Lawrence Sonntag

On Metacritic, last time I checked it was at a 77, and an 81 top critic average on OpenCritic.

Uh, neither, neither of those are bad, but I, I would guess probably much lower than Sony or Insomniac wanted, especially, like Lawrence said, for a AAA game coming from a top Sony studio, featuring an iconic character.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Some of the bigger outlets definitely had some issues with this game.

But I think there's been a progression of simplifying games when they get more expensive because game makers and publishers get more risk-averse.

So as games get more expensive, they have to appeal to more people, and then you end up with something like Wolverine, where PlayStation is trying to find the sweet spot in terms of the smallest possible amount of money they can spend on a game and still earn the most money back.

I- yeah, Lawrence, you're, you're totally right.

This is really interesting because I think, like Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2 were obviously great games.

Yeah, and those comments definitely line up with recent reports that Xbox is shopping around a $300 million licensing rights package for several of their gaming brands, like Elder Scrolls and Diablo, for TV and movie adaptations.

So yeah, right in line with what Lawrence was saying.

Oh man, give them to me.

I can't wait to watch another terrible video game television show or movie.

It's deeply, deeply ironic maybe to see those m- those same dynamics now move fully into video games.

Yeah, this is a real nightmare.

Uh, I love talking about Kojima because Kojima, like you said, Lawrence, he just burns money, and Death Stranding, the first one, I played it, could not get...

I really attempted to get into it a couple of times.

But people are used to open worlds with a lot more vibrance nowadays.

To your point, Lawrence, it is a clover.

To your point, it is a short game.

So, I mean, like, they don't need to fill it with a bunch of garbage.

That's the shot.

As far as I know.

Lawrence, are you going to buy it?

Yeah.

Sales camp.

Played a little hardball writing that quote, the advertised price was cheaper before I logged in, which is what Lawrence experienced.

I purchased the game and then contacted Sony, sending them images of both prices.

They credited my account wallet with the price difference, which was five pounds.

Up next is hazard pay and this pixel art dystopian block pushing puzzler.

There you go, Lawrence.

A shadowy client has hired you to navigate a network of hazardous secret labs.

Take the money, do the job, don't ask questions.

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And those memes are always...

Man, it's pretty special.

And like Lawrence said, just really sad to hear them say it out loud.

They say that if someone did own the game they buy, then only one person would ever be able to buy a game.

We're not really being reductive.

So, like, uh, this is kinda one of those things where I'm like, I don't, I don't know if...

Are you a huge fan of it, Lawrence?

I am.

Yeah.

I love that you can do this stuff on the cloud.

Uh, and like Lawrence was saying, you can transfer some games to Windows.

I appreciate all of that, and I think that that's really cool, and I'm glad that they're utilizing those systems to make, uh, disc to digital a little better for the folks that already have those discs.

So this is a, this is a win.

[laughs]

No, no.

I was gonna say, what Lawrence is describing is my nightmare.

I don't wanna have to read what some detail...

And, and it's like no wonder unemployment's so bad and all this other stuff, because all these companies used to have, like, support departments, and customer service, and all these w- with all these jobs, and now they're just gone.

And let me tell you, yeah, it's like Lawrence said, a good customer support person can fix your problem, like, quickly.

Whereas just fighting with chatbots all day is, I guess, what we're gonna do from now until the heat death of everything.

Well, I h- uh, Brian, I hope you're wrong there.

That makes me real sad.

Me too.

And I, and, uh, the more that I say this, hopefully the more that people understand this, the reason that Lawrence has to fight through chatbots and I just had to fight through chatbots, Brian, we all do, it's money.

It's always money.

There were other people that got let in if you requested access on Steam, thing, things like that.

But most of them were pre-orders, including me, and I think including Lawrence.

Yeah, same here.

But, uh, it's, it's very telling when the arrow go up instead of go down over the same-

But the sooner you accept that, the better, 'cause I, I actually had a similar breakdown about this like a month ago, and I realized you just gotta ratchet that IQ back.

You just, uh, you just gotta be like, "When I step into COD, I am taking what they give me and that's it." And the illusion of control or progression, it's all just, it's all part of the theater of it.

Uh, Lawrence, while I agree, I'm gonna challenge your, uh, views here only because there are other video games that are similar to COD, not exactly, but there are other video games that you don't have to go in and get shot a thousand million times in the head and then be like, "I hate this fucking game.

I quit." You don't have to do that.