Dragon Age situation is crazy | Friends Per Second Episode #57
PLUS: Ryan Payton joins us to chat Arkham Shadow and Lucy experiences an earthquake
Hey Users!
Hope you’re having a good start to the week and managed to fit in some big gaming hours over the weekend.
A little bit of housekeeping before we get into the episode: the newsletter has a new release time! We figured it would be best to have a regular update time instead of “whenever Lucy gets around to writing the newsletter on the weekend”, so each issue will now fly into your inboxes (or the Substack app) at 1200 EST / 0900 PST the Monday after each episode drops on YouTube.
This week on the podcast, we’re joined by Paul Tassi from Forbes to talk about Dragon Age: The Veilguard and Camouflaj creative director Ryan Payton pops on to talk about making Batman work in VR.
Also please enjoy the thumbnail for this week’s episode that Lucy definitely understood and didn’t need Ralph and Jake to explain to her.
Games mentioned: Dragon Age: The Veilguard, Batman: Arkham Shadow
Misc. mentions: Batman (general), Jake’s Batman cowl, just how tall is George Clooney?
Dragon Age Discussion with Paul Tassi
‘Dragon Age: The Veilguard’ Review: A Well-Aged Dragon - Paul’s review
I do not recommend: 'Dragon Age: The Veilguard' (Review) - Ralph’s review
Dragon Age: The Veilguard finally released this week, but was it worth the ten year wait? Paul Tassi from Forbes joins us to chat about the good and the bad of BioWare’s latest.
Also, Lucy experienced a small earthquake as we started to record #justSanFranciscothings
Games mentioned: Dragon Age: The Veilguard, Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2, Mass Effect 3, Dragon Age Inquisition, Baldur’s Gate 3, Mass Effect Andromeda, Anthem, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Dragon Age Origins, Jade Empire, Baldur’s Gate, Final Fantasy XVI, Bladur’s Gate 2
Misc mentions: Earthquake report, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Alfred Pennyworth, Alarmo
User question #1 - Jake Stracener
What game series would you like to see receive a spin-off from a wildly different developer? Something like Metal Gear Rising or Tales from the Borderlands. Thanks!
We had a packed show so we only got to answer one User Question this week, but boy was it a banger, so thank you Jake for sending it in!
Games mentioned: Borderlands, Tales from the Borderlands, Metal Gear Rising, Final Fantasy, Devil May Cry, Monster Hunter, Dragon’s Dogma, Street Fighter, Final Fantasy XVI, Dissidia: Final Fantasy, Xenoblade Chronicles X, Papers Please, Mass Effect, Destiny, Halo Reach, Hitman, Yakuza
If you’ve got burning questions you’d like us to answer on the show, email us or drop them in the comments below!
Batman: Arkham Shadow with Ryan Payton
Next up, we were joined by Ryan Payton, founder and studio head of Camouflaj, developers of Batman: Arkham Shadow. Ryan’s had one hell of a career so far - he started in games journalism, worked on Metal Gear Solid 4 and Halo, founded his own studio, and then got to work on Batman. We had a lovely chat all about his journey and just how the team managed to translate Batman (very successfully, according to Jake) to VR.
Games mentioned: Batman: Arkham Shadow, Metal Gear Solid 4, Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence, Republique, Iron Man VR, Halo 4, Half-Life Alyx, Walking Dead Saints and Sinners, Asgard’s Wrath 2, Assassin’s Creed Nexus, Beat Saber, Superhot VR, Suicide Squad Kill The Justice League, Batman Arkham City, Batman Arkham Origins, Batman Arkham Knight
Misc. mentions: EGM, 1Up.com, Wired, The Japan Times, shout out to the Arkham community, Sleepy Hollow
What we’ve been playing
We took a brief detour while chatting about what we’ve been playing to discuss the sad shutdown of Firewalk Studios, developers of Concord, as the news broke shortly before we recorded.
Ralph’s still chipping away at Diablo 4
Jake has been digging Black Ops 6 and became the knight in Arkham Shadow
Lucy’s been relaxing with Wilmot Works It Out
Games mentioned: Path of Exile 2, Concord, Call of Duty 2 Modern Warfare, Modern Warfare 2, Modern Warfare 3, Cold War, Hitman, 007 Nightfire, Black Ops, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, Fear The Spotlight, Red Dead Redemption, Astro Bot, Metaphor: ReFantazio, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Dishonored, Batman: Arkham Shadow, Batman Rise of Sin Tzu, the Batman Begins game, Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered, Horizon Forbidden West, The Last of Us Part 1, Neva, STALKER 2, Alan Wake DLC, Rise of the Golden Idol
Misc. mentions: Stranger Things, Mission Impossible, Nine Inch Nails, the haunted Renesmee doll
Show and tell
And finally, we end on some stuff we’ve been enjoying that wasn’t a video game. Technically Lucy is cheating this week, but you should watch Bingo Brawlers because it’s ace.
Ralph watched The Marvels for his superhero movie project
Jake went to see We Live In Time
Lucy urges you to check out Bingo Brawlers on YouTube
Games mentioned: Elden Ring
Movies mentioned: Venom 3, Venom Let There Be Carnage, The Punisher, Fantastic Four, Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man movies, Final Fantasy The Spirits Within
Misc. mentions: Ted Lasso, Chicken Shop Date, Weetabix, The Great British Bake Off
Thanks as always for checking out the podcast and for reading the newsletter, we’ll be back again very soon! Ralph’s turn for a BTS pic this week, please enjoy his office from a completely different angle than we normally get (also Ralph, if you need help with cable management, I am available - L).
Loved the episode. But I must say I was very disappointed by the YT comments on this episode - a lot of unjustified hate towards Paul, ok he didn't have the same opinion as Ralph, isn't that the point of having him on? I don't know - the comments just felt so off from the normal positive vibes.
Somewhat off topic user question....what software do y'all use to get all these video streams together? Trying to get a video podcast started and trying to navigate recording different video streams all together. Is it a zoom and then an overlay in post? Or some other thing like riverside or obs?