Fire Escape Cast #138

Summary

FIRE ESCAPE CAST #138
August 3, 2026
Hosts: Dan Ryckert, Mary Kish, Mike Mahardy

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Episode Overview

The episode kicks off with the trio—Dan, Mary, and Mike—reconvening to catch up on their recent meet-ups, shared adventures at gaming conventions, and their deep dives into movies, video games, and the puzzling world of IMAX aspect ratios. Expect a characteristically loose and tangential discussion blending movie theater rants, food hot takes, a recount of the Mysterium (a Myst convention), and a substantive set of new game impressions, culminating in some spectacular listener questions. The team keeps the banter lively, weaving in the unique tones and perspectives each brings to the discussion.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Great IMAX Debate and Movie Theater Experiences

[00:09–08:16]

• Mike tries to rebrand as the "straight man" host, but quickly ends up in the team's signature banter.
• The hosts wrestle with IMAX aspect ratios and moviegoing confusion, spurred by a discussion about "The Odyssey" (seemingly a major new film).
  • Dan: "There is a major fucking marketing issue with IMAX...I can't figure it out. For your average person...it’s so fucking confusing." [01:47]
  • Mary: Pushes back on the elitism of "the only way" to see a movie. "No, it’s not. You made a film, people are paying money to go see it...It’s totally fine to see it in any theater." [03:39]
• The trio jokes about everything from watching movies on CRTs to Christopher Nolan shooting a film only for old projectors.

2. Mysterium & The Accidental Pokemon Convention

[09:16–15:48]

• Mary recounts her accidental entrance into a Pokémon card convention, mistaking it for the Myst convention, and her embarrassing mispronunciation of "Riven" (calling it "Rivian").
  • “I was at the wrong con...I didn’t even know Mist had a card game!” [10:57]
• Once at the real Mysterium, Mary and Dan participate in puzzle-solving events and banter about the plot of Myst, debate the legality of imprisoning your kids in books, and reflect on the strong sense of community within the Myst fandom.

3. Portland Travels & Food Adventures

[15:52–26:32]

• Mary describes guiding the crew through Portland’s culinary and dive bar highlights, including the eccentric "Creepies" clown bar.
• Extended riff on Mike Minotti's food pickiness and his passion for tiki bars.
  • “If he sees...a Margaritaville, an Olive Garden, or a Cheesecake Factory, he will 100% need to go to that.” (Dan) [18:41]
• The team touches on Disney World’s ultra-exclusive Club 33, hidden Mickeys, and tiki mug collections, all with playful envy and bafflement.

4. Gossip & In-Jokes: The Bacalar Boat Bit

[29:17–36:48]

• Spiraling from in-jokes about what hobby or passion best defines everyone at Giant Bomb, the cast fabricates an elaborate bit about Jeff Bacalar secretly owning several boats.
• Texting shenanigans ensue, furthering the myth:
  • “How’s your boat?” / “Docked, I’m assuming.” (Dan & Bacalar) [34:08]
  • “The name of his boat...is the Shade Chaser.” (Mary) [34:51]
• Debate over who among the crew would be best adapted as a pirate (decision: Grubb).

5. Game Discussions & Impressions

a. Halo: Campaign Evolved

[37:47–51:21]

• Mary and Mike have played the new Halo: Campaign Evolved, encountering split-screen headaches on PC.
  • “The PC version does not have split screen...as a consumer, that bothered me deeply.” (Mary) [38:21]
• The campaign structure: strong praise for the prologue, added weapons, and its “focused and mysterious” story, but gripes at missing multiplayer and some mission pacing.
• Nostalgic talk about playing through the campaign with partners and how Gears of War served similarly for Dan’s household.

b. Splatoon Raiders

[51:48–55:16]

• Dan offers a breakdown of Splatoon Raiders—a single-player, combat-skirmish focused game with optional co-op (“not nearly as deep as Destiny, more bite-sized, but fun”).
  • “If you’re looking for something with a little more depth, I don’t think this is it.” (Dan) [54:59]

c. THE BIG WALK

[55:27–61:32]

• Fresh impressions from an embargoed co-op puzzle game where communication and prox chat are key.
  • Mary: “It might even be six [players], but...no more people needed to fill a puzzle after that amount.” [58:16]
• Emergent play and minimalist design are praised: “This is somewhere in between, like, friend art.” (Dan) [61:32]

d. Lost and Found Company

• Mary reviews a “Where’s Waldo but interactive” game, praises its zen appeal but criticizes story bloat:
  • “Way too much story and dialogue for a game about finding...I don’t want any of this stuff.” [64:18]

e. Scarlet Deer Inn

• Mary on the hand-sewn platformer adventure: “If you’ve been complaining about AI, you better buy this game—it’s completely handmade.” [65:10]
• She finds the game’s art and story admirable, though the platforming is “a bit rough on the edges.”

f. Fresh Tracks

• Mike calls it “first person Guitar Hero skiing with swords”; Mary explains it's a simple rhythm action game with increasing challenge and “zen” feel.

6. TV Check-In: Widow's Bay

[73:05–73:42]

• The cast raves about the tonal balancing act of the show: “It rides the line between horror and comedy like nothing I’ve seen.” (Dan) [73:36]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On IMAX confusion:
  “I’m someone who sees a lot of movies and I don’t know, like, okay, so there’s 70mm, there’s IMAX with Laser, there’s the Dolby Digital...and I can’t figure it out.” (Dan, 01:47)

• On Myst Convention mix-up:
  “I was at the wrong Con. It was a lot of Pokémon cards to trade.” (Mary, 10:57)

• On Food and Pickiness:
  “We have to, like, try to horse-blinder him, like, down street so he doesn’t see a Margaritaville, an Olive Garden, or a Cheesecake Factory.” (Dan, 18:41)

• Inventing Bacalar’s Yacht:
  “Let’s just start a thing now. Let’s just start a thing where we all just act he has a yacht, and he’s very particular about it.” (Dan, 30:21)

• On Split-Screen in Halo on PC:
  “It’s fucking annoying that a game that is notorious for playing split screen has a PC version that doesn’t allow split screen, but the other two versions do.” (Mary, 39:41)

• Fresh Tracks Description Bluntness:
  “I don’t know what they are, but the thing you want to collect are these blue balls.” (Mary, 72:57)

• On childhood scents and nostalgia:
  “There’s a very specific smell in the plastic crates...we stored all our Christmas decorations in those. So over the year, they would get a lot like this musty smell being in the basement, which sounds gross. But then we’d open it up, and I would just be like, oh, Christmas didn’t start until I smelled that.” (Mike, 102:23)

• Mary’s Scorched Earth on Ex-Boyfriend:
  “He dumped me two weeks before prom. You can go to hell, Brad.” (Mary, 105:35)

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Listener Questions & Segment Timestamps

• IMAX, movie aspect ratios & marketing confusion: [00:09–08:16]
• Myst convention & Pokémon convention mix-up: [09:16–15:48]
• Travel stories, Portland, and Minotti’s quirks: [15:52–26:32]
• Bacalar “Boat Guy” Bit: [29:17–36:48]
• Gaming: Halo Campaign Evolved: [37:47–51:21]
• Splatoon Raiders: [51:48–55:16]
• The Big Walk: [55:27–61:32]
• Lost and Found Company: [62:14–64:18]
• Scarlet Deer Inn: [65:03–71:19]
• Fresh Tracks: [71:35–73:01]
• TV: Widow’s Bay: [73:05–73:42]
• Mount Rushmore of Multiplayer Maps (Listener question): [75:11–83:10]
• Celiac Disease, giving up food categories: [87:47–94:17]
• Scents and nostalgia: [101:58–107:19]

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Recurring Themes

• Tangents and running gags (e.g., Bacalar’s boat, Disney obsessions, food weirdness).
• Deep nostalgia: Whether in game maps, co-op memories, or even just the scent of a childhood Christmas box.
• Irreverence toward “correct” or “pure” experiences: See the IMAX debate and Mary’s dismissal of cinematic elitism.
• Found-family vibes: From making fun of each other’s quirks to lovingly hazing absent friends.
• Enthusiastic but picky game critique, oscillating between systemic criticism (why is split-screen not on PC?) and grass-roots appreciation (“This is somewhere between friend slop and friend art.”).

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Conclusion

In classic Fire Escape style, this episode blends travelogue, group therapy session, and gaming podcast—encompassing the chaos and affection that make their trio unique. Whether you’re in it for the hot takes on Halo, Portland food recs, or tales of clown bars and mysterious yachts, there’s a little something for everyone, and a lot of inside jokes you’re invited to be part of.

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End of Summary

Transcript

[A]

Foreign.

[B]

Welcome back to the Fire Escape cast. I'm Mike Mahardi. Don't have any rhymes today. I'm gonna be. I'm gonna be serious from now on. I'm gonna be a straight lace host. I'm gonna. I gotta be. Go back to being the straight man. I feel like I. I gotta be the. The audience stand in for these two jokers I always show up with. Mary Kish, Wizzle Wozzle Wazzle and Dan Reichert.

[A]

Serious Mike. Okay, let's get serious here. Today on Blightclub, people were giving me shit because I didn't know there was a moral to the Odyssey. So. All right, Serious Mike. What's the moral of the Odyssey?

[B]

You never truly come home from war.

[A]

That's. Wait, that's closer to what I said. I said something like, oh, there's no place like home or something like that. And they were like, no, it's about war and how the repeated vol of war will carry us through the ages or something. And everyone, everyone in the chat was like, I can't believe this idiot doesn't know about the Follies of war. Moral and. Oh, geez, I had no idea.

[B]

I still have not seen the movie. I told you guys I wanted to.

[A]

No, the poem, you know. Yeah, it's based on a poem. It's based on. It's been around for a while.

[B]

Oh, yeah. Was it. Was that a Bukowski?

[A]

I think it's Mr. Rogers.

[B]

Oh, okay. Now I'm embarrassed. I thought it was.

[A]

He's not an author.

[B]

No, I thought it was. I thought it was Ocean Vong. Yeah, yeah. No, I still have not seen the movie. New York tickets have been very hard to get unless they're like 10pm showings.

[A]

We went at 10am yeah, we did an early one.

[B]

I normally would not mind a 10 to 1am however, the only IMAX. The IMAX we would go to is on the Upper west side. So it's like leaving the Upper west side at 1am to come back to my neighborhood would be a bit of a pain.

[A]

So there is a major fucking marketing issue with imax. I think it is, like, because it should not be this fucking hard to realize. Like, especially a movie. Like, I run into this with Avatar in this movies that, like a big thing is like, these are like the movie theater movies. This was shot in all IMAX avatars, all this 3D and everything. And like, I'm someone who sees a lot of movies and I don't know, like, okay, so there's 70 millimeter. There's the IMAX with laser. There's the Dolby Digital, there's the, you know, like. And I can't figure it out. I think for your average person who just wants to see the best version, it's like, it's so fucking confusing. And also IMAX is like an aspect ratio thing. And my understanding is it's like almost closer to four by three. It's a really big, big tall aspect ratio. But then IMAX 70 millimeters is like this fucking. It's, it's like 6 inches tall and like 2 miles wide. And it's like, how is that both Imax. This is a problem.

[B]

Yeah. It reminds me of when like Xbox Game Pass rejiggered its tier. Like the tiered subscription. I was like, okay, just tell me which one's going to give me the most games for as little money as possible. I just want to know, like, PlayStation did that when they first revamped.

[A]

Seems that much better. Yeah, that's bad too.

[B]

Just tell me how I can play this or that game. And like I had to install an app or a plugin on Steam to tell me stuff that's already on Game Pass. Like, I just, I just wish things were not this difficult. And yeah, I still have not seen the Odyssey because I, I don't want to see it. Not in imax. And that's.

[A]

Which one are you going to see?

[B]

I think the 70 millimeter, but that's the tiny short one milliliters. Mary, what have you seen the widest right.

[C]

Droplet it to you. I saw it in a broke boy theater for regular people and it was okay.

[A]

Gotcha.

[B]

Yeah, like I prefer those kinds of theaters for most movies. Like the Angelica on Houston and in New York is awesome. Like really old school. You can literally hear the subway go by, like what seems like behind the screen because you're underground.

[C]

It was fine. It was absolutely fine. I felt like I, I saw the film. Like I saw everything. Sometimes it felt a little zoomed in. I think that is the truth because there's a lot of action sequences. I bet if it was a little wider or like a little taller, I would have seen a little bit more. But it was 100% fine. And I don't think you need to. I don't care what anyone says where they're just like, this is the ultimate way to see this film. It's like, no, it's not. You made a film, people are paying money to go see it. If it was a bad film, people wouldn't pay to go see it. It's totally fine to see it in any theater. It's fine.

[B]

It's a movie. My. I've. I have avoided, like, spoilers in as much as you can avoid spoilers for something that like, those events have happened in 40 million stories since that was first written. But my one friend did text me saying, hey, I'm not gonna spoil anything, but there's a scene that's gonna make your misophonia go crazy.

[A]

Oh, I know exactly what they're talking about.

[B]

And I've heard a few more drip feed of like the scene. And I was like, okay, so it's that, but it's grosser than normal.

[A]

Oh, there's some glorpy, slurpy sounds going on in that movie.

[B]

I can't wait for that. I like, I want noise canceling headphones just for that scene.

[A]

Oh, it. It's a pretty long one too. They're going to town for a while.

[B]

Yeah, can't wait. But yeah, I Mary, similar to you. I value the venue itself over, like the format. I'd say maybe to my detriment, but I don't know, I'd rather go to like, like an old school theater that has a bar upstairs or something like that and then like some cool spots near dinner and not have to go to 10pm But I don't know, I'll see it. I'm gonna see it before I leave theater.

[C]

It's not like you're not gonna see it. It's basically like the movie of the. It's like the movie of the summer. You're gonna see it.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

So anyway, I just, I hate the idea that everyone's like, you have to see it. And I'm like, I hate every time someone's like, you have to see this in IMAX and it's like off. You don't have to see it in anything. There's 42 theaters in the United States that show it the way it's supposed to be seen. It's. There's like something like whether you, like, intend to or not, it's just like, it's very elitist that, like, they're only a way that you can see it. Like, Danny doesn't even know how war works. And he is like, oh, I think I saw it the best way possible. You don't know what you saw.

[A]

I'm saying I don't know. I'm specifically saying I don't know because I think it's confusing and bad to do it this way.

[B]

Which one did you see?

[A]

I think it Was IMAX with laser.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

Yeah. So I'm saying, Mary, I don't know if I saw the best way. I just, like. I'm saying I had no idea of knowing which was supposed to be the best.

[C]

You saw an IMAX and you don't understand the movie?

[B]

I want to say.

[A]

No, I understand the movie.

[B]

I want to say I looked on the actual amc, like, the theater's site, and they showed they had screenshots of the difference. Yeah, 70 millimeter was definitely showing more

[A]

overall, but wider, not taller.

[B]

Right. But I thought it was the actual. You were still seeing the same resolution top to bottom. It was just smaller because they had to stretch it, if that makes sense. You're noticing anything and.

[A]

No, I think you super are.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

That's the thing.

[B]

I'm saying there's no ideal way to see the movie. Then technically, you just.

[A]

I'm sure people have their thoughts and stuff, but, like, Jesus Christ. Like, I. I'm looking. If you just search for IMAX versus IMAX 70 millimeters, you'll see these images, and it's like you are absolutely missing, like, a lot based on what version you see.

[B]

It's like. It's like going to. I don't. I don't know that I want to be, like, doing, like, a tennis match thing to see the whole movie throughout its runtime if. Yeah, I want to, like, be looking straight ahead, and I want to, like. I want to feel where the director wants my eyes to go. I don't.

[A]

I don't.

[B]

It's like a giant mosaic at a museum. I don't want to go to a museum. I want to see Matt Damon stab. People.

[A]

They just need to brand things better. This is a. It's a big movie, and some people want to see it the best way. And it's.

[B]

It's hard to do Jeff Keeley and complain.

[A]

Oh, I know what he'll say.

[B]

Yeah, look at this.

[A]

I just posted in the. In our discord. You look at. Look at how much you'd be missing

[B]

if you saw 70 millimeter.

[A]

Yeah, like, that's insane.

[B]

70 millimeter.

[A]

So, yes, it is the same resolution. It looks like the size, but you are, like, missing so much of the top and bottom. If you see 70 millimeter versus IMAX. 70 millimeter.

[B]

But then if you see IMAX, you see 35 millimeter.

[C]

You're watching it on an iPhone.

[A]

Watch on your CRT. Yeah.

[B]

Oh, this is. Yeah, I hate all this.

[C]

That's the only way to watch it is on my CRT. I miss when like a 4VHS feature and I have to keep putting new ones in.

[B]

I just want. I want just to, like, as a middle finger. Nolan's next movie, I want him to shoot it all on, like, physical film. And you can only use old school projectors. You got to get the dust off. I don't think. He's not. He wouldn't do that. But that'd be.

[A]

I swear to God, after 20 years of us having to buy widescreen TVs and stuff, if they just decide to go back to Squares, I'm gonna like, God fucking damn it. Are you kidding me? Yeah. You have to have all these re releases of every game that came out during the HD era, but they have to be four by three again.

[B]

That's what I want. Fuck yeah. Halo in 4x3 again.

[A]

Okay, that sounds all right. It sounds all right.

[B]

Yeah. But no, I still have not seen that. You guys. You guys saw each other, had a little meetup.

[C]

Yeah, it's the equivalent of IMAX in IR. We saw each other in I 360 VR.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah.

[B]

Mary, from your point of view, because, Dan, I think you've already talked about stuff on Giant Bomb and, like, Giant Bomb audience has already seen it for fire escape crew set up. What happened? And then tell us your side of things.

[C]

These bozos came into town. They wanted to do a missed convention, which I didn't even know was a thing, but it sounds like Mysterion is an annual Mysterium. Oh, God. I had two. I had two embarrassing flubs. One is that one where I keep calling it the wrong thing. The second is. Is when I walked in. No, wait, that wasn't even one of the two. The first one was I went to a. I went to the hotel where they were having the con, and I paid, and I was walking around. I was like, it's pretty busy in here. This is pretty cool. And they were like, oh, you're in the wrong Con. And there's two cons happening at that convention. And I bought a ticket for a card convention where people were trading Pokemon cards.

[A]

The Pokemon guys were giving the Miss Guys wedgies.

[C]

It was a slaughter expert.

[A]

They were the alphas. They thought, yeah.

[C]

Oh, it was a massacre. It was bad. I mean, everybody was avoiding the Pokemon cards. Guys. Those guys are muscular, and they are not messing around around. It was a lot of Pokemon cards to trade. I did end up walking around later, at least, so it wasn't super embarrassing. But I, like, walked around for a little bit, being like, I didn't even Know, Mist had a card game. This is so neat that all these. All these Mist enthusiasts are just walking around trading cards. I was at the wrong con. It was the same hotel, different area of the hotel.

[B]

Were you saying all this to yourself out loud?

[C]

Oh, yeah. Look at all these missed cards.

[B]

I didn't know Miss had a card game. Wow.

[C]

They're like, who is this stupid idiot? I walk into the hotel to meet you guys and they're like, oh, that's not the right con. I was like, I. Well, looking forward to buying a second convention ticket. We go to the second con, Missed con for mysteriums.

[B]

Mysterium, singular.

[C]

And I went and I talked to a guy. Everyone was very nice. I just will say that everyone is so kind and they're obviously like, lovely. And I. I sincerely was excited to walk into this con and meet everybody and a very polite person said, hi, are you. Do you. Are you familiar with Mist? I said, oh, yeah, I've played some of. The first one, I played Rivian and he was like, riv. Riven.

[B]

Rivian.

[C]

Rivian is like an electronic car.

[B]

I just saw the AA the other day. Matt Damone was great.

[C]

I embarrassed myself multi. I went, yes, of course, Riven. I've played some of that. And he said, that's great. And then we did some puzzles. Some we did, I don't know, Sudoku. Sudoku, but it was in another language. Yeah, it was like numbers, Miss Numbers.

[B]

So correct me if I'm wrong, you went to this because Mike Minati's super into mist.

[A]

Well, Mike and Jan and Grub do a series on. On Giant Bomb where they play Mist. I have never seen or played Mist at all, so. But we also. We want to do a road trip. We. We. It was one of our incentives from like a big stream we did last year. So it's like, all right, this we get excuse to get a road trip in. So we flew into San Francisco and then it's like a 14 hour drive basically up to Portland. So I just kind of tagged along for the road trip and then went to the Mist convention. And again, everybody was like, super duper nice. It was like, really quaint. And the way they put it together was really fun with all the, like, different puzzles and stuff because, you know, it seems like mist is very puzzle heavy. So just fun. Just like sit around table doing a bunch of like weird Sudoku and, you know, design a mist creature. I designed mine, put it up on the wall and stuff. And then Grub, Imanati and Chuck did a Trial of a character that was in Mist. And that was fun to watch.

[C]

It was like, whether or not he was a good dad. This was actually really informative for me because as someone who's not super familiar with the Mist universe, I like, read two Wikipedia articles to at least understand what he has done. And it looks like he, like, trapped his sons in books, but his sons were evil.

[A]

It's not illegal.

[B]

Isn't that Expedition 33's plot too? Sort of.

[A]

That's a painting. That's a painting.

[B]

Oh, they tweaked it.

[A]

It is not illegal to put your kids inside a book. That's what I would have said if I was on the Tron.

[C]

Show me the lessons.

[B]

Yeah, that's the same plot as Jumanji, but they're in a board game.

[A]

That's a board game. Yeah. And then Tron is a video game.

[B]

Guys, is missed. The odyssey of just modern storytelling. Are we just tweaking Mist? Mist. Rivian. I'd be curious to play it if

[A]

it is just like point and click puzzles and stuff like that. I can see that aging fairly well. I am kind of curious. There was a lot of passion for it.

[B]

The Witness is considered a spiritual successor to it in some ways.

[A]

Right. Like, I love the Witness. I love blueprints, you know, games that, like, people say are like, oh, this is totally, like a missed, like, experience. So I could see myself liking it. Just. It was like a PC thing back then that, you know, I didn't play.

[B]

Yeah. I could see it some aspects not having aged well.

[C]

It's still good. I think that what's really fun about the universe as well, or at least the con, is that a lot of the people. There was like another game that I. I wasn't familiar with, but there's almost like a open world game where you could play with your buds. And that's really what makes the con active, is all these people made friends in the open world version of in the Mist universe. And that I think that's a huge community build for them is that they all played in this server together for a long time.

[A]

Oh, it's like an online mist.

[C]

Yeah. But it's not. I don't think it's there anymore. Yeah.

[A]

Oh, okay. Interesting. Yeah.

[C]

Anyway, apparently that was, like, very popular now when we were doing the Sudoku, Dan said, I challenge all of you to that. I'm going to beat your times in Sudoku. And got really into it. We all were like, heads down. And then I looked up and you were gone.

[A]

Because I won You. And I didn't want to rub it in. It was a nice, quiet convention. I didn't want to be the big, aha. I beat you. So, like, I just. I won. I got the victory in my mind, which is enough. I don't need to, you know, brag or anything like that. So I just set it down. I threw it away, actually. I didn't want to make anyone feel bad. And then I walked out of the convention.

[B]

It would be out of character for him to gloat, right?

[A]

Right. Yeah, I was being polite.

[B]

So what else did you do in Portland

[C]

in between the con? I took them to some good dinners. It's always fun challenging myself to what the. The boys will eat. Because Dan likes. I. I'm gonna speak for you, Dan. I think Dan likes to eat well and to eat, like, nice foods. Not super fancy or anything, but I think you like a good restaurant, and I think you and dives.

[A]

I like dives too.

[C]

You like dives too, But I think you appreciate a good restaurant.

[A]

Oh, yeah, definitely.

[C]

Whereas I'm not sure some of them do. I think Name Names, Names is very particular of eating, like, pretty much meat and cheese.

[A]

Yes, you do.

[B]

Gorgonzola.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Wow, Mike.

[B]

I say that.

[C]

Was that Dan's soundboard? That's crazy.

[A]

Yeah. Weird. Weird.

[C]

That's Minati.

[B]

I've heard he's picky, right?

[A]

Oh, he's way worse than I am. Definitely.

[C]

He's the best.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I would say you've gotten better over the years, Dan.

[A]

Like, I've gotten much, much better. I think even at my worst, which was probably, like, my 20s and obviously younger, I don't think I'm as bad as, like, Minati is now. I don't think I've ever been to that level.

[B]

What about Grub and Jan?

[A]

They're normal human beings.

[B]

Okay, cool.

[A]

Yeah. I mean, relatively to us. Yeah.

[B]

Yeah. We've got, like, slight tangent. Like, when I travel for work, we've got some co workers who. They'll travel to major food cities and then just go to, like, the Cheesecake Factory. Dude.

[A]

That's what drove me fucking insane. When we went to New Orleans, me and my dad did for his 50th birthday. And it's like, I was so excited because I'd been there a few times at this point. I was like, I got all these places. You're gonna love this fried chicken place. Places that aren't, like, fancy restaurants, because he would hate that. And then it's just. We were comped at Harrah's because he gambles a lot, and so he had free buffets there, and it was just like. I'd be like, all right, dad, so for dinner tonight, we're gonna go to this place. We're gonna get po boys over here. He's like, what? No, no, no. We're just eating at the casino. And I was like, dad, dad, it's your birthday. I'll cover it. We. I got some plans. You're gonna. It's just a burger and fries place. Nothing fancy, but you're gonna love it. But it's. It's free. We got. We got the buffet here, and so it's just every fucking meal you want to have at the Harrah's Casino is. Yeah.

[B]

Is your dad the kind of person who, like, if there's an open bar, he's obligated to get hammered if there's

[A]

something free, it is like, he's just going to go nuts on it? Yes, 100%.

[B]

It's just a joke. It's like, well, it's open bar. Like, mathematically, I have to get drunk.

[A]

You'd be losing money not to. Yeah, I subscribe to that part. Yeah.

[B]

Okay. But, yeah, like, it's. It's. I. People tell me they will go to, like, Cheesecake Factory when they're traveling or that's not.

[C]

Dan is right.

[A]

Wait. No, that's the wrong button.

[C]

I hit the wrong button. Stop using my voice. You don't use any of the buttons. They're all the wrong button.

[B]

Disagree, disagree, disagree.

[C]

I don't want any of them.

[A]

That is 100% Monadi. Like, we will be in New York City, and he will. If he sees, like, we have to, like, try to horse blinder him, like, down street so he doesn't see a Margaritaville, an Olive Garden, or a Cheesecake Factory, because he will 100% need to go to that.

[B]

I don't want to spoil a surprise, but I discovered. I didn't know he was super into, like, tiki bars. And I have a few spots I would like to surprise him with next time he's in town and we meet up.

[C]

He showed me his tiki collection. Tiki mugs he keeps. He buys mugs from the different ones that he goes to. And it's funny because they're, like, kind of just on this nonchalant shelf. Like, they're not in a beautiful case or anything. They're just kind of, like, hanging out on a shelf. And I said, so that you can drink them and. Yeah, that's what I said. And he goes, oh, these are display only. You drink out of.

[B]

That's right.

[C]

They're not in a nice diverge.

[A]

I drink out of mind. Like, he took me to the tiki bar at Disney. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He took me to the Trader Sam's at Disney, and I wound up buying a couple of the souvenir ones there. But, like, Mary, I think, deeply concerned him because he's going to the super special Disney bar or whatever, the expedition 33 bar or whatever that it's hard to get in. It's like this whole, like, secret thing.

[C]

And Mary explained 33, I think.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. And it's like the one thing at, like, Disneyland he's never done. And so she explained to him that they have all these, like, seasonal and like, you know, tiki mugs and stuff. Yeah, she's been hard.

[B]

Yeah, yeah. You're. You're. You're.

[C]

One of the things is I couldn't give a shit about it. But the fact that, like, he's so into it, I was like, yeah, I've been there. No problem.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

It was like, you been.

[B]

There are people in the world that are, like, aching to get into a bar in Disney World.

[C]

Yes.

[A]

Oh, yes. No, no. This is like a life goal. Yeah.

[C]

This one's really difficult because I think someone has to sponsor you to get in. So it's like, really, really hard to get in.

[A]

And he's gonna spend, like $3,000 on tiki mugs. I'm sure.

[B]

I. Good for it. Good for them. Good for all the people who are sponsoring others to get into this bar, that. Those are the same people who. I think those are the people who went to clubs in the Meatpacking district and then had kids and now go there in Disney World because you need sponsors to get into a lot of the clubs there.

[A]

And Mary said it wasn't. Mary, you said it wasn't even that special. Right. It's just.

[C]

I think it's a nice dinner. And I think that for Disney enthusiasts, it's probably incredible. It's really well decorated. But I didn't appreciate it. Cause I didn't really understand it at the time that it was like the most exclusive thing to get into. It was just a girlfriend's of mine's birthday, and I was just, you know, I was. I was there to support her and her birthday wishes and that's what she wanted. And I was like, cool, we'll go to this bar. And then I. When I was there, I was like, oh, this is a big deal. But I. I I didn't really process it at the time. I think he'll actually like it more because he'll actually, you know, he'll.

[A]

Oh, he will definitely like it more. Yes.

[B]

Cream his jeans every course.

[C]

Yes, I think so.

[A]

No, every time he sees a hidden Mickey. Oh, that's a big thing.

[B]

Yeah, sounds like a roof.

[C]

They hide the Mickeys.

[A]

He taught me a lot about. I've not been to Disneyland with him twice and I've learned a lot. And honestly, it's. I get it. If you were into the Disney thing, it's like, it's clever stuff. It's like, oh, in the Haunted Mansion, you look down, there's like, oh, if you notice like these plates are arranged to look like, you know, one plate and then two smaller ones for the ears. And so like imagine being. Imagine being a kid or a 40 year old mike Minati. It probably feels like magic walking through and just, oh, I found a hidden Mickey ear. And like, I get it. That would be fun.

[B]

You know, there's a hidden Mickey in my Lacroix right now, if you know what I mean. Did you guys go to any dive bars in Portland while you were there?

[A]

Dive bars? Mary, you went with the guys to a clown bar.

[C]

I took the boys to creepies.

[B]

Wait, why were you not there? Did you leave by the time.

[A]

That was the. I got up at 5am to run 14 miles, so I did not drink the night before.

[C]

Yeah, we always. Anytime we want Dan to leave, we just do a sudoku competition and he just disappears.

[A]

That's right.

[C]

Because he's a coward in victory.

[A]

Yes, that's right.

[C]

We did a creepies bar. And I don't know if you guys talked about this, but there's just. Portland's very weird. It's known for that. And as we were going by, there was just a bunch of people wearing gnome hats all gnawing it up. And Minati went right up to them and was like, can I have a gnome hat? And they went, yes. And they put a gnome hat on his head and he hung out with them for a little bit and then went into creepy stuff with his little gnome hat. And there's some good footage of him rocking a gnome hat and creepies.

[A]

I'm editing the travelogue right now and I'm not quite to that part yet, but I've like moved the files in. I'm like, oh, okay. Seems like some stuff was going on that night and that seems fun.

[C]

Blends right in this Creepies is what it sounds like. It's A basically like a clown focused themed bar. So there's a shit ton of clowns all on the walls on the bar. It has a painting where the eyes look around and like move. You know, weird shit like that.

[B]

I changed my mind. I don't want to hang out with Mike Minati if like everything he wants to do is like my nightmare.

[C]

I Tim, hanging out with Mike Minati

[A]

is a good time. Mike. Like I. God, I would like to see it. I would like to watch it. Like Mary, it's a good time, right?

[C]

I think a very likable dude to get. He's. He's.

[B]

I've hung out with him once and I liked it. I just like. I feel like I don't want to go no clown bar though or adult bar.

[C]

He. He was nice when you guys were all gone. He stood around, he stuck around for the day, which he said was because he didn't want to wake up early. So Minati apparently like stays up really late and doesn't like to wake up early. Oh yeah, you guys had to flight and you had to leave at like 9 in the morning. But Minati was there literally all day. So he finished the con, which I think is adorable. Like he went back to the con without making content. He just went to hang out with his people. Just so sweet. I picked him up from the hotel, I took him to all the things that I thought he would want to see on. On a final day, I took him to Lardo's, which is the sandwich shop. We had a little laugh at the fact that I could take him anywhere. And I took him to Lardo's. He got a sandwich. I took him to Voodoo Donuts and he got a donut. That was. He. He wanted to go there. I took him to Flanders street because he wanted to see some Simpsons stuff. And I took him to a tiki bar and he got his little tiki drinks. He loved it. I mean it's a. It's a very nice tiki tiki bar in Portland and I was surprised. He knew a lot about it. I guess he knew there. The owner is also made tiki bars that he's been to.

[A]

It's Smugglers Cove, I think. I think I went there with him in San Francisco World.

[C]

I don't understand. So I was like great, you guys know each other. But they had a nice little talk about. About tiki bars for tiki enthusiasts and. Yeah. And we had a good time.

[B]

If he comes to New York anytime soon, we should go to Sunken Harbor Club. It is my Favorite tiki bar in the world.

[A]

I think I'd love to go with both you guys. That'd be fun.

[B]

Yeah, it's a third floor, like, speakeasy tiki club above, like, a martini and steak restaurant. But once you get up there, it's the kitschiest thing, and they have, like, noisemakers doing wave sounds. So it's designed like you're in the hold of a ship. And the drinks are awesome. I have Garrett Henry's cocktail book. He. It's my favorite cocktail of all time. I think I made you guys the winter in LA at some point. The orange one.

[C]

Yeah, I do like that orange one.

[B]

Yeah, it's good, but sounds like a fun trip.

[C]

Yeah, he had a good. I think everybody had a good time. Oh, we did the meetup. The meetup was so lovely. We met a lot of really wonderful people, and I was. I was glad to do it.

[A]

Yeah, it was. It was a plastic. Yeah. Mary, having you there was. Was such a great bonus. Like, it was gonna be fun to do the road trip and stuff anyway, but, like, we got to spend, like, a lot of time with you, which was a blast.

[C]

Yeah, I. I mean, it was great. I. You think when you do that much traveling and you spend that much time with people, you'd be like, this is a lot of time with these people. But I was like, this is great. Even the last day when I was hungover and I was at a tiki bar, and I would not choose to do that with my Sunday, and I was like, this is great. Like, we're having a good time. This guy's really into tiki shit. I think it's because you guys are so into your hobbies. Like, it's just kind of fun listening to you guys talk, you know, like, jabber on about whatever crap you're interested in.

[A]

Okay, give, give. Assign one passion to each of the owners of Giant Bomb.

[C]

A passion?

[A]

Yes. If you had to assign one, you said, we're so passionate about the things in our hobbies. What's the number one defining one for each of us?

[C]

Gaming for all of you.

[A]

Okay, well, that.

[C]

Okay, you're really into running right now, and you, like, you're so into it that you were like, I have to go to bed early, and I can't drink because I'm running. I'm running 15 miles. It's a. It's a long way. Blah, blah, blah, blah. Like, you're very into it right now, and you're really into, like, all the different things that you need to do. In order to be a very good runner, you're not half ass running. You're, like fully committed to running. It's crazy. What else?

[A]

Grub.

[C]

Oh, he's always talking about his kids. And we did, we bought. We bought a little. We bought a little gift for each of his kids so they wouldn't fight over them. Not that they would fight normally. And they. And it was really cute to watch how passionate he was about making sure that his kids get something a little extra from each con that he goes to. And so we made little phone design tchotchkes for his kids. And that was so cute. He's very into it. It's also comes up a lot when he's like, these are the reasons that I have to, like, you know, be on, on target and like, get all my shit done. I got kids, I got to make sure I'm taking care of them. I love that for him. Minati was I again, the tiki thing was shocking to me.

[A]

He's not number one. That's. I mean, look, we're saying number one for each one.

[C]

Disney's number one.

[A]

There we go. There we go. Outside of gaming. Yeah.

[C]

He's a freak.

[A]

Yes.

[C]

And Chuck's fairly normal.

[A]

Chuck's got a lot of passions. He knows a lot about a lot of things.

[C]

Give me the freakiest thing about Chuck.

[A]

Oh, dear God. He knows, like, all the, like, programming stuff, and he's like a hacker website kind of guy. He loves. He, like, travels with, like a fancy, like, little. It looks like a pencil sharpener, but it, like, grinds up coffee nuggets or whatever. What else? He. He knows tiki bars and stuff. He'll, like, drive across the country to pick up a jukebox.

[C]

He.

[A]

He's just one of those guys that dives super deep into everything he dives into.

[B]

You know Dave Clapp.

[A]

I could see that. Yes, yes. Yeah. Similar friend of ours. Okay. And then bonus. Jan and Bachler. They weren't on the trip, but they

[C]

weren't on the trip.

[A]

You know them.

[B]

I feel like I could do Bacalars.

[C]

Bacalar has a boat and he's a big boat man, and he likes to drive his boat and. And do speedy boat stuff. I think boats are a huge hobby. I know that about him.

[A]

I don't think I knew that. I don't.

[B]

I didn't know he had a boat either.

[A]

Huh. I just own Pinball.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

I was gonna say pinball.

[A]

He strikes me as a boat guy. I could see Backlight being a boat guy.

[C]

I feel Like, I know them better than you do.

[B]

Entirely wonderful.

[A]

He was trying to hide it from us because he thought we would make fun of him.

[B]

Oh, my God. This is awesome.

[C]

Maybe he.

[B]

I'm text him right now.

[C]

What if he lied? What if it. What if he rented it one time?

[A]

He told you he had a boat?

[C]

I just know that he boated once.

[A]

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Being on a boat. We've all been on boats.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

This is a key. Being a boat guy.

[C]

We've all been on boat.

[B]

I almost just texted him, do you have a boat? And if he said no, why? I would have been like, oh, Mary told me you own a boat. And he's like, no, I just went on a boat once.

[A]

Well, let's just start a thing now. Let's just start a thing where we all just act, he has a yacht, and he's very particular about it. And everyone can just repeat that like it's fact. Yeah.

[C]

You're a boat guy, right, Mike, you

[A]

texted him, do you have a boat? Right,

[B]

yeah.

[A]

Should it be verbatim? Should we do the same thing?

[B]

No, I'll. I just said, do you have a boat? You should say, like.

[A]

I'll say, how's your boat?

[B]

No, like, be like. Like, tight sails and smooth and easterly winds and tight sails. Tomorrow, bud.

[C]

He's gonna be like, what the.

[A]

I'm just gonna say, how's your boat?

[B]

Yeah, how's your boat? And then, Mary, you text him.

[C]

You text him and be like, he's already messaging me.

[A]

Oh, good. Okay, now I'm messaging.

[B]

Really? That was quick as shit.

[C]

He sent me your text, said, what the fuck is going on?

[A]

Wait, he sent you Mike's text?

[B]

Why did he send it to you and not Dan?

[C]

Because we're best friends.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

We don't talk to these guys.

[B]

Yeah, I want to get Vinnie to text and be like, oh, sorry. I didn't know you were doing so well. There's. What's the saying? There's. The two best days of your life are the day you buy a boat and the day you sell it.

[A]

Oh, sure, sure. Oh, Bacalar knows.

[B]

Yeah. Yeah.

[A]

He'll never sell that. Yeah. What's the name of his yacht, Mike?

[B]

The. The super Mario time. Like.

[A]

Oh, yeah, Jeff Bachelor in the super Mario time.

[B]

Yeah. Like maritime.

[C]

Like maritime. Yeah.

[B]

Just making sure it's double.

[A]

Super marriage.

[B]

It's a triple meaning. It's his. How he pronounces it? Those Long island boys. Jersey Boys.

[A]

Sure.

[B]

From. I know where he lives.

[A]

He does say Mario instead Of Mario.

[B]

Yeah, I knew that, but I. He didn't respond. He just. He's messaged Mary. Trying, I guess, fight his battles for him.

[A]

Yeah, I didn't get anything either. He only texted Mary. And is she the one that didn't text him about the boat?

[C]

We're just laughing, me and Jeff, about this thing that happened on his boat the other day.

[B]

Oh.

[A]

Huh.

[B]

Barnacles and turpentine was there.

[C]

He's a real. This is a real boat.

[A]

Dylan tripped over his yacht scarf.

[B]

Little. Little D got stuck in the bilge pump again.

[A]

I like this.

[B]

That I can't imagine him on a boat, but if he has one, I'm gonna be pissed that he didn't invite me on it.

[A]

He doesn't like the sun.

[C]

You guys aren't close as we are.

[B]

It's entirely possible.

[A]

I feel like, backlog. It's easier to name the things he doesn't like than things he's passionate about. I got pinball, certainly hockey. Pinball and hockey are one and two for him, I think. And then. Yeah, then there's a. Oh, keyboards. Keyboards, yeah. He's got passions. He's got some. Some out there ones.

[B]

We've all got passions of varying degrees. Speaking of tiki, Mike Minati might like my pen holder. I scored in, well, Fleet, Massachusetts. His diving helmet.

[A]

Nice.

[B]

Nice brass with a little pen holder. I feel like it's got tiki vibes. Yeah. My. We.

[A]

We.

[B]

We design our beach house with tiki. No, I don't have a beach house. I'm just trying to channel my back a lot.

[A]

Oh, sure, sure. Yeah. Makes sense.

[C]

All my boats are decorated with tikis.

[B]

Yeah. As he takes his boat to his lake house every single weekend. And then the lake house has a helipad from which he flies to his ocean shore house.

[A]

Right. And he's frowning the whole time he's on it. Yeah. Yeah.

[B]

All right. Anyway, do you want to talk about video games?

[A]

Sure.

[C]

Yes.

[B]

All right. Before we dive into games we've been playing, we've got a baccalaureate update since the break.

[A]

We do. And I don't know what to make of this. Okay. So I said, how's your boat? And Bacalar says, docked. I'm assuming. And Mike, you texted him and what. What did you get?

[B]

I said, do you have a boat? And then he said, yes, I have two. And then I said, I only have the one. Let's race them. And then he says, you don't want any of my boat. And it's a boat with outboard motors.

[A]

Mean okay. And then, Mary, did you have an exchange?

[C]

Yeah. He texted you, hi, best friend. And I said, hey, bestie, the boys don't believe me about your boats. And he was like, oh, my God, I have so many. So, so, so, so, so many. And we are laughing about you guys right now.

[A]

I don't know what to make of any of this. Didn't one of you say during the break that he said the name of his boat?

[B]

I didn't. Yeah.

[A]

What is it, Mary?

[C]

The name of his boat that I know very well is the Shade Chaser.

[A]

Okay, now either you're bullshitting and Bacalar is playing along, or Bacalar told you about his boat to the level that you now think he's a boat enthusiast and he's hiding it from the rest of us because he thinks we'll give him.

[B]

I've been to his house, and he didn't have a boat like there on a trailer.

[A]

No, you don't. It wouldn't be at the house.

[B]

Okay. Hey, you belong in the water. You absolutely keep boats on a trailer. If it's a pontoon boat or something, you can bring my. Like, three of my.

[C]

It has three engines, Mike. You don't know about boats.

[A]

He told me he assumes it's docked, so it might be docked. If he has a secret boat, he might have a secret boat house.

[C]

He has so many boats, he has to keep them in some kind of boat dock situation.

[A]

I don't know what to think about this. That was your first answer about Baccalaureate. Everyone else, you give the straight, real answer, and you said Baccalaureate is a huge boat guy. And I can see it. I can see it. I can also see him hiding it from us.

[B]

If you subscribe to Giant Bomb, it's all going to the boat fuel.

[C]

It's going into boat fuel and tunes

[B]

and tubes and pumps.

[C]

The ones that look like a banana.

[B]

And parrots aren't cheap. Parrots for his shoulder and a plank and tiki drinks and. And treasure chests and. And rapiers and. And sabers and cutlasses and birds nests.

[A]

Okay, now this is getting further from something I can picture Bacalar doing. He's not really swashbuckling, I don. Think, is he.

[C]

Is he a pirate?

[A]

I don't think he's a pirate, no.

[B]

Who the. Who would fit in on a pirate ship the most?

[A]

Grub.

[B]

Grubwood.

[A]

Yes.

[C]

Visually? Yes.

[A]

Yeah. And also just the whole deal. I think he would do fine on a pirate ship.

[B]

What? The whole. What about him?

[A]

I think he can just adjust to situations I mean, he helped me when we were confronted with a lady on a lot of drugs, thought I stole her stuff. And Grub. I think Grub handles himself well in a lot of situations.

[B]

Oh, cool.

[A]

Yeah, that's. I think he'd be a good pirate, I think. Yeah.

[C]

Yeah. Pirates are known to be really level headed and to never get upset.

[B]

They're cool characters, aren't they?

[A]

Always drunk and happy and singing shanties.

[B]

They're also like pillaging and raping and stealing.

[A]

God. I really. I don't think I've understood pirates this whole time.

[B]

They've been romanticized.

[A]

Okay. I just haven't taken in a lot of pirate media and they've been whitewashed.

[C]

The, the vision of pirates. They seem like they have such a good time.

[B]

Speaking of taking something old and making it new, Mary, you and I played Halo Campaign Evolved. Did you. So where are you? Did you play the whole thing or did you just try it out and jump out?

[C]

I. I don't think I could have played the whole thing yet. I just started. I would like to. I would like to complain and then I would like to tell you that I like it. Can I do that?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

No. You need to have one opinion.

[C]

Nope.

[A]

You're good.

[C]

I am upset.

[B]

Are you a referee now?

[A]

Yep. I'm letting go. You're good. I'll let it pass. Yeah.

[C]

Most people when they play Halo would like to play it with another person. Co op split screen. And it is available for consoles and PC. I got a Steam code, I set it up on the computer. I got excited, I got snacks, I got drinks. I set it up, I turned it on. The PC version does not have split screen.

[A]

That's so stupid. But console does.

[C]

Yes.

[A]

Does it have four? That's so dumb that PC wouldn't have that.

[C]

So dumb. You can play Co op, but you need to do it online from like another PC. So we had to buy another copy, which, like, really pissed me off because I would have, I would have gotten it on console to save that experience, but I didn't know. And then we had already, you know, like I had already set it up. Like I had already like gone through all the motions. So we just played it.

[B]

There's a. This is sort of like kishing it. But no, as a PC gamer. PC gamer published a story seven hours ago. Apparently a mod was published that makes split screen on Steam super easy. It's not what this was seven hours ago. You wanted to play over the weekend.

[C]

Sure, I played it over the weekend. It's not what they intended. And it is like a bootleg version of it.

[B]

Sure, it's annoying that Halo Studios didn't include it. For sure.

[C]

It's fucking annoying that a game that is notorious for playing split screen has a PC version that doesn't allow split screen, but the other two versions do. I find that so confusing. As a consumer, that bothered me deeply. And I also think it's dumb. Like, I think it's a. There's no reason. There's no discernible reason that if you can have split Screen and all the other versions, that PC is the one where they're like, well, we need it connected to a Microsoft account and only one username per Microsoft account, so we can't do it. It obviously is like some fandangled rule that forced their hand, and I think it's dumb, and that makes me really mad. That being said, it's really fun to play Halo again.

[B]

Yeah, Halo IMAX got its claws in the Halo system.

[C]

Yeah, well, it's the stupid rule.

[A]

The Microsoft account thing is a pain in the ass because it's like, I got it on PlayStation because that's what Kayla gets everything on. I'm gonna play a co op with her. And, like, you didn't get it on

[C]

Steam because you can't. You know what I mean? Because you can't play it.

[A]

I had my own frustration where I didn't get to play it yesterday because I got it, and Kayla's gonna wait till she can buy it physically. And so I was like, we were gonna stream it. Yeah, we were gonna stream it last night. And she's like, oh, I'm gonna hold off. It's not IO. She would have had to buy the premium Digital Edition or whatever. So we delayed it, basically. And so I already had it installed. I did my stupid Microsoft account thing, and I was like, all right, well, I guess I'll just jump into multiplayer. Halo multiplayer. It's classic. Let's do it. I'm just gonna get into some Blood Gulch and capture the flag. It's gonna be great. I go to the main menu and I'm like, campaign Evolved. I see. Okay, so there's no multiplayer, it turns out.

[B]

So see?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Okay, wait. I do have a question for you, Mary. Is the split screen not in the Game Pass version on Xbox, or did you. Do you not have Game Pass?

[A]

Oh, yeah, you can just cross play it. Yeah. Do you have Game Pass or did that lapse?

[B]

Okay.

[A]

Oh, you don't have Game Pass. Okay. All right, all right.

[B]

No kissing, please.

[A]

No kissing. Detected.

[B]

You didn't kiss it.

[C]

No kissing. I collapsed on my Game Pass. There wasn't. There's not like really a strong reason to have it for me right now, so.

[A]

No,

[C]

no. Also I believe so when Steam, you have to connect it to a Microsoft account, right? I think that would be the same account.

[A]

Does that make sense? Oh, would it detect that you're already using or like ones on like. I don't know. I. I've done fun stuff with Gears in the past.

[B]

If you. I was saying, if you had Game Pass, why didn't you just play split screen on your Xbox? But if you don't have Game Pass,

[C]

that makes sense, right? I see what you're saying. Yeah.

[B]

Cuz I played it. I'm. I'm playing it on. I have not re upped Game Pass. Mine just hasn't run out for another few months. So I'm just playing it on Xbox through Game Pass. But I wasn't playing split screen, so I was curious if it somehow wasn't in that version. But it seems like a pain in the ass.

[A]

But it. I'm guessing it is still super fun to play. I'm. I'm very excited.

[C]

Fun. It's still a joy you, you know, playing it relives a lot of the feelings of yesteryear. It's nice to like get back into the Warthog and it still kind of controls the way you'd like it to. It looks great. Looks great. They must have redid all the art, I guess because it lit's crazy.

[B]

It's the Unreal 5 or whatever engine.

[C]

You did not give the face of someone who feels like it looks great.

[B]

No, no, no. I. I think it looks good. There is a weird thing I'm trying to remember what, what other game I noticed this in where there's just this weird like blurring effect where I feel like they're trying to replicate the way your eyes work, like with motion blurring. Let me. I want. I'm curious.

[A]

Is it Bokeh?

[B]

I don't know.

[A]

I always see that. I think it has to do with blurring.

[B]

Like the game looks good, but first there's something that seems. I don't think uncanny is the word, but there's just a little bit of like a weird sheen over things that kind of like sterilizes it too much. But. But I don't. It's not like I hate looking at the game by any means, and I'm having a blast. Like it's also the. They added like a couple hours worth of prologue missions before the Pillar of Autumn.

[A]

I wonder, like, would you recommend like playing those? Like if Kayla's never played a Halo game? Like, because that's the thing is like Pillar Bottom is like one of those all timer first levels. So like, would it be better for her to have that be her first experience or should we do so maybe just beat the game and then they have a bonus at the end. The.

[B]

The prologue missions are especially cool if you've played Reach and want to see stuff that happens between that and interesting Comet Evolved. But Pillar of Autumn is still like the intro. It's like wake up, Chief. You do the analog. Here's how you look. And then the Covenant assaults the ship. That second mission is still one of my favorite shooter missions of any game ever. Just called Halo, I think.

[A]

Yeah, that's a great one. Yeah.

[B]

But yeah, they've also retroactively added some stuff you can sprint now, which I like in general, but you can also. I think I was reading Michael Hyams review on IGN and he was saying something that I was kind of grappling with in that there are a few spots where I think I just didn't want to keep doing that litany of room after room in Assault on the Control Room and then the library with the Flood. That mission is still not great. The. The 343 guilty Spark mission where you're. You're. You drop into the jungle and it's basically Alien and you're aliens. No, not. What movie am I thinking of Alien. You find the footage of what's like happened and there's aliens.

[C]

The. The main plot is that there's aliens there. There's something there. What's the name of that film?

[A]

It could be anything, really.

[B]

Yeah, it'll come to me. Bill. Bill Paxton was in it.

[A]

Twister.

[B]

Oh, no. Independence Day. That was.

[A]

They Pullman. Yeah.

[B]

Damn it. There are parts you could just kind of sprint right through and no one's making. No one's saying you have to, but. And there are missions in that game that have not aged particularly well, but they stayed faithful to it. They also added some weapons. They added the Needler rifle. They added the. You can now use the fuel rod cannon. I forgot you couldn't use that in the first game.

[A]

Oh, so to the campaign they've added weapons.

[B]

Yeah, stuff that they added later in the series that you could not use. The energy sword. You fought elites with energy swords who were using energy swords, but they didn't.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Introduce the sword till Halo 2. So that's cool. Like, I appreciate having those toys back in the first campaign, but it still feels great. Like it's still a very well paced campaign overall. Like that story is. It's ultimately a simple story, but it's effective. It's like the air of mystery around that first game as opposed to, oh, they're attacking Earth, it's all out defense. And like survival in 2 and 3 is like you get into the supernatural elements with the Flood and Grave Mind and then four or five Infinite, they kind of go all their own directions. But one was still such a. Like, it reminds me of Alien in the sense that looking back at the first, the thing that started it all, it's so much more focused and like localized and mysterious before it got all out warfare. Like, there's nothing wrong with aliens. That's an incredible movie in its own right. But it's nice to go back and replay this because I love replaying these games. Yeah, I'm having a blast.

[A]

I've really been looking forward to this ever since Kayla and I went through all the Gears games because since she was such a like hardcore PlayStation fan and we never had PC, so she was just like all Nintendo and PlayStation, basically these is a huge blind spot for her and Gears was such a blast to go through, so I almost wonder if I'll go through two and beyond. Master Chief Collection is not on PS5, is it?

[B]

No, I don't believe so.

[A]

Yeah, I have to see if she'll turn on an Xbox for that. But yeah, it's like, I don't know, it seems like every headline you see about Xbox is just like, it sounds like a company on fire all the time. And so it's like this year it's just like, okay, well there's a Halo. That'll be fun. I'm looking forward to the new Gears. And then I don't know, maybe just all goes to. And maybe this is the last hurrah with like the two, like most iconic franchises of the brand, you know, but

[B]

yeah, yeah, I, I don't know. Like even going back to Halo Infinite, they launch to your point, Mary, about this, the split screen on the Steam version being annoying. They launched Halo Infinite without co op.

[A]

Right.

[B]

And then they never ever got around to adding. They didn't if memory serves. I need.

[A]

That's insane.

[B]

We should confirm that. But to not launch with that into Mary's point, a franchise that was basically like built on co op even before Halo 2 came around and online, that sparked Xbox Live. Sorry they did it.

[A]

It does have online co Op. It does not have local split screen. I think I remember this because I love the idea of the open world. And like, Bonk and I both got it when it came out and it's like, oh, shit. We would like. We wound up playing a good amount of multiplayer together, but it's like, it's so stupid that we can't. Like, it'd be so fun to explore this open world together in a Halo game.

[B]

I didn't even think they launched with the online co op, though. But they added.

[A]

No, no, no. Online multi. We did online multiplayer.

[B]

Right, right. They now have online co op.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

But no split screen. I thought they launched even without online co op, which was baffling to me.

[A]

They did launch without. That's what I'm saying. They had online death match, like, multiplayer.

[B]

Correct. Right, right, right. Okay. Yeah, okay. I was correct in that regard, which is just crazy to me. Like, I love fundamental part of the game. Yeah.

[C]

And they launched it without it.

[B]

Yeah. It's so annoying to me that they, like, they could just go back to basics with whatever the next Halo game would be and kill it and just like local split screen. We were talking about joking about going back to 4, 3 ratio. Like, go back to what people loved about these shooters in 2001. Yeah.

[A]

I mean, split screen was such a huge part of it. I remember when Halo 1 came out. I distinctly remember, like, because I didn't have an Xbox and so whenever I, like, couldn't afford the other console, like, oh, I got the PlayStation Now I might. You know, there was a time where it's like, I understood. Understand to an extent. Console fanboy ism. To the extent of, like, ooh, I want my horse to win. Because I. This is the one I invested my money into. I was never the, like, yeah, that's it. I was never the one writing into magazines and being like, Saturn, you know, like, it wasn't that, but I just wanted, you know, you picked your horse, basically. And so when Halo came out and everyone was talking about it and I was working at Funko Land, I was like, Halo. I was just so anti Halo for so long. Whenever my friends in high school were talking about, like, Halo sucks, and then I'd play it at Funko Land, like, would have a down day or whatever. It's like, okay, me and my buddy Quo would go over and play split screen on the CRT and I would, like, begrudgingly be having fun. I'd be like, God damn it, this is fun. I hate that. I hate that. This is fun. Now I want this. Now I want to buy this. God damn it.

[C]

It's fun.

[A]

It turns out. It's really fun. Yeah.

[B]

Yeah. They're still really well designed. Do you know what order you're playing them in with Kayla?

[C]

It's a bummer.

[A]

I mean, one, it's like this one,

[B]

I guess, more specific. Okay, so you're doing Campaign Evolved.

[A]

If we moved on, which we would have to figure something out because she's got an Xbox, but I doubt she's turned it on in two. Yeah, I just. In order. Two, three. Two, three. Reach. I wonder. I mean, we did like Judgment and stuff. We did the. The lesser Gears is when we were doing that. So if we're having a lot of fun with it, I could see us moving on, but we're just planning on doing this for now.

[B]

Yeah, I just didn't know if there's like a quote unquote machete cut of Halo games prequel. Like Star Wars.

[A]

We'll see too, though, because she doesn't like spacey games, so that's why it's like she loves Dragon Age, but it doesn't like Mass Effect. You know, she likes, you know, fantasy. She doesn't like any kind of like set in space stuff. So I don't know. Gears was like. I guess Gears isn't space because it's like guns and it's not like in the stars. I don't know. I don't really understand how she decides what's spacing, what's not. Because Gears wasn't on Earth. That was like a solar system way far away.

[B]

It was, it was.

[A]

Oh, it's a Sora or something, right, Sarah?

[B]

It was like a stand in for Earth.

[C]

But yeah, that's the thing.

[A]

It's Earth enough looking.

[C]

Yeah. Like let's be real.

[B]

Wasn't that the twist of Gears War 2 that the Locusts were escaping something underground, not attacking humans?

[A]

No. The Statue of Liberty is buried in the sand and then Marcus drops to his knees.

[C]

Yeah, you've killed it all.

[B]

Speaking of other shooters with a campaign, as I understand it, is that Splatoon Raiders. Basically it's single player adventure now.

[A]

Man, it's weird. Yeah, I didn't know because I didn't really follow any of the pre release stuff. And so I was like. I didn't know if this was like a Destiny like thing I did. I think I thought it was a roguelite. It's kind of none of that. It's pretty straightforward. I mean, it is like you can play co op. I did a Little with Manani for the quick look on Giant Bomb you can check out on YouTube. But yeah, solo, it's just like you got like a home base. You kind of build that out. You can tinker with, you know, you get your different relics and things like that, like passive benefits and stuff. You can tinker with your different, different splat guns and things that you've seen in the standard splatoon game. So you know, the brushes, the, the more kind of shotgun types, the dual wheel type things. You can do a lot of customization with that stuff back at your home base. And then you look at a map and you move on to like a treasure chest on the map and it drops you into an area where you might have to go through two or three levels of just enemies that spawn in and sometimes there's a mini boss you have to beat in a certain, certain amount of time. It's very straightforward. I mean there's different like packs and stuff you can put on where it's like this one is more of a defensive minded turret based build. This one is more of a like getting in close. Like it's not a shotgun but the splat equivalent of a shotgun. Like that type of damage.

[B]

It's.

[A]

It still uses the same mobility stuff of like you're. You're swimming through the ink as a squid and there's some stuff going from island to island where you're kind of like surfing and some light platforming I would say. But it's. Yeah, it's just kind of a single player that can be played Co op. It doesn't change the game when you play co op but, but just going from combat like skirmish to skirmish. It's fun. I'm enjoying it. I played a few hours of it and really have not felt the drive to go back. And it's not like, you know, if I was really into it I would have taken my switch on the trip and I didn't. I took the, the Steam deck. It's just, it's something I have to genre.

[C]

Is it action?

[A]

Third person shooter action?

[C]

Co Op.

[A]

You can co op.

[B]

Yes.

[C]

Okay.

[B]

With co op.

[A]

Yeah, the co op is just like, okay, now you're just playing it with someone else, which is fun. It's fun to play games with your friends, but it's not like it's a, oh, you have to play this co op type thing. It's. Yeah, I'm not gonna. It's not as deep as something like a Destiny or anything like that. It's way more simple. You are Leveling up. You are powering up your guns and, and you're getting like, oh, I found a level seven, this type of gun. I got this new relic that'll give me, you know, 10 ink regeneration or damage reduction. It's, it's a weird one. I, I, I've enjoyed when I'm playing it, but it's something that I have to keep remembering that like. Oh, right, I, I should go back to that.

[B]

So I saw like, yeah, clips of it. It looked fun.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Especially as someone who at a distance, I was kind of into the Splatoon universe or like rather art direction and the vibes of it all, but I never played any of them because I don't, I don't know. I don't necessarily like purely competitive shooters anymore. Yeah, same aside from like Battlefield, but that's not like. And Call of Duty, but those are fairly. I just didn't want to go out of my way to play Splatoon, so I was kind of interested in it. But it sounds straightforward to the point of almost feeling bare bones. Yeah, yeah.

[A]

I mean it is nice to like the ease of being able to like. Oh, if I just want to pick it up, play like two levels or whatever, I'm in and out in like, you know, 15, 20 minutes. It's kind of, it's very bite sized. You know, these, these combat encount. It's just the depth. If you're looking for something with a little more depth, I don't think this is it.

[B]

Okay. Mary, you what? Okay, did you both. No, never mind. We actually held this episode because the Big walk embargo.

[A]

Yes. Just, just a few hours. So yeah, you might be hearing this.

[B]

Mary, did you also play this?

[C]

I played this early as a demo, but I did play the final version of the game. They just probably added more to it since you know what I mean? Like you're playing. I wonder if my. Okay, I think we played the same thing, but you can keep going. And I, they made me stop. So I'm very curious what your experience was with. You played it with. I played it with three other people.

[A]

I played it with four others. Yeah, we recorded the video today, a couple hours and it's, it's great. Mary, I assume you probably did like when you start, it's almost like a great plateau from Breath of the Wild where it's like you kind of need to do these four things to kind of move on into the bigger open world. And yeah, you're just these like little duck dudes. Like. Well, Mike, I was about to make a Simpsons reference. But Mary, you know, is the thing when Homer was big ants, okay, they look like answer with like big weird round beaks and stuff. And it's a Prox Chat game. The Prox chat is way more important than other, like, friends. Like, I actually even don't like calling this game a friend slob game because it just seems like there's more going on here. It's less gimmick, more real game. But it does have some of those hallmarks of like, you're these goofy looking characters, you know, your little horn, your little beakhorns move when you talk. There definitely is a lot of humor here. But like, it is a puzzle game. It is a co op puzzle game for sure. Like, it's cool. Like, you'll just. There's no real direction. You're just on this island and you'll find like these things where it's like, okay, clearly I need to put this like, almost like egg shaped thing into this to move forward or to accomplish something. So. Oh, okay, I see one. But it's locked up in this box here in this kind of like building thing out in the middle of a field. And there's a room I can go into. And if I press this button, it seals me off and it's soundproof. And so it's like I'm in a soundproof room with a window and all my friends are on the outside and there's switches out there. And I can only. I can see these lights light up that indicate what order you need to press them in. And since I can't talk, the Prox chat is basically cut off. All I can do is like, you can raise either arm up or down, or you can point with either hand. So it's like I started, you know, like kind of coming up with the language of like, okay, if it's one of the lower switches, I'm gonna sit on the ground and point. If it's one of the higher ones, I'm gonna raise one arm and point with the other. And then if it's like two at the same time, I can like, you know, point, point. And just seeing the guys out there have to talk it out be like, okay, I think he's saying this one, this one's lower. Like, just really, really clever stuff that is utilizing like the Prox chat and the co op nature of this game. Like, I, I do not think you can play this game single player. There's no way, right? I, I've heard that all the puzzles kind of max out at, like, four players. So maybe it's a thing. Don't quote me, but it wouldn't surprise me if, like, for two, three, or four, they will kind of modify the puzzles so you can finish them with X number of people, and then above that you can play with up to eight. But the puzzles don't continue getting more complicated after four.

[C]

That is exactly right. The way they were, like, visioning, it was like, this is a wholesome game. There's not anything. You could have your friends or your children or your, like, nieces and nephews in it. So you could have, like, little kids join you, and they can just probably, like, dink donk around in the background while you actually solve the puzzles, but they still get to play in the world with you. How fun is that? So it's like you can have eight people. I, I, I think you're right that it's, it might even be six. But it's like, it, it maxes out where, like, there's no more people needed to fill a puzzle. They won't alter the puzzle after that amount.

[A]

Yeah, and it's fun, too, because you'll find yourself in these circumstances where it's like, at one point, our whole group got to this thing, and it was clear that, like, one or two people needed to stay here while the other two went up to this, like, tall area and pointed a laser. And so it turned out that me and Bacalar had to stay behind. So, like, me and Bacalar are just kind of, like, hanging out by this switch, basically, and we just have to wait for them to run out there, and we can't hear their voice chat. So it's me and Bacalar just killing time down here, and we, like, found, like, a flashlight, and we're just kind of like, like, playing catch with it back and forth for a while. Like, there's a lot of really emergent, fun, kind of social stuff going on with this game, and you can't get lost, like, dumb, where it's like, oh, my God, we did this puzzle and we found a walkie talkie. And this is critical now because, like, we can communicate from across the map. Because, you know, if you don't have that, you're just shooting flares or trying to yell across a canyon. But the walkie talkie is great. But let's say you jump off a thing and you fall on your ass and slide down a hill, and, oh, my walkie talkie got jostled loose and it's nighttime, and I don't have a light. It's like, oh, my God. Like, I found myself having to, like, go through the woods. Where the fuck is my walkie talkie? Like a lot of really cool emergent stuff.

[B]

Like that sounds up my alley.

[A]

It's awesome.

[C]

It's really worth it. I think it's one of these games that people will talk about, especially just because it's so universal. It'll work for a variety of different reasons. You can have fun with it, but it's. It's truly for everyone. Can probably even like parents. You could, like, throw them in there and they could probably, like, figure it out. But this is like a good puzzler for gamers who want to just spend time with each other in a world. I think it's wholesome and lovely and I. I really adored this. This. I think I. I think the demo was like an hour and a half and I ate it up. I was like, I want more. I was really stoked for figuring out, like you were saying. There was all these different things. There was this thing we couldn't reach. And so it eventually kind of teaches you climb on each other's shoulders. You know, you can. We were trying to find keys to get into the world. But a lot of this is all. There's no dialogue, there's no text in this entire game, pretty much. So everything. You're just talking it through with each other and seeing if your tests work out. Plus there's little toys in the room. Like the lights.

[A]

Did you see the lights? Yeah.

[C]

You're turning on the lights because there's day and night cycles and you really can get lost. One of my favorite stories is we had the exact same thing where two of us had to leave, but for whatever reason, we only chose one person to leave. So there was three of us and one person left. We could see them out there and they could see us. And then they walked all the way back and said, you need to turn the laser on.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah.

[C]

We lasted 20 minutes because we didn't know what the other person wanted. Like, it's just very cute. Lovely storytelling without. Without saying anything. I think it's a gem. I think we should play it. I think it's very fun.

[A]

I would love to. Yeah. Yeah. And I do think it is. Yeah. Reductive. A lot of people will say friend slop. This is something different. This is somewhere in between, like, friend art.

[C]

This is, like, actually thoughtful and, like, well done.

[A]

Yeah. This is. Feels more like a co op. Like the Witness. I don't know if it's the right example, but you know what I mean, like solving puzzles as a group and just using your communication as your tools. It's fantastic.

[B]

They look like three dimensional Mr. Gaming watches.

[A]

I could see that. Yeah, yeah.

[C]

They're silly little things, the way they look. And you can change the color of them, which was like another thing that we ran into. Like you could like paint yourself and stuff like that. Lots of creativity in this little space to. To play around with.

[B]

Mary, what is Lost and Found Company?

[C]

Okay, so I have some little ones. This won't take long, but Lost and Found Company is Where's Waldo? But it's more interactive because some of the times I'm just gonna say Waldo because that's what I've used. But like, Waldo is a donut and he's hidden in a box of donuts. And so you need to click on the box of donuts in order to find it. Does that make sense? And so like the entire scene, which is like quite, I mean, not massive, but the size of a Where's Waldo picture, there's animations happening throughout all of it. Maybe someone is like mad that somebody's backing into them through a car. And maybe someone's like working at the register, but they're trying. They're like falling asleep. And maybe there's a dishwasher and maybe there's like two people on a date and one's really stressed out. You're seeing all these different environments happening and like little animations. You're looking for these secrets in each space. Usually they'll give you like six and you can find most of them, but some of them, they'll be like, you need to discover this one. And that means clicking on everything and being like, what's this? Do I like it? Because Where's Waldo Is just like such a simple experience of finding him. But in this one, you're clicking around and discovering a lot of the different things you can do in this space. And sometimes it results in like a cheeky, cute little animation. Way too much story and dialogue for a game about finding. Did not love that. But my favorite part was that you can autoplay dialogue. So there's a button to just let it auto run through. And there's also a button to be like, I don't want all that. Let me just find stuff. And I did that a lot. I don't know why this game has so much story for finding stuff in the world. And I couldn't tell you anything about it because I skipped all of it. But I did like Clicking through. I. This is just a. This is a wholesome puzzler. This is a, this is a zen. I'm watching a movie and I would like to, I would like to click on a game as well. Game.

[A]

Nice.

[B]

Yeah. I don't need a contextual wrapping for that. Like, that's why I appreciate something like. Is the seat taken even? Like totally.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Like, I just.

[A]

I, I. Tarot Legion.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[A]

We're just like, I don't know what, what the old aliens is. Just shoot them.

[B]

Yeah, more less talky age old adage.

[C]

This is a, this is a most talky of the year contender. It just keeps, it keeps talk. And they're like, we've got to figure this out. And I'm like, no one needs this. I don't want any of this stuff. I think actually some people do like this. I think some people do really like story and dialogue. It's just not my jam and I didn't want it for this game. But I, I liked the actual gameplay when I got to it.

[B]

What about Scarlet Deer in.

[C]

Oh, okay.

[B]

I was curious about this art style, like.

[C]

Yep.

[B]

Hand sewn kind of thing.

[C]

This one is for all the people who've been complaining about AI you better buy this game. It's completely handmade. Each animated frame. Oh, wow. Is. Yeah, it's. It's incredible. It's sewn. You can't ask for a more handmade game than this. It's. This is the type of game that you'll watch the trailer and you'll say, oh, this looks nice. Oh, this is fun. Okay, there's some story going on here and then you'll get to the last 30 seconds of the trailer and you'll say, what the. Did you sew every frame of every character? Yes, they did. Every character is, was, was hand sewn. It's really, it's really gorgeous. It's a gorgeous game. And the animations are really good.

[B]

How. Okay, this shows my lack of knowledge about game design. How did they get. Because like they're literally.

[C]

How did it get in the computer wildlife?

[B]

Yeah, I'm assuming they're using like a high speed camera or something pointed at these. Or is it all hand painted background? Yeah, I don't, I don't even understand how they did that. That's crazy.

[C]

I don't know. I think they embroidered all of the characters and then they probably use the images of the embroidery to make the frames. That's. My assumption is that they digitized the embroidery.

[B]

Yeah, that makes the most sense. But that's crazy. They actually took the time to hand

[C]

sew it, but you can see the line work in the shots. So when you look at the trailer, even when they're standing still, right. There's three different, three to five versions of the embroidery, and you can see the thread moving in the characters as they're idols. So it's. It's really fucking cool. This is a testament to handmade games that obviously have taken just so much heart and so much. This is a labor of love, and I respect this so much. The. It's also a husband and wife team. I think they, like, did a lot of this themselves, from the design to the music to the coding. So it's. It's really cool. To the game itself, you're God. I don't know where you are, but I'm gonna say old castle times, as Dan likes to call it.

[A]

Satchel times. Yeah.

[C]

You're in some kind of castle times and you have kids, and through some circumstances, you stumble across some nefarious shit going on in town, and then your kids are gone and everyone's like. Like, the noon witch got him. And so you are going into the tunnels, the caravans, like, under the town to find your kids. It's darker than I thought. I think because of the way this was designed. I thought it was gonna be wholesome, but it's actually quite violent. It didn't have too. It doesn't have, like, a lot of gore, but, like, I died several times. Other people died several times. I meet a lot of children's ghosts, which means they died. There's death in this. Nothing brutal, but. Yeah, I mean, it's. There's a lot of death and. And subjects about death in this and murder and stuff like this. I. I was surprised and a little disappointed. My honest reflection is that it's. It's a bit more of a platformer than I thought it would be, and I don't think it's a great platformer. I don't think that's where this game shines. I think this game is cheeky and it has really good dialogue. I think it's got a good story and it's very intriguing, and I want to know what happens. There are times where it's a bit of a. I need you to get three pieces of my body back so that I can give you this key. And so you're. Now you're doing fetch quests and you're finding these pieces. I. I don't mind that either. The parts where it was a bit challenging for me, when it was just like, you're in the caves, it's really dark, and you gotta jump through all of these spikes and if you fall, you're dead and you have to do it all over again. That is not super fun. And I think you can kind of. You can see that this is a mom and pop shop game a little bit for me in these moments because it's a bit rough on the edges. When you die, there's no death animation. You just, you just. You just died. It fades to black and you wake back up. But nevertheless, there was a time, the first hour, where I was like, this game isn't for me because it's too platformy, but it got into some good stuff in about three hours. In that I think was really worth it. And so I recommend people who give this a shot. Like, give it, give it several hours and let the story like marinate before you make your final decision.

[A]

I'm curious because I just looked up the game on YouTube and I saw a long play, was two and a half hours long. And I was like, oh, cool. Nice short little thing. And you're like. Takes about three hours to get. Get good. Yeah. Wait a minute. Something.

[B]

Speed running Scarlet.

[A]

Probably. Yeah, yeah.

[C]

They're probably zooming through it. I don't think it's a long experience. I think when you hand sew a game, it's not going to be a long experience. I think what I was just saying is like the very first hour, I was like a little nervous that it was going to be a full platformer and it's not a full platformer.

[B]

I. I assumed based on what I'd seen, it was going to be sort of like pentiment. If you guys.

[A]

That's what it looks like.

[C]

Yeah, that's what everybody else said to me. They were like, this looks like pentiment. You have the exact reaction that, yeah, everyone, that's true. It just doesn't have the dialogue options. There's no dialogue options in this.

[B]

Yeah. That requires like a whole team of writers. So I get why, like, they're not going for that of like three era storytelling.

[C]

This is a spooky tale of children disappearing and you have to jump to find them.

[B]

Sounds like it's more of a showcase for the art, which is fine.

[C]

That's how I would look at it. Yeah, it looks, it looks. It looks incredible. I. You can see the love that they put into it. It really is beautiful. And the audio is good too. Like the music, when they have it, I think is. Is Quite well done. So when it's good, it's good.

[B]

I want to show that to Amanda. I feel like with her stitching and sewing, she'd be super into that. And then I'm also curious about Fresh Tracks because on the one hand, it kind of looks like first person Guitar Hero skiing with swords.

[A]

What?

[B]

Yeah, but I know it's also called. I know a lot of cool stuff I just said, but I know it's also called a rhythm game, and I don't like rhythm games. Is it like a rhythm game? Like, sorry, I also left out, like, it looks like beat saber on skis is probably the easier way to say it.

[C]

I think that's the right way to describe it. It is a. It is a rhythm game. You need to listen to the music to do the tasks at the right time. It's a simplified version, though, right? Like, I think this is a simple game that they know what to do, and they're doing this one thing well, which is, like, you're gonna go up, down, left, right. You lean left and right. You jump in your skis, and you duck in your skis, and you have a sword, which you swing left, right, up, down, center, whatever, and then you just collect balls. If you've seen the trailer, you'll see what I'm talking about. But, like, you. I don't know what they are, but the thing you want to collect are these blue balls. And so you're just. I'm just getting all these blue balls, and I'm avoiding all the obstacles. It gets pretty hard. I did a couple levels on hard, and I died almost instantly. You do need to actually have some skills, but the first few EP levels were, like. Like, easy and polite and very nice. And, yeah, it was kind of Zen. I was. I was kind of zoning out playing this game.

[A]

This is the rhythm of the slopes.

[B]

That song has been stuck in my head. We rewatched that episode of Widow's Bay.

[A]

Oh, we just watched the finale last night.

[B]

Oh, yeah? What'd you think?

[A]

It was great. Yeah. Really? It was, like, obviously sets up a season two, and I think that is

[C]

definitely set up for season two.

[A]

That's a show you could just do a lot of, like. Because even that first season was just like, I'm not gonna spoil anything, but it's like, here's just a bunch of different spooky stu that happens here, and, like, you can just kind of buy any of it because of the history of the island. And. Yeah, very fun.

[B]

There's some genuinely creepy stuff, too. Like, yeah.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Especially in the later episodes when you start to see more about how things work. Like, it.

[A]

It rides the line between horror and comedy. Like, nothing I think I've seen. I'm laughing out loud in, like, every episode.

[B]

It's incredibly impressive. I love that show. I would be up. I mean, I'm not. Maybe we could talk more about the show, like, for a separate video at some point or something like that. I know the show's not, like, as hot as it was three weeks ago, but I still like talking about that show.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You know what else I like talking about? What is Emails.

[A]

No.

[B]

All right. As usual, you can Write it to firescapecastmail.com for questions you want read on the show. Our coffers are thinning out. We got a bunch of good ones tonight, but send those in. Get us prepped for the next few episodes. The, you know, doesn't have to be about video games. Some of the most fun ones are not. That's firescapecastmail.com. there's one right up top from Eddie. I want to read Dan. I curious if you knew this says Dan and Mike. Speaking of the Odyssey. Fun fact that you guys might appreciate. Christopher Nolan is a huge fan of MacGruber.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

I did not know that.

[A]

Yeah, he's talking about it for many years. He absolutely loves MacGruber. Somebody sent me a clip. I think it was from the View or something. Like, he was doing the press tour for the Odyssey, and, like, he's sitting next to Matt Damon and, like, Anne Hathaway's at the desk, and he's, like, asking Anne Hathaway, have you seen MacGruber? Like, so Nolan is one of those people who's, like, always trying to get people to watch MacGruber, which help. I like that.

[B]

Okay. I appreciate that, Mary, do you want to read this one that we'll definitely have some discussion about from Blake.

[C]

Yes, Blake from Boston. Sup, gamers with a Z. Thank you. Can you name your Mount Rushmore of multiplayer maps? I'll go first. Faculty from GoldenEye facility. Oh, sorry. I did it again. I think I know a little bit about Rivian Facility from Dick.

[B]

I just. I love that map. I put some respect on it.

[C]

Facility from 007. Wake island from Battlefield 1942. Blood Gulch from Halo, and Island Estate from Rainbow Six 3. Raven Shield. Very specific. Okay, now you go, Blake from Boston. Thank you, Blake. Sorry about faculty.

[B]

So, yeah, we were talking. We were just kind of setting up the premise because we each wrote down our own. I'm curious if we have any overlap. But we are flexing what multiplayer map means, it doesn't have to be a shooter. So keep that in mind, I guess. Who wants to go first? Dan?

[A]

I'll hit mine here. Like, I. I do know, like, I love facility, but my favorite facility moments are in the single player. I. I think it's a great single player level. It's a really good. I mean it's all fun multiplayer. But my favorite multiplayer level in goldeneye is bunker. That is my favorite one.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Or I memorized all the spawn points and threw proximity mines on all of them. So I'd kill someone once and they just die over and over and over again. That was fun.

[B]

It's of kind.

[A]

Number two Paris and Twisted Metal 2. That is the one where you're running around like you can go into the Louvre and stuff like that. You can go to the Eiffel Tower and then if you blow up the Eiffel Tower, it falls over and you can get to this whole extra rooftop area and there's like this kind of water area where you can kind of ramp up and run over mimes and all this. It's just a really fun like multi staged twist Metal map Western land in Mario Party two. That is one where everyone's a cowboy and you're going around an old West Village and you have hootenannies. That's maybe my favorite mar party map ever. And then I got a real weird one for my last one from Warhawk on PS3.

[B]

Warhawk was that. I'm trying to remember what kind of game that was.

[A]

It was. You could be. You could be on foot, you could be in like vehicles, like tanks and stuff. Or you could be in a Warhawk, which was like a vtol, like you know, like assault plane carrier type thing. And so it was just like capture the flag type stuff where you're flying around, hopping out of these planes. You know, physically six and seven, like running around, shooting down with rocket launchers. Oh, there's a tank here. I'm gonna get a. Get the flag jump in a tank. It was just very, very kinetic and fun and it. I think Warhawk PS3 is criminally underrated.

[B]

All right, cool. Deep cut. Mary, I can go next or you want to go next?

[C]

You, you go.

[A]

All right.

[B]

I also had a battlefield map strike on Karkand. That was the first time playing a multiplayer map or multiplayer anything shooter where I actually felt like I was in like an Ur streets environment. And I kind of. So many shooters before that were these sci fi environments or very like. Like dioramic kind of small things. This actually felt like a full on city urban assault and they've remade it plenty of times. So I guess other people liked it too. This one's weird. Headlong from Halo 2 it is.

[C]

I have to look this up and

[B]

there's a reason I love this because this was before the era where every multiplayer shooter map was that three lane structure with variations on it. Like. Like there's a reason those three lane structures work and that that's what the pros play in Counter Strike Two in Call of Duty in Valorant. Like that's those kind of maps where it's like they're clearly want these three lanes to be where the encounters have. And MOBAS also influenced it.

[A]

Is that kind of like a domination? In Call of Duty has the three things and there's clearly just like these paths to get there.

[B]

No that's. That's more like the choke points they're trying to design like in modern Call of Duty. But there's like actually lanes, lanes down one side of the map. There's a middle lane, then there's a left headlong in a Halo 2. And many Halo 2 maps were very much like they didn't care about that. I actually there's a Jacob Geller video about this where he talks about being able to go back to Modern Warfare 2 maps and kind of explore these nook and crannies where nothing ever actually happened. You never actually encountered anybody else in these houses. Headlong was very much like that where it's like there were parts of the map my friends and I never used during system link 4v4s. But there it was this. There was one building that was under construction. There was another one. There was a parking garage. There was another one. It was like a walkway kind of panorama thing. It was the cityscape. But like when you came across people in different buildings it felt very. It was surprising but it felt organic. It didn't feel like Bungie really wanted that specific encounter to happen. So there was like an era of unpredictability every time we loaded into that map Map. There's Warthogs, there's Goss Warthogs in. In it. Like it just felt like the emergent possibilities every time we played that map, especially in split screen or I'm sorry System Link were like endless. But in terms of a much more authored map. Chalet is my favorite Rainbow six siege map. You get four separate starting spawn points if you're the attackers outside in the Snow and the woods basically. And then the defenders are in this chalet, this cabin in.

[A]

I remember this one cabin. Snowy cabin. Yeah.

[B]

Presumably Quebec. But like there are so many layers to this map. Like if you go in through the basement and that's where the defense is. Like you can like obviously the different operators and their skills play into it. It's like oh, Thermite can go through the garage wall. Even if they reinforced it and Bandit had. But then Bandit can counter him. Etc. But like, like every floor of the chalet has a potential is its own shooter map almost. But then the way they interact and when you have to move from floor to floor, there's so many different ways. It feels kind of like if Siege made a map set in like the Home Alone House. Like when you watch a movie enough, you get the layout of the house down pat. Like I feel like that chalet, the layout lives in my mind where I sometimes like still dream about it. And my last one, my last one is South Pacific from Red Alert 2.

[A]

Oh hell yeah.

[B]

That is a perfect RTS multiplayer map. And I don't Dan you. I mean we. One of my. The funnest things we did at Giant Bomb and then during COVID was we figured out how to play. We got red alert 2 working for 1v1. I didn't really play competitive growing up. I played skirmish against the AI but like that is a perfect multiplayer map. It's. If you, if you can't Google it right now, basically it is just a small, small. A medium sized map. It's an island in the shape of an X.

[A]

It's almost like an H. Like it is kind of like, you know, it's got a full up and down there and then this very skinny thing in between.

[B]

Yeah. And then there's ocean surrounding it. Very thin layer of ocean around the map which allows you to. If you want to go naval and do the bombardments in the. The submarines and the dolphins. Dolphins and the, the aircraft carriers. You can go around the edge of the map and kind of like control the outside. But what happens is you could do four players or you could do two and they could spawn at one of these four corners of the H. And then the middle becomes this crazy choke point. But then there are also a ton of resources at. If you're doing 1v1, there are a ton of resources at the spawn points you didn't use. So those become their own battlegrounds because you're fighting over the orbs. It's such a simple map, but it's I think it's my favorite real time strategy map of all time. Like when I go back to Play Red Alert 2 every few months just for fun, like, that's the map I load up with with AI.

[A]

Nice. Yeah, yeah. Just looking at the, like, I didn't know by name, but then I saw the images like, oh, yep, yep, yep. I picked that one a lot.

[B]

It's so simple. But I can't. I have a hard time not playing that when I load that game up. All right, Mary, your turn. Mount Rushmore of multiplayer maps.

[A]

All right.

[C]

I think this one's weird for me because I. I don't have the experience that you guys have with these, but I have classics that are important to me and so that's what I'm gonna go with here. 1. Team Fortress 2 upward. This is one of the original payload levels from Team Fortress 2. This is like essentially the original Overwatch where you're getting a payload to the end. Upward is the most iconic of all their levels where there's lots of. Of ways that you can hide in different tunnels and systems. When I was playing this, this was the map that we got really stoked to play when I was. When I was younger. And like, this was kind of like one of the original games that got me into gaming. So really fond memories.

[B]

I remember this. It's like the corrugated shacks on the cliff in the wooden walkways. Yeah, that's right.

[C]

You could push people off cliffs, which was important and strategic.

[B]

Yeah, the map was awesome.

[C]

This is a good one. What other I was like, when we got this question, I was like, I'm gonna have to Google these because I don't remember these map names. This is tough for Mary. Counter Strike Source was important to me growing up as well. And my favorite map was CS Office. I don't think it is the most popular map from CS Source, but Office is the one that I fundamentally learned Counter Strike basics and actually shooting game basics off of. So I did not understand a lot of fundamentals of playing Counter Strike until Office. I spent a lot of time in these hallways sniping people and dying. And I. This is where I learned how to camp behind doors. So good for her.

[B]

Nice.

[C]

Third, we'll go into the future a little bit. I got obviously like we all did probably have to put at least one gears on here, but I don't think it's going to be gridlock. I think it's going to be the Tyro Station. The reason I like this one is because it had a train that went through everything.

[B]

Oh, yeah, that one's awesome.

[A]

Oh, that's fun. Yeah.

[C]

And so you didn't have to kill people. You just had to push them into the train.

[B]

Yeah. I have very specific memories of what's the. Using the torque bow on that map. Yeah, like, getting the torque bow perfectly charged. Someone pops up, and I have the head shot with the laser, and all of a sudden, the train blocks my arrow as I shoot it.

[C]

That's fun. I think that the train was. Yeah, it could be defensive, but it was also just, like, one of the funniest ways to. To embarrass someone if you could just throw them at the right moment. A train kill was really beautiful, and I have a lot of really good memories doing that. And then finally to the more modern present. I have a lot of. A lot of good memories, and I really still respect the map. King's Row from Overwatch. When Overwatch first launched, King's Row was, like, the main one that I think they launched with. And this is a really fun payload map. And it kind of brought Overwatch. I mean, it. This was such a bomb when Overwatch launched. But this was a. This is my favorite map of that entire game.

[B]

Rad. Side note, I. I was looking up Halo 2 maps earlier, and, like, some. This specifically sticks in my memory. Whoever wrote the map descriptions just fucking killed it. They were one sentence descriptions, and they weren't like, oh, this is how this works. Like, this relay station is part of a network that has kept Delta Halo functioning smoothly for untold centuries. Or like, waterworks. As. While the Forerunners excelled at mimicking natural beauty, the machinery in this cavern exemplifies their true genius. But then, a relic. Was this the one? One. Oh, relic was an awesome map too. Covenant scripture dictates that structures of this type are memorials to Forerunners. Like, there's, like, an era of mystery around them that I think define that era of Halo.

[A]

They had a real grasp on just the. The vibe they wanted with that Halo. Yeah.

[B]

All right. Thank you, Blake from Boston. All right, Dan, this is sort of. There's a question for all of us. But first, he's curious if you know what this is about. All right. Hey. Fire escape. I was recently diagnosed with celiac's disease and have a few questions. One, does Dan know what that means? I cannot eat.

[A]

I'm gonna guess gluten.

[B]

Yes. Hey, and can you list foods that contain gluten?

[A]

Bread. Bread. Like, a lot of carby, like, bread. Probably noodles, probably crackers. I'm just thinking, like, carby Grainy type things.

[B]

Sure. Yes, I'll accept that.

[A]

Beer.

[C]

Yes.

[A]

Yeah, Yeah.

[B]

A lot of beer. Pretty sure.

[A]

Okay. Okay.

[C]

Three out of three.

[A]

Look at that.

[B]

And then the last question for all of us, if this is. If any of you needed to give up an entire category, ingredient, food, what would you pick, though? That I would just say something I hate. If Dan tried to say something like onions or tomatoes, he's also giving up anything containing it. Ketchup, barbecue sauce, spaghetti sauce.

[C]

Like, imagine that it would give you. You are allergic to it so severely that you would get, like, really hurt if you had anything with the ingredient in it.

[A]

I could do vegetables.

[B]

Yeah. Like, this is easy. Like, I feel like, because we could just name things we don't like, and then we give it up.

[A]

Yeah. Like, I don't. I never really have.

[B]

All right, all right, all right. I give you. Would you rather give up now? Now I'm. Now I'm thinking the sentence out loud, and it's really like, I. I would give up dead rats.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

What? No, it has to be something we'd

[A]

like on the food pyramid.

[C]

On the food pyramid. And it.

[A]

Oh, food we like.

[C]

Yes.

[B]

No, he didn't say that, though.

[A]

Yeah, but.

[C]

But it's too easy because you're.

[B]

I know. That's what that was.

[A]

My.

[B]

We're agreeing.

[C]

You're too picky. You guys are. This game wouldn't be hard.

[B]

I am not picky whatsoever. I eat literally anything. Just eater here.

[A]

I. I have lettuce on stuff, and it's, like, never brings me joy.

[C]

No, no, that's right.

[A]

I think it's fine.

[C]

If you had to be allergic to meat or cheese, which one would you pick? Ah, that's the question. I know. Ah, I got him. I feel I'll give up lettuce.

[A]

It's tough. I mean, I. I don't mind. I'm okay on lettuce. This. Oh, meter. Cheese. The thing is, I'm happier when I'm eating cheese, but I feel like that's just up if, like, if I can't have meat, but I can have all the cheese I want. That's kind of weird, you know?

[C]

Like, you could have so much pasta. You could have so much grilled cheese. You could have.

[A]

Yeah, but here's the thing. I like meat without cheese. I also like cheese without meat. But, like, cheese without meat isn't, like, a meal typically.

[C]

You know, I'm gonna go even harder because celiac is, like, not, oh, you can't have bread. It's. You can't have Gluten, which is like a whole genre of stuff I'm gonna say. Is it meat or dairy? You'd have to give up one of them.

[A]

I don't think I have a lot of dairy. What?

[B]

Think that you were just saying cheese and meat would be difficult.

[A]

Oh, I forgot cheese was dairy. Okay.

[B]

Yeah, I was just reminding you gently.

[A]

Cheese. Okay. I thought it was milk. And I. As before, I was like, I don't have that much milk. Oh, yeah, I forgot cheese is in that umbrella. Look, my. My. My family was only farmers and grocery store employees. Why would I know this? Yeah, I guess dairy's good, but it's. Again, it's just cheese. Cheese is the only dairy thing. I'm. I'm partial to that.

[B]

You. That you yourself are eating.

[A]

I don't care about milk. I don't eat a lot of eggs. Like, I don't. I don't like yogurt.

[B]

I have a lot of yogurt.

[A]

Yeah. I'll get rid of dairy.

[B]

Okay, so no cheese. Do it for me, Mary. Make one for me.

[C]

Okay. Alcohol, all of it. Beer, wine, everything.

[B]

Okay.

[C]

Or meat.

[B]

I would give up. Well, like, health. For health reasons. I would give up. That concludes wine.

[C]

I didn't ask you for help.

[A]

Can we have impossible and beyond burgers?

[C]

Yes.

[A]

Then. Okay, then. Then I'm giving up meat because it's all indiscernible to me.

[C]

Wow, wow, wow.

[A]

There we go.

[C]

Have you ever had Daya cheese? You can.

[A]

I know there's some stuff you can do, but, like, the meat stuff has really come a long way. I'll give up meat and just eat the. The vegan meat stuff. Wow.

[C]

Cheese boy over here.

[A]

Easy.

[B]

I want to say I would give up alcohol, but I do not. Not want to go the rest of my life without. Like, it's specifically wine. You could have said, because that's mainly the only thing I drink.

[C]

I chose meaner. So all of.

[B]

No, I'm saying I don't. I don't really drink beer. Or sometimes I have liquor, but it's mainly wine. I had the conversation with Amanda the other day. I was like. She asked me if I. If I had to choose between coffee and wine, what I would pick. I still. I still would go wine, but, like, I also would be very, very, very sad if I never drank coffee again. Like, I don't. I don't get. I don't get caffeine withdrawal headaches. Like, I don't think I'm a. I don't think I'm addicted to coffee. I'M sure, like, on some level I am. Like, I do need it to kind of kickstart a day. But like, I just. On days I don't have coffee, I'm just, I'm really not myself. I'm just sad, kind of. I love coffee.

[A]

Mountain Dew does the trick.

[B]

I wouldn't want that.

[C]

Yeah. This. These guys, did I tell you I took them all to breakfast? The giant bong guys. And there's five of you, four of you, four of you. There's four of them, one of me. And they go, we all order breakfast and I say, I'll have a coffee. And they go, and five Diet Cokes.

[B]

Oh my God.

[C]

And I said, guys, no, I'm getting a coffee. And Minati's like, I know it's because he drinks two Diet Cokes with breakfast.

[A]

And I do too. Yeah. So I got two, Mike got two. And then we know. I think we added a sixth because we're like, well, Chuck and Grub, you know, they got to get one.

[B]

Do we? Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

[C]

Diet Cokes and a coffee for our

[B]

breakfast on a regular basis. You guys drink 2D Cokes with breakfast.

[A]

I've definitely, most days of my life, had a couple sodas. When I wake up, I used to have a mini fridge next to my bed just so like before I get out of bed, I could grab my first Mountain Dew. I mean, I didn't have my first coffee till I was like my 30s, you know. So like nowadays I do have coffee more often than I have soda. But I got rules. If it's like after, like 10am or if I'm kind of hungover, I want the soda first thing.

[B]

You don't drink any coffee after 10:00am

[A]

I mean, I do on occasion, but it's like to me, coffee is a like early morning thing. Like I'm getting up early and having a bagel and coffee before a run or something like that. Like 7am you know?

[B]

Gotcha.

[A]

I.

[B]

For my like lunch break during the day, I enjoy like grinding beans, getting into the measurements. It's just like a fun ritual. But like, I do the. I don't know if it's actually true, but I have feel like I have maintained good sleep patterns with the seven hour rule. Like, just don't have caffeine seven hours or after before you go to bed, within seven hours of going to bed. So like most days after 2pm or 3pm I. I really try not to have coffee, man.

[A]

When I was at Giant Bomb east, it was like, literally, I think I Was at like a dozen sodas a day with caffeine mean. Yeah. Like late into the night. Yeah.

[B]

Yeah. Because if I have a.

[A]

They were free at the New York office.

[C]

That's your dad coming out of your face. That is your buffet.

[A]

Oh no.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

I don't mean to be presumptuous because. But maybe one of you guys know this but I generally if I have like coffee at 4pm I definitely notice I'm having trouble sleeping. How that night. However, I've also there's been occasions where like in certain cultures, like Italian food, like even like growing up with my family, we would some and like on holidays we'll have coffee after dinner. And I know on one level the bitterness. We've talked about this before. Aperitifs and deja steeps are the same exact. There's no difference. The bitterness we have, like from what I understand, we've evolved. When we taste bitterness, it gets your digestive system moving because you think you're poisoned. Cuz what like supposedly when we're like our ancestors when they taste a poison that was a sign to our body that we were or we tasted bitterness as a sign that something might not be good for us. So aperitif gets you your digest digestive system moving so you're hungry for dinner. Digest thief after dinner is to do the same thing but to aid digestion, get things moving. So maybe coffee does that. But I also don't understand how I sleep really well those nights after I have like an after dinner coffee with the caffeine mean I don't get it.

[A]

When I go back to Jersey and you know with Bonk's family, you know, they're an Italian family in Jersey and a big thing with them is coffee and which is like after dinner they have coffee and where it's like they'll get like a dessert and coffee and. Yeah.

[B]

Oh, gotcha.

[A]

All right. I don't know if it's coffee and desserts or they. Yeah. Like anizette and stuff happens. I don't get it. I. I can't imagine wanting a coffee after a meal.

[B]

But I've done it before and like it doesn't keep me up. Maybe because maybe because like maybe the food in my stomach is dampening caffeine. I have no idea. I'm actually genuinely curious. I could google it, but I'd rather hear what people have to say. Mary, do you know. Do you know what the question was?

[A]

Were you even listening audio listeners? She's shaking her head vigorously.

[B]

That's the seinfeld thing. I asked her for more pie. She just kept doing.

[C]

Yeah, I have no, like, the DJ's teeth and aperitif is, like, beyond me.

[A]

Yeah, Mike has. Like, when Mike said, we've talked about this before, I guess that's technically true, but Mary, did we. It's like when Flanders was explaining apple cider to Homer and his brain floated out of his head and he just collapsed. That's. That's kind of what happens there.

[C]

Happens all the time.

[B]

Pre. Pre dinner drinks. And after dinner drinks, they're usually bitter because they're supposed. In, like, Italian culture. They're bitter. Does it help you poop after dinner but before dinner to get you hungry? Apparatif. Like appetizing and then digestive. Digestive. I'm gone. They're the same thing. It's pretty simple. You dolt. Both of you.

[A]

Oh, why don't you go compare boats with Bacalar?

[B]

I wish I had a boat. I. I'll lend you one. I would be so insufferable. If I had a. I. I would get, like, the loudest, most lime green speedboat with, like, shark's teeth painted on the side.

[A]

That sounds awesome.

[C]

That's actually a fun question. It's like, what would your boat look like?

[B]

I just describ.

[A]

Yeah, mine would have the shark teeth too. I've always thought that's the. That's the coolest thing. No, it doesn't have to be green, but I need the scary shark face like it's an old World War II plane.

[B]

If you. If you live in New York or Jersey, you know, I'm just describing the beast. Have you guys seen this? Do you know what this is?

[A]

No.

[B]

Oh, Dan, I feel like you would actually unironically love it. So we go out to the pier sometimes, and on the Hudson river, there's a thing called the Beast. It is this huge lime green with shark's teeth and like black zigzag things. It's one of the. It's like a boat that is designed to be fast as fuck, but also seat like 60 people. And what they do is they like, they. They do drifting in the Hudson to splash.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And every time we're at the pyramid is like, who. Who. Who pays to ride that thing? I was like, Dan would probably love that.

[A]

Oh, that thing is awesome. Yes.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Look up, look up. Like a video or a gif of it because it drifts and it's. It's designed to splash the out of the people on board.

[A]

Okay. I'm on board of this. I'm a boat guy now, but, like,

[B]

every time I'm like, I don't want to not go on that thing. I don't know that I want the Hudson river water all over me, but at least it's surface water.

[A]

This is cool.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

If we're ever in New York City again together, we gotta do this.

[B]

Like, you could get. Get the Giant Bomb staff on that thing.

[A]

That'd be yes. Or Game of the Year podcast.

[B]

Wait, like, see how many people it seats? I assumed it's, like, 50. Maybe it's more, maybe it's less.

[A]

It looks like.

[C]

Why don't we do this for your wedding? This is. Is so unbelievable.

[B]

You should have rode that to the venue.

[A]

You get to opt which boat you want to take. The Classy Fairy or. Or the Beast. You get taking the Beast.

[B]

Our officiant gets there, and he's just soaked.

[A]

I crash, and you guys are just waiting for me at the altar thing, and I'm. What's up, dorks? Drunk.

[C]

You.

[B]

You ramp off, just jump out and parachute down. How many people? Up to 138 guests.

[A]

Oh, that's awesome.

[C]

You could be married on the beast

[B]

30 minutes after you have your nuptials.

[A]

Okay, hang on. You got to see the guy that works there and runs the thing. Blow this up nice and big here. Look at this guy with the flame shorts. Oh, man.

[C]

Oh, wow.

[A]

We're living here.

[B]

Looks like Guy Fieri's like, yeah, yeah. Because, oh, my God, look at the woman. Three to the left in the front. She is miserable.

[C]

Images. That woman's husband drug her there.

[B]

Wait, when is this photo from? They all look like they're dressed like. It's.

[A]

That looks like 2004 to me.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

This is when the Beast was in its prime.

[A]

Oh, yeah. Oh, college days.

[B]

Different. It's red and yellow. They changed the paint job.

[A]

It's cooler now with the green.

[B]

But every, like, every once in a while, we'll see it. You can hear it. It's like. It's like riding the waves. It's that. It's probably Bacalar driving it around, but. Yeah, we got an email. We got another email, people asking us what to do in New York City. Ride the Beast. Ride. Give me. And give me.

[A]

Give me one of these.

[B]

Point one of these at Jersey and say, what up? But, yeah, that's. I forgot what the original question was, but thanks for the question, Stephen. I got one more, because we got. We got some time. How's it going in Sorsha Ronin? I'm pissed at myself. I haven't thought of that. Sometimes while out and about, I smell the right combination of cigarette smoke and aqua di gio, and suddenly it's 2008 and I'm a drunk 16 year old wandering around Germany. I wore that cologne on that trip. Do you have a memory tied to a very specific scent that your olfactory likes to dredge up every now and then? Peace out, sluts. Our old friend Wes.

[A]

This pog slammer. This pog slammer.

[B]

The Bigfoot.

[A]

I bought it on ebay. Yeah, that's the one.

[B]

Did we talk about this? Because I feel like the one that

[A]

I thought it smelled like. I remember it smelling in bong because, like, it smells like it came from, like, a house filled with cigarette smoke.

[B]

Oh, no. Okay. We specifically talked about how cigarettes make me nostalgic. But maybe we did talk.

[A]

I usually remember I've talked about it on a thing before. For sure.

[B]

Yeah, there's. There's a. There's a very specific smell in the plastic crates. There's a specific company that made them Tote and Decker Tote boxes. They're plastic crates that we use. Like they were. I remember we had a ton from the 90s. They were like 2ft high and they had the handles that the lid went on. I don't know. It'll come to me. But we stored all our Christmas decorations in those. So over the year, they would get a lot like this musty smell being in the basement, which sounds gross. But then we'd open it up, up, and I would just be like, oh, Christmas didn't start until I smelled that. And then there was this one specific, like, painted porcelain bell that used to have a noise maker in it that would play like Christmas carols when you press the bottom of it. But the noise maker fell out. So throughout the year, that bell would just trap the musty smell. So I'd be like. I'd put it on my face and be like. It's like I was huffing glue out of a brown paper bag.

[A]

Mike, you describe this with the exact same passion you described smelling asparagus pee.

[B]

Yeah. Which is also good. That doesn't make me nostalgic. I just get a weird bone piece when I smell asparagus pee. Which is weird because, ironically, you can't really pee with a bone.

[A]

Sure, sure, sure. You're just smelling it. Yeah. You're done peeing at that point.

[B]

If I showed you what I have to do in the morning, I like the weird crouch you have to do and you have to pee but you just woke up.

[A]

Go on.

[B]

How do you. How do you pee in the morning with morning wood?

[A]

Well, you do the. You put one hand against the wall and you make yourself kind of a 45 degree. Not 45. That's a little.

[C]

Yeah, like a tripod.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[B]

I'm like. I do like the, like a half back and football stance.

[A]

Oh, it's like a three point stance. Is that what you're, like, getting down?

[B]

Like, I don't know. I'll show you at some point.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

I'll send you a diagram. Yeah. Also, like many people, I think, growing up in the suburbs, fresh cut grass definitely brings me back, as does hose water. Specifically that, like, corroded metal water smell that, like when people are using their sprinklers in the lawn. You'd get. That would just drift out of. There's a couple lawns in my neighborhood. Not many, but, like, there's a couple houses with actual grass lawns. And when they're using the sprinkler, I like, I have to stop and get after it with my nose for a. A few minutes.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Mer, do you have any, or is it just. Is it just. Malibu?

[C]

What's the smell of Malibu?

[B]

Malibu rum.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Oh, right. I was gonna say my. I have an ex boyfriend in middle school who used to always smell like Hollister cologne. And now when I smell it, which is very rare, it makes me mad. Yeah, it makes me mad. Me. And I don't like him. And I'm still mad about it. I'm still angry.

[B]

Spraying the studio before game of the year. Just.

[A]

I'm just gonna pour it over my head. Yeah.

[C]

You know what? You did Brad.

[B]

And you think, of course his name was Brad.

[C]

His name was Brad. I won't dox him. But his is, honest to God, his name was Brad and he lived in another town, which means my mom had to drive me a long way to go see him. And he dumped me two weeks before prom. You can go to hell, Brad.

[B]

Wait, you actually did date someone who, quote, unquote, goes to another school?

[C]

School, yes. And I don't believe. And it. And I was. I was a freshman and he was a junior, and he dumped me before prom, and then he couldn't get another date and so on. Like, the day before prom, he reinvited me and we went. Wow, it was really awkward. And then the next day, he dumped me for real.

[A]

Jesus Christ.

[B]

That is psychological minefield.

[C]

I'm. I'll be bitter about it forever.

[B]

I'm gonna. I can't Wait, I probably have some Hollister clones stashed away. Somewh. AKA ready to go at all times.

[C]

He had a car that was lowered and my driveway had an incline. And every time he tried to drive it onto my driveway, you could hear the car like against the ground. You, Brad. Your stupid car.

[B]

Oh, Brad. Any other smells? Any positive Mary, like anything that doesn't set you off? What calms you when you smell it? From back in the day.

[C]

From back in the day. Christmassy smells make me happy, you know. You know Christmasy smells.

[B]

I don't like the smell of bug spray, but it does bring me back to when I camped a lot when I was young. Sure, sunscreen lotion too. But I use sunscreen lotion still often enough where it's not like a thing

[C]

I associate with childhood campfires associate me with childhood like the smoke of a fresh fire and a freshly lit mallow.

[B]

First you toast the mallow.

[C]

First you see, I feel like Paul Reichert will be like, it's not called a mallow. But yeah, yeah, it's. It's a mallow.

[B]

All right. Well, thank you, Wes.

[C]

And you, Brad.

[B]

You Brad.

[C]

You know what you did. You know what you did.

[B]

All right, that's our show. I wonder. Get some more questions in fire escape. Yeah, don't, don't just stop.

[C]

Dare you bring up my trauma breath

[B]

living in your head still to this day.

[C]

God, it was so long ago.

[B]

Fire escapecastmail.com get more questions in. Get those next the coffers full for the next few episodes. We will be back in a couple of weeks but in the meantime you can go to firescapecast.com and if you're not a patron you can get ad free episodes or you can get our video versions which also unlocks all our bonus episodes. We did one recently with Mecca Chameleon. All four of us including Jake are producer which was ended up being super fun. We try to do those when we can find time. You can go to firescape merch.com get those banana hammocks. I know summer's. Summer's got another about like a. A month. Like a month and a half in most places in the northern hemisphere. So get those banana hammocks. Get. Get that thang slang and get, get to the pool and show off our merch. And then outside of that, Dan, what do you have going on?

[A]

Giant bomb Doing tons of stuff. Check out our YouTube. We've got the usual weekly stuff as well as some fun travel stuff. We'll see when I get done with the travel. I got a ton of footage to wade through here, but hopefully sooner rather than later. But yeah, check out giantbomb.com giant bomb premium if you want ad free. But yeah, doing a lot of great stuff over there. Mary, what about you?

[C]

Check out giantbomb.com because I'm on the latest travel vlog through Portland, which is pretty fun. And I also stream on my Twitch channel every Monday. And I do try and stream the games that I'll talk about on here. So you guys gotta get to check them out with me, which is fun.

[A]

All right, sweet.

[B]

We'll be be back in two weeks. Till then, enjoy your summers or if you're down under somewhere and hopefully it's not too cold. And we'll see you then. Bye.

[C]

Bye.