Episode 10 | New Dad Gaming

[0:08] the adult beverages are poured and the babies are asleep it is time for new dad gaming a show about gaming fatherhood and new fathers trying to figure out

[0:17] their gaming lives as always my name is trevor and i have a five month old oh my name is gavin apparently it wasn’t on red

[0:27] jesus from the seventh circle take it easy there don’t be so serious what’s going on oh

[0:34] camera you okay just sack guys there okay anyways i have a three month old my name is gavin yes

[0:43] i’m jeff two and a half and a five-year-old for the uh for the listeners of the podcast gavin

[0:50] allah halloween had his entire face light up and just read yeah i don’t know what’s going on it’s great special effects we get

[1:00] special effects so we’re going to cover the spectrum that means maybe i’ll go blue uh jeff if you go green sure

[1:09] i’ll do it no

[1:16] all right so everyone the nuclear bomb has gone off everyone that’s what happened he’s all lit up

[1:23] oh he’s on theme that’s amazing he’s red from the radiation poisoning there you go everybody’s in the vaults fallout 4 has

[1:34] launched the internet is on fire at the moment for new fathers like us when

[1:43] this type of game is launched this is a massive title both in scope as far as how deep the game is uh it’s a relatively expensive one because

[1:52] it’s a new title and the depth of it it is a massive game so yeah father’s kind of weigh in like what

[1:59] actually hold on i will hold that thought for one second i would like to know how your week went from gaming and fatherhood up until this

[2:06] point minus fallout we’ll get into that gavin how was your week in fatherhood in gaming uh fatherhood a lot of fun uh she’s going through a bit of a growth

[2:16] spurt i think right now so that’s been uh pretty good but she’s been insatiable um

[2:22] like she still sleeps okay but when she’s awake she just wants to eat 80 feet um but no we’ve been having some good

[2:28] play time and she’s still doing her rollover flips occasionally which is good and uh yeah a couple decent outings

[2:38] all in all we um yeah no it’s just been fun good good times as far as gaming goes i got to finish

[2:46] off dying light which was great uh got that done just in time for uh for for for a certain delivery that came in today

[2:56] and uh yeah no no all in all it’s pretty fun is she in the room with you right now because the way you’re speaking is very

[3:05] soothing yeah yeah yeah you know she’s she’s in the other room but i just don’t want to take any chances i don’t want to roll those dice

[3:12] i have a very uh i have a voice that projects so i don’t want to should um you should speak this episode in nursery

[3:21] rhyme it’ll be great well they’re guys i played a game it was lots of fun shot a mutant in the face

[3:34] jeff yourself funky um gaming wise a little bit of everything i think uh rocket league back into that

[3:43] still in the witcher still doing the witcher and actually system shock 2 as a random game

[3:50] i had that in my life yeah i don’t know how does that hold up it doesn’t hold up but it’s i think it’s nostalgia that wanted me to

[4:00] go back in it was only like a 20 30 minute thing and then i got out that’s like me with dinosaurs like i’ll hop back into like the original

[4:09] yeah this this was fun it i don’t know yeah it doesn’t quite hold up to today’s stuff so popped in

[4:19] yeah i tried i tried the original deus ex and i just couldn’t like i wanted to get it like i want to understand

[4:26] why it was so revered and i just couldn’t get into it i’m just like this is so clunky relative to like new mechanics

[4:32] and just i don’t want to spend the time that’s the thing is when i played it the mechanics were still a little bit cutting edge

[4:40] um but uh when i go back and play it now i’m like oh this is really one that’s actually not too bad was the

[4:47] one that came with the sequel to it that invisible war it was it holds up okay they’re using like bump mapping and things kind of feel a little

[4:55] bit better uh it’s not as like just straight up polygons um

[5:01] but even then it didn’t have the it’s like uh substance over over form and it’s like it didn’t have the meat

[5:10] as far as the mechanics goes in regards to crafting and balancing your character but

[5:17] it the look and feel of it was better so it’s a weird balancing act but yeah give and take yeah

[5:26] it’s like going back to uh the original follow compared to like what fallout 4 has to offer and just uh getting used to that old hexagonal

[5:35] uh top-down isometric view um and what all you could do in that game and what all you had to contend with in that game compared to like with fallout

[5:45] 4 and what what’s there um and it’s a weird sort of comparison like how far the series has come

[5:52] um especially since bethesda got kind of gave it a second life because it was pretty well like doa

[5:58] it was launching titles on the ps2 that were failing so it’s like okay that’s it then um

[6:06] and uh yeah now that it’s it’s godless it not only does it have a new life but a very successful one um so that’s kind of exciting especially for somebody

[6:15] who’s a family fan of the series back in 98 and then saw it sort of dwindle away and now it’s coming back with like a vengeance it’s like all right

[6:27] whisper this is amazing inside the excited whisper you’ll ever hear yeah

[6:35] that that’s dad enthusiasm enthusiastic as a dad is you are constantly a quaalude

[6:45] and just your whole existence and persona is to try to make people fall asleep which is probably not ideal for a podcast

[6:54] you’re welcome all right lulling podcast online that’d be a great secret sauce of the

[7:04] shows if the entire thing is so melodic and calm that new dads can have their babies listen to it

[7:10] and so doing their babies fall asleep yeah so we just got to find the right balance

[7:21] reviewing bloody games so let’s get into the meat so it’s here it followed four it happened as i mentioned internet is on fire this

[7:30] is the game of the moment and i love that other game i’ve actually seen a couple of launches of other games

[7:37] around the same time it’s like are you nuts yeah like hearthstone came out with a new

[7:42] explorer pack um rocket league like you mentioned had free dlc although i mean it’s not really the launch of a game but i mean the day it’s nuts but

[7:51] kevin let’s uh dive into you you were the most excited about this yep got a hold of it well actually i bought the game i went

[8:03] he did this this will be the first this is the first entrance into the series and i definitely have some

[8:10] hold on i played a couple hours of the of a buddies game of the original fallout or even follow two so the old like isometric tactical stuff

[8:20] and you know like i’m not deaf or blind so i’ve obviously heard and seen many references to it so i’m familiar but this is definitely the

[8:27] first game i’ve ever bought but i’ll get into that a bit more like gavin i’m really interested given your excitement uh like how much you have played of it

[8:35] and what’s your thoughts so far how’s it going i’ve played about maybe one and a half two hours total um did

[8:41] the character crafting uh playing as a female named after my daughter’s favorite bunny and

[8:51] bringing the dad into the gaming

[9:02] there’s a pink bunny that we call rosie and she also kind of looks a bit like rosie the riveter so i’m like okay your name is rosie not rosie o’donnell no no

[9:11] no probably half as tough um so the thing about fallout i always liked was the harshness of the

[9:19] environment you were in and that was one thing i found the series really did well um across the board like some more successful than others but i always felt

[9:28] this sense of a fallout game to me the first 20 minutes of it should leave you cowering

[9:37] under an overpass trembling with fear because there was like a rat and that was it like

[9:44] just the simplest easiest enemy has you terrified of dying because the world’s that harsh and that everything else in the world has hardened itself

[9:55] to survive against those that increased threat

[10:02] and that fallout 3 did that even the original followed i remember playing the hexagonal one and just going northwest and getting like cut in

[10:10] half by a super mutant with a machine gun and be like okay i guess we don’t go northwest

[10:17] and then just that i that that climb of like okay i have to i have to to harden myself i need to

[10:25] to strengthen my steel in order to survive um i almost died being attacked by one mosquito and two

[10:36] house flies in the first 20 minutes of being upside in the game and uh and this is the new one and i felt at home i’m like all right great

[10:46] i’m i’m about 25 of the way of dying of radiation poisoning because i had to drink water to survive and

[10:53] a fly almost killed me this is this is fallout and uh yeah there’s a really neat crafting system in it which i think is

[11:01] it’s very reminiscent of skyrim um because it’s bethesda they like to hop back and forth but the thing in skyrim that you could do a lot of was uh find

[11:09] materials like leather and stuff through hunting and find like ore through mining and then craft new stuff like new armor and

[11:18] whatnot uh in fallout 4 it’s it’s very much like that again it’s you can instead of having to mine and hunt it’s more

[11:28] like scavenge and murder and then and then you get to play crafts and uh yeah it’s uh so far i’ve upgraded a couple of my weapons and some of my

[11:38] armor and i’m just kind of walking around the wasteland i’m not really paying attention to my mission objectives yet

[11:45] i’m just like oh what’s that over there oh that looks neat and just just exploring it’s a very much one of those

[11:52] exploration heavy games and if you just kind of let yourself get lost in the atmosphere that’s when the game really shines

[11:58] and uh yeah visually it’s really nice i’m really enjoying it so all in all i’m i’m satisfied well some of that like getting lost part

[12:07] of like that’s the i have some trepidation around it and specifically like my play style like i was finding

[12:15] i was getting into every house and i was reading a lot of text and i was exploring all these parts and i’m thinking about like i know like this

[12:23] game is going to be massive there’s a lot to see here right and it almost just doesn’t feel conducive to

[12:30] my new reality from like the amount of time i’m going to have to actually play this game and as much as a quick save

[12:37] and the ui loading the game is just spamming x or a until it loads up and that’s the one thing i did like is

[12:45] that you don’t have to navigate menus to load the game and because of the the wonder of the quick

[12:52] save especially on console which is rare to find it’s like okay i gotta go quick save done and it’s like a bookmark in a novel and you go back to it when you get

[13:01] a chance yeah but it’s just like the but in exploring every single nook and cranny while it provides some

[13:10] some tiny benefit to it because maybe you find like an extra case of bullets great or you read this one terminal and it’s got

[13:17] three extra pieces of text which gives is world building like it’s giving you a sense of the characters and everything going on

[13:24] like the thought that like to keep that pace i’m just not sure like i’m going to get to enough of the game and next thing you

[13:30] know it’s either going to be fatigue or you know this game’s going to take me two years to finish like it feels like this and this is with an experience of

[13:38] skyrim with like before i had a kid like i think i have a hundred hours inside a skyrim that’s unfair for that style of game

[13:47] yeah and i didn’t even finish it i’m trying to think about if i apply that to this like i’m not gonna i’m not gonna beat

[13:53] this thing like i’m never gonna play it it’s a different type of game like it’s not like a batman game where it’s like i got a hundred percent it like it’s

[14:00] designed to be a world that is meant to be explored through a few playthroughs so like you know

[14:08] when you play through it a second time you’re like oh i remember that going through that house before my past life um i’m fine i don’t need to go in the

[14:16] house again it’s kind of boring um or later on in the game you start to get to explore some of the other vaults because there’s a whole bunch of other

[14:24] ones too and that’s usually where they’re like dungeon quests and that’s where you can find some really interesting stuff as

[14:30] well and it’s one of those games where the world building you can get as deep as you want or leave it as

[14:37] shallow as you want and it really just comes down to what you are looking for and it’s like are you looking to read up about why this vault failed

[14:47] or are you just looking to get into that vault try to find something better to you know kill rad scorpions with and get back to your day it really depends on

[14:57] the personality of the survivor how you want to have that character interact with that world you know do you care about that stuff or is your survivors

[15:05] basically just looking for bullets of canned beans and then just get on with it my word with that would be that

[15:13] where i kind of have a conflict with that is where um in previous quick question in previous follow-up games especially three in new vegas

[15:21] was there this much of a character associated with your player like because in this one it’s like this is

[15:30] very much a scripted like you are very much a person you have a story arc it seems like was that similar in three and

[15:37] followed yeah three you um you you start the game as a baby and experience your life as like a toddler and you learn to crawl and you get to

[15:47] pick all your stats through like baby books um and you end up looking for your dad

[15:52] played by liam neeson uh you’re trying to find him he like leaves one day and then or and then when you’re a kid

[15:59] like he just disappears into the wasteland leaves the vault and you grew up in the vault um and then now you’re like okay well i

[16:06] want you know i’ve never been over the vault i want to find my dad and you’re like leaving to go find your dad i can’t

[16:13] remember the exact details as to the motivations behind that um but yeah it’s i think i had something to do with it

[16:22] maybe the geck oh there was this other mythos thing in the game called the garden of eden creation kit um

[16:30] but yeah it was a whole quest to try to find your father and understand his relationship to that vault and to that

[16:36] ruined dc and the same with uh like new vegas um matthew perry shoots you in the head and

[16:44] leaves you for dead so then you got to try to like hunt him down and figure out why um and try to unravel your story as to

[16:53] why you got murdered for just a simple uh gambling token

[16:59] and yeah there’s usually always a bit of a plot uh the first ever game was you were trying to find a new water filtration

[17:06] computer chip for your vault to help the vault continue to survive and that was the main mission was just trying to get this thing to try to make

[17:15] sure that people in the vault didn’t die of dehydration uh the second one you’re a member of a tribe that was the

[17:22] descendants of a vault that emptied out and you’re going off to try to find this mythical geck which will allow you to bring like a utopia to your

[17:34] dust bowl of a village so there’s always like a pretty good motivation narratively as to why this vault dweller is off doing this

[17:43] adventure and going out and exploring because i guess so the the place where i have a bit of a contention with that is when i got out of the vault for the

[17:52] first time and i just saw the wasteland like i had such a desire and such an impetus to just explore like it’s like this looks

[18:00] amazing like i want to get around i want to see all this stuff but as far as like the world building

[18:06] like it and this it speaks to my own play style like this isn’t like this is how everyone’s going to experience it but for me now it feels

[18:12] like that story building in that context is very much part of

[18:18] that character that they’ve given me like it’s like okay so this is this big story this is you this is the purpose this is the ark

[18:25] and now to enjoy that and to understand it requires and to some degree some of the world building it to participate in it

[18:34] right and thus and thus having to read some of those parts it feels like it would not for myself and just the way that i play would feel like

[18:41] a bit of an incomplete experience if i just blast through i’m like yeah cool you’re trying to do whatever you want to do i’m just going to go check these bugs

[18:48] over here right not so much that i’m like i need to be on rails but it’s just when it comes time to read some stories or

[18:54] figure out some of my other backstory i’m compelled to to try to ensure that i get that story given that that’s what they want to tell me it almost feels as

[19:02] though it would be there’s some part of me that almost wishes that it was just blank

[19:08] it’s like your joe nobody no particular motivations or anything besides you know you need to it’s like a tiny one as far as like you

[19:15] were wrong then you want to go off and get revenge okay like tiny little plot thread to pull you along but to have this much

[19:22] um gravitas thrown onto the top in some tiny ways for me is i don’t mean ruining it’s not the right way to say it it’s just

[19:30] it is putting me down a path of consuming as much in this game as i can to get the um

[19:38] closure i’m gonna want when i play it and it’s in in some ways it’s almost unfortunate because it’s like damn i’m gonna have to do a lot of stuff

[19:46] like i’m gonna have to like play all these parts i don’t know if i have time to yeah like you don’t

[19:53] have to like if you bump into a farmer and he’s like can you help me you don’t have to say yes in the game

[20:01] but just because you bump into these side missions you don’t have to agree to them you can always tell the guy to bugger

[20:06] off and just walk off into the sunset and get the finger on the way like you don’t have to be the good samaritan wasteland survivor like you could play

[20:16] the game as a bit of a prick and just walk around be like i don’t care whatever what’s that over there i want to look at this

[20:23] like you can just focus if you do want to see explore the main story you can do that but you can just be like no i’m just going to walk around and even with

[20:32] myself in the companions like i met the dog i’m like hey you’re a good dog go over there and go over there fetch that all right stay i just left them i got it

[20:41] i got a dog i don’t need a virtual dog i just run off it sounds like trevor is the worst person to play this game i think it’s

[20:48] about it i mean i haven’t even started about this yet and is it this go ahead like even the farmer situation right i don’t think

[20:56] trevor would allow himself just to walk away from the dude he would have to help him out and same with the dog he’d be like what do you want like you want some

[21:03] dog food okay i’ll walk two miles to that house where i saw that dog food over there and i will feed you you were kidding

[21:11] the first thought when the i got the dog is i’m like damn it i now have to make sure you live yeah [ __ ]

[21:21] i don’t need this responsibility damn there’s a party that’s like is there some good feeling way i can just not have this dog

[21:31] i just i just told him to stay at the at the gas station and it’s like i’ll come back and we’ll talk that’s how i treated all the companions in the

[21:40] other games i’m like you hang out at my house i’ll come by we’ll hang out we’ll chat uh shoot the breeze for a bit and i’m

[21:46] gonna head back out and uh you know hit a suit super mutant and face with a baseball bat and i’ll tell you all about it when i get back but you don’t have to

[21:53] come with me yeah maybe i’ll maybe i’ll just go to my house and tell a dog to hang out i don’t think he can die i think

[22:02] yeah i know i don’t think invincible so that might be better for you but you know you know let’s let’s up this game there’s this other mechanic where it’s

[22:10] and i haven’t got into it yet it hasn’t really been explained but as best as i can tell you can build up your town

[22:18] so that the residents of this town are safe and happy yeah don’t do that are you kidding me

[22:32] again that’s just a mechanic i saw and i’m like jeff nailed me on the head as far as like the way that i play and

[22:40] like it i don’t like crap i’ve never really been able to be to enjoy being a crass character in video games so the thought that i’m just going to

[22:48] let my townsfolk like dissolve into suffer just don’t

[22:58] like what the dog don’t adopt it you know with the townsfolk no what’s going through his head right

[23:04] now he’s like i have to i have to adopt it they need i need help i’m a hero no

[23:10] you have to play you have to play the game like mad max you have to like yeah i’ll help you long enough

[23:18] and then i’m going to go off you have to be the littlest hobo you have to play as little as hobo then you come by you solve today’s

[23:24] mystery and then you leave and the rest of their problems are their own and it’s like yeah well you have to figure out how to grow food and if not then guess

[23:31] what darwin’s king now and if you die you die gavin’s ruthless on this trevor is just a single tear down his face i’m not sure

[23:40] i would love to compare characters in a couple months to see like just the the rip roaring badass that gavin is in this like saintly

[23:50] loved by all person that i am what’s going to happen though is you’re going to try hard to get everybody to love you and then the cold harsh reality

[23:58] of the wasteland is you can’t and they’re all going to hate you because you failed them as a mayor and as as a savior

[24:07] so let me tell you let me tell you rookie these wastelands are going to break you down

[24:12] you think you’re a good man but ain’t no good in the wasteland the town the town crafting thing seems interesting to me but i’m also kind of

[24:20] like it’s like with skyrim like i would pick a house and i would upgrade it and that was it like i wouldn’t buy a house in

[24:28] each town and manage them and stuff like i don’t care i’m not this is i don’t buy the game to play house maker by play

[24:36] the game to wander this world i want to be out in it and be like hey do you want me to come with you i’m like no

[24:42] no go away leave me alone very lonely when it comes to these games i just want to go and do it and that’s it

[24:49] do we noted if we’re ever uh locked if we’re stuck in a vault together yeah that’s it oh yeah no you’re on your own yep

[24:58] yeah no i don’t place bets now on how long it’s going to take gavin to finish fallout and how long that’s going to take trevor

[25:06] he’ll be on his third playthrough and i’m going to be like halfway through no that’s the thing that was like trevor you joke about oh skyrim it was like 100

[25:14] hours my first playthrough of fallout 3 was at around 275 hours

[25:24] before dlc that’s great wow so these games and i said but that was over a year year and a half something like

[25:34] that where i just like picked away and i picked away at the majority of the time was probably within the first year and i just kept playing it because

[25:41] once you beat the story you can kind of just keep exploring and doing side missions and whatnot but these games are

[25:47] ridiculously um engrossing and if your completionist on them it can

[25:54] absorb more time than you have and especially now where it’s like i have the baby and i want to spend time with her

[26:02] so when i have townsfolk asking for help and a baby asking for a diaper change it’s like well townsfolk sorry but i got like a bigger fish to fry here

[26:12] so i think that also helps me be a little bit more callous with the npcs cause i’m like you guys aren’t real get out of here save quit

[26:20] i think the um so i think like what even batman in some ways before this like origins what had been great training

[26:28] if that could make any sense at all as far as just you don’t have to get everything just play through like play your game

[26:35] like enjoy it and move on and in so doing i’ve like had beat some of those pre-father impulses to just get

[26:44] everything and beat it so i can definitely see it’s a thing i don’t think i’m going to be able to

[26:51] again i i don’t think i’ll be able to let the town just fall into ruin and everybody die and hate me i can probably live with myself if they’re like 70

[26:58] percent happy and nobody’s kids are like dying i’ll be okay so there’s like level degrees of it but

[27:07] there’s still just those mechanics that are going to be itching at me i mean some of this stuff like so there’s a like you mentioned

[27:14] there’s a crafting system with the weapons and everything and the entire time it mentions okay some of these parts are rare especially

[27:20] the adhesive so you gotta be careful with it and i’m sitting at the crafting table i’m like it’d be really great to upgrade

[27:26] some of these guns the thing is like i know there’s probably gonna be a better gun soon maybe this is a waste of it i don’t know

[27:34] if i should waste these resources okay tell you what i know what no i’m gonna have a fun time i’m gonna build build up this gun this is great so

[27:41] bing bing bing put together this great gun like load it up it’s going great and then like i meet the dog i’m like well

[27:48] damn it i gotta deal with you now and then like five minutes later i found this much better gun already better than all the resources i

[27:55] poured into the gun i just crafted it’s like damn it like it’s just gonna be this game’s gonna stress you out man

[28:06] it’s it’s stressful fortunately because it’s so engrossing like i i’m just looking what i’m trying to do now in many ways is just

[28:13] build myself up properly so i don’t get so i get the proper enjoyment out of it it’s this game is so much my jam like

[28:23] i’ve never played one of these one before but i can tell this is it this will be an excellent time i’m just trying to

[28:29] is going to be navigating for the first couple days of playing it like how now that i’m a dad how do i play this game

[28:37] and have a good time and sleep with myself at night because if like my villagers die i’m going to have

[28:42] have a hard time living with myself you’re going to build a doghouse that’s the first thing you’re going to build is a dog house yeah step the first year

[28:50] now so i was thinking about how to and gavin like so this will be we can phrase this properly so

[28:59] jeff obviously you haven’t played it i don’t think you bought it no okay and i do want to delve into like

[29:05] some reasons around that i’m kind of curious to hear it your perspective on it but so gavin with how the first part of the game

[29:12] plays out before you leave the vault um and especially as it pertains to us being fathers now i’m trying to think many in some ways i

[29:22] don’t want to care because it’s it’s like the first 30 minutes of the game right at the same token though like did we just give big spoiler warnings and

[29:30] tell them to jump 30 minutes i would i really because the way it that all plays i know what happens right yeah yeah it knows what happens

[29:40] covered well at least we’ll we’ll leave out one of the particulars but the main

[29:48] narrative drive for the character you’re playing you’re trying to reconnect with your family

[29:54] um because you went into the vault with um your baby and your spouse and that when you leave the vault you

[30:03] don’t have them with you and you’re trying to put your life back together and you’re trying to find your family or what what might be left

[30:11] of it even um and that’s your main motivating factor so that’s the exciting part of it i i found

[30:18] i did kind of relate to it like i’m playing as a female character um but still that paternal need of being like where’s my kid

[30:28] um because that is the primary drive of the character is just trying to find their kid

[30:35] in a world where you shouldn’t lose your kid and uh i think that’s actually one of the

[30:41] things that might drive me into usually i don’t care about like they send you on a quest and it’s like hey get us some food we’re all gonna die

[30:48] i’m like yeah yeah that’s cool and then i just go do stuff that’s not the way you gavin the rebel plays

[30:55] kevin don’t follow your rules um i do my own i do what i won’t um there’s a new motivation being a parent

[31:04] and having that sort of narrative arc involve trying to reconnect with your child um

[31:12] and yeah uh it’s pretty early on in the game without giving too many things away i’m i am curious to figure what’s

[31:20] where’s my family what’s become of them and uh will i recognize them because i have no idea

[31:28] um what’s going on in the amount of time i’ve been away from them so i don’t know what i’m going to encounter i’m really excited

[31:37] narratively there’s some good opportunities there for some pretty wild stuff to happen and i’m hoping that bethesda and i hear that there’s some

[31:44] pretty deep moral stuff going on so i’m hoping that the writers had the intestinal fortitude to uh to really

[31:52] take some risks i think that could be exciting but yeah i think being a dad has me very interested to find out what

[32:00] happens to this this character’s child um especially in a world that’s not exactly pg indeed it’s just like how

[32:11] receptive to that setup i think i was so i’m playing as a male character and i think like some of the things that beth had messed up this name bethesda is

[32:21] how you say it yeah yeah it’s the studio that made the game the town in washington that doesn’t help me

[32:31] you know the 17th century poet just like that like oh of course so because the way that they’ve done it what was most affecting i think for the

[32:39] first part was the very minut and honest seeming interactions between my male character and his wife

[32:49] like it’s all very it’s not very scripted stuff it’s like oh honey i really worry sometimes about the future where you know it’s clearly like set up

[32:57] stuff it’s like oh yeah it’s up over there like just really tiny interactions that really does only happen from

[33:05] kind of like a couple in this case and just how kind of seamless and how real that felt as far as like this is a home life

[33:14] yeah and then there’s the and then with the baby like you’re interacting with small little interactions with the baby

[33:21] um so the one thing it’s not much of a spoiler to say obviously you have to go into the vault so there’s the explosion that happens like that’s that part

[33:30] when it’s you and your family and you’re you’re if you’re actually kind of curious if you’re the if you play a female does the husband carry the

[33:39] baby i imagine yeah okay so same thing so your spouse is carrying the child the baby and the bomb goes off and you are

[33:46] running to try to get to that vault like that like that’s i want to go as far as calling it traumatic but like that was a really affecting scene

[33:54] because i don’t know that i’ve ever kind of watched an npc character so much to make sure that they’re kind of coming through not so much that it’s like

[34:03] yeah i didn’t i didn’t have ultimately i know what that type of thing i don’t have power to it’s part of the story so i knew i

[34:09] couldn’t like do something to ensure that they survived as part of the narrative they were they weren’t

[34:14] but to just like that constant need to like watch them to make sure they’re making it through the gates that they were on time they weren’t tripping like

[34:21] it was really really affecting is not a already as a parent so it’s kind of that connection to it but the way that they had set it

[34:29] up as to what felt like a real relationship beforehand like it was a disaster panic feel to it and then couple that with

[34:39] well the immediate contrast with the domestic bliss that you were going through like two minutes before and just how quickly

[34:48] the world took a turn for the worse and it went from domestic bliss to nuclear explosion so quickly

[34:56] um and that was a really fun i thought that was a fun scene i did the same thing too i kept checking it’s like where’s the where’s my uh

[35:02] was that was the husband and kid where’s the husband and kid um and yeah it was very intriguing to go

[35:10] through that because i knew like as you’re saying it’s like there’s nothing i can do gameplay-wise to really change the outcome like i know that this npc is

[35:17] going to be scripted to do a certain thing but i wanted to know what it was i wanted to know what fate had in store

[35:23] for these two individuals who i’ve grown attached to in a mere 10 minutes so so far like the writing’s really hitting that hole i’m excited about

[35:32] where it goes from there it’s just a really incredible cross section for this for us to be at this phase of our lives with young babies

[35:40] and then for this game to have that kind of plot device in it like that’s a it was a really um trippy experience ultimate as far as

[35:50] in that case it’s almost like a simple life simulator as far as what would happen if you know

[35:57] a nuclear disaster happened in your hometown and you had to run out with your family like it uh that that was wild it was really

[36:03] affecting um yeah it was a very powerful opening sounds like last of us it was very reminiscent of that i was

[36:10] actually going to bring that up because i was playing last of us it was shortly before um the baby came along but i was kind of in that phase where

[36:18] my brain was wrapping itself around the idea of being a dad so like that opening scene and last of us and even just the interactions with

[36:26] ellie throughout the game yeah um that at that point too i knew we were having a daughter so just that sort of uh father-daughter relationship sort of

[36:35] thing that they had um was

[36:40] it was very interesting um and uh yeah it that opening scene and

[36:47] last of us where you’re frenzied and panicked and trying to leave your neighborhood because it’s just

[36:53] coming down around you um it was terrifying and then to look at it with these new eyes it’s

[37:00] it really does change your perspective on it and it’s actually kind of interesting you have the added benefit of these narratives having more gravity

[37:07] for you so you get more entertainment from them because they scare you senseless because then you apply it to your

[37:14] reality and you’re like oh my god that is terrifying or before when you didn’t have an understanding of that attachment you would understand but not fully

[37:26] um but you would have some vague concept you could empathize but you couldn’t fully relate

[37:33] and now that you can fully relate it changes um how it interacts with you so it’s

[37:40] even certain things now where i’m excited to see movies that play on that that scenario

[37:46] or on similar scenarios and see how that affects me now because my perception has changed now that i’m a dad so entertainment um

[37:54] different entertainment forms and and different things that i enjoyed before i could see myself getting a brand new

[38:00] appreciation for because it’s like getting new taste buds and being like oh sweet like i can taste flavors i could never taste before i want to try all

[38:07] these things i already liked before and imagine how much i’m going to like them now it’s like a secondary emotional receptor

[38:14] that you get um i’m not saying that people without kids can’t appreciate this stuff but there’s like this extra little level of

[38:20] um attachment because you have a personal attachment to it yeah i’ll be um joe like jeff i’ll be curious when you do go

[38:27] through it i imagine at some point um drops in price or whoever you borrow it from gavin or steal it from gavin

[38:35] like i do wonder what it’ll be like for you yeah being you know a bit further removed

[38:41] from you know your kids infancy now like i want to feel have that same punch or if like it’s

[38:48] your your kids being infants are so like far enough away that’s yeah different it’s like worn off now

[38:56] i think the the inks the instinct will still be there but it might not be as real if it’s a baby and you have a baby

[39:05] around the same age i think there’s more of a connection for sure um that’s not to say we’ll just look at a baby and just let it die in

[39:14] the game but there’s still the instinct there too you’re not you’re not gavin so help people help a dog

[39:21] the um so yeah jeff if you wanna so i didn’t so i so gavin bought it for obvious reasons uh huge fan like this is this was his

[39:30] game for probably like within this year uh myself it everything just kind of added up i got this

[39:37] last minute deal where i got to take a bunch of percentage off i had some actually credits from a different service so like i was able to get it for

[39:44] absurdly cheap and amongst the hype it’s like you know what let’s let’s do this like it’s within the range now where i’m willing to just go for it

[39:52] what what was your thinking in not getting it um basically on past experience with bethesda um like i played fallout new vegas

[40:03] uh years after it came out and i think i actually rented it if blockbuster was around at that time so

[40:12] i spent a seven day price with it i can’t remember but uh i remember stepping into it and

[40:20] there was a lot of glitches the glitches that kind of took me out of the world that it was trying to create for me

[40:27] so i kind of got turned off by that um but skyrim again another one

[40:35] um i have bethesda i bought for cheap like 10 bucks off ebay ps3 uh again great world got into it i think

[40:45] most of the glitches have been patched but it was still kind of odd in some spaces but i got more attached to that one

[40:53] what i am going to say is with um new vegas uh bethesda was uh like the producer for it but yeah and that one yeah was definitely buggier

[41:08] than just the original fallout 3. yeah um but uh was i i’m finding so far that fallout 4

[41:17] is more more akin to skyrim in regards to just stability like there’s some weird little some physics stuff where it’s like

[41:25] that’s kind of rolling down the hill a little weird but yeah whatever you just keep walking um i’ve seen some stuff online a bit like people floating

[41:32] through space or falling through the ground or things like that i’m like yeah i haven’t encountered that yet knock on wood

[41:38] um but hopefully that’ll get patched out before i do encounter it never know maybe i mean jeff would you say that like

[41:44] so was it just the that experience was the primary reason you wouldn’t get into it if theoretically it was perfect would you have possibly dived in

[41:52] uh possibly like that’s dropping like again previous experience five ten bucks i can get into it but eighty dollars on something that i’m not so sure

[42:02] would have the same track record um even like i really wanted witcher 3 when it came out right but i wasn’t so sure i know cg

[42:11] cd projekt red is really um good at supporting their games but again i wanted to wait for that price to kind of come down get

[42:18] everything patched in fix framing frame rate issues and then kind of buy the game of the year all in

[42:25] kind of edition so with this one i’m just kind of like wait and hold i think until things have kind of

[42:33] you know gone through the launch issues patching whatever um and just kind of take it from there so i

[42:41] can read up on the hype and enjoy vicariously through gathering the story but again it’s like it’s like

[42:48] not through me no you sound like you’re gonna be stressed out in the world standing around a circle telling everybody

[42:54] well this lady had a cat and i had to get her so i ordered some plants to help her cat out

[43:02] still stuck in chapter one i’m not sure yeah gavin’s like i raided this boss the other day and then this explosion happened and a building fell over yeah

[43:11] but it’s not like a world that can really be spoiled for you i think you take on your own persona and kind of go into it right so i can wait and kind of

[43:18] experience that when it’s kind of said and done with and people have gone through it kind of continuing our conversation from last

[43:25] week i can put more water on the pc gaming fire because the

[43:32] so it works well it works great um i was able to i did have to mess with some settings i have a graphics card

[43:40] from geforce works generally pretty great definitely not the top of the line but somewhere in the middle it comes with software and it

[43:47] actually optimizes it for you so every game i’ve ever bought it’s got this button that says optimize and it’s generally supposed to go

[43:54] through and say okay well i’m not that powerful so we’re going to turn this setting to low but we can turn this one up high keep this one little

[44:01] wherever it wants to go and for this game despite uploading a downloading an update for the graphic card before

[44:10] it installed it said like yeah we can’t give you recommended settings and like what do you what do you mean you can clearly give me recommended

[44:17] settings just like lower the frame rates like what can i hit what can you handle graphic card like how do you like your

[44:24] yeah it’s not really an optimized code right like they’re building off a 2002 graphics engine

[44:30] i think i’ve heard right like 10 15 years and they just constantly upgraded it right yeah well they gave it a huge overhaul

[44:38] for skyrim but it is still i think a lot of the same architecture and background yeah yeah i don’t know if

[44:44] it’s like a little bit gavin you’re finding it’s a little bit um feels like your movement is almost a little bit like you’re on tank tracks

[44:52] like it doesn’t feel super fluid as then you’re kind of moving around it kind of feels like you yeah that’s that’s that’s fallout that’s

[45:00] yeah that’s their animation i don’t think they mocap i don’t know i think they just

[45:06] yeah there’s always been a little bit like even in skyrim uh it’s the same sort of feel like that’s just you kind of get used to it over time um

[45:16] i’m happy to have sprinting now they didn’t have that in any other follow game and there’s so many times um

[45:24] but uh yeah it’s it’s that’s very much uh just kind of how this game engine handles maneuvering the environment that’s why i

[45:32] usually stick in first person too because the the walking can look a little weird yeah no no interest in that third person

[45:38] but the yes so again to its credit it works great everything’s relatively smooth it’s just

[45:45] some tweaking of the settings first time i ran it little little tiny tiniest a bit slow because i think the settings are too high reduced them down

[45:54] these shadows look like garbage so we started again i saw there’s no shadows indoors they don’t have lighting

[46:03] inside there’s one option for like wet on or off like would you like to turn off wet it’s

[46:10] just like yeah i’m like yes i guess um yes i i messed around at this point it’s actually pretty good and i’m just

[46:19] probably gonna keep tweaking a little bit but it’s that part’s kind of unfortunate as far as like that’s something i have to do as

[46:25] opposed to put the disc in and away you go to the fallout i had to wait for maybe 30 minutes for installation and updates

[46:34] and then it was go time okay yeah 30 30 minute update that’s not bad no no that was mostly just an installation

[46:43] like from the disc onto the hard drive just yeah yeah so that way it’s not running on because they can’t just run right off disk anymore they’re too big

[46:50] um yeah it got up and running and right now the ps4 is handling it well uh indoor lighting and shadows are great draw

[46:57] distance pretty decent um exterior lighting and bloom effects and stuff like the sunlight twinkling off the barrel of my gun it’s all quite

[47:06] nice um like you can look at the really tiny details and be like oh

[47:14] well the bump mapping on that skull isn’t great it’s like yeah but you gotta step back and look at the big painting and the big painting is pretty

[47:22] impressive for a world that size with that many things going on and that many

[47:30] nooks and crannies and places to explore and homes to ransack and raiders to kill it’s to have all that going forward as well is

[47:41] you know it’s a huge undertaking and so far i’m enjoying the exploration of it it’s holding up graphically quite well it’s

[47:49] it’s as pretty as i remember skyrim being plus a little bit more so i think um do you think you guys will appreciate how i got my first hour of

[47:59] game play in so uh kind of like a fluke decision i think

[48:04] yesterday decided like okay there’s all the deals let’s buy it preload it it was going to take a couple hours i just went to bed

[48:10] baby wakes up at 4am uh crying crying crying he unfortunately couldn’t quite get back to sleep so i was up with him for an hour trying to lull him back to

[48:20] sleep finally goes to sleep but now i’m wired absolutely wide awake just like well i guess i’ll play some fallout now

[48:31] because i look so darn awake anyways so there i think it’s like five in the morning baby finally went to sleep i’m trying to

[48:39] get back to sleep i’m like all right let’s dive in for like a half hour because like i’m not gonna put to sleep anyways surviving the wasteland is

[48:50] anything to do with gaming so it’s like finally baby’s erratic sleep habits have paid off for me from a gaming perspective

[48:59] woke me up at five in the morning so i could play a game fantastic thanks baby well you kind of get some alone time too

[49:07] right you know wife’s asleep baby’s asleep nobody’s running around the house daddy’s damn well awake so yeah

[49:15] dog’s asleep everyone’s asleep yeah you can silence scream like gavin i really like getting up early yeah that’s because like you know baby’s

[49:23] still asleep wife’s asleep dog’s asleep that’s when i get up and i have my coffee i just sit and it’s like a quiet apartment and then

[49:31] everybody wakes up um but yeah i like that a long time i think maybe it’s it could be a dad thing i don’t know it could just be

[49:39] coincidentally a few we we have these things in common ourselves but um yeah just that moment of like and uh you know sometimes to take

[49:50] advantage of that moment to have a bit of gaming too is always nice but uh yeah not exactly the easiest way to get back to sleep though yeah i think it

[49:58] seems here’s jeff if you find this as well but yeah i think it is a dad thing i know my dad used to

[50:06] have some quiet time or just like he just kind of shut off the world for 20 minutes 30 minutes i know that i really appreciate it when there’s just a

[50:14] 10 minutes of silence and it’s just it’s not it’s not 10 minutes so then i can do something it’s literally just 10 minutes of just

[50:22] down it’s quiet it’s yourself and you’re just kind of reconfiguring i don’t know if that’s a male slash father experience so you get the same thing jeff i think

[50:32] yeah i do get the same thing i think it’s just a human thing you just need to like a break like a stop i used to be able to go to the bathroom

[50:40] and not have people knock on the door like kids trying to get in saying what are you doing what are you doing like even that has been interrupted

[50:48] with noise so going and doing like a grocery trip or getting a bag of milk is

[50:57] awesome it’s like you volunteer for the yeah running errands that normally you’re like no i don’t think we’ll do that it’s

[51:04] great i got it i’m done great walking the dog at 11 at night that’s even like staring up in the sky and just looking at the planets and be like wow

[51:13] it’s so quiet out here there’s nobody talking or yelling or screaming or diaper changes or so i think it’s just

[51:23] you need an off switch now and then and gaming can do that for you right so i’m not looking at the stars outside

[51:30] with the dog i’m looking at stars in the sky with my companion with your companion dog and followed

[51:37] four except i left them back at the house because it’s too stressful to bring them so

[51:45] so gentlemen i do believe that wraps us up it’s going to be interesting to compare gavin your experiences to my experience

[51:54] i’m very excited to see how we approach this this make-believe world um last time i compared with a friend he

[52:02] was hooked on drugs not my friend but like the game was so stressful

[52:12] so um yeah just just take it in strides trevor and don’t don’t look to chemicals for for your solution in real life this game can be a huge undertaking

[52:21] um yeah i know my my buddy was playing and it’s like he came over and like my character was like really sneaky and had like a

[52:29] just this dirty hairy revolver with like a scope on it and i’ll stick it around the dirty hairy revolver sneaky at all

[52:37] not at all it’s like i get the drop on them and then slam all hell bracelets and then uh his character had like a bb gun and like

[52:46] heroin addiction and i was like all right i guess you’re playing it the way you want to play it i don’t know how you did it’s like why did

[52:52] you take the drugs i don’t know i found them and took them like i found these random pills i thought i could take them

[52:59] so uh he eventually beat the game but it took him a little longer so i’m

[53:04] really i think trevor’s is going to be the opposite of him because he was very like i’m somewhere in the middle where i’m a little bit cautious but i also

[53:11] don’t care he just did not care um well i think trevor you care so much i’m really curious to see

[53:18] what sort of experience you’re gonna have to follow because of that and it’s like yeah can mother teresa survive in this world

[53:26] caring in an uncaring world let’s see what happens yeah all right it’s gonna it’s gonna be beautiful

[53:34] this wraps up our followed episode stay tuned next week to find out how terribly our characters evolve and how different people live different

[53:44] lives in this nuclear wasteland as always thank you again for listening we do this show weekly if you have any

[53:52] suggestions or questions for us for gaming as a father please reach out to us at nougatnewdadgaming.com like and subscribe to us and all the

[54:02] fine podcast purveyors and until next week my name is trevor and i have a five month old my name is gavin i have a three month

[54:10] old i’m jeff i have a two and a half and a five year old i’ll say that again i missed like uh

[54:17] that’s the first part of that first part of me yeah i’ve cut my name is jeff i have a two and a half and a five year old

[54:27] there we go no no in-game child or dog game dogs no one day jeff one day

[54:36] just like i got enough real life responsibilities i don’t know these town folks asking me for savers just seeing me sweating he’s just

[54:44] like i don’t want to i don’t want to participate in this you guys are selling it well here they’re just characters in the room

[54:52] trying to do some business and all the townsfolk are knocking on the door i have a quest i have a request yeah i have a quest too it’s called

[55:00] pasty support toilet paper make some roots please go out there and get me some roots all right wonderful gentlemen we’ll see

[55:08] you next week