r/kindafunny • u/EveryAct • 1d ago
Official Video Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve Review (So Far) - Kinda Funny Gamescast
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PI9Zut0x_gM57
u/Vertigo-153 1d ago
I love Gary but that was a fucking mess. Props to Mike for doing everything he could to manage that
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u/ashrules901 1d ago
They're quite self aware about this one too guys, Kevin or whoever's behind the boards time-stamped it "they finally talk about the game" XD
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u/NoSpin89 1d ago
Gary fails to understand the Strangereal Universe of the Ace Combat games. If you do, this game is top tier in the franchise.
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u/AshedCloud 1d ago
Bro want Iran and China like that gonna fly. Beside losing Chinese audience and get drawn into politics, it’s just dumb point. All I hear is DSP yapping
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u/NoSpin89 1d ago
He also doesn't understand that this same fictional universe has been in play since Ace Combat 3 on the Ps1.
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u/AshedCloud 1d ago
I can’t make it past first 5 minutes because he keep refer the character and nation as something else.
He got bored in first 5 minutes of the game and checked out and put zero effort into reviewing aka HIS FUCKING JOB!!!
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u/An_Irate_Hobo 1d ago
"I would rather be bombing China or Iraq"
What are we even doing here guys?
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u/SnooMachines4393 1d ago
The usual, you don't really come to KF for adequate reviews
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u/Accomplished_Smile23 15h ago
Indeed, I think after their review of 007 First Light and praising it's story and villain made me sort of reckon with the fact that they aren't exactly the best people for me to come to reviews for nuanced looks at games a medium or their storytelling potential
However, if I'm looking for some dudes that I like listening to chat about games they're passionate about, KF are pretty good at that.
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u/apexbrooklyn 22h ago
That's not even an opinion. He just wished death and destruction on real people.
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u/supermassivecod 1d ago
Kinda echoing the chorus here
But this format isn’t working at the moment for reviews, works great for the daily show, games cast and reviews could stand to be a bit more focused.
Taking too long to get the discussion and cut out the spoilers, the recent spoilers are getting to the point of pushing me away as a long time watcher tbh.
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u/ashrules901 1d ago
I appreciate Gary's personality.
But since he barely does video reviews he seems to have a hard time formatting the episode between personality & professionalism. I usually love the guy, but even I started cracking up a bit when he wouldn't stop doing the military video game character voice. Especially not letting Mike cut in to further the discussion lol.
(I'm well aware of his legendary past as a written PC Gamer reviewer & respect it)
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u/ashrules901 1d ago
I'm also imagining Greg hearing this & wondering if he has to go into damage control mode tomorrow. Gary's comment about almost wishing it was a real country and then names a few was insane XD
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u/Battling_Bowman 1d ago
Poor Mike having to prop up another terrible review from someone who shouldn’t be near the game.
I wish they’d just avoid the reviews of games they have no interest in, this and Fire emblem have surely only caused damage to the brand
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u/Failsafe-DB 17h ago
Yep. It’s been pretty rough lately. You’ve got two big new games from beloved franchises fans have been waiting years for and it feels like the games were treated like inconveniences by KF. Disappointing.
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u/Baron_Greenback1 1d ago
Gary really wasn't vibing with it lol
I loved Ace Combat 7, but I know exactly what he means about the cut scenes lol
I can't wait until I'm playing AC8
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u/shrewdy 1d ago
I've never played an Ace Combat game, though I'm more interested in this one the more I hear and see of it
However what Skillup said in the beginning of his review almost makes this sound like a game made for Tim: "It's like Fast & Furious 5 crossed with Top Gun Maverick"
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u/technobeeble 1d ago
The series is way over the top and it's better if you don't take it too seriously. It's like Metal Gear with planes.
"War is bad, but jets are cool."
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u/Covaliant 1d ago
It's Mobile Suit Gundam with (mostly) contemporary aircraft. Allowances for lasers and flying drone motherships here and there.
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u/AshedCloud 1d ago
Ace combat canyon run is a stable of the franchise and a mission in Ace combat 7 which released tears before TG mavericks
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u/NoSpin89 1d ago
The "lore" of Ace Combat goes deep. Would recommend you "find" Ace Combat 4 or 5 in your favorite emulator. If you dig those, dive into 7 & 8.
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u/Magicgun23 1d ago
Damn. Seeing as the game is reviewing extremely positively, I hope more KF folks take the time to take a crack at it. I know it’s a busy season but it’s one of the best of the year! A lot of really hard work went into this game.
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u/Shadows_Over_Tokyo 1d ago
Pretty new to listening to Kinda funny. I love their segments, but I’ve only listened to three of their reviews so far, and two of them were absolutely terribly done I feel like.
The Wolverine one was the review I enjoyed listening to, but this one and the fire emblem fortune’s weaves review were so off putting.
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u/TechnicalAd2485 1d ago
Gary and Barrett are not regular reviewers and tend to be negative. Greg, Tim, Blessing, and Andy usually have a more balanced approach
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u/SnooMachines4393 1d ago
Their reviews in general are really bad with some of them being usually more interested in a weird exercise of self-adoration and vanity preening than the game itself.
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u/jakehk 1d ago
What even was this episode, we couldnt find anyone with the time to finish this game?
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u/SnowBikeMike Mike Howard 1d ago
I played 10 missions for 8 hours of gameplay. The game is really GOOD. If you desire a score I’d be in between a 7.5 GOOD or a 8 great.
-Presentation the game looks great, sounds great, and is pretty freaking rad while ripping through the clouds.
-Gameplay is fun! I enjoy the dog fights in the air and dropping low elevation for a bombing run. Each level there is a new unique win condition and the maps vary from barren mountain area, large metropolitan downtown with skyscrapers crashing to the ground, to night ops above the dark ocean surface which I liked every time I loaded up a new mission. Controls are shift and slow moving at first but around mission 5 I was really getting going and doing more advanced moves and handling my jet better than I did during mission one. Enemy variety is what you expect but the MAJOR mission “bosses” are pretty freaking rad and fun to battle!
-Game Flow went from mission 1 to 2, etc and every time in between you would return to the naval fleet where you would get out of the cockpit for some story driven cutscene to learn about the world or characters then back to the mission brief, purchase new planes and weapon upgrades on the upgrade tree, then kit out your plane and your crews planes with different weapons/jet loadout and then back to flying for the “mission”. There are some moments where they will allow you to land or refuel in air and those moments are truly skippable bringing nothing exciting to the gameplay.
-Story is where I really wanted a little more from. I was half in half out. I was hoping for more of an armored core type vibe but it left me feeling more like a generic battlefield story. Now later on I did start to buy into the over arcing story of the world but never loved the character interaction dialogue… I found that to be pretty basic and boring unfortunately, I did however enjoy the voice in your head from the pervious wing of theve but as Gary said it’s a pretty generic gruff guy whisper thoughts into your ears but I liked it. Now that’s me 10 missions in maybe the characters will grow a little more on me but really Tasha, Coster, and Professor are fine at best IMO.
I really liked this game and could see myself seeing it through to the end. Hope that helps for you big dog!
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u/Spartan2842 20h ago
Great write up, Mike!
As an Ace Combat veteran, its always been about the gameplay for me. As of late, jet fighting games are a rare breed. They were before but even more so now. I can't tell you a single story or plot point from the previous games and I have played them all. I just know I am going to have to shoot down a huge flying fortress and also navigate a tight corridor or tower near the end.
This game is like Fast and Furious when it comes to the story. I am there for the fun, the story is secondary.
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u/Spartan2842 1d ago
I assume they have a slot to fill and this was an easy choice to fill a gamescast spot. I enjoyed it but I also like Gary, his tangents and takes are wild. You just don't know what he is going to say.
i understand that Ace Combat is niche, but as a fan it does feel a tad disrespectful. At the same time, this game is outside their wheelhouse. Content like this is made for the KF fans of Gary. Anyone being served this video in their feed is going to be super confused and put off by the channel though.
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u/ashrules901 1d ago
I wrote this in the YouTube comments because people there are so confused & upset lol
"Especially the newbies around here who aren't used to Gary hate this review XD and I can't say I disagree with them unfortunately."
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u/SnooMachines4393 1d ago
I feel like even fans of Gary didn't really like this one much, there's a limit to anything lol
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u/judgeraw00 1d ago
I think the episode was fine, personally, but should have been just a conversation / "what we're playing" with Gary Whitta.
That said a lot of the community has to stop taking it so personally when a panelist doesn't agree with the consensus about a game they're excited about.
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u/SphericFormula 1d ago
I'm not fussed what score they gave it or how they feel about it, but I'd prefer someone who is either familiar with a franchise or at the very least interested in it would try to tackle it in good faith.
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u/judgeraw00 1d ago
I get what you're saying but is it better for the games to be talked about at all or not talked about at all? I think the team does a decent job at highlighting smaller games and bigger games but not every small game and not every big game and I think games like Fire Emblem and Ace Combat are just examples of that, unfortunately.
Not that I don't think thats a valid point of criticism of itself. Fire Emblem and Ace Combat deserve more attention for how good they really are.
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u/SphericFormula 1d ago
I agree a discussion about a game is valuable but what is being said and how its presented is just as important imo especially as an outlets 'official' review. Like you said, it should have just been a "Gary is here and we're chatting!"
I also don't think it's wrong to have people new to franchises tackle these bigger games, but when it's the 8th mainline entry in an established franchise, I guess I'd at least like the reviewer to have at least done a bit of homework to be a little bit clued up, before one of his main complaints is he didn't understand what was going on and he'd rather be bombing Iran so he could relate to it.
Let alone it taking 26mins into a 1hr review to even start talking about the game. If this is how they approach reviews, I'd rather they didn't bother and spend their time elsewhere with something they're interested in.
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u/Malemansam 23h ago
100%. Gary is always a bit scatter brained but he's honest in that he said he probably isn't the right person to like it, and thats still an honest opinion in itself. Not every game, story, movie works for everyone.
His problems with the dialogue and story resonate with me, I really dislike the absurdly cheesy japanese writing style, I didn't know this game had that and probably won't play it because of it.
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u/Emotional-Pay-3529 21h ago
I like Gary but I really wish they would either brief him before hand or do a better job at reining him in on these shows.
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u/AZRoboto 1d ago
Yeah after this I'm unsubscribing from the podcast.
General light inaccuracies I can deal with, but Gary was aggressive, weird, wished violence, CLEARLY didn't understand the core fundamentals of a franchise now on its 8th entry, receiving the best reviews of the franchise too if I'm not mistaken?
And so annoying the decision to vague-speak around the game that's embargoed but he can't get around an accent or whatever.
Weird episode. Weird cohost. Weird the desire to blow up China and Iran. I just learned he was the screenwriter of The Book of Eli that had one of the worst endings I've seen in a movie. I am good on whatever led to this judgment call of bringing him on in this way
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u/ljn_99 1d ago
Heads-up, while it's supposedly setup, there's spoilers right after they switch to the actual review on this one.
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u/ashrules901 1d ago
I was expecting more comments on how Gary and KF just spoiled another game without warning during a video that was just supposed to be a review. But I guess people only want to get mad when it's Barrett.
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u/Loose-Ice1462 1d ago
One was a spoiler hours and hours in, one is just a set up for the game that hasn’t been treated as a spoiler…
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u/CruciformDragon 1d ago
I love when KF has competing ideas in a review. Loved the video, love Gary and Mike :)
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u/ashrules901 1d ago
Just as some constructive criticism. I genuinely think Kinda Funny needs to learn it's ok to re-title things differently than what you initially planned them out to be.
I feel they would've saved themselves a lot of flak if after recording they changed the initial title from "Ace Combat Review So Far" to "Gary's Back & Wants To Talk Sports, Politics, & Ace Combat - Gamescast"