, what, what and it doesn't tell you anything like, I'm just like no, there's no tutorial at all.
Speaker 1:I was like what do I select?
Speaker 2:like I mean, you just have to guess, just like you have to guess at first.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you have to guess at first, and then you just like you start getting the right things. You know or you start getting the wrong things and that kind of like checks it off the list. You know like, okay, that's not a piece, that's not a piece yeah, which I appreciate is a piece.
Speaker 1:I appreciate this is a piece, but it's in the wrong spot. Yeah, I appreciate that too. So I don't think you can like lose with the splicing. It just takes a long time sometimes. You know like sometimes I'm like six rows down, I'm just like man.
Speaker 1:I still haven't gotten this yet yeah but I like that too, I like wordle, so I do find that it's kind of fun, but it's repetitive after a certain point. You know, like I'm 13 hours into the game, 14 hours, I've probably done it 15, 20 times a different, like rooms that I've opened, or like lock boxes that I've needed to, or whatever you know data, things that I needed to, you know turn off or whatever. I think it is a little bit repetitive yeah, the slicing is a little.
Speaker 2:You know it's not the worst, but yeah, it's not like my it's not my favorite. I like data spiking a little bit more just because of that, like you know, lighting up the the thing and it's fun. Yeah, that's a little bit more fun, but it's my wife likes the wordle splicing oh, she does yeah, she gets really excited whenever it pops up whenever it pops up, just like, all right, just hand it over to her. All right, do it yeah, basically.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so little stuff like that actually is is quite fun. Have you gotten around to playing sabacc yet in the game?
Speaker 2:yes, I did it. It took me a little bit. So there's a couple of star wars card games that I've like played throughout the like star wars games and sabacc took me a little bit more than like something like.
Speaker 1:There's pizzock, which is kind of like blackjack yeah, so this is kind of like poker and uno that's a good.
Speaker 2:That's a good description of that. Yeah, that I haven't really played poker. That's why I think it.
Speaker 1:It took me a little bit yeah, poker's fun because you basically just go around the table, you try to get, you try to get a, a hand that is worthy of you know like throwing down onto the table, and you have to like draw and you know fold cards and stuff. So it basically takes all the concepts of poker and simplifies it tremendously in terms of like. You only end up with two cards in your hand at any given point, so you just have to make sure that it's the lowest denomination in a pair that you could manage yeah and I think that that's pretty fun because you're also given like little chips that you know have different.
Speaker 1:This is this is the part that reminds me of uno is like you can take points from other characters, you can stack points for yourself with these things, and I'm sure there's other chips that I have yet to unlock, because it looks like there's like 15 or 20 different kind of like cheat code chips that you can eventually collect throughout the game.
Speaker 2:So I'm actually looking forward to that because I'm enjoying the sabacc aspect of it yeah, yeah, sabacc is pretty fun and it was fun trying to like figure it out. But yeah, this game I think this is definitely one of the few star wars games where you get to visit, like multiple planets, but then you get this whole space navigation that you can do too yes, I was able to do a little bit of that because I did go off planet for one mission where I had I needed to bust out bosnock from this imperial base yeah, yeah, I think that was like one of the earlier yeah, that was like one of the
Speaker 1:earlier missions, like after toshara yes, but then it sent me right back to toshara and I haven't left toshara since, so I've never actually been to another planet in this game. That's, that's how like. That's that's how excited I am about like any side quests. Whenever a side quest pops up, I immediately run to it. So I have an actual problem like I have, like an actual like OC no, no, I understand it when it comes to like open world games.
Speaker 2:It is so easy to get caught up in the whole like side quest thing. One of the biggest one game that I had such a big issue with that was the witcher 3 yeah, I can imagine like witcher 3 and like red dead redemption 2, yeah, but but some of their side quests are so good, dude exactly so good yeah, so that's why, like I, I usually do them, because, like you, just don't know what's gonna happen and so where are you in the game currently?
Speaker 2:like you said that you left toshara I went to some it's it starts with an, a. It's like give me a second. It's like some akiva, yeah, akiva, yeah. It's like some like a forested planet.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah.
Speaker 2:So I'm checking that out. But yeah, so I mean we've talked a little bit about the game, the game you start off and Kanto bite, which is interesting. You know, like we haven't really seen Kanto bite outside of the Last Jedi, so the fact that it started in Kanto bite was interesting started in Canto Bight was interesting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I thought it's an interesting origin for KVS. You know for her to like try to run away by stealing a ship and you know just finding her way into Toshara. But I like the idea of her growing up on a place where there's such a wealth disparity as Canto Bight. You know you have, like, the elites that come there for you know, gambling and entertainment, but then you have everyone else who's just basically slaves to these people and then, of course, you're going to have, you know, people getting into crime rings because of that disparity.
Speaker 2:Right, and this is where it starts off. So the story starts off you get tricked a little bit into saving somebody from the Rebel Alliance and you know Kay is like well, I need my money, like I don't care about your, your Rebel Alliance, like I need to get paid, you know. And she gets screwed because it's like Sliro's base. He is the leader of Zarek Besh and you break this person out of the base I mean, I don't know why he was in there to begin with, but you get caught and get this death mark put onto you, so you're pretty much dead meat to to zerk besh. And so that's how you end up on toshara by stealing one of his ships, which is funny because you steal like one of his like prized ships, which makes it even worse. It's easy like you, like you busted into his place, you stole like one of his favorite ships.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like you, you're definitely it's actually a nice ship like it's. It's a really nice ship, like just walking around, like I've gotten lost inside the ship before, like it's just like it's a little like mini labyrinth, yeah it's like it doesn't look big, but like there's like a bunch of like spaces. Yeah, you got like 18 bedrooms in there.
Speaker 2:It's like the Ebon Hawk in KOTOR, but yeah, so yeah, you end up on Toshara because you get damaged in the process of leaving and yeah, like. So that's where, like, the real game really opens up and it has this whole interesting thing that I like that this game does is that you have influence or reputation with these different syndicates, you know right, yeah like you have the huts, you have crimson dawn dude, the pikes hate me like just.
Speaker 2:I don't think I'm ever gonna be a friend of the pikes because like I feel like I sneeze and they hate me.
Speaker 1:I keep trying to break into their vault and they hate me more every time.
Speaker 2:Dude same. I noticed that there's a couple missions that and it kind of sucks, but they're like instant loss missions that if you get caught you have to restart.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I hate that a lot, but it's realistic, I guess. But I guess what? I'm not huge on the stealth RPGs like this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is hugely stealth.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a lot of stealth. It's probably more stealth than even like Uncharted.
Speaker 2:Dude, it's more stealth than, like, current Assassin's Creed games.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a lot of that and it's not a bad thing. I think it does it really well.
Speaker 2:I'm just not personally like super into I'm not good at it, but I still have fun. I'm not good yeah, I'm not good at stealth games.
Speaker 1:It definitely gets stressful, but you know what really bothers me, actually this this is something that, like, I actually have a problem with. So I'm thinking about other games that I've played recently, so I'm going to compare it to two. You can also choose stealth type approaches to other RPGs when you're going into, like a mob area or like some sort of base. So I'm thinking of, like Hogwarts Legacy. Like, whenever you go into like a wizard encampment you can like, or like a goblin encampment you can stealth into it. You can hidement, you can like, or like a goblin encampment, you can stealth into it, you can hide, you can go invisible and you can take out the enemies one by one and they don't respond.
Speaker 1:Same thing with avatar frontiers of pandora. Like you can go into an rda base and you know, take them out one by one. Eventually you're going to probably be caught. But one thing that's cool is that you can start chipping away at all their forces and eventually there will be no more forces. That doesn't happen in this game. So I realized that like 30 minutes into like my my battle against these stormtroopers, I was trying to like get someone out of a stormtrooper base on toshara and I died like a hundred times and then I found a nice cool like ledge outside of the base where I could just shoot at them constantly and they eventually like slow down. But then they just they just respawn right there and there's like 100 dead bodies on this stupid ledge of like stormtroopers and they just keep coming back and I like look it up, but do these mobs just keep respawning?
Speaker 1:it's not like I can just like deplete the base and then do the mission. No you have to like stealth it.
Speaker 2:There's no other way to do it but stealth. They have one of those like portals from Doctor Strange, just like they're running through.
Speaker 1:Yeah, dude, it feels like that.
Speaker 2:Are those portals from? Was it Ready Player One that the ioi would would like go into like whenever they would like boot up?
Speaker 1:or like in loki and deadpool and wolverine. You know, like the tva portals, they just would just like keep popping yes, yes, yes it felt.
Speaker 1:It feels like that you know you don't see them pop up, they don't like just materialize on your screen, but they just come out of nowhere, like they'll just like run up the stairs and I'm just like I know there was no guys down there like after dying a few times, like I just like, when the turrets started like shooting, I just like ran over to the area that I needed to go to.
Speaker 2:I was just like man, forget this, I'm running away from this fight. I'm not gonna win this okay, because like they just like surround you, dude, it doesn't matter how many you kill, they just keep coming. But yeah that I had a similar issue with that one. They just, they just kept coming, but yeah that that was like so that's, that's like the one group, that like it doesn't matter if they hate you, because they're gonna always hate you yeah, why does the empire suck man?
Speaker 2:they always gotta hate, so so something that I noticed in this game and it's not as well at least right now it's, or early in the game. It's not as extensive as red dead redemption, but the whole like quick draw thing that they have that you can only like aim at three people yeah, what about it?
Speaker 2:well, I mean, I thought that was interesting, that that was kind of like another mechanic. That was that's where I was like kind of saying that there was instances that kind of reminded me of red dead redemption. Some of the landscapes kind of remind me of that too. I feel like if the game was a little bit more optimized and put a little bit more into the graphics, it could be just as beautiful as that game. Mind you, like red dead redemption 2 is a previous generation game and it's still, like probably one of the most beautiful looking games on console, you know yeah, yeah, no, I totally agree.
Speaker 1:So what are your thoughts from what you've played sorry my dog's. Like lapping up water, like it's not, like there's no tomorrow. What are your thoughts on like, like, if you can review it, what would your like numerical review for this be, and why?
Speaker 2:I feel like it's a solid seven yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So I believe it's a solid seven, mostly because it's not that bad of a game. You know, once you kind of get the swing of it, once you start playing it, there's a lot of fun to be had. The worlds are really like interesting. There's some pretty good detail in these worlds. There's things that you can kind of stumble upon. You know, there's like these little side quests to get upgrades for different things that bring you to like areas that are like oh my gosh, this is crazy. But with that being said, it's not perfect. You know, like it could have been a little bit more optimized. I feel like sometimes it gets a little glitchy, but it's so tough with these open world games for it to be just kind of spot on. Even red dead redemption 2 like has its own glitches, you know.
Speaker 2:And yeah you know it and, and like I said, like there are certain things that I I kind of wish it it did a little bit better with like leaving the planet or like re-entry. I feel like I wish it went a little bit more like the no man's sky route. I mean, there's ways to like hide loading within that, like you know when, when you burn up, and like re-entry, like you know how, like there's like that it flares up. That that's you. That's what no man's sky does, like when you're like passing through clouds, or like it'll burn up so much that you can't really see there's loading happening in there, and so I kind of wish stuff like that I'm not a big fan of.
Speaker 1:Like it's hidden in the transition.
Speaker 2:Right, right, right right. I'm also not a fan of like some of the like instant loss, like missions, like when you get caught. I wish that stealth was a little bit more optional. I understand that, like you're not going to be going guns blazing, but like I mean, it's like really, really big time stealth, you know, and at least with Assassin's Creed you could like go. Yeah, like you said, like you can kind of pick off people a little bit easier, like here and there, maybe pick off a couple people here and there, but it's not dwindling down the numbers, it's more of like I just need you to get out of my way because I'm trying to sneak by these 20 people over here, you know yeah, and what I do like about the stealth is that they're consistent with it throughout the entire game.
Speaker 1:You know, like, in terms of like what you can and can't get away with. I remember like again comparing it to like hogwarts legacy. Like one of the first missions in that game is you have to steal or find a bunch of things in the library and the forbidden library at night and there's like prefects walking around that you can't be caught by and basically, like the whole point of that was to say that you know you can't be caught in hogwarts at nighttime but, like in the rest of the game they don't enforce that at all. Like you can walk around whatever time of day you want. You know like. So there was no point to that whole quest besides telling you how to like get away from enemies. That's it was basically a tutorial that wasn't consistent with the rest of the actual story or the game itself. So it was that was frustrating for me, but with this I appreciate that. You know you really have to get into the mind of a criminal.
Speaker 1:You know, like you have to get into the mind of an outlaw who's trying to run from the law. You know she's trying to stay out of the eyes of law abiding citizens or you know not law abiding citizens who don't like her, like the Pykes. Yeah, I feel like it's really hard to like be in good favor with the Pykes. Am I wrong?
Speaker 2:I feel like it. Yeah, I really feel like it is Because, like dude, like they just hate me, like I'm just like Everybody else, like I'm just kind of like neutral, I'm in, good I. But yeah, like the pikes, I just I feel like they're just spiteful people, you know, like they like it's like they just they look in your direction and just hate you automatically you know, yeah, yeah, just their alien way.
Speaker 1:One thing that I thought was interesting and you brought it up a little bit is like the factions and how you gain favor with one but lose favor in another, and I've seen that in a couple games. I think the first time I ever remember it is probably World of Warcraft with like if you gain favor by doing quests with one faction, you'll lose a little bit of favor with another and you have, you know, like a running tally of like all your, all the factions and like where you stand with it. So I kind of got that vibe from it. And when it comes to like know being on an Imperial base and like being wanted, there are like levels almost kind of like Grand Theft Auto there are levels to like how wanted you are, because eventually they'll send in death troopers.
Speaker 1:Have you dealt with death troopers yet?
Speaker 2:No, I haven't yet. That's actually crazy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they sent in death troopers.
Speaker 2:Dude, they must have really hated you at that time.
Speaker 1:They hated me but I outsmarted them and just like kind of like stayed out of their gunfire, like I was like shooting at them from a distance and and just knocked them all out.
Speaker 2:But yeah, so that was fun well, you have that whole like disruptor thing that you can use on them too.
Speaker 1:That's true, yes, yeah, so there's a lot of, like different weapons and stuff, stuff that you can pick up and utilize for the game itself, and I think that that is pretty fun. Actually, I think my main criticism with the game outside of certain smaller things, like the enemies coming back to life while you're still in that area, that did really bother me.
Speaker 1:But I think my biggest issue is I'm not grabbed by the story yet and I know I'm very early in the story and I know that I'm not like focused too heavily on it, but I'm not rushing to get to the story, if that makes any sense, like I don't feel that there's any particular rush for me to get off planet and go to akiva or, uh, tatooine or any of the other planets that you can visit in this game Though I do want to, you know, but I'm not in any particular rush and I feel like that is part of the issue that I'm having with. You know, like following the main storyline is that I don't feel like I need to at this point. I'm just kind of like having fun doing nothing.
Speaker 2:Well, I feel like. I feel like I mean, and correct me if I'm wrong. I mean I. I feel like that might be just something that you're into with, like most games that have you're right, no, you, you are right, but and that's that's kind of like I need.
Speaker 1:I need games to have like a linear story like see, I can understand that, like I've.
Speaker 2:I know that, like a lot of people really adore open world games and for the most part I do enjoy them, but I don't enjoy them as much as I used to. I used to feel like that for me to justify dropping money on a game that I needed a game that had a massive world in it. But that's not really the case, because it's like okay, well, you have this massive world, but what is being filled within this world and I mean for the most part star wars, outlaws does fill the world like pretty decently. But you know, yeah, you have games like jedi fallen order, jedi survivor, that you can kind of go and do these side missions, but it's for the most part linear and it's easier to follow the story where, and that that's where I agree with you. I do like some stuff that's a little bit more linear, that has a little bit of maybe freedom to like, you know, go here or go there, maybe something a little semi open world, like dude.
Speaker 2:I love the last of us games. The second one had like a little bit of a open world segment, but it wasn't truly open world, it was semi open world, and then. Then it kind of like narrows it back down, but it's like, dude, like I don't regret paying money for that. And it wasn't like a super massive world, it was the story. It was what grabbed me, you know, and it kept me coming for more, because I was really like receiving from this story and, yeah, like this game, I really. I mean, the story is hey, she just wants to like really earn her freedom, you know like, she wants to like not have this death mark over her, and that's what she's working towards in this game yeah, no, I totally hear you.
Speaker 1:I totally hear you and I'm excited to dive further into it.
Speaker 2:I actually was playing a little bit before we got on. I was like, oh, let me get a little like last bit of of of playing before we actually recorded and and yeah, man, I mean I have fun when I get on. I was too actually.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was too and I do. I do have fun. I think what I'm feeling is mostly like I'm not super sucked in and I, I agree, I agree yeah, I feel like I've put a lot of time into it already and I haven't been like wow, I can't wait to play this again.
Speaker 1:You know, I can't wait to come home and play this, like right, it's a solid story, but it's not strong when hogwarts legacy came out, that felt like a really unique game that I was very excited to see what happened next, or like just dive in and like explore. Same thing with Frontiers of Pandora and I'm saying this because I don't play many games, so it's it's the games that I do play. I loved exploring Frontiers of Pandora. It is one of the most beautiful games like the world that they created, for that was. I've never experienced anything like it. It felt so realistic and there's so many different variations of scenery and stuff. So I love that about it. So just exploring that and seeing like all the little hidden things in there was cool. I still haven't gotten that vibe from Outlaws and I'm not sure if I will, but I'm going to give it another. I'm going to give it plenty more shots. You know it's it's. I'm having a fun time with it, so I'm I'm being probably too critical of it, but it's a solid seven.
Speaker 2:Right, right, right, which I think that the more you get into it, I think it'll maintain that seven. I think that a seven is it's a justifiable score, like I don't think. You know, like you said, there's people that are nitpicking it and bashing it for like the most trivial reasons. But you know like there are valid gripes. You know, you know, like I said, yeah, the story might not grab you. It's a solid story but it's not a super strong story. This is not something that is extremely story driven, like the last of us or even, like I said, red dead redemption. There's so much that you can do and there's so many side quests that you can do that lead you off into some crazy stuff, but when you actually do play the story, it pulls you in, same with the Witcher 3.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I totally hear you and yeah, so I've heard that the story for Star Wars Outlaws as you get further into it, the depth of character between Kay Vess and Nyx and the droid that she picks up, who I haven't even met yet in the story mode, is really compelling.
Speaker 2:So I've I've heard that and I believe it and I'm excited to see it, and you'll probably hear me talk more about that in the coming weeks yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I think that this will be something that, like you know, this is kind of like our extensive talk about it, but we'll talk a little bit more about it, like throughout the like. Oh, I got to this area, you know, blah, blah, blah. You know, like a little synopsis of what we're up to in the game at that point guys, thank you so much for listening to us here for our 95th episode.
Speaker 1:if you want to have a a sneak peek at what we're covering next week or next podcast, rather, it's the fx series shogun. We're going to be covering the first season of that. Neither of us have seen any of it and we're excited to finally give it a shot. You know, the Emmys were this past weekend and it received, I think, 18 or 19 wins, more than any single season of television has ever received. So I'm super excited to see what they have in store for us. Anthony, you're on board with Shogun.
Speaker 2:Dude, yeah, absolutely, like I'm stoked, like it looks amazing, I'm excited to dive into that.
Speaker 1:Awesome, cool man, so I will see you next week. For those of you listening, please be sure to give this podcast a five-star juicy review if you haven't already Juicy? And, yeah, I hope you enjoyed our episode of Star Wars Outlaws. If you want to let us know your thoughts on Star Wars Outlaws or any other podcast, or you know recommendations you give us for the show, please be sure to visit us on our socials. You can find all of our socials in the show notes down below. And yeah, we'll talk to you soon.
Speaker 2:Adio Bye.
Speaker 1:Star Wars Outlaws.
