Ep. 65 Tomb Raider (2013) She Hates Tombs!?

DonaldPrevie (00:00)
Like Laura, Laura is always thinking about the next thing. And like, it's always dire. There's this moment in the beginning where she gets her foot caught in a bear trap. And this is like after the boat crash and after getting hung upside down in a cavern full of dead bodies, after escaping a guy trying to stick you with his climbing ax.

And then, and then she gets her leg caught in a bear trap and then there's wolves running around in the bushes. And I'm just like, damn. Yeah. I like she's definitely, she is definitely a super like a super human for sure. Because like, like from basically start to finish, she's always in these situations where she's like tumbling down, falling like 10 plus feet in the air, like bouncing off the ground four feet after it's just like, how are you still moving after that? Like she's like going down waterfalls, like slamming into stuff. There's a, there's a part where she's like,

riding a parachute cause she's like, like she fell out of a plane and she's like hitting trees on the way down and stuff. It's like, she like literally gets clothes lined, like in the mid section by a tree branch falls out of the tree branch hits her back. Like, she gets up like after like, you know, she's hurt for like maybe five seconds, but then it's like, all right, let's go.

Cable Club. We're a video gaming podcast where three guys raid tombs. And we're linking up to talk about the games you love and rank them and commit gratuitous violence. Not as much as God of War, but it's pretty gratuitous. This is episode number 65. We're your hosts. I'm Steve. Dan. And I'm Don. And today we're talking about the Tomb Raider reboot of 2013. So get ready to upload data from us to you. But first boys.

How about we set the mood? Set the mood. Rain hammered the cliffs of Yamatai as Lara clawed her way up from the wreckage, lungs burning and muscles screaming in protest. This was only just the beginning. The island offered no mercy, only jagged rocks, howling wind, and the distant echoes of something hunting in the dark. Every step forward was earned through sheer determination as she scavenged what she could, fashioning tools from broken remnants

and forcing herself to keep moving despite the fear tightening in her chest. Yamatai wasn't just a place. It was a trial, and it seemed determined to strip her down to nothing. As night fell, lit... excuse me, firelight flickered against ancient ruins and hostile silhouettes moved around. Lara learned quickly how to stay silent, how to outthink her pursuers, and how to survive the island's dangerous inhabitants.

Storms tore through the forest, shaking old temples and revealing secrets buried for centuries. And with each discovery, her resolve hardened. Survival became transformation. By the end of this expedition, Lara was no longer just fighting to stay alive. She was proving she belonged amongst legends. For sure she does. I gotta say, at the beginning of the game...

With all those storms and her just shivering constantly. The one thing she didn't learn was to steal one of these guys jackets that she was killing. Like at some point I'm like, please just warm yourself up. That's true. I actually had to change her outfit into something that was warmer. I just couldn't deal with it anymore. Yeah. Well with the whole steam sail or whatever they gave you a bunch of extra outfits and stuff. So I put on the mountain climber one and yeah dude, $7 for the trilogy is insane.

Yeah, it was for a game of this caliber. Yeah, I already had them all, unfortunately, so I couldn't get that deal. good for people who wanted to play and got it for that. Yeah, hopefully, hopefully you did. I own them all on on Xbox one from years ago, but I bought the trilogy because I was excited to play it on Steam. On your new Steam Deck? The new Steam Deck. That's how I played it and it purred like a kitten, man. Like it runs so smooth.

Like this game aged well with like current hardware. Hmm. Certainly get into that. I have some announcements though, before we go there. The first was an apology on behalf of Spotify, I guess our Yakuza episode just was not there for most of this two week period. It had actually gone up twice and gone and had been down twice. So, you know, we, we have decided to move on from Spotify as our hosting platform and we're now using another hosting platform. So hopefully that doesn't happen anymore.

You'll still be able to catch our episodes on Spotify. It's just, uh, now Spotify decides to get antsy about it. can instead go over to Apple podcasts or some other platform and go get our episode there. Cause now it does now it being live everywhere doesn't hinge simply on Spotify hosting it. So that's, uh, bad news, but good news came out of it. And I just wanted to review this year's schedule one more time because getting a few questions about it, which is valid. We're not the most organized podcast around here, you know,

That'd be a stretch, but we are now in the middle of what I hope to, or we're at the beginning of really what I hope to make a tradition, which is our winter backlog segment where we're going to play six games for the first part of this year while it's cold and we're all inside and not having fun. You know, we're going to get cozy and play some of the games that we wish we had played. We're going to, this is Steve's game. I'll be picking a game tonight and then Dan will be picking a game. And then we're actually hoping to.

kick it over to all of you listeners to propose games for us and we'll pick randomly from that pool. So take a look at your steam library, take a look at your shelves. What games did you buy and expecting to play them and you haven't now would be a good time to submit those games to us so that we can put them in a random list and maybe they'll get picked out of that. And now you have all the excuse you need to play them. Look at that doing you a favor.

And then after that, we're actually going to begin the league and we're going to do an indie game league this year. So we did retro games last year. So we're going to have guests on just like we did last year. They're going to bring us their favorite indie games and we're going to rank them into cups, just like we did. And we're going to vote on them at the end of all that. And that is going to start on March 27th. It's going to go for eight weeks and then we're going to take a break. And then we're going to go eight more weeks and then finish up with the finale award show. So that is the lowdown for you. And if you want more information,

about that, go over to our discord and join us there. You can have all the information you need. should just go to the discord anyway. Yeah, that's a of fun over there. Uh, and then I just wanted to bring up with you guys and this will be important later, I think, but I don't know why. I don't know if this is old information and I'm just the last to the table and I bring it up in context for this conversation, but apparently FF seven rebirth sales didn't meet expectations.

So I have to ask because I don't think either of you guys have played it either. Right. I played very little of it. have beat the, was it, what was the first one? What was it called? Reborn. Re or is it just remake remake? Right. Yeah. Uh, but have you played any of the second one rebirth? Yeah, very, very little. Okay. Now my understanding is that's a very long game and it's part two of.

A first game that was very long and it's all telling the story of Final Fantasy seven. Is it just that with so many games out there to play and the audience of that game would all be around our same age. Wouldn't you say like, whoever wants to actually play that game must have fond memories of playing FS seven. And I think that would mean that all those people are around our same age.

I would make sense. would say generally there are some newer Final Fantasy fans and Final Fantasy 14 is a big proponent of that because Final Fantasy 14 is one of the most popular online MMOs and it does also introduce younger people to the series in general and you know they play it because their friends play it or because they know somebody that does and then they go well I want to check out all the other Final Fantasies and this is like

Also for them like Final Fantasy 7 remake isn't just for us. It's also for the younger generation to get into Final Fantasy. So I'd say mostly us but Like I'm not of the younger generation. So I can't really speak to this but I my knee-jerk feeling is that They probably have the same feeling about seeing all these Final Fantasy 7 characters that I do about seeing Splatoon Like I'm just like, you know, that's cool. I guess

But they do a good job of introducing everybody in the remake though. know what I'm saying? Even like the lesser characters like Biggs and Wed and Jesse. there's been this passive whole life that I've lived where Final Fantasy 7 has been a thing. After Final Fantasy 7 they had, what was it, Crisis Corps? Is that the one with Zack? I think so. Crisis Corps is with Zack and Darche of Cerberus is with Vincent. Yep. And then they had the movie.

Advent children, yeah, I've been children and then you know, he's had clouds had smash smash appearances like it's just like My whole life has been some Final Fantasy 7 somewhere, you know and like how to be fair cloud is one of the most iconic characters in video gaming But is he just iconic to us? Because like I don't like I don't know if like newer fans of the series are like as big about cloud anyway this is all to say like did the

Did Square just have the wrong set of expectations? Is it just that we all, like the core fan base of Final Fantasy VII just does not have a hundred hours to throw at a game times three or the willingness? just could be a mix of things, you know, like maybe like the older generation doesn't really care for how, you know, action based it is. Like, I mean, I could, that could be very valid. I'm going to say that there's a little bit of everything, but I think the remake sold so well because people were really excited.

And it fell off real hard when they made the sequel. think people didn't like it as much as the sales said it did. think the sales for the first remake were mostly excitement purchase, like day one purchase. And unfortunately it. I've seen a lot of content creators talk about it and it's really just not hitting the mark with players in general. They change a lot about how a character feels like there's.

All these scenes that Cloud is just not like Cloud and he's doing things that people just don't equate with his character. haven't played it. they're changing the story a decent amount too. Like at least from the remake it did. They're doing like a weird parallel universe thing is what I understand, which I guess is okay. It doesn't play a huge role. Like 90 % of the events in the game occur the way that they did in, or if it's, if it's like remake, didn't, I didn't play. Rebirth. Rebirth. But.

I did play remake and basically everything happens the way that it does happen in the original game with some embellishments, but not changes. It's just like, instead of the honeybee in being like a, you know, one room, they make a thing out of it. Right. It doesn't change it. The honeybee in is still there and it still does what it does and it functions the same. Yeah. then like the end has like a surprise twist. Right. You know,

But like, don't know if like if Aerith lives and like if Zach lives, I have no idea, but that's what it kind of like it like I hinted at in the first game where it's like, we can change our, our future or whatever. We're, in charge of our own future. So I, I don't, I don't really know. I didn't play it, but that's what it sounded like. What was going to happen. Yeah. I just think that this is the, this is my theory. Like, I think we're grateful to have this game. I think it's good that, that it exists.

But I feel like I would have to play this game and only this game for like three months with the amount of time that I can dedicate to sitting down and playing a game and not play anything else. And I think that's like the reason that I don't play it because I loved remake. I played that a ton when it, when it, it came out and I, I a hundred percent in it and I loved every minute of it. And I was convinced that I was going to buy rebirth on day one and I just never did. And I, and I know it's this huge, big white elephant.

But I feel like that might be the problem with AAA games now. It's just like, everybody wants so much of your time and I just don't know that there's even that much time in the day. There's so much crap to play. I mean, I am one of the biggest Final Fantasy fans that I know of and I'm not going to buy Rebirth because I think that Final Fantasy 7 remake is like not good. You're wicked stodgy though. No, it's just not a great game. think you should just embrace that you're a purist Steve. That's all.

Embrace that's what you want call it. of in the middle like I don't think it's like amazing, but I don't think it's like dog crap either. It's it's mid I feel like. Yeah, I'm not saying it's like awful. I'm saying it's not great I don't think it's it's not it didn't hit the mark for me Final Fantasy 7 is this like huge like success it's like this transformation of the Final Fantasy series as we knew it when it came out and the expectations for this game were monumentally huge and it did not deliver. I'm not saying it's awful, but

It just wasn't, wasn't it. enough. All right, Dan, you ready for question of the week? Questions of the week? think we have two. Yep. Um, let me pull them up. Okay. Question one. What is the most cinematic moment in a game from the 16 bit era or older? I'll go first. have two, but I'm just going to say one. I Super Metroid.

fighting Crocomyer. And I actually saw a short of someone reacting to that. Someone much younger playing this game for the first time and totally losing it in that moment when with the, with the jump scare. I thought to myself, man, what a cool little snippet of a story they told in 16 bit without changing the screen at all. And it's a moment that freaks you out because of the atmosphere of Metroid. And they do such a good job with the, you know, everything about that scene, like the horrific skin melting off the skeleton, you know, the quiet run back.

And then he breaks through the wall and scares the crap out of you. it's, and you think you're going for phase two, but, ⁓ phase two doesn't happen. It's like a whole laugh at you made you look psych out. that's a good one. What about you, Steve? I didn't know what to pick, but I think I settled on. Final fantasy six, right in the beginning, you know, when it, when it comes up to the title and it's just like, you feel the music building and it's dancing mad. And then it comes up and then.

It shows Final Fantasy six up in the sky with all the clouds and the lightning and it's doing all those discord cords all together on the organ. And then it changes to you starting the game and your bigs wedge and Tara up on that cliff. And then all of a sudden Tara's team starts playing and the beginning credits start rolling and you just see him marching up towards Narshe ready to, you know, basically attack and retrieve this Esper.

And like all of that buildup and all of that. Like tension is just so thick. think it's one of those 16 bit experiences that gets you really intrigued and exciting to play a game. almost has like a little bit of mystery to it because final fantasy up to that point was just like high fantasy, like sword and sorcery stuff. I think there were some mechs always, but like suddenly there's these mechs that are like walking and like

You know, mode seven, three D forward. you're like, wait, wait, what game did I put in? Well, the closest thing I would say to me in any game before this really was you had the whale. ⁓ I don't remember the whale ship and it was from the moon in final fantasy four. And then you had other airships. That was the closest thing that they had to mechs before this. it was definitely magitek armor was like. Steam punky. Like it was a lot different.

War mech from Final Fantasy one has entered the What do you got, Dan? All right. Well, I got a quick honorable mention, which is basically the whole thing with the master sword and link to the past where link finally gets to pull it out. You know, that's just iconic. Any, any master sword like scene is just great to see because you know, you finally get the pull it out and you're just character gets stronger. It's great. But the one I'm going to choose is like

Basically anything Zero in the first Mega Man X game. Where he first comes up, you know, you're struggling with this War Mech Vile. Which basically, you know, you just can't do anything to him. And then Zero just basically comes up, saves you, like does one charge shot and blows off his arm in one hit. And then Vile is forced to retreat. So you're like, damn, this guy is ridiculous. I'm glad he's on my side. And then...

You you fast forward to when you fight him again, when you're powered up in your armor and all special weapons and all that. And you still can't even like beat him. And then this is at the point where Vile actually captured Zero and he's like in a capsule behind him and you're sitting there fighting him. And then Zero eventually breaks out and then jumps on his back and does like a kamikaze explosion, which gets rid of his warmack and all that. And then you actually end up defeating Vile.

you know, without his War Mech, but then you get the whole, you know, cut scene where like, you know, Zero gives you his weapon because he's like on the ground dying and stuff. And you're just like, no, my buddy. I don't know. It's just like. won't be the last time. I promise. No, it's not. But like, it's just one of those, it was like your mentor kind of thing. And then you're basically off to fight Sigma alone at that point. So like, I don't know. just, I always thought that was a great cinematic piece.

Then you get them back in three and then you lose them in five. Then you lose them six, seven, eight, Zero becomes Kenny after a while from South Park. Pretty much. gets, it gets silly. Okay. So what did we have for answers from the audience? Let's see. Lysianthia. Main one comes to mind for me is Exor entrance in Mario RPG.

Splitting the sky and there's suddenly an enemy bigger and meaner than Bowser was something young me wasn't ready for Do you guys know anything about that? I haven't played Mario RPG really I am not I feel like you do owe it to yourself to play it at least once I Probably will super high on it, but it is it is it is good. They got the remaster for the switch Yeah, that might that might cheapen the experience a little bit though I feel like I feel like you've to play this nest one just because you've got you have to feel like you've been there

Maybe I don't know Yeah, know with today's modern graphics. You know it's not gonna be as impressive when that sword comes out of the sky Yeah, all right Tom I Absolutely love the way fantasy star or did the cutscenes via detailed pixel art comic panels Really allowed the character to show a range of emotion that sprite struggled to convey so my answer has to be the scene where you're

Badass mentor Elise dies and how the party handles it. Yeah, that's another series. I haven't really played It's kind of an eloquent way to handle that back. Yeah, was it you don this had you like fantasy star a lot? I actually have not played it. It's shining force. I wasn't it was was shining for us. Okay. I'm shining force. Yeah, okay You know pixel art always makes me think of when they're when they do like facial expressions ninja guidance, dude

Think it's on the NES man. It's impressive. I mean, I think Dan is getting to that now Am I well, we'll find out. I don't know. I know it's in there Legend of Kazoo which is our very own chef Doug. He says Mr. X looping over the city and that badass shit is about to go down music from Streets of Rage 2 It is really good. ⁓ that low Baka Ninja Gaiden

The plane flying over the jungle cutscenes so good. They pitched it as cinema display. really do love the the like all the cutscenes in all three of the Ninja Gaiden games. Just saying I that's done right. Yeah. Even has like music and like it doesn't have dialogue, but it has like sound effects when he's like surprised. It's like. Yeah. And then you just hear it. It's awesome. Yeah.

The one where the guy jumps down, grabs the thing and then jumps out the window. Yeah. Like the first one. It's awesome, dude. For that era. That was like the eighties. Yeah. Superb. I love Ninja Gaiden. That game's so good. Yeah. I had a lot of fun when we played that on the podcast for sure. Hard, but fun. All right. Matt. He says he's responding to or replying to Tom's comment. said,

I forgot about that. I was thinking of the opera scene in Final Fantasy six or the scene if you let Sid die. The Sid die one is heavy. For not doing anything special at all and just keeping the overworld sprites and you know, having it be just like a non-playable section that looks like it's playable. You know what I mean? Like they don't do anything special for that. Like no 3D backgrounds or anything like her standing at the cliff edge thinking about throwing yourself off is so heavy.

Like it's done extremely well. Did Final Fantasy six is a masterpiece. It is. It's wonderful. That's two. It's two on this list for Final Fantasy six. Good game. Very well done. All right. So that was the answers for the first question. The second question is from chef Doug. says, what is your person? ⁓

Personal favorite gaming phrase. So what is on things that so what does he mean by that? Is that like? Like things that people say in in like in game or like kind of like slang that people made up so I think He meant slang initially, but the our audience interpreted is either things. Yeah, I was reading I was reading the answers and I was like either. Yeah So no rules interpret it how you wish ⁓ so I have I have to

In case my first one is not allowed. So the first one is catchphrase from the movie, free guy with Ryan Reynolds. It's who plays an NPC and everyone likes the NPC. So when they go to make a sequel to the game, they create another Ryan Reynolds, only he's giant and huge, but he's not finished. And they unleash him to try to kill the regular Ryan Reynolds. And I guess that line is completely like that whole scene is just him.

ad libbing, he didn't have lines. Like, and I can't imagine being behind a camera and not cracking up at the things he was saying. Like, I think one of his lines is like, I like three things, guns, insert second thing here. Third thing TBA. They're just like notes, like filler, and then my other one, if that one's not allowed is groovy. Groovy. Just the earthworm Jim.

A lot of people don't know he was a video game character first before he had a show groovy most clear piece of dialogue on the Genesis What about brawl taunts where they have a song he's like you're too slow Yep, it's a good one. That's not my favorite though. I've always liked Duke Nukem, dude. I was gonna say that Anything Duke Nukem I ought to break a broom handle up in your ass

Yes, I'm here to chew gum and kick ass and I'm all out of gum I'm gonna kick you in the nuts. Yeah, that's that's what came to mind But here's has to be from undisputed king of catch-up. What'll combat? No one? They don't really talk in that game over here. I mean, yeah, I mean this true I mean Castlevania I guess was rector like died monster. You don't belong in this world. Is that a catchphrase?

I don't know. metamorphosis. That one. Dark metamorphosis. Hold on. I got one for you. I'm interested in this. Ding, ding, ding. There we go. I like that. I'll actually type that out sometimes when like someone sends me something and it actually does interest me. I'll say that and that exact phrase. That's great.

Alright, community answers. Let me get to them real quick here. Real quick. Pull up on it. I'm gonna pull up on it. Alright, so Chef Doug, he said the instance that brought about this question is Raelica. And I play D4 together. I think it's Diablo 4. And you'll hear us say, I just pooped. Whenever you get a greed shrine, you get a bonus gold reward for every enemy you unalive while under the influence of the shrine.

At the end of your character has a massive gold explosion around them and we call it pooping out gold. We let each other know that I just poop so that we know the shrine has worn off. That's kind of funny. know what he's talking about too. in that vein, I like ninja looting. When somebody ninjas something. Yeah. That's good gaming, gaming phrase. It is. Ninja. I want to be ninja. I hate how people use the word dropped now.

I don't like when someone says a new product, the switch to just dropped last year. That's not how it works. It's like, nobody fought the Nintendo boss and picked up a free Nintendo switch to off the ground. Like we all have to buy that working. It's just like, it's just weird marketing thing that like now companies have like adopted it.

And you'll get an email from like a store you shop at and they'll be like, look what just dropped. It's like suits and ties at like the place that I go buy suits. It's like, then we got mythical. It's never a nap time, baby. Cold train from gears of war. That's another one. That's what I say to myself when I pop an energy drink. It's never a nap time, baby. It's usually followed by a woo. my goodness. I don't have that much energy in the morning when I drink my Red Bull. So. Yep.

⁓ scrolling, think that was it. That was the last of our answers. right. I'm feeling a little bit marooned in a sea of audience answers right now. That's a color. That dad joke was savage. ⁓ you guys ready to get into Tomb Raider? yeah. Let's get in there.

Lara! Lara! They really wanted to make sure you knew it wasn't Laura in this game. tried hard. Her best friend though, the Asian chick, she says Laura though. She probably mispronounced her name too. Sam. You know Sam isn't her real name, right? That's just the way it works. She goes, Lara! And then Laura goes, Sam! Sam! You're a croft. You're a croft. You're a croft.

They should make a game with the actual father dude. He seems like a badass and a legend, but we don't know anything about him I think it would have done more for the story of the game if they had but we'll get into that in a minute before we do that Steve give us the overview because Before we get completely derailed. All right Tomb Raider from 2013 was produced by Crystal Dynamics and published by Square Enix, which is pretty cool. I mean

I didn't think that Square Enix was going to be, you know, involved in a game like this. But so this game is a, it's a third person shooter and an adventure game kind of rolled into one. Like you do a lot of time shooting enemies and a lot of time exploring. It's like the main thing, but, ⁓ it's got a little extra stuff in it. Like, like you can choose to upgrade through skill paths.

or skill trees or whatever you want to call it. It's a tree. Yeah. mean, it's a pamphlet, but it's a tree. And you can specialize in different kinds of weapons, all range weapons. There's some climbing segments kind of like you would expect in, ⁓ uncharted or, you know, some other games similar to those. It's got a little bit of everything, but if I was going to boil it down to one thing,

I would say that it's probably mostly a third person shooter. think that's fair. And if I'm going to, I'm going to throw my five cents in here because we're no longer minting pennies. The, when I look at this game and I think about other games like it and other games that have similar engines that like over the shoulder, ranged combat, sometimes melee combat. I think of other games like Uncharted that's very similar to this. But then I think of other games like even God of War.

Where gameplay wise, it's actually kind of similar to this, but just with extra steps and you know, whether or not those extra steps are for you, you know, is an entirely different part of the discussion. But this is kind of like where I arrive at with some of these AAA games that like, think Tomb this game best represents kind of like the vanilla core of what these games are. And from here you have varying levels of simplicity and complexity. And that kind of like makes up all of AAA games now. I don't know if you guys feel the same way.

the gameplay run, jump, climb, shoot, melee attack. Well, it allows you to, for one, you get to explore in different kinds of ways. And it's so well varied that you feel like you get to explore all of what there is to offer. You know, climbing, jumping, you know, all of those different mechanics allow you to explore your, you know, your playground basically. And so the AAA formula.

They have something, a little bit of something for everyone, which is why they're trying to appeal to mass audiences. So, you know, that makes sense. The third person shooting aspect and the melee combat aspect allow you to reach also multiple types of gamers, people that want to be stealthy and sneak attack and kill from behind, or people that want to just run guns a blazing with machine guns and shotgun or, know, yeah, all valid play styles. Really? We got a little bow and arrow.

Bone Owl is really fun in this game. They did an excellent job with it. It's my favorite weapon. Yeah, it's definitely up there for me. It's either that or the assault rifle. I did like the assault rifle a lot. The assault rifle is so broken. It's better than all the other guns. Especially after you get the grenade launcher. Well, even without it, dude, headshots are only one bullet and it holds 150 shots. You just tap it and it's so strong.

I think it also has penetration if you get the right upgrade to we can like shoot through walls and stuff like, or like not like thick walls. What's the point of having a handgun? The shotgun has some uses, but I mean the handgun was good before I got the assault rifle. The handgun was doing what the assault rifle would do. Well, the only reason I like the handgun in certain situations more than the bow is the bow really sucked after you were spotted.

But yeah. the handgun was good for just like taking it out. And if you had to really quickly, cause you're aiming with a controller, shoot an enemy three times, you could do that. Or shoot two enemies three times and just, just to get them off you, could totally do that. Yeah. I probably underutilized the handgun. I just love the bow so much. think the handgun. I stopped using it once I got the assault. I think the handgun is definitely really good right when you get it. Cause then you can put like the silencer on it and you can get stealth kills that way too.

But I, yeah, it definitely gets outclassed fairly fast. Like the bow gets ridiculous and so does the assault rifle. bow upgrade is like to the point where I think if you're fighting an unarmored enemy, even if you just hit him in the chest, kills like it deals a lot of damage. Yeah. You get like napalm arrows and so it's like that it like has a grenade launcher itself. Like it's crazy. And it gets penetration as one of the final upgrades. Yeah. And, the shotgun though.

totally useless. That's a bad shotgun. Hey, through doors and stuff. Yeah, no, it's a you'd be soft locked. It's a key. It's a key basically. Yeah, I think the grenade launcher on the shotgun that that that that would have made it useful. I use the shotgun in real close range. Like when I had two enemies, I'd swap the shotgun and shoot one and then dodge the second one and pull out my assault rifle. But when I had multiple enemies, like literally on me, I use the shotgun.

So I tried that but time after time I found the shotgun wasn't even powerful enough to knock enemies down. Like you know how in Resident Evil- to the damage. You know how in Resident Evil when you get the shotgun and it like clears it and like all the like it sends an entire corridor- I think you're spoiled from- falling against the ground. You're definitely spoiled from Resident Evil Shotgun. This is like the nerf of Shotgun. It's not. Well to be fair-

I love shotguns in these types of games. am that person who likes the personal touch of the shot. I do too. Well, shotguns the best thing to camp a corner with still. No, it's the assault rifle in this game. Especially if you just aim at a head level, because everybody's the same height. You get just by sheer luck, spray and pray does a lot for you. know. I found all the guns were fun. I didn't really have like a problem with the shotgun.

I didn't use it as much, but I liked it better than the handgun. Yeah, the handgun is definitely the weakest of the guns that you get or the weapons that you do get. So I found this game like from start to finish was intense. It's like constant. they do not like it does make you feel like you are in danger constantly. Like Laura, Laura is always thinking about the next thing and like it's always dire.

Yeah. There's this moment in the beginning where she gets her foot caught in a bear trap. And this is like after the, the, the boat crash and after getting hung upside down in a cavern full of dead bodies, drowning after escaping a guy trying to stick you with his, with his climbing ax and, then, and then she gets her leg caught in a bear trap. And then there's wolves running around in the bushes. And I'm just like, Yeah.

Like she's definitely she is definitely a super like a superhuman for sure. Because like, like from basically start to finish, she's always in these situations where she's like tumbling down falling like 10 plus feet in the air, like bouncing off the ground four feet after it's just like how are you still moving after that? Like she's like going down waterfalls like slamming into stuff. There's a there's a part where she's like riding a parachute because she's like like she fell out of a plane and she's like hitting trees on the way down and stuff. It's like

Dude, she like literally gets clotheslined like in the midsection by a tree branch falls out of the tree branch hits her back. Like, she gets up like after like, you know, she's hurt for like maybe five seconds, but then it's like, all right, let's go. No, she cauterized. Well, so that's, that's the one part of the game where she gets like actually injured, but this is like the kind of game where I guess fire fixes all cause she somehow cauterizes her, her, her broken rib. And I'm like, it's not really how that will.

Yeah, she finally cauterizes it and she got that in the beginning of the game. That that shit would that shit was infected long time ago. I'm sorry with all the nasty water that she's been in. when she fell on the spear and it went through. That's what she's cauterizing I think. Like something that happened in the beginning of the game. Like that that shit's infected. I'm sorry. I thought it was her. It was like, like she cracked a rib falling out of the tree because that's what would happen to I think all of us if not that we die. I think it was a it was compounded right?

It was the original injury and then it was the same spot. she just like that shit just like sensu beaned her and she got back. much or like unless she took like antibiotics or something behind the scenes that we didn't see, but like, there's just no way. She literally goes in the first aid kit, finds the empty pill bottle. So no, it's not that. Well, she did get first aid back from the pack that she got from the wolves for what was his name? Grim. ⁓

Roth. Yeah, is the mentor. Yeah. He, she got a pack of supplies from that. Could have had antibiotics in it. We don't know. Yeah. Who knows. But I was just remember when she got that like injury and she's like walking in like nasty water and stuff. I'm like, no, this is. Yeah. Like, no, dude. then not only that, but she gets into Shantytown and underneath it's like sewage, swamp water. Yeah. I know. Like you, could get into that with no extra holes in your body and you're getting infected.

Like, yeah. let's just say that, you know, that was one injury. She's got like scrapes everywhere because you know, all the like tumbling around and falling and wolf fights, you name it. I'm, I'm probably jumping the gun a little bit here, but like, there's like the, the one time where she ends up like, like waist deep in just blood.

With like, with like all the bodies and severed parts. Like, can somebody say hepatitis? Like HIV, like there's so many things you can get from other people's blood. And she's just like, she's just like waist high in it. And I'm like, my God, wasn't just waist high. She was head deep. And then she came up. Yeah. Completely submerged. God, it's crazy. And like, there's so many body parts in that, in that room.

Did not I was not ready for them going this gory with this game Like the room where she gets captured by the Oni. Yeah, and she's hanging upside down and there's ⁓ no That's not the one I was even talking about but yeah that one I was talking about the one inside Mathias's like like yeah area. Yeah, that's another one. That's like in the blood like like Wait it waiting in the blood Yeah

And like, even says at one point in the game, she's waiting through something and she's like, how do they live like this? Yeah. You know, and it's like, ⁓ God, it's, but like even horror games, like I played the killing floor. There was nothing like that room where she got hung upside down. Nothing like that is, that is some serious video game gore right there.

Like, I don't know, you guys are more versed in that than I am, but like I'm struggling to think of something that has more viscera than you should play Dante's Inferno. The evil within Dante's Inferno is a fair one. Yeah. It definitely has its moments. It's zoomed out though. feels like, you know, and Steve and I were too busy laughing at playing that game. That game is so fun. Like all the time. It's going to be expensive.

He's a brute, but yeah. So this is like to say that this game like never lets up. Like it's just constant action. totally. I'm hesitant to say there's like a game play loop. Like in most games you do this and then you do this and then you do this, but this game is just like one thing after another. Here's a new thing. Here's a new thing. Here's like, and like, I don't know how you guys feel about all the, ⁓ the quick time events, but I feel like that breaks it up in this game and I don't think they overuse it. ⁓

I have no issues with it. she's going to strike, it's always when she jumps and catches onto a ledge will always be X on the game on the, ⁓ Xbox controller. And, ⁓ B is used for a couple small things, but they're all kind of situationally the same. So you know that she's going to strike, you're going to hit that button. So once you learn it, it's, it's nice. Yeah. I died on like the first few action, action commands.

they come on quick in this game. Yeah, if you're not ready like I was like, yeah, because I happen to me so I was not with like that guy in the in the beginning of the cave when he's pulling you back and he's like I'm trying to help you and then he gets a hold of you and starts stabbing you And I went to our discord and I was like that guy in the beginning is not trying to help you Then he gets crushed. He deserved it. We didn't know he deserved it But I can't believe how many people have washed up a short here

Yeah, that's like the that's where it's bordering on ridiculous. Like I feel like it could be like 20. But then when you're when you're in that again, we're to go back to the bloody Oni room. It's living rent free in my head right now. How many people are in there? It's gotta be hundreds of bodies, of skeletons. And they're all fresh. So, you know, this, this island's got a pretty constant population. It's also sausage fest.

No one leaves. Kind of a problem. Well, yeah, isn't that like part of a story though? Where like once you get caught in the storm, you get like pulled in. Yeah. But the other thing about it is the reason it's a sausage fest is because they sacrificed all the girls to try and become the new sun goddess. Yeah. That was probably a mistake in hindsight. Sure. They're criminals. I mean, they're not smart. I mean, they got a lot of stuff. I feel like they could just start over, you know, just like be like be Australia, you know? Just be Hawaii.

And it, but the whole, like the storms pulling people in and not letting them leave thing that bothered me too, because, know, Lara is part of this, this like cutting edge research team to try to find this Yamatai place. And they're going where everybody else typically goes until she figures something out and reverts them in the opposite direction. And that kind of led me to believe that not a lot of people know this, but you by the sheer number of people who are on this Island and in this cult, you would think it's common knowledge that everybody knows.

Yeah. the other part is like you're taught it in sixth grade geography or something. would think that anybody that does search and rescue in that area would know not to go to that area, even if it was to save people, because no one ever comes back. There's a lot of people to not come back. Right. And some of some of them aren't that old. you know, it's gotta be like this year.

High percentage of people don't come back. I don't know. It's just like, if you were searching rescue and you knew that nobody came back and that would be like a, don't fly there. doesn't matter what like. Yeah. I mean, that would make sense, but like there was a time when she climbs the radio tile tower and gets that search and rescue to come to get to her. It sounded like they didn't even know.

that like it was like if we drive in the storm we're not coming out. Cause he was just like, all right, we'll be there. Just send us a visual. Yeah. Like were they new? Like nobody told them don't, don't go there no matter what. Yeah. The other thing about the game that like, I wonder about when playing it is how they have the world war two like technology and they must've transported all this gear and metal and all these makeshift thing. They have towers and like

huge wasn't gondolier systems or whatever they are where. So I get the feeling that the sun god is not that old. Like the myth is really old, but I get the sense that it was something that was also happening in world war two. So it was probably a battle site and probably occupied territory and something happened or just time passed and you know, the sun, the sun god used using its powers to, you know,

Either kill the troops who were there and all the stuff that they built is still there from, from the battle, from the, ⁓ occupation, but I don't know. I was, I was more okay with that. It's like more guns on this Island than birds. Yeah, for sure. Give them out like candy in that cult. I like, you only get four. I don't what do you guys think about the tombs? All those cool little puzzles everywhere. Like you're talking about like the optional tombs? Yeah. No, are good. Yeah. Zelda with violence and guns. What's not to love?

I wish they were a little more harder, personally, like a lot of the time it's like you could clearly see what you had to do. And then you were in and out within like not even 10 minutes, but like they were fun. I'm not going to lie. But like there's not a lot of tombs that like actual in the game. a good amount, right? Like we just didn't explore much. I'm assuming you guys ran, made a mad sprint for the end. Like I did.

I got a 75 % completion. I didn't do everything, but I hit a good amount of it. What I was going to say about the difficulty of the shrines is I think. Puzzles are kind of a tough subject, right? Because some people just get it and some people don't. And to make a AAA game where they want it to be accessible to everybody, the puzzles need to be just a little bit of scratch your head, but not a lot because they don't want to frustrate people.

this triple A thing, they want as many people to play as possible. Right. You know what the games don't usually do that I wish they would do with like difficulty, like say if you were to put it on hard, I wish that would like affect puzzles to like make them a little more scratch your head kind of thing. It's hard because then you'd literally have to like rewrite the level. Yeah, I understand that. Like it's just one of those things that I wish could happen, but I totally understand why it doesn't. I think that's why in video games.

most of the time hard mode is just enemies hit harder and have more HP. Like in the use, there's usually not much difference in that or you have less HP or something. But yeah, I, I, I did, I did like the tombs and I liked that they weren't drawn out. I liked that you can encounter a good amount of them just by going through the regular story and you don't have to search the map and go out of your way. Really? Like I think I encountered six or seven of them. I think I'm on the, like I, I only have three more locales until the end of the game. So I got pretty far.

Right. And there's like a skill point that you could get to where like, if you got close enough to one, it would just show up on your map. Yeah. So let's, let's talk about the skill points for a second. I, so flavor wise, I loved this because like when you first get the climbing axe, you can't use it as a melee weapon. And like, Lara can't like take people down or use finishing moves or, know,

Stuff like that. And like there's certain skills you can't access until you're like, quote unquote hardened or a specialist. And like this all takes time and experience in the game and the constant nature of being hunted down by quite frankly, these psychotic assholes. Like flavor wise, I read it as she's just becoming more savage. Like, you know, she decides that.

At some point this climbing axe is, is a weapon to defend herself with, but also at some point decides that not only is it a weapon, I can also dig it into the top of a guy's skull. And I'm just going to start doing that. That's one of the really cool aspects of this reboot trilogy is once you finally make it through. And I know this isn't this game exactly, but in shadow of the tomb raider, she becomes almost savage. This is like in the jungle.

Really neat way to tell a story through upgrades. Like, I don't know. I thought I was really impressed by that detail. I that was cool. So, like, I'm so glad that they're coming out with, like, basically the reboot of the first original game. Because this whole, trilogy is basically like a prequel leading up to the badass that she is in the original series. Because, like, when you play her in the original series, she's already crazy. Like, she can jump like...

She can jump like, uh, like six feet in the air, like, you know, like do backflips and stuff. She dual pistol, like she's it's, it's kind of like a storytelling of like how she became to be to be that. I think it's awesome. That's one of the coolest parts about the end of the game. Do you care if I spoil it, Don? It's just a little spoiler. No, no, go ahead. So right at the end of the game, uh, you get in this fight with Matthias and you end up like he knocks your gun out of your hand.

And you end up grabbing his gun and then grabbing your own gun. And then she gets to do the dual wielding pistol thing at the end. So neat. Yeah. It's the pay homage to like the original series. that's her signature, like dual pistols. She has this other moment when you're going through the shrine that's burning down or the palace. think it is. Yeah. It's a big palace. And she gets the grenade launcher and

She shouts, she's like, that's it. Run, run from me. And she's, I'm going to kill you all. Like there's this moment where she snaps. Just like, it's so cool to see that. I mean, horrifying, but it's so cool to see that transformation. And right near the end, she does something similar. She's like, I'm coming for you all. Let's see who you really are. She's just baiting them, rage baiting them.

But like, think what makes her so bad ass in this game is that she is terrified, but she's still doing it. Like it's that psychology of bravery thing. Like bravery is not, is not not being afraid. Bravery is doing what you have to do in spite of being afraid. Bravery is acting in face of fear. Right. And, and if you're not afraid, your actions don't make you brave. You're just not afraid, but like she's scared.

She's scared shitless for half of this game and it's still a croft pressing forward. Like it's so awesome. It's so awesome. And she also has a lot of self doubt too, in the beginning. And then like Roth has to like keep, you know, reaffirming that like, like what Steve said, you're a croft. You can do this. Yeah. No, your instincts. You're an absolute bore. You know who my favorite character is? What's that? The Scottish captain that you can't really understand. What was his name? Grim? Yeah. ⁓

He takes three guys out with him. Handcuffed. Yeah. Yeah. He's like, I'm not scared of you. was in nom or whatever he was in and he, and butts the guy. Yeah, I like him. And then, but like he's, he's the only character. So you mentioned Uncharted earlier and I have to say, I don't have that much experience with the Uncharted series because I played Uncharted four first and tried to go back to the other ones. bet you'd do that.

Well, because it was the, the game I got with my PlayStation four when I first bought it, it was like a pack in, right? So, and, and, and it was awesome. Dude, that that's a game I'd love to talk about the whole time. Just real quick. I'm sorry to catch you off. The whole time, dude, you don't know if you can trust your brother. Yeah. Yeah. It's so good. So well that, actually ties into my point is that,

This game's story in the way that it handles the other characters. was just not really impressed by the other character. Like I wasn't sad when Roth died. Like I was like, like I didn't, I didn't, I didn't get the whole attachment between Lara and Roth. Right. They're just, they didn't really do anything on screen at all to make me feel like these characters had a close bond. Like Roth said things that we would all say if we were being nice and on a maroon island.

Don't worry about it, man. You're brave. can you can make that jump. You know, you can make that jump. You're a don't Well, you know the thing about it. What do gotta do to psych you up to go get the coconut over there so we can eat? Well, I mean You you find out that he's a friend of her father's and she's known him her whole life and then she he even Or she says her dad her dad just should have been they should have just eliminated Roth and her dad just should have been the person Yeah, that would have been better that would have hit harder. I think so with the

Yeah, there was no rapport in these characters where, and Roth wasn't doing it for me. Cause like in uncharted, you've got, you have Sully Sully is Roth in that, but Sully is like really charismatic and a scoundrel and cheating Nathan. And they have this really fun dynamic where Nathan's the one with all the skills, but you know, he's obviously the planner Sully, right? And they have this fun relationship where he has to half trick Nathan into things most of the time. And it's, know,

And like, it's a fun dynamic to watch. even though, even if you thought Nathan hated Sully, you would still not want to see Sully bite it. And Sully almost bites it throughout the series several times. And I think both times I saw it, I was like, ⁓ man, Sully. ⁓ You know, and like, and like you said about Nathan's brother in the fourth one, like just the other surrounding characters and Elena too, is really funny too. Like her and Nathan have a really fun dynamic too.

And it's just like the other characters in uncharted really do a lot to support the narrative. And I feel like I just wasn't feeling it with any of the side characters in this story was Laura. that's the thing is like, I think they kind of did that on purpose to almost make you feel isolated. Like, I think they wanted you to not get super close to the characters. I think it was a choice. Yeah, it's just weird because Laura does seem to be close to these characters. It's just my.

feeling as the player was disjointed from hers and that kind of took me out of it a little bit. Well, they're not with you for most of the game. Honestly, like they they're with you on the ship, but then that quickly goes away when the ship gets caught in the storm and you know, Laura's by herself. Yeah. The only one that you spend like a fair amount of time with until near the end is Ralph and did when he was sniping those people on the bridge. That was sweet. Yeah. He went out. He went out. Awesome though. He did. He did have an awesome death.

Yeah, he saved you from Matthias. I thought he got he got Matthias like I thought Matthias got shot Yeah, it looked like it but I was like, whoa Did how about that? He's like limping around when you first meet him. He's got his crutch like what an actor He got it so they show his leg. There's a good chunk bitten out of by I was like was I could see bone almost it looked like I Mean wolves wolves are scary, dude, you

Some of the biggest wolves can get up to seven feet long and 175 pounds, like from nose to tail. No, thanks. And they're never alone. Yeah. These wolves were big too. They were probably around that. What was that other guy? The guy that like kind of betrays, what was his name? Like Whitaker? Yeah. Whitman. Whitman. Whitman. He has this one line where he's like, these people on this island are anthropogic.

anthropological Marvel Marvel he says I'm like, here we fucking go Like I just there's a there's a bullet in his head now for Christ sakes just just just do it This is not gonna end well so one of the cool like parts of the game where you get all this exposition is from all of these notes that are left behind and then they read it in the voice actors voice and You know you get to see some

insight into the other characters frames of mind and their opinions and things all over the place and it's pretty cool and near the end of the game I found a couple of Whitmans and he's like saying stuff like None of these people are gonna understand and that's why it's perfect I'll be the sole survivor and he's like planning on letting you all die just so he can get the glory and he wants documentaries made and he wants to be the center of attention. What a douchebag

Well, plus everybody else seems to know where this Yamatai Island is and he doesn't. So he must feel like a real idiot when he finds out there's like, you know, 1200 people on this Island already. You kill a lot of people, dude. And there's already a lot of people dead before you get there. Like you go to the tombs and there's walls of skulls. There's a lot of people. Yeah. Yeah. But those, walls of skulls in those tombs are old. Yeah. Could have been from World War II. Who knows? I mean,

World War Two is 100 years ago now, just saying. yeah, it's a, it's, it's quite a trip, the, the whole game. And I think we're about at the extent of it, honestly, surprisingly, it's a brief little romp and there's not that much meat on the bone in this game. think pretty much what we're describing is what you end up getting. Right. Well, you know, what's great too about this game too is like, if you have a fear of a FOMO, fear not, because you can go back to any checkpoint.

via the campsites and you can go back and collect everything. So you can actually 100 % this game. Like you don't have to like, fear like you're missing out on something if you just want to, you know, continue on with the story and you don't want to like explore. Cause you know, you got to explore a lot in this game. And sometimes like you just want to take a back seat from that and like, all right, I just want to progress the story a bit. But like, yeah, you know, you can just do it, do anything at your own pace pretty much. So how about

the weapon upgrades though, because that that confused me because once in a while I would loot a body and I would find a weapon upgrade. And then sometimes I would shoot somebody and they'd fall off the cliff and I'm like, no, I hope he wasn't a weapon upgrade. Like I don't, I don't really ⁓ I don't think it would soft lock you like that out of upgrades. I don't think so. Cause I know what you mean, but like when I played this game, like when it first came out, I was able to a hundred percent it. And so

Don't maybe I got lucky. I think when you're a certain distance into the game There's like a chance that anything will drop the weapon upgrades that you'll need. I don't think it's static Okay Yeah, I think like if there was an enemy and he rolled to drop the item that you need it But he falls off and it disappears then it'll roll on another item nearby or another. Yeah, that's probably what it is Okay, cuz I didn't I didn't run into any problems upgrading my weapons either time that I played the same

And I've met some people off of ledges. sometimes I do it intentionally, depending on how many enemies there were. Like sometimes it was, it was important to do. And then I guess, so this is my first ever Tomb Raider, which honestly, think is a good, such a good entry to start. Right. Well, because it's kind of like a prequel, right? Yeah. But in that same vein though, like, is this, is this how the old Tomb Raiders played too? You were going through a central storyline and then you like,

encounter a tomb once in a while or like no they're like okay well the first game is basically just tombs like you're just like two and it's stage based so once you go through one stage you can't go back and okay and they're all just tombs pretty much and you're not in like one area like you like you go around but eventually ⁓ i think like two and three you start going into the jungles and stuff like that and whatnot but the gameplay is

pretty different. there's a lot of missables if you're not like exploring thoroughly. And it has like tank controls and stuff like that. Cause you know, it's back in that era where, know, we didn't have a second analog stick. like a lot of like panning the camera with like, you know, the shoulder buttons. Yeah. shoulder buttons. didn't play the old ones. I tried to, and it was really difficult to control.

Yeah, I didn't really get into it. So I mean they have a remake out now. Yeah, remaking it. Well, that's what I was going to say. So there's there's good news now. So they actually already remastered the first games like all of them actually one through six. So you can get one through three. Yeah. Six. Yeah, dude. So there's one through threes in one bundle and then you can get four through six and then another bundle. Four through six. The PlayStation two entries.

Like the... I think the fourth one might have been like PlayStation 1. Don't quote me, because I've only played up to three and I've only beaten the first game. Because I've heard bad things about the PlayStation 2 once. Yeah, I mean it could be. Like, I like Tomb Raider, but I haven't really gotten that far in the series. But like, yeah, so like you can play them all with like modern controls now. Like you can...

use the analog stick to like the right analog stick to change the camera you have like full range of motion with the left stick makes the game a lot more accessible if you're not used to like tank controls and whatnot. And they also have I can't remember the year so don't quote me on the year but it was like 2005 to around 2010 in that timeframe, they actually came out with an anniversary game of the first game so that was an actual remake so the one that's coming out

In 2006, that's like a remake remake. Because they already have a remade one of the PS of the PS one game that was for PS2. And that one has like decently modernized controls too. So like you could you could play all whatever like that one is actually pretty good to the first remake like the 2007 one. That one's that one's a good one to play as well.

Might have to give it a shot. mean, I think I definitely want to play through this trilogy just gradually. I love the length of this game. Like we talked a little bit about this at the, at, at the start of the show. And it's kind of like what I was saying about those hundred hour games. And I enjoy that this game feels robust and feels. Accomplishable and feels like I could turn it on and do a couple things and then be okay. You know, like I could go rate a tomb or something, or I could go find.

you know, the GPS caches or whatever, right? I can do a couple of those things. I could gradually get my way into like a hundred percenting this game and like, I don't know, like 15, 20 hours, whatever it takes. It doesn't seem like it'll, it'll take that long. But if I just want to play the story and complete that, it's like an eight to 10 hour experience. And that is like, that's so manageable for me right now. Like it's such, you know, doing this podcast is, is fun for me in a different way. And I love that I get to experience as many games as I do.

But then there's a game that comes along like Yakuza that we played last time. Man, like I want to finish that game. like, when, you know, when am I going to go back to that game? Like, so hard to get back there. ⁓ you know, like I, but not, just because of the podcast, but because like every ounce of gaming I do takes place. Yeah. Not yet. Yeah. If you have like a busy life, that's definitely like a retirement series. the Yakuza series is like, but it's so, it's so good though. Yeah.

You know, but I just really appreciate that this game has that level of playability for me right now. Yeah, like I actually still have to be shadow like I got halfway through that. I was playing like on the hardest difficulty and I kept getting I kept dying to this one area. I don't remember exactly and I ended up putting it down and I just never got back to it. But like I definitely do want to go get back and finish the trilogy in preparation for the 2006 26 game that's coming out.

I'm so excited for it. Cause I think when did shadow come out? I think it was before I moved to Tennessee or maybe right after. it 19, like 2019 or was it before that? Can't remember, but, um, I got it right here. I want to say it's like, was 17 or 19. think it was an odd number. Shadow came out in 2018.

Well then, I mean, was like a, was almost an immediate buy for me because I played the other two and they're just so good. And I played all the uncharted games too. So it's really something that I enjoy this style of game. Uncharted one overstays its welcome so bad. It was the first one I played, so I didn't really know anybody. Yeah. It could just be because I played the fourth one first, but you're I'm just like,

Hours into discovering the first signs of zombies and still haven't seen zombies like very clearly there are there are zombies and I just like Still haven't seen a single zombie but like they've done everything they can show me that something weird is going on and they're like, it's a bite It's a human bite and then it's like hours later of fighting normal enemies and I still haven't seen the single zombie yet I'm like dude. This is like this is dragging. I have a question for Steve since I haven't played uncharted and you've played all the

the trilogy of the Tomb Raiders. What do you prefer? Or is it just one of those things that it's like tomato, tomato? It's hard to pick. I would say I, I, I don't know. I don't know which one I prefer. I like them both a lot and it's kind of hard to pick. You know, but if you like these new Tomb Raider games, then there's no reason to not play any of the Uncharted games. would. I might pick them up.

down the line because I don't I don't own a single one chartered game. don't even know if they're on steam actually. I've never actually looked. I don't know. One criticism I would I would levy is that uncharted doesn't really have like character progression, which kind of puts me off a little bit. Nathan Drake just is Nathan, Nathan Drake and weapons are handled a little differently. Like you always have a pistol, I think, but you just pick up sub weapons and there's not a lot of ammunition. just go from one sub weapons to the next basically.

Gotcha. And that's just kind of how the game is played. And I think in that game, ⁓ I don't think climbing walls are as specific. Like the dude is like Spider-Man. can just, ⁓ yeah, it's, there's more climbing in it than a lot of climbing than the Tomb Raider games. And he just, he's just casually a mass murderer instead of Laura who is gradually turning into a mass murderer. Yeah. Good to know.

But you know, Nathan Drake kills a lot of people. He's a real psychopath. Despite him being charismatic. It's a lot of dads not going home, but anyhow, ⁓ yeah, I think that's about all I had to say about this game. You guys want to get into our review? Yeah, sure. Let's do it. Sure.

But before we do that, you know, it's plug time. Before we go on, leave us a rating or review. If you're listening to us on a podcast platform, it really helps out. These algorithm thingies, they really like it when people tickle them a little bit and they give them a little five-star review, you know? They do. Just some nice touching. It makes the algorithm very friendly.

So do that for us. If you've been listening to us for a while, you don't have to give us five stars. Really. You can, you can give us any review and just be totally honest. We really appreciate the feedback. You could also subscribe if you're listening to us for the first time, get us directly to your feed, directly to those ear lobes, those ear drums. That's the inside of your part, right? Yeah. so, or, and, and if you're so inclined, you could become a cable club member by joining our discord.

and hanging out with us and being a part of the question of the week commentary and all the other stuff that we discussed from week to week, you know, and just kind of hang out with us generally there, or you can send us an old timey email at the cable club podcast at gmail.com. If you have any comments for the show or have a question of the week, you could just submit it there. you're the shy type, don't want us to know you. That's fine. We'll take your questions. We're good with that. You can also find us on the old, the Facebook, which is the only.

social media that we care to maintain currently. Cause you know, we're three 30 something year old dads. just don't care about your exes and your Instagrams and your Tik Toks. Funny, funny story. We're banned from Tik Tok. So if you like bad boys, look no further. Yeah. Yeah. Boy over here. He's the one who got us banned. So, bad. Who's bad too bad for Tik Tok. They're lost. So

We're going to get into our review and I'm just going to kick it over to Steve who is hosting this part of the show. right. So we're getting back to grading. you listen to the last episode, you'll know a little bit about what's going on, but here we're going to rate the game on five different categories. We've got presentation, which is how the game looks, how it sounds. We've got gameplay, how it feels. We've got pacing is the story going places. Are you feeling invested?

We've got playability. Can you play it in 2026 easily or not so easily? And then we have an X factor category, which is kind of, you know, it's just like a, get to put what you think is special about the game to you or something that you thought was really interesting and unique about it. So that being said, you boys want to start with presentation. ⁓ this game for 2013.

Is absolutely gorgeous. Um, so I actually had Hux over for my annual nerdy new year's party and we were, um, sitting on the couch and we were playing some of this and I had it on high settings and he was, and he's, he's a big graphics guy and he was just like, this game looks incredible for 2013. And I do think he's right because we played Yakuza last time from 2015, think. Yep. 2015. And we had some things to say about the way that the character models moved and stuff, although

You know, think a lot of that game does look really good, but I don't know if it's just like the lighting or just, you know, the different poses that they needed of the character models in this game, but I didn't feel like I picked up as much of that. So, and I'm only going long in this part of it because we didn't really talk about this during last segment, but I just think the game looks really good. Like the, lighting is good. The atmosphere is good. So.

But it's got like no music, but despite that I'm not really a music guy So I'm gonna give it a five actually in presentation. So I think this game looks superb Yeah, I mean I echo that on what it looks like and I would say as far as the music goes You have like this primal drum beating when you're in like combat and it's really tense I couldn't like recall the the like music I couldn't like hum it back to you But you know when you're in a skirmish or you're some they've spotted you

the music gets really intense and you know you're in combat and like your survival instincts kick on because of that. But then they also do this really good job when you're like, for example, when you're climbing the radio tower and they do this all throughout the game. It's these subtle things. When you climb like the radio tower, for example, there is heavy music. Like you are, you're doing something that

That is dangerous. And then once you finish and you get to the top, there's like this triumphant horn sound and like you feel accomplished, like you've survived and you've learned something or, know, you've hardened like, and they do a really good job placing noise. think that the presentation of this game is immaculate. It's incredible. Like for some, for something that doesn't throw a bunch of music at you all the time, like they place it in the

perfect places and the music really does also get you to feel something. also think the voice acting as being part of this was really good too. Yeah, the voice act was great. The voice actress is actually a woman named Camilla Luddington, who you might know from the Grey's Anatomy series, because she's been in 280 episodes over there. But she does a couple other voice acting things too that are pretty famous, but yeah, she does.

I think she does a great job. I mean, she like expresses that panic at the beginning of the game with all that like, like heavy breathing and you know, like shuddering and shivering, you know, like she's obviously having a good time. fun fact too is she also did the the motion capture for Lara too. Well, they actually use motion capture in this. No kidding. Maybe that's why it looks so real. Yeah. Yeah. That.

I really think motion capture was the way. Like we just had to figure it out. for sure. It's kind of a long licensed Mortal Kombat. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm the same guys. this game is absolutely beautiful. like all the landscapes, the tombs, you know, whatnot. And I just like the very little details of like, if you actually look at like Lara.

And all the, you know, the tumbles, scrapes that she gets and it actually shows on her. If you don't change it, that is it actually shows on her uniform or like her, her clothes. Like you'll start getting like little frays at the bottom of her shirt. It's like a couple of holes and it it's progressive through the game. She actually like makes like a makeshift like finger gloves eventually for her hands and like. I wanted to point out. I to point out that.

She's getting rolling around and all the dirt and all the scrapes and all blood and all this stuff all over her. And then she falls into water in a cut scene and it's washed off.

Just the attention to detail in this game is outstanding, especially for like 2013. Like, yeah, I'm on board. I would definitely, I'm going to give this a five myself. enough. All right. So let's move on to gameplay then. So Don started first. How about you start on gameplay, Dan? Yeah. I mean, for a 2002 today, like this game is aged beautifully.

The controls are buttery smooth. Like, just the way that she moves. It's just like so fluently. And I love how they like baked in like her stealth controls like in the game. Like you don't have to like toggle anything for her to sneak around. As soon as you get into like a vicinity of an enemy, she already gets into like the sneaking mode. And it doesn't hinder like your movement or anything. It just feels so incredibly smooth. And then...

You know, the gunplay is great. Like all the guns feel good. The bow and arrow feels excellent. The climbing is great. All the, you know, the platforming, which like the series is known for is it's all there. Like there's some of these jumps that just, you know, you have to leap like, like pretty far. And then she's like sitting there trying to like reach for it. And, know, it's just, it's just an adrenaline rush for like some of these jumps. have to hit the X button every time to swing your ax to hit a wall.

Right adds that that small little button press adds so much to the platforming like I died sometimes and I was like, oh I forgot the X because I don't know if it I think uncharted just gives it to you Yeah, like if you're on the wall, I don't know I can't actually remember but like some some games just give it to you like like if you walk up to the climbable surface But you actually have to swing the axe to get into the wall. That's a big deal for me Like I don't like that. Oh, go ahead

Like I haven't played the Uncharted series, but like the like other series that you play, like it just feels so smooth in this game, like the climbing and stuff like like any time like you swing your racks to like it just you never have those moments where it's like, that's bull crap. I definitely should have made that or I should have clinked on. Like it just it it works every single time, at least any time I played these games. And they just they just nailed it.

The other thing that I wanted to say is that not only does the game feel great to play, there's also something for everybody. Like there's the exploration everywhere. There's puzzle solving, there's climbing and jumping. There's gunplay, know, there's stealth, there's, you know, all kinds of environmental stuff that you can use to your advantage in combat, like exploding barrels, or if enemies are up on a ledge that has one of those ropes around it, you can.

Shoot your bow and pull it and it drops and they fall. Like there's so much stuff you can do in the game that like for a, you know, a 15 hour, 22 hour, a hundred percenter, like there's so much stuff to do. And then on top of that, there's tons of collectibles and tons of things to look out for and different quests, objectives, like light all of these lanterns or burn all of these flags or, know, just like little side quests. There's just so much upgrading, you know, I mean, what can you say? What.

What more does the game missing? I was going to say that like this game literally has pretty much everything you would need from like a game like this. I also like that. It doesn't have anything you don't. Like one of the things I don't like about Uncharted is the relic system. Cause it's not a system. You either get it or you miss it and it doesn't do anything for you to get it. Like you're not, you don't get a powered up character or skill points or anything like that. Like it's just.

Like it just feels bad. It just feels bad to not to not get it. Yeah. Just an empty collectible. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, like I think what this game accomplishes, but then like what's not there is really important too. There's not a lot of fluff. Right. Like it's, it's exactly what you need. Well, that's a game, you know, when you collect something like in a tomb, gives you cogs and experience. Right. Yes. Exactly.

And what I was going to say too is like with the quote unquote empty collectibles, like you get like voiceovers and stuff for like some of these relics of like, you know, what they were used for back in the day and stuff. So it's like, even when you do collect something that doesn't directly power up your character, you get like, you know, either like real life, yeah, either real life knowledge or you like get something like that was, you know, in the game itself.

Yeah, but if you get them all, you get EXP for it. So there is an in-game reward for doing it. Well, there you go. know, it's like, like, like, you know, if you collect like all, all of the coins, like all, all of the three coins, then, then you get EXP for that. But like also one, one little tidbit about that. I like how she can either be in combat or just have murdered seven people. And then she's like, look at this fan from the Edo era. Yeah, I was going to say that about the presentation.

You'll fall into an area and she's like, this is definitely, you know, blah, blah, blah period. And you're like, Oh, that's cool. But I'm not going to remember that. But it's so inappropriate. like she falls into a pit of spikes, hurts herself, goes like bloody. then like the screens like black and white and she's like limping. And then you go over to the treasure chest. She's like, look at this coin. It must've been used for some kind of girls. Japanese garments didn't have pockets. So they use this.

while she's like bleeding out. Yeah. Total issues with the collectibles. where did you land on gameplay for that Dan? Easy five. Easy five. How can I not? Yeah, that's me too. Yeah. It's, it's such a good play through so much fun. Solid. All right. So pacing, this is the category that makes you feel whether you're in it or you're falling out of it and does it hold your interest? It's a Senko for me. ⁓

Yeah. I mean, it is constantly bombarding you with objectives, like, like action sequences, you know, it keeps you engaged with the, the real time actions that you're constantly falling or rolling, climbing, jumping, shooting, like running around, like pacing wise, you just feel like you are there and you are, you're, literally doing it. It's, it's such a gripping game really. Yeah.

No, I'm the same way. Like this, everything like nothing overstays its welcome. You know, everything is like all the jumping you do is, know, all done differently and uniquely. And then like, you got like the K like the, the tombs, the optional tombs that you can go through. And like we said, like nothing is missable. So you could find something, a tomb, but if you don't feel like exploring it right then and there, you don't have to like, could, you could skip it and come back to it. those side quests don't take you that far on.

which is nice. Like, you know how sometimes in a game, the side quest really takes you up river and then you come back to the main quest, you're like, what was I doing? But yeah, it's not really like that here, which is kind of nice.

So are fives across the board there too? Yeah, man, I feel completely engaged the whole time. I would have to say five as well. All right. P-ability. That's the category of not only can you play it, but would you play it in 2026? 100%. Yeah, it's easy. It was like $7 for the trilogy, like on Steam, available everywhere. Twist my arm.

It's hard not to. And it's not even a big commitment either. Yeah. And it plays the game at like eight hours. It plays great too. There's like nothing you could say about it. Probably eight to 20 hours if you wanted to do anything, which is nice. You get to choose how long you want to spend with this game and feel satisfied. And then there's different difficulties. So if you want an easy experience, you put it on easy. You want a harder experience, put it on hard. Exactly. I don't know. I don't remember if I'm Chartered has a difficulty setting, but this does so.

Probably. think so. think I played the first one on hard after I played the fourth one. who wants to start off with choice specs? Yeah. So choice specs is the category where we grade it based on its uniqueness and whether or not we feel like that uniqueness is good. Cause sometimes the game is unique, but not good. So I'm not going to lie in this category. I'm going to give it a one. There is nothing in this game that isn't done somewhere else and usually done with something else added on. Nowadays. This is like very much cookie cutter.

You know, I, I don't even feel like the story sticks out particularly well. It's all fun. It's a good mix of what it is, but there's nothing that there's nothing in this game that's going to rock your socks off. I feel like. surprise you like you sign up for what you get. I think, I don't know. So that's, that's, that's my take. So I'm going give it a one for this. I'm pretty much in the same boat with like what you said, but like.

What it does, it just does so well. So like, you know what you're getting into, but like, it's just, it's done flawlessly across the board. And yeah, the game didn't really do anything that like, that hasn't been done before. But like, when you add everything together, it's just a solid experience. And I would recommend this game to anybody. So for me, I'm just going to give it, you know, a medium score. I'll give it a three. I feel like the sum of all its parts.

or what, or what makes it stand out? I have something to add to that and it it might change your guys's idea. Cause I don't know if you thought about it or not. This game may not have done anything new and exciting compared to like uncharted, for example, which kind of kickstarted these. But this is the reboot. This is what gets you into the other two games and excited for the new SQL and the reboot for, or the remake of the first game.

This is the first game in a great trilogy. Like on top of everything else that we've said about it, I'm going to give it a four on choice specs because it's what got me into this series and had so many more hours of fun. This is almost a perfect game for me. This game was so good. Well, I mean, looking at our scores, it is almost a perfect game. That and like, you know, this game specifically made them like a diehard like Tomb Raider fan. So not only do they go through like the trilogy, they actually go back.

and play like the, actual original games. So, I mean, this game has actually done a lot for the actual IP. And, ⁓ on top of all that, it's like, I lost my train of thought, that's okay. So how good this game was. to think I had to his arm to get him to do this segment. Dan, you remember that? remember what it was now. Look at how excited he is. The fact that this game is so con.

Densed and shortened is also wonderful. Like you could go and play Uncharted 1 and you feel like you've been playing for so long and you don't get where you expect to be. This game, Uncharted 1 has pacing issues. Definitely. But like pacing in this game, because it's so short and it's a bite sized game, comparative to even the other two games are longer than this one, Rise and Shadow. This one specifically is more of a bite sized game. So.

If you're looking for something that isn't too, you know, time consuming. Yeah. Arduous. It's also a great choice. Like I, I don't know. I'm glad I brought it. Yeah. Very good pick. So I tallied it up and that gives us a 68 out of a possible 75 points.

Which brings us to a 90.6666 infinite. But you know, we could just call it 90.6967 something like that, you know. we did there. We'll just round it up to a 90, 91. That'll be our score, a 91%, which I think was only like one more point than we gave you Yakuza. If I, if I remember correctly. Maybe I don't, I don't remember. So that is our score, but we actually had quite a few.

Well, ⁓ or we had, had a few people play, play along with us or at least right in a little bit. Yeah. I think some people actually like picked it up for the first time too. Yeah. So I know Danko Misty definitely played it and I think Hux started to play it too, but let's see. So mission accomplished because Danko Misty says, I've been wanting to play these. just haven't started. Guess it's a good time. Absolutely. JMo says the first game is a whistling and.

Okay. Symbol his choice, or maybe it's chef's kiss between those two things. Cause a little whistling face looks like it's kissing. Yeah. Chef's kiss. Yeah. think it's chef's kiss. Lysianthia says I played the first one and enjoyed it. Don't remember if I finished it. Can't say if there was anything that stuck out in terms of gameplay, but I did like the redesign of Lara. Lara Lara from the OG games. Sounds like he needs to listen to this episode and go back to it.

Yep, maybe he'll get a better appreciation. Oh, yeah, he probably will. Huck said, so I bought that Tomb Raider collection and trying to start it tonight to download during dinner. But when I tried to launch it, it's downloading content at 1 % per minute. Sounds like a him problem. Yeah, it definitely was because I downloaded the game like two weeks ago and I didn't have that issue. And, you know, he also mentions a little bit how it's playing great on his ally.

I have to say too that it really does play well. had this up. Excellent. And, I had this on high settings. It's great. And then I also put a poll in discord this week that I kind of want to talk over with you guys, but, cause we didn't vote and my vote's probably going to surprise you, but basically I did a who, a who would win Samus, ran or Lara Croft in street clothes in a room full of sharp objects. So Samus doesn't have the power suit. I'm going to, I'm going to be honest with you, Don. I.

think Samus would wipe the floor with Lara Croft. Like I don't even think it would be close. So listen, hear me out. do think that Samus is the better fighter for sure. Like if it was just a street fight in a ring, no sharp objects. think Samus will win absolutely 100 % every time, but you don't think that Lara takes a few off of that. Like, like if you ran that simulation a thousand times. don't know. I guess it really depends on which Lara you're talking about.

this game specifically? No, hell no. No, no, no, no. Like, like peak Laura. Peak Laura? I don't know. If you're talking about like a thousand fights, maybe she'll get 10 of them. I don't know. don't think it'd be that close. Cause like, like I know the Metroid DNA thing exists, but let me counter and say like I played Metroid Dread. Okay. And those Emmys are chasing you down with sharp objects and they use it to stick it to you.

Yeah, but those enemies are like super metal or whatever and that pierces through her suit and stuff like that like indestructible. she's not wearing a suit. She's not wearing a suit in this scenario. I don't know. thought like mostly that Metroid DNA like hyper canon thing she does at end of that game is such a deus ex like we don't know if it's going to happen every time. Otherwise, she should just stab herself in the neck every time she gets in a fight. Well, Samus also has Chozo DNA and she's been trained martial arts by not only the Chozo

but the federal galactic military. She relies a lot on her equipment though. Well, yeah, but Samus never throws fisticuffs or doesn't and doesn't use the environment much. I mean, yeah, we don't, we don't witness it, but like you could say the same for Laura. You don't see her throwing fists either. No, but she does. Well, that's, well, that's my point. Laura and Samus like Samus might try to fist fight Laura in this room, but Laura's going to use the, the environment.

more than Samus will, and I wonder if the environment gives her any kind of an edge in your guy's mind. It's okay if the answer's no. I don't know. That's my case. No, put my case on the, the, sorry, Don. Nope. Yeah. Samus is a intergalactic bounty hunter and is probably prepared for hooligans with sharp objects. She is, but she doesn't have her stuff. I don't think it matters. There are four people who voted for Laura.

You guys were the, were the Lara bros. Okay. And only six people who voted for Samus. Okay. So it's really not that, not that, yeah, it was close. Not that insane this time. This isn't a repeat of Zelda being the most musical game. were wildly out of pocket on that one. Anyway, so that's it for two brainer. We're to set that one aside. 90 % is what we give it.

Tell us we're right or wrong in the, in the comments. got nearly a perfect score in every category that counts. And I get to pick the next game and our next game was hinted at, the top of this episode when we talked about people overestimating the importance of Final Fantasy VII and 100 hour games and being disappointed at the outcome. Because I am picking a game that is on my backlog list for a vindictive reason now, because a really unfortunate thing happened in a card game.

that is sort of a side game, but sort of the main game in this Final Fantasy title. I am picking ⁓ Final Fantasy 8 going back to that because we haven't covered it on the on the podcast. So we're to play Final Fantasy 8 for the next two weeks. Stuff I haven't played that since high school. So you're the best looking guy here.

So good. One of his eyes is like where his cheek area is.

I think it's the mouth that makes it for me. He looks like my dog when I had you. I got it the wrong time. He's the one. And before I say game over, I do like to say thank you to our audience. Really makes it worthwhile to do this with you guys every week, especially those of you who hang out in our discord with us. Our theme music is by Cubby. It's seahorse dreams. Go check him out. If you like our theme music and how could you not like our theme music? It's sweet. You know, you could throw him a bone on his bandcamp on his bandcamp.

Just like we did for his full albums. doing God's work over there. And yeah, and our editing is done by us, all of our graphic design and, ⁓ you know, all the things that you guys interact with in terms of the cable club. It's all done by the three of us. So what are the three talented guys we are? So I think that's it for today, fellas. Game over. Game over. Game over.