The Besties - The Besties Podcast XIX

Episode Date: July 13, 2012

Your friends The Besties are back with the only reason you get out of bed on Fridays. Join us as we pit the new games of the week against each other to find out which one reigns supreme. Also: Tiny Wings 2! And the epic conclusion of the Mousepocalypse! Get the full list of games (and other stuff) discussed at www.besties.fan. Want more episodes? Join us at patreon.com/thebesties for three bonus episodes each month!

My name is Justin McElroy and I know the best game of the week. Oh, right. Oh my god. Without Griffin, we are nothing. I wasn't ready, we're all programmed. You didn't even, like you couldn't even bridge the gap between, well Griffin's not here, so I guess I should go. My name's Russ Frishtick and I know the best game of the week.

Technically, Chris, you should have been the one to speak up. My name's Chris Plant, and I know the best game of the week. Okay, it'll be me, Chris Plant, Dave Tack, Russ Freshnick. All right. My name is Justin McElroy, and I know the best game of the week. My name... Wait. You are the dumbest piece of shit.

I hate your guts. My name is Mr. McElroy, and I know the best game of the week. My name is Christopher Plant, and I am experiencing an internet outage. My name is Dave Peck, and I know the best game of the week. My name is Ross Rustick, and I know the best game of the week. Good, good, good, good. This is, of course, the besties, where us four best friends are pitted against each other in Mortal Kombat as we select the new games we've been playing. We pick one to be the champion, and then that game goes up against our current reigning champion, Russ Frushtick.

What is our current – wait, are you going to talk like a dummy again? Justin, I want to tell you something. Chris, what's our reigning game? Before I get into that, you know how I said I have an internet outage going on? Yeah. That means I have had to trek through the New York summer heat to Russ Frushtick's house. Okay. And this means for the first time ever,

I am seeing what he looks like while he makes a total ass of himself. Okay. He genuflects. He raises and lowers his hands. You don't think that could be for your benefit, though? He does jaw exercises. Okay.

It's a real, it's not fun. This is what's called bringing your A game to a B podcast. All right, A game. What's the current game of the week? I dare say the current game of the week is a little game called Spelunky. Spelunky is the current reigning champion. Remember Spelunky, the game that you're terrible at? I hate that game.

Dave Tack is our special guest sitting in for Griffin McElroy. Dave, what do I pay you to do at the site? You pay me to be a reporter. Okay. I haven't gotten your name on a paycheck yet, though. Right. Sure. Have you gotten any paychecks?

Not a one. Not a one. Okay. Well, we will work to correct that just as soon as possible. Yeah. I'm sorry. on a paycheck yet though right sure have you gotten any paychecks not a one not a one okay well we will work to correct that just as soon as possible uh i'm sorry i'm a i'm a new reporter at polygon a reporter you're getting you got one of the hats i do in it that says press that's it and one of those flippy notebooks yeah those are those are so key. Dave, you're going to be our commissioner this week, but have you been playing anything? I've been playing the update to Tiny Wings. Tiny Wings 2.

Tiny Wings. They call it Tiny Wings 2. It's not Tiny Wings 2. I mean, it is. I mean, why did the guy call it Tiny Wings 2 when it's an update to the first Tiny Wings? Because it includes flight school to the two is for chapter two. Okay. I think it's actually for a tutorial.

And it comes with a tutorial. Okay. No. No. So Tiny Wings is, if you haven't played it, what is Tiny Wings, Dave? I don't know what Tiny Wings is. It is the perfect sort of little ios game you're you're a bird you fly left to right when you uh tap your finger on

the screen you fly down from the sky into little valleys and and rock it up and fast uh it's all timed and you have to get to well as far as you can go before the sun goes down. Dave, I've got to ask, how did you find this tiny, like, unknown, I don't think anyone's ever heard of this game, Tiny Wings. It's not like it's been on the top sales charts for about three years. No, I just discovered it yesterday through word of mouth. Russ, is your complaint that Dave is playing a popular game, is that your beef here? I'm just making sure people realize that this is a game that's been out for quite some time. Yes, but Tiny Wings 2 has it.

What's new in Tiny Wings 2? It's not Tiny Wings 2. Don't mis- Well, he calls it Tiny Wings 2, so what's new in Tiny Wings 2? Flight school. What's flight school? That sounds weird. It is.

You're a little bird again, but this time you race against three of your siblings, maybe, to a goal at the end. And it has a bunch of, it's basically just a bunch of little races using the mechanic. All birds aren't related. That is racist. yeah yeah the birds i do think the birds are doesn't i think they are your brothers and sisters though aren't they uh i believe so is the goal to try to beat them because i'm having a hard time doing that yeah that's what you're supposed to do okay um do mechanically, nothing has changed. Is that correct? No. The boards are generally flatter than the mountainous boards in the sort of standard single player.

Yeah. Or at least that I've played so far. If you haven't played Tiny Wings before, you actually build speed by perfectly arcing through these hills. you build speed by perfectly arcing through these hills. And if you do three perfect slides consecutively, then you go turn into a fever mode that gives you a lot of extra speed. So it seems less designed to, the idea is that you keep your fever mode going forever, but the flight school does not seem designed for you to do this.

It's just a cool sort of quick burst game where you're racing against these, as I said, brothers, because all birds are related. Should we tell the listeners the rules of chess? Because maybe, you know, they don't know those. Wow. Wow. Is that honestly necessary? Chess has nothing to do with this. Well, they both came out the same year, so.

I actually have a real question for Dave. Yeah. Do you miss your old job at NPR? I don't. Okay. This is my radio voice. It was a gift I was blessed with. And I'm not going to apologize for it.

What does your normal voice sound like? Like a clown. Can you share it with us? No. I wouldn't dream of it Fantastic So Dave's gonna be judging This week I'm already judging this week

You're already judging this week Did we tell the people where Griffin's at? That we want to fill people in? It doesn't matter, it's none of their damn business Can't he have some sliver of privacy? He could be hidden in a canyon somewhere Isn't he owed some privacy okay griffin's fine just letting you all know it don't worry about him he's fine

it's fine anyway uh i'm gonna decide who goes first this week since griffin's not here and i want to hear i've got to hear from plant about the new hoops hoops game hit me ncaa take it to the hole for college ball 2012 13 let's hear it hoops they changed it up a lot this year okay they did this is the sequel to ncaa 2012 which i remember as being one of the top hoops games of the year so what did they what are some of the big changes they've made for 2013? They moved it outside. Okay. They moved the season to the fall.

That's weird. They got rid of the hoops. Okay. That seems like a big change. With uprights. Yeah. That's not the right sport. No, no.

It's hoops. They completely switched sports. So you are actually. This is what I told Hoops so he could actually talk about it. Because I knew if he knew it was football, he would banish it from the show. Right. I love, if it doesn't have a Dunkers in it, then I'm not really interested in it. But I guess there are people who want to hear about NCAA football 2013.

Is that out currently? It is out. You can buy it now. I don't know if I would recommend you do that if you have the last year edition. But you know what? I'm going to give it a go. I'm going to give it a go because I want to win this besties. All right.

Tell me. Here is the thing about NCAA games. games i am i'm a big ohio state fan right okay do you know what that is the ohio state university it's a college university you ever heard of it yep yeah uh they have a pretty good uh college football team so i enjoy watching it and i also enjoy playing uh ncaa every year when i'm watching these games i'm like a casual player of college football games uh i buy the new version even though i probably don't need to every year this year i am reviewing it and very rarely probably not since college have i like really dug into every single mode in these games they are the nerdiest like text dense i don't even know how to describe them time sucks that i have ever seen they make a jrpg

look like fruitful like this like bountiful experience from which you know the fount of knowledge can be tapped you literally spend spend hours, hours upon hours, just in menus, calling fake people to talk to them about their fake interests and then offering them fake scholarships. And in between doing this for one or two hours, you then tell the game to simulate the progress of these calls.

At no point are you on the football field. This is all menus. And then that takes about five minutes. And then you start over. You just do it all over again. So you're literally, each season, there are fake people. They have maybe like 20 things that they're fake interested in. And you use a certain amount of available time to collect XP by finding out like,

oh, they like talking about the bathrooms in universities. I should really mention the bathrooms next time I call. Is that really one of them? The facilities. But they're like kind of jokes. Like they're aware how silly all this is. So you have to scout them first to find out what they're interested in. Then you have to simulate a week.

Then you have to scout them some more to find out the rest of what they're interested in, simulate a week then you have to scout them some more to find out the rest of what they're interested in simulate a week then you talk to them and then you keep talking them for about seven weeks of the game and each time you do this it takes i mean each week probably is about 25 minutes and then another five minutes of simulating the actual progress of this and none of this is actually football which blew me away. And at first, I hated it. It was like a nightmare. It was like Arthur had punished me.

But the weird thing is, it's like playing Diablo with a menu. Because you just keep seeing your XP building up for each of these people that you're calling. And then you get addicted to it. And you're like, oh man, this guy really likes hearing about bathrooms oh and he wants to go to alabama the bathrooms suck in alabama you know what i'm gonna do i'm gonna call him up and i'm gonna mention offhand how much the

bathrooms suck in alabama that's how bathrooms are and you will do this and the guy will be like whoa coach i never thought about it like that and then it's like a thousand xp bonus will appear on your screen and you're like yeah that only took me four hours but it was totally worth it and then they'll be like defensive end snotty arbuckle signs with ohio state he says he's very interested in their quote-unquote facilities wait now correct me if i'm wrong wasn't the ohio state university uh guilty of bribing students to come to their school yeah well who knew that it was they they got in trouble because their students used they like sold memorabilia and they took tattoos for free which is not an option in this game you can't be

like hey we're really light on ncaa rules You should come to our school. You can't, like, do, like, a blue chips thing where you, like, give Shaquille O'Neal's mother, like, an RV? No, there's none of that. Nor can you invite them to Colorado and give them prostitutes. Oh. There's none of the fun. Which was, like, that's the other weird thing about this game. So then I'm on the field.

That's, like, the coaching mode, right? Because that's what coaches do. They get on the phone. And you can play football if you want to, but... Coaches also raise a family. You'd much rather be in this menu all day. Oh, man, my family hates me. They even mention it.

They're like, you sure do enjoy being on the phone. You better start taking trips to their hometowns. And I was like, no, I'm a phone man. But then there's the normal student mode where it's your quest to become the ultimate college player. But you start out as a high school kid, and there are only four high school stadiums. And here's where you play the game, like you're playing football,

but you only have one option, and that is do the play that the coaches told you to do. So you're a quarterback. You're playing with all these crappy kids. You have one play to choose from, even though it still lets you pick that play. You pick it, and then you throw the ball to these crappy high school kids,

and they drop the ball every damn time. And then you do this for, like, eight games. So you're basically Jason Street, and you have to follow the rules. You can't go off. Yeah, but it's like somebody... So, you know, you buy NCAA football, and you're like, you know why I want to play this game?

Because I want to play football. I want to play defense and offense. I'd like to play football. And then they're like, okay, here's what we're going to do. We're going to take away everything except for your option to press X, Y, or B. And you're going to do that for the next eight hours. And everyone you throw to sucks.

How fun does that sound? And then you finish. And then because the game is very forgiving, it's like, even though you threw 20 interceptions, the Ohio State University would love to sign you. It's like, great, fine, okay. Wow, you sold me. It was the Alabama bathroomsama bathrooms problem i think

they were trying to court me yeah and there's what i want is i was telling fresh stick about this and i was glazing over bold move they need to hire a japanese developer to make their sports games because there's all this rpg crap in it and it sucks and it's like can you imagine like if there was actually a high school rpg buried in this uh high school mode like oh now we gotta go to prom how am i gonna fit this in you mean like game dev story like a dating sim yeah like that's what i want i want a full-on dating sim in all my high school college football games from now on that sounds awesome so that's my deal that's my deal with that game the football is fine it's not a it's not a big the actual like game itself if you want to play football the uh people actually have to look at the ball if they

want to make a play now which is amazing that it's taken 20 years to put that feature in but that is a legit top of the box bullet point that now players have to be looking at the ball if they want to make a play they can't just like see through the back of their heads wait are you saying that like do they is that just part of a canned animation or do you like no like if if the if the character is not looking at the ball like is not aware of where the quarterback is looking or throwing can Can you independently change their heads? No. Well, you can kind of cheat because the computer will purposefully suck at this point.

So if you throw to someone and you're aware that they're not looking, so what you can do to cheat it is just throw a really lofty ball, air it out, and then change to the receiver. And then both the computers suck at this point because they don't know where the ball is going so you change the receiver and then you run to wherever the ball is going and catch it and go for a touchdown so basically the computer doesn't have eyes in the back of their head but you do so you can then like turn it against the computer uh that sounds like it could be a genuine problem, though.

Yeah, there are a few of those. Oh, and also they added bullet time. Oh, good. Yeah, just so you know. If you're looking to play as QB number one and you want bullet time. So you can reenact the scene in Last Boy Scout at the beginning? Wow. I'm just saying.

It seems like. You're not going to reenact the scene of last place no that's a good movie how about you guys what's next that i don't want to talk about that game ever again i'd like to i'd like to talk about my hit game unless fresh dick actually fresh to yours is kind of sucky so why don't you go next no i think you should go you seem very encouraged no i want to wait because i wait because I'll get more time in the second half. Well, I don't know that I'm quite experienced enough to describe my game, but I do know someone who is. Oh, God.

Lord Chester Shire of Fresh Dixon. Lord Chester Shire of Fresh Dixon, thank you so much for joining us. This is such an honor. My pleasure. Thank you for being for joining us. This is such an honor. My pleasure. Thank you for being in studio. I came a very long way to talk about my new game, Knights of the Round Cable. Now, I definitely want to hear about that.

I do want to make sure the Laquinta we put you up in, it was satisfactory? It was lovely. There was no moat, but there was a breakfast buffet. Now what did you go for? What'd you go with? Cold waffles. Okay.

Good. Good. Any OJ? Concentrate. Ah, I hate to hear that. So tell me about your game. Any OJ? Concentrate. Ah, I hate to hear that. So tell me about your game. My game, The Knights of the Round Cable,

is an iOS game which allows you to command one of the mighty knights of the round cable questing to collect gems and save the kingdom from nefarious beings. How do you physically do that in terms of a video game? Physically, you use

your fingers to swipe across tap the screen, not swipe I apologize, tap the screen. For a long time. Swipe still jet lagged. To let loose a cable. Hence, Knights of the Round Cable.

And with this cable, you can swoop and glide around the environment, collecting gems. Is there a dragon I hear? Is this a dragon I hear? Is this a dragon? Everyone be careful. He might have followed me from my house. Oh. In London town.

I'm sorry. Go ahead. Go ahead. Dave has sleep apnea. It's a pretty big problem. Oh, it was Dave. It sounds like... I thought it was a dragon. Hey, KingDipShit,

can I talk to Russ for a little while? Yes. Thank you. Oh, it was Danny. I thought it was a dragon. Hey, KingDipShake, can I talk to Russ for a little while? Yes. Thank you. Oh, Russ, he just jumped out the window. I'll be back! I hope not. Now, Chris, did he plummet to his death? One second, I'm looking.

I can report that he did land on a taxi cab. I'm not quite dead. He's not dead, but the cab is driving away. Good. Russ, this sounds like Rotastic, a hit XBLA game that was released last year. I never played Rotastic. Sounds like Rotastic. I'm going to look it up right now and see how similar it is.

Yeah, look at gameplay on YouTube because it sounds pretty much just like Rotastic. them where it is. Yeah, look at gameplay on YouTube because it sounds pretty much just like Rotastic. Just so everyone knows, Russ just spelled Rotastic R-O-T-S-Q-T backslash backslash backslash. I missed the home keys. Shut up. Let's see Rotastic. Here we go.

Pulling it up. There might be some audio here. I apologize. That's okay. Just turn off the audio. Oh yeah, I can do that. Oh wow. It's an HD. Oh wow. Most people dislike this game. Yeah, not a lot of support. Oh, yeah, I can do that. Oh, wow. It's an HD. Oh, wow. Most people dislike this game. Yeah, not a lot of support. Okay, Rotastic.

Dancing Dots. I'm skipping ahead. There's some aliens. Oh, game. Oh. Yeah, so this is the same developer. Okay. Actually.

Is it the same game? Because I'm noticing all the art style. No, it's not the same game. It has similar elements where you're like looping around poles in the environment to sort of develop momentum and collect gems. What my game has is two things. One, if you collect multiple gems in a row, you enter fiesta mode. And two, there are exploding birds that drop gems and that's pretty good um i should also mention that the game is a dollar uh but yeah you're fighting you're a knight and you're spinning around remember that game wick in the fable of souls

it was like an xboa launch game yeah Yeah. Anyone play that one? Sort of like that, but with knights instead of Wick and his Fable of Souls. Okay. And there's character upgrade elements where you can increase your health and unlock new knights that have special abilities. And it has a charming artistic

style. And I rather like it. Why did the birds explode? Because you hit them oh okay did you want to know anything else dave no no that's all sure yes i am and you and you were worried you weren't going to be uh contributing to the program you're doing great no i contribute with dead air program you're doing great no i contribute with dead air um is it it does it have the depth that that i like in a uh in an ios release i mean is it gonna keep me coming back for more i mean what sort of depth are you looking for in an ios release like you mentioned upgradability yep it's there

it does have a finite number of levels i like that it seems like i haven't gotten to the end of the level, so I can't say for sure. What it does have in terms of keeping you coming back from war, it has a mission system like Jetpack Joyride. So each time you play, you're trying to get 15,000 points or do 15 loops or stuff like that. So there's... And as you complete quests, you unlock coins, and those coins you can spend on upgrades, and, yeah. So that's what's up. It's fun. I like it. Did...

Is it better than Tiny Wings? No, but Tiny Wings is not a new game, so we can't really bring it to the group here. Not to enforce the rules, but Tiny Wings came out about 17 years ago. Okay. It was a simple question. I mean, it really is. You just asked that. You don't have to jump down his throat.

Yeah, really. Thank you for having my back, David. You're welcome. I'm going to start paying you for sure Yeah, really. Thank you for having my back, David. You're welcome. I'm going to start paying you for sure now. Wait, somebody's at the window. Okay. I'm back! Wait a second, I'm going to open the window to see if I can help him get in.

Hello, gentlemen. You're different. I have developed... It's actually somebody else. Was my cousin here? I believe he was. He actually left out the window. I did not see him on my way in.

Perhaps I missed him. Maybe you did. He is a squirrely fellow. He likes his concentrate orange juice. Is there anything else that you could use to describe him? He has a mighty facial hair mustache beard. Oh, I'm going to troll this podcast post so hard. I think I saw him.

I think he was right out near that window over there. Which window? This one. Oh, my dear. Nice foley work. How was that again? Let's take a break for halftime. Chris Plant, you had something you wanted to talk about.

Is that correct? I don't know Is it good? No, it was like when it's really hot outside And you have an idea And you're like, that was pretty smart You And then you kind of cool down

You have a little iced tea And you realize that you're an idiot Well, you've built it up so much now But here's what I was thinking okay are you ready for this yeah i guess okay call of duty but what if they went back to world war ii is that the end of the story yeah but like what if but no no no here's here's my logic what if black ops instead of going forward in time went went further back in time? That sounds horrible.

I have something that happened to me this week. That's terrible. No one else sees me? Something happened interesting to me. Something interesting happened to me this week. Tell me about it. So I've been going to the gym as of late, trying to work on my cardio because I'm a sickly human being, as we might all know. And a couple days ago, I went to the gym, but it was late at night. It was about 10 o'clock. But

the gym's in my building, and it's open 24 hours, so I can go up there whenever I want. So I go up there, but all the lights are off. And it's the first time I've ever seen this. It's very kind of spooky because all the gym equipment, it like you know it's in the dark i can't really see it so but i go in there and i'm looking for a light switch uh and i can't find one but i find a phone and i figure okay i'll just call down uh to maintenance and see how i can turn on all the lights and i pick up the phone and underneath the receiver is a spider and i run out of the room that's the end of the story he's told the story to me like five times there was a spider on the phone receiver can you is there anything more horrific than that like there are definitely spider eggs in the holes

of the phone that's that's truly terrifying and so now i know i can never go back to the gym as hey as long as we're talking about pest control oh yeah what happened to the mouse i feel like i should talk about what happened last week if you remember a mouse died in the living room uh well it didn't die it didn't like have a heart attack it was killed by a cat but it was uh it died at a very old age in its favorite rocking chair no it died by getting attacked by bitten by bit again got bitten uh but it was dead in the living room and it was so small and i haven't i'm definitely terrified of mice in any form alive or dead so i didn't know quite what how to approach it so this is what i ended up doing it was so easy in retrospect i closed my i got a read on basically where it was through squinted eyes. And then I got a trash can and I closed my eyes and I estimated where the mouse was.

And then I put the trash can down over the mouse. Then I got a mark that yes, I covered it. And then I got a file folder and I slipped that in underneath the trash can. So you were holding something that was touching a mouse. Was that? No, I was. The file folder. Yes.

The file folder would have been touching the mouse at this point. Did you feel a baby mouse spine when you slipped it underneath it? Yes. There was a moment where I was pretty sure I was squishing it. And I was like, ah, flipped across the room like Spider-Man. So then I got it underneath there. And like a little bit of its tail poked out but i scooted that back in no problem and then i was worried that it wouldn't be substantial enough

so i went and got a pizza box lid and tore that off and flattened it and slipped that in underneath the file folder and then move the file folder no i left the file i needed the extra level of protection yeah exactly and then i held the pizza box on and this was the toughest part i had this took me like 10 minutes to work up the nerve to do uh i grabbed the pizza box and the trash can and flipped it over so it was so you heard the mouse hit the bottom of the trash oh my god that one forced me to take like a 20 minute breather uh and then i opened it started storming and i opened the side door and i uh picked up the trash can and held it like in front of me so i couldn't see what was inside of it and then i picked it up and i walked to the uh to the side thing and i closed my eyes is the garbage can still

uh covered at this point no now the cover has been removed so you're walking out in the middle of the storm with a garbage can with a dead mouse inside of it nothing exactly dead baby mouse definitely end up a dead baby mouse and then like i dump it out and uh and uh and and dump it like over the side of the house so i wouldn't have to see it again. And then it got struck by lightning and came back to life. Yes, it was Frankenmoth. But anyway, that's what happened. And I screamed the whole time, but like I did it, you know?

And that's really the victory, I think. I think that makes you a man. Well, yeah, maybe. That's close. But you know, you can't be brave. The only time a man can be courageous is when he is afraid. Is that a Thomas Jefferson quote? No, it's from Game of Thrones.

So listen, let me tell you about my game. My game is The Secret World. It's an MMO that was... You can't tell us about it. Wait, it's about Alex Mack, right? Yes, it's about Alex Mack. Also, you can't say anything about it because then you're going to have to change the name. So just call it The World for now.

Okay. The World. A World. It's an MMO made by... Shit, what's that dog's name? Ragnar Tarnquist? Funcom. Funcom.

Ragnar Tannenbaum. He made Fantastic Journey. Longest Journey. Longest Journey into Night. Ragnar Tannenbaum he made a fantastic journey longest journey into night this is an MMO it's split into three factions that you choose from at the beginning the Illuminati

the Templars or the Dragon that's one of the BJ's did someone say Dragon? out the window get back out the window this is my time to shine please leave um so here's what's interesting about this game uh if you have any sort of um experience with mmos you know that a lot of them are just variations on a theme. And I don't think that you could say that this is not necessarily a reinvention of that theme. There is much you will recognize structurally if you've played an MMO before. But here's what makes this unique.

First off are the missions where most of your MMOs are, you know, pretty rote, kill-em-up affairs, you know, go kill 10 of these things, go kill 15 of these things. And the Secret World certainly has its share of those. But it also has investigation missions, which are puzzles that you have to solve, pretty decent ones, too, that can be kind of challenging, and even require you sometimes actually leaving the game to find the answers.

In one scenario, you had to repair an antenna at an airport, and you had to, the website of the manufacturer was printed on the antenna, so you actually had to go to that website in your web browser, look up the model number to find out the repair materials you'd need, and once you got it up and running, you heard a signal in Morse code that you actually had to decode to get a set of coordinates that lead you to the secret location where you finish the mission um do you have a morse code like knowledge like how do you cut that one you just google

morse code and then what it's not hard to translate yeah you can translate it or you can actually use audacity to to translate which i did not really yeah you can use audacity to or you just go to game facts and read how many people – Yeah, I mean – yeah. And that's sort of part of it, right? Like for all the cool puzzles, you're always just one spoiler away. But most of the people playing right now are actually really good about hinting if you're stuck rather than just telling you what the answer is. You might need a screwdriver.

Yeah, exactly. How long will that last i don't actually know um the other but but it certainly does help to to break up the monotony and makes it pretty interesting um the other thing that is that is you know one of the big features that i think is cool is um the way the skills work and i'm going to be very big picture about this because i know it's kind of boring listening to somebody proud a lot about skill trees, but basically there are no classes in the secret world.

What you have is the ability to put the, you have different weapons. There's a, I don't know, nine different weapon classes. There's three ranged, three magic and three melee. weapon classes. There's three ranged, three magic, and three melee. And you actually use these weapons as conduits for whatever powers and skills and abilities you get over the course of the game.

So for instance, if you decide that your primary weapon will be pistols, then you put points into your pistol skills. And as long as you have a pistol equipped, you can use those skills. Uh, at any point you can, uh, switch out your weapon, uh, and start putting points into different skills. You don't even have to switch your weapon. You can put points in any skills you want. In fact, if you play, continue to play, you can get to a point where you have all of the skills. You can do literally any ability that's available in the game. I shouldn't conflate those two terms. Abilities are very specifically things you can do.

You know, actions you can trigger, special attacks, that kind of thing. Skills are the things that increase your statistics in those weapons. So they can increase your attack or healing powers with a given weapon. But it's really cool, actually, because you can start with something. And if you don't like it, you can't really make a bad choice with your skills. You can just start putting points into something else. If you ever want to change, you can absolutely do that. You can get some enough points and just, you know, equip a new weapon and go to town, which which adds some cool flexibility and really lets you sort of play with the different weapons and sort of what is a cool combo that you like.

And there are a few prescribed combos. You can have two weapons equipped at any time. So you can have abilities from both of those i have pistols and blades um which which lets me use um uh you know both of those weapons simultaneously are you a day walker i'm a i'm a what do they call it a paladin um okay uh and each of the different each of the factions have combos like that. You know, like if I had guns and blades in a different faction, then I would be a different class like that. But Dex is actually what they call them. They call them Dex. Because they're not permanent and they're not irreplaceable.

Oh, no, that's Gex. Never mind. No. But those are the two interesting things about Secret World. It's got a ways to go. There are technical things. there are some bug missions you know a lot of the usual uh mmo baby step type things that'll that'll get ironed out as they go do you think they will get ironed out with all yo absolutely they've been super digilent about uh diligent sorry digilent Jesus Christ. They've been really diligent about fixing those things as they come up.

And what's actually kind of cool is if they get broken in a certain server, or they call them dimensions in game, if they get broken in a certain server, you can actually go to someone else's server and finish the mission. So if they're broken in your instance, there's a central hub world called Agartha, which you use to travel to all these different locations. And actually everybody playing the game shares the same Agartha. Everybody uses that same hub world.

So it's pretty easy to find a group in another dimension or what have you. Is it just crazy crowded? No, it's actually not that bad. Is it even available yet? What? It's out? Oh yeah, it's out. You can get it. So you would think that the main hub city would be like

packed with people. Well, here's the thing. It's not a city. It's more of a conduit, a passageways. The only reason you would be there is because you're fast traveling somewhere else there's not like shops or any anything um it's it's more of like a highway system in between the different instances is that where people go to cyber usually yeah usually usually you don't want to cyber with somebody from your own dimension you know because that could be awkward you could run into them at at the bank. You don't want that.

Anyway, I'm really enjoying it. And it doesn't seem to be just the typical new MMO smell. The things that they needed to get right for this to be interesting. The best example I can think of is The Old Republic. That I thought would be delivering this kind of interesting, story-based missions that you actually want to play. And I didn't get that from The Old Republic, but I'm really getting it from Secret World. There are some that actually require brainpower to complete, and all the writing is uniformly very good, and performances are cool too. So I'm really enjoying it. i'm i'm digging it a lot

what's the price i believe it is 50 for the game and then there's a monthly fee that i believe is is 10 or 15 i don't know how much but uh i'm digging it i would recommend everybody if you want to if you want to contact me uh you can you i'm i'm on the Arcadia server, and I'm Amundsen on there. A-M-U-N-D-S-E-N. You know, the traditional spelling. You know, the traditional spelling of Amundsen. First explorer to make it to the South Pole. Come on, roll an Amundsen, nobody?

All right. So come say hi and buy the game, because I think everybody would really like it. Boo. I think it sounds really like it. Boo. I think it sounds interesting, but I just don't play MMOs. You would like this one. It is a good place to start if you don't play them. Well, I don't want to start. Well, you should start.

It's okay. I do not have time. You should just start. That's a rule of thumb. I'm sure they're great games. I'm happy we have people to cover them. I do not have time for an MMO ever in

my life. Okay. The time has come. Dave Tack, here it is. Wait, do we want to give him last minute pitches? Yeah. Dave, I was nice to you this whole show, and Russ was mean. Oh, I caught that already.

Believe me. All right. Russ was mean, but I was a gentleman. Secret World is a really innovative, expansive, smart MMO, and we need to support the effort. Okay. Yeah, I think you should go for Secret World, to be honest. That's my pitch.

Not your terrible football, almost football game? Yeah, I mean, and I'm not a big MMO guy, so, you know, it means something. Right, plus we'd probably get letters from the people of Alabama. Sure, we're going to get letters from Alabama no matter what. Roll Tide. And the Knights of the Round Cable. Exploding chickens. Remember when I asked why the birds exploded and you made fun of me?

No. Guys, Justin? I remember that. I asked why the birds exploded and you made fun of me? No. Guys? Justin? I remember that. Okay, good. It's obviously the secret world. He doesn't even remember what the game's called. Come on.

Cable. I use uh in the middle of my words all the time. Okay, Justin wins. Yes! Oh, it use uh in the middle of my words all the time. Okay, Justin wins. Yes. Oh, it's clear. Now, Secret World is pretty obviously better than Spelunky, which is a little more than a quarter muncher.

25 years after quarter munchers were practical. Okay, just because you're bad at, you bad at learning how to play a game and you want to play something that just force-feeds you content, I would be nice to your MMO, but I'm not going to be friendly about MMO game design. Here is what I would like to make the point of. Oh, no. Secret World is really good,

and Spelunky is not as fun because it's mean that's a lie it's not mean to you it's me i made it no oh i understand where i'm confused i made it to the jungle that's not far that's the second level that means that you have not played it that much not a chance, Justin. What's your proof? Tell me why Spelunky's better. Because it got a 10 out of 10 on Polygon. What did Secret World get?

We haven't reviewed it yet, so you can't use that. Boom. Boom. Spelunky's good because it's a game where you actually learn how to play the game. There's actually a game there. You are learning. You are using what you learn, and then you're using that experience to get better at the game. Instead of just being like, oh, yeah, kill 10 Templars.

I literally said that does not happen. Yeah, yeah. Then, no, the game part of your game is, oh, I went to www.morsco.com. I beat the secret of the world. How do I fix this antenna? I committed to the one with the blowjobs because the dragon told me to. Does that sound like your game? I'm in.

I'd play that thing. All right. I will concede, but let me tell you why I will concede. The only reason I will concede is because there are many things about this game that do not work. And that is not a value. It's very interesting. There are many things about this game that do not work. And that's not a value that I necessarily want to to reward when you've got a

game like spelunky everything works everything works even if you don't like it which is okay you don't have to like it also spelunky has a panoply of races um yeah that happens in the other one too that happens in secret world there's too. That happens in Secret World. There's lots of different races. But I will concede. I'm willing to concede on this point. I will let you keep Spelunky in the top slot.

Thank you. You're welcome. Okay. So, is that all? No, one more thing. Oh, Christ. Have you guys seen two rapscallions? They're my cousins, and I ate them.

I ate them real good. Okay. All right. No. Well, maybe they're over here. This is actually not one of the Rapscallions this is just Russ now Just Russ

There were two other men in this room But right now It's just Russ doing a voice Okay so we Please can we be done Alright so this is First off I'd like to thank our special guest Dave Tack You're welcome.

You did great. And you can read Dave Tack's writing and so much other stuff at our temporary site, theverge.com forward slash gaming. Follow us on Twitter, at Polygon. And,

is that everything? I think that's everything. Dragons. Dragons. Okay, cool. So, thanks so much for listening to the besties, and be sure to join us again on Friday for

the besties. Because shouldn't the world's best friends pick the world's best games? besties