Star Wars: Outlaws & BUGGY video games | Play, Watch, Listen

[@andrewcoehoorn6505]

"Games are so fucking cool" is a thought I have almost every day and most people I see every day don't get. I love this podcast.

[@OneArmB4ndit]

Even after all these years I think PWL is one of the best gaming podcasts. Thank you Alanah and the guys for continuing to make this show.

[@GViRuS84]

Yeah there isn‘t even one that comes close for me. And the podcast that got me into podcasts.

[@Nick-kb2jc]

Shout out to video games.

[@nicholasarkis6116]

I'm still playing Outlaws. I love this game. One of my favorite games in years, and one of my favorite Star Wars games ever. I rolled credits 65 hours into the game. I was (and am still) having too much fun exploring the worlds. The game is absolutely not broken. The gameplay is not groundbreaking or best in class. But, it's more than serviceable and works well for the story and character. But, this game isn't built to push gameplay. That's not the point. The goal was to make you feel like you're in Star Wars. That was the mission, and they knocked it out of the park. The Star Wars aesthetic, vibes, sounds, music, and characters? All 10/10. It's like walking around the galaxy far, far away. I'm an OT gen kid this game consistently blew my mind (especially if you're up to date on Star Wars canon). I think every Star Wars fan (especially OT people) should try it. I encountered some bugs and performance issues. Nothing terrible. And nothing pervasive. I highly recommend it. I only got the standard edition, but I plan to get all DLC and any new chapters.

[@DanielCarrapa]

My experience is quite similar. Bought the standard edition as well and I'll get the DLC for future playthroughs, which I will definitely be doing.

[@michaelshumpert6072]

I've been in QA for 11 years, yes please have more conversations about our Role

[@lj53004]

I haven't played an Ubisoft game since Assassin's Creed: Black Flag and, can confirm, I found Star Wars Outlaws super fun!

[@KillahMate]

This is actually kind of optimal - people often complain about 'The Ubisoft Game' ie they're all designed the same, but even though Outlaws is actually _not_ like a lot of Ubisoft games in a lot of ways, you just skipped all of that and it's all new to you anyway.

[@proteuswest1084]

I haven't played Outlaws yet, but honestly, having an auteur like Austin talk about all the things he likes about it is pretty convincing in terms of making me want to circle back to it at some point.

[@Gizzgy]

It really does have strong art direction thats really impactful with a good sound system for the music, (wasn't covered by many but I think is important to note) there are a lot of audio and visual/graphics settings available to you to tailor the best experience for your rig. After the Sept. 10th update, lots of issues were resolved and it's now difficult to deny its great attempts at immersion and dedication to the established universe

[@ShandyWarrior]

it's a really fun, well done stealth game. Even if it wasn't set in the Star Wars universe it would be really solid.

[@deschain1910]

It's shallow in its combat and stealth gameplay, but most people aren't giving it credit for the things it did well, unfortunately... In addition to what these other people mentioned, I think they also deserve credit for moving away from the Ubisoft style of open world covered in icons. They're actually trying to get away from that finally, and I think it deserves some kind of attention for that.

[@FactoryDan]

​@deschain1910 what did it do well if not gameplay and stealth? Certainly not character models based on that thumbnail, lolol. Or story based on the stream I saw a few hours of

[@deschain1910]

@@FactoryDan Even though people constantly accuse him of being too positive about it in the comments, I largely agree with Skill Up's review of the game. He talks about plenty of negatives, but also positives.

[@chachooze6144]

look at my podcasters bro, staying on topic for a full episode AGAIN. great episode lol

[@MelodicQuest]

I agree with Mike's "We can't fuck up this early" philosophy. First impressions are very important for games because a good opening act can be the difference between someone actually finishing the game and them quitting during the tutorial.

[@RememberingTheLost]

Astro Bot was a really fun platinum and felt like the right amount of gameplay for what it is.

[@jonnybell3787]

I’m glad you commented on the GPU song, it deserves ALL the recognitions 😂

[@scancelado]

I was on the fence with outlaws but Austin sold it!

[@MelodicQuest]

Austin reminding me that I still need to play Stray Gods.

[@awintory]

Agreed

[@Zoombeanie132]

You can get past the deathclaws in New Vegas easily if you're smart about it and use stealth. Regardless, you don't really need to go through the deathclaw area if you want to explore. You can go to Primm and follow the road leading up and around to the black mountain area and explore from there. Just because you can't mindlessly go in any direction doesn't mean that the game cuts you off from content in any significant way. I find that it respects the player's intelligence way more than FO3, its fine to have areas where you're supposed to go back to once you're stronger. The reason why New Vegas is so highly regarded is because it has the best rpg design of any of the first person Fallout games. Builds matter and the perks are awesome. The writing and world building are also incredible, they hold up well to this day.

[@DavyGroans]

I love this podcast so much. Mustache mike was a good upgrade to soften the Troy leaving sting. I could listen to Austin ramble all day and he bounces off everyone else so well, That goes for all of them including Alanah, who is also such a babe for putting this together. I parasocialy love you all, guys!

[@matthewevans107]

Hellblade 2 suffered from the console wars narrative where there was more discourse about whether Microsoft was closing the game studio than the game itself.

[@robinj6997]

I think this case have a lot of factors. The first game was multi platform, then Microsoft bought the studio and made the sequel exclusive. Also, the best marketing in the world is 'word of mouth'. The biggest Xbox subrerddit is s/XboxSeriesX with 4.2M users. The moderators choose to lock this very subreddit on the launch day of Hellblade, to move the audience to the much smaller s/Xbox with only 635k users. This killed the momentum of any word of mouth. Piracy has become quite big again. For Hellblade I saw three times as many people currently downloading through piracy, as for currently playing on steam. GoW Ragnarök have twice as many pirating the game as currently playing on Steam.

[@HD_Simplicityy]

This. In addition, how it's just a "walking simulator". Well, it is! And a good one!

[@wangtoriojackson4315]

In New Vegas, there's a Stealth Boy you can find early on that lets you sneak past the Deathclaws and head pretty much straight to the Strip from Goodsprings. It's a common strategy for getting to the implant clinic as soon in your run as possible.

[@keo528528]

I'm so happy to hear Austin be positive about Outlaws!! I feel like reviewers had to rush through Outlaws, and it ruined it. It's made to be lived in.

[@MrMurkosullivan]

It's hard to express the happiness and feeling of 'being seen,' when Mike maid the MGS joke.

[@wheresthebog]

35:16 new head cannon for me is Austin referencing Kendrick Lamar Not Like Us

[@uasinoby]

One parameter we take into consideration when assigning severity to a defect is "Will users understand it is a defect?" An example - particular music should trigger when character enters a room, but it doesn't. Endusers don't know that it should trigger to begin with, so even though it affects sound design, it might get lower severity

[@obenohnebohne]

Stellar Blade was the AAA game that surprised me to be bug-free on launch. That inpressed me quite a bit. It is really rare, that a game feels polished.

[@Liesmith85]

Those anecdotes from Alien Isolation and Black and White are so cool. Funny how a happy accident can, on very rare occasions, make something better.

[@DoraKage]

Dang i miss these guys. Feels like forever since i last listened to a podcast.

[@dylanrabe]

Seeing Mike on the bottom row and Austin in the top left is making my brain twitch 🤨 but love the more frequent uploads!

[@wryonion]

As long as bugs are infrequent and don’t impede my progress, I’m fine.

[@jceeclay]

I adore this podcast, I don't think I have commented before but in a non parasocial way I feel like I'm finally in a room listening to people like myself talking about game development, it's so refreshing.

[@PlayWatchListen]

thank you!!!

[@vinroc]

Enjoying Star Wars outlaws immensely. Even bought an actual Sabacc deck

[@DanielCarrapa]

My playthrough of SW Outlaws is now around 50 hrs, and I don't think I'm quite near the end yet. Having a ton of fun, and a mostly stable experience on the PS5. My only crashes occur (sometimes) when I'm exiting photo mode, which I use a lot. But it's not a big issue. I'm mostly surprised with the fact that I got no open world fatigue. All the locations are interesting and fun to explore, and Tatooine is definitely the highlight of the experience. Just last night I was journeying into a location movie fans will be very familiar with, and all I thought was I can't believe I'm playing this in a video game. One of the best games of the genre in recent years.

[@davidm.5924]

I started playing outlaws today after listening to this episode. The scene where Kay puts her hands in her "pockets" is different as you describe it. She holds her jacket, of course there are no pockets but it's not clipping through, she grabs the jacket.

[@jayhartRIC]

I loved Star Wars Outlaws as well. I don’t play Ubisoft games though so maybe that’s why.

[@tomsimmons7673]

Same. Only other Ubi open world game I played was Immortals Fenyx Riding. I'd compare it to Breath of the Wild, but set in Greek mythology.

[@alexanderlane]

I'm kind of stoked to play it, and if I do, it'll be the first Ubisoft game I've played since AC: Brotherhood, like 12 years ago, so that'll probably help haha

[@FeroxStormdragon]

i'm surprised that when they were discussing Starwars that there was no mention of the passing of James Earl Jones.

[@greefhavoc3593]

Love this podcast, now and forever boys x 😊

[@tschjones9317]

Your point about games telling players how to finish them reminded me of a talk between some famous Dungeons and Dragons GameMasters about how they design their story. One of them (Brennan Lee Mulligan, great guy, huge fan) said: "(in-game) Characters are like water, they are going down the hill as fast as they can seeking the path of least resistance. But the Player wants anything other than a straight line. So my job as 'rails' is irrigating a path down that let's the water always have taken the fastest route towards its goal but at the end of it, the shape is the most convoluted and pleasing." I mean, I am obviously missing some central aspects of what you mean when you say "games teach players how to solve themselves" but something about that quote feels connected to your discussion. So I thought others would like to hear it as well :)

[@craftysnailtail860]

Not sure if y'all have played it because I don't recall it being mentioned before, but Outer Wilds is usually what I say for top game!

[@michaelthompson785]

I don't have the time stamp but "rice on a chessboard" is a brilliant metaphor. I think as gamer's or potential armchair Devs, we expect something of competence when we're paying so much money nowadays, however as Mike says when it's 10 systems interacting with 10 systems times by 100 & the potential overlap. (Very loose quote there) It really makes you sit up and think about of difficult it must be to essentially keep all these plates spinning. Then again some companies manage it better than others but then not everyone has an endless well or time of deadlines etc

[@occupationalhazard]

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines mention! Woo!!! 16:17

[@idlemickey]

I don’t think it’s even necessary to work as a developer to appreciate a lot about game design. I spent a couple of years learning C# and game design (stopped because it got a little overwhelming and also no career opportunities where I live), and just those two years that got me to barely intermediate at OOP made me super aware and appreciative of how hard some even “simple” things like building a save system is. When I play games now, aside from always wondering how they programmed this or that, I’m much more appreciative of the product I’m playing even when it’s buggy. I also really enjoyed Outlaws.

[@Kryptonic83]

19:24 I think Kay is meant to look like she's grabbing her jacket, but of course if people changed clothes and she's not wearing a jacket in that moment can look a bit strange.

[@jkprobert4492]

Everything I've read about Star Wars: Outlaws feels like they wanted to make a Doctor Aphra game but couldn't use the Doctor Aphra character.

[@tomsimmons7673]

Interesting thought.

[@cyberrb25]

As we've been talking about bugs, I want to give three examples: - About one music bug I encountered: On Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, on the day 1 release, there was a bug that made the track for the Elite Four loop every two seconds, leaving the music continuously on the preparation. It was pretty obnoxious, because it's a quite unsettling sense of place for a thing that only needs to feel oppressive. - One about a bug that was promoted to become part of the game: Minecraft has a fluids system that was supposed to make it so when you have two blocks of the same liquid orthogonally adjacent to a block of air, that block of air would be filled by that liquid but as flowing liquid. However, water got a bug that got used to get "infinite water", and that ended up being officially supported. - And about a "bug-less" game: We should not forget about Tears of the Kingdom, a game that was supposedly one full year on bug-stamping, and who has such a complex interactive physics system that it should be inevitable to be riddled with bugs. Let's not forget how you can have paddle boats just with planks and a wheel, and it just... works.

[@michael_bullard]

I’d be interested in hearing some of the “we’ll talk about this after we stop recording” stories that are no longer NDA’ed 🙂

[@theobrominator]

As a software programmer (and someone who's written custom QA testing suites), a thorough QA test plan implementation takes a decent amount of time and requires participation of the contributors writing the code. Also, games are so complicated in that the possibility space seems near infinite: eg: the 3D traversable volume a PC can explore. I have a lot of lenience for jank in games knowing that so many things need to come together.

[@erbgorre]

always interesting to me to see how differently people value the different aspects of the open world formula in different open world games. i suppose one reason why the majority of people pick NV as their favorite non-isometric fallout is because they value the stronger narrative through line and the atmosphere it begets over the absolute sandbox freedom of 3. I am very much in that category myself. but then with BG3 the majority seems to strongly prefer acts 1 and 3 because they are more open, while my favorite is act 2 specifically because it has the best atmosphere and most cohesive tone and narrative arc. there are obviously other aspects to why people like certain parts of these games more than others, but it seems to be a noticable trend that people value the freedom aspect in BG3 alot more than in the modern fallout games.

[@Zoombeanie132]

I agree with you completely. In BG3's case I'd even argue that it was a bad idea to make act 3 so huge and dispersive after act 2's finale. Kinda got burned out in the last act, while I was loving every aspect of the second act

[@1mizfits]

Cyberpunk still has quite a few bugs. They’re rare now. T-pose for a few secs, controller vibrating, bad graphics, your car will fly to you and can zero you. But they’re fun now and not game breaking finally.

[@mcswiss87]

Is episode 160 up on KZbin? I can’t see it on the channel. It’s on my podcast feed though

[@thuc753951]

love the podcast

[@Bkbkbk97]

Anyone know where I can find a clip of Dina taking her shirt off/putting it on that they mention around 22:00 ? I can’t seem to find a reference for it in a KZbin search.

[@connorweir1993]

What happened to Troy?

[@maxisenberg9093]

you all started this podcast as scientists. you are now teachers too

[@gamerchords4526]

45:18 I couldn’t agree more with you all: the GPU song from Astro is an absolute banger 🤩

[@maxisenberg9093]

Austin is to obsessed with star wars to even recognize some of the flaws lol

[@awintory]

Haha I wish

[@maxisenberg9093]

@awintory mean that in a sincere way btw. Hope it didn't come off rude. Have a friend like that who had even gotten me to reconsider some things about the sequel trilogy

[@neversimon]

This episode was rather on topic, seems Austin just doesn't go on tangents like he used in his advanced age.

[@maxisenberg9093]

i need to play inside again. i did it shortly after doing both unravel games, and replaying limbo so while i enjoyed it, i was kinds burnt out by those games at that point.. its probablt why i didn't get into little nightmates but i want to give it another go. maybe i'll start with 2 since its supposed to be better

[@scottishrob13]

Hey, someone else who could back me up when I say I bounced off New Vegas. I just found myself trying to explore and feeling bored. It does really seem like the best way to play that game is to go where you're supposed to, whereas the best way to play Fallout 3 is to go where you're not supposes to. I do get why my friends love New Vegas - it seems like it has great writing, interesting characters, and fantastic quests. Unfortunately, that's just not what I was trying to get out of it at the time.

[@maxisenberg9093]

inside sex toy: not a bug, it's a feature

[@anotherone5235]

If you were to go "Halflife inspired Bioshock" i'd go one step further and throw System Shock in the ring, which I'd argue inspired both of those :D

[@mribahic]

If this podcast stops, its officially my barometer for the end of society no pressure though thx for the content

[@HD_Simplicityy]

How do you have all this time to beat videogames? It's amazing.

[@allgomesareevil6121]

Play, watch, listen sometimes on a topic -2024

[@tamask2172]

What happened to you guys, starting with games straight away and keeping that momentum for most of the pod?

[@ShandyWarrior]

Star Wars outlaws was a really fun stealth game and wasnt anywhere near as buggy as Black Myth wukong - that game is a mess.

[@benjamindurkin]

I'm currently refusing to buy new games unless they release without an egregious number of bugs. I don't have FOMO, I'm more than happy to enjoy something at a later date for considerably less money, in a better, more stable state. I'm far, far more driven by a fear of being disappointed than I am by FOMO.

[@jacobhanlon-dunn6254]

Break it down at least sufficiently in order to reconstruct it

[@MedalionDS9]

It was a trip to watch Alanah and Rahul play this game on stream... sorry, really not for me... and that's ok. But glad if other people enjoy it.

[@Zeouterlimits]

I think Hellblade 2 wasn't enough of an evolution over the first game. The surprise was gone, it needed to be more, rather than a less interesting version of the first game many years later.

[@dustyw8771]

I really liked outlaws but I do admit it feels a little lower budget sometimes

[@maxisenberg9093]

i don't think the " portal 1 is better because 2 wouldn't exist without it" argument holds up imo. every game is based on hundereds of games before it that only works when the previous entryies are required for story reasons (i.e the end of toy story 3/ the scene they almost died wouldn't be as impactful if we didnt have the OG to care about them). with portal, there is very little in the way of continuity outside the ramifications of having defeated glados so both games wouls need to be looked at in isolation. 1 has the distinction of being way ahead of its time but outside that lens, its essentially a glorified tech demo whereas 2 does more with the mechanics and lore so i think if the question is which game is better ,it's easily 2 but it you're asking which is more impactful than 1 wins the first entries often are hailed for what they did for the genre and many of its flaws are forgiven because the studio was still figuring out the game...but they're very often a case of "first game in the franchise"

[@aerion4077]

LETS FUCKIN GOOO

[@HermanFalckHow]

My big issue with Ubisoft these days is that most of their games is lacking that one great feature. Assassin's Creed always had kinda shitty combat and the stories were never good but it was really fun to move about the world. Watch Dogs, and Far Cry always had bad combat but there were some really underrated immersive sim elements to them. But those days are just gone. The last 7 years I can't think of any "Ubisoft" games (Mario Rabbits and Prince of Persia withstanding) that had anything great in them. And Outlaws in my opinion hits a new low for them where it has not just nothing great, but I would argue nothing even remotely fun. It's a whole game of Mary Jane missions from Spider-Man. It is just so dull. The shooting is meh, the sneaking is bad, the traversal is hilariously bad, the UI is ugly, the ship combat is boring and Sabacc is okay. The best feature in the game is the card minigame, and even that is lacking depth. I sincerely hope Ubisoft has a come to Jesus moment here and learns. This isn't flying anymore. They need to take some risks. Make some new shit. Because they are so out of ideas it is embarrassing.

[@robinj6997]

Ubisoft have been playing it to safe, following the Disney recipe. The game doesn't challenge the mind, or offer pure fun. I haven't tried it, because it simply looks lame and tame. That sort of content might work on numb streaming shows where the viewers have it as a background noise while scrolling on tik tok. But an interactive game demands more from a player, and Outlaw doesn't offer enough back in return. Disney and Ubisoft becomes two layers of boredom.

[@RudeCanine]

Please let Austin speak more

[@jorr1313]

If anything, I think Senua's Saga was too long for what it was.

[@thesamuraiman]

💜💜💜

[@Stuckin92]

Damn. A whole episode only about game dev? 7/10; would recommend. 🙌

[@TheGenoveno]

Alanah needs to stop interrupting honestly. Let the others talk as well.

[@Tetragramz]

what would bethesda do?

[@FlamingWhippet]

When it comes to bugs it depends on if they affect the gameplay or cutscenes. I played Ragnarok without the day one patch, had terrible internet at the time, and the Ragnarok climax was bugged so bad with audio and visual issues that I was more confused than hype at a lot of the big emotional moments. It made me feel that games should be judged more prior to day one patches due to how many gamers have terrible internet and have to rely on the physical copy.

[@ElizabethMayer-n2q]

Someone please put this dying podcast out of its misery

[@D.Ronoa69]

38

[@DroneCorpse]

This podcast is too short

[@DroneCorpse]

Because yall are so insightful and cool and funny and nice and talented and neat people (especially Austin who deserves to not be interrupted as much 😢)

[@WackoWambo]

So happy Troy is off the podcast. Finally will be a regular viewer.

[@matthewevans107]

Talking about Astrobot and cameos, what’s it like working in the industry with salty creatives? This is in reference to the Days Gone creator having a lil hissy fit that his “alpha male” protagonist was in Astrobot

[@brentcable4874]

Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F' is a bad movie Also, Love you Alanah ❤. She's MY best friend.

[@thestupidpenguin]

I didn't buy it because Jake Baldino told me to wait for a sale. 😂

[@dark_winter8238]

It was hearing it had insta fail stealth missions that made me not.

[@thestupidpenguin]

I don't mind those missions but they ARE basic. 😅 ​@@dark_winter8238

[@Henbot]

Druckman can step back with all his pro Israel support during ethnic cleansing. Hellblade 2 was short but also they spent loads of their money they got for it on bleeding edge which is a dead game instead 😂of it

[@chand911]

Kind of sad to see this podcast fall so far. It's just rage bait slop now.

[@jmv9491]

First

[@kwcnasa]

Resume @4:50