PaxWest 2023 - Day 2 Impressions and Awards 2023

Sebastion: 00:00:01

What's up and welcome to the single player experience.

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The only podcast that has

a power level over 9, 000.

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In a recent episode of the single player

experience podcast, I talked about the

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best games that I played on my first

day at PAX and I gave my day one awards.

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We talked about indies like 30XX,

Chicken Police, and Los Idolos.

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We also talked about the AAA

games that I played like Tekken 8

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what?

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, Sebastion: Prince of Persia,

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what?

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Sebastion: Persona 5 Tactica,

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what?

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Sebastion: Super Mario Brothers Wonder.

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what?

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Sebastion: And, Grand Blue Fantasy Relink.

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what?

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Sebastion: Now, before we close that

episode, I gave my Day 1 MVP award.

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In this episode, I'm gonna

do the same thing with the

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games that I played on Day 2.

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And, I'm gonna tell you about one

of my experiences that I had at PAX.

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So, without further ado, let's get to it.

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so, the first award of the day

is my most unique game award.

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This is pretty self explanatory, it's

going to the most unique game that

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I saw during day one of PAX West.

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So, the winner of this award has to go

to one of the most unique games that

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I've ever seen in my entire life, and

that's Chicken Police Into the Hive.

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Now, before I talk about the Day 2

games, I want to tell you about something

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that I experienced, a little story that

happened while I was playing Tekken 8.

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It all started with me playing a

couple of rounds against the computer.

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The convention hall was a bit empty

this early in the AM, so it was only

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a few of us at different stations.

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Anyways, playing the game was a bit of

a learning curve for me, or should I

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say a reintroduction because I hadn't

played Tekken in a very long time.

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The last time I can remember playing

Tekken was around the days Nelly

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dropped Rai with me and back when

Toonami had must see TV after

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school with Dragon Ball, Dragon

Ball Z, and of course Yu Yu Hakusho.

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Anyways, it took me a couple rounds

but I felt like I was starting to

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get the hang of the controls and

how to do the most basic combos.

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Shortly afterwards, a guy walks up to the

station and asks if I wanted to run one.

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I was a bit nervous to play against

someone considering that I'm

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basically a scrub at the game, but

my ego wouldn't let me back down.

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I looked around and saw that a

crowd of people were starting to

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show up to check out the game.

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The GME did not want to look bad in

front of these people, who probably

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were clearly in their own world, minding

their own business, but that's not the

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narrative that was in my head though.

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So, the guy and I played around,

and wouldn't you know it, He

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was more trash than I was.

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So, I beat him down quickly.

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Then, another guy comes up

to me and says, I got next.

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Again, I was worried because I couldn't

look like a coward in front of all

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these people in line to play the game.

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Keep in mind though, keep this

in mind everybody, they probably

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weren't paying any attention to me.

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These are all things that were going on

in my head, just narratives I made up.

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So the second guy was a tougher

fight, but I narrowly beat him.

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Instead of leaving just like the

first guy did though, he looked at me,

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dead ass in my eyes, and said, I got

somebody for you, right, right here.

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The second guy goes to his

friends in line and points me out.

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I came front with you, now I'm

really low key nervous for real.

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Growing up when somebody said, I got

somebody or something for you, it

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usually was an indicator that they

were coming back with something or

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someone that was gonna beat yo ass.

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One of his friends that was wearing a

DX shirt, who happened to be next in

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line, came up to me, skipping several

empty stations in the process by the

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way, and said, you ain't getting me

like you got my friend over there.

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With that said, we picked our characters.

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I picked Law, and he picked Paul.

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We got into it.

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He absolutely mowed me down

in the first round in seconds.

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Now, round 2 started.

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I barely managed to pull it out.

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Round 3.

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It was kind of a back and forth affair.

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All the way until he got me down to

about 1 fourth of my health remaining.

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Then I panicked.

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I ain't gonna lie.

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I panicked and I spammed a move over

and over again until I got that dub.

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Yes, I know, that's like the worst

way to win in fighting games.

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But, I don't know, I ain't, I

ain't a fighting game person, man.

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I ain't played Tekken in a long time.

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I don't play nothing but Smash

Brothers, and that's occasionally.

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So, you know, I panicked, man.

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I panicked.

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But anyways, with all that panic, though,

my confidence was now through the roof.

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I done beat several opponents.

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So, anyways, the latest victim looked

at me and said, We got one more guy

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for you, and I bet you can't beat him.

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I looked at him, my channel in that

inner 90s kid in me, and that inner

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voice in me that I like to call my great

one voice, and I asked, What is the

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name of the guy you think can best me?

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He started saying, His name is

Rick, and I cut him off midway

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through in my rocky voice and said,

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Sebastion: It doesn't

matter what your name is.

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And then, for some reason, I

blinked out and thought I was The

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Rock and gave a really rock like

promo, and basically said this.

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What y'all don't realize is that

y'all are essentially bowling pins.

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Y'all are getting stacked up just

for me to come and lay the smackdown

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and knock each one of you down.

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First jabroni came before y'all got here.

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Got knocked down.

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The end.

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You and your posse came over

here strutting like Shane O'Mac

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in the Mean Street Posse and one

by one, y'all got knocked down.

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And now, you come before me saying that

there's a challenger that you prophesize

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can go one on one with the great one.

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Sounds to me like you lost your

mind, but let me humor you, point

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out this so called chosen one.

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And then the guy smiled really hard

and pointed at a guy who was really

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lowkey, like a teched cosplay player.

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I think that he was

dressed up as a character.

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Gian.

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I don't know.

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I ain't played ticket

in a long time anyways.

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Oh dude, look like he

was a pro at ticketing.

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If you cosplay as a character in a

video game, I'm just automatically gonna

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assume you a pro at that video game.

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I, you know, maybe you

trash, maybe you ain't.

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I'm automatically gonna assume that's,

that's you, and I don't want that smoke.

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Anyways.

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So I saw a boy dressed as a Tekken

character, and my overconfidence quickly

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melted away just as fast as it came.

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And I said, nah man, I'm good.

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I'm good.

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I don't really want the smoke.

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Next thing you know, the group

and I were laughing, talking

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about my Rock Like promo.

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By the way, as you could tell by the

DX shirt, they were all wrestling

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fans as well, and we were chopping

it up about Tekken for a bit.

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I bring this story up because I

thought you as the audience would

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enjoy it, and to say that if you ever

have an opportunity to attend PAX

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or another convention like it, then

you should definitely check it out.

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You see some cool stuff, meet some

people, and hopefully have a good time.

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I always seem to do all the above.

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Sebastion: Okay, so, story time

out of the way, let's get to our

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Day 2 Impressions and Awards.

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The first game I want to talk

about is the recipient of my Most

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Unique Game Award, and that is

Ebenezer and the Invisible World.

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It's a game by Orbit Studios.

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Okay, so here's my impression

after going hands on with the game.

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Ebenezer in the Invisible World is a

cool video game with a unique concept.

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The game is colorful, it's action

filled, it's a metroidvania that has

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really tight platforming elements.

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The game and the combat is

surprisingly layered and fun.

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There is plenty of weapons that you

can unlock, the platforming is precise

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with a little bit of a challenging

bite to it, the environment has some

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ghost and Halloween elements, and

of course, many Christmas themes.

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Amnesia and the Invisible World seems

like a cool addition to the sparse

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library of Christmas video games.

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I only got to play about a half hour of

the game, but it was enough to make me

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want to play more and look forward to

this game coming out this holiday season.

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Now let's pivot and talk about

some other cool games that I

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checked out at PAX West Day 2.

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The first one that I wanted to

talk about is First Dwarf, and here

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is their description of the game.

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First Dwarf is an immersive action

RPG with base building elements, which

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will test your survival and exploration

skills in a fantasy open world,

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sprawling on islands floating in the sky.

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I liked, I liked the swagger of like,

the team behind it because like, the

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project lead came up to me during our

press interview and he was just like,

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Hey, before you even play this game,

know that we were doing the Islands in

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the Sky before Tears of the Kingdom,

and he laughed it off, he was just

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like, you know, it was one of those

things to where we kind of laughed

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about it a little bit, but I like

that, I like the moxie on the guy.

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Anyways, let's talk about the game though.

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Here's my impressions after the demo.

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First Dwarf is a cool mixture

of a lot of different genres.

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It has some city building elements to it.

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It has some narrative beats.

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It has some combat.

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You go around mining materials,

constructing buildings for different

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purposes, and destroying enemy nests.

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I'll be real with you, combat

was probably the weakest point

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in the game for me personally.

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Instead of just spamming the attack

button, you have to attack within

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a very specific timed window.

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Kind of like the rhythm based thing

in Hi Fi Rush except like the window

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is more like a Small bar as opposed

to you trying to hit on beat but very

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similar kind of timing mechanic there

overall though Despite the fact that

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the combat may be one for me personally

I walked away thinking that I could

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drain a lot of hours playing first

dwarf especially with the construction

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and the building mechanics in this

game Next, I want to talk about Atari.

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Yes, that's right, the company

from back in the day, Atari.

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And I'm not just gonna talk about

a specific game they're doing.

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This is more of a roundup.

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I want to give a special shoutout to

Atari because I spoke with some of the

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leads from the company and their new

direction not only impressed me, but made

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me hopeful about Atari's comeback into

the mainstream popularity of video games.

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So, they are putting out new

versions of their classic

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console, the Atari 2600 Plus.

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Here are some of the

features of the new console.

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The Atari 2,600 plus is an updated

version of the classic Atari 2,600.

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It has been enhanced

in the following ways.

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It plays both Atari's 20

607,800 game cartridges.

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It has H D M I output, which makes

it easy to connect to probably

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all the TVs on the market today.

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It has wide screen mode.

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Enlarged cartridges, um, sockets

which reduce the sticking of the

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games when you pull them in and out.

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It also has the Atari logo that

lights up while it's being played.

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The system comes with the CX40 Plus

Joystick, which has been lovingly

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recreated to the same specifications

as the original, and it also has a 10

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in 1 game cartridge featuring some of

Atari's most famous games, like Adventure,

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Combat, Dodgem, Haunted House, Maze Craze,

Missile Command, Real Sports, Volleyball,

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Surround, Video Pinball, and Yars Revenge.

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Atari is also giving some indie

studios some of their IPs, some

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of their classic IPs to remake.

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I'm loving this new

direction of the company.

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Absolutely loving it.

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They're giving some upstart like indie

studios a fresh start and a chance to put

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their spank and spunk on classic games.

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They're also bringing in

retro consoles that can play.

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These modern day interpretation of these

games and some of the classic cartridges.

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I love that.

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I absolutely love it.

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It's the best of both worlds.

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And it's insanely nice to see this

historical company making a comeback.

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Now I want to talk about the MVP of

day two last, but not least the big

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daddy award, the MVP of the day,

and that MVP award has to go to the

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most addictive game that I played.

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All day of PAX Day 2 and that's

Zombie Rollers The Last Ship.

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This is a game that was made by Zing

Studios, a studio hounded by Ding Yi.

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With their latest game, they came

up with something that I've never

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seen before in a video game.

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Here's their description of this one.

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Take command of the last ship in

a zombie field world and defend

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against endless waves of the undead.

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Build Terence.

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Lead your crew and upgrade

your ship while gathering.

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Loot in this exciting tower.

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Defense on wheels.

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Zombie survival.

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Roguelike game, the fate of humanity.

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Rest in your hands.

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So that was their impre that was

their description of this game.

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Now, let's focus on my impression of it.

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I want to say that I never thought

I'd play a roguelike zombie game where

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you play as a tower defense on wheels.

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That is absolutely creative.

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I've seen zombie games left

and right over the years and so

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many different interpretations.

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You've seen games like Dead Island.

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You've seen games, um, very

similar to like The Last of Us.

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You've seen other games, all sorts of

different games in the zombie genre.

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It's, it's kind of an oversaturated

genre, if I'm being honest, but I've

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never seen a roguelike zombie game where

you play as a tower defense on wheels.

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That's a really cool,

interesting spin on this.

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After playing the game for an

extended period of time, I can

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say definitively that I did not

want to put the control down.

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I absolutely am salivating to

experience more of this game.

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You go around rolling in a mech

slash tank like, um, vehicle, and you

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take down as many zombies as you can

before they take down your vehicle.

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You have assigned crew members that

all have, like, their own roles

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within your, like, tower defense car,

and they all play different parts.

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And they also have their own life,

like, life bars, so you're trying to

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keep them alive as long as possible.

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possible as well as your whole vehicle

in each run you're going to earn loot and

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with that loot you can use that for like

updated weapons and getting your crew

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stronger so that you can go on longer and

longer runs you know if you've listened to

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this podcast before i am a absolute sucker

for a good roguelike game and this one

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has the makings of a must play absolutely

must play entry into the roguelike genre

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So, those are some of the games that

I played during PAX West Day 2, and I

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gotta say, I absolutely loved each, each

and every one of these games, you should

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definitely go wishlist them, check them

out, you know, see if they're for you,

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because like, I loved my time with each

and every one of them, shoutout to all

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these creators and everything doing

their thing at PAX West, they absolutely

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killed it, each one of them had passion,

and brought something different to the

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table, loved it, absolutely loved it.

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Let me know what you think of each one

of these games in the single player

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experience discord, or you can just

tell me in the review of this episode.

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Anyways, I've been Sebastian,

and let's kick it to the outro.

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Peace out, y'all.

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So that's a wrap for today's show.

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I wanna let you know about the single

player experience Discord server.

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It's the perfect place for single player

gamers to talk about the good single

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player games they've been playing lately,

and to get video game recommendations.

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Think of it kind of like a book

club for single player gamers.

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The link to join will

be in the description.

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Once you're in, feel free to share

your video game backlog list.

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Talk about the good games you've

been playing, or give your feedback

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on the show if you have a game that

you think should be recommended or

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that you think I should talk about.

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Let me know in the single Player

Experience Discord server.

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I'll see you there.

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Before we go, I just want to thank you

so much for listening to today's episode.

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Stay safe, stay gamming, and I

hope to catch you in the next one.

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Peace.

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