Final Thoughts and Game of Year

This episode is brought to you by Video Game Town, an independent website that strives to pay some of your favorite writers to build a new community for smart and fun daily gaming coverage. Check them out at Vide Game Town and on every social media platform. Experience hits technology with the new Pro X two Superstrike, the fastest mouse Logitech G has ever Head over to logitechg d. com to grab yours and start clicking faster than the competition. If you want to get our shows ad free and our exclusive shows, go to patreon. com slash kind of funny What's up and welcome back to the kind of Funny Games Cast for Friday, june nineteenth, twenty twenty six. Of course, I'm your host, Tim Gettyies. I'm joined today by Andy Cortez. Hello, Tim. Blessing Aioe junr. Good day Tim. And making a rare appearance on the Games Cast. Is Nick Scarpino. Happy Friday. Happy Friday to you too. Remember if you're watching live, be part of the show by super chatting on YouTube dot com slash kind of Funny Games And we couldn't do this without our producers on Patreon, Carl Jacobs, Omega Buster, Delany the Sum twwining and Lax Nomad Um, I was going to jump into the Let's get into the topic of the show M see Kvs here adjusted cameras. No, it's fine. It's fine. Just embarrassed out here. Kevin is. One man doing two man's job Sketon crew today. Skeleon crew for now Let's begin with There it is, there it is. It needs the graassics to everybody. It is James Bond, first light, final review. What does that mean? A couple of us already gave reviews back when the embargo dropped. I forgot who did that actually. They're all reviews in progress. Bar Everybody. Yeah. Yeah Bill Barryger gave aull review. and we had Jordan Midler who had finished. Exactly. That's right, That's right. But then Greg and you were still in progress. I had not even started yet, I don't think. Maybe I did. I don't remember. Doesn't matter. four of us have not given a score onn the kind of funny scale to James Bond first lightight. And that is what we're going to do today. The first half of the show, will'll be giving our final review, our thoughts on the game. and then after the ad break, we'll get into full spoiler mode so we can talk about any of the fun specific things that we might not want to ruin for people that haven't played yet. So without further ado We've already gotten a bit of blessing' thoughts in that first review. so let's start with Andy Cortez What would you give James Bond first light? on the kind of funny review scale I really, really enjoyed this experience One of those type of video games that you play and I know the pedigree of IO But I just I didn't know they had it like that Writing w I it. amazingly acted suuper well written fun It's it's what it needed to be and I wasn't sure they'd be able I knew they'd be able to pull it off gameplay wise. I wasn't sure about everything else Um, I would I would give Douple of seven first slide. A line ten on the kind of funny score. It's an amazing game for me Um it is going to be way up there in my sort of you know top ten of the year. Well we'll see what happens in September, but But it's going to be up there, man. I really I really dug this experience. I thought again, brilliantly acted James Bond was fantastic The uh couldould have done with a bit more improvisation and a bit more options when it comes to the actual sneaking and gadgetry and things like that, but I still think that You know, if this game didn't have like a compelling story and characters and plot and cool story beats and moments that I would have felt a bit lesser about it. but I and knocked it out of the park in that department. So awesome job, IO Bless. Yeah, during the review in progress, I think I said I was sitting around a nine point five or even a ten out of ten. I'm going to sell in on a nine point five out of ten. I agree. This game is amazing. I think there's Room for improvement, but not meaningful enough to wear I would look at this experience as not complete for me, right? I'm a big fan of IO. I'm a big fan of hitman. You know, I forget if I said this on the previous review, but you know, I kind of had a moment while playing where the way that I would compare it would be to say that You know, hitman for me is like dark chocolate where that is It'sired It's an acquired taste. It is for people who really love this genre of video game? It's a great. You know what I mean? But like doublez seven first slight for me is built chocolate. It is something that is a bit more easier to take in. You know, everybody loves milked chocolate, right? Eespecially you has their own favorite kind of milk chocolate But for me, this does it for me as far as what I'm looking for for this style of game is there, The action is there. The presentation is is great. The you know, like And you mentioned the story, the writing, all that stuff that I don't really associate with IO Interactive is done spectacularly in my opinion in this game and they also give you the moments, you know, there's we'll get into it during the spilercast, but there are moments even late in the game where I'm like, I wouldn't even have thought of this for a set set piece moment. but there's so much creativity here There been sort of like stealthy moments that Andy's talking about. I adore it as well. I love how much it feels like I am playing like a Deis X human Revolution or any other sort of immersive simim where I can kind of choose the way I want to tackle any situation. L it feels like the choice is there, even if sometimes it might be the illusion of choice No matter what, I feel like I am choosing how I'm solving this predicent that I'm in. And for me, that's one of the most satisfying feelings you can get in a video game. And so I absolutely love this. I'm excited to see hopefully them continue to figure out what more this version of Double seven looks like, because I think I think you have such a great foundation here Nick Scarpino, I loved this game I think for me, this is a perfect game, a near perfect game, I should say for me. I think it's a great combination of Uncharted meets hitman light which you know, I've had some issues with Hitman in the past as far as me being able to pay attention and really kind of have patience with that game. And in this one, I didn't need patience ninety nine percent of the time. You feel like you're in I think the highest mark for me of this game is that you feel like you're in a bond movie in a good boond movie And I think that this property is elevated and and I hate to compare it to it, right? But as a licensed property, sometimes you go in and you go, I don't think this is, you know Let's see if they can hit anywhere close to the mark of a good Bond movie. and I think they've gone beyond that. I think this is this needs this story needs to be counted amongst the top, I would say top fifteen, maybe top ten Bond stories of all time. just because it's so It pays homage to everything that came before it, but it feels new and it feels unique and it feels modern. And they've struggled with that so hard. boond in the past ten years of making it feel like it's something that's accessible to newer audiences and I think this absolutely nails it. I think it's beautiful. I think the acting is fantastic. The only thing that I would say counts a little bit against it, and we'll get into that is some of the license to kill missions, I think which just I don't like whenever I feel like I'm taken out of the story. And those I really felt like I was banging my head against the wall in certain circumstances. so that would make a little bit lower for me. But I would give this a nine out of ten That ssound amazing from Nick Scarpino. Before I get my thoughts on this, Nick, I want to double back to something you were just saying about this being top ten, top fifteen of James Bond stuff Um I'm not holding you to into the actual facts one hundred percent right here, but there's what? like twenty three movies twenty five, twenty sixost that point. Yeah we got I'd have to havef Google that. How many books are there? O, fewer. Oh fewer. Yeah, there's fewer than that. I think A lot of the a lot of the movies were based off of short stories or notot a lot a lot of the movies were based on full movies. But then full books rather, but then there was a couple short stories here and there that they they based them off of But yeah, there's far fewer books. Okay. So like top ten, topop fifteen doesn't sound that that high praise like Really think about it just a little harder like let's say topop ten. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. cool Top ten Bond stories. Yeah. I a lot less familiar overall with Bonond. I haven't seen every single one. I have seen a good amount, haven't read any of them, butve seen a good amount of the movies. I would put this very high for personally. Like I put this probably I think it's my favorite Bon thing. I'm not like I'm on the I'm also in the minority where I don't love Casino Royale, like everybody loves it. like I enjoyed it, but I wasn't like as high out. So this is probably like my favorite bnd thing legitimately. Yeah, it's debatably my number one. I think I think at the end of the day, I still put Skyfall above it just because I just really love Skyfall. But you know what?be maybe that's not even true because this is way more entertaining to me and this is a world that I want to see so much more of When we were doing our review in progress, I was saying that I was kind of around eight point five with the first six hours or so of the game, but the further I got into it, the higher it would get. and I was like, oh, wow, I think this is going to actually end up being a nine for me. Like this is an amazing game comoming out of it. It's a nine point five. I do think that this actually it As a full package really gave me everything I'm looking for with the Hitman light. I don't need Hitman to go too hard. I also get kind of frustrated with that stuff and I don't find joy from that. The more running gun justah, you brought up hotline Miami, which I think is such a great way to explain some of the license to kill stuff, the struggle of just keep moving, grab a gun, shoot people, run out of bullets, grab another gun, throw it at somebody J the frantic nature of it all feels like you're playing a James Bond movie with the action set pieces of he's just trying to survive. He's just trying to get through this and like it's a very different style than like a John Wick where it's like, oh, you're this utter fucking badass like that is going to destroy people. This is a bit more just like, is he going to survive this hallway as he runs on this boat or whatever it is? And they translate the feeling of watching the movies into gameplay so well And the acting is phenomenal. the the way that they present the game is very unique. And I think that to me is what ups it from a nine to a nine point five is The look of the game No games looked like this before. Like there's like, I don't know if there's like a color filter to it. There's like something about the way that they're character models all look. like this stands up every single screenshot looks like a pre reered cutscene to some extent. Like you might be able to help me like put this into better words of like what that is When you're in the club scene And you just see all the colors, all the characters this is this we're not going to get into spoilers too much, but there are certain There's there's one specific moment and it's a license to kill moment when you're walking through and the visuals in that, I st I had to stop and I was like Wh came up with this and can you give that team a raise? Because this is the coolest mess it's like messed with my reality of what was doing that that and that's so rare for me, especially in the game where it's just like a straightforward story. Yeah. and everyone's beautiful and you want to talk to everybody, you want to get all the lines doll because they are well written. they are well performed and shout out to the story man. I can't believe between this and replaced. I got two stories about AI that are actually fascinating in twenty twenty six. Like I feel like we're at a time where We're experiencing the real life version of AI happening, and it's just like, oh, man, it's Terminor two. It's the stories that we used to love happening in real life. And so tackling that from a fresh perspective, I think is such a not as t as you would have expected. This was not at all, man. I thought I was like really riveted by the AI story going on and I think that they got to an end that I'm like, that didn't feel cheap at all I'll tell you I mean, there's two ways to do the A the AI story and we'll get to spoil those a little bit as far as that the intricacies of this one, but like The one that Id like least is dead reckoning. I was going to say people dead recking And it can do anything and it's such at a certain point you just go from a writing standpoint, this is such a cop out and so cheap because you can't have a thing that listens and can do anything and can mirror. It's just boring You have one man fighting against this and you can't fight against this god like thing. And so I think they found a really interesting angle that's actually very, very, very like like relevant to what's happening in AI right now that a lot of criticisms are happening with AI right now that I mean, it's just like perfectly timed that the story came out now. pererfectly timed. I would say the only thing I like about the Mission Apostle Dead Reckon thing is the the requirement to go analog and to be like that's the only part of of the story that I love, the fact that like everything has to be like no non digital, you know, like Yeah. that's the one aspect of it that I love about that sort of like all powerful God AI that's always listening, always watching. But I think this is just a much better done story. Yeah, I mean, could you could push them to go all analog for this, but that wouldn't be Bond. Yeah L the thing about Bond that I love most that I think this story really kind of nailed is that is that It's it's it's rooted to a degree. But then when it needs to go bonkers and needs to have fun, they go, we're going to have some fun And there are moments in this game that I real I was like, o People really love James Bond who made this game. There's a couple of moments that you're just you're playing missions and there's no point to them other than it's a ridiculous that somebody came up with that it's not hard. And we'll get to that we get spoilers, but like there's certain missions, there's certain just moments where you're like they just did this because they knew this was going to be a really fun moment in the movie but it's not a movie. You get to play this and it's awesome And that shows a love for the property that I just don't think you see that much. love for the property, but also like a great understanding about pacing in cinematic video games. Like I think that the balance between play and what you're just watching and then kind of that beautiful blend between it is so well done here. And again think that that is that magic that like makes this like stand above other similar games. where the set pieces that you get, I feel are always coming at the right time. Like it's the right amount of more open gadget stuff and then more streamlined set piece thing and then the amount of boss fights they have. It just like all of it to me felt just like so purposeful, but also The set pieces themselves and the locations, there it's kind of everything I would want from a James Bond and it's like the game goes on just the right length and there was a point towards the Maybe like fifth through the game that I'm like, I don't know that I need to be doing this right now, but it was just setting up like the finale where I'm like, okay, I really do. Like they they gave me a lot to care about here from the James Bond perspective because One thing I love about this is not only is it a great James Bond movie, It's a great video game and thinking about it like from the video game perspective the V game bosses, video game bad guys. There's something about that. This game has so many video game bad guys. But then you think about what is a video game bad guy? What is it based on James Bpond Bond Villain.. So it's just kind of like beautiful full circle thing. And I just think that IO they knew the assignment and they they just they did it, man. They real like a plus for the work there. Yeah. agreed. H bad guys and hiss also baddies Yeah there's a lot of bad Eenss games well I mean, and thatQ was bad Don't like don don't look at my screenshots, man. Dude, damn You know, honestly though, but that's such a delicate thing to do in this day and age. And I think they did it well and I think it felt good and I think it felt fun. And I don't think, you know, for me that was one of the that's there's a lot of hallmarks of bond, right? There's gadgets, there's there's the fun dialogue, but there's also like a sexuality to it Yeah You know, most Bom properties have that in the movies, they've shied away from a little bit in the last couple iterations in the films Sexuality, they have it. Bond has not been so much of a I I guess player for a lack of a better word in the last couple, right? Like in no time to die. It is very much about the relationship with him L Oaido prior to that Skyfall. really had it was the relationship, the Bond the love was actually, if you remember correctly in Skyfall, wasn't the women, it was them, right? Be it was the more motherly thing. And I think that was loses sexuality though. An aarm. I mean Yes. That would be the mostuality I've ever seen on screen. But prior Bond Bnd properties would have had them Yeahang Yeah right. And so I think I think they struggled a lot with that in the last two decades of trying to bring boond, you know, have there be a level of of sort of one point zero masculinity that we've seen in the bonds from like the the seventies sixties seventies and eighties and then bring that into the modern era where it's like, hey, that's just that doesn't that's not entertaining anymore. That's just kind of caveman thinking. For this, I think you have a You have a character that's charismatic and it just seems okay that he flirts with other people and they're sexy and he' sexy and everyone's power. you got you got the the iconic you know, fem fatale. We have got that kind of rolling around here. And it's fun. and it doesn't seem like it's problematic in any way. Everybody feels emp. Yeah, that's the important thing. And that's such a hard thing to do in this day and age, but I think they nailed it I want to just go off on a little tangent right now. as Kevin had the gameplay up, suddenly popped up an image of Greg doing an ad read, but I thought like, oh no, what's he what did he do? I thought I I thought he was pranking. I thought he was going to pop up on the screen and like say some shit. I got very, very worried right there. That terrify.' horrible.'s terri.' horrible that he's done this to us. I in Yogi Birt in the YouTube chat Asks quQick question. Is this a full on spoilers? y' al must have said and I just was not paying attention. No spoilers until after the ad break and then it will put a thing on the screen that says there's spoilers and that'll be full spoilers. But until then it's just our review of the game. i Josh said, so did I Andy? was very, very worrid. I was like, oh God, what is he doing right now? One thing that came up in our first review that when Jordan Middler reviewed was one of his critiques was the boss battles and how they kind of aren't as good as the rest of the game in terms of just like sheer quality. And I agree. I do think that it is like the least perfected thing, but the note that I have down is the boss battles. What do we want them to do? Theyve tried. They're like Yeah I of appreciate the attempt because it's like sure some of them are like, we've done things like this in other games and it's never quite as fun as you want be doing the weird cat and mouse thing running around.' like I kept thinking of L of us where we're playing his allie Yeah have what's his name David David. David, that's what it is I think for me, it boils down to the evolution of combat in the game, but I think that's where it starts to fall a little short for me in that like we're seeing combat here. This is one of the spoilers is a training This is just training in the game. This iss just a tutorial basically, whichich I think it iss very well done. We should talk The most amazing thing about the game. Very, very cool. But you know, I was a little bit about Cresceda. I was gonna Oh, he was. I was like, yeah, she No, I mean, yeah first Pceda. Notice respect.ord. Notice respect, notice respect Wing Tsa Come on and we're going to talk about that because I don't know if you guys understand. Oh no I broader implication. why that is a simple name stuff in spoilers. We're going to talk about that in spoilers And's a huge spoiler But I was a little disappointed when I got to the end that I felt like the combat itself hadn't evolved beyond you know, the the the yellow prompt or the red prompt. And I was thinking to myself when you think of like Arkham comombat where you get to the end of it and it they ratchet that up. in a way where you feel like you have actually gotten better at hand to hand fighting. And I just don't feel like we got there with this. specifically, I don't think we got there with this or I don't think the license to kill sections evolves that much either. Although by the end of it, I was like, I see where we're going with this and I see that I should be better at this by this point, but I just don't think the game holds your hand enough Yeah. I definitely agree on the the hand hand combat side because it's got staled start off in pretty much in the same place as you are when you finish the game as far as that and there's yeah, there's no upgrade path there. like Even the I think the way they make it more difficult might just be like throwing more enemies at you or like find in the boss fight. They change up, they change up timing, they change up, you know, like instead of three punches, there's people that will come at you with five punches and're like, I't see that one coming. But I mean, in my brain in my dumb brain, I'm like, at some point I'm going to hit I'm going to hit two buttons and I'm going to fly across the screen like Batman did. I'm like, And balance that't what this is about In this kind of game, I think the balance is really tough too because you have so much that you're doing, you know, Tim was listing off, you have the set piece stuff, you have the license to kill stuff, you have walk around, you know, play a character kind of stuff. So it's like there's only it's there's only So much complexity you can add to the hand to hand combat before it's like, okay, this is too much for the player because we don't do this enough overall like fair game about com fair to be fair, Gre Greg played this game completely different than I did. So when he played through a lot of these sections, he didn't get spotted one time. I don't think he did any hand comb.. And so there is that I mean that there is that to take into account. I'll say this, the evolution that I experienced was my own That's What felt cool to me was that early on, I was very, very rough at the combat and not awesome at it And by the end of it, I felt like I was a Bond that had learned a lot of lessons and figured out the pacing of the combat and found myself like dominating so many of these melee fights and feeling awesome because of it and getting the combo in doing the parry fucking throwing a bottle at his head going in for like throw you against the wall. likeike I really, really enjoyed the way that that sort of And that's a very way more of like a personal like not everyone' going to have that your mileage may vary. but the I felt that way I felt the way I feel like a lot of the panel feels here about the License of kill missions. when I did the stream with Greg when I played on controller on the TV And then for the rest of my playthrough. I played all the game on controller and when a license to kill section happened on my keyboard.. And I just switched right over to keyboard Mouse and it fucking I think and you mention that. I think you mentioned that when I was doing my playthrough and I was just too far too far to start on PC. Yeah, yeah. I just gone too far in like seven hours. dude, I can't read it. I always love to have played those e. became like the coolest third person shooter the different like weaponry that you're finding finding and then granted These are consumable things that you're getting that have very, very limited ammo or whatever, but When I'd get my hands on like the SKS sort of like one shot, precision rifle or whatever. Yeah I felt so fucking awesome and because just aiming was a lot easier on keyboard mouse, I really enjoyed license to kill Sents after the first one. I felt that was on controller, right? Like I played through the entire game on PlayStation. and I still I loved the license to kill Sions. And I think it's once you start to see the matrix, I think it's a couple of things. I was doing all the like regular missions more stealthy, so I wasn't running into that just in like real time. Unless I hit like a forced license to kill section, that's where I would do that. But then also it's the hotot amim thing that Tim was referencing earlier where I think once you start to think about your full tools set It starts to open up, especially that's for me, that's where the evolution does come in because you're unlocking all the stuff for the Q watchat. Right, right. And So like once I got the missiles, Oh my Godd. like I'm fucking' shooting. and they're hiding behind the thing and I'm like bet hit the button. Yeah and you up And the amount of times looking up seeing a crate o shoot that guys. I want to explode that tank like It's not just This I think the combat I need to give it more credit than just the red thing to explode. Obviously that's a tried and true thing throughout gaming and that's always you're always going to see red barrels and red explosive devices It's satisfying this one too. Absolutely. Oh yeah. But there's a lot more past that if you just like keep your eye out. And if you bust out your little key watchatch and you see all the interactable things in the environment to then affect the enemy, it rocks. L I had such a great time with it. And I'll fully recognize that the license to kill sections in certain I would say ninety percent of the time are a me problem, Not of them problem, Not a game design problem. By the end of it, I did start to seeing that like there's one level where you have to kind of sneak past a couple of snipers. And I finally I was like, o, I'm just I've been playing this wrong the entire time. I have a tendency to want to brute force these things. specifically, got my namees. No I've never noticed that. But the game, I think kind of works against itself sometimes because it wants you to have a concept of action momentum When you're doing these things, it wants you to keep going. like they have a brilliant mechanic built in where you hit the triangle button and when you're out of ammo, you throw your fucking gun at someone and then you can charge them, beat the shit out of them, take their gun and get back and hide gun like flies out of their hand and lands into your hands. Right. It's so hard for me to want to do that and not keep pushing forward as Bond. I I think to myself, okay, this is obviously an homage or obviously like Dani Craig Casinoale moment where you even run through drywallet moments and that's straight out of the beginning of casino Royale. And so to me to stop and then hack something with my ywatch just seems completely wrong. I don't like that. It means, oh, you're playing a video game, you're not in this interactive experience. Yeah. For me, I think on the video game side, that's something that works so well I'm I'm somebody who, like I mentioned,, love h Hitman, all that stuff, love Milliar Solid fiveive, L love Dishonored of so many stealth games. And the thing about stealth games is that once you're caught outside of stealth, it kind of ruins the game a little bit, right? Like you then are in Hitman it's like, all right if I get into a gunfight, you're dead. If you're notant to shoot mechanics terrible hitan. Yeah, rightpect. purposely so because you're not supposed to shooting Cack game That goes for a lot of other stealth games I think here they strike the boundance to where I wouldn't call this a stealth game. It's a game that cast off as an option. and when you have that evolution of the scenario you're in where it is. All right, I'm sneaking. I'm on a boat and like, you know, I'm hidide behind things, takeake this guy out with my watch, snipe this guy down. All right, Oh, take this guy out from behind S somebody sees me and it's like, fuck, I got toa take this guy out before other people see me. C I did that. And like, oh shit, somebody else saw me do that. Now it is a firefight. I have to take care of this real quick and like the way they ramp things up in those situations for me feels so feels more natural than in any other stealth focused game that I've ever played. And even though it breaks immersion, I kind of like that they're all contained to one room essentially... you're able to like figure things out in a room. Yeah you got then ten guys and then the next portion of it. Yeah. I like how gameified they made all of that. I think to me the just the disappointing aspect of it is When things do break into a firefight, I didn't look forward I didn't look forward to the shooting mechanic. I didn't look forward to the feel of that because I just felt like It reminded me a lot of like the first earlier levels of like modern warfare where you play the single player and they're just throwing hordes of enemies at you and you're just trying to get through it. And I don't like that feeling I like the feeling of, I'm Bond. I'm a double zero seven. I should be able to kill all these people whenever I want and just have a moment to breathe. and you had to kind of fight for that. I don't know. It's a minor criticis. I totally I get it. I like the monster closet type stuff.ike I'm a big fan of the uncharted games because I feel like they specifically the earlier ones do this very well that I think that we just moveved past from game design philosophy. but so much of that game that isn't the cinematics or the platforming was just Here is an open area that you have to kill a bunch of guys and then You get into another cutscene and then you get to a similar area with slightly different cover. They have slightly better weapons and then just like rinse and repeat as you just kind of get more advanced of a maze and more armor on the other guys and you have stronger guns and just like that's kind of the build T sameame concept here is a lot better done and there is a modern version of it to the point that F fairly on when the licensense to kill things you're on one side of a giant ship, essentially, and you have to get to the other side of the ship And the moment we got in, I'm like, there's about to be hundreds of bad guys on this ship. Yeah. And I could not be more exciting. This is about to be so great because it's just you see the kind of level design of, oh, I'm here and I need to get all the way over there. Yeah. And there's not one path. I'm gonna have to go up a ladder and down this thing and through this little hole. There's no hole in the wall there. I'm gonna need to make one like I thought that the design of that stuff of the where we're fighting the hordes of enemies was just that was the kind of like cherry on top. And I don't need to kill all of them either. Yeah. so of just just f in one. Yeah. I see three people I see three people over there on the right side and one person's sort of walk cycle is eventually going to get him close to group and that's when I hit them with the thing that's going to affect all three of them. They're all going to like, you know, get blown away or whatever. I really enjoyed how these sections also could be very puzzly. Yeah, you know. Yeah, it also feels like thoseose are the sections that I would want to go back and replay 'causeuse for whatever reason, I always I stick to the same rab, and I'm like, what if I went left What have that way. there's so many different routes you could have taken for that specific the boat level where it was like this could be so replayable. Yeah, like, you know, Tim's describing the uncharted monster closets and like, I love that were in place. N not that this game's not the first to do it. In fact, un Charted four made so much evolution there as well, but like seeing the verticality of I'm findighting people on my level, but there are people up top any to worry about The cover that I'm behind is breakable cover. Again, that's like an unchartred. I'm sure maybe even three probably did this as well, but Having having the moment it's like, o shit it's breaking down in front of me. I need to get from this thing to this thing. I like that if you just tap are one He does like a little mini like jog into cover thing. because yeah, people were Greg was criticizing that he was like, I understand the concept of this. I was like I really like this. I really like it too. Yeahah, because like went out a lot. If you're in stealth, it's just aick way to be like, all right, let me fuck quick job making noise or whatever. then yeah, if you're behind something, you just fucking jog to the next thing. I don't know. It's I found it to be like a nice little convenient mechanic that I'm surprised, it hasn't been done until this game. Yeah can I give a shout out to one more thing? Yeah go for it. I remember I've brought this up before on shows every now and then when the game Oni comes up because on the back of the box for On for PS two, launch not I believe No ft by Bunge On I think was close to launch but not la Close to launch. Okay, But developed by Bungie, published by Rockstar. On the back of that box, I remember When I was buying it, I was impressed because It mentioned that its levels were made by real architects or like desesign B Lockck. And at the time I was like, that's the coolest thing ever. Yeah. And I look back and I'm like, but the levels weren't that good though There are moments of in this game where I'm just looking at the design. likeike Kevin had brought up the chapter three where you're going into that room and they're doing the auction and just the layout Yeah it. There's so many moments in this game where I'm like Who made this? What? This is crazy how good this looks just as far as building design out interior design. like well, they've been doing this since hitman, but like the way that it shines in this game is so good. The level design here is fantastic as well. But I will say that on top of that to build on that the locales You know, when you have a boond movie, look, it's fantasy fulfillment. you're traveling around the world. You're going to places that like, let's be honest, none of us are going to go. We're never going to go to a crazy corporate mansion in the middle of frrein Antarctica or whatever it is. That's so bondond. and everywhere we go in this, I like they have beautiful chapter breaks and you see where you're about to come know play around and the locales are just so cool and interesting and it Very well chosen. Absolutely. All right y'all. This is the end of our spoiler free thoughts on James Bond firstirst lightight. We're going to take a quick break for ads and when we come back, it's full spoilers for everything First light This episode's brought to you by Video Game Town. Video Game Town is an independent media site where you can find fascinating articles, podcasts, and videos created by the best and brightest in games journalism. In order to escape the AI hell hole our industry is currently in, Video Game Town proudly presents the best in gaming coverage joined by plenty of familiar faces Adams, Jenn Dieber, Merit Kay, Ian Walker, and more. 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That's the haptic inductive trigger system. They ditch traditional switches for magnetic sensors. That gives you up to a thirty millisecond advantage. Think about that. You're literally clicking faster than the speed of human reaction And the customization is insane. You can tune your actuation points across ten levels and even adjust the haptic intensity. Whether you want a crisp, sharp snap or a hair trigger rapid fire, the super strike adapts to you. Stop playing fair and start playing faster. Go to loogitechg dot com and enter code kind of funny twenty five at checkout to save twenty five percent off Logitech G Just a quick note, some exclusions apply and the promo is non stackable with other offers. Grab the Super strike today. The winning click is finally here Allright spoiler time, everybody. the rest of the show, we're talking spoilers The end of this game rocked Like they're really, really, really rocked. Like when you start getting in there, you're controlling all the AI robots and stuff, I like they're going full bonkers' bond. Like I did not expect this final kind of crazy setpiece, but just the entire car stuff. Yeah. just being in in was garage or whatever it wasQ lab Yeah, yeah, yeah did it was like the what was the name for it though? It was like Vicator? Valhalla. Yeah, I was like yeah that was Valalla there. You know, somebody on that, I think people were like, we're little disappinted you can't take the ass and Martin out. And I was like, well, of course, sure. There were some driving levels in this and I think I think if to make another one of these really well. We will have an Asston Martin Yeah portion of it where you get to use gadgets and shit like that and I wouldn't be surprised if that was a whole other built out section of things that you can do. But to me, this reminded me a lot of I want to say it's either Golden Eye or the next Pierce Braasa movie that he did where he has to remote control his BMW in a parking garage to like hit a bunch of guys and then come pick him up and he jumps in. being self contained like that. I'm like, you guys, this is the most fucking nineties Bond thing you've ever seen in your entire life. I smile from ear to ear when that' se actually For sure, man. The out level for me, though, was the LED level Oh el so that The silhouettte from the statues there wereere' like, are those Yeah Yeah I I was person hold on one shit The destructible environment of it, where like, you'd shoot an LED while and would go that crazy like, you know, RGB kind of fucked up wonkiness with Moreay I was like we got a game here. We got a game Bess what's the highlight mode you highlighted stuff because that's actually one of the ones that came to mind for me mainly because of the way it panned out for me where I had pretty much snuck through that entire LED like room got to the end and one person saw me and then it broke down to a firefight, right? Like felt like a movie. Is this the crane partark? U Yeah, right? Yeah. Oh knows this the crane part. This is the beginning. The crane part is is one of the highlights for me. that when you match the crane have to go to the guy. Be that was the moment where I played that during the preview and that was like a, oh, this game is going to rock. like I can't believe how how much they're pulling off That's inondon rightight? That's have to go after to the assassin in London. Yes. that's where I have to go after the assassin where starts off at like the little like house home area. Yeah you're all theumbs're hanging out at and then, you know, Bond gets there and then there's a man he reads the note. That's like a suicide note from him and he's like that's not good. I guys right behind him. Yeah F those guys and then there's a sniper and then you have to get across the roofs as the sniper is firing at you, get in the crane, crash it, chase that guy and now you're into this open sequence. I think that's just beauty, right? Like game design and level design and progression Yeah, that did something for me. It's it's that section was so fun and obviously the crane being a little bit of a little bit of a reference to like aino Royaw has have had an amazing fight on top of that crane. To me, I'm just like what every single moment we got into of that And then of course, following that I don't know if you guys remember this or not, I think it's that section where you just escape in a garbage truck. Yeah And there's no point to it other than it's really fun to drive a garbage truck in London. crashing That's it. Yeah. There's no, you're not at no point do you think to yourself, I'm going to have to replay this because this is difficult. You're just smashing into shit. And it again reminds me a lot of when Bond had a tank in Golden Eye and it's he's just smileing because he's like I'm driving a tank around St. Petersburg. It's fucking awesome. When you guys did the mission prior to that where u The double multiple doublez's are involved and you are playing as the Bond is the driver in the scenario. why I think he did some shit H a tournament. Yeah. Well that's a great another great little easaster egg there too when he goes into the cQ lab to pick a suit And they give him. he he has these amazing like Tom Fort suits instead of just hanging there and he's like, no, no, you're not going gonna get that And he has to wear the drive the chauffur outfit. Yeah And it's a cut and it reminds me a lot of like, if you ever watch Casino Royale, there's a wonderful moment where he's about to get his car for the first time when he lands in Nassau and it's this beautiful tropical environment. And it's the bnd music and the camera pans over it and you think you're going to see anstonart and it's like a forward focus And it's just this spawn right here. He's not a doubleO yet. This is where he's doing. He love the chauffeur right now. I love that level for multiple reasons. One being the like all the calms that you're having with the crew. like I had a moment where one of the other Dble Os saw me exploring when I shouldn't have been exploring because you're supposed to be in the car. And then there's a moment where you go back outside and he's like, I'm back at the parking lot and they're like, cool And you go back inside. Yeah like that That dynamic stuff. I also liked it as a reference to Hipman because the people or the person that you're chasing, one of the twins, that keeps changing outfits, immediately I was like, oh, that's aggent forty seven. Like they're doing an agent forty seven thing here because he keeps constantly going changing into different outfits and blending in his different characters. I thought that was really cool. See to me I think that section was what I've always wanted Bond to be, which is a little closer to Mission imppossible. That reminded me a lot of like Ethan on Cs with like Simon Peg and all those other people and they're all in the environment together doing their various things. You have that wonderful cinematography where they're passing stuff off together. That to me, I think was really well done in that section. It's also just another reason I love this game so much is like years and years ago, I mentioned that I won a Mission Iossible game made by Naughty Dog and that's pretty much what this game is. Like this is the closest that we're going to get to that game For sure. Speaking of that. Yeah, this is a question for Nick. sure I towards the very end of the game, I think like don't it was a couple weeks or month ago that I did this so. I'm a little hazy on it. But one of the notes I wrote down is, a woman recognizes a sola saying, who are you And they reply Kitrich. Kitrich, Special intelligence Task Force justust throwing it out there. But isn't Kitridge? Yeah fromission Mission Iossible. That someone was like, let's throw I mean, there's so much of Bond and Mission Ipossible are so close to each other. Mission Ipossible was just basically Bond for America back in the day. So yes, they just said, let's throw kitridge in there for shit. in my opinion. it was so much impossible. Yeah. There's a lot of those little eter eggs. There's a great moment too when he goes to Vietnam, which by the way, one of my other favorite levels. I could have spent I way more time than that just because again, Bond, you arrive and you think to yourself like to visit there I would go to this little exclusive place and like have, you know a custom cocktail that they offer you when you sit down to check in. I would do all of that. But he checks in, I think in that section as Stinin Smyth which is spelled St. John Smith That is another reference to another alias that he's He did it was a view to a kill with Roger Moore. That was that was what his character was called in that the first like hour of that. I was like, that's hilarious. Another hilarious thing is I don't know if you guys caught it or not, but in a lot of the when you finally walk out of MI six It says Universal expports Bon's cover. It's always been Bon' cover He always worked for Universal Exports. It was just his way of going around the globe And they go, what do you do? G I import export things. That' fun. we always did. And then of course Tresa Tereresa is the big a giant eastergg And I don't know if you guys really want me to spoil this for you or not, but Yeah Yeah. Yeah. So Teresa was in the name of Bond's first and only wife, I think, up until No time to die and she they get married and then she's killed right afterward. And the last words they say to each other that they said prior. No time to die. we have all the time in the world which is the name of one of the first chapters where you meet her.. So the first when I saw that I was like, oh, she's gonna to fucking die, and that's going break my heart She doesn't at the end of this, which is great. Yeah, What about Tereresa or Isola Teresa The girl he meets in Vietnam, Vietnam. Okay, okay. Yeah. Yeah. Baddy. Yeah. she's Italian. I believe she's Italian in the movies and they meet and she's one of the Bond women. and then he goes, I'm going to quit And we're going to get married as as when they're on their way down from their honeymoon. one of the Bond villains kills her. Yeah. This iss I would leave my family. I'd be like whenateever you see all the time Whenver you see all the time in the world, you just know someone's gonna die. This is it's a complicated thing to talk about in a respectful way. So just I just want to preface it with that do mean it respectfy. sure I've never seen something digitally look that good. like there's something about it, that entire scene where it's just like I think we can all just like as a people just agree Rpectfully Damn. Yeah. It was yeah, really, really well, like the art department just op the fuck off with lighting and I popp the fuck off I' be mature here. The I want to know who made that. Yeah, I mean sa dude talk to them. I have so many screenshots, not only like, you know, I'm not just doing like the the, you know, creepy perverted sort of jokes or whatever. Wh I say it that way? But I have like that the art department popped off so much with The character art Um Lenny James' character, right Yeah Jims actor. G ye, Green, Green. Green way. Green way. way. That is, I think one of the best looking three D models. like looks great ever like holy shit. I was just so impressed with the art team on this one which is Again Go back to what I mentioned about the story, like I don't know they had it like that. I didn't know they had character art like that either. Yeah, you know, I think Hitm man's always looked good, but it's never been this You know, holy shit, you got to look at the way these characters look. I so much there's so much expertise and like just massful work being done here hardwise. Going beyond that and going back to somewhere between Gess and Nick, I forgot who brought up the architecture of everything. like Oh man, the I guess I'm confining. you brought up architecture, but you brought up the Moray on the video wall. likeike there's just she's just good. We know what being close to a video wall looks like in a way that not many people do Yeah. And they nail it in this game in a way that I'm like Like I wanted to call you when that's when I was to. I was like I don't help him and let him know I'm doing this. so much texture and just like like it just again, adds that unique vibe to what I was talking about the look of this game. Like I haven't seen a game look this way before And you go to the club level and I almost just I was I had to put my controller down because I'm like What the fuck? How is this possible in a video game. I haven't felt that way since Sfil. For real rare or really Like so many of the levels in Sifu have their own art Right, likeike it's that that's it's the gimmick of that area and like Goddamn, I was just so blown away by everything by the set upp in the lead into it with the just the mannequin standing next to that hallway. I have so many screenshot of just that red hallway that you're walking down before you get to that area. So freaking cool. So that area, I mean, I think that is the visual highlight of the game for sure. I'm not talking about the club. Like I'm talking about when you walk in into the fucking DJ like and're there's the like dance pit and everyone's dancing and like the in the book for the second level where you When the lasers like come up at you it' just like I've never seen lasers like that. And the sound design, like I played this in my home theater with the Dolby Atlmost surround sound. I am so blown away by how immersive it all was.ike that club scene, like when you walk into like the room next door, it sounds like you're in the bathroom at a club, with the walls and the directionality of it all was mind blowing. All of that to say Great sound, great visuals, great. design of the LED walls and all these like little things that add up G b arrchitecture. is so mind blowingly good. getet to the big evil CEOs like building, right? So ye it is such a beautifully designed building that feels real. It doesn't just feel like video game platforming, whatever. I feelt like I well for that stuff on But going through the hallways of that and that is more of a it's you and Lenny kind of like sneaking through. and it's like such a great character moment between the two of them. So you're getting a good story. I feel like they do the perfect thing of y'all are together. Y'all are split up, you're sneaking through vents and doing all that stuff. the time you actually get to the guy's office And it's just this like so dentin looking thing And then they hit a button and a spiral staircase comes up. Yeahep. I had to put my controller down It was a physical reaction for me of like, oh my God. Yeah. They hooked here. And you and they earned that moment You earn the moment where you go, Yep That is a Bond villains lair. It is not an office. It's not a hideout. it's a fucking It's a fucking layer man. And that it's so extra and that is exactly what what Bond should be. You should get to that. and I think there's even moments where he wass like, what's going on? Like it's perfect. It is man. The I would say my secret delight of the whole game is The really obnoxious bro dude who ask you to get drinks for him at the in Vietnam at the at the Oh my God. the guy He want he wants to unlock the cabinet. Yeah his writing was so good and it's so hard to write a character like that without getting eye rolling and being like,, they're trying to like do this type of character. and you know, it's just a really tough kind of thing to nail. and Everything this dude was say in, especially when you finally finish the mission And he's sitting there like talking to two girls and he's like, yeah, you know, I could have done that if I wanted to, but you know, Yeah trying to I forgot he was talking about. He wass like trying to get into the into sports or I forget what The writing on that dude was so fucking good. againgain, I didn't know IO had it like that. they really impressed me. With that this was a game that I mostly played downstairs and G was upstairs, but there was one bit of overlap where I forgot what was happening like, but we had to both be in the theater. She was like kind of doing work on the computer while I was playing the game. it was that section. And so she was kind of overhearing it and like, she was like, dude This is like actually really good writing and performances is Jul, you showed me a lot of video game stuff, but like this seems like a standown Its this fucking God. I want to take a step back, okay, becausecause I think that to me is why I loved this game so much. I think they paid so much attention to the writing and the acting and the chemistry of the actors that you know, I lose patience with games very, very quickly very I don't pay attention a lot to what's happening with the stories because they don't draw me in like a movie does. I want to get to the core game mechanics. I want to play. I want the fun aspect of it. And unfortunately, a lot of times, Other things just take me out of it and I go, well, this is not, this is a lesser property for me. For me that The casting of Bond, the casting of all the actors around him U who's the actress and Patrick Gibson, I want to say. Yeah Yeah phenomenal phenomenal. Great job with him. But when you get to Vietnam and you have that flirtation happening with Tresa That to me is the sign of like everyone smart choices here because I have never been really attracted to a video game character before. I've never looked at a digital you know character before I've been like, oh, this is going to be hot. But when we get to that scene where they're flirting with each other, I'm like, I am very invested into this. And I had to stop and ask myself why? And it's just because they're really good actors acting opposite from each other and they got heat They I h everything And it But every it emanates. It does. But every single thing and a lot of people don't understand this, but when you're watching movie, everything you're seeing or hearing or It all goes into that feeling And from the second you landed Vietnam And you're walking around that cool resort You feel sexy, you feel cool. You feel like you're in a place Nick everyone I held sex That is good. I love Nick being like I was so attracted to a video game character. at a pause and asked myself why? But I did really What artistry went behind this to make me feel this way? and that's really at the end of the day what we want kudos to them for doing that because I was like, I mean, Jesus, these two have heat together and they're digital representations of human beings. It's fucking great. one hundred percent. Yeah. I wantan to give a shout out to toward That's so sick. L, you know what that reminds me a lot of. It reminds me a lot of the layer from Bladeer twenty forty nine, hundred percent. Where watch Jos and all yeah, it's so cool. Yeah, I have so many screens. This game just look Amazing on PC. likeike it was fucking crazy looking. It was crazy because I was playing on base PS five and going back and forth between that and PS five proro Yeah This game looks so good on PS five Pro. it's a shame how it looks on PS five It still looks good on PS five. I had the same thing with the I'd say seventy percent of the game I play on PS five proro and the rest on Playstation five would just like Man, I can't believe I look at this and think it looks bad because it looks amazing. It runs great, but then you see the reality. It's my pro. Oh God. man I I started playing on Greg's PS five Pro and I don't have one at home and I was like I just shoved it into my back. Yeah hell ye I saw you do it. I'll give a shout out to the final boat chase, which just felt so right for a James Bond game, right? You need to kind of end with this like unnecessary boat chase. But they play the Lonadill Ray theme, but the orchestra version. and I'm like, yeah Dll fucking earn this shit. Let's head somewhere high as hell and the music in this game is great in justross really across the board. The live performance in the AI conferencec thing that they were doing was so good. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Which live performance There was like they were singing like the old Timy the song that everybody likes that I remember the name of. but And I forget, but yes, I know before they go to the CEO's like office. They go to the the big conference in the like. Oh, you mean they think you have to the little party you have to sneak around? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, there's like a live like lounge singer. Oh like in the center of the whole thing Um I really dug the u Ball mission. was controlling all the big yalls and crashing into the robots so fucking cool. And I kind of pushing the envelope later on in the game when I thought maybe it would lose steam. like it really impressed me in those moments where Like I was expecting I wasn't, you know, the game starts off with thing we saw the demo where you make the airplane turn and the physics You're inside of the airplane and the, you know, you're turn you're controlling the airplane on your watch and you're making all the shit fly all over the place and the enemies are hitting the wall and all this stuff. And it's like that's a really cool hook for this level And then Once you control that ball, I'm like, oh my Godd, I hope that they have something centered around this as a concept and they did and it was awesome. Yeah, the robotics lab too, when you walk through and you have to learn all the mechanics of that I thought was really well done as well I want to give a shout just to the general story of the game because I'm so burned out on AI taking over the world stories. I did not like it in Dead Reckoning Part one and partart two. I thought that was the weakest part of that and it bog and it has it so quickly can bog down the plot of a movie where I just stopp caring because it becomes this thing that is so powerful that it's just inconceivable for anyone to really get their heads wrapped around it. And I think they did a really smart job here where they started doing they started building it up J just like they're building it up in today's society in real life where AI is this and it's coming and it's inevitable. And then you start to see like, oh It doesn't work It's actually not that good. And that's the whole point of this awesome is that it's someone trying to hide that and it's fucking awesome. L like it's a verted of my expectations so well because as soon as they introduce it, it's like, okay, so that's the thing that's going to get in the bad guysy's hands. And this is going to be a story about how we're going to have to like figure out how to shut it down or whatever. And for you to get to that point of the game where it is No it gets things incorrect and this guy's using his son to cover cover up all this shit Blli good. And yeah, to your point. Yeah, like I think does such a good job of reflecting like, oh, yeah, this is a story not about AI the technology. This is a story about what people with power are willing to do to make sure AI is successful right because they have so much money invested in it. Yes. And that's such a smart is exactly what's happening Yeah, right. And also that from a story standpoint takes it down from one hundred thousand feet up into the air to something Bond can actually overcome. Yeah. And in the best way possible where I feel like they do that so well on the grounded level of This is a man going up against another man and the man has a very rich father and he's like doing all this like stuff. They handle that story very well Th then towards the end, they're like, o, but what if we did the fun James Bond stuff? And then they have the guy come back seemingly from What if we did the metal gear version of I did the metal gear band. incredible there.'s the point you go I don't give a sh. do the third act of a Bond movie. We got laser cars that are in The twins are so good. What exact there were twins. Let' stop about this, right? Yeah. Because you see the blonde guy and you go, okay, this is obviously an homage like stamper from like the world is not know Right, blonde, whatever. Yeah. And then you see another one of you go Of course there's a twin. Of course, the fuck wouldn't there be a twin? It's James If they had guy went of them and come out with diamonds in his face, I'd be like, yeah, that makes sense.'s Jes Bond movie. But just in terms of like fun visuals and keeping things like interesting. When you get to that fight in Vietnam, Dude lights on fire And you're fighting a guy on fire? Yeah. Yeah. awwesome. sick. It's so cool. Super nuts. The performance from Lenny James in the moment when he realizes how his past is not what he thought it was and he's looking at the files and he just sort of, he's just sitting in the back of like It was just such great like subtle acting from him just like in shock like Oh my Godd, I thought my life was one thing this whole time and I was just lingzo zero six been pinking z zero six was one way and then you learn about what zero zero six was actually doing. Performance of the year. Let st off for me. you know, I'm just I'm such a sucker all doubleO's Yeah history of the double Os and the fact that when one dies, they take the number and they give it to a new one I love all that shit I love in Golden Eye how there was a dzo zero six and there's a dou zero seven. Yeah they have history and they have beef and there's a whole I mean, all that shit to me is so fun. and the fact that like The fact that they were like You start this game. they're like, you're not a doubleo yet. I'm like But I fucking will be I fucking will. I fucking will be by the end of this. James Bond will return when that hit. And then they're like you want it We're starting this over. do you want to be dou zero one And he's like, well, I was actually the seventh recruit. so how about zer zero seven? And I'm like ye. They said like That's so cool. self correion double nine. Yeah. I was sixty nine Uh, whichich I don't know how many double z there are because can you have dz zero ten Ites't make sense.ot. does it work. Yeah hello. That's. Yeah,s that's not good now on I we got here. I mean, I had something lost it. The dueling AIs, Thea and the Greek sisters Yeaha and whatever. The fact there's another one. The fact that they're basically just doinging the knock list all of these operatives all these things Yeah. And then as you're stillealing the knocless, that's when you get the Kitz reference, which is fucking hilarious. like. All of this is just head. It's brilliant It'srilli stuffchn. What I wantan to say is I love in video games and sometimes this moment happens and you're just like, fuck I hate this. And other times you're like, I'm so happy it happened where you get to what you think the end of the game is and it feels like, wow that set piece was the They bw their budget there. like that's the end of this. And then you think, credits are going to hit and that's going to be the end But when you hit something like, oh, I see where the sequel's going to go and I can't wait and And they're like, Tim, you stupid fuck. If you're that right now Yeah. when we go back to the office and everyone there iss learning that like, they're just gonna to kind of cover it up and just get on you're in jail. And yeah, exactly. all that I was like g the sequel. I can't believe they're letting me play this right now. And the I think they did it in such a fun way, like to escape that the whole sequence, but then also storytelling wise like I think that they just tied all the knots up in in what what I just say? You get one fucking kn Yeah That' beautiful tied all together Yeah. But they do something fun again If somebody somewhere was like, we just need every like couple hours, we need to have like a bond thing happen get to that section, what don't you have? You don't have your keQ watchatch You got to sneak around like an old school. And then what do you get? You get cu watch You watch Yeah. And it's so dumb and so fun that I'm like, that's the one level I want to go back and play through because all the stupid little things that you can like interact with and like there's just fucking gatling guns everywhere that can kill people. Yeah They're flying at people So dumb and so far. Let's open for you solo U I she'll she she's going come. She's always she's gonna to be our Is she like part of an organization we know? So what's her d? What's fucking name? We're Beckca Fergerson. She's going to be our Rebecca Ferguson. I she' that, but I think I think the people were a lot of people were saying that she maybe works for Specter. That's what I was which is which would be Aesome. I mean we're quuant Yeah, right. We they never really Does thepectcter come up in this If it did, I missed the reference But she works for an organization of people that are super powerful and maybe have bad motive goes all the way to the t. so you're like, it's probably Specter I would imagine or quantum. It felt like they're teasing something that's It's getting to the raer at some point you're going to fight sp back Yeah. Chloe Chloes who I thought you were going to say from uncharted. Oh Oh Chloe, Rebecca Ferguson. Yes. Yeah, we're always at odds, but we're always sexy with each other. Wan to kiss each other and love Okay but questions. D they bang Yeah it was a moment where they were where um She it looked like they were about to bang, but then she gets a call and she's like, Give me about twenty minutes. They bang on the boat. That's what I saw. That was on the boat. I gotta assume. Oh really Oh yeah. Yeah I think they b But I also love like I love the suspension of disbelief we have with with any sort of consuming of media where They' are they're on this boat and it's not like James Bond just teleported there There was a lot of moving parts to get him on a boat with her And then we're on the boat and he's like So who are you? and what like what do you guys look like for this? I didn't ever You're three hours out in the middle of the ocean. Submares don't just come on land. Yeah, that was true. That's such a bnd thing, dude. that remind me a lot of there's a great opening for a bnd You guys have probably never seen this. It was a movie called Living Daylights where they're in it starts with a training mission of the WoubleO's, but then someone starts really killing the DO's And the last one alive is zer zer seven. and it's like the first time you see him. It ends with him crashing onto a boat that looks exactly like that. and there's a beautiful woman there and he calls in to headquarters and's like, I'll be back in an hour and then she pours him a glass of champagne and he goes etter make that too. Yeah. I was going say, I think I got the line wrong where it's like, give us twenty mines, make that an hour. Yeah, M makeake that an hour. And there's all there was that reference I'm like that. He's got good stamina You feel like he's piding someush O maybe he's just pumping multip times. You think he's pumpining Do? You think she's pumping? I don't know who's pumping twenty twenty six, you know, anything possible anybody can you popping? Yeah Um Anyway, back to Male I love I love that whole mission. and I love that we got the actual third act and I love that. I mean, the only the only level that really kind of was me banging my head against the wall, but it was because I was streaming and it wasn't really occuring to me was like the sentry gun moment where he's you have to hack the gun and shoot back at the metal gear solid villain. It's basically the last. Oh no, that fucked me. Yeah. Yeah. I did not care for that But yeah, I mean, leaving this open ended having the list Get out The hard drive get out. man. You got to chastase after them and now who are the new villains is very, very cool And I always I also give him a shout out. We gloss over it. We did talk about it a lot. while we were streaming, but I will give a shout out to the first level And just the setup of the theme song him holding the the the detator out And he's like, you're not gonna. And He he just pulls it and everything explodes and we go into an actual honest to God fully fuck informed Bond theme song with the title treatment, which is the hallmark of James Bond. And they did it and they knew they needed to nail it. And I'll say this. They didn't need to go that hard. But they did they freaking did though. And that that every single trition of the like, you think it's the gun barrel, but it's the freaking chandelier with all the like the glass things It's so hot. And at the end, we actually get the gun barrel, which isn't great, right? And that's cool. shout out to the whole first few hours of this game. I know everybody has talked about the training montage and how well done that is, but the fact that you don't really get into a bond mission until after a few hours of the game, That's a risky move, right? Like that's something that I was expected to come in here during the I guess the first review and be talking about pacing like, manan, I can't believe that it took that long, but very single thing you're doing up until the first Bond mission is so entertaining. I love the training missions. The training missions are great. Yeah. And I think they're great also because you have two or you have two people around you, What's the what's what are their names ida Cressida and the other guysy. I dude, Maurice. Maurese perfect. They're great. The acting's great. You have that nice cat and mouse like, are we gonna like each other? Are we competing with each other? And everyone likes the origin story. Remind me a lot of the kingsmen You guys ever watched that? Yeah I love k Yeah. ye. There remind a lot of that. And I was like, I'm getting kingsmood vibes here and I like it. And it's fun Who doesn't want to see how you get to train to be get doubleow? Oh, and get to play it. And just the right amounts too. L I think like it's funny because we I keep seeing people and I think I've even fallen into this of calling the training montage like a tutorial. It's not a tutorial. That part's not a tutorial. That part's just like showing off a bunch of training montages and making it playable The tutorial is all the training missions. Yeah. And like they do such a great job of like having the, hey, this is kind of how you use parkcps and punching together, right? Here's how you do just the combat arena stuff. really think that they knocked us out of the park. Do we think we get more park warour? in the sequel Do we think we get more movement styles in the sequel? O. Be that was the one thing I was a bit disappointed on. I was like, okay, you've got I just felt like Bond could have moved a little bit better as far as his I could sayarkore I could see that. When I came out of the preview, some of the people I talked to didn't really like. how he moved. And I was like, well, this This reminds of Hitman, so I'm sure they're kind of using some of the walking animation they had from that. But like that isn't the smoothest game as far as No movement. Yeah. expanding that Yeah I want to read a couple super chats before we head out today. I Dab Slab says I had give it a nine point five. It was an epic Bond movie I got to play Jordan Deeeb says I didn't play the game, but right didn to say, I just landed in San Francisco for the first time. I'll be here for a few days. Do you have any comedy shows this weekend, Nick I do have comedy shows It'll be cheaper therapy tonight and tomorrowight, both shows You guys wan to check that out, but it's cheaper than therapy. Check out Nick's Instagram. Yeah I'm sure they'll be in f there, if not just Google maybe justust Google teher in therapy. y'll come up. There's only one, San Francisco. U Sandy says the level where you crash the Web gallow, they do this thing where you're on the hunt for the twin where they mix in the brass of the Bond theme with the end of the world. It's so subtle, but so fucking amazing. So ye end of the world. That's the name of the song. Ah ye ye. Okay JBC says, if I had one note that the game peeked halfway at the uninvited and ever so slightly coasted to the end. Uninvited. I don't know it was uninvited. Was that the web gala? probablyably? Yeah it must have been that party That was like the beginning of the game, though. That's like the first real mission that you play there, right? Oh, I think. That's the chest thing. Yeah, that's the chest thing.. That is like when you're chasing the guy and then you end up there Rer. Um That's where the LED wall mission is, right I think that's really. Is that in? Yeah, yeah,'s that's in there Yeah This iss like gal,'scauseuse's the where'. We'reesping in the g in the garbage truck Yeah, that ends with a garbage dver. Yeah. And then I think you go home after that And that's where they try to kill Or maybe they person That's how you get Yeah. right. Anddy Br says the scene where the Damiian where Damiian Webb tries to saw bond into two is an easaster egg to the Goldfinger book. Of course Not the movie. It's in the movie as well, the saws I'm assuming the saw is from the book, but The iconic And it has been made fun of and like Austin Powers is no Mis to Bonda expected to die with a laser going right up is Yeah is crotch U Gerald says, I was hoping that Greenway's number would have been zer zero seven and that Bond would choose it to carry on his spirit. I love their relationship That'd have been kind of c. Greenway Dying was tough. Yeah. that hit that they did a really good job there Was there am I crazy? there wasn't a Felix Lighter character in this, right? Felix was mentioned it was mentured up Yeah I don't remember where, but I remember being like, oh my God next go to pop off for. So that's why okay. yeah, I wanted to just quickly touch on that. they have to have the Felix Lder character of the next one It's it's Bond's like counterpart in the CIA in America. played by Jeffreyright in the movies right. Awesome. It was close card. wasas it Okay, that's great. And it was fun. Oh Postcard remind me of this U one of the missions that I was a secret delight for me was the cruise ship with all of the invisible lasers Oh yeah, sprinklers off, which I imagine is like way more like hitman type gameplay that I'm like, I don't normally. like this type of thing and play through it. I put things that In terms of fun, it was probably the least fun I had in the game. but I was like, I like this a lot. This feels very James Bond pretty cool. Yeah. ye, I agree I hated it. Yeah. I h lasers. but I think I think I was just not. Thinking about it right? becausecause I died so many times. I could not figure out how to like do it the right way. Once I figured out that I didnicul you could missed the lasers. I was like, this is c. Pretty good don' Yeah I that you have to at one point. I mean, again, it's a smart level design at one point. I'm like, how the fuck do I get around this? I'm like, I got to hang just like one second and then come back up the other side. Yeah. OGLX says, Do we think Isola Vil is one part of Specter and slash O two actually Vesper Lind No, she's not Vesper, but she's probably part of Spector, yeah Bester was like an accountant for a bank I watched Casino Royaalle for the first time recently. What didd you think of that? I loved it. Yeah. When you ex I wantt to spoil that? I was gonna say spoil is man, this iss a good movie. I think people we could spoil the casino Rale. when he's like my balls I gotta tickle on there It should try. Andrew Brown says the trophy at the end of the level where you chase Isela is called Ritings on the Wall, which is the theme song forpect That's kind of a fun little thing there. That's good. Okaykay U Well everyone, this is our final review of James Bond firstirst lights. Are we excited Lennyravits, D' see that's coming. Very excited We didn' didn't talk aboutting We talked about it him and the first review, defefinitely, I think the worst performance at the game and a major letdown because I was real high on the craft being in this game as a villain. I thought that was going to be awesome. And it was a little less than awesome. Everything else about where he was and the story and stuff Awesome Yeah What do you think Ed I mean, I just I expect him to have an accent or just like And I' like, man, even put on a show like All right, we have Bond here. James Bond. It's like we're gonna hire me to do a panel at comic kind of like, All right. So I like his like right hand man or whatever the guy like him Yeah. when they doing the a I thought the auction was off. That was. I failed it the first time because I didn't realize you have to like hack the guy's thing in order to make it seem like he was lying. I thought that was such a clever mechanic. Yeah I I will agree. I think the voice acting that they surrounded him with was so good that it makes him feel a little bit lesser. but I also I will Wave that away because it is again another hallmark of Bond that you just, of course Lenny Kravis is a bad guy at this. Yeah. Of course. it's great. Yeah. If you popped up in the movie, you'd be like, yeep, that makes a lot of sense. Totally not U last thing I want to say here is I do think just from a sheer numbers perspective There's a good chance that this is kind of funnyest game of the year. I say that pre GTA world and Acarita remakeakes a thing. But it being a remake, I do think kind of might put that lower on people's list for expectations there think I'm craz No. I think the amount of people that played this and really, really like it means that it'll be up there for sure. Yeah It's my game of the year so far. I don't expect to be number one by the end of the year, but Right now, if this ended up arguing in the a, I'd be very happy. Yeah. I wouldn't be mad at it Yeah. Yeah h Let us know in the comments below if you wouldd be mad at it or if you agree That's what I want to hear from you We have more stuff coming at you today Specifically, we have a gameplay stream It's a party mode Frog squad E excited for that Mic? I'm always excited for the party votes. You'm always excited to see which one of us is going be the one that gets dunked on Which one will it be? I'm not on this one. Thank fuck out God I've got dononped out enough this week. I'm so so f over it everybody. But anyways, I love you all. Until next time, goodbye