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
Marvel Rivals
Buckle up, gamers! We’re discussing in our 111th episode by diving deep into the colorful chaos of Marvel Rivals. This episode is packed with insights as we explore the intriguing similarities and stark differences between Marvel Rivals and the well-known Overwatch franchise. Our hosts share their experiences navigating the gameplay, revealing character favorites, and discussing the community's engaging dynamics that bring excitement to every match.
Join us as we navigate the rising popularity of Marvel Rivals, tackling its approach to character selection and gameplay mechanics. Along the way, we delve into the critical role that community interaction plays in shaping player experiences, illustrating how teamwork can elevate the gaming journey. Moreover, we also dissect the challenges players face with interface design, speculating about how these factors can influence future game development as competition heats up in the gaming world.
Whether you’re a die-hard Marvel fan or just love a good gaming discussion, this episode is a must-listen. Join our conversation and don’t forget to leave us a five-star review - possibly with a Slim Jim in hand! Tune in to get your dose of gaming insight, laughter, and a glimpse into what's on the horizon for our podcast and the Marvel gaming universe.
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https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBwciIqOoHwIx_uXtYTSEbA
Twitch (Anthony):
https://www.twitch.tv/odysseywow
All right guys, welcome back to another episode of Project Geekology. This is episode 111. It's our 111th birthday. No, we're not Bilbo, we're not that old. But yeah, 111 episodes. I can't believe Anthony and I and you know Rich, for the past couple have made it this far. This is actually like pretty awesome. You know, I think what we said originally, like when we first started the show Pretty awesome, you know, we, I think what we said originally, like when we first started the show, was that seven episodes is the cutoff point for most podcasts. If you don't make it past seven episodes, or if you make it past seven episodes, you're in the clear, Like you. Just, you found your groove. If you haven't made it past seven episodes, then most likely you just stop right there. Rich, you have, you have been on more episodes than seven episodes, so congratulations to you. I mean, it's been quite a few more than seven, I think, at this point, but welcome, welcome to the team uh much appreciated.
Speaker 2:I'm happy to be here with you guys celebrate our 111th. You know, uh, I like uh half of you as much as I should and uh, you know, mostly use half as much as I should. So uh, much of you deserve. I can't remember his line, it's impossible.
Speaker 1:He's so smart, he's too witty for his own good. But yeah, you heard from Rich. My name is Dakota and I'm joined, as always, with Anthony.
Speaker 1:And today we have a fun show because I think we both we all have different opinions about the title that we're covering today. It's a video game. You guys have probably heard about it. It's been, uh making the rounds, um, it's been very popular on streaming sites, uh, over the past couple months. We're, of course, talking about overwatch 2. Uh, I mean, uh sorry, um, marvel rivals. I don't know if that was purposeful or by accident, but nonetheless, that was awesome.
Speaker 1:No, it was purposeful. I mean to say that whenever I play Marvel Rivals, it just makes me want to play Overwatch again.
Speaker 3:Oh, wow.
Speaker 1:But yeah, yeah, so we're going to be talking about Marvel Rivals for our main topic of discussion this evening. We record it at night, obviously, or you actually probably don't know that, so it's not obvious to you, but it's obvious to us. But anyway, what have playing it in preparation for this episode?
Speaker 3:you know, it was just like a natural thing. I've been back on a like I'm now on like a watch cycle of One Piece now. So like now, like I'll take like a little bit of a break and then, like I'll get back onto it.
Speaker 1:Oh, you've jumped back in like.
Speaker 3:I'll take like a little bit of a break and then like I'll get back onto it. Oh, you've jumped back in, so now, yeah, now now I'm back like in the cycle, like I'm, you know, like I'm kind of like full steam kind of been. I'll watch like a handful of episodes, well, I mean like during like every like day. Like I'll watch one like during lunch, and then, like in the evening, I'll watch like maybe a few more. Right, like maybe three, four. I honestly like kind of like the dragon prince, like how you're able to like get through the episodes like pretty quick.
Speaker 3:Honestly, one piece is the same way, especially when you're you're skipping the intro and the outro, like, when you like, cut out that fluff the episodes, just they're easy to get through.
Speaker 1:What episode are you on now?
Speaker 3:I'm up in I'm past Thriller Bark.
Speaker 1:So I want to say Give us a range of episodes, you don't have to go as far as 500.
Speaker 3:Like past 500.
Speaker 1:Oh snap, so you're probably about halfway through then.
Speaker 3:Well, maybe just under halfway, they're at like 100. No, they're at like 1,100 plus episodes now Okay.
Speaker 1:It's such a crazy show Well.
Speaker 3:I mean right now is like a good time. Well, I mean the past few months is a good time because it's been on a hiatus.
Speaker 1:It starts back up in april yeah, um, I think this is like the most substantial hiatus that one piece has ever had.
Speaker 3:Actually, it's been.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's large, it's pretty large I I guess uh oda needed a vacation uh, yeah, I guess so, and yeah, the the anime has been they're.
Speaker 3:They're on the egghead arc right now, so that's been on hiatus since like about five months now, so so we got like that's a yeah, yeah, good, good, catching up time yeah, yeah, that absolutely so.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, I've been on that full steam ahead. Uh, I went to oh um on saturday I went to a little event. So I have a friend that I think I had told you guys that he owns a um, him and his wife, they, they own a, an anime shop, and they had this event down by where I live. You know. It was really fun. They had like a bunch of like vendors there. They had uh, uh, there was a, a boba like business that had, like you know, they, they brought some stuff over and they had, uh, korean corn dogs and there was food trucks and stuff and they had a, a cosplay contest and and I won third place who did you play as or who'd you go as?
Speaker 3:girl, my, my classic man, my classic Obi-Wan, Obi-Wan. Yeah, I want to add more to my cosplaying resume Repertoire. Yeah, yeah, exactly, I want to add to it, but I just don't. Well, right now, gathering and putting together a cosplay is not, it's not on on my horizon. I'm I'm trying to work on getting you know, building up another pc and stuff, so. But I mean, that was cool though, because I I got a gift card to the shop and I won a ticket to otaku fest, so nice hey hey man representing your favorite disney show, like that's.
Speaker 2:That's pretty cool actually. You know, I'm I'm going.
Speaker 3:It's revenge of the sith. Okay, revenge of the sith okay, I'm not that old yet, but um would it and so speaking of old revenge of the sith turned 20 yesterday um, it's coming back to theaters also, so man I'm definitely.
Speaker 3:I I'm going to go and see that. Oh, I'm not too sure. So there was some news that dropped today. I'm not too sure if you watched anything with her in it, but there's an actress named Michelle Trachtenberg that, like she passed away very young, 39 years old, for a lot of the like you know, if you were growing up or you know like old enough to like remember in like the 90s and like the, the, the early 2000s. Uh, she was in buffy, she was in some some disney stuff also. I don't know if she did any nickelodeon, but she was like really well known, like kind of around that time, especially, uh, you know, and people in those kind of realms, and so that that was some like pretty crazy news, especially like with her being only 39. Uh, you know, like dakota you and I aren't that far from that age and riches is about a decade above that oh man I was just kidding, but don't worry, I got that wolverine healing factor.
Speaker 3:So I'm basically seven years old no, but yeah that that that was some crazy news and that was sad yeah she, it was like a failed liver transplant or something was that, like I, I don't, I don't know exactly what it was, but they she was just. She was found, like you know, unresponsive and and whatnot. So I didn't, I didn't get catch a cause of death yeah, it's sad um I.
Speaker 1:I wasn't hugely familiar with her but obviously, like you know you, you've seen her in something oh, yeah, absolutely so, um, yeah, that was really sad, especially because she was so young.
Speaker 3:So absolutely, but yeah. So how about you, dakota? What have you been up to?
Speaker 1:what have I been up to? Um, a lot of working on the bathroom, getting the tiles in place for the shower, yeah, like literal physical stuff. I also started going to the gym this past week. Like I got a, I got a membership. I haven't been like a regular gym goer for a couple of years, so, and I want to change that.
Speaker 1:Um, so I've been going to the gym pretty regularly. Uh, just, you know, just trying to get back into the rhythm of things in that respect and, just you know, trying to enjoy it. So that's been good. It's been giving me, I think, a little bit more energy throughout my day, and, you know, when I have free time going to the gym, it does feel good, so I'm excited about that. Funny enough, yesterday a new video game just downloaded itself to my phone that I don't even remember signing up for, but I must have signing up for, but I must have. So. Back when, like godzilla x, kong the new empire came out godzilla kong the new empire there was a video game that was like supposed to be coming out around that time called, uh, godzilla kong titan hunters. And hold on, hold on my cat's like going crazy. Let me let her be right back.
Speaker 2:Do you think he went? He went to globo gym or joe's globo. Definitely, definitely. He's definitely a globo gym kind of guy. He's like michelle, bring me my pancakes, yeah sorry about that.
Speaker 1:Welcome back yeah, so I I a game downloaded itself to my phone, uh, that I guess I pre-ordered. I didn't really pre-ordered it, but I like signed up for it like a long time ago on the app store. It was over a year ago at this point, because it was when I was working on my godzilla like monsterverse timeline video, that like I was interested in this, but anyway, I started playing this. You know how I'm like a sucker for just like stupid mobile games. Well, this one's pretty stupid and it's definitely a mobile game. So, um, I've been dabbling in that so, naturally, you've been enjoying it I enjoy aspects of it.
Speaker 1:I I do, and I'm a sucker for games where I can level up a character you know like, you gain experience points and you allocate different like abilities or skills or you know experience to different characters that, uh, you've collected through.
Speaker 1:So it plays similarly to, uh, star wars, galaxy of heroes where you, you, you do certain missions and you get shards of characters that unlock higher ranks of those characters. They're completely unique characters to the game. They've created their own mythology within the Monsterverse, basically. So in this universe or in this game which I'm not really sure if it's canon or not or if I'm supposed to treat it as such, but for the sake of the game, I did basically like a new land mass, like an archipelago formed in the ocean called the siren isles, and it kind of like mimics the hollow earth and like skull island, uh like in terms of like the monsters that show up.
Speaker 1:So a new type of like career has opened up called titan hunters, where basic or titan chasers I forget what it's called but um, yeah, so so you develop a, a team of titan chasers on your specific plot of land, and it's kind of cool because you see the entire map and you get to like choose where you want to build your base, but then there's like thousands of other people like who are also building around you. So it's kind of like. I'm sure there's different servers and stuff, but you can kind of see like how the entire ecosystem of the game has like developed in just a single day, um. So you build your base, kind of like clash of clans maybe. I think that's probably the okay the closest.
Speaker 1:it's like a base builder, slash, galaxy of heroes, shard character collector, um, and like mission allocator. So it kind of has that like I don't know. Like I'm thinking about like Final Fantasy tactics, where you like send a group of individuals on a mission and they come back either successful or not. Anyway, long story short. I think it's too much going on at the same time and it's really it's. It's it's so much stuff to focus on, it's so much stuff to focus on and I would rather focus on just the story mode and the character shard aspect of it. Like the Galaxy of Heroes. I don't really care about base building, I don't really care about expeditions, but anyway, I'll play it for a little bit more and if I like it I'll continue, if I don't, I'll drop it.
Speaker 3:Who's playing these base building games? I'll drop it. Who's playing these base building games? Because, dude, they're like. I've played a handful of them and they get so. Literally every single one of them are all the same.
Speaker 3:It's like the aspects that the aspects that change are like maybe some of the other stuff that you can do, but the base building stuff is literally all the same and it's boring. It's extra boring. Even the clash of clans. One is a bit different than like the other ones. These other ones are like, you know, you build a base and then there's like this like massive world that you can move things around and resource gather and it's just yes, that's exactly what it is, and tedious and I'm like who is playing these games?
Speaker 3:who is asking for these games? Who asked for them? I, I like, I I don't know anybody who's asking for these games, but yet they keep making them. It must be the philippines, it must be china.
Speaker 1:They must love them over there, because I know over here we cannot stand them well, that seems like unnecessarily harsh for like the philippines, like why did you, why'd you single out the philippines?
Speaker 3:because, because the philip, because, the, the philippines, when it comes to like mobile gaming, like they're like really like into it and so like over there and like the, you know, like singapore and all that stuff they love, like their mobile legends and a lot of like the mobile games yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3:I mean you know, not not to say that they don't play regular games either. I mean they're like really big into you know other stuff like dota, league of legends and stuff. But like you know, like mobile gaming isn't really like widely talked about here. Like you, you know, yeah, people might play bubble, which saga or whatever here. You know, maybe we might mess around with you know I mess around with you know games on on the phone, you know here and there too, but like, if I had a preference, it's always going to be PC or even a console.
Speaker 1:You know mm-hmm, yeah, yeah. So I, I, uh, I I'm, I'm feeling that, um, I'll play, I'll give it a couple more, maybe give another day, uh see if I'm like feeling it at all. Um, but I'm, I think that I'm probably gonna drop it, just because it's just way too much going on in the game and the actual aspects that I enjoy aren't like, they don't seem like the forefront of what I'm going to be experiencing long term in the game. Um, because the story room, the story mode, does seem short and I feel like I'm almost halfway after a day of play. Um, so, yeah, I don't know. Uh, I I still am playing that one game called the tower. Like I I've it's like really addicting, like I I'm always playing it.
Speaker 1:It's just it's an idle game where, like you, eventually like, just continue to increase the power and uh economy of your, your tower, so you continually upgrade and yeah, um, yeah it's, it's a, it's really well done, but anyway, that's um. I think that's all that. I've been up to nothing crazy. Watched a little bit more dragon prince today. I'm up in season five, but yeah, otherwise I've just been like playing uh marvel rivals have you?
Speaker 3:have you read any more? One piece, one?
Speaker 1:Piece, Not lately. I have read, I think, 21 volumes and I have the 22nd, but I have not picked it up yet. Gotta get on it, Dakota. I know, I know I think episode-wise that would be somewhere in 250 to 300 episodes. But yeah, I really enjoy reading the manga, I think when I'm watching the. No, I'm still in Alabasta, so I don't.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, Alabasta is like way back there.
Speaker 1:So then, yeah, maybe I'm like in the 100s, but anyway I enjoy it. That's cool. I'm going to cede my time and give it to Rich.
Speaker 2:Well, I've been, let's see. Well, you know, it's actually interesting because Charlie wants to watch One Piece after they finish their rewatch of Naruto, before they have to get to episode 500 before May 11th when they go to see the naruto orchestra performance at the king's theater.
Speaker 1:so so that's a goal they need to watch 500 episodes before may 11th yeah, well they.
Speaker 2:It's been a long slog, so it's something we've been doing for a while, so I think they're in like the 300s right now. Uh, and then he's got plans. I mean, he's a devious, devious man. He's got plans for one piece after this.
Speaker 1:So all right, I mean he made show. I feel like it's a step up, then, from from naruto personally. Um, although naruto is cool, did he ever watch the others like the, the follow-up show? Uh, naruto shippuden yeah, yeah, yeah, he watched shippuden and I think that's-up show uh, naruto shippuden.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, he watched shippuden, and I think that's actually what he's watching is shippuden that's a step up.
Speaker 3:That's a step up of yeah, they're the original.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he watches that, and then um, and then there's boruto. I think that's uh naruto right, that's naruto.
Speaker 3:Naruto's song yeah, you got that right, boruto. Yeah, no, it's.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So while they're doing that, I'm still in here going really kind of focusing on a Star Wars kick. I'm not even sure if it's just a kick anymore. I think it's just my life. I finished Fallen, no, I finished Rising Storm.
Speaker 1:My life I uh finished fallen, not I finished rising storm, so I just need to jump into the fallen star for the final part of the trilogy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I'm, I'm that, and then I, I tend to do this stuff, so I tend to do one thing and then kind of surround it, you know.
Speaker 1:So let's say oh yeah, that's 100. What I do like if I'm, if I'm getting into like a, like a universe that I haven't like experienced in a while, like that's all I'll like watch and consume, because I I have a hard time separating my mind into another idea or something.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I I feel that so I'm in, I'm playing, then I'm playing outlaws. Uh, I've been trying, I've been. I I do this weird thing where I uh I don't know if I ever shared this on the show I I put a small star wars ship in all of my cars. Uh, it's just this no little.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's, it's a, it's a new, that's new laura that we've just so like I like I was really upset when disney, you know, said legends because I drove a 1997 Lincoln Town Car that was in pristine condition, all right. When I drove it, I believe you, it was like a creamsicle color and I decided that the Lady Luck, lando Calrissian's luxury all right, luxury ship would be the perfect ship to get in there and somehow Hasbro did make it. So I actually somebody got me a student uh, purchased a uh. Then I think it's the naboo n1 starfighter and I was playing around with getting that in the car, but this one is a little larger and I, I, uh, I may have, uh, may have, had a little bit of a, a weird moment where I flew off the stand that I had put it on right at me as I was driving. Oh no, you know, pod racing is dangerous, as Anakin did tell us.
Speaker 1:So I will be happy to inform you that Lady Luck does make an appearance in canon. Shut up, yes, dude, that's like oh, lady Luck does make an appearance in canon.
Speaker 2:Shut up. No, it does. Yes, dude, that's like oh, I am legitimately so happy right now.
Speaker 1:All right, yeah, they have re-canonized Lady Luck. The first time that they brought it back was the Lando and Han. I think it was a junior novel called Last Shot. No, I think it was just like a novel. It was called Last Shot by Daniel Jose Older. It wasn't my favorite book, but it's also featured pretty heavily in Shadow of the Sith, which is one of my favorite Star Wars books period. It does a really good job of bridging the original trilogy and the events of the Rise of Skywalker the original trilogy and the events of the Rise of Skywalker and Lando is a huge part. It's a Lando and Luke adventure, basically Nice. Basically, they're trying to help this family who has this young daughter named Rey who's being chased across the galaxy by Sith Lords. Oh, named ray um, who's being chased across the galaxy by, uh, sith lords, oh, uh. It's amazing. It's one of the best star wars books out there shadow of the sith.
Speaker 1:you gotta, you gotta check it out and yeah, lady luck makes a makes a great appearance in that, and there's actually there's in my head canon. I think Lando is Force-sensitive and I think they teased that in Shadow of the Sith. There's a line in there where they're trying to figure out what galaxy or star system to go to and I think they got like 30 or 32 different options to choose from and Lando just uses luck, know like he's just like well, if luck's on my side, this is the one you know. And so I think that in star wars, luck is an aspect of the force in a way, even though that's never really been developed, and I think that is kind of like the first instance of that, like being showcased, and I thought that was pretty cool oh man, that's just domino's father I mean, that would be amazing um, but yeah, yeah, uh, I'm sorry I cut you off and went on a lady luck tangent.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I that. That is definitely new lore, uh that we've picked up, uh from you rich, so glad to hear yeah I've just been enjoying like I just really, uh, just you just being in the universe.
Speaker 2:I'm always having a good time and, uh, I'm really loving out was like I. I was hesitant at first, I didn't like the stealth act, the full stealth, but now I've kind of powered up to the point where I just don't care about it. I figured I had a game system where I just don't care. I just don't care about the stealth, and I've been doing a lot of contracts and trying to raise my reputation with all the factions so I can just brazenly go into their areas and do whatever the hell I want. So now that I really understand it, I think I'm getting close to the. I'm getting somewhere close. They don't have any levels in it, so you just kind of get all those upgrades I do. I am usually a sucker for like levels. I like to know like okay, I'm level 47 and 50.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I know that numerical value really does do like it clicks something in my brain.
Speaker 3:that's just like good this is good I mean if that happened every day at work, if that happened every day at work.
Speaker 1:I think that's why I don't like Monster Hunter. Actually, could you guys imagine?
Speaker 2:if, like you, did a good job at work and then they were just like alright, you're level 17 now, like like that would be dope, and then you get like a new shirt, I'd be like it took me two years to get from 16 to 17. And then eventually, if you get up to like level 81, the Black Knight comes after you and challenges you like in Skyrim.
Speaker 1:That would be interesting, Very interesting Guys. Should we jump into our topic of discussion for today?
Speaker 3:Let us do it. I want to hear from both of you. I want to hear from both of you first, because a lot of people have heard me talk about Marvel Rivals a lot you know, so I want to hear from you guys.
Speaker 1:Before we talk about like opinions and everything, let's talk about like what the game is actually about, or like you know, like what you're getting into for people who haven't played it or, um, don't really understand what overwatch is and how this is kind of a ripoff of overwatch I mean you know honestly, if you know it's hard to say that because, like I mean, you could technically say that overwatch rips stuff, stuff off of from other games too.
Speaker 3:You know like, sure it's it's tough to say that I mean, but, but it is definitely I would.
Speaker 1:This game exists without overwatch.
Speaker 3:Right, right, right, like it would be tough because there's there there's a lot of games that existed and tried to fight against Overwatch, but they failed and it's going to be hard to talk about this game without talking about Overwatch, because there's a lot of influence that both games have on each other, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so Marvel Rivals is a new game that's come out. I think it's from a Chinese company.
Speaker 3:NetEase.
Speaker 1:NetEase, yes and yeah. It basically like instead of Overwatch, which has a completely unique IP with their own characters, with their own lore. You know, some of the characters even have like cinematic intros that like kind of tell you about their past. This game is circumventing that learning curve in terms of, like, what the lore is, because everyone already kind of knows what marvel is. You know, at least if you've seen the movies or watched a couple cartoons, you'll know who most of these characters are, right, what I like, about what I like about.
Speaker 1:What I like about marvel rivals is that they don't stick to just the high like the extremely popular characters. I think that that's a really cool aspect of the game that I guess hasn't talked. I don't know if it's not talked about enough, because I don't really I don't follow any marvel rivals discussions, but I think that that is a highlight for me because that just kind of goes to show that there's no character that's off the table.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know if they can do Jeff the Landshark.
Speaker 3:You have Luna Snow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's a bunch of characters that are D tier, f tier characters in terms of popularity but are extremely playable with some of the greats, like the hulk and iron man and captain america and so forth. So I think that that's. That's a a really cool thing to make mention of. Uh, first things first. Anthony, when did you start playing rivals?
Speaker 3:I played dirt. I played during their first beta, one of the that's right, you mentioned it yeah, yeah, like way back, like when one of the the closed betas I didn't play the alpha, I played one of the the closed betas that you had to like sign up for and, uh, I ended up getting in and I was able to play and, yeah, man, like so I've been kind of playing, not on and off like I've been playing regularly, but how has it changed since um that beta like significantly or not, it's not that much so the, the core gameplay pretty much stayed the same and we had like a very small pool of characters to to play with.
Speaker 3:Like some of the characters, a lot of the characters that came out on launch weren't there Like they're they're I don't think Wolverine was there. There was a huge pool of characters that we didn't get. That for the most part, that we got, but they made some tweaks. There's definitely some optimization that they worked on. They still need to work on, see what Netties. Netties is a really well known for their mobile games, so like. That's why sometimes it may feel a little bit like a, an upscaled mobile game, but I mean that it it has to say a lot though with their, with their success though, because, like I mean, they're doing pretty well and I get that it's marvel, but it's not just marvel, it's what they're doing with the ip, it's the, the team ups, it's the, the, the fact that you you're seeing your character in third person, which you know there's a place for both first person and third person. But one of the biggest like complaints about overwatch is that, like you know, people are spending money on all these skins but and they can't see them.
Speaker 3:You know oh actually, yeah, I never really considered that, so so you know that that's like one of the things which they're. They're changing that a little bit. There's a game mode that allows you to play third person. That's coming out next season in overwatch, but it's you know what with a lot of of what's going on with with, uh, marvel rivals. It has directly and like I mean you know people may say I'm wrong, but like dude, I see the writing on the wall it has directly influenced overwatch.
Speaker 3:It sent blizzard, reeling, andeling and, while I know that a lot of these things that Overwatch has been coming out with, like this whole perk system and you know the Marvel or the Overwatch Stadium mode that they're coming out with. You know I know that this is some stuff that was probably on the drawing board. A lot of these perks probably existed back when they were trying to do the PvE stuff, but I think that they just like canned it all and just opted to stick with the whole overbalancing thing. But like that's what Marvel Rivals is doing, that is that has people enjoying it is that they're not trying to overly fine-tune the game.
Speaker 3:Every character is unique and every character has some sort of broken ability that it can use to fight against the the others, and I think that like it also leaves a lot of unpredictability in the in play. So, like you don't have to worry too much about like counter swapping and people like figuring out, oh, this, this person's playing this character, so I have to swap to this character to to combat this character, you know, to counter them, and so that that's what marvel rivals has like been doing a lot to, like you know, bring that that unpredictability and I think that like that's what overwatch is trying to do now is that they're trying to add the perks to kind of change up. You know how characters play a little bit, and so okay, yeah, yeah all right.
Speaker 1:So overwatch blizzard has been, uh, shaken by the popularity of Marvel Rivals. I think Marvel Rivals does improve on Overwatch in some areas, in some respects. I think, like what you just mentioned the fact that you can have a third-person point of view which you know that's the standard and also be able to look at the skin that your character's wearing, because there's some pretty cool skins out there for some of the Marvel characters, at the skin that your character's wearing, because there's some pretty cool skins out there for some of the marvel characters. Uh, some of them even get into, like almost like world of warcraft, armor type, like levels of craziness, but I think that that's kind of cool yeah um, you know, just to see on like random characters like loki or whatever.
Speaker 1:But uh, let's, let's jump over to rich. Um, rich if Rich. If you were asked by one of your students to explain what Marvel Rivals is, how would you explain it to a high schooler Without all the skibbity-riz, anything like that?
Speaker 2:I would say, if you enjoy experiencing failure 17 times in five minutes, this is the game for you and it's not, and I and I and I and I think I I spoke about this briefly before we started I, I don't know if it's it's my age, I, I can't completely blame that, you know, but I did. I've never truly enjoyed playing like an overwatch style game, you know, like I mean, the closest I ever came to something like this that I really truly enjoyed was what's it called golden eye for n64. I mean, I think quite after that there were which was the 90s, you know?
Speaker 1:yeah, it's the 90s man, it was a different time.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, things were different. You know, just, you could pick a short guy in the game and just chop people from behind, use proximity. I've never really been a guy that I A gamer that enjoys the Like as I'm playing Outlaws. There are intense moments, and then there's these nice lulls where I'm just playing a sabacc game. Sure, yeah.
Speaker 2:My family makes fun of me all the time because I'll play Gwent in Witcher 3 for a godly amount of time. I've been known to play three-hour Texas Hold'em games in Red Dead Redemption, I think. As much as I like characters and and and playing, I also like just kind of like being in that immersive world. So for me rivals. So you know it's, you get your five minute increments and at first obviously I was completely lost. I, I should have probably jumped on the tutorial, but I, I just kind of jumped into a match right away.
Speaker 3:I was a little overwhelmed by the UI.
Speaker 1:I don't like the UI. I'll be the first to say it. I mean, you were technically the first to say it, you were overwhelmed. But I don't like the UI on it. I don't like games where you kind of have to hover like a cursor over the screen. I'm playing on playstation like yeah if, if I had a mouse, this would make sense, but like I'm just trying to like left up, yeah, you know like I just want to click what I want to click, um.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I didn't really like that part uh per se and also like when you're, when you're actually like looking for which character you want to play, it's like small and in the right-hand corner and on a wheel of some sort, and it's like what's going on here, why do I have to?
Speaker 1:I feel like I'm spinning a wheel and maybe picking the character that I think I'm picking, because the characters all kind of look a little different from their comic book characters. So, um, yeah, it's I. That's something that I really dislike, but anyway, I'm sorry I I I took away from your time. No, go ahead.
Speaker 2:I was definitely. I was just like a little overwhelmed. You know, when I first, like normally, and I play, like I want to be clear, this is not like somebody who doesn't play video games. I'm playing video games way more than I'm probably doing anything else. Like I play video games more than I watch TV. The only thing you could probably put it up there with is like how many Met games I watch a season. It's the only thing that might be even close, and you know.
Speaker 2:So I will say that like I got into it and I just I didn't find it super. You know, I like when I turn the game on and it's just like press start, you know, or x, and then you just resume game or you know load game from last, save, whatever it is, and then you just kind of hop in. So I just found like that was a little different. Uh, you know, I started playing and obviously I didn't listen to anything Anthony said. So I picked the main, wolverine, and I don't think I got one kill or like really any damage on anybody in the first. Like the first game I played was like if we weren't doing the podcast, I would have been like I don't like feeling this way and turn the game off Right. But I was like, ok, I obviously just need to kind of get into the thick of it.
Speaker 2:Then I then I started to like notice players targeting me a couple of times and that's when I was like, ah man, I must be like, they must see it. Like, what is this guy doing? Like he's just like speed jumping past me and hawkeye, I mean he. I could picture him salivating every time he saw me coming to the screen like, oh boy, look, there he is again. There's our short king. Like he found so many ways to just like off me so I knew I had to change characters. Uh, I couldn't, I couldn't continue with wolverine. Uh, so I start, I went to star lord for a second and I I kind of liked him and liked it a little better and I I did better in those rounds. I got my first kills and then finally, I just uh, I jumped over a rocket and that that's kind of the guy that I felt like I I was enjoying the most. I I also I wish, is there a way to shut off the? Uh, you Died replay, because that is a game feature that I don't enjoy.
Speaker 3:I just want to get back in. I have to look into it because I know that Overwatch allows you to turn off the kill cam. I'm not too sure if Rivals allows you to, they might allow you to. I have to look into the settings a little bit more. But yeah, no, I feel that too. It's like you know. I'm just, I'm kind of like, yeah, dude, I know I died. I don't need to see how I died. You know, if I wanted to do that, then I'd play call of duty. But uh, yeah, no, no, I feel that, yeah, see, see, when it comes to so there is not currently an option to disable kill cam and rep.
Speaker 3:No, okay, hopefully they they allow it in the future you can.
Speaker 1:You can skip it like you can just press x and it'll go to just like some random character, but yeah, most of the time I yeah, I just skip it, but yeah sometimes I'm curious about who killed me and like how they did it yeah because I'm like, I just died randomly, like what, what?
Speaker 3:just yeah, in those instances I'm like I've done that too every time.
Speaker 2:Every time it's hawkeye like he crept around the corner. I just caught you right there you're right yeah, that's nice.
Speaker 3:Uh, you know, I I'm convinced that when you play hawkeye like, or at least when the enemy plays hawkeye, the all everybody's head like hitbox like just becomes like a minecraft, like hitbox or something because like it, like I'll get shot, and it looks like the arrow like hit me like all the way over here and somehow I died, you know. So yeah, yeah, some Hawkeyes are like crazy good.
Speaker 2:Never the ones on my team, though, but when I started, I will say like that, when I started to kind of get the flow and I think what happened was I seemed to play in a squad where somebody was very diligent about quick healing or something, or reviving people right away, because I knew that I should have been dead a bunch more and I just kept getting like oh yeah, you feel invincible when you have a good healer on your team.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you're just taking people off. It feels, you just feel more, you just feel powerful. Yeah, you're just like you can just run in there.
Speaker 2:Like having the healer. So I won't lie, that made me enjoy it more. I really, I know nobody likes having to re-spawn. I understand that. You know I'm new to the maps and everything I mean if I have to be like fair to the game. But I thought graphics really good and I thought that, you know, yeah, I guess I had to respawn. But I remember thinking a couple times like, oh man, we moved on from that respawn part because there was like a dragon moving or something through a city and I was scared they were going to respawn me all the way at the first point and they didn't. They respawned you actually fairly close.
Speaker 2:I think that the map or whatever the, the indicator, is easy enough to find out and I do like, uh, the I thought it was. At first I was overwhelmed by all the colors and everything, but I I finally started to be able to zero in and figure out. Like you know, my team's, the blue team, all right. Now I see the red and that's the, that's the opponent guys and and you know it took me a couple matches, I'd say by like I was definitely like.
Speaker 1:He was definitely like attacking his teammates as wolverine for sure, oh I got a berserker barrage, berserker barrage is there friendly fire by the?
Speaker 2:way is that? Can you hurt your teammates? No, no, no, there's no friendly fire yeah, but I definitely, I was definitely attacking my teammates like so you know, like that, they're like who's this idiot?
Speaker 2:yeah, that's you know what and like I'll be honest with you, what are the reasons why? I don't, you know. If it were a four player game where we were all taking on the computer and I was just like a weak member of the team, that would be one thing right. But when it's like squad to squad, this like, there's this intense pressure that obviously I'm only putting on myself. But, anthony, you've confirmed that I don't put it on myself, that there are people sitting there going. What is this? Noob 69 over here doing.
Speaker 1:Uh, well, I mean, you know I think you need to be particularly bad for that. Or just like standing around, you know like I usually give a like for me.
Speaker 3:I give more grace to like you know, if I'm playing quick play, I'm like okay, you know it's people figuring stuff out. But like, if you're going into competitive and you're playing a character you have absolutely no idea how to play, I'm like dude, then what are you doing? No I did. I'm trying to win and you're trying to throw right now um no, I will say that always yeah that bothers me, but you know, it's just like.
Speaker 3:But but if it's like a thing where, like you could tell, both teams are like kind of like the same and like the other one edges you out just by a little bit, it's like, okay, well, we fought hard, we tried our best, but but yeah, no, no, I, I, I totally get it like. I, I can imagine it being jarring, for for somebody who doesn't really play games like these, um, I, I spent so many years playing overwatch so like I slotted into this like very easily like it the the thing that I had to get used to was like you know, just the game plays out a little bit differently than overwatch because it is third person and that like it is a little wild at some times. But like that's almost like, kind of like how overwatch was when it first came out.
Speaker 3:When overwatch came out, like first came out, it was like wild, like the characters were like kind of slow but like kind of unpredictable and you know they they felt they played a whole lot different than they do now like, but then again, like overwatch is a completely different game now than what it was when it first came out, before they were trying to go for like the whole, like team-based first-person shooter kind of moba gameplay, whereas, like now, it's like you know, an individual character can kind of, or a person can kind of take over a match and marvel rivals kind of allows you to do that. Like there's been times where, like I completed an ace, I've wiped the whole team, and that not trying to toot my own horn or anything, oh, just a little humble brag.
Speaker 1:Just a little humble brag.
Speaker 3:No, no, no, but this game is definitely obviously team-based, but if you're playing against a team, that's not really like firing all cylinders.
Speaker 1:You can, you can like easily destroy them, but that's what I, that's, that's what I like kind of figured out. Like you know, I I would go like into one game and I would just be absolutely obliterated, like no matter what I did, I would just be obliterated like from above, from behind, from the side.
Speaker 1:Uh, iron fist came out of nowhere, just like oh yeah, it's always the iron fist and and, but then, like the next game, we would be like I think it's just because of the healer or whatever, but like we would be mowing them down and they just like would not be able to get out of the spawn point. You know, like it was one of those like and I realize it's entirely dependent on how good your team is also, and how bad their team is also.
Speaker 3:If you're running into a match with like six dps, then like you're probably not gonna win what do you?
Speaker 1:what do you?
Speaker 3:oh yeah, six yeah yeah, because, like I'll hop into a match and like instantly, four, four people will DPS. I'm like here we go.
Speaker 2:This will be fun. I feel very out of the loop.
Speaker 1:Explain the acronyms. Okay, so DPS is short for damage per second.
Speaker 3:But we use that for the damage heroes. You played Wolverine, that is the damage heroes. You played Wolverine. That is a damage hero. Hawkeye is damage hero, rocket is a support healer. So when we say healer, that's the healer Tank is like the Hulk, the Thing, penny.
Speaker 2:Parker.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Rocket's a healer.
Speaker 2:So wait what.
Speaker 3:Did you shoot?
Speaker 2:those orbs out.
Speaker 3:Yes, those orbs are heal people.
Speaker 2:So wait, I was healing, you were shooting them at enemies Was.
Speaker 3:I doing the healing, you were healing. He was shooting the orbs at the enemies. Hey, did you throw? But I don't think you, I don't think you can heal no no, no, you can't, did you? No did you um? Did you put down that? Did you put down that thing, that like?
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, yeah, that like little thing.
Speaker 3:So, so that little, that little thing that that puts out like armor and stuff, it actually res is people. It res is one person when they die oh yeah, that's actually, it's actually helped yeah, yeah, yeah, it's really cool and so. So in this game they don't call they actually don't call them dpa, or they don't call them damage, uh, support or tanks they call them. So the damage heroes are called duelists, the support is called strategist and the tanks are called vanguard all right yeah all right, that makes more sense, so they gave them a little bit.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they gave them different names, but but yeah, no, it it's it definitely.
Speaker 1:You could still, you could still, you could still do damage with rocket oh yeah, you weren't just you weren't just healing, no, I was like I was using.
Speaker 2:I was. I was mashing on my r2 button and I'm pretty sure I was uh, or maybe it was r1, I can't remember now, but I was definitely healing people I well he's tiny now you know, listen, I'm the worst like.
Speaker 2:So I got to the point where my ego was bruised and I would just like hide somewhere and then pop out out of nowhere and just try to kill one person and run away. Uh, I, I won't lie. I was like I, I need some kills, uh. So I stooped pretty low, like my team was probably like where is this guy? I went back to like the respawn point, like healed. Like I was like smoking a cigarette. I read a magazine, like it was, it was you know. I was like I guess I should get back to the battle because I was sick of dying. So I just was like was it those orbs also?
Speaker 2:heal yourself too yeah, no, that's what I'm trying. I'm starting to figure out that what was happening was I was shooting the the machine gun on one hand on the r trigger, and then I must have been just alternating, so I was just healing my, I was was just healing myself. I was shooting and healing myself, shooting and healing myself and going man, I really like this partner and it was just me doing it the entire time, that's possible.
Speaker 1:I mean, you probably did get another healer on your team.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely. There are definitely some healers that can like throw down and damage Cloak, and Dagger is one. I've done a lot of damage with invisible woman, especially like her. Her attack is like it shoots these, like I don't like these orbs, that kind of like boomerang back to you a little bit, or or like they yo-yo back to you and then she like throws out this um, like orb thing that does damage like a force field, yeah, like a, yeah, a force field.
Speaker 3:And then there's that like whole force field that she puts up.
Speaker 3:That heals you and it makes you invisible to like enemies outside of it yeah, no, she's, she's actually op oh heck, yeah, she's op dude if you if you have a, if you have a sue storm on your team, like you're gonna, it's a huge boon but I've gotten mvp a few times with her actually and and one time I got like and it was like a longer, like it was a longer, uh, competitive match, but like the most that I've gotten with her was like almost 70k in healing. Dude, I was going crazy. I think I did 20k in damage. And then that little shield that she puts up, it makes a difference, it heals and it blocks up to 300 worth of damage. I've put that shield in front of the Punisher when he's in the turret form.
Speaker 1:It's like putting a shield on bastion so, um, I I did not get the opportunity to play all the characters. I don't. I don't even think I played like a third of them, but I did try to play at least two matches with each of the characters that I did do. So I liked hulk. That was the first one I chose. I think that's like the first one on the wheel and I just kind of like let me just pick them and yeah.
Speaker 1:So I went down the wheel until I found hawkeye and that was my main. At that point I was just like man, this feels so much like hanzo from overwatch and um, I was like getting like 25 kills a game with hanzo or Hawkeye. So I was just like, yeah, why would I switch? This is working for me.
Speaker 3:Speaking of Hanzo, right now is the perfect time to get back into Overwatch because of the perks. Now there's a perk that gives him back his scatter arrow.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's the best Dude. I loved watching people go like hide in in rooms and I just use a scatter shot and just like instant everybody, everybody had hated that.
Speaker 3:But like I mean that was the thing is, is that like that was like kind of part of that character, you know, like that was like part of that chaos? I feel like instead of getting rid of that character all right, getting rid of that maybe they could have added a little bit more time on to the, to the cooldown, so he's like not spamming it like crazy.
Speaker 1:But or at least just nerfed it. You know, if they just like decrease the damage by half of the scattershot, you know all right depending on, like, the distance it travels, maybe, and all that stuff.
Speaker 3:Because, like, one of the things that I always thought was insane with with hanzo was that with widow maker, you have to charge the shot, but with hanzo, like you, just it's a full damage. You, you don't even have to charge the the the arrow, it just if you just spam arrow. It's like full damage every time, dude oh, that's true.
Speaker 1:I mean, it goes further, if you like hold right, right, right, exactly full damage. Yeah, that is weird. Um, anyway, back back to back to the game I had. I I liked hulk. I think like I would go back to play more of the hulk. I really enjoyed Groot. I thought Groot's gameplay was really fun. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Groot is fun.
Speaker 1:He's one of those tank characters that will last a long time and you actually get a lot of damage out of him as well.
Speaker 3:So something really smart to do with Groot is that you know how he has two sets of walls that he can put up. One is a little bit stronger than the other ones it up, one is like a little bit stronger than the other ones. So the the weaker ones are really good to put, like maybe above, like doorways, like a choke doorways, because these vines come out. There's vines that come out of those walls and they do damage. So like yeah, so like you know, if they're coming through and you're hitting them, you know, with your thing you'll see vines come out. And there's been times where, like you know, even though there's no doorways, I'll put those like walls behind the people and I'll start like just hitting them. The vines are behind them, hitting them, I'm like yeah, yeah, and then throwing that like that pod thing that he throws. Yeah, I've gone crazy with Groot a couple times.
Speaker 1:I like the thing I was having such a hard time with, the thing I could not get a hold of him. I tried him a couple times. I had a hard time.
Speaker 3:I did too. Initially. At first it was a little weird. I was like I don't know. Then I decided to hop back on him. I kind of figured out his gameplay a little bit. He fights like a boxer dude, like you see. Like the way he fights, yeah yeah um a lot different than the hulk.
Speaker 3:I like when he does like the, the pullback punch, and like when he, when he hits the target, it has like a metal sound, like a ting oh yeah yeah, that's pretty cool um, and he has like that charge ability that that, like you know, he he can like knock people up into the air and uh that was cool yeah yeah, yeah, that that's I.
Speaker 1:I had a hard time with doctor strange as well. I feel like the first game I played, doctor strange I was doing really good, or at least semi good. Um, and then the, the second game, I couldn't land anything with Doctor Strange, so I feel like it's one of those you need to kind of be a decent skill level or have a good team with that character.
Speaker 3:Doctor Strange is good, and especially if you have a Hulk kind of backing you up because he has that gamma thing that he inf infuses. I don't know if you notice that, like, when you do uh damage with dr strange, there's that meter that goes up to like 100. Then there's like that kind of like like that like release ability that he has that does damage. So you want to try to get get that meter up to like 100 before using that release and then with the hulk it gives him like a gamma infused version of that that does a bit more damage and yeah, I noticed that was the whole um, and then the hulk with iron man too, because he has a guy, uh, this gamma infused like and it just the beam, just like the obliterates people.
Speaker 3:Yeah, man, it, it. This this game is is really fun. It does take a little bit getting used to.
Speaker 1:I mean, now that you've actually kind of sat down and played, you can tell, you can see the similarities between it and overwatch, but you can tell that it's a very different game from overwatch also yeah, I, what I will say is um, there are certain aspects of it that I feel like aren't very polished, like some of the characters don't feel as versatile as they otherwise could be, if that makes sense, or like I don't know how to explain it like it doesn't feel as refined as you know characters that you would play in Overwatch, but that could come with time. You know, like buffing would play in overwatch, but, um, I, I that could come with time. You know like, and you know buffing and debuffing it could.
Speaker 3:Uh, also, I think that what they're not. I also think that what the what netties is not trying to do. And before you played, before the perks came out with overwatch, a lot of these characters felt like watered down versions of their previous selves, like a lot they would still do damage, but like when you think in hindsight of how crazy some of these characters used to be.
Speaker 3:It's like dude, like you know, you guys like ruin these characters and so like I think that, because you know, we know that that blizzard is so used to being on top, you know they, they've had their their hands and they've dipped their toe in everything rpgs, arpgs, rts, fps, um, diablo, starcraft, warcraft, even, uh, heroes of the storm. That's a moba. There's hearthstone there. There's, there's a lot that they've, like you know, dipped their toes in and with them, pretty much like I don't think that there's been an mmo that's really been able to topple them as king.
Speaker 3:As far as world of warcraft, final fantasy 14 is maybe the closest, but they kind of live in harmony rather than like in war, because they're very different games yeah, but like with marvel rivals, it was literally like right fire nation attacked, you know, like fire nation came and took out the seriously overwatch but but the thing is, is that, like it kind of shows you how important competition is, like you need competition, because then, like you know, when you're on, when you're on the top for for so long, then, like you kind of don't, if you don't have anything to push you, then, like you, why push what? Like? Why, why, like you know, go any further unless you have like a self-motivation, but like, if you're successful, why, right, well, my rivals is like that's not gonna work any longer and so, like now I think it's gonna be like a back and forth punch. You know, like I think that you know, I I still think that overwatch don't get me wrong, I will always love over, I will always love over, but like there's definitely like change that needed to be done, like they needed to change.
Speaker 3:It was getting boring, dude, like I was like come on man, and so like, oh, marvel Rivals, like coming in with this, like fresh take was like really really good. And like I'm still going to play Marvel Rivals, even with, you know, even if like Overwatch, if like overwatch like makes all these like changes, I still think that there's room for both like to be able to play because they are, while they're very similar, they're also very different I like that, but uh, so so, which I know rich.
Speaker 1:You said that your favorite character to play was rocket. Was there any other characters that, like you, would hold up there as like, either characters that, um, you would like to play again, or characters that you haven't checked out, that you feel like would be fun to play?
Speaker 2:I still want to, I want to give you. I tried to stay away. I mean I picked wolverine because you know I can't resist, uh, but then I, you know I then I started to think about kind of my own play style and how I was feeling a bit skittish because when I played something like I can't remember, like the marvel superhero games or the even older than those, those x-men games where you had like four different heroes and you could swap between them and stuff like that, like I love playing as the tank kind of wolverine and just going straight up to the the guys and ripping them a new one. But but obviously I need a little bit more nuance. So I think that for this, game and practice too.
Speaker 1:You're not just going to get it the first time you try it. Yeah, it's one of those. That was my thing. You're going to have to play around.
Speaker 2:So I needed somebody. I feel like I'm at a point right now where I enjoy more anybody who could kind of fly away and and shoot so strut, I mean. So I, you know, like the rocket model I liked, uh, star lord, uh, I want to try iron man. I'm assuming that his play allows for repulsors and and beams from far away. You know who you would like actually who venom?
Speaker 1:really, venom is fun, yeah, you would love venom, because that that your gameplay style, where, like you, you can go in there, punch a bunch and you know, as soon as you start getting attacked you swing away.
Speaker 3:Yeah yeah that's the best yeah, and it's, it's a really easy it's.
Speaker 1:I think he's like really easy, although I think his ultimate is difficult. To catch someone like um, like his ultimate attack is like you basically go underground and like you have to like consume the, the people from underneath, but you have to like time it right and all that. But yeah, it's, it's. It's a little difficult, but sometimes it feels a little underpowered to me too I think so, yeah, uh but but no, no, I, I totally.
Speaker 3:I haven't played Venom in a while, but like the way with like Venom is, is that, like you can kind of like swing up, he has this ability where he can like slam into the ground, damage people. He has this ability that, like that, you know people within range, kind of latches onto them, and then, like you can attack. You know, once you're kind of latches onto them and then, like you, you can attack. You know, once you're kind of taking a lot of damage, he has this like kind of ability that gives him like armor so he can last longer and then you can kind of get out.
Speaker 3:You can. You can uh get out, like when you start receiving a lot of damage from that, and so, like I've done it a lot yeah, I've played I feel like venom has a lot of like survivability. It's just like you know. Maybe sometimes he fit, he can feel a little underpowered, but right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're not gonna like one one shot. Kill people right with venom, but that's not really the point of because he's a tank, you know.
Speaker 3:So really his is really his like job is to really like disrupt and kind of like, you know, mess around with the team while everybody kind of finishes them off, you know yeah, I, I think my favorite character is definitely hawkeye.
Speaker 1:I just love archer characters. In every game I've ever played where there's an archer character, I'm always that guy, but I I actually do find him. It said that he was four stars in terms of like difficulty, but for me it was like second nature because I played so much of hanzo back in my overwatch time.
Speaker 3:So right, right, maybe make of that what you would well well, maybe, maybe like for like the average person, because a lot of people aren't really that good with like ranged characters in that kind of way, like, um, black widow or hawkeye, but like I mean dude, penny, penny parker, like she has four stars and like to me it feels sick second nature and she has a lot of utility, like she's got the spider minds that she could throw down the spider vest, uh, the, the spider nest and um, just like a lot of like stuff that she can do.
Speaker 1:The spider vest.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I guess in a way technically, when she webs people up, that could be the spider vest.
Speaker 1:I like it, I like it. So, anthony, if you could pick one favorite character from each division tank or vanguard, what do they call them?
Speaker 3:Duelists for the vanguard duel. They call them duelists for the vanguard duelists and strategists okay.
Speaker 1:So if you could pick one from each uh as as your go-to, what would it be?
Speaker 3:so for vanguard, definitely penny parker. Like I just, I throw down with penny parker I like I like when I say I throw down, like I. Sometimes I'm like first option DPS Penny Parker.
Speaker 3:I do a lot of damage with her. As far as I'm going to go to Strategist Because I play Duelist but not as much, but Strategist I really really like I want to say Cloak and Dagger, but I've been playing a lot of invisible woman and I feel like I do really well with her. She's like really good at escaping because she has that double jump where she can like go invisible and run away.
Speaker 1:I hate that from the other side yeah, dude, I've escaped a lot with that and then I would say duelist.
Speaker 3:I like, I like Squirrel Girl.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 3:Throwing those acorns at people. I don't know if you've ever gotten hit with a Squirrel Girl, that thing that gets you stuck. She has a CC ability I have. You can charge it, you can throw it just regularly where it rolls on the ground or you can literally beam it at them. I'll just toss it like it'll be a hallway and I'll just like throw it down the hallway and I'm I always catch somebody with it, uh, but yeah, like no, no, I have, I've fun with squirrel girl. She's really, really fun nice, cool man rich.
Speaker 1:You got anything else you want to say before we close this discussion?
Speaker 2:out. I I really feel like it's one of those games that reminded me of the Avengers game slightly. I mean because like that's Ultimate Alliance or, oh no, the terrible Avengers game. It was just called.
Speaker 1:Oh, like literally the Square Enix Avengers game.
Speaker 2:Yeah the huge disappointment that I hyped up my son for months and months and months and then, as we played it and played it, and played it, we finally admitted to each other that we found it boring so like I liked that kind of meetup game.
Speaker 2:You know I don't particularly like the squad, the squad of our squad, and I think that you know, obviously, mars my my time with it. You know, as I got, as I started playing it, I I do think that there is a little bit of a learning curve, but I think once you figure it out it gets definitely more fun. It's just not a game that I want to. It's not the style of game that I like playing for two hours straight.
Speaker 1:I could do it for like a half hour 45 minutes and then I need to do something, yeah, for a couple rounds, and then you're just kind of like all right, I need a slim gym or something. Yeah, what's going on?
Speaker 2:here.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, unbelievable don't, don't, don't look at me, don't look at me where I'm going.
Speaker 1:Hours at it oh man, I can't like I.
Speaker 3:I start getting like uh restless, um, especially after I lose, but uh oh if I go on a losing streak, like it kind of puts me out of the mood, but like if I'm winning a couple, then losing, or even if I'm like winning the losing, winning the losing, that's fine.
Speaker 1:But like when it's just like losing straight, I'm like, yeah, I'm playing with some ducks right now yeah, uh, going back about a minute, I have no idea why I said I gotta grab a slim jim. I've. I haven't grabbed a slim jim in literally years, so I I have no idea where that came from.
Speaker 3:I I have no idea why I said that um, but I'm gonna trying to dakota's, trying to get us endorsed by slim jim, because when you listen to project geekology, I want you to thank slim jim, and when you listen to Project Geekology, I want you to thank Slim Jim and when you leave that 5 star review later on, make sure you do it like you're snapping into a juicy Slim Jim yeah, not a dry Slim, jim, it has to be a juicy one.
Speaker 1:You have to hear that crack, you have to. You know experience a meat twig that's what it is.
Speaker 1:One last thing I want to mention I really did appreciate the attention to details on on the maps. Um, I feel like there's so much to explore in the maps that I just haven't had the opportunity to do so yet, because it feels like there's a ton of maps. I don't think I've even experienced all of them at this point. And while the game modes are again very similar to Overwatch and the design of the maps is very similar, I do think that there's enough variation there to make it really just enjoyable new locations to play in this type of game. But one thing that I will say I kind of disliked is that sometimes, when there's too much going on on the screen, it's very difficult to make out what what you're shooting at. Sometimes, like there'll be like three or four different force fields, like from like both sides, so there'll be like blue, blue walls on top of red walls and you're just shooting randomly into the abyss, just like what's going on.
Speaker 3:Hey, just when in doubt, just like spam into a direction.
Speaker 1:That's what you got to do. But yeah, that was something that like. Occasionally I felt kind of annoyed by Just like or like if there was like four enemies on top of me, I don't, obviously, you're dead at that point but like sometimes.
Speaker 1:I think I think their animation for their attacks became so overwhelming that it kind of just not glitched or anything, but it just like I don't know how to express what I'm trying to say it just was too much on the screen at that given moment and it was just, it was ugly to look at in those brief moments.
Speaker 3:Dakota, just just say it. You know you were tired of seeing the, the rapid iron fist punching.
Speaker 1:Oh man, tell you what, though? When, when you got, when, when, when an iron fist would like pop up on like from behind, and then I would swing around with hawkeye and, just like one, shot him.
Speaker 3:I felt so good, oh yeah, I can imagine. I can imagine. Yeah, um, iron fist, I feel like isn't as annoying anymore like at first, like he was really annoying, but I feel like people are starting to kind of like figure out how to deal with them. Same thing with like spider-man unless you get like that, really like cracked spider-man, that just wouldn't won't bother. They won't stop bothering you, especially if you're like a healer. They'll just dive the butt, they'll just dive the back line the whole time, dang yeah, I mean, that's very peter parker, um, but anyway, guys, I think that's.
Speaker 1:I think that's our show for for today. That's our 111th episode. You already heard it here. Uh, you got to give us a five star juicy review like a slim jim like a slim jim.
Speaker 3:This is gonna think of something dry definitely was not planned at all.
Speaker 1:I have no idea why, I the word slim jim I. I don't think I've said that in a very long time. Yeah, no, that was completely subconscious. Anyway, guys, if you want to check out any of our socials, be sure to click down into the show notes below. You can find us on Twitter, on Instagram and other places. And yeah, what are we doing next week, guys? What's going on?
Speaker 3:That's a good question.
Speaker 1:Marvel Rivals, round 2?.
Speaker 3:Marvel Rivals, episode 2.
Speaker 2:I don't know if you guys saw there's a new Witcher animated movie on Netflix. I don't know if you guys are Witcher fans A new one, or it's just released. It's called like sirens of something I started watching sirens last night and sadly, uh, that's the deep yeah was there.
Speaker 1:I feel like there was a witcher animated uh movie not too long ago as well, or is this? Is this?
Speaker 2:it. This one, uh, this one says released 2025. No, it came out, uh it. It was released on uh february 11th of 2025 oh, there was.
Speaker 3:There was, uh, the witcher nightmare of the wolf.
Speaker 1:Yes, okay, I watched that a while back. Okay, all right, all right, rich, did you want to try this? Uh, sirens of the deep, yeah, as our it's. Uh, next, our next show, I think it's. I think it's a doable hour, 31 minutes, not bad, anthony, you down yeah, we could do that yeah, just do something a little bit different. All right, I'm down guys.
Speaker 3:So I'm curious what the sirens of the deep are yes, but yeah already y'all, don't forget to grab a Slim Jim and play the Wolverine or you know, if you're rich, probably don't play the Wolverine play Rocket and spam a bunch of healing orbs and not know, that they're healing you.
Speaker 1:I love it. Alright, guys, have a good one. You already said the Wolverine, so I'm not gonna.
