Datafist Gaming podcast ep 2

Welcome to the DataFiz Gaming Podcast, I'm Jeffrey Clark, I'm here to talk to you about games. Gamescom started when this was recording, so I'll have a lot of Gamescom trailer reactions as well as gameplay reactions. I'm actually looking forward to it, Gamescom started a day early, it looks like they have a day zero, so I can't wait to share with you all kinds of interesting things from Gamescom. Tekken finally got their release date announced for January 26th. I am grateful because I was expecting it to be later in the year, but this makes a whole lot of sense because it gives time for people to prepare for EVO 2024, and it gives... This makes a lot of sense because it gives people time to prepare for EVO 2024, and it just lets us have something fantastic to play in the new year. It's a dead slot for games, usually January through like March-ish is like a dead zone for games, and sometimes summer as well. So I'm just excited, when the new year starts, we'll be playing Tekken. Let me know if you're going to be playing Tekken in the comments below, and also let me know who you're going to be playing, I guarantee you the moment Tekken releases, I'm playing Coffee, Azucena, Raven, and Jun Kazama. The Kazama fighting style is one of my favorites, and I'm very glad she's back in it. Now, I wanted to talk about Yakuza Gaiden, the man who erased his name, Ryu Ga Gotoku is one of the best studios right now because even though they're getting a lot of attention for the Yakuza series, it's actually a B game in my opinion. They're not spending the rent on graphics, they're spending everything on gameplay, and in my opinion, I really wish the entirety of the games community would pay attention to this. B games used to be very popular in the PS2 era, where a game was just like, alright, but the gameplay or the story was amazing, because they didn't spend 90% of their budget on marketing and graphics. And usually when you spend a lot of money on graphics, your gameplay suffers. So I'm very glad that Ryu Ga Gotoku tends to reuse a lot of assets, as well as make them look prettier over time. Like, if I went back to play Yakuza 4, I'd be fine with it because I'm used to the style of Yakuza. It kind of looks like a PS3, maybe PS4 era game, even in the PS5 era, they just have better looking cutscenes, which is great, and the graphics gradually improve. There's not these major jumps that hurt the entirety of the series. Because Yakuza's huge, nowadays Yakuza's like two cities, it's like, I'm playing Lost Judgment right now, please play it, it's fun, and it's Ichinjo and Kamurocho. And I'm sure that in The Man Who Erased His Name, we're going to get Kamurocho, and then this new district that's shown up, because Joryu, previously Kiryu, is now a bodyguard. Which is such a great story. Ryu Ga Gotoku also tends to mix very melodramatic storylines with goofy gameplay. The fights are insanely brutal, but they also have some of the goofiest moves ever. The side quests are goof troops sometimes, and I really enjoy that, because there's lots to love about the game. If you like intrigue and deep storytelling, you're going to get it with Yakuza. You're going to get a lot of interesting characters that are going to show up throughout multiple games, and you're also going to get a lot of side quests that can be equally as deep as the main game, or absolutely hilarious, and I think that's one of the greatest types of game development ever, because they understand their audience and how to generate new ones. They tell a great story, they have fantastic gameplay with variety and leveling up, and they tell some funny stories that people can put on social media, or just have a laugh at. Like, this Ryu Ga Gotoku games are an ecosystem. So you know how people have to take breaks from games? You don't need to do that in Yakuza, because if I'm playing Yakuza Gaiden, the man who writes his name, I can deal with this heavy, melodramatic storyline, or I can go play karaoke, or pool. What? It's great, and they always have some really fun and kind of middling level mechanics with all their games. Pool is fun and deep, gambling is fun and deep, even dating the hostess is fun and deep. They also, like, made the hostess' videos live action, and I love that. They support a bunch of industries in Japan. That's why this company is, they're probably going to last for a really long time, if not forever, and I'm so grateful. They're so good that they finally moved past Kiryu being their main character, they created a second one, and he's doing well too. Like, every game company should be paying attention to these developers, because their story is good. To make great characters, to make memorable characters, like, do that to make your game great. If all you can do is copy them, do that for a while. But yeah, the man who writes his name, I saw the new trailer, it looks fantastic, I'm glad Kiryu is still in the game, and I'm very glad they gave him a new purpose, because yeah, the Yakuza stuff, it's done. They created a multi-game storyline where, you know, the Yakuza has now been crushed by, you know, anti-Yakuza law, which actually happened in real life, and I think that's really fun, and I'm excited about that. So now that, like, you know, the anti-Yakuza law has taken effect, Yakuza members have been, like, separated, and they're doing a bunch of different things, they're starting street gangs, some of them have started real businesses, if you've played Lost Judgment, you'll see the effects of that, which is cool. That's real story and world building, guys. You'll see that, like, some of them have moved on to either worse things or better things, and that's really fun, but in the man who erased his name, he's now a secret agent, for one reason or another, we're not sure why, and the one thing I am sad about the new trailer is they reveal too much, they did the movie thing where they're like, let's show you the entire storyline, people are still gonna watch it, because they care about the ride, not the spoilers, but I would have loved to just see those things in game. But yeah, he's a secret agent, and the Yakuza life is trying to pull him back in for multiple reasons, and now he has to deal with a new entertainment district. And I don't want to reveal too much, because I don't believe in that, but it's going to, is it going to be fun? Yes. The reason it's going to be fun is because Ryu Ga Gotoku has a long history of making amazing games. This is also a new chapter in Kiryu's life that will be interesting, and fun, and just as deep and dramatic, because the track record of the development studio has shown that they know what they're doing. Secondarily, even though the trailer spoils everything, it's a compelling story. He's a bodyguard. He's trying to protect his orphanage. He's also trying to protect who he's supposed to protect. And he's also trying to figure out how to deal with all of the Yakuza-y things without going back into the Yakuza. That's a great story! So is it going to be fun? Absolutely. And the gameplay looks just as wild and hectic as ever. So if you're going to pre-order something, that's a safe bet, especially if you already love the Yakuza games or you want to hop into them. I already talked about what makes Yakuza special. Yeah, I had a whole, there's a good chunk of this list of why Yakuza is good. All right. Something I wanted to talk about because it just keeps showing up in my feed when I'm researching stuff for the podcast is game leaks. Uh, first off, I can tell you from working in the industry for a long time in multiple industries on a limited capacity, I wish I worked for a gaming studio, but no, I just made games on the side and I did a lot of games journalism for a long time. Some game leaks are done on purpose. We all know that, but I just want to let people know that some of them are on purpose. If your game, and this is not a negative thing at all, it's a neutral thing. And I hope that indie developers are paying attention. If your game needs marketing, the best thing to do is use alternative marketing strategies. So leak something from your game. If, and it helps if your game has enough hype. If you've done the groundwork and you've got a decent fan base of people, leak something from your game that won't reveal the entirety of like the game. It'll get them interested. It'll get them talking about your game on social media. It'll get you free press potentially. And you can set the record straight on these game leaks, which will give you even more press. Like the name of the game in marketing right now is to be as unique and alternative as possible. And this is one of the ways that you do that. So yes, a small number of game leaks are planned and it sucks and it's irritating. But also to people who actively like leak game information, please stop. Like the part of like having a good game release is to be genuinely surprised. Yes, Yakuza basically ruined its entire, well not its entirety, but a good skeleton of its storyline with its last trailer. But it's still, I still don't know the whole storyline. I'm still interested. I'm still intrigued. There's still a lot of mystery there. But there are things that like people are doing that I believe is not okay, which is like they'll leak entire rosters for fighting games. Street Fighter 6 had its entire roster leaked. So did Tekken 8. And I disapprove entirely. I really wish that if you're out there and you want to spoil stuff because you have hacker skills, cool. But at least like consider the community and like leak a character. Please don't leak the whole thing. I think that sucks and it ruins the fun. Back in the PS2 days, even in the PS3 days, when you played a game and nothing was spoiled, then people can come online and be joyous about what they found versus some body online who's like, I data mined this. Stop it. Please. Also to developers, learn that data mining exists and just like have better security. And I know that's a simple solution. That's a difficult thing to do. But we're three console generations in where somebody with a computer and a lot of time on their hands has taken a demo or anything that you've released in any way, shape, or form and just gone, all right, here's the code. I'm going to read everything and then backtrace whatever security measures you have to figure out what's going on with this game. There should be systems in place to stop stuff like this. And I know you guys are trying and I know it's working because there's less leaks than there used to be. But still, keep working on it. Keep doing it for people and fighting games, especially. Please make sure there are ways that your roster can't get leaked. But yeah, that's just me complaining about game leaks. It sucks. I apologize. But yeah, tell me what you guys think about game leaks in the comments. Do you like them? Do you dislike them? Like I said, I wouldn't mind a few game leaks, especially if the company, the developer, or the publisher is really bad at marketing. A lot of them are. They're terrible at marketing. They spend their whole rent on commercials. But if a few leaks came out that weren't spoiling the whole game, man, I'd be so ecstatic because then they're just like, ooh, cool, I get to see this. Like right now, I'm waiting on Persona 3 Reloaded. And I'm going to be waiting for a while. So it would be nice like, you know, to see like a JPEG from the game. And then we get to speculate like, ah, this is going to be our game news until someone releases a trailer. But like, as long as it's not releasing or showing anything critical. Anyway, yeah, that segment over. Let's talk about the Starfield Starscreen nonsense. Yeah, I'm really interested. What do you guys think about game journalism? Because I feel like a lot of things that are being posted today are fluff. And I feel really bad for the journalists because I know that they have to do this every day. They have to take a crumb and turn it into an entire sandwich. So to journalists, I salute you. I appreciate you guys for like trying to make gaming interesting every day. I know it's difficult. I run a podcast and I'm trying to figure out how to make things emotional and fun and interesting. So I feel it. But there's also just like so much fluff. It's crazy. And I really wish like the click bait titles would die because I am clicking on things and I'm like, oh, something interesting. And I've gained a minute piece of information. And the rest is either speculation or fluff because they probably have like a word quota that they need to meet. And that really hurts my feelings. But the reason I brought that up, too, is because someone posted on, what is his name, Brumms. He posted on Twitter or X. We're going to call it Twitter until the next generation calls it X. He tweeted that the Starfield logo, it either looks like a passion overworked team, I'm paraphrasing, or a team that didn't care. And then Pete Hines was like, this is one of the first decisions that we made together. Now, my thoughts on it are very simple. It's a good start screen. Start screens are not like traditionally amazing. Like, go, I want you to take five seconds to go back into your brain and think about a start screen that sticks out in your mind. I bet the start screen that came to your mind first is either your favorite game of all time or the game you're playing now. Start screens aren't memorable. Unless like someone talks to you about them, then maybe your brain will recall them. Plus, Bethesda start screens have always been like incorrigibly simple. Because the whole point of a start screen is to get you to play the game and have data organized. Are you starting a new game? Are you continuing? Would you like to change the options? And maybe a few more things like, hey, look at the people who made the game. Or quit the game if you're on PC. Start screens have a very simple function and they do that thing. And that's about it. And I can only think of two start screens that are amazing. One is Persona 5 because Persona 5 is just like the most stylish game in existence. And the other is Nioh 2 because Nioh 2's start screen is your character hanging out near a tree with your weapon, your active weapon of choice, and your active spirit. To me, that is the greatest start screen of all time because it's fully contextual and it looks extremely cool. Tell me in the comments what you think your favorite start screen is so I can look at them and I can talk about them. Because honestly, even though this is a dumb story, because it is stupid, I think that now appreciating start screens could be something cool. So tell me what your favorite start screen is. Because mine, oh, Nioh 2. If you haven't played Nioh 2, man, I suggest you do it. If you do play Nioh 2 and you see this on Twitter, just reply with your start screen because I want to see your character, your weapon, and your spirit. That would be really cool. So another funny story that's happening recently is people have been review bombing Overwatch 2 on Steam and I think it's hilarious. First off, no matter what I say about video games or about developers or about publishers, I want the internet to know that I love everybody in the gaming industry. Developers, publishers, marketing teams, I love this industry front and back and all I want to do is be honest in the industry and then just make things fun and point out things that make no sense so that people, we can all grow, we can be a less aggressive community and have just a better overall attitude about everything and to have fun. So the review bombing of Overwatch 2 is funny. It just is. Yes, it sucks. I'm sorry, developers. You guys made a quality game but it just, for a lot of people, it isn't fun anymore. And the reason why, because I've had people ask me and once again, if you have topic ideas that you want to hear about or questions to ask me, put them in the comments or any community section so I can answer your questions. The problem that I saw with Overwatch 2 that only a few people I've seen addressed in the community is that the game was updated in its heyday for competition and not for the casual player. And this is something that Fortnite did where it focused completely on the battle royale aspect and totally forgot about save the world mode, which is okay. It worked out for them and they had their own update issues but it doesn't matter. They're so big. They will always have players. Overwatch 2 is in the middle. It will always have players, yes, but it's not big enough to ignore people complaining about it. Now, the thing that I think would fix Overwatch 2 is the thing that's been complained about minutely but is having a major effect on the community is that the updates have been specifically, from what I've been seeing, specifically for Overwatch League. In its heyday, it was updated for Overwatch League. Even now, the updates that have been made, yes, they help the casual player because I have been playing casually and it has been interesting but it still feels like they're making stuff for the league, for the pro players, for the people who want to climb the ladder. If you forget about your casual players, it's not going to go too well because even if you have a big league, the ratio of league level players, people who are ranking up versus people who want to play casually, I feel like I could be wrong. Please let me know if you have the numbers. The casual players beat the ranked players by a wide margin and what's really funny is that Overwatch has a section on TC, the playtest section, where you can play what they're about to implement into the game. If you can do that, then in Overwatch 1 and 2, you should have a section of updates that are specifically for ranked play and casual play. Meaning, Mei, for whatever reason, can't freeze anymore. I think that's a bad idea. It makes no sense. It may not feel fun at all. She's incredibly difficult. Being able to freeze made her useful, aside from her wall. Say what you will, I'm not a pro player. I just play at a pretty good level. And that decision, for me, felt like it was for competition, not for casuals. So when I play casuals, I should be able to freeze people. That's how I feel. Separating those updates for casuals and competition would make a more whole game. Because if I'm playing competition, I know that I can do this, this, this, and this. But when I'm playing casual, this is fun mode. This is Omega mode. This is people having a great time that's still got some rules so it's not unbalanced, but it's not so tightly balanced that you can't have fun. And those are separatable. You can do that. It may be difficult on console, because servers, but on PC, you can 100% do that. And I wish that that's what they would have done in their heyday up until now, because they would have had the systems for it. But for the people who actively like Overwatch 2, what are you enjoying? For the people who don't like Overwatch 2, what are your reasonable complaints? Whenever we talk about negative things, I'm always going to end up with something positive, because I want to create a fun and positive show. And I also want to know what people actively like and dislike. Now, things that are great about Overwatch 2, that gameplay is tight. I popped in and I played Baptiste. I love Baptiste. He's so fun, and it's fun to play as a healer that can dome people. I was playing with a friend, and she's like, I haven't played in a while, and I'm not very good. I was like, I'll carry you. And I carried her with Baptiste. I carried the game with Baptiste. That's a good sign. That means, at least in my opinion, that means that I can do things now and it's fun. Mercy's gun still feels really weird. It does decent damage. It feels weird. But as Baptiste, oh, I get to mow through people if I have a decent team. And I've had a good time with at least the last time I played. So the gameplay feels really tight. It is kind of fun. And if you know how to play Overwatch and play, you know, mixed tactics, you'll be fine. So why did people review bomb Overwatch 2? Because it was funny. Honestly, though, the main reason is that Overwatch 2 made an announcement saying they're going to put PvE in the game. And then they said, we can no longer give you PvE. And people review bombed it. Do I think it's justified? Yeah, I do. I really do. A lot of people are saying, hey, don't do that. Actually, not a lot of people. My new people are saying, don't do that. No, I think that this is one of the times where the community needs to be loud, as loud as humanly possible. Because if we go, Overwatch 2, it's totally OK you can't give us PvE. After you've told us that's what you'd be giving us, then it will be signaling to not only Activision Blizzard, but other companies that you can treat game development like a presidential campaign. You can tell me that you're going to release a game with these features. And when the game comes out, you're like, oops, sorry, we can't deliver. And expect us to continue to pay for the game, or even play the game. No, I'm glad they review bombed Overwatch 2 for that. And the developer did have a gracious response. But as a gamer who had to buy his own games from like age nine to now, and especially as an adult who's balancing life stuff, and games are like $60, and cosmetics are running $15. What's the insane price for the ones in Street Fighter? I think it's like $30. No, it's not acceptable. Any community, if you are unsatisfied with what the developers have been doing, especially if they promised something, review bomb them. Do it. Make your opinion known, not only vocally, but with your wallet. Don't buy any cosmetics. Even more so, don't even turn on the game. Because the more you turn on the game, the more hope they have that you'll buy cosmetics. The more people online to play, that will make other people want to play more. If people just stop playing, even the people who continue to play will also stop playing because they can't get a match. And it will show Blizzard, this is not OK. If you need to take a year off of making cosmetics to work on that story mode, or do it in chapters, or do it in seasons, do it. You owe us the story mode. And at Division Blizzard, you owe us the story mode. I don't care how you feel. I don't care how gracious you take it. You owe us the story mode. You made a promise, and people have paid you a lot of money to have you go through with that promise. You owe us the story mode. And a lot of people are talking about gamers are being entitled. I agree. Some gamers need to shut the hell up. But when a developer says, I will do this, and they take our money, and they don't, you owe us. You did it to yourself. No amount of backpedaling will save you. Now, how to end this positively, it's great to see the community coming together. The review bombs are really funny. If you're having a bad day, go to Overwatch 2 on Steam, read some of the reviews. They are hilarious. There's also a person on TikTok who's covering the review bombings and finding the best ones. They are actually really funny. And the community is showing how amazingly artistic they are. Because that's one cool thing about Overwatch 2's community, is it's full of just the best artists. And people who are even starting out in art are really creative. And I love it. So Overwatch 2 community, I love you. Some of you are intense, chill out, and casual play, please. But the rest of you who are cool and just hop on and talk and play, I love you. All right. So this one's going to be real short, because I want to prepare for Gamescom. And I also want to hear what you guys want to hear about. I really want to focus on creating a podcast that when you listen to it, you laugh, you get some information, it makes you feel good. So please give me interesting ideas that you want to hear, topics that you want to hear about, games that you want to hear me talk about, and potential guests. I'm looking myself. This is a community podcast. Remember, it's for you. And yeah. Have a great day. Hey, you, Player 2. It's a gaming podcast. Let's get into it. Hey, you. I'm your Player 2. This is a data-focused game podcast. Ah, shit. Hey, you. I'm your Player 2. This is a data-focused gaming podcast. Let's get into it. Hey, you. I'm your Player 2. Let's get into it.