Dunce (Dunce) Revolution

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We are starting to really drag on at the end of the year, but at least we collectively survived the blast zone of the Geoff Keighley's the Game Awards.

While some people felt salty about who won what (like calm down Black Myth Wukong dev, you still won awards...), we thoroughly enjoyed the sweet music on offer and not so secretly wish it were the Game Concert instead. Plus those Muppets made fun of the host like people on the internet have been doing for a literal decade now, and I guess that is the true definition of dramatic catharsis.

And we have a special treat, as Sarah joins Buzz to discuss their first week of playing Papergames' Infinity Nikki, a dress-up adventure platformer that seeks to do gatcha games better. I think you could say the segment is entirely full of whimsy.

Also, Buzz gripes about the Shadow Movie DLC. Stay tuned for griping about the film next week.

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Breaking news!

Marvel Rivals isn't a completely fee-to-pay microtransaction-laden mess at launch, and is instead mildly consumer conscious and fairly stable despite a large player base on opening weekend!?

All right, pick that jaw back up off the floor. In all seriousness, it turns out Marvel Rivals is actually a competently made hero team-based pvp shooter that manages to capture the spirit of other entries in the genre without being weighed down by greed. That's honestly saying a lot in current year argument. So, yeah, we shower a lot of praise on it and are probably playing it right now as you read this very text.

Also, Buzz briefly reviews Amazon Prime's Like a Dragon: Yakuza television streaming series. It stinks worse than the public toilet that that guy who always needs pocket tissues in every game is stuck in. Maybe next time production should play the game series they are adapting?

Spider-Man! Spider-Man!
Constantly screws up my plans.
Hard to hit, slows me down
Has an ult that makes me frown
Look out!
Leave me alone Spider-Man!

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It was Thanksgiving this past week in the US of A, and that means we spent time avoiding forming meaningful relationships with people in our immediate vicinity to instead hang out online in video games. And boy do we have something special for you, because we managed to play not just one, but two multiplayer Steam games this week. I'll take my prize now please.

We kick things off with Sons of the Forest, an engaging but maybe too demanding game for two newbies to drop into it the way we did. And yes, if you're thinking this is a skill issue, well, you're right. Hot on the heels of that good time, we also reminisce about our very efficient factory in Satisfactory. This is the one Porter liked.

And because we are contractually obligated to (not really, but SEGA cut us a deal already), we chat about Sonic and the latest, greatest, and almost assuredly final movie trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog 3. Jim Carrey playing two members of the Robotnik family!? Look out The Klumps starring Eddie Murphy!

"
Then Eggman, the one who would betray him, said, "Surely not I, Gerald?" Sonic answered, "Yes, it is you."
"

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It's absolutely mental how many awards Sonic X Shadow Generations was nominated for at Geoff Keighley's the Game Awards, which is of course something we take really seriously. Like, and this is not an exaggeration at all, our personal self-esteem rests on whether or not this upcoming three hour streaming event agrees exactly with our opinions. So, please, say a little prayer for us.

Also, we have a big milestone accomplishment to share: Buzz sat through the Wade Whipple mini-series (with special limited guest appearances by Knuckles the Echidna) and he kind of liked it. Could have used more Muppets though.

Now, we leave you with some homemade Sonic "fan-fiction":

"Damn! I cannot believe we weren't nominated at Geoff Keighley's the Game Awards!" said Shadow as he struck just a really sick pose.
"Aw, it's okay Shadow. At least Knuckles got a nomination. Right Knucks?" said Sonic as he polished his iconic SA2 Soap shoes.
A strange grin suddenly came over Knuckles' face.
"Knuckles, are you all right?" asked Shadow as he prepared to do a Chaos Control with specifically the yellow chaos emerald.
"Do you know the way?" was all Knuckles replied...

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If you thought for one minute this episode wasn't going to be about the Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake, then you were just fooling yourself. The good news is that Fools at level 20 can immediately jump to the Sage class. That's a mid-tier joke you might get if you've also played Dragon Quest 3.

We weren't supposed to talk about Geoff Keighley's The Game Awards' nominations yet, because of course we have to pad out content after the November releases dry up. And of course we couldn't help ourselves. No Shadow Generations nomination!? Snubbed yet again!

Other musings include Porter's growing backlog of games he starts but doesn't finish, the dread of returning to Silent Hill 2, how to start blastin' in Dragon's Dogma 2, celebrity voice actors crowding into video game adaptations, and a promise to finally watch Knuckles on Paramount + (he has the cowboy hat apparently!).

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There's always a joker in the pack, and the joker is me.

Or at least, that's what my inner circle would have you believe after I doled out the simoleons for the PS5 Pro, a mid-generation upgrade to the Sony PS5 home console entertainment system. While not a revolutionary upgrade, we have had fun revisiting titles with the latest enhancements.

After comparing our frames per second, we turn to a different kind of FPS as Porter shares his thoughts on Activison's Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. We also think of ways to ruin the cartoon antics of Mario and Luigi: Brothership by pondering what a Mario RPG would be like if the brothers were allowed to verbalize their thoughts in anything other than pseudo-Italian gibberish.

And to all the scalpers who tried to hoard PS5 Pros thinking it would pay off, I leave you with the wise words of Mo'Nique:

"See, when you do clownery, the clown comes back to bite."

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"Time Marches On, And The Age Of A New King Draws Nearer..." or a new president, as we vent our U.S. election eve anxieties by discussing the excellent Metaphor: ReFantazio - developed by Atlus/Studio Zero and published by Sega.

We have a "poggers" time (Thanks Chuck!) as we entertain ourselves with some of the worst presidential candidate impersonations ever, complaining about Dragon Age: The Veilguard (née Dreadwolf), and thinking about how no matter what happens over the next few days, at least we will probably still get to play Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake. Probably.

So, get out the vote! But only if you plan on voting for the face on the big floating rock in the sky that I want to win...

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We are so smart, clever, and witty that we played a horror game near Halloween, because it was released the month before Halloween, and now we can talk about it on Halloween. Now THIS is podcasting!

Obviously we are discussing the artistic genius of Shadow Generations...Is what I tried to make happen, but instead we are actually discussing the Silent Hill 2 2024 remake developed by Bloober Team and published by Konami.

Join us as we praise everything but the combat in what turns out to be a very deftly executed remake of one of the genre's best titles. Of course, we cannot help but veer off topic into the upcoming Game Awards (oh, how I do hope we have a special Muppet guest appearance this year) and spend some time reminiscing about Splatoon for no real reason other than the Wii U was mentioned (Xenoblade Chronicles X!!) and we are legally obligated to talk about Splatoon when that happens.

"What was that? ... Okay, James!" ~ Wendy Williams

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Buzz is joined by special guest Porter to talk about Team Asobi and Japan Studio's "Astro Bot." And when we say talk, we mean praise heavily. I mean, have you played it? It's really good. Maybe even Game of the Year good...

We inevitably talk about Yakuza (you know the drill by now), but there was an RGG summit just the other day so it's actually timely for once. Although we recorded this episode AHEAD of that commercial broadcast, and no, we didn't predict Pirates in Hawaii, but we'll take it just cause it's Majima.

Oh, and we balk the cost of the PS5 Pro. The price of the PS5 Pro is really too damn high.

And so I leave you with the following:

When I find myself in times of trouble, the anthropomorphic GPU comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom,  I do it for you 
Yeah, all that you see, rendered by me
Speaking words of wisdom, I'm your GPU

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(Go West) Life is peaceful there
(Go West) In the open air
(Go West) Where the skies are blue
(Go West) This is what we’re gonna do

Thank Goodness You're Here!

...is an excellent game that Buzz and special guest Porter both played but is also not the focus of this episode. That would just be a solid hour of praise for what is clearly game of the year 2024.

Instead, in an oddly timely move, we discuss Game Science's global release of "Black Myth: Wukong". An action RPG set after the events of the literary classic "Journey to the West".

With a little over fifty percent of the game under our collective belts, we order an open-faced compliment sandwich, starting off with what we really enjoyed about our experience before delving into some thoughts on the game's console performance on the PS5 and how it holds up in comparison to other contemporary entries in the action genre.

Unfortunately we have to take a trip down controversy lane, because it happened and we are suckers for "feminist propaganda" (oh, I'd like to prop a gander I don't mind saying (an actual shame that we are not talking about Thank Goodness You're Here with joke like that)).

Go West, this is what we’re gonna do, Go West!