Out of Lives

Lucy and Ben get together again in their second discussion on The Last of Us Part II. This time they focus on Abby’s journey and the final act of the game. They delve into Abby’s time in Seattle. Ellie on the farm and her search in California then to the game’s closing scenes and how they felt about the experience. There are plenty of spoilers for the whole game in this chat so finish the game first if you haven’t. https://www.outoflives.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/tlou2spoiler2.mp3

Join Lucy and Ben as they discuss the first half of the Last of Us Part II. They go into detail on their thoughts on gameplay, story and characters. It’s full of spoilers for the entire game as they discuss Ellie, Joel and the inhabitants of Seattle. They’ll be back next week to discuss the second half and the end of the game. https://www.outoflives.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/tlou2spoilercast.mp3

Adam and Ben get together to discuss the next generation of consoles from the information released on them so far. They weigh up the tech specs of the Xbox Series X and the PlayStation 5 and if they matter, what some of it means and what they need to see to believe the hype. https://www.outoflives.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/PS5XSXchat.mp3 Adam Thomas I’m Adam and I’m joined with Ben. We’re going to talk about the new console details for the next-generation PlayStation and Xbox as we have something to compare. And we’ve been, you know, given enough time to digest where what we’ve actually seen. So overall impressions Ben, initial thoughts. Ben Nother I mean, initial thoughts, you know, kind of all of the stuff that we’ve got so far for me is it’s just, just numbers, isn’t it? It’s just a constant stream of tech specs and stuff like that. I think the Xbox stuff came out a little while ago, you know, lists of kind of like the RAM and the processors and all of those sorts of things. And then we had the, I suppose now, slightly notorious, Mark Cerny, GDC, stand in talk almost, I guess. For what they were going to show developers and things at GDC obviously made public and whilst Mark Cerny is a fantastic orator, it’s the driest presentation I think I’ve ever seen. Adam Thomas Very much a technical talk. Ben Nother Yes. And within the context of it being a GDC talk you expect that. But again, lots of chat about just numbers and kind of the ethos, and the ethos kind of stuff is interesting. Again, the numbers are just sort of bouncing off me. I’m thinking, Okay, well, we’ve got X number of teraflops over here, and then X number teraflops over here. Really, to me, that’s kind of meaningless because as I suppose Mark Cerny was kind of trying to get out in the PlayStation chat, It’s all about what else is within that box, what else that’s being coupled with how things actually interact. I think at least from the PlayStation side, we’ve seen a little bit more of how it’s going to work as a unit than we have from Xbox. For me whilst on paper, it looks like Xbox is this big beefy boy and PlayStation is maybe slightly more lithe and I think accessible was the word Mark sort of used all the time. We still haven’t seen anything. And that’s kind of what I’m waiting for really before I pass judgement on whether one is going to be better than the other. Technically speaking. Adam Thomas Yeah, with these things, it always comes down to what the developers can actually do with it. And it’s all well and good. Having, we change this, and we put this in it and we’ve done this, and we’ve done that. But if the developers struggle with it for any reason, or just doesn’t get the benefits that they’re expecting, developers don’t use it or use it in a different way for other stuff, and it just doesn’t have the impact that they want. It may be meaningless, just yeah, garbage numbers, as you said. For me, I’ve been interested in the, because the worry was that we would just have to basically identical rectangles, but different manufacturer’s stickers. And that would be where what I’ve liked is the fact that although and kind of broad strokes, they’ve gotten very, very similar. The differences between the two show are very clear, you know, shift and approach divergence between the two of them. So Xbox of when very simple, straight down the line back numbers, we’re going to put the best parts, we can get in it, and that’s just going to do so they’ve come out with your, you know, your 12 teraflops, what they expect that will actually put out. Whereas Sony and PlayStation have went a bit more, Well, we’re going to tinker with a bit more and customise the different bits and try and make them all work that wee bit better. And these various ways that we think this will make a big difference. And so, and they’re, they’re aim is that Yeah, Xbox has 12 teraflops to their 10.4 teraflops, but there are 10.4 teraflops will be better teraflops basically. Yeah. Sort of the idea. Ben Nother Yeah, it’s more about like optimization, isn’t it? Yeah. What can do what at any one time, whilst you might have, you know, hundreds and hundreds of teraflops or have access to lots and lots of power, it’s everything around it reading and being able to use that at the same time. And again, I think we’ve had a little bit more info from PlayStation on that about how things actually interface with each other how things are optimised a little bit better. And whilst Yeah, those numbers aren’t quite as high as, as the series x is going to have. We kind of understand that it is a little bit more accessible, it’s optimised a little bit better or at I won’t say it’s optimised better. I don’t know that it’s optimised better. If Mark Cerny was saying that is what they have gone for. That is what they are looking to achieve with it. Adam Thomas Yeah, they’ve went into it to see with the customizations and the more details, they’ve looked at where the bottlenecks are, and how they extract more performance out of it. Because, you know, it was actually one of the previous Mark Cerny video things where he was showing off the difference to the SSD mix the solid state drive compared to a regular hard drive. Ben Nother Was that the Spider-Man one? Adam Thomas Yeah, so that shows, and that really highlights kind of the, you know the inate difference and just changing from the standard hard disk drive to the solid state drive, which both have done, you know, there’s a huge difference in you know, the read speed so you can have all your extra power but as you say that there are those bottlenecks where the game engines and everything has to pull out the data that it needs. And actually, you know, put it on the screen and show you what it needs to show and that’s why, you know, Spider Man and the ps4 game can only swing so fast because if it goes any faster, the console can’t physically load the world in quickly enough, yeah, you know, in front of you. So that exists, you know, otherwise, you would just swing off into fucking nothing. And again, you have to like pause, you have to catch up and all that. Whereas a lot of that goes away purely by having the SSD because it’s so much quicker, just in general. But then Sony of went in, and to that extra bit of depth, we’re in Mark Cerny’s talk, where there are mentioning, you know, in much greater detail than I, in detail, I don’t fully understand. But they’re showing how they’ve changed it so that it’s so much, you know, the bandwidth of the data so they can draw out so much more data all the time, to speed all of that sort of processing up. So that will mean that the aim is that that means that developers are that don’t need to put in, you know, stupid windy corridors in between areas and stuff like that, you know, which is a kind of a design thing they’ve had to put in, because of the technical limitations so that the game can, you know, the RAM and all that can dump the old memory and then load then the new level stuff, you know, and things like that, to give it space to do that without literally just locking you and place or having you stuck in an elevator or whatever. Ben Nother It’s, it’s kind of an interesting one that we, you know, I think we’ve sort of seen with this generation how, how much better these generation of consoles were than the previous one in this area already. With all of these massive open-world games, things like Red Dead Redemption 2, the newer Assassin’s Creed games, how they can still do, you know, quite a lot and, and have a lot on-screen at one time especially compared to previous generations, the 360 and ps3 games. Yeah, and I remember when those consoles were kind of announced that one of the things that people talked a lot about were like particle physics and things like that. And the ability to have more stuff on screen more things going on, again, better optimization about using memory and things. And I’m guessing that’s just, you know, again, we’re going to see that that is just the clear jump that things can do to work better to allow more things to happen at, at any one time. So it’s kind of it’s not a surprise that that is sort of the way that they’ve taken it. And the way that they’ve tried to, they tried to work with their tech to achieve putting more things on the screen, allowing more low times allowing you to have, you know, an absolutely insane say like run speed or via you know, car speed, you know, how much, how much better a sort of like a driving game is going to be and feel when that that speed can be just that little bit quicker. You know, obviously, short driving games have been limited to this as well, of being able to load in a certain amount at any one time. And they’re a little bit different because you’re usually, you know, you have kind of one view, and you’re going around a course. So things can be very well-tailored, it is almost like that corridor situation kind of all the time. Something like Forza was a little bit different. And I think was, you know, quite rightly used as the, the showcase for the, for the Xbox One. Because, again, you could have this massive open world and things loaded quickly. But could you imagine, Forza or like something like an open-world driving game where you could really, really boost that car and go into sort of, you know, use some nitrous and absolutely fly around. I think that’s kind of like, again, what we’re, what we’re talking about with this next generational leap, having just a massive, massive open world with so much stuff going on, but it just feels alive. I think, you know, Insomniac did quite well with Spider-Man in that regard there were people in the street but upi never had big crowds. When you had enemies, and at times you had quite a lot of enemies on the screen with you and in one area, it was a little bit more kind of limited. That actually there weren’t people around as much. And you know, they they stopped cars and things like that w

https://www.outoflives.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Doom-Eternal-Discussion-Spoiler-Free-Review-Audio.mp3 I will cut to the chase, should you buy Doom Eternal? Yes, the game is insane. It is a love letter to the old school whilst adhering to modern conventions. The mixture results in something that feels familiar yet unique. This review will only cover the single-player portion of the game as at the time of writing the multiplayer servers are not live. That being said let’s begin. The story. This element of Doom Eternal whilst serving as a sequel to Doom 2016 is largely accessible as a stand-alone entry. The brief ties to the original work as the story opens up as a great entry point for new players but felt a little disjointed given how Doom 2016 ends. Aside from that personal gripe the story is merely a vessel for one action-packed setting to the next its serviceable on the surface and has some cool reveals that unfold throughout setting the franchise up in an interesting development. The real meat of the story is from the codex entries which reveal all cards of fascinating information about the demons and the wider lore of the Doomverse. My personal gripes aside, the story does give the Doomslayer more of a personality and the way humans and demons alike react to you as a biblical tour de force really enhances immersion. This makes you feel like a God with his watchtower in space ready to deploy and protect humanity. Now, everything else from here is simply perfection. The gameplay loop may seem overwhelming in its entirety but the game is smart enough to introduce new mechanics at just the right time mixing up each encounter making them feel fresh. By the time the last level rolls around you are the apex predator utilizing your full arsenal to unleash Doom upon the hellspawn. The simple changes like a glory kill providing health, chainsaw kills ammo, then flame an enemy and boom, they drop armour flows into a perfect action-packed scene straight from a blockbuster. I mean no disrespect when I say Doom is like a Michael Bay action scene ramped up to 100. When the dust settles and the carnage is calmed you feel like an action hero and that feeling of going from 0 to 100 to 0 is addicting. I was constantly wanting more. The game allows you to rip and tear your way. After all, what is a Doom game without a killer arsenal? Doom Eternal delivers this in spades with a healthy variety of weapons. These can be upgraded and switched on the fly providing the right tool for the appropriate amount of destruction. Maxing out a weapon unlocks a challenge. Completing this challenge unlocks the ultimate form, so to speak, which has even more ways to kill. My favourite weapon, aside from the BFG 9000, had to of been the chain gun turret mode that thing is a beast in its own right. A Slayer is only as good as his prey, however. The game again succeeds in this is an area with Doom Eternal constantly ratcheting up the encounter difficulties until its throwing literally everything bar bosses at you. It adds an unpredictability factor on the first encounter of any new fight so you don’t know what may be after your head. The stand out new enemy is the Marauder. This wolf summoning axe-wielding shield walking menace forces you to take him seriously. The first encounter between the Slayer and Marauder is palpable. Like MMA fighters literally wanting to beat the other into submission… except submission is death in this case. He is tough but when you get how to dispatch him I felt a euphoria rarely experienced, something akin to beating a Dark Souls boss. The final note on enemies is f**k tentacles. The number of times they made me jump is more than I care to admit. All weapons feel unique and have their own flavour and encourage different playstyles. To enhance this there are two additional upgrade systems, suit upgrades and runes. Runes cater to your playstyle. Mine was focused around glory kills but there are 9 to choose from with a max of 3 equipped at one time. The suit upgrades mainly focus on grenades and environment stuff but can enhance and improve combat depending on your preference. Each level has its own set of challenges. Challenges can be based around weapons, kills and exploration encouraging players to really experience the masterfully crafted levels that all feel very distinct. Outside of killing Doom Eternal offers platforming, puzzle-solving and its own collectable heaven for any completionist. In addition, the game has inbuilt milestones that can unlock skins and various other customization items for the Slayer, weapons and the Demons for Battlemode. This kept me going back and after around 20 hours playtime I had gathered all the collectables and beat almost all the campaign milestones. Even when you think you have done everything you haven’t as I still have to beat the Master Levels which will be added to in time. This is definitely something you want to tackle postgame as it requires a good understanding of the core gameplay loop as well as a nicely kitted out arsenal. Now, none of this would feel as epic or sound as good without an amazing soundtrack. Thankfully Mick Gordon returns with another next level soundtrack that is unrivalled. The way the music builds into anticipating an encounter to getting down and dirty whilst the carnage is flying left right and centre. He has honestly outdone himself and I’m in awe of how motivating the soundtrack is. In later levels, it allows for the soundtrack to evolve and blend in with other genres mixing for a true eargasm experience. Doom Eternal might not just be a contender for game of the year, that’s a given, but honestly its one of my favourite gaming experiences of this generation and my life. With two campaign expansions planned and a built-in and intriguing BattleMode, I can see myself coming back to Doom Eternal for a long while yet. Doom has in my eyes well and truly re-established itself as king of the first-person shooter genre. VERDICT Should you play it? Yes Why? Its a raw gameplay experience that brings old school back in a unique way. Reviewed on Xbox One. Review code supplied by Bethesda    Looking for Doom Eternal on PC? Visit Green Man Gaming, using the affiliate link below, and purchase Doom Eternal to give a little back to Out of Lives. https://www.greenmangaming.com/games/doom-eternal-pc/?tap_a=50262-8d2b33&tap_s=803997-1be29d

Aadil, Lucy and Ben return to run down their favourite bits from the Bethesda conference.

Lucy, Ben and Aadil chat through the things they enjoyed the most and least from Microsoft’s Xbox E3 briefing.

With the release of Spider-Man on the PS4 it’s all the OutOfLives crew seem to be talking about. This week Ben and Alex chat through their thoughts on the game and each put forward their ideas for future super hero games. This includes the heroes, settings, developers and genres that they think would work well, and a few that wouldn’t.

Mr Moody and Ben get together to discuss the recent boxing bout between KSI and Logan Paul which was streamed as a PPV on YouTube. They discuss their initial thoughts on it, what it means for YouTube and the boxers, and CM Punk’s move to UFC and what this could mean for Logan Paul. They also talk about what it may have done for YouTube and the sport of boxing and finish on YouTube Vs Twitch and illegal viewing. A final shout out goes to Simon Miller who in a ‘similar’ move has begun a career in wrestling over at Defiant Wrestling. https://www.outoflives.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/oolpod-4.mp3

Scott’s off on assignment this week so it’s up to Ben and Mr Moody to steer this old, old wooden ship. They discuss their top picks from this years San Diego Comic Convention. Focusing on TV, as Moody covered films on the Glorious Movies Show, they touch on Star Wars Clone Wars, Deadly Class, Star Trek Discovery, Nightflyers, Buffy The Vampire Slayer and The Walking Dead. In Scott’s absence Ben took the reins for recording. If you’re watching the video maybe just ignore the bottom of the screen being replicated as all the cropping was out and caught the recording programme. Lame we know. https://www.outoflives.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/oolpod-ep-3audio.mp3

This week the boys discuss games they think are underrated and that definitely need a little more love as well as what they’ve been playing and watching recently. This includes Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, Subsurface Circular, Prey (2017), Alien Isolation and Minit.

Scott, Ben and Moody managed to survive E3 2018 and in the aftermath discuss their personal highlights. There are a lot, it was a good year. Some of the games discussed are The Last of Us part 2, Ghost of Tsushima and Spider-man, Hitman 2, Tunic, Control and Sable.

Francis and Lucy get together to discuss all the things you need to know about Nintendo’s E3 Direct for 2018. Plus they let you know about a few other things that they enjoyed from the show as a whole. https://www.outoflives.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/OOR-Post-E3-2018.mp3

Lucy, Ben and Dafydd get together to discuss the PlayStation E3 2018 Conference highs and lows and give their take on what we’ve seen. Discussed – The conference format, The Last of Us part 2, Ghost of Tsushima, Death Stranding, Spider-Man, Control, Resident Evil 2 and Nioh 2

Scott and Moody talk about their personal highlights and a few low points of Microsoft’s 2018 media briefing. Discussed – Gears of War, Battle Royale modes, Cyberpunk 2077, Ninja Theory, DMC 5, Dying Light 2, Sekiro, Crackdown 3, February 22, Jump Force, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, The Division 2, Just Cause 4, Tunic and Forza Horizon 4.

Ben and Dave revive PlayStation Forecast, or Out of the X Fire, which ever you prefer to catch up and discuss the upcoming Playstation E3 conference. They give their thoughts on PlayStation’s format for this year, what’s being revealed before the actual conference and their predictions on what we’ll see. https://www.outoflives.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/forecast-e3-2018.mp3

Scott, Ben and Moody join forces and rise like a phoenix to bring you a new, different version of the outoflives podcast. Now in video! Each week the hosts will dive deep into certain topics and open the forum to the ollniverse. Things will change. This is but the beginning of something with no destination and we ask you travel with us on this journey, until we run out of lives! For our inaugural episode we each discuss the games, movies and TV shows which have influenced us through the years in our ‘Know Your Hosts’ show. There are too many influences to list but we all agree Daniel Day-Lewis is the best.

We return with the first of this summer/autumns big FPS beta tests, Destiny 2. Ben is joined by two veteran Guardians, Dave Wyatt and Ross Falconer to discuss both the game and the beta test itself. Both Ross and Dave give Ben a little background on some of the original mechanics in Destiny and how they’ve changed for the sequel. They discuss the PvE and PvP play modes, how light the beta seemed on content and if they’ll be there day one. https://www.outoflives.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/des2ny-final.mp3

Adam was on Holiday last week and despite Alfred’s best efforts he was unable to Sheppard a few of the gremli– I mean contributors, into a recording booth to knock out an episode. No matter though because Adam has returned this week to put together an episode for you. I know it is late but at least it is here. This week we dive into Spider-Man: Homecoming (Don’t worry we warn you before any spoilers) & the hottest news of the week; the new occupant of the T.A.R.D.I.S. https://www.outoflives.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/OOL-Episode-88.mp3

This week; Adam is joined by Aadil for a podcast full of more confectionery than you can shake a stick at… not that you see many people shaking sticks at cakes. Crash Bandicoot’s return in the N.Sane Trillogy has been a roaring success thus far, we chat a bit about a Steven Spielberg Film from 2015 plus we dissect Marvel’s Inhumans trailer… We hope you enjoy it, let us know your thoughts in the comments, like our posts on Social Media and share the podcast with all of your friends! https://www.outoflives.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/OOL-Episode-87.mp3

This week; Adam tells a hilarious joke, but in exchange for his new found comedic powers he forgets how to read. Dave reveals the unspeakable things he does to his computer and Alfred, is the mostly sensible one this week… who would’ve thought? Each of us has a list of 5 things we loved from E3 this year that we take you through plus there is a little bit of news right at the start of the episode. Adam Hosts, alongside Alfred and Dave. Don’t forget to like, share, subscribe and to tell your friends about our show! Enjoy! https://www.outoflives.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/OOL-Episode-86.mp3