To Justin’s comment about Zero Dawn not being a recognizable setting, you should check out the section of the map (sorry don’t remember the name off hand) that is current day Red Rocks, a famous natural amphitheater near Denver. The developers modeled it so well that I got to the location during a mission and recognized it, causing me to look up the setting of the game!

a couple of beers, some Mario Kart and Scoop, this is what I call a successful Friday night.

I like how long they let the end music ride. I’m vibin

That Solstice tune at the end is a real banger, especially for an NES song

That ending, then the ending after this week's scoop was amazing ! Lmao

if justin ever needs someone to geek out over cyberpunk hit me up. LOVED that game and its storytelling.

Scoop! Great seeing Daemon back after a brief hiatus. Wanted to chime in on one thing: Justin, there are actually a bunch of landmarks in Zero Dawn that indicate exactly where you are. The first corrupted area in the game is in the ruins of the US Air Force Academy, and a later one is in Red Rocks Ampitheatre. Won't spoil the rest, but keep your eye out once you go further west as well.

Finished Elden Ring yesterday and I absolutly adored it. It won't be to everybody's tastes, but to me it's a masterpiece. One thing I'll say, I don't get how the fact ''your one weapon'' got a nerf ruined the game when this game has so. many. weapons and spells and ashes of war to play with. One of the best thing about the game is that you have so many amazing options to play with. But to each his own. I'm excited to play it all over again eventually with a different build.

Upvoted for "their bad for not brining a ladder guy"

Is Damon sitting in the studio all alone? That would be so sad.

Everyone’s back! Yay. Episode 666! ❤️❤️

The Prince of Darkness is pleased!

Totally agree Justin. I’m about 35 hours into cyberpunk and can’t stop thinking about it. Such a shame it didn’t come out in the state it’s in now. It’s like GTA, bioshock and blade runner mixed together

Comments about Elden Ring weapon being nerfed - I do have to remind that Elden Ring is technically NOT a single-player game. Sure, you CAN play it off-line, but a side effect of such a world giving you the option to play online or offline is that they have to be synchronized and balanced for online play. If the weapon you have is game-breaking in online play, they cannot just leave it and creating separate updates for online vs offline play creates a plethora of other issues so it is far from a solution.

The nerf to the elden ring sword was not NEAR big enough to completely remove its use. It is still very much one of the strongest weapons in the game. That person is EXTREMELY over dramatic. Also the nerf to the weapon is because it was abused in pvp. It STILL is…

Building off of Sam's point about the arrow thing in Zelda BOTW-One of my favorite things that you could do in Skyrim was to sit and wait for NPC's to use the targets and just scoop up all of their arrows. Saved a ton of time and resources while I was exploring not having to worry about using crucial high-damage ammo on low-level enemies.

In 20 questions Damon said yes it could appear in the "real mature video games" segment but horizon forbidden West is rated T.

Hell yeah! I’ve been wondering where episode 6 6 6 went! Much love and always look forward to attending Camp Goose!

1:03:50 it's definitely niche, but you can come across the ruins of the fairly iconic Air Force Academy chapel near the Nora village, which absolutely blew my mind being from Colorado. It was a very Planet of the Apes moment. During the whole beginning of the game I was eager to progress and check out the ruins of Red Rocks amphitheater and Denver to the north east. Really cool experience.

Switch Blades lol I got it Daemon

He said that they should give the Switch, blades. I'm pretty sure he did it on porpoise, and not one of them acted like they got it. I thought it was funny Daemon.

An ending better than a Marvel post credits scene!

Daemon's a legend

Man Oregon Trail brings back elementary school memories. I obsessed over that game. Then there was a game called Gorilla Wars my friends and I would play pretty consistently. Oh and the original sim city which blew my effing mind as a child in 1992, even though at that point Sim City was a few years old I think, but man that pretty much started my interest in video games. I grew up with 2 older brothers so we had the Atari/nintendo/sega (I was a Sega kid for better or worse lol) but I never got into gaming until I played oregon trail for some reason.

Was not expecting Zoombinis to get mentioned on this pod, but I’m happy it did! Used to LOVE playing that game with my sister. We’d sit at the same computer and make that monster’s pizzas JUST right 👌

listen every week by far one of my top 3 fav must listen to podcast each week you guys are the best perfect 10 cast and my man Damian holds the reins like ghost rider

Completed elden ring last week and an utter masterpiece and everyone's new fav game including mine well until i decided to replay spooky bloodborne again as that was my fav from game and in my opinion BB is still better on an enemy design, boss and world design! Both 10/10s

I almost forgot what a professional day man looks like

Heavenly Sword, my friend who owned a gaming store, got stuck on the last boss. He handed me the controller, I've never played it before, and it only took me 3 lives.

The end was hilarious

You guys know that Elden Ring has PVP, right? Therefore balance patches are necessary

100% agreed. I played Cyberpunk 2077 at launch on a powerful PC and I was so bummed that I wasn’t able to share the experience I was having with so many others. Really great game. Wish it had had another year or so in the oven.

Elden ring has a big multiplayer so it needs to be balanced

Happy Scoop Day! Anxiously awaiting the video to process so I can see the return of Daemon. Sounds like a bad 80’s horror movie. Nothing better than starting my weekend off with the omega cops. Once again everyone give Tina a round of applause for keeping the podcast going. Nicely job!

The Prey exploit was sooooooooooo good and honestly ensured I would play the game to the end because that level grind sucked. The Elden Ring scenario is completely different though due to the multiplayer element, weapon balancing is needed to ensure you aren't OP if you invade/get invaded. Also, I have the sword the guy is complaining about, it's still very good, it's just not broken now, and it's also encouraged me to try other weapons because I'm no longer bound to continuously use that broken weapon

In regards to the Elden ring question I think everyone is forgetting that PvP is just as big as the single player aspect of the game which is the main reason weapon rebalancing happens.

I really expected some ghouls 'n ghost music at the beginning considering the thumbnail. The rygar music intro is still one of my favorites.

The Amazing ign crew!

Remember when games were shipped as is? No updates, you got what you got.

I would love to be on Scoop one day (:

For me Ghostwire is a great game that I feel like a lot of people are not going to know how to approach, to no fault of their own. It has a lot of options & some of the default ones are to it's detriment in my opinion. Oddly it reminds me of death stranding & aspects of layers of fear more than anything else. The combat is quite fluid once you understand the flow but it's not as intuitive. I see many people walking back & free aim shooting where it's more about parrying & consistently locking on for your shots. It's certainly not for everyone but if you have any interest in Japanese folklore, mythology, culture, & first person exploration, light detective puzzle solving, & collectathons, in a dark setting, this game is fantastic for all that.

I enjoyed every second of Sam's rant. Well done.

Pro tip: set the game on easy when farming , save a lot of time and frustration

So digging the NES music!

Damn the ending track slaps!

Damn we missed you daemon!

That Zombie version of Steve Urkel that Tina is talking about at 43:35 is a painting by an artist called Alex Pardee. Look up the painting and his other work if you like cool pop art.

Interesting to hear talk about controller settings on Ghostwire Tokyo. Weird that Deathloops PS5 controller settings were never raised as an issue, as to this day they still feel shonky as hell to me and no amount of tweaking makes it feel any better. If anybody has recommended settings I'd appreciate hearing them as I had to stop playing

I used that same weapon that got Nerfed. It’s still OP. Just not as OP. Also, they nerfed it because of PvP. If he was playing offline like true single player then he wouldn’t have gotten the patch.

"zelda like souls lite" how can I resist.

Great to hear such positive discussions about four-player coop. I love coop games. I think coop gaming is the best; I know it lacks the competitiveness that many enjoy with adversarial games, but there's no better place to find online friends, or just friendly gamers than playing coop. The PS4 is the biggest gaming mistake I've ever made because coop on Playstation isn't a scratch on what I've previously experienced on Xbox. Coop is the reason I'm going back (when I finally find a Series X). Looking back at that period on the 360 playing Rainbow Six, Left4Dead, First to Fight and, I think there was another, that was a golden era of gaming for me. I wouldn't have dreamed of playing online without the headset and by comparison it's the exact opposite on Playstation. So it's not the console, and it's not even the games, but there's a communication culture Microsoft started by including a headset with the 360 that is absolutely missing on Playstation. I don't know whether this is what they'd planned, I presume they just hoped that the experience I had was going to be normal for most. It's no surprise to see Tina's face light up reminscing about Left4Dead. Not only was it a fantastic game, it had a wonderful community too. I think the game's atmospheric setting, the difficulty (if you got split from the group), along with most players willingness to communicate really elevated the online experience. What a game, and what a golden era that was.

post credit scene alert

Daemon, you’re totally right about Triangle Strategy. I’ve relegated it to the game I play before bed. Slow and steady. The story is a treat, in my opinion

SCOOP!

666 Death at the end!

Daemon gave it away but I love him lol

We rise

I was like 666. Yessssssss! The like of the beast.

I'm gonna watch Studio 666 after I finish podcast 666.

Bout damned time!!!!

I'm a big advocate of single-player cheats, especially as I get older and don't have time to "git gud." The blue key was punishing in Tunic and after a couple dozen failed attempts when I was about to put the game down, I turned on No Fail, took care of the boss, turned it back off and continued playing for longer. If it didn't have it built in I may have put it down at that point for good and never finished a truly great game.

I loved Evolve so much... I wish someone would take a crack at the giant monster type of 4v1 again... RIP

Pretty awesome that Episode 666 is so close to the 40th anniversary of The Number Of The Beast 🤘🤘🤘💀👺🔥🔥🔥

Man, I got the game in like 7 questions, once I knew it was a sony exclusive and europe made and a part of a series, there's not much else...Also, It's rated T....Hellblade WAS a PS exclusive for like a year, then it went to Xbox, then MS bought Ninja Theory...You'd' think people in games journalism would know that

I love Cyberpunk. I mean the aesthetic is right up my alley. But I love getting lost in that world and feeling that connection with the characters. I’m playing through again on PS5 and am aiming for the platinum. This time around, I’m not even driving. I’m just walking from one point to the next taking in this lush city. I hate to put it down.

Platinumed Horizon FW. My GOTY so far. Though I haven’t played Elden Ring yet

“Zombie Urkel” is by the artist Alex Pardee and he is amazing, check his stuff out

Daemon Swagfield

Scoop! 💜

Happy Friday everyone! Loved today's episode title! I'm a huge fan of the band (can't say if I'm allowed to mention it here LOL). I wonder if you guys didn't put the midi version of the song because of some licensing stuff... Anyway, pretty cool (specially the end LOL)! /,,/_ >.< _\,,\

Demon Hatfield 😈

Sometimes I wonder if the questions Daemon asks are him doing the thing journalists do where they ask questions for the sake of the audience rather than themselves. Having the option to choose which nerfs to apply would be an absolute nightmare for the developers, having to maintain multiple different concurrent builds of the game. It's worth noting that it's not just features, nerfs and buffs that are in patches, but also stability and security fixes and enhancements that everyone would benefit from. We've already had issues with invaders bricking people's saves, and From had to patch it as soon as they could

Solstice opening Music! How’d they get that many layers on an NES track??

I listen to all my podcasts/videos with the same headphones but there’s something always weird with the gamescoop audio. Everything sounds clear but it has some odd distortion in background that makes me have to really turn it down. It sucks

HZD is Colorado/Utah

26:59 Oh, cool. ;)

It’s not a single player game but fighting games Nerf characters whenever they have updates. When I put in time and effort to learning combos with a certain character sometimes they will get Nerf in a way that my combos no longer work so it’s not the exact same thing but somethings similar does happen in fighting games

“I’m almost 2/3 of the way through already” about a 2017 game made me chuckle a bit I must confess.

🤘

Dying light 2 had a charm that basically made weapon degradation redundant. They patched it to cost too much to actually use it making the charm redundant. They patched it again and now its affordable so i feel like the middle ground that they reached is the best resolution rather than patching games making items, features or in game systems redundant.

How did no member of the cast mention that Elden Ring isn't just single player? It has co-op and pvp.

I really respect how Bethesda has let Skyrim remain "broken" for all these years. You can choose whether or not you want to exploit the game or do a cheesy strategy. And guess what? People play all sorts of different ways, and that is why the game has had such staying power. Developers seem to think that if there is an "OP" way of playing, that will be the only way of playing. Meanwhile people do no damage runs, level one runs, play a platformer with a Guitar Hero controller or whatever. There's no danger of an exploit rendering a single player game free of challenge or tension. In a crazy fantasy world it should definitely be possible to become an overpowered wizard of some kind. Anything else is not thematic. Also, I don't think using the psychology of the average Destiny or WOW player is the right way to think about this. It's absolutely bonkers how much those people care about in game polygons/items. But most people don't "optimize the fun out" of their games.

Left 4 dead was 4v4. The question is about 4v1. I do think evolved was great and it would have been a fantastic f2p love service game. It was just before its time in some ways

you should make captions available again :(

Thank god everyone is back. Cat was a terrible fill in last week.

It kills me sometimes hearing people who work in the industry no knowing things like Ninja Theory is now a MS studio so Hellblade 2 IS NOT an exclusive.

To the eldin ring questioner you can resolve the problem on your own. You can just delete a patch and not download it again. Why not just do that instead of quitting what you don't like? Idk if this would not allow your save to transfer over or not though. Why not just try it if you are going to quit? Also just try a different weapon? Your stats and play style will fit another weapon in the game. The question is did you like your play style or did you just like being under leveled and still killing everything because you aren't back at "zero" if your character is leveled up.

You wouldn't know it by reading what the community has to say (all people do is complain as if they are prisoners forced to play the game), but Dead by Daylight is an extremely well designed game with a high skill ceiling. It will be extremely difficult for any other asymmetrical game to dethrone it.

I wholeheartedly agree with everyone’s hot takes on the cheats and being OP. However… U guys completely overlooked Elden ring’s PVP component !!

A really quick point with “cheating” games. Games are now tied into system wide achievements. Cheating a game affects the legitimacy of those. (Not that I would personally care)

Didnt hellblade launch as a ps4 exclusive then go multiplat?

I would just like to clarify Horizon Forbidden West is not rated M for Mature by the ESRB.

Swaim Scooooop

Daemon you gotta cool it with the huge air sucking in noises throughout the show my man

this is actually episode 667 part a, we are skipping that number like the 13th floor

Justin,finished zero dawn.Would you do THE FROZEN WILDS dlc?

The episode count is now off again😂😂

I may be alone here, but, xbox has the best UI. It's really easy to use, organize and customize everything. I prefer it over all other consoles by far. Not fanboying, I have all the consoles and a gaming PC. Xbox just works best, for me.

With the issue of patching games to remove "cheats", as usual with many issues, there's no simple yes or no. If they require a special skill to excel and it's a competitive situation, then it should be fixed. An obvious example is "fire hopping" from Mario Kart 8 on WU that ruined online time trials, whereas the trick to get infinite lives using a shell in SMB is actually exploiting a design feature so should not be fixed. Speaking of Mario Kart, the "snaking" technique in MK DS was such an unfair exploit that Nintendo revised the slide-turbo move for subsequent games. PS: You "patch games" not "patch out games". If you want to pedantic and use a redundant word, it should be "patch in" because you are adding into the game.

Who cares if you gave an op build in a single player game honestly no need to nerf still haven't opened cyberpunk glad to know it's going to be harder to play now cuz of you