Fire Escape Cast #136

Summary

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Fire Escape Cast #136 – Podcast Summary

Date: July 6, 2026
Hosts: Dan Ryckert, Mary Kish, Mike Mahardy

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Episode Overview

Fire Escape Cast #136 is a lively episode brimming with banter, quirky life updates, and deep dives into games, snacks, and the inexplicable quirks of life (and philosophy). The hosts, Dan, Mary, and Mike, bring the listener through personal anecdotes, game recommendations (both indie and mainstream), travel misadventures, and some heated, hilarious debates about Schrodinger’s Cat and free will. True to Fire Escape’s tone, this episode oscillates seamlessly between offbeat humor, practical game talk, and authentic personal stories.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Opening Bits and Beverage Banter (01:07–03:45)

• The trio jokes about their podcast intros and recounts just recording a bonus episode playing Mecca Chameleon.
• Mary explains she's drinking sake from a small, collectible cup with a soccer-playing-cat design, sharing her fondness for such cups and risky adventures with sake’s delayed effects.

2. Edibles, Running, and Risky Challenges (03:45–13:44)

• They share experiences about accidentally consuming too many edibles (“Who in their right mind only eats half a Reese cup because it’s inedible?” - Mary, 03:33), reinforcing the harmless but disorienting effects of overconsumption.
• Dan recounts running a half-marathon solo in a torrent after the organized race is canceled due to storms and lightning:
  • “I ran for over two hours in a torrential downpour and nonstop lightning and thunder... My shoes were soaked. The sunscreen was going to my eyes... I felt pretty fucking cool afterwards.” (Dan, 07:13)
  • Mary gives a grounded take, expressing annoyance at disregarding safety and the hard work of race organizers.
• The conversation evolves into lightning safety, with Mike admitting he doesn’t really understand it either.

3. Travel Tales: French Heat and Kayak Mishaps (17:35–23:50)

• Mary shares her recent work trip to the south of France during a heatwave: working at a gelato booth, taking “three, sometimes four showers a day just to cool off.” (Mary, 18:52).
• She recounts a guided kayaking trip interrupted by the French police due to Macron’s proximity, resulting in a detour to the Gucci family’s vacation home.
  • “He jumped into the water to pull [coworkers] to safety with his bare muscles... I was there for work, but you have an extra six hours—you might as well.” (Mary, 21:10, 23:13)
  • They then commiserate about not knowing foreign leaders as well as other countries know American presidents.

4. World Cup Fever (26:22–31:35)

• Discussion about the World Cup being held in the US and international visitors’ fascination with ranch dressing.
  • “It’s causing all these problems because they’re trying to leave with ranch... you need to check ranch.” (Mary, 26:58)
• The US’s World Cup history and current performance are recapped, with Mike quizzing the others about when the USA last made semifinals (1930).

5. Heat, Millipedes, and Nature's Oddities (34:08–41:03)

• Dan describes a millipede infestation in his basement following a rain/heat combo—“Over a hundred millipedes in this room. If I turn around, I bet I will see 8 to 12 millipedes on the ground.” (Dan, 34:41)
• The trio laughs over bugs in homes, poison strategies, and the “Don’t Tread On Me” millipede bit (“The millipedes don’t find guns. One for each leg!” - Dan, 40:54).
• The segment segues into jokes about household pests, cats, and home defense against insects.

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Main Games Talk

1. TerraTech: Legion – Auto-Shooter + Car Building (41:06–50:08)

Recommendation Chain: Mary → Dan

• Dan describes TerraTech: Legion as “Vampire Survivors meets Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts,” emphasizing the addictiveness and creativity:
  • “It is so good at just the drip feed of just, like, the persistent upgrades... every time you come back, it’s like, all right, I have all these tokens I can spend.” (Dan, 43:02)
  • Mary highlights the diversity of each run, with forced changes to vehicle layouts and weaponry.
• Both praise the game’s forgiving mechanics and its perfect fit for travel/plane gaming.
  • “I was trying to beat it while the wheels were touching down on the tarmac.” (Mary, 47:49)

2. Dave the Diver: DLC & Core Game Chat (50:12–63:35)

• Mary attempts to play the new Jungle DLC but realizes she needs to finish the main story first, leading to an unplanned 10-hour gameplay spree.
  • “Dave the Diver is the best when you are diving for fish… The end of this game is crazy puzzles and boss fights which I don’t think is where this game shines.” (Mary, 52:41)
  • Jungle DLC praised for new above-water content and engaging systems: “It’s more Stardew than ever; you’re meeting villagers, building grills… it’s fun.”
• Adds warnings about the dense, sometimes overlong base game but assures that the DLC is worth it for those who’ve completed the original campaign.

3. Rhythm Heaven Groove (63:35–66:56)

• Dan confesses his lack of rhythm but describes the game as charming and true to Nintendo’s quirky tradition.
  • “I appreciate this game for what it is. It is, like, dripping in that Nintendo weird WarioWare style.” (Dan, 64:53)
• Co-op is comically disastrous for rhythm-challenged players.

4. Star Fox 64 Remake (66:56–70:58)

• Dan is enthused about the polished new Star Fox 64, noting, “It’s one of the best aged N64 games—up there with Mario 64 and Ocarina.”
• Some humor about Fox model redesigns, with a dig at fans complaining they’re “not as hot.”

5. Cato: Butter Cat Puzzle Platformer (71:00–74:34)

• Mary describes a relaxing, affordable puzzle game where “if you have buttered toast on your back, you can [jump],” and praises its references to other classic games (“Flappy Bird,” “Snake”).

6. Philosophical Detour: Schrodinger’s Cat (74:12–79:45)

• Heated/funny digression with Dan denouncing Schrodinger’s Cat and the free will debate:
  • “The cat’s there or it isn’t—done! Let’s not talk about it anymore.” (Dan, 75:02)
• Mike and Mary attempt to clarify the paradoxes, but the debate dissolves into laughs.

7. Spider-Man 2 & Insomniac Retrospective (79:45–81:39)

• Mike revisits Spider-Man 2 for research, praising Insomniac’s genre versatility and the game’s swinging traversal, despite bloat in side content and “Mary Jane stealth.”
• “They really like making you, Peter Parker and Miles, walk slowly through environments while talking.” (Mike, 80:48)

8. Slay the Spire 2 Co-op & Steam Deck/Machine Talk (82:48–89:13)

• Dan, nudged by Bonk, tries Slay the Spire 2: “Outside of some placeholder art, this is basically a full game.”
• Discussion about the joys of configuring the Steam Machine and Deck, building personalized game libraries, and retro emulation.
• When asked, all three lean toward preferring the Steam Deck over Steam Machine for price/portability.

9. Mecca Chameleon (92:10–97:02)

• Mecca Chameleon is a standout hit among streamers, described as "competitive hide-and-seek where you paint yourself into the scenery":
  • “This is starting to get into the Among Us levels of...everybody is talking about this silly little game.” (Mary, 93:26)
• Anecdotes about ridiculous painting, hunting, and laughter in their bonus episode.

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Snack Discourse: Chips, Shapes & Flavors (110:36–122:01)

• Global chip talk: Australia’s “shapes” (especially Chicken Crimpy) get high praise.
  • “Chicken Crimpies are essentially a butter cracker that tastes like chicken bullion.” (Mary, 117:47)
• Sun Chips, Cool Ranch Doritos, and Flamin’ Hot Cheetos are debated for best chip. Cool Ranch is the group’s consensus “Mount Rushmore” chip.
• Dan’s childhood memory: “I would press my thumb against the roof of my mouth and remove it to taste Harvest Cheddar Sun Chips.”

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Running Races Anyway:
  “Is this more cool or more stupid? Because I ran for over two hours in a torrential downpour and nonstop lightning and thunder.” (Dan, 07:13)

• Debate on Schrodinger’s Cat:
  “The cat’s there or it isn’t—done! Let’s not talk about it anymore.” (Dan, 75:02)
  “You can’t prove it! Exactly—that’s the whole fucking point.” (Mary, 75:27)

• Snack Philosophy:
  “Oops, all double-dusted shapes—give me the dust, pixie stick style, let me go nuts with it!” (Dan & Mary, 119:54)

• On Mecca Chameleon:
  “You are splatting yourself with brown and being like, ‘I look like wood,’ and you absolutely do not.” (Mary, 95:03)

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Community & Listener Questions (97:16–122:01)

• Corrections segment with a listener email about actor lineage: “Richard Harris was not Ed Harris’s dad. It was Jared Harris.”
• Discussion of favorite “out of character” interests.
  • Dan: Florence and the Machine fan.
  • Mary: “Train Dreams” (film) moved her deeply, despite not being her genre.
  • Mike: Not a wine snob—enjoys Bud Lights and dive bars.
• Snack favorite question from Todd in Australia leads to the deep-dive into chip history.

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Additional Fun Segments

• Meta-glasses and POV filming technology—Mary defends her extensive use for safe, hands-free recording while biking/kayaking (“Better than a GoPro for POVs, don’t use for perviness”—125:09).
• Tangents about classic TV (The Sopranos), horror movies, and surprise favorites in gaming and cinema.
• Teasing each other about philosophical debates and friendly jabs about forgotten facts.

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Segment | Timestamp | |----------------------------------|------------| | Sake cups & intro banter | 01:07–03:45| | Edibles & running stories | 03:45–13:44| | France trip & kayak mishap | 17:35–23:50| | World Cup & ranch dressing | 26:22–31:35| | Millipedes, bugs, and vermin | 34:08–41:03| | TerraTech Legion game review | 41:06–50:08| | Dave the Diver DLC | 50:12–63:35| | Rhythm Heaven Groove | 63:35–66:56| | Star Fox 64 Remake | 66:56–70:58| | Cato: Butter Cat puzzle game | 71:00–74:34| | Schrodinger’s Cat argument | 74:34–79:45| | Spider-Man 2 & Insomniac | 79:45–81:39| | Slay the Spire 2 co-op | 82:48–89:13| | Steam Deck/Machine debate | 89:13–92:10| | Mecca Chameleon bonus | 92:10–97:02| | Snacks & chips deep dive |110:36–122:01|

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Closing & Plugs

• New bonus episode (Mecca Chameleon) available for video patrons.
• Fire Escape merch available for summer.
• Dan: Min Max and Giant Bomb Steam Machine/retro gaming content.
• Mary: Mondays on Twitch, Instagram stories.
• Mike: At Peasant in NY, reviews for Giant Bomb, day job research.

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Fire Escape Cast #136 is a playful, meandering, deeply engaging episode that balances earnest life stories, gaming analysis, and plenty of laughs—and would be especially enjoyed by listeners who love friendship chemistry as much as granular video game talk.

Transcript

[Dan]

This July 4th at Lowe's, get up to 45% off select major appliances. Plus save $80 on a select Char Broil Performance Series gas Grill. Now $299. Our best lineup is here at Lowe's.

[Mike Mahardi]

Lowe's.

[Dan]

We help you save valid through 78 while supplies last. Selection varies by location. See Lowes.com for more details.

[Mary Kish]

Visit your nearby Lowe's.

[Mike Mahardi]

Best thing that's ever happened to you.

[Mary Kish]

Financially.

[Dan]

Go easy.

[Mike Mahardi]

Sold my car on Carvana. Amazing offer, really. I hit 200 on the scratcher.

[Dan]

Did the scratcher come to your house and hand you a check?

[Mary Kish]

No.

[Mike Mahardi]

How many scratchers did you hit to get that? I hit a button on Carvana.com once.

[Dan]

Okay, that's fair. It's like the lottery, except you always win.

[Mike Mahardi]

Not like the lottery at all, actually.

[Dan]

Exactly.

[Mike Mahardi]

Inexplicably good offers worth bragging about. Sell your car today on Carvana.

[Dan]

Fees may apply.

[Mike Mahardi]

Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the Fire Escape Cast. It is episode 136. I'm your host, Mike Mahardi. I don't have any cool rhyme today because I already used it up. We just recorded a bonus episode. If you're not a video patron, you know not to get into promos right away, but I did have a pretty sick intro there because Mary really biffed hers trying to improvise.

[Mary Kish]

I think mine was better.

[Mike Mahardi]

Lesson learned. I'll take care of the intros. That was Mary. Mary Kish, as usual, is here.

[Mary Kish]

I think I have a great way to do intros. But we all can't just rhyme random words together, can we, Dan?

[Dan]

Especially ones that are not words and just making up names.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, yeah.

[Dan]

He's the master for a reason.

[Mike Mahardi]

Yep. It's not an easy. It's not something you can acquire. I was born with it. I can't help it. We did just record a bonus episode. We were playing Mecca Chameleon. Mary told us about. I mean, a lot of people playing it, but Mary was the one who

[Mary Kish]

said no, I found it. I discovered she made it.

[Mike Mahardi]

Mary made me Chameleon. It's based on her.

[Dan]

Jake in Jake joined us. Jake's bad at hiding others. I hope. I hope he uses my cuts that show him foolishly looking directly at me and not shooting me.

[Mary Kish]

That's funny.

[Mike Mahardi]

It's like competitive friend slop and kind of co op.

[Dan]

Sort of like speed paint. We'll talk about it when we get to the game section. But yeah, like speed painting to hide yourself is a very funny concept.

[Mike Mahardi]

Yes, but we're going getting that up Soonish. We don't have a set date. We might by the time we publish this episode. But if you're not a video patron, then go do that because you'll have access to it. It was super fun.

[Dan]

Mary, it looks like you're drinking either a candle or a can of beans

[Mike Mahardi]

liquid or like a melted can of yogurt.

[Dan]

For the audio listener, describe this. Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

Okay. This is a tiny glass. It does kind of look like a candle. It's a glass container. This is sake. And it's in one of those little cups that once you buy it and drink it, you can keep the cup.

[Dan]

It looks like a night in the woods.

[Mary Kish]

It does kind of. It's a cat playing soccer. And I. I like these because I despalote. I keep the cup afterwards and then drink little drinks out of it. I think they're fun. I think they're neat. Yeah, it's kiss. Sake is risky for Mary, though, because I find that the effects of the alcohol feel delayed. And so I'm like, I can't. I'm not getting anything out of this sake. And then three sakes later, I'm like, oh, it's like an edible. I'm totally bombed.

[Mike Mahardi]

I can't feel anything.

[Mary Kish]

It doesn't do anything.

[Mike Mahardi]

And just keep chomping on them.

[Mary Kish]

You just go too far. But I also ask you, who in their right mind only eats half a Reese cup because it's inedible? I'm going to eat the whole Reese cup. That's ridiculous.

[Mike Mahardi]

A Reese's branded edible, they make fake

[Mary Kish]

names for them, but they have, like, Rice Krispie Treat edibles. And it's. And it'll say on it, listen, like, have a quarter of this Rice Krispie Treat, and it's just like, what? What you want me to. Only a quarter of a Rice Krispie Treat is crazy.

[Mike Mahardi]

The texture invites binge eating. They're just like, nice, chewy, satisfying texture.

[Dan]

I feel like everyone's got that story, too, of themselves or a friend who's like, I found this whole thing of, like, popcorn on the counter and I just ate a bunch of it and didn't know that every piece was 20 milligrams of THC, you know, like.

[Mary Kish]

Well, you can tell those stories because it doesn't kill you. No.

[Dan]

It just makes you freak the fuck out. Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

It makes you maybe have an unpleasant night, but it's like, unlike any other drug or alcohol, where if you have too much of it, you can be really in trouble. And you have too much of an edible, you just Go to sleep.

[Dan]

Or what would happen if, like. I know you can't. It can't be like a fatal thing, but like. Okay, so for instance, 5 milligrams for me is enough for me to feel real. Yeah. Usually I'm a super lightweight. Yeah. So what happens if I ate like 50,000 milligrams at once? What would happen to me? You.

[Mary Kish]

God, you might have to go to like coma control.

[Dan]

Yeah, that's a lot.

[Mary Kish]

I thought you were going to say like a hundred times your normal.

[Dan]

Like a thousand times the normal. Yeah.

[Mike Mahardi]

10,000 times.

[Dan]

Yeah, yeah.

[Mike Mahardi]

If I have like, I have like. If I had 10, I would be like, not know what's going on. Yeah, like just 10, not 10,000.

[Mary Kish]

No, I agree. And I think you'd be fine, but you wouldn't be. You wouldn't be mentally okay. And I do think there's like, like some psycho effects to it. But Dan, I think if you have 50,000 of a lot of things you do, you know that if there's 50,000 times water, you can die.

[Dan]

Yeah. That hold your wee for a weed. You remember that? Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

Yes. You can't have 50,000 times anything.

[Dan]

And that sounds like a dare.

[Mike Mahardi]

What is something. What is. What is something? Is there anything that you could drink or eat? 50,000.

[Dan]

I mean, I said this about. I said this about macaroni and cheese once, and that did not go well for, for me. I can still feel the effects of that.

[Mike Mahardi]

But yeah, the worst answer ever. Like rice salt. No, Rice would expand on your stomach by the time you have, oh, 50,000 grains that still would expand in your

[Dan]

stomach like 50,000 specks of salt. Oh, that's like what I put on everything.

[Mike Mahardi]

I wonder how many that would be like if you were just.

[Dan]

I'm a Google.

[Mary Kish]

I think it has to be food. I don't think it can be a spice.

[Dan]

I don't think you can be like,

[Mary Kish]

I had 50,000 oregano. I think it needs to be specific.

[Mike Mahardi]

They're like, what are specks of salt? Grains of salt grains.

[Mary Kish]

Grain of rice is probably the smallest. Is.

[Mike Mahardi]

It's like how many grains of sand are on this, like, beach? It's actually okay, billions.

[Dan]

I could do this. 50, 000 grains of salt is 7.14 pounds of salt. I could do that.

[Mike Mahardi]

Jelly.

[Dan]

Yeah. You feel bad?

[Mary Kish]

Pretty. 7.4 pounds.

[Dan]

They say you're supposed to have that. You need salt when you run, like marathons and stuff. So before I run my marathon in October, I'm just gonna eat of salt. Lick that like at aid stations, I'm gonna plant salt licks for me to just lick as I run by.

[Mike Mahardi]

I think you would turn to, like, mush before the next aid station.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah.

[Dan]

Did any of you see what I posted recently about my half marathon?

[Mary Kish]

Yes, I did. You got. There was a thunderstorm and it got canceled.

[Dan]

Yeah, it got canceled and I ran it anyway. And I want to get your honest, man, is this cool? Is this more cool or more stupid? Because I ran for over two hours in a torrential downpour and non stop lightning and thunder. My shoes were soaked. The sunscreen was going to my eyes, so I couldn't see most of the time. Like it was a tremendously difficult and painful experience. I felt pretty fucking cool afterwards. Well, because I thought, like, I mean, you're out there for hours and you plan for like. At the time I left the house, it wasn't storming. I saw that it was coming in, but, you know, you prepare. But then it's just like I'm drenched and my bald ass head just slick. Just puts all of the sunscreen directly in my eyes. I'm on the course by myself. There's no aid station. So I'm just in the middle of this nature reserve. Yeah, it was fudgeing. Scary and uncomfortable. But like, at the end I was like. That felt pretty cool.

[Mike Mahardi]

Yeah, it's good. It's good for you, like, that you did it. And also I'm fairly certain, like, I don't understand lightning to begin with. So, like, don't take this as gospel.

[Dan]

Sure.

[Mike Mahardi]

I thought you're better off being near other tall things as opposed to like being the only tall thing in a field.

[Dan]

So that was something I was thinking about a lot because I had both experiences in this nature reserve because, like, at times it was like a hill in a field and I was the tallest thing and I was worried because I know lightning finds the quickest route to the ground. And I was like. And I had the metal. Metal in my running belt. So I just was running around with metal above my dick, basically. Yeah. It's like a breath of the wild. Sparks were coming out of it. Yeah. So I was worried. I was most worried when I was the tallest thing in the field. But then there were times where I was like running under wooded, like, things. And I was like, all right, it might. It would strike the trees first, which, like, okay, yeah, maybe it could fall on me, but that's not as bad as getting struck directly. So, like, I felt better when I was under trees, which is that I Don't know if that's stupid or not.

[Mike Mahardi]

I don't know. I mean, I. I thought it would be, but like, people write in and tell us someone who understands lightning better.

[Mary Kish]

I had a different response to it. I felt like my immediate response was that it. It was annoying.

[Dan]

Annoying?

[Mary Kish]

Yeah.

[Dan]

What part's annoying?

[Mary Kish]

Well, I thought about those poor people who work to make the marathon happen and all the work that they put into that day. And then there's a thunderstorm, which is dangerous, and they had to make a very difficult decision to cancel it. And then a. A man shows up and says, I'm running it. And they said, well, we can't stop you, but it's not good and you shouldn't, but we can't make you. And you said, I'm going to run it. And they said, okay. And then. And then before they walked away, you said, and I want my medal.

[Dan]

Okay. Well, to be fair, created no work for anyone. Like, I didn't know the exact course. And they took all the signs down as they were canceled.

[Mary Kish]

Dangerous.

[Dan]

I. I made the course. Like, no, like, they had nothing to do with it. Like, I just grabbed the, the middle. They didn't even, like, hand it to me, actually. I asked them like, can I take this? And they're like, yeah. I took it out of the bag.

[Mary Kish]

They were like, get out of here, kid. You bother me.

[Dan]

This is an inconvenience. Anyone? This is. I was the only one that struggled with this.

[Mike Mahardi]

Before you ran the race or after?

[Dan]

Well, yeah, because they were all leaving. They were leaving everything.

[Mary Kish]

It was canceled.

[Dan]

That's what I said. I grabbed that. No, I use it as inspiration. I said like, okay, I need to earn this now. And I ran. And my watch stopped working with the tracking because of the rain, so I actually ran 13.6, which is a half a mile longer than I needed to. No, I. I felt awesome about it, like, and I. I never feel cool, but I got home and I was like, I feel pretty cool about that.

[Mary Kish]

I think it's neat that you persevered. I think that you are so beef headed that you, yes. You, like, disregarded your own personal safety to commit to something that no one needed you to do.

[Dan]

You.

[Mary Kish]

You did something reckless for no reason besides your own.

[Dan]

No reason. I felt pretty good about it.

[Mary Kish]

But you don't need to. You could, you could have run.

[Dan]

You don't need to run ever. You don't need to work out ever.

[Mary Kish]

You know, but you could do it when it's safe.

[Dan]

Yeah, but I trained for this day in particular, you know, like the training.

[Mary Kish]

You don't need to like dive with sharks. Like with, you know, pieces of meat strapped to your dick. But like you could.

[Dan]

Sounds like a day. Mike, Mike. I was thinking about you at one point specifically because it was at the point where I was most at the top of a hill and the lightning was coming down like crazy. And I was like, that was my peak scared. And on my playlist, no easy way out from Rocky 4 started. And I was literally thinking, like, I don't know how I could find shelter if I needed to because I was in the middle of this park thing. And the lyrics were like, there's no easy way out. There's no shortcut home. Well, I'm literally thinking about like, what, how can I get home? How can I get to safety? Or whatever. It was very dramatic. It felt great.

[Mike Mahardi]

The only way out is through.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[Mike Mahardi]

Did Bianca like shout at you from the top of the stairs? You can't do this.

[Dan]

Oh, I should have asked her too. Yeah, she was fully in favor of it. She was like, that was cool.

[Mike Mahardi]

Oh, that's not cool.

[Mary Kish]

She's so supportive. I know.

[Mike Mahardi]

She shows up and she shows up at.

[Mary Kish]

On this, my job.

[Dan]

I don't know why she flew to Russia.

[Mike Mahardi]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Dan]

You're just there booing me. That's a great character person. Who goes to the marathon to say, you can't do it, Dan.

[Mary Kish]

And it's on my shirt.

[Dan]

You're gonna get too tired.

[Mary Kish]

Finish.

[Dan]

Wouldn't a nap feel good right now?

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, go home, loser. And they're just like, why do you let her be your friend? I'm holding up a sign.

[Mike Mahardi]

Mary's putting demotivational weed laced Reese's Pieces at all the stations.

[Mary Kish]

I'm hiding them in different tables and I'm drugging all the different runners and I'm wanted in three states.

[Mike Mahardi]

I've never run it organized marathon. I run a quite a bit, but not. I've never done something official.

[Dan]

No, this is my fifth and this might have been my favorite.

[Mary Kish]

I did, but you didn't. Like you. It was canceled, official.

[Dan]

But I did it. It's the longest I've ever run in my life.

[Mary Kish]

It was cancer something and you ran an extra half a mile in a thunderstorm. I am proud of you, but I think you need to know when to go home.

[Dan]

No, I would do it again.

[Mike Mahardi]

They didn't postpone.

[Mary Kish]

Learned nothing.

[Dan]

No, it was canceled and there was no refunds. It was like a non refundable thing. Yeah.

[Mike Mahardi]

Why didn't they postpone it to another day?

[Dan]

I don't know. Like, they could still. That email could come through, but I kind of doubt it now. They said, like, oh, you can do it virtually. So if you go do it on a treadmill or whatever, you can submit your time and get listed. I was like, fuck that. I'm running outside right now in the rain this second. I'm going not run a marathon.

[Mike Mahardi]

I told you guys before I passed. I officially passed my first of six tests for my certification.

[Dan]

Oh, yeah. What am I holding right now, smart guy?

[Mike Mahardi]

Looks like McLaren, Val Shiraz at a glance.

[Dan]

He's.

[Mike Mahardi]

He's my second test. I don't get results for a bit, though.

[Dan]

Nice.

[Mike Mahardi]

That's nice.

[Dan]

So you're almost done?

[Mike Mahardi]

Yeah, four more to go. Like a year and a half. Two now. Like. Yeah, a year and a half.

[Dan]

Christ.

[Mike Mahardi]

So that's been fun. I'm also. I'm at a new. If anybody's in New York, I'm at a new place soon called Peasant. So, like, they're going for, like a. If you know the chef Mark Forgion in New York, they're going for, like, a rustic Italian vibe. They've. He's got like, James Beard Awards, what not. They're doing, like, a rustic Italian vibe, but it's an all Italian list at the wine list. It's a very cool staff. Pop in if you're in town, say, hi, I'll be there a few days a week.

[Dan]

Would. Would the people you work with there be impressed if fire escape fans come in?

[Mike Mahardi]

Yeah.

[Dan]

Do they know about this show?

[Mike Mahardi]

I haven't gotten to know them super well yet.

[Mary Kish]

If I came in with my steam deck and was like, I have 32 hours in Dave the Diver, would they be like, cool? Show me your.

[Mike Mahardi]

If you just set in, you walk up to the, like, the host stand and said, hey, I have 32 hours in Dave the Diver. What's your end game? Like, seeing whether they think you're cool or not.

[Mary Kish]

I want them to show them my sushi. I'm be like, check this out. I killed this fish and I'm serving it up.

[Mike Mahardi]

I have a. I don't think you'd be the first person to give them

[Mary Kish]

a 4.2 fire rating.

[Dan]

What's the wine of video games?

[Mike Mahardi]

What do you mean?

[Dan]

That's for you to figure out. You're the wine guy.

[Mary Kish]

He's just giving you random riddles.

[Mike Mahardi]

I had. When before we had to postpone. Speaking of postponing, that Smash Bros. Tournament thing which we are still doing at some point. I think we're doing it in August. I had like wines paired to different characters. The idea, like not every single character. I had like several wines picked out that were emblematic of a character. So I had like a sparkling rose for Kirby or Jaylee. Forget which one.

[Mary Kish]

That makes sense.

[Mike Mahardi]

Well, Samus is like this space faring adventurer. So I picked the Spanish wine from up in these remote hills where most people don't go.

[Mary Kish]

Wouldn't a rose be Rosalina or Rose?

[Dan]

Rose, Gold, Peach.

[Mary Kish]

It was more like, we're better at this.

[Mike Mahardi]

Yeah. You guys should take my test for me going forward and work. Yeah, yeah. Do my job for me.

[Mary Kish]

What would you say?

[Dan]

Before we recorded, I thought it'd be very funny if I beat Mike to this Somalier test thing without telling anyone. Like just a long con.

[Mike Mahardi]

It says a lot about the image you have created of and for yourself that there have been times I'm studying, I've actually thought about you. I was like, it'd be funny if Dan was doing this and just didn't tell me.

[Dan]

Yeah, yeah.

[Mary Kish]

And this is a man who would run an extra half a mile in a thunderstorm just because he's like put in some time and wanted to. Wanted to feel good about himself. Imagine what he would do to make you feel bad about yourself.

[Dan]

I mean, it's like the Nathan Fielder like, commitment. Like when I saw that like the end of the rehearsal, season two, it's like, well, that's. I admire that more than I think anyone I've ever seen do anything.

[Mary Kish]

Very committed. Very committed.

[Mike Mahardi]

I also did you. I feel like you ran more of a risk of getting sick or is that. Is that a myth? Running in the rain that can give you sick. Isn't it more like body.

[Dan]

It wasn't cold. It's been hot.

[Mary Kish]

No, yeah, sorry.

[Mike Mahardi]

That's a good point.

[Mary Kish]

It's not a myth. It's that if you have a sickness even like a little bit, temperature fluctuations can increase the odds that you get like seriously ill. Get ill. But it doesn't give you the sickness. Does that make sense?

[Mike Mahardi]

No. Sure. Yeah, yeah, Yeah. I believe it was more like a hypothermic thing.

[Mary Kish]

Totally. But if you're. If you're like in a rainy environment, that's probably not good. I've been in the opposite of environments. I just got back from Paris, France and it was record breaking 95 degrees every day.

[Dan]

Christ.

[Mike Mahardi]

It surpassed that a few days in like parts of the country, like 104.

[Mary Kish]

It was a Bit of a nightmare, honestly.

[Dan]

Is it humid?

[Mary Kish]

It was, it was a little bit of a wet heat. It wasn't dry, I'll tell you that. It was a, it was a humidy heat and it rained one day which was like, we were like, yay, that will help. And it was just like, oh God, it's so much now.

[Mike Mahardi]

It's just wet.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

I don't know why I said Paris. It was in the south of France, but I think I flew out of Paris, which was a nightmare. But that's. Yeah, it was, it was bad. So I worked for five days at a booth that served gelato, which was very smart as a marketing tactic because serving gelato in record breaking heat does really well. And we sold out all of our ice cream. So that was a good system. But I was so fucking hot. There was no, there was nothing that you could do that would make you comfortable. I was having three, sometimes four showers a day just to, just to cool off.

[Mike Mahardi]

As we're recording this, I think tomorrow or two days from now it's going to be 104 in New York right before the 4th of July weekend.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, there's record breaking heat everywhere right now. It was so hot that when we had one day to spare and we decided to do a kayaking excursion because to me, I was like, man, if it's gonna be this hot all the time, I couldn't do a hike, you know, I couldn't do anything but a water activity you can get away with. So we scheduled a kayaking excursion. Ann Antibes and I went with two of my co workers. The way it, we didn't really know much about it and they don't really tell you a lot. This is a bit of a gamble. And the guy showed up with a couple of kayaks and he was like, who is the most experienced kayakers? Put two of them together and then I got the guide. Now the thing about this guide is he's 25, tan, very strong and didn't have a care in the world. He was like, I'm pretty sure that we will be able to get to the destination in 30 minutes. And the girls that I were with were kind of struggling in their kayak, but I basically had a motorboat behind me and so I didn't really do anything. And he was like, you're doing great. And was just telling me how amazing I was. And I thought I was such a good kayaker until I realized he was truly kayaking on my behalf for both of us. And maybe a third person and was kayaking me all over the sea. It was amazing.

[Dan]

And your friends at that. Wait, did they have a dude too, or.

[Mary Kish]

No, they were no dude. They were the more experienced kayak. I'm not a kayaker.

[Dan]

Okay, so you had like a tandem skydive for kayaking?

[Mary Kish]

Yes, I had a tandem and he was my. He was my kayaker and he was phenomenally good, obviously, and he was taking me all around. But because Macron, like the, I don't know, the guy who runs France, was vacationing. The police stopped us.

[Mike Mahardi]

Oh, they thought you were trying to sneak in through the perimeter via kayak.

[Mary Kish]

They thought that we were gonna kill James Bond Macron. And so they pulled up to us in a super speedy police boat and we're like, what are you doing? And the guy was like, I'm taking them on a cool trip. And they were like, you can't go this way. And then they sped off as fast as humanly possible and it rocked the. Out of all of our kayaks. It was. It was shockingly rude. We're like, not only did they say, you can't go that way and we don't care because we have to protect, you know, all of our politicians, but then they. Then they, like hightailed it to 90 and made the biggest waves possible. And my poor co workers were turning over in their kayaks, so he had to get me to safety, which he did. He jumped into the water to pull them to safety with his bare muscles, which was very cool for me to witness. And then as he got back in the kayak, he. He doesn't speak a lot of English, but he was functional and we were having decent conversation. And I like, man, like the police, right? And he was like, yeah, Nicola la police. And so I know now how to say the police in French are the.

[Dan]

Well, did you complete your mission?

[Mary Kish]

So we weren't allowed to go to the thing. Well, what he did was, which I thought was cool. Very close by was the Gucci house, which apparently is like, the people who own the Gucci brand have a house. And he was like, whatever, we'll just pull up here. And we pulled up to the Gucci house and we hung out in their property. And one of them came out to yell at us, but he went out and talked to them and he was like, you know, fuck the police. And the Gucci people were like, yeah, fuck the police. And they left us alone. They like, didn't they? At first they were mad. And then when they found out, like, we got totally screwed over. By the police. They were like, have a. Have a good time out there. You know, like, enjoy our Gucci property. And so we dove all around the Gucci property, and then we went home.

[Mike Mahardi]

This is all near Antibes?

[Mary Kish]

Yes. The whole thing is kind of, like, shocking and otherworldly. And I would say it's felt dreamlike because I was there for work. I was sweating my butt off. I was not there. It's not a fun thing, you know, it is work for me, but you have an extra six hours at the end of your last workday. We were like, well, you might as well. And it's a bit of a fever dream to go to the house of Gucci and jump into the. Jump into the water there. And so that's. That's what I did. And we all hate the police. It sounds like us. Our guide, the Gucci guy who let us stay.

[Mike Mahardi]

Stanley.

[Mary Kish]

Stanley Gucci. He was pretty, but you just rhymed in with Gucci. I can only assume that their names are also Stanley Gucci.

[Mike Mahardi]

It only makes sense, man.

[Dan]

I don't know this Macron character. So I googled him and I was like, is Macron popular? And it says his approval ratings are between 16% and 25%, which seems low.

[Mary Kish]

It's low for me because he wouldn't let me go. We. Apparently we were going to this beautiful vista where you watch the sunset, and the police were like, absolutely not. Like, you can't go. And then they bullied us in the water. So we hate Macron.

[Dan]

Isn't it weird how every other country knows, like, our leaders and we don't know anyone else's?

[Mary Kish]

Well, I mean, that's not a good look for us. And I would take.

[Mike Mahardi]

Emmanuel Macron is.

[Dan]

Okay, okay, Mary, Would you have known before you almost kayaked into his palace?

[Mary Kish]

I knew some about the government of French. France. French. Because I'm going there.

[Dan]

All right, who's the king of Germany right now?

[Mary Kish]

I don't know. The king of Germany.

[Dan]

England. England. No, I'm asking. I'm saying this is my thesis, that nobody knows anything about other countries. Who's the king of Germany?

[Mike Mahardi]

I don't think Germany has a king anymore.

[Dan]

Whatever their prime minister guy is.

[Mike Mahardi]

Oh, that's Helga.

[Mary Kish]

Wow. Mary, I don't know that.

[Dan]

Is Canada still that Trudeau guy?

[Mike Mahardi]

No, see, we don't know.

[Dan]

Nobody knows anything.

[Mike Mahardi]

No, it's the dude who got. He succeeded Trudeau. I forget his name now, though. But he doesn't like Trudeau.

[Mary Kish]

Moved it over. That's what I'm saying nobody knows Trudeau is dating Katy Perry.

[Dan]

Oh, geez.

[Mary Kish]

See, I know a lot about politics.

[Dan]

Okay. Okay. I just think it's funny that, like, everyone knows our stuff, but we don't know anyone else's stuff.

[Mary Kish]

I think it's a bad reflection on America.

[Dan]

Totally. Yeah. They never teach us anything about other anything.

[Mary Kish]

It's coming up with the World Cup a lot, because people in the World cup, when so many people have been traveling to America for the World cup, and they know a lot about what's going on. But I did get to see the World Cup. I got to watch French. French. I gotta stop saying French. I had to see France play on a tv. But in. In France, and it was really cool because they won. And it was just like, really exciting to watch them get so excited about the World cup and them being in it and. And watching them experience it, regardless of the fact that, like, I didn't have as much skin in the game, but I was really excited for. For them. That they were so proud of their own team was nice.

[Dan]

Is it, like, a whole tournament? Because, like, I hear that, like. Like, in Kansas City, I heard that they're doing, like, games in Kansas City, and you're saying they're doing them in France, so, like, I don't know.

[Mike Mahardi]

They're not the World Cup.

[Dan]

I assumed it was, like, a Super bowl thing or something.

[Mike Mahardi]

The World Cup's not in France. It's a tournament. But it's all taking place in North America this year.

[Mary Kish]

Yes.

[Mike Mahardi]

Oh, okay.

[Mary Kish]

It's kind of like the Olympics. It goes into, like, generally a. A place every year, and so we're getting a lot of tourism. And I think something that was funny that I was learning is, is that so many tourists are coming into America for the first time for the World cup, that they're all discovering that ranch is really good.

[Dan]

Oh, yeah.

[Mary Kish]

And it's causing all these problems because they're trying to leave with ranch. And so all of the airlines are like, hey, just, you know, you need to check ranch.

[Dan]

3 ounces of ranch.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, you got to check your ranch. You can't 3 ounces. Bring it in a carry?

[Mike Mahardi]

Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

Yes.

[Dan]

Yeah, I have it in some other countries, but call it, like, American sauce.

[Mike Mahardi]

Yeah, Like, I'll get.

[Dan]

Can I get some American See anywhere? Because it's in Canada, but they call it American.

[Mike Mahardi]

Different teams started, so they're now in the knockout round. And yesterday was pretty crazy. As of this recording yesterday, Germany got knocked out, as did the Netherlands. Both were pretty heavily heavy favorites by Paraguay and Morocco. But, like the previous round, it was the group stage where you play everybody else in your group to decide the seating going forward, and in that case, different games. Yeah, they're in Kansas City, Seattle, Houston, Louisiana. The semifinals and finals are converging literally, like, on my fucking neighborhood. So we're kind of bracing for it to happen. Yeah, it'll be cool to see people, but, like, the people who. A lot of people bought tickets and, like, came to the country just for a specific period, like, because they knew Scotland was going to be playing in the group state, so they were in Boston. Like, Boston. They famously, like, were draining, like, literally killing every keg of Sam Adams in some of these Boston pubs. But different cities have become enamored with different teams because all of that team's tourists are in that city, like, encamped for a while.

[Dan]

I heard that about my college town, Lawrence, I think it was. Somebody said Algeria or something.

[Mike Mahardi]

Yeah, it was Boston. And the Tartan army, the Scott Scottish fans. I want to say Seattle. Who does Seattle have for a bit? I think the US Played up there, but, yeah, no, it's. It's. It's cool. And also, I'm not looking forward to what it's going to be like toward the semifinals. Finals in Jersey, because it's going to be mayhem.

[Dan]

So it is going to be, like, near. Wait, is it, like MetLife?

[Mike Mahardi]

Yeah.

[Dan]

Oh, interesting. Okay.

[Mike Mahardi]

Airbnbs around here have been, like, being bought up, like, from years ago, so it'll be. Yeah, Some people are staying in my neighborhood. Some. We've already seen a bunch of them. Sports bars are overflowing. Like, even at Company. The. The French wine bar. I'm at. We brought in TVs. Well, we brought in TVs for the Knicks finals games, which was super fun. But then we started bringing in TVs for US matches. But then we just had a TV in there, even though we never do. We just kept it in there. And then I was watching Germany. Who beat Germany? Morocco? Paraguay. No, Paraguay beat Germany. Morocco beat Netherlands, both in penalty kick. So those were two tense games. And, yeah, the, like, the power. Western European powerhouses that have won a bunch of World Cups before it got. Have been getting knocked out. US Plays Bosnia Herzegovina tomorrow to potentially advance the US Here's a pop quiz. And I actually didn't know this exact thing until a few weeks ago. What the. The farthest the US has ever gotten in the World cup was to the semifinals. So they came in third place. So they lost the semifinals. What year did that Happen America in

[Dan]

the semifinals of the World cup.

[Mike Mahardi]

They lost the second to last match, 1950, 1992, 1930. It was a while ago. And that was also coincidentally the last time they started 2 0. This is the second time they've ever started 2 0. They lost their third match to Turkey when it technically didn't matter. But it's been an exciting World Cup. It's been fun. I'm not the biggest soccer person, but like, I love World cup like the time because it's. I don't know, it's enjoyable. But like we watched the Australia US game at a pub on the Upper west side recently. It's just, I think it's also here, it's like people continuing the community aspect of watching the Knicks play, which was super fun. Like every single bar and restaurant had watch parties out on these like closed down streets. So it's nice to keep continuing that even though again, it's like 100 degrees out.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, that sounds like what I experienced when I saw the game in France. It was so hot and we went into a bar, the windows would not open, it was so incredibly sweaty and everyone was just watching the game patiently and quietly. And I was like, I just don't know if we have it in us to like deal with this. But it was, it was really a sight to behold to watch a country like support their team and every bar was watching the game.

[Dan]

Did your hotel have ac?

[Mary Kish]

My Airbnb had ac and it was something we specifically look for when we're booking when we do this trip, because we know it's. I, this is my second time going. I know that AC is the most important thing. It's more important than location, it's more important than how cool the kitchen looks or any of that shit. The only thing I care about is ac. And we specifically picked a place where every bedroom had its own unit. I was cold, I needed a blanket. I was in heaven.

[Mike Mahardi]

Was it the uk, like banned AC because it was killing the energy so much like last week, or was it a different country?

[Dan]

I mean, there's barely any AC there anyway. I was just trying to think. I just booked a hotel near Wembley for August and I was like, oh, fuck. I didn't look to see if there was ac. And the last two times I've been there recently have been like, no ac in the BnBs. I've been in.

[Mike Mahardi]

I'd be more worried in. Wait, where are you going in August?

[Dan]

Like by Wembley, I'm saying, oh, I'd be more worried.

[Mike Mahardi]

And like in France than the uk. I mean, the uk, but, like, no, I'm not saying about the lack of ac. I'm saying I'd be more worried about heat in France.

[Dan]

Oh, sure.

[Mike Mahardi]

Not that it can't get hot in the uk, but, like, yeah, I actually, the. I. The previous hottest day in recorded Paris history. I was there a few years ago for a Ghost Recon Breakpoint event, and Ubisoft, like, wouldn't really let us leave the studio without getting right into a taxi that took us back to the hotel, which had ac. But I remember they were, like, worried that we would just get heat stroke if we walked outside. I think it went up to, like, 107 or something.

[Mary Kish]

That's dangerous. And it's. It's extremely dangerous because their culture doesn't have a lot of ac, right? Because they. They haven't historically needed it and it's not good for the environment. And so, like, I get it, but it's. It is. It was dangerous, I think, to not have it during this. This period of time. And, yeah, it was rough. When I get home from this trip, the first thing I do is always say, like, man, I'm so appreciative that I even have the opportunity. It's. It's a. It's a dream to have a job that allows you to have these opportunities and go around the world to do what we do. My second thought was I just am so glad to not be in that heat anymore. And for whatever reason, Portland right now is like 60 degrees and rainy. And I was like, I'm loving it. I'm wearing. I had to wear a jacket today, you guys. I was. I'm just so much happier in a jacket. I'm not built.

[Dan]

We had a. We have a heat wave right now, which has caused. I'm not shitting you today. Over well over a hundred millipedes down in this room. Like, I'm not kidding like that. It's not an exaggeration because after, like, a big rain and then a heat wave, apparently millipedes come out. So I've had two vacuums. I've gone through here, the battery. Like, I've been using them all day. And it turns out the vacuum process doesn't kill the millipedes. So I looked in it at one point today. I think I did it, like, while I was on the bomb cast, and it was just like a terrarium of millipedes. So it's like, literally, like, if I turn around, I bet I will see 8 to 12 millipedes on the ground.

[Mike Mahardi]

Right now, I don't want to know the rain.

[Mary Kish]

I like the idea.

[Dan]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

I like the idea that your weather channel is like, listen, it's crazy. There are at least 20 to 30 millipedes per hour coming down out there.

[Mike Mahardi]

You just see how many millipedes.

[Dan]

I thought the cat would take care of it. And, like, boss will, like, run up and, like, look at it and be like, what the. And then he'll, like, kind of touch it with his paw and then just stare at it and walk away. God damn it.

[Mary Kish]

That's for my pet Dan to handle.

[Dan]

He could eat every one of these and it would be the coolest. But no, I'm just vacuuming up millipedes all day.

[Mike Mahardi]

Jesus, that's gross and horrifying. So rain and then heat.

[Dan]

Yeah. My understanding from just the Googles in the last couple days is that, like, yes, if there is, like, a lot of rain, that's moisture, and they love moisture. So they're like, oh, hey. Moisture in the soil. So they're at the soil, and then if the heat comes in, they're like, what the. We wanted moisture, so they try to go inside and, like, carpeted areas, basements. Usually a little more human stuff. So I got a dehumidifier coming tomorrow. I bought some pesticide stuff and sprayed the printer of the house today. But, like, man, they're fucking everywhere. It sucks.

[Mike Mahardi]

Jesus Christ. It's. I don't like that.

[Dan]

They're harmless. It's just fucking gross.

[Mike Mahardi]

Yeah, no, they're gross. I don't want. I don't, like, want to be sleeping in a house that has millipede infestation, man.

[Dan]

That's a couple floors away. But down here, I get to hang out with them all day.

[Mike Mahardi]

Oh, sure. It's only on the basement level. Okay.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[Mike Mahardi]

Either way, still gross.

[Dan]

Very gross. Too many legs. Don't need that many.

[Mike Mahardi]

Yeah. Millipede, that. Do they actually have a thousand legs? Is that a. I think it's a thousand.

[Dan]

That. That would be too much.

[Mike Mahardi]

There's no way I would take mill means.

[Mary Kish]

I would take 100 millipedes over 1. Silverfish.

[Dan]

Silver fish are gross. Do you know house centipedes? Those are kind of the worst.

[Mary Kish]

I don't know if I know what that is.

[Dan]

We get those. Look up house centipede.

[Mike Mahardi]

House centipede. Are they different than a normal centipede?

[Dan]

Yes. Oh, they're definitely a thing around here. Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah. They're like, don't touch the thermostat.

[Dan]

You'll see a few of Them here,

[Mary Kish]

they look like silver fish, too.

[Dan]

They're gross. They're fucking gross. Weird. They're big. They're, like, too big, and they scamp around really fast.

[Mary Kish]

They're too big.

[Mike Mahardi]

That is. Yeah, they look like Cthulhu monster.

[Dan]

These millipedes are, like, slow. They have between 40 and 400 legs, according to this Google. Or 34 and 400 legs. Yeah, it sucks. I hate them.

[Mary Kish]

So, yeah, love it. We gotta get a bat.

[Dan]

There's one right there.

[Mike Mahardi]

Where?

[Dan]

Anybody wants naming rights on this one,

[Mary Kish]

pick it up and show us.

[Dan]

You can dare me to do this.

[Mike Mahardi]

All right.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, pick it up.

[Dan]

All right.

[Mary Kish]

He loves it. That's the thing about Dan is he loves a challenge. I bet you can't bring it to me and put it in front of the camera.

[Mike Mahardi]

I really don't like this. I don't, like. I'm not. I don't, like, hate bugs like Amanda does.

[Mary Kish]

He's not wearing shoes.

[Mike Mahardi]

There's three.

[Mary Kish]

Oh, my God.

[Mike Mahardi]

That's 3,000 legs.

[Mary Kish]

He's got his little piggies down there with them. If. If there were centipedes in my room, I would be wearing footgear. Oh, my God, he got one.

[Dan]

Hang on. I don't know. I don't have autofocus on, but, like, it's not very big.

[Mike Mahardi]

Oh, okay.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, very big. Get it closer to your face.

[Mike Mahardi]

I was thinking it would be, like, a big, big thing.

[Dan]

No, I mean. I mean, they're harmless and they're tiny, but I'm fucking tired of them. Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

Looks like a little potato bug.

[Mike Mahardi]

That's really annoying.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[Mike Mahardi]

Between the woodpeckers and the millipedes, you got, like, you're just battling nature all the time.

[Dan]

No, woodpeckers have not been a big issue this year because of Boss hanging out in that hammock. And I think the woodpeckers are like, whoa, don't want to go by there. We see a cat in the window. Yeah. So, like, we got him. This wasn't even the plan. I got him a little hammock gimmick for, like, the window, and he just likes to nap up there. And it is visible. Like, it is really close to the part of the wall that the woodpeckers have always been attracted to. And I think enough woodpeckers have seen Boss sitting there and gone back to their woodpecker friends and been like, that place. So, like, they're not hanging out here that much. Like, barely any woodpecker action this year. Boss is doing a great job there.

[Mary Kish]

You naturally Got rid of them without hurting the environment, which.

[Dan]

Yes, with. Did not even plan on it. Accident.

[Mary Kish]

I think that's cool. I mean, whether or not you stumbled into peace with the woodpeckers or you won the war, who's to say?

[Dan]

Yeah, they did more damage than the millipedes.

[Mary Kish]

Well, they're pecking at your freaking house. I think millipedes are just. We get ants when it rains because they're trying to come up from the rain. And so to me, they're not even, like, getting into my sugar or anything. They're just like, we're drowning out there. And I'm like, I get it, guys. Like, you can stay here for the night, but then you gotta go back out where you came from. I can't be an ant house. Like, you have your own house. This is my house. But, like, they. When it rains, they find a way. In my house, you got to get

[Dan]

the stuff that's like. It's the juice or whatever, where it's like, it makes them, like. It's like, it's irresistible to them. It's these, like, drops, and they take it back to their. It's. It's. It's. It's like if a person came back to their apartment and all the roommates were like, it's like, oh, hey, look, I found all these pizzas. And then you eat all the pizzas and you die. Like, that's how these traps work. And it's awesome.

[Mike Mahardi]

To the center, the hive.

[Mary Kish]

If poison is how I choose to deal with nature, though, I poison them all.

[Dan]

Yes.

[Mary Kish]

I don't like it. Like, I have a friend who poisons the perimeter of their house, and they're like, it really reduces all the spiders every year.

[Dan]

I sprayed that. I did that today because of the millipedes.

[Mike Mahardi]

Yeah, that's like a deterrent, too. Like, it's not.

[Mary Kish]

Sure. You're just doing a little poison circle around your house. Whereas, like, you know, the animals need to exist there too.

[Dan]

Well, I put little tiny signs for the ants to say, we don't call 91 1. And it's got a gun on it. Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, it looks like where they have.

[Mike Mahardi]

I mean, this in my mind, pirates

[Mary Kish]

hung up with a string. And it's like, we, you know, beware. But it's just little millipedes hanging from a string.

[Mike Mahardi]

Does have a bunch of signs around the house. It's weird. They're bright yellow. It says the police love the Second Amendment.

[Dan]

That's right.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah.

[Mike Mahardi]

He's always. He has the.

[Dan]

I'm a Big gun guy. Yeah, yeah.

[Mary Kish]

He's my thing.

[Dan]

Don't tread on me.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, it's a big NRA guy.

[Mike Mahardi]

So the millipedes are saying they have little flags. Don't chat on me.

[Dan]

Oh, the millipedes don't find guns. One for each leg. Oh, my God.

[Mike Mahardi]

That'd be a good video game. That'd be sick. It's like a serious sound.

[Dan]

I think it's called edf. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Mike Mahardi]

Speaking of, do you want to talk about video games?

[Mary Kish]

Let's do it.

[Mike Mahardi]

All right. Dan, you played the game. Mary recommended Terra Tech Legion, the auto shooter meets LEGO car builder.

[Dan]

I haven't. I described it on the Bombcast as Vampire Survivors meets Banjo Kazooie. Nuts and bolts.

[Mike Mahardi]

Yeah.

[Dan]

And to me, like, that's a couple things you can put together. In my brain, I know would be like, oh, I like that idea quite a bit, Mary. Great recommendation, you describing it. I was like, I'm curious. And I looked up the Steam page, and I saw, like, two seconds of the gameplay, and it's like. That seems up my alley. It's awesome. Runs great on the Steam deck. Been playing a lot on the Steam machine. It is, man. It is. It's the. What's the word I'm looking for? It's the cliche with one of these games where it's like, one more run, one more run, and the next thing you know, it's hours later.

[Mary Kish]

It's hard. You die a lot. I die a lot.

[Dan]

I've died a good amount. I beat the first two areas with the first rig. Like, you unlock the different rigs and stuff like that. Like, I won't go all the way into it. Since the lady last time. Yeah, the lady. But then you get the guy afterwards. I got him.

[Mary Kish]

And then you get the guy. You start with the lady, but then you get the guy.

[Dan]

It's a very deep game. Yeah, no, I. I do love, like, it is so good at just the drip feed of just, like, the persistent upgrades and stuff. Reminds me of Rogue Leg, where it's like every time you come back, it's like, all right, well, I have all these, like, yellow tokens I can spend on something else, make myself a little stronger. But more than anything, I just love this blank canvas every run where it's like I go in and I've just got some dopey rectangular thing with four wheels, and very quickly, it's like, I love getting that first box and being like, okay, I got an orbital laser. Okay, I'm gonna focus on energy weapons. Here and I'm gonna get a bunch of fucking lasers on the front of my thing. And then by the end I've want. I've taken screenshots of like a lot of my things because by the end it's just this monstrosity with like 12 wheels coming off it and just a million lasers and just weird boxes I've shoved everywhere. Like I love getting the extra boxes where it's just like a four by two and just, just go there so I can shove a bunch of on there and a bunch of guns and trying to optimize it. So none of the guns are blocking the placement of the other ones or anything.

[Mary Kish]

That's right. Because they have different field. Fields of view. And so if you have a 360 field of view, you need to shoot that guy up like six. I don't know.

[Dan]

You're like a tower basically.

[Mary Kish]

You make a tower for it.

[Dan]

Yeah, it's like a sniper tower. Or there's the ones where it's like. Okay, it's like a three for where there's like three different cannons. Like I'm like corner here and this is going to shoot my back right. And on the back left I've got this mine layer and then this thing up top that kind of just rotates and I put it on a tower and it's like a sniper lookout thing. And then you're just driving around and there are runs where it's just like. There's so much on the screen and you're just doing donuts around this giant just huge group of like mech enemies and stuff and everything's exploding. You're leveling up constantly. It is. I mean I love vampire survivors and I love nuts and bolts and like building my own stupid like thing. And this is really, really doing it for me. So, Mary, incredible recommendation.

[Mary Kish]

Yay. I'm glad it's. I. I really do think it's a hidden gem. I think people are. It might be overlooked just because of the. I don't think the name is great. I don't think that it is selling the experience of. This is a fun game where you build a vehicle and kill people with it and you can build ridiculous machines because there is a. Would you call that like there's a three? You pick three. And it you con. You cannot make the same vehicle twice. It makes you change your system. And that's important to me for runs because I will be like, well, I just know I'm a poison run person so I'll just do poison run forever. That's not how you can play this game. Every time you're going to get different guns and you're going to get a different build. And so I was finally like, well, I guess I'll try the one wheel back system and I'll only have diamond grinders on the front and I'll only do the orbital cannon. It's so fun to have a very different vehicle each time and you find out what works and what doesn't. I've made some total beasts.

[Dan]

I like getting just the fucked up ones too, where it's like, all right, so all of mine are like impact damage and I've got all these extenders and so I'm just surrounded by spikes is my whole thing. And I, and then I'm like upgrading my boost like crazy. And so all I'm doing is just boosting my spike car into everything on the map. It just feels incredible. Like, love it. And the physics on it too, where it's like, it is a polygonal like 3D game. So it's like you could like up and put wheels everywhere and this one's lower than the others and it affects the physics of how you turn and everything. And like you can make some crazy, crazy contraptions.

[Mary Kish]

I think it's forgiving. But yes, if you, if you have a car with one wheel, it, you will die. Right? It will say this doesn't drive and you're a ding dong. You do have to be focused to at least make a functional car. But I like what you were saying of like you can have 18 wheels, you can make a real long limousine of death if that is what you choose to do with your time.

[Dan]

Well, and something I was concerned about when you were just describing it was like, okay, so it sounds like you're frequently going into this like kind of like Lego putting together the, the ship or the, the car type thing. And you are. And I was worried that like, okay, maybe this isn't going to be a great. Or maybe this will be a test of like the trackpads on the Steam deck. And this seems like a mouse type. No, it's actually really good for controller. Like the actual driving around is really good for controller. And then they just do a lot of really good magnetizing to the connectors. Like the connectors are very, very clear. Like you can put this thing here. You need to like there's so many times too where it's like I get a new thing and it's like, okay, this should be on the back of my vehicle. Yeah, I'VE got all this other shit here. And so I'll just highlight a bunch of stuff with my cursor and hit B. A bunch. Like, go back, go back, go back. Like send it back to your inventory. I'm putting this right here and then I'm going to rethink how I'm building this thing out. And like that is like literally half of the game to me is like half of it is doing the killing and driving around vampire survivor stuff. And the other half is like staring at this fucking like car and rotating it and putting a bunch of guns on it. Like, yeah, man, I love it.

[Mary Kish]

They did a good job with the D pad.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[Mike Mahardi]

I want to play a game. It's downloaded on my Steam deck. I didn't realize they. It's the same publisher Myth, right? They're doing a summer sale right now or they're part of the summer sale. They did Thronefall as well. It was a tower defense city builder that I played in. I think it came out in 2025. Early 25, 20, late 24. Really good tower defense game if no one's played it. I actually, I kind of want to replay that game. So maybe I'll play both at some point and talk about it. But they published some cool stuff. Like the stuff of this caliber, like indie, but really well made.

[Mary Kish]

That's how I found it.

[Dan]

I think right now it's like eight bucks.

[Mary Kish]

And I found it through the sale

[Dan]

and I put a lot of hours into it already and I'm gonna. I feel like there's. I can just see on the map, like, okay, there's two whole rigs I've not unlocked. There's two planets I haven't done. There's like a lot of challenges. Like, I think I'm gonna get a lot of time out of this. And if it's like eight bucks, that's an easy recommendation to me.

[Mary Kish]

It's. It is a contender for plane game.

[Dan]

Oh, yeah.

[Mary Kish]

People who are traveling. This is a game like you said. This is a run based game where you could easily pick this up and play. And as my plane was landing from one of my flights, I was like, hurry, hurry, hurry. And I was like trying to beat it while the wheels were touching down on the tarmac. Because I wanted to make sure I was getting credit for this unbelievable beast that I had built. It's been a joy. Oh, I have another nice thing that I found out about it, which is on the plane I ran out of batteries and so it shut down three fourths through A run which broke my heart, you know, like, it's gone. The car that I built and all the progress, the money that I had collected, the credits, I kept them.

[Dan]

Oh, it's like auto saving.

[Mary Kish]

The.

[Dan]

Okay, that's awesome.

[Mary Kish]

So I got my money back at least. So to me, I was like, that's kind of a bonus win that for the. For the person who, like, gets really heartbroken when they can't finish a run because it's the end of the day or, like, you have to go back to work so you. You have to quit. It actually gave me partial credit.

[Dan]

The runs can be kind of lengthy. I think this is one where it's like, I haven't really timed it out, but I would guess between 30 and 45. If you're gonna, like, be.

[Mary Kish]

I give myself an hour. Yeah, I give myself an hour. And because especially with the building. Yeah, the building can take a long time if you choose to remove all of the pieces of your car and rebuild it. I would say runs could be upwards of an hour, but they could be as fast as 30 minutes if you're just like, whatever, boost, more boost, more boost. And you can also. My favorite is just the upgrade occur current gun. And I love that. Yes, yes, you can choose to just upgrade a current gun that you have. You don't have to rebuild anything. You just make your gun stronger.

[Dan]

It. It also does that vampire survivors thing where it's like, okay, it's fun immediately, like just running around and watching all this auto shooting and stuff, but it's very smart with how it doles out the upgrades. And like, a lot of the upgrades are tied to, like, there's a laundry list of achievements and, like, challenges. So, like, there's like, the global ones. There's ones for each particular driver and stuff like that, that. And as you're unlocked, there's a drip feed of like, okay, now you could get this thing in a run. Like, the orbital cannon maybe isn't open at the beginning, but after you beat this thing or this challenge, it'll pop up. So, like, I looked at it today, and I think there's like 300, 400 possible unlocks of, like, blocks for my thing, and I've got like 70 or 80 and it's. Oh, man, there's so much more for me to see. And, like, I'm not even remotely close to tired with this. So.

[Mike Mahardi]

Yeah, game looks rad. I really want to play that.

[Dan]

It kicks ass. Yeah.

[Mike Mahardi]

Yeah. Speaking of games that are good on Steam Deck, Mary, you play the Dave The Diver dlc. So for context, we talked about Dave The Diver, what two years ago? Yep.

[Mary Kish]

Came out in 2024.

[Mike Mahardi]

Just like what. I don't even know how to describe it. Sim game management, kind of.

[Mary Kish]

It's a bit Stardew Valley. It's a bit restaurant management. Or like what is it called? The one where you're a waitress. The waitress game.

[Mike Mahardi]

I don't know.

[Mary Kish]

Serve served up, serve them, something like that. Serve them hot over piping. Piping hot maybe. And. And it's a little deep sea diving sim. So you're just.

[Mike Mahardi]

But. And that was like islands and diving. This brings things to the jungle from my understanding. Really wanted to not get time is it. How are you finding it?

[Mary Kish]

It's good. Dave the Diver is fantastic. I have kind of always wanted an excuse to go back into it. This is pretty new. This came out in June. This is a brand new DLC specifically for the jungle. Hilariously, I download that. I downloaded this like without question. I was just like, oh, I loved Day of the Diver. I want more of that. I'll play it. Downloaded it, installed it, opened the game and it said, hey, just so you know, you do need to run credits on the original game.

[Dan]

Oh, you have to beat it.

[Mary Kish]

And I thought. And I said to myself, I didn't, I didn't beat this game.

[Mike Mahardi]

Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

And two years ago, despite the fact that I really liked Dave the Diver and I probably put 18 hours into it, I can't remember exactly but like I played this game, I didn't beat it. So you guys, I put Dave the Diver DLC, but I just want you to know I put 10 hours into finishing this goddamn game. I played it the whole flight home and like an additional four hours on Sunday to get through this main game. I forgot how long this game goes and it's a little brutal. I will lovingly say that Dave the Diver overstays its welcome towards the end of this game. Dave the Diver is the best when you are diving for fish and, and collecting rare fish and then serving them up as sush. The end of this game is crazy puzzles and boss fights which I don't think is where this game shines.

[Mike Mahardi]

Weird games force people to beat in order to play the dlc.

[Dan]

The game was a notoriously way too long because I felt the same way where it's like I loved it. I think we talked about how good of a plane game it was and stuff like that, but I can't remember. I. I swear I got like 20 hours into it or something and Then it was like, there's ways more going on here. So like that's a weird choice to have to beat it to access that.

[Mary Kish]

It was a bummer towards like the end of Sunday. I was like. Cuz I had already spent this. This DLC is $10. And I was like, I've already spent $10 on this DLC. I am playing it. I was so committed to beating this game. But the last two hours of this game are a bit of a slog. It's just you get another C person that you have to do puzzles with. So you're, you're playing one with the left joystick and one with the right joystick. You're learning a whole new set of rules, a whole new set of puzzles. And I was like, I don't give a about any of these puzzles. I just want to see the jungle. I get through all the puzzles. There's another goddamn fish under there. They keep discovering new species of fish and then you have to kill them. I found another massive fish that I had to kill. It was like a dinosaur. It doesn't matter. I killed it. I ran credits. I. I finally played this game. The DLC is very enjoyable. I am in the jungle, my dudes. And it is very nice to have a very different environment. The first thing you'll notice is, is that you actually are in the jungle. Which means there's a lot of above the water gameplay now, which is like shaking trees for papayas, bananas, you know, all sorts of jungle fruits. You're enjoying meeting the villagers. It's more stardew than ever. You're meeting the villagers and you have to befriend them by finding out the gift that they want, giving it to them, and then they like you enough to visit your restaurant. Bancho does come and he opens up a restaurant in the middle of this jungle, but it's like not a sushi restaurant. He's essentially like, I'm gonna make food with whatever you give me. You actually have to work with the local to build stuff for Bancho to serve. So the first thing that I built was a grill. And so he makes flame grilled fish, kebabs and skewers and like rice dishes. Because I, I bought him this grill and so it's kind of what made him it. And so it's like fun. You're, you know, chopping up wood and bamboo and stones to build resources to make your restaurant this, this, this time. So it's different. They mixed it up.

[Dan]

Does it still have that like bar element of like oh, you're sliding the drinks and pouring the drinks. Like, is all that still going on?

[Mary Kish]

It's a coconut. You have to hit L. Oh, so it's a whole coconut.

[Dan]

Whole coconut.

[Mary Kish]

You hit the bumpers to slice the coconut. So bop, bop, bop, bop. And then to stab the coconut, you have to hit a at the right time. And if you do that, you make the perfect coconut drink. And if you don't, you make a good coconut, which impacts your fire rating, which you obviously do want to. To help locals. Yes. You are slinging drinks. You are also serving up different foods. He makes the fire food, you make the kebab. So if somebody orders a skewer, you have to go figure that shit out yourself. I've already hired a local kid. He's a bit of a ding dong, but he is good at slinging skewers. So I do have some help already. Like, I'm growing my restaurant. You know, it's got growth.

[Mike Mahardi]

I was really looking forward to it. Now that I know I have to beat the original game. Like, I don't even know if I'd remember half the systems going. I mean, it's a simple game. It's more like the one, like, compelling thing lead to another part of the gameplay loop. But, like, I was looking forward to that. I was the one who mentioned in Discord. I was like, apparently this DLC is really good.

[Mary Kish]

It's a good dlc. I have to warn. I have to warn the good people of Fire Escape that if you did not play or finish the main game, you have to finish it. And it is. I am not super impressed with the end of day of the Diver. I was kind of bummed. Maybe it's because I wanted to get to the DLC, but that's probably 99% of the reason that you would play it at this point. This game is two years old. The idea that you all have to get through that is a negative, unfortunately. But I did like the. The what I've played of the DLC so far. It is. They've reclaimed that magic. All new animations. You guys know that they did gorgeous custom animations for all the things that happen in this game, right? And so it's just like Bonchos discovering all these new things. They have all new animations for everything that happens to all the different characters, which I think is fun. When you create a new dish, they have a local animal do a little dance, and so they'll just have like a little meerkat or like a little snake. And it'll just be like, yeah, that's right. It's a saucy little new dish. And it's, it's, it's electric. You guys. Like, it really creates a mood. They make a. They make a good game. And oh, it's not an ocean. Right. You're in the middle of a jungle. So it's a lake. And the way that they have made it more interesting is the lake, at least at this point, it has. It's like muggy. It's got. I don't know it, it tastes. It's not a good environment. And so you need millipedes. It's covered in millipedes. You need special equipment in order to get there. Murky. Thank you. It's like kind of poisonous.

[Dan]

So you have from the headlines work

[Mary Kish]

with the scientists to have not just oxygen, but you need to be able to prevent yourself from getting poisoned in the water. So there's two things you got to watch out for. Your oxygen and your poison meter. Brand new animals down there that are pretty freaky deaky. I found my first electric eel. That was absolutely vile. I've died a couple times from underwater creatures that will scare you. I love it. Oh, crocodiles and like, you know, just crazy new freshwater creatures. For anyone who remembers save the diver knows it's. It's exhilarating to take down a shark. They are scary. This game, it's still got it, you guys. It's scary, but it's, it's, it's adorable. It's playful. This game is funny. They've done a great job with it being funny. It, it plays off of Duck Hunt. I don't like, I don't want to give away like all the stuff, but it's like this is the type of game where it's just like, hey, it's a mini game now and it's Duck Hunt. Like get out there. It's like, it's playful.

[Mike Mahardi]

That came out the same year, if memory serves as Dredge.

[Dan]

And I've been reading and I like spooky fishing stuff. Yeah.

[Mike Mahardi]

And that game, I thought the ending like that game was well paced straight through to the end. And that also got dlc. I never played it.

[Mary Kish]

Knew when to to end. I dredge.

[Mike Mahardi]

Yes. And Dredge also got DLC where you go to the arctic to fish. And I never played that. But I'm also curious now if you need to beat the original dredge because I like both those games. They had that very like systemic or systems driven gameplay loop where one activity is leading into the next. And you're never kind of like doing one thing for too long. Um, so I want to try both of those again, but I don't know. I don't think I'm going to play the entirety of Dave the Diver.

[Mary Kish]

Unfortunately, to be realistic, it's a big ask. I will say, like, I'm enjoy. For what it's worth, especially for people who have beaten Dave the Diver, I think this DLC is a pretty. It's going to be a, A lot more gameplay for 10 bucks, I think you're going to get your money's worth. This is the type of game they, they just put so much TLC in it. Um, the amount of side quests.

[Mike Mahardi]

Quests.

[Mary Kish]

There's a whole space side quest. There's like a Elon Musk esque, like loser who's hanging out and you're figuring out what's going on with that. There's. There's so many different mysteries going on in the jungle, not to mention all the different lake creatures you're going to find throughout this game. It's a fantastically well made game. It's just a matter of whether or not you can stomach going through the main game if you haven't yet.

[Dan]

I mean, my thought is like, like stomach is like I. I remember enjoying it a lot and then going too long and then I fell off. So like, I do feel like it's something that I could potentially go back to and find that enjoyment again and not be like, like playing through 40, 50 hours that in one go, not one sitting. You know what I mean? Yeah, that seems like a lot. But like, at this point it's like I've kind of forgotten a lot of that game. And you describing this reminds me that like, oh, just the game. I could see myself going back and being like, all right, well, I'm enjoying finishing this up anyway. I still have my save.

[Mary Kish]

I did enjoy doing it. What I would also recommend is there's just a billion side quests in Day of the Diver. That's what it's known for. You don't need to do them. The mistake that I made when I. It's not a mistake the way that I played this two years ago. I felt like I like made a huge mistake by enjoying the game by doing all the side quests. I was so focused on the side quest, I probably spent. Spent 15 out of my hours just building up my sushi restaurant because it's fun. So when I actually was like, I'm gonna focus on beating the story. I had a lot Left to go. I had, I think when I had played this with you guys and talked about it, I probably had just met the sea people. That is there. I think there's seven chapters.

[Mike Mahardi]

I think I was, that's like when I dropped off.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah. There's like chapters that's probably chapter two or three.

[Dan]

And is that around when like they start introducing the part where there's like, there's like the different pools where it's like you can like store different fish in this like grid. Like.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah.

[Dan]

And I met the sea people. I was like, man, we're really, this is a whole deal. Yeah.

[Mike Mahardi]

But I got stardew valleys crammed into one.

[Mary Kish]

I got chicken that you get chickens and you get eggs. There's, there's so many things and it, it's really up to you. I think a lot of people really like all the different ways that you can play. In Dave the Diver, you can play different things. You can just be like, listen, all I care about is building the best sushi restaurant of all time. And you can spend 20 hours doing that. So it's really up to you. If you are interested in the dlc, I would just say focus on the main story, which you absolutely can crunch through and enjoy, for the record. And then you get to have this totally different and new world that you get to explore and play with. And I do love it. And I'm glad, at the end of the day, I'm so glad that I'm getting to experience Day of the Diver again. This is a phenomenal game by a really well constructed team. They understand the balance of amazing animation and fun gameplay mechanics. The loop is good, you guys. It's, it's, it's a great game. I'm, I'm excited to play it again.

[Dan]

Nice.

[Mike Mahardi]

Cool. Dan, you've been playing Rhythm Heaven Groove.

[Dan]

Yeah, I, I, I don't have rhythm.

[Mike Mahardi]

Yeah, we know.

[Mary Kish]

What a start.

[Dan]

Look, this is not a surprise to anyone.

[Mary Kish]

Do you have Heaven?

[Dan]

Well, yeah. Let me tell you about our Lord and Savior.

[Mike Mahardi]

Do you have Groove?

[Dan]

Which by the way. Mike. Mike, I'm at the part of the Sopranos for the one, Janice's boyfriend's kind. Have you heard the good news? Yes. Yeah, yeah.

[Mike Mahardi]

With narcolepsy.

[Dan]

Yeah, yeah, No, I have no rhythm. In fact, I remember I was supposed to review the Wii Rhythm Heaven game at Game Informer and I was so bad at it at the Monkey Clock.

[Mary Kish]

This is a Nintendo game.

[Dan]

Yeah, it's a first party Nintendo game. And I was so bad at the Monkey Clock Mini Game or whatever. I asked Reiner, I think if I could be like, hey, I shouldn't be on this review. I. I am objectively terrible at this and I think I reviewed it still.

[Mike Mahardi]

Oh, nice.

[Dan]

I think I, I was Rhythm Heaven. I might have it. It was whatever the Wii one was

[Mike Mahardi]

actually, because this is what this is like the third

[Dan]

boy. I, I think there's Rhythm Heaven Fever. There's a DS one and a Wii one. I remember the DS groove. Yeah, I got a review here for. Oh wait, no, I'm sorry.

[Mike Mahardi]

This is good, man.

[Dan]

I'm looking at Grub's upcoming review of. Sorry. Of the current one.

[Mike Mahardi]

Yeah. Five stars out of five. Weird.

[Dan]

Yeah, weird. They. I appreciate this game for what it is. It is like dripping in that Nintendo weird warioware style, you know. It is very rhythm based. It's a million like mini games. If you're playing like the single player thing, it's just like little vignettes almost. Like here's the part where you're launching the frogs in the air to a beat. Here's the part where you're like a lady chopping vegetables for dinner and you got like time her humming coming to hitting a. When like someone throws a bell pepper at her and it's, it's all just very like quaint and funny and every time I unlock a new one it's like okay, what's this one? Oh, we're shooting a car commercial and I have to like, you know, break and accelerate, you know, to the beat of the music and stuff like that. It's. It's fun minigames for sure. It's more than a WarioWare. A Wario wear is 5 seconds, you hit a button once. This is a little more extended for sure. It has co op games there. Me and Punk played some that was very funny because neither of us have any rhythm.

[Mary Kish]

Oh no, absolutely not in the family.

[Dan]

Yeah, like so here's every time me and Bonk did a co op one, she would miss something hilariously at the very beginning, like just really biff it on the first one and start laughing really hard at how bad she is. And then she would miss consecutive ones and it just kept snowballing as she just missed all of them. And she laughed harder and harder and we're just blowing it terribly so we were awful at it. But like there's a lot of variety. There's like this like almost like turn based RPG type thing where you're casting spells to a rhythm and like to do fire. It's this then this to do lightning. It's this, this, this. It's. There's not a ton of depth here. It's all just kind of hitting a. Or a D pad thing to rhythm. But there is a lot of personality. I don't know if it's enough to say like, yeah, you know, run, don't walk. Go buy this thing. But it's Switch 1. If you got a Switch 1, you haven't gone into Switch 2 yet and you're just looking for something new, like some weird first party Nintendo stuff. It's charming. I don't think it's like a amazing game or anything like that, but if you enjoy the previous ones, you'll probably like this.

[Mike Mahardi]

Speaking of Nintendo, you're playing Star Fox as well?

[Dan]

Yeah.

[Mike Mahardi]

How is that? Because I'm curious about that. I feel like the last time Star Fox was in headlines it was because it was bad.

[Mary Kish]

Bad?

[Mike Mahardi]

What was it? The last one?

[Dan]

Well, all of them since 64 have been bad. But they remade 64 again, so it's good again.

[Mike Mahardi]

Oh, that was the last time. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Dan]

No, like, yeah, no. The last thing I heard is people were mad because I guess they remade the models. Now people don't want to the Space Fox as much as they did before. So people were mad about that. I like it because they look like the weird puppets from the first SNES art. But this is star Fox 64, which is the best buy a a mile. Like the SNES one and the 64 one are the only good ones. And 64 is a million times better. They keep remaking it because it's great and it holds up. It's timeless. It is so like one to one in terms of the feel of flying around and like just the basic flow of the game that I. I kind of wish they had the like. Oh, you can hit left bumper to switch back and forth between the old and new graphics, which is my favorite thing. Anytime there's a remake that lets you do that bad, I can't stop pressing that button. And every single time. Oh, wow. Oh, it looks so much better now. Like Comet Evolved. There's that XBLA goldeneye that never got released, but you can emulate. Yeah, there's a handful that'll do that. I just think it's the best gimmick. But it's just it. Star Fox 64 is like maybe the best age 64 game. It's up there with like Mario 64 in Ocarina in terms of like or Majora, where you play this now, now, and it's still incredible and it is, it just looks way better. So it's like, oh, you like the best Star Fox game. What if it looked a billion times better and has multiplayer that no one's really gonna play? I, I've actually heard some people like it. I just Multiplayer and star box has never been the thing I, I went to it for. It's pretty one to one. There's not a lot of changes here. There's some like, different dialogue and like hints at like how to get the alternate paths to different plans, minutes and things like that. But it is still that very like, hey, you better want to replay this game because it is like an hour to beat it and then you need to go back and I'll, I'll get medals, I'll find alternate routes, I'll do all this stuff. So like I've beaten it four or five times now. Every time it's fun as hell.

[Mike Mahardi]

So I forgot about the submarine. Like I, I, the tank. I remember the tank. But like, yeah, like got out. Yeah, I remember. What'd you have to do? You had to go through certain rings to get into some of those alternate worlds.

[Dan]

So some of them, like on Meteos, the asteroid belt, you had to go through like seven energy things to like, like go to the next thing. On Corneria, you have to go under these arches, these like stone arches to go through the waterfall. There's some where it's like, oh, the water level is at zone S I think, where there's a bunch of searchlights. So it's kind of like a stealth approach. And if one of the searchlights spots you, you're taking the standard exit. But to get the better one, you can attack all of the search lights before they see you. And then you'll take the B route basically. So it's just, that's really smart, good replayability on that game. And like even if it's the same route you just played the time before, it just feels really good to play. I mean there's gimmicks. They added like the joy Con, like co op stuff and everything where like one player can pilot the ship and the other ones the gunner seats and it's, it's not great. So. But this is a remake of like one of the best 64 games. I love it.

[Mike Mahardi]

50 bucks. Which to the God, the R wing's still fucking cool looking like. Yeah, I think the R wing is like cooler looking than a lot of Star wars ships.

[Dan]

They, they added a lot of story stuff which I don't Think I needed. I. I watched them all the first time just out of like. Well, I guess I should probably watch this and then just subsequent runs skip it immediately.

[Mike Mahardi]

I don't need that.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah.

[Mike Mahardi]

Cool. I have not played 64 in a long time.

[Dan]

It's fun as I. Mike, I think you would like it if you enjoyed 64.

[Mike Mahardi]

Oh, it was one of my most played games. Yeah, I remember, like, I. I was one of the first people in my family, which is rare because I was the youngest to like discover. I figured which alternate route it was, and that just blew my mind when I was like that age. I like that system quite a bit.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[Mike Mahardi]

Mary, is this Kado or Cato? Butter Cat.

[Mary Kish]

I don't know. Oh, nice. This is a game that I also found on a sale. It's so. It's so affordable and it's just a cute little puzzle game. There are times, especially during stressful times in my life or in work, where I'm like, I just want. I just want a little puzzle game that scratches my noodle. This game was on the steam sale because it's a couple years old, but I hadn't played it. It's pretty simple. You're a cat, you cannot jump, but if you have buttered toast on your back, you can. And that is the premise of it. So as the cat, you need to figure out if you should have the toast on your back so you can jump to certain areas, or if you need to allow the toast to be free to do its own thing, in which case the toast is allowed to jump without you, but it also doesn't have all of your movement. Like a toast can't jump on ice for some reason. Of course, you know the rules of toast. Yeah, they apply here. So this is a. This is a puzzle, but also platformer, where you are doing certain mechanics at certain times once you've solved the puzzle to get through. As a toast cat, it's just cute and simple and it does play on various different games. It has a bit like. Has references to Flappy Bird. It has references to. What's that game where you're a snake and you're eating but you don't want your own tail? Yeah, that one also.

[Mike Mahardi]

Centipede.

[Dan]

Oh, no, no. You're thinking Snake. Snake was like the phone game or the calculator game too.

[Mary Kish]

It's the snake one, but you're a cat. Anyway, I don't need to. To go on and on about this. This game is very affordable. I think it was. Gosh. I think because I had already bought a per. A part of it, you know, like, if you buy a bundle, it's even cheaper. I think I got this game for, like $3, and I. I just. I just thought it was very cute. And it. I've gotten. Already, I've gotten so many hours out of it just playing little puzzle mini games of a cat and toast. So I liked it, but I. I don't think this will be for so many people out there. But I just want to let you guys know it's a cute little puzzle, especially for people out there that are like. Like, I want. This isn't a turn your brain off game, for the record. It is puzzles. You have to think. This is a calm, relaxed puzzle platformer. It's not stressful. You're a fucking cat. You know, you're finding your toast. It's not a big deal. And I. I think it's very relaxed to me. I found this very relaxing and calming and something that I could play before I went to bed at night. And I liked it.

[Dan]

Nice.

[Mike Mahardi]

I didn't realize. Supposed it sounded familiar, and then I looked it up. He's like, oh, it's based on the buttered cat paradox or. No, the butter toast cat paradox, but. Buttered cat paradox.

[Mary Kish]

Like, say it right. Which one do you mean?

[Mike Mahardi]

Paradox.

[Dan]

Every cat is just like that Schrodinger thing.

[Mike Mahardi]

It's.

[Dan]

I hate the Schrodinger thing.

[Mike Mahardi]

It's more of a joke. It's more. Every cat will land on its feet, but buttered toast will always fall buttered side down. So the paradox is, what if you, like, fasten a piece of buttered toast butter side up, on the back of a cat, then what happens happens. But. Okay, the Schrodinger's cat is.

[Dan]

I don't mean to go into divisive territory here, but there's two things I hate. There's Schrodinger's cat and there's the argument about free will. These are two stupid arguments that are easily provable and it shouldn't even be. It's like, oh, it's Die Hard at Christmas movies. Like, I don't know. It's whatever. Shut up. Schrodinger's cat.

[Mike Mahardi]

Schrodinger. Stop adding whatever to it.

[Dan]

They try to act like the cat could be there or not be there or at the same time. It can be both at the same time. No, it can't. The cat's there or it isn't done. Let's not talk about it anymore.

[Mike Mahardi]

Prove it.

[Dan]

Take the box off. Oh, there's a cat. Second one. Free will. Hang on. Free will.

[Mike Mahardi]

Let me. I want to talk about free will. You're. No, you're misrepresenting it. You're misrepresenting it. Once you touch the box and you interact with the thing you're trying to observe, you then put it in one state. That's the whole idea. It's like the.

[Dan]

But even if I don't know yet, right. There is or isn't a cat in that fucking box.

[Mike Mahardi]

Prove it.

[Dan]

It doesn't matter what I know. I can't prove it.

[Mary Kish]

Exactly. That's the whole fucking point.

[Dan]

But it doesn't change whether there's a cat or not in there. There's a fucking. There is or isn't. There isn't a fucking talking brittle about this. The other one is free will. The other one is free will.

[Mary Kish]

Okay.

[Dan]

Is there free will? Is there free will?

[Mary Kish]

Yeah.

[Dan]

Guess what? I'm going to lift my left hand. There we go. There's free will. See ya. Let's talk about something interesting.

[Mike Mahardi]

But this argument led to you leading that one and everything before that led to you having this argument.

[Dan]

I don't know what you're saying, but every time I hear about Schrodinger's cat or free will, I get mad.

[Mike Mahardi]

You don't know how to.

[Dan]

These are horseshit arguments that this is nothing. These are nothing argument arguments.

[Mike Mahardi]

They're not arguments.

[Dan]

What they. Did you go great philosophical questions?

[Mike Mahardi]

Yes.

[Dan]

No, they're not. There's a cat or there isn't a cat and yes, I can do whatever I want.

[Mike Mahardi]

Prove there's a cat in the box without touching it or opening it.

[Dan]

I can't. But one.

[Mike Mahardi]

One answer is correct once you interact with it and you know certain.

[Dan]

No, it's correct whether I know or don't know.

[Mike Mahardi]

How do you know that though? You need to prove that.

[Dan]

That a cat camp be there and not be there at the same time.

[Mike Mahardi]

But you can't.

[Dan]

Schrodinger is a dope.

[Mike Mahardi]

It's not his name.

[Mary Kish]

Prove it.

[Dan]

I really do hate these arguments.

[Mike Mahardi]

Dan, have you seen Ex Machina?

[Dan]

Yeah, I love it. It's a great movie.

[Mike Mahardi]

That whole movie is about the paradox of free will. They have an entire conversation that's about robots and stuff.

[Dan]

I'm a man.

[Mike Mahardi]

Yeah. And it's whether they. She can exercise free will or did she like the whole point. They talk about.

[Dan]

I don't remember how it goes.

[Mary Kish]

I know you did it.

[Mike Mahardi]

The whole movie is about.

[Mary Kish]

Did that movie.

[Dan]

I think there are a lot of Movies I see and I like a lot.

[Mary Kish]

And I don't think I understand cat. I didn't see it in the box

[Dan]

or not in the box? One or the other? Not both.

[Mary Kish]

I don't think it was.

[Mike Mahardi]

You don't know that though.

[Dan]

Yes.

[Mike Mahardi]

You don't know that.

[Dan]

I know that it can't be both. I don't know which it is. It can't be both.

[Mike Mahardi]

So you're saying you're arguing that it's neither. Then there's absolutely no cat in the box. Box.

[Dan]

Let's test this. Next time I come to your place, put or don't put one of your cats in a box. One of them is going to be right.

[Mike Mahardi]

But how are you going to prove it without touching it?

[Dan]

I don't know.

[Mike Mahardi]

You know you know, but you don't. And you can't prove it until you actually interact. I don't have the information interacted with that. So like that's again moot.

[Dan]

Just people need to get some real problems.

[Mike Mahardi]

Wait, okay. Without looking at me, Dan, without like keep looking at me. No, that wouldn't work because you can probably expect a millipede in your room somewhere. I was going to say, is there a millipede behind you right now? That doesn't work because you like you have empirical evidence to prove that there is. It was a bad example. I shouldn't have, shouldn't have brought that up. But I love, I love when, I love when Dan says he hates something and then completely morphs what it's actually about but then also proves it somehow proves it correct and says I'm just

[Dan]

trying to make people think Mike, you're

[Mike Mahardi]

very good at doing that. That I, for a day job research thing and for consulting research thing. I replayed Marvel's Spider Man 2. We talked about that game. I liked the first one a lot. I liked Miles Morales. Miles Morales was felt obviously size wise, more like a spin off. But it was still cool to see Miles take over the Spider man role. He had different powers. I only played a few hours of two back in the day, I want to say back in the day like what, two years ago when it came out, I think we all liked it but it wasn't like it wasn't groundbreaking for us. I went back just to play it because I wanted to like do more research. Like I still didn't think it's my like favorite game of all time. And yeah, those games are great about just the freedom and fluid movement of exploring New York on that scale is just super satisfying to Begin with, with. But I looking back, it's crazy that they nailed that structure of okay, here's this huge AAA open world game about this one character. And then hey, there's. Here's this smaller scale but still substantial open world game about someone else like filling that role. Oh, here's this third game where they're both going to join forces and both feel like very well designed character action fighting protagonists in their own right. But you could swap between them. I've said there's certain parts where you have to play as Miles. There are the parts you have to play as Peter for the story. And there's definitely a lot of bloat in that game. I also realize not everybody like gives a shit about hearing about Marvel's Spider Man 2 right now. But that's what I've been playing. And I don't want to not talk about a game. I just want to give that game its flowers again. And also like Insomniac, just from the beginning has been morphing with almost every game. They started with fucking Spy. Well, they had games before Spyro but like start with Spyro went to Ratchet and Clank. Fuse is not the best game, but they tried that four player cooperative third person shooter, Sunset Overdrive was rad. I don't know, there's just very few like studios with that kind of budget throughout their lifespan where their portfolio is so varied. And I appreciate that. It's just fun looking back that they got the Marvel license for Spider man because Spider Man 2 is just still rad as hell. There's a lot of filler side activities early on. They really like making you, Peter Parker and Miles walk slowly through environments while someone talks to them. Once you get past that, it's great. I don't love the Mary Jane stealth stuff in that series. It's not a perfect game by any means. But I don't know.

[Dan]

That's where I dropped off of two. There's another one when people. It's probably when I dropped off, coming into her house and stuff and I was like, I'm like, just it's a good game. But I just.

[Mary Kish]

They had to end it with some action. They had to give you like something to fight at the end of it to be like, there's a reward for all of this stealth. But it's like I don't want to deal with that.

[Dan]

Don't enjoy that at all. I like swinging around and punching dudes.

[Mike Mahardi]

Yep. I actually think the first game is the strongest overall, like because they had, I think Less. Slightly less of that stuff. But like I don't know. I just grew up with that studio playing Ratchet and Clank up your arsenals. Going. Going back and replaying a lot of those. I think my like ranking has changed over the years. I used to say up your arsenal is my fav favorite.

[Dan]

I loved every.

[Mike Mahardi]

I still love it. Great game. But I forget how segmented they made it. They really wanted to. Almost like you're dropping into these level as this paratrooper military style. Like you're helping the squad. It was cool. But like I do think going commando was more of a like that traditional action adventure style that they started off with with the first game. But anyway that's what I was playing more for. Like I said desk research for day job. And then I did intend on playing Teratech Legion on the Steam deck. But once again I just ended up playing Megabonk. That just melts time. I still think that's my favorite playing game or that is the most effective playing game at just melting hours.

[Mary Kish]

You wouldn't. You wouldn't actually know because you haven't played the game. So you actually can't definitively say that

[Mike Mahardi]

I haven't played what. Oh, I see. What you're doing though is play Teratech Legion.

[Mary Kish]

I actually want to saying the other one is the best but it's like a year old also.

[Dan]

I'll say they are both games.

[Mike Mahardi]

The games I've played. It's my favorite game. But also fucking five hour flight. I don't always want to play a brand new fucking game. I just want to play something I know is going to kill time there.

[Dan]

There is a type of game that will never leave my Steam deck. I think Teratech's one of them now. Slay the Spire 2. I think you know Vampire Megabonk.

[Mike Mahardi]

I. I missed that. You played Slay the Spire 2. I thought you were waiting for.

[Dan]

I was but I can't remember if I talked about this on here. But like it was bonk that like in a bonk is way into slightest fire. And she. You know, I take her opinions about games very seriously. And so she was like Dan, outside of some like placeholder art, like this is basically a full game.

[Mike Mahardi]

And it's like I feel like someone else already said that, but maybe not.

[Dan]

I kind of just listened to Bong.

[Mike Mahardi]

Interesting.

[Mary Kish]

I've never heard someone say that.

[Dan]

Yeah, no one. I don't think anyone said that.

[Mike Mahardi]

I guess I don't want to make extra work for dude Jake. That'd be Funny if he just rolled the clip where I said this really doesn't feel like an early access game.

[Dan]

I don't.

[Mary Kish]

Why don't they release it then?

[Mike Mahardi]

Got to, I don't know, ask them. I didn't make it. I just like playing it.

[Mary Kish]

It's not a question to you. It's a Schrodinger's question. It's like a question to anyone who's to say whose question it is or whether it exists.

[Mike Mahardi]

It's early access and 1.0. Until you download it and play it, you don't know. You can't prove for sure that it's not.

[Mary Kish]

You can't prove that it's not. Both.

[Dan]

Even the co op feels really good. Like Bon and I played a run of it recently and it's like, man, every time we've done co op, like, that actually works really well too. Like, how does that kicks ass?

[Mike Mahardi]

Slay the Spire two. Yeah, how does that work in co op? Do you just have more enemies to take down? Your. Are there synergies?

[Dan]

They double the. As far as I understand. And we've only done the like two or three times. It does, I think, double the HP of the enemies. But like, you can also choose like one of three multiplayer cards. So. So this last run we did, mine was like, okay, so I can play this card and it will grant her two extra energy. So like, it's a lot of like asking because, like, she's got her own cards, I've got my cards and like some of them are like, okay, do you want me to do this? Which will inflict vulnerable before you do this. So it's a lot of like talking to each other on the couch basically of like, okay, I'm gonna do this. Then you hit him with this. Then I'm gonna give you the extra energy and then you can do this three thing. Like, it's pretty cool.

[Mike Mahardi]

Sounds rad. I love that team. I got all the current characters, but I don't know if they're planning on adding any at 1.0 or if that's just kind of the roster for the time being. But yeah, really interesting.

[Dan]

You should try it. It doesn't feel like early access. Like, it feels like a 1.0. Mike, you should try it.

[Mike Mahardi]

Thank you. I appreciate it.

[Mary Kish]

Good recommendation, Dan.

[Dan]

Thank you, Mary.

[Mike Mahardi]

Thank you. I really, really appreciate it.

[Mary Kish]

Thank you.

[Mike Mahardi]

Do you.

[Dan]

What are.

[Mike Mahardi]

What have your favorite games been on the Steam machine as you've continued to play around with it?

[Dan]

Oh, man. So my current thing is now like, you know, I I did that video. Check that out on giant bombs. YouTube of my first impressions. And now that like, my first impressions are done and now I'm trying to like, settle into like, okay, how do I want to make this my perfect game machine? And you know, I love retro stuff and the Steam deck has always been great for a retro console. And the same shit applies here where it's like, you can set up Mudeck and all that, but like, I'm getting really in the nitty gritty this time with, with like Steam ROM Manager and everything and creating collections and all this stuff and like adding all these favorites. So like, okay, if I wanted to just go to GameCube, I can go here from the main Steam OS and like, here's my GameCube collection. But if I want to go to my favorites, here's all of my favorites across, like, here's all my retro stuff in one place. So it'll immediately launch into a 64 emulator. All the controls just work and everything. Or it's like, okay, well I want devil may cry 1, 2 and 3. So instead of the PS2 versions, I'll download the HD collection off Steam Team and they all kind of go into the same thing. So it's so cool to be able to go into like a Favorites tab right from the main menu. And it's like, here is all of my favorite games ever in one place and I'm just scrolling through a grid of the box art. And like, you know, there are those nights where it's. You don't have an active game. You're like really working on you just like, you're not ready to go to bed yet or something. You just want to play something. It's so cool to look at just like a curated, like, wow, this is my entire gaming history and collection of my favorite ever. And like, maybe I'll do Mario 3. Maybe I'll do Punch Out. Maybe I'll do some Mario 64. Maybe I'll start, you know, this or play Slay the Spire. Like new stuff, old stuff, all launchable from the same very smart OS and everything. Like I am. I know I've been a mark for the Steam machine since I got is awesome. And it, it really is everything I want as far as, like, this is my all in one game box connected to my tv and I'm setting it up exactly how I wanted for new, old and everything in between. I mean, it's, it's a joy.

[Mike Mahardi]

And like the curation itself, like, even if I don't end up Playing anything, sometimes stuff like that. It's like, oh, I could spend an hour like, yes, organizing all that. That's the game.

[Dan]

I mean, that's the thing. It's like over here, I'm like charging four different retro consoles behind me here because tomorrow we're shooting a Giant Bomb video where we're gonna show Abby all the different options and stuff like that. And like, the amount of time I've spent playing on those four consoles is probably not as much as the time I've spent setting them all up. The amount of time I've looking, looked at ROM lists and being like, okay, what is the perfect collection of games to fit on a 512 gigabyte micro SD card? And like, how do I set this up perfectly? Oh, this one's a dual screen one. So let's focus on 3Ds and DS. Like it is just such a fun to me hobby of like having all these gaming devices and spending all that time, you know, tweaking them and finicking with them. But it, it's great to be able to play them too. Like I, I'll pack the Ayn Thor on a trip or whatever and play some on the plane, but part of the joy is just setting them up. But with the Steam Machine, I think it is like, okay, it's great to set up. And also this is going to be my main gaming device.

[Mary Kish]

I don't think anyone is arguing that the Steam Machine isn't a great device. It's just wildly inaccessible to the average person because of its price. And so I have a question for you. If you didn't have either the Steam Machine or the Steam Deck, which one would you buy?

[Dan]

I mean, I think that really depends on things like how often someone travels, how often someone likes to play on the couch while something's on the tv. Like, I think that really much depends on like, how do you like to play your games if you like to play on the tv? Well, it depends. Like let's say, okay, for instance, let's say you like playing on the tv, but you mainly play me into the hollower retro games. You know, things like that. I would say get a Steam deck and get a dock, because you can do that. And you can also have the portability. You can kind of do it like the Switch. But if you're someone that wants to be able to play Double zero seven, First Light, and also anything else, I would say get the Steam Machine. So I think that is a, I don't think there's a one Size fits all on that. I think it depends on how you like to play games.

[Mary Kish]

I don't think it's perfect, but I think the reality is, is that people will have to make that choice.

[Dan]

Sure, sure. And I think if someone explained, you know, I think if I spent three minutes talking to anyone about how they play games and stuff, I could say this or that. That I just don't think I can say in general. This is.

[Mary Kish]

No, I didn't even ask in general. I said what you would choose?

[Dan]

For myself.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah.

[Dan]

Wait, so if I, if I pick Steam Machine, I don't get to have a Steam Deck?

[Mary Kish]

You have to pick one. You have $1,000. What would you spend it on?

[Mike Mahardi]

That's.

[Dan]

I think with all the travel I do, it'd be hard to not say Steam deck.

[Mary Kish]

I would pick a Steam deck too. There you have it, guys.

[Dan]

I mean, I love them.

[Mary Kish]

No question.

[Mike Mahardi]

You guys don't know which one until I tell you. So technically I found a way to get both.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah. Jokes on you. Yeah, we don't give a. Which one would you pick?

[Mike Mahardi]

Steam deck for sure. 1,000%.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah.

[Mike Mahardi]

I haven't, I don't have any experience with the Steam machine. It sounds like something I would like to have in my household, but the Steam deck is way more in line with most of the games I play these days.

[Dan]

I mean it is powerful enough to play most modern games. You have to take some major, you know, major sacrifices with the performance. But yeah, I would say for myself, with the amount of travel, I do these like. I could say like, oh, I'll do Steam Machine at home and switch to on planes and stuff. But. But the library of Switch 2 is not the Steam decks, you know.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, you guys don't have a Steam. You don't have a Switch too as well. I suppose this is like, for people who are like, this is a huge hobby and this game, this hobby has always been expensive. Gaming has always been expensive. But usually you have to pick. That's where the, the wars between The Xbox and PlayStation originated because you couldn't have have both. Which means if you bought your spent your precious money on an Xbox, you were more likely to be like, xbox games are better. PlayStation could suck it.

[Dan]

And that's where that tribalism comes from. And like, I kind of get it because I remember doing so much research like, dude, do I get a PlayStation or a Saturn? I'm going to trade in all of my Genesis. I'm going to trade in my Sega cd. I have to make the right decision and you become like, okay, I'm going all in on PlayStation. I'm a PlayStation guy now. And, like, you root for PlayStation to win because that's where you put, like,

[Mary Kish]

limited funds, you know, I invested my money and Xbox justification four years. I. I needed it to do well.

[Dan]

I. I think console fanboy shit is exhausting, and it's been around since I was at fucking recess. But I also kind of understand, like. No, I. I get it. And I've been there. Like, you, you pick your horse and you want that to be the one that wins. But, like, also, don't be a fucking weird dickhead on the Internet about it.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, there's got to be some kind of middle area, is there not?

[Dan]

Yeah, yeah,

[Mike Mahardi]

Mary, we played Mecca Chameleon for the bonus episode that I mentioned.

[Dan]

I was also there, but you wouldn't know because I was hiding too well.

[Mary Kish]

We found you and shot you in the back of the head. We shot you in your fat ass.

[Mike Mahardi]

Blowing it. No, if. Yeah, for those who don't know, it's a game's blowing up. It's like, it's kind of. I mean, again, like shorthand friend slop. Like kind of competitive hype. Hide and seek, where one person's the hunter with a shotgun. Everybody else is like, set loose in these mini sandboxes as these stick figures, and you have to go hide and then basically paint on the fly with, like, Ms. Paint level tools really quickly to disguise yourself. The other person's just trying to find you. Sometimes it's easier than other times. But yeah, once you get shot, you become a hunter as well. Well, so it's hide and seek with very deceptively simple, I would say, because you can do some cool stuff with the paint, but it's not like you're not. It's not like after effects. I think Ms. Paint's the better comparison. But yeah, it's been blowing up. So Mary suggests we do a bonus episode. Super fun if you have not. If you're not a video patron, go become one. That should be up sometime soonish. But yeah, Mary, you're the one who recommended it.

[Mary Kish]

Everybody's talking about it. It's. It's on Twitch. It's crazy. It's going crazy with streamers and the virality. The clips of it are so funny because it's really funny for a hunter to walk around and see this little butt hiding, you know, against a wall and being like, oh, I wonder who this is. There's a really funny moment where Jake is hunting and my ass is Hiding in the trash. And he's like, do you have anything you want to say, Mary? And I was like, you can't see me. And he shoots me right in the butt. It's funny. It's a fun. This is a fun multiplayer game that you probably haven't seen since I. I would say, like, this is starting to get onto, like, the among us levels of. Everybody is talking about this silly little game where you play hide and seek and it works for everyone. You can be a kid and play this, this. You can be extremely skilled with gaming and play this and have a good time. Everybody can enjoy this silly game where you paint yourself and pretend to be on the wall and hope that no one shoots you.

[Dan]

I. I think the thing for me is, like, when I first heard about this, I was like, I played like, prop hunt modes and, like, a lot of FPS have done it and, like, that's never really done for me. I've tried it and it's like, okay, I get why this is funny or whatever, but, like, being able to pose and paint yourself and try to kind of like, you know, Tobias Bluth yourself into a thing and like, oh, you can't see me. You know, like, there is a really funny aspect of that, of, like, quickly trying to do a shitty Ms. Paint of your body to fit in. Like, that is the. The X factor that makes this, like, way more fun to me.

[Mary Kish]

You get like 60 seconds. It's not enough time. A lot of the times these are real chop shops. You are. You are splatting yourself with brown and being like, I look like. Like wood. And you absolutely do not. But the environment.

[Dan]

Why are you laughing? Why do you laugh when she said, splatter yourself with brown?

[Mary Kish]

Yeah. You don't ever do that.

[Dan]

Why are you laughing, Mike?

[Mike Mahardi]

It's a. It's a. It was a thing from earlier. The sh. Cat, don't worry about it.

[Dan]

Move on.

[Mary Kish]

We. You can have a lot of fun with this type of game of being silly. You can also troll people by whistling, which is your way of saying, like, I'm nearby. I'm in a room. Room. It's very rude. Dan wouldn't whistle because he whistled.

[Dan]

I whistled constantly in this thing. I have the footage. I do a whistle montage.

[Mary Kish]

Never.

[Mike Mahardi]

And also at one point, Dan looked up and saw me on top of the suit of armor, I'm pretty sure. So I, like, bailed and started sprinting around and then Cat moused around this chair. And then I did the pose where you're just like, so funny. Like chalk outline of a dead person at a murder scene. And I slid under the chair. Chair. And just waited.

[Dan]

I was looking at you, and I wanted to take a second to, like, say something cool before I shot you. And all of a sudden, I see this little shiny silver guy. He's like. And Bob running around like.

[Mike Mahardi]

Yeah, I was in the. I was in the pose where he's just, like, curled up in the fetal. And I was like, oh, it probably looks way too much like an ass. Even though I did use it. I upped the metallic slider all the way to look like the suit of armor. It's pretty proud of it. Until you.

[Mary Kish]

When you crawl around, you look like that enemy in Silent Hill in the. That's crawling around underneath the car and is super scary. There's an element of that game that is kind of creepy because you think you're looking at a bookshelf, but there's actually someone hidden in the bookshelf looking at you. It's not a scary game, but it could be.

[Mike Mahardi]

Yeah.

[Dan]

It's like. And they're smart, too. Like, when they make the levels. Like, one of them is. There's a bunch of, like, gingerbread men, like, all stacked up and, like, it's so easy to, like, I'm going to just press myself against the gingerbread man and, like, paint it this way. Yeah.

[Mike Mahardi]

Super fun. Fun. Glad we played it.

[Mary Kish]

We had a good time. I think it's. I think it's a silly, fun game, and I'm glad that you guys were open to playing it with me. So thank you for playing it with me and learning a new game with me this week.

[Dan]

It was a blast. Yeah. Check it out on the Patreon. Everyone cool?

[Mike Mahardi]

For sure. Want to talk about emails? Sure. All right. As always, you can write into firescapecast gmail.com for questions, comments, concerns, questions we might read for this segment. In this case, we have a correction of mine. I do want to read because I definitely butchered this. On a recent episode, I had mentioned how I was flabbergasted to learn that Richard Harris, who played Dumbledore, he was the leader of the IRA and Patriot Games, he was the priest in Count of Monte Cristo, was Ed Harris's dad. That is not correct. It was Jared Harris from Mad Men Foundation. Chernobyl. Yeah. Which makes more sense because those two are British.

[Mary Kish]

And who corrected you?

[Mike Mahardi]

Good question, Eddie.

[Mary Kish]

Thank you.

[Mike Mahardi]

Thank you, Eddie. Ironic names, Eddie.

[Dan]

I'm going to send in a correction for next week about you thinking a cat could be there. And not there at the same time.

[Mike Mahardi]

I can't wait for that. That'd be great.

[Mary Kish]

I can't believe Eddie Harris is a fan of the show.

[Mike Mahardi]

I know. Eddie Harris just has daddy issues, so he didn't want us to associate him with Richard anymore.

[Mary Kish]

It's fair.

[Mike Mahardi]

Mary, do you want to read this one from Darian? Sure.

[Mary Kish]

Hey, homies. It makes no sense that Dan likes Shedmu Cozy Queen Mary is a huge Gears of War fan. Who even knows what's up with that? Mark McCarty's guy. As for me, I would do terrible things for a Sakura sequel. Despite mostly playing FPS and strategy games. Games you peeps of any other games, movies, or activities you enjoy that are out of character. Cheers. Darian from Toronto. That's a great question.

[Dan]

Yeah, I think I've got a few. Like, I think most people would assume I'm just like, oh, die Hard brother, you know, like, whatever. But, like, a lot of my, like, as always, looking at my, like, letterbox here, my five stars, like, stuff, like, poor things, you know, I don't think people would guess that or like, one of my favorite bands ever being Florence and the Machine. You know, like, that type of.

[Mike Mahardi]

Like, that. That did surprise me. The Florence and the Machine thing.

[Dan]

And like, one of my, like, Mount Rushmore bands of all time or just artists of all time. Yeah.

[Mike Mahardi]

Have you seen them live?

[Dan]

Yeah, so I saw earlier this year. It was incredible.

[Mike Mahardi]

Interesting.

[Dan]

Yeah. Also seeing Bob Dylan on Monday. Do not have high expectations for his energy.

[Mary Kish]

Oh, no. I've been hearing about that.

[Dan]

It's not going to be great.

[Mary Kish]

People have been talking about it.

[Dan]

He's going to be a very old man. But no Florence, like, I. I think I like a lot of, like, artsy, quote unquote, movies that people would not expect me to like. Whether or not I understand what they're trying to say is maybe a whole different thing. But, yeah, I am, like, I am a film dork still. I'm still kind of that, like, high school film dork, you know, if we're.

[Mike Mahardi]

Yeah, I was gonna say this question is tough. I feel like all of us are into very different things that don't really fit into a neat bucket. Yeah. Symbolism.

[Dan]

Symbolism. Yeah.

[Mike Mahardi]

But, like, like, if someone were just to listen to this podcast and, like, not know me at all outside of that, I think they might be surprised that I. I'm not gonna, like, look down on, like, shotgunning a Bud Light if I need to.

[Dan]

Like, that is how I describe. I get a lot of questions about you, Mike, and That is exactly what I go to is like, yeah, yeah, he is the wine guy. He portrays himself as, but like, he

[Mike Mahardi]

also will portray myself as. I'm actually like into it. But I'm also not like, I'm not going to dive bars saying like, oh, what kind of merlot do you have? Like, exactly. I will hang with the best of them at. In the, like, some of my favorite bars in New York still are the dives that have not changed in 50 years.

[Dan]

And I always say that. I was like, yes, he is that wine guy through and through. But like, he has never once, no matter what bullshit thing I'm eating or drinking or whatever, been like turned his nose up at it. And so like, yeah, you're totally right with that.

[Mike Mahardi]

Also, who's asking you about me?

[Dan]

Don't worry about it.

[Mike Mahardi]

Oh, now I'm curious. Maybe that's out of character. I'm really, what's the word I'm looking for? Vain. I want to. Asking about me. Yeah, yeah, but you guys know that.

[Dan]

Yeah, you gotta like SGF or whatever. It's like, what's the deal with Mike Mahardi?

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, yeah. Who is that wine guy?

[Mike Mahardi]

Outside of that, I probably got other stuff. But like, again, I think my in my interests are already very. But again, it's a lot of like, like people know. I love McGruber, wet hot American Summer. These literally rank in my top 10 movies of all time. Even though I'm also pretty interested in the newest docg in Italy and how those laws came about.

[Mary Kish]

I love Mary.

[Mike Mahardi]

What's yours?

[Mary Kish]

I love that you, you have like. I think we all have this like, difference in, in this juxtaposition of us where you're like, I didn't expect to like that. I, I, I really famously and historically just do not like turn based RPGs no matter what anyone says to me. Yeah, they're not appealing to me. And especially when someone goes, but the, but the characters, but the story. And I'm like, I'm bored. Like, even you saying that to me, it's like, it doesn't, it does not get me. I was pleasantly surprised by with Claire Obscure Expedition 33. I think it is pheno. It is the genre Bender, where I was like, oh, I think I get it. Oh, this is what you guys are talking about. This is a really phenomenally good game. It is worth playing. Even if you wouldn't historically play this type of game. Like, I would usually I play these and quit. I absolutely just quit them when I'm like, whatever. I don't want to hear all this dialogue. I liked the dialogue in this game and I was listening to listen to them prattle on about their problems and the issues because it's kind of fascinating. They were just like killing people based on their age. It felt like a really good movie. So anyway, that's, that's a win for me that I, that I thought was surprising. And then I love horror and just scary movies in general. And I usually anytime I have a free moment I will watch a horror movie or like a thriller. It's very rare that I will watch a drama that is long and exhausting. My life is long and exhausting. I don't want to watch a two and a half hour movie that stresses me out or is sad. But I think that I watched a movie last year that was so life altering that it is in my top five movies of all time. I think it is phenomenal. I will, I will yell at anyone. They have to watch it. It's Train Dreams.

[Mike Mahardi]

Oh yeah.

[Mary Kish]

And that is a phenomenal drama. Maybe not meant not coming of age, but it's like it's just about a person going through life in a really long and exhausting way. It's so. I don't know what that word is. Tell me what that word is.

[Mike Mahardi]

Oh, I don't. It's just like what you just described. It's like a journey. It's not like a coming of age thing. It's just like several different episodes. Episodes in someone's life or this particular journey that is kind of this story compiled. The book is really good.

[Mary Kish]

It's ecoresque. I, when I watched this I was like here comes a big long boobless two hour drama. And I what?

[Mike Mahardi]

You only watch boob full movies.

[Mary Kish]

It's gotta be full of them. And I, I watched this full of tears and I was like that movie is gonna. That changed my life. Life to this day. Sometimes I will. It's only been a year but like I, I really, really, really love this movie you guys. And I, I will be walking around doing, having a great day and I'll say is this my train Dreams? Which you would only get if you have seen that movie. But it's, it's in my brain now. I think about it all the time and I think it's. You wouldn't expect with my movie history that I would think so positively about this film. So I think that's a good one for me and a great excuse for me to tell everyone to watch Train Dreams because my God, it's So good.

[Mike Mahardi]

Netflix. Correct.

[Mary Kish]

Get the tissues. I have. I don't remember how I watched it originally. I think I, like, stumbled upon it and was just like, I'm not gonna like this. I loved it.

[Mike Mahardi]

Yeah. Boot's really good.

[Mary Kish]

It's kind of cool to be surprised. Isn't it, like, to find a genre of something and being.

[Mike Mahardi]

Well, now Widows Bay makes sense that we liked it, but I started this.

[Dan]

It's good. We're like, two episodes in, but, like, it's. It's very good.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, it builds. Scary comedy is my favorite genre of film. Slither is one of my favorite movies.

[Dan]

Awesome. I love Slither.

[Mary Kish]

If you like Slither, this is. This is Slither because it's. It's funny. The characters are so funny, and then something scary will happen, and you'll be like, am I supposed to laugh or not? I'm, like, so stressed out, dude. Every episode gets so good, but there's a very specific episode about a lady who's trying to throw a party that I cannot wait for you to watch.

[Dan]

Okay.

[Mary Kish]

I cannot wait. It's so fucking good. I think it might be one of the best episodes of a show. It is. It's perfect.

[Dan]

Yeah. We're currently. We're doing a lot right now where Sundays are Sopranos and then House the Dragon, and we're also here and there where we can. Doing Widow's Bay.

[Mary Kish]

You are busy.

[Dan]

Yeah. Best single episodes of Mike. I think we were two away from Pine Barrens. Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

I'm trying so hard.

[Mike Mahardi]

Correct me if I'm wrong, then Cousin Tony is.

[Dan]

There's a. He got a club for Adriana, and Tony is with the Mercedes dealer.

[Mike Mahardi]

Gloria.

[Dan]

Yes.

[Mike Mahardi]

Gotcha.

[Dan]

Everything's very well. I. Ralphie as a character is very interesting to me. Me. I love Ralph.

[Mike Mahardi]

Oh, he's amazing. You know where he's from now?

[Dan]

Hoboken.

[Mike Mahardi]

He's famous. He's famously the second most famous person from Hoboken. Yeah. After.

[Dan]

Who's number one?

[Mike Mahardi]

Frank Sinatra.

[Dan]

Oh, okay. Yeah.

[Mike Mahardi]

Joey Pants.

[Dan]

Joey Pants. He's so good in that. Like, he's just such a weird character. He just seems like kind of a dope, but he's also, like, terrifying and violent and.

[Mike Mahardi]

But also very good. Like, he makes a lot of money for everybody, so they all.

[Dan]

That's why Tony can't just, like, kill him. He's like, hey, he's a good earner. He's a good earner. Yeah.

[Mike Mahardi]

He's a good earner.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[Mike Mahardi]

Died on the vine.

[Dan]

It's really the best show ever. And, like, I'm sorry, I'm not gonna go into all things, but, like, Gandolfini, I'm watching him and I'm like, this is like one of the all time great performances. Like, this is amazing.

[Mike Mahardi]

Yeah, there's an episode. There's another episode. I think the only episode I like. So Pine Barons is great. It's amazing. It's hilarious. But, like, it is. We talked about this a couple episodes ago. It's more of a bottle episode. There are several others in the show, but I still think I'm not the only person to say this. It's not an unpopular opinion, but White Caps, when you get to White Caps, is some of the most craziest good acting I've seen on tv in movies ever. I've never seen a few people, literally, they just become this character. I don't know how they. It seems impossible to me, but White Caps is, hands down probably my favorite episode of tv. After the suitcase in Mad Men, it

[Dan]

is something to be not even halfway. I think I'm approaching the halfway mark of the show and already knowing that this is my favorite show of all time.

[Mike Mahardi]

Go ahead and watch it.

[Dan]

Jesus Christ. Like, this is hitting in every possible way for me.

[Mike Mahardi]

During COVID I think it started to blow up. And a lot of. I don't know if it was Gen Z, but they were saying a lot of a newer, younger generation was starting to watch it and realized that a lot of the storytelling telling resonated with them in terms of, like, the broader themes, which. Whether it's like, you know, the economic issues they're talking about, but also just. I don't know. The Sopranos was. Came along at a time when the. The whole show is very much. They're trying to take things in their own hands rather than going to the police and the Using the system that's worked against them. So I think a lot of people appreciate that. But it's also just hilarious.

[Dan]

It's so funny. And, like, I'm very intrigued to see, like, I think 911 in real life is about to happen, like, at the exact halfway point. Point. And it's like, how is this show gonna deal with that? And I just. It's just. What a fascinating part of TV history. It's. It's the absolute best.

[Mike Mahardi]

Yeah, it's really good. Yeah. Text me when you're done with Pine Barrens or text me when you're about to watch it so I. So I can just know that you're experiencing it.

[Dan]

Okay.

[Mike Mahardi]

Okay.

[Dan]

That's gonna be good. That's what I. While we've been recording this, by the way, Jesse Vitelli has been watching Rocky for the first time.

[Mike Mahardi]

So, like, the first.

[Dan]

The whole franchise, he's never seen Rocky. I think he's one of those. Those kids that thinks movies are mid. And I think I've been given the

[Mary Kish]

hard, like, sell the entire media form of movie.

[Dan]

I believe so. I believe that's just. That's Mike. Mike Minatti definitely says movies are not great.

[Mary Kish]

That's kind of like someone saying colors aren't that great.

[Dan]

I agree. I agree. And Minati is just a weirdo in a lot of ways, but, you know, Battelli seems like a pretty normalish guy, but then he says something about movies are Rocky or something like, oh, no, you gotta. You gotta watch this.

[Mary Kish]

Crazy.

[Dan]

I think he liked it. I got some DMS with him here. I think he's enjoying it, so I'm trying to get him to keep going.

[Mike Mahardi]

All right, well, if he doesn't enjoy it, then I don't like him anymore. This one. I'll read this one from Tom or no Dan. Do you want to read this one from Todd from Australia?

[Dan]

Todd says, hey, Fieries, what's the best chip here in Australia? The most popular brand of chip is Smith's. I'm partial to their barbecue flavor or their cheese and onion flavor. Also love the Thai sweet chili flavor of Doritos. What's yours? P.S. mary missed a golden opportunity on her 007 subheadings. How about the Spy who Shoved Me? Regards, Todd from Australia. Good, good.

[Mary Kish]

I like that.

[Dan]

My new one is. I went camping with Ben Hansen and Leo Vader last week. Week. And Leo Bader. I don't know if this. I've never heard of this before. Have you heard of. I think it's hers. H E R R S. Yes. Is that a regional thing?

[Mike Mahardi]

The. Yeah, like New England and like, Quebec. They're really big up in Canada.

[Dan]

Okay, guys. No, this is like. Like, so, like, I, you know, like, Cheetos have, like, the puffs and, like, the crunchies. And I've always been a crunchy man. Never been a big puff guy. And. But Leo brought these jalapeno popper hers. And it's like, I didn't know you could put that much flavor onto a single puff. And I inhaled these fucking things. He told me, there's hot honey, there's all sorts of. In fact, I need to order. I need to order.

[Mike Mahardi]

So they make. Or that's like the brand. So they make potato chips as well. To my understanding, they make a few different.

[Dan]

Seems like a world that I am unfamiliar to that I really need to dive into.

[Mary Kish]

Because those jalapeno popper ones, new uncharted territory for you. But is the question not like your go to or like, oh, then like Cool Ranch?

[Mike Mahardi]

No. What's the best chip? Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

Would you really put. Yeah. Would you really put it in best territory or.

[Dan]

It's too early. It's too early.

[Mary Kish]

It's too early. Can't be on that level.

[Mike Mahardi]

You gotta watch Pine Barrens while you eat hers.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[Mike Mahardi]

Yeah. Cool Ranch is very, very hard to beat. I don't. Nothing comes to mind. My second place personal would probably. Probably be. I really like garden salsa sun chips.

[Dan]

Those are great.

[Mike Mahardi]

I love French onion, but I like garden salsa. They've. Garden salsa has ousted French onion as my favorite sun chip.

[Mary Kish]

I don't know. I think that garden salsa is my favorite sun chip. That's it kind of. It's like it's got a little bit more saltiness to it. I don't always want cream in my chip.

[Mike Mahardi]

Yeah. I want tomato salt. Yeah. Yeah.

[Dan]

I don't know if I've ever told anyone this on a podcast. I probably have at some point.

[Mike Mahardi]

Point.

[Dan]

But sun chips, I don't think about this often, but when I was a kid, we'll say like fifth grade, I think harvest cheddar sun chips, I really liked a lot and ate a bunch of them on a Cub Scouts thing. I can't remember if it was a camping thing or what. And then I realized afterwards I would take my thumb and I would press it hard against the roof of my mouth. I got. Ah. And I press. And I felt like the longer I did it, the more effective this was, that if I removed my thumb, I could taste harvest cheddar sun chips. And so for many years, I would just like, randomly shove my thumb into my mouth and press against the roof and think I could like, replicate harvest cheddar sun chips.

[Mary Kish]

Probably just making your mouth bleed.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[Mike Mahardi]

I don't.

[Dan]

I don't know if any part of this has any validity. Were you.

[Mike Mahardi]

Were you eating harvest cheddar sun chips earlier that day and it was still on your.

[Dan]

Probably the first time I did it. Yes. Which that kind of dovetails into a thing. What I'm holding right here, like, I'm thinking about, like, the power of the human brain here is very. Or maybe mine is very strong. Convincing myself of things. I'm holding a Bigfoot slammer. It's a pog slammer. I remember they're back. Yes. I remember the best smell ever in the underside. It was this underside rubber, rubber pink thing being the best smell I'd ever smelled in my life. I'm smelling it right now and I've talked about it on podcasts and stuff like that. And somebody, some giant bomb fan found it and they're like, oh, it's the Bigfoot slammer. And so I bought this on ebay. This arrived a few days ago. And I remember thinking like, oh, my God, I haven't smelled this smell in like 30 years. This is going to be crazy. It's going to activate my brain in a crazy way. And I smell it. I'm like, that's right. That's the smell. And then I gave it to Bonk, because I've talked about this to Bonk, been like, oh, it's the best smell ever, ever. And I gave it to her and she smelled it and she's like, this just smells like a thing that's been in, like a chain smoker's house. And then I smelled it again and I was like, oh, right, it doesn't smell like that. But I think in my brain, because I wanted it to smell like that thing from when I was 8, I think I actually convinced myself that, like, that's the thing. But then I gave it to a neutral party and she was like, this just smells like cigarettes.

[Mike Mahardi]

Yeah, smells crazy.

[Mary Kish]

Paul Reichert in your childhood. And you're like, no, he didn't start

[Dan]

smoking until he was 40, so that doesn't even make sense.

[Mike Mahardi]

But yeah, smell is crazy.

[Dan]

The old But I told myself, this is like, that's the smell. She's like, no, that's just cigarettes. And I was like, oh, that's fucked up shit.

[Mike Mahardi]

And now you can unsmell the cigarettes.

[Dan]

I still. My brain still tells me that's like the fruity, fun rubber thing.

[Mary Kish]

Smell is you ever strongest and you

[Mike Mahardi]

can actually make it go the other direction.

[Dan]

I do that a lot. I do it a lot.

[Mike Mahardi]

Yeah, I do, too. I told that story before how people saw me doing that during Catholic mass and they had, like, asked my parents if I was okay.

[Dan]

Yep, yep.

[Mike Mahardi]

Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

I'd like to offer two. One that you should have said and one that no one will say but deserves a mention. The one that everyone knows is flaming hot Cheetos, which is the Mecca of snack. And my go to if I were to choose a snack when I'm going over to Dan's house to watch a movie in your basement, I would pick flaming hot Cheetos hot, flavorful crunch. Not puff crunch. I'm on the same train, but I like that hot. I like a little bit of spice.

[Dan]

It's kind of a lot, though. Like, you can't like. I want something I can eat a whole bag of.

[Mary Kish]

Well, not if you're a little, like. You have to be able to handle spice.

[Dan]

I love spice. I love even, like. Have you done, like, the one tip challenge stuff or whatever? Have you done, like, the one tip challenge stuff? I want. I want to see you do, like,

[Mary Kish]

a spice chicken wing challenge or something.

[Dan]

A blazing buffalo wing thing or something.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, like, see if you can actually, like.

[Dan]

No, I've done those.

[Mary Kish]

I don't think I can do super hot stuff, but I could eat a bag of Flamin Hot Cheetos all day and I don't feel a thing.

[Dan]

I like Cool Ranch because it's just like, I could eat an entire bag of that and it's just like, I agree. Smooth.

[Mary Kish]

Better for babies. I agree. It won't hurt anyone. Cool Ranch is for the common man. No one gets hurt by Cool Ranch. Everybody likes Cool Ranch.

[Mike Mahardi]

What is the. Yeah, what's the one that no one else would mention?

[Dan]

Okay.

[Mary Kish]

When I lived in Australia, I found a snack that's very popular there that I don't think regular people know of. They're called shapes. Yes.

[Dan]

They're fucking great.

[Mary Kish]

They're like a cracker that are usually in a shape. My favorite is Chicken Criby. Chicken Crippy.

[Mike Mahardi]

That's a shit shape.

[Dan]

Chicken Crimpy.

[Mary Kish]

Chicken Crimpy. Chicken Crimpies are essentially a buttercracker that tastes like chicken bullion.

[Dan]

Yeah. It's like the chicken, like chicken and a biscuit is like a similar thing here.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah.

[Dan]

I don't know if they still make those, but.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, but the. The disc shape, the divots in it.

[Dan]

Yep.

[Mary Kish]

They melt in your mouth. But there is a. There is a cracker to them. Right. So there's a little bit of a crunch. They taste like chicken. They're called Chicken Crimpy. If you were to, like, spend extra money and be like, I want to know. I vouch for you to buy Chicken Crimpy and pay the fee to get these into your household. They're good.

[Dan]

Somebody sent me like, a. A variety pack thing, like, during the pandemic for me to try and stream, and I was like, oh, my God, I'm a shapes guy now. Like, these are. You got cheese and bacon. You got the Vegemite and cheese. You got the barbecue.

[Mary Kish]

There's a pizza one. There's a lot of different shapes that are good, and I think most shapes are good. Although I don't like barbecue because I don't like sweet chips. I'm not a fan of like sugar chips. I want my. I want my chips salty. Thank you very much. Chicken crimpy is very good. And it is. It is. More people should know about the magic of shapes.

[Dan]

I like that flavor. You can see.

[Mary Kish]

I love that you knew the flavor. Specifically the flavor. Chicken crimpy is absurd.

[Dan]

They sent me all like a bunch of flavors and I was like, I love all of these. I love that they're just different shapes and they like, like. I love that Doritos just have like the dust and I. The hunt for the ones with the most like visible dust on it and shape seems to like. Oh, yeah, you can see the flavor we're gonna like.

[Mary Kish]

You can find a freak. You can find a freak in a box of shapes that has way too much dust on it. It's very fun.

[Dan]

I want them, the chip company, the chip chimp, the chip industrial complex to make a. Oops. All berries. I want there to be like, you know, oops, all berries. Like the gimmick is like, oh, there's a accident of the factory and they're all this or whatever. I want chips to do that. Where it's like we them all up. They're all way too much.

[Mary Kish]

All the sh. All the shapes are two dust. Dusted shapes. Oops. All dusted.

[Dan]

Yes. We're gonna up all your dopamine receptors. You're never going to be the same person after you double dusted shapes.

[Mary Kish]

Not that quintuple shapes. Let me run your marketing. Who owns shapes. Are not.

[Mike Mahardi]

Are not. Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

Let give me the keys to the castle. Double dusted would go crazy.

[Dan]

Give me the dust like pixie stick style and let me just go nuts with them. Yeah, yeah. I will fucking snore. I've never snorted anything. I will snort that.

[Mary Kish]

I'm injecting dust.

[Mike Mahardi]

My last chip. I have not had them in a while because I used to eat a lot of them and there. I'm curious if you. I think this is a chip, but it stretches the definition. The Fritos barbecue flavor twists. Oh, they're great.

[Dan]

They're great. Honey barbecue.

[Mike Mahardi]

Honey barbecue were really good. I think those are my number three spot. I haven't had those in a while though.

[Dan]

They're great honor. I do think the barbecue. Yeah.

[Mike Mahardi]

Barbecue. Pop chip or no Sour cream and onion pop chips. Barbecue.

[Mary Kish]

Barbecue.

[Dan]

They're better than they should. Good.

[Mike Mahardi]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Again, those ones, you get some that are more like Cheeto puff texture. You get others that are like real crispy, like they spent too much time being baked. Oof.

[Dan]

I do think that George Washington on the Mount Rushmore is cool ranch, though.

[Mike Mahardi]

Yeah, it's no argument there.

[Mary Kish]

I have friends that always prefer nacho cheese and they're always like, I can't believe that you're a cool ranch person. And I'm like, me and all of America, bitch. Like, you are in the minority. It's crazy for someone to look me in the eye and say that nacho cheese is the preferred one. I want.

[Dan]

Nacho cheese is great. It is great.

[Mary Kish]

I'm polling our audience.

[Dan]

Sweet chili. That's a newcomer. That is really good. I'll take a sweet chili over a nacho cheese.

[Mary Kish]

Yes.

[Mike Mahardi]

Yeah. Nacho cheese. I can take it or leave it. But cool ranch, like that blue bag I see in the distance. I'm like, I'm going to fuck you up. Yeah. Well, thank you, Todd from Australia. He's going to appreciate that you called out in Australia playing Snack

[Mary Kish]

Chicken crippy chicken crimpies.

[Mike Mahardi]

I've never had him. That's our episode. Episode 136, Fire Escape. You can write into the email firescapecastgmail.com Like I said, we have a new bonus video going up soon where we played Mecca Chameleon, Us three and Jake, our producer. We played that for about a little more than an hour, I think. I think I do want to play more of that, but go be a video patron if you're not already. If you don't want to do that. We have ad free episodes here on Patreon as well. That's firescapecast.com we also have merch. Get your banana hammocks. Get your. Get your summer wear. We have water bottles. We have swim trunks. We have. I think we have like bikinis on the site. Oh, yeah, fire escape merch.

[Mary Kish]

They are hot.

[Mike Mahardi]

Yeah, get. They're. They're in stock, so go get them while it's hot. That's firescapemerch.com we'll be back in a couple weeks, Dan. In the meantime, though, what do you have going on?

[Dan]

Giant Bomb? Check it out. Recent stuff. The Steam Machine video on Min Max. I haven't seen the video yet, but yeah, me, Hanson and Leo Camping should be up on Min Max by the time you watch this. But yeah, reviews. We got reviews for Rhythm Heaven. A bunch of other stuff going on. So go Check out giant bomb. Jeff Grubb is about to start his blight, which should be a blast.

[Mary Kish]

Yark.

[Mike Mahardi]

What is he playing?

[Dan]

Maybe by the time this goes up, it might be about to go. It's going to be. It's going to be. He's had a comeuppance coming for a while because me and Minati have really gone through it and Grub has not been blighted since last August. So I picked a pretty bad one for Grub to have to go through.

[Mary Kish]

There's no way to, like, get blighted multiple times in a row by doing a bad job. It's just who.

[Mike Mahardi]

Who's had the most if you quit.

[Dan]

But, like, we are all very steadfast and, like, we don't ever want anyone to quit of Light game. So the closest ever is probably me with Space Ace, the last one. But, like, I was like, I. I can't do it. I have to beat this game. It is one of the worst experiences of my life. That's all on the YouTube now.

[Mike Mahardi]

Game looks terrible, Mary, what you have going on before the next episode,

[Mary Kish]

usually it's streaming on Twitch every Monday. That's where I played some Dave the Diver. And it's cool to, like, test it out there live before I. I put more thought to it. And then Instagram for my daily dose of whatever the fuck I'm up to in a story. I posted the cops pulling us over so you could check that out.

[Dan]

Macron's gonna get you, you macaron can

[Mary Kish]

suck my French duck. I can't believe he stopped me from going to that vista.

[Mike Mahardi]

I think Amanda sent me something that reminded me of you, Mary. It was just. I think it was just a meme or an Instagram post that said meta Ray Ray Bans. Meta glasses are the cyber truck of the face.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[Mary Kish]

They're not attractive and they are invasive. And I think, like. Like, for the record, I. I post them a lot because it is.

[Mike Mahardi]

Yeah, we know.

[Mary Kish]

It is so convenient. I mean, here's the thing. Like, people can say, maybe this is controversial. People can say, like, oh, they're so invasive and they're so annoying. It's extremely dangerous to ride a bike and pull out your phone and be like, I'm riding on this beautiful spot. Being able to tap my glasses and record the fact that I'm riding my bike or riding my scooter or kayaking is so cool. And they absolutely are worth it if you are using them for GoPro reasons. And I will stand by that. I don't Care how controversial it is. They are better than a GoPro and they give you the perspective of a a person doing some kind of athletic

[Mike Mahardi]

really or doing something athletic fee. Extremely exciting stuff every time you post really long. Really long meta glass walking your dog

[Mary Kish]

while it's like this are on your meta. Why do you watch it all?

[Mike Mahardi]

You're right. I can unf you. I wanted to.

[Mary Kish]

I love dude. My biggest. My biggest haters watch all of my meta content. And then they're like, aren't these the like perv glasses? And I'm like, yes. You know what else? Don't be a pervert. Don't use this product and and scoop some babes and look up their boobies skirts. Don't do it.

[Mike Mahardi]

I don't need sucks help to be a pervert. I've been doing it for years.

[Mary Kish]

I. I use these things to like share povs of my life and I try try my damnedest not to shove them in the face of innocence that don't want to be on camera. You're like, be a good person.

[Dan]

You're weirdly impervious, though. I feel like if I posted one picture from those, we would lose half of giant bombs premium subscribers immediately.

[Mary Kish]

I. I love them. Did you use the word impervious to say I'm not pervy?

[Dan]

No, it had nothing to impervious.

[Mary Kish]

I thought you meant like. I thought you used it to say, listen, you're impervious. You're not using them in a pervy way at all. That is very sweet. I don't think that's what impervious means.

[Dan]

It seems like it should, though.

[Mary Kish]

It does. I could see the train of thought because I let it. I was like this, sure, yes.

[Dan]

Not pervy. Yes.

[Mary Kish]

Thank you for defending me. I think you can use them in. In wonderful ways. Please do not use them to. To record people who don't want to be recorded or random people living their goddamn lives. Leave people alone. Be impervy to be impervious if you can. I did use them to record the police. I turned it on immediately.

[Dan]

I think people will be in at that part. Yeah, yeah.

[Mike Mahardi]

It's. It's like, who's watching the watchers? It's Mary.

[Mary Kish]

My meta glasses. He was, oh, you guys, one last one. As we were leading, like, getting everything ready to go. He was like bringing the kayaks and tying them down. And he was like, I got to make sure to tie these to the truck this time. And I was like, excuse me. And he goes.

[Mike Mahardi]

Mary's like, tie me to the truck instead.

[Mary Kish]

Next time a little bit. He was pretty cute, but like, that's none of my business. We were professional. And he said, he said, well yesterday, he said yesterday they fell off the truck on the highway. Luckily no one was harmed, but I did stop the highway traffic for two hours. He goes, it made the local news. And I said, oh my God. Like did you tie them? You know, and then they just fell off because it was bumpy and stuff. It was probably just, you know, a, you know, freak accident. He goes, oh no, I forgot to tie them and just drove away. And he only like could have killed someone. But I really appreciated his honesty to look me in the eye and go, oh no, I just forgot to tie them anyway.

[Mike Mahardi]

I was just negligent.

[Mary Kish]

Have a good day. Wonderful to kayak with you. And I, I walked away from that experience and I said, I like him. He didn't lie to me at all. He told me everything.

[Mike Mahardi]

Thank you kayak man. Thank you Todd. Thank you Darian. Thank you Eddie Harris who all wrote in for the show.

[Dan]

Next time we need a sub, we should just bring in the kayak man.

[Mike Mahardi]

Oh, that'd be great.

[Mary Kish]

He was amazing.

[Dan]

It be great.

[Mary Kish]

I don't know if he has a computer. He was, he felt like this. Seemed like the kind of guy that was like really into vistas and like knew a lot about the ocean and did not know a lot about life.

[Dan]

Probably healthier than anyone we know.

[Mary Kish]

He seemed like he was in great physical condition.

[Dan]

Mentally probably.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, respectfully, he was in superb condition.

[Mike Mahardi]

Probably a massive hog as well.

[Dan]

Just saying check, check the metaglass per view.

[Mary Kish]

Yeah, I was so respectful. My medical asses.

[Mike Mahardi]

Where? Oh God, which site?

[Mary Kish]

He went like, he would like give me a bottle of water and I was like, thank you sir. And drank it. And then he did a backflip off the boat and I was like, what a nice boy. I tried not to observe.

[Mike Mahardi]

How do you backflip out of a kayak? Wouldn't that topple it?

[Mary Kish]

That's crazy. He did crazy, craziest stuff. He was just this, he was just a super strong 25 year old kayak guy. I mean, what do you say to that? And yeah, he was very, very nice. I said, I said, yes, you can steer this kayak for me. I'll pretend to. And he said, you're doing a great job. And I said, I know.

[Mike Mahardi]

I love Mary's confidence. Really comes out at the bow of kayaks.

[Mary Kish]

On my second sake. I have confidence to spare. That's not check out.

[Mike Mahardi]

That's not. Yeah. To be clear, that's not two sakes. I'm pretty sure there's two in each of those.

[Mary Kish]

All right, who's to say this is. No one knows how much sake is in here. You have to ask. And then, you know, it's like no one really knows how much sake is in the sake cup.

[Mike Mahardi]

Keep sipping your sake with your pervy glasses. We're. I'm gonna close out the episode. We'll be back in a couple weeks. Thanks, everybody, for joining. We'll talk to you then. Bye.

[Mary Kish]

Bye,

[Mike Mahardi]

Sam.