Quick Look: Brad and Jeff Show off Death Stranding for 20 Minutes (and Then 10 More)

i still don't understand the backpack mechanics at all

To what end does anyone get "good" at a video game?

Good thing that pizza stayed flat after he put it on the pack...

I have to say, that thing Jeff says about the story being the most freshman philosophy stoner conversation is exactly how I’ve felt about every metal gear game and it is chicken soup for my soul to finally see more people notice how incredibly surface-level, pretentious, and hamfisted Kojima’s storytelling is.

Oh my Jeff is so tsundere about this game

Sorry but that pizza is NOT flat while riding the bike. Mission failed yo.

Have they explained how this game works if you don't subscribe to Sony's or Microsoft's online service? Do you still get stuff like the bridge that someone else built at the start? Or the power generator in the mountain Brad was talking about?

@theschap: in theory the timefall should take care of that. I bet that theres some upper limit of shared world structures to fit in the world and the timefall deletes low-likes / old stuff when it rotates new content in

Man, I know embargos are weird and all, and like Brad tweeted, pretty common, but I have very little patience for having to cover content like this. 20 minutes here. 10 minutes there. Don't talk about this. Only show this. If you're confident in your game, let sites cover it as they'd like.

On the actual game: this game is definitely Kojima unleashed and I'm not sure I'm in on it. Dare I say, perhaps having someone like Konami as the yes or no man may have been better? I don't know. But I'm sure people are gonna talk about this game for a while. And be very torn on it.

@casse1berry: I prefer fission mailed. :)

Am literally staring at a can of Monster Energy right now that has “this product is not intended to replace food or fluid intake.” printed on it in all caps while watching a video game that actually has a mechanic that collects water and replaces it with Monster Energy drink.

Gonna place my bet now that during GB GOTY, Death Stranding gets nominated but doesn't hang after first round of cuts. Though, in its favor, the game will get to sponsor a new category: "Most Shameless Branding Exercise"

Ugh, this game. Oh well, more time for The Outer Worlds.

It sounds like they're describing No Man's Sky but you can't leave the planet. Maybe some slow paced Crazy Taxi in there.

I actually really like the look of navigating the world in this game. I think it’s interesting to see a game that actually makes you think really hard about the physicality of the space you’re in, and that makes moving through that space something deliberate and tactile rather than most games where characters will automatically hop over minor obstacles or whatever.

On the other hand, the equipment management side looks confusing and tedious, and I don’t want to go anywhere near it. So I think I’m going to avoid this game until it gets a steep discount.

1 min and 43 seconds in and I love how this quick look is painting a clear picture for us.

I don't think I've ever seen Jeff more disappointed when it's not the monster cans in the player home.

Um. This is only serving to make me more excited to play. If this is catered reverse psychology, it's working...

I'm ashamed of my words & deeds and will buy this game day one.

Walking is no more boring than shooting. In fact it's way more interesting at this point in gaming.

Using blood bullets...is this the sequel to Bloodborne we've all been waiting for?

I am interested in the reviews after the general populous gets it's hands on the game. How many of the concurrent other player's items populate your world? It would be amazing if Kojima actually had the forethought to know that early reviewers would hate the game due to the solitude and seeming pointlessness. There seems to be a similar sense of relief and comfort when these reviewers run into something left by another player or even when they see another player live even if they can't interact with them. Now imagine if that was to populate exponentially. Player's after the game's release might not have the same experience as early reviewers. Their world could be bustling with life and their infrastructure could be expanding at a rapid pace. Or..... I drank too much of this cough syrup.

@tikicobra: Yep as someone who has 180 hours in Breath of the Wild and hasn't finished the game I too find the world exploration stuff very appealing.

@conmulligan:

Oh geez, yikes. As someone who is maybe abnormally sensitive to that very specific thing (bad things happening to pregnant women), glad to know about this as it would probably sour me on the whole thing if I actually played it. It'd be like showing what happened to Dr. Strangelove in MGSV all over again.

That was an excellent video. The 10 minute technical anaylysis section was hilarious. It answered all of my burning questions.

I'm sorry but I'm a cop and that technical analysis video was UNINTERRUPTED. You're going to jail @jeff and @brad.

Jeff: game bad!

Brad: game good?

brad should lend jeff some of his hair gel

Is ps+ need for all the online stuff in the game?

I feel like Kojima's movie industry pals would run for the hills if he ever got to write and direct an actual film. Maybe he could pull off directing, but his writing is so heavy handed that a film would be laughable. Though, to be fair, that's like 80 percent of popular movies these days. I guess he'd fit right in.

Hideo Kojima's Smuggler's Run

can't wait

Sorry if this has already been asked, but I can't stop wondering - what game is the disc up there above the Mount Your Friends poster behind Brad? I think it's a PS2 disc, rated E, with a Konami logo on it.

It does feel like the part of the 'point' they're trying to make, about the disconnectedness of people, technology replacing everything else in lives, including human connections, withdrawal from human interactions, is something that would 'hit the spot' better in Japan, especially among gamers. And I say this as someone who lives in Japan and interacts with game developers (the most of gender-less, asexual, reclusive beings I've ever seen gathered in one place). It's definitely going to be better received here, because those points are so much closer to the everyday truth, than in the west. I kind of can see exactly where he's coming from in some parts of this game. Including the part about giving a baby to play with to people who've never seen a live one close up in their lives (it's like the health ed class for otaku, really).

I've also read Koji-sensei talking about how much importance he wants to place into this 'subtle multiplayer' system, to remind all the people playing alone at home how it feels to feel human presence in the world around them, and how to prompt them to use the game to interact with each other, and to do thing that would benefit others in their own game world.

Generally, I do have this strong feeling that this game would make more sense, culturally, for people living in Japan, than in western cultures. I imagine even the cargo-balancing system will be super attractive to the specific otaku-type of people.

The technical analysis answered a lot of my questions about Death Stranding. Good work!

Super entertaining way of cover the game. I almost prefer it to a normal quick look? Brad and Jeff seem to be much more focused on their conversation, which is what I'm interested in.

Plus the technical analysis was the funniest shit, good stuff

@vinyl:

Frogger: The Great Quest

Preordered - mostly because i thought i had already preordered and i did not, also because i disagree with Jeff's gaming opinions enough lately that his thoughts on this means I'll probably love it.

A lot of people are disappointed in this game. By look at the gameplay footage I can kind of see it. It looks like a delivery simulator and a lot like No Man Sky, when it first came out, but with cinematic cut scenes. But I'm not giving up on Kojima this quickly. The dude is a master of bait and switch and surprise plot twist. I will still check it out... after I play Doom Eternal.

this game DELIVERS

This is the best video on this site since...Project Beast? The first 10 mins had be rolling!

Brad actually seems close to enamored with the game, I can't wait to see how he feels on Tuesday assuming he finished this weekend.

Man, I'm so torn on this game. The stuff that looks cool (traversing the world, the shared online nature of it, avoiding BT's) looks really cool, but some of the other stuff seems super not up my alley. Truth be told, the seeming overabundance of systems is what most worries me. I'm not even someone who loathes over encumbrance or degradation meters, but those stacked on top of, supposedly, a myriad of other systems to keep track of is somewhat intimidating. Norman Reedus can only stack those boxes so high, after all.

Not shocked that Brad keeps playing a game that is repetitive and grindy

The likes in this game are really baffling.

It reminds me of that one episode of Black Mirror where in the distant future, your social status is based on your rating of 5 stars. Really weird. Even Instagram are trying to hide likes. Feels like this game is perhaps using the mechanic as a commentary on society's obsession on likes.

@zinkn: I'm pretty sure he really likes outer worlds

Looks great, thanks guys!

I almost pre-ordered this for a friend of mine as a gift. He's a huge Kojima fan, as am I am. After hearing Jeff's comments.... uuuuuh. I'm going to wait. Similar to Jeff, he is a new father. He also got a job working for the postal service delivering mail. So. Yeah. I don't know how much he's looking forward to playing a game where he takes care of a baby while being exhausted from delivering packages all day. I know he already barely finds time to play some of the ones he has, including co-op ones we play with him.

Hold on. The pizza has to be flat. Care was made so that the pizza was flat when he was carrying it on his back. Then he got on the bike and leaned forward, and there's no way the pizza would have been ok being all slanted like that. The systems in this game make literally no sense.

@bored_and_agitated: Dan pretty much knew there was a huge chance he would hate this game. He disclosed it a few times in the months leading up to now.

I just realized that I've been excited for this in the exact way as I was for the new Neil Breen movie.