← Fire Escape Cast
Fire Escape Cast
Fire Escape Cast #124
02:09:15
This week Dan gives an update on his Sektori obsession, Mary shares her thoughts on Dunecrawlers, and Mike returns to Shadow Gambit.
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Transcript1,027 lines
- [00:00]
A
Foreign.
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B
What is the deal? Jessica Biel. We are back with more fire escape cast. It's episode 124. It is 36 degrees Fahrenheit in Juneau, Alaska. I'm your host, Michael Maharti, here as always with Mary Kish.
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C
Hello.
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B
And Dan Reichert.
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A
I don't think it's getting better. The intro, I think it's.
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B
I think it sounded pretty smooth. If I don't say so myself. If I do say so myself.
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C
Straight line.
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A
It is still bad.
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C
Progressed. Nor has it declined.
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A
I can.
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B
I can try again.
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A
All right.
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C
What rhymes?
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B
That's exactly what I'm thinking. I thought I came up with Jessica Biel at like 10am today. I was like, oh, I'm gonna use that. No, I don't feel like doing it again. We're in the show. What's going on with you two?
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A
Oh, hanging out. I don't have anything second waiting for a follow up and I didn't have anything.
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B
I was just about to say it's 2026 now, but we literally recorded on New Year's Day this year.
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C
Yeah. Surprising still when it was like the break, for lack of a better term, quote unquote, where we weren't technically back into the grind. And now I am back into the grind. And it hits different when you gotta go to work in the morning.
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B
Yeah, we're back at it.
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A
And none of us have to like, go into a place. Right.
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B
Supposed to once a week.
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A
Oh, yeah. You go in once a week.
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C
I love the remote life. But I will also say it comes with this, like, additional labor that I have very little work life separation. And I am constantly plagued with like, thinking about work, even at like 10pm on a Tuesday. Because my office is where I be gaming.
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B
I don't.
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A
So if you were playing a game, not for work or anything, you are.
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C
Doing it in the same room generally. But I actually, to fix that in 2026, I made a second office.
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A
Oh, wait. Is the room you're in now considered an office?
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C
Yes, absolutely. I mean, I mean, this is a closet, but yes, I have converted it into my office.
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B
If you're not. If you're not a video patron. It's a big. It's a room.
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A
Yeah, but like, doesn't look like a closet. I've been in that room. It's pretty big closets. I have. I have great closets. You take that.
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C
I can walk into your closets.
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A
I can walk in my closet.
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B
You want to watch me Fault. Do it. It's. He's got to dodge this shitty looking xenomorph.
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C
He's wearing. Wearing socks. Look at him shoving his body. He can't fit.
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B
He can't fit. It's going to pinch his dick in the crack, isn't it?
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C
Shoved his body into the closet.
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B
Quick, say something.
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A
Say something.
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B
He looks like he's stuck.
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C
Dan's.
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B
The mirror is just flexing as if he is stuck. I think he's. He's back. He's fine. He looks like he hurt himself. Hopefully he couldn't hear us. Okay, he's back. Yeah. So like then they were saying that I think the bill supposedly did make it past Congress, but now Senate is the one. Oh, sorry Dan, we got off on a tangent. What's up?
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A
Yeah, I can see I legitimately got stuck in there. I tried to immediately leave and then I couldn't thing. They don't. It's like, you know, like car trunks, you know, in case the mob throws you in there. They put like emergency things. They don't do that for closets.
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B
It turns out the mirror was flexing and I was like he might be stuck. But I think it's a bit. That's funny.
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C
You know why? Cuz you're not supposed to walk in there, Dan.
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B
It's not a walk in.
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A
Oh, I'm sure you got handles ahoy in all your closets.
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B
It's a sidling closet.
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C
It's a little too big, honestly.
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A
Oh yeah, yeah. I'm gonna start broadcasting from in there.
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C
Yeah, broadcasting that. Anyway, I. I associate this with work, even though it's for gaming and for fun. So I made a secondary desk set up so that I can associate this with fun. That was my hope.
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A
And then the other offices are on the boat on top of the mountain. The waterfall. Those are the other offices. Right.
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C
It's in the menagerie.
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A
I see, I see.
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B
Okay. An office behind a waterfall would be fucking sweet actually.
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A
Would be awesome.
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B
That'd be awesome.
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C
It's in the hallway above the stairs.
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A
It.
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B
Yeah, but no, it's a. It's a sizable closet. I will say that I love it.
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C
It's a. It's a cool. But this is, you know, this house was 1914. This is an old house.
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B
It's got 13 years on it.
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C
Weird stuff back then. And this was the attic because back then you had eight children and they all were in one bedroom and the mom and dad were in one bedroom and. And you sat around, you looked at the fire every night. And that's how they lived back then.
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A
Wait all the Kids were in the same bedroom.
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C
Yeah, there's. This is a two bedroom house, a hundred percent. And then sometime in 19 Dickity 2, they converted the attic into the upstairs. So all this is the attic of the house. I have no attic. This is the attic. And they convert it into the upstairs bedroom. And this is too small to be another bedroom. So it's a, it's a closet.
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A
Does it still get super hot in there?
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C
A.B. fucking lutely. There is no, there is no insulation. It is so hot. In the summer it's in. It's outrageous. And in the winter it gets pretty freaking cold. It's not a great space, temperature wise, but aesthetically it looks really nice.
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A
New house.
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B
I creep myself out. Last night I was on Reddit. I forget why I was looking through like through like a fucking some game. Oh, it was Warframe. I was on Warframe Reddit. But for some reason I was scrolling past a post on like our supernatural encounters, something like that. Every once in a while I just peek in because generally speaking, it's clearly, I think it's clearly staged things that people make out to be supernatural encounters in their home. So to me it's like a short story. Horror engineering. I saw one that was creepy and a lot of people were saying, bringing up stories about how people even in like the suburbs or in certain kinds of houses discovered that there was someone living in their attic for like a year or two. Like I saw a story about how.
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C
Someone, what are they called, like lounge lizards or something. I swear there's a lounge squatting a lot.
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B
Lizard is a sex worker in tractor trailer parking lots. I think that's what you're thinking of. Which tracks the.
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C
I mix them up all the time.
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B
Yeah, but like the. These people were saying, oh, they would hear noises at night and then they would be pretty positive someone was in their house or something like that. And then they'd be like, well, you should make sure all your doors are locked. They have the police come and one of the policemen asked if you're there. They had attic access. Policemen went up and found like Gatorade bottles full of urine and blankets and a lantern, like a Coleman lantern. And then when he went to the outside of the house, he saw a ventilation hole that was just had the vent removed and it was near a tree. So they're pretty sure someone crept up the tree and was like taking shelter in their attic crawl space for like a year or something like that.
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A
So like leaving during the day to eat and things like that, and then crawling up There at night to sleep.
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B
I guess so. Or vice versa. Going out at night to get fine food somehow and bringing it back during the day and lying low because there's other ones. There's creepy photos. And like, even. Even if many of these, I'm sure are staged, there's ones where people, you know, in the suburbs, a lot of people have like an attic above their garage, specifically space. There's photos of like one of them had a fridge in the garage with a couple boxes on top and then the attic entry hole. And they said they had never used the attic since they moved into the house. But there were like finger streaks in the dust on top of the boxes. Yeah, yeah. Which is very creepy to me. That's infinitely creepier than a ghost. There's a human being living in my space I didn't know about.
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A
So yeah, one can actually happen.
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B
So this morning at like 4 in the morning, I duct taped a knife to the end of my broom and just started poking dark spots in the.
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A
Corner.
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B
In the ceiling.
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C
Like your cats are like this. Trying to avoid these knives.
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A
Sounds like a Tears of the Kingdom weapon. Every time I.
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B
Actually stopped.
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C
Yeah, it was a very polite person.
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B
Oh, this is. Oh, I don't like this. Not a fan. But I don't want. But that's what I think about when I think about addicts now because of that, our supernatural post.
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C
Well, I live in my attic and I don't even pee in any Gatorade bottles.
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B
You are the attic person.
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C
I am the attic person.
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A
Just a whole family below you.
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B
So wondering why someone's streaming silksong at.
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C
Full volume at three in the morning screaming.
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B
She talks about how much she loves Lion King and CRTVs.
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A
They go upstairs and there's just six CRTs up there and a bunch of.
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C
Drinks and a bunch of pee. They hear I pay mortgage as much as I want.
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B
That'd be a sick ruse. If you've been paying their mortgage from their attic and they don't have to do.
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A
I'd let them say my attic if they pay the mortgage.
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B
Oldest grift in the book.
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C
I think if they helped out, I would be open to it. I would be open to a drifter.
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B
You're just describing a sublease. If they're paying part of the mortgage.
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A
No, I want to do like an illegal thing for years.
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C
I think we've. We're on to something here, Dan.
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A
I want to speak of weirder and more illegal though.
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B
Speaking of a grift, I watched the sting from like 1975 for the first time recently. It's on Netflix now. And I saw it. I've been. I've been mean to watch that for a while because I watched Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Same director, same duo, Paul Newman and Robert Redford. It's really good. It's. It's Chicago. Like, have you guys heard it referenced before?
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A
I've heard the name, I think. I don't know if I've ever seen this. I don't think I've ever seen a Robert Redford movie.
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B
It's referenced often. So generally speaking, they're trying to pull a big con on Robert Shaw. So. So this was what?
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A
Oh, I love Robert shaw.
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B
Jaws was 1970.
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A
76. 75.
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B
This was like, right around the same time. I think this was 1975. So Robert Shaw is this New York gangster essentially, who goes out to Chicago and he plays high stakes poker on the train to Chicago. Robert Redford is like this younger up and coming kid trying to. He's like a con man, but he's doing small jobs. And then he ends up pissing off, like, Robert Shaw's gang, gets into trouble, and then for one reason or another, ends up wanting revenge against Robert Shaw. So he goes to Paul Newman, who is this famous con man in Chicago, and they pull this huge. It's. It's basically a heist movie, but it's all about technically not doing anything illegal. They say that at the beginning, although I'm pretty sure they do several legal things. But they set up this elaborate wire room. It's. It's very Ocean's Eleven. But from 1976, I think I like.
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A
The, like, a good 70s heist movie, like Thief with Michael Mann, James Kahn. Like, that one's awesome.
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B
This one's like.
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A
I should check that out. I'm looking at his letterbox now. I don't think I've ever seen a Robert Redford movie.
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B
This thing is a solid two hours. I will say it's 1976. It was set in, I think, the 30s.
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A
He's Avengers.
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B
Was he really?
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A
How fucking old? He's in Adventures. Endgame.
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B
No, no, no.
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A
Insane.
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B
Yeah, he's an engine. But he died. Didn't he die two years ago or something like that?
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A
Died in September of last year.
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B
September.
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A
Months ago. Yeah.
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B
Yeah. This thing's awesome. Give it a watch, huh?
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A
Okay. I did think about watching Bonk and I for movie night last week. We're gonna watch the knives out thing off of what we talked about last.
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B
Oh, wake up, dead man.
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A
Thing is, though, we saw it was like two and a half. It was like 240 or something.
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B
Yeah.
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A
Sometimes you're not in the mood for a movie that long, you know?
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C
I agree. There's just no reason for it anymore.
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A
Yeah. We did 215. We did, yes. Badlands. It was like an hour 40. And so we did that instead.
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B
How was that?
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A
I liked a lot. Bonk did not love it. I. It was very stupid. And I just think I had to turn off the part of my brain where it was like a Predator movie, because, like, nothing like the Predator always looks cool as. But like, that first one, it's Arnold, it's Carl Weathers, it's Jesse Ventura. You are not going to match that movie. So I think it's just unfair to even remotely expect it to be like the first one at all. So I just kind of went in like that. And it's extremely video gamey. It's just like boss fights where you have to, like, throw gadgets into weak points. Like, you know, there's literally like big monsters that, like, open their mouths and he has to, like, throw a gadget in before he closes the mouth because that'll blow him up from the inside. There's just like an NPC that follows him around like a robot. And that's who El Fanning is. It's just boss fights and alien planets. Very Halo campaign. That. That type of feel to it.
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B
Sounds fun.
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A
I thought it was fun. It was stupid, but like an action romp.
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C
But it doesn't have any substance, and I don't think you're supposed to learn anything from it. I certainly did not. I. I was kind of laughing at the premise of it. Like, it's supposed to be a really serious premise. Am I allowed to say, like, the plot?
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A
Right?
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C
Yeah, yeah. Like, the premise is that in this movie, the main Predator, because that's a race of people, whatever they are, and they are killers, and they're all about being the biggest killer. That's their whole thing. But the main character that we're following is the runt of his family.
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A
Dak or something. Yeah, sure.
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C
And his older brother is, like, trying to get him up to speed, but he's so little that his dad is like, I'm gonna kill him because he's the weak link. And the brother is like, I will protect you. And that's kind of the crux of the whole movie is that, like, he's like, I'm gonna prove my dad that I'm not the runt.
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A
I'm gonna go true.
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B
These are all predators?
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C
Yes, they're all predators. They're all predators. With internal.
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B
I don't know that much about it.
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C
With internal family drama and.
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B
Go ahead.
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C
They have all these, like, you know, concerns and issues with each other. And this whole time this. The runt. So now he's like, I'm gonna go prove to my dad that I'm actually a really good predator. He's like, in this new area to take down this really big boss to prove that he's a good predator. He keeps making mistakes where I'm like, you know, he is kind of the weak run guy that should die. He tells his enemies his weaknesses. He gives unnecessary information to like. He is like, I'm really upset with my dad. And it's like, no predator should be telling random people about their dad issues. This guy is actually weak. He's actually not very good at being a predator. And maybe he's like a good character. And they tried to humanize him and they did that very good. But as far as a predator goes, that ain't any predator I know. A predator I know rips out spines and they do do this in this movie, but it's just not the way I wanted it. So I, I did not care for it, but I understand it. I was entertained by it. But when the credits rolled, I was like, it kind of irked me as a, as a predator movie. That guy was not a predator. That guy was a little wimpy boy who was trying to prove himself.
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A
I didn't expect it to be like just predators. It's like all predators. And then like Elle Fanning, basically, and she's a robot. And then it's like. So it starts out and it's. The whole beginning sequence is pretty long. And it's just like him and like the predator, the good run predator and his brother, like having like a trial by combat thing.
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C
Predator. They're. They're trying to predator each other and they're like, I'm the beggar predator.
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A
Yeah, yeah. And they're like flying around caves, like doing sword fights and like that. And it's just the way. It's just non stop. It's like like talking and then like it's doing like there are whole back and forth where it's like the two predators are looking at each other. And it's like at a certain point I turned a box. I was like, does it feel like there should be subtitles at this point? It's just like, yeah, this is weird. Oh, there weren't. It's. We were Watching on a plex server. And it's like, I. I didn't have it selected, and I turn it on and I go back and it's like, oh, they're just explaining the plot. Okay. Imagine watching the entire movie just goo goo gaba.
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C
This movie doesn't make any sense. Why are they constantly talking to each other? We can't understand what they're saying. And you're watching a French film.
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A
Yeah. Yeah. You know what? Think about it. I. I have. I. I never know if I've seen any movies with subtitles, and now I can say I have.
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B
Yeah. I'm proud of you.
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A
Yeah. Thank you. I'm really.
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C
Yeah.
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A
Gone above the other ones.
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B
I think you probably. You probably saw eight and a half a thousand blows, 100 blows. You probably saw a lot of Truffaut movies back in the day.
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C
What about that movie that everybody talked about?
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A
I'm looking at most famous movies with subtitles.
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B
Yeah.
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A
Look, I didn't go to film school. Yes.
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B
What movie are you talking about, Mary?
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A
Oh, Parasite.
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C
Parasite.
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A
I said, yeah, Parasite's great. I did see Parasite. Okay. That is. Oh, and I've seen Seven Samurai. I saw Rashomon. Okay. So I guess I've seen some. I. Well, I might have dubbed those, but Godzilla. Yeah. I fell asleep in that. I don't really count that saying it.
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C
I really liked Godzilla.
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A
I heard it was good.
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B
Speaking of Wake Up, Dead Man, I think that very well might have been my favorite movie of 2025.
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A
Really?
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B
Yeah.
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A
Number one, for real.
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C
Thanks, Mike.
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B
I'm not trying to transition. I actually did think it was my favorite movie.
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A
I need to see that.
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C
I appreciate that. I think it would be fun to think of our favorite 2025 movies, because my co workers did this, and I heard a movie that I had never heard of. Like, I was like, oh, why is this on everybody's list? I should watch it. And so I watched it, and now it's my favorite movie of 2025.
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B
What is it?
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C
It's called Train Dreams.
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B
Yeah. The book's one of my favorite top five books of all time.
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C
It is gutting. I was walking my dog the other day and thought about it and started crying.
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B
Joel Edgerton, William H. Macy. But the. So it's based on. It's based on a novella. Like, literally. I think it's like 102 pages about a guy who was, like, working on the railroad during the expansionist era of America. And he's in the woods, he starts doing some lumber work. But generally speaking, some shit happens. To him. And the book is just about how he's reacting to it. But yeah, it's gorgeous.
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C
It's, like, beautifully shot and it doesn't take itself too seriously. It's just beautiful, beautiful, cinematic shots of a dude living his life. Nothing crazy happens. This is not like a wild film. I would think that most people, possibly you, Dan, would say this movie is boring. And I cannot tell you how much this film moved me. I was. I was just blown away by it. It consumes me. I thought about it all night and all the next day, and I, like, can't stop thinking about it.
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A
I mean, if it's good, I'm fine with slow pace and, like, you know, because I saw so many were complaining about Pluribus being such a slow burn. And it's like, I fucking loved that season of Pluribus. So it's like, I can take a slow burn if I'm into the story.
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C
You know, I just thought it was phenomenal. Like, what a cool snapshot of, like, an average dude's life back then. Like, he's not special.
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B
It's Trained Dreams. Yeah, trained. It's a Netflix. Netflix, like, produced it, which is crazy. Not crazy. Netflix produces a lot, but yeah, that's definitely not the type of movie I would expect Netflix to produce.
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A
Sure.
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B
But no, the book. Dennis Johnson wrote the. The book is incredible. Like, you. You. If you both have, like, a weekend and want to read something, it's 102 pages. You can get through it quickly. It's literally like an actual small book, too. It won the Pulitzer that year, but which was kind of contentious because it was not like, sweeping work of literature that was winning it in years previous. But it's really, really good.
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A
Nice.
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B
Yeah. Train Dreams.
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A
That's your number one, Mary.
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C
That's my number one. And I didn't expect it. And it just shocked me that it was just randomly on a couple of my peers lists. And I was like, I guess I should see it. And I was like, holy shit. It's kind of like one of those things where, like, if enough people say to you, you have to see this film, you're going to watch it, because everybody's talking about it. But it was just in, like, five of my peers top tens. So that is on my. Yes, it is my. I think it is my favorite movie. I would absolutely put it in my top five. And so I was just curious what you guys think. It doesn't have to be Listicle, but what you think would definitely make your top five.
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A
I. I put mine Here. And I'm not going to count Naked Gun because I've already talked about that a ton and I did watch it six times this year. Naked Gun. So, like, I feel like my recommendation for Naked Gun is firmly established at this point. Yes, we know the five that I thought of here and none of these are like super deep cuts. I think everyone love these centers. Weapons. Bonia. I thought Bonia was awesome. One battle after another. And warfare. Warfare was the one I talked about before about that Iraq mission.
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C
Yeah.
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A
Yeah.
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C
That's a brutal.
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A
Yeah, those are. I. I loved all five of those.
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B
Yeah, I'm. I don't. I haven't ranked them, but I would say I'm. Wake Up, Dead Man.
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A
Sinners.
- [21:22]
B
One battle after another. Weapons. I don't know what my fifth would be. I'm not sure. I need to look up, look at the list. But yeah, sinners was fucking awesome. Yeah, I loved Weapons. Like saw weapons twice. But yeah, wake. I don't know. For those who are on the fence about watching Wake Up Dead Man, I had watched it and I told you guys about it. And then I went back to watch Knives out and Glass Onion and I made the joke about. I made the joke about like, that many people have made about Rian Johnson. Just about like his, his movies sometimes. Like, he's obviously like pretty leftist leaning in his movies. Often with this. His characters often are the good characters, quote, unquote. I think I like Wake Up Dead man because whereas Glass Onion especially felt like it was just very on the nose every step of the way with like, Billionaires are stupid and Bad. It's like, yes, we get it. Like, I get it. It felt like the whole movie for me and I'm being reductive, obviously, but Wake Up Dead man hit me very hard. I will definitely say I don't expect it to hit everybody the same way because on one level, it's a very good whodunit, I think in a small town, at a small town church in its community in central New York. But having grown up Catholic and now being an atheist, like being lapsed Catholic for much of my life, this movie hit me in a way I did not expect. Where Benoit Blanc, Daniel Craig's character, goes into it as an atheist who was born in the south to hardcore religious parents. And he's gay, so he's got reasons to be very anti religious. Josh o' Connor as Father Judd. Holy shit. Do you guys know who Josh o' Connor is? He was in Challengers, the tennis movie he was in. I think he's in the crown at some point. Him as Father Judd was one of my favorite characters this year outside of Michael B. Jordan as the two brothers. Holy shit. It's. It's really. I think a lot of people like, a lot of like right wing circles are looking to be like, oh, it's super anti religious. Like if you watch the movie, they actually have like really good back and forths and question what faith is and what belief is in the modern era. There's a character who's basically trying to fire up a YouTube channel about this priest who is very fire and brimstone. It's still very on the nose about today's general sphere, but it's not as obvious because it's all condensed in this small town lens. Thomas Hayden Church is in it. What's her name? Glenn Close is fucking unreal. She plays this character. Martha. Jeremy Renner. It's stacked. The.
- [23:59]
A
The Josh Brolin.
- [24:00]
B
Josh Brolin's amazing. He's hilarious. It's about these two priests who go head to head over, like, control this church. Then Benoit Blanc comes in when there's a murder. And the entire movie is just kind of going back and forth about what faith and religion means to this small town, what it meant to each priest individually, how it affected Benoit Blanc. But it's also really fucking funny and lighthearted at points. I will say there's one major miscast that the Internet has pointed out that I tend to agree with and really I don't want to.
- [24:28]
C
That's exactly who you're gonna say. I know it is. It's Mila Kunis as the fucking cop. Cause she's a shit actress.
- [24:35]
B
Yeah.
- [24:35]
C
I will say, literally when this movie was happening, I was like, what a weird way to that line. And I just let it go. Yeah.
- [24:43]
B
Oh, wait, I didn't think you saw it. Sorry.
- [24:45]
C
We talked about it last episode and I. I was like listening to you talk about it most of the time. I think your passion, it like comes through when you want to talk about this. I think it's a good movie. I don't feel as strongly as you do about it.
- [24:57]
A
For sure.
- [24:57]
B
Yeah. I don't expect it to everybody but.
- [25:00]
C
Is like, she's not good.
- [25:02]
B
No.
- [25:02]
C
I don't know if she's ever been good.
- [25:04]
B
I. I liked her in some things. Like I liked her in forgetting Sarah.
- [25:07]
C
Marshall as a result of this.
- [25:09]
B
I don't think the role itself was doing her any favors.
- [25:13]
C
Very weird cast.
- [25:15]
B
Yeah. I don't. I think it was a. That cast was weird for Her. But I think everything else worked. A lot of people were thrown off that these huge stars were just these, like, people of interest in the case. And, like, I think it works because in any other movie, if you had one star as a suspect, you'd know you'd be kind of leaning toward them for the. As the culprit. But I think it worked here that many of them were just on the same playing field, so to speak. But, yeah, I like that movie quite a bit.
- [25:39]
A
But Centers is awesome to come around on Mila kunis. American Psycho 2, where she plays the American Psycho.
- [25:46]
C
I don't know if that's gonna win me over.
- [25:48]
A
It's incredible. Like, it's absolutely terrible, but it's. It's worth watching.
- [25:54]
C
Don't understand what you mean.
- [25:56]
A
I mean, it's. I'm just so happy I watch it because it's one of the worst things I've ever seen. And, like, a lot of people don't even know they made an American. American Psycho 2 All American Girls, starring Mila Kunis.
- [26:07]
C
Interesting.
- [26:07]
B
Watch it.
- [26:08]
C
She's just a.
- [26:08]
B
For various reasons. Does she kill people?
- [26:12]
A
Yes, she's an American Psycho. Ooh, William Shatner's in it also.
- [26:16]
B
What the.
- [26:17]
A
It's a really weird movie. Yes.
- [26:21]
B
But, yeah, one battle after another. Also phenomenal.
- [26:24]
C
That one's really good for me. One that I think I'd put on my list is 28 years later, which is like a very odd film. But I liked it and I like that it's did some pretty weird risks and walked away being like, I liked it, even though it was weird.
- [26:40]
A
I'm moderately curious about seeing the sequel that's coming out soon. I might wait for streaming for that one. But I did enjoy. And that was the first. The 28 whatevers that I saw. And, yeah, I liked it. Yeah.
- [26:50]
C
And you got to put at least one horror on there for me, did you not.
- [26:54]
B
Was Weapons not on yours?
- [26:55]
C
Weapons is on mine as well. Yeah.
- [26:58]
A
I normally not a horror person at all, but, like, Weapons, I was just.
- [27:02]
B
Enamored by one of the best endings to any movie this year, I think. Weapons.
- [27:07]
A
That's fantastic. Oh, God, I was cracking up. Yeah.
- [27:09]
B
It was like every emotion possible in one sequence. I. It was crazy. It was cathartic, it was terrifying. It was hilarious.
- [27:17]
C
And a scene that really makes you want a hot dog. I mean, there are these two guys getting ready to watch tv and they have hot dog trays ready to go.
- [27:27]
B
With, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [27:28]
C
And I was like, I gotta get a hot dog. I've never had a hot dog be sold to me like that.
- [27:36]
B
Daddy says I got to get my dog on.
- [27:39]
C
Loved it. He's, like, dancing as he's walking to the tv. Oh, my God.
- [27:44]
B
Doing airplane noises with the hot dog toward his husband.
- [27:47]
C
That's me. That is like. That is the life I have asked for for myself.
- [27:52]
B
They did not come out this year, I will say I showed Amanda in Bruges and Banshees of Inisherin for the first time. Did you see both of those? Either of those? Yeah. I would say in Bruges. Many of the jokes, it's the same.
- [28:05]
A
Yeah.
- [28:05]
B
It's Martin McDonough, who. He also directed Three Billboards Outside of Epping, Missouri, which is way more contentious.
- [28:12]
A
I remember liking that.
- [28:13]
B
I liked it, too. I'm sure there will be people jumping in the comments to tell me I'm wrong for liking that movie on any level, but.
- [28:18]
A
Oh, I thought Francis McDormand was awesome in that.
- [28:20]
B
She was awesome.
- [28:21]
A
Yeah.
- [28:22]
B
Yeah. A lot of people criticized Martin McDonough for trying to tackle that subject matter, but in Bruges and Banshees of Mina Sharon, both are Brennan Gleason, Colin Farrell. Just having this, like, buddy movie with many layers beneath the surface. In Bruges, many of the jokes have not aged well whatsoever. It's still, I think, a really good movie. Banshees of Sharon is still a fucking masterpiece. I do not ever use that word. I will probably say it for, like, two PTA movies. I would say that for.
- [28:56]
A
There Will Be Blood.
- [28:58]
B
I. I like There Will Be Blood quite a bit.
- [29:00]
A
Yeah.
- [29:00]
B
I would say that's one of them. Along with, like, Boogie Nights, probably. I like a lot of his movies, but those two are just genuine masterpieces.
- [29:06]
A
Where do you land on Magnolia?
- [29:08]
B
I like Magnolia. I know.
- [29:09]
A
Oh, I hate it.
- [29:11]
B
Yeah. No, I. Yeah, I. I get it. I. Any. That's, like my. I'm a. I'm definitely a weirdo for really liking that movie.
- [29:19]
C
I liked Magnolia. I think it. I can't remember. I don't know if it would pass the test of time. It's been, like, 10 years.
- [29:25]
A
Yeah. Bonk. And I just know it's been way longer than that. Like, 25 years.
- [29:29]
B
I think it's 2001.
- [29:30]
C
Come on. It's been, like, 10 years.
- [29:32]
A
It's been 25 years.
- [29:37]
B
I'm still not used to being out of college. Life is so weird.
- [29:41]
A
I mean, There Will Be blood was, like, 18 years ago.
- [29:44]
C
20S. It's hard.
- [29:45]
A
Yeah.
- [29:46]
B
There will be blood was on nine.
- [29:47]
C
What are we gonna do with our lives, Guys?
- [29:50]
B
I love Phantom Thread in the Master as well.
- [29:54]
A
I need to see. I haven't seen either of those. There's the PTA ones I haven't seen. It's. I don't. I didn't want to see Phantom Thread because it's about, like, fashion or whatever, and that sounds super boring, but I've heard it's so good.
- [30:02]
B
It's about fashion in the way that one battle after another is about a rebel group. No, that sounds cooler. It's about fashion in the way that. Trying to think of movies you've watched recently? That Naked Gun. That Naked Gun is about the actual case.
- [30:23]
A
Okay.
- [30:24]
B
It's just. It's just a video, but I still don't think you're gonna like Phantom. For what?
- [30:28]
A
I love Daniel Day Lewis. I. I think the Master is first on my list of PTA stuff.
- [30:32]
B
That's my really. Oh, first to see.
- [30:35]
A
I haven't seen the Master.
- [30:36]
B
Gotcha. That is, honestly, I think, one of my top five movies of all time. I love the Master.
- [30:42]
A
Fast Track. That's.
- [30:44]
B
It's. That came out when I was at Game Informer. I remember you all a bunch of, like, Ben Hansen. I think Tim Turi came into the office the day after seeing it, and we're talking about it, and it was very. I think people are split on it, but I think these days, people are looking back on it with. With a. In better light. Joaquin Phoenix, obviously, people talk about Philip Seymour Hoffman's performance, and it's, you know, he rightfully gets his flowers, but, oh, my God. I think people forget how unreal Joaquin Phoenix was in it as well. Amy Adams is really good, but Joaquin just, like, becomes a different person. To be cliched about it, I think.
- [31:17]
A
Those might be the only way he did. Was it Inherent Vice? Yeah, I didn't see that either. So maybe there's a few of his that I haven't seen. Oh, licorice pizza. I didn't see. So a lot of the more recent ones I haven't seen.
- [31:27]
B
Inherent Vice was after the Master, but before Phantom Thread, I believe.
- [31:33]
A
Okay.
- [31:34]
B
Or no, no, no. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I believe that's the case. Inherent Vice is tough. I will say.
- [31:40]
A
I think I got. When I was reading all those books when I lived in New York, and you were constantly recommending books to me, which was fun. I like that a lot. I think I just started Inherent Vice not knowing anything about it, and I was like, this is a lot. I don't know about this. I did not get far in it.
- [31:54]
B
Any Thomas Pynchon book, that's probably the correct response. I like his stuff, but I will be the first to admit I don't think he knows what he's doing half the time. And people glaze him for it. His books are. His books are odd.
- [32:07]
A
Yeah. I did not enjoy it.
- [32:09]
B
I like crying of laugh 49. Yeah.
- [32:12]
C
More substance in 2026. I don't want the things that I watch to be so vague that everyone leaves and goes, what was that about? That's brilliant. I want to be like, tell me what to think. I want to know how to feel.
- [32:25]
A
Yeah.
- [32:25]
C
I don't want it to be like obtuse that I'm like supposed to solve this riddle all the time.
- [32:31]
B
Is this. Are you venting about a specific movie?
- [32:34]
C
I'm venting very vaguely about symbolism and metaphor. Symbolism, Symbolism. Symbolism. The TV show Severance, which is like too vague.
- [32:47]
A
Did not like season two.
- [32:48]
C
Any questions? And I'm over it.
- [32:50]
A
Yep. Did not like season two.
- [32:52]
C
What's going on? I've. What's up with the goats? I don't. I don't want to play this game anymore. You know what's coming out in 2026 that will answer all the questions.
- [33:01]
B
Season three of severance, terrifier four. Oh, I love this story that you told me, Dan, where someone had it on. All right. I want to say some. I know who it was, you know, at their party. It is such an over the top horror movie to have playing in the middle of a social scene when he's just sawing someone through there.
- [33:22]
A
I think. Yeah, I think I hadn't. I think he might not have seen it or something because I've talked to him about it and he was like, yeah, I didn't know it was going to be that much.
- [33:29]
B
That's a. That is like a. I think you should leave sketch. Like he puts on a movie and then he has to try to act like he had seen it before. He's like, oh, it's funny. Laughing.
- [33:37]
A
I think it was when Ben Hansen's like, then 18 month old son was there too, dressed as Batman and just terrify her. The most gruesome thing I think I want to say we were posing for a photo, like a friend photo. And I kept looking over like, what the is that?
- [33:53]
B
That's fucking. That's amazing. Yeah, Terrifier is fucked up.
- [33:58]
A
I think I have learned this year that, like, horror. I used to say that I was not a horror guy at all. And I think I'm gonna review that thought because it's like I don't think I'm a big slasher movie guy. I love like the Shining. I loved Weapons. This year I read that I finished that short story book or a collection that Stephen King put out at Night Shift and I love that. So I think just really clever horror. I. I think I really like.
- [34:25]
C
I think it's just like so much really clever horror. You just find it. I like the trash too. Quite. But personally I like it.
- [34:34]
B
But Dan, this, you're going to hate this. They have a phrase for the kind of movies you were just describing. Elevated horror.
- [34:40]
C
Elevated.
- [34:41]
A
That sounds like. That sounds like when you call Chipotle. Fast casual.
- [34:45]
B
Yeah. You like fast casual horror movies.
- [34:50]
A
Dan Horror and I are over here.
- [34:53]
B
Geeking out about Halloween and Friday 13 still. And Dan's like, I only watch things that make me think while I'm afraid.
- [34:59]
A
No, Halloween kicks ass because it's John Carpenter and that's a. That's a fantastic director. It's. But I also don't know what the I'm talking about because I've never seen a Friday the 13th. I've never seen a Jason. Oh, I saw Jason X. But it's like I think a lot of these huge things.
- [35:12]
B
What that's just a funny one Jason movie to have seen.
- [35:16]
C
I space and that sounded funny.
- [35:18]
A
Yeah. So wait. Maybe all the horror I've actually seen I like.
- [35:22]
B
You're just not a horror fan though. Even though you like every movie you've seen.
- [35:25]
C
Maybe you should try more. There's a lot of good ones. Even the ones that are like okay are I think good. It's just like you have to get past it all.
- [35:35]
A
I sorted by genre on letterbox right now and horror. I've got all these ones that I rated like 4 1/2 5 aliens, weapons, sinners, Barbarian. The Substance, the thing. Yeah. Holy shit. Near Dark. Event Horizon.
- [35:51]
B
Probably like get out.
- [35:53]
A
Get out is fantastic. I love Menu. What's that?
- [35:56]
B
Did you see?
- [35:56]
A
Nope, I didn't love. No, didn't know. I gave it three stars. I'm looking at Blair Witch.
- [36:01]
C
Didn't make him think enough.
- [36:03]
A
That's right. Blair Witch. Jennifer's body. Yeah. Wait, I like a lot of horror movies. What the fuck am I talking about?
- [36:08]
C
The fly body is a really good example of like. Not that it's bad, it's a good movie, but it's kind of like simple and stupid. But it's. It's so fun. It's camp.
- [36:20]
A
Yes. I thought I. I put that kind of the same Categories like Slither. You ever see that James Gunn horror movie about all the slugs?
- [36:27]
C
My favorite.
- [36:28]
B
You guys recommended that to me last year and I watched it.
- [36:30]
C
Yeah, it's great. It's so. It's got everything you need. It's got zombies, it's got aliens. It's got weird creepy stuff. It's got Love Story. It's got. Oh, it's got, like, gross visual horror. It's got everything you need.
- [36:46]
B
I think that's why I like Lady. I think that's why I like Barbarian and Weapons. Specifically because I feel. Is it Zack Crowder? That the director? Am I fucking up his name?
- [36:58]
A
Craig?
- [36:58]
B
Yeah, I feel like he can do that. Elevated horror, quote, unquote. But he's also not ashamed to be making horror movies. Like, he's still having fun with the genre. Like, he's doing genre fiction with horror. But he is also layering it quite a bit in a way that I think the fact that he can speak to both audiences is really, really impressive.
- [37:20]
A
I think that just a lot of horror movies look stupid. Like, like, what's the. Like, like, what's that one with Ethan Hawk? The black. The Black Phone or whatever.
- [37:27]
C
I'm actually not sure.
- [37:29]
B
Look at the image she sent in our. In our chat. She's talking about Terrifier 4. And I saw this. I was like, there's no way this is good.
- [37:36]
C
Okay, I'm sending. I sent them a image of Terrifier 4, and it's Terrifier in space, which reminded me of what you said with Jason X in space.
- [37:45]
A
I mean, leprechaun with his face.
- [37:47]
C
But I'm not sure because Terrifier subverts your expectations a lot. That's like a huge part of his character. So they might be with me. I'm not sure.
- [37:57]
A
Yeah, I think some of them look really schlocky and dumb. Like, I think of that. Like, what was that? Ethan Hawke? Like, the Black Phone or something like that. These things, a lot of them just look stupid. Maybe I'm just judging by the trailer.
- [38:06]
C
But did you watch Megan?
- [38:08]
A
I like Megan. I only saw the.
- [38:10]
C
Megan is stupid.
- [38:11]
A
Yeah.
- [38:11]
C
You're, like, kind of like it. Yeah, it's. I think there's a lot of those. Maybe I should give you some more. Like, that are not traditional, that I still think are worth seeing, even if they're, like, kind of bad. But I like them anyway.
- [38:29]
A
You told me about Barbarian, and I adore.
- [38:31]
C
I know, but it's hard to. It's hard to hit that bar. Like, have you Seen a lot of the classics from our childhood. So, like, sounds like you've seen Scream, but, like, I know what you did. I know what you did last summer. The original.
- [38:42]
A
I would see parts of it on tv. Never seen the whole thing.
- [38:45]
C
No, it's pretty good.
- [38:46]
A
Yeah. I mean, I guess I like with action movies, I think, but part of what I like is I like watching people die in hilarious ways. And that sounds like what a lot of horror movies are. It's just like hilarious death.
- [38:59]
B
Yeah, I think a lot of them. Yeah. I would say a big one that came out in the last few years messes with that trope right at the very end. Which is what made it, in part, a great movie. Not gonna spoil which one. But that could have been any of them the last five, ten years. Yeah, yeah. No, I love old school schlocky slasher stuff, but I'm also. I've said it before. Nope. I finished it. And that night I was like, I couldn't stand that movie. And then, like, the next morning I woke up and, like, was still thinking deeply about it. Like, that movie really affected me in a way that horror has not.
- [39:36]
A
It is a very interesting movie.
- [39:38]
C
We should talk about those types of movies where, like, maybe at first you're like, I didn't like it. And then the next day you're like, I liked it. That happened to me recently. I can think of one. Which one called I Saw the TV Glow.
- [39:50]
A
Oh, I heard about that. Yeah.
- [39:51]
C
Because it's a horror or horror scary, right? And then I was like, it's not scary enough. It's not doing what I want. I don't like it. And then I thought about it for about 24 hours and then I was like, I love it, but I don't.
- [40:05]
A
Know if I've ever gone from disliking.
- [40:06]
C
To, like, but it wasn't what I wanted.
- [40:08]
A
I've definitely gone from appreciating more because I remember when, like, Bonk and I left Annihilation, I think that was like, oh, it's like a four out of five movie. And then I saw it again. I was like, that is a five out of five. Holy. I loved it so much more. So, like, I've gone from like a 4 to a 5. I don't know if I've ever gone from like a two to a four or five.
- [40:23]
C
Oh, that's happened to me so many times. I didn't like Shaun of the Dead the first time I watched it.
- [40:31]
A
That's a fun one.
- [40:32]
C
I didn't like it. Because I wanted to see a traditional zombie movie. And they kept making it funny. And I was like, you guys aren't taking this seriously. Enough people are dying. And then it took me, like, an evening to get over myself and realize it was. It was brilliant. But I. I didn't process it at first because I thought it was supposed to be scary.
- [40:54]
A
I. Actually, now that I think about it, I definitely have gone from, like, a. I think this is the worst movie I've ever seen to. I love this movie. And that's Annette. And I can't remember. I've told so many people about this movie.
- [41:04]
B
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [41:05]
A
Have you seen it, either of you? Okay, Mary. Have you?
- [41:08]
C
Annette, the movie.
- [41:09]
A
Stop typing. Stop typing.
- [41:12]
B
You recommended it. I haven't watched it because of you.
- [41:14]
A
Okay, don't. Don't look at anything more. Don't look at anything more.
- [41:17]
C
Okay.
- [41:17]
A
Okay. Adam, Driver.
- [41:19]
C
Okay, I'm gonna. Okay.
- [41:21]
A
And it's Marion Cotilliard.
- [41:24]
C
Okay.
- [41:26]
B
Our friends.
- [41:27]
A
Mike's laughing because he didn't expect me to pronounce it so barfing. Mary, I would love to give you a homework assignment. You know, as you did with me with Barbarians the face. She's like, oh, great, it's on Amazon. You got the Amazon. What am I talking about? Of course you've got the Amazon.
- [41:45]
C
I have the Amazon.
- [41:46]
A
Okay.
- [41:46]
C
Mary, Amazon is my dad.
- [41:48]
A
Mary, Sight unseen. I mean, you've looked at, like, the poster, right?
- [41:53]
C
You know, so no cheating. Just. Just go watch it. Yes, I can do that.
- [41:58]
A
And you. Do you not know anything about this movie? Oh, Mary, I'm so excited to hear your thoughts on this. I. I've made so many people watch this movie. I've seen it, like, six times in the last few years. Wow. Kayla loves it. My dad. I don't know if I've ever seen him more mad than when he was watching it. Yeah.
- [42:17]
B
I can't imagine Paul ever even sitting through this whole thing.
- [42:20]
C
Paul and I are pretty similar, so I am expecting to hate it.
- [42:23]
A
We had to pay him 200 to watch it, but I'm not kidding. Oh, Mary. Okay. Okay. And anyone at home I know I've talked about this on various podcasts and things like that and watched it on the Internet before. Check out Annette on Amazon Prime Video and don't look up anything, and let's talk about it next time, okay? Okay.
- [42:46]
B
Yeah. And that was quite a ride. Yeah, it was a good year for movies, I'd say.
- [42:55]
A
Yes. Yeah, I've flirted with the idea of, like, I watched that documentary about MoviePass. And it really brought me back to that time where it's like, man, we lived in New York City. We walked to this theater. We would just, like, see all these movies we would never consider paying for a ticket to go see. And I was, like, looking up, like, oh, they came back kind of. But it's, like, confusing how it works. And then, like, AMC's got the A list thing, and it's like, well, if you see two movies in the theaters a month, then it's worth it. But it's like, we're not guaranteed to do that. So I don't know. It's just. I do pine for the days of MoviePass. That was a good time.
- [43:27]
B
Yeah. I was in San Francisco while that was happening. I used it quite a bit. Also, speaking of Robert Redford, he owned Sundance Theater. There were several locations. There was one right in Japantown near my apartment. Every single Sunday, I went. That is where I saw Annihilation for the first time in 2015, I believe.
- [43:44]
A
Nice.
- [43:45]
B
That summer or something like that.
- [43:46]
A
No, no, no, no. I was living in New York. No, that. It was at least 17.
- [43:50]
B
Oh, interesting. Okay. Yeah, I think I'd remember. It's like, my second favorite movie of all time.
- [43:56]
A
I'd say it's 17 or 18. Yeah. But I think that might have been during the movie.
- [44:00]
B
17 sounds right.
- [44:01]
A
Yeah. Yeah, something like that. Yeah. We saw it with MoviePass.
- [44:04]
B
Also. 15. I just moved out there. Wouldn't make sense.
- [44:07]
A
2018. Yep.
- [44:08]
B
Okay.
- [44:09]
A
Yep, yep. Still got to read those books.
- [44:12]
B
Oh, yeah. You were asking me about that recently.
- [44:15]
A
I intend to read the book. I'm working on the Lorne Michaels book right now, but then I'll move on to that.
- [44:20]
B
Yeah. The Southern Reach trilogy, They're all digestible. Fairly short, very, very different than the movie, but still similar idea that a group of people go into this weird anomaly and weird shit happens.
- [44:35]
A
Nice. All right.
- [44:36]
B
You want to talk about video games?
- [44:37]
A
Sure. Yeah.
- [44:40]
B
All right. And we're back. Dan, why do you have Star Wars Jedi Survivor on your list? Have you been playing it? Have you. Did you recently.
- [44:46]
A
Did you not say you were playing it, or did you not bring it up? Last time I brought it up, I.
- [44:51]
B
Brought it up many times, saying, I love that game. I think people should give it more of a chance and see later in the game what happens throughout. But I didn't know you were, like.
- [44:58]
A
In my head, the reason I started playing it was because I thought in, like, the same week that both Jeff Grubb and you had been talking about playing it.
- [45:06]
B
You mentioned that he was playing it and I said, I love that game. I wish more people would give more chance because the PC launch had a lot of issues beginning. And you guys have brought up valid issues with the beginning of the game, which I get. But like later on that game becomes awesome. Yeah.
- [45:20]
A
I'm a few hours in now and like the beginning, it's like, sure. It does the thing I don't like where it's like, okay, we're just gonna do this thing where it's like you kind of have control of this guy while he's walking handcuffed through a thing and we're throwing a bunch of story at you and I was just very bored. But like you get past that and very quickly. It's like, Mike, I believe it might have been you telling me that like the, the, the locomotion in that game, the, the platforming, the wall running, the double jumping, all that stuff is pretty wild. It is not a like grounded in reality, you know, some sort of like last of Us Tomb Raider type third person action game. It is, it is. It's fun controlling this character and like jumping in the air, like flying through the air after a zip line and like hitting LB to like deflect, you know, blaster shots and everything with your lightsaber in midair and then going down there and like for. I am a sucker for either throwing or force pushing characters off of ledges in games. And my God, I can't tell you how many times they just have a stormtrooper near a ledge and I get to go up and fuck you just send them off into a city below. It is, it's just super fun. It's just a very fun game to play. There is I, you know, just being a few hours in, I don't have a great sense of like how good the upgrade tree is going to be. Like, there's kind of a lot. It's like every time I go there it's like you can do a billion different lightsaber things for all your different stances and you can do, you know, like your survival stuff. You can do the, the force upgrades and stuff like that. So it's kind of a lot on that front, but I am liking it as kind of like a, a light from type game, you know what I mean? It's just like, it's got the hallmarks of that. It's got the meditation spots instead of the bonfire and the respawning enemies and the leveling up and all that stuff. But it's definitely not like a game I'm playing to super challenge myself. I'm just playing on the default difficulty. It's just a fun Star wars game that's like, the production value is insane on that. I'm playing on a 4090 and it's just like, God damn it. Everything looks and sounds.
- [47:07]
B
Yeah, I love it. Can get overwhelming with the different lightsaber stances and the different upgrades to each one. But I also appreciate that they continue throughout the entirety of the game. To put. I think I'm exaggerating if I say they put as much emphasis on the platforming and exploration as the fighting, but they put a lot of emphasis on the platforming, the exploration, the puzzle solving. There's some areas that feel Zelda esque in their environmental puzzle solving and whatnot. And there's all those meditation grounds or Jedi temples or something that feel almost like shrines in and of themselves.
- [47:44]
A
Oh, interesting. I haven't seen that.
- [47:46]
B
Yeah. How far are you?
- [47:48]
A
I'm just like. I did the whole opening thing on Coruscant and now I'm in like, kind of outdoor daytime.
- [47:53]
B
Okay. Yeah.
- [47:54]
A
Mountainous. Yeah. Yeah.
- [47:55]
B
Okay. Yeah. I will say the structure of the game is not its strong point because. Can I offer you a word of advice that I think would enhance your enjoyment of it?
- [48:04]
A
Please.
- [48:05]
B
I got to that big planet. There's one planet that's way bigger than the rest, and I didn't want to leave it until I did everything. I would strongly encourage you to leave it as soon as you can and come back at your own pace. You unlock way more impactful upgrades and evolutions by leaving and then coming back and mopping up. But you can spend a good, like 20 hours on. I don't know the exact hour count, but I think I spent a good 15 to 20 hours on that planet alone. I wish I had left sooner because you start to see the game, the speed of meaningful upgrades and character changes much more rapidly if you leave.
- [48:41]
A
Okay. Awesome.
- [48:43]
B
Yeah.
- [48:43]
A
Yeah. Then I. I do intend on continuing with this. I. I am really enjoying it. And actually I was just reminded I mentioned, like, from games. I think I want to play Sekiro.
- [48:52]
B
Oh, have you tried it at all before?
- [48:55]
A
I think I played like 10 hours of it or so. I just got my ass kicked and I. I really fell off because it's like in other. From games because, like, I've never taken the time to get really good at, like, parrying and stuff like that.
- [49:05]
C
So I would have to parry and that.
- [49:07]
A
That's the Thing. You can't. You can't just, you know, cheese it by, like, leveling up and grinding and grinding like, okay, well, now my HP is insane, so I'm not gonna die or like, so you have to get good. And so I actually. I played through Mike Tyson's punch out a couple times this weekend, and in playing that and remembering how satisfying it was to kind of learn, like, just the enemy patterns and just the very specific timing, it's like, well, that's kind of what Sekiro is supposed to be. So. And I am really good at it. And punch out. So, like, I think there is.
- [49:33]
C
I think I punch out.
- [49:35]
A
I'm very good at punch out.
- [49:37]
C
I think I can handle Sekiro.
- [49:40]
A
That's the thing. I. It's a crazy. It's always intimidated me like, that game and even playing from games in general has intimidated me because I've only beat two, and those were both by, like, super overleveling myself. So, like, there is a world where it's like, I kind of want to just, like, on my twitch, just maybe like every week, like, have like, a Sekiro day where it's like, I'm gonna play a couple hours Sekiro and try to beat this game.
- [50:00]
B
So what's the other one besides Elden Ring you've beat?
- [50:03]
A
Bloodborne.
- [50:04]
B
Oh, interesting. Okay. I could absolutely see you. Yeah, it's intimidating as hell. There's a certain point in that game where I was intimidated by it, and then all of a sudden I started feeling like I was actually on its level and it became one of my top three from games. I don't want to put words in his mouth. It might be Jake Decker's favorite from game. And this isn't a bit. I think. I think, yeah, it's fucking unreal because there's a boss not four hours into that game. That is probably one of my favorite boss fights of all time in any genre.
- [50:36]
A
Which one? I probably got there.
- [50:38]
B
The dude with the lightning.
- [50:40]
A
Is he on a horse?
- [50:41]
B
No.
- [50:42]
A
Okay.
- [50:43]
B
On the rooftop. The lightning.
- [50:44]
A
I've watched Kayla do that, and that's crazy.
- [50:47]
B
I could have sworn that was early on. Maybe. Maybe I'm understanding.
- [50:51]
A
I mean, I probably took my sweet time getting to. I maybe played 10 hours, but didn't get that far.
- [50:55]
B
You know, I think that would be a very challenging game to play a few hours of and then drop for a week at a time.
- [51:02]
A
Really. Okay.
- [51:03]
B
I do think there's a rhythm to that game that once you get into it, you start to kind of Just lock in. It's similar to Mike Tyson. Like, if you fought one fighter at a time and Mike Tyson came back the next week, it would be very difficult.
- [51:13]
A
Okay.
- [51:14]
B
I mean, obviously play at your own pace, but I would say I could see you. Yeah. Because of your love of Tyson. Like, the pattern recognition of those different bosses and mini bosses and even everyday enemies. Once you start getting to a point where you're confidently parrying, these guys will run at you with spears and you'll just kind of laugh and then, like, step on the tip of the spear, shove it into the ground so they can't do anything, and they're just stabbing them in the face. It's awesome.
- [51:36]
A
It's. That's really fun.
- [51:37]
B
Yeah. It's the coolest I've felt in a From game. Including. Yeah, okay. It's awesome.
- [51:44]
A
I guess I did Beat Armored Core 6 too, but I don't know if people consider that same conversation, you know, maybe.
- [51:50]
B
Yeah. It's not as. It's not a soulsborne game, but even though I made it. Yeah, yeah, no, I. I think I.
- [51:56]
A
I think I do want to. I. I do want to play that game. It seems like it's very, very highly regarded and everything I've seen of it seems very cool.
- [52:03]
B
It was my second favorite game of that year. It would have been my favorite if it wasn't for Outer Wilds 2019. GameSpot gave it game of the year, though. Yeah, it's rad. I'm glad you're liking Jedi Survivor, though. I've been wanting more people to play that. Just. It had such a shitty PC launch and it was just in shambles on PC. Yeah.
- [52:21]
C
There's performance issues. Right. And I think that's such a bummer because that's the type of thing that is really difficult to come back from. Like, even if it's a dead game, like, if you. If it's crashing and people are losing their progress, they're gonna give it a shitty you. That sucks.
- [52:35]
A
Yeah. And I think I heard that. And it's like, it was at a time where there were a lot of other games out, and I was like, okay, well, whatever. If this is busted, I'm gonna move on to this and I'm probably just gonna forget about this one back here. And now it's like, okay, there's not a ton of releases right now until Resident Evil, so maybe this is my game. Maybe now is the time to play it. And it runs super well on PC. Now, not to.
- [52:53]
B
On a game that we always on, but I Went back to Jedi Survivor because I was so frustrated with Ragnaroks design choices.
- [53:01]
A
Oh.
- [53:02]
B
I was like I want a like sweeping 3D adventure and Ragnarok is just weighing me down every five minutes. I'm going to go back to that game at some point. But I really was just so frustrated. Yeah, I'm sure I'll try it before the next game comes out. Maybe I won't. Maybe you guys are right. Maybe. Why? Who am I trying to please?
- [53:19]
A
It's not good.
- [53:20]
C
Corey Barlow, I'm giving you so much shit.
- [53:23]
A
I think we started the it's not poop category because of that game.
- [53:26]
B
No, that was for Horizon.
- [53:29]
C
I thought the game. Yeah.
- [53:31]
A
Also also a not poop game.
- [53:33]
C
Yeah, that was such a bummer. Like that poor game. Can't catch a break.
- [53:43]
B
I lied.
- [53:43]
A
Two best games of all time. It was good.
- [53:48]
B
But yeah, no, Sekiro's great. Jedi Survivor's awesome.
- [53:52]
A
Yeah, the guy's a dork. I don't like the dude.
- [53:56]
B
I don't either.
- [53:56]
A
He's just a dweeb, but I don't care.
- [53:58]
B
Whatever whatsoever. There's some. There's some stuff they introduced the gameplay loop later on that I actually found strangely charming. Like extremely, extremely light farming and like base building kind of stuff.
- [54:12]
A
I've been getting some like seeds and stuff like that. Yeah, that's all about. Okay.
- [54:16]
B
You don't have to interact with it if you get bored of it.
- [54:17]
A
No, I'm excited to. I like that stuff.
- [54:19]
B
Yeah, they give you like a home base which is nice because again like Horizon did that. What other games were doing that? I was. We were talking about that recently. Forget what game it was in regards to though because like I didn't play enough of Horizon Forbidden west the first time to get to the point where you're starting to rebuild your base with different characters. But I like when games do that. Mary, what have you been playing?
- [54:41]
C
I've been playing a scary game called Routine. This game is a sci fi horror insane space. It kind of reminds me of BioShock in the sense that I think it was meant to be like a utopia that came crumbling down. But I would say it's better connected to Alien the game because you are being hunted by robots. I think I'm still early on but generally what I'm learning is is that these robots were like probably meant to help them, you know, and they went rogue and started killing people and they are absolutely terrifying. It's very scary. It's. They've done an excellent job. It also typical in these games you don't have a weapon, so I, I can't defend myself. There is a gun in the game, but it is not really for protecting yourself. It is a gun that. Oh God, my knowledge in this space is so limited. I'm gonna embarrass myself. It like scrambles the screens of things that aren't working properly. So like, let's say a door isn't working and you see some tubes coming out of the door and they go to a mechanical box. You can use the device to reset the mechanical box and thus the door should start working again, if that makes sense.
- [56:14]
A
Okay. Yeah.
- [56:15]
C
The gun has three charges, so you can't just willy nilly shoot your gun anytime you want. You need to be thoughtful about it. You can recharge the gun, but only at recharge stations or if you find a battery. So it's like something you have to consider, you know, like, is it like a one shot?
- [56:30]
A
Like take a robot down, like deactivate.
- [56:33]
C
Them, pauses the robot for I think a rude amount of time. I'm gonna say one and a half seconds.
- [56:39]
A
Oh God.
- [56:39]
C
Okay, so like you can use one of your precious shoes shots to get around a robot. I have not successfully done it, but I think you could even like take down a robot if you shoot them enough. But it's like, who has that many shots in their gun? Like, it's. You got to be busy. I predominantly. This is like a puzzle game. This is a puzzle game where you are solving usually like some kind of like written. Sometimes they feel like tactical puzzles. Maybe you'll read in someone's diary that they're dating someone and they left them a present and they're the janitor and it's like, okay, well, I'll go to the janitorial offices. When you go to the janitor offices, you'll see a secret and that secret will open up a secret hole and you'll need to get in there so you can open up some more mechanic pieces. I, I was very. I think it's very fantastical and otherworldly to go into this ship that I think is like, I think you're like on the moon or something. So it's definitely like a space environment and they're trying to recreate things that you would have in your house or, sorry, your home life. In Middletown, America, there's a mall.
- [57:50]
A
Okay, sure.
- [57:50]
C
And so like in one of the areas, I'm walking around a mall and it has all these different shops, but if you look out the window, you'll See Earth. So it's just kind of like fascinating in that space, but something has gone wrong. Everything's like broken. The shops are all busted. You can't find any people anymore. Probably because they're all dead. I don't know. I haven't gotten that far. But like, I. I haven't seen one human that's alive. And these robots, if they catch you are terrifying. They pick you up and they shake the out of you and they throw you. And if they find you enough, they kill you.
- [58:19]
A
I like the look of them. I just googled and do they all have that, like weird kind of cracked mask face like they. They look creepy?
- [58:25]
C
Yeah, they are creepy. And they've done a great job with the hiding mechanics of this game. So if you're into scary games, like I am, like, you gotta have a way to avoid them. But they're still. Look at them in this game. Crawling, leaning, and peeping are a huge mechanic of the game. So if you hear them coming, you can hear them. They're like kong, kong, kong. You can hear their little metal legs dinking around. You'll hide under something and hope they don't see you. And sometimes they'll just still be there, but you don't know. So you kind of have to like, lean. The game has given you all these different ways to just peek around a corner or just look over something. One of my favorite ones is there's like a toolbox or something that I'm hiding under. I can't look above or around. All I can do is look below and I just can see their little feet staring like, you know, pointed towards me. And I know if I move or make a noise, they're gonna kill me. Oh my God. It's pretty scary.
- [59:29]
A
It sounds kind of like amnesia, the way you're describing it.
- [59:31]
C
I think it has amnesia elements to it. It absolutely has gotten progressively scarier. The gun also evolves, which I have really appreciated. So again, I'm not super far in, but the gun has already gotten one evolution that's been really helpful. The first evolution of the gun is that you shoot it and it. It recon, it rejiggers mechanics. I wish I could be better with my terminology, but you shoot it at mechanics and it's like you fixed it. You know, this. This screen wasn't working before, but now it is whatever. The new gun adaptation that I got helps me see. It's like a blue light and so it helps me see different liquids like blood. And so I don't want to give away the puzzle. But, like, you. All of a sudden, you'll be able to point it at the ground and be like, oh, my God, somebody was like, dragged through here. You could follow the blood trail and see. See what they did to get out of the situation. And you'll learn through that process how to get out of the mall in this situation. Right now I'm in these, like, home. The home barracks. So I'm at their home quarters and I'm. I'm going through the same motions here. I, like, I gotta find out how to get out. I'm locked in. And there's a mysterious amount of letters and puzzles that I'm following to try and figure out a code so that I can get the hell out of here. I. I think it's very well made. My biggest issues with it is, like, I'm not sure why they put such a strong limit on this gun. I feel like they could have put five or six charges on it. Three charges head on your belt. It prevents me from, like, testing out theories because I'm like, now I have to put more charges on goddamn gun. I will say, like, sometimes I feel like I could use more hints.
- [61:20]
B
I. I've gotten stuck now we're.
- [61:23]
C
I figured it out. But there are times where I, like, feel like I need a guide or I just need, like, a little bit more support.
- [61:32]
A
Yeah.
- [61:32]
C
So I wish I had like a. Like a younger kid who was like, what. What if you just turned the wheel so that the water came? Yeah.
- [61:42]
A
Better idea. What if your character just talked all the time about what you're gonna do next? That'd be great.
- [61:49]
C
I would rather. I mean, actually, that's a really good question. This kind of reminds me of the yellow paint thing that, you know, gamers argue about a lot. But it's like, I would have liked more support. I suspect if they had given me more support, gamers would have been like, it's too easy. It is. It is a difficult game. It is difficult for two reasons. One, the robots are relentless and they absolutely you up and they are terrifying. And. And they. There's no way to attack them or do anything about it. So you're just constantly running. So that is freaky, like amnesia. Two, the puzzles are just often obtuse and tactical. You know, you read a note that leads you to a path that leads you to the idea that maybe you should be doing it this way. And if you test around enough, you'll figure it out. You'll need a code to get, you know, a. A bauble That'll get you a key. That'll get you like, it's. It's tough, but I love it. I think it's extremely well constructed. I believe this is Raw Fury. It's cool for, like a game of this magnitude to succeed in the manner that it is trying to succeed. I think Raw Fury made blueprints, if that helps. If that. I think, published it.
- [63:02]
A
Yeah.
- [63:03]
C
So, like, they've made stuff that I've liked before. I think this is like a nice, similar caliber of, like, quality, high, high quality execution of a horror game that scares the pee out of me. I. The only reason I think I will not finish this is because I think it's a little. It's kind of so scary, like amnesia. I need a break. I don't want to feel this way all the time. But very good.
- [63:27]
A
Nice. Red.
- [63:30]
B
It looks. It like. Just looks good.
- [63:33]
C
People who like Alien.
- [63:34]
A
Yeah.
- [63:35]
C
Would like this game. It's got all the same vibes.
- [63:40]
B
I went back over break to replay retry a few games I played more. I played Shadow Gambit again, that overhead stealth game from Right.
- [63:51]
A
Me.
- [63:52]
B
Me. I still love that game.
- [63:55]
C
What made you go back to it?
- [63:57]
B
It was just that time of year when I was like. I just. I had played most of what I wanted to from last year, -2. I still need to play Kingdom Come, Deliverance 2, and I want to play Metroid Prime 4 still. I just didn't have the energy to start a new game. So I was just kind of looking through steam, like, oh, shadow game. I love that game. Got sucked into that for a few hours over break. And then the game I played the most over break was they are billions. Went back to that zombies.
- [64:26]
A
What's the rat one? There's a rat one where it's like tower, not tower defense. It's like an RTS and a bunch of rats are invading. No, you're. Oh, we talked about this. It was a PC game. We first started the podcast. It was like you build a base and then a bunch of fucking rats come in and waves and you gotta, like, protect your base. No, it's like a RTS view. It's like a command and conquer view. I could have sworn it was there. Billions.
- [64:54]
B
They are billions. There's swarms of them. But they're zombies, not rats.
- [64:59]
A
You sure they're not rats?
- [65:00]
B
Positive.
- [65:01]
A
I'm looking at it now. It's definitely there. Billions.
- [65:03]
B
Yeah.
- [65:04]
A
Yeah.
- [65:05]
B
Okay. Yeah, I. I replayed this game, but they're not rats, though.
- [65:08]
A
No, you were talking about a game, so I just Assumed it was rats.
- [65:10]
B
Oh yeah. Very fair.
- [65:12]
A
Yeah.
- [65:12]
C
It's funny, I mean it's such an easy like art exchange too. Like you could really replace zombies with rats at any moment.
- [65:20]
A
Yeah, yeah. Things crawling around. Yeah.
- [65:22]
B
I got sucked into that game for like 12 hours over break. I still love it. If we've talked about in the podcast before I. I wrote about it or I talked about it at Gamespot, it came out a while ago. I want to say it was 2017, same year as Breath of the Wild, 2019, 19.
- [65:37]
A
That 17 was Breath of Wild.
- [65:39]
B
Right. I think this came out in early access in 2017, launched 2019. The campaign I don't touch it sucked. The Survivor Survivor mode which is just the OG mode. But yeah, it's. If you are. If you turtle in real time strategy games, this is the game for you. They literally were like, we know people like to play that way. Play tall, more focused on defense and slow expansion and covering all of your possible avenues of approach. And they're like, we're gonna make a game about this. And I was trying very hard to beat the most difficult map. There are three different difficulty options you can tweak. You only unlock the next map if you have a score factor of 100% or higher. So you can say, okay, I want the zombie population on the map to be medium, but I want to only have 120 days to survive. And then you can tweak those two and raising or lowering them will change the score factor. As long as you have a score factor 100% or above with some combination of map population, the number of days you need to survive. And there's one more, I'm forgetting it. You unlock the next map. I unlocked the most difficult map. I was trying it. I. The zombies are more irritable because it's in a desert, so they're more likely to swarm your base for no reason outside of the big waves. So it makes covering all those potential nooks and crannies they can sneak into your base from all the more stressful. I'm sure there's some. There's some secret sauce that I'll find that will help. But I will say I like the game more on the mid difficulty maps because in the higher difficulty maps I feel way more inclined to restart immediately if I don't get a favorable map. It is a roguelite, the map design and I don't like doing that. Like in Civilization, I never did that. Even though if I. Even if I started on a shitty island, I'm like, let's just see what happens. The emergent scenarios that'll come out of that, they are billions. The hardest map, I'm like, all right, this sucks. I don't have enough food near me. No forests, no ponds to gather food. Like, I need to restart immediately. Just so much less. Smaller margin of error. But I still love that game. It's one of the last decade. Definitely way up there for me. They stopped. They stopped supporting it a while ago. They're working on, like, a full fledged role playing game now. New Mantian. They're a Spanish studio. I don't, you know, I don't know. Good luck to them. But I wish they would have done more with this because I love it. Dan, what else you been playing?
- [68:16]
A
I mean, I put a few games down on this list, but the reality of it is I am still in the sectori hole, the likes of which I have not seen in years. It is. I. I just got to 9 million. So I'm at like 9 million right now. Grub is at 10 million. Jacob Geller is at like 12 million.
- [68:33]
B
Is that a high score?
- [68:35]
A
What do you mean?
- [68:36]
B
What.
- [68:37]
A
What are you.
- [68:37]
B
Is that your high score or your. Okay, okay, Gotcha.
- [68:40]
C
Yes.
- [68:40]
A
Yeah.
- [68:41]
B
Yeah.
- [68:41]
A
So I am. It's. It is such a. On a surface, simple game that, like, I just keep playing like, I'm. I've played 60, 70 hours of this now, and it's like I'm still just like, oh, I just had the eureka moment that, like, I've been doing this wrong the entire time. I need to make it all about this. Or the strike combos. Or wait, here's a great way to extend the strike combos. Or it's just.
- [69:02]
C
Have you done the thing I told you to? Where you up your car, you mix up your cards?
- [69:06]
A
I did mix up the card. I tried the chaos thing. That is interesting. The only thing I didn't. I think the reason I turned it off is because I like the stack shuffle thing. But you don't get scores for just normal enemy kills if you do that, I think.
- [69:21]
C
Yeah, it's like a huge differentiator.
- [69:23]
A
Yeah, that's. So it's like if I'm going for score, it's like, well, okay. I love the idea of, like, Blaster being the first upgrade or something. But, like, if it means I'm not getting a score for everything else, I just can't do that. It is really interesting, though.
- [69:35]
C
Let me find. Hold on. My friend list. I was playing Sectori the other day at the bar. I beat it by the Way.
- [69:42]
A
Oh, nice. Nice.
- [69:43]
C
I finally, like, won on experience. Yeah, but, like, my score wasn't even that high. I feel like if you're going for score, like, who gives a if you win the game?
- [69:53]
A
Were you buying shields?
- [69:55]
C
I didn't buy shields, but I did the chaos mode, so my score wasn't as high.
- [70:02]
A
That's your problem. That's your problem.
- [70:04]
C
Yeah, I hear you.
- [70:07]
B
Where's my just unsolicited advice really rubs Mary the right way.
- [70:12]
C
I've already heard that.
- [70:14]
B
That's where you're up. That's where you're being stupid.
- [70:17]
A
Classic up.
- [70:18]
B
It's where you're being a moron idiot.
- [70:21]
C
Wait, Grub messaged me. Let me see if I can find.
- [70:24]
B
It to tell it to give you advice as well. Hey, Mary, by the way, I saw where you're going wrong. I just want to say you're a idiot. But also, here's what you do differently.
- [70:31]
C
Grub never DMS me. I'm playing this game. I get a DM and I check it, and it just says you'll never get 10 million. What a all it says. And I wrote you Grub and I went back to the grind. Okay, still stuck at three and a half million, but you all right. Literally just DMing me. That is so rude.
- [70:53]
A
All right, Mary. I. I talked. I camera was on content or not this week. But I asked him. I was like, if I beat your score, would this be like, a problem for you? Like, would you fixate on this? He's like, oh, absolutely. Would, like, consume my life. And so we need. One of us needs to top Jeff Grubb.
- [71:07]
C
He's a ghoul. He'll never let it go. You have to kill him. I don't know if I'm powerful enough. And he's. He has sparked an anger within me so deep that I would like to destroy him. But I will admit privately in this podcast that I am afraid of him. Private every time. Shut up. Every time. There is a friend mode where you can compare your scores. Grub is like one in the world.
- [71:37]
A
The dude is so Geller's better than him. And I. And I will beat him. I will beat Grub.
- [71:42]
C
He's just human. All humans can be killed.
- [71:45]
A
I beat him in Astrobot. I can beat him at this, like, all.
- [71:48]
B
So here's my question. YouTube played this game more than me. I love this game. It was high up my list last year. What? And this might be a loaded question, so please tell me if it is. What is Geller doing? Does he understand Mechanics better or is he just better at the game?
- [72:01]
A
So there is whole other ways to play that I probably played 50 hours before I realized. And then finally I was like. Because like, not a lot of people are fucking playing this game. So there's not a lot of good guides or anything. There's like two Reddit threads I've looked at 20 times and they don't help that much.
- [72:16]
C
Even that impressive that Grub has the score that he has. I feel like if the world actually investigated it, it would have been beaten by now.
- [72:24]
A
And we will. And we will. And I was doing the research. I know you do. You tell me this privately all the time.
- [72:31]
C
I wanted to be his privacy of this personal podcast. I wanted to know that you have to destroy him.
- [72:38]
A
Oh, I know. Yes. And I was researching, I looked up, there was a. Because I'm playing on challenging mode now. The like medium difficulty, and that's the one that like all the top scorers are on challenging mode. So I looked up like a high score and it was like a $28 million or 28 million point run. I watched and like immediately this guy was doing shit. I was like, what is. I played so much of this game. What is he even doing? Why is he striking into nothing? You know, why is he doing this? And then I started realizing, like, oh, he's just trying to get that strike combo up. Because I'm challenging. You can get it up to a 10 times multiplier and you don't have to hit anything. You don't have to dash into a token. Just the act of striking will up your strike combo and keep it going.
- [73:18]
C
So you have to just constantly be striking. Oh, yeah.
- [73:20]
A
But here's the thing. Because you don't have enough time to recharge naturally an entire strike and do it again. So here's how you do it. You strike into nothing. Okay. That gives you one strike multiplier. And then you get a token. You get one of the selector tokens and let's say it's speed or whatever, you know, you apply it and whenever you apply an upgrade, it instantly recharges your shield.
- [73:41]
C
Sure.
- [73:42]
A
So that's a way you can kind of keep that chain going. And so now I think it is all about just trying to get that strike combo up and keeping it up. And that's how you do it. So I'm trying to get better that.
- [73:55]
B
And so do you know what Geller's doing, how he's playing or.
- [73:57]
A
I haven't seen any Geller runs.
- [73:59]
B
No.
- [73:59]
C
What's Grub doing.
- [74:04]
B
Grub's doing interesting.
- [74:06]
A
He. He beat. He beat a run on challenging. And, like, I have not done that. I've gotten to, like, the very last part. But if I would have beaten that run, I probably would.
- [74:15]
C
Yeah. Because it's obvious if you pay. Play it on a more difficult difficulty, you accrue more points.
- [74:21]
A
Way more stuff to shoot. Yeah. And that multiplier goes up to 10, whereas on the first difficulty, it goes up to 5. So I'm like. I want to say I'm like, 60 something in the world. Grub is like 30 something in the world. And Geller is in the top, like, 12 or something like that.
- [74:36]
C
I'm like, 1 629th, which I thought, pretty good for Mary.
- [74:41]
A
Let's keep working at it.
- [74:43]
B
Higher than me.
- [74:44]
A
Grub. It's just so good. But anyway, I didn't put it on my list this week because, like, that's. I mean, that is the main thing. Like, I will sit down and be like, all right, I'm gonna set a rule for myself. I'm gonna do three runs, and I'll do three runs. Well, those. Those don't count. It's like, okay, next time I get a run where I at least go past the boss and don't die. And it's like, I'll do that and I'll die. And it's like. And then literally six hours later, I'm just like, my eyeballs are burning out.
- [75:04]
C
And I'm the same. What I will say is, like, there are all sorts of games that I like to sit down and play. We're talking about them, right? Like, it's like, oh, it's my Friday night. It's my day after work. I'm gonna just sit and play this game. What I like about Sectori is I could be at a bar with my steam deck, which is actually when I beat it. And I was like, I have time for a couple runs. I'm just drinking a beer, and I'm, like, sitting here with my steam deck. You can play this very casually, but also very aggressively. This game lends itself to the casual backseat of a car. What I have. What? I have, like, 10 minutes. Might as well.
- [75:41]
A
Yeah, I. I'm a sector snob. I. I got lunch with Ben Hansen this weekend, and we were talking about this, and he's like, oh, yeah, I love this. Yeah, I'll play it when it's like, I've heard several people bring up, like, it's my treadmill game or it's my workout game. Or it's my. I think he said something along those lines. I'm like, oh, then you're not like, really playing. You're not a real player. Check, please. You know, like, I gotta go.
- [75:59]
C
Wait, yeah, wait. I gotta get his username and then DM him and say, you'll never get my score.
- [76:06]
A
Oh, I cannot imagine. I don't. Am I not even Steam friends with Hanson? I might not be. I haven't seen him on the.
- [76:10]
C
It's just so funny. I find that funny too. Like, I've been friends with people for years and we've like. At Gamespot, we've like, worked together and I'll be like, oh, my God, we're not friends on Steam. Like, not always. Because I used. I used a work account sometimes for games, so it's.
- [76:24]
A
Oh, I'm not. Yeah, I don't play multiplayer games really. So, like my best friends, I'm probably not, you know, Steam friends with. And also Hanson is. Hanson knows more about games than anyone I. Or the making of games anyone I've ever met. He's not good at them, so don't worry about his score. Like, Hanson is a non factor in terms of a score challenge. Focus on grub.
- [76:42]
C
I always am focused on.
- [76:44]
A
Hanson's not a serious person when it comes to this.
- [76:46]
C
Hanson's not a serious person.
- [76:48]
A
No, he's not.
- [76:50]
B
Speaking of.
- [76:50]
C
What are you. Yeah, I.
- [76:52]
B
Where's. I saw you posted the who Wants to Be a Grubby and Air? I never got my cut of grubbers or whatever you want to call them.
- [76:59]
A
Oh, I didn't either.
- [77:00]
B
God.
- [77:01]
A
Fucking grub. Jesus Christ.
- [77:03]
B
Yeah. Mary, do you know what happened Grubbing Dan. Dan was on who Wants to Be a Grubby and Air? And on the final question for a Million Grubbers, he called me with a lifeline and I gave him the correct answer. And I haven't seen a red scent.
- [77:16]
A
I mean, I haven't either. So I'll cut you in once Grub pays me.
- [77:19]
B
I like that. Mike Minati.
- [77:20]
C
We don't know the value of grub.
- [77:22]
A
Mike was what?
- [77:22]
B
He was like, bummed in the video that you didn't call him for that question.
- [77:28]
A
It seemed like a mic question. Like Mike Mahardi question.
- [77:31]
B
Oh, yeah. Gotcha.
- [77:32]
C
If I was going for a million dollars, even if I without knowing the question, I think Mike would be on my list.
- [77:39]
A
Hardy.
- [77:39]
C
Yes. Why Minati?
- [77:42]
B
No. Yeah.
- [77:42]
A
If I need to know what color Mickey Mouse's shorts were in 1972, I'll call.
- [77:46]
C
Minati has extensive Information about Disney. I am looking for someone who has a general knowledge about most things, like history.
- [77:57]
A
A serious person.
- [77:58]
B
Yeah, yeah, that's. I don't know how to take that.
- [78:02]
C
A real.
- [78:02]
B
I'd rather be the weirdo who knows too much about one thing, then. Well, a little bit about.
- [78:08]
C
You're the adult in the room. Deal with it.
- [78:12]
B
But, yeah.
- [78:13]
C
You never talked to us about the games you actually were playing.
- [78:15]
A
Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh, which, by the way, real quick, while we're talking about my hearty and Minati, I did say to someone in the last week, I said, at this point, and tell me, Mike, if you think this is true. I said, at this point, Mahari is more wine than Minati is Disney.
- [78:30]
C
Ooh, is that a dig?
- [78:32]
A
I. I think. No, it's not a dig at all. I'm just saying in terms of just like, absolute, like, deep knowledge fixation.
- [78:38]
B
Like, that's where my focus is for sure.
- [78:41]
A
Yeah. Yeah.
- [78:41]
B
I don't.
- [78:42]
C
I don't know how Disney has a fridge in his house that is perfectly temperatured to shove all of the Disney characters into.
- [78:51]
B
I have two wine fridges, so I beat him there.
- [78:53]
C
You win. He wins again.
- [78:56]
B
No, I'm definitely pretty laser focused on it, but I don't know how much he's into Disney. I know he's really into it, but.
- [79:02]
A
Wheel.
- [79:02]
B
Yeah, Interesting. I wonder if there's a way to test that.
- [79:05]
A
Who's if like to test your wine knowledge versus his Disney knowledge. Yeah, I think that would be interesting. Or like, imagine that. Yeah. You, wine, minati, Disney, and like, me wrestling, you know, like, put that all against each other.
- [79:18]
B
I will say competition. I will say just because of how long it's been around. I think there's more to know about wine. Like, I'm never going to ever know everything about it. Disney, I think, is maybe doable.
- [79:31]
A
Wrestling Mike has done it. Yeah, I definitely don't know. Like, I know a very specific chunk of wrestling, but, like, I don't know anything about Japanese wrestling. Lucha libre.
- [79:39]
B
Oh, sure.
- [79:40]
A
There's so much I don't know. So.
- [79:41]
B
Yeah, that's the thing, too. It's like wrestling. Wine is global.
- [79:46]
A
Yeah. Yeah. Disney. Disney is Florida. True. I assume Walt Disney was from Florida.
- [79:54]
B
Tendrils that went out. But it's not like people are making Disney movies in every country.
- [79:58]
A
I mean, Walt Disney just Disney products feel very Florida in nature, don't they?
- [80:03]
B
Yeah, yeah. It reeks of alligators and mosquitoes and.
- [80:07]
A
Yeah, yeah. Old people. Yeah.
- [80:09]
B
Alcoholic slushies.
- [80:12]
A
The games I have Been playing. Oh, I can't wait. I can't wait. Mary, can we say that? That we're going?
- [80:21]
C
Sure.
- [80:22]
A
Okay. Mary and I are going to New Orleans soon, and I've been planning the trip, and it'll be my sixth time. It'll be Mary's first, and. Oh, my God.
- [80:30]
B
Mary's been before.
- [80:32]
A
Mary's been. Right, Mike, you had. Not right.
- [80:34]
C
It's been 10 years. It's been 10 years since I've gone.
- [80:37]
A
Okay. I've gone. I want to go in the last 10 years. So.
- [80:40]
C
Yeah, yeah. It's been ages since I've been. But I love it.
- [80:44]
A
Oh, I can't wait. So anyway, I'm very excited about that. We'll have stories from there for sure. The games I have been playing, it's been dabbling. It's been dabbling because again, sector is taking up everything big with me. Big Hops is a game about a frog, and he jumps around.
- [81:00]
C
Bunny. I was hooked.
- [81:02]
B
You hooked Mary already?
- [81:03]
A
Yep. Yep. It's a cute little frog that hops from Mary. This seems prime for a Mary stream. You're. You're frog that hops around. He's got a tongue that he uses to grapple onto things. He can wall run.
- [81:14]
C
Your stamina bar is a lily pad. Get out.
- [81:17]
A
No, it's. It's an adorable game. It is.
- [81:19]
B
Mommy says I got to get my frog on.
- [81:22]
C
Oh, you can swim underwater.
- [81:24]
B
Yeah.
- [81:25]
A
It's a very cute game, for sure.
- [81:27]
B
Got you.
- [81:29]
A
It is very much going in that Mario 64 vein, you know, platforming, going around collecting these bits and stuff to unlock future levels and stuff like that.
- [81:35]
C
Oh, this is so cute.
- [81:37]
A
It is quite good for one of those. You know, it's a smaller team, so obviously it's, like, not fair to put it to Mario standards. That said, I do play a shitload of Mario games, and I'm. I am just so used to a certain amount of, like, predictability with the motion and stuff. And there definitely is things in Big Hops where it's like, oh, the momentum or the angle you come in at something is weird. And so it's like I was trying to wall run on this thing, but it thought I was trying to wall jump. So it's like, I didn't run, and I just slide off and fall to my death or whatever. So, like, there have been enough kind of janky elements to it where it's like, I'm kind of getting frustrated by it, but it is undeniably a really good one of these. And Mary, I do Think this would be a fantastic stream game for you.
- [82:18]
C
Oh, I love games like this. I love the platforming elements and it looks like there's some light puzzling where you're like getting your tongue to solve a lock. Like that's fun. Yeah. This looks very cute, I think.
- [82:32]
A
I think you would like it a lot and I will play more of it. It's.
- [82:35]
B
Yeah.
- [82:35]
A
And like you. You have a backpack and every time you get like basically their equivalent of a star, it'll be like, choose one of these two upgrades. So there's perks and stuff. So it's like, oh, when you slide on your belly, you'll go further. Or your backpack is bigger and can hold more trinkets. And you know, like it's. It. It does a great job with that stuff. I'll play more even if I'm a little frustrated with some of the movement. The other one, very Brief Romeo is a dead man. It's the upcoming Suda 51 game. I got a preview build of that. It is extremely Suda you've ever played his stuff. It is very no more Heroes Killer 7. But like even more so than usual. It is just like you'll go into areas and the entire art style changes in this very stylish way. So it's like, like you're going from this third person hack and slash to your ship where everything is like kind of pixel art and things like that. And like really weird. Like you know, all your ways of leveling up and everything are all individual mini games on the ship that are totally different experiences. And it's. There's just. It's throwing so much at you in a way that is kind of fun. Aesthetically it is extremely stylish. I'll say. The moment to moment combat stuff, it feels very Xbox360. So it's very, you know, X is your life attack, Y is your strong attack. And then you got this, you know, super attack. And you know, it's. It's just the first couple missions I had access to. So we'll see. There were some systems that I would like to see. Like you're growing these. These bastards they call them on your ship. And so it's like basically you're like growing these zombie enemies in a field on your ship and you can like deploy them. It's like this one's like kind of like a turret basically. And so there's some interesting wrinkles to the combat and everything. So I'll touch base on it once it comes out. But extremely Suda. But Also feels a little bit dated in the actual moment to moment. So I'll keep my eye on it.
- [84:20]
B
Yeah. It sounds like a lot of his games.
- [84:22]
A
Yep, yep, yep, yep. It will not surprise anyone if you've played Suda games.
- [84:26]
B
Wait, Sudo is also. Was that Shadows of the Damned? I think that's my favorite.
- [84:31]
A
Was that Mikami and Suda.
- [84:33]
B
Sounds working together. Sounds right. Yeah.
- [84:35]
A
Yeah, that. I like that one. I like Shadows a lot. Yeah.
- [84:37]
B
A lot of phallic stuff. But like it felt like Resident Evil 4. Evil Within 2. I mean like in the same school.
- [84:44]
A
Yeah. It wasn't your gun named Boner?
- [84:48]
B
Oh yeah. Everything. Everything is a dick thing.
- [84:51]
A
Yeah. Your name is Garcia Hotspur. Yeah.
- [84:54]
B
What's Dune Crawl?
- [84:56]
C
Dune Crawl is the best co op game so far in 2026. Guys. It's so cool. I. I know we're gonna get more of these. Like these.
- [85:10]
B
Yeah. It's January 11th games.
- [85:13]
A
Yeah.
- [85:14]
C
Friend slop is everywhere. This isn't really friend slop. I think this is like genuine couch co op type gameplay. Super fun. You are. I don't even know what you are, but you ride a crab and one person is driving the crab and the other person is shooting. Shooting the cannons to help like take down different towers. And then you can upgrade your crab, guys. So you like might find something in the world. Like I found this steel plate in an area and I attached it to my crab and it protects his little arm. And so while he's walking around, he's got steel plates. You gotta heal your crab. You gotta make sure your crab is healthy. And then you get off of the crab at these different islands and do the excursions. You bring back treasures and then you sell the treasures for upgrades for your giant crab and for yourselves. And there's even secrets on these islands. So you might be like, that's weird. Like what's up with this like weird looking wall? And you bomb it. You go through the wall and there's a whole area in there with an extra secret treasure in there if you're paying attention. At first I thought it was too easy. At first I was like, this game is for babies. And I respect that. But it's too easy. But on like the. It took a couple hours for it to get moving. There is a point where I was like, okay, these guys are cooking. And now I like need to have my shit together. So it did get harder as the game progressed, but I appreciated the easiness of it because I think if you were gonna like play this with a partner, like A, you know, a sibling and you're like, I don't want it to be too hard. It starts very reasonably and then it builds over time. So I, I, I've loving it. It has a couple issues, I think. Like, I think aesthetically it's like a little bland. You're in a desert every time. There's always a desert area. It's just brown town, you know. And I just, you don't see a lot of change in the environment. I think that's kind of exhausting. I feel like I had like one other issue with it, but they're minor. Like generally speaking, like I'm enjoying playing this game. I like riding my crab around town and upgrading her. Oh, you can also find masks. This was pretty cool. There's like lots of stuff you're kind of learning as I'm playing it. But at one of the excursions I got a mask and nobody would accept it, no one would buy it. And so I put it on my crab. Crab mask. I have like, I'm like upgrading my crab with like different. Oh, I got a upgrade from one of my crab's claws and when it's, when it steps there, it creates a trap on the ground. And so I'm like constantly upgrading my crab. It goes up to four player co op.
- [88:01]
B
How many are you playing it with?
- [88:02]
C
I'm playing it. What do you mean?
- [88:04]
A
Who?
- [88:04]
B
How many? No, how many people are you playing it with?
- [88:06]
C
Just one. So it's just two of us right now. I'd love to play it with four. I think it'll be fun. I wonder if that would make it too awkward because you met.
- [88:14]
B
The way you were describing it first, it reminded me of. Did you ever play Lovers in a Dangerous Space Time?
- [88:19]
C
Yes. I loved that game.
- [88:21]
B
Yeah. But that game was way more challenging right off the bat than this is. And that was an exploration game that was more like housemarque Arcadey kind of vibes.
- [88:31]
C
Yeah. What's that other game with four people where you're like doing challenging platforming things and everyone and it's just like castle crashers. This kind of has a castle crasher vibe.
- [88:40]
B
That's a beat em up.
- [88:41]
C
Yeah, it has some like shmuppy type things. There's a lot of different weapons in the space. You're constantly finding new weapons. I mean the upgrades. Oh, and there's environmental kills and stuff too. It's just pretty fun. So if you find like little red barrels and shoot them and they'll like pop off and everyone will explode and oh, and there's beetles as well. And so you're constantly like, right, you find a beetle in the environment, you can ride it. It's so fun. I found a beetle that had two sidecars. We're like sidecarring it up. If you find like random people, you take their stuff. I, I think it's really cute and well done. It, it's not perfect. One of the other issues we came across was I think the camera follows like the main person. This is couch co op and if I died it goes, the camera goes back to me and so the person who was progressing like loses their progress. There was like a couple janky things as well. When I was like trying to get off my crab and it like didn't know if I was trying to get on the ladder or not. I like floated in the air and kind of like janked away. So it's not perfect. I think this is a small indie team. In fact, I know it is because I've played their games before. This is Alien Trap. They made Crypt Dark. I played that and capsized. I don't know if you guys played that. This group has been around for a really long time, but they make, they've got to be a small team. This has got to be like a 20 little group of devs making this and I think they've done an excellent, excellent job.
- [90:11]
A
Nice. Cool.
- [90:12]
C
Yeah, I hope more people like play this like in groups especially as like co op is becoming more appealing. I just think this has got, it's got the sauce guys.
- [90:20]
B
Sounds up my alley.
- [90:22]
C
I think we should play it. I would love to play it with you guys. I, I've loved, I loved it when I was like figuring out and every time I like learned something all the again the weapons are. So I just found a boomerang which is such a funny weapon because it's like comes back at you and the, the different exploding weapons. And my favorite is just simply like a bow. Like a bow that does acid damage is like my favorite weapon in the game. But it's, it's simple, good hearted co op fun and I, I do recommend this if people are like actively looking for new co op experiences. Like this is it dude. Like build your mech crab. Go out and prosper. Super fun.
- [91:02]
A
Cool.
- [91:04]
B
All right, you want to do some emails?
- [91:07]
A
Sure.
- [91:08]
B
Okay. As usual, you can write into firescapecastmail.com with questions for the show, comments, concerns. Maybe we'll read your questions on the show. Fill up the inbox for 2026. We got a bunch of new ones since the last episode. Thank you so much, Mary. Do you want to read this first one from Stephanie?
- [91:27]
C
Hello. Wait.
- [91:29]
B
Nope.
- [91:30]
C
Congratulations.
- [91:31]
B
Yeah.
- [91:33]
C
Your real selves have inherited farms in Stardew Valley. Would you drop everything and move there?
- [91:39]
B
I think we'd all say yeah, absolutely.
- [91:42]
A
I mean, can I like stream and stuff from the farm? Sure, why not?
- [91:48]
B
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [91:51]
A
That's not my job.
- [91:52]
B
That's the premise Starved.
- [91:55]
C
If yes, how would you spend most of your time in Stardew? Who would have had the most successful farm after three years? Who would sell out to JoJo Mart first? Cheers. Stephanie from Vancouver Island, Canada. I. Yeah, I agree. I think we'd all do it.
- [92:11]
A
Yeah.
- [92:13]
B
Who would actually.
- [92:14]
C
My corpo life. And just starting a farm is so cool.
- [92:16]
A
It does sound great.
- [92:18]
B
Sounds nice. I. I don't take offense to this, Dan. I think the best farm would probably be between Mary and me.
- [92:27]
A
But my whole family is farmers.
- [92:29]
B
Yeah, but it doesn't mean you know how to do anything.
- [92:31]
C
It's not in your blood.
- [92:32]
A
It might awaken something in my genes, you know, it might like it's like the devil gene in Tekken. Like something, like something activates and I'm.
- [92:39]
B
Purple sleeper cell inside. Yeah. My grandparents were all farmers as well.
- [92:45]
A
I mean it's like my extended family is all farmers and my direct family is all grocers, you know. So I feel like there's something.
- [92:53]
C
Your generation is all eaters.
- [92:55]
B
Yeah.
- [92:56]
C
I don't know anything about circle.
- [92:58]
A
Yeah.
- [92:59]
B
Dan, like Dan sets foot in the. In the. On the farm is like, I could do this. I'm gonna channel my grandpa and the crops are just dead on day 10.
- [93:07]
A
He was a grocer. Yeah. I'd run. I'd run the store in town where they sold the stuff.
- [93:12]
C
Stuff.
- [93:12]
A
I would, I would have people. You're the JoJo tending to the farm part of it. And then I would work the store and then stream at night the general store or the.
- [93:23]
B
The high paying the grocery store. Okay, gotcha.
- [93:27]
A
Well, because that thing is like JoJo Mart. That's basically what put the family business out of business. It's like 93 records market closed because Walmart, Target, you know, they all started doing grocery stuff and everything. And all the big box stores put us out of business. So like I feel like it would be in my DNA to like, well, no, I gotta run the mom and pop shop. You know.
- [93:43]
C
This isn't answering the question properly, but I did used to have dreams about being in Stardew Valley and like existing in that town. Like probably so Many people who've played that game. But it wasn't being a farmer. It was owning the local bar.
- [93:57]
A
That'd be awesome.
- [93:59]
C
The pub is always poppin. It's very busy, especially on Friday and Saturday night. They have, like, a good crew. There's arcade games. It just feels so awesome. If I was a Stardew Valley person who stayed in that town, I would own the bar, dude. And I would, like, give people their beers and just enjoy that life.
- [94:21]
A
Mary, I could 100% see you just, like, retiring young and just, like, running a bar in Portland.
- [94:28]
C
I, I think sometimes it's my dream. I, I, I don't know a lot about it, so I'd probably destroy it and it wouldn't go well or I to death in there. But the concept to me of opening a simple bar and what I mean by that is, is like, if you go in there and you order some fancy, schmancy, fandangled drink, I'm gonna be like, do you want a beer or not? Do you want a shot of whiskey or get out? I would order, I would, like, have a bar for.
- [94:56]
A
Would you be the bartender who's taking the shots with the people where it's like, oh, they order three shots of whiskey and you're throwing back. I do like that. Like that, that's fun at bars when, like, a bartender will take a shot with, with you or something. Like, I like that.
- [95:06]
C
I think I would enjoy that life. I, I do think it would probably lose its luster. I was a bartender, so, like, it's not like I, I don't know that world, but, like, I think owning the bar is a different vibe, right? And, like, caring about it and, like, enjoying your locals, your regulars that come all the time, you know their name and you're like, john, like, I go to the same goddamn bar almost every weekend. I have. The bartender is the owner. We know each other. Every time I see him, he has my order ready to go, two Coors lights, and he puts in an order. Chili cheese fries. Like, I've got it on lock. And it's like, that guy's cool. I want to be that guy.
- [95:46]
A
That is like the coolest feeling when it's just like, like when I lived in northeast Minneapolis and I used to, I lived right across from the Vegas lounge, and I would just walk in there and Frank, the bartender would just walk up and just give me an ordiz without me saying a word. Ah, hell yeah. Like, it's, I. It's fun to just have, like, your.
- [96:02]
C
Haunt, your place Feels good to have someone where everybody knows your name. You know, it feels.
- [96:09]
A
Let's open a bar. A fire escape bar. That would be a logo.
- [96:14]
B
That would be the evolution. That would be the logical progression.
- [96:17]
A
Giant neon sign of the logo. That sweet logo.
- [96:20]
C
Like, I love it. It's just a little escape from our.
- [96:23]
A
Our lives.
- [96:24]
C
Anyway, I've completely avoided the question, but that's what I would like to do in Stardew Valley. I think if I was in Stardew, I would spend most of my time at the bar.
- [96:38]
B
So you did answer the question.
- [96:41]
C
I think that I would actually like to see our farms before answering this question. It depends on if this question is like, are you actually a farmer or who can gamify Stardew Valley the best? Because while I had a very good and successful farm, by the end, it wasn't super organized. Because that's not my jam. My jam isn't have, like, the. The perfect bins that are in succession in min. Max. Every square ounce of my farm. That's not how I play. So I'd like to see your guys's farms before I make my answer.
- [97:08]
A
I had a lot of beer going on in my farm. Like, in the winters is when you could do the beer. And, like, I just. My whole operation was just that go.
- [97:15]
C
Really good in my bar.
- [97:17]
A
Let's just buy a town. Let's just do the, like, Dave Chappelle thing and buy a town, and we'll just run everything. We'll have a farm.
- [97:24]
C
Mike, what would you do?
- [97:26]
B
I would actually do all the adult stuff that requires that. Like, running a bar requires that you two don't think about.
- [97:32]
A
Yeah, you do the stuff.
- [97:34]
B
No, like, everything. Like distribution cogs. Do you guys know what cogs stands for?
- [97:39]
A
No. That's your deal.
- [97:41]
B
You need to hit 30 and you're good, and you're making the right.
- [97:43]
A
You deal with that.
- [97:44]
B
Exactly.
- [97:45]
A
Yeah. Mary's taking shots.
- [97:47]
B
Let's know. You guys want me to run a bar. You two just want to want a drink.
- [97:50]
A
I'm playing with the dog. Mary's taking shots with the customers. Like, yeah.
- [97:56]
C
Every day.
- [97:58]
B
She's the owner. She just keeps saying she's the owner, but she's actually not.
- [98:02]
A
Sounds awesome. Yeah.
- [98:03]
C
We cannot get her to leave.
- [98:05]
B
That's the romance. I don't know her. She's just here every day. She keeps saying, I'll have the usual, but we don't know what that means because we have never served her the same thing twice.
- [98:17]
A
Yeah.
- [98:18]
C
He's talking to all the dogs. He says He's a brewer, but I'm pretty sure he just makes enough beer for himself to drink.
- [98:26]
A
I just pay people to make the beer. Yeah.
- [98:30]
B
Fair enough.
- [98:31]
A
Drink it.
- [98:33]
B
Dan, you want to read this? Thank you, Stephanie. Dan, you want to read this one from Alex?
- [98:38]
A
Sure. Hello. Mike was having a big old whinge. Boy, you can just. There's some words you can just tell someone in a different country, a big old whinge about the hoops he had to jump through to watch Search Party. And it reminded me of my most boomer take that broadcast tv, whilst not perfect, was the best content delivery platform. What is your boomer take? You won't move from that. Is Alex in Australia? I mean, mine that I just keep going deeper and deeper into is just hating social media and the Internet and you know, it's like I keep moving further into it, you know, like I took that little like break from Blue sky and it's still, it's been like a month now and I kept thinking I was gonna go back and start not missing it, feeling better about it. So like I just, I, I know it's a common topic and people not.
- [99:25]
C
Like the youths are over social media too.
- [99:28]
A
For the record, they do tick tock like crazy. Right?
- [99:30]
C
I, I think that they are consuming tick tock, but I think the, the trend that I am seeing is that there's no trust with social media with any generation right now because of AI.
- [99:42]
A
There should not be.
- [99:43]
C
Yeah, yeah. And so it just doesn't feel honest.
- [99:46]
A
It's like, yeah, it's concerns about the content. It's also. But like my thing is more just like mental health. I just think it's just like every. Here's the thing that I've, I've gone back to going Back to like 2009 when I started the Game Informer and it's always the people. And in this industry there's so many people that are so tied to social media and their followings and their clients back in the day, their clout scorers and stuff like that. That like it's always the people that are the most online, I have always found are the most miserable. The ones that are most tied in to Twitter at the time or TikTok now or whatever. The ones who are most invested in that are always the most miserable people you've ever met.
- [100:23]
B
Yeah.
- [100:23]
A
So it's like there's, it just seems like a very clear thing to me where it's like engage in that stuff and make it your whole deal and you're just gonna be A mess. And I just pull back all the time from it and want to pull back further and further and further. And it's only been good to pull back so that. I know that makes me sound ancient, but, like, that's.
- [100:44]
B
Yeah, we talked about that before and I won't belabor it. We. We did dig into like, how young people coming up in certain spaces and like, as journalists sometimes need that it's helpful to get their name out there and get work if you're a freelancer.
- [100:56]
A
It was critical.
- [100:56]
B
Yeah, but like 1000% I went cold turkey. I think all three of us here are fortunate and we worked hard to where we were and we were able to just kind of. Well, at least again, I. I like pulled the band aid off and just. Except for Instagram, I don't use anything Instagram. I don't talk about games before. You guys know what I post on Instagram.
- [101:14]
A
It's just wine and food and mine's like my cat.
- [101:17]
B
Yeah. And cats. Yeah, Yeah, I, Yeah, I, I 1,000% agree with that. My. My other. This isn't really a boomer take. I don't think this is like, I think people would agree. I think the movie theater is still the best way to watch a movie, provided you. I will say though, my boomer take is that I think one out of every five movies I go to actually has a good audience. Oh, it's rare to have a fucking. Yeah, people are just. No, I mean, like, maybe it's just because there's so many fucking people here I've been to. Let's say I've seen 20 movies in the last five years in theaters. Well, that's obviously covet happened, but like, you know what I'm saying, Just for the percentage wise, I'd say five of those. There wasn't like extremely rude people somewhere in theater.
- [102:09]
A
Yeah, that might be depending on location because, like, we've seen more than that in the last five years. And like, I don't know, at least in Minnesota, I don't think we've ever had a bad experience in the theater.
- [102:18]
C
Every once in a while we had a really bad one where we saw Mean Girls the musical. I don't know why we saw theaters. I don't know why I did.
- [102:27]
B
But yeah, that's your fault.
- [102:28]
C
People in front of us were making out the whole movie.
- [102:32]
B
Oh, I'm fine with that. I. I would like, I like that.
- [102:34]
C
Like full on in each other's throat. I understand that. Like, I understand that you can kiss. Like, I'm not Like the Kiss police. I'm just saying, like, the whole time it was like you could hear them making out.
- [102:51]
A
This is way worse.
- [102:52]
B
Start fucking going down on each other.
- [102:56]
C
It was awkward.
- [102:56]
B
Oh, God, you know me.
- [102:57]
C
Like, at some point I just had to just tap him on the shoulder and I said, this movie is almost over. You guys can go to town. Just. Yeah, it was 10 more minutes.
- [103:06]
B
I've gone to a bunch of different theaters, and I feel like I just. I think there's people who did not come up going to movie theaters once they, like, got old enough because they were either in quarantine or just like. Like streaming services were allowing them to watch whatever they wanted at home. I think there's just not an etiquette there that we grew up with in movie theaters. And maybe I'm being a bit harsh with those percentages. Like, maybe it was not as many, but, like, when I get a bad crowd, I'm like, oh, God, I love the movie theater, but I do wish I was just watching this at home right now.
- [103:34]
A
Yeah, I mean, there are certain movies that are fine if it's just some, like, kind of Shelaki. Like, if I'm seeing, like, a Fast and Furious movie in the theaters, I don't really give a. If someone's hooting and hollering or whatever. But if I'm seeing, like, Bonia or something, I'm not going to want someone trying to, like, get their over and get some jokes in during the thing. It's like, I. I hate that. Or. Or just having a completely unrelated conversation. No, just.
- [103:52]
B
Just chatting loudly and their phones bright in front of us. Like, I mean, that.
- [103:56]
A
That was when I was in New York during that movie pass era. Like, that's when I remember seeing that frequently. And yeah, I. I don't know if it's just a New York thing. Well, there's not.
- [104:06]
B
But I try. I try to go to the theaters where I know people are going to be cool. Like the Angelica. Generally speaking, I'd say people who are going are really into movies and thus are cool in theaters. Then there are, like, the bigger AMCs and whatnot, where it's just like, no holds barred. You don't know what you're gonna get.
- [104:25]
A
But if you're seeing, like, a Paul Thomas Anderson movie, I doubt, like, one battle after another. Would that have, like, yahoos.
- [104:32]
B
But then I saw Alien. What was the Romulus? Two years ago? And that was the worst. I had to. Literally, I. I had. It was a bunch of NYU students. I think I had to turn around and be like, shut the up. Because they were.
- [104:43]
A
Wow.
- [104:44]
B
They were chatting at this volume in the intro when it's quiet and like building suspense. I'm like, shut the fuck up. And they, they were babies, so they didn't say anything back to me. And then like that, that at that point it's like you're having a full on conversation. Go to the bar around the corner. Why did you pay to come in here, Mike?
- [105:03]
A
Were we that during Rambo? Last Blood in New York?
- [105:05]
B
No, like we were.
- [105:07]
A
We were in the front row.
- [105:08]
B
We were in the front row, like go like getting really excited when things were happening.
- [105:13]
A
We were just like punching each other when we were excited.
- [105:16]
B
That was Rocky. That was Creed.
- [105:17]
A
Oh, that was cre. Yes. We've had several very drunk theaters.
- [105:20]
B
Yeah, but that was when the music was flaring and proper.
- [105:23]
A
Like we're just getting super into the movie. Yeah.
- [105:25]
B
No, no, no. These people are having full on conversation, like loudly in the middle of a theater with their. And oh, oh, flashing. Like the Flash was on their phone taking a photo of the screen to post on social media. That's when I was like.
- [105:37]
A
I was, yeah, ban them from the theater.
- [105:39]
B
Oh, yeah, I. I was. And that was a theater. What was the name of that theater? That was a theater that like, again, they show like Stalker every few months. Like, like Tarkovsky movies like that. That. That is a theater that cares about movies. And I was surprised to have that happen there. But anyway, that's my. I don't know if that's a boomer take. It's just a boomer rant.
- [105:57]
C
No, I'm definitely a rant.
- [105:59]
A
I fully agree, Mary.
- [106:00]
B
What's yours?
- [106:02]
C
I'll never go back to low rise jeans. You can't make me high rise jeans for life.
- [106:08]
A
So is low rise? Because again, I don't know anything about fashion. Is low rise. Okay, so there's like the belly button and then you go down like two inches. Wait, so if, if, if the line of the jeans or the pants or whatever is at the belly button, that's mid rise.
- [106:22]
B
Like Hollister. Think Hollister jeans.
- [106:24]
A
I don't know what the fuck that means.
- [106:26]
B
Abercrombie and Fitch jeans.
- [106:27]
A
Don't know what I just went with. Cheap jeans.
- [106:29]
B
If you're looking at an ad for like a clothing store in 2006, I guarantee the women are all wearing low rise jeans. Just look up. Low rise.
- [106:39]
A
I remember a lot of like Christina Aguilera in the early 2000s where like her jeans are like, like above her, like Barely.
- [106:49]
C
That's low rise to come out.
- [106:51]
A
That's low rise.
- [106:53]
B
Went under the. To show the. Oh, God love her.
- [107:00]
A
Say that. Settle down, Mike. So high rise is more of a. Is that like a mom jean thing?
- [107:07]
B
No. Oh, High rise. Yeah. No, High rise are back. Like, Gen Z loves them. The, the 90s fashions are back now.
- [107:14]
A
Mary loves the soundboard.
- [107:16]
B
I love that. If you were just listening, you. The thing I said for real was as weird as the thing that was on the soundboard. Kind of.
- [107:25]
C
Oh, my God.
- [107:28]
A
Yeah.
- [107:29]
B
You'd know low rise jeans when you see them.
- [107:30]
A
So what is the current trend? Is it higher?
- [107:33]
C
Well, I think what I'm just saying is, is like, my boomer take is like, I don't care what's in fashion. I'll never wear that. It might be a millennial take. So I'll try and think of an older take than that. But, like, my boomer take is like, I ain't going back. Like, I'll never. I won't do it.
- [107:52]
A
I don't wanna.
- [107:53]
C
Are they coming back ever again? Oh, the kids are changing it up all over the place.
- [107:58]
B
I. Oh, yeah, I didn't know.
- [108:00]
A
My pants.
- [108:01]
C
Yeah, I'm still talking about pants down. I'll let you know when we're, when we've moved on.
- [108:05]
A
We're still in pantstown. Okay.
- [108:07]
B
Yeah, we're in crotch city. Yeah. No, I, I, I also, I really, really make no effort to chase trends with how I dress.
- [108:17]
C
I, I think in general, I, Yeah, I struggle with that. I will try, but I can't try with low Rise. Sometimes I say, when I mean to search something, I say, google it. And I think that's kind of a.
- [108:30]
A
Boomer, that a boomer thing. Do kids not boo Google?
- [108:34]
C
No. I mean, I think they Google things, but I don't think they say, I'm gonna go Google it. Like, dork.
- [108:41]
B
Really? Huh. I guess I never, like, even paid attention.
- [108:43]
A
They. Oh, they say chatgpt. Probably.
- [108:46]
C
They probably say, like, go look it up or something. But I say Google it. Because I've been trained to Google things since I was 14, and now I don't know any better.
- [108:57]
A
I, I am starting to come around on, like, what Alex from Australia says here, where the whole thing of, like, broadcast tv, like, like, it there was the heyday of, like, oh, we got Netflix, we got Hulu. This is great. It's got all this stuff, like, you know, all the stuff I want to.
- [109:11]
C
See is on these couple things.
- [109:13]
A
It's like, nowadays it is like, look, I'm never gonna get Paramount. Plus I'm never gonna get Disney. Whatever I'm not going to like. And so it does suck when there's just things that you don't know how to watch.
- [109:26]
B
I, I am an NBA fan. It's the one sport I still truly care about. I try to watch as many warriors games as possible. I know I was whinging about Search Party. I being an NBA viewer on any given night, and these are 85 game seasons, you need to. One night it's on Peacock. The other night it is on espn. The other night it's on hbo. Another night it's on, you need Fubo or Sling or, which are all, like.
- [109:56]
A
They all sound fake.
- [109:57]
B
They just, all they're doing is giving you the same package as broadcast, like satellite TV. They're just $80 a month for this, for everything you could ever want to watch. However, then NBC Sports Bay Area has the exclusive rights to some of these warriors games. And this is my fault for being a fan of a West coast team when I live in New York. But I can't watch those because it's blacked out. So I've resorted to other means, and I don't feel bad about it, but, oh, my fucking God, Adam Silver, the commissioner, is just, I, I, he's making my viewing experience so miserable, and I will never forgive him.
- [110:30]
A
I mean, I will say the thing that is universally positive is the idea of being able to just on demand, you know, like, easily, like, you don't have to. You're not programming a fucking VCR to record your show or whatever. You can just load it up and you can play it. But the beauty of a, like, cable subscription back in the day was like, okay, you're gonna pay a lot. You're gonna pay a hundred plus dollars a month probably, but you'll have everything. Everything you need is there. You got the HBO playing, you got all the shows you want to see are there. And now it's just, it's so piecemeal that, and it's so spread out that, like, in those early, you know, 2008, 2009 days or whatever, when it was just kind of Netflix and Hulu, that was great. But now it's just like, everything's on everything. And it also gets traded around between things. So it's like, wait, I used to be able to watch this on this, and now who has the rights to this now? And you Google it and you see a fucking article, but it's outdated now. And you know your Apple TV is supposed to tell you what the thing is, but it's, it's so much more complicated now and I don't know if you're really saving that much money. I do like being able to just on demand watch everything, but I think.
- [111:34]
C
It is worse miss owning things. Like, I hate that when I want to watch a movie, I'm renting it for 48 hours. Like I like liked buying things and having them.
- [111:45]
B
Or if you buy it, you own like a digital version of it. That if in some worst case scenario something goes wrong, you could just lose it and not. It's not in your house.
- [111:55]
A
Is this a Boomer thing that like I still buy a ton of 4K Blu Rays. Like, do you guys do that?
- [112:00]
C
Yes.
- [112:01]
B
Okay. I do every once in a while for ones I really like. I just collector's aspect.
- [112:04]
A
Yeah, not even just collector's aspect. Like if I'm going to watch something, like the quality is better off going off of streaming and it's like going up and down depending on the bandwidth or whatever. Like, okay, I've got a disc I'm putting in my PS5 and it's going to be the best possible quality. It's going to have the Atmos, it's going to have all that stuff. Like I, any movie I really like, I try to buy on 4K.
- [112:24]
B
I would do that more often if I had more space. But yes, I do that when I really, I, I see a movie on streaming them. I really like that. I know we're going to rewatch it. I want to get the Blu Ray as like a collector's item or something like that. Yeah, I probably have more that are not coming to mind right now, but I think we've sufficiently covered the question.
- [112:43]
C
I mean, that's so many boomer things.
- [112:45]
A
I probably have a lot, I have a lot of Boomer stuff. Yeah.
- [112:48]
B
Thank you, Alex, again. Okay, so this one, I didn't read the whole thing. Basically, there's a character on Survivor Australia named Mark Wales that Caitlin who wrote in claims I look a lot alike.
- [113:02]
A
Let's look him up. What's his.
- [113:03]
B
I think it's Mark Wales Australia Survivor.
- [113:06]
A
Mark Wales like the country?
- [113:08]
B
I believe so.
- [113:10]
A
Survivor. I want to see if it looks like you. Let's see. Oh, this guy's way more tech than you.
- [113:17]
C
Mark Wales.
- [113:18]
A
Yeah, this guy is. Oh my God. This is like a Pokemon evolution of Mike Minority.
- [113:22]
B
Yeah, I think they showed a photo of his face.
- [113:25]
A
Yeah. Oh, this is crazy. Yeah, this is a way more jacked Mike minority.
- [113:32]
C
Oh, man, did he win.
- [113:39]
B
Oh, in the face. I could.
- [113:41]
A
I see it.
- [113:42]
C
Sort of see it even there. This guy's chin is like as big as his body. Like it is so thick.
- [113:51]
A
Like this is like a BJ Blazkowitz, like Wolfenstein guy. This guy is sort of.
- [113:55]
B
Yeah, he does look like a video game character.
- [113:59]
C
He looks like they ran out of polygons to make him and so they just made his head a square.
- [114:04]
B
But anyway, they use that as a preface to ask this question. They explain the rules of Australia. Survivor. I think it's the same as the. The normal one. But here's a question. There are three main elements that production claims are essential to win Survivor. A lot of times the popularity contest. However, the three main elements are outwit, outplay, and outlast. Kind of self explanatory, but basically outwit means you strategically beat everyone. Outplay lends favor to advantages or challenge wins. And outlast means you simply last longer than your adversaries. Australia Survivor is set in various locations in Australia for around 50 days. You'll be surviving largely on the elements for this amount of time. This would mean fishing, foraging, competition and challenges and being socially adept. My question for you all is, which of these three themes do you think each of you would be best at? Who do you think would win if all three of you were on a season at the same time? Caitlyn.
- [115:00]
A
So the three being what is it?
- [115:02]
B
Outwit, out last, Outplay strategy and like, like stutter Female.
- [115:08]
C
I mean, you're the most strategic of us, but Mike.
- [115:12]
B
Yeah, but with video, better.
- [115:14]
A
The physical stuff, stuff I think, like I couldn't necessarily do the physical stuff. I think the social element I could do very well.
- [115:21]
C
Have you seen the physical stuff? Sometimes it's like, who's gonna stand on this pole the longest? Maybe that's outlast, but it's like that was one of the challenges I saw and it was just like, here's a pole. It's not very wide. You have to stand on it and if you fall into the water, you're out. And then they made the them stand there for like six hours.
- [115:44]
A
I've done a lot of 50 turn Mario parties.
- [115:47]
B
This does sound like Mario Party because they're talking about outplaying someone in challenges while you outlast them. And also there is the social element of Mario Party. Did Mario Party. Did Survivor just copy Mario Party or vice versa?
- [115:58]
A
Should I watch Survivor?
- [115:59]
B
You probably love it. It's on season like 60, I think.
- [116:07]
C
No.
- [116:10]
A
No.
- [116:10]
B
I think Mary would be the One to charm her way through, which would be out witting Dan.
- [116:19]
A
I think you more than Mary.
- [116:22]
B
The fact that you say that shows.
- [116:24]
C
We'Re assuming there's other people. Right. Like, it's not just us.
- [116:28]
A
There's like 12 people or whatever. Yeah.
- [116:30]
C
I think I could rally people to make Dan the victim quite, like, easily.
- [116:36]
A
The way. The way Bonk always puts it is that, like, my speechcraft skill is just, like, at a million out of 10, you know, so it's like, I think that is where I would do very well.
- [116:47]
B
Disagree vehemently on this.
- [116:49]
C
I never disagreed with Bonk and loves you.
- [116:53]
A
She's seen me in so many circumstances. Like, yeah, maybe. I think I would do really good at the outwit, the. The social element. But, yeah, any of the physical stuff, I think I would be the least of us three.
- [117:06]
C
You imagine a survivor challenge where it's a spelling bee and Dan's just like, yeah, like, I got that. Yeah. But most of the time it's like, hang from this bar and you're like.
- [117:15]
A
Oh, I'm not doing it. I can't do that. No.
- [117:18]
B
Outplay would be the challenges. I think I could outlast, which I guess both of those would be kind of a physical element, but.
- [117:29]
C
I can handle it.
- [117:30]
B
We had to pick one for each of us.
- [117:32]
A
Yeah.
- [117:33]
B
I would think I would be outlast.
- [117:36]
A
I think Mary would be outplay and I'd be outwit.
- [117:38]
B
I think Mary would be outwit. I think you'd be out play.
- [117:41]
C
I think you'd be out. Like, you'd get out.
- [117:43]
B
Dan, you are very.
- [117:44]
A
You're just out.
- [117:45]
B
Yeah. No, Dan, you're very lucky. I think you could pick up. You're very. You play so many games that you're good at picking up rules really quickly and figuring out how to maneuver through them and exploit them. I think you would understand the challenges really quickly and. And see where the seams are. Like, they all be a mini sex.
- [118:00]
C
A lot of times the challenges are poozles. Like, you'd be able to like, figure out, like, how you just get all the. Probably should have told you guys. I say puzzles poozles. Now you have to, like, pieces of the poozle around. I always say that.
- [118:12]
B
I think you would see the meta of the challenge really quickly because you play so many games and are really well versed in just.
- [118:16]
C
Okay, I agree. We also got to give you something, I think.
- [118:21]
A
Thank you. I have a boring, patronizing at all.
- [118:25]
B
Last longer.
- [118:26]
C
There you go. Dan, we're proud of you, bud.
- [118:31]
B
I've never had a problem lasting really long.
- [118:34]
C
I actually my problem too. I don't think I could outlast if like bugs came after me, I'd be. I think I'd like, want to leave. I don't like bugs. I don't want to get eaten alive.
- [118:44]
B
Yeah. I don't think any of us would win, to be clear. I would. I would. I think I like my wine fridges on day two. No, I'm Joe. That's just me being a caricature. I don't think you could win Survivor, Dan. I don't think you truly understand what they do on the show.
- [118:57]
A
I don't know what the show is. I've not really seen it. But I do.
- [119:00]
B
Get rid of your stick on day.
- [119:02]
C
Three and get a.
- [119:05]
A
Generally think I could win anything.
- [119:07]
C
Sure could win.
- [119:09]
B
But you get voted off, basically. And you. If you win challenges, you get immunity. Your only hope would be winning the challenges and getting immunity because I do feel like I wouldn't be like a.
- [119:21]
A
Heel to people on the island. Like, I would. I would understand that was an element. And, and it's not.
- [119:26]
C
Be a pretty unlikable. I think so they would recognize because you have to be a helper. You, like, help other people set up the camp or are you going to set up your own camp?
- [119:36]
A
I don't know how to do any of that exactly. It's just I need somebody to help me. Somebody's got to set up my tent. I don't know how to set up a tent.
- [119:47]
B
Yeah.
- [119:48]
A
But I'll sit over here and do.
- [119:49]
C
And then. And then they'd all be sitting around a fire starving because they don't give you any food unless you win the challenge. So if you lose the challenge, everyone's hungry and miserable and you'd be there being like, I did my part.
- [120:03]
A
I'd sneak in and steal the food of the other camp.
- [120:08]
B
Yeah, it's huge.
- [120:08]
A
And then I'd bring it back and I'd be the hero of my camp and no one's voting me out with them.
- [120:13]
C
There are evil people that have done well. They have, like, succeeded. I, I don't watch too much Survivor, but I have seen the first season. I remember it vividly that, like the lady who made it, everybody. Well, a couple ladies hated her at the end because she, you know, sacrificed them. And so they were like, basically like, if you were thirsty and I had water and we were in a desert, I wouldn't give you a drink. Like, they're so mad at her. For what she did because she like crossed them. You have to cross people in the game. You have to like trick them and be like, we have an ally. I'd go to you and I'd be like, you and I, we are in like cahoots and we won't vote each other off. Right. And you'd be like, yes. And I'd shake your hand, I'd look you in the eye and then I go to Mike and I'd be like, we gotta get Dan out, man.
- [121:03]
A
I talking about this. I feel like I gotta start a campaign to get me on Survivor. For real.
- [121:08]
B
Yeah.
- [121:09]
A
I think that would be good for everyone.
- [121:12]
B
Challenge. Damn belly flops into a shark pool and just.
- [121:15]
C
He doesn't deserve to win. I do think there is a. I'm not gonna. You want to get fog about your silver tie young. But I will say that there is a Dan factor in which you have like slip slopped your way into success so many times that sometimes I'm like, maybe he will just fandangle himself to like win a couple of challenges at the right time and get pretty far.
- [121:35]
A
I'm gonna look into this. I want to be on Survivor.
- [121:38]
B
You have to send in audition tapes and whatnot.
- [121:41]
A
I could do that.
- [121:41]
B
Yeah, I know. That's what I'm saying.
- [121:42]
A
I had to make a video for Taco Bell.
- [121:44]
B
That's what I'm saying. You'd be tailor made for it. I would just use the zipline. That would be my entire motive. I don't think I would get far in this. In Survivor I again, I think I would maybe make it past a couple days but then by that day three, I would. I don't want to be around humans to begin with that much in close quarters, let alone on an island where we don't have that much food. And I'm grumpy.
- [122:06]
A
God, I. I'm now just thinking about this and I super want this.
- [122:12]
B
Dance.
- [122:12]
A
I want. I want to be on Survivor.
- [122:16]
B
You should watch some Survivor first.
- [122:17]
C
You should watch some.
- [122:19]
A
Yeah, it feels like cheating. I want to do it by the book.
- [122:21]
C
Strategy is that I've never seen an episode of Survivor.
- [122:24]
A
Let's go.
- [122:25]
C
So where's.
- [122:26]
B
All of a sudden they give you a rock and you have to fight a lion.
- [122:30]
A
No, that would happen in life.
- [122:31]
B
That's.
- [122:32]
A
Anyone ever died on Survivor.
- [122:33]
B
All the time.
- [122:34]
C
They do.
- [122:34]
A
I'd be the first.
- [122:35]
B
No, I don't think they've died.
- [122:37]
C
They tempt you with food. They starve you. They starve you and you are so hungry.
- [122:42]
B
Do you have any gorditas?
- [122:44]
C
A whole table of fried chicken. And you only get it if you, like, win the challenge and then you get to pick one. Like, let's say you don't win. And so there's like 10 people who are starving and one person who won. And then they'll say you get to pick one friend. And. And the way they do it is they like pit people against each other because you'll be like, I told you to pick me. I told you I was hungry.
- [123:06]
A
I know I was. Would befriend some, like, grips on the crew and then they would like, I want some of that chicken. And that's in the middle of the night. Yeah.
- [123:14]
B
On the ground. Just one cinnamon swirl.
- [123:17]
A
Yeah, yeah. This is why I think I could get out of prison. I. This is how I would get out of prison. It's just befriending people and stuff like that. And. Yeah, come on, help me out here.
- [123:24]
C
You know, first to be shanked on.
- [123:28]
B
Survivor and then thrown over the railing into the. Into the yard.
- [123:32]
A
I want the this.
- [123:34]
C
I want this.
- [123:37]
B
Well, thank you, Caitlyn. I think we settled. I think we all arrived at the logical conclusions there. That is our episode. That's Fire Escapecast. Gmail.com. get more questions in. Load up that inbox for 2026. Thank you, Caitlin. Thank you. Alex has written in many times. Thank you, Stephanie. We will be back in a couple weeks, but in the meantime, a couple housekeeping things. If you're not a patron of any type, you can go just become a follower. So you know when the bonus episodes are going up on our YouTube, you should also go subscribe to that for similar reasons if you haven't already. If you want to get ad free episodes or you want to get the video versions, go become a patron of either tier. If you're a video patron, you can watch Mike and Vinny save the world, which is my co op. Total War Warhammer 3 playthrough with Vinny Caravella from Nextlander. We're also doing in the off weeks from that campaign, which is every other week we're doing one over on Next Lander. Go be a patron for them to watch that. That's Vinnie and I doing an evil campaign. Dan, what do you have going on in the meantime?
- [124:48]
A
Giant bomb and giantbomb.com check out the site. Chuck. Chucktowski Rebuild the site. It is fantastic now. It's doing a lot of fun stuff there. Also, like I said earlier, I think I am gonna maybe try to start streaming more on My personal Twitch doing sick. I keep wanting to say sector.
- [125:07]
B
I was the opposite. I kept wanting to say Sekiro every time we were talking about it.
- [125:11]
A
Yeah, yeah, I do want to play Sekiro. So maybe by the time this episode comes out, maybe I've already started. So keep an eye on those vods and stuff like that. But I think I want to play Sekiro, honestly.
- [125:20]
B
Let me know when you do. I might tune in. Just. Just check in every once in a while.
- [125:24]
A
Yeah, it'll be Dan Reichard on Twitch.
- [125:27]
B
Mary, what do you have going on?
- [125:28]
C
Same thing as always. I stream most of the time when I can. On Mondays on Twitch. I bowl on Tuesdays. I podcast on Wednesdays. I'm a busy girl.
- [125:41]
B
Nice. Where can we watch you bowl? I'm just kidding.
- [125:44]
A
Don't tell us.
- [125:45]
C
Yeah, I wish.
- [125:46]
B
I.
- [125:47]
C
Maybe I should. I would like actually to stream one of our bowl. I will admit to everyone, though, I'm not very good. But my average has slowly climbed. Climbed from 100 to 125.
- [125:57]
B
Oh, you weren't kidding. You suck. I'm just joking. I don't know bowling scores, actually. I know 300 is the magic.
- [126:02]
C
You bowl in a league, you should be at 160 for sure. I think it's weird to bowl lower than 150. We are probably the worst league team in the league, but we don't care because Double penetration to drink. That's what I wanted the name.
- [126:18]
B
Oh, wait, no. It's the Pinsy Low Hands.
- [126:20]
A
Right?
- [126:21]
C
Yeah, we're not. Sorry.
- [126:23]
B
Double penetration is really good.
- [126:25]
C
Double Penetration was the name I wanted it to be, but that was denied. So we are the Pinsy Lohands.
- [126:31]
A
That's good.
- [126:32]
B
That's good.
- [126:32]
C
Thank you. And I think it would have been called Full penetration.
- [126:36]
B
Oh, Full penetration is good. I don't know which one's more.
- [126:39]
C
A little bit far down the goon hole for this, but yeah, pretty bad.
- [126:48]
B
Ah, Turkey penetration. I have only bowled a few times. I don't know how the scoring works. I know I got like a 290, but that's all I know. But that's about. No, I actually am. Weirdly, I. I'm decent at bowling for not bowling much.
- [127:06]
A
I can score by hand. That's the one college class I went.
- [127:08]
B
To score by hand. How else would you throw the ball, you weirdo?
- [127:13]
A
In between, you write it. A little pencil X or a joke. A spare.
- [127:16]
B
Yeah, yeah. How does it work? Isn't it. Well, we didn't know. This is boring thing to get into now, it's like you add. You get a strike. You add 10 to the previous one. If you get another strike, you add 10 to both of those.
- [127:24]
A
Get a strike. Let's say you get a strike on the first frame, very first roll, you get a strike. You were getting 10 guaranteed. And then you were adding the next two frames. So that can be a 2 and a 7. But then you also get that 2 and a 7 from the second frame. But let's say you get. That's where, like, turkeys and stuff like that really matter, because, like, strike, strike, strike. Well, that first strike is worth 30. That second one is worth at least 20. And then whatever the next frame is, you know, so it's like. It kind of like doubles up on each other in a way. So.
- [127:55]
B
So, yeah, I. Again, I don't. I didn't know how to score. I know I got four turkeys in one game, but.
- [128:00]
C
Pretty cool.
- [128:01]
B
What is it, 15 frames?
- [128:03]
A
There's 10 frames.
- [128:04]
B
10 frames. I don't think four turkeys is possible.
- [128:07]
C
No, not in one game.
- [128:09]
B
Unless you get all strikes and then you just count. That's just the 300 overlapping turkeys.
- [128:14]
A
That's just the 300.
- [128:15]
B
Yeah. What is a group. What is a group of turkeys called? There's always a weird name for gaggles. A gaggle. So I would get like a gaggle. There's a. All strikes is a gaggle. I've done a gaggle before. I went 300 and people were freaking out and congratulating me. I just didn't understand it. I was like, ah, that was easy. We'll be back in a couple weeks with episode 125. Quarter of a way to our 200th episode. That's a long ways out. I don't want to do the math. That's like three years from now. 125. We'll be back with that one. Dan and Mary, thanks for joining, everybody who's listening and watching, thanks for joining, as always. We'll see you in a couple weeks. Bye.
- [128:53]
C
Bye.
- [128:54]
A
There.