Hollow Knight: Silksong and Borderlands 4 Review

Hosts **Tony Sisk** and **Jaime G** kick off the "video game fall season" by discussing two major new releases: the highly anticipated indie sequel **Hollow Knight: Silksong** and the AAA looter-shooter **Borderlands 4**. 

Jaime shares his enthusiastic impressions of **Silksong**, highlighting its six-year development history, its origins as an intended DLC for *Hollow Knight* that grew into a full standalone sequel, and its budget price point of $20. He praises its Metroidvania genre execution, comparing its difficulty to *Elden Ring*, noting the lack of a ramp-up for new players, and describing the protagonist Hornet's high mobility and fluid movement as a major gameplay addition. 

Tony offers his initial thoughts on **Borderlands 4**, which he picked up as a physical copy on launch day. He states that the game is **"very good"** and already **"easily" better than Borderlands 3**. Tony praises the narrative, specifically highlighting the **memorable NPC characters** and the investment in their stories, which he feels was lacking in the previous installment. 

The hosts note the interesting contrast between the highly-rated, budget indie title (**Silksong**) and the large-scale AAA release (**Borderlands 4**), setting up a future discussion comparing their reception and player count, especially on platforms like Steam.

---

## Show Notes

**Podcast Title:** Good Game Radio

**Topics:** Video Game Fall Season Kickoff, *Hollow Knight: Silksong* Release and Review, *Borderlands 4* Initial Impressions.

### 🕸️ **Hollow Knight: Silksong (06:38)**

* **Release & Background:**
    * Developed and published by **Team Cherry**, an Australian indie team.
    * Released on September 4th, 2025, after being announced on February 14th, 2019 (a six-year wait).
    * Originally planned as a DLC for the 2017 Kickstarter-funded **Hollow Knight**, but its scope grew into a full, standalone sequel.
    * **Price:** Great price tag at **$20**.
* **Jaime's Impressions:**
    * **Genre & Difficulty:** A fantastic job in the **Metroidvania** genre; compared to **Elden Ring** for its high difficulty and lack of an "easy mode." The game offers little ramp-up, assuming players are familiar with the first title.
    * **Protagonist:** You play as **Hornet**; the game follows her own story and plot.
    * **Gameplay Mechanics:** Praised for its **high mobility**—Hornet quickly unlocks dash, air-dash, and ledge-grabbing abilities, making her feel like a "little Spider-Man."
    * **Exploration:** Features a challenging and intentionally unhelpful map system, forcing players to learn the kingdom and revisit old areas upon gaining new abilities (**core Metroidvania loop**).
* **Ratings:** Sitting at a **92 positive score on Metacritic**.

### 🔫 **Borderlands 4 (01:25 & 23:16)**

* **Tony's Impressions (10 hours in):**
    * **Overall:** **"Very good,"** and **"easily" better than Borderlands 3**.
    * **Narrative/Characters:** A huge step up from *Borderlands 3*. The **NPC characters are memorable** and provide a strong foundation for the story, recalling the quality of characters from *Borderlands 1* (e.g., TK Baja).
    * **Loot:** Not **"stingy."** Plenty of loot and guns are dropping, including numerous **Epic (purple)** tier weapons early on.
* **General Reception:** Currently sitting with an **84 Metacritic score**, which Tony argues is still "above good" and respectable.

Chapters

• 4:53 Silksong
• 21:15 Borderlands 4

Transcript

00:00:03.61
Tony Sisk
ah Folks, but we like to get the game radio. um There it goes again. Look at that. Say something. We'll just keep going.

00:00:13.67
Tony Sisk
Okay. That's weird. Okay.

00:00:18.98
Jaime G 
So sorry.

00:00:22.12
Tony Sisk
It says failed to start recording, but it's showing that it's recording. oh Okay. Well, we'll start.

00:00:29.15
Jaime G 
Okie dokie.

00:00:29.41
Tony Sisk
Hi folks, welcome back to Good Game Radio. I'm your host Tony speaking. I'm here again tonight with Jaime. Jaime, what's going on?

00:00:37.55
Jaime G 
Hey, man, it's been a minute. And Tony, the Internet is ablaze, man. How how are you doing? And I've been i i think that on my on my end,

00:00:48.99
Jaime G 
i've just I've had an opportunity to play some Metal Gear Solid Delta, but there was a little release that came out that got my attention. We'll talk about that. But how how's everything on your side?

00:00:59.00
Tony Sisk
Everything's going just peachy. we We're kicking off the video game fall season, right? ah I think it's officially kicked off with Metal Gear Solid. I think we talked about that in the last episode.

00:01:10.45
Tony Sisk
But now we're we got a couple more drops that have happened.

00:01:11.82
Jaime G 
We did?

00:01:14.74
Tony Sisk
Silksong, which you were a big fan of, and ah you were a fan of the original, and you were looking forward to this one.

00:01:23.18
Jaime G 
Yes.

00:01:23.25
Tony Sisk
So it dropped with a $20 price tag, which is great price tag. And then on my on my end, ah since I had not played the original ah outside of just the first ah little intro section, um I was looking forward to Borderlands 4, which dropped on Friday.

00:01:30.23
Jaime G 
Yes.

00:01:47.63
Tony Sisk
And I picked up my copy, my physical edition. So I had to wait a little bit. I wasn't able to play at midnight when those when it dropped.

00:01:59.20
Tony Sisk
Because I wanted that physical editions and I went to Walmart and picked it up. So i played I've played that a little bit this weekend. and And I have a lot to say to it when we get to that.

00:02:10.10
Jaime G 
What time did you pick it up?

00:02:11.44
Tony Sisk
I picked it up at ah when I got off work on Friday. So it was probably about 4.30.

00:02:20.01
Jaime G 
Dude, remember when like launch parties at midnight were a thing?

00:02:23.46
Tony Sisk
Oh, yeah. Yeah, I mean, GameStop. get out there at nine o'clock, get in line, wait for the guy come out give you your number. And then you go in and get your copy and, you know, and say they better have enough copies.

00:02:38.05
Jaime G 
what what What was the last one that you did like that?

00:02:38.72
Tony Sisk
so Huh?

00:02:40.89
Jaime G 
Yeah.

00:02:41.00
Tony Sisk
When was the last game?

00:02:42.00
Jaime G 
What was the last one that you did like that?

00:02:42.74
Tony Sisk
I think it was a Call Duty game. Maybe. Back when Call of Duty was really good.

00:02:47.54
Jaime G 
Mine was the Mortal Kombat X.

00:02:51.49
Tony Sisk
Yeah.

00:02:54.10
Jaime G 
And I so remember, Tony, just being in there and feeling like so out of place. Like I was i was the old dude. So, yeah.

00:03:02.44
Tony Sisk
Oh, right. Yeah.

00:03:04.65
Jaime G 
yeah I vowed that you know if if if this ever happened again, I would not go to one. Luckily, there haven't been any more like that since then.

00:03:12.24
Tony Sisk
Yeah. I mean, there hasn't been a lot of like midnight releases like Best Buy doesn't stay open until midnight. You know, it's just it's not a thing anymore.

00:03:21.09
Jaime G 
it's not but I think digital killed that because people get it. like

00:03:24.85
Tony Sisk
Oh, yeah.

00:03:25.20
Jaime G 
You can preload the game on your on your console.

00:03:25.66
Tony Sisk
um but that That's the thing. It's like if I didn't have to work, see, I took a vacation day on Saturday. which is one of my own my, that's my Friday. I took a vacation day on Saturday, so um I would have it to play on Saturday.

00:03:38.71
Jaime G 
Yes.

00:03:42.81
Tony Sisk
and But I thought that the game was dropping like Friday morning into Saturday, so I didn't realize it was actually a day earlier. Otherwise, I would have taken an extra vacation day and picked it up on you know Friday morning.

00:03:52.73
Jaime G 
yeah

00:03:57.71
Tony Sisk
and had that all Friday to play it because when this game, when Borderlands three dropped back in what, 2015 or something like that, uh, it was me, Clint, uh, another guy from my work.

00:03:58.86
Jaime G 
yeah

00:04:11.23
Tony Sisk
We all took vacation days because we all worked at the same place. We all took vacation days for, for like the entire weekend and we played it like nonstop for hours and hours and hours until we leveled up.

00:04:20.43
Jaime G 
Right.

00:04:22.61
Tony Sisk
Like Clint and leveled up our characters. Um, Not without stopping until they were leveling up. That's that, that, you know, I was 10 years younger.

00:04:37.15
Tony Sisk
was, had a lot of coffee. I don't know how managed to do it

00:04:40.78
Jaime G 
I know.

00:04:40.99
Tony Sisk
Right. ah um But, but I did see, I'll get into this I did see Clint playing this game. If Clint is listening, Clint, if you're listening, I saw you playing.

00:04:51.79
Jaime G 
No.

00:04:54.84
Tony Sisk
And I didn't want to never interrupt you.

00:04:55.86
Jaime G 
you He was the Borderlands guy.

00:04:56.70
Tony Sisk
Sometimes you just want to play by yourself, which is me most of the time. So I was like, I almost sent him an invite.

00:05:02.11
Jaime G 
Yeah.

00:05:03.74
Tony Sisk
But I didn't. and we I didn't reach out and interrupt his game. He was way ahead of me. He's always been a great Borderlands player. ah So he's always...

00:05:14.31
Jaime G 
Yeah.

00:05:18.49
Tony Sisk
Always learning the ins and outs of the game And telling you all those secrets and stuff He he goes really heavy Into learning all the easter eggs and stuff So It can be, it's a good and a bad thing, kind of, you know, because kind like, oh, you know, I kind of wanted to discover those things on my own, so I just kind of kept, I wanted impression from my own solo play for a good while.

00:05:45.22
Tony Sisk
I didn't want to jump immediately co-op game, because there are some drawbacks in a co-op game, because the progress, I think, is only saved for the host of the co-op game versus the

00:05:54.72
Jaime G 
The main, yeah. And then I think the ah it also impacts like how the XP is divided in other things.

00:06:05.56
Tony Sisk
Right. So, yeah, I just wanted to kind of experience the game solo for the first couple of days anyway. So before I started jumping in into co-op and I know I talked to some people in our Discord that who might be interested in, you know, picking the game up and maybe we could crew up with some of our Discord player ah players and stuff like that.

00:06:16.20
Jaime G 
Yeah.

00:06:28.39
Tony Sisk
But yeah, so that was my weekend, but I know you picked up Silksong and we wanted to start the conversation we'll so with Silksong. ah So let's jump into that discussion.

00:06:38.71
Jaime G 
Yes.

00:06:40.51
Tony Sisk
ah Hami, so what's what's your impression so far of this ah this new Silksong game?

00:06:49.34
Jaime G 
OK, OK, a bit of an intro for anybody who's listening to this. I mean, I i think if you're a gamer, you kind of have the the content, the context behind this. But Hollow Knight Silksong is a game that's developed and published by ah Team Cherry. I didn't know this. This is ah an Australian indie team, OK?

00:07:10.13
Jaime G 
It was released on September the the fourth

00:07:10.87
Tony Sisk
Thank you.

00:07:13.42
Jaime G 
um the 4th, 2025. And this game has been was announced February the 14th in 2019. How many years is that? That's six years, right? there was yeah There was even some videos that came out on YouTube when this game was announced.

00:07:32.87
Jaime G 
And by the way, it was announced and it was like, hey, all right, it's going to finally be released in two weeks, right? like People were like, what? There was like some YouTube videos. you know There's like a lot of characters from like games that are like in development limbo.

00:07:47.69
Jaime G 
And they're like all saying goodbye to Silksong because she found like they finally got a release date.

00:07:52.46
Tony Sisk
Thank

00:07:55.19
Jaime G 
um This game originally was planned out as DLC. for the original game of the series, which was called the Hollow Knight. This game, Hollow Knight, was released in 2017. And this was originally funded, believe it or not, through a ah Kickstarter.

00:08:16.08
Jaime G 
So when they did the Kickstarter for Hollow Knight, they said, hey, if we reach this goal, we'll do a DLC for Silkson. Well, Hollow Knight released, it was such it was also an indie game, really low cost.

00:08:28.85
Jaime G 
did fantastic, a fantastic job in the Metroidvania genre. And it also had a couple of rounds of DLC and this one was oddly missing, right?

00:08:41.99
Jaime G 
The reason why this DLC never released, it's because it was basically too big, too broad.

00:08:52.86
Jaime G 
And again, Hollow Knight ended on a point where I thought it brought closure to the story. And this, the scope of this project grew so large that team cherry decided to actually make a full standalone sequel.

00:09:09.25
Jaime G 
Um, and the protagonist, um, I always struggle. i don't know if it's a, uh, uh, him or her, I think it's, it's a, her it's Hornet.

00:09:20.62
Jaime G 
Um, got their own story, their own plot, their own adventure. But again, this took this game took six years. And there was like a lot of radio silence in between trailers or previews.

00:09:35.84
Jaime G 
Everyone got very hyped up when the Xbox Rogue Ally was announced and they were showing Silksong gameplay on it. and Everyone's like, wait, wait, wait. Does that mean that this is actually going to finally come out?

00:09:48.14
Jaime G 
Xbox went as far as to even put out a statement saying like, no, this will not be a release title for the raw guy like because guess what? It released before.

00:09:56.08
Tony Sisk
Mm-hmm.

00:09:58.42
Jaime G 
But but finally, This game was announced. Like I said, it was announced. And then all of a sudden it's like, okay, you're going to get it like in three weeks. And everyone's like, say what?

00:10:12.99
Jaime G 
Like some indie games, some other studios pushed out their release dates because of this. And I think, I think that we can make a really good story around this Tony, because you have this indie game that released, you have like this big title borderlands four that released.

00:10:29.83
Jaime G 
mean, not too much of a... I mean, they released in the same month, basically. So let's say that there are September releases. and And I think we can learn a couple things about the releases and the reception and things that are going on.

00:10:42.66
Jaime G 
So since this game was released, ah Steam and the Nintendo eShop had issues. They had temporary outages or errors when the game launched because too many people were buying this.

00:10:56.39
Jaime G 
Right? So... It's an indie game. It retailed for 20 bucks, right? it's It's a frack. I mean, how many Borderlands 4s can I buy for 20 bucks?

00:11:07.43
Tony Sisk
Yeah, four or three, probably.

00:11:08.63
Jaime G 
A pop, right? and and And some people are going out there and buying like the empty Empty My Bank Account edition. um But this game delivers.

00:11:22.70
Jaime G 
it's Again, it's small scale. The artwork is amazing. The the The sound elements in this, if you've ever played a Metroidvania, okay, this is this is actually like Elden Ring in in that genre.

00:11:39.90
Jaime G 
You're playing it, it's hard. People are complaining that the game is too hard actually. um And I think the developers went went in it with the mindset of the people who are playing this,

00:11:51.18
Jaime G 
They're not new gamers. They're people who actually had some history with the first one. So there is no ramp up, if that makes sense.

00:11:57.26
Tony Sisk
Right.

00:12:00.32
Jaime G 
It's like you you start off and the game basically gives you a tutorial of this is attack, this is jump, have fun. And so you're exploring this game.

00:12:15.74
Jaime G 
Unknown kingdom. do You start off ah being rolled in a cage by some unknown captors and you manage to escape. And in the process of you escaping, you're like in this kingdom area, whatever that Hornet doesn't recognize.

00:12:34.89
Jaime G 
So you come across some other bugs in the kingdom and they they are friendly. You come across some others that are not so friendly, but then you start exploring maps and And it's like, okay, there's some areas that you get to some points you're like, I can't go further because I haven't unlocked an ability.

00:12:55.11
Jaime G 
And then you get into some areas. This one was actually quite um ah upsetting for me because there was one area that once you got into it, there was no way that you could get out of it until you actually grabbed the right ah the right power up or the right skill that you needed it to unlock to be able to get out of it so it's like you're trapped and and i was playing this while my son was watching and i got to this one point and everything looked the same that i was like i think i've already been here i'm not gonna jump down this ledge because if i do i remember that i can't get back up so i have to like

00:13:36.57
Jaime G 
traverse a lot, a large area in the map to get back to where I'm at. So I'm going to go explore in a different direction. Two hours later, I came back to the same spot and I was like, this is the only thing I haven't done. I haven't jumped off this ledge.

00:13:49.71
Tony Sisk
but

00:13:50.26
Jaime G 
And that's where the power up was.

00:13:53.23
Tony Sisk
course.

00:13:55.70
Jaime G 
And, and of course I have my son tell me like, I told you dad, I told you to jump off that ledge earlier.

00:14:01.46
Tony Sisk
Right.

00:14:02.43
Jaime G 
And I was like, yes, I know. And, and And notice what I'm saying here. The map system, there is a map system, but it's it's not too helpful.

00:14:14.40
Tony Sisk
OK.

00:14:15.66
Jaime G 
It's intentionally meant to be like, okay, I have a general idea where I'm at, but it's... it's It's meant to to challenge you.

00:14:26.63
Jaime G 
I'm really digging these aspects, OK? Some people are complaining like, well, this game's too linear because you always have to go to this area first and then this area to be able to get to the next area. yeah But you know there is a certain charm.

00:14:40.99
Jaime G 
In learning the maps, learning the enemies, realizing that you get to some areas where you're like, okay, no matter what I do right now, either I can't beat this boss, I can't beat beat this enemy, mean or i can't get to this ledge because I'm missing something, right?

00:14:56.31
Tony Sisk
yeah

00:14:57.04
Jaime G 
And then you realize, okay, what else have I not explored?

00:15:00.94
Tony Sisk
But that's the part of it being a Metroidvania type game, right?

00:15:01.99
Jaime G 
And

00:15:04.84
Tony Sisk
Because you have to go back and explore old areas that you've already been through because something might have opened up or you've acquired some new ability that allows you to gain access to an area you didn't otherwise have access to.

00:15:06.80
Jaime G 
yes.

00:15:16.52
Tony Sisk
That's the whole point of the genre.

00:15:18.23
Jaime G 
Tell that to modern gamers. They don't get it.

00:15:22.61
Jaime G 
They want everything simple or...

00:15:22.85
Tony Sisk
It's a Metroidvania game!

00:15:24.49
Jaime G 
or

00:15:28.26
Jaime G 
No, but but really, man, like there's a couple times, i can like I said, this is like Elden Ring Metroidvania, where... My wife was in the room and I'm playing and i' I'm screaming like, no, like I just, you did something like when you lose ah ah in a boss battle, you know why you lost. You're like, I mistimed something. i did an attack when I should have.

00:15:54.02
Jaime G 
And like my wife like has been like, are you okay? i'm like, I just died. Yeah.

00:15:59.77
Tony Sisk
Now, did you get this on a PlayStation?

00:16:03.13
Jaime G 
I sure did. There's no other way to play it. I mean, well, there is, but there's that's the best one. um So in general, I mean, without giving too much away, you start learning about why you're captured.

00:16:17.65
Jaime G 
And I mean, this is this this is over several hours of gameplay and why you're trying to escape. So it's it's actually an interesting plot.

00:16:30.05
Jaime G 
There is more text than Elden Ring because Elden Ring, everything is explained through, like i guess, weapon lore or stuff. but But here, there is like some characters that actually speak to you, give you some context, but they don't help you.

00:16:41.44
Tony Sisk
Thank

00:16:46.64
Jaime G 
ah So if you really are into games that are you know platformers, ah You enjoy ah a certain degree of pain because this game is challenging in it. I'm not going to mince words. There's no, I don't think there's an easy mode on this. Okay.

00:17:05.63
Jaime G 
I think it's, it's hardcore or it.

00:17:07.75
Tony Sisk
yeah

00:17:07.99
Jaime G 
Yeah.

00:17:09.00
Tony Sisk
Well, that's why you kept referencing own ring. There is no difficulty setting, right? It's one difficulty.

00:17:15.74
Jaime G 
yeah I mean, honestly, to the point that you're in some areas and you're playing and you're like, I don't think I'm at the, I don't think, I think I'm missing something here because all the enemies are overpowered.

00:17:31.33
Tony Sisk
So what's the variety on enemies so far?

00:17:31.68
Jaime G 
um But honestly,

00:17:33.04
Tony Sisk
you How far into the game you think you are?

00:17:37.38
Jaime G 
I'm probably, percentage wise, i I don't think I'm not even 10%. Time wise, man, I'm,

00:17:40.75
Tony Sisk
And how many hours does that equate to? 10%. Yeah.

00:17:44.25
Jaime G 
ah man um I'm like probably eight hour, maybe eight to 10 hours into this. But again, i i kicked myself because I know there was one area that I added two hours to my gameplay just because i was like, I'm not going to jump off this ledge because I can't get back up.

00:18:03.22
Tony Sisk
yeah

00:18:04.61
Jaime G 
and And part of it is because when you jumped off, you got the you finally got the ability that you needed that actually helped you go higher jump higher.

00:18:15.51
Jaime G 
and get let you get back up. And I was like, oh, duh.

00:18:17.91
Tony Sisk
yeah so what's Is there anything different from like how it...

00:18:19.26
Jaime G 
Right.

00:18:24.96
Tony Sisk
Anything new added to it from the original Hollow Knight, mechanics-wise or something?

00:18:29.81
Jaime G 
Yeah. Okay. So yes, yes. And I'm glad that you asked because I would have missed it. ah Hollow Knight, in a sense, in a sense ah was very grounded. Your character had its the attack, the move,

00:18:45.36
Jaime G 
he had ways that he could like jump off walls and do things that came as, as, you know, things that you it if eventually leveled up in silksong.

00:19:00.51
Jaime G 
Your character very quickly unlocks like, like a dash ability, which leads into like an air dash with lead, which leads into like jumping off like ledges and hanging off like the, but like grabbing on,

00:19:15.82
Jaime G 
It's very mobile. Your character is is honestly feels like a little Spider-Man in in a way.

00:19:20.81
Tony Sisk
Mm-hmm.

00:19:21.54
Jaime G 
Remember how like when we're playing Spider-Man 1 or 2, you're jumping off buildings, hanging from things, moving on to other areas. This game is fast. and And it's like, it doesn't start out fast, but once you unlock a couple of abilities, it's like you're running, sprinting, air dashing, doing an attack on an enemy All of this to be able to land on the next ledge that you need to to be on.

00:19:48.53
Jaime G 
um It's hard to explain. You have to experience it, Tony. its It's like you played Prince of Persia. It's like that Prince of Persia is basically like if there was an easy mode, it'd be that.

00:20:03.56
Tony Sisk
Prince of Persia is the easy mode for the silk song.

00:20:07.35
Jaime G 
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:20:07.76
Tony Sisk
Okay.

00:20:10.79
Jaime G 
and and apps And I'm going to say even like it's like a very easy mode of Silksong.

00:20:14.84
Tony Sisk
Gotcha. Okay.

00:20:17.21
Jaime G 
Right. So and again, for $20, you can't go wrong. um And again, I said this before. What's the cost of Borderlands 4 and what's the cost of Silksong? Once we hear from you, I'm going to tell you how many people are playing both games on Steam charts.

00:20:38.97
Jaime G 
And it'll be iPod. eye opening

00:20:42.08
Tony Sisk
I mean, yeah, I mean, if I guess Steam is the best ah benchmark for first that we have. It's really the only one really that we have.

00:20:55.45
Jaime G 
It's the only one that we have access to.

00:20:55.54
Tony Sisk
ah Only one we really have. I'm not sure so sure if it's a great indicator of anything, but ah outside of it being the only one that shows us numbers in real time.

00:21:07.78
Tony Sisk
um So, ah yeah, I mean, it sounds great.

00:21:08.90
Jaime G 
Right.

00:21:11.40
Tony Sisk
i like i I'm thinking about picking up Silksong for my Steam Deck. Right? Because it's available on Steam Deck, right? If it's on Steam. and

00:21:20.69
Jaime G 
them

00:21:20.77
Tony Sisk
So yeah. um So I might just do that based on, I'm assuming you're giving the recommendation for it. It's showing a 9 rating. I just looked.

00:21:31.79
Tony Sisk
ah Looks like it's a consensus 9. So that's pretty good. That's a great game.

00:21:36.80
Jaime G 
ah

00:21:36.98
Tony Sisk
ah

00:21:38.02
Jaime G 
And remember who had it on on his ah game draft? This guy.

00:21:42.18
Tony Sisk
Right. Speaking of the game draft, before we move on to Borderlands. What's the ah the closing period for that? Is that the end of this month?

00:21:52.28
Jaime G 
I think we said we said it was like the the end of September, beginning of October.

00:21:56.12
Tony Sisk
Okay. I'm sure you've probably won, but

00:22:01.71
Jaime G 
man, the champ, I'm just going to say i took it I took it home last year. There's a high likelihood that I'll do it again. Hello Night's Silksong is sitting on Metacritic with a 92 positive score, whereas Borderlands 4 is sitting with an 84. Okay.

00:22:20.41
Tony Sisk
84 is good, though. 84 is good.

00:22:23.18
Jaime G 
It's not that good.

00:22:24.34
Tony Sisk
It's good. 84 is good. is good.

00:22:26.94
Jaime G 
It's no 92. OK, well. it no ninety two

00:22:28.97
Tony Sisk
It's no 92, but 80s is good. eighty s is respectable. it seventy s is like

00:22:35.01
Jaime G 
okay wow

00:22:37.16
Tony Sisk
70s are good too. 70 is you're like, he if you score 70, you're good game. If you score in the 80s, you're above good. above good.

00:22:49.78
Tony Sisk
Maybe not quite great, but you're good for sure. ninety s is great. 90s, you're in the competition for game of the year. Yeah.

00:23:02.84
Tony Sisk
60s, you know, it's a personal taste at that point. And 50s is consensus.

00:23:08.22
Jaime G 
yeah Yeah.

00:23:09.53
Tony Sisk
Everybody hates your guts for making a game.

00:23:15.19
Tony Sisk
yeah

00:23:16.99
Jaime G 
Well, all right. so So I'll go back to this comparison later. But let's let's hear about your playthrough of Borderlands. Hey, by the way, I did like, um just for context, Tony, I have played all the Borderlands games, including the the Tiny Tina spin-offs.

00:23:32.41
Tony Sisk
you

00:23:34.77
Jaime G 
I still hold Borderlands 2 like super, super in high regard, man. I don't think, I think what ruined Borderlands 3 for me was how good Borderlands 2 was.

00:23:48.30
Tony Sisk
Okay.

00:23:49.52
Jaime G 
oh

00:23:49.60
Tony Sisk
Okay.

00:23:50.66
Jaime G 
So, I mean, so, so, so tell me, is it, is it back in peak, peak form?

00:23:56.07
Tony Sisk
So Borderlands 4 in my you know, 10 hours or so with the game, ah I would say is very good, in my opinion.

00:24:09.21
Tony Sisk
It's good. It's better than 3, easily already. um the And not that I hated 3.

00:24:14.87
Jaime G 
Okay.

00:24:19.47
Tony Sisk
No, like I just said, I just played like 36 straight hours to level 3 up. I mean, 3 was good, but

00:24:31.25
Tony Sisk
there was something about There was something about that game that was off, I guess. But 4, I really have enjoyed my time with 4 so far. The story is you know the space treasure hunting stories on an alien world stuff.

00:24:51.88
Tony Sisk
I mean, it's probably pretty decent. I will say that the investment in some of the NPC characters, I really, really do think it's a, it's a, it's a step up above three. To me, there was nothing really memorable about three.

00:25:09.34
Tony Sisk
ah When the NBC characters, this one is right out of the gate.

00:25:10.96
Jaime G 
no

00:25:15.96
Tony Sisk
I mean, the first... I don't want to spoil anything, but ah you you get a punch in the face with the reality of where this game is ah when it when it's talking presenting its story.

00:25:32.17
Tony Sisk
So the characters are really, really good. And I've run into...

00:25:41.18
Tony Sisk
I think three or four NPC allies, and they've really put some time and effort into making these characters really good and and memorable and and just being a solid foundation for a story. So like I said, I'm not i'm only 10 hours in, but I really, really like the characters and how they've presented them in this world. So from just a solo, I haven't really teamed up with anybody. I think we were talking earlier, I told you, you know, that ah People, i saw plenty of friends playing it, have not joined up with anybody.

00:26:15.51
Tony Sisk
And I know that's what makes Borderlands great. It's, you know, teaming up with three other players and doing a looter shooter thing. But in this regard, you know, I want a solo experience at my own pace with the story.

00:26:30.12
Tony Sisk
Go ahead.

00:26:32.54
Jaime G 
So NPCs are memorable. I don't know if you remember this, but Borderland 1, there was a character and his name was TK Baja. Like blind guy with a shotgun, old redneck.

00:26:46.28
Jaime G 
Loved him.

00:26:46.86
Tony Sisk
Right, yeah.

00:26:47.39
Jaime G 
Loved this character. Until he got killed by looters.

00:26:51.19
Tony Sisk
Right. Same thing.

00:26:55.35
Jaime G 
so So there's like characters like that. Like I can still look back. on their first borderline game that I played on my Xbox 360. And remember like, there was this one character was just awesome.

00:27:07.02
Tony Sisk
Yes. Yes. I say that that that is present in this game.

00:27:10.51
Jaime G 
Right.

00:27:12.59
Tony Sisk
so that was not something that was present in three i just don't remember a character that stood out to me uh in three um so uh with four right out right out the gate i'm like you get you have a great character you meet a great character out of the gate you meet another uh two or three great characters you know ah couple hours in uh

00:27:18.33
Jaime G 
Absolutely agree. Absolutely agree.

00:27:39.40
Tony Sisk
so and they're and one of them was really i mean two of them were memorable for sure um so yeah i'm liking the direction of the story um so that's just on the narrative front so uh it's strong it's strong there uh but it's a looter shooter so how's the gunplay how's that I mean, it's Borderlands, man. There's guns. You open, there's a, there's a hunt. You go into a room and there's 20 things in the room you can open up and you don't know what's going to pop out of them. So you're getting that little, you know dopamine rush when you open something and something good pops out like, uh, you know, iridium, which is like, uh, whatever the core resources here is, um, cash, ammo, guns, uh,

00:28:30.48
Tony Sisk
I think the criticism with 3 also was that it was a little stingy with some of the loot early on. Like, the loot thing wasn't working properly. um This is not stingy. There's a lot of stuff dropping. There's a lot of guns dropping. I mean, epics.

00:28:45.87
Tony Sisk
I haven't seen any legendaries or anything like that, but tons of epics early. Like, you know, I was fully epic out with stuff within, you know,

00:28:58.80
Jaime G 
But i I want to say that for Borderlands 3, Tony, I really remember getting multiple epic weapons.

00:29:07.44
Tony Sisk
Hold on one second.

00:29:12.63
Tony Sisk
Hello? you not podcasting? Yeah, I'm podcasting right You're on air.

00:29:20.10
Tony Sisk
here. I never saw you come downstairs. Oh, sorry. I'll leave alone. Yeah, I slight headache and then since you just not going go. Okay. All right.

00:29:30.44
Tony Sisk
Bye. Bye.

00:29:38.06
Tony Sisk
Okay, continue.

00:29:41.45
Jaime G 
Okay, we'll just edit that out. Okay, well, I was saying that I really remember in Borderlands 3, specifically on 3, that I got ah to a point where I had like a lot of epic weapons. I mean, so many that some I somed never used more than like for the for five minutes.

00:30:01.96
Jaime G 
And in Borderlands 2, I remember it was a grind to actually get one And I think ah for Borderlands 3, there was part of me that was like, yo, this is too much, right?

00:30:15.98
Tony Sisk
Right well I mean I think that and Epic ah like Maybe it's just a color go but We're just used to calling things epic I don't know if that's the you word That they actually use for this the Purple color scheme So you have white Which is your basic yeah Common Then you have blue which is rare Then you have purple Epic And then legendary which is an orange I have not seen any of that

00:30:16.90
Jaime G 
So.

00:30:33.23
Jaime G 
Yep.

00:30:44.47
Jaime G 
Okay, okay, okay. or Legendary is what I remember. Sorry. and I was going to say golden, but yeah, it was the legendaries that I had in Borderlands 3. I got just too many of them.

00:30:55.02
Tony Sisk
yeah

00:30:56.46
Jaime G 
where were were To the point that they weren't really legendary.

00:30:59.11
Tony Sisk
Right, well I have not seen ah single Legendary item yet And a lot of times even like my purples Like as you level up, typical RPG as you level up i You level beyond

00:31:04.03
Jaime G 
Okay.

00:31:14.61
Tony Sisk
the level of weapon, right? So it's like, okay, that weapon is not, that weapon in which it was great against level 10s is no longer great against level fifteens and 20s, right? So you have to replace it with a new epic weapon.

00:31:24.96
Jaime G 
Yeah, yeah.

00:31:28.90
Tony Sisk
and And in Borderlands, like, the The different categories also like you get more the gun just does more things like and you might add like a corrosive effect or a fire effect or ice effect.

00:31:42.92
Tony Sisk
So you can run into enemies that are immune to one of those things. So even though you might have an epic weapon that does crazy. corrosive damage it's no good against the enemy that has resistance or immunity to that so but now in this particular uh in this borderlands they've introduced ah this new thing as part of the story where the enemies have i can't remember what the term that they were using for but it's like biological weapon that allows them to coat themselves with armor and

00:32:21.38
Tony Sisk
it makes them immune to everything. So as long as they have this armor on everything.

00:32:26.88
Jaime G 
and Everything.

00:32:28.31
Tony Sisk
So what you have to do is you have to get that same toxin or whatever biological element and throw it at them in a canister to break up the armor where the problem is, is they can regenerate the armor.

00:32:45.28
Tony Sisk
So even though you break the armor, they can get the armor right back. So just, this constant battle back and forth. Like, okay, I got that. I can't do any damage to them. At least in the first, this first level that I'm in, basically in the first zone, uh, that's how it's working.

00:33:01.27
Tony Sisk
Um, but, Yeah, I mean, it's got that classic Borderland weapons dropping left to right. And I think we talked about like how how many 39 billion iterations of weapons or something like that.

00:33:13.73
Tony Sisk
um But, you know, I found like weapons, like I found the weapons I needed for the level was at for the enemies I was fighting. But interestingly, and this this is and I'm sure there's been some element of this in like previous Borderland games and stuff.

00:33:32.09
Tony Sisk
But I really enjoyed like the first major boss battle I had like major boss battle. I'm not talking like, you know, little dudes, you know, that are considered like mini bosses.

00:33:44.06
Jaime G 
The first big grunt.

00:33:44.43
Tony Sisk
The first, yeah, the first, the first major boss battle, it reminded me so much of like, I was playing like a, like a destiny boss battle because,

00:33:58.38
Tony Sisk
um not only like a big criticism in and three particularly um was all the, all the bosses were just bullet sponges, right?

00:34:10.69
Tony Sisk
You just kept shooting them and shooting them and shooting them and shooting them, shooting them, shooting them, shooting them until, you know, you've put like a million rounds into them and they, and they drop. So basically it was just, you run around, you shoot them. right Well this first major boss battle I have It had all kinds of stuff going on That you had to do During the middle of the fight Like In order to get the in order for you to deal damage You had to do this You had to wait for something to happen React to it

00:34:43.51
Tony Sisk
Do something with it. And then, then you could deal damage. It reminded me so much of a, like a destiny raid battle or something like that, where a lot of the ah boss battles you might find in the destiny game.

00:34:57.28
Tony Sisk
and It was really, it made it it reminded me, it hearkened me back to when Destiny was just the big looter shooter, right? the The one that was most successful and it was just laying the gri the framework for how other looter shooters should kind of ah do things.

00:35:19.52
Tony Sisk
And but ah to kind of get this feeling in this Borderlands game, I was like, This feels really good. This feels like way better than just the bullet sponge bosses that you had in the past.

00:35:33.96
Tony Sisk
So I really enjoyed it. And the graphics and and the graphics are great. you know It still has that cell shaded look to it. But I think it's using like one of new Unreal Engine's

00:35:47.59
Jaime G 
It's changed, man. I remember in the very first Borderland, I remember like literally walking up and things started like appearing because of like, you know, the processing ability.

00:35:56.97
Tony Sisk
Yeah, right. But this this looks it looks fantastic.

00:35:59.44
Jaime G 
Now you can clearly see like way into the distance.

00:36:02.42
Tony Sisk
It looks fantastic. um

00:36:03.84
Jaime G 
right

00:36:05.53
Tony Sisk
ah The colors really pop out. just that The environment just really pops out. um Lots of different types of enemies. um I mean, it's an open world, too. Another thing, I mean...

00:36:18.67
Tony Sisk
like it's ah you know It's kind of like an Assassin's Creed you know open world where you just there's just stuff to do everywhere. right You just go and do it. right and You travel there. You fast travel there. It's not instanced.

00:36:34.46
Tony Sisk
it's not like instanced Right. You just go in and ah you you're there. I mean, obviously in a boss battle, there's like that loading section probably if I remember right. But, um, for the most part, it's just an open world, which is, it has a great feel to it.

00:36:51.83
Tony Sisk
Um,

00:36:53.99
Tony Sisk
I'm really enjoying it. I'm like, i was surprised. up um um I really did not have that high of expectations for it because it seemed to kind of drop out of nowhere over the last couple of months. You know, hey, Borderlands 4 is dropping.

00:37:11.64
Tony Sisk
Oh, okay. I didn't even know that it was dropping this year. Okay. And so I'm thinking, okay, this is just a cash grab. It's probably not... going to even live up to three, even though three wasn't that great.

00:37:24.67
Tony Sisk
ah But no, it's great. I mean, I think the only issues that it's had is on PC.

00:37:29.97
Jaime G 
Well,

00:37:32.82
Tony Sisk
It's got some performance issues on PC. ah

00:37:35.92
Jaime G 
exactly.

00:37:36.74
Tony Sisk
and that's where And that's where all the criticism is going to come from.

00:37:36.96
Jaime G 
I was going to say that ran Randy,

00:37:39.98
Tony Sisk
It's on PC. See, the PC ah pet ah folks are all going to, you know, oh review bomb it, you know, because it doesn't, you know, they get particular about that sort of stuff.

00:37:41.52
Jaime G 
yeah.

00:37:53.43
Tony Sisk
They're going to review bomb it because it's not working on PC great. um on On PlayStation, it looks pretty good.

00:37:58.83
Jaime G 
Well, but yes.

00:38:00.12
Tony Sisk
um There are some frame... Right when I started the game, ah and yeah I was like driving on a road with in my vehicle, there was like some stuttering at one point.

00:38:12.44
Tony Sisk
But outside of that, the performance has been pretty solid. I haven't really noticed much else. The movement... don't want to talk about the movement. I will say, when I started the game and started playing...

00:38:26.97
Tony Sisk
It's like maybe it's because I haven't played a borderline game Borderlands game in a while. But the movement felt kind of clunky, right? I'm like, okay, I feel like I got cement shoes on.

00:38:39.12
Tony Sisk
But then but kind of goes through a tutorial and you gain some stuff. movement wise. And now the movement, I can tell it's getting better too.

00:38:51.30
Tony Sisk
It's a lot more fluid. It's like what you were talking about with Silksong, where you can, you have a lot more freedom in your movement. There's a grappling hook. There's kind of like a jet pack.

00:39:04.94
Tony Sisk
it's not really a jet pack. Like it won't go up, but it helps you glide across. So you can jump up and then hit it and it will, you'll soar across the room basically. So you have a lot more maneuverability other than just running and jumping.

00:39:19.51
Tony Sisk
So I like the movement in it. um But yeah, I think, I think it's, it's, I think it's going to draw a lot of players to it who've been looking for a good looter shooter to play.

00:39:34.27
Tony Sisk
So, you know, it's good to have Borderlands kind of back in form. so That's my opinion. it's i think

00:39:43.52
Jaime G 
Yeah.

00:39:44.11
Tony Sisk
I think right now it's hitting the 8s as far as review. I think that's right. i feel that's right. um I'm not going to say it's ah nine into a until I experience more of the game, and then I'll tell you. But I think an 8 out of the gate, you know regardless of what the PC folks say, is pretty good.

00:40:04.76
Tony Sisk
I think it's worth playing for sure.

00:40:09.27
Jaime G 
Okay, so so here is where I wanted to to spend a little bit of time, if you if you'll give me the opportunity, to talk about Borderlands 4 and Silksong.

00:40:22.64
Jaime G 
how I said earlier that Silksong took six years of development. Guess what? Borderlands 4 also took six years in development from from what you know people close to the game and the development cycle have have you know let out.

00:40:32.22
Tony Sisk
Mm-hmm.

00:40:42.13
Jaime G 
Although Borderlands 4 was announced in Gamescon last year in 2024 where they just showed like the preview of like the psychopath picking up one of the masks. um So You had like one year of knowing it was coming out and then it released.

00:40:56.85
Jaime G 
So song you knew that it was coming for many years and then finally it released. But let's look at let's look at the the the the path here, right? You have two games. I'm going to say one's an indie game. One's a well-established franchise, highly recognized, right?

00:41:12.48
Jaime G 
um If I go look at Steam, and again, maybe Steam's not the best indicator, but it's the indicator I have access to. um Borderlands 4 on Steam has peaked at 302,000 players.

00:41:31.72
Jaime G 
Okay, so at any given time, that's the number players that peaked. um There's 206,000 playing it right now, whereas Hollow Knight Silksong, it peaked at 462,000 players.

00:41:46.95
Jaime G 
So, or I mean, right away, that tells me that there's been a lot more people, at least on Steam, that you know decided to vote with their wallet towards Silksong.

00:41:59.42
Jaime G 
And again, I get it. It's cheaper, but it's not a bad game. but So it's interesting to me that we see two games and then remember that even Randy Pitchford a couple of months ago put out some controversial statements about like, well, this game is going to be expensive, so boo-hoo, fork it up and and just pay.

00:42:19.41
Tony Sisk
Right, yeah.

00:42:21.72
Jaime G 
Right. I mean, I'm probably paraphrasing and saying things out of context, but he came out and said some statements like that. And now you have this this little game that could. Right. And so I'm interested again.

00:42:34.83
Jaime G 
I really think probably Borderlands 4 is going to have a longer life cycle. And as far as development, they're probably going to release new Vault Hunters in the future.

00:42:47.25
Jaime G 
It's a multiplayer game. It's got all of these things going for it. But I think there's we should learn some lessons about Silksong that came out with a pretty impressive good game.

00:43:00.39
Jaime G 
um I mean, right now, I think it's already blowing out the Prince of Persia sales numbers out of the water, right?

00:43:05.15
Tony Sisk
Mm-hmm.

00:43:06.52
Jaime G 
And it's also a Metroidvania platformer. Different art style, different direction, you name it, whatever. But still, there's, there's a lesson to be learned here. Like how profitable can you be by putting out a game that's much cheaper than what the industry average is?

00:43:23.29
Jaime G 
Cause I really think that if so song had dropped at the same price entry price point as borderlands, it would have not, I mean, it's, I would have paid for it. I'm a fan of it.

00:43:35.15
Jaime G 
I just don't think a lot of people would have. Right. So again,

00:43:38.66
Tony Sisk
i would I would find it hard to believe people would be dropping $60 plus on the Silk Song.

00:43:47.20
Jaime G 
Yeah.

00:43:48.57
Tony Sisk
ah Especially, like, I think PC players in particular are notorious for their, you know, you got to give me a deal approach to gaming, right?

00:43:48.86
Jaime G 
Yeah. Well, I mean, that's i'm saying I would, I would have from a fan. Yeah.

00:44:02.97
Tony Sisk
Like, they're going to wait until it's four, you know, there's a few bucks in a Steam sale somewhere or part of a Humble Bundle one of the other numerous ah Steam or software sites that will throw the keys out there for

00:44:12.02
Jaime G 
Yeah.

00:44:23.25
Jaime G 
Right.

00:44:26.36
Tony Sisk
cheaper than retail. So, I mean, that's just part of the process.

00:44:28.87
Jaime G 
Yeah.

00:44:33.45
Tony Sisk
gamer segment of gamers. Yeah.

00:44:41.19
Jaime G 
but if you but But think about this this other aspect. like I said right now, I'm going to round up here some numbers, okay? Hello Night Silksong, 460,000 versus

00:44:53.51
Jaime G 
$302,000 on Borderlands 4. Borderlands 4 is worth four, you have to pay four times as much as the price for Silk Song.

00:45:01.85
Tony Sisk
Mm-hmm.

00:45:04.79
Tony Sisk
right but thought the development is going to be way more this is coming from an ea uh gearbox or under ea or something right or 2k no it's not is he i don't know the producer

00:45:05.37
Jaime G 
So it's making four times as much more money. Okay, that's one thing. But which one? Yeah.

00:45:16.69
Jaime G 
yeah so so so which one of these two will probably be more profitable at the end

00:45:27.88
Tony Sisk
um man that's hard to say that's hard to say um

00:45:34.24
Tony Sisk
I think that

00:45:37.82
Tony Sisk
with Silksong, you're going Silksong, you have a fan base built in fan base from Hollow Knight.

00:45:45.85
Jaime G 
yeah

00:45:46.13
Tony Sisk
Borderlands also has a built in fan base. Um, but right.

00:45:51.79
Jaime G 
Much better established fan base with Borderlands for sure.

00:45:54.49
Tony Sisk
Um, I think, i think, i think that even at the $20 mark, um,

00:45:58.38
Jaime G 
just Just not enough of a...

00:46:03.98
Tony Sisk
yeah know You and I are in agreement. That's a good price. um that That is ah great price for your fanatics of the game.

00:46:08.70
Jaime G 
It's totally...

00:46:15.06
Tony Sisk
right Because like people like yourself who looked forward to this game coming. I think after you pass this initial wave fandom, which is, what did you say, $400,000?

00:46:25.96
Tony Sisk
I think that that's your hardcore Hollow Knight players.

00:46:31.74
Jaime G 
that That's going to be your your early adopters, your ride or die, guys.

00:46:33.88
Tony Sisk
Right. Right. I think there will be a, there will be a drop off though, after that, after that.

00:46:35.86
Jaime G 
yeah

00:46:40.61
Tony Sisk
And I think people, it's going to fall into that. Okay. $20 range. All right. I want to wait till it's five bucks or seven 99 or something, whatever.

00:46:49.70
Jaime G 
Right.

00:46:50.28
Tony Sisk
So I think there's going to be a drop off because people are going to be in this, you know,

00:47:00.88
Tony Sisk
sad i don't want to spend even 20 bucks. I want it at the cheapest I can get it. And it's a PC game.

00:47:07.04
Jaime G 
I want it for five bucks.

00:47:07.38
Tony Sisk
It's a PC game. It's a hollow night game. Hollow night's been on sale, you know, every other month for seven 99. That's what I expect. So it's going to be right. So I think, I think, I think they got their fingers crossed for a million at 20, a million marks a successful game.

00:47:16.30
Jaime G 
Yeah. Yeah.

00:47:27.01
Tony Sisk
right financially, ah successfully.

00:47:29.80
Jaime G 
ah huh.

00:47:29.81
Tony Sisk
So they got their fingers crossed that they can hit a million at 20.

00:47:34.95
Jaime G 
I mean, um Expedition 33 has come out and said that they finally sold 4.4 million.

00:47:42.12
Tony Sisk
Super successful at 49.

00:47:44.90
Jaime G 
Yeah.

00:47:46.87
Tony Sisk
Right?

00:47:47.69
Jaime G 
At 49, again, not at full.

00:47:47.95
Tony Sisk
At 49. Right, at 49.

00:47:50.43
Jaime G 
Yeah.

00:47:51.11
Tony Sisk
Borderlands, Borderlands has to hit

00:47:56.68
Tony Sisk
It's got to hit, I would say If it doesn't hit 4 million, like The 4 million mark, I would say It's a good benchmark for Borderlands Because it's on multiple platforms Right, so You should be PC buyers Xbox buyers, Playstation 4 million is the minimum To mark it as successful At that price range of 60 Just to make your money back Um

00:48:07.15
Jaime G 
Yes.

00:48:19.56
Jaime G 
Yeah. Now.

00:48:25.61
Jaime G 
so so So here's what I think and and all you that you would but in what you just said.

00:48:32.35
Jaime G 
Silksong, that $460,000,

00:48:36.95
Jaime G 
that's that's I agree. That's your you fan base like me that's been waiting for six years for this game. And that the sales numbers, I think at that price point, they're going to you're not going to see too much adoption.

00:48:55.53
Jaime G 
On the flip side, Borderlines, I argue that...

00:49:02.18
Jaime G 
ah i I always try to buy games never at full price. I try to. ah I don't always stick to that, but this is one of those that I'm going to wait for.

00:49:14.58
Jaime G 
And if I probably wait two months for it, Tony, I bet you it's going to have a an increase of players because at some point, let's say Black Friday-ish time frame, it's going to be on sale for like 30, 35 bucks.

00:49:30.23
Jaime G 
that's my That's my prediction. And at that point, this 302,000 number we're seeing is probably gonna double because now you're getting it at a half price.

00:49:41.35
Tony Sisk
Right I don't know i don't I don't know we're going to see a deal Because it's been like Two years now in a row ah know last year for sure if you look at Call of Duty We never got a deal on Call of Duty last year.

00:49:57.34
Tony Sisk
It never went on sale.

00:50:01.08
Jaime G 
It did.

00:50:02.34
Tony Sisk
You used to be able to get Call of Duty for $29 during Black Friday. not Not last year you couldn't. Because I waited. That's why I never bought it.

00:50:14.22
Tony Sisk
Because I was playing it Game Pass.

00:50:15.79
Jaime G 
and we're not It went on sale, man.

00:50:16.69
Tony Sisk
never No. No, I never hit that poor that price point. Because we talked about it. We had an episode about It's like they have not offered a sale on Call Duty during the Black Friday period.

00:50:23.74
Jaime G 
ah

00:50:29.32
Jaime G 
That's right. Not on Black Friday, but they did for for like ah Christmas.

00:50:35.47
Tony Sisk
right. So I don't know. I mean, I i think ah I think they're reluctant to drop the prices. Unless your game is just horrible, like. ah Or horribly received.

00:50:49.12
Tony Sisk
What was that one that that came out last November?

00:50:50.51
Jaime G 
unless your game sucks

00:50:52.53
Tony Sisk
Dragon Age. Horrible rec ah reception because there was too much too many controversial things going on in that game. It turned the gamers off.

00:51:03.32
Tony Sisk
It turned away your core gamers, the the people that were interested in buying the game. you just you You lost the trust in those gamers. So that'd be like, you like we said, the Silk Song, you know, 400,000, that's your hardcore.

00:51:15.17
Jaime G 
yeah

00:51:19.90
Tony Sisk
Could you imagine if they did something that that anger deck game group right out of the gate and they lost that it that's all their sales are gone which is what happened to dragon age

00:51:31.21
Jaime G 
Right.

00:51:34.25
Tony Sisk
um so i think i think borderland is going to be uh fun i think they're going to be successful they're going to financial numbers for sure just because you make a good game That helps.

00:51:48.38
Tony Sisk
Remember the game we tried to play? The DC game?

00:51:49.85
Jaime G 
Well, and I mean.

00:51:51.22
Tony Sisk
What was it? ah

00:51:53.97
Jaime G 
Oh, dude, ah Suicide Squad.

00:51:55.54
Tony Sisk
suka that's ah That was a looter shooter. That was a looter shooter.

00:51:59.49
Jaime G 
That.

00:51:59.83
Tony Sisk
How many people was playing that game?

00:52:01.32
Jaime G 
And

00:52:01.39
Tony Sisk
Like 300 people?

00:52:04.40
Jaime G 
dude, I remember hyping that game up saying Rocksteady knows what they're doing. Dude, I couldn't play it past the tutorial. It was that bad.

00:52:13.34
Tony Sisk
Yeah, the tutorial was awful. It was awful.

00:52:17.05
Jaime G 
Yeah.

00:52:17.30
Tony Sisk
um Yeah. So, I mean, the number you gave me, what was The number you gave me for Borderlands? That...

00:52:26.98
Jaime G 
it was It was like 500 at one point, and and and I was like, dude, this is this game's dead.

00:52:31.78
Tony Sisk
Oh, for DC. But I was talking about for Borderlands 4. So...

00:52:35.83
Jaime G 
oh for Borderlands,

00:52:40.51
Tony Sisk
so I mean, yeah, that's that's pretty good. Yeah.

00:52:48.62
Tony Sisk
But, yeah, that's pretty good.

00:52:50.14
Jaime G 
it's it's actually pretty good really for for for its genre

00:52:52.16
Tony Sisk
That's pretty good. um

00:52:55.99
Tony Sisk
I think that number, I mean, may not grow, but it's going to steady. There's going to be a lot. It's a game that I want to go back and play.

00:53:01.12
Jaime G 
All right.

00:53:03.02
Tony Sisk
know saying? Like, I want to go play it.

00:53:04.43
Jaime G 
right so 302,000, right?

00:53:07.64
Tony Sisk
Mm-hmm.

00:53:08.56
Jaime G 
Suicide squad of 30 minutes ago. Yeah. thirteen thousand four hundred

00:53:16.31
Tony Sisk
Crazy.

00:53:17.14
Jaime G 
there's actually still a hundred and seventy six people playing it as a

00:53:20.20
Tony Sisk
What's so crazy is Suicide Squad had a great idea with its characters of what they wanted to do.

00:53:21.40
Jaime G 
thirty minutes ago

00:53:28.38
Tony Sisk
Like, they wanted to introduce, you know, the drip of new characters that should go play this game.

00:53:29.68
Jaime G 
yeah

00:53:35.64
Tony Sisk
But just... ah

00:53:40.31
Tony Sisk
I don't know what it was. I mean, we couldn't get past the tutorial because it was so bad. like The characters might have been great, but just to see this from presentation from a major studio that's had success from the past, I don't know what happened.

00:53:57.05
Tony Sisk
like They have a new game director or something? I don't know. Borderlands... Strong strong game you want to play it as a solo you can play it solo and enjoy the game ah the story You can um and and just experience it as a solo player and then you want to you could drop into a co-op game once you've leveled up don't have to worry about the leveling system at that point.

00:54:21.43
Tony Sisk
That's In how that works. I think that's a little bit of a drawback like I talked about I don't know if we were started recording or not, but I think that uh This game save only it works for the player that's hosting the co-op match. So I'm like...

00:54:38.26
Jaime G 
So, if you want to play looter shooter, Borderlands gets a thumbs up from Tony. I'm going to go back to Silksong because that's kind of where I've been spending my time in the last week.

00:54:51.22
Jaime G 
If you want to play a metroidvania that is challenging but rewarding at the same time, Silksong is the way to go. You know, two different options that we've been able to talk about and review for this episode.

00:55:04.92
Jaime G 
don't know. You know, listeners, what are you guys playing then? I'd love to hear if people get behind Tony and say, yeah, this is Borderlands 4 is back in peak shape.

00:55:15.48
Jaime G 
Or, hey, Silksong is a little bit too hard for me.

00:55:20.45
Tony Sisk
Yeah. I mean, I'm i'm intrigued so with Silksong. I might go ahead pull the trigger on the $20. Oh, maybe rest should wait until it goes on sale.

00:55:32.09
Jaime G 
Oh, ye true PC gamer.

00:55:37.80
Tony Sisk
Right? But anyway. ah Yeah, so anyway. Boy, we have a lot of new games coming. I went and looked... ah For this remainder of September.

00:55:52.12
Jaime G 
Did it not feel like the get like the year started off pretty weak and bleak? It didn't have like a good, you know, vision for the future?

00:56:01.77
Tony Sisk
Right. Let me pull up our video game releases for September. And right now, we it is the 15th.

00:56:14.76
Tony Sisk
So we have, what do we got coming up for the remainder of the month? We've got Lego, Voyagers, Voyagers, and Nero. I'm looking for something major here. Frostbunk 2.

00:56:25.27
Tony Sisk
I'm sure there's a segment of ah players that's interested in that.

00:56:27.64
Jaime G 
But, I mean, if you look at just just slightly into the month of October, you're getting Ghost of Yotei. I'm probably mispronouncing it.

00:56:38.91
Tony Sisk
Mm-hmm.

00:56:39.34
Jaime G 
You're getting Little Nightmares 3. I think you're getting one of the next Pokemon entries. I think we have a good slew of games ahead of us.

00:56:51.35
Tony Sisk
right Yep. I mean, on the 19th, which is only four days away, we have Dying Light the Beast. ah So Dying Light's a good franchise.

00:57:05.66
Jaime G 
It is. Downlight 2 was an amazing game.

00:57:08.44
Tony Sisk
Right. We have Silent Hill F on the 25th. Let's see.

00:57:15.96
Jaime G 
Eh, meh.

00:57:17.70
Tony Sisk
let's

00:57:18.79
Jaime G 
it's not so It's not a Silent Hill game if it's not located in Silent Hill. I'm sorry.

00:57:23.05
Tony Sisk
That's true. So, yeah. But like you said. Oh, Borderlands 4 on the Switch 2 on October 3rd. Uh-huh.

00:57:37.42
Tony Sisk
The new Switch owner.

00:57:42.18
Tony Sisk
But Ghost of Yotai on the 2nd. I have taken a vacation day for that.

00:57:47.18
Jaime G 
Yes.

00:57:48.41
Tony Sisk
So I will be playing that, uh, battlefield six on October 10th. I'll probably be taking a vacation day. too

00:57:58.69
Jaime G 
That is one that I'm looking forward to after we spoke about it.

00:58:00.40
Tony Sisk
But, well, yeah. So we've got ghost of Yote, uh, battlefield six. That's the first 10 days of the month of October. Ninja gain four on October 21st. I'm actually interested in that.

00:58:17.53
Tony Sisk
Uh,

00:58:18.24
Jaime G 
I'm actually interested in that too.

00:58:21.56
Tony Sisk
Persona 3 Reload on the Switch 2. That game's been out on other platforms.

00:58:26.00
Jaime G 
yeah

00:58:28.42
Jaime G 
Actually, after Persona 5, I've not been interested in the remakes that they've done. like They did like this whole reload edition for ah for for Persona 3.

00:58:41.33
Jaime G 
I'm not going to go back and play those because, again, I think I hit i entered at the point where

00:58:44.44
Tony Sisk
Mm-hmm.

00:58:48.83
Jaime G 
I don't want to risk going back and being disappointed because of how good Persona 5 was.

00:58:52.04
Tony Sisk
right so So October 29th The Outer Worlds 2 Releases on PC, Xbox And PS5 Interesting Interesting This is an Xbox Studio game Releasing on Playstation The same day as it releases on Xbox Xbox has now become A third party publisher

00:59:07.12
Jaime G 
What? PS5. Yeah.

00:59:13.79
Jaime G 
yeah

00:59:18.38
Jaime G 
And

00:59:22.89
Jaime G 
Isn't this also a game that they're expecting to like launch for like 80 bucks?

00:59:26.86
Tony Sisk
Yes.

00:59:28.63
Jaime G 
80.

00:59:29.28
Tony Sisk
this is this is This is a ah franchise that...

00:59:34.08
Jaime G 
That's a risk, my friend.

00:59:34.43
Tony Sisk
this is a front now I mean, i think I think there's going to be a lot of buyers for this game. I think so. I actually am looking forward to this game. I don't know if I want to spend $80 it.

00:59:48.83
Tony Sisk
since i have an xbox i could just play it day one on xbox but but the fact that it's dropping day one on playstation significantly changes the landscape the gaming landscape xbox has foregone all exclusivity for itself is now putting first

01:00:06.12
Jaime G 
Yes.

01:00:11.47
Jaime G 
Xbox is out of the console system, man. They're a publisher. I mean, even the Xbox Rogue Ally, it's not even their own hardware anymore.

01:00:19.24
Tony Sisk
Yeah.

01:00:21.85
Jaime G 
They're out.

01:00:23.88
Tony Sisk
So, yeah.

01:00:25.45
Jaime G 
But I do feel that that somebody needs to come in and and take their place. like the The gaming industry is better when there's three major publishers. not when there's two.

01:00:36.92
Tony Sisk
Right.

01:00:39.37
Tony Sisk
Telling you what, man, it won't be long. It won't be long until PlayStation is going to start dropping this stuff on day one on Xbox. Maybe. I mean, that's kind of a core thing for them, though, is the exclusive period.

01:00:55.80
Tony Sisk
They still have the six-month exclusive period on PC, or is it a year?

01:00:56.44
Jaime G 
ah ah

01:00:59.88
Tony Sisk
Okay.

01:01:03.61
Jaime G 
I thought it was a year.

01:01:07.00
Tony Sisk
I don't see PlayStation even adding up, though.

01:01:08.45
Jaime G 
And by the way, if you wait even a ah month further, Metroid Prime 4 will be releasing this year.

01:01:20.59
Jaime G 
And it was announced during the like the Nintendo event that happened a couple weeks ago.

01:01:24.28
Tony Sisk
Oh, December 4th.

01:01:27.30
Jaime G 
Yeah. And they also announced they did a teaser for the next Mario Bros. movie, which is going to be Super Mario Bros. Galaxy.

01:01:37.86
Tony Sisk
Yep.

01:01:40.18
Tony Sisk
Oh, yeah.

01:01:40.29
Jaime G 
tell lots thing get coming

01:01:40.61
Tony Sisk
There's a lot of games dropping. Lots of games. oh Cool. Oh, and on a side note, I bought a new board game today.

01:01:52.05
Tony Sisk
ha, ha.

01:01:56.99
Jaime G 
we're we're already struggling to find time to play what we have man

01:01:59.48
Tony Sisk
ah Right. I couldn't help myself. So I went to Gen Con, you know, back in the end of July, or beginning of August with ah my buddy Danny. And one of the games I had my eye out for was called Lord of the Rings Fate of the Fellowship.

01:02:08.92
Jaime G 
yeah

01:02:17.10
Tony Sisk
And it's a cooperative board game where you You maneuver the fellowship toward, you know, Mount Doom and trying to throw the ring in there and destroy Sauron and all these evil forces, whatever.

01:02:31.16
Tony Sisk
So they've made this game.

01:02:34.57
Tony Sisk
and And it's got some epic, like, Nazgul miniatures on these, like, little poles. You put on the game board, they're like acrylic stands.

01:02:44.26
Jaime G 
Yeah,

01:02:46.91
Tony Sisk
So you have these like flying Nazgul that you can put out on the board. And there's a i I don't remember call it, the Eye of Doom or whatever it is, Sauron's Eye, you know at the big tower with the red eye.

01:02:59.78
Tony Sisk
Yeah, it's got that.

01:03:00.03
Jaime G 
yeah, yeah. yeah

01:03:00.62
Tony Sisk
you yeah Yeah, you build it out, right?

01:03:01.33
Jaime G 
It looks like like the AT&T building in Nashville.

01:03:03.52
Tony Sisk
So you you build that, you put it on one end of the board over there by Mordor. So um it's a sweet looking game. And when we were at Gen Con, we saw them demoing the game, but it was not available for sale to the general public.

01:03:21.09
Tony Sisk
And they had... ah very few copies on hand that they did. I think they did sell a few copies, but not many. So by the time we got there, they were obviously sold out.

01:03:31.86
Jaime G 
Yeah.

01:03:34.50
Tony Sisk
But I was like, man, ah I can't wait till that game comes out. That is definitely on my radar. Well, the game wasn't, the release date for this game is not like till like later, like in October or something.

01:03:48.04
Tony Sisk
I thought I went to the best, but I went to Barnes and Noble today.

01:03:50.39
Jaime G 
yeah

01:03:53.41
Tony Sisk
I walked in the Barnes & Noble with Amy. She went to the cookbook section. I went to the board game section. and And I'm just casually looking through the board game section. And I look down and I see Lord of the Rings.

01:04:05.58
Tony Sisk
I'm like, Lord of the Rings?

01:04:06.88
Jaime G 
And there it is.

01:04:08.84
Tony Sisk
I'm like, which one is this? And I look, because there's lots of Lord the Rings games. And I pull it off the shelf. It's kind of tucked underneath the bottom shelf. I'm like, I pull it out. And it says, Lord the Rings, Fate of the Fellowship. I'm like,

01:04:23.03
Tony Sisk
No way. I'm like, this game is not even, you can't even get this game right now. I'm like, of course, it cost me 90 bucks.

01:04:29.49
Jaime G 
yeah

01:04:34.17
Tony Sisk
But i immediately bought it. Amy's like, you're buying that? I'm like yep.

01:04:38.83
Jaime G 
A true fan.

01:04:39.47
Tony Sisk
I am definitely bought it. And so I held it up. We took a picture me holding it up and I sent it to my friend Danny. He's he's like, because we're playing this Saturday. He's like, look at what game we're going to be playing on Saturday.

01:04:52.14
Tony Sisk
So. Yes. I can't wait. It's exciting. It looks great.

01:04:58.03
Jaime G 
Well, hey, there's something else. There's something that I almost forgot to bring up. And it's kind of silly, but I'm still going to mention it. is that I recently, ah you know how they released the PlayStation 5 Astro Bot PS5 controller, which is kind of like super hard to come by?

01:05:21.35
Tony Sisk
Hmm.

01:05:23.41
Jaime G 
I got Uh-huh.

01:05:24.84
Tony Sisk
Oh, really?

01:05:27.10
Jaime G 
ah

01:05:28.12
Tony Sisk
Nice.

01:05:29.61
Jaime G 
And um well, I shouldn't say I got one. It's in my house, but it's, it was a, it was a gift for my son. Somebody realized, one of my family members realized that he's a big fan and they're like, oh, let me get, get him this.

01:05:48.20
Jaime G 
And and I was like, yo, this, this is kind of expensive because people are reselling it. Oh no, no, it's fine. I'll get it for him. And then they're like, yo, it was pretty expensive. Like I told you,

01:05:58.35
Tony Sisk
Right.

01:06:01.90
Jaime G 
So I have one and I was like, yo, this is awesome. And Felix is like, no dad, that's mine.

01:06:11.98
Jaime G 
So what I'm saying. There's one in my household.

01:06:14.62
Tony Sisk
Cool. All right. All right. Well, that's it for tonight. want to thank everybody for continuing, continuing to listen to the podcast.

01:06:26.47
Tony Sisk
uh, be sure to, like, subscribe to us, follow us, uh, if you're new to the podcast or you haven't already done so, you know, um, we have a 150 episode catalog you can go back and listen to and, um, you know, get caught up on the show. We've,

01:06:46.13
Tony Sisk
We've been around for like five years now. And yeah, right.

01:06:50.62
Jaime G 
Holy smokes.

01:06:51.31
Tony Sisk
Five years and we're, we're still going. ah So we really appreciate everybody that listens and, you know, give us a follow and we'll continue to bring, you know, more great episodes.

01:07:09.98
Tony Sisk
All right. So Jaime, you have a great week ahead of you and I'll catch you week.

01:07:17.32
Tony Sisk
Yep.

01:07:17.49
Jaime G 
You too, my friend.

01:07:18.35
Tony Sisk
Talk to you later. Bye. right.

01:07:20.74
Jaime G 
See you guys.