Up next in 10
We're joined by Cory for this week's Blizzard Watch Podcast. There's no one big news item this week, but lots of tidbits around a ton of different games. For instance, Brewfest begins next week, and there's a new mount and some transmog, but everything else is same ol same ol. There's a Diablo 4 seasonal switchover coming soon with a very horrifyingly cute fox pet, plus a whole lot of WoW Classic phases and seasons.
Our favorite news of the week may be that Hades 2 has an official release date. Even though it's been in Early Access for a while, this means we'll finally get to see all those juicy heartwrenching story beats we've come to expect -- and play it on the Switch.
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0:00
[Music]
0:10
Hello everybody and welcome to the Blizzard Watch podcast. Uh we talk about Blizzard Entertainment and its many games and other things. Uh sometimes,
0:17
you know, they do things other than games sometimes and we talk about other things than them sometimes. It's it's a rich tapestry. Uh with me this week are
0:24
my two amazing co-hosts who I'm going to actually introduce this time. um Liz
0:29
Harper and Joe Perez. Hello to both of you. Hi. Hello. And uh along with them, we also have um
0:36
like a very skinny shaft of moonlight that is not in any way being called fat.
0:43
Corey Taylor. Hi everybody. How are you today? Uh apparently they're all like us living
0:49
in a world that makes no sense and is constantly uh we're existing. We're existing which is sometimes that's the best you can do.
0:56
Let's distract ourselves with people getting drunk in a video game. Uh, World of Warcraft Brew Fest. It begins on the
1:02
23rd of September. What do we know? Anything new about it? A new mount? Yeah.
1:07
Tell us about it, Joe. Uh, so the only thing I know is that it
1:12
is a uh it look it's called the Brewfest Barrel Bomber. It's a barrel of ale turned into a flying machine. Uh, which
1:19
if you want to play a drunken dwarf flying around in a flying machine that looks very similar to your Delve uh vehicle, here you go. Uh,
1:27
it's the Meimmeron's head model, but updated a bit kind of. Yeah, they're all
1:33
They're all in that same camp. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. Go ahead, Liz. Yeah, that's I was just going to say
1:39
that's exactly what I was thinking. This kind of looks like like Meon's head the
1:44
without a face and drunk. Well, I mean the the windshield could technically be eyeballs
1:49
and the cannon on the front could be a mouth. See, as you guys were talking about this thing
1:54
Oh, sorry. You made it worse. That's worse. As Liz was saying that though, I I
2:00
accidentally got to see the barrel helm, which they have on on various sites like, you know, somebody wearing this
2:06
broken barrel hat. I thought that was the mount. It was just this flying disconcerting human face.
2:13
No. just and I'm like, "Oh god." And I looked up at it like, "Oh, no, no, that's no. Gaze upon gaze upon this mountain.
2:19
Suffer from paridolia. Enjoy." Yeah, that's pretty much what it was. But the actual one's not too bad,
2:25
really. It doesn't have a real face, but it does kind of look like it has a face from the front. Like, you know how cars do.
2:31
Yeah. Uh, you know, modern cars are all designed to look like a face from up front so that you associate the car with
2:37
being your friend. I'm not kidding, by the way, guys. That is actually um apparent apparently it drops from Cor
2:43
and Dire Brew. So another thing to be disappointed that won't drop for me. I'll see that. Oh lord. I I was done. I finally got
2:49
that mount. Oh, and I got to go kill Dor and Dire Brew again. You're never done.
2:55
That is the whole point of World of Warcraft is that you are never finished. It will draw you back.
3:00
The treadmill goes forward. Well, see though, this is actually something I would actually want to ride
3:06
around in if for no other reason than it is a helicopter mount, which means it irritates the heck out of people. Um,
3:12
I just don't play with game sounds, so I don't care. I I've I've annoyed people so long with
3:19
with my uh Mims head. So, yeah, that's that's Well, fancy fancy lad over here with his
3:24
Mimron's head while the rest of us suffer. And you in my day, we earned Mimmerron's head during the expansion he
3:31
came out in. And we had to beat else for the role uphill both ways in the snow.
3:36
It really was up. I've lost so many I've lost so many roles by one point. I Anyway, moving on. Uh I think the other thing that we
3:42
should talk about besides Bruises, I think that really is like there's a I think there's a a toy a couple cosmetic.
3:48
Go ahead. There's some there's some theme transmog stuff in it as well. And I know I know you want to move on to the other Transmog thing, but we can't talk about
3:54
that. As somebody who's part Scottish, I have to talk about the kilts. They exist. There's kilts in Warcraft now.
3:59
And some nice tartan shoulder capes. I wish that it was an actual tartan like over the shoulder like across the chest,
4:06
not not like the like the shoulder cape thing. That's my only gripe with them. They look great otherwise.
4:12
I can see that. You can do that thing where you only put one of them out at a time. Not quite the same thing though, you know. Not quite the same. I
4:18
doesn't cover the front. It should be across your chest, not across your back. I've Yeah. as as somebody who has mostly there. It's it, you know,
4:25
it's mostly there. You can get you can get there. Uh but as somebody who has like I have Scottish family, believe it
4:30
or not, and uh I've stood in a Scottish wedding and uh having seen the not the
4:36
pageantry of it, but the reverence of it, it's like I kind of just want to go to like just do the full thing, man. Come on. Let's just do the real thing.
4:43
They have to they could register their own their Warcraft tartan if they really really wanted to. TV show Outlander.
4:49
The TV show Outlander has its own tartan that has been officially recognized and registered with the registry of tartans
4:56
in Scotland. So, come on, Warcraft, step it up. Yeah, but now I guess we will move on to
5:01
the thing Joe was talking about, which is that um they've they've done a thing that I I didn't know I'd ever expected
5:08
them to go this hard on. Uh this Ascended Regalius pack, it's it's like a $30 uh pack with like a hundred items in
5:16
it. Like I I'm still looking at the post and going, "Whoa, what is this? Liz just made a noise, so I'm gonna let her
5:22
talk." I mean, we should lead by saying that this is a fourpurchase pack of transmog,
5:28
and it's it's a pretty big one. It sort of it kind of depends on your definition
5:33
here. um because it it is technically over a
5:38
hundred pieces, but it's also a couple of looks with a lot of variants and a couple of colors and a well a lot of
5:46
weapons, too. Yeah, a lot of weapons. The weapons are worth a whole lot of weapons. Yeah, that's what made me surprised. Do you
5:51
want to talk more about it, Lis? I I would love to get you to explain this to people because quite frankly, I'm still kind of boggled by it.
5:58
Uh, I mean, Blizzard has sold transmog packs before, and they've sold transmog packs in the 20 to $30 price range
6:06
before, so it's not something new. I would say this looks a little Currion
6:11
themed. Yeah, that is the vibe. Yeah, that's the vibe I get. Or maybe a little
6:17
spirit healery. It's the hood mat. The hood part is very spir.
6:22
Yes. So, it's odd that it's coming out now because it does I even think the
6:28
colors would match the Kurrion sets. There's kind of a silver and blue and there's a darker purple variant. And
6:36
these just I I think if you wanted to if you're doing the mixed match transmog, I think you could make this work with a
6:41
lot of Kyrion armor. So, I mean that's kind of it. It's what I think is
6:48
interesting is the wide range of just stuff. There's there's just tons of
6:53
stuff. Blizzard says over 100 pieces. I have not actually sat down to count, but
6:58
it does look like you've got two color variants for both weapons and armor, a
7:04
couple of armor style variants, and it's it's just a whole lot. If you like that
7:09
kind of Kurran sort of angelic look, if you like things with feathery things,
7:14
then this may be a transmog pack for you. But it is it is $30. And in case
7:20
you were wondering, the $30 cannot be used to apply to the $75 purchase you have to make to get the uh
7:29
fell snut po fell snood pet that you can get in the gear store for buying something of $75 more. Rage flames
7:37
coming out of the side of my head side of my face. I think this is based this is gonna
7:44
relate to stuff we see in Midnight because the bluish the bluish color like
7:49
Yeah. And the purpley color is very void inspired. That's true. Well, they just released uh two mounts
7:54
two mounts for that too, right? Like the they had the void and the light mounts that they just released. The dragons. Uh those those came with the midnight
8:02
pre-org. They did. That's fine. It's their existence is what makes me think not only does it make me think that this
8:08
pack is related to Midnight some way, it makes me think that we're going back to the Shadowlands in Midnight. I don't get me wrong, I just don't get
8:14
as much light from it because it's the blue holiness and not the purple, not the like golden holiness.
8:20
I have to shill here real quick cuz you know, crossroad is a thing. If you're interested to understand why we think
8:26
we're going back to the Shadowlands, I highly recommend you listen to this week's lore watch, which we go on a
8:31
45minute rant about exactly that. Sorry, but yes, he did. So, I I mean,
8:37
you could be right, Cory. I don't I'm not saying you're wrong. Uh but I have seen enough stuff that's, you know, kind
8:42
of got a bluish whitish thing going to it that I think it's at least feasible. And yeah. Um, otherwise this is very
8:50
Kyriony and you would be surprised otherwise like you know why are we why are we getting a Kyrion look? Uh, why do
8:56
we get to look like a Kyrion or a spirit healer? And that's the thing is it really does look like a Kyrion or a
9:01
spirit healer. I'm looking at the images now. The first image they have is a
9:07
figure in the front who's wearing the the whitish per the whitish and bluish one with a hood looking super spirit
9:14
here. And then behind him there's the kind of like a face mask that's got winged accents on the back of it that
9:20
looks extremely Kerrion. So I think Liz is totally on but Valk are very Kryan in their
9:26
fair, you know, in their look at least. So yeah, I don't know. I It is cool looking though. And it is a $30. It's 32 up here
9:33
in Canada, which it means it's pretty cheap because our our exchange rates aren't good right now. Um, can I I mean I think the the the big
9:40
takeaway from here is like this is a lot of transmog pieces for a very small price comparatively speaking, right?
9:46
Like Yeah. I mean the weapons alone cuz think about you might not want to use either of those suits, but how many times have
9:51
you been looking around going, "God, I wish I had this specific color of weapon to go with the suit I already have."
9:58
Well, how many times how many times will we spend, you know, 2530 bucks on a crown or like a single piece of transmog
10:04
in the past when they've released it? And I I think this is really neat. And this is something that I I was talking
10:10
about if we're talking about monetization. Uh you can go back and play the tapes, but this is the type of
10:15
stuff that I think is good, right? Like you're giving an incredible amount of variety for a relatively low price. Like
10:22
30 bucks, it may sound like a lot, but that's impulse purchase territory for a lot of people. And especially like if
10:28
you like this aesthetic, 30 bucks for oh, you know, a plethora of items and
10:34
weapons and offh hands and and stuff like that. That's pretty decent. And I I
10:39
kind of hope this does well. And while I'm not going to pick this up because I don't really have anything that falls
10:45
into that aesthetic category for myself as far as my characters go, I'm hoping to see this expanded into other things.
10:52
And while this may be related to to Midnight, I'm hoping that they look at other aesthetics like they did the uh
10:59
crystal armor of uh the bronzebeard stuff for the trading post this this
11:05
month, right? I'd like to see maybe a whole slew of like that, like a pack of
11:10
hey, here's a dwarven themed pack. Pick your dwarf flavor. Or, you know, here's
11:15
a uh pack of gnomeish stuff. Pick your gnome flavor. like I I could see stuff
11:22
like that doing really really well and then giving players options to express themselves even further in game while
11:29
you're also getting ready to release another further p piece of player expression with the whole housing
11:35
situation. So like it's a good time like I want to see more of this and I hope they do more of it because this is a
11:40
really neat idea. I want to mention that Liz just posted in our work chat the um the expanded version looking at all the
11:47
various pieces that go along with this um the art that we we have so far. I believe it's on this is Wowhead I'm
11:53
looking. Yeah, it's not Liz. Uh since you posted this, I wanted to talk to you about it real fast. Um these are they're
11:58
called the Spirit Bringer and Soul Rune weapons. You want to go over what we've
12:04
got here because it looks like they've covered a lot of ground. I I don't really want to explain a bunch
12:10
of transmog just it fills in what roles. It's it's a lot of feathery things. One
12:18
thing I am not seeing is warlaves that would uh you know go nicely with all the
12:24
void elf demon hunters we're going to go. Purpley color. Yeah, there's there's the purple feathery ones.
12:30
I I think I thought that was a bow. I'm pretty sure that's a bow. Although you could probably use it as warlaves
12:36
and I might not be able to tell the difference, but yeah, I think Liz is right. I I do think it's a bow. So either
12:41
there's warlaves or there's a bow, but there do not appear to be both. And I
12:47
suspect that's a bow. Uh so yeah, you it does look like almost every weapon type
12:54
is covered. There's an offh hand, there's a pole arm, there's a back piece, which uh looks uh yeah, it looks
13:02
like a gravestone. It looks a little like the Revendreth back piece. It's like it's Kyrion, but it's like
13:07
Revendrreth had that back piece that was literally a tombstone. That's going to be a shield. That looks
13:13
like a shield to me. Oh, you think that could be? That's more likely actually that it's a shield.
13:18
Yeah, I think it's a shield, which is a cool shield. Like I would use that. So, you got it. You got your It looks
13:26
like you have everything covered. And maybe we just haven't seen the Warlaves, but uh yeah. Oh, you hold on. You know, sorry. Like,
13:33
and not to interrupt, but like you know what just hit me? The spiritbringer attire and the soulbringer attire,
13:39
they look like Medivh. Sure. Yeah. They really look like a more purple or
13:45
more blue version of Medivh's attire with a hood. Like, I'm fascinated.
13:51
Feathery thing. Yeah, you got the feather thing going. The hoods also read a little uh Diablo Angel
13:58
because it's like they cover your whole face. It's just Yeah, it's just black inside. It's a You
14:03
know, it's a big hood that comes over and hides you. Which is actually also
14:08
the look we saw from all of the people coming out of the Sunwell in the midnight trailer. They had these big
14:15
deep hoods uh that really covered their faces and made me think Diablo Angels.
14:20
So, it's it's a vibe. It's it's a little bit of a vibe we haven't seen in Warcraft before. that particular like
14:27
completely hiding a character's face thing is not something we've seen for player characters.
14:33
I also actually
14:38
go ahead Liz um I wanted to ask you since you and I think I've been the ones to spend more money than other people in the Diablo 4
14:45
uh gear store. Isn't this amazingly better than anything you've ever spent you know your platinum on for Diablo?
14:53
Like the amount of variety here compared to like you can get this set and one ar one weapon type.
14:58
I think I think the quality here is maybe not as high as Diablo I because I've got to give Diablo I props. The
15:05
armor sets they roll out are incredible, immensely detailed, just gorgeous things
15:12
that then you see on like a character that's like 2 in tall on your monitor. Uh but they they don't have variety.
15:20
They specifically don't have variety. They're like $25 to cover one character
15:25
class. Just no one else can wear this. Just this one character with a set of armor and a few weapons usually. And
15:32
this is another thing about these cosmetic sets is that all of your
15:37
characters can wear them. It doesn't matter what armor type you can throw this on, which can make for some really cool combinations. Like if you usually
15:44
wear plate or you can wear uh lighter looks, more clothlike looks. And if you
15:49
usually wear uh cloth, you can get some more plateike looks with a lot of these cosmetic sets. So, it's it's very cool.
15:56
It's $30. If you're into it, then actually this is a good value. If you're into it, if transmug is something that
16:02
makes you happy, like it makes me happy, then it's a good buy. Yeah, I would agree. I I think so as
16:08
well, especially since you can wear it for anything. And and in this con in the context of microtransactions in games,
16:15
we you know, we're continuing to see Diablo roll out these really expensive
16:20
$25 armor sets. We are seeing Hearthstone roll out these pets that it
16:27
if you want to be sure you get it, it's $128 in a random gambling mechanic. And
16:32
you know, it's really nice to just have something that here here are a bunch of cosmetics. You can give us money and you
16:39
don't have to give us anything and and you don't have to you don't have to guess. You know, it's not like we're
16:45
playing a slot machine and trying to get the one piece we want and it's like a dollar per roll until we spend however
16:52
much money to get the one we want. No, you just this is what you're getting. You pay money for it and you get it. And
17:00
that sounds straightforward, but in gaming, in video games these days, that's pretty refreshing. You just buy
17:06
something and you hit him with it. Yeah, imagine that. You know, I went forth. I gave I gave, you know,
17:11
exchanged money for goods and services. It feels like we're like back in caveman times, guys. Uh, so you know,
17:18
I'm sorry to say it's $158, not $128. Oh, yeah. Okay. I was I was really
17:25
giving Hearthstone too much credit there. You clearly were. I'm so sorry. Yeah. I'm Yeah, so am I. I'm very sorry.
17:34
Uh I do hope that we've seen a lot of stuff come out for uh the trading post over the w you know since it's it's been
17:40
like what almost two years two years since trading post started. I honestly don't remember when we started think I honestly can't remember but over the
17:47
time of its existence we've seen a lot of stuff come and go. I wouldn't mind it if they took some of the stuff that you
17:53
know you didn't get for whatever reason and made something like this for that where you could just pick up all the
17:58
trading post stuff. Um, I know that that would be double dipping, but it would at least allow me to get some things that I
18:03
didn't get. Um, but yeah, at any rate, the fact that you just know here's you give us this amount of money and you get
18:09
this amount of stuff and you can use it on pretty much any character that can, you know, wear anything or use these
18:14
weapons. Yeah. No, I think that's really great. I I am very happy with this idea. Um, but we should move on because, you
18:21
know, we all have other things to talk about like Mist of Classic Landfall is arriving this month. Uh, I believe it's
18:28
like two weeks from today cuz it's the 12th today. It's uh September 23rd.
18:34
It is not the 12th today. Uh, what day is it? My god, I don't even know what day it is anymore. It's uh
18:40
the 16th. Okay, so it's next week. Yeah, you're right. Sorry. I'm like Liz is always constantly amazed that I don't know what day it is
18:46
and I'm always constantly amazed anybody else does. Um, but yeah, in a week. Um, if you remember Landfall, it was the big
18:52
story push uh for Mists and I'm I think it, you know, it was one of the great
18:57
best examples of an unlocking story over a period of time that they did at the
19:02
time. It was really revolutionary. I'm I am looking forward to this even though I don't have a Mr. Pitary classic guy yet.
19:09
Uh, I don't know how I'm going to get a character into this, but I'm I would love to. I really um but yeah. Um,
19:15
there's just so there's just so much leveling. I was trying to do it, but I'm only at like a level 81 and I've got to
19:21
be No, I think I'm Yeah, I think I need to be level 85. I'm not to Pandaria yet.
19:27
So, and there's so many other things going on. So, so here we are. So, hard.
19:33
Yeah, I do feel like sometimes that they should just keep that various leveling boosts that they come up with every so often. Just just leave that on. Don't
19:40
don't turn that off. Just leave that on. Uh let let people have it from the go. There's no reason it should be as hard
19:46
to get to level 85 in pip classic as it actually was. Uh no, just just just
19:52
speed it up. But takes time. Takes time. And how many other games do I have to play? So many
19:58
so many just Blizzard games. Never mind all the other games out there in the universe. Just Blizzard itself competes with
20:04
itself too much. like I can't play this and do you know the whole Caresh patch which I'm
20:11
basically struggling blurily through by myself uh with no depth perception which
20:16
you don't think is an issue but cares is very big. There's a lot of flying and I'm I'm constantly trying to figure out
20:23
where I am on a map. I I I I could use the thing you were talking about like you use just just straight fly mode
20:29
because you don't want to do the flying mechanic. Uh, for me it's it's just I wish there was somebody who would be
20:35
like, you know, pointing me in the direction I need to go constantly because I'm always overshooting and
20:40
missing things because the the thing is fast. The the the it's not called dragon riding anymore, but whatever you'd want
20:46
to call it. That mechanic, sky riding, the sky riding mechanic mean you overshoot things a lot. You know, you're like, "Oh
20:52
god, I went past it. Oh no, I ran out of flying and un landing. Oh no, I went past it again." So yeah, I I I don't
20:58
like regardless of classic. Uh there's also free realm transmga realms starting
21:04
next week at the same time I assume. Um because they feel like the mega realm and season of discovery and the
21:09
anniversary work well. Uh which I mean four seasons of discovery I don't know but the anniversary stuff I did actually
21:16
make a character for it and they did seem to work pretty well. But you know I'm not the one running the servers. I I
21:22
don't know. What do you guys think? Would you think the mega realm thing is going to take over uh for WoW classic in
21:27
general? I think so. It's you. The appeal of Warcraft Classic is getting to play back
21:32
all these old moments with a whole bunch of people rather than just going out in the world as it exists now cuz like
21:37
Tanderia exists now. You can make a character and go running around in Tander. Is that really the the point of classic
21:44
these days? I have to assume part of the world of Warcraft with a lot of
21:51
people, isn't it? I would argue that I think it's I don't think it is anymore. I think that most of it, if anything, uh, was Season of
22:00
the Discovery really pushing it because I'd be interested to see the numbers now. But a lot of people, and we were
22:06
just talking about this during Raid the other night, a lot more people have been flocking back to retail because there's,
22:13
you know, I want I'm going to air quote nothing else to do uh, in classic and it seemed like SOD was really like a
22:20
driving force of that. So, I don't know. I don't know that it's necessarily just to to reexperience things like it used
22:27
to be. So I that's a question I don't have an answer to, but I'm just throwing it out there.
22:33
Classic has a very different vibe. It just it just feels different and some people are going to prefer that play
22:38
style and some people don't care. Some people don't like it. So
22:43
it takes all types. But the idea is with making mega realms is to have realms
22:49
with just really huge increased uh increased populations, populations
22:54
that were way higher than servers originally had. So, and the point
23:01
Blizzard is making is, okay, this means you have plenty of people to recruit for guilds. It means you're going to be able
23:08
to find people to group with at all hours because there are just more people. And it just means uh it means
23:15
more activity on the auction house. So you'll always be able to find what you're looking for. You'll always be able to trade things. And so the idea is
23:24
the servers are now capable of supporting many more people than they did back in the day. And that they
23:30
should they should that it doesn't ruin the feeling of classic to give you more
23:35
options to play and more people to play with. I am also really curious about the metrics. Is this because the population
23:41
is shrinking? I don't know. Blizzard only stresses that it's like bigger
23:46
realms equal more people to play with and thus more fun that you can have. Yeah, we're not going they're not going
23:52
to release any like numbers. I don't think they haven't in a very long time. Yeah.
23:58
I feel like you guys have have all of you in a way have made me have a question that I want to ask you. Do you
24:03
think that the big difference between retail and classic has now moved beyond
24:09
it being a a recreation or a simulation of a previous version and into being a more like
24:18
community-based thing where retail wow your community seems to be rooted in the
24:23
people you personally know nowadays it's like your guild uh the people you've kind of got on your list there's not a
24:29
lot I don't feel like there's a ton of like in the A you could you could conceivably spend the time, you know,
24:36
standing around Stormwind yelling or actually it would have been Iron Forge or Ormar yelling it in trade to get
24:42
people to go to your group. That feels like a kind of thing that they kind of still do in classic at least to a
24:48
degree. I know that they put the uh they put the uh community play thing. Oh, bloody heck, I can't remember what
24:53
to call it anymore. I haven't gone to LFD in so long. Dungeon finder. Uh I know they put that in at one point. Um I'm just curious. What do you think?
25:00
What do you think the community of classic actually is? What do you think's going on? And I heard you talking you
25:06
dance. Liz Liz was going to talk. I mean, uh, you know, classic still does
25:12
not have like a raidfinder tool, which can be good and it can be bad. And even
25:17
its group finder is a little, I believe, a little more limited than the group fighter in modern. Wow. So yeah, you do
25:24
kind of have to form those relationships and, you know,
25:30
pay more attention. You have to form more guild groupings or watch your friends list. And I know while I was
25:38
leveling in classic working to get a character up to mist levels, I had the
25:44
strangest experience that I have had in Warcraft in
25:50
a decade at least, which is I was going on farming herbs. You know, you walk
25:56
down the you walk along, you pick a flower, you keep walking, you pick a flower. It's just like you're farming to get your skill up. So many flowers. And
26:05
a druid flew in. A druid flew in and while I was marching up towards a herb
26:10
and was about to grab it in front of me and then they flew away. And I was like, uh, well, you know, druids, what are you
26:17
going to do? Druids are faster than anybody. But then they messaged me and
26:22
apologized. They were like, "Oh, I didn't see you coming up." And I was like, I have Wow, that's something I Is
26:28
that a thing that can happen? Apparently. And of course that's not a problem in retail in modern WoW because
26:35
that just doesn't go away doesn't go away. But it is interesting to see this kind
26:42
of thing in classic which is it's just the community just is a little
26:48
different. It's you know it's a step to the left. I'm going to jump to the right. Okay. Well, thank you list. Uh do we we
26:54
want to move on or you guys each have an answer for that one as because I'm fine with either. I mean, I don't doubt that the the the community vibes and retail
27:01
wow versus classic are night and day different, especially nowadays. Like,
27:07
back in Cataclysm, I made a really good friend. I've slept on his couch/guest
27:12
bed/f floor at Blizzcon's and shout out Touchpad Warrior for the the living
27:17
accommodations for a week after the convention cuz that was super cool. Um,
27:22
but like so like I made a friend in Warcraft that I went and then stayed on their guest bed and that was something I
27:30
did back in Siege of Ormar. Would I be able to pull that same thing off today? I don't think so. Even you'd have to
27:37
have you did make friends. Quite frankly, Cory, your back would go out. Come on. I know I'm not a young man anymore, but
27:43
I feel like it sometimes. I I just I don't see that happening in Modern War in Modern Warcraft in the same way that
27:49
it could happen maybe in classic, but that's just out of necessity that you have to be a little bit more willing to
27:54
work with people in your server cluster because if you don't, you can still potentially get blacklisted and you got
28:00
to give Blizzard money to pop to another one. in as much as a blacklist ever does anything in Warcraft. But like come on,
28:07
we know that at the end of the day, if you're a DPS and you're willing to fill that or if you're a healer and you're willing to fill out that healer role for
28:14
that dungeon run, people are probably going to take you no matter what you've done in the past. But I mean, yeah,
28:19
classic WoW, that's the whole point to me. See, is supposed to be like playing the original game with as many people as
28:25
possible to get that feeling of like 2007, 2008. Obviously, Pandaria is a lot
28:31
more recent than that, but to go out there and to play before a lot of the big innovations and before the the
28:39
unseasing grind for power has poisoned all of our thoughts and left us focusing
28:44
only on raid metrics and mythic plus dungeons, which is so it's going to be really interesting in Legion once that
28:50
rolls around to see how they handle mythic plus dungeons. Classic, if there's ever classic Legion, which is the next one. Well, they're
28:56
talking Legion Remix. It's Legion Remix. Sorry, brain went nuts. Too many things. I
29:01
can't figure it out. Uh Joe, no, I'm good. All right. Uh then let's talk about this. Wow. Classic Anniversary
29:07
Realms. Um they're now in phase six, which has got the next No, they're explicitly not on phase six.
29:14
The the curious thing here is that it has to be coming soon. I I just There it is. Okay. See? Yeah. They they have not actually
29:21
announced phase six, but if they follow their usual timing, then phase 6 would launch next week along with many other
29:29
things that are launching next week. Yeah, I wouldn't assume that they'll do that, but then again, I didn't think
29:34
that, you know, we were going to get like lots of games we've got shadow dropped on us. So, I don't think Blizzard would do it
29:40
without announcing, but we are still expecting it before the end of the month. It's just uh it might it might
29:46
sneak up and surprise us. probably not next week, but it it's got to be soon. So, if you're playing the anniversary
29:51
realms, you do have new content coming soon.
29:57
Uh, and I just wanted to remind everyone because it it's it's on the agenda,
30:03
probably on the agenda before the end of the month. It's coming up soon. Yeah. But if it doesn't come out then
30:08
then they will be missing a thing that they've been hitting pretty regularly throughout the uh there lately just not
30:14
just while classic lately in general when they do scheduling things they tend to come pretty regularly. Uh so it is it
30:21
will be surprising if they don't. I would agree with that. Um the September Okay, at this point we've done everything well classic. Uh I guess we
30:28
can move on to talking about Diablo which I'm currently in one of my lovehate relationships with that game
30:34
cuz I'm still playing it but I'm very annoyed with it. Um, season nine is
30:39
ending and 10 is beginning on September 23rd. Uh, because like as Liz pointed out, they're doing everything on
30:45
September 2. Um, I don't I don't know why we cram everything onto the same date, but here we are. Here we are. It's happening.
30:51
Yep. Um, this one is Infernal Chaos, I believe it's being called. Uh, season of Infernal Chaos.
30:57
Season of Infernal Chaos. Everyone loves chaos. We're going to say the word chaos so many times in the next few minutes
31:03
discussing this that it's going to lose all meaning to you. Yes, it's going to be the bowl of forces.
31:09
Um, but it it it's on the PTR. No, it's No, it's not. It was on the PTR. It's now done. No longer PTR.
31:15
Uh, I remembered that just cuz I know I downloaded the PTR and then I played it and then I had stuff to do and stopped.
31:21
Um, it's Go ahead. Listen. And also Diablo does extremely short oneweek PTRs. It's they're one and done.
31:29
So, yes. Uh, this one is it's similar to previous seasons in that you're going to
31:34
have a bunch of weird powers. They're calling them chaos perks, I think, this time. Yes. Um, that they tie into your gear and
31:42
um, quite frankly, I still don't quite understand them. I I'm not going to pretend that I was like, you know, going
31:47
to sit there and spit out the facts for you. I mean, they are they're really exactly like previous season powers. It's, you
31:54
know, the same verse again is that you'll collect these powers as you go and, you know, choose which combinations
32:00
of powers to equip. One of the interesting things here is that the chaos powers, there are some class specific chaos powers. So, as well as
32:08
the just general anyone can do this chaos powers, there are some class specific ones that uh, you know, let you
32:15
have your own unique power up. And I do like these things because particularly the class ones because they can have a
32:22
real impact on how you play the character. And that's what makes seasons interesting is you go in and the
32:28
gameplay feels different. So, uh, I mean, this is good. This is a little more,
32:34
you know, same thing, same thing again. But I I like it. I think the thing that's more interesting about the season
32:41
is actually the chaos armor. Is that what they're calling it? Is it a chaos
32:47
thing? It's being called that on the sheet. Yeah, it absolutely is on the art key art. They're calling it that. Yep. Chaos
32:54
armor. So, it's very it's this is I think
33:00
worthy of its name. Chaos perks are just they're just kind of a new talent system, guys. You don't need to t chaos
33:05
on at the beginning. They're just they're just talents. But chaos armor does have a little chaotic flavor in
33:11
that these are unique items except when they drop they drop both with a max roll
33:17
uh max roll stats and also they are for a different armor slot than the unique
33:23
usually is. And that actually can have really huge impacts on
33:29
you can get a hat with a with a ability that you would normally only get on gloves or like a ring with an ability from a
33:35
chest plate. Yeah, that it it is complicated to understand in a way
33:40
because you're like, doesn't that always appear there? But it's not once you get it down, it's it's just a cool way to
33:47
spice up where these things can be applied, which means you won't, you know, it's pretty straightforward.
33:53
Yeah, we've seen Diablo II seasons. Uh there was a Diablo II season that let you uh equip different kinds of powers
34:00
in the Harajger cube where you usually there's a slot for each armor type in the cube and you could equip one of each
34:05
type. And there's a season in Diablo II that I always thought was really fun where you could equip
34:11
anything of any type in any slot. And that just unlocked new combinations and ways to play. So this is going to be the
34:17
same way. You'll be able to equip more different kinds of uniques in different slots to enable different kinds of
34:24
builds or equip two uniques you couldn't previously equip together. Of course, the problem with this is that these are
34:32
unique items, you aren't going to find them on day one. And if you're counting on one of them to be a big part of your
34:38
build, you got to find it first. Yeah. And that could happen or it could
34:43
not happen. Yeah. And it it sounds like these may not be farmable, which on one hand
34:48
that's great because you have a chance to find it anywhere. You don't just have to kill like a giant boss, but on the
34:54
other hand, it's like if you definitely need this one thing as part of your build, you're just going to have to keep
35:00
working until it shows up. Yeah. And then there's things like the um they're actually having things that
35:05
change stuff we've already seen in the game. Like the infernal hordes now have a chaos wave
35:11
that gets added to it when you're doing the infernal offering which changes up the kind of things that are attacking and how many of them are attacking.
35:18
This would be more difficult to more difficult but also just play different like the things that are
35:23
appearing will be things you don't expect to see. Um, like to use a wow example. It' be like if if you were
35:28
doing um, you know, the Black Temple and suddenly a wave of Angry Murloc showed up. I I will give this on a chaos scale, I
35:36
would rank it like a seven or an eight out of 10. It's a Yeah, maybe maybe on the seven. It's It's kind
35:42
of chaotic. So, one I love is the Aether, you know, you're fighting a hellworm and then a bunch of Aether goblins show up in the
35:48
uh thing that they mention here. So, it's like, what? Goblins? I'm always down for more goblins. Uh, so yeah, there's that happening as well. Go
35:55
ahead, Joe. Um, sorry, not Joe. Joe didn't speak. It was Corey. Sorry. Go ahead. Uh, so not just to loop back a little
36:02
bit, there is guaranteed sources for chaos armor, Liz. You just have to be playing on tier three or tier four.
36:08
Um, so as part of the new the new Hell Rift design, you can choose at the end
36:14
to fight an extra hard boss as part of the new season and possibly going beyond then named Bartuk. And uh if you defeat
36:22
him on Torment 3 and four, you have a guaranteed drop of chaos armor. If you defeat him on Torment 1 or two, there's
36:29
a smaller chance to drop Chaos Armor as well, is what they say. So that's still good. That's still good.
36:35
It's still pretty good. Yeah, it's it's not an uphill battle. You're not searching the world for that one mythic
36:40
drop to fully pull your your build together. You're just, you know, that you got to be going to the hell riffs
36:46
and doing well and winning and then winning a little more and hopefully possibly a third time.
36:51
Yeah, that's basic. That's, you know, that's our first look at it. I mean, it hasn't actually come out yet, so and and we did get a week to testing it, but
36:58
next week it'll be out. Yep. Next week it'll be available for everyone. And of course, of course,
37:04
there's a new battle pass and there's a new pet, which is kind of a fox looking
37:10
thing. And it's either a fox with cool brass and red armor
37:18
that's covered in blood and it's so it's got little little devil horns or like Lilith horns or
37:24
I'm laughing so hard as Cory tries to describe this and I'm just sitting there going somebody somewhere was like more
37:29
blood on the fox. The the problem. Yeah, it's it's an adorable really super fluffy fox and I
37:38
actually don't think that's armor. I think that is a rib cage.
37:43
It looks like armor to me. I've got this blown up as big as a rib cage that they're wearing as armor.
37:48
It could be a rib cage they're wearing as armor, but that does look like a cage of bones around its back. Uh,
37:56
all I'm saying is this fox would definitely worship corn and is definitely building a skull throne right
38:02
now. It also has glowing red eyes. So, that's how you know we're in Diablo. It's
38:08
wearing bones. It has glowing red eyes. It may also be infected with something
38:14
that's kind of Yeah, it's it's a little cute and a lot horrifying, which uh
38:21
pretty much that sums up Diablo for you guys. A lot of Diablo I pets fall into this
38:27
category. Look at those huge eyes and all the all the organs. Yeah, there's a lot of
38:32
So, I one hand kind of want it. On the other hand, this is your season journey
38:38
pet and those can uh those take us big commitment to get. And of course, there's also
38:44
the battle pass with all of its things which also take some commitment to get quaries. You need to zoom in more on
38:50
this battle pass because there's what looks to be a very nice golden retriever
38:56
wearing a bandana around its chest. So, it's it's there on their official document where it says
39:02
rewards. It's right there. It could it could exist. It could be a paid for thing. Who knows? We'll find out more once we uh
39:09
if it's if it is in the relic query, then yes, it's that's just going to exist. That's just going to be a thing you can go get if you pay money for the
39:17
for the battle pass probably. And finally, there's going to be a new commentary format for the commentaries
39:23
on fireside chats, possibly because, you know, they they just lost the guy who was in charge of the entire franchise to
39:30
another company and they're want to reorganize that. They they've replaced him. I'm not saying that they didn't,
39:35
but new leadership. We don't know who is leading the Diablo team. I mean, I don't know that they've
39:41
replaced Rod Ferguson with someone. They haven't announced it. If they have Fair point. I just assume that Diablo I
39:46
had somebody uh the game has a I assumed. That's a that's a that is an assumption,
39:53
Matt. Yeah, I assumed it. Regardless, whatever's going on, they're going to be doing fireside chats. Well, they had a
39:58
fireside chat uh this week and it so previously I have been uh perhaps a
40:06
little critical of their fireside chats. I I'm not sure how much of that negativity I have brought to the
40:11
podcast, but I I have been maybe a tiny tiny bit negative on them because it has
40:18
been kind of two hours of them reading the patch notes to you and then later releasing that as a blog post and you're
40:25
kind of like, this could have been an email. It could have been an email. I could have read this. Instead, I'm
40:30
listening to you for two hours to see if you say anything new or interesting. I could have read the patch notes. Um, but
40:37
yes, this week's fireside chat was a very brief 45 minutes long where they
40:44
had a lot of pre-recorded content where they've clearly made just sort of a straightforward like here are the
40:50
features, here's the video, you can look and see what's going on and then a Q&A session. So, it they kept it on point
40:58
and I thought that was a good format because one of the problems, we've talked about this tons and tons. There
41:04
are so many games out there demanding our attention. There is so much to do and play and watch out there. So, it is
41:11
very hard when you are kind of required to keep up with these things to engage.
41:18
And Blizzard, the Diablo I team has been kind of heading in this direction. We do
41:23
know that Rod Ferguson was big on doing live streams. He publicly said early on that he would rather do a live stream
41:29
than do a blog post, which not a fan of because then you don't have, you know,
41:35
an official source of this is the real true information. You have to go back and watch these long streams.
41:40
So, I like this format. They also, as soon as the live stream started, they
41:46
made a blog post which covered a lot of the same points, including with more details. So, I think this is good. It
41:55
sounded like they had this planned before, but I do think it kind of goes handinhand with Rod kind of stepping
42:01
back from leadership and letting the format of announcements evolve. As somebody who's seen a lot of
42:07
announcements in my day job and just in watching everything, the best way to do this is not reading patch notes. People
42:14
will read their own patch notes. And especially as the developer, I don't need four people talking through their
42:19
their patch notes. What I want is do your pre-recorded video, have have talk
42:26
about everything in that quickly, run through them, put the patch notes up live, and then have a moderated
42:32
discussion where the developers will talk about the things that they are passionate about from that content. I
42:38
don't need you to run through the list of every rogue unique coming in Diablo 4. I need you to tell me the best rogue
42:44
unique coming in Diablo I and why that is and the road that you got to that point. Like if I'm de when I want to
42:50
when I'm looking at a developer talking, I want to see that developer talking about something fun and unique and interesting to them from a gameplay and
42:59
development standpoint because that's that's the point I'm assuming because otherwise Yeah. We have lists of words
43:05
for a reason. I can I can read faster than you can talk about a thing. Mhm.
43:10
So give me that. Like I'm I'm all for seeing developers getting in front of the camera and I'm all for them talking
43:17
about the things that they have enjoyed and the things that they love from game making. That is we all love video games.
43:23
That's why we're here. That's why you're listening to me talk right now. So give me a reason to love what you're working on and then I can love that more because
43:30
of that. Speaking of loving things we're working on, uh Liz, do you mind doing the site news right now cuz we need have to get
43:36
Absolutely. I want to remind all of you that Blizzard Watch is made possible by
43:41
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43:47
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44:00
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44:35
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44:42
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45:06
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45:47
But uh if you can follow us, like our content, share our content, that really helps us too. So, thank you all so much
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46:00
pledge this week. That is what keeps us going. Thank you so much. Thank you, Timothy. Meant that just
46:06
sound like thank you and it came out like that. Sorry. Um anyway, uh we've
46:11
got some non-B Blizzard stuff to chat about. Um, there's the good news with Hades 2 and then there's some some
46:18
Borderlands 4 stuff. Uh, Joe, I'm going to leave this one in your hands because you think you're the one that wrote
46:23
about the Borderlands thing. You said we should talk about it. So, do you want to talk about Borderlands now, Joe? No, we're we're going to do uh we're
46:30
going to do the good thing, then we'll talk about the questionable things, then we're going to end on a good thing because that's the way we should always
46:35
do stuff in a in the sandwich method. It makes things more palpable or palatable. Uh,
46:40
I think it's less the sandwich method, more the let's get some meat around the pill before we give it to the dog. But I
46:45
I'll go with you. Go for it. Well, I want to start by talking about Hades 2. So, we actually have a a
46:51
official uh release date for it now, September 25th. Uh, so pretty only two days after Blizzard's
46:57
everything. Yeah. Um, and it's interesting and I I believe this was written about on the
47:02
website. Uh, I believe Liz Pat actually wrote the article. um because it's been
47:08
in early access for like a year and a half. It's been a while uh since they they first announced it and then it was
47:14
available in in early access and people have been playing the heck out of it, myself included. Uh but we finally
47:20
finally have an official release date. Uh and it will be releasing on the Switch as well. Uh and we're finally
47:28
going to get the full narrative. We're going to get the full story, the full leadup to it, which we haven't had from uh before this. Uh, and they're going to
47:35
be implementing, which I think is really neat. Hades, the first one had a uh
47:41
cross save feature so that if you play it on your PC, you could then, you know, pick up your exact save file on the
47:46
Switch, which is absolutely massive. Uh, and I'm looking forward to doing exactly that when 1.0 releases because sometimes
47:53
I want to play on my giant TV and sometimes I want to play on my computer and sometimes I want to play in handheld mode and now I can do all of that and
47:59
save my progress. Makes me very, very happy. Uh if you haven't or if you're not familiar with Hades, uh Hades was
48:06
Super Giant Games. I I want to say it was probably their biggest hit. Uh and they've had some bang easily
48:12
by quantum it's Yeah. by entire quantum of information bigger. Yeah. And they've had they've had some I don't
48:18
think I don't think any of their games have missed even their weakest game a py was phenomenal. And the story in a uh
48:25
thinly like the the story that was was presented in what was ostensibly a fantasy sports game uh was so good. It
48:34
was absolutely insane. Uh but Hadesh one was an action RPG isometric adventure.
48:40
Uh not quite like Diablo because you don't really collect uh you know loot
48:46
off the ground but uh almost like an arena uh rogike would be the best way to really put it. an action RPG arena
48:52
rogike. When you move from room to room, you select from different uh branching paths. You earn uh either abilities or
48:58
items or currency uh so that you can increase your power of your character and customize your run. Hades 2 does
49:05
exactly the same thing. Uh you get a plethora of different weapons to choose from except instead of playing as
49:10
Zagrias, you're playing as Minoway, uh the sister of Zagrias in the story as
49:17
it's told here. Uh, and depending on your translation of the classic myth of Zagrias, possibly or or not actually
49:23
related to Hades and possibly or not, uh, you know, one of his, you know,
49:29
whatever, like the the a demigod or or however you want to put it. So, uh, but
49:34
it's really neat. I really enjoy the game. I know that, uh, I'm not the only one that's been playing it. I don't know if anybody on the podcast here has been
49:40
playing it in the early access. Corey, I have not played the early access. I played the early access for the first
49:46
Hades and I loved it and then I was like, "Okay, it was definitely better once it got to 1.0." So, I was just I
49:52
knew that I would just wait until the official launch of Hades 2 to get into it. Yeah. Uh, the other thing I think is
49:58
interesting is like the way that Hades 1 made the game relevant for so long with
50:03
the different difficulty modes, the heat system. Uh, I mean, Liz called this out in the the article, and if she hadn't, I
50:10
was going to bring it up. It took 3 years from the release of Hades 1 for somebody to beat the game at maximum
50:16
difficulty without any mods or seeding or anything like um they give you a robust amount of content when they
50:22
release these these games and Hades 2 even in early access has already proven
50:27
to be a absolute gold mine of uh so I'm excited to see its 1.0 release
50:35
and the music I it's cannot be brought up unless you mention the music because
50:40
the music that they have in all of their games at Super Giant, but especially Hades has just been phenomenal
50:46
and I cannot wait to hear what is in Hades 2. Oh, uh, Orpheus's Lament is one of the
50:52
most like uh heartbreaking songs and it has three different variations in the
50:58
game. you like listen to the soundtrack if you if you like you just have a
51:03
couple hours to like kill. Um so good. Yeah. But yeah, I'm looking forward to
51:08
it and now I can move on to the other one if unless anybody's got anything else to add about Hades.
51:13
I just think in general it's one of the better games you're going to get to play if it's anything like 80s one. I haven't
51:18
even played Hades 2. I don't need to to know that if it's anything like '8s 1, it's going to be one of the best games. Yeah, it's been a it's been a
51:25
banger month for games and we're we're like between Silk Song releasing earlier and
51:31
like people losing their collective minds to it and I'm one of them and then this. It's going to be a hard toss up
51:36
between probably these two for my game of the year, but we'll talk about that later. I'm not going to put in a game of the
51:42
year category, but I am a really enjoying Borderlands 4, which is also another long- aaited sequel that has
51:47
just come out in September of 2025. Yeah, to mixed reviews actually. Segue
51:52
us, Joe. Segue. Yeah. So, uh, Borderlands 4 did release and it's been, uh, mixed review. So,
52:00
some people are disappointed with it. Uh, some people are disappointed with the performance of it. Uh, the game is
52:06
it's very demanding on your systems. Uh, I remember, do you have a computer? Do you want your
52:11
computer to sound like a jet engine taking off? Congratulations. Borderlands 4 is here for you. Remember when I had
52:17
to replace my entire computer or or not play Dragon Age uh because Veilgard on
52:23
my computer was basically cooking my CPU? Uh Borderlands 4 is doing that and worse. Uh people have reported it
52:30
killing like you know fans overheating uh like really pressing like current day
52:37
or like last generation graphics cards which it really shouldn't. Uh memory
52:42
leaks, crashes. Uh, somebody reported that their hard drive died. Uh, which
52:48
could be because of this or it could be because of the Windows bug. It could be a combination of both uh based off of
52:53
like a memory leak that caused the page file to grow too big. Uh, regardless uh when people are bringing up their
52:59
criticism of the game, Randy Pitchford uh is his typical wonderful, you know,
53:04
humanitarian focused self, uh, told everybody to STFU.
53:09
I I have a question for you, Joe. Who is Randy Pitchford? because I have not followed Borderlands. I don't actually
53:15
know. Well, Randy Pitchford, you see, is the CEO of Gearbox,
53:21
the creator creators, amateur magician. Amateur magician, apparently, too. Um,
53:26
but yeah, he's he's been really vocally like bashing people for having in a lot
53:33
of cases legitimate critiques of the of the game. Uh, such as it's a premium
53:38
game that needs to be run on premium hardware. uh you know, saying this to people that have spent $5,000, $10,000
53:44
on their gaming rigs and still can't run it. Uh or saying that it shouldn't you shouldn't be trying to run this on a
53:50
PlayStation 4 can't. Uh or telling them that they're essentially again STFU.
53:56
Uh so or or to adjust their expectations and turn the settings down, then why are
54:02
they setting options to begin with, right? Like it's I get it, but also maybe your game's not
54:07
coded very well sometimes. Go ahead, Matt. I just feel like if if if the game can
54:13
be run on a PS4 in the first place, you don't have to make that optional, you know, if you can just not release it for
54:20
the game the PlayStation 4. The PlayStation 5 exists and it's been out for like 5 years now.
54:26
It's not actually it's not actually out on the PS4. He he was just using that as a If he's being sarcastic, then that's
54:32
dumb for a different reason. You know, you are the CEO of the company. If you are telling people, well, don't try to
54:37
play it on PlayStation 4. We're not because you didn't sell it on that. What could you actually address
54:43
our concerns? Yeah. And and and to put it into further context and for me interesting. Steam does this thing where uh if you've ever
54:50
loaded Steam, it asks you if it can gather data off your profile, not necessarily what you're doing, but it
54:56
wants to know what specs your computer are because it actually keeps a uh of
55:02
like a a chart or a database of what the most popular and most prevalent hardware is. processors, RAM configurations,
55:09
video cards, uh, and it puts it out there for developers to look at. And so
55:15
when and many developers, Larry talked about this at length actually when they were releasing Balders's Gate 3. Um they
55:22
they went through and looked at what the average person was running at home and wanted to make a game that didn't
55:28
require them to have to go out and you know spend on the you know current
55:33
generation of stuff that is you know probably way too expensive for most people. And in this case, he's talking
55:40
about uh the game struggling like he's talking that like these they should move
55:46
on to newer GPUs, but the game struggles at 1080p on mainstream GPUs like 3060
55:52
Nvidia 3060s and 4060s which dominate like Steam's charts and usability
55:58
because they're they're not bad cards. They're good cards. Uh, and if those
56:03
cards can run, I don't veil guard at, you know, an even 60fps without a
56:10
problem, I don't see why these these this shouldn't be able to as well. And not addressing it and playing this
56:16
whole, you know, you're just bad or you need to adjust your uh, you know,
56:23
expectations is wrong. Just address the address the concerns. It's not like we haven't seen PC games adjusted after
56:30
they're released to make them more efficient or to make them run better or to fix coding problems. We were talking
56:36
about this last week. Silkong just released it already released a patch to fix a problem that players were having.
56:42
Like I think Borderlands also has released a patch, but I don't know how much it's addressed the PC issues.
56:48
And and I I think the people the developers working on it probably are working on fixing the problems. Randy
56:53
just needs to shut his mouth. Yeah, this is the problem. in my opinion, and granted I do not know very
56:59
much about um what it takes to make a Borderlands game, but Randy Pitchford
57:05
has over the years continuously been the problem for the company, you
57:12
know, Gearbox. It's been Randy Pitchford talking has been much worse for them than their actual issues have been.
57:18
He manages to always make them worse. I'm pretty sure the dude loves shoe leather flavored ketchup at this point because he just keeps sticking his foot
57:24
in his mouth. Yeah, it's it's real bad. But I feel like we don't really have much more to talk about in terms of that.
57:30
I mean, I really like the new Borderlands and it's got Liz's favorite voice actor, Ray Chase, in it.
57:37
Now, for those of you who don't know, Ray Chase voiced everyone's favorite uh vampire, Denathrius, in Shadowlands, and
57:44
Liz is definitely his number one fan. We uh we we I'm just uh we may have ruined voice acting on that
57:50
character for Liz and Raid. I'm sorry. I'm just I I just heard enough of him
57:56
talking and I'm I'm sorry. I'm sure he's very talented. I'm tired of ever I don't
58:01
ever want to hear him say anything ever again. I apologize, but I'm I'm I'm
58:07
done. Yeah. It's not Chase you hate, it's Denatrius you hate. Yes. And it's just there's an
58:13
unfortunate connection between those two individuals the other. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly.
58:21
for that matter if if you could be listening to another game and as long as he doesn't sound like Denatrius, you're probably going to be okay.
58:26
Yeah. Like if he says a voice but it's not Denathrius sounding. I I feel you because I have that exact problem. Um I
58:34
and this isn't even negative but after his role as Garash Hellscream. Um I've heard that actor in several
58:41
other things doing a similar voice and I can't because that's gash to me. I
58:46
immediately go. Is that Patrick Sites? Yes. I nice man. Nothing against him and
58:53
nothing against him as an actor, but when he does that voice, which he still does, I I get yanked out of it because
59:00
to me it's like, oh, it's Gash. So, yeah. No, I get you. I understand. It's not Ray Chase you have a problem with.
59:05
It's Stenatrius. I get there's a a kill line that my character who Ray Chase
59:12
voices pulls out every once in a while where he says, "Except defeat, you silly bastards." but in his much nicer voice
59:18
than mine. And it is so Matt Berry coded that I have to imagine that at some
59:24
point Matt Barry was attached to Voic's character because you can just hear that like bastards in it in a way that I
59:32
don't think uh Ray Chase is quite delivering on. Somebody was just watching some streaming vampire show. It's fine.
59:40
Yeah. Now that we've talked about that, uh do we want to try to hit these other two games before we get out of here? We we we have we have time for them. And
59:46
I think we should. Um, so I'm going to say Mario Tennis is on for pre-order. It's coming out February 12th. I've never played Mario Tennis or
59:53
any It's a new one. So I'm assuming it's like Mario Tennis 4 or whatever. Joe, you probably have. So
59:59
yeah, I was going to say Mario Tennis is a game that people really did enjoy. And we did get one.
1:00:04
Rabbits in it. I'm sorry. Are there going to be rabids in it? If rabids are going to be in it, then I'm interested.
1:00:10
I don't think so. Oh. Because that is a that they don't own the rabbid. Uh Nintendo doesn't own the
1:00:16
rights to the rabbit. Uh but it's a it's an updated version with new modes. Uh it's called Mario Tennis Fever. There's
1:00:22
going to be new uh rackets that you can actually swap out as a part of the mechanics. Looks really neat. If you're
1:00:28
into that type of thing, it's up for pre-order now. It will be released in February on the 12th. Uh I just wanted
1:00:33
to put it in there because I know like I know a surprisingly large number of people that are very very into Mario
1:00:40
Tennis. I was very surprised by this. Okay. Can Can we all agree that Mario
1:00:45
versus Rabbids? It was very good. Okay. Also, Strange Antiquities is releasing tomorrow. Um, this is the
1:00:52
sequel to Strange Horiculture, which I had heard of. Um, is this going to be a similar game to
1:00:58
Ye? Yes. I mean, I'm I'm interested in this one, but I haven't I haven't been playing uh I I haven't played Strange
1:01:05
Horiculture. It's it's it's you know, it's one of those games. It's about the vibes
1:01:12
and I mean all I can say is I'm looking forward to it. It's a little creepy. It's a little puzzle game. It's very
1:01:18
atmospheric and the review is the early review. So I am looking forward to checking it out.
1:01:25
So, if if you enjoy, you know, restoring antiques that I don't know, maybe
1:01:32
haunted, maybe haunted, may have dark pasts,
1:01:37
you may have demonic possessions, things like that. If you want to uh collect,
1:01:43
restore, sell things like that, this is your game. This is the game specifically
1:01:48
for you. And you know, I've actually uh heard it already compared to Blueprints
1:01:54
as a puzzle game. And I think that's just you can't do that. You don't want to make that comparison
1:01:59
both because Blueprints is a wildly unique game that is impossible to categorize and also because they're hard
1:02:08
to reach. Yeah. It's there there's a puzzle element here, but
1:02:13
just because one game is a puzzle game and another game is also a puzzle game.
1:02:19
you you still can't put them next to each other. You might as well compare this toro in my opinion because it's it's
1:02:25
but but also I do think putting those things in the same room does it does
1:02:30
complement it, you know? Well, plus I mean, I'm looking at this the the ad for it. If nothing else, the the incidental
1:02:38
art, which is, you know, it's got a very stylized look, but like a book just opened in a map displayed and the map
1:02:44
was already drawn as it was displaying all these like the sketches of the architectural type sketches, the maps,
1:02:51
the incantations, the rituals. This is all really well done. This is extremely
1:02:56
well done. the the incident the art itself for like the characters. It's a puzzle game. It's a little, you know,
1:03:03
kind of a spooky core type thing. So, I'm not looking for for anything, but all the incidental stuff is really nice.
1:03:10
I'm I'm loving these books and how they open. I I love the idea. I love the concept of spooky core. I I like it.
1:03:17
Isn't that pretty much what it is, though? I mean, that's what it looks like. Yeah. I That is the vibe. It's You want
1:03:24
to be a creepy shopkeeper? Yeah. That's that's where we are here. Yeah. So, that's cool. I'm glad that you
1:03:30
uh put that up there. It gets it on my attention. So, now I will know to look for it. Uh but I believe we are pretty
1:03:36
much out of time now, guys. So, that's going to be the podcast. Um thank you to Corey for showing up and not being like
1:03:43
a Death Star in any way. I apologize for any confusion I may have caused earlier
1:03:48
in in recording. Uh, of course, as always, thank you to Joe and Liz for all
1:03:54
the work they do and making sure that this podcast exists and is recorded and
1:03:59
you guys get to hear it. Cuz if none of those things happen, then this is literally just us having a conference call for an hour and a half.
1:04:05
Uh, that that talks about some really odd things. Uh, well, time well spent, possibly except for the
1:04:12
part where I'm going insane about, you know, games that don't even exist. Um, I said what I said.
1:04:18
Yeah. Uh thank you to you as well. Um as Liz pointed out earlier, uh without you
1:04:23
guys, there's no show. So, thank you very much. Thank you for all the ways you support us between sharing our
1:04:29
content and of course kicking a little money our way via Patreon. It it all helps and we all appreciate it. Uh this
1:04:35
has been the Blizzard Watch Podcast. Thank you guys so much for being here with us and we'll be back next week.
1:04:42
[Music]