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speaker-0: His name is Dockey Darker.
speaker-2: No
speaker-0: ⁓ here he is, Ducky.
speaker-2: Hey,
speaker-1: ⁓ Nick and I were talking ⁓ this morning ⁓ off air about gaming and Nick's question to me was what what what's original now when it comes to gaming? So for example, and and I think to preface this by saying that it seems to be a lot of existing or pre-existing IPs of late and reboots and remakes and everything like that, what was the last truly original game in in your mind that came out that w
speaker-2: You know what I've seen before. Yeah, it's it's ⁓ y the truly original game, like with a it is tough ⁓
speaker-1: Let let's change the rules slightly. What was the last triple A?
speaker-2: Yeah, I think that's the that's the key, is everything that you see in the news is obviously very same same because that's the stuff that sells bulk. Yeah. ⁓ whereas if you dive down into the indie games, like I played blackjacket and I'm s I rave about that game. It's basically black it's blackjack, it's twenty one, but it's ⁓ just a unique take on it. It's more magic the gathering meets blackjack. You know, I hadn't seen that before. ⁓ there's one coming out soon which I'm playing at the moment, which is Shrooms something. I can't remember the full name. Off the top of my head. But it is it is also a roguelike card game that's a dungeon crawler and I haven't seen anything like this before either. It's really quirky and cute and cool. ⁓ but once again an indie game. So when you look at triple A games, I think even double A games, I mean the last true different experience I felt was probably with Claire Obscure Expedition thirty three. ⁓ And I don't think I don't think anything's come close to it. I think that it
speaker-1: You know what? Great. That's a good
speaker-0: 'Cause a story though?
speaker-2: Yeah, I think story art design, because the obviously the gameplay itself is very much like the personas and and games like that. So it's not a unique game play, but it's a unique game design. And I think that's that's the difference. Like yeah, like I I mean even the latest Star Wars game, Zero Company, that's just XCOM. Yeah, yeah. ⁓ you know, like it's yeah, there's a lot of like a lot of same same but different.
speaker-1: It's what I said to Nick is that we've eventually run out, you know, back in the day you had your Max Payne doing bullet time, you had your RPGs, you know, your ⁓ your lit your ⁓ Zeldas and everything had sort of an original IP and original standpoint to build the gaming world around us and everything has been not a copy and paste moving forward, but like you very much can compare a triple A game to something else.
speaker-2: I remember the first time I played a Resident Evil game. It blew my mind. We'd never seen anything like that before. It was incredible. When Final Fantasy dropped in Australia, and and we had like the multi-disc system that came with that. And it was like this is a this is a Japanese RPG. So we hadn't really seen a lot like that. No. ⁓ that was the first one that took off in Australia. So yeah, it it is pr it'd be pretty unique to to have something ⁓ different come out. But you know, I'm I'd I'd be w welcoming of it. If someone could come up with something brand new, I would love to see it.
speaker-0: ⁓ and the reason I think I brought the question up was because of the latest Wolverine game. Yeah, sure. ⁓ I wanna get your thoughts on the latest Wolverine game first.
speaker-2: Yeah, okay. Well, let me start by saying if you like God of War and Batman Arkham Asylum, then you're gonna love Wolverine. Okay, so it's it's very much in that ilk. ⁓ very different to the Spider Man games, even though it comes from the same creators. ⁓ Insomniac know how to make a game and I I think they've done a fantastic job with Wolverine. It's not open world, it's not as ⁓ as robust as what as Spider-Man game is. ⁓ but what it does deliver is a fantastic story and it starts Wolverine back in ⁓ i i it back in the past pre meeting the X Men, pre meeting Professor Xavier. It's back when he's sort of ⁓ in fact it starts when he's this feral beast that's first discovered by by ⁓ the the the guy who eventually comes becomes Mr. Sinister ⁓ Nathaniel Essex. if you're a X Men fan Like in general, the comics, you're gonna love this game. It is just it's Wolverine to the core. It's brutal. It is the combat is ⁓ is really strong. I really like it. ⁓ but it's totally different to any other sort of superhero game you've played before. Okay. Bar maybe Batman. It's got that sort of Batman feel about it. It's more brutal, that's for sure. Like they've really leaned in on the ⁓ on the mature age rating here. So yeah, really strong.
speaker-1: To Arkham Asylum, for example, whereas Arkham Asylum you can backtrack to previous areas, is this more linear?
speaker-2: It is more linear. Yeah, you can go back, ⁓ I think w yeah, it's not like Arkham in that regard. Okay. ⁓ so it is more linear like that. ⁓ but there is opportunities to go back and discover things that you you you haven't discovered before. Okay. I think ⁓ I think one of my my favorite parts of it is actually unlocking all the different Wolverine costumes. ⁓ that's so you've just got ears and eras Wolverine. There's the Hugh Jackman, the Wolverine costume.
speaker-0: Jackman's in there.
speaker-2: Well, not his but it's the current Wolverine, the the the Aussie guy who's playing him now. and and you also unlock ⁓ claws as well, so different claws. So you get bone claws or you get ⁓ and they just have different impact on on the way you play and the way you fight in the game. I think I look it's a really solid game. I don't think it's my favorite game by any stretch of the imagination, but I've thoroughly enjoyed my time with it, and I think the story is fantastic. It introduces Gene Gray at a very different stage. ⁓ you've got Sabretooth, you've got Mystique, all the all the characters that you want there. In fact, the
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dynamic between Wolverine and Sabretooth is just epic. I love it.
speaker-1: Fantastic.
speaker-0: Now Doc, I noticed they had the classic Wolverine meme where he's laying in bed looking at a picture frame. Wha can you can you explain why that's in the game? Wow.
speaker-2: Us. It's like when they introduced that classic Spider Man meme into the movies. I think it's just introducing like pop culture into into modern ⁓ media and I think it works really well. Like yeah, it's there's a lot of really cool little Easter eggs throughout the entire game. And I don't want to give anything away though, because it's like I I very much like to keep any review I do spoiler free. Yep. ⁓ one thing I do love is the ⁓ is the the rage system. ⁓ yeah so if you're a Fan of the Wolverine comics and you you know Wolverine the black and white and blood series, I think it is. Where it like where the only colour throughout the whole comic is blood, like everything else is in black and white. Like that's what it feels like to go into the rage system. But I do feel like they occasionally just throw a heap of enemies at you from nowhere just so that you get to go into rage. Like yeah. Like really cool. The combos are fantastic and ⁓ yeah, like the graphics insane. So it looks beautiful on a PS five screen. So exclusive to PS five too, so we won't be seeing this one out on PC and ⁓ and you won't be able to buy a disc for it either. So Yeah.
speaker-0: Yeah, sad. We'll claw it apart anyway, but ⁓ we'll keep our eyes out for that one. But the other one, ⁓ the Nintendo Direct was recent as well. ⁓ what'd you find out with this?
speaker-2: This week's been massive for Nintendo. Like this is how big a week they've had. Normally they have a a a Nin Nintendo direct every now and again. This week they had such a big week they had to have two of ⁓ So they had one that was completely dedicated to Zelda, and we got a f a glimpse of no not a glimpse of the movie itself, but a glimpse of the title of the movie, which is just called The Legend of Zelda. Legend of Zelda. And they haven't given it a subtitle and and the the reason apparently will become obvious when we watch the film as it it draws from all the Zelda games. So so I think ⁓ I think that I'm looking forward to that. That that's gonna be massive. But of course ⁓ the Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time remake got announced and ⁓ my God. This is what I'm talking about. I I think I've gone on record multiple times saying that I think Breath of the Wild sucks graphically like I hate the graphics. No, Tears of the Kingdom, Breath of Wild. I just don't like the graphic style. I love the game. The game is great. It's so much fun to play, but graphically I hate looking at it. It's a bit like Borderlands in that regard. The Borderland games, but they graphically they're horrible to look at. Yeah, right. It just does it doesn't it doesn't suit my ⁓ my artistic style, I guess. This does. This is they're calling it like Unreal ⁓ Zelda.
speaker-0: Love.
speaker-2: And I I'm here for it. It is exactly what I imagined Zelda to look like in in the the cartoony sort of unreal engine looking way. And I just I'm sorry.
speaker-0: Sorry, don't I was gonna say it manages to hit like a point of realism with cartoon, like morse it together.
speaker-2: It's like hyper realism or something. I don't know. Yeah. It's it's beautiful anyway. I love it. And I think I that's exactly how I want my Zelda games to look. It's exactly what I I often criticize Nintendo for not doing is they they the they play it too safe in their Nintendo world. But yeah, I think by doing this, I am I'm here for it. When when you see the tree in the tree or something like you go, Whoa, this is such a vast different like View compared to the original. I'm here for it. I want it. I want it now. So
speaker-0: I heard a lot of criticism behind this one though, Doc, was ⁓ a lot of people thought it looked like that ⁓ there's that current AI generation.
speaker-2: Yeah DLSS five.
speaker-0: But people said ⁓ I don't doubt ⁓ Nintendo did that, ⁓ upscaling. What are your thoughts around that? Like would you be alarmed to hear that or
speaker-2: I I don't think they have done it. I think it's a a a complete remake and they've just followed fan service because I think a lot of people are in the same vote as me. They want the same things. ⁓ it's very different to the DLSS five, which is I when I see like I I think that can be a force for good, but it's also a force for evil. ⁓ I think it's ⁓ when I see it it it often takes away from the artistic style of the original intent of the game. And and and they they showed examples with Resident Evil and then they they also used it on some other games as well where
speaker-1: Really uncharted. I did not like the look of it.
speaker-2: Yeah. So I there was e there was even some more ⁓ more cartoony animated games that they tried it with and it just made the eyes go all boggled and weird and and it just didn't like something.
speaker-1: So it's natural and unnatural at the same time.
speaker-2: So I think there'll be a time to use it and a time to just ignore it and ⁓ and and I think that's why they tried to keep it really close to their chest, but then it leaked and someone got a a version of it to go use on everything, which which was not the intent of of NVIDIA, I'm sure. ⁓ but ⁓ back to Nintendo, so much more coming out. ⁓ the big stuff, ⁓ I'll go through that. Metroid Ravenous, which is a a new two D side scrolling Metroid. Thank you, Nintendo. The three D one was no good. We want to go back to two D. This is exactly where I love Metroid. And the other one is ⁓ Kirby. Kirby's getting a new three D open world called Kirby and the World Beyond. Who knew Kirby was such a big deal? Hey. Cool. Yeah, I think it's like underrated in the rest of the world though. Like it when you think of Nintendo, you think Mario, Yoshi, you think Legend of Zelda, but
speaker-1: Kirby's cool. Kirby's pretty
cool.
speaker-2: Kirby's sort of like this this creature happening in the background that deserves a lot more credit than Kirby gets. The Forgotten World was amazing. Like that would be
speaker-1: Kirby's the Super Smash cheat code.
speaker-2: Yeah, right. Yeah, that's the way to And there's something so weird and ⁓ and wonderfully Japanese about a creature that eats other creatures to gain their abilities. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like and sucks it in like a vacuum. I just you know, I'm here for it. I love it. It's ⁓ it's yeah, it's cool. Kirby's pretty much There's so many other games on the Nintendo list as well, but ⁓ if you want to read them all then head to DokiDarko.com and have a look at that.
speaker-1: Mm-hmm.
speaker-0: Yeah.
speaker-2: ⁓ just lastly before we go, I wanna ⁓ mention quickly that the Game Awards for Australia is coming up. ⁓ this is this is really exciting. So ⁓ we're gonna be able to ⁓ find out who made the best game out of all the Australian dev teams. And the four finalists for Game of the Year, ⁓ Ether and Ion, which is worth checking out. It's a nineteen thirties New York City anti gravitational technology game. It's sort of
speaker-0: Yeah. ⁓
speaker-2: Yeah. They call it Deco Punk, the style. It's like art de art deco punk. So like yeah, so it's really, really cool. I think Australia makes a really unique game. You're talking about unique games before. Yeah. I think Oz the Aussie devs really go out of their way to make something ⁓ unique. Go go town's another one which is ⁓ yeah, it's a it's a mayor running a town, managing neighborhoods, automating logistics and things like that. It's it's fun though. sounds sounds sh sounds average, but it's fun.
speaker-1: Yeah.
speaker-2: Yeah, yeah. ⁓ Mix you you would have ⁓ mixtape was of course through the news of the last year. It's been huge globally. I think you know it's a shoe in to win. I think I think that's probably the most solid game that we've released in Australia for the last few years. It's a beautiful game, it has a beautiful soundtrack. The only critique of the game is that it sort of plays itself, like you can leave the controller alone and you'll still get the same outcome. ⁓ but apart from that, like it's it's it's pretty solid, like it's a good game. And the other one to look out for, this could be a a a dark horse is called Memento. ⁓ and I really like this one. It's it's room decoration essentially. But then as you put things in the room, you remember things and it releases the story of of what happened in this room or what goes on and it's a really interesting s interesting game and worth checking out. Just go watch the trailer and I think you might be hooked. It's ⁓
speaker-0: I'd get stuck as soon as I place down the PS5. Yeah. I wanna I don't want to remember anything else.
speaker-2: You know what I love the most though? Like while ⁓ while the American game devs and the Japanese game devs all have their their names for their companies, I think Australia does it better than anyone else. You look at these like fat alien cat, Beethoven and Dinosaur, Chaos Theory Games, Seismic Squirrel.
speaker-0: I feel like this is
speaker-1: I'd say the argument there is that they're not really pumping out any big like big name triple A or d or even double A games as we were talking about before. You know, it is they're known for their indies. Whereas is there an Australian company out there pumping out something that's international?
speaker-2: Not that I know of recently. No. ⁓ I think we've ⁓ we've had we've had Aussie game devs working on big games before. True. Like w but as part of a a group. Like ⁓ I know Ubisoft, ⁓ they lost their Australian armor a little while ago. ⁓ but they were doing really great work throughout a lot of their ⁓ their multiplayer systems and things like that. So ⁓ and that was really sad when that date came. But especially for ⁓ for the For the people in those jobs. ⁓ and I w I did a walkthrough of the Ubisoft's ⁓ Sydney offices last year. And it was interesting. Yeah. And behind the curtain in this one area there's just computers lined up with no with no one at them. ⁓ really? Yeah. So really sad. But you know
speaker-1: Walking through did a tutorial pop up for everything you had to do there.
speaker-2: I had to pay to use the toilet.
speaker-0: Unlock the new Docky skin, stuff like that.
speaker-2: No, not nothing like that. I'm a big, big fan of Ubisoft. I've like a they cop a lot of crap in the industry for the games. And I think I I've we keep going back to ⁓ because every game is a banger. Like like you you've just finished playing Star Wars Outlaws, right, Marcus? And loved every moment. Right? Great games. They're so good.
speaker-1: Keep going back to them. Yeah.
speaker-0: Well, that's what I was gonna say before was that with AC Shadows, if you go back and play two now, like if you just start in the ⁓ Assassin's Creed universe now, where do you start? Like gameplay wise, you might have to start at like maybe origins. Yeah.
speaker-2: I wouldn't start at Black Flag 'cause you just wouldn't want to play anything else on the day.
speaker-0: This is class Assassin's Creed. Hey Dockey, thank you very much for joining us this week. And don't forget if you want to catch more doc, ⁓ you can find him at Dockey Darko underscore official at the Instagram and also the ⁓ the ready to play app. Ready to what's the podcast called, Doc?
speaker-2: multiplay. Basically basically ready you can find me at ready to play. That sounds like a fun that that's ⁓ that's my OnlyFans channel. Yeah I was gonna say
speaker-1: Dockey's always ready to play.
speaker-0: We'll go play with Docks Dell. We'll catch you next week, man.
speaker-2: Multiplayer on iHeart, ready to play elsewhere. See you then. See you then, guys.