Fire Escape Cast #118

Summary

Fire Escape Cast #118

Date: October 20, 2025
Hosts: Dan Ryckert, Mary Kish, Mike Mahardy

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Episode Overview

This episode of Fire Escape Cast brings together Dan, Mary, and Mike for their trademark blend of video game deep-dives, personal anecdotes, and irreverent banter. The trio discusses two of 2025’s hottest games—Hades 2 and Ghost of Tsushima: Yote—delving into their mechanics, story, and aesthetics. They also recount travels (including Mary’s Japan trip and Dan’s near-miss house explosion), dig into the best “bonus” multiplayer modes, critique fan communities, and try out recent indies, from Clover Pit to Consume Me. Along the way, expect candid personal stories and plenty of offbeat humor.

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Highlights and Key Discussion Points

1. Mary’s Japan Trip: Kyoto Cringe and Tokyo Game Show

• [00:32–12:57]
• Mary shares stories from her trip to Japan:
  • Visited Tokyo Game Show (“TGS”) for Twitch.
  • Explored the Nintendo Museum and the original Nintendo house/hotel in Kyoto, with fascinating history from the late 1800s.
  • Embarrassing moment: Accidentally wore another guest’s ‘indoor-only’ wooden sandals through a historic home, causing a scandal.
    • Quote [07:00, Mary]: “Like, the audacity of myself looking at her and being like, no, ma’am, I believe I put on the shoes that you asked me.”
  • Dressed in kimono, ousted for shoe mishap, and subsequently avoided using that bathroom again out of shame.
  • Reports on unfiltered "booth babe" spectacle at TGS and the cultural differences compared to Western gaming conventions.
  • Recommends getting lost in Japan to discover great food and hidden gems; details a memorable night out in Osaka.

2. Dan’s Near-Explosion Story

• [17:41–27:05]
• Dan recounts the chaos when construction severed his home’s main gas line, forcing an emergency evacuation.
  • The urgent scramble to save his cat under threat of explosion.
  • Quote [21:38, Dan]: “All I was thinking about was the cat… anything else—the house could explode… stuff is replaceable.”
  • Contrasts instinctive reactions in emergencies; “you can’t manufacture these kinds of situations.”
  • Fireman identifies Dan as “my hero”—not for the rescue, but because of his Metal Gear Solid statue.

3. Castle Times, Revolutionary Wars, and Sidebanter

• [27:05–33:13]
• Hilarious, meandering debate about historical eras, muskets, and “castle times.”
• Jokes about the Marquis de Sade and misremembered historical facts.
• Spirals into the concept of “hanging dong” in both mythology and history.

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Featured Game Discussions

4. Hades 2 – Deep Dive

• [34:23–49:27]
• Mary and Dan share their evolving experiences with Hades 2:
  • Praises Supergiant’s nuanced upgrades to both combat and narrative style.
  • The cast system is called out as a significant mechanical evolution.
  • Quote [41:07, Mary]: "They knew where to put the extra elements in this game to let you feel its soul."
  • Discussion of community's strange body image debates regarding Aphrodite (“Anthrodite is hot, period. End of story.” – [36:30])
  • Good variety in weapon choices and favorite builds—no single 'best' weapon.
  • Mike finds that Melanoe’s gameplay demands more strategic positioning than Zagreus.
  • Dan admits to skipping much of the story for the “boons,” while Mary and Mike note the increased narrative stakes.

5. Ghost of Tsushima: Yote (“Yote”)

• [49:27–67:12]
• All three hosts praise the sequel for its gorgeous visuals and cinematic storytelling.
  • Mary: “This is the most beautiful game I've ever played.” [57:38]
  • Robust open world with rewarding side quests and organic discovery (“just go get lost”).
  • Some critique of its forced weapon-switching mid-combat (rock-paper-scissors mechanic):
    • Mary: “I wish I could just master the weapon I want to master.” [60:36]
  • Standout “training” sequence for off-hand sword, which cleverly mimics the player’s learning curve on the controller itself.
  • Fast travel lauded as a standout quality-of-life feature.
  • Comparison with Red Dead 2’s slowness—Yote lets you opt in or out of logistics and “just be a video game when you want”.
  • Quote [66:09, Mary]: “It knows it’s a video game... you can fast travel, pick up stuff quickly, craft super fast. But if you want to sit and enjoy it, you can do that too.”

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New and Noteworthy Games

6. Ninja Gaiden 4

• [72:12–82:09]
• Dan’s glowing review: “One of the best Ninja Gaiden games ever.”
  • Stays true to the over-the-top, skill-heavy, stylish action of earlier series.
  • Rewards mastery, not a FromSoftware derivative.
  • Quote [75:42, Dan]: “If we just went from Ninja Gaiden 2004 and then cryogenically froze everyone… and then they make another one now—it’s like that.”
  • Packed with classic moves, memorable bosses, and intense challenge.

7. Indies & Under-the-Radar

• Clover Pit ([106:28–114:31])
  • Roguelike gambling game—enjoyable as a “half-brain-dead” distraction, but with limited strategy and high variance. Compared to Balatro and Inscryption, not as deep.
    • Mary: “It’s perfect for like, half gaming, half watching TV.”
• Consume Me ([93:35–106:22])
  • Semi-autobiographical game tackling eating disorders, praised for empathetic systems and effective, non-triggering storytelling.
    • Dan: “It’s a really, really well done... gamifying a message and empathy for a situation we might not all have.”
    • Mary recommends I’m Glad My Mom Died for further reading.
• Baby Steps ([84:01–92:49])
  • Both Dan and Mary bounce off it; punishing, intentionally frustrating progression with little sense of improvement.
    • Mary: “It is miserable to walk in that game. They made the basic mechanics not fun for me to play.”
• Lego Party ([115:15–122:00])
  • Dan says it's "better than Mario Party in every way as a video game"—skill-based, less random, and more enjoyable for both core and casual players.
• Battlefield 6 ([122:25–123:55])
  • Dan: “It’s fun, but I’m just not the multiplayer shooter guy anymore.” Mike notes DICE’s success in righting the “ship” after 2042.

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Hardware Check-In

• Rog Ally Xbox Handheld ([124:32–131:17])
  • Dan describes its power and form factor as superior for portable AAA gaming (like Elden Ring), but much more expensive and less user-friendly than a Steam Deck for most indie titles.
  • Admits he would never spend $1,000 on it personally, but it has its niche for demanding portable play.

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Community & Cultural Banter

Fandoms: Love, Hate, and Stereotypes

• [133:53–159:03]
  • Prompted by a listener email:
    • What’s something actually good, but the fanbase ruins?
    • Mary: Rick and Morty (good show, “ruined” in public perception by toxic meme culture)
    • Mike: Wine (the stuffy/superior stereotype, even though many in wine are welcoming)
    • Dan: Wrestling and gaming (online discourse constantly embarrassing, despite plenty of great folks in both fandoms)
    • Runner-up: Adult Disney fans, Kingdom Hearts diehards, Japanophiles—often get prejudged for being obsessed.
  • And what fandom do you trust to be cool?
    • Mary: The Simpsons (“If you love the Simpsons, I have a commonality with you.”)
    • Dan: Norm Macdonald fans, but with a caveat.
    • Mike: Fans of The Thing movie, McGruber.

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Listeners’ Questions

1. Underrated Multiplayer Modes
   • [162:00–169:30]
   • Highlighted: Ghost of Tsushima’s Legends co-op mode, Gears of War 3 competitive MP, Resistance 2 class-based co-op, Mass Effect 3 horde mode, Perfect Dark's Counter-Op.
2. Missouri Is Trash (Listener's Request)
   • [171:54–173:10]
   • Dan delivers a roast on Missouri for hometown pride (“Bad people, bad cities, bad food, make fun of their food…”).

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• [07:00, Mary, on Kyoto shoe mishap]: “The audacity of myself looking at her being like, no, ma’am, I believe I put on the shoes that you asked me...”
• [21:38, Dan, on saving his cat from gas leak]: “All I was thinking about was the cat... the house could explode… stuff is replaceable.”
• [36:30, Mary, on Hades 2]: “Androgyny is also hot. I think it's kind of like… look at Bowie, subjective. But... she's hot, period. End of story."
• [57:38, Mary, on Ghost of Yote]: “This is the most beautiful game I've ever played. I think it's stunningly gorgeous.”
• [66:09, Mary, on Yote's design]: “It knows it's a video game... you can fast travel, pick up stuff quickly, craft super fast. But if you just want to sit and enjoy it, you can do that too.”
• [82:09, Dan, on Ninja Gaiden 4]: “You can just kind of go with the thing that kind of speaks to you more than you can in Yote.”
• [115:27, Dan, on LEGO Party]: "I cannot sit here and say... that LEGO Party isn't better than Mario Party because it is in every fucking way as a video game."
• [136:59, Dan, on wine culture]: “A lot of people who are very into wine don’t have that same sense of humor about themselves that you do."

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Episode Timestamps (Selective)

• 00:32 – Mary’s Japan trip & Kyoto embarrassment
• 08:04 – Mary on TGS, Japanese food, and travel tips
• 17:41 – Dan’s house almost explodes (cat rescue)
• 34:23 – Hades 2 in-depth discussion
• 49:27 – Ghost of Tsushima: Yote analysis
• 72:12 – Ninja Gaiden 4 impressions
• 84:01 – Baby Steps critiques
• 93:35 – Consume Me (indie empathy game)
• 106:28 – Clover Pit (slot machine roguelike)
• 115:15 – LEGO Party vs. Mario Party
• 124:32 – ROG Ally Xbox impressions
• 133:53 – Listener’s question: what fanbase ruins a good thing?
• 162:00 – Best underrated multiplayer modes

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Episode Structure & Tone

• Signature blend of humor, honesty, and genuine critical thought.
• Banter often segues into wild, free-association — e.g., jokes about “castle times” or Marquis de Sade as a Revolutionary War hero.
• Personal stories seamlessly interspersed with in-depth game critique.
• Critical but fair-minded, especially around contentious games and hardware.

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Wrap-Up and Announcements

• New merch incoming; Game of the Year episode set for December 6, 2025 (livestreamed from Minneapolis).
• Dan: 24hr Giant Bomb marathon Oct 27
• Mike: Fire Escape x Nextlander co-op Warhammer
• Mary: Monday Twitch streams (when not traveling)

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For Next Time:

• Write in with questions/comments: firescapecastmail.com
• Follow on YouTube for Game of the Year and VODs

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Closing Note: This episode cements Fire Escape's place as a haven for both serious game critique and unfiltered, hilarious podcast storytelling—a must-listen for anyone invested in games culture, or just in need of a laugh.

Transcript

[A]

Foreign. What's going on? Walter Pronoun. We're back. Firescape cast.

[B]

I think I like that worse. What's happening? I like it less.

[A]

Billy Krappinen. What's Gucci? Stanley Tucci. I'm Mike.

[B]

Billy Krapinen's growing on me.

[A]

I think I'm starting to like this guy. That's Dan Reichert.

[B]

Hi. That's me. Hello.

[A]

And that's Mary Kish.

[B]

Back.

[A]

Back from Japan. You gallivanted around. Did you knock over any restaurant walls again?

[C]

I have a new embarrassing story. Oh, great.

[A]

Go, go.

[C]

Yeah, I was in Japan for work, so I did Tokyo Game show, which was awesome. In Tokyo. And then I went to Kyoto. And where else did I go?

[B]

To the museum. Nintendo Museum.

[C]

I did go to the Nintendo Museum. I have a. Cool. That one wasn't embarrassing. But I will just say if anyone has ever heard of this in Kyoto, the original, like, Nintendo home, and it's a hotel.

[B]

I.

[C]

It was so sick. And I'm so fortunate that I got a tour of this place. And I saw the actual physical playing cards that the Yamachi family made to essentially that became Nintendo. And in the tour, I got to see the elevator that they used to bring these cards up and down because back then, obviously all paper cards, very heavy. And it's just like a really fascinating history that ended up becoming what Nintendo is. And that was one of the highlights of the trip was to be able to meet the people working in that space and what is to become of it now, which is like more of a incubator for upcoming projects and programs of smart people. But they still really cling to their roots of. Of this card of cards. Right? Because that's.

[B]

I mean, that's part of the museum is like, did you make your own cards and do all that stuff and were like, painting the cards.

[C]

And it was mostly for me, like, this hotel was essentially just going through the rooms and seeing, like, the grassroots of these original halls and spaces. And I think we got to see some places that, like, you really should not see without a tour guide. I was very fortunate that they, like, allowed us to see it and including just all the detail that went into the walls and the carpets. Like, they just put a lot of energy. And this was, you know, back in, like, the late 1800s, early 1900s. So this is a very old Japanese building. It looks stunning. So that was really cool. I felt like throughout this entire time, I would just like to say that I hadn't done anything super embarrassing. And every time I go To Japan. I do something stupid because I can't help it, and I'm American, and I embarrassed myself, but I had somehow perfectly stumbled my way through without embarrassing myself. And on the last day in Kyoto, we did this thing where you get to kind of dress up in a kimono. They like, help, you know, dress you up and guide you and prepare you and everything like that. And so we had.

[B]

Can I guess you had a bad diarrhea situation and you had to go out in the woods, but you accidentally crashed on a sh. Shrine. And he didn't have any paper, so you had to use, like, this ornamental robe to wipe your ass. And they got upset with you.

[C]

That's so bad.

[B]

Is that what happened?

[A]

That's accurate. Yeah, that's. She told me. She texted me yesterday. That's exactly what happened.

[C]

I did not shit my kimono, called her white.

[B]

God, no. You shit on the shrine and wiped with the kimono.

[C]

That's such a bad story. No, mine was.

[B]

What you do it.

[C]

You made it sound. Now my story isn't so bad. I was actually, like, I was really embarrassed when I walked in. They have all these signs saying, do not wear your shoes in this space. And I know that you're not supposed to wear your dirty shoes inside. Their beautiful, like, all the floors, so delicate. Right. Like, everything is very old. It's very proper. And you're really not supposed to wear your outdoor stuff in there. But there were all these. I don't know what these are really authentically called, but they are those wooden sandals.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

That you often wear with the kimono Crocs.

[A]

That's what they are. Yeah. In the Netherlands, a lot of people.

[C]

Don'T know that the croc family originated in Kyoto.

[B]

Who was prime minister.

[C]

They had these wooden sandals right by the entryway.

[A]

Do they have the little. The beer bottle opener on the bottom that you can use when you're on the beach?

[B]

I have those. Yeah.

[C]

Real classic ones.

[A]

Really, really quick interlude because I'm gonna forget.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

A genius was the person who decided, I'm gonna put a beer bottle opener on the bottom of these flip flops.

[B]

Is there a better feeling in the world than somebody needs a bottle open? You're like, how about this?

[A]

And they high kick them.

[B]

We talk about these sandals for hours.

[C]

Mary, save us opening my beer.

[A]

Anyway, that's. Don't knock it.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Till I come up. Till I come up.

[C]

A belt buckle would be cooler.

[A]

Till I'm coming at you like this.

[C]

Oh, my God. He's just trying to high kick now not flexible. Anyway, I, I look at these shoes and I say, okay, I understand. I take off my sneakers and socks and I put on these wooden shoes to walk inside this place. That's what it's guiding me to do. So I, I, I do that. I take off my shoes, I put on these wooden shoes and I walk into the house and there I say, where's your bathroom? And they say, it's upstairs. And I, I walk up these long, very difficult staircase with these shoes. And I'm like, this is such a hazard. I cannot believe they would ask me to do this. And I get upstairs and a woman looks at me and goes, no shoes. And she obviously doesn't speak like very much English, but she knows to yell at me and that I fucked up. And I, I look at her, I go, But I put on the. And as I say it, I realize that I am wearing someone else's shoes in this house. I had taken off my shoes and I had seen all these other authentic shoes and thought, those must be the indoor shoes. That's just another person's shoes.

[B]

You're supposed to work where they're proper shoes to wear there. Or were you supposed to be, you.

[C]

Just wear bare feet in this house.

[B]

So you weren't supposed to be wearing any shoes, much less someone else's shoes.

[C]

Stranger shoes in the upstairs of this house.

[A]

And I had clonking up the stairs when you're wickering man feet.

[C]

And I had to CL all the way down and all the women who worked there were all crowding around the staircase as I was making so much noise in these wooden shoes.

[A]

That was the sound of a coming down the stairs.

[B]

And they were the light up shoes from 93 where the lights happen. It's like very disrespectful.

[C]

They were very loud wooden clog shoes. And I like clonked my way outside and took them off. But like from then on, like, the ladies never really looked at me the same. And I knew that we had all agreed that I had embarrassed myself, but like the audacity of myself looking at her and being like, no, ma', am, I believe I put on the shoes that you asked me.

[A]

Yeah, you had the audacity to argue.

[C]

I did. As soon as it like came out of my mouth, I went, no, these aren't, these aren't my, these aren't shoes for me, are they?

[A]

Wait, but. Sorry, what was stopping you from taking them off upstairs and then carrying them down?

[C]

Embarrassment. I, I turned right around and I just clink, clunked. All the way down those stairs and out that fogging house.

[B]

That's.

[A]

That's, that's funnier than the wall. I don't know.

[C]

And then I got a tea somewhere, not because I needed it, but because I needed to pee so bad and I would not go back and ask them to use the bathroom again.

[B]

Oh.

[C]

Like, you know, the story was over for me at that point. So I just. Yeah, I just found somewhere else.

[A]

Well, we're glad you survived the embarrassment and made it back.

[C]

Thank you. I'm glad to be back. I was severely jet lagged. I do think I'm. I'm. I feel functional. Grateful to be able to go to Tokyo Game show and see the spectacle that is Tokyo Game Show. As we all know, PAX has like these very strict rules about like, what can be a booth babe, but in Tokyo Game show, they go nuts.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

They let them hang and I 2005 all the time. There you see everything. I mean, it's crazy. They just let those booth babes go all in and you know, AI is here and it is real. And like these. They have like giant screens of anime girls with the biggest giganto boobies you have ever seen.

[B]

Anime ladies with boobies.

[C]

I mean, I think they're constructed. Yeah. They don't seem super artistically inclined, but they get the job done.

[B]

Not like the old porny animes, just the greatest art.

[C]

I have a problem with these AI titties.

[B]

I want.

[C]

I want them a little bit more real anyway, just like all over the place. It's, It's. It's hard to avoid. It's really fun.

[A]

Dan hung Dong at a Tokyo Game show once.

[B]

Yeah, I don't know how to. Yes. And that.

[A]

Well, it's not my problem.

[C]

Did you hang dog or not?

[B]

Not at Tokyo Game Show. No.

[A]

No. Sorry.

[B]

I've been to Japan many times and changed my clothes while taking a shower. And so you're hung Dong in Japan? It was a pass in public.

[A]

It was in Boston. I think it was a PAX East.

[B]

I don't. My penis has never been exposed at a. At a games event.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

No.

[A]

What were you gonna say about. What else did you do in Japan.

[B]

Mary?

[C]

That's about it. I mean, I did like the usual stuff. I ate a ton of ramen and ate a lot. And I enjoyed Tokyo Game Show. I went there on behalf of Twitch. So we had like a little booth and we did a meetup and that was it. It was great. I. I loved it. I was grateful to go and see all those sexy booth babes. And I am sorry to the people in Kyoto that I embarrassed with my stupid, stupid shoes.

[A]

Yeah, you desecrated it.

[C]

I can't. I mean, I was all up in that house because the bathroom was upstairs. So I went all the way through the. The middle, all the way up the stairs and all the way up, like, the main floor before I was caught.

[A]

What was your favorite part of the trip?

[C]

I think I ran into Peter Brown. He just happened to be able to go for to. We didn't think he was going to be able to go. I play a lot of peak with Peter Brown. Used to be GameSpot, now works at Sony. And I just happened to be able to run into him in Osaka. And we did my favorite thing, which is we met at a random alley and then walked until we found a place that we thought looked cool. And the name of it was called Guts. So if you're ever in Kyoto, check out guts.

[A]

Osaka or Kyoto.

[C]

Sorry. Osaka.

[A]

Gotcha.

[C]

Go to Guts.

[A]

Alleyway stuff there is great.

[B]

Japan in general is just incredible for just like, you know, there's just so many. All these buildings in any big city are just like 8 to 10 floors of just like every floor is a different thing. So it's like, oh, DVD shop, restaurant, club, all this. And like, you can just like window shop in a way where it's like, you know, Tim Turi and I, when we would go with Game Informer, we're just like, that's probably good, right? Because you're not like yelping the shit in Japan. You know, you go in and more often than not, it's just like, oh, well, this is what an incredible, like, true hidden gem. Like, it's great for that.

[C]

Yeah. You find my recommendation for anyone who's like, I don't know how to Japan. You obviously can just look up touristy things and do it. My genuine thought is like, go get lost.

[B]

Go.

[C]

Go walk down the alleys. Go walk down the streets. Most of the restaurants are excellent. The meat quality is so high there. They have very high standards for food quality. So, like, just stumble into a random place and love it and love getting lost and love it. Love, like not knowing what to do. We ordered too much because we didn't know right then. We just, like, had a lot of food and we just stuffed ourselves silly. It was the best night ever. And it's just really nice catching up with an old friend. Like Peter and I get along like peas and carrots and so it was like absolutely fantastic to. To see him in. In Japan. And that. That was probably one of my favorites. The other thing I'll say is I found a tour guide who's lived there for, like, 30 years. He speaks fluent Japanese and English, and he took us to some onsens, which are, like, essentially public hot springs that you could not go to unless you speak Japanese. Like, they would, because it's all locals. Like, you would.

[A]

You can't go into some of those if you have, like, tattoos either, showing.

[B]

Oh, wow.

[C]

Yeah, they're particular. And so he kind of guided spaces. He, like, made sure the locals understood that he was also a local. He's been living there for 30 years. And so they kind of left us alone. And then we were able to enjoy these really unique and interesting hot springs as a result of him. Oh, one of the people in my group shit their pants. That's kind of like you were saying. So we were in a car, in a van for a lot of these. And then every meal, we basically, like, stumbled, right? And sometimes you stumble and you'd eat something. Stuff that you wouldn't usually eat, like, really rare meat. And I think it just didn't settle with his tummy. He didn't get food poisoning, but his stomach was like, I don't like this raw beef. Like, I don't like it. And then we got to the first hotel. These are old onsens in old towns. These are not, like, super nice, refined hotels. These are, like, owned by a grandma. She's not fucking having it. And you get the room. You get whatever you get. And he had to go to the bathroom so bad. He just asked to go as he first got there, and she was like, there's, like, a bathroom outside. Our translator had to help guide this conversation. And he ran around the corner, and then he came back, like, really distraught and upset. And it sounds. He basically regaled us that, like, she had guided him to the public toilet, which is a hole in the floor. And he, like, panic shit in this hole. And then he basically assumed that was, like, the toilets in this hotel, it was just, like, all holes. And so he. He had to go. And so he just, like. He just went, like, in a panic and, like, kind of made a mess out of everything. And he had to go back to the room. And as soon as we got to the room, there were normal toilets in the room. And he was, like, really upset about that because if he just waited five minutes, he would have had a normal toilet.

[B]

But wait, but was the whole meant for shit?

[C]

It was meant for shit. But I.

[B]

Okay. It wasn't just, like, a power outlet or something.

[C]

It wasn't. It wasn't. Not a toilet. But I would say, compared to our standards, it was not what he was hoping to explode, you know, his stomach into, like, he was hoping for a toilet. And that's just not what he got.

[A]

That's. When we're done recording, I'm going to ask you who that was.

[B]

Okay.

[C]

I'll tell you.

[A]

Yeah, we're considering doing for leisure. Doesn't have anything to do with tgs. We're considering Japan. As one of my. Amanda and I are considering Japan next year. I thought Osaka twice. I've never left Osaka, though. I want to see. I want to see Tokyo. I want to see Kyoto. But there's also, like, I'd love to make it up to Hokkaido if I can.

[C]

Oh, that'd be so nice. Well, I'll say the same thing to everybody, which is the person who was my guide, he has a website called Unbeaten Japan. And he's just a dude who's, like, lived there for 30 years. That's it. Like, that's his experience, and he just loves it. But because he can translate, he was our key to getting into these places, and so that's who I recommend. And he's just a. He's just a nice guy. He is a bit of a personality. I think that's just what you get when you get someone who's, like, traveled most of their life. And he had a lot of information and insight that I didn't have without him and basically took us to a bunch of nudie onsens for. For the week. It was great.

[A]

Oh, nice.

[C]

I saw a lot of hang dong.

[A]

Nice.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Mary gets it.

[C]

I saw a lot.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Every time we went into one these, I mean, because they're public, like, people use them to, like, bathe and relax, and that's, like, totally accepted. So. Yeah, I saw. Saw a lot.

[B]

How many.

[C]

How many dongs?

[A]

How many of each? How many of each?

[C]

I'm honestly gonna say two dozen. I saw a lot.

[B]

Oh, different dongs. Okay.

[C]

Yeah. Two. Yeah. It wasn't the same dong 24 times, right?

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

There was these signs. I'll. I'll share, you guys. I took a photo of one when you walk in, and it just had a. A photo of a guy, like a cartoon guy standing like this, and it had a no symbol, and it said, no showing off. It's like the onsen's way of being, like, don't wag your dick around. Like, is that what it's implying is dick stuff.

[B]

Or is it just like, you shouldn't. Cartwheels.

[C]

Don't show. It just said, don't show off. Like, don't show off. Your. Your.

[A]

No helicoptering.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

One guy ruined it for everyone. Yeah.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

I mean, that opened and knows what was happening. 1200.

[C]

Yeah, but for, like, the rest of the trip, we kept saying, like, don't show off. Like, put it. Put your goddamn dick away. I don't want to see it anymore. You know, like, you just kind of gotta. You gotta contain the locals.

[A]

All right, Have.

[B]

Have I talked. I haven't talked to either of you since my house almost exploded. But were you aware I did one Instagram story about this?

[C]

I did.

[A]

No, I don't think so.

[C]

About the.

[B]

Okay.

[C]

Explosion. And I also at war with your birds.

[B]

Oh, the birds are. That's a. That's the forever war here. That's. Yeah. I mean, look, I did a bunch of. In the last week, and it didn't work, and I just don't know what else can be done.

[A]

Yeah, Dan's the Henry Kissinger of his neighborhood with the birds.

[B]

The. The explosion actually might have actually solved the larger war, but. So, no, I'm getting a new driveway.

[C]

And they can't peck a house that's blown up.

[A]

It's true.

[B]

So I was getting a new driveway, and they were, you know, they dig up the old one and everything, and they get rid of all the concrete. They're still working on it. They're almost done. But I'm down here. I was doing the Voice Mill Dump Truck. It's one of our podcasts, Giant Bomb. I'm in the middle of it, and. And I can hear Bonk coming down and, like, calling my name. And I'm like, right away, like, that's where she's like. She knows when I'm on the air and, you know, like, knows to, you know, and then she, like, walks in and, like, you know, I'm on there. She walks in and I'm like, okay, something must be up. And I turn around, she's like, we have to get out of the house right now. They hit a gas line. And so it turns out, like, they did the thing where they called in because, you know, you got to call in. Like, every state has a different thing. One here is called Gopher one. I've learned a lot about this in the last week or so, and it just wasn't marked properly. And so they took these post holes or post something or other. I don't know what it's called. But like, they. They did this thing that, like, it's supposed to be, you know, like, more than 12 inches down is where these pipes are supposed to be in these gas lines. But, you know, the house is from, like, 70s and stuff. And it's like, maybe they don't have all those records or whatever. So, like, it wasn't marked, and so they just like, chunk. They just took out the ground. And it wasn't a nick. It was a full on sever of the gas line leading into the house. And so they're like, you got to get out of the house right now.

[A]

They spark it, it'll come inside and blow everything up. And it wouldn't be good.

[B]

Yeah, it's like, seriously, like, bad news. So we get out there, Bonk's got the dogs, and it's like, I instantly started thinking about the cat. Like, what the. What the fuck do we do about the cat? The cat's in there. Like, you know, there's gas, there's potential explosion stuff. And they're like, they have firemen come, the city comes. They bring excavators, they bring fire trucks, they bring everything. And all these guys, you know, the driveway dudes, those firemen, everything are going door to door in my neighborhood and saying, get out of the house. Go down the street, Go like, over a block away. Do not start your car. Because, like, I have a car. Like, by the way, everything reeks of gas, like, just like, for a block.

[C]

What about your pets?

[B]

That's the thing. So we, we had Razor and Gizmo, and, you know, boss got him on a leash and everything. She was able to grab the leash, and then we had to scramble out. And so I'm asking, like, I'm like, hey, I. I got a cat in there. I got to get in there. And the driveway guys were like, yeah, go ahead, go in there. And I, like, I start walking up to the house, and it is like, the sound is like, it was so loud that the fireman thought that it was the main line to the neighborhood that got severed. Because it's like, I'm just gas going into the air. And I'm going up to the door. I'm like, I almost certainly am not supposed to go in there. And I turn to a fireman who's not going in there. And I was like, can I go in here? And he's like, oh, no, do not go in there. I was like, okay, thanks, driveway guys. We're like, yeah, it's cool. We're fine.

[A]

I Don't know what's going on.

[B]

So it was like. It was really rough because it was like, you know, we have to stay far away from the house. And it is like. I mean, they were being very serious about, like, the slightest spark could, like, ignite the fucking neighborhood.

[C]

It seemed like the house would be so scary.

[B]

And, yeah, it's interesting because, like, you know, you can't. You can't manufacture these type of, like, potential emergency situations, so you don't really know how you react in it until you're there. And, you know, it is interesting because it's like, in the moment, I was just like. All I was thinking about was the cat. You know, it's like anything else, the house could explode. And everything I've ever owned, whatever. That's Things replaceable. But, like, I just.

[C]

Insurance is for. But you can't replace a beloved.

[B]

Exactly.

[C]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's so sad.

[B]

Well, I mean, happy ending, in case anyone's listening here. But you just saw him.

[A]

He made an appearance.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'm just sitting out there. They're saying, I can't go in there.

[C]

He's in his house, Mike.

[B]

Yeah. But it could have been a gas.

[A]

Inhalation thing with animals even.

[C]

In the house.

[B]

Yes. So, yeah, I'm just. And all you can do is just. I'm just standing outside just watching, like, you know, people, like, cautiously approach the house, and neighbors, like, they're all coming up and asking and stuff, like, what's going on? It was just a whole. To do, and I'd say, you know, 30, 40 minutes or whatever. They did a test, they were able to go inside, and they're like, okay. The levels inside the house seem okay. Like, it's like these. The gas line was outside, so most of that gas is just in the neighborhood air at this point. Yeah.

[C]

Birds problem.

[A]

I was gonna say birds falling left and right.

[B]

They're like. Because I kept asking about the cat, and they're like, okay, you can go in, but don't leave the door open long because more gas will get in. And also, just don't be in there long, you know, they're like, you know, because any sparks, anything. There's gas inhalation stuff.

[A]

Breathe that in.

[B]

Yeah, yeah. And I smelled like crazy when I was going in there. So I get in there, and I'm just like, okay, the cat's probably under the bed upstairs. And so I run upstairs. Sure enough, this is watching porn.

[A]

Smoking a cigarette.

[B]

Yeah. Just having a great time, sunglasses on. And he's A dead center under the bed. And it's like, you know, king size thing. So it's like I can't just easily reach there. So I'm like, boss, come on. And he's a fucking cat. Like, the dogs, you can like, come on, man.

[C]

And they'll need a broom handle or something.

[B]

Yeah, yeah. So the cat was not having it. I was like, dude, we are. We need. I'm trying to save our lives here. Let's fucking get out of here.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And so I take like, there was like a little pad or something under there, like a little, like, seating pad for the cats. And I grabbed it.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I swiped it at the cat and he ran to the other side. And I was like, okay. And so I crawl around to the other side and he runs to the center again like, you motherfucker. Like, we are going to die. Just, like, poking him. He's going to the other side. And finally I just had to, like, kind of like, put my fingers kind of on the back of his neck a little bit when I was able to reach him and just kind of like, yeah, the scruff. And I was able to just kind of like lead him out and then grab him, throw him in a crate and take him outside.

[C]

It's unfortunate, but, like, there is just a rule to save a. Save an animal's life. I would absolutely scruff it up. I would.

[B]

Oh, yeah. Just to get him the fuck out.

[A]

Of the house if we have, like, if we ever had a fire here. I always think about, like, oh, God, Daisy and Luna would be easy enough to get. We know all their hiding spots when they're, like, anxious. Scarlett is the one who does. Goes to the center of the bed when if there's. There's been a couple times when I needed to get them to the vet or I had to get. When I was living by myself before I met Amanda, I had to get Daisy and Scarlet to the vet because Daisy was all of a sudden not feeling well. It seemed like an emergency. So Scarlet was doing the bed thing. I was like, nope, not having it. So I grabbed the bottom of the bed and just, like, lifted it up so it no longer became a hiding spot for her. It was just this, like, weird thing. So then she ran to the other room. I got her. But yeah, they're. They are elusive creatures.

[B]

Yeah. And he did not like it because, like, put him in the crate, took him outside. He's never outside. He's a, you know, fancy, floofy ass cat. He doesn't go outside. So he was just meowing a lot and everyone. All the dogs were freaking out and stuff. Then eventually, like, the firemen go in to try to, like, give the all clear, basically, because, like, you know, just to make sure the house wasn't filled with whatever gas. And the fireman comes out and I like, kind of run up to him, like, are we good? And he just goes, man, I just want to tell you, you are my hero. And I was like. I was like. My first day is like, okay, it's like a giant bomb thing. Or like, what's. What is going on here? And he just goes, no. Metal Gear Solid. I love metal. He saw the Big Boss statue and he's. Fireman's going around looking for gas, like, oh, is that Big Boss?

[C]

We gotta save this house.

[A]

Everyone around unopened. N64 cars just mysteriously disappeared in the gas.

[B]

I wish I had unopened ones. No.

[A]

Fireman's coat is just bulging.

[B]

Yeah. He's got all the keys. Homer leaving the candy convention. Yeah.

[C]

So funny.

[B]

Or Marge, I guess. Yeah. But no, he told me later, once it was all done and everyone was. And he's like, I'm sorry if that was unprofessional back there, but it's really cool. Yeah. Now you're. Man, right?

[C]

Saving the cat. I thought it was because you came right back in to save the cat.

[B]

He didn't say about the cat. He was just like, big Boss.

[C]

Like, I didn't give a about that cat. But he was like, you are so cool with all that gamer in there.

[B]

Wow. Yeah. So avoided. You know, we got back in that night. You know, they're back working on the driveway. I just. Yeah, I don't know. Just an insane sequence of events. And I was on the air when it happened to be like, I gotta leave this podcast now. Bye. And hang up. And.

[C]

Yeah, just a terrifying way to end. But I'm glad that everything worked out and you're okay and it looks like your house is in order. And they've cleared up all the gas.

[B]

I hope so.

[C]

Dissipated into the air.

[B]

I mean, that was last Thursday. I've. I've made it almost a week, so we should be okay.

[C]

I feel like if you were to have blown up, it would have happened by now.

[B]

I don't think I'm gonna blow up. I think we're fine. We've used fire in the since then.

[C]

So I think you used a fire.

[B]

Actually, I can't confirm that, but I'm sure Bonks used the stove. I have not made a fire since Then, but forever. Really? But yeah.

[C]

I feel like you very rarely, if ever make a fire, Dan.

[B]

No, no, I haven't. We'll talk about that later.

[C]

Oh, yeah. I will say, when I was in Osaka, Osaka has a castle. And my hotel kind of like faced the castle. And I thought to myself, ah, castle times. What would we do in castle times?

[B]

Well, that's a different type of castle times. Like, when I say castle times, I mainly think, you know, swords and knights and stuff.

[C]

Totally, totally.

[B]

You know, like, this is like yote times, right?

[C]

Yes. I mean, you can think about it when you're in Yotei as well, because. Yeah, we probably wouldn't have a lot of jobs back then.

[B]

Right, Right. Yeah, I would have sucked back then, too.

[A]

But yeah, also, I believe yote took place far in the future compared to what Dan's talking about.

[B]

Yotei was after castle times.

[A]

Yote is like a hundred, 100 years after Tsushima. And there's guns.

[B]

Yeah, there's guns. That's got to be at least 1800s, right?

[A]

Actually, now I'm curious. What is the exact year we'll get to.

[B]

When did Last Samurai happen?

[C]

When did guns get invented?

[B]

Guns are probably 1800s, right? When did they have those big stupid.

[C]

Muskets until you see the whites of their eyes?

[A]

That was 17. No, late 18th century. 1700s.

[B]

Did they have guns in the Revolutionary War? Do they have guns?

[A]

You're asking me if they had guns in the Revolutionary War? I assume they did.

[B]

I assume they did, Dan.

[C]

That was only swords back then, Dan.

[A]

I don't believe you. You're not. This is. Yes, we fought the British off largely with guns.

[B]

I mean, yes, I would have. That's. I would have said yes. That's probably what happened.

[A]

But you're just asking for clarification. Okay.

[B]

I mean, there's not like a famous, like. Like, okay, Lincoln got assassinated with a gun. That was the 1800s. Like, what was like a famous gun thing that had like, a gun incident from the 1700s.

[A]

She just.

[B]

A whole war.

[A]

No, she said, don't. The shot heard round the world is what started the revolutionary. I don't know what that is In Lexington. Lexington, Concord, and Lexington. Literally, like one musket supposedly stopped. You know, there's a Revolutionary War. She just said, don't shoot till you see the whites of their eyes.

[B]

But I have no idea the context.

[A]

The Battle of Bunker Hill. I believe they were so low on ammo that the, like, the American general said, like, don't fire until you see the whites of Their eyes.

[B]

Mary, is this one of those things where you're. You also didn't like Hamilton, but you didn't want to say it?

[C]

No. I mean, I think I know a little bit more about guns than you, but I will say, Mike, your war knowledge of, like, knowing the battle is.

[A]

No, I don't know further than I might be butchering that as Bunker Hill. I don't know which show. They were so low on ammo that he said, don't fire until you see the whites their eyes.

[B]

Oh, it was an animal conservation thing.

[A]

Yes. They're so close, you see the whites of their eyes. Don't fire until you know you're going to hit something with the one musket ball you have or whatever.

[C]

Not TW 30 seconds ago.

[B]

Well, but I never thought about that with that phrase before. I thought it was just because, like, their guns sucked whenever they said that. And so they got to wait till they're closer.

[A]

No. Yeah, we had. There was plenty of guns during the Revolutionary War. I'm trying to think of the earliest one that, like, didn't.

[B]

The Jesus times didn't have guns.

[A]

Correct.

[B]

There's Jesus times, Castle times.

[A]

Jesus would have been a very different figure if he had a gun.

[B]

Oh, Jesus had a gun. Yeah.

[A]

Jesus with a Glock would have been a very different messiah.

[C]

I turned that water into wine. And now check this out.

[B]

What is he.

[A]

Was he. Okay, now I'm curious. Okay, now I'm gonna actually look up the double check. I don't think it was Bunker Hill. None of they think it was. No. What about Yorktown? Yorktown, they didn't have an ammo problem. And the French were there.

[B]

I believe the French were in the Revolutionary War.

[A]

The French funded us.

[B]

What do they have to do with anything? It was American England.

[A]

They were rivals with the. The British.

[B]

England.

[A]

They were Colin, like, colonial rivals with the British.

[B]

So they teamed up with us. Why did they send dudes over here?

[A]

Yes. Dudes. Marquis like guns, dudes.

[B]

He was the guy that liked all the weird sex, right? That's the word.

[A]

Sadist comes from him.

[C]

Your memory is so selective.

[A]

Marquis to sadist. No, wait, wait.

[B]

That's where that word comes.

[A]

No, now. So this is the funny thing. Like, I, I, I. Now I'm mixing up stuff. So Marquisat. I think he was a French writer. Nope, I got it wrong.

[B]

He was the sex guy.

[A]

Yes, Correct. I think it was like, smut and shit.

[C]

Stop saying sex guy.

[B]

That was his deal, though, right? They made a whole word after how much he liked sex. Stuff.

[C]

Everybody likes sex stuff. That's.

[B]

But he was like, he was crazy about it.

[A]

It was Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775. I was correct. But I was not correct about Marquis de Sade. But yeah, no, they're. Read a book, Lots of guns in the Revolutionary War.

[C]

I did. How sadism was Invented. A book by freaks.

[A]

Marquis de Sade was horny intro by.

[C]

Dan Reichert, who apparently loves this.

[B]

No, I do get confused about, like there's sadism and masochism and one of them is loving hurting, and one of them is loving getting hurt. Yeah. And I don't. Whatever Murky Desad was into is what sadism is because I think they named sadism after him. So masochism. Is there a dude named like Steve Masochism? And he loved getting hurt.

[A]

Steve Masacho.

[B]

Yeah. Yeah. And he was like, oh, step on my dick. Yeah, yeah.

[A]

Marquis de Sade was the one who stepped on his dick. That's how he got it, right?

[B]

Yes. And they both were in the Revolutionary War.

[C]

Show off.

[A]

Right.

[B]

And then.

[A]

And then we did not have guns in the Revolutionary War, so. And then all of a sudden Marquis de Sade showed up with like a.50 cal machine gun. They're like, what is this? And he's like, I'll show you. And he's sadistic about it.

[B]

Yeah. And he just had a rock hard dick while he shot everyone.

[A]

Steve Masach Cho was like, shoot me, shoot me over and over and over. And he spooged all over everybody. That's where spooge town, the capital of Virginia came from.

[B]

Oh, okay.

[A]

Yeah, yeah.

[C]

Until you see.

[A]

Don't see.

[B]

What's that? Yeah. No, wait, no. Let's be quiet and let Mary finish that thought. Mary, the floor is yours. Mary, the floor is yours.

[C]

We all knew where I was going.

[A]

Knew where you were coming. Go. Imagine if you're. Imagine if you. You have. You're like one of 50 dudes and you have one musket ball and the entire British army's charging up a hill at you. And this fucking just gonzo general goes, don't shoot until you see the whites of their dicks. What do you do? I would run the other direction.

[C]

You wait until you see the whites of their dicks.

[A]

But the other direction is just the top of a hill that's still surrounded.

[C]

You coward.

[A]

You're gonna get talk about hanging dong during the Revolutionary War.

[C]

You gotta face it, Mike. You coward.

[A]

Yeah, I guess so.

[C]

I'm gonna report you for abandoning your post and being afraid of big dick.

[A]

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[B]

That's right, Mike. No matter what you're playing, Alienware ensures every game runs precisely as its developers intended. A new era of power is here. All you have to do, Mike, is take it. Discover Area 51 today at www.alienware.com. area 51 laptops.

[A]

Okay, Mary, now that you're back from your escapades, we are able to talk about a couple games that you missed out on. The conversation about Hades 2. Ghost of Yote. I believe you played both. We have some new stuff, but let's do some circling back for the time being. How much? What are you thinking of Hades 2?

[C]

So far, I am really enjoying Hades 2 as a comfort food. This reminds me of Hades. It's so fluid and smooth and everyone's ridiculously hot. And I think you know this, but, like, whatever they did in one where they were like, yeah, we love to make everyone really attractive in this one, they were just like, let's give Anthrodi no clothes and maybe just a sliver of hair.

[B]

I heard it was a controversy because they think she's not hot enough. The Internet is mad about it.

[C]

Who said Aphrodite isn't hot enough? That's insane.

[B]

I think it's the same. It's the same type of Internet dude. It's the same type of dude who said that Margot Robbie wasn't hot enough to play Barbie.

[C]

You're just not allowed to have those opinions. And a penis. I think it's ridiculous. Those people are so hot. And I. I understand that to a degree, this is all subjective, right? Like, whether or not someone is attractive is. Is personal. You. You know, you can have a different vibe than I do. That's fine. But to tell me that Anthrodite isn't hot and is, like, they've, like, made a mistake constructing this character is outrageous.

[B]

I think the argument is wrong. Well, my Internet translators are. Well, Jeff Grubb, but to a bigger degree, Mike Minatti, because Mike Minati is extremely online. And he was saying. I. I think the thing is that they said Aphrodite they made look more like a dude is what they said, which I. Look, I. I've seen that Aphrodite model a lot that looks like naked lady.

[A]

It's quite like a woman. Yeah.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

If you've seen a naked woman, I'd say she probably aligns with. Well, if you've seen a naked woman, you would agree she looks like a naked woman.

[B]

She looks like a naked woman.

[C]

My point being, androgyny is also hot. Like, I think it's kind of like, again, going back to look at Bowie subjective. But there's so many people who are like. Yeah. Are on the verge of, like. Who's to say? They have elements of. Of all genders and they look smoking hot. It's, like, ridiculous that someone's, like, not lady enough to be hot. She's hot, period. End of story. I. I refuse to entertain that she's so fucking hot. Everyone in this game is very attractive.

[B]

Yeah. Yeah, that sounds good.

[C]

I feel like we don't talk about our boons enough.

[B]

Good boons.

[A]

Yeah, good Booms.

[C]

I've enjoyed the mechanics that you essentially start with everything, right? You're not like, you have your X, your Y's, your B's and your A's. Right. You have a dash, you have your main attack, you have a additional attack and then you have like an aerial. I don't know what you would call that, but, like, maybe it's usually is like some kind of freeze or pause or.

[A]

No, the cast is way better now. That's different than this. Yeah.

[B]

So good.

[A]

You can freeze them or you can freeze and then hurt them or. And then the way you can mess them.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

But I've been enjoying, like, unlocking all the different. Different types of weapons and kind of playing around with them. Right now, the fire sticks that, like, throw fire from afar. So that's like more of a distance weapon main that I've been enjoying a lot. I am stuck. I haven't beat it yet. I'm at the dog.

[B]

Okay, so you're third boss when you're going out.

[C]

Yes, and I wish I had more time with it. I think, like, with more time, I absolutely would be a little further, but I've unfortunately been a little limited with my work and travel schedule. But with the time I've put into it, I have been consistently able to get to the Dog. But that dog is hard. It's very difficult to get.

[A]

The bosses are all hard, I'd say, in their own way, at first. When you're fighting the band at the end of Oceanus, like the, like. It's one of those games where, like, how the. Am I ever Gonna beat these. These.

[B]

The sirens.

[A]

The sirens.

[C]

Sirens, yeah. So then of course, you get to.

[A]

A point where like, they just become more of like a light stepping stone on the way to the new boss that's giving you trouble.

[B]

It also kind of becomes like, you know, like a good roguelite. They just become nothing at a certain point. Like, I died probably 10 times before I moved on. And then it's like, I don't even think about it when I approach.

[C]

Yeah, you're, like, not even questioning it anymore. I think it's. I think it's brilliant. And I don't really have a lot of notes. I think the only thing. And this is like just the minor est of things. But maybe this will come up in goatee. I don't really know, which is like, this game was our goatee once upon a time. And it really scratched an itch for me that I didn't know I had. I didn't know that I would be so addicted to a game like this. And with the second one, I think it is. It is perfecting more of what I loved about the first one. At the same time, my needs in gaming has shifted very slightly, ever so slightly from when we, like, originally, like, loved this game. And so while I think this game is excellent, it is not always what I am craving to play. Whereas, like, the original, I was, like, craving to play Hades like, every freaking day. I could not put it down.

[B]

I kind of went the other direction where it's like the first one I loved, you know, Like, I didn't, you know, I don't think it was my personal game of the year, but I think I definitely didn't push for anything else to be our game of the year.

[C]

Sure, sure, sure.

[A]

Talk about it.

[B]

It. Yeah, yeah.

[C]

But the thing was, like, famously didn't discuss it.

[B]

Yeah, yeah. Like, to beat that one, though, to really beat it, you have to beat Hades like, 10 times or whatever. And I remember I beat it once and I was like, okay, good, Great game. Love that game. With this one, you know, I won't spoil anything, but, like, it is not a thing of, like, oh, you don't just beat Kronos once and then you're done. And I was still so, so into it that I very much went all the way in and beat it many, many times. Got the credit. I know there's like the real super duper ending thing and everything, but, like, I saw credits, you know, I. People who've been. It will know what that means, but. And I think I like this one way Way more. And I adored the first one. It's just like this one does so many smart little things. Like, even as simple as, like the cast thing like that is such a more effective way to attack and contain enemies.

[C]

Now, brilliant update. I also just want to say too, like, I think mechanically they've made this sharper, but I think they've added more humanity too. I heard someone singing when I got home after, you know, losing a battle and like, went up to them and there was a button to sing with them. And I just sang with them for like five minutes and it was so beautiful. And it was such a delightful addition to this space to just let me sing a song with someone who. It's the person, the Archer, I think, Artemis.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And I just, I adored the energy. They knew where to put the extra elements in this game to let you feel its soul. I think you really know that they cared about this game.

[B]

I mean, this one really makes me appreciate, I guess the first one too, like Early Access. Because, you know, I've said plenty that, like, I don't play games in Early Access, really, because I just want to wait till they're like, done, done, done. And like, I learned my lesson with, like, Rogue Legacy 2. I was so excited about. And then I played in Early Access and I was like, not really. There's not a lot there. And by the time it actually came out, I like, didn't really even really play it that much.

[A]

And case in point, I didn't play it Early Access. I have played it since it's been finished and I fucking love that game.

[B]

And you love it and I hear it's great, but it's like. And I'll probably get to it at some point, be like, oh, shit, I missed out. But, like, it's because I played it a bunch when it came out in Early Access and blah, blah, blah. You know, I've said this before, but, like, I once again feel justified in waiting for this one because I love what Early Access allowed them to do because this game is just dripping with personality and all these little touches and things like Mary, you saying, you know, singing along with. With the Artemis and things like that. Like, I don't know every step of the way in Early Access when they added what, But I do know that when I played it when it was 1.0, it's like, this is such a. Like all that time in Early Access clearly paid off. Like, it is just this well fleshed out game with so much going on. Everything's so fucking polished and worth the wait for sure. So. But I also like. I don't begrudge anyone obviously who like early access is a valuable thing. It's just not for me. But this game is tremendous.

[A]

I've since played much more since I talked to Dan, you and Jesse about it. It's funny talking to people about their favorite weapons. I've gotten a very widespread same. Like, I. I don't. I don't see one clear front runner. What do you think mine is? This isn't fun. I'll just tell you what it is. Yeah.

[C]

I'm gonna say short. The short ones that are really fast.

[B]

I'm gonna say the gun. The gun. I'm gonna say the skull gun.

[A]

So what remind me, what are the name. What's. It's like the sickle and this. The knife. What are those?

[C]

What's that called?

[A]

The witches.

[B]

Oh, the sister blades.

[A]

The sister blades.

[B]

Those are awesome. Yeah.

[C]

Short. I just like you, Dan.

[A]

I know you're not the biggest fan. I think the umbral torches are my.

[B]

What you said I came around on everything. So, like the torches, the skull gun, the ones that. Yeah, yeah. I didn't love them. And then like, I like the witches.

[A]

Staff, the original weapon. It feels like the spear from the first game. It reminds me of age of spear or whatever it's called.

[B]

I like the staff.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, it's. And I love the reach of it.

[B]

Yeah, they're honestly all very good.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Like, it's great. Especially you get a couple of those hammer upgrades, you find an aspect that works for you. Like you can really make it work for you. And they're all.

[A]

Battle ax has its own stuff going for it.

[B]

I love the battle ax. The scythe. Battle ax. And I just like upgrade the. Out of the attack speed and it's like, oh, man, that thing's a killer. So.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, no, I wrote it through. Yeah. I like the game a lot. Like, I'm kind of more in Mary's camp where I played the first game to death. So now this feels like a meaningful evolution in which the character mechanically plays much different than Zagreus did. Melanoe feels much more. I think that my favorite builds in the first Hades were very much about not giving a. About my spatial positioning. I would get Poseidon's Rage and I would die. I would upgrade my dash a lot. I would stick to the weapons that were close range, so I could just literally dart all over the map. You could do that as Melonoe. I will say I think Hades, two kind of forces you in a good way or encourages you to really be aware of your positioning a bit more because your cast is a close proximity thing. If you really want to you, you cast in close proximity then you can obviously move away and the enemies that were in it get trapped, slowed. Obviously you get Aphrodite's boons, you get Poseidon's boons. You, you can make that cast do very different things. The specials for the weapons. I'm trying to think if there's an anomaly here. They're generally ranged well.

[B]

There's weird ones where it's like the skull is like it is ranged in that you are dashing but it is also your way of like retrieving your ammo.

[A]

Yeah. Which that reminds me of the cast from Hades where you had to retrieve the ammo.

[B]

Oh right. You had to go around like you drop three or four cast but then you had to pick them up. Yeah.

[A]

Which that was a cool mechanic but but I do appreciate that Melanoy feels very much like a new character. I had the weirdest reminder of Darksiders, the franchise when I was playing this because they're very similar or actually no. Darksiders 2 went open world 3 was like an action RPG but you're pulling characters from a sim like a pantheon. This is obviously Greek myth. Darksiders was more actually Darksiders was some Greek myth too but then some like Roman stuff peppered in. But there's are fighting different characters and then it's very much about how they function differently. Like the difference between Melanoe and Zagreus is similar to the difference between like Bayonetta and someone from dmc. They play that differently in my mind. So sure. Yeah I'm, I'm and then I, I said this last time. I the more I I unlock aspects of the what's the, what's the hideout called here? The hq?

[B]

Something swampy.

[A]

The Hidden grounds. Witching grounds.

[C]

I, I do I never know the official name for. Yeah, it's like you know the soupy area.

[A]

It'll come to me. The crossroads. Right. Crossroads. I think it's crossroads. I I, it's just not the easiest space to parse even as I've played I don't know at 15, 20 hours at this point. Like I think the, the original just rooms of the first game just were way easier to kind of jump around when you had some chores to do before you went into your next run. I agree with you Mary. It's gorgeous. I love how characters come in and out. I love Nemesis. She's cool as hell. I like Odysseus. I love the new characters. I appreciate what they did with the returning characters. Hephaestus is super cool. Hecate, the goddess of fire. Is that, am I getting that right?

[B]

Yeah, that first boss. Yeah, yeah, she's cool.

[A]

No, no, no, no. Hecate, the Hephaestus or Hephaestus is the smith. Hecate is the God.

[B]

Eris is the God of war. Who's the fucking fire gimmick?

[A]

Hecate, she's the goddess of fire.

[B]

Hecate is the witch from the main area that tests you for the first boss fight.

[A]

Okay, maybe. Yes. Okay. So she's like your mentor.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

What is the name of the goddess of fire? She's the, the hell's her name?

[B]

I don't know.

[A]

She's Scottish. She's got a Scottish accent. She's one of, she's, she's definitely bigger than Aphrodite. I'll go, I don't know, it doesn't matter. But I just like, I like Hestia. Thank you. And you start with an H. Yeah. Hecate is the witch. Yeah. I, I, I like this game a lot. It's so. I don't know what I would want them to do if it wasn't just make more Hades. So I appreciate that's what they did, but the minor meaningful tweaks add up to a experience that's larger than some of its parts. So I'm really liking that game.

[C]

Dan, as someone who beat it, can I ask you a question about the narrative?

[B]

Yes.

[C]

I think that generally I'm in agreement even though I have not completed this game that gameplay wise I think it is a step up from the first Hades. I think they've just done a little bit more mechanically and it just seems like it's a bit more polished and fine tuned. However, sometimes I think like the story of one of like Zagreus, he's like kind of like this spoiled little prince and he kind of has to like fight his dad and it's just like a fucking sick story. Like now that you've completed it, do you feel like the story is as good as the first?

[B]

I feel the exact same way as I did in the first and that like I can tell this dialogue is really well written but at the end of the day I'm not really following anything. I'm kind of hitting a through a good amount of the dialogue. I'm just like, yeah, yeah, I get it. All right. Just give me my boon, give me my boon. I don't care. So there's. I got. There's like look. Every video game is just. There's a bad guy. Go kill it. Like Silk Song. What's the story? Look. There's a big crazy spider. Go kill it. I don't know. Like just like I don't care. It's just if it's not Metal Gear Solid, it's like just let me play the game. So I'll say dialogue seems good in this too. I don't know. I couldn't tell you what the story.

[C]

Was the wrong person to ask.

[B]

100 yeah.

[A]

I've been reading. I. I think.

[C]

Let me try again. Mike. What do you. What's your opinion?

[A]

I mean you kind of said it. I felt like the first game was just a spoiled prince. Like just having a tantrum the whole time. It led to a fun game. So I was fine with it. And I liked a lot of the surrounding characters. This one actually there's way more at stake. Like Melanoe is on like legit revenge. It feels like Kill Bill and you're fighting family.

[C]

Right. Like they. My family was killed.

[A]

I said this last episode. I didn't realize how much this game also reminds me of Kill Bill. Cuz Yote very much is Kill Bill to me. But this game is like you're the way that they present enemies in Kill Bill in the the both of them. It's like they're these mythic enemies like the fighting 49 or whatever they are. And then it's like Black Mamba boss fights. Yeah. It's like Metal hand with an EY patch. Yeah. So I. I think Hades 2 to me has more narrative momentum. The first game was just like this angsty dude who was meeting people way cooler than him. And it pissed him off even more. And he just kept having to go beat up on his dad. Which is just Hot rod.

[B]

Yes. I. I do think it's the way that Hades presents it that makes me not necessarily care. Is that like Yote you brought up? Is this revenge story? It's just like apparently Hades 2 is a revenge story. I don't think I knew that. But like Yote is like.

[C]

It's like the whole plot of the game.

[B]

What did they do to Milena? Way. I don't. I honestly don't know what she's getting revenge for.

[C]

She talks. She's like I have to get them. They killed my whole family.

[A]

I said they're there.

[B]

They're in the game. They're not dead. What I'm saying is, my point is that Yote is like a movie. You know, you're watching cutscenes. There's, you know, there's characters talking to each other. I mean, actually, no, I did switch to Japanese audio, so I am reading the subtitles, but it is presented like a movie. It is very, like, wonderfully shot and everything, where it's like, I just don't need to look at an animated still frame and then a paragraph of text. Like, I don't really care about that. But a movie. Holy Lord, I love a movie. And Yote feels more like that. So it's not, you know. I know. I also missed a lot of game stories. What's that?

[C]

Like, you play through it. Like, I think this is early enough that it's not a spoiler, but, like, you play as your young child self, and you, like, find a guy in the forest and he helps you find mushrooms, and then he is bad. And, like, is like.

[A]

Yeah. Don't venture too far into that. I know.

[C]

It's literally within an hour of the game.

[A]

You might be right.

[C]

I'm just saying, like, it's like the main plot point. I think, like, one of the very first things that happens is you see the tree of your house on fire there. Like, it's very clear.

[B]

It's very early.

[A]

Well, that's the first cut scene. Yes. But you don't know how it leads up to that until later on. I'm just saying, if someone hasn't started. I don't think so. I think you do this sometimes, and I'm just calling you out.

[C]

All right, well, it's very early in the game. Very, very, very early.

[B]

Yes.

[C]

So you, like, meet someone, and so you're kind of, like, literally playing the characters that are impacting your family, which is.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

The mechanic of the game is that you change back to your child self.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Early on. Yeah. And it's like, I think that works. But, like, there are a bunch of just like. Like, traditional. Put your controller down, cutscenes in, and I guess. I guess we'll just move on to Yote here.

[A]

Mary, you weren't here. Okay, let me really quick before I ask Mary, because I'm curious what she thinks. Dan, how, again, the. The whole thrust of the game is you're tracking down and killing the Yote 6. Whether that's successful or not, we will leave that to people to see when they play themselves. But, like, what. What. How many members have you, like, done their main story for?

[B]

Two. Although one of them was very involved, which I found interesting, because it's like look, this game gets a lot of comparisons to like Assassin's Creed Shadows and I definitely did not beat that game, but I saw enough to be like, oh, you could just stumble upon one of the dudes and kill him. Yeah. And Shadows. And maybe that is the case with some of the OT6. I don't know. I've only killed two. And one of them happens, you know, like, it's not a super long thing. It happens fairly early on. And then I just did one that is like, oh my God, this is like a fucking game in itself. Like a whole.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Not just a quest line. It's like multiple quests getting to this and setbacks and getting back to it. It's like, oh, man, this is like. I don't know if they're all going to be like this because I don't think it's going to be a hundred hour game. But like, this one was a lot of hours.

[A]

So again, like, yeah, it's almost set up like a Zelda game where no. You go to a new biome and a member of the OT6 is the like main boss there. And the whole time you're basically, you're doing side quests. You're maybe building up kind of a rebellion. Maybe you're trying to find a way into their fortress. Like, I think you went for the oni right away, right? Yes. Because you told me you went to the autumnal area. What was that called? It'll come to me.

[B]

I went Ishikari Plains, I think.

[A]

Ishikari Plains. I went up to find Katsune the fox in the snowy area. And so the cool thing in this game that I like a lot, every time you get a new weapon or a new armor set, there's really cool context and storytelling around it that makes it feel more impactful. When you get the crimson kimono or you get the black mask up in the snow area in the bamboo forest. There's just. The game does a really good job. Yes. There are absolutely traditional cutscenes and I think it lends itself well to. You've just been spending an hour or two finding hot springs and doing fox dens and wolf dens.

[C]

Awesome. So beautiful.

[A]

And then like, there are other times where different villagers you talk to are talking about, oh, this person who lives over there across the shoals. And then when you get a new weapon, it's not like you just have it. Know how to use it. Generally, they. You have to go through some sort of actual training. Like it's.

[B]

Yeah, it reminds me of like, you Know Kill Bill. There's a lot of comparisons to make here. And Kill Bill, just like Pai May sequence of training. Like, I'm a sucker for that stuff. Oh yeah. Like they totally have that in this. Like.

[C]

Yeah, you literally have to like practice just cutting through bamboo and stuff to like learn how to use it.

[B]

Mike, was it last week where your last episode where you're talking about like them kind of like it's hard at first and then like as you train, like that's so cool.

[A]

Yeah, you have to learn. Basically the Atsu is learning how to use her offhand and the way that Sucker Punch contextualized that, I think the vast majority of people playing this game are going to be right handed. So you actually have to use the left side of the controller with the bamboo cut, which if it's your weak hand, it's also just not like you're like, oh fuck, I noticed. I was like, oh, they're not using my right. I'm not. They're not using face buttons in R1, R2 and the right. Analog or. No, sorry, you don't use analogs. But as the days go by, I guess you could technically complete it on that first day. Maybe. I don't know. I fucked up because I sucked with my left hand. Then you wake up on the second day at the break at dawn, you wake up on the third day and they gradually start introducing easier patterns, many of which I noticed use my right hand way more. So it was like, like, oh, I'm learning dual swords. It like they're actually kind of reflecting that on the controller, which is a cool way to tie you to Atsu. I liked it a lot. It. It sounds like a gimmick when I say it out loud. But it worked because again, it's like a rocky training sequence where you're. I don't know, it's getting easier. But yeah. Mary, overall you are. Where are you in the game based on what we were saying? Are you like. Did you go to the.

[C]

I think I've killed three.

[A]

Oh, okay. So did you go to.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

So you left the grasslands? Yeah, Main. The first area. Did you go to the snow? Did you do the snowy stuff?

[C]

I'm in the snowy stuff. I think. Okay, maybe I'm on the third because I've killed two.

[A]

So you did the. You did Ishikari Plains, the autumnal. He's building the fortress. Okay, cool. Yeah. So you're on the third.

[C]

I think I.

[A]

Because there are. There are points where you think you're about to bump up against the main encounter.

[C]

And then they trick you.

[A]

And then they're. Yeah, like. And then you're like, oh, wait, no, that's down the road.

[B]

That's gonna be Matt Goro. This goober that shows up. This guy. I want to go kill the oni.

[C]

Yeah, yeah. They keep pushing me around. They keep kicking the can a little bit. I think there are times I'll just start by saying I think this is the most beautiful game I've ever played. I think it's stunningly gorgeous.

[A]

I think it's a case for sure.

[C]

Nailed the style. Riding my horse and, like, having all these wild horses next to me, I am, like, loving visually what is going on in this game. They just. Absolutely, aesthetically, I am swooning. I'm just that late.

[B]

Title card. When you're riding horse and.

[A]

Oh, use of color.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Oh, my God. Purple flowers. And then all of a sudden you're in the snowy area, but then you see, like, red trees and the orange trees that you're tracking down for that side quest.

[C]

Yeah. And just, like, the detail, you know, allowing, like, petals to fly, you know, through the leaves to kick up when you're fighting. I mean, I think that's absolutely incredible. I'm getting a little tired of the. In this area, you have to use a giant katana, and if they have a certain weapon, you need to use your giant katana. If you use the double katana, it's not going to be as effective. And it's just like, I don't want to change my goddamn weapon eight times.

[B]

I kind of don't love that either. Like, I wish it was a thing where it was, like, it made it harder to, like. Like, if you're in a fight and somebody's got a spear, it's like, okay, if you use the dual katanas, it's going to be easier, but it's like, if you do it with just the standard katana or the spear or whatever, it's just like.

[A]

But it is.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Maybe I'm misunderstanding. It is easier when you use the right rock, paper, scissor combination.

[B]

I mean, you really should be like, I'm sure you do it. But it's like they make it a pain in the ass intentionally if you're using the wrong thing, which, like, that's fine on, like, you know, encounter to encounter basis. If it was just, like, one or two dudes. But it's the fact that a lot of these fights are these big, you know, cutscenes. Not cutscenes, but set piece moments. Where there's like fucking 10 ONI raiders around you. And I'm not really, like. I'm just worried about positioning myself and like parrying and stuff. And I'm not thinking necessarily, like, okay, he's got the dual stick, so I'm gonna switch to the spear and I'm gonna. He's got that. I'm switching to, like, that is an extra layer that is not fun for me. I wish I could just be in the moment of the fight and like, kind of like. Like parrying and counter attacking.

[C]

I also like mastering something. Right. Like, I like playing. I do like that they're teaching me. So, like going back to like the learning how to cut the bamboo. Loved it. I thought that was a really neat sequence. And I agree with you, Mike. I thought it worked for me. Even though if I'm describing it, it feels gimmicky when I describe it. But in the moment I was like, I'm learning to cut through bamboo because my master is teaching me. I felt really invested. When it starts to pull me out is I've learned this giant sword. I don't care for it. It's too slow. I think it's kind of heavy. They want me to use it to block, but it's just like, not. It's not really my weapon of choice. I feel obligated to constantly pull it out every time I see someone with their two swords. Because it's the right sword that they've educated me to use. It's just not how I want to play. And I think sometimes the game is essentially being like, well, you're meant to use all of the weapons that we're giving you. I would prefer to just master the weapon I want to master.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

It's like the opposite of Hades, which obviously they. They give you. It's just funny.

[B]

You're.

[A]

We're talking about Hades too.

[C]

Totally. 6 and how much we love it that we can. Those can all be your favorite.

[A]

Yeah. And. And I like that Yote is making me switch. I know.

[C]

If.

[A]

For those who haven't played Sushima, June did not have a ton of weapons. He had basically a couple options, but he had different stances, so he had to use high stance against shields. He had different stances to take them on. But like, I've started. It's almost like it. It's tough to talk about all the weapons in Yote without spoiling because it actually is kind of. They do stuff. Later on. You get some cool tools that I don't think they've Shown in trailers and whatnot. Trailers, Sorry. But yeah, it works for me. But I see that especially because, like, you do get enough tools where you're throwing kunai and then you're doing smoke bombs and then you're doing the. The ones that, like, kind of flash in their face, like flashbangs. You have a lot of tools. So I could see definitely wanting to just focus on the choreography of the fight rather than what you have in your hand. That makes sense.

[C]

It's like a minor thing for me, and I think I'm gonna. I don't think it's going to stop me from playing the game. I think for me, though, I am. I am playing this game because I'm interested in the story. I think the acting is really good. I think the voice acting is. Is excellent. I think Erica Ishii killed it. It's a really good performance. And as Dan said, like, those cut scenes where there's, like, family drama and you're, like, meeting these new bad guys that are telling you they're gonna kill you.

[B]

They're good. They.

[C]

They make a. They make this a movie and that you get to play and run around. So I think it's beautiful. I do enjoy it. I wish I could just focus on one weapon. And I think the last thing I'll say is, like, when it comes to, like, an RPG or just like, a game where I feel like I should be immersed and really want to be this person, I don't personally get as stoked to be a samurai in this era as I would like Red Dead Redemption era. This is like, such a minor thing. This is like a personal samurai.

[B]

And Red Dead era, I would play a samurai.

[C]

And Red Dead era, I would do that too. But I think, like, in general, this isn't usually, like, the type of roleplay I want in a game, but I am allowing it because it's so damn beautiful and it's so immersive. I'm enjoying it. Despite the fact that this is usually the type of game that I would. I would pick.

[B]

Yeah, I'm loving it. I think I'm 12, 14, 15 hours in something like that might be more.

[C]

Someone said that it was 22 to beat, and then I saw someone reply to that and be like, that's fucking bullshit. So I have no idea how long to beat.

[B]

Said something like, in the 20s. And I was like, are you fucking kidding me? Because I just killed my second guy like, yesterday. And I've played a ton of this game.

[C]

The other ones are weak as fuck.

[A]

I was Gonna say, but this game's designed to lure you off the beaten path. Literally. There's a gold, there's a bird that shows up. There's a fox that you like. It's just trying to pull you every which way.

[B]

And I can't help but all of that also the fast travel being so easy and there's like no load times. It's just like one of the best.

[A]

Quality of life things I've seen in an open world game in a while. Not only in some of the locations in villages. You click on the village and then it brings up that radio, not radial brings up that the row of icons you could pick. Not go to the bow lady.

[B]

You want to go to the map.

[A]

Yeah. It's awesome.

[B]

I will do it within, like, I'm already in the town. I'm buying maps from a different dude and I'm like, I know I could probably find the arrow lady very quickly, but I will just warp to her just because, like, I don't want to look around. Yeah.

[A]

Oh, it's great. Yeah, it's. It's amazing.

[B]

It's the opposite of that Red Dead thing where it's like, no, you have to like, you gotta hike all the way back to and you have to.

[C]

Enjoy it because it's beautiful. We're gonna raise the music ever so slightly when you ride your horse because you're in a movie. I. I think you can have it all with this game. I think it's a good example of the fact that you could have it all because it is beautiful to ride your horse and just enjoy. But if you just want to go to the taverns that you can cash in that money prize, then fast travel, like, go for it.

[B]

It's not ashamed of being a video game in a way where it's like, you know, it's got those things where it's like if you want to sit down and make camp and like, you can like set the options towards like, I'm do the cooking mini game every time.

[C]

Music with a dude for like 15 minutes the other night, we were like, you know, playing string instruments. I didn't give a. You can waste time all you want.

[B]

Yeah. It's like if you. If you like that Red Dead 2 style of just like, everything's gonna take a while and everything. You can turn on things where it's like, yeah, everything is gonna be manual and I gotta make the fire every time and everything. But if you just want it to be a fucking video game, you can just set it to be like, all right. I want the cooking thing some of the time or none of the time. And then when you're riding around on your horse, you see a fucking crafting material. You don't have to, like, hold on, buddy, I gotta get off and pick this flower and, oh, I put it in my satchel and. All right, buddy, get back on there anymore. Okay. Hey, you know, no, you just hit R2 and you keep going. You don't even slow down. Like, I love that.

[C]

I love that. You don't have to get off the horse to pick.

[A]

You get.

[B]

You get.

[A]

You get a. You get an armor that like. Like, you get a percentage chance if you're riding through white flowers to pick up crafting materials.

[C]

That's cool.

[B]

I want, like, that just be a video game. Like, you can be cinematic and be a video game.

[A]

Red Dead 2 is one of my favorite games, but I agree with everything you're saying.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Even if Arthur is catching strays, as they say. I don't.

[B]

I mean, and I. I'm not as harsh on Red Dead 2 as I used to. That stuff still is just kind of like, of the rock star. Like, no, we've made art, and you have to take it on our terms. It's like, I hate that. Yeah, fair enough.

[C]

Yeah, I think it's a beautiful statement. Just to say it. It knows it's a video game. It kind of embraces that video game aesthetic of like, yeah, you can fast travel. Yeah, you can pick up stuff really quickly. Yeah, you can craft super fast. But if you just want to sit and enjoy it, you can do that too. It lets you make that choice. And this game is so beautiful that you might find yourself riding your horse to the next area, even if you can fast travel. And I have done that because it's pretty and I want to enjoy it. Also. I stumble across random. I stumbled across. There's so many people who want to kill me every time I'm, like, going anywhere. There's some guy who's like, this town ain't big enough for the two of us. And I'm, you know, in these duels all the time. So I think it's. It's a. A brilliant mesh of both worlds.

[B]

Also the most, like, made for photo mode game I've ever seen in my life.

[C]

That's on the crazy.

[B]

I rarely ever mess with that. But there's just times in this game where it's like, good God, look at this. Like, I'm just standing on a cliff overlooking, like, an ocean, and, like, there's Lightning in the distance and it's just like. Yeah, I'm gonna take a photo of this. That's incredible.

[A]

Yeah. Little remote corner of the world that you didn't really need to go to. And there's like a shunk it shrunken shrine. There's a hole in the ground where some dude's pooping. Like, you don't.

[B]

So funny.

[C]

You gotta take a photo of that. Zoom in.

[A]

Enhance.

[B]

Computer load up.

[A]

Poop hole, please. Yeah, I like it. It's a good game. A new era of power has arrived with the Alienware Area 51 gaming laptops, intentionally engineered to push more power to the CPU and GPU for maximum performance. Combined with Intel Core Ultra 9 processors merging CPU, NPU and integrated GPU into one AI optimized chip, it delivers fast, smart, and seamless performance across everything you do.

[B]

That's right, Mike. No matter what you're playing, Alienware ensures every game runs precisely as its developers intended. A new era of power is here. All you have to do, Mike, is take it. Discover Area51 today at www.alienware.com. area-51 laptops.

[A]

Oh, last thing I'll say. I. I'm gonna start bringing this up. I know none of us have time to play older game, like semi recent games.

[B]

I play old games all the time.

[A]

No, no, no, no. Not old. Okay. It's.

[B]

We've talked about it before in the Nether zone of. Not retro, but not currently.

[A]

No, Last like five years. I've said this before. What my. Like, you know how I think Blight Club. You guys do it where or. I don't know the rules. I don't watch Giant Bomb stuff. But like, I think it's like you get to. You eventually get to recommend a game that you think someone will like that they didn't play. Correct.

[B]

We do a thing called Delight Club every once in a while.

[A]

Delight Club.

[B]

Oh, no, you're thinking of punishments. That's another thing. But yes, okay, yeah, punishments.

[A]

That's what it was. I knew I liked it.

[C]

So many stupid names all at once.

[A]

God, they're great names. I.

[C]

We were talking about Pee Pee Hour. Yeah, that's our favorite.

[B]

We haven't launched that yet. Mary. I told you off stream.

[A]

Jesus. Jay, cut that, Jake. Jay, cut that, Jake, cut that.

[B]

Ruin the announcement.

[A]

We were talking about switching weapons. You're talking about. In this case. I'm talking about Star Wars Jedi Survivor.

[B]

Oh, yeah.

[A]

That game got ripped at first for bad technical performance. I think people thought it had a slow beginning. That game. I We talk. I think it was like a year ago I brought it up and I'm like, I don't know if like Dan, you of all people, once you get into that game, it becomes so much like 3D platforming focused and then also you're just collecting a ton of different lightsabers and you can actually do. And I, I've stopped being a Star Wars Stan a long time ago. The, the Star wars aspect of this game is so tertiary for me, but you can master a weapon and it similarly, there are certain times where they kind of want to push you toward one weapon, but they're not stopping you from using the base lightsaber, the dual wield, or the Darth Maul double bladed sided. But like that's, that's, that's the game. I keep telling people, I'm like, if you get like several weeks, which no one ever does, when you don't have a new game to play. That's what I was saying, like, it's tough to like slot in because it's not an old retro game and you can't make content around it. But like, but it's, it's, it's not brand new. I just think Jedi, Star Wars, Jedi Survivor. I want to start evangelizing it whatever I can because I was so surprised. Also tons of Zelda esque puzzles and like basically dungeons everywhere. I just, that game rightfully got chastised for bad technical performance on PC right when it launched. I'm not disagreeing with that at all.

[B]

I mean, for me it was like, I remember it was running fine on my PC when it was about to come out. At my age, it wasn't even so much that it was just slow. It's just that I feel like, you know, I played like an hour of it or something and every bit of it just seemed like every by the numbers aaa. Just like here's the part where this happens and here's the part where I learned this and here's the skill tree that doesn't really add anything that I haven't seen a million times before. Like, I could be wrong because I mean, I played an hour of it, but the first hour so very much just felt to me like, yep, paint by numbers, triple A. Like it didn't, didn't strike me as doing anything particularly interesting, you know?

[A]

Yeah, no, yeah. The first, the, the beginning of that game is not the greatest. And I'm always usually the first one to say, like, if a game's not good by five hours in, is it really a Good game. But if anybody's looking for something to play, which no one is.

[B]

You know what? I. I did write it down here because like I, I liked a lot of that first game and I didn't give it a full shot.

[A]

I will say this though. The first game was trying. Wait, they're trying to its detriment to be a Fromsoft game?

[B]

Sure.

[A]

This game just went all out. They're like, no, you know what? We're gonna put wall running and Prince of Persia kind of puzzles in. We're gonna do 3D platforming, we're gonna do way more puzzles and we're gonna do just like you collect a new like outfit every five seconds. It. Okay, I, I like it a lot. At some point maybe the opportunity will arise to play it. But that's neither here nor there. What else besides. Let me pull up Dan, you've been playing some new stuff.

[B]

Yeah, let me say because we were talking about like, you know, from stuff. Talking about Yote and, and, and you know, kind of combat focus, melee focused games. I have been playing Ninja Gaiden 4 quite a bit.

[A]

It.

[B]

And that is the reason, if you notice, the episode went up late today. It's because the embargo just lifted. I didn't know what to expect from this game. You know, I thought it was cool when I saw the reveal because it's like, oh man, Ninja guy. And like, you know, we. That was a huge one in like what, 04, whatever. When that first Xbox kind of come back came out and then it's kind of diminishing returns. Like two is a good game. You know, people didn't like it nearly as much as one and then three kind of got shit on all over the place. So it's like. And it's been a long time since three.

[C]

When did three came out?

[B]

Three, I want to say. Was that like a Wii U exclusive or. No, they did a Wii U edition or something.

[C]

That's unfortunate.

[A]

Was Ryu always the protagonist before the.

[B]

Xbox Ones, the NES ones and the Xbox Ones?

[A]

Okay, I remember when, I remember when he. When that game first came out for the Xbox, I wasn't allowed to play it because, I mean because it was purportedly violent. But also my mom was like, I'm not sure I love his outfit. It was like tight fitting leather ninja.

[B]

Really?

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And what she meant was she loved his outfit and.

[B]

Yeah, too much.

[A]

Yeah, too much.

[C]

She want me to go, how hot is he?

[A]

She didn't want Ryu to convert me. When I was 8, I wasn't this.

[C]

Better not awaken anything in me.

[B]

He's interesting.

[C]

Move away, son. Those games had like my straight, straight son. Move away or he'll.

[A]

He'll get you with a shuriken.

[B]

Those characters always had like a like.

[A]

Like wet plasticky look to VHS cover of Bedazzled. Look at this all day.

[B]

Okay. All right.

[C]

I'm a game. I'm a game.

[A]

Sorry, Dan. I. I'm so sorry. You were talking, you were saying something.

[B]

Yeah, Mary, it came out in 2012 was the last one, so it's been amazing. Yeah. So that, that's why I say like I. When I saw the trailer, I'm like, hell yeah. I like old things that I recognize. And then it's like, oh wait, what is this actual game gonna be? Be. And God damn if it isn't like one of the best Ninja Gaiden games. It is, I would say like I'm. Oh God, what AM I like 10, 12 hours in or something like that? I'm like six, seven chapters or whatever. I am enjoying this in a way. I don't remember liking a Ninja Gaiden since that Xbox One. The first comeback in like I think 04. And it is cool because it makes me nostalgic for like the character action games of the 2000s. You know, I'm thinking Devil May Cry. I am thinking, you know those, those Ninja Gaiden games where I. I have always really appreciated the from approach that has kind of taken over third person action games in recent years. There are a lot of incredible games there and from themselves do a lot of great things. Eldering one of the best games of all time. But I am nostalgic for the like you are crazy overpowered, flashy ass dude with melee weapons or, and, or guns and you're just getting a bunch of red or orbs and getting more attacks and stuff like that. And like this is purely in that line and like they, they have not done anything to try to be like now it's like a from game because that's what's hot now. Like, nope. This is like if we just went from like Ninja Gaiden 04 and then cryogenically froze everyone that made that game and then they make another one. Now it's like, it's like that. It's also there's a lot of like Metal Gear Revengeance going on here, which I know a lot of fans of that genre like love that game.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So it's like a very fast paced, just kind of like almost like auto parkouring over Stuff and unbelievably fast combat. A like, almost overwhelming amount of moves and combos and stuff to unlock. You know, you're just getting red orbs, buying stuff. Huge crazy boss fights and everything. It's. It knows what it's doing. It knows who is coming to this game. You know, fans of the originals. And like, it is violent in a way that I loved from the original ones. Like, right away it's like, do you want to enable or disable the emphasized dismemberment option? And that's enable. And it's like, oh, what about. Do you want the Bloodbath kill camera? Yes, I do.

[A]

Yeah. It's like, what? No, I'm not going to turn off the Ball Buster. Slow Mo Cam Sniper.

[B]

Yeah, the Hitler's Nuts cam or whatever. Yeah, yeah. So like, they. They know their audience like it. There's not even like an opening cut scene. Like, you just start and you're on a train, which there's a lot of like, train levels. Ninja Gaiden history. And so it's like, okay, yep, already in ninja on a train train. Bunch of dudes shooting at me with guns. And you're just slicing these up and they're just. Their parts and bits are just all over the train floor. And I've always loved games where it's like the blood or the bodies or whatever kind of stay on the ground. And so it's like just chunks of bodies all over this train floor. And as it's rumbling around, like, they have physics and so like, it's just sliding around arms and heads and torsos as you're just bathing in the blood of all these dudes and just dashing super fast and throwing shurikens and running off walls and like, it's just sweet. It's. It's exactly what you want from this. And like, when I talk about knowing the audience and everything, like, you know anybody who played those old Ninja Gaiden games, especially that 041, it's like the Flying Swallow and the Azuna Drop were two. That's the moves. Like, the Flying Swallow is the one where you jump and you hit y in the air and you like, dash in and like, if you do it right, you can just like cut someone's head clean off. And the Azuna Drop is this thing where you can like juggle a guy up in the air. You grab him, you go upside down and you do this like, spinning pile driver into the ground. It's just fucking awesome. And everyone that played those old games loves them and it's like those are like right there to purchase early on. So it's like, okay. I don't know how many, if any of the people making this game were involved with those old games, but they sure as fuck played them and know what people like about them and understand it. So, yeah, I don't know if there's any crossover. I really have no idea who the team is behind this. I don't know if they worked on Revengeance. I don't know if they worked on the old Ninja Gaidens, but like, they clearly understand what was good about those games.

[C]

Games.

[B]

Yeah, it's. It's extremely difficult, but it's fair. There's a lot of like accessibility options. You know, I'm just playing the default difficulty, but it looks like there are a bunch of different options and things. But like it's a game where you get to a boss fight and I will just get my ass kicked 10 times in a row and I will just keep going back because it's like, all right, I just need to learn these patterns more. I just need to like dodge better. You know, it does some of that kind of like witch time bayonetta stuff where if you do a perfect dodge out of the way, you get like a, a moment of slowdown or you can really just get in their ass afterwards and it's just non stop. It's non stop action. And if you're not slicing someone up, you are grappling hook, you know, a wall running, you know, you're. You've got a hang glider thing that if there's gust of winds, you're flying between mountains and stuff. It's just non stop action and I, I love it. This is, this is a game for me and Holy. This year with Ninja Garden 2 Ninja Gaiden games, a Shinobi game. Yo, Taylor. Between, like the year of the like, you know, Ninja Samurai like this this year.

[C]

I mean, I think we're gonna have to discuss that at some point sooner rather than later. Like, what's your favorite ninja game?

[B]

Oh boy. I mean, like I haven't beaten this yet. But like Shinobi is probably.

[C]

I love Shinobi.

[B]

Shinobi's fucking awesome. Yeah, that's probably my number one right now. But this, this has been killing it and I'm pretty deep into it. Like, I just can't wait to probably after this podcast keep playing. I was playing it right before we went on the air, so I like that they.

[A]

And was it Ninja Gaiden and Shinobi did that Like Steam package those two together.

[B]

They did, yeah. That was awesome. I thought.

[A]

Yeah. Because I think you pointed out Dan a couple episodes ago, it's like these two, what the SEGA and the Nintendo Origin Ninja games were kind of having a moment in the same year and they decided to do this bundle together. It was a nice, nice thing to see. Yeah.

[B]

And like, this is so cool to me as like an old guy gamer who also very much is nostalgic for all those old franchises and stuff. Like the fact that it's not just like slapping Ninja Gaiden onto a thing and it's like, no, no. This is like, this is a ninja guy. This is what I would want Ninja Gaiden to be in 2025. It's not just nostalgia play. It works for that. But also, if I'm fucking 15 years old and I just want to play a cool ninja game, I've never heard of Ninja Gaiden before. There's no denying this is just a good fucking game.

[C]

Yeah, Yeah.

[A]

I want to play that really badly. I gotta play. I gotta go back to Shinobi. I mentioned this. I started Shinobi. I got like, I got, I don't know, a few levels in. However you want to call levels in that game where it's kind of Metroidvania. But I loved it from what I saw. But they were adding so many new abilities and tools into my repertoire at such a rapid pace. I was like, like, I'm. I need to come back and restart this game once I have played Finish Yote because I just. Yote grabbed me in a way that something hasn't in a while.

[B]

So they do that here where it's like, even for me who, like, which, by the way, I'm playing this and Yote like concurrently, like in the same night. Like, this is a three day weekend. I played both these games every day and it's like I have to remember all these things I'm unlocking and the combos for like both ATSU and Ninja Gaiden 4. So it's kind of been a lot, lot. But Mary, you were bringing up how like in yote, I. I think a complaint that I share about YOTE is what you said about like, I don't want to have to like constantly think this rock, paper scissors thing. I just kind of want to be in the moment and do the combat. This game, it gives you a million different combat options. And, you know, I have a couple different weapons right now where it's like, I've got this like, kind of Spear thing that can expand into, like, this weird death umbrella. And then you have just, like, your double sword thing, and you're unlocking a ton of moves for both. Both. But they will both get the job done. Like, you get to just kind of choose in the moment where it's like, all right, well, this one kind of attacks a little faster. Or this is better for groups. I guess I'll use this. But if you just love the spear thing and you want to put all your red orbs into upgrading that. I haven't run into any enemies that, like, oh, you have to use the swords for this. So you. You can just kind of go with the thing that kind of speaks to you more than you can in yota.

[C]

I think that sounds nice. I mean, I do do. I do also, like, respect the idea of, like, in this situation, you're really gonna want to use X. But it's like, ultimately, I usually fall in love with a system, and I want to be able to just enjoy my system. So. That sounds really cool. I don't think I've ever played this series before. Do you think, like, there's anything that I'll miss in the story or understanding what's going on?

[B]

Don't. You're. You're just a ninja.

[A]

How would you describe the world? Ninja Gaiden. Because, like, it's.

[B]

You're a ninja. In, like, modern, ish times.

[C]

You'Re a ninja.

[B]

Yes, you are a ninja.

[A]

But yeah, there's not. Like, it's like Industrial Revolution in the first. In the Xbox revamp, wasn't it Industrial Revolution time? Like, trains and steampunk kind of things.

[B]

There's like, Zeppelin and stuff.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I don't really know what the Industrial Revolution is, but it's like, there's buildings and, like, tanks and helicopters and, you know, it's like there's modern technology. It feels like kind of a modern war. Like, modern world. Like, I don't know if they say you're in Japan or you're in whatever, but, like, it's buildings, it's tanks, it's cars, it's zeppelins. It's, you know. Yeah.

[A]

Cool.

[B]

It's a very, very fun game.

[C]

I want to play it. There's so many things going on. I feel overwhelmed.

[A]

What is. What is this character you're doing?

[C]

This. Just me. I'm just complaining. It's. What'd you call it? What do they. It call. Called? First World problems.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I mean, that's all. Yeah. Yeah.

[C]

That's like. I'm just complaining because.

[B]

Oh, My gas line. That's not like the woodpecker thing. I understand that is not a real problem. I mean it's a pain in the ass, but yeah.

[A]

Mary, you we talked about baby steps on the last episode. Have you played much of it? How far have you gotten?

[C]

I did, I've quit and I didn't like it and I wanted to tell.

[A]

You that's the correct response.

[C]

I felt like that's how you guys would feel. I, I've liked his previous games and I got really into getting over it with Bennett Foddy. I thought that was a really light hearted and cheeky way to kind of push players into maybe like a bit of like a frustration. But it's so rewarding when you're able to kind of get through it. It's also the narration is very cheeky and I, I really appreciated that original game. I, I think I played six hours of, of baby steps. It is so frustrating even from the beginning. And at no point did I feel like I had mastered walking. I never felt like the game wanted me to get good at anything and really reveled in falling. I think the thing that really fucking chat my ass. Like the reason where I was like finally like, all right, fuck this game is that pretty early on I came across this like super cute duckling and it followed me around and so I wanted to keep this. Did you guys get the duck?

[A]

I'm not, I'm not. I have not played the game. I have no plan to play that game.

[C]

If you stumble across a barn, you'll find a couple animals in the barn, including a baby duckling and the baby duckling will follow you in the game. And I kind of thought that maybe it was a challenge for me to try and get through this game with this duckling. It's cute. It can't travel in every way that I can. And so I had to like make accommodations to the path that I picked so that the baby duck could join me. It just got to a cruel area where like the steps that I was taking, the baby duck couldn't jump. So I had to decide to abandon the baby duck or you know, keep going. There was in my opinion no path forward that I could find that I could save this cute little baby duck and continue on my journey. It felt punishing for punishing's sake. And I was at no point actually was I like, oh, this is funny and cheeky and enjoyable. It is a miserable game to play and I can't believe that they designed it as such that they want you to be miserable while you watch this sad chunky Cheez it boy not want to receive any help or benefits from the game, and he can't even help this baby duck that, like, wants to follow him and get joy. It just. It's just a miserable experience.

[B]

I'm. I'm with you. Like, I. I think the writing is great. Like, obviously there's like, a metaphor they're going for that I'm sure is brilliant or whatever, but it's like, I. I just got to a point where it's like, I love the idea of, like, you know, quop. Like weird physics games and stuff like that. Like, I think that's really funny. And so I thought I was going to love this. And I got to the first part where it's like, I kind of went up this mountain and I'd go across this kind of like, rocky river thing, and I slipped on a rock and my guy fell down, like, a while, and I was like, aha, that's funny. And then it was like. Like, it didn't. I thought it was gonna checkpoint and, like, send me back up or whatever, and it didn't. And I were thinking it was just such a wild, like, oh, my God, I just lost like, 10 or 15 minutes of progress that I, like, saved the clip. I was like, oh, when the bar goes up, people aren't gonna believe how much progress I lost here. And then I found out, like, the day of release, how much, you know, people are falling down entire mountains and losing, like, an hour of progress. I'm like, oh, that's just what the game is. So, literally, when I lost that 10 or 15 minute of progress and it didn't checkpoint, it didn't send me back up, I was like, all right, well, I guess I never playing this again. That's fine.

[C]

You know, I cannot wait. Yeah, I'm never playing that game again. Go ahead.

[B]

No, no, no.

[A]

I. I said this last time, and I have to, like, kind of, like, check myself, because who am I to judge other people for how they spend their time and what they find?

[B]

The.

[A]

The. The experiences that they find to be worth time and investment. I don't know. I. I'm into stuff that no one else gives a about. Like who the else. Like, I'm sure people would look at the amount of time and money I've spent, like, studying wine and be like, that's fucking ridiculous. I get that not everything is going to be for everybody. I cannot. I just can't put myself in a place where that kind of game Feels like a good no use of time for me. But I also know that there are a lot of people who are like, they're into the masochism of that and that is rewarding to them when they finally reach the top of the mountain or whatever it is. And I do like the idea that there is that spiral staircase that's supposedly easy. Like you could do it if you want.

[B]

Man Breaker. The big thing like that's the thing is like, it is a good spectator sport. Like Grub. Something about this game. Yeah. But something about this. Even without the streaming aspect, you know, I'm talking to Grub about this game and hear him talk about on the Bobcast, he's like, it really spoke to him in a way that like, I'm prepared for him to like push for it to be high up on game of the year year this year. And like, it really resonates with some people and it really doesn't with others. And like, I think I can. It is super. Not for me, but I think I understand it more than I did. Like when I was initially turned off by like a red dead or dead or death stranding where it's like, how could anyone like this? You know, I. I think with baby steps, like I kind of get it. And it's clearly does have some kind of metaphor where it's like, here's the stairs and stuff. And like watching Grub, like, you know, he was like several mornings in a row streaming on Giant Bomb A of like going after the Man Breaker and like I would tune in, I would just have him on. Like, it got tense where it's like he gets near the top and then he slips and he falls. He's all the way the bottom. Okay, we'll be back tomorrow with it. It's like it could not be me. I could not do that. But like, I do kind of respect. I don't know the maniacs that are just gonna keep going at it.

[A]

To Mary's point though, is Grub playing it off stream at all?

[B]

No, I mean he certainly has at times. But I think when he got to the Man Brain Breaker, I think he was like, this is going to be my like every morning I'm.

[C]

You want. You want the lore, you want the people. And I think, yeah, that's what I'm saying.

[A]

Like I get and like foddy and games have all like getting over it. Yes, for sure. And their. Their games, many, many games have gone viral. Repo Lethal company Chain together. Phasmophobia would not be near only up would not be nearly as big if it wasn't for King. Yeah, like I.

[C]

These are games for, for psychopaths who just want to get through incredible even. Like, honestly, even silksong to a degree. Like these later areas are so miserably difficult. I, I am like, oh my God, I don't know how I could do this. But when you have a crowd cheering you on and they're like, this is impossible. I could never spend my time doing this. I will watch this person who's dedicated way too much time playing this game to beat this. There is a system for this. Here's why I don't fucking like baby steps steps. In all these other games, including getting over it all, every example you guys have said you're learning tactically how to get better at the basic mechanics of the game. So that, so the beginning area actually is kind of like a cakewalk at some point, right? Like you're just kind of like you've memory, you've brute memorized it. You understand mechanically how to get through it. Hades is such a good example. Like you remember like you talking about the sirens and you're like, I don't even think about the sirens anymore. I don't even give a shit about those sirens. I just breeze through the them in baby steps. Even the beginning areas are fucking miserable. It is miserable to walk in that game. They made the basic mechanics not fun for me to play, so I can't actually get better at this game. And that's what pisses me off about this. Like, if they mechanically made it so that it's like, yeah, I'm like so good at walking now that this is a joke to me. But I, I actually think, like, it's gonna just be painful to walk in that game forevermore. That's what they wanted to make.

[B]

Make.

[C]

They were very successful at making that. Congratulations for making that. I don't want to play it.

[B]

Yeah, I think they made exactly the game they wanted to make.

[C]

Yeah, I don't think it was an accident. I don't think they failed. I think they succeeded.

[B]

And it seems very clearly not for us, but it is very clearly for some other people. And so I guess good on them. It was a success. I just, I have no interest in playing it further.

[C]

Yeah, I'm not even like I'm over it. Like, I, like I look forward to their next psycho game that I think other people will enjoy and I appreciate that. But I, yeah, I'm so over it. I'm like, I, I, I will not play that Game again. I also didn't like the story. Did you say you liked the story, Dan? I do not like that story.

[A]

Like Dan's a big story guy in video games.

[B]

Yeah, I love story. They were just drawings of the Cheeto boy, if you're. Yeah, just a drawing of the Cheeto boy with a pair of paragraph of text. I think that's how you do storytelling.

[C]

Yeah, yeah, simple.

[A]

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[B]

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[A]

Speaking of Cheetos, Dan, you played Consume Me.

[B]

Yeah, this is. Boy, this is the type. Have you guys heard of this? Yeah, I don't know. Why won't Jay Leno. Have you seen this? Have you heard about this?

[A]

It's this guy, this guy, he, he, he's got Jake's baby steps up a mountain. I actually have not seen enough Leno ever to do it.

[B]

Well, good. You've had a better life for it. Yeah, he sucks as a person and a comedian. Well, he was a good stand up comedian but he's. He fuck Jay. I don't know. Anyway, Consume Me is the type of game that like I would have never gravitated towards or tried really. And this is very much, you know, a bonk influence here, which I always appreciate because she is, you know, over 10 years, introduced me to a lot of things that I would not have normally tried or been interested in. And I think I've bettered as a person for it. So this is one that she started playing. What's that?

[C]

Agree that Bon is a better person.

[A]

I felt comfortable speaking for literally everyone by saying we agree.

[B]

She. Yeah, you both knew me pre bonk.

[C]

Every day, undeniably for it.

[B]

Yes. So she, she brought this up to me and I, I knew like this was like, all I knew about it was that it was like, you know, one of those like empathy games where it was about eating disorders and you know, disordered eating. And I, you know, I, I respect the things like, you know, depression quest or you know, papers please and things like that, you know, exists. It's just never been really the things that draw me to video games. So like, you know, I'm not going to be like, duh, fuck this game. But like, it's just I don't play them really. But this is something like disordered eating is something I learned a lot about when I met Bonk because like, that's one of the first things she told me is that like, she really struggled with anorexia and disordered eating prior to meeting me. You know, she was like, really, really struggling with that in a very major way. And it was a thing that, like, I had never thought about disordered eating or anorexia or anything beforehand. I heard of it, didn't really know anything about it. But yeah, I learned so much when I met her and you know, I wanted to learn more about it because some she struggled with. And I remember I read like Portia de Rossi's book from Arrested Development and like learned about like, oh, okay, this isn't just a, like, you know, I always think about how like with anxiety, if you talk to a lot of people that don't have anxiety.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Their first impression is like, just chill out. What are you worried about? And it's like, that's not how it works.

[C]

And like, yeah, it's like super dismissive of like a, oh, glad you told me that.

[A]

Sure. Or like someone insomnia, like, oh, have you tried melatonin? I'm like, yeah.

[B]

The thing is, it does come from a lot of people that think they are just like, they're not trying to come from a bad place. They're just like, you got nothing to worry about. It's like, you know, you just don't get it. You just don't really understand what anxiety is. Not that I would expect someone to do whatever, you know, but like, you know, I think with, with anorexia and there's probably a ton of people that have that same dismissiveness. Eat a cheeseburger. What's the deal? You're not fat. It's like, no, it's just like I learned so much in, in the early times at Dayton Bonk and reading those books and stuff that like, like it just about the control and like, this is a part of your life you can control and the calories in and calories out and you know, just, you know, body dysmorphia and things like that. Just learning about all these things that I've never experienced. And so anyway, that's a long walk to get to this is a game that does tackle that from someone who has struggled with it. And it is like a semi autobiographical telling of this girl, like I don't know what grade she's supposed to be in. It's clearly like a junior high, high school type age age. And it is via mini games like almost like warioware style minigames telling the story of this girl trying to like figure out how to manage her like calorie intake while still getting all these other parts of her life under control. So like you literally have meters for like diet, athletics, academics, chores and you have a certain amount of like time basically during the day day that you can do things. And so, so you know if you there's an eating mini game that's almost like a Tetris. It's almost like a Resident Evil like inventory situation. And if you eat too much then it's like oh God, I'm over my calorie limit. Or they call them bites in the game. You know, like they try to avoid any kind of like triggering like specific calories and stuff like that. So you know, oh, I'm over 500 bites for today. So I could study for this upcoming test that my mom's yelling me about or I could do chores to try to earn money for a swimsuit because there's this beach party coming up and I want to impress this boy. But I'm at 523 bytes and I need to be under 500 so I should probably take this time slot in the evening and work out and everything's done via mini game. And the mini games are fun. It's like, it's actually like, it's like, it's weird how like the dissonance between it's like a very jaunty like silly game. Like visually and the music and everything and the mini games themselves are really wacky. But then there is like this underlying kind of like darkness to, to the disorder and everything that they get across. So it really illustrates it extremely well via a game of just like how much this thinking in this disorder can kind of take over your day to day life. Where it's like man, I do have all this stuff I need to do but I'm so fixated on staying under this calorie limit and things like that that like oh, I didn't do the laundry cleaning mini game this week because I was too busy trying to stay under my calorie limit it so oops, between class and this thing, a bus, there's a little vignette that plays of a Bus splashing you and your clothes are dirty and you can't change because you don't have any clean clothes. You didn't do that mini game that week. So it's like, then your mood like there's these meters for like mood and gut and you know, stuff like that. It's like oh, your mood goes down because now you're walking around in shitty, you know, dirty clothes and stuff like that because you spent all your free time, you know, trying to work off 20 calories or something like that. So it is just like it's a really, really well done like I haven't played a ton of games like these but I think even someone who hasn't like ever had someone in their life that struggled with this stuff, I think it does a pretty tremendous job of like oh, I never really, you know, thought about it like this and while still remaining like an actual like it's weird to call it like a fun game but it's like the systems work, the mini games are fun. It's like one of the minigames like if you, if you choose to like I'm going to study because you know like your mom will come in and be like ah, you're going to get a shitty grade on this. It's like oh shit, I should level up my academ. So you'll do like the studying minigame. And so the studying minigame is like there's a book in front of you and your head's just rotating around and you need to like whenever your cone of vision is over the book you need to jam on a, to kind of keep it there. But there are like these thought bubbles that come in and the thoughts will be like your mom yelling at you, the scale, you know, the boy you have a crush on or whatever. And if the cone hits that it reverses. So you got kind of like feather the a button to kind of keep it on the book while all these other thoughts are like it's just, it all of kind kind of works together really well. Like it's very gamified but they all, it's all in service of the message it's doing. So yeah, I, you know, I haven't beaten it or anything. I, I, I've played a decent amount of it but like it just seems to really do a great job of exactly gamifying kind of a message and, and you know, the empathy for the situation that we might not all have so really, really worth checking out, I think.

[A]

Yeah, I appreciate that too because like the, that also is like probably a good follow up to the conversation about Baby Steps, a game that I just really don't want to play. Maybe there's some mindset that Baby Steps is conveying that they're going for with that type of gameplay that it's trying to convey a story that I'm just not aware of that's entirely.

[B]

I think it's about depression or something or like not being able to like get your life in order but like.

[A]

But, but consume me.

[B]

Don't enjoy it.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, I want to at least just like put that out there that I'm sure there's some like something going on there, but. No, consume me. I've heard good things from several people that saying I should try it out because it's. Yeah, I played like that Dragon Cancer back in the day, games like that that, you know, I, I love when games can, can tell a story that way. I'm trying to remember. Oh God, there's something on the tip of my tongue where it's like, it's a systemic kind of storytelling and you don't really realize what it's doing until all of a sudden the actual rules change. And like, oh, it's papers, please. Like, papers, please is a good example. But there's something I'm, I'm missing. But it's that idea where you get so into the gamification of it, you don't realize that that's, that is the story. And then by the time it like falls apart all of a sudden, like to your point, I can't. I don't have clean laundry now. It's like, oh, I didn't realize what they were building towards. Yeah.

[B]

And like, especially if you. I think it's almost more effective if you have not dealt with the issue because, you know, like I asked Bonk while she was playing. I was like, dude, do you feel like this is like an accurate. And she's like, oh my God, absolutely. Like, this is resonating. But like, if you don't, like, she's felt all that stuff before. I think for those that haven't struggled with it, it's eye opening and that like the same way that like depression quests, you know, I've never had depression and there was the stuff where it's like. Would ask you a question where it's like, oh, it's Friday night, what are you doing? And it's like, it'd be multiple choice. Like, you know, go to a party with your friend or go do this thing or this thing. And like, you would Pick. I'm going to pick. Go to a party with my friend. And then it crosses out like in real time and it's like, oh, no. You know, you just like totally flake on your friends and you just felt like you couldn't get off the couch or whatever. And like that was kind of eye opening. I'm just like, oh, wow. This idea of like, you know, like, oh, I can't get out of this bed. And it kind of explains why that's difficult. Or, you know, it's. It's.

[A]

Yeah, I remember what game it was now. And it's not the same type of game. It's what remains of Edith Finch had certain aspects of that where obviously what remains of Edith Finch is more, you know, walking simulator, gone home adjacent firewatch kind of game. But sure, there was that one sequence.

[B]

Everybody goes to the rapture but good.

[A]

Exactly. And there's that one sequence where the sun and like the. Everybody in this family just dies young of mysterious causes. The sun is at the fish factory. Thank God for the hatchery. And he's guiding the fish through the. You're basically separating fish. But then your daydreaming start to take over more and more. The way that they tell that story, it's just the most show, don't tell ass storytelling that I fucking love. I love when stuff does that. So I should put this on my list too.

[B]

It's. Yeah, I think it's a really cool game.

[C]

I just saw that this won the IGF Samus McNally Grand Prize, which papers, please, also won. So this is like a. A It's obviously indicative of something that is a great way to teach the player something that's bigger than the mini games or the gameplay itself, but about life. I resonate a lot with learning about others through media and understanding what different disorders are. And so I appreciate you sharing the book that you read. I just wanted to throw out another that's really worth reading for anyone who's like, like interested in understanding a little bit more about disordered eating, but maybe in a light way that won't like stress you out. I'm Glad My Mom Died is one of the best books about this subject and other subjects I've ever read. It's so freaking good. I think it's. It's written by a child Disney star, Janette McCurdy. She was on icarly. I don't know if you guys grew up watching icarly, but I did.

[B]

I knew what it was.

[C]

ICarly. So good. But one of the little the girls who, like, grew up doing the show. She wrote a book called I'm Glad My Mom Died and it is so damn good. I wonder if Bonk would like it. But it kind of touches on a lot of this stuff and a lot of it's really similar about, like, how the mom is like, you need to practice more. How many calories have you had today? And it's a lot of it is learned. Right. It's a learned trait as a child that you have to live with now.

[B]

And that is very much like, again, show, don't tell. Like, I mean, the mom is a character in this game where she will show up and just kind of like, give you shit for something and you just kind of like, see how that impacts the character. Like, not through a long cut scene or dialogue box or anything, but just like the way, oh, that thought bubble of the mom pops up and distracts you from the minigame. It's like, oh, it's kind of an elegant way of getting that message across. Yeah.

[C]

Good on the developer for having the guts to put her in there. It takes a lot of guts to share, you know, a personal issue with depressive depression, disordered eating, anything like, that's really hard to put that in a game. But also to be like, and my mom was a huge bitch to me all the time is like the icing on the cake of, like, good for you to put in your trauma out there because that's going to help a lot of people.

[B]

My way of coping with that, with my father was just putting him in front of a microphone for 15 years and letting people figure it out.

[C]

Yeah. This is why I'm fucked up.

[B]

I didn't have to spell it out. I was like, just talk, dad.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Love you, dad.

[A]

Yeah, Take the, Take the stress out of explaining you to people.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. They'll figure it out. Consume me. Check it out. I, I really, I really. It does a great job. Yeah. Yeah.

[A]

Thanks for sharing this, Mary. I think you both played Clover Pit, correct?

[B]

Yes. Yeah.

[C]

I don't know if, Dan, you feel like the way I feel about it, but I like it.

[B]

It's good. It. It is good. I have thoughts about it because I, I think a lot of people are going to compare it to Blotch Outro, understandably. Oh, you know, it's just like, it's that like, oh, instead of, like, you know, tweaking, like, oh, I can make the three of a kind the most powerful thing. I'm gonna make Clovers the most powerful thing for those Sorry. We're jumping right into it. Mary, do you want to, like, explain kind of what the game is?

[A]

Sure.

[C]

This is a game about gambling, and you have to make enough money or the game kills you. That just means game over. But it, like, drops out, throws you into a death pit. And so you're putting money into the machine. You're trying to gamble to make enough money, but you have to invest in these. I think they are, like, cards or tokens, essentially. These items, the charms, build a better deck, essentially. That way maybe, like, if you get lemons. Lemons are worth twice as much. You have a button that makes lemons most more likely to appear. Thus, you're more likely to get five lemons in a row and make your quota and. And live. The whole thing is kind of surrounded in an air of, like, death. You're, like, in some kind of dungeon. It looks pretty dastardly and sad down there, and there's, like.

[B]

It's like a torture chamber, and there's, like, corpse parts and stuff in there.

[C]

It's dark and evil, and there's, like, lots of secrets and stuff. I used to use the bathroom if you use the bathroom.

[B]

Oh, yeah, you can. Yeah.

[C]

You take a. And then you get a token. That's like, everything. That's like, a brown item is worth more, right?

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

If you pee, everything that's yellow is worth more. Things like that. I mean, it's. That's. It. That's. That's the core mechanic. And so you're choosing the right totems, which cost tickets, by the way. That's kind of an early mechanic that it teaches you is if you have less polls, you get more tickets. But you need the polls that you can make more money.

[B]

So you get, like, basically, for every round, you get, like, three rounds. Well, I guess for every set, there's, like, three rounds, and a round can be, like, you know, five to seven pulls of the slot machine lever. So it's like. It'll tell you, Basically, you've got three rounds to get to 72 Gold, which is your debt that you have to pay off. So, you know, you'll finish one round, and you'll be, like, you know, 14 gold. And, like, you know, you really. By the third one, you're usually like, okay, I. I really gotta pay this thing off. But you can. You can break it in a way where it's like, oh, man, I'm. I'm beating all these rounds in my first. I don't know if. I don't know if they're Called rounds or sets or whatever. But, like, you can beat it early and you'll get these tickets like from a arcade machine or something, and then use that to buy charms. Yeah.

[C]

I think that it's funny that you were comparing it to Balatro. I've been comparing it to Inscription.

[B]

Yes, yes. It's got that too, for sure. Like, tonally, I think it's. It's way more Inscription me.

[C]

It's so Inscription. I just want to set the audio listeners expectations that if you're like, I loved Inscription. It's not as good as Inscription and.

[B]

It'S not as good as Balatro.

[C]

I mean, no game is as good as Balatro. Listen, Beyonce Balatro. Are you out of your mind? Any. Any game compared to Balatro. You're like, with people, people's minds, it's. It's not even a fraction of nobody's Balatro. But Inscription. I'm like, offended, but don't even bring it up. Inscription had these, like, moments of deception where you kind of felt like you were smart and beating the game. I think this game lets you do things like that. It's just not on the same level. So just. I'm pulling it back from this idea that, like, it's bigger than it seems. And there's all these, like, ways that Inscription really toys with you. This game is much more simple version.

[A]

What a ridiculous man he is.

[C]

D. He is his father.

[A]

I know you can hear me through much.

[B]

I'm trying to be polite. Normally when I get a beer, I gotta go take my headphones off. Oh, I bet this will stretch all the way over there.

[A]

So for the audio listener, it's funny. Your umbilical cord from the computer, your.

[C]

Head like a baby trying to crawl out of the womb.

[A]

Oh, I played Death Stranding. Now I need cords in my life all the time. I can't ever take it off.

[B]

It's a strange. And yeah, I can't take a. My life. Yeah.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Anyway, this game is a simple, simplified version of Inscription. It doesn't have as many alterations. My biggest criticisms of this game is that, like, I really feel like there's only like four or five good hooks of items that work super well together. They need to put more time into making more items that allow me to play in different ways. I get. I've put a decent amount of hours into this game because it's really fun to play while I watch It's Spooptober. Just so everybody knows, it's October. This is my month where I'm allowed to watch as many horror movies as I fucking want. And I watch horror movies every day, but I am home. And when I'm watching a horror movie, I like to also play, like, maybe a scary game on my steam deck. And right now I've been playing Clover Pit because it's kind of scary, but it's also really neutral. I can pull the lever and gamble with my life. Life while also watching an old horror movie that I love. So it's. It's perfect for like, half gaming, half watching tv. That's why I recommend this game, and I have enjoyed it. I just think they need to do more to make it more randomized. It's very limited with what I can do.

[B]

Wait, so to make it more randomized, like, I feel like that is the thing that I don't like about it because, like, you just don't gamble any. Well, any gambling is going to involve, you know, some element of luck, certainly, like poker does. But, like, I feel like with Balatro, you had a little more control over the hands you were trying to make and the things that were valuable. I feel like you can do things like there are certainly charms where it's like, okay, this run, I'm gonna do all these things that help my sevens and treasure chests. And it's like, sure, if you hit those, very valuable. But at the end of the day in this game, you are still just pulling a slot machine handle. And, like, there's. You'll never get an upgrade that I've seen that you can like.

[C]

Yeah, that get that perfect hand because you're just pulling a slot machine. Have you gotten one where it's blackout where all of them are.

[B]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You can get, like, crazy ones where, like, breaks and you get so many points and everything. But, like, there's nothing, like, you can manipulate it to, like, okay, well, I want there to be just treasure chests. So I'm gonna pick these upgrades to make it so there's less clovers and sevens and more treasures. Like, you can move things more in your favor and kind of tweak the odds, but there's. There's nothing that makes it not a slot machine pull.

[C]

It is for the gambler. And I will say, like, for me, I like to gamble. And, like, I enjoy not, like, all the time. I don't have a problem anyway. I enjoy the occasional thrill of. Of the gamble. And so this scratches that itch for me where I am gambling, especially with my, like, fake life. So when I don't. When I, I. When I risk it for everything And I lose and I fall to my death. I'm like, that's cool, I'll just do it again. It's a really nice low stakes gambling game that I think makes me enjoy that element of gambling. But I agree with you. There's not a lot of skill outside of picking the right pieces together and obviously getting the right amount of luck or, you know, and there's bad luck too, if you, if you pull a 666, you lose all your money.

[B]

Money, which really, you're just sometimes. So you can make every right decision strategically. Yeah, like, you can set yourself up for success and more often than not, it'll pay off. But like, there are just times where it's like you'll pull the thing seven times in a row and it's just like, well, nothing came up and I died. And it's like, well, I made every decision you could make right. Leading up to this. So it's like that kind of stuff dampered my excitement for it. But, like, I did enjoy it. And like you said, it's like an ideal game if you're just watching something in the background or got a podcast on. Like, you don't need to put a lot of brain power into this necessarily. So.

[C]

I've had a lot of time recently where I have been working really heavy hours. I've been coming off of a plane and I'm mentally not in a good spot to play. Like, you know, when I got back from Japan, I could not play Coast. Like, I could not. I was like, I'm barely functioning right now, but I can play Clover Pit Half brain Dead. I can. Sure, I can pull that slot machine. So if you're ever wanting to play a game, but you just don't have the capacity, that's where I think this one really comes into play.

[A]

Sure, Dan, you're playing Lego Party as well.

[B]

I. Folks, it's. It's bet it is just better than Mario Party.

[A]

Yeah, I've heard that you said.

[B]

I can't sit here despite having what Mario Party came out in like 2000. So at least like 25 years of playing Mario Party with my friends and family and colleagues and everything in between and loving it so much and loving the Mario universe so much. I cannot sit here and say into a microphone that Lego Party isn't better than Mario Party because it is in every fucking way as a video game. Like, sure, I. I love seeing Mario and Waluigi and Monty Mole and stuff. That's great. They can't do that. They can just make the game, how they want it and they made the game better in like every fucking way. It takes everything that works about Mario Party and makes it so fun and just makes it so much like quality of life, quality of the mini games. The, you know, like, I know I like the randomization, rubber banding and all that stuff of Mario Party, but it's like, you know, like once you play a game that's like just like, oh, wow, this is actually kind of skill based. And like it is. It's not just horseshit where it's like, oh, a bunch of nonsense happened and you landed on the superstar space and then you got this bonus star at the end and I guess you won even though you lost every mini game. You know, it's like that stuff doesn't really happen in Lego part party, but enough stuff does where it's like, you want a game like this, a party game to be a thing you can take back on the holidays and play with friends and family that don't play games and let them feel like, you know, they're not just gonna get, you know, just roasted. Like if you played a fighting game with them or something, you know.

[A]

Sure.

[B]

So it manages to do that. Like, there's enough, I don't want to say randomization, but there is enough like chaos that they can throw into there to where like, I think anybody could stand a fighting chance for plans. Like, I mean, ideal.

[C]

Did you win?

[B]

Did I. No, I think, I think I won once and I lost the second one. So I was gonna say the. I had family in last weekend, so I had my sister Katie and not Kayla because Kayla plays a ton of games. Katie is her twin who doesn't play games. And her husband and her daughter came to play town and I spent the weekend here and Katie was always playing Mario Party with me. Growing up, we. And to this day, like whenever it's Thanksgiving, Christmas, we always all get together and play Mario Party. And Katie's brought her husband into this and like, it's just part. It is a family tradition. And I knew it was going to be like, I wonder how they're going to react to this when I say, like, hey, tonight I know we're probably all assuming we're going to play Mario Party. Would you be up for trying this thing? Like, trust me on this one. I've played one game of the. It seems really good Lego Party. And Katie told me later that when I said that, her thought was like, we don't really care about Legos and Mario Party is kind of our Thing like, yeah, we don't see each other. Like she was just thinking, like, we don't see each other that often. Let's go with the surefire thing. We played a game of it. They loved it so much and they're like, can we play again right now? And we played again right then. And then I got a text as soon as they got back being like, hey, okay, what was the name of that game? And I said, and they bought it on Switch. So it's like it is, it's, it's so. It's so many smart little tweaks to the formula. It's still a board game. And at the end of the mini game, you all roll dice and go around the board and you're trying to get gold bricks instead of gold stars, you're getting studs instead of coins. It is like a lot of the stuff is one to one Mario Party, but the tiny tweaks are just like, okay. So if you, you know, the, the moment to moment mini games in Mario Party don't really fucking matter that much. You know, you get coins but they could just go away whenever. This one, every turn on the board game, the placement or the order is determined by the placement of the minigames. So if we're playing, let's say me and Mike are both two spots away from the gold brick, which is the main thing. The minigame before that, whoever wins first there is going to roll first. So it's like, oh shit. It's not just like, I know Mike rolls first in the turn order, he's going to get it. It's like, no, if I beat him, I get to roll first. So I'm going to get to it.

[A]

So you're playing mini games for the initial initiative.

[B]

I mean you get the studs and stuff like just like Mario party. But you also get like placement of like, okay, I can get to that star first. That's super smart. They do these like two versus too many games called brick battles. We land on this thing. So it's like it'll randomly put like, okay, me and Mary are together against Mike and Jake and it'll be like for a golden brick, like each, each winner gets a golden brick. So it's like suddenly there's major stakes to these two first two ones. They're not just random games that pop up. They do little things like, you know, the score at the end of the mini games, like, you know, maybe 10 seconds before the end, it'll fade away to kind of create that tension of like, you know, who's winning? But then like, oh, the last 10 seconds, you're not really sure who's going to win. The boards themselves as like they're different every time because like when I point to is the Theme park world where it's like it starts as like a theme park thing and there's like a central fountain, but as you go to the corners it'll ask you like, do you want to build a extreme stunt land or do you want to build a haunted house? And that totally changes the layout of the course, the different ways you can get to the bricks and things like that. So it's like every time you play there's variety. So the boards themselves are better. The mini games are way better. They're way more skill based. They're hilarious. But there's more variety. There's these like trivia games. There's kind of like physicsy games and everything. There's this one trivia game where it's like, it shows famous art pieces like you know, Starry Night, but a LEGO version. And it'll ask you questions about Starry Night and you'll get studs based on how fast you answer and things like that.

[C]

Like trivia of like the artist.

[B]

Yeah. It'll be like, oh, when was this made? Or whatever or what is the name of this? And things like that.

[C]

Oh, that's like your kryptonite.

[B]

Well, but I mean that's. I was playing with Bob.

[C]

It's like a LEGO gun and it's like when was the first gun invented? And Dan's like, no, but that's the thing too. Why can't I shoot it?

[B]

Bog fucking hates Mario Party. But like, like there was enough in there for everyone. So it's like, you know, she knows art very well and so it's like, oh shit, it's an art trivia thing. So she's winning that and something like I asked her then and she, she's never enjoyed a second of Mario Party. I've watched her face and she's just pure. Just like I'm just gonna get through this because it's a family thing that this weirdo family I married into takes seriously. But she actually liked playing Lego Party. It's just less time wasting bullshit. It's more just quality of life stuff that Nintendo would never do. It's got crossplay, it's $40 instead of $70. It, it's just in every way, it's just a much, much better experience. Like I, I will still play Mario Party and have a ton of fun. With it and do shows about it and stuff like that. But like, when it comes down to it, if I just, you know, I'm back with family or whatever, we just want to play a fun game. Like Lego Party is just better.

[C]

Okay. It's just better.

[B]

Mm. Who.

[A]

Who are you and what have you done with Good?

[C]

I'm glad. I'm glad that he can evolve.

[A]

It's so noble. Yeah, it's noble is what it is.

[B]

Thank you. I was thinking the same thing.

[C]

It's so maybe that's why that firefighter, an actual hero, called you a hero.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[B]

I don't know. I think I'm probably more important since I have a big boss statue. Yeah.

[C]

No.

[A]

Dan, last game you played a little bit of Battlefield 6.

[B]

Yeah, it's. Look, I haven't really played since three. I think I reviewed three for game informer and I maybe played a little bit of four. I'm not a Battlefield guy. I like Bad Company more than the core numbered series. But it was fun. I played like an hour with Mike Minati. We had a good time. Like, I mean, anything. You're playing the game with your friend online.

[C]

Yeah. You're gonna be fun. We stream playing a game with your friend.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, it was good. It's just like, it's a no. Like, I'm just not the multiplayer shooter guy anymore. Like, maybe I had a heyday with like some of the Call of Duty duties and stuff like that, but I mean, there's just no way this is going to be my game and I'm going to put 100 hours into Battlefield 6. It's. It's, it's a good one. I didn't play the 20, whatever one. The last one or 2042. Yeah. So I just, I, I'm coming from. Not at all an expert on this series. It seemed fun and it seems like people that like the series are enjoying it, so that that's good for them. I. I'm probably not gonna play a ton more.

[A]

Yeah, I'm looking forward to playing with Jake at some point. Point they've definitely had to write the ship after 2042, which got to a good point in its life cycle way too late. They had some problems early on with that game that I don't think they ever fully recovered from.

[B]

But yes, then they got Andy McNamara in there. He got down, he got in the garage and just kind of built it, you know, just a two by fours and hammers. And here you go and fix it. All right.

[C]

Swap a couple zeros. And ones. And you got yourself a stew going.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, they got it. They got a good stew of military shooter going on with it. I gotta play with.

[C]

That's what people at war say. What a stew of military action.

[A]

They talked about. They talked about Stu in warfare, the movie. It was a. It was a weird scene. Out of nowhere they just start talking about Stu.

[B]

I don't remember that part.

[A]

No, we're doing a bit.

[B]

Bit is the bit that they didn't talk about stew.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Oh, yeah, yeah. Remember when they talked about stew?

[A]

Yeah, that was great. You guys want to talk about emails?

[B]

Let me, let me. I. I do want to just quickly bring up. Just because I know we all are on the go and play games on the go. I got the. The Rog. Xbox. I mean, what. It's a thing. It's a thing. It's a.

[A]

One of Dan's quick bits that he does quick bits. It's a.

[B]

This is an Xbox handheld. Talking about.

[A]

I know it's Joe. I just didn't see on the list. Yeah, go for it. Tell us.

[B]

I got her here. I'm not the super techie going all the like how many kibble bits and stuff it's got. So I'll just say it the way I know it. The least interesting part about it, I think is the Xbox integration. Just because, like, I don't know, I'm kind of like a lot of people right now or Xbox is not really top of mind in terms of like the platform I'm really playing a lot of or am enthusiastic about because they keep kind of making. Making, we'll say questionable decisions and. But I will say as a piece of technology, this, you know, I like the. The Raw Ally X and stuff. I've used that quite a bit. This is like. It does seem like a significant step up in terms of power. It's. I. There have been a couple very obvious ones for me, like Elden Ring, you know, like, I, I remember it could. You could play it on a Steam Deck. OLED or a Steam Deck.

[C]

Why not Steam Deck.

[B]

What's that?

[C]

Why not just Steam Deck?

[B]

No, you could do it on. On either. I mean, OLED had a little bit more power, but it was just like, oh yeah. No, this thing's expensive as hell. Yeah. Is this one. Is it just a thousand? I thought it might be more. I. I don't know. But it's. Yeah. The black one here is the one terrible one.

[A]

Change to Dan. He doesn't.

[B]

I didn't pay for it.

[C]

Pay for it. No, I know you so well.

[A]

No, we all gave this to you.

[C]

With a little hat and maybe some chairs that. Yeah. Because they probably give you like some extra little swag that you like dawned in your house.

[B]

No, it just came in the box.

[A]

There's some nachos. And then make sure.

[B]

Oh, man. If it came with nachos, I'd be.

[C]

Saying came with Rog boxers that he's wearing right now.

[A]

The flap. The flap opens right in the center of the O. Yeah, yeah.

[B]

That's where I put my wiener through.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Is.

[B]

I will say it is more powerful obviously, than the Steam deck. I think there are use cases. I will go twice as expensive. Yeah, yeah, that's a. It's expensive as shit. Like, I'll say it this way. I would not, like, if I didn't get this for free, I don't think I would spend a thousand plus dollars on this thing.

[C]

Spending a thousand dollars on a handheld is a choice.

[B]

Yeah, there's. I. I do not think I would do that.

[A]

We have to convince dan to spend $10 on a multiplayer game sometimes. I don't think he'd buy the Rog Xbox.

[B]

This is the curse of getting everything for free. Life is that like, I really don't like spending money, so it's very difficult for me. And thank you for empathizing. I'm gonna make an empathy game about having to spend $10.

[A]

You're gonna make an empathy game about.

[C]

Find out how much it costs to hire one dev.

[A]

You need to find. You need to find space for all the free stuff you get. Oh. So this thing and then the game. The.

[B]

The.

[C]

I love this became a review of Dan. What a piece of holding up his thousand dollar handheld, telling us that he thought it was pretty good, but he doesn't know about all the kibbles and bits of it. You.

[A]

A slow piano song starts. It's like there's no. There's no room for the Bojangles Xbox. That's like the room right here.

[B]

Yeah. All right. It's heavier. It's definitely heavier if you're holding it. It's. If you're in bed. And he put it over here. I know Jane was always dropping his Steam deck on his head. This will break your fucking nose. It is clunkier in terms of the UI because it's like there's like an Xbox button on it and stuff. But like, ultimately I'm playing this like, like, like everything I want to play for the most part is on Steam. So like, okay, sure. It's Great. That I can download Fortnite.

[A]

Halo play you don't need.

[B]

Yeah. I mean, for Halo, what things would you need outside of Steam in an epic games? Well, that's things. It's a Windows thing, so you can do things outside of that. But I feel like we've gotten past a lot of those storefronts where it's like, oh, you gotta launch the EA app, you gotta launch the Ubisoft thing. Like everything's kind of just back to Steam right now. So it's like the Xbox part of this is definitely the least interesting for me. The thing I'm liking a lot about it is I do think the form factor, despite being heavier, is really good. And the power element, like Elden Ring, I was gonna bring up that. Like, you know, it ran on Steam deck, it chewed through battery like nobody's business this. And it is kind of chunky. I mean, you could get settings in the right spot. But like Elden Ring ran smooth as silk on this thing and the battery seems much, much better. Like to the point where it's like if I am playing a bigger game, like when I say bigger, like a higher fidelity AAA type game or something, I will probably bring this on the plane with me because I think this is going to handle it a lot better. And I actually. I do like the form factor a lot. I think I do play, despite what Mary says, a lot of indie games. So I think the Steam deck, I.

[C]

Will probably.

[B]

Consume me.

[C]

Because Bonk told you to. Because she's a queen and you're a fucking loser. She saves you every episode.

[B]

What about Hades too? That's an indie game, right? Silksong. Silksong. I love Silksong. How about that? Now does that give me some points? Shinobi, that's sega.

[C]

No points. May God have mercy on you.

[B]

God damn it.

[C]

Okay, anyway, shill your. Your free Xbox criticizing it just I.

[B]

Get everything for free and I on things appropriately or praise them appropriately. I will praise evidence of it for the power stuff. It is good. I will say one of the weirder ones for me is Megabonk because Megabunk is like a what, 40 megabyte game, 400 megabyte game, whatever it is. Mega Bonk actually runs a lot better on the Steam deck than it does on the oled, which is weird to me that this thing is running like, like Ninja Gaiden 4. I am playing that on this and it's running very, very well. That is like a new triple. I don't know if you call it aaa Necessarily. Maybe it's Triple A, but it's a demanding game. I tried playing it on the Steam deck, it was not playing great on that. It plays great on this. But Megabunk, which is a tiny game, doesn't play great on this. Played great on the Steam deck. So I don't know, there's probably a lot of driver stuff I don't have. This is pre release still but. But like the short version is. I am impressed with the way it runs bigger, more demanding games right now and I do like the form factor a lot. So I think I am going to be going back and forth between now the Switch to the Xbox Rock Ally and the Steam deck. Depending on what I'm playing, obviously it's always going to be the Switch for first party stuff, for Nintendo stuff or Hades 2. I mean that, that was my like Hades 2 runs great, great on, on the Switch. I think for general Steam stuff, like, you know, a lot of indie games and things like that, that's the one I'm going to be using. And then if it's a more demanding game, I'm probably going to use the Rock. So cool.

[C]

So many handholds to choose from. God's gift to gamers.

[B]

I am just doing my job.

[C]

A hero.

[B]

Thank you.

[A]

Yeah, it's so noble. You guys want to talk about emails?

[C]

Please.

[A]

A new era of power has arrived with the Alienware Area 51 Gaming laptops intentionally engineered to push more power to the CPU and GPU for maximum performance.

[B]

That's right, Mike. Combined With Intel Core Ultra 9 processors merging CPU, NPU and integrated GPU into one AI optimized chip, it delivers fast, smart and seamless performance across everything you do.

[A]

And that's not all. With the new cryo chamber design, Airflow is focused exactly where it's needed most. Fused with Alienware's enhanced thermal solutions, it creates a higher power output without raising noise levels, allowing you to play with confidence even during the most demanding marathon gaming sessions.

[B]

So no matter what you're playing, Alienware ensures that every game runs precisely as its developers intended. A new era of power. It's here. All you have to do is take it. Discover Area51 today at www.alienware.com Area Hyphen.

[A]

51 laptops all right, as usual, you can write into firescapecastmail.com with questions, comments, concerns. Might read those questions on the air. Concerns I'll probably ignore. But that's fine. We still have the email. You can send stuff to it it that is firescapecastmail.com we have a couple tonight. I'll read this first one because it's about something I said last episode. Hi, gang. Phil from Finland here. In the last email of mine, I talked about how I read Infinite just out of spite to annoy my girlfriend. But it ended up being my favorite book and it got roasted by Mary. Then last episode, Mike said that no one should ever read the book and it's just for with ponytails in college. Well, I can definitely see this being true. And since reading it, I've learned that it's a book people mainly carry around to look impressive. I'm not a reader though, and at the time when I read it, I didn't know anything about the book or its fan base. The story, and especially the themes of addiction hit really hard for me. This got me thinking about other things that are actually good, but their reputation has been ruined by the fan base. As someone who plays deadlock on EU servers, I get why mobile players are known as the most toxic people in game and standing in line to a death death grip show. I wanted to place my fist in every face that surrounded me.

[B]

Sure.

[A]

What are things you like that people or the fan base ruin?

[B]

I mean, God, what fandom immune from this, you know?

[C]

Yeah, I mean, they're all there. There's. This is ample. Right. I'm sure we have lots of them, but it's like, what's like the primo example? I think I have a pretty good one.

[A]

Ma.

[C]

Yeah, yeah, Rick and Morty. I actually really liked the first season of that show and I remember being like, this is brilliant. What a cool concept of like, being able to go into different dimensions and like, kill characters and like, have really serious topics like divorce and death and like, you know, and it's just absolutely massacred by the audience to the point where like, I would never like, wear a Rick and Morty shirt out in public for fear that someone will come up to me and scream, pickle. Rick.

[B]

Mary. I would pull you aside and be, what are you doing, Mary.

[A]

Yeah, we would need to reconsider fire escape as a.

[C]

But I do like the show. I think it's a good, I think it's a good idea. I think it's a really smart concept. I thought it was funny and I like, stand by that. But I, it's hard to say that publicly anymore.

[A]

Yeah, I, I, I have to say.

[B]

I think for what it's worth, I do think less of you now.

[C]

Thank you. I figured it's like me, it's unfortunate. I think there's like there's redeeming qualities of the show. I think you could be make maybe some arguments with a lot of shows of that nature, like South Parker or something like that where. Or Family Guy where people are like, really? And it's like, listen, there are times where that show, those shows are pretty good, but the audience can make it tough to love.

[B]

I think, I think it's because like the overwhelming thing that you hear about with that audience is like, oh, you're just not smart enough to understand it. Like, that is just the most like you. Like, that is not great.

[A]

No, mine, mine is, is. It's probably wine. I. I know it gets.

[C]

It's not even anything specific.

[A]

Listen, no, no, no, listen. I, I am friends now. I've made friends recently who are some of the most intelligent, curious people who will never once be judgmental about someone liking or disliking wine or having a certain preconception of wine. They're very, very grounded people who share the same passion for it that I do. But I absolutely, I'll come across, I'll stumble across videos on Instagram. We're all like, wow, these two are acting like douches. And it's not inviting people into wine, this industry, that's hitting some challenges now. Like, I, I absolutely get why wine has the reputation it has for being stuffy or douchey or like, similarly, I think like people, like, it's kind of like highbrow when in fact, again, it can be very low brow and grounded and with really cool people. People. But I, I think it'd be easy.

[B]

With you in particular that if someone didn't know you to think they're like, oh, this guy, you know, wants to be a sommelier and obsessed with wine stuff, like to have some preconceived notions. But like, I do always defend you when it's like, I'll give you for it. But it's like I always say the thing where it's like, no, he gets it. And like, he'll roll with the jokes about him being like, yeah, highfalutin or fancy. I think a lot of people probably.

[C]

Why, no, yeah, a lot of those.

[B]

People probably don't have. I mean, tell me if I'm wrong. I would imagine a lot of people who are very into wine don't have that same sense of humor about themselves.

[A]

That you do correct the one, the ones I'm good friends with, they do. Like, they get it. They also are in on it. But there are many, many, many. I'd say probably more people who get into it for very different reasons than I do. Yes.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[A]

No, definitely, Dan. I don't know if you have one locked in.

[B]

I mean, my two are just like, you know, when I say every fandom, it's like, the two things I know more about than anything are wrestling and video games. And both fandoms are just like, if you were on the outside and you just saw some of the. That becomes controversies or huge online firestorms and stuff, you go, what the are these maniacs talking about? Like, how many stupid video game controversies happen every week? And then wrestling with all the, like, tribalism now between, like, WWE and AW now. And it's just like, it's. It's just embarrassing a lot of the stuff. Like, there's just so. I know so many people. Like, like, you talk about. The people that you talk to. Wine. Talk to about wine and stuff like that are people that kind of get it and everything. And, like, I know so many great friends and great people that love wrestling and video games the way I do. But then if you look at the just broad spectrum of people who go into that and mainly just look at certain forums and social media and stuff like that, it just be like, oh, my God, what is wrong with these people? You know?

[A]

Yeah. I actually like to flip Phil's question, what is a fandom that you automatically assume you're going to like because they're a fan of something or what is a thing whose fandom? You're like, oh, they're probably really cool.

[B]

You know, it's interesting because the first thing that came to mind are. Is norm. Yeah, because it's like, that is the thing. But here's the thing with norm, too, is, like, when I hear someone's a big norm fan, I have the feeling of, like, okay, okay, you. You're funny. You understand a great comedian. But there is a contingency of norm fans that are just like. They don't look beyond just like, oh, sometimes he said things that were like, really, you know, kind of polarizing or whatever. Like, you're not supposed to say this thing or whatever. And, like. And don't really understand the, like, you know, the art that he brought to.

[C]

It, really, you know, the comedians fallacy of, like, you love them because they, like, said something really racy and, like, spicy and that can really hook people. But if that's all you can appreciate about that comedy, then you're really not ingesting what they're saying behind all of this. You're just saying, like, ooh, they said a curse word.

[B]

And like, nor, yeah, like, Norm was never just saying something to be offensive or whatever. Like, there was always just ways, like, I don't know if anyone knows the, the, the women driver joke from Weekend Update way back in the day, but that, that three part thing that just ends up with the audience just being like, what, what the, how do we even respond to this? Like, that's the genius of Norm. It's not just like, oh, I made a joke about women drivers. Like, that's lazy comedy, you know. So, yeah, it's, I, that's, that's, that's the thing with Norm.

[C]

We always, he was unpredictable. Like when he did the roast and he.

[B]

Roast. Yeah.

[C]

He said really, like kind of really neutral, soft jokes towards everyone.

[B]

They were just the oldest joke ever. Yeah, he was bombing on. But like, everyone expected like, oh, in a roast. Like, I remember I went into that thinking he's of kind to tell the like, craziest. And every Cloris Leachman, they say you're over the hill, but you'll never be over the hill. Not in that car you drive. Yeah, like, you know, it's just like the most like ancient jokes and everything. And just watching Greg, Geraldo and Godfrey and all these guys look around like, what the is he doing? Is that all these professional career comedians are like, what is this guy doing right now? That's the genius of it.

[C]

You know, I agree. I think he, he was the king. I think that's a good example. But I think all of these examples, there could be people who take it too far, probably.

[A]

I have, I have one, I have one more from the previous question again. Once you sit down with someone, Dan, I, I, I've talked to a man about this. I generally don't like the wrestling fan base. However, when you sat me down and showed me all these historic, historic matches and like the backstory, and I was like, I get it. Like, I, I, I get a peek into that world and I totally understand how you follow something, get obsessed with that. Similarly, Mary, like, when all of us talk about stuff, when we like, I, and I talk to Jake and I talk to people who have been here, I get, and I've been there now. I, I get how people are obsessed with it. But also like, generally speaking, people who are obsessed with Japan, I'm not a fan of, Okay.

[B]

I took like a Japanese studies class in college. College. And there were a lot of flame shirts and, you know, spiky hair and. Yeah.

[A]

But again. And then I went to Osaka. I was like, Oh, I get it. And then I went back again. I get it. And then we talked to Mary, and I'm like, I'm jealous. You just went. I love Japan. When you actually give. Give, you know, the attention and time to something that it deserves, It's. Or to the fan base when they actually want to, like, like, try to bring you in on it. It's crazy. Great.

[C]

But it's actually pronounced katana.

[A]

Oh, sorry.

[C]

My apologies.

[A]

But yeah, in terms of fan bases that I assume I'm going to, like, I will say trying to think of, like, shows. I, I, I would definitely say I'm curious if you guys hear that someone's a fan of It's Always Sunny, do you have a preconceived notion of them, or is that show kind of neutral enough these days? Where.

[C]

So it's big. I think it's really hard. I think people I don't like, like It's Always Sunny because, again, I actually think, much like norm, that show is spicy as hell. And there are people who are really superficial that are like, I can't believe I did that show. Yeah, they did, you know, racist jokes, and they have, like, really spicy episodes where they, like, do things you. You're not supposed to be able to do. And they up that one guy who's, like, a priest and, like, ruin his life.

[A]

Life. Yeah. PCP in their bathroom.

[C]

You can. You can enjoy that show without understanding the nuance and the brilliance of the writers and the direction. That show is, like, brilliantly directed, too. And I feel like that's not talked about enough. But I digress. There are a lot of idiots that love It's Always Sunny.

[A]

Oh, yeah, for sure. I, I tend to, like. I think it's. I don't know if that's a matter of me thinking they're gonna be cool or think it's like, oh, that's my kind of. Of common ground with them as I get to know them, or something like that, maybe.

[C]

I mean, what a brilliant equalizer I have. I have bonded over the Simpsons my entire life with people of all backgrounds, of all ages, of all creeds, of all everything. Like, if you love the Simpsons, I have a commonality with you, and I can talk to you about very specific jokes from very specific episodes. It's locked in. And I will probably like that person a lot better because we've bonded over those episodes, even if we don't have anything else in common.

[B]

I. Mary, I think that's the best answer is because, like, especially, like, that speaks to a Certain, like, oh, you grew up with finding this type of.

[C]

Thing funny where it was on all the time and.

[B]

But it's also aged incredibly well, and all those jokes are still really funny. And, like, that is if. If someone was, like, a Simpsons kid growing up. Like, I feel like Alex Navarro when I first started talking to him in, like, 2008 or whatever. It's just like, okay, we're Simpsons guys. Yep. I totally get it. We can. We can make these references. You're gonna get it. So, Mary, you're the same way with that. You know, Mike was a jock, but whatever.

[C]

Yeah, he was too cool for school. But I think, like, this is something. Like, to this day, I send people Simpson gifts when, like, something bad or good happens at work, and there is, like, a person who will, like, DM me and be like, that was good. And it's just like, all right, we get it. We get it. I have. I'll die with that. Like, I will die with these Simpson references. It'll be a part of me forever.

[A]

There's the. The last one. Mary, you'll appreciate this. This time of year. Very specific thing. Anybody else who's as into the movie, the Thing, I'm.

[C]

I have to be cool, right?

[A]

I don't know that I've ever heard that someone loves the thing. Like, loves it, like, goes to see it in theaters still in 2025, et cetera. And I've been like, oh, they probably. I probably won't get along with them. Like, I'll. I assume I will get along with that person if that case. Like, it's. It's just one of my top. Yeah. Like, and it's not. It's not a pretentious movie, too. So, like, I don't think there's any chance they're being pretentious about it.

[C]

Yeah, I'll.

[B]

I'll put McGruber in that category.

[A]

Yeah, McGruber, too.

[B]

If you really like. And get. What makes McGruber so exceptional. It's like, I'm just gonna like you.

[C]

I don't think you have to get a lot about McGrver to think it's funny.

[B]

Kind of do. I think you kind of do. It's like.

[C]

I don't know.

[A]

I'm not falling asleep to it this year because I fell asleep halfway through, and Dan put his finger, like, up to this fucking wrist in my nose.

[C]

I will say. I will say you kind of rung the bell on MacGruber. I feel like people didn't talk about that anymore. And as it kind of Rises in popularity. I recognize that you were, like, an original seer of that.

[B]

I, I think I'm maybe one of the loudest. And like, Christopher Nolan has done interviews talking about how much he loves McGreve. But, like, I've been yelling about it for 15 years about how it's the best comedy I've ever seen. So I will take credit for McGr's current cultural status.

[C]

I'll give you that one.

[A]

Thank you. Should any others.

[C]

All other content is worthless.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

There's probably a lot of games. Others. In terms of, like, good or bad.

[C]

Are we on the. Are we on the good or bad? The good or bad.

[A]

Either one. Dan just said he hate saying I got.

[B]

I got one. I just, I can't help but say spicy. It, it may seem judgmental.

[A]

It's gonna be anime or something.

[B]

I mean, it's worse. God, it's worse than anime. Like, if I find out someone is lost, like, obsessed with or deeply interested in Kingdom Hearts.

[A]

Oh, yeah. You were so surprised when I told you I liked the first game. Right?

[B]

Like, I, I've been friends with a lot. Like, Mike Manati is one of my favorite human beings on the planet, and he loves Kingdom Hearts.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

But if, if someone is like a Kingdom Hearts person, they got to kind of dig themselves out of that hole.

[A]

A little bit bit.

[B]

With me, you know, it's like, ooh, I'm gonna. All right, I'm not gonna immediately judge you, but, like, yeah, you do that. You got a longer way to go with me than if you hadn't said that.

[A]

Yeah, no, I, I, I remember I told you when I told you that I have a soft spot for the first game. I don't like any other ones that much, but that first game has a special place. M. But I didn't tell you that until we had been friends for, like.

[B]

I'm glad you didn't. Otherwise, our entire lives, I waited. This podcast wouldn't exist.

[A]

Yeah, I would. Waited 12 years to tell you.

[B]

Good.

[A]

Because we were talking about Minati. But that brings me to my next one. And I know this has been controversial on this show before, and I'm trying to come around on it because people have pointed out, like, oh, people can like things you don't like. But I, if, If someone is 30 or older and still obsessed with Disney, I'm going to.

[C]

We were going this way.

[A]

I'm going to judge you. And I, I'm not saying it's good that I'm judging you. I'm not saying it's Good. In fact, I. I'm gonna come out and say it's. It's bad on me for Jud away, but.

[C]

But shame on me.

[A]

It's probably a defense mechanism. I have learned to distrust those people because they don't fit into my lifestyle and my circles of friends, however. But I have like, some family members who I love. Love to. To kibbles and bits and. Do they have kids? Yeah.

[B]

Okay, that makes it a little better. I try to be reasonable about this, despite my knee jerk reaction of being like, ooh, that's. That's weird. I think like, oh, okay, we're all.

[A]

Growing me and you are being very noble about this.

[B]

We're being noble and smart and respectable people here.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah.

[B]

I fucking love Mario. If you were like a normie. If you were just somebody who doesn't know shit about Disney or followed, like, if the last time you engaged with Nintendo or Disney was in 1988, and you put me, who's obsessed with Mario and Donkey Kong and all these things, and Mike Minati, who. Well, also Mario and Donkey Kong, all those things. But, you know, more importantly, the Disney thing, I don't think it would look that different. I think they would look at it as like media that is for kids.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

You know, and. And I understand that, like, I. I am a thousand percent. Dan and I are trying to dork. Whatever you want to call.

[A]

I'll.

[B]

I will own that. It's just the Disney thing is. I know we've talked about it before, but it's just to people who don't have kids, it.

[C]

Our hobbies are freakishly weird. Like, I have family members that are like, are you still playing all those video games?

[A]

And then you guys, you guys are into video games and Disney. I'm in the wine still.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And when the only cultured one among us.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Mary, you're probably the most. I don't know welcoming is the word. But like, even like, like a K pop Demon.

[C]

Well, she's in that myself.

[A]

She's into indie games.

[B]

Right. But even like, like a K pop Demon Hunters thing, it's like you had me watch it and like, I was kind of like, I. I see. I. I get it. I. Okay. Yeah. This is well made. This is well made. And then you see the level of just like what a phenomenon it's been and like adults and stuff and like singing the songs and stuff. I could not tell you a gun to my head what any of those songs were or characters or. I just remember being like, yeah, they did a good job with that movie and, like, seeing, like, adults be obsessed with it and stuff. I just can't.

[A]

Brooklyn adults in Brooklyn are. Are donning merch with K Pop demon hunters left and right.

[C]

They love it. I mean, it's a cultural zeitgeist thing at this.

[B]

It is.

[C]

I just wanted you to jump on the wave. I think I, like, can respect quality. And so even though that also, I was like, this is a leap of faith for me personally. But I was like, animation is so good. Songs are catchy. I was like, I'm fine with this. I can accept this. Even though it's not something I would usually go down into, like, and be, like, really into. But, like, I feel that way about a lot of Disney films too, where I'm like, this doesn't seem like it's going to be something I love. But every once in a while, a Disney film, like, totally gets me. And I'm like, this is great. I'm glad I watched this, even though I'm not 8. So everyone can appreciate a good Disney film.

[B]

I mean, I will never deny the obvious quality and artistry that goes into Disney. Like, Disney, Pixar, all that, you know, like, clearly they're extremely well made. But as an adult who's just like, oh, everyone's talking about Wall E is this transcendent piece of film. I saw Wall E and I left. And I remember being like, yeah, they probably did a good job on that. And then like, you know, 20 years later, whatever, people are still talking about, like, it's the Chinatown. You know, it's. It's. That's the thing I don't really get. But, yeah, it's a good. It seems like good stuff.

[C]

Did you compare it to what? What is it?

[B]

China? I'm saying the way people talk about it is like, how did you. You were not. Your life was changed and moved by Wall E. I don't know. It was a robot. And then they were like, the animation was good, whatever.

[C]

Like, it wasn't that deep.

[B]

Yeah. Like, again, if you have kids and stuff, it's like, oh, my kids are really into this and everything. But, like, I just can't imagine being affected by a Disney movie or a Pixar movie. Like, as an adult, you know, Pixar.

[A]

I will go to bat for Pixar over Disney. But that's.

[B]

I would pick them over. I mean, I guess all I've really seen is to. But yeah, yeah. And like, Toy Story, like, they're all good movies. I remember, like, Hanson was yelling at me about seeing Toy Story 3 and the Incredibles for like, most of the time we worked.

[A]

Is it Incredibles is his, like, favorite movie, right?

[B]

Probably. I mean, he's also obsessed.

[A]

I love Incredible. Yeah, there's something about.

[B]

I would guess he would say Jurassic Park. Yeah.

[C]

Isn't he, like.

[B]

I don't know if he would say, what my favorite movie of all time. Well, I made him watch it with.

[C]

Me, but it's MacGruber. We all know what your favorite comedy.

[B]

Wait, Apocalypse now is my favorite movie movie.

[A]

They kill.

[B]

They kill.

[A]

I'm. They kill a boat full of puppies and I'm an edge lord.

[B]

That's me.

[C]

Let's add.

[A]

So Bl about the war that he cares more about surfing. And he meets surfer joins our list.

[C]

Of media that we don't like the people who love that film.

[A]

Yeah, no, but I.

[B]

That's to say that, like, I finally, after years of him bugging me, watch Toy Story 3 and the Incredibles and my only memory is the credits rolled and me being like, yeah, I get those. Those seem like they were well made. I couldn't tell you a single thing that happened in either one of those movies. But I remember they're like, ah, they're fine. You know, like again, if you're like, have kids and stuff. But to. To be super affected by it. As someone over the age of like 10, I don't really understand, you know, that the.

[A]

I guess the last thing I want to say is there. It's funny when you run into someone who's a part. Who's also a fan of the thing you are, there's always that moment of like, feeling each other out. I think, where are you really cool. I'm using wine as an example because I. I will say, even I. When I first find out someone's into wine, this is how much I, the fan base can be, stand or can push me away. When I first find out someone's super into wine, and this is why I'm so self aware of how it makes me look, I automatically assume I'm gonna be like, oh, they're probably gonna be a bit stuck up about it. They're probably gonna be a bit. They're gonna be a bit. They need to prove that they are the biggest wine fan or the biggest. The most knowledgeable person in the room. However, then I get to know people and like, I kind of, you know, you. You do that, like that sussing out period. And then all of a sudden I'm like, oh, no, they're. They're into it in the same way I am. It's like, no. If anything, we're trying to. To make it less sure. Put the. Bring the walls down. Because there's actually really cool aspects about it and a lot of the people do. Making wine around the world are some of the coolest people in the world and want to share that. But there's still a lot of people who have different motives. And it's such a big world where there's going to be. Yeah. People coming from every angle possible.

[B]

That. I mean, I. I can't tell you. Like, I. I struggle with it with games, but I. I do kind of stay away from, like, here's the difference in, like, the games and wrestling thing is, like, whenever I see, like, the bullshit, like, gaming controversies and stuff, it's so embarrassing. But, like, I don't really see it. It exists on, like, Twitter and YouTube comments. Stuff that I don't really see. I'll hear about it and be like, that's stupid. Whereas, like, for wrestling, I am sitting in a crowd with anywhere between, I don't know, a thousand people and 100,000 people, and I look around and I see the way some of these people act, and it's just like, there have been so many times I've been surrounded by people where it's like, boy, I don't know, do I. Like, this sucks. Like, I don't even know if, like, this. It's not gonna turn me against the art of wrestling or anything like that, but, like, you know, from just, you know, misogynistic stuff or just shitty, you know, chance and stuff like that to like, just dumb stuff where it's like, I remember going to an NXT show once and Samoa Joe was wrestling. I know you guys aren't wrestling people. You know, Samoa Joe, man's a tank. He's huge. He's awesome. Like, and he would beat the out of anyone. And I'm sitting next to a guy at this NXT crowd and like, you. This guy that just, you know, morbidly obese and is sitting there and like, Samo Joe is one of the best wrestlers in the world. And the entire match, all he's doing is sitting on Joe and just being like, this guy. He's not even real wrestler. Like, work on your cardio, Joe. Work on your cardio. It's like, this guy.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Of muscle.

[B]

What are you talking about? Or, like, you know, I've seen so much with, like, female wrestlers and stuff and people chanting stuff about who they're. Or like, I. If, you know, Paige, after the sex tape came out and, like, all this stuff, like, just seeing people being really gross and shitty. And that's the thing. It's like, with wrestling, it's more visible for me because I have to sit in a crowd around them sometimes. And with video games, it just kind of exists outside of my blinders, you know, so. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they're both.

[A]

No, I brought it up because it's tough. I wish I could do more to bring down that. Those stereotypes, you know, in one fell swoop, but I can't because they stem from somewhere and these people still exist out there. And I run into them all the time at a company where I work. It's like, you see it. We take, you know, pains to try to make it approachable. And on Fridays, if you wear a Hawaiian shirt into the bar, you get a discount. Discount.

[B]

Literally.

[A]

It's called Aloha Fridays. Like, we do stuff like that all the time. I'm literally hosting a Smash Bros. Tournament.

[B]

That's what I was gonna say. If it was a legitimately pretentious place, they wouldn't let you host a Smash Brothers tournament.

[A]

So, like, so. So. But then you also get people in there who, like, know our seller is really good. We have, like, 2500 bottles. We have really good wines. We have stuff you can't find anywhere else in the city. They come in and there are the people who. Many people who go in there are more knowledgeable about wine than me. And many of them really want me to know it. And, no, I shouldn't say many, a bunch of them want me to know it, and they want the table that they're with to know it, and they want their date to know it. And those are the kind of people who give it a bad name. And, like, it's kind of this endless battle. Again, I don't blame people for having the preconceptions of about it that they come from somewhere, because there are people like that out there.

[B]

Yeah. It kind of feels like just this, like, completely, like. I don't know if opposite's the word, but, like, you know, with the wrestling thing, where it's like wrestling, everyone assumes they're total idiots. And with wine, people, they assume they're all pretentious and things like that. And it's like, if you exist somewhere not on the extremes, it's just kind of a thing where you see.

[A]

Doesn't compute.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

I think also, I, like, sometimes it resonates with me just the idea that the things you hate in other people are Often the things you hate in yourself. Yourself.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

And there's a self reflection that can be lost on people when they're like, oh, do you know wine as good as me? And it's like, who hurt you? That said that you didn't belong here? Because you do. If you like wine, you do belong here. And I feel the same way about every genre.

[A]

Like, dude, we can geek out right now if you want to.

[C]

Let's not make it a gamer unless you play it on expert mode. And it's like, babe, like, it's not that deep. And I feel bad for you that you felt like you weren't a good enough gamer because you didn't. You weren't able to beat that game that one time. And so now it. Now you're hurt and like, that. That's sad.

[B]

I. I think about that and like, not to get, like, introspective or whatever. Yeah. Three hours into a podcast here it's going, Finland. Yeah. Yeah.

[A]

Way to ruin the show.

[B]

This is something I've realized a lot. Or it's like, I think you guys can both attest. I'm not an angry person person. I'm not someone who ever wants to, like, get in a fight. I've never thrown a punch or, you know, like, stuff like that. Like, I'm not. That's not me. I'm not an angry guy. Yeah, there is one. Like, again, my father, you know how much I love him and bring him on stuff and have a complicated relationship, but ultimately love the guy. He is the one person when he is being extremely stubborn or just making no sense or just like, just, you know, something is driving me insane about what he's saying or what he's doing that I will feel that kind of like, just like, I could punch you in the face right now. Like, I just. And I've never felt that in my life about anyone. And it's like, it does, like, make you kind of think that thing of, like, okay, I think I'm still kind of struggling with, like, I still have, you know, I've been trying to kind of, you know, recognize and remove the things that I. From myself that I see from him over all these years and everything. And then I'll still kind of of see it and I think I'll maybe still see some of myself in there. And I think I get angry because of that. Because, like, that's the only thing that, like, he's my father. I love him to death, but it's like, I will get, like, worked up and be like, I could throw a punch right now and it's like, oh, probably because I. I think I probably still do some of that.

[A]

Because you can control yourself ultimately and you can recognize it in yourself when you're doing those things and then you can stop it. So then when you see someone else doing the things that you have the impulse to do, yet control.

[B]

Yeah, you can't control doing this.

[A]

Like you can't control them.

[B]

Don't you realize that this is insane, what you're saying?

[A]

The only way I can punch you right in the face. Yeah. Yeah.

[B]

It's.

[A]

It's frustrating.

[B]

Yes. Yes.

[A]

Yeah. But yeah.

[C]

Thank you.

[A]

Thank you, Phil Finland.

[B]

Thanks, Phil. Let me go think about my life.

[A]

Father. Who's this? Who's better to read this? Either one. Either. You could read this. Who wants to read.

[B]

Read it.

[A]

No, actually, yeah, it's from. It's. It's from your neighboring state, I guess.

[B]

Louis. Yeah. St. Louis.

[C]

Close enough. Read it.

[B]

Yeah. Hey, Mr. Krapen and friends.

[A]

Hi.

[B]

Hello. With Mr. With. Mr. Yote. With. I've had some beers. No, with Yote. In the current gaming discussion and the inevitable comparison to its predecessor, I lament, as I have the past few years, the lack of recognition for Sushima's amazing multiplayer mode added as a free post launch dlc. I've invested the majority of my time in that game with my friends.

[C]

Never played it. Not the multiplayer.

[B]

A four player wave based mode with multiple difficulty levels culminating in Nightmare Gear based leveling, build crafting and class based. This sounds like Randy Pitchford here. Player choices that promote skill synergies and teamwork in addition to a 2v2 mode that plays like a a third person Tetris attack. All the amazing combat mechanics of Tsushima with friends set against a supernatural backdrop with demons. My question for you is what other primarily single player games have had great multiplayer modes that you feel weren't appreciated enough? Another example that springs to mind is Dragon Age inquisitions, four player dungeon diving. Thanks and keep the great content coming, that is Kent from St. Louis, Missouri. P.S. keep shitting on my great state. I get a friction of excitement every time you mention how bad this place is. Missouri is a garbage state. Probably the worst in the entire nation.

[A]

I have spent enough time there myself to. To say I'm not. Not the biggest fan either. It was all southwest Missouri. Yes. Ghost Tsushima's mode they added with the DLC is awesome.

[B]

What was it called? It was like Legends. Yeah, we did it on a stream and it was like. It was really good.

[A]

It was. It's rad. The progression was amazing. Like you basically thrust into almost like you're of war horde but you are the attackers. And then you have to figure out how to approach it with different classes. Oh, it's amazing. And each of the classes had such a good progression tree. It felt like, I don't know, almost like as deep as a single. Some single player games. Really good. But I love this question because I actually asked this of people a lot. Games that are primarily single player that have this like kind of way better than it needs to be multiplayer mode.

[B]

People would say you're tacked on. Like, I feel like BioShock 2 kind of got that.

[A]

BioShock 2, I will also say say resistance to that three player co op mode that it had. There were three character classes and it was way more in depth than anybody needed to make. They had the spec ops, they had the Medic and they had the Assault. And me and my brothers, we just like dabbled in it because I just finally. The PS3 was not new, but I just finally got a PS3 and we were all home for Christmas. I was like, let's try this out. I've been playing Resistance 2 from Insomniac, that Ratchet and Clank, et cetera. They're like, oh, cool. I didn't know they were going more mature with this game. So we. Whatever. So we played it and then we were getting our ass kicked. If you played it, you know, it can be tough. We were all spec ops because they were the DPS class. And then I was like, well, maybe we should try playing all three classes. And then of course that was us as a family's introduction to like role based multiplayer co op.

[B]

Sure.

[A]

Where you couldn't all just be the same class and get through. So then I started playing the Medic. My brother started playing the. The Tank, the soldier, I think it was. And like you really do need to play all through class. And it was such a. A well designed co OP experience. Resistance 2 is one of the ones I point to all the time along with sushima. Mass Effect 3's co op horde mode was amazing.

[B]

It was good.

[A]

And then what's the last one? I had mine. Oh, oh. I think we talked about this. You can hack enemies. They're. They're like brain chips. You can curve bullets. I want to say German was a huge fan of this shooter. It's a first.

[B]

First person shooter Syndicate. No, it's. I know you're talking about starts with an S. I thought not. People Are streaming their cars right now. Is it might be, I think Syndicate Syndicate.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That game was. That game was awesome too. Like you're.

[B]

You.

[A]

You can hack AIs. Like almost like Cyberpunk 2077 style that had multiplayer. Yeah. Co op mode. Like I don't. I think it was separate from the. It was definitely separate experience like these other games from the single player. But it. It had. It.

[C]

It.

[A]

Yeah, those are the ones that come to mind.

[B]

I. The first one that comes to mind for me is kind of weird because the multiplayer was loved in Perfect Dark. You know, campaign was great. Multiplayer was great. But the thing I think people never talk about that was great was a multiplayer mode based on the campaign. So you could do counter op mode where let's say I am playing as Joanna, going from level to level just like it is in the campaign. And then in Mary, you could play as any enemy on the level. So like where the actual enemy NPCs would be and everything. And you could like, you know, if you get killed, you could, you know, swap to the next one or whatever. And you can like shove. Like there were physics and stuff. You could shove a couch in front of a door or whatever. So like, oh, I think I'm gonna go plowing through this door and everything. But you put a thing there and you get a chance to shoot me and everything. Like the idea of like a single player campaign where somebody can be the bad guys and with you, like, I. I thought that was really cool and no one ever really talked about it.

[A]

Wait, sorry. This is Perfect dark from the 64. I don't know if I ever played that mode. I played a lot.

[B]

No one did.

[A]

I played a lot of the, like a lot. Lot of the multiplayer bot based stuff.

[B]

Oh yeah, yeah. That stuff was awesome. Yeah.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

But Counter op mode was really cool.

[A]

Interesting. I don't know why.

[C]

I think one that is beloved. So I'll say this with a caveat, but wasn't the main purpose of the game was Gears of War 3, which had a baller competitive mode that is still beloved to this day and actually still has a competitive player base.

[A]

Because is that like the Smash Bros. Melee of the franchise that people still roll with?

[C]

Because people still roll with it. It's so fun. They had this like train level where like trains go through and you have to like go after each other with the torque bow. I mean it was so fun to attack real people like you know, humans instead of NPCs in Gears of War. And they just Cracked it. It was awesome the way they put it together. And I remember, I think I was working at Gamespot at the time but I remember when it came out everyone was like why is this so good? Like you didn't expect it to be that good. And to this day people talk about it and play it. I don't play it no more. But like I loved that, that multiplayer when it came out.

[B]

I was surprised too because like that game obviously the campaigns were great and it was known for co op. It was like one of the big first online.

[C]

Totally. I guess it is play. But the competitive multiplayer was shocking and.

[B]

That'S what surprised me as like, you know, I played through all of them with Kayla in the last couple years and we just recently were going through Gears Reloaded and we would end our streams with like let's just do a one on one match on a small map. Torque bows only. So you can only get chainsaw kills or torque bows. And it's, it's like it's so tense and like the levels are designed very well and it's like. Oh, I think we maybe slept on a bit of the like competitive multiplayer Gears.

[C]

It's good. I mean I still played a lot.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

The competitive mode of these are still really good. Like they're still. I would still recommend them. They're like brutal because you're playing against people so they will you up. But it's.

[B]

And the shotgun people that just smoke you.

[C]

Yeah, yeah. Especially if they've been playing now.

[B]

Yes, yes.

[C]

If you go. If you join a lobby now, good luck because you're playing against people who've been playing for 10 years or probably like insane 20. Yeah, yeah.

[A]

I'm trying to figure it out. Okay, so Double James Bond 7 agent under fire. We had it for the PS2. There was a multiplayer mode. Competitive. That was one of the coolest things. Basically one team. You're on each side of a train track. Mary, you. You mentioning the gears map. Just, just jog this memory.

[C]

I ratatouille you.

[A]

Yes, you like this is my.

[C]

But with a train track.

[A]

You proosted me hard. One team is defending a vip. It might be called vip. I can't. I just tried googling. I couldn't find it. One team is trying to defend this vip. It's just a dude in a suit with a suitcase that's getting onto this train that's arriving at a predetermined time. The other team is on the other side of the tracks. And keep in mind that like on each side of the tracks. There are. It's like a cityscape. So there are different buildings you can get in. It reminds me of Spy Party. So, yeah, yeah, you're. And obviously much more rudimentary. But the other two are trying to get weapons and take up positions, like, in such a way that they'll be able to kill the VIP as he makes his way from a building to the train. So it becomes almost like Enemy at the Gates with Jude Law and Ed Harris, where you're like, you're doing the sniper duel where there's two people on this side, two people on the other, and you're just trying to get a good vantage point without, you know, the, like. I don't remember if it had the battlefield scope Glint if you're sniping. But there were telltale signs where they were, and it became the coolest thing because Agent under Fire, when it was early odds. So we were, you know, we were so used to perfect Dark or, I don't know, Halo even, where this mode came along. And it was super creative because we were still fighting each other, but there was a more central anterior object, ulterior objective that we were trying to pursue. That that was very, very fun. And I. I Clearly, it was underrated. I can't even figure it out, like, Googling it right now, but we love that. Like, that was such a cool wrinkle to the multiplayer sphere at the time. And I don't think that's why people played that game whatsoever. That game in general, looking back, was not that great, but yeah, had a blast with it.

[C]

But anyway, a good question.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Thank you.

[B]

Kent.

[A]

Kent from St. Louis.

[B]

Missouri sucks.

[C]

Momo Dan, make fun of something. Missouri.

[B]

You can't. That's too broad of a question. What do you just. Bad state, bad people, bad cities, bad food. Make fun of that food they got. I mean, here's the thing. A lot of Casey Barbecue, technically on the Missouri side. A lot of it's technically on the Kansas side, but, like, the middle of the state, you got Columbia, you got Greg Miller town.

[A]

I've been to Columbia.

[B]

Nothing good comes out of the middle of Missouri, you know, Although, wait, I think Chapel Roan actually was kind of from the middle there. People that would say that it's just a bad time if you're driving through it. You know what I'm talking about? It's just a dirty, bad place. Bad people, bad opinions, bad everything. Yeah. All right. Ozarks are gross.

[C]

Did a good job.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Ozarks are gross.

[B]

The Ozarks are Gross.

[A]

I spent a decent amount of time. The Ozarks. The parts I saw were.

[B]

Nice place there. There are some places you can have fun. You can have fun anywhere.

[A]

I camped a lot fun anywhere.

[B]

You have fun in a trash can if you want to.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know I do. You've got photos of me doing it.

[B]

I do.

[C]

I do.

[A]

Trash TCs are my favorite peas to be.

[B]

All right.

[A]

Thank you, Kent from St. Louis. Momomo. That's our episode. You can write into firescapecast gmail.com if you want to join the fun. Get it read on the air. Good questions, Kent and Phil. Just some housekeeping stuff before we get to the end of the episode. We do have some new merch on the way. We've got our samples on the way. We're gonna start modeling it soon. I guess we're gonna start really, you know, like, people can jump on it for Game of the Year year. We'll make that public as soon as it's ready to go or Xmas season. Yeah.

[C]

The time of giving.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And Game of the Year, we are officially doing December 6th. Saturday, December 6th.

[B]

Got a calendar thing here. It's. It's on my Google calendar, so it can't be changed.

[A]

Now we're flying to Minneapolis. We're descending on Minneapolis as we always do. Jake, Mary, and I are gonna go to Dan's to argue and celebrate and dump on some games.

[B]

It's a month and a half away. That's crazy.

[C]

Yeah, it is crazy. I have a lot to play.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Yeah, so do I. But, yeah, December 6th, that'll be on. I believe it'll.

[B]

What we've done recently is what we do is because we don't do the Twitch. We don't. We might have the twitch account, I don't know, but we stream it on my channel on Dan Reichard, and then the VOD will go on fire escape channel. So if you haven't seen fire escapes bod, that's where we got resident Knievel. We got, you know, we. We put more stuff up there there in the last couple years, including our game of the Year VOD. So, yes, go follow Fire Escape Cast on YouTube if you want to watch live as it happens on December. Is that Saturday, December 6th. We'll probably, you know, we haven't said the start time, but, you know, seven or eight. Safe to assume five Central. You know, six eastern around. Generally around.

[C]

Somewhere around Din Din time. Go get your bucket of fried chicken or a bunch and champagne, because it's a celebration, baby. Go get your Taco Bell, get ready and sit down with us for seven hours. It's gonna be fun.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Yeah. And then in the meantime, before we launch the new merch, you can go to. Wow. You can actually go toFire Escape merch dot com. That will lead you to our main merch site where you can get bikinis, you can get banana hammocks, you can get some, some flashy stuff. We do have the white stainless steel water bottle that was out of stock. That's back in stock. Bunch of people were buying that. So if you want that to stay hydrado throughout the day, go for it it. But then we'll, we'll announce the new stuff when we have it. And then outside of that, I think that's it for Fire Escape housecleaning as usual. You can get the ad free episode and the video version if you're not a patron. Already, Vinnie Caravella and I, Vinnie of Nextlander. If you're unaware, we've been doing two co op campaigns in total. Warhammer 3, which are both very fun, both are unfolding not at all as I predicted and somehow exactly as I wanted. Very entertaining and fun. We're doing a good quote unquote campaign for Fire Escape. If you're a video patron, you'll see those every other week. And then if you are a patron for nextlander, I believe it's their ten dollar tier. You will be seeing the evil campaign we're doing in the weeks offsetting those. So two simultaneous ones jump back and forth between the sites. It's very, very fun. We're already kind of talking about. We're starting to talk about maybe what we want our victory conditions to be because it's very much a sandbox strategy game. So Vinny's already got some, some rivalries brewing. I'm kind of helping him out where I might, you know, I might start to steer things to a less civil arrangement between he and I. But yeah, that's great. So go subscribe to us and nextlander, if you're not already. Mary, what do you have going on in the meantime?

[C]

Meantime, usually I'm live on Twitch every Monday. I've missed a lot because of all of my travel. And when this goes live, I'll be, I think, still traveling. So really sorry about that. But when I can and when I'm home, I will be live on Twitch, playing whatever the latest indie game is. That is my joy and that is what I always default to.

[A]

Dan, what about you?

[B]

Dan? Record on Blue sky and Instagram and we are doing a Twitter 24 hour live stream from Giant Bomb on October 27th. We are doing the Giant Bombathon. So follow giant bomb on YouTube and Twitch. We will be starting at 5pm Eastern on Monday, October 27, 24 hours. We will all be on the who's.

[C]

Taking the late shift or you guys.

[B]

We're all in person. We are going to figure out based on like when people are tired and need to like sneak in like an hour of a nap or whatever. Like we're going to just make, make it work. But for we're gonna have multiple people on stream at all time the entire 24 hours. So lots of games, lots of incentives, subscriber drive stuff. We got Chuck and Sean coming out if you know them from Giant Bomb. It's going to be a lot of fun. So putting a lot of a lot of planning into that. October 27th, 5:00pm Eastern. Be there. All right.

[A]

That's our episode.

[B]

Episode.

[A]

Thank you everybody for joining us. Episode 118 Game of the year. At this rate will that be 120.

[C]

Alone?

[B]

Okay, so this is the 20th. No, no, we got.

[A]

We have a bunch before I just like panic you. Okay, well thank you everybody for joining. We'll be back in a couple weeks weeks with the next episode Fire escape cast. In the meantime, go check out all that stuff Dan and Mary just talked about. Go subscribe to nextlander etc. We will see you on the next episode. Bye.