Fire Escape Cast #119

Summary

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Fire Escape Cast #119 – November 3, 2025

Host: Mike Mahardy
Co-hosts: Mary Kish, Chris Plant (guest)
Theme: Catching up with Chris Plant (Besties, Post Games), deep dives into quirky new games, FMV and deckbuilders, reflections on career ups/downs, and chaotic listener questions.

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Episode Overview

In this lively and irreverently funny episode, Mike and Mary welcome back Chris Plant, writer, podcaster, and newly-minted head of the NPR-for-video-games show "Post Games." The trio reminisce about old times, dig into Chris's latest projects, discuss a wide range of current and upcoming games, and veer into delightfully unexpected life stories—including public pranks and near-misses with flying bowling balls. The episode is full of candid industry insights, deep-cut game recommendations, and the trademark brash humor Fire Escape fans love.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Reintroducing Chris Plant & Post Games

• Chris Plant rejoins the cast, last visiting in episode 52.

• Chris describes his new podcast, Post Games, as “NPR but for video games,” structurally split into three parts: a main topic, an expert interview, and a recurring segment on adult content in games.

  • “It’s only the greatest video game podcast to ever exist…We've done three episodes about porn games so far, so batting a hundred on that topic.” (03:00)
  • Post Games has garnered impressive five-star reviews, which Chris self-deprecatingly downplays.

• They riff on Dan, noting his fascination with barbecue (“burnt inns”) and absence due to the ongoing “Giant Bombathon.”

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Game Coverage & Industry Deep Cuts

Shadow of the Colossus & Japanese Game Reporting

• Chris recently hosted Jacob Geller on Post Games to discuss Shadow of the Colossus' enduring legacy.
  • Fun fact: Jacob Geller’s career “changed overnight” with a viral Shadow of the Colossus essay he couldn't monetize due to music rights. (07:00)
  • The crew discusses Matt Leone’s oral history on Shadow of the Colossus and the challenges Western reporters face interviewing Japanese game creators.
    • Chris: “I once asked Miyamoto about his childhood playing in caves—never felt a chill take over a room so fast. It's just not done.” (09:06)
  • Mary shares similar experiences from TGS: “Culturally, it’s not a good idea to talk negatively...reporters and devs avoid spicy questions.”

Kai Cenat, Youth Culture, and “Winning the Auditorium”

• Mary recounts motivational speaking at her Ohio middle school and immediately getting 700 kids’ attention by referencing streamer Kai Cenat.
  • “I said: Who here knows Kai Cenat? They all started screaming. I hope they didn’t think I was introducing him.” (18:05)
  • Discussion on the generational knowledge gap between parents and “the youth,” and tools like the “After School” Substack for staying in the loop.

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Longform Game Impressions & Recommendations

Silent Hill F (Game Demo Impressions)

• Mary shares her experience with the Japanese-set Silent Hill F, markedly different from past entries.
  • “You are a schoolgirl with your baddie friends, running from a mysterious fog that kills people gruesomely.” (47:02)
  • Standout horror elements: Doll-like enemies and a unique scarecrow puzzle sequence that varies by difficulty.
    • Chris: “On hard, the puzzles are a wild psychological guessing game. On easy, it's like, ‘stabbing a guy in the back means don’t pick the guy stabbed in the back—nope, try again idiot.’” (52:12)
  • Humorous interlude: Chris tricks Mary into writing “Silent Hill F art” on camera (“Silent Hill fart”) (46:09).

Deckbuilders & Roguelites

• Mike is hooked on Monster Train 2, a roguelike deckbuilder with monstrous train battles.
  • “If you loved Balatro, try Monster Train 2—it scratches that same deck-building itch. It’s my future travel game.” (69:21)

FMV & Off-beat Recommendations from Chris Plant

• Blippo: FMV game, “public access TV from an alien planet,” just flip through channels to unlock more content. Supported by the band Yacht and the LA art underground.
  • Chris: “No real goals, just soak in the absurd, lovingly shot retro alien TV.” (80:00)
• Road to Empress: Chinese FMV, “100+ branches and a high mortality rate—like nothing you’ve ever played.” (83:00)
• Shrine’s Legacy: “Legit feels like a lost SNES action-RPG, not just a modern game with pixel art.” (104:06)
• Demon School: “Persona meets tactics RPG with isometric, quirky style.” (102:16)
• Baby Steps: Chris loves its slow-paced walking mechanics, finding it more about “taking the easy path” than masochistic challenge:
  • “I think it’s a weird statement on gamer pride. Sometimes the easy route is just fine. Go outside and meet humans, you dorks.” (76:13)
  • “There’s Atari minigames at campsites about his sad, pathetic life—how not to be an MRA loser.” (78:08)

More Highlights

• Keeper (Double Fine): An “atmospheric, whimsical lighthouse puzzle game… absolutely delightful, one of Double Fine’s best, but don’t play it on Steam Deck, it chugs.” (89:36)
• Hades II:
  • Mary and Mike enjoy it, but Chris notes, “It’s Hades, but a 9 out of 10 instead of a 10. Harder to write/talk about than something dramatically new.” (98:13)
• Claire Obscure: Disagreement on its merits, but Mike loves it, tying it to an obscure champagne label.
• Chris’s wild list of oddities and deep-cut games summing up “game overload” but also hidden gems getting lost in the churn.

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• Mary after middle school talk:
  "One girl called me a baddie. There's no compliment like a schoolgirl calling you a baddie." (31:25)
• Chris Plant on being recognized:
  "Last week, walking through Park Slope, someone goes, ‘Hey, are you Chris Plant? You’re just a great person. I'm gonna go to dinner now.’ Night made." (34:42)
• Cheese Bath Anecdote:
  Mike: “We had to clean quite a lot of mac & cheese out of a full bathtub. He was glowing the next day.” (38:00)
• Chris on ‘Silent Hill F’ enemy design:
  "They look like models you used to draw anatomy in school—uncanny valley dolls with machetes, bent arms... very upsetting." (48:36)
• On the glut of great games versus indie exposure:
  "Five years ago, Shrine’s Legacy would have dominated games talk—now, it has 78 reviews on Steam. Brutal." (104:44)
• Work/Career Pride:
  Chris: "My dream job is making Post Games, I know I only get to have it for a short period, so I’m holding onto it for dear life." (139:41)
• Mary on finding acceptance:
  "Being called a baddie by a middle school girl… felt like a million dollars. That’s a peak compliment I’ll have forever." (141:41)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [02:52] – Chris introduces Post Games ("NPR but for video games")
• [07:13] – Shadow of the Colossus and Jacob Geller
• [09:06] – Interviewing Japanese devs: cultural barriers
• [18:05] – Mary’s middle school talk and the Kai Cenat anecdote
• [27:12] – Parents’ knowledge gap, kids’ media habits
• [44:35] – Break, then start of main game chat
• [47:02] – Silent Hill F: story, mechanics, horror details
• [69:21] – Monster Train 2 discussion
• [79:38] – Blippo and weird FMV game recs
• [89:36] – Keeper (Double Fine) impressions
• [98:13] – Hades II reflections: 10/10 to 9/10 and industry context
• [104:44] – Losing hidden gems in the modern indie deluge
• [113:23] – Listener emails: Mary’s bowling injury, Mike body-slamming a toddler, Plant gaslights his family about overcooked salmon
• [137:19] – Career/pride discussion, Chris’s joy at running Post Games
• [141:41] – Mary on returning to her school and the power of being dubbed a “baddie”
• [145:10] – Housekeeping, upcoming Fire Escape Game of the Year
• [146:08] – Chris teases upcoming dark/VR cave game episode for Post Games

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The Fire Escape Tone in a Nutshell

Chaotic, honest, and self-deprecating, the group juggles industry analysis, filthy jokes, and weird life stories with a conversational ease. They champion under-the-radar games, poke fun at mainstream gaming’s fixations, and ultimately remind listeners why “bar chats about games” are indispensable—even when they have to happen remotely.

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For the Listener Who Missed It

You’ll come away from this episode with a list of games—both hotly-tipped and “what the heck is that?”—a greater appreciation for emotional support in game development (and middle school), and a strong sense that gaming, much like life, is best enjoyed with a sense of humor and curiosity for the odd corners.

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Next live show: Fire Escape Game of the Year, December 6, Minneapolis (Twitch.tv/DanReichert)
Chris Plant: Listen/subscribe to Post Games (NPR-style, three parts, sometimes porn), Besties, and his upcoming cave horror game episode
Mary Kish: Streaming Mondays; “Metal Meals” charity for St. Jude

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To get in touch or submit questions:
[e-mail]
fireescapecast.com
Merch now available at fireescapemerch.com

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Transcript

[Chris Plant]

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[Mike Mahari]

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[Mike Mahari]

I told you to record mono. As if I know what the I'm talking about. I just like sounding like if you record mono.

[Chris Plant]

You good? You good?

[Mike Mahari]

4100 megahertz. All right, cool.

[Mary Kish]

You see LA?

[Chris Plant]

Yeah, I see LA. I live here.

[Mike Mahari]

Oh, my God. We'll come in on that. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the Fire Escape Cast. I'm Mike Mahari, your host. As always, it's episode 119. It is 47 degrees in Boise, Idaho, on this fine night. We're here, as always, with Mary Kish.

[Mary Kish]

It's a fall crisp day.

[Mike Mahari]

And returning guests from episode 52. So a while ago. It's Chris Plant.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah. Yeah, I'm sorry, I don't. I'm not very good at numbers. How many is it between 52 and 119. How many is that?

[Mike Mahari]

Are you asking how long? It's why we haven't asked you in that stretch to come on.

[Chris Plant]

That's not what I asked. I ask for numbers. I'm just curious about a number.

[Mike Mahari]

48 for 67, I think.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah, I think that's right.

[Mike Mahari]

Something like that. 70, 67.

[Chris Plant]

There's more episodes have happened between now and then than the entire run of the show up until me being on it.

[Mary Kish]

That's true. But, Chris, it's really important with a voice as prolific as yours, don't water it down.

[Chris Plant]

And that's so true.

[Mary Kish]

Get excited to hear what you have to say.

[Mike Mahari]

Yeah.

[Chris Plant]

If it sounds like that was rehearsed, it's because Mary has already tried that line on me twice.

[Mary Kish]

It is my dream to gaslight men on this podcast.

[Chris Plant]

That's why I came.

[Mike Mahari]

Your dream or your routine?

[Mary Kish]

It's a little bit. A little bit. A little bit of B. I get to live the dream every day here. But I. I think that we should have had you on more. It is a mistake. I apologize on behalf to have him on. Who specifically said don't have him on? I believe those were his words.

[Chris Plant]

That does sound right.

[Mike Mahari]

You were. I don't think you were my boss during that last episode. I wouldn't, I don't think I would have had you on if you were. We were still working together, day job wise. I think that would have been after I left.

[Chris Plant]

It's probably in between the two zones maybe.

[Mike Mahari]

Yeah. Because you're coming to us from Post Games now. For those who haven't.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah.

[Mike Mahari]

For those who haven't might not be familiar given the elevator pitch.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah. Tell us about Post Games. What is it?

[Chris Plant]

Oh, but isn't there to say, you know, it's only the greatest video game podcast to ever exist in one of. I think only two or three that are out there. But I am, you know, holding than that torch in the darkness. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like, you know, it's not so boring. No, I mean people listen to you, Mike, so they'll appreciate this. It's like NPR but for video games. Every week you get a new topic and then you get an interview and then you get a little bit of the news, just like an NPR show. The only difference is we've done three episodes about porn games. So that's, you know, I'm really batting a hundred on that topic.

[Mary Kish]

What's the percentage of porn game coverage.

[Chris Plant]

On Post Games right now? We're done 23 episodes and three of them are about porn games. So that equates to about like a tenth.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. 10%.

[Chris Plant]

I'm making up for it's 10%. That's right. I don't know numbers. Listen, I asked you for the numbers at the beginning of the show. The point is this. If you are listening to this right now, just do me a real favor. Hit stop. Go to your podcast app, pick Post Games, subscribe go to patreon.com postgames subscribe again and then come back to the show. We've got a whole lot of great show for you. I'm the host now. Welcome to Fire Escape. My name is Dan. I'm from Missouri. Barbecue.

[Mike Mahari]

I. I thought we had a week without him. Couldn't escape. Yeah. Dance. Actually he. Weirdly he's here on the east coast but he's. He's busy doing giant bomb stuff.

[Mary Kish]

Is your impression of Dan that he would like barbecue?

[Chris Plant]

My impression of Dan is just any generic person that I grew up with in and around Kansas City.

[Mike Mahari]

He's talking about.

[Chris Plant]

I don't think about Dan actually. I just think of people that could be a Dan.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, so he's kind of like a faceless name guy who likes thing we.

[Mike Mahari]

Would have some fun.

[Chris Plant]

I don't know why we Couldn't go get some fried pickles, like something like that.

[Mike Mahari]

He does talk about Joe's Barbecue often. And the burnt ends. Burnt ends.

[Chris Plant]

Oh, yeah. And then. And burnt ends in Kansas City are not like burnt ends everywhere else. They're actual burnt ends. It's like gristle. It's just pure fat gristle.

[Mike Mahari]

Yeah.

[Chris Plant]

And you for free.

[Mike Mahari]

If you don't pronounce the E like an I, you're not from the Midwest. Or Kansas, specifically. Burnt Inns. It's almost, it's like the difference between Australia and New Zealand. Australia have Australians like, where's the car? New Zealanders, they're like, where's the car? It's a huge difference between Kansas and. It's from Flight of the Concords. There's a big difference between Kansas and Minnesota. But yeah, Dan's on the East Coast. He's doing. They're doing the giant Bombathon, so he couldn't join us. But yeah, we're going strong. But post games. Yeah. So generally speaking, correct me if I'm wrong, it's three acts every episode. The beginning is the topic, second is an expert interview. And the third is porn section. The third is just porn noises.

[Chris Plant]

Just a lot. And for that one, I recommend that you don't listen with the kids.

[Mary Kish]

I do see five stars, average rating. What have you done to get this?

[Chris Plant]

It's like a five star.

[Mike Mahari]

He can interview all the experts he wants, but he can't be in the hot seat himself.

[Chris Plant]

I, I, I, I'm just, you know, I like to think that I'm just that good, that I earned all. However many of those five star reviews there are. Hey, that's not bad.

[Mary Kish]

I agree. It's actually not too shabby. It's a.

[Chris Plant]

That's not too shabby.

[Mary Kish]

I agree. You should be very proud.

[Chris Plant]

I am. Thank you. Yeah. No, I mean, you know what? I, it's the guests who make the show. I like to think that I'm just merely a vessel for their talents. Who's been good about talking about my own stuff? I sound like.

[Mike Mahari]

Yeah, I know. Yeah, we could tell.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah.

[Mike Mahari]

I'm just kidding. It's not that bad. Shadow the Colossus. You did a recent. Three days ago. Is that your most recent episode? 20 years later, Shadow of the Colossus still matters. Yeah.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah. I talked to Jacob Geller. Who. Yeah, people, I'm sure who listen to this. They know Jacob. He makes video essays. But the cool thing about Jacob is he was making video essays that nobody watched for a while and then he made One about Shadow of a Colossus, and it so many people saw it completely changed his life. A fun thing about that video, though, he couldn't monetize it because he just assumed nobody would ever see his videos. So he used some Studio Ghibli music in it. But a full successful video by far and you get zero dollars. Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

That's sad. It's a sad state of affairs, but cool to see there's still that much love about Shadow of the Colossus and people are that interested.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah. Did you all see the. The oral history that Matt Leone did?

[Mike Mahari]

Yeah.

[Chris Plant]

It's very good. If you're looking to read about this. Matt Leone did all the oral histories of Polygon about Street Fighter and Final Fantasy vii. And now there is one out about Shadow of the Colossus that is so bonkers because I feel like anytime I get an oral history out of a game that was made in Japan, it feels like I conjured something that just should have never existed. Because I don't know about y', all, but every time I tried to talk to Dab is in Japan. It's so hard to get people to chat.

[Mike Mahari]

Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

That was always the like the culturally. It's like not a good idea to talk negatively or.

[Mike Mahari]

Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

Into the problems. I. I just did the TGS tour and I, I. We had that same issue, which is like reporters culturally are not going to grill ya. They're not gonna. They're not gonna ask you spicy questions. They're not gonna push too hard. And I think vice versa, the devs aren't going to get into all the dirt. And so extrapolate. That is quite a feat.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah. I once asked Miyamoto in a roundtable a question about his childhood playing in caves. And I have never felt cold chill take over the room quite as swiftly. I think.

[Mike Mahari]

I think.

[Mary Kish]

Did you just stare at your soul? What happened?

[Chris Plant]

He stared through me smiling. And then the two people next to me were like, hey. They nobody asked me a moto personal questions. I was like, oh, yeah, yeah. No, no, no.

[Mike Mahari]

I know, I know. I was just seeing if he was testing.

[Chris Plant]

Was Bowser's favorite. Did you have a favorite kid?

[Mike Mahari]

How many times have you read the Great Gatsby? I think it's a rite of passage to ask Miyamoto about his childhood spelunking outside Kyoto. Like I've asked that the question the one time I interviewed him as well. You gotta.

[Chris Plant]

And if you will never know because.

[Mike Mahari]

I interviewed people yearn. It's been. I don't know what the cause has been. But before Tears of the Kingdom came out, we had a few interviews of them with Asiaonuma and Hirataka Fujibayashi, the director. And like, that was. Those went well. I feel like they've been gradually loosening up. Or maybe when they come to the States or the uk, et cetera, they know that those are some questions that people from like Eurogamer, PC Gamer, Polygon might be asking. So maybe they're prepared.

[Chris Plant]

Generations are a bit chattier too. I've had that with Kirby where I asked them about, like, what would happen if Kirby sucked up a really hot man? Yeah. Yeah.

[Mike Mahari]

What do you say?

[Chris Plant]

I think it was something like you were trying to. Pretty hot man.

[Mary Kish]

Two people whispered at you. No one asks what would happen if Kurt sucked up a hot man.

[Mike Mahari]

Yeah, but he missed the translator fucked.

[Chris Plant]

Up part in Japanese. But I know that they kept saying macho. It was like, macho gene. And I was like, he would be a very handsome person. Yeah, you're right.

[Mike Mahari]

Yeah. And then you're. I would love it if you were so confident in your elementary Japanese. The time that you try. You tried asking yourself, and instead you said, what would happen if Kirby sucked off a very hot man?

[Mary Kish]

I was that very hot man.

[Mike Mahari]

That would have gone really well.

[Chris Plant]

Kirby days car.

[Mary Kish]

I'll see myself out. Sumi Masam.

[Mike Mahari]

Yeah, Shadow of Colossus is still really good. There's a question later about specific older games that I think we have in the email section. I love Shadow Colossus. That remake was awesome. I'm glad Jacob Geller has a wider audience now because his videos are great. His Red Dead Redemption.

[Chris Plant]

Because he was on my podcast.

[Mike Mahari]

No, because of the Shadow of the Colossus.

[Chris Plant]

Okay, good.

[Mike Mahari]

Don't flatter yourself.

[Mary Kish]

Because of his association and connection to you.

[Mike Mahari]

Yeah.

[Chris Plant]

Finally a big moment. A big break from the most popular popular video game, YouTube.

[Mike Mahari]

The Plant Effect.

[Chris Plant]

That's what happened when Dunkey came on my show. Have you heard about this guy? He was on the show.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, have you heard of this guy?

[Chris Plant]

It was crazy. He was on my show and then people were like, why is he on this guy's show? You know what is really fun is when really humbling, you do an interview with Dunkey. And I was like, oh, you know what? I should just throw this on YouTube just to, like, have the file there. Yeah, I don't have, like a YouTube channel. I've like made three episodes of this thing. And also like, who am I? And all the comments are like, how the hell did this YouTube channel with eight followers get to interview Dunkey and it's like, that's a great question. Your career disappears the second you lose your job. Very good to know.

[Mary Kish]

Look at all these five star reviews. Show them.

[Chris Plant]

Look at them.

[Mary Kish]

Look at them. You can't buy those.

[Chris Plant]

I mean, in theory, y', all, I. I love video games. I love chatting with y'. All. I may have made a little more coffee than I expected to make. And I'm definitely feeling it. I'm just letting you know that it's.

[Mike Mahari]

Usually the opposite for us. We usually make more. Too much like alcohol. No, actually I've. I've been doing that less these days for the show I'm sticking to. This is a cinnamon tea. Cinnamon orange tea.

[Chris Plant]

Wow.

[Mike Mahari]

Good. Yeah. I'm so. God, I'm so noble.

[Chris Plant]

You know, like south park impressions.

[Mike Mahari]

No, not tonight. No, you're coming on. This is a serious episode. Dan's gone.

[Chris Plant]

Oh, man, that.

[Mary Kish]

I am doing this with two losers. I'm the only drinking.

[Chris Plant]

Oh, you're. Oh, no, I'm going to be here.

[Mike Mahari]

Don't worry.

[Chris Plant]

I'll get one in like two seconds.

[Mike Mahari]

I might crack into.

[Chris Plant]

Marty starts talking about some game that I don't like. Yeah. Which is about a 5x strategy.

[Mary Kish]

Open the game section. I'm cracking a beer.

[Mike Mahari]

Yeah, that's. That's the only way I can get through it. We won't have.

[Chris Plant]

I got this.

[Mike Mahari]

What? Go ahead.

[Chris Plant]

I mean, it wasn't important. I was going to tell you that I'm in the beer. I'm going to get. It's like. It tastes like, you know, wood.

[Mike Mahari]

Yeah.

[Chris Plant]

From a tree.

[Mike Mahari]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Chris Plant]

Like that.

[Mike Mahari]

Oh, nice.

[Chris Plant]

Pretty good. Yeah.

[Mike Mahari]

That sounds great.

[Mary Kish]

Would come off of.

[Chris Plant]

It's like a cherry. Wood is what it is. It's one of those things where like, oh, this was made by running wheat and barley over just dead trees. I'm like, there's a lot that sounds seasonal.

[Mike Mahari]

There's a lot of like bourbons rise these days that use like used sherry casks or wine barrels and I hate all of that. No, some of them are good. I don't like the use wine barrel bourbons. Those usually come out gross. Like there's one. I forget what it was. I got it as a gift and it was like, oh, used Pinot noir barrels and like that. There's not a flavor I want in my bourbon.

[Chris Plant]

No.

[Mike Mahari]

And I love Pinot Noir, but I don't want like neutral barrel, like four to five year old barrels.

[Chris Plant]

What if they made like coke inside of used Wine barrels. Do you think that would taste good?

[Mike Mahari]

That's how they make cherry coke.

[Mary Kish]

It is not.

[Mike Mahari]

No, just kidding. It probably would be good.

[Mary Kish]

Mike Dead sells things pretty hard. You have to really look into his dead eyes to know that he's with you.

[Mike Mahari]

My beady little eyes. Eyes, as Mary loves to say.

[Mary Kish]

Oh, it's like the eyes of a doll.

[Mike Mahari]

Yeah. Well, what's new with you, Mary? We've been plants. Been hogging the spotlight for seven for a day now. What are you doing?

[Mary Kish]

You're in bikini bottom again stuff? I'm in the same place I've been for eight years. I'm at Twitch headquarters. It's just like another travel trip. I will like, just openly say I've had much so, so much travel and a lot of it has been rewarding. But generally speaking, when you travel three out of four weeks of the month, like, no train, I don't want to travel anymore. Like, I think I might be done visually. But I will say I had a great trip. I went to Ohio, which is where I'm from, and I had the.

[Mike Mahari]

I had a great trip. I went to Ohio. No, I'm joking.

[Chris Plant]

Hey, there's a lot of fun in Ohio.

[Mike Mahari]

I know. It's a callback. It's a callback. I. I've been. I've had some fun in Ohio as well.

[Chris Plant]

Where are you from in Ohio?

[Mary Kish]

I'm from Columbus, but I.

[Chris Plant]

Okay, okay.

[Mary Kish]

Cincinnati, but I don't care for Cincinnati.

[Chris Plant]

Yuck.

[Mary Kish]

But I lived in Columbus for most of my childhood and I got the opportunity to speak to a bunch of middle school students from the middle school I went to, which is really.

[Chris Plant]

Oh, my gosh.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah. And I love rules. That was worth it because it was like. It was basically was talking all these people about like, possible careers in stem, which I think is a stretch for me to say, but technically games and games media is within science knowledge.

[Chris Plant]

You do have RGB lights behind you.

[Mike Mahari]

Women in stem.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah.

[Mike Mahari]

Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

Come on, guys. I'm an ally and I talk to mostly girls about careers in stem. And it was the funniest thing I think I have done in a hot minute. This is like, just to be clear, this is like 700. There was like 900 students total. Like in an auditorium. It's 9:30 in the morning. Right. They're tired, they are not super focused. And the lady who is going to introduce me is like, hey, just so you know, you're probably not going to want to talk for very long because these kids will not sit there and listen to you for probably more than 10 minutes. And I said, got it. I'm gonna keep it real buttoned up. I'm gonna keep it real short and sweet. She was like, all right, well, you know, good luck. You know, like, try and change your voice a lot, you know, get them excited. And I was like, okay. She, like, gets up there and does a little intro. These kids are, like, not paying attention at all. And she, like, introduces me, and I stand on this stage. This is obvious. This is a stretch, but, like, I need to get these kids attention. And I said, who here in this auditorium knows who Kai Sanat is? And they all started screaming. They started freaking out.

[Mike Mahari]

They thought you were introducing him onto the stage.

[Mary Kish]

I. I hope not, because that did not occur. He was not there. And they started losing their goddamn minds. And they were. They were locked in 100%. And I was like, cool. That's what witches.

[Mike Mahari]

Anyway, I'm Mary. That's not.

[Mary Kish]

I dropped the mic and I walked off the set and I talked for, like, a little bit about why they might want to get into game design, audio engineering. You know, I tried to, like, stretch it beyond what it is that we do, because games in general is a really exciting job. Not just games, media, or talking about games, but just literally, like, game design is a really fascinating. And they would need to start learning coding at that stage, so. Trying to, like, spark their imaginations. But the second I think I said guy, they were just basically like, I too, wish to play Fortnite full time. And I was like, oh, no. I've created 700 little little monsters.

[Chris Plant]

And I just love this move of going off me and like, hey, Everybody who knows LeBron James?

[Mary Kish]

I know. So this is how you make basketball.

[Chris Plant]

Great. Neither of them are going to be here today anyway. My name is marriage. You got me.

[Mike Mahari]

It's a really bold move. That's a Michael Scott ass kind of thing to do. Yeah, but if you're in stem, I'm a brain surgeon speaking. Kids, I'm on the. I'm on the fourth season of the Wire. Chris. I've been telling them I'm rewatching the Wire for the third time. Season four, the education. That's all the kids.

[Chris Plant]

Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're not. The five is the journalism season.

[Mike Mahari]

Yeah. The serial killer one, which is like, definitely not the best, but the only. Yeah, yeah.

[Mary Kish]

The perfect show.

[Mike Mahari]

But no, I. The show's still really good. I bounce back and forth between what the. The best show ever made is and.

[Chris Plant]

What Breaking Bad, Mad Men.

[Mike Mahari]

I go back Back and forth between, like, the Sopranos, Mad Men, the Wire. Although I will say. And I. I'm trying to think if anything more recent than this. I really, really like Watchmen. Like.

[Chris Plant]

Oh, yeah.

[Mike Mahari]

Just as a more recent one that I think could potentially be on the Mount Rushmore. That we don't give as much credit because it's not like, 25 years old yet. Yeah.

[Chris Plant]

Have you ever seen the Critic? No. Trying. Jay Sherman, the animated TV show.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, I saw that.

[Mike Mahari]

I don't. I don't like being a critic, let alone watching shows about them.

[Mary Kish]

That. That. Would that be on your Mount Rushmore, Chris?

[Chris Plant]

Oh, no, I was just asking if he had seen it.

[Mike Mahari]

Oh, what prompted that? Oh, because I was criticizing shows.

[Mary Kish]

No, no, no.

[Chris Plant]

I was just curious. Just, you know, since we were talking about tv, thought you might like it. That'd be a good show.

[Mike Mahari]

No, no, no, I haven't seen it.

[Mary Kish]

We watched favorites of all time.

[Chris Plant]

I told you, I've had a lot of coffee.

[Mike Mahari]

It's a good show.

[Chris Plant]

There's a lot of referential humor to, like, 1990.

[Mike Mahari]

Oh, great. When I was three.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah.

[Mike Mahari]

Cart around Super Spruce Circle in Liverpool, New York.

[Mary Kish]

Random shows.

[Chris Plant]

You literally did this to the kids. You're like, hey, you ever seen this person? Then I try it, and suddenly it's off the table.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, sell it. You have to really sell it. Also, that would also, you know, allude that you are saying that the Critic is the LeBron James of television shows for its time.

[Chris Plant]

So true. You know, that's.

[Mary Kish]

That is untouchable.

[Chris Plant]

John Lovitz was the biggest thing on tv.

[Mary Kish]

Imagine if I.

[Mike Mahari]

It was covered in hummus.

[Mary Kish]

And I said, who here knows Seinfeld and crickets? And I said, well, in its time, it was.

[Chris Plant]

It was huge.

[Mary Kish]

You don't understand, you stupid kids.

[Chris Plant]

Do y' all remember the. In the mash. That was crazy.

[Mike Mahari]

Everybody was watching We Lost the War. Spoiler. Yeah. Oh, no, no, no. Sorry. That was Korea, not Vietnam. Was MASH Korea or. It was Korea.

[Chris Plant]

Yes.

[Mike Mahari]

Right.

[Chris Plant]

The movie. Was Vietnam in the film or the TV series with Korea?

[Mike Mahari]

I believe so. My dad liked the show, but like everything else my dad liked when I was young, I hated it. But now I love a lot of that, so maybe I need to go back and watch mash.

[Chris Plant]

Mike, how are you? How is your work in STEM going?

[Mike Mahari]

It's good. I have a few breakthroughs.

[Chris Plant]

Cool.

[Mike Mahari]

No, it's. It's going well.

[Mary Kish]

They've lives around here.

[Mike Mahari]

Yeah. It's all. It's always funny when. So my Wife is an architect. I guess I could say Amanda. You both know her. It's always, like, feeling through it. So it's funny. Like, her job is making sure buildings don't murder a ton of people by collapsing. And then mine's just like. It's always funny when I've had a rough day, just like in video games at all. And then she's like, yeah, she. To her credit, she's never, like, discredits me. But then I'm like, anyway, how was your day? She's like, oh, it was fine. Then she walks me through what happened. I was like, oh, I guess the stakes are not that high in video games.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah. We have to remind ourselves that all the time. Right? Like, that this is on our worst days. It's actually, like a functional job. It is an wild space to be in, which is why it's so coveted and probably why we're allowed to go through so much trauma, because they know we'll deal with it. But it's not as bad as working in the er.

[Mike Mahari]

And no, to be clear, none of this is, like, my job. I'm just saying in general, when I tell her about, like, the video game industry stuff, she's like, oh, that. That sounds rough. And then. Yeah.

[Chris Plant]

Question. Have you asked her why the architects who keep building buildings in New York are not good at it?

[Mike Mahari]

Oh, she'll be the first to ask. She's the first to say it.

[Chris Plant]

It's crazy. They're all just. They're all set to just fall down. I think every time I open the New York Times, it's like, oh, another one of those buildings that we built. Turns out that it's 15ft lean in the wrong way. Each year it's sinking more. Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

Or it looks like Baradura construction materials than it is the design. Because I heard that, like, like back in the day. So my house is like 115 years old, and it's made with like 150 year old trees. Like, the wood is, like, so unbelievably old that, like, it was rock solid back then, whereas, like, now they don't. Those. Those trees are gone and, like, there's none of that wood left.

[Chris Plant]

And I think that that excuse for the big buildings. But from what I can tell, every story is like, yeah, they just missed a zero.

[Mike Mahari]

Yeah. Like materials. I mean, I. Amanda listens to the show every episode. She's probably, like, gonna tear her hair out. I'm sure bad materials absolutely come into play. Like, sometimes I hear from, like, past jobs, she's Had. She comes back and she's like, oh, yeah, someone just, like a supplier this up and gave us the complete wrong thing. Which, of course, they replace it. But no. Yeah. Bad design is very much a thing.

[Mary Kish]

But if it's calculations. Should we go back to the abacus?

[Chris Plant]

That's a good question. That's a real stem question.

[Mike Mahari]

Maybe you should be in stem.

[Mary Kish]

Everybody questions me, but I'm the one who asks the real questions around here. The abacus.

[Mike Mahari]

My favorite thing is there's a building on the west side of New York, I want to say, like, above Hudson Yards. It is a triangular one plant you probably know I'm talking about.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Mike Mahari]

Mary, you probably saw in the news, too, because I want to say three, four years ago, something like that. They Doritos got ad space. And by that, I mean they got the right to project a giant cheese Dorito on the building, which is already shaped like a cheese Dorito. Like a Dorito. And it's funnier when I learned more about the designer, the architect of the building. His name is Bjark Engels. Apparently, he's like a very.

[Chris Plant]

I'm sorry, for one second, you're telling me that somebody made a triangle? Building is named Angles.

[Mike Mahari]

Yeah.

[Chris Plant]

Okay.

[Mike Mahari]

Okay, but close. Yeah. When you say it out loud, it'd be pretty good. It's like a. It's like a. It's like a guy named. Named Matt Edge made a square building. No, but it's just funny because apparently that guy has a reputation. His name was Bjark Dorito. It was very full circle.

[Mary Kish]

All right, well, it looks good.

[Mike Mahari]

Yeah. It's just funny to know that some of these architects are very, very. Like the smell of their own farts. And then one day, though, who's to stop Doritos from getting a hold of their design and using it to their advantage?

[Chris Plant]

True.

[Mike Mahari]

Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

I think it's brilliant engineering. I mean, what better design structure is there than the. The pyramids have been doing great is all I'm saying. We got all these buildings that are off by, like, a couple zeros, and they're leaning 15%. What doesn't lean a pyramid.

[Chris Plant]

That's true. That's so true.

[Mary Kish]

I don't even think it's actually possible for Pyramid to lean.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah, I think you're right.

[Mike Mahari]

I think it already is leaning. But there's four triangles leaning into one another.

[Mary Kish]

Well, write this down. We need to back triangle buildings because they're obviously killing it.

[Mike Mahari]

Mary, where was all this material when you were talking to the kids? Instead of your blatant lie about it.

[Mary Kish]

I only needed one line. All I needed to do is say Kai Sinai. And you know what else? He truly is in my Mount Rushmore of streamers. And maybe in basically just content creators in general. But, like, it was so funny to me how much all the. The kids, every kid was freaking out.

[Mike Mahari]

Oh, yeah, I know him.

[Mary Kish]

When I stepped down from the stage, multiple parents came up to me and said, I obviously gotta look this guy up. And I realized parents do not know who these people are. There is a huge knowledge gap of, like, what the kids are into.

[Chris Plant]

Parents just don't understand.

[Mike Mahari]

True.

[Chris Plant]

It's so true. Yeah, I actually, I. When I was coming up with the post Games of Soul podcast that you've already subscribed to and thank you for joining the Patreon, I was thinking about, like, is there a business that's just literally, hey, you only have 20 minutes this week where you're gonna give a. About learning whatever your kid is into. I'm gonna explain it in 20 minutes. Yeah, get out of your way. But you're going to come away from this knowing what the hell your kid is talking about, because it's nuts. Whenever I talk to fellow parents and the questions I get, I'm like, we are at the basics here. Like, we are. We have barely stepped onto the beach, let alone into the ocean. It's brutal. I think that's the good thing. I will say this about all the parents who are listening already. Yeah, they were parents because video games are right at the edge of everything. Yeah, they're always, like, light years ahead of every other type of parent.

[Mary Kish]

The Roblox games are wild and you have to be on top of it if you want to get these youths attention. I will say, just because you brought it up, I am not going to spend 20 minutes out of my day, like, researching the youths. But I do subscribe to a substack called After School Casey Lewis. And that's what that is about. It's just straight up, like, I'm going to talk about the youths and what they're into and, like, how I learned about, like, the fact that, like, young people 21 and up, but, like, young people are doing buzzball parties where they're like, having, like, fancy dinners, but they're serving buzz balls as the drink. I was like, that's okay, genius. I like it. But they, they talk about, like, teens too, and like, you know, just, just like what the kids are up to at any given time. It's usually like 15 to 25. And I, and I think it's like really helpful for me to be like, I don't know what the, what the 15 year olds are into.

[Mike Mahari]

So.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, anyway, gotta know. I have to know. How else am I going to win them over at 9:30am on a school day? It's so limiting. The options that I had to win them over were so slim. I mean, it was kind of like I was like a football star. There was like 10 seconds left on the clock and they were like, we need you to score this touchdown.

[Mike Mahari]

You know what they call a very long pass.

[Mary Kish]

And I.

[Mike Mahari]

The end zone. It's called the Hail Mary.

[Mary Kish]

It was a hail me and I did it. They. Some kids did ask for my autograph. I did want to let you guys know. And I said, I just want to be clear that I am not famous. And they said, close enough. And I wait.

[Mike Mahari]

Genuine question.

[Mary Kish]

Find their bags.

[Mike Mahari]

Are you, are you using that as a euphemism for like a photo with them or like, do kids actually ask for autographs?

[Mary Kish]

Again, My autograph.

[Mike Mahari]

Or is it because they're too young to have fun? I was going to say autographs, but that's cool. I like that.

[Mary Kish]

Selfies. And they called me one girl. I'm not going to say they. There was like 700 kids, but one girl called me a baddie. And I have to tell you, there's no compliment like a school girl calling you a baddie. That made me.

[Mike Mahari]

How do you like, how do you. I find it funny.

[Chris Plant]

Become a baddie.

[Mike Mahari]

I don't want to become a bad.

[Mary Kish]

Intro on it. I don't even understand exactly what a baddie is. I can only assume that it means a cool lady.

[Mike Mahari]

Yes. Let's leave it at that.

[Mary Kish]

I walked away from that situation thinking I was a, like God's gift to middle school.

[Mike Mahari]

That's what I've always called you.

[Mary Kish]

I was like, I've done it. I couldn't believe it. But I don't, I don't think they're gonna be like holding up those autographs and, and reselling them anytime soon. They're probably in the garbage now. But I felt really amazing walking away from it.

[Mike Mahari]

Those children got like, I would love to be a fly on the wall when they get back to their, their home after that school day, trying to explain who spoke to them in the auditorium. Like, oh, this woman in stem. This baddie, she's a, you know, God's gift to middle schoolers. She knows Kai Sanat. He bailed last minute.

[Mary Kish]

Do you know him? And I was like, I know of him. And they were like, sign.

[Chris Plant]

Everything.

[Mike Mahari]

Do you sign my B?

[Chris Plant]

So you're over 30 and you know of him. I gotta get you to find this.

[Mary Kish]

What a baddie, they said. I said, yes, that is me.

[Mike Mahari]

I'm sure you killed it. It sounds like you did. And you signed some autographs. I've never signed an autograph. I would love to one day, so.

[Mary Kish]

It'S very rare, but I would say once a year, someone will recognize me from GameSpot and. Or Giant Bomb and. Or Fire Escape and ask for a photo. And that feels really amazing. And it's a wonderful experience, but it's very.

[Chris Plant]

It's the best when you're not, like, actual famous. I have not had this happen in a while, mostly because when I went to Polygon, when I became an editor in chief, it's like, you just disappear into the world job.

[Mike Mahari]

And.

[Chris Plant]

And now it feels a little bit more like I exist. I was in New York last week, walking through, like, random ass near Park Slope. And as I'm looking for the restaurant on my map, somebody just comes up to me like, hey, your first plan? I was like, yeah, and you're Jacob Geller. And they're like, you know, you're just a great person. I just wanted to say that, but I'm gonna go to dinner. I was like, that's great. That's the night. Like, is there any greater thing anybody could randomly say to you? I was like, oh, man. I was. I was riding high the rest of the trip. That was the best.

[Mary Kish]

That's such a sweet thing for someone to say to you that you're a great person.

[Chris Plant]

I know. Especially since I'm not you.

[Mary Kish]

As far as they know, you are a saint. And that's true. That must make you. Last time someone recognized me was. Which was at pax, which is, like, such a reasonable place to be found. And they said, I love how much shit you give Dan. And I said, thank you so, so much. And to me, not away from that situation, them thinking that I was a good person, but that I had at least harmed Dan, and that was.

[Chris Plant]

You were a baddie.

[Mike Mahari]

Yet again, people recognize Dan as the. The man who broke his thumb in a cheese bath. That's his claim to fame.

[Chris Plant]

You.

[Mike Mahari]

Are you aware of what happened? Plant? This is. Okay. Gotcha.

[Chris Plant]

I listen to you on the show. I don't listen to all of the episodes. Sometimes good long, but I do listen because I love it.

[Mary Kish]

People do say that.

[Mike Mahari]

They do get long.

[Mary Kish]

I think the Cheese Bath was due and it's not my fault. That post cheese bath during the cleaning phase.

[Mike Mahari]

Oh, my God. Cleaning. That took a while.

[Mary Kish]

It was vile.

[Mike Mahari]

We had to clean quite a. Quite a lot of Mac and cheese out of a full bathtub.

[Mary Kish]

It was so goopy.

[Chris Plant]

There are.

[Mike Mahari]

Yeah, you overcooked it. It was not al dente is my one criticism of the prank.

[Chris Plant]

So many questions.

[Mary Kish]

I'm not meant to be in the kitchen. I'm a baddie in stem.

[Mike Mahari]

The funniest part of that prank, also the byproduct was trying to find normal pans in Dan's kitchen, of which I think there was, like, one we had. We had. Our pots and pans are just like. Yeah, you have to scavenge for them.

[Chris Plant]

Is it all just like.

[Mike Mahari]

I think that's different now to, like.

[Chris Plant]

Warm up like a burrito from Taco Bell.

[Mike Mahari]

I think they fleshed it out more since. But at the time, it was.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, I was screwing with a dowel rod. They don't have items to cook with because I just think that most of their items were, like. Dan was doing a lot of, like, microwavable meals, which is totally understandable for his lifestyle and what he was doing. I just couldn't find. I couldn't find a spoon.

[Mike Mahari]

I think. I think. Yeah, I think it's. I want to say that he's cooked more since.

[Mary Kish]

I think so.

[Mike Mahari]

He had that. He had that. That stretch where he was bragging about learning to cook, and he was doing the thing where he was catching up with the rest of us and wanted, like, props for it, and I had to indulge him. But, yeah, he. I think he knows how to cook few things now, so it's good for him. But he. Maybe he has more pots, but that. God, that cleanup was. Was annoying. But, yeah, he broke his thumb or something. Finger spraying his thumb, spraying his ankle. Do you think, like.

[Mary Kish]

I'm not.

[Mike Mahari]

This is a question. I'm. I know.

[Mary Kish]

I just.

[Chris Plant]

There's so many questions about, like, where the cheese goes.

[Mary Kish]

Huh? You mean straight to the ass?

[Mike Mahari]

Oh, in the tub.

[Chris Plant]

Okay. That's.

[Mary Kish]

Rephrase your question.

[Mike Mahari]

Do you mean in the tub when we cleaned it up?

[Chris Plant]

Yeah. And on the body in the tub, he.

[Mike Mahari]

I don't know. I guess down the drain. We hosed it down.

[Mary Kish]

This a hypothetical?

[Chris Plant]

Yeah. Yeah. No, it's. It's a purely hypothetical.

[Mary Kish]

If I was to be in a tub of cheese, where the cheese goes.

[Chris Plant]

I mean, I. I feel much worse discussing this with you there versus Dan. His body is, I think, hypothetical.

[Mary Kish]

It could Be anyone.

[Chris Plant]

His body has been given to the public for said theoretical experiments.

[Mary Kish]

Okay.

[Chris Plant]

I think. And he's in the tub and it's full of cheese.

[Mary Kish]

Sure.

[Chris Plant]

Like it. Does it go underneath the fingernails? Does it does. We're not worried as a congeal everywhere.

[Mike Mahari]

You know, I think you absorb some of the dairy too. Not that there's real milk in Velveeta, but. Yeah. Yo, you're you. Oh, he was. He was glowing the next day. He looked wonderful.

[Mary Kish]

Have you heard of wine baths? Wine baths are legit and people pay money. Spa where you sit in a tub full of wine. Mike, I've thought about you. I've seen these ads and they say that there's health benefits to bathing in wine. I suspect to some degree there is something that would alter of you when you bathe in cheese. I just don't think it would be beneficial.

[Chris Plant]

Do you worry that it would be a little bit like a fondue pot? Like a giant human sized fondue pot. And then we would like dip dan in it. And then we would have to eat them piece by piece.

[Mary Kish]

I just consider cheese such a variation of butter. And I just think when you roll Crisco all over the human body, it's usually not like something that makes it more supple or soft. I feel like it's something that would make it break out.

[Mike Mahari]

I don't know. I've not heard of wine baths. Believe it or not.

[Mary Kish]

You got to look them up. They have them in everywhere. Come visit me.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah, like in Japan too. Don't they have the. At the saunas? Like there's onsen specialty baths.

[Mary Kish]

They dump whole bottles in there. And apparently, you know, I suppose like to some degree it's just meant to be so good for your skin. But I was wondering if you'd get a little drunk because you're like silently for sure. But I don't know, it's not.

[Mike Mahari]

You're boofing it. You'd be absorbing some to the skin a bit too, I think. And like some parts where your skin's not super thick.

[Chris Plant]

Like how can you be sure that nobody took piss in the wine?

[Mary Kish]

Well, I think you get your own at that point. It's gonna be diluted.

[Chris Plant]

That's so much wine.

[Mike Mahari]

Yeah.

[Chris Plant]

Are you for real? That's so much wine.

[Mike Mahari]

Wait, all right, let me look up how much.

[Chris Plant]

Okay.

[Mike Mahari]

What is a. What is the volume of a typical bathtub in milliliters. Not interested in AI mode off. 750 milliliters. No, wait, sorry. In milliliters or. No I'll say liters.

[Mary Kish]

Ballparking it. Seven bottles will do ya.

[Chris Plant]

You think seven bottles.

[Mary Kish]

A tub? I would say that if I put seven bottles in a bucket and you sat in it, you'd be like, I'm in a tub of wine.

[Chris Plant]

If I. In a bucket?

[Mike Mahari]

Yeah, in a bucket.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah, in a bucket.

[Mike Mahari]

But a bathtub. That Mary.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah. You're gonna put me in a bucket.

[Mike Mahari]

Liters. So a bath. A normal. A normal bathtub. Average.

[Chris Plant]

It's decadent. This is a luxury. I have several random bottles of yellowtail, and I'm putting them in a bucket. And then I'm making you squeeze into the bucket. I'm a woman in stem.

[Mary Kish]

I engineered this baddie. This is a modestly priced wine bucket.

[Mike Mahari]

Okay.

[Mary Kish]

Typical bathtub, but I was just thinking of your finances.

[Chris Plant]

I appreciate it. Thank you. I didn't realize I was paying for my own punishment.

[Mike Mahari]

Okay, I'm not the best with math, so I'm gonna do rattle some off and hopefully it's okay. So the typical bathtub holds between 130 and 180 liters of water. One liter is a thousand milliliters average. A bottle of wine is 750ml. Unless you're talking about, like, Magnums or Cherobombs or Nebuchadnezzar's. Let's say it's a normal bottle. 750 milliliters. So 130 times 1000. 130,000 milliliters. How many. What's 130.

[Chris Plant]

180 bottles of wine would take to.

[Mary Kish]

Fill that floof over there.

[Chris Plant]

I was.

[Mike Mahari]

I did the work, and he got. He knew what equations, because I got there. That's how math works. Stem, Mary thinks math is just having an answer ready to go.

[Chris Plant]

Oh.

[Mike Mahari]

Three bottles of wine would be fine for a wine bath.

[Mary Kish]

The type of wine and the milliliters within that type of wine.

[Mike Mahari]

I didn't say the type of wine. We're not. Although I am curious what kind of wine they use for these baths. Is it red?

[Mary Kish]

It's got it. It's red in the photo.

[Chris Plant]

Oh, yeah.

[Mike Mahari]

There's always red.

[Chris Plant]

Can you imagine if it was white? It would just look like a big piss bath. Yeah.

[Mike Mahari]

Oh, dude.

[Mary Kish]

Here I am in my Chardonnay bath.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah.

[Mike Mahari]

I take a Chablis bath any day of the week. It would be. I would just keep, like, dunking myself. Whoops. And then just chugging on. Oh, whoops. Oh, whoops. I fell again. Oh, my God, I'm drowning. Oh, my God, I'm drowning. In the Chablis. Oh, my God. Someone tell Mary. You do get drunk doing this. And it's totally through my skin and my butt, not my mouth. Boof. And Chablis. That's. That's what they called me in college. Yeah, I'll have to look these wine baths up. I don't want one.

[Mary Kish]

For the record, I'm not interested.

[Mike Mahari]

Yeah, I go to. Go to one of these spas and then ask what vintage it is. Well, it's the biggest prick in the world.

[Mary Kish]

Check out Mary's wine buckets, because we have really good deals on you. Sitting in a bucket of yellowtail wine.

[Chris Plant]

I see one for $700 to take. To take a wine bath for 180 minutes.

[Mary Kish]

That sounds expensive.

[Mike Mahari]

Luxury and vineyard.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah, wine is expensive. It's called vinotherapy. It was popular in, like, 10 years ago.

[Mike Mahari]

Oh, Rapeseed oil. Okay, interesting.

[Mary Kish]

Like actually going down this rabbit hole.

[Chris Plant]

You brought it up.

[Mary Kish]

Sorry, I did.

[Chris Plant]

I do think that Walmart came up as one of the options.

[Mike Mahari]

Great.

[Mary Kish]

I mean, that's. I need my wine therapy. And it's like, on all their towels in their kitchen.

[Mike Mahari]

You are so right. I liked it.

[Chris Plant]

And yeah, it's a. It's a bath bomb. It says wine time.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, I love cooking with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food. There's all this dumbass glasses that you buy on Amazon. I don't think so. That's what you.

[Chris Plant]

I don't think so, bro. I don't think so. Well, I need to go get my. I'm gonna go get my. My wood cask beer. Yeah. Yeah.

[Mike Mahari]

Do you guys want to talk about video games?

[Mary Kish]

Oh, yeah.

[Chris Plant]

After I get my beer.

[Mary Kish]

Get your beer.

[Mike Mahari]

That's. That's how we break for games. So we're breaking now.

[Chris Plant]

Oh, okay.

[Mike Mahari]

Got like five minutes.

[Chris Plant]

One, two, three, break.

[Mike Mahari]

All right, let's talk about video games. And hopefully Mary's computer doesn't blow up or whatever just happened. If it does, and she sounds weird the rest of the episodes because we switched over to some backup audio.

[Chris Plant]

All you.

[Mike Mahari]

All the audio nerds in the comments. Like, this doesn't sound as cris. It usually does. You deal with it, Mary. Speaking of scary stuff, what's up? You played Silent Hill F?

[Mary Kish]

It's my favorite time of year. First of all, Spooshober.

[Mike Mahari]

Why? Where does the F come from? Is there like an in universe explanation for it?

[Mary Kish]

I don't know. I. I don't think I actually know the answer to that question. What I will say is that this is completely different than every other Silent Hill in terms of, like, it's a.

[Mike Mahari]

Totally different, same universe. Just in Japan, right?

[Mary Kish]

It's in Japan. You are like a school girl, you know, with your. With your baddie friends. It's a very different environment. And I wonder if they just added F so that you weren't like, am I going to be playing as the same traditional characters in Silent Hill? Like, you're not in. Silent Hill is probably like.

[Chris Plant]

Actually, really quick. Before we go on, if you could do an exercise with me. All of you have a pen and a paper nearby?

[Mike Mahari]

Yeah. Well, no, but I have a pen.

[Chris Plant]

Okay. I can do it. Okay. Looks like you've got it. Great, great, great. I just want you to write this down for me. Okay. Okay. Are you ready, Mary?

[Mary Kish]

I'm ready.

[Chris Plant]

Okay.

[Mike Mahari]

Oh, is there, like, a clever mnemonic?

[Chris Plant]

I just want you to write this down. Silent Hill. Yeah. F. Yeah, Art. Okay. Okay. Now I want you to hold it up to the camera so that we can. Now, it appears that you wrote Silent Hill fart.

[Mike Mahari]

Oh, nice. Mary, I don't think you were listening to what he said to do.

[Mary Kish]

I can't believe I wasted my lip liner to do this.

[Mike Mahari]

Is your handwriting always that bad?

[Mary Kish]

It's lip liner.

[Mike Mahari]

I'm not trying to insult you. Mine's really bad. Oh, it's lip liner. I see what you mean.

[Chris Plant]

I looked nice. I could read it.

[Mary Kish]

Thank you.

[Chris Plant]

It said Silent Hill fart.

[Mary Kish]

No matter what the penmanship, Chris can always tell a fart.

[Mike Mahari]

So are you. What are you thinking of the game overall? Have you played much of it, or are you kind of.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, I think. I mean, it's hard to always for me to tell in these because Silent Hill sometimes can be quite long, and so you don't. I'm actually not confident how far into the game I am, but I will tell you, I absolutely think it's a great addition to the Silent Hill franchise. So, as I said, totally different. Maybe it's the same universe, but you're not in Silent Hill. You are in a small town in rural Japan. You are a schoolgirl with your school people, friends going to school when a fog rolls in and literally one of them just gets, like, axed right in front of you. There's like a. The fog changes their skin, makes them bleed out of the pores of their skin, and then they just straight up, like, die. And so you're running from the fog, and that's kind of what starts a very quick stressor of this game. The enemies are also Insanely freaky. They look like dolls. Silent Hill is known for their half hot, half scary enemy types. This is no different. The enemies. There's two different main ones that I've come across so far. One, they straight up do look like dolls. Like they have the doll parts, you know, where like that leg, you can see the line all the way around the leg. And it looks like, you know, you could, like, rotate it all the way around like a doll. They do that. And they're in terribly horrible warped positions with huge arched backs and bent arms. Very upsetting.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah. You know, like the models that you use when you're, like, learning how to, like, draw in school.

[Mary Kish]

Yes.

[Chris Plant]

They look like those.

[Mary Kish]

They look like that. A little like Uncanny Valley, but they're human enough that that would really stress you out. They are branded with some kind of knife usually, or like machete or some kind of sharp object. And they really run at you. This game, unlike other Silent Hills, where I felt like I was often dodging enemy attacks in previous Silent Hills just to preserve my health, and in this one, they really are kind of, I think, encouraging you to get into combat. I felt like I was basically forced into combat more than multiple times. Yeah. I wouldn't say it's a combat game. I did run away a lot.

[Mike Mahari]

No, I mean, it's just forcing conflict.

[Mary Kish]

As opposed to putting me. They're putting me in a space where I had to. To kill these dolls. And then the other enemy that I keep coming across, which is really stressful. I'm going to call them, like scarecrow adjacent enemy types. They look like they could be scarecrows or they're in a field the first time you see them and you have to pull like an. I don't know, you.

[Chris Plant]

Thorns.

[Mary Kish]

Is that what it is?

[Chris Plant]

Well, they call it thorns when it's like nails with, like little notes on them.

[Mary Kish]

Yes. And you have to pull them out of their bodies. And if you get it, they come to life and attack you. And if you get it right, you get they.

[Mike Mahari]

If you get it wrong. Sorry. Is it like a puzzle?

[Mary Kish]

It is a puzzle. Very puzzle y. Sorry, I went ahead of myself. Go ahead, Chris.

[Chris Plant]

Did you. Did you like this puzzle? This puzzle is the people who love this love. They're like, you go into a field and there are six scarecrows. Yeah. And you need to pick the right one based off of a mystery.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah.

[Chris Plant]

And if you don't, they'll come at you. It's the best part of the game. Once you get there, the game gets really Good. And I don't. I don't know.

[Mary Kish]

You didn't like it.

[Chris Plant]

Well, can you describe the puzzle?

[Mary Kish]

Sure. I will try and describe the puzzle. So you're. So you're NFL on Thursday sex talkers. And there will be a person that is essentially saying, if you try and run into the mist, the mist will just magically transport you back to the same field. So you have to pick the right person who will point in a very specific direction for you to continue your journey in this foggy field. And then the puzzle will usually be. It's usually through, like, the voice of a random person. And so they'll be like, I always loved hanging out with you, even though I know deep down inside your smile was a lie and you were hollow inside. And you'll be like, okay, what the fuck does that mean? And so you'll look at all these scarecrows and you have to interpret what you think that message is into which face that most likely represents. Do you think it means that the person smiles because the person said you smile even though you were sad inside? Or should they be the sad scarecrow because they are actually sad, but they had a smile and faked it? And so you're like guessing the interpretation of what I think is a very vague description of a person. And my answer? Yeah, go ahead.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah, well, there's like three difficulties.

[Mary Kish]

Yes.

[Chris Plant]

And I looked up a guide because I was like, oh, man, I don't know what's going on here. Yeah, the easiest difficulty made the least sense. And the hardest difficulty, I was like, oh, I would have nailed that one.

[Mary Kish]

I was on hard difficulty. So maybe that's why I felt like.

[Chris Plant]

I got it, that I should have played that, because mine was like, I can't believe you'd stab me in the back. And it's like a person stabbing someone in the back. And it's like, nope, nope, try again, you stupid idiot.

[Mary Kish]

You fucking idiot.

[Mike Mahari]

I don't like vague puzzles in the hard mode.

[Mary Kish]

A lot of the. Well, actually, I didn't play easy mode. I didn't play baby ass baby mode. So maybe you can tell me, did they have masks on? Because what I recognized was when they said something like, you are smiling, but I know deep down inside you were upset. The mask was smiling and the person was upset. And so it was a twofer for me to recognize that the mask is the mask that we wear. And the way they actually wear was sad. Did they have masks in childlike mode?

[Chris Plant]

At a certain point, I just started killing everything. Ah, yes.

[Mary Kish]

I Will say I did fine on the first one. I actually didn't get it right on my second one three times. And then I got the first. I got it right on the try on my third one. So it's like I. I made even.

[Chris Plant]

It's solid.

[Mary Kish]

We all make mistakes.

[Chris Plant]

That's so true. Thank you for making me feel better about my decision to just murder thousands of scarecrows.

[Mary Kish]

It's hard though, because the. The just like in other Silent Hills, like your. Your items have durability and so you don't really want to just get into combat willy nilly because you're burning through your good items.

[Chris Plant]

So you were playing on hard on that also. I see on combat.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, sorry. Oh no, we've been playing a different game. Does there not durability on easy mode?

[Chris Plant]

Well, I was playing on whatever the normal mode is. Right. And I was a fucking God. I was. There's a dodge, freeze, dodge in this game that is. You are literally just Neo from the Godfrey Matrix. You like literally enemies. I would just wait for them to attack me because I was like, oh man, I'm gonna kill you if you even dare to come at me. Wow. Which the game, it's a weird game because you would think that doesn't align with the story at all. But if you think of this story as one about a woman realizing that she in fact can be a baddie. It does. It does. Well, she can at first because it is a Silent Hill game. Which means. I don't know how to say this now without it seeming inappropriate about like horrible men who abuse women.

[Mary Kish]

It's true. Yeah.

[Chris Plant]

You know the kind of theme of the game. But then you like get, I don't know, like a broken piece of pipe and instantly you're like, I'm gonna kill God himself. Yeah, like you're zipping around. Yeah. I mean, I'm curious. What did you think about the story? How far are you?

[Mary Kish]

I'm. Well, that's what I was saying. I'm actually not sure how far I am. I'm like past the school.

[Chris Plant]

Okay. Yeah, you're in it.

[Mary Kish]

I'm in it. I think it's great so far. But you know, like most Silent Hill games, the ending is going to be what probably makes me decide whether or not I think this is all justified. But I just want to say, like, mechanically I'm really liking how they've connected the game to the world building because I get all these items and it could be anything from like chocolate to like a fizzy drink to a Bandage. I can use them, or I can sell them at these shrines, and I can upgrade my character. So if I'm not using all these items, if I'm playing really efficiently or effectively, I'm selling them and I'm upgrading my combat ability, or you can sell them. And I think this is like a gambling thing, because I think it's random, but I got random upgrades. And one of them was that I just was way more efficient with hitting people with my weapon. And I was like, that's 100% worth all of this currency. And so I've enjoyed the mechanics of the game. I've enjoyed the environment. I've enjoyed the story so far. I knew I was gonna go into a school, and God damn it, this school is so scary. The school was so scary. It was such a scary sequence of these goddamn things are hiding behind everything and crawling around. And I think it's great. I think it's done a fantastic job so far. But I think I have to see how it ends.

[Chris Plant]

I have one more question. What do you think of the Phantom Zone with the Wolf Boy?

[Mary Kish]

With the Wolf Boy? I don't know if I get it. I just assumed that it was just more atmosphere. But Silent Hill is known for me being like, I don't know what that's all about.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

So my. My answer is. Is, I don't know. I don't know what. What?

[Chris Plant]

I don't know. Yeah. I don't know if I get. I enjoyed it. It, like, was a good change of pace.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah.

[Mike Mahari]

I guess I gotta play it.

[Mary Kish]

I. I mean, now after talking to you, I'm like, you guys should play it on hard, because, like I said.

[Chris Plant]

I think I should.

[Mary Kish]

The combat was. I always do, very challenging, and I. I thought. I thought that, like, that is the way to play these. Because you want to be scared, and you want it to challenge you. The puzzles. Being on hard is also pretty wild. Like, it's one thing to have to change the difficulty setting. It's another to be like, what do you want your combat difficulty to be? Cool. What do you want your puzzle difficulty to be? And I was like, what? Like, you can change that and you can. I made both of them very difficult because I want the game to be difficult, and it is a hard game to get through, but I think that that's. I didn't play this to, like, seamlessly breeze through it. I want to be scared, and I want to be grossed out, and I want to be confused. And I got all of those.

[Chris Plant]

I really should have done that because there's like. There are these like mini bosses that you meet. They're huge, like the size of a tank. And I would just beat it down with my pipe until it died part time. And then it can't be killed. So it just wake up. And then the second it wok up, I just beat it down. And then I go back to like solving whatever puzzle I had.

[Mary Kish]

Oh my God, that part was just so stressful to me. I used all of my weapons to take it down once. And then I got halfway through the puzzle and it came back to life and I went, what the? Like, I didn't have any items.

[Chris Plant]

I just like rolled up like a newspaper and swatted it on the nose and it was like, please stop. And I was like, shut up. Anything.

[Mary Kish]

We had a very different, different experience playing this game.

[Mike Mahari]

Like a Crimson Head from Resident Evil remake.

[Mary Kish]

Oh, they do like regenerate. And the ones in the field, they're fucked up too. I will just say they're the kind of thing where you'll look at all of them. So you'll see six in a field, but to find the one that you want, you need to look around. And so I'd look at one specifically and then I would hear something and I would turn around and one of them had moved. And so usually in these like, field situations or even in the school, if things are standing still. Not always. Sometimes they're actually like playing still. But when you turn your back, they'll. They'll run up to you. And that shit is so scary. That will get me every time that the things are moving when you're not looking at them. Oh, I just get like stressed out thinking about it. I will say I did look up some puzzles. I got absolutely stomped on these locker puzzles where I think they were just straight up. Like, some of them were just brutal math sequences. And I was like, I ain't doing all that I. I could, but I don't wanna. I didn't have my abacus on me and I just didn't. I wasn't prepared. So I just looked up one locker code. Good answer.

[Chris Plant]

Wow.

[Mary Kish]

That's the truth.

[Mike Mahari]

I really. I really want to play. Seems up my alley. I also have recently restarted the quarry because I got into it a decent amount two years ago. Whenever it first came out, I think it was two years ago. And I love supermassive stuff, so I want to keep playing that. But I also, the more I have.

[Mary Kish]

You played the quarry before?

[Mike Mahari]

Yeah, I got like a third of the way into it from My understanding. And you quit, like, length. Other stuff came out for work, I'm sure, or something like that. It wasn't. It wasn't like, equipped from exhaustion or disinterest.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, I think it was good. I don't think. Yeah, no problem with those types of.

[Mike Mahari]

Games quite a bit. And I love.

[Mary Kish]

None of them have been as good as the quarry.

[Mike Mahari]

I just kind of wanted those vibes. But I also. The more time I spend on this earth, the more I think about Alan Wake 2. Since I played that game. I fucking love that game. And I Sometimes I'm like, always fighting off replaying that game. I really should not replay that game right now because we have. I have quite a lot of other things to catch up on before game of the year and Alan Wake up.

[Chris Plant]

I really want to go back and actually just play that game because I. When it came out, it ran like garbage on my PC for whatever reason.

[Mike Mahari]

I think it was a lot. Yeah, it was a widespread problem.

[Chris Plant]

It was such a bummer, too, because there were entire parts. I remember the musical number scene just completely bombed out time after time.

[Mary Kish]

That must really ruin your ability to enjoy. Do you have any, like. Do you perchance have, like, a handheld that's like. Thousand dollars?

[Mike Mahari]

Mmm.

[Chris Plant]

Well, I am an ally of the republic of gamers. I try to be, you know, I try to be the man that I want to see in the world.

[Mary Kish]

Dress for the job you want, but in consoles, I bet it would play great on that. So that's a shame.

[Chris Plant]

Oh, yeah. You know what would not play great on that? That Xbox handheld. Xbox games. You would think it would be the opposite. I'm sorry, this is like. This is. You pushed into my, like, number one pain point. I try not to be the shock jock radio person. Something about this handheld truly destroys me. The skin wants to leave my skeleton. It is so absurd that the entire marketing is, this is an Xbox and then they made an Xbox and it doesn't play Xbox games. It's the funniest shit on the planet. And by funny, I mean in, like, just deranged. Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

Who knows the decision making?

[Chris Plant]

Who knows?

[Mary Kish]

I will say, like, it's. It's. Alan Wake 2 was like, kind of shocking for everyone who was like, you have to play this game. And I think I was also distracted in the musical sequence. I forget what was happening, but I think my dog was, like, coughing up a hairball or something was happening. And I just remember being distracted. And I remember, like, everyone was like, like, did you get to that scene? And I Was like, yeah, it was cool. And everyone was like, but wasn't it life altering? And I was like, oh, I just thought it was like a funky little dancing scene. And I just didn't. I did not get the same immersion that so many people got from that experience. No, I think I was. So that's.

[Mike Mahari]

Usually my response is asking the games.

[Mary Kish]

When I stream them. I will say some games I think are harder to stream than others. I will not stream like an Elden Ring, for example, because there's no way I would enjoy it. I would be too focused on how embarrassed I am that I've died 500 times to the same boss. And I don't think I would actually be able to just appreciate it. But some games I've really enjoyed streaming.

[Mike Mahari]

Oh, yeah. No, I mean Outer Wilds. It's completely possible to not love that scene even if you were playing it offline or on. Off screen.

[Mary Kish]

But if your dog is coughing up a hairball, you are distracted.

[Mike Mahari]

No, it's not gonna hit everybody the same way.

[Chris Plant]

I.

[Mike Mahari]

Big picture wise, that game, I just absolutely love that they. They made two games that are very, very different within that one. One which is like, inspired by Taxi Driver and Acid trips and like Liminal Spaces. And then they put Alan in there. And then the other one was more straight up survival horror in the Pac Northwest. And you could play either one up until basically the like, penultimate scene and then go to the other one. I was jumping back and forth. I think that's the ideal way to play that game. But. But I know people who just played all the way through Saga stuff before they went. Even tried Ellen's, which is super cool. But that game didn't come out this year, so I have to play other stuff to have ammunition against Dan, Mary and Jake.

[Mary Kish]

It's true. We have to, like, really start, you know, just stacking the decks because we have to fight Dan on anything that he's going to bring to the table. Death Standing two is in trouble.

[Mike Mahari]

Speaking of stacking the decks, I have been playing Monster Train 2, which is a roguelike deck builder. So thank you, Mary, for the transition.

[Mary Kish]

You're welcome.

[Mike Mahari]

Monster Train 1, I want to say, came out in 2021, something like that, a few years ago. Really great game. Both that game and this. The art. How do I say it? It's not the. Yeah, art style. Art direction doesn't really do them many favors. They look kind of slay the spiry in a bad way. Ever slay the spire. Looked like it had that, like, paper Cutout vibe that I. I don't think translated all that well in the first game. I mean it was a great game. By all means.

[Mary Kish]

I love Super Duper Saturated.

[Mike Mahari]

It was what?

[Mary Kish]

It feels very saturated.

[Mike Mahari]

It's not saturated for me. It's like literally it just looks like cheap is the best way I could put it. But Monster Train 2. And I said that about Tower Dominion too. My. Another one of my favorite games this year, which is a tower defense game. But Monster Train 2. Phenomenal. I don't know. Did you either you play Monster Train the first game?

[Chris Plant]

I'll be. Real card games.

[Mike Mahari]

Yeah.

[Chris Plant]

Fair mad at him.

[Mike Mahari]

Fair enough. I. I don't like the whole genre.

[Mary Kish]

Throw it away.

[Mike Mahari]

I would say this one kind of unlocked them for me in certain ways. But just Elevator pitch. You're on a train hurtling toward the final boss. And the train is composed of four levels. So enemies will come in. Any ones you don't kill in the bottom level will advance to the top level and then the third and then to your core, which is basically your trans engine, which can do damage to them, but it also takes enough damage and it's destroyed. Ends your run. But there's also a ton of ways you can manipulate this where you can move someone from the third floor to the first. You can move your characters. You can move their characters. The deck building comes into play in that you have your main faction and a champion. Your champion costs like basically zero AP to place on the train and obviously is the most powerful character. But then they're surrounded by more minions and spells etc and throughout the course of the run you are deciding how best to flesh this deck out. You have an ally faction where you're getting some units too. You're not getting its champion, but you're getting some of the lower tier units.

[Chris Plant]

Units.

[Mike Mahari]

You are deciding which cards to destroy. Which to me, before I start playing this game a lot again, I haven't played a lot of Hearthstone. I haven't played a lot of magic. The Gathering Arena. So destroying cards and like moving cards out of your rotation. The benefit didn't really dawn on me until I played this game is that you increase the chances of getting the other cards that you like by taking out the cards that you don't love because they might get reshuffled into your hand. But generally speaking it's. It's. I don't think it does. It's not doing anything revolutionarily different from the first game. Monster Train. But there are new factions. There are new effects. A lot of times you're stacking these different buffs, these different. There's Valor, this thing this time around, which your characters can accumulate by taking damage. They can accumulate by you playing certain cards to the point where each of these Valor points will add up to multipliers on there. There's a bit of Balatro in this game, which I think a Balatro also like. I think a lot of people who aren't really into deck building games got into Balatro because the deck building was so well integrated into the Rog Light aspects. There's an element of that here where you can really break the game if you play your cards right, literally.

[Mary Kish]

But you could do that in the first.

[Mike Mahari]

You what?

[Mary Kish]

You could do that in the first Mon. Monster Hunter. Monster Train.

[Mike Mahari]

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. It's not new.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah. Okay.

[Mike Mahari]

But I'm saying they still held on to that core. Like we. They. They want you to kind of think about how you might actually make this character indestructible. So I'm loving it. I'm only six runs in. I've gotten close to the final Boss on the 5th. But like many a Roguelite, you're also unlocking quite a bit between runs. You're upgrading individual factions, unlocking new ones. And it's great. Great. I'm liking it quite a bit. I'm gonna keep playing it. And it's definitely. Absolutely. Unless it runs poorly on Steam deck, I can't imagine it not being amazing. Steam deck game. So that's gonna be my travel game for the foreseeable future.

[Chris Plant]

Okay.

[Mike Mahari]

And if you liked First Monster Train or you didn't get around to playing it and you like. I would honestly say, if you love Balatro like many people did, maybe check out Monster Trip Train 2, see if it kind of scratches the same itch. Because it did for me for sure.

[Chris Plant]

So you're saying it's a talkie game?

[Mike Mahari]

Super talky. Yeah. Yeah. There is actually, weirdly, this game. They introduced this like, lore codex where you can unlock story which does not play against your will while you're trying between runs. But there is a Codex you can go to and read lore if you care and I don't care.

[Chris Plant]

Sure.

[Mike Mahari]

No offense. No offense. I'm sure there's a lot of well written stuff there. People who made this. I. Shiny shoe, I believe is the studio.

[Chris Plant]

Sure.

[Mike Mahari]

I just. I just. I. That's not what I'm there for. I get my lore elsewhere. I'm on the Warframe Wiki. I'm on the Warhammer Wiki all the time. That's enough lore for me.

[Mary Kish]

I get lunch breaks in my own way. I don't need someone to force feed my lore.

[Mike Mahari]

Got lore all along this bookshelf. Oh yeah, I go to Lore Valley. Just really good stuff there.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah.

[Mike Mahari]

But yeah, Monster Train 2 is. Is great so far. Highly recommend it if anybody liked the first game or like Balatro or. Or it just really likes deck building games and wants to see it integrated well into a roguelite. Mary, what else? Or Chris, Chris, Chris. I know you said you've been. You've been traveling a ton lately, so I'm sure you haven't played a ton of new like brand new games, but just give us the quick rundown of what are some of your favorite games this year that have really hit you hard?

[Chris Plant]

I mean I've been playing so much the thing that I. I guess I'll shout out now because it'll be coming out close. When does this episode drop?

[Mike Mahari]

The November 3rd.

[Chris Plant]

Monday. Okay. I think it'll be like very close. The full release of this Q up. Do you know about Q up?

[Mike Mahari]

No, tell like Q, U, E U E Q.

[Chris Plant]

The letter Q.

[Mary Kish]

Do you want me to write it down in my lip line?

[Mike Mahari]

Perfect.

[Chris Plant]

Perfect. Silent Hill Fart. It is the latest game from Frank Lance who did Universal Paperclips. And there's a bunch of other people working on this from what I can tell. But it is a esport all about fairness. Everything is 100% completely random multiplayer esport. That's definitely what it is. It is about coin flipping. Are you heads? Are you tails? Which one are you gonna get? Play to the death Esports. That's all. That's all. There's nothing else going on. It's just esports. It's just 100% fair. 100% random. Flipping some coins.

[Mike Mahari]

But are there like individual heroes too?

[Chris Plant]

And the great thing about it is there are heroes, but they're all equally good because it's 100% fair.

[Mike Mahari]

What game, what game are these characters reminding me of? Like Goodbye Volcano High or whatever that was called? No, that was all like anthropomorphic creatures. This is. This has like. What was the. It's kind of what, the dad Day Dater?

[Chris Plant]

Yeah, Date your. Date the. Date the dads.

[Mike Mahari]

No, what was the Daddy Dater game? You know what I'm talking about, Mary, you must the dad.

[Mary Kish]

Oh, what are you talking about? Dream Daddy.

[Mike Mahari]

Dream Daddy. Thank you. It looks like the same art style.

[Mary Kish]

You let me know if you want me to talk about Any smut hot smutty boys. I got you.

[Mike Mahari]

But anyway, so you're.

[Chris Plant]

But yeah, no, it's. It is. I'm being very snarky about. It. Is a game that is not as it seems. It is a game. Mary, you are going to love this game. I think, because it's a lot of playing this extremely fair esport that is definitely very popular amongst streamers and then also getting emails from the company that makes it. There's a lot of. There's a lot of talkie in this game to go along with the Dewey.

[Mary Kish]

And I'm looking at a lot of reading, too. Like, not just talkie. Like, I'm re. There's a lot of text on the screen, bud.

[Chris Plant]

Yes.

[Mary Kish]

What's up with that?

[Chris Plant]

But I think. I think it's gonna be a good thing. I don't know if it's gonna blow up. We'll see. But I think people who play it are gonna really love. And then in terms of. I mean, you know, I've been playing all the stuff that everybody's been playing. Speaking of games from people who, you know, worked at nyu. Baby steps. It's great. I loved it.

[Mary Kish]

I don't understand how you can love this game.

[Mike Mahari]

Yeah.

[Chris Plant]

For real?

[Mary Kish]

Yeah.

[Chris Plant]

Neither of you really?

[Mike Mahari]

No. We've talked about the last few episodes, but we haven't talked about it with Chris. It's just not.

[Mary Kish]

Tell us about it, you sicko. Why do you like this game?

[Chris Plant]

I don't even. Like, I'm taking it at my pace, so I'm not one of the sickos.

[Mike Mahari]

Who'S like, aren't art Can't. Can't be boiled down into one simple. That's.

[Chris Plant]

That's. Why do you. That face is literally my nightmare.

[Mike Mahari]

It's the face I do when I'm being pretentious.

[Chris Plant]

Is it the face you do when you're being pretentious or when I'm.

[Mike Mahari]

Or something. No, you.

[Chris Plant]

You've.

[Mike Mahari]

You've enjoyed baby steps. If that's the right way to know.

[Chris Plant]

I'm playing it at my own pace. And for me, it just. It, like, quite literally feels good on a mechanical level, just moving around. What do you mean it feels good?

[Mary Kish]

It feels awful. You're stumbling around and you're looking at this man's back sweat.

[Chris Plant]

I have. Only there's no one hot in that game at all. Maybe like twice. What? I think it's a game that once you learn how to walk, it truly is a game. I think the problem is people saw this game and like, oh, It's a game about difficulty. It is a game about, like all these things and like, how many horrible things can you overcome? And they're thinking about it, like, getting over it. Like the other Bennett Foddy games. Yeah.

[Mike Mahari]

Sadistic concept.

[Chris Plant]

I think it is the exact opposite. If you actually just take the main path, if you just go whatever looks easiest, I think the game is quite easy.

[Mary Kish]

Did you beaten it?

[Chris Plant]

What? I have not beat it. I'm probably like halfway through, but I've yet to, like, really had a hard part. Once I learned how to walk, learning how to walk was hard. Took me probably like 15, 20 minutes. And then once I did that, I just have been trotting away, just having a nice walk. I see like a little thing where it's like, go up to an edge and you can grab an apple. And I'm like, no, thank you. I see like a little hat. Got the first one I was like, well, that was hard. Saw the second one I was like, no, no, no, no, no. I'm not falling for your tricks. Baby steps. No, thank you.

[Mary Kish]

No hats.

[Chris Plant]

I keep going. I keep going. I think it wants you to realize that you can actually just take the easy part path. That is okay.

[Mike Mahari]

It sounds like the opposite of what Jeff Grubb was doing.

[Mary Kish]

You think philosophically what it's teaching you is to just take the easy route.

[Mike Mahari]

You don't have to.

[Chris Plant]

I think it is. I think it is. There's a point later in the game and this is like, spoilers, but it's now all over. Like, you're not going to escape this where there's a absolutely impossible mountainside that you can climb. And then there's also. And then, yeah, Grub, I think, actually made a video about spiral staircase. There's a green spiral staircase and you can just take the green spiral staircase and there's nothing different. The game call like, it shames you either way. It's not trying to tell you anything about it. And I. I think a lot of the game, you could read it as one that it's like, oh, no. It's actually, you know, embarrassing that people use guides or maps in games and like, we've. How far we've fallen from whatever a true game is. But as I get deeper into the game, I think it's actually like, why are gamers so weirdly prideful of something so stupid? Stupid? Like go take. Take this option. It's right in front of you. Then turn off the game and go meet, like, humans dorks.

[Mary Kish]

I cannot believe that you have Found such deep meaning in such a stupid, stupid, ugly game.

[Chris Plant]

Do you know about like the little mini games that you can unlock? No, the like mini scenes. Okay, so this is the wild shit. And it's why it would motivate you to like, do the other things. If you get a hat or whatever and you care, like you wear it to the campfires or whatever, that checkpoint, each thing, when you get there, it will cut to a Atari like scene that you can move around. And they're all just about how absolutely sad and pathetic this man is. And it's kind of like a, oh, here's how somebody falls into MRA bullshit. Like, it's very much about, like, hey, don't be this, like, don't learn how to talk with someone. Get away from the machine.

[Mary Kish]

That's so crazy.

[Chris Plant]

Like, like, say hello to friends. You're, you know, receive help.

[Mary Kish]

Putting so much assumption into the design of this game. I thought that the purpose of this game was to be so annoyingly bad that I was meant to go outside and touch grass.

[Chris Plant]

I will also say I'm unquestionably biased, like mega biased on this game.

[Mary Kish]

Why?

[Chris Plant]

One of the designers was one of my co teachers at nyu, Bennett Foddy, who I also think is one of the. I think he's brilliant.

[Mary Kish]

He was a. Bennett Foddy is brilliant.

[Chris Plant]

Oh, now we all think Bennett Foddy is brilliant.

[Mary Kish]

Shut the fuck up.

[Mike Mahari]

Plant was there before.

[Mary Kish]

It was cool him at Village.

[Mike Mahari]

He was hanging one of the other.

[Chris Plant]

Designers, one of my students, one of.

[Mary Kish]

The hats made from one that you used to wear when you guys were holding hands.

[Mike Mahari]

Basically, Plant designed this game because what it's.

[Chris Plant]

That's what I'm trying to say is I had the smallest effect on these two people's lives. But I think that they looked at me and they said, wow, what a sad man. I appreciate video game about him.

[Mary Kish]

I can't believe that you're going to win a game award about your likeness.

[Chris Plant]

This game, it's a great game. The only other one that I guess I will like Plug, because I loved it and I also loved talking to the creators about it. On Postgame is a podcast that you should subscribe to. Did y' all play Blippo?

[Mary Kish]

No. Tell me about Blippo.

[Chris Plant]

Wait, really? Do you not know about Blippo at all? No.

[Mary Kish]

You're educated.

[Chris Plant]

Okay. Blippo is a FMV Games looks like public access TV from like 1988 and it's an entire alien TV like cable package. It's like multiple channels and you can flip through the channels like, oh, here's the news. Or here is a exercise show. There's an entire Nickelodeon ripoff in it. And you just. There's no goal. You just watch it. And as you watch a certain amount, it unlocks new packages.

[Mary Kish]

Wow.

[Chris Plant]

And you can watch more. And it was made in part by the band Yacht. The lead singer wrote it.

[Mary Kish]

It's on that tiny device.

[Mike Mahari]

Yes.

[Chris Plant]

It works on the playdate, but you can also now play it on Steam and Color and all of the.

[Mike Mahari]

I've seen clips from this.

[Chris Plant]

A bunch of LA art community underground artists appear in it, including high school theater kids. And then they shot it in a studio that uses. This is actual old TV equipment from the 80s and 90s.

[Mary Kish]

I respect that.

[Chris Plant]

It is a real highlight.

[Mary Kish]

What do you do? Nothing.

[Chris Plant]

You literally just watch it.

[Mike Mahari]

It is a game.

[Chris Plant]

The idea is that the Planet Blip has all of these TV channels and something is going on on the Planet Blip. And you will learn the story by watching the channel.

[Mike Mahari]

Okay, cool.

[Mary Kish]

That's neat.

[Mike Mahari]

That's like. What do you want to call it? It's got, oh, my God, Sam Barlow vibes, like, in this sense. Yeah.

[Chris Plant]

And immortality. Immortality. That was it, right?

[Mike Mahari]

Immortality and her story.

[Chris Plant]

Yes. But even less worry about a game. You can tell it was made. It was published by Panic, who did Untitled Goose Game, but also did, like, Despalote, I think Cable. The guy who runs that, he's very successful off of an app business. Is truly one of the people that seems to be cool with. I don't know if this will ever make money.

[Mary Kish]

I don't give a shit.

[Chris Plant]

It's quite cool. And that's not my problem.

[Mary Kish]

I mean, I respect that a lot. Can I ask you, though, like, is it. I'm just looking for tone here. Is it funny? Is it, like, uneasy? Is it, like, strange?

[Chris Plant]

It's not one of those things. It's like, oh, it looks old and silly, but it's actually a jump scare. No, it's.

[Mike Mahari]

It's like.

[Chris Plant]

No, it's like playing 1980s local TV. It really commits to the bit.

[Mike Mahari]

There's something creepy about that to me.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah. I mean, I love FMV games and I have to say, like, this really scratches an itch for me. But I'm just curious if this is like a. You gotta play this during Spooptober or if it's like, not really. Like, this is random.

[Chris Plant]

No, I would say this is a good, like, you know that slow period at the beginning of December where you're like, I thought I would have more to play right now and then you. You don't.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah.

[Chris Plant]

Oh, yeah. That's gonna be. That's gonna be the good stuff.

[Mary Kish]

I love FMV games so much and I. I really have to say this, like, is. This is so appealing to me. I gotta.

[Chris Plant]

They're starting to translate a lot of the games from China, the FMV games that they've been making over there. And I am living for it. I.

[Mary Kish]

That is music to my ears. I can't wait to watch that crazy shit.

[Chris Plant]

I'm sure I will let you in on some of these, like, historic romantic dramas.

[Mary Kish]

Send me games for China that you can go. Romantic dramas.

[Chris Plant]

Oh, yeah, one second. I'm gonna find one and send it to you and you're gonna be like, I'm sorry, what?

[Mary Kish]

Thank you.

[Chris Plant]

Yes. Road to Empress. Oh, yeah. Games are back. Games are back.

[Mary Kish]

Games are back, baby. I just think it's fun to watch what they. What they do with the power of fmv. Like, it's so wild to me that.

[Chris Plant]

That.

[Mary Kish]

We can play with the realities like this and I don't know, I get really immersed in the scrap.

[Chris Plant]

I love it. Mary, can I read you the synopsis for Road to Empress?

[Mary Kish]

Yes, please.

[Chris Plant]

You've never played a game like this before. Road to Empress is a cinematic palace adventure where your choices decide everyone's fate. Tackle 100 story branches and a high mortality rate with charm, wisdom and courage. First survive.

[Mary Kish]

Wow.

[Mike Mahari]

Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

That. The rest of the game is translated as beautifully as this description.

[Chris Plant]

It's so good. Oh, wow. Cannot wait for you to play it. And also the stories are like, legit. This is. Don't let my shitty reading of this fool you. It is a genuinely interesting game. It is a very positive on Steam. So I'm not the only person here. Somebody. One of the top Steam reviews is.

[Mike Mahari]

Never mind.

[Chris Plant]

I'm actually not going to read that.

[Mike Mahari]

Have you guys played Detroit Become Human? More like this section, which is probably not a good thing for this game.

[Mary Kish]

Oh, my God. This is. This is great. Thank you. You've like this better not unleash anything within me. This is so nice.

[Mike Mahari]

Cool. Mary, you also played Keeper?

[Mary Kish]

Yeah. Has anyone else played this new. I think it's fine.

[Mike Mahari]

No, not yet.

[Mary Kish]

I'm also biased because I just like double fines, so just throw that one out there. But anyway, Keeper is so cute. You guys. You are a lighthouse.

[Mike Mahari]

Oh, yeah, sure.

[Mary Kish]

Atmospheric as shit. Really knows its audience. You are. It's such an imaginative little world filled with. I would say it's like I want to look this up. I should have looked this up before we did this. But the audio sounds like machinarium, you guys. And it's like half natural environments with, like, greenery and, you know, jungle or, you know. But then, like, the animals that you're coming across are mechanical. They look like they're made out of gears and parts. And you yourself are an actual walking lighthouse. It's very Howl's Moving Castle. You have these, like, tentacle leggies and you're wobbly, almost like you're made out of four pieces that are stacked and you have this kind of, like, wibbly, wobbly movement to you. Oh, it's great. It's very simple. You walk and you move your light and you can focus your light. That's it. It's very simple mechanically. And the puzzles also kind of reflect that simple nature of it. This is not a hard game. I think younger people could play this game, but I think older people could enjoy it. The simplicity of, hey, there's some kind of, like, blight in this world, some kind of rot. And when you shine your light on it doesn't like that. So you're kind of like, curing the world of these issues or these woes. And also, like, maybe there's, you know, a door that can open. So you need to shine your light to open the door, but when you stop shining your light, the door closes. Okay, and how do you solve this? You end up getting a bird.

[Mike Mahari]

I like the bird.

[Mary Kish]

The bird is so cute. And it also kind of kind of.

[Chris Plant]

It.

[Mary Kish]

It stays on your lighthouse like a hat, which I love. And you can send him out to help you solve puzzles. He's. He's got weight to him, right? So maybe, like, maybe there's like a weight puzzle where you need your bird on there, but you also need to be able to. To get him back on time so you can get through these doors and get to the next area. I think it's designed very, very simply, but very well where it won't let you move forward. You can't break it. You just gotta, like, solve these simplistic puzzles. But I find it so cathartic to play a game like this where it' what you're trying to get me to do. And I can solve this in, like, 30 seconds or less. And I do, and I feel really smart about it. The puzzles do get smarter. I think they get a little stronger. About halfway through the game, there's a town that you get to where you will find. I love this. You will find A button that you push everything you basically push with your light. And when you do it, your bird turns into an egg. So it's going backwards in time. And so you have to push time forwards and backwards and use your bird as a bird or your bird as an egg to get through these puzzles. And I remember being like, that's fucking smart. And it's really fun. And it's visually very appealing to turn your bird into an egg.

[Mike Mahari]

This looks rad.

[Chris Plant]

It's cute.

[Mary Kish]

It's super cute. I think it's brilliantly executed. I think they did such a good job with the. Just the atmosphere and the thoughtfulness of it. And again, the music is so delightful. I thought. I thought it was like the guy who did Machinarium. I don't know who did the soundtrack, but it's. It's got that mechanical vibe to it, you know, I'm talking about, you know, like when you played Machinarium and it was like everything sounded like the mechanics of a tool chest. And that's what this sounds like too. It sounds like a toolbox, but it also is whimsical and light hearted. You also change forms multiple times. I will not spoil anything else but like you're not a lighthouse the entire time. It allows you to like change forms, which changes your mechanics and also changes the puzzles. It mixes it up a lot. I really do think this game is an absolute delight. My one thing that I have to say that I did not care, that was unfortunate, is that doesn't play great on the Steam deck. It's chugging on my Steam deck and I love to play a game like this on my Steam deck. But there's a couple times where the game is just straight up slowed to like 10 frames and I had to.

[Chris Plant]

Give it a move. They need to release something new. I appreciate the not like going bonkers on constant hardware and stuff, but like Ninja Gaiden 4 was another one of these.

[Mary Kish]

Yes, it was.

[Chris Plant]

These things that you think should just work fine.

[Mary Kish]

You want it to work fine and it just doesn't.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah, yeah, it's. It's a bummer.

[Mary Kish]

It is a bummer. So what I will say is if you're interested in Keeper, I would recommend it for console or PC. Probably not Steam deck, unfortunately. I. For the record, because I've been traveling so damn much, I've played Keeper completely on my Steam deck and I've gotten through it. But I can't say that it was always the best experience when it was chugging like that. But it's nevertheless with those small. With that small technical issue, I absolutely fully recommend this atmospheric puzzler. It's just so sweet, you guys. And, like, every time I'm done playing it all, these, like, there's these tiny little animals that are constantly in the world, and anytime you solve an area or you solve a puzzle, they're kind of just like, yeah. And they give you these little cheers and stuff like that. And it just gives you that. That, like, good feeling in your core of, like, I helped. I've helped this little town, and I am so smart, and I. And you're just a little lighthouse, you guys. I don't know how else you can get more whimsical than that. Double Fine always does stuff like this, where they put you in a universe where you're like, this is so adorable. This is so sweet. It's so pure. It's. It's so lovely. There's nothing. I don't think there's any talking in a single entire. There's not a word in this game. There's no humans. It's like, just. It's all done through visual design. Every once in a while, it has to put up a tiny piece of UI that says you can focus your light, you know, and that's just to help guide you in case you're, like, really slow.

[Chris Plant]

I'm curious if this is the future of Xbox. I feel like we've, like, seen, like, seven different futures of Xbox that could happen, and one of them was, we're going to buy up tons and tons and tons of devs and then, like, have games come out. They're almost like movies. Like, this game. It's not a whole lot to do. It's. It's an experience as much as it is a game. And you could have it over the course of a weekend or maybe two weekends, and it makes a real case for the game. Pass model, for sure.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah.

[Chris Plant]

But I. I don't know. Like, when I saw the Double Fine, when they acquired Double Fine, I was like, that's definitely the future. Like, that's what they're gonna do. But now, I don't know. Like, I hope that this sort of stuff gets to keep getting made.

[Mary Kish]

I agree.

[Chris Plant]

I'm a little worried that it won't.

[Mary Kish]

I mean, I'm hoping as well, I back you up here. Like, Laika just released their new trailer for their next game. Or, sorry, their next movie. Cause they're a claymation studio. Anyone who doesn't know Laika, they made, like, cujo and the Two Strings, ParaNorman oh my God. Like all your favorites, it's all made by Laika Portland, by the way. And that's where they're from. And I think like, when I think of the whimsy of that, I think of Keeper and the things that Double Fine create. Like, they feel so handmade. They feel like an artist put their heart into a game and I. I love that shit. That's like why I get so excited about games. When you can tell someone put their heart into a piece of. It would break my heart for them to like mess with a studio. Like Double Fine. Keeper to me was like a promise kept of like, oh, you're allowing them to make this. I can tell they didn't push them too hard or like make this too dirty or like public for public consuming. Like, this is an art piece and it's beautiful and it's really well done. And I continue to leave them alone because they're doing great. So stuff.

[Mike Mahari]

I definitely want to try Keeper out for sure. It's also like, I loved Psychonauts too.

[Mary Kish]

I loved Psychonauts too. They're killing it. When they're on, they're on.

[Mike Mahari]

A lot of Double Fine stuff has not clicked with me. I always wanted to like a lot of it more than I did. Grim Fandango seemed up my alley and then I. I just couldn't get through it. Same with the first Psychonauts. And I want to say, what was the Kickstarter one they did?

[Mary Kish]

The first Kickstarter point and click adventure was kind of weird for me and I forget the name of that one.

[Chris Plant]

I feel so bad because I. All their games I want to like more than I do. They're not bad. I just always want to like them more than I do. And my favorite Double Fine production is the documentary. It's so. I think they made like one of the best documentaries.

[Mary Kish]

I think it's because Schaefer is like a gift to. To humanity. I just think he's like a sweet, sweet boy.

[Mike Mahari]

Yeah, I like, I did like Brutal Legend actually.

[Mary Kish]

Brutal Legend is good, but I like.

[Mike Mahari]

I like Psychonauts too, quite a bit. So I want to check this game out because I feel like they've been getting me lately.

[Chris Plant]

I. I also think this is like the right choice of just if it's going to be about the art style, just truly get out of the way. Like Costume Quest was a game where I wish that that was just walking around because every time I got into combat, it was.

[Mike Mahari]

I didn't even know there was combat in Costume Quest.

[Chris Plant]

It's turn based RPG, but made for like 6 year olds. Yeah.

[Mike Mahari]

Great.

[Chris Plant]

It's brutal. But the art is some of my favorite art in the game. And the vibe, like, I wish that was the game that was playing right now.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah.

[Chris Plant]

I should see if there's a mod that removes the combat from that game.

[Mike Mahari]

That'd be great.

[Mary Kish]

I think this game is one of Double Fine's best. I think this is one of the best games that they've made ever. I do think it's simple. And so I'll just caveat that with. If you're like, I want like a really tough puzzler. I just don't think that's what this is. This is a whimsical treat for the eyes with some light puzzles. Light puzzles that you get to enjoy way. I have not been stumped once, but I have enjoyed my experience with it.

[Mike Mahari]

That reminds me of. I mean, that's kind of got like inside vibes. The puzzles are not crazy difficult in Inside or Limbo, but it's there for the atmosphere. It's there for the actual like journey.

[Mary Kish]

I think Limbo pushed me a couple times where I was like, what are you trying to get me to do here? At no point Keeper was.

[Mike Mahari]

I was also gets somewhat challenging.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah.

[Mike Mahari]

But inside. Inside the puzzles were more. There's the one where you had to act like those robots being built, which I liked quite a bit. It was more like play acting.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah.

[Mike Mahari]

Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

I think this one's easier, but I still think it's. It's great.

[Mike Mahari]

I think you and I have Both played more Hades 2.

[Mary Kish]

Yes.

[Mike Mahari]

How is your Hades journey going?

[Mary Kish]

I wish I could say to you that I have beat this game, but I have put a lot more hours into the game and I still haven't beaten Hades these two and.

[Mike Mahari]

Okay, like, wait, so you haven't beaten like. Have you gone to the surface yet?

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, but I haven't gotten the. I haven't beaten the main boss.

[Mike Mahari]

Kronos. Or is there someone past Kronos?

[Mary Kish]

I don't know. Because I haven't beaten us.

[Mike Mahari]

That's what I was asking. Okay. Gotcha.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah.

[Mike Mahari]

Yeah, I haven't. I'm still. I'm on my, like really early on, I think 12th run or something.

[Mary Kish]

Oh, okay.

[Mike Mahari]

Liking it quite a bit still. But I'm playing it like it's fantastic. Whatever. Yeah, it's great.

[Mary Kish]

It's growing on me.

[Mike Mahari]

It's funny we talked about this last episode, but I feel as if every time I go back to the game or at least the Four different times I played it. I have a new favorite weapon which I think is probably a good sign that they design all the weapons very well. Yeah, like there just, just today I was playing before I was like oh, I should play Monster Train 2 to talk about it. I was using the witch's staff, the original weapon, the default weapon at the beginning of the game and was like, oh, this is actually pretty rad too. It's sort of got spear vibes. But it again the way that they design her cast and her the specials for each weapon I think again makes her feel very different from Zagreus in the first game. But I, I think I swear by the umbral torches still. I know like a lot of people say they those didn't click with them them until a certain point. Those right away for some reason just felt great for me. First off, my Hades 2 plant. Have you played much Hades 2?

[Chris Plant]

Can I be real with you? Can I use this place to talk about my feelings?

[Mike Mahari]

You don't like Hades or Hades 2?

[Chris Plant]

It's not even that this game, I love every person who listens to the besties into post games. I want to be super clear. I love you and if you're this person, I love love you. So many people have been so worried about this game not being covered that it's not getting enough attention. And I just want to assure you people who made this game are. They're literally Scrooge McDuck. They're swimming in a pool of dollars. They are a. Okay. A billion people are playing this game. If you want to know why critics aren't talking about it, it's because it's more Hades and they changed it up a little bit. And personally for me, me, I think like Hades 10 out of 10 this 9 out of 10. Do you know what's really hard and not super interesting always to talk about when a game goes from a 10 to a 9 because it's like yeah, okay. Like it's slightly different in the ways it's different are kind of personal taste based and the story is not quite as good but it's still better than most stories. Like it ends up being for me it's like a weird game to talk about. So I've played a fair bit. I enjoy my time doing it but I find it like I find it really challenging to talk about because it when a game, I guess that's the other thing when you're going from to a 10 to 9. I don't want to just be dunking on this Game because I like this game a lot. But the only things I really have to say are, like, well, it's not as interesting or good as the previous one. And that's, like, not. That's not fun.

[Mary Kish]

That's crazy.

[Mike Mahari]

Yeah, it does. I don't think it's doing anything crazy to change the formula. And I'm fine with more Hades. I'm liking it quite a bit. Yeah. Which is. Which is.

[Mary Kish]

But I hear what you're saying too, which is like, I. I will just say, like, largely as. As critics or just as, you know, people who play a shit ton of games. Our job is to talk about something that's, like, moving the medium forward or is, like, really shocking us with, like, something that. That's different and super job Giant has done that its entire life. Right. Everything that it's done has been so wild. Like, transistor was, like, groundbreaking and pyre was, like, a wild thing that we all talked about for a really long time, even though it didn't, like, grab us. I. Not.

[Mike Mahari]

I was gonna say all of you criminally underappreciated.

[Mary Kish]

It's underappreciated for, like, how much it made you appreciate those characters and what it did with the story and how to make people feel. Hades was like. Everyone was like, oh, my God, everybody's hot. Like. Like, it's so unbelievably good to play. It's so smooth. It was our goatee, like, years ago. And Hades 2 is good, but it's Hades. And so it's a bit of a change up for me to be like, well, I mean, you've made this game. You've already perfected it in so many ways.

[Chris Plant]

It's like the kid where they've been, like, performance, they've been getting A's in class, and then they, like, get like an A minus. And people are like, hey, like, what do you have to say? And then she's like, I don't know. You're doing great. Like, chill out. Like, don't worry about it. You're like, I'm not gonna tell you you're bad. Are you wanting me to tell you you're good?

[Mike Mahari]

Like, you're still going to Princeton? Like, we don't.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah, like, it's. It's all great. I. I will. I cannot wait to talk about whatever this studio does next. But, yeah, it also just has the misfortune. Very honestly, this is a whole meta conversation.

[Mike Mahari]

I'm sorry, this is the review that's actually about writing reviews, not the game.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah, there's just so many games. There's so many games.

[Mike Mahari]

Yeah. Yeah. Even in 2020, the first game was way easier to spend like a fucking week just playing through until your eyes bled.

[Chris Plant]

Now. Well, not even just playing through. I mean, even just talking about, like, there's only so much time. And it's like, do I again do. Is this where I want to use my words?

[Mike Mahari]

Well, that's why I'm glad you came on, because Blippo, I don't think Dan, Mary, Rye would have brought up.

[Mary Kish]

It's true.

[Mike Mahari]

Up we wouldn't have brought up. So there are some people out there who hear about these and then are like, oh, I want to go.

[Chris Plant]

So many games I could tell you about. We could be talking about Demon schools coming out. Y' all gonna be playing Demon School.

[Mike Mahari]

Elevator pitch.

[Chris Plant]

Elevator pitch. What if I told you it's like Tactics turn based Persona. You like those words? Those good words?

[Mike Mahari]

Are you doing that? Because you know I do like those words.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah. And also that's literally what the game is. Have you really not seen any of this game?

[Mike Mahari]

No.

[Chris Plant]

Oh, wait, this is great.

[Mike Mahari]

Can I feel like this is the theme of tonight? Plant bringing up a game and then.

[Mary Kish]

I know. Sorry. Are you sure you've never heard of this?

[Mike Mahari]

Chris? Plant in one breath, there are way too many games to talk about. Plant in the next breath, how have you not heard of this game?

[Chris Plant]

I know, I just. I decided that you had good taste.

[Mike Mahari]

I can call you out and say you're being hypocritical. I'll look at your games. Don't give me shit for it. Okay, let me look it up. Where'd you put this?

[Chris Plant]

At the URL. I dropped the chat.

[Mike Mahari]

Fucking serial killer using the Zoom Chat.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah, it's right where I also put brb. Need to use potty power.

[Mike Mahari]

Demon School.

[Chris Plant]

People didn't even notice that I was gone.

[Mike Mahari]

Oh, yeah, this looks rad.

[Mary Kish]

This is like a mic coded game.

[Chris Plant]

Tactics rpg Persona. That's what it looks like. I could tell you about games all day. Games. Games on games.

[Mary Kish]

Educate me.

[Chris Plant]

Play now.

[Mike Mahari]

That's a cool art style. It's weird. The environments look like isomet or isometric Obsidian vibes. Like Path of the. Oh, God, what am I thinking of? What is the pirate game that Obsidian made. It'll come to me. It looks like. It looks like Tides of Torment Numenera kind of vibes the. The environments. But then the characters look different. Yeah.

[Chris Plant]

So, yeah.

[Mike Mahari]

Gorgeous.

[Chris Plant]

I'm going to give you. I'm going to give you one more. I'M going to give you one more. You play Pillars of Eternity.

[Mike Mahari]

Thank you. Dead fire. Okay, sorry. Continue.

[Chris Plant]

Shrine Shrines Legacy. You play in Shrines Legacy.

[Mary Kish]

I love trying.

[Chris Plant]

Shrine Shrines Legacy. Oh, you have to be a legacy of Shrines. It's like a 16 bit action RPG in the style of SNES but unlike all these other ones are like, yeah, it's like in the style of snes but it's just a modern game game is like if you actually just had a brand new Super Nintendo RPG that you like somehow Totally missed. It's a delight. I'm just here to dish out games. I'm just here to give games to people. 78 reviews on Steam. This is the like bizarro world that we live in.

[Mary Kish]

Stop buying Hades 2.

[Chris Plant]

I'm just saying, like, I know you should listen. If you're listening to this, you already bought Hades to. It's more of just like what a bummer for the people who make these games great for us. But this game comes out, it's great. It's a delight. And five years ago this would have been all we were talking about. 78 reviews on Steam. Brutal.

[Mike Mahari]

It looks great. All these look great. I. But I'm not going to have the time in December to play these because I've got to catch up on the other games that came out and then I'm not going to play that. Those because I catch up.

[Chris Plant]

Baby steps.

[Mike Mahari]

Like next. No, I'm not.

[Chris Plant]

You.

[Mike Mahari]

You got me closer to considering it than anybody else has.

[Chris Plant]

Interesting. Dan didn't like.

[Mike Mahari]

Good. I think Outer Worlds 2 might be the next one I play because it seems digestible in the same way that Claire Obscure lengthwise was pretty digestible. Not that clar obscura wasn't sweeping in its own way. Can I say something really? I think it's. It's one of the most Mike things I've said in a while.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah.

[Mike Mahari]

One of my favorite wines I've had recently was a champagne. And the cuvee was called Clair Obscure from Salima and Alan Corday in. In Champagne. It's fucking delicious if you find it.

[Chris Plant]

Do you think the game is named after that?

[Mike Mahari]

No, I wish.

[Mary Kish]

After a wine.

[Mike Mahari]

Although I will say, say, I will say that seeing it on the champagne, I made me Google it. I didn't realize it's just the French term for chiaroscuro, which I'm sure you knew. Plant. Because that's a plant thing to know.

[Chris Plant]

No, it just means I should know more of my French. But I don't remember. I. I can say like oui, Montreux.

[Mike Mahari]

Chiara score.

[Chris Plant]

J. Padu Montreux. Like that sort of stuff.

[Mike Mahari]

Oh, yeah. Apologies to Italian listeners if we have any. I just said Chiara score. I think it's chiaroscur.

[Chris Plant]

I thought you were dunking on my French accent. You're like an apologies to the Italian.

[Mike Mahari]

No. Maybe I did say Kiara sky. I don't know. But yeah, it just means light, dark. And you know, the, like the Selima and Alan Cardoy are some of my favorite producers in champagne. And so I saw that. I was like, I'm going to buy this and drink it. And it was delicious.

[Chris Plant]

I loved it. That game, that was. That was something.

[Mike Mahari]

Remember what?

[Chris Plant]

The end of that game.

[Mike Mahari]

Oh, yeah. Wait, quick. I really want to hear your opinion of Claire Obscure in three sentence. No, in one sentence. What did you think of Claire Obscure? Expedition 30.

[Chris Plant]

Read a book.

[Mike Mahari]

Yeah. Did you like the game before the ending?

[Chris Plant]

It's not my type of game. On top of it. Oh, yeah.

[Mike Mahari]

You don't like to begin with, right?

[Chris Plant]

Yeah. I mean, but yet I love, like a Dragon. I love Persona. I can love it.

[Mike Mahari]

Yeah.

[Chris Plant]

And there was a lot that I found interesting about it. But yeah. Not a fan of when people like. No, just trust me. I know the fights are just so repetitive, but you just need to skip to the end. I was. I wised up to that. I said YouTube, baby. I can skip to that part. And let me tell you, I was glad that I did. Wow. I'm really glad that I did.

[Mary Kish]

I'm seeing a pattern with you, Chris. Like, you have good taste.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

You are recognizing when a game hits like this peak pop culture part where you're just like, I don't know about that. Have you played this fucking weird ass FMV game that no one knows?

[Chris Plant]

I can talk. Hey. Okay, okay, okay. I'm ready.

[Mike Mahari]

It's like there's a term.

[Chris Plant]

I'm telling you about a great game. I'm gonna tell you about a great game. It's called Sonic Racing Crossover. Yeah.

[Mike Mahari]

Yeah, baby. That's what we need with Dango.

[Chris Plant]

I can do this all day. I can talk about good stuff. Plant can get down to fantasy tactics.

[Mike Mahari]

Plant can get down the slop with us. Watch him.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah. I'm just saying that I don't need a story to tell me about art. The second the story is about art is the second I'm like, peace.

[Mike Mahari]

Yeah. No way. Oh. Have you guys played Near Automata? It's about storytelling. And then the more you play it, the more I love that you're not my boss anymore. I could just lay into you. It's funny. Yeah.

[Chris Plant]

This is very different than the time when I was.

[Mike Mahari]

Yeah, no, I'm. I. I was a sucker for Claire Obscure. But I also like. I don't disagree with.

[Chris Plant]

You're more of a stellar Blade man. I know. I get it.

[Mike Mahari]

Yeah. Hell yeah. I'm more of a Tales of Arise. If you're not talking about the perils of slavery right off the bat in your rpg, I'm not interested.

[Chris Plant]

That game is quite. Yeah.

[Mike Mahari]

What a weird year though. I got plenty of games. I'm going to play out Worlds 2 Outer Worlds 2.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah.

[Chris Plant]

Uhhuh.

[Mike Mahari]

And then after that, what am I going to play after that?

[Chris Plant]

I can try Skater three and four. I'm going to catch up.

[Mike Mahari]

I got. I got to switch two on the way officially, which is nice. I'm think I'm going to play Bonanza. Gonna try out Mario Kart and Then Metroid Prime 4 and oh, the only game. Well, I guess Metroid Prime 4. I'm very curious about. I love that trilogy now. It's not a trilogy anymore. I'm looking Forward to Octopath Traveler 0. Yeah, I'm curious.

[Chris Plant]

It's a port of a mobile game. Is that right?

[Mike Mahari]

No. So they did a. Whatever the previous one was called. They made a mobile game game. This is a prequel to the entire series, but they're pulling design tenets from the mobile game. So. But it's. This is not the port of the mobile game.

[Chris Plant]

Okay.

[Mike Mahari]

So this is its own game. But they're. You. Instead of having the eight characters, you create your own. And then you're recruiting something like 30 in the vein of Suikoden. But it's. It's definitely. Oh, you know what it reminds me of? Fire Emblem. What the hell? Fire Emblem. What was the most recent one called? That I liked, but most people didn't.

[Chris Plant]

And it's like red and blue. It looks like Pepsi.

[Mike Mahari]

The most recent Fire Emblem like pulled like had like mobile game mechanics in it and.

[Chris Plant]

Mobile game Fire Emblem, Pepsi.

[Mary Kish]

Fire Emblem, Pepsi. We all remember Fire Emblem.

[Mike Mahari]

That's it. And that reminds me of what they're doing with Octopath Traveler 0. So I am cautiously curious about that game because a lot of it sounds like stuff I really like. I like. I love Suikoden. I like having that large of recruitment pool of characters. So yeah, I'm curious about that.

[Chris Plant]

Can I give you another game?

[Mike Mahari]

Yes.

[Chris Plant]

Did you all play Kaizen? No, but I know background story.

[Mike Mahari]

I actually know what this is. But I did not play it.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah, that's the good stuff. It's the good stuff. It's a puzzle game where you're designing the machines that make make stuff in automated factories.

[Mary Kish]

Like Jujutsu Kaisen.

[Chris Plant]

What?

[Mary Kish]

Like Jujutsu Kaisen. It's an anime.

[Chris Plant]

Oh. Oh, nice. I see. Kaizen. Nice. See what you're doing? I was like, I don't remember a factory in Jiu Jitsu Kaisen. I thought that was just an action anime where they got stronger and they shonen stronger. No, I. I see.

[Mary Kish]

It's Kaisen.

[Chris Plant]

You're not wrong. No, you just make stuff. So it'll be like, oh, do you want to make radios? And then you will design the machines that make the radios. But then between that, there's a story where you're in a 1980s factory and you are a guy, Jean, who has moved to Japan, and your family's like, hey, how is it out there? And the answer is rough because people don't really want you there. And you know what? They also don't really want the women who work in your factory. It is a story about what it's like to be in 1980s Japan.

[Mary Kish]

Sexist.

[Chris Plant]

Pulled alongside this great puzzle. It's really good. Cool.

[Mary Kish]

I don't know. Wait, you're saying it's like a puzzle game, but there's like severe sexism rampant throughout the experience.

[Chris Plant]

I. I don't. You want to play it? But it's more.

[Mary Kish]

I play it every day.

[Mike Mahari]

That's just Mary navigating life.

[Mary Kish]

I live it.

[Chris Plant]

It's more, I want to play at.

[Mary Kish]

The lighthouse that birds like it's slice.

[Chris Plant]

Of life is what I would say. It's like each episode between it, it's like, oh, you're out for dinner. And then it's like, oh, why does she not have a higher job? It seems like she knows everything that's going on here, like piecing it together, that sort of thing. And then as it goes on, things get better. I will say that.

[Mike Mahari]

Okay, well, all right. Plenty of recommendations. Plenty for us to catch up on when I get time.

[Mary Kish]

I'm overwhelmed.

[Mike Mahari]

Do you want to talk about emails?

[Mary Kish]

Let's talk about them. How do they get there?

[Mike Mahari]

Okay, as always, you can run into fire Escapecast gmail dot com. Any questions, comments, concerns, but mean the questions. We might read them on the air. We have a couple tonight. There were a few Dan specific ones that I did not do because he is gallivanting off in New Jersey. Mary, do you want to read this first? One from Alex in. Is it Mary, do you know? Is it Bendigo or Bendigo Australia? Bendigo.

[Mary Kish]

It's Bendigo.

[Mike Mahari]

Oi, skinny dodge. It's Bendigo. Okay. From Alex.

[Mary Kish]

Offendigo.

[Mike Mahari]

I just offendigo him.

[Mary Kish]

Hello, chicky babes. Thank you. That's so cute. I recently fucked up making a cake. Absolutely beefed it. What a goddamn mess. If I was a surgeon, that baby would be dead.

[Mike Mahari]

Oh, my God, we have. What have we done to Alex?

[Mary Kish]

Still ate it, though. Just like that surgeon. So what low stakes thing have you fucked up recently? How many shoe incidents has Mary been involved in? Cheers. Alex in Bendigo, Australia. Chris. The shoe incident, I think is referring to when I was recently in Japan. I thought they said, take off your shoes before entering. And I saw a bunch of sandals, and so I assumed I was supposed to put on the sandals. And then they yelled at me, and I had put on somebody else's sandals and walked inside the house. I do that kind of shit a lot in my life.

[Mike Mahari]

She also knocked down a wall. She thought a wall was a door.

[Mary Kish]

No, I pushed.

[Mike Mahari]

She didn't realize it was a sliding door into a. Into like an omakase in Japan. And she knocked down the entire wall. Plant knows that.

[Mary Kish]

I see. Sisi. Yeah.

[Mike Mahari]

What's a low mistakes thing you fucked up recently?

[Mary Kish]

I'm a fucking idiot. And I do this most of my life. I think that I have, like, gotten really comfortable with embarrassing myself being a buffoon. Yeah. I mean, I just think I. I think I'm smart in so many ways. I have all these talents, and I. I have this unbelievable ability, though, to just ruthlessly embarrass myself in public. I don't think it was that recent, but, like, I bowl now, and there's like this always fun joke where someone's gonna bowl and they swing the ball behind them and you. And you grab it. And that's funny because then they're like, where's my ball? And it's like, I took it. And they break their fingers.

[Mike Mahari]

Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

Snap it. And I leaned in too far, so when they threw the ball back, it hit me right in the face.

[Mike Mahari]

Oh, my God.

[Mary Kish]

And it hurt pretty badly.

[Mike Mahari]

Yeah. It's a bowling ball.

[Mary Kish]

I know. But it's also, like, my fault because I was the pranker, so I had to, like, brush it off and be like, s. I got you. Like, my face was there when you were trying to swing the ball, but it actually really hurt. I had to, like, go to the bathroom and, like, process my face. Concussion.

[Chris Plant]

I just Imagine your nose broken.

[Mary Kish]

It was bad.

[Chris Plant]

Got. Got you good.

[Mary Kish]

I. Oh, you guys. You should have seen the look on your face.

[Mike Mahari]

Idiot. Mary, remind us the name of your team.

[Mary Kish]

The Pinsy Lohands.

[Mike Mahari]

What was the offensive one that you.

[Mary Kish]

Did not go with full penetration.

[Mike Mahari]

That was better.

[Chris Plant]

I remember that one. I. Yeah, yeah.

[Mary Kish]

It was not allowed.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah. There are times where I'm. You've said a few things. I just over the years. Where I will clip it and send it to Mike to file under Black blackmail. It's not fair. If I had your discord, I would do the same for you.

[Mary Kish]

Thank you.

[Chris Plant]

Anytime. Mike says things.

[Mike Mahari]

Oh, yeah. You got. You got plenty of. You got dirt on me.

[Chris Plant]

There's some. There's some bad ones. There's some real bad ones. There was definitely a time where I probably should have stopped listening as somebody who asked to report things to hr, but I was happy not to, you know.

[Mike Mahari]

Oh, yeah.

[Chris Plant]

Where it worked out in the long run.

[Mike Mahari]

Yeah. We're doing fine now.

[Mary Kish]

You owe nobody nothing.

[Chris Plant]

I don't know anybody.

[Mary Kish]

You're your own HR I like.

[Chris Plant]

Except for my patrons who I love. And I'm so glad that you've chosen to be one of them.

[Mary Kish]

Are they hr? In a way.

[Chris Plant]

Are they. What?

[Mary Kish]

Are they your hr?

[Chris Plant]

I mean, they're everything. They can decide to not pay me anymore.

[Mike Mahari]

I. I don't know if this qualifies as low stakes. I like Body slam. Scammed a toddler the other day on accident.

[Mary Kish]

What?

[Mike Mahari]

So I guess I could. That. I guess that counts as a up.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah. Dog.

[Mike Mahari]

It was fine. It wasn't. It actually. It kind of really was not my fault.

[Chris Plant]

It was the toddlers.

[Mike Mahari]

I was on a. I was on a run in the morning. And I will say the one thing I could have done better is not go for a run when like students at the elementary school, middle school, high school. I live in a town that city is literally a square mile. Mile. So there's one two times a day when like all the students are either coming or going from. To. Or from their school. I should not go for a run when that's happening because the streets are flooded with parents and kids and whatnot. So I was running in the bike lane on the street to get off the sidewalk because, again, the sidewalks are crowded. And I was running in the bike lane, which is kind of where pedestrians. You're not technically supposed to. But it just. It happens here because our streets are natural arrow. And at a certain point I realized I just kind of. You know how you. When you're crossing the street, you can see a tell. A driver does not see you and might hit you. So you just kind of have to let them do their thing. I. In order to avoid that happening. For a driver that was gonna. Was looking down the one way, the wrong way he was about to turn, I was like, this driver doesn't see me, so I'm gonna dart into the sideways sidewalk. So I darted between two cars from the bike lane to the sidewalk, and I dodged one kid. I was like, oh, right, there are kids. And I was like, coming down off that because I had dodged. So I was like, oh, I got to be more careful. And then so I kind of let my guard down. And all of a sudden this kid runs out from their front yard in front of their brownstone. And I like, I hit him pretty hard. I wasn't thank, like, thankfully I was not at my full speed. Like, full speed. Like, I don't know what the mile.

[Chris Plant]

Which is like, super fast.

[Mike Mahari]

Good thing I. Good thing I wasn't at my 3 and a half minute mile speed because that would have been.

[Chris Plant]

That kid would be dead.

[Mike Mahari]

That kid would be on the pavement.

[Chris Plant]

Tomato soup, man.

[Mike Mahari]

Anybody got a fucking shovel to get this kid off the sidewalk? No, I. I hit this kid and he went down, thankfully into the, like, soil around the tree. Not the sidewalk. The sidewalk. And I like, immediately. But like, here's the thing. His dad was like, oh, no, he ran in the way. He was. He's being an idiot. I was like, okay. Where's. Like, is he okay? He's like, yeah, he's fine. The kid didn't even like, cry or anything. And I, I like decked him.

[Chris Plant]

Nah, I felt like they're made of something else. Yeah, they have the ability to bounce back.

[Mike Mahari]

I live in, like, prime. To be fair, any parent should be concerned if their kid gets body slammed by a stranger. But like, I live in prime angry, angry parent, freak out, parent territory. So I was like, oh, I'm not gonna hear the end of this. I'm gonna have to like, this is. They're gonna call the cops. And I was like, I'm so sorry. I was, I just, I was coming off the street so I didn't get hit by a car. Basically, it's. Sorry, it's very crowded. That was totally on me. Is he okay? He's like, yeah, he's fine. He's an idiot. I was like, all right. And I. And then I left. So I guess I. Fucking up. But also this kid, he was, he ran out, like, onto the crowded sidewalk, like, without looking. Yeah, I shouldn't have been running. My fault. To be clear, it was not the toddler's fault. I don't want to be blaming him. I'm just getting ahead of the people who think I like and blame the toddler. I'm not. If anything, the dad was probably too chill about what happened, but I'm not a parent. I'm not about to criticize how they parent. He knows his kid better than I do.

[Mary Kish]

He knew.

[Mike Mahari]

What do I know?

[Mary Kish]

Kid was an idiot. Immediately, you, you hurt his child. And his immediate reaction was, my stupid child was in your way. Good sir, enjoy your run?

[Mike Mahari]

Yeah, no, I, I didn't even, I really didn't. Didn't know how to process it because I just kept running. You know, I had, I had a, I had a 315mile to run. You know what I mean? But that's actually not low stakes, but. Low stakes. Yeah. I mean, to Alex's point, I, I up in the kitchen, like every night. But, you know, you, you improv. That's why I don't like baking. Because you fuck up baking and it just doesn't work over the chemistry. The science is not there. It does. It comes out mush or it comes out, like, disgusting cooking. You can cover up your mistakes. That's why I like cooking.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah, I was making some salmon in the oven for my wife and my, my, my in laws live near us. But I was going out to the movie. I was like, oh, I got it in the oven. I got it all. So the alarm went off on my phone to let me know, hey, you gotta go take that out. And I was like, yeah, yeah, I'm gonna go do that.

[Mary Kish]

I know.

[Chris Plant]

Phone. Got to go do that.

[Mary Kish]

I know. Time.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah. And then I forgot. And it was like 10 minutes passed, and here's what I did. They weren't back yet. Put it in the fridge. I was like, oh, yeah, you can warm it up whenever you're ready. And then when they're like, oh, yeah, this is like, it was a little bit tough. I was like, oh, yeah, you overheated it.

[Mary Kish]

You gaslit them. You told them it was their fault.

[Chris Plant]

Damn right it did.

[Mike Mahari]

Yeah, pretty smart. Do you eat a lot of salmon, by the way?

[Chris Plant]

Yeah, of course I do.

[Mike Mahari]

Well, sorry, I love oats.

[Chris Plant]

I can't wait for this joke.

[Mike Mahari]

It's not a joke. I was gonna tell you. I was gonna tell you my favorite way to prepare salmon, which I like.

[Chris Plant]

Oh, no, please. Now I do want to hear it.

[Mike Mahari]

Please. Miso glazed, like, marinated all day, and then just straight up, put the top rack of the oven right under the broiler, broil it for like, five minutes. The miso glaze gets, like, caramelized, and then it's just fucking perfect. Unless it's a very fat piece of salmon. Then you have to break it.

[Chris Plant]

Do you cook it for like, maybe like, 10, and then you broil it the last five or whatever?

[Mike Mahari]

Oh, no, it's just broiling, baby.

[Chris Plant]

Just broiling.

[Mike Mahari]

That's it. Yeah, yeah.

[Chris Plant]

Is it raw?

[Mike Mahari]

No, I take it out. It's room temperature for a while, like an hour beforehand. But yeah, it's raw salmon.

[Chris Plant]

Oh.

[Mike Mahari]

Unless, again, unless you have, like, a fat piece of salmon. I mean, broiling is easy for the eye test. It's like a. It'll split in the middle, and you can tell when it's done.

[Chris Plant]

Oh, okay. So it's. It's cooked all the way through.

[Mike Mahari]

Oh, yeah. I'm not. I'm. I. If anything, I'm kind of guilty of overcooking salmon. I don't love undercooked. I mean, I like. I like crudo or I like. Or I like sushi, but I don't love the flaky or.

[Chris Plant]

It needs to be sushi.

[Mike Mahari]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Flaky. It gets flaky when you broil it. It goes quickly and especially, like, my oven rack is right there on the flame. It's like. It's like Burger King style, but miso glaze. Get some mirin. Get some soy sauce. Get the miso itself. I use light miso recently.

[Chris Plant]

You're right. Yeah.

[Mike Mahari]

Hell, yeah. And then you can add a little bit, like, a shot of sake in there if you want. Give it a little bit of kick. Actually, it doesn't even translate to a kick. Obviously, when you're cooking it, it's more of, like, you get that actual, like, sweet rice flavor. It's really good.

[Chris Plant]

Sounds great.

[Mike Mahari]

Do you know it is. I'll send you the of rest.

[Chris Plant]

The problem for me, I was so into cooking until, I don't know, around when our kid turned like, two or three. And then I was like, you know what? What if my salmon recipe is I cook the salmon?

[Mike Mahari]

Your kid doesn't like miso glazed salmon?

[Chris Plant]

No, I'm not. No. I mean, he actually. Honestly, he probably would love it. He actually likes flavors. But it's the worst where I'm like, what if I just make basic salmon and then it's like, oh, this time I put some of those leftovers On a piece of bread. And this time I put some of those leftovers on some arugula. And this time I put some. Talk to me, baby. On some, like, some pasta with a little olive oil.

[Mike Mahari]

And then you're putting it on gummy bears. No. Ain't no rules in the. In the plant household.

[Chris Plant]

No rules.

[Mike Mahari]

But no, I'll send you that recipe. You put it on a bed of, like, basmati rice. And then. And then you take the sauce that it was marinating in, and you reduce that a bit. And then you kind of just drizzle it over everything. And then some chives on. On top. Maybe some breadcrumbs if you're feeling spicy. Oh, yeah. It's the best thing ever. But, yeah, I. I fuck up in the kitchen all the time. I can't think of any other. Loath steaks, things I fucked up with.

[Mary Kish]

It's just, like, life stuff that's supposed to be, like, kind of embarrassing. I do it so much in my friend circle. Like, I'm so notorious for, like, saying or doing something that's just like, you fucking idiot.

[Mike Mahari]

Getting a fight with Jersey moms.

[Mary Kish]

That there's a catchphrase phrase that they have, and it's just, mary, Mary, Mary. And that's what they say when I say or do something stupid.

[Mike Mahari]

I can hear Josh saying that in my head.

[Mary Kish]

Mary, Mary.

[Chris Plant]

Okay, this is like a small. A small bug, but it's like maybe my favorite small up that I have from when I. I have been married for a very long time, but when I was in high school, I don't want to frag. I went on a few dates.

[Mike Mahari]

Ooh, Lothario.

[Chris Plant]

I know. It was pretty cool. And there.

[Mike Mahari]

That's. It's not what I. That's not the way I was going. But, yeah, sure, Mary. Just chiming in the back. Slut.

[Mary Kish]

Go on, tell us your story.

[Mike Mahari]

Chris Plant was so more like Chris planting ass all over Kansas City. That's what they said.

[Chris Plant]

Sorry. I went on this date with this girl, and I will not name names because of where the story goes, but I picked her up, and she would always wear this, like, a ribbon around her neck. And everybody was like, why does she always wear this ribbon around her neck? I was like, oh, man, I have to know. Right? Right. So anyway, we go on this date. Mary, are you okay? Yeah. We go on this date, and then it, like, goes really well.

[Mary Kish]

Horror book. Like, it's just like. I got.

[Chris Plant]

And then I. No, no. And. And anyway, so I was like, oh, my gosh. Like, here we are, we've had a great night. We, like went to the movies and then we like kind of like found like, you know, like they have these.

[Mary Kish]

An alcove to make out.

[Chris Plant]

An alcove. Make out spot. And I was like, oh, but before we make out, I need to like, what's up with the ribbon? I can't tell you. And I was like, oh, just like as a goof. I was like, oh, okay, well, I'll just pull it. I pulled it and her head fell off.

[Mike Mahari]

Shut up.

[Chris Plant]

I'm not even joking, dog. I'm not even joking.

[Mike Mahari]

It's like a Norm MacDonald bit.

[Mary Kish]

This is a fucking like straight up like Gingee Ito, like. No, this is worse than that. This is a. That's good. This is like a. Are you a super low stomach dark story? You the whole time and I.

[Chris Plant]

The weird thing is, if you're curious.

[Mary Kish]

I did have sex with her.

[Mike Mahari]

Yes, yes, he made out with her.

[Mary Kish]

Regardless, I did get some do not tell my wife.

[Mike Mahari]

A baddie crane.

[Mary Kish]

We went all the way. That is. I fucking. I think the reason I kept laughing.

[Chris Plant]

It was just some stem research.

[Mary Kish]

I knew from the moment you said ribbon.

[Chris Plant]

Well, I knew.

[Mike Mahari]

I like, this is. This sounds like an old timey.

[Mary Kish]

I fucking knew it. Oh my God.

[Mike Mahari]

George Carlin ass. All right, thank you, Alex from Bendigo, Australia. All right, last question. I'll read this one. Hello, escape artists. About a month ago, I got a 20 pound weighted vest to wear when I go running. It's been a great way to get a leg workout while also doing cardio. About a week ago, after using it consistently, my wife stopped me and said, that vest is really working. Your butt is looking nice. Friends, I cannot tell you how that sent me over the moon. In my 35 years of life, no one has ever complimented my backside on account of it being non existent. Needless to say, I will continue using this vest. So what was the last thing that you set out to improve upon through exercise or therapy or intellectual tasks? Tasks that someone then complimented you on. Not sarcastically. Love the show and I hope you enjoy your spoopy season. Jake from Media Skate Farm Media, Pennsylvania. He in parentheses.

[Chris Plant]

He just.

[Mike Mahari]

I think he was just clarifying. It's not Medea said media. Maybe we mispronounce it in the past. We don't ever mispronounce things. The last thing you set out to improve upon through exercise, therapy, intellectual test, someone then complimented you on. God, I get so many compliments. Hold on, let me, let me rack my.

[Chris Plant]

It.

[Mike Mahari]

This is not the same exact thing. Mary, you were like years late to a compliment. I will say that I did still appreciate Plant. I don't know if you've heard the story. I think we talked about Fire escape before. The reason I know we've talked about how anger is one of my motivators when trying to learn a new skill. Sometimes Mary once, like Jake Decker and I, Jake who produces Fire Escape, we had a working relationship on the show called Reboot, which was video essays where I would write it and I guess direct it as much as you could direct something like that. Jake would do the editing, so Jake would do most of it, but I would write the script. So then at happy hour one night, we were just. Someone was, I think someone complimented, like an episode of Rebuild Reboot. And Mary nearby me is like, oh, oh, the show that. That. That Jake makes and Mike takes credit for or something. So I got like, furious. So that night, instead of going home after happy hour, I don't. I was probably nine beers deep. I went back to the office and this was right around the corner. To be clear, we're at Kate o'. Brien's. I remember it because I remember the feeling, the rage I felt when you said that. And to be clear, Jake is. Was integral to the show. Jake is integral to many things. Yeah, yeah. But it still pissed me off that you said that to me.

[Mary Kish]

So in front of all of our.

[Mike Mahari]

Friends and coworkers, I knew very basic video editing. But the reason I, like, consider myself skilled at it now is because that night I went back and I'm like, I'm going to fucking show her. So then, like, the next episode, not the next episode. Jake was still editing the majority of those episodes after that. But there was one that I edited by myself because I think Jake was on a shoot somewhere else and I, like, was waiting for Mary to say, hey, I noticed you edit that yourself. Nope. Compliment never came. So then every single video I ever edited in every episode of Reboot was basically just me waiting for a compliment from Mary that never came. But then years later, you're like, I think we were recording this show, like episode 10, and you're like, yeah, you're a good video editor. I was like, what the fuck?

[Chris Plant]

It's good.

[Mike Mahari]

I don't know if that answers the question, but I set out on that intellectual skill based task and I completed it through rage.

[Mary Kish]

Embarrassed. Publicly.

[Mike Mahari]

I was not embarrassed. To be clear, I want to. I want to say it was not.

[Chris Plant]

Like, let me be clear. I'm not mad. I'm not mad.

[Mike Mahari]

That's the thing. A very big gulf between embarrassed and angry.

[Chris Plant]

I'm embarrassed.

[Mike Mahari]

I don't plant you very, like, willy nilly with your word choice. You don't really care.

[Chris Plant]

Where.

[Mary Kish]

Where was your anger anger from?

[Chris Plant]

It was.

[Mary Kish]

It was from the truth of it.

[Mike Mahari]

Yes, but I wasn't embarrassed. It was. I was angry. Yes. It was from the truth. I was angry that you.

[Mary Kish]

Plant.

[Chris Plant]

I wasn't embarrassed. I was just humiliated. Yeah. That's all it was. I was just really very different. Angry and upset. Humiliated and not embarrassed.

[Mike Mahari]

I didn't pee my pants.

[Mary Kish]

I was relieved.

[Chris Plant]

I was ashamed. I was humiliated, but I was not embarrassed.

[Mike Mahari]

I went back and watched some porn, and then I learned how to edit video.

[Mary Kish]

I got back on that horse.

[Mike Mahari]

Yeah, I.

[Chris Plant]

That's pissed me off.

[Mary Kish]

I. I don't regret it. I did. At some point, I thought I really hurt your feelings and have. I do have a history of my friends being like, yo, you went too far. But, like, you.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

Learned a skill as a result of it. You learned a skill as a result of it. And I think that is.

[Mike Mahari]

It's not just a skill. It's like an I. Like, I. It's a skill set. Like, I. It was very. It's very useful and. And I enjoy it and fun. But still, you plant. Has anybody compliment your butt lately?

[Chris Plant]

Oh, people are always complimenting my butt. Can I be real with you? Yes. Really embarrassing. I.

[Mary Kish]

You are gonna start it with, can.

[Mike Mahari]

I be real for you?

[Mary Kish]

Because people always compliment my butt.

[Chris Plant]

I can't remember anyone complimenting my butt. And yet I. I, like, have never gone on Facebook. Like, I do not use Facebook, Right?

[Mary Kish]

No.

[Chris Plant]

And then I was like, Somebody's like, hey, you gotta see what your uncle was saying on Facebook. This is not about my. But. And I was like, oh, okay. So I sign in, and then I see, like, a random person.

[Mary Kish]

I'm dialing 9 1, and the further you go with this story, I'm gonna dial one again.

[Chris Plant]

I see a random friend from high school who's, like, doing, like, this amazing work with, like, a great, like, charity in Kansas City. I was like, oh, this is great. I should message them and be like, hey, I just saw this. I, you know, I haven't seen your bird, but really incredible what you did.

[Mike Mahari]

Proud of you.

[Chris Plant]

And then I couldn't do it.

[Mike Mahari]

It.

[Chris Plant]

Because the last message was from 2007, and it was her being like, where that cute butt at? And I was like, I can't respond to this ever. I can never message you. Here. Because the first thing that you will see is our last message from almost 20 years ago with you being like, where that cute butt at? Too uncomfortable? No, the question was, like, where have you grown? Or whatever. That's basically it, right? Like, where have you put in time?

[Mary Kish]

Yeah.

[Chris Plant]

That's the question.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

Can I tell you, where's your cute butt at?

[Chris Plant]

Speaking of motivation.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah.

[Chris Plant]

Making post games, making a podcast where it's like, I'm gonna do every damn part of this. I'm gonna book my thing, I'm gonna produce it, I'm gonna write the script, I'm gonna perform it, I'm gonna interview, I'm gonna edit it, and I'm gonna learn how to do all of the. That right now, even though I don't actually know how to do any of it, is a really motivating thing of just, like, I bet I can do all of it, and I won't need anybody's help. It is extremely humbling, and yet it does feel amazing. And it's so good. Like, this is a thing with, like, I've been learning Japanese. I am really at that point where I know I will never be even remotely good at it. I fully hit the, like, oh, I'm gonna never be even close to good at this. But the thing that everybody tells you to do when you live in this zone is, like, just go back to whatever you were doing two years ago, and it's amazing when you go back to, like, what you were doing two years ago, and you just can, like, crush it, and you're like, oh, yeah, I did get a little better. This is nice. And then you, like, try to talk. You're like, sumi masen kurisu dese watashi no namae wa k days.

[Mike Mahari]

Exactly.

[Mary Kish]

Killing it Kudasai I people. I will say, like, anyone, anytime you're. You're speaking Japanese, everyone is so polite to say, your Japanese is really good. And that's just like, a lovely thing where you're like, shut up. And you can never.

[Chris Plant]

They love when you say that in Japan.

[Mary Kish]

Shut the up. You never know when someone's being authentic. Authentic. But I do think that when someone reviews you genuinely and decides to give you five stars, that it is a authentic appreciation and compliment of your work. And to have 288 of them.

[Chris Plant]

Oh, wow.

[Mary Kish]

I think is probably one of the nicest compliments a person can have with their podcast. And so I just want to say you have a perfect review score, and that is. Is a genuine compliment from people who like your Work.

[Chris Plant]

My therapist is so in my head right now being like, just receive a nice thing and just receive a nice compliment.

[Mary Kish]

Except I didn't even do it. I. I'm. They've deserved it.

[Chris Plant]

I left the one star review.

[Mary Kish]

I'm letting you know. No, I wouldn't. Because then your average. Your average wouldn't be five. I. I'm just saying, you. It's very obvious that there are hundreds of people that have like, gone out of their way. And for every review, we always know that there's, like, probably a hundred people who are just, like, listening. So it's, like, wonderful to, like, to see that type of affirmation of your work. So that has to feel very good. It has to.

[Chris Plant]

It feels so good. And also just doing the job feels good.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah.

[Chris Plant]

Can I be real? Like, it. I am so incredibly live. Yeah. Complex feelings about Polygon and happy that it still exists. Happy that some people still have jobs. Very depressed about the many people who I don't. But the job I have right now is, like, my dream job. It is so good, and it's so weird to have your dream job. I think the good thing is I briefly had my dream job for, like, a year between when I was freelancing in New York. And I know, like, oh, you only get to have it for short periods. So this time around, I'm, like, 40, and I have it, and I'm like, I don't know how long this will last, but I'm going to hold onto it for dear life because it's so wild when I. You have it and you know you have it. Like, it's like a double whammy.

[Mary Kish]

I think that's beautiful. And it's so good. It probably. People probably don't get to, like, I don't know you that well, but I think you should know, like, that's such a point of pride to be able to do what you love. And you should be so proud of what you've made and what you've accomplished in your career. And that's really exciting. I'm really happy for you. You, Chris. Thank you.

[Chris Plant]

Thank you. It's the best.

[Mike Mahari]

Yeah. Good for you.

[Chris Plant]

Mike's just mad because Mike was gonna throw a Smash Brothers party at his wine bar, and it didn't come together, and I didn't get to come, and he didn't get to see me, and he's. He's sad. We're gonna see each other very soon.

[Mike Mahari]

It's gonna be.

[Mary Kish]

That would be good for you.

[Chris Plant]

And the great thing is, I'M gonna be on the show in, like, 70 episodes, so.

[Mary Kish]

It's true. Who knows where you'll be in another 70, I would like to think, because every time we've. We've had you on, you've gotten better and better. So the next time you're gonna be like, you know, governor or something.

[Chris Plant]

I don't know. It's gonna fall, you know, I don't. Governor of California.

[Mary Kish]

You can't live your life in constant excellence. At some point, it's gotta crash.

[Chris Plant]

Don't worry. But the good thing about it, between. Yeah, there was a lot of hills and valleys in there. You just happen to be. Catch me on a hill. Marty got to see something. He's keenly aware it was not all climb.

[Mike Mahari]

Oh, no, I'm. I'm well aware.

[Mary Kish]

I've had a lot of ups and downs in my life, and I've. I think, like, most especially most women, I've, like, wrestled with whether or not, like, I fit in and whether or not I can, like, do this and be accepted into this space. Space. And being called a baddie.

[Chris Plant]

Isn'T it real.

[Mary Kish]

Is a peak compliment for me that I will have forever. You can't take that.

[Chris Plant]

You said that, though, like, she was 13.

[Mary Kish]

She could have ruined me.

[Chris Plant]

Is there a better place, though, to, like, chat, like, to go talk? Because, you know, like, you can get the thing where it's like, oh, I talked at this prestigious college. I did, like, a commencement speech or any. Anything. But going back to your junior high or high school, it might be the best place to be able to go. There's something, like, very. I don't know, that feels very circular in a way that I am envious of.

[Mary Kish]

It felt gratifying to me that I went to a place where I was mercilessly made fun of. I was brutally taken a down at my 13. I had shot up like a weed at 13. I was so tall and I had no anything. I was just a twig of a girl.

[Mike Mahari]

Did you have a nickname?

[Mary Kish]

I. I mean, nothing was. There was nothing nice. I. I remember people called me Ghost because I was so pale.

[Mike Mahari]

I was Ghost Gumby.

[Mary Kish]

They. I was like the house that everyone TP'd at Halloween.

[Chris Plant]

Wow. I. Oh, but hey, hey, if you in the house and everyone tp, that means, like, people had crushes on you. That's usually what.

[Mary Kish]

That's what parents say. Those were.

[Chris Plant]

No, it's. It's also true.

[Mary Kish]

Those were true.

[Chris Plant]

I can say that as a boy who TPed.

[Mike Mahari]

All right, well, my oldest brother Went to egg the house of a teacher who him and his friends hated and they got the. They did the house next door to her house.

[Chris Plant]

Oh, no.

[Mike Mahari]

Which is one of my favorite stories in my family's life. Like in the. In the lore of my family from then on. He was, I like to think, a bit more humbled. But anyway, sorry, that was a non separate. Mary. I'm pretty sure they all just thought you were. Yeah, they had crushes on you, so they wanted attention, so they TP'd your house.

[Mary Kish]

I am telling you with all sincerity, I was struggling with who I was and everything at 13. And it was. It was a real tough go for me during that era. And I felt bullied a lot and was. Was pushed around a lot. So to go back to that space and be in that environment and have middle schoolers be like, you're cool. Felt like a million dollars. There's no price I could put on that.

[Chris Plant]

I'm not trying to victim blame. I want to be really clear here. I'm not trying to victim blame. Do you think it might have been because you kept wearing that shirt that said Eat Pray Game?

[Mary Kish]

I. I will never question my stylistic choices of nineteen 1998, which I was so cool. Everybody knew that you wanted to wear the widest of jeans, which are back, back in action, by the way, big time. So who's laughing now? Me.

[Mike Mahari]

Not me.

[Mary Kish]

Take that. That.

[Mike Mahari]

All right, well, thank you to. Is that Josh? Jake from Media Pennsylvania. That's our show right in firescapecast gmail.com for next episode. Fill up dad inbox. Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

Phillip.

[Mike Mahari]

Dad box. It was good to have you back.

[Chris Plant]

Oh, good to be here.

[Mike Mahari]

Really quick housekeeping stuff. While I interrupt you. December 6th game of the Year Fire Escape. We'll be having our official Game of the Year live stream. We're. We're descending on Minneapolis. As always, Jake, Mary, Dan and I will be there. Yeah, that'll probably be on Dan's Twitch channel, I believe. Twitch TV. DanReicher. As we usually do. We'll let people know if that's not the case. We will also be. I don't know, we might be doing some like, bonus video stuff. We usually do at least one while we're there. Not positive on that yet, but yeah, that's coming up in about a month and a half or so. And outside of that. Yeah, that's about it.

[Mary Kish]

Tell us what's going on in your world. What do you have coming up? You're always playing these weird, wacky games, obviously.

[Mike Mahari]

Yeah. What's Going on with. With the besties. What's going on with.

[Chris Plant]

What do I have coming up? Besties is, you know, it's the same every week. We play new games. It's this original idea that we've been working on.

[Mary Kish]

Incredibly neat.

[Chris Plant]

Four white men playing video games. And they talk about it each week.

[Mary Kish]

I gotta know what they're thinking.

[Chris Plant]

You gotta know, what are we thinking? And then on post games, I have a bunch of cool stuff coming up. I have my calendar through February set, so there's some bonkers stuff. One thing I'm bugging both of you off Mike about is I have a Thanksgiving special that I am putting together and I would love to. For both of you to help me with it. So people should subscribe before Thanksgiving so they can hear that there's a whole bunch of people who are going to be on it. And then other stuff that I have coming up. The next episode is. Oh, I have an episode that is coming up in the next few weeks that is about the scariest game I have seen this year that is very much not a scary game. What? And a real person died in relation to this game, not while making it. I'll just tell you what it is because it's too weird to talk about. Involves a recreation of a very infamous cave. It's really, really weird and dark. And I talked to the person who made it and it is an episode.

[Mike Mahari]

You should check out.

[Mary Kish]

What? I have to know more. I. Spelunky. Did they die in the cave?

[Chris Plant]

Lunking. Yeah. Yeah, it's. It's so scary.

[Mary Kish]

Do you know that's like the most popular thing on TikTok is like just people being like, this guy got into this cave and then he couldn't get out and then he fucking.

[Chris Plant]

That's what the game is. It is the video game version of that in VR.

[Mary Kish]

This is going to be your next popular video. Make sure that the audio is. You can like get paid for it.

[Chris Plant]

Okay. Okay, great. Great. I want to make sure.

[Mary Kish]

Don't.

[Mike Mahari]

Don't do it yourself.

[Mary Kish]

Fuck up. This is the one. I'm telling you. These are like the most popular. They're. Most of them are AI and they're fake, right? Like, it's just like.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah, they're like, no, this is big time real. And the way that it went down was one of the scariest things I've ever heard.

[Mike Mahari]

What?

[Chris Plant]

Yeah.

[Mike Mahari]

Yeah, I'll listen to that.

[Chris Plant]

It's good. You should check it out.

[Mary Kish]

I gotta know about this Spelunker. People are crazy. Why Would you get into holes?

[Chris Plant]

I'll tell you about it.

[Mary Kish]

Like, don't go in there.

[Mike Mahari]

If only they were an NPR style podcast.

[Mary Kish]

I just like, don't understand why anyone would get into a. That you feel like might not be big enough for you. Like, why don't clip that?

[Mike Mahari]

We need Dan. Where's Dan when you need him?

[Chris Plant]

I know.

[Mike Mahari]

I think you just answer your own question.

[Mary Kish]

I just like, I think it's a crazy decision, but anyway, it is.

[Chris Plant]

It's a bad. I do not go into.

[Mike Mahari]

Holes that might not be big enough for me. I do. Go ahead, Mary. What have you been up to? What do you have coming up?

[Mary Kish]

I honestly been traveling so much that I haven't had a minute to stream and I feel really bad. I've like broken my stream streak for like three weeks because I keep traveling. But when this airs, I should be back back on my Monday streaming action. I have some collabs coming up with some of my friends. We'll be playing some games, especially for Halloween. And I'll also be doing a charity game for St. Jude called Metal Meals where I stream making like a meal that's very like metal music in my kitchen. I don't actually know what I'm gonna make yet, but I'm excited for the concept of Metal Meals. So we'll be listening to metal music and making something cool.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

For the kids.

[Chris Plant]

All right.

[Mike Mahari]

You. You. You do charities for them? I body slam them. Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

We all have children in our own way.

[Chris Plant]

All right.

[Mary Kish]

I didn't lie. He exists.

[Mike Mahari]

Yeah. And then. And the kids knew about him. All right, that is episode 119. We will be back in two weeks. I believe it'll be the full crew. Plant won't be here. Maybe will. I don't know. You could just hang around and.

[Mary Kish]

Don't say that. We don't know any episode.

[Mike Mahari]

He might be lurking.

[Chris Plant]

I'm the new Dan.

[Mike Mahari]

Go listen to Post Games. Go. Go follow Post Games. Go review it. Give it A good review.

[Mary Kish]

5 stars.

[Mike Mahari]

Keep up on the upcoming episodes. Catch up in the meantime. And yeah, we'll be prepping for game of the Year in December if you want to get some merch to support us. So that's. We officially finally have fire escape. Merch.com. i got around to doing the very simple task of getting it so it's not a bit anymore. Yeah, go check it out. Get some banana hammocks. Get some trunks.

[Chris Plant]

Still selling those shirts with the Jedi mind Warrior.

[Mike Mahari]

I don't know what you're talking about. That is our episode. We will be. Okay, good.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

You got it.

[Chris Plant]

Okay, perfect. I'm ordering that right now.

[Mary Kish]

Get it for your As a Christmas gift for your loved ones.

[Chris Plant]

Oh, there's coasters.

[Mike Mahari]

Oh, there's mugs, too, I think.

[Chris Plant]

Computer mat.

[Mike Mahari]

Yeah, mouse pad. All right, go buy those about the author things. All right. We'll be back in two weeks. Until then, see ya.

[Mary Kish]

Bye.