Sacred Symbols, Episode 172: Anti-Crunch

A writer messaged into this episode talking about the trophy list and literally every single Arkane trophy lists in all of their games are great. Y'all just dumb for not realizing it

David

If you google what difficulty you should play Witcher 3 on, most people recommend the highest one. I've beaten the game that way, and while in the beginning a pack of enemies on the side of the road would make minced meat out of me, and I had to repeat the Griffin fight a few times, as I got better gear, more moves, signs, and potion recipes, the combat got much easier, and rather fun. The consensus seems to be that combat in W3 is nothing to write home about, but in reality I think it's just geared more towards the higher difficulties - on normal there's barely any need to dodge, block, parry, or make use of everything available to you - just slash away and they go down. You need to beat the game on 'Death March' to get the platinum, too, so it seems like even the devs suggest to play the game this way. Happy B-day, Colin!

MISZCZOGRZMOT

Those warm cereal "people", are fucking sinister. Might be time to return to the ban-hammer and make an example of these reprobates. Show them that their wildly inappropriate tendencies won't be tolerated in polite society.

jordan allen burton

I wonder if there is something brewing between Apple and Sony. Sony has been advertising Apple TV Plus for a bit now. They got the former Apple Arcade head to run their mobile efforts. Perhaps he wasn't poached, but will be acting like a throughline for the two companies? Imagine Apple showing off Playstation mobile games as exclusive to iOS. Just a thought, probably a reach.

Caleb Shelton

Anyone who has spent any time in a jacuzzi or hot tub knows what’s going on with Dustin and that bidet. It’s fine, but you’re not fooling anyone

Kyle

In Canadian superstores, “No name” Is the generic brand. Recently I tried their beer, less than $1 per which is remarkable in Canada, and I quite enjoyed it

Kyle

If Ava is providing an "Irish singing piece" DO remember that Metal Gear Solid 1's credits theme "The best is yet to come" is in Gaelic..

Daimen Cianci

The beauty of the ecosystem is that there's room for anything we can think of, so long as an audience can sustain it.

Colin Moriarty

I’m glad you guys talked about the tactical mil-sim genre, I’ve been hoping to hear you’re guys take. I think this current next-gen console space is absolutely the time/place to have a resurgence of tactical mil-sim shooters (3rd & 1st person). Give me tactical gameplay, teamwork, customization, tight gunplay, and I’ll easily throw money at. I want linear / open gameplay. No BR shit as the main component of the game. I want coop campaign and solo campaign with smart AI teammates with punishing difficulty. I want my actions in the game to matter.

Samuel Zamora

I loved Wildlands. It was great! All Breakpoint had to was keep everything that was Wildlands and expand upon that. Not give us what BP was/is. I’ve been a Ghost Recon fan since the first game released on Xbox. That games online MP was my first foray into online MP. One of my fondest memories from that era. All Ubisoft had to do was literally take that legacy commentary the developers were talking about it, bring those ideations / previous iterations, and implement in them in a game. But nooooppppe, we got Frontline. FML.

Samuel Zamora

It definitely doesn't seem like a lot, but I think the argument is you'd get a better 32 hours than a looser 40. If you know you have a three day weekend every week, do you work harder and better and smarter? Their bet is 'yes'... and we'll see how it plays out.

Colin Moriarty

I don't think you've lived in a city, where scooters are everywhere.

Colin Moriarty

As someone who works as a web developer, I just don’t think 32 hours is much time to get things done. Sure if you can maximize your effort those 4 days it’s worth it, but everyone has better and worse days and I feel condensing your hours puts more pressure on you to always be at your best to get things done. Everyone works differently though, so if it works for the people at Eidos Montreal then more power to them!

Samuel Ashley

For those who don’t remember the debacle with Chris and scooters/bikes, he said “why would you want pedals” literally the dumbest thing I’ve heard on the show, and I’ve heard a lot of dumb stuff. The argument emerged from the ill conceived notion that pedals were like buzz saws when you were on a down slope that would somehow slice your legs off…failing to realize that actual bikes with handbrakes do not do spin uncontrollably 🤦🏻. Any adult who prefers a scooter over an actual bike is just a confused soul.

The Eclectic Gamer

He not talking about No Frills in the capacity you cited…the site reminds me of the WIC program here in the States. No Frills was a brand that wasn’t a brand and was just a white box.

The Eclectic Gamer

You'll be happy to know that No Frills is still alive and well in Atlantic Canada. (https://www.nofrills.ca/)

Kevin Cooper

Why can't we have it both ways though? I don't believe publishers demand that reviewers have reviews out by embargo...it is usually the editors or sites at large that expect this. The best option is to have advance copies that could be played causally and then allow for a discussion upon embargo date, with a full review coming the following week or two and then perhaps spoilercasts, etc. If Last Stand solicited (or were provided) codes for first and third party titles, the content would be vastly improved since there could be more thorough deep dives into games. From my experience, most bigger titles have led to review discussions 1-2 month after their release. If there was a discussion right at the onset of the podcast about a new game release, I would be all for that.

The Eclectic Gamer

I can relate to what Dustin was saying about forcing yourself to beat a game as fast as possible to get a review out. It’s exhausting and it doesn’t allow you to truly enjoy the experience.

NIXNE

Right.

Colin Moriarty

We're never gonna play anything other than what we want to play. I'm totally playing all three GTA games.

Colin Moriarty

Correct.

Colin Moriarty

SOMM ISS?! jfc...

Douglas Morreale

“Definitely gonna sit down and play [Grand Theft Auto Remasters]” Why? Please don’t waste your time when you have gems like 13 Sentinels, Hades, and Disco Elysium waiting in the wings… I know you don’t like to be told what to play, but these three titles can be vouched for by anyone who has played them and represent titles that you have highlighted as ‘getting to soon’ or have already purchased. And I do come to your “shit” to at least encourage timely playing of new releases. With that said I more often than not will make a list of games that I intend to play and reviews very rarely factor into my purchasing decisions. For example I know to close out the year I’m going to be playing House of Ashes, the new CoD campaign and finally Solar Ash in December. What I can say is that upon playing these games, many outlets don’t have anything in the way of full reviews out of the gate, with the exception of Kinda Funny and to a lesser extent Game Informer. Say what you will about your prior company, but 60 to 90 minutes about a game that typically has two people on the panel that have beaten it and usually a third who has just started to play it but was not beholden to any type of review and is available the day embargo lifts is super interesting and devoid of spoilers if people are nervous about that. Hearing discussion about peoples thoughts on a particular video game title is some of the most compelling contents surrounding video games in my opinion. There’s far too much of one guy playing a video game and just sort of talking and isolation, which is why it’s nice when you have panels of two or more people who are familiar with the title and it’s story beats in law that can expand and enhance a game.m discourse. As far as the G4 discussion is concerned, I love that they’re going to put episodes on the TV that I can DVR and watch in the living room in the background as I’m with my kids, moving around, straightening up etc.… The more I can get off my phone or a computer or at least the option to consume some content is not a bad thing.

The Eclectic Gamer

Anybody who is pronouncing Samus as "somas" probably eats there cereal warm.

Martin Colclough

Correct.

Colin Moriarty

Stay safe out there. =)

Colin Moriarty

When I saw everyone bitching about this new tier of Nintendo Online subscription as if $50 is a lot of money for an annual anything... I knew we were dealing with a different breed. LOL.

Colin Moriarty

LOL.

Colin Moriarty

Glad to hear there's some competition. =)

Colin Moriarty

I have no idea.

Colin Moriarty

That's a pretty pedantic correction. I meant you could use a GPS to get to and fro. I never played the original Saints Row.

Colin Moriarty

We're not ignoring that; that's even less relevant than our point that they're returning to TV. It's a dumb model, and -- as I said -- they should focus entirely on an online presence.

Colin Moriarty

Yeah, Magic Stars are legit.

Colin Moriarty

Yeah, it's a weird one.

Colin Moriarty

I think they did it to avoid accidental purchases, like I said. BUT! I wonder if they removed any content... =)

Colin Moriarty

That's Ramon's birthday. =)

Colin Moriarty

The only thing worse than calling level a biome is saying "I rolled credits" 🤮

Greg McDonald

Hey guys! Just wanted to drop in to the conversation about alternative work schedules. I’m a contractor at a Liquid Natural Gas plant in Texas and we work 4 day 10 hour shifts. My boss is flexible in which week day we want off, as long as there is at least one person at the site all 5 days. I actually tried Dustin’s suggestion of having Wednesday’s off for about a month. It was great! The mid-week break was refreshing and made it feel like Thursday-Friday, break, Thursday-Friday, weekend. For about 2 years we’ve been on a great schedule: alternate Fridays and Mondays off. So my schedule is on Monday through Thursday, off Friday through Monday, on Tuesday through Friday, repeat. Basically we alternate 2 day weekends and 4 day weekends. Life is so much better with an extra day off. I wouldn’t mind shaving off 8 hours and truly making it a 4 day work week though. We would actually be more productive. 30-40% of our time is spent “finding ways to stay billable.” Great episode as always, and y’all have a good one.

Caleb Bryant

The conversation around Metroid and pricing was so reassuring to hear. At least for me. I've seen Nintendo get shit online in these crazy comparisons between AAA Sony/Xbox games as if they're even comparable? Also, the point about our currency not only being our money was so relevant. Completely articulated how I feel but I never thought of it that way. I'd pay double or triple for something that I love! Journey or Cuphead for example aren't 75 euro games but they're games that made a mark and will last across time. I'd pay big money for them. I recently played A Plague Tale as a PS Plus free game, and I LOVED it. It's one of my faves in years, and I intend on purchasing a copy to support the Devs. All this shit as far as I can see is completely misguided and shallow. And quite honestly, it's not true fandom in my humble opinion. Make love not war! Have a great weekend lads! ❤️

Alan Hayden

Shout out to the Jesuits

GameSimp

Disagree with Dustin on tactical games on consoles. We haven’t gotten true tactical games on console in so long but the want is there. Insurgency is doing pretty well on Xbox at least but not sure about PlayStation. The space is there for them even if it isn’t as big as CoD or Battlefield.

Antonio Pereira

Hold up! Pathmark still exists? I'm almost pretty sure they went bankrupt. My mom used to work at one so I'm almost positive they're not around anymore. If they are still around this is a major revelation for me.

Dave Ramos

Episode 172: Butthole Pleasures. Correction: Col, you mentioned San Andreas had pathfinding but that was actually started by Saint’s Row on 360. In San Andreas, you could put a red pin on the map but there was no GPS still.

NeO JD

Damn, Colin hates Adam Sessler to the point of just trashing G4, LMFAO. They have a very limited cable package and focusing on Twitch and YouTube. Not sure why that was ignored, but whatever, it's your show.

Demon L

Magic Stars & Cheese Doodles > Lucky Charms & Cheetos. Nice work my friends as always.

James Pies

Hello errbady! Colin you said that under no circumstances should there me a cursor moving around in console when talking about Deathloop. I 100% agree with you and I do always ask myself why in the hell don’t developers at least let us the controllers touchpad if they are going to add a cursor? It definitely sucks that there’s a cursor but I think the touchpad could be the solution for that. It works fine when typing on the PS5 imo. Keep it up guys! Love y’all!

Jeff Caseres

For the new Demon Slayer game, the description on the PS Store tells you how there’s a digital deluxe edition so to make sure you are buying the one you intend to. I think Rockstar could’ve done something similar with the GTA Trilogy if purchasing the wrong version was the reason for removing the PS2 classics.

coolguyniko

Your birthday is the 14th mine is the 16th happy Birthday and it's and Dustin is wrong with the Samus thing dread is great

Video game fans, man.

Colin Moriarty

Pretty crazy.

Colin Moriarty

I just shared this on Twitter. Thank you!

Colin Moriarty

I've not run into any issues, thankfully.

Colin Moriarty

=)

Colin Moriarty

It's you!

Colin Moriarty

My ex used to try to line up her three day work weeks so that she could get like five or six days in a row off. I can see the appeal.

Colin Moriarty

Write in!

Colin Moriarty

Don't hate the Limp.

Colin Moriarty

You're welcome. =)

Colin Moriarty

I know. =\

Colin Moriarty

I actually want to give it a go, but there's just too much else to do.

Colin Moriarty

Hey! Inquiries go in the weekly threads, posted Wednesdays and deleted Thursdays. You can actually find the exact answer to this question by searching the Media Create charts. The answer is: Hundreds of thousands.

Colin Moriarty

I fear we're falling further and further into the rabbit hole.

Colin Moriarty

<3

Colin Moriarty

Jaffe been catching all the twitter heat for his metroid dread videos lol. He is right in his criticisms from what I saw but God forbid anyone has an opinion these days.

Michael Buffill

As successful as World of Warcraft was I believe FF14 currently has twice the peak subscriber base that WoW had.

Cristian R

There is an Irish song in MGS 1 which makes me think it can’t be anything else but MGS 1. The Best is Yet to Come, beautiful song

Brian Keogh

FYI: You can pin the sacred symbols podcast using the PS5 to your screen while you’re playing. I don’t know if this is common knowledge or not, but i didn’t know. If you send the text message google.com to someone on your friends list and then click that text message, it will open a browser to bring up sites like patreon, YouTube, etc. Hit options on web page selected and pin it to left or right of your screen. If you like watching/listening to podcasts when grinding games or like to change the music in game without using another device, check it out. It’s changed the how I consume these great podcasts. (Credit to Superplayers tip vid)

until they fix the massive game breaking glitches in death loop I have 0 desire to go back to it. I have had the game softlock on me I've had the game glitch out and not return weapons or slabs abilities to me the next loop. Not to mention massive stuttering issues

Wayde

Ohhhh!!!!

Brandon Soto

2 of my favorite game characters; Mairio & Sommus

Brandon Soto

As someone who works in biotheraputics and vaccine manufacturing we work a 2 2 3 schedule. And I actually like it alot more. The shifts are 12 hours but I never work more than 3 days in a row. For example one week we work Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri , Sat, Sun. But the following week we only work on wed and Thurs. It's a lot easier on me mentally.

Big titty drinker

Quick note guys: "Venom 2: Let there be Carnage" just released in theaters this month. It is directed by Andy Serkis. No doubt Sony had him record that for Spiderman 2 which also has Venom in it.

Jeshua Anderson

I'm assuming the remake is indeed metal gear solid 3 or something related to metal gear and it will be a PlayStation exclusive (see: KOTOR, FF VII) I'm personally saddened to see these remakes locked to Sony console, but it's honestly a clever combating of Xbox's backwards compatibility.

Tonys_Always_Write

Your show is punk rock, and that's why you're at the top. Keep up the great work! I'll tune out the Limp Bizkit talk, though.

Max Stahl

I submitted a question about MercurySteam hypothetically developing a Castlevania game (it wasn’t read), and when I did so I didn’t realize that they were the ones who blacklisted Colin with Konami. I love Metroid Dread, but those guys can kindly fuck off. Thanks for the show!

Brent Lindquist

FYI: The Biomutant game trial is 5 hours from WHEN YOU START THE DOWNLOAD…it’s the stupidest thing Sony has done and provides no benefit to anyone with slower download speeds

Brian Presley

Just want to point out that Dustin said he looks forward to hot salami in the morning and no one said anything… that is all..

Joaquin Branche

I just wanna throw it out there, FFXIV is my favorite game of all time and its not even close. That game has so much care, quality, love and the Director/Producer Naoki Yoshida is a really wholesome and honorable man. At the end of the day, it is an MMO, a genre that isn't for everyone. The story alone is ~400+ hrs not counting the incredible amount of content available to the player (I'm at ~2,800 hrs lmao). But if you do want to give it an honest shake, you wont be disappointed.

Drew Sleezer

I always forget to post my question in time so I’ll just leave it here. Maybe someone wants to pick it up for next episode. Colin, how well did The Last of us 2 do in Japan? I was playing Tales of Arise and am amazed at how bad the dialog is. In part I think it’s the translation and the voice acting but I think a lot is the script and the directions given to the actors. Which in other words to me seems like strong cultural barrier was not broken through. I wonder if they consider j-rpgs like Tales “well acted” and how they view stuff like the tLoU2 which we consider to have great performances. What do you think? Cheers, Calcifer

Calcifer

... Phrasing 😂

Tonys_Always_Write

Oh yeah it's SS Friday!!

Derek Alcott

Gents..41:50 mark before any games talk. The SS lore is real and it is delicious. Please continue with all the inane story arcs in perpetuity. I can get my games news anywhere but this no reason rage that Chris has for all things British, and Colin’s anti- anything remotely European has me coming back for more. Laughed aloud so many times. More please. :)

Rage.Quit_Richard

Never stop the Bidet Debates. Pure comedy gold.

Matthew Two T's

=)

Colin Moriarty

LOL.

Colin Moriarty

Correct.

Colin Moriarty

This is such an old man statement.

Colin Moriarty

Thank you!

Colin Moriarty

Yes.

Colin Moriarty

Go on, git! Warm cereal? The fuk?

lazer_josh

when did big bidet get to you guys? how much are they paying you?

Jacob

All this from a slice of gabagool?

Stephen Forgione

Great episode so far, happy belated Colin, as far as the Jean zipper saga. Most jeans nowadays are made from poor quality materials, so the zipper actually falls down on its own. This can also happen if your jeans are too tight or too loose. I had a pair of black jeans where the zipper fell no matter what, so I threw that shit away. Older jeans are made of better quality.

Kenneth Oms

Happy belated birthday Colin !

Nick La Creta

Dustin is absolutely correct about Aldi.

Forrest Hunter