Kinda Funny's 2025 Holiday Gift Giving Guide - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Summary

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Kinda Funny Gamescast: 2025 Holiday Gift Giving Guide

Date: December 8, 2025
Hosts: Tim Gettys, Greg Miller, Blessing Adeoye Jr., Andy Cortez, Mike Mahardy

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Episode Overview

This episode of the Kinda Funny Gamescast brings the annual Holiday Gift Giving Guide—a much-anticipated showcase of the hosts’ top recommendations for video game gifts across multiple categories. The crew shares picks for all ages and budgets, covering games, hardware, accessories, and fun miscellaneous gifts, peppered with banter and signature Kinda Funny energy.

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Key Discussion Points & Highlights

1. Introduction & Set-Up

• Tim Gettys announces the topic: holiday gift ideas for gamers, with a focus on categories for all ages and interests.
• Blessing Adeoye Jr. introduces five guiding categories:
  1. Game for under-13s
  2. Game for over-13s
  3. Gaming hardware (console/PC/handheld)
  4. Gaming accessory
  5. Miscellaneous (e.g., memberships, nerdy gifts)
     [08:02] Blessing: "...I basically narrowed this down to five different categories..."

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2. Games for Ages Under 13

Picks for the younger crowd, inspired by first-hand experience and market trends.

Greg Miller's Pick: NEX Playground

• Brand new, motion-based family gaming system with games like Bluey and Peppa Pig.
• Emphasizes its explosive sales (second only to Switch 2) and appeal to active, energetic kids.
• Cites parent reports and YouTube reviews, noting it’s a sort of "Kinect for the new generation."
  • Quote:
    "What if I told you, Tim, the Kinect is back everybody."
    [11:54] Greg

Andy Cortez's Pick: Wild Woods

• Adorable, top-down, four-player co-op game that serves as “baby’s first roguelite."
  • Quote:
    "It's like baby's first version of a lot of different games."
    [19:03] Andy

Blessing's Pick: Split Fiction

• Calls it a perfect living room co-op game following in the footsteps of It Takes Two.
• "A great one that could work for kids under 13." [21:18] Blessing

Mike Mahardy's Pick: Lego Party

• Compares it favorably to Mario Party for family-friendly competition; short, accessible, fun.
• "I, I truly believe...That's Lego Party. It doesn't matter what time it is, it doesn't matter where you are." [22:37] Mike

Tim Gettys' Pick: Kirby Air Riders

• Advocates for gifting quirky games that become lasting childhood memories.
  • Quote:
    "We gotta create the next generation of kids...this is the definition of a game that you do not buy for yourself. You get gifted and it might become your thing."
    [24:53-27:32] Tim

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3. Games for Ages Over 13 ("Big Kids")

From teens to grown-ups, these picks skew cooler, deeper, or more challenging.

Greg Miller: Luminesce Arise

• Timeless, stylish puzzle game described as an "audio delight" and crowd pleaser.
  • Quote:
    "...such a visual treat, such an audio delight..."
    [28:46] Greg

Andy Cortez: RV There Yet

• Multiplayer, physics-based co-op "road trip from hell," with hilarious emergent moments.
  • Quote:
    "It's like filled with hilarious ass moments..."
    [31:29] Andy

Mike Mahardy: Magic: The Gathering (Starter Sets)

• Modern boxed sets (e.g., Avatar: The Last Airbender collab) praised for being beginner-friendly, community-building, and cross-generational.
  • Quote:
    "There's no better time to jump into Magic the Gathering, especially with all the fun universes beyond collabs..."
    [31:36] Mike

Blessing: Claire Obscure Expedition 33

• "Be the cool friend" and gift someone a surprise new favorite, one they wouldn’t try otherwise.
  • Quote:
    "You can change somebody's life going forward. That's my pitch."
    [35:38] Blessing

Tim Gettys: Hades 2

• Endorses giving roguelites to "normie friends"—even non-enthusiasts will get hooked.
  • Quote:
    "Just commit to playing for an hour and you'll see if it's for you and chances are it's going to be."
    [37:12] Tim

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4. Gaming Hardware (Console/PC/Handheld)

Greg Miller: ROG Ally X

• "Transformative" for PC gaming on the go; lauds the comfort, controls, and performance, and says he'd buy his own if review unit required return.
  • Quote:
    "If tomorrow they came and said hey we need the...review units back, I would say I will gladly go off and buy this..."
    [43:41] Greg

Tim Gettys: Steam Deck OLED

• Emphasizes tech quality and the life-changing convenience of a premium handheld, especially with OLED.
  • Quote:
    "...it’s the OLED that makes the difference. I really am blown away by the quality of the screen..."
    [45:14] Tim

Andy Cortez & Mike Mahardy: XReal AR Glasses

• Both rave about glasses that project game screens, making gaming on flights/hotels revolutionary.
  • Quote:
    "Now I’m at the point where I don’t want to fly without them."
    _[47:56] Andy*

Andy (2nd pick): Retroid Pocket Flip 2

• Portable DS-style emulator with great build, screen, and compatibility for indies/retro games.

Blessing: Analog 3D (N64 Revival)

• Upgraded, authentic-feeling N64 hardware for those nostalgic for cartridge days, now in colorful limited editions.
  • Quote:
    "It’s not just emulating N64. It is a recreation...to play those games on 4K devices."
    [56:03] Blessing

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5. Gaming Accessory

Greg Miller: SFBags "City Slicker" Cases/JSAUX Hard Shell

• His perennial favorite for portable protection—slim for everyday, hard case for more heavy duty.

Andy Cortez: Gamesir Controller

• Best new controller for 2025—comfortable, programmable, versatile (with a warning for hot cheetos lovers).
  • Quote:
    "The best feeling controller so far for me this year."
    [61:44] Andy

Tim Gettys: Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller

• Huge upgrade over original, with superior HD rumble, silkier feel, and integrated back paddles.

Blessing: DualSense Edge Controller

• Top-tier PlayStation controller with premium feel—once you try it, you don’t want to go back.

Mike Mahardy: Culture Kings Gaming Apparel

• High-quality, stylish video game fashion and accessories (e.g., PlayStation, Nintendo, Blizzard merch, Kingdom Hearts tees).
  • Quote:
    "This is just the band shirts for our era."
    [66:14] Tim

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6. Miscellaneous / Fun Gift Picks

Greg Miller: Supernote Nomad Digital Notebook

• Digital note-taking, journaling, and letter-writing tool for modern creativity.
  • Quote:
    "I am notoriously hard to shop for...but I’m loving having a creative outlet to just doodle and do whatever I need."
    [67:54] Greg

Tim Gettys: Apple TV 4K

• Elevates any living room set-up—faster, ad-free, and more user-friendly than most built-in smart TV apps.
  • Quote:
    "The perfect gift for somebody to make their life just a little bit better each and every day."
    [69:05] Tim

Blessing: Dropout Subscription

• Standout comedy/improv/D&D streaming service; highly giftable two-month sub for under $15.
  • Quote:
    "Dropout is probably the best entertainment subscription that I’ve made in the last few years..."
    [73:41] Blessing

Andy Cortez: Humble Bundle (Membership) & Nvidia GeForce Now

• Game bundles that support charity, tons of monthly codes—“so much value-per-dollar.” (Also shouts out GeForce Now for cloud gaming.)

Mike Mahardy: GingerPins (Fan Pins and Merch), and What He Wants: WoW Box Collection

• Highlights a Kinda Funny community member’s store for game pins and small gifts.
  • Quote:
    "I just wanted to highlight a cool best friend...for some cute stuff there."
    [77:14] Mike

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "What if I told you, Tim, the Kinect is back everybody."
  — Greg Miller on the NEX Playground [11:54]
• "We gotta create the next generation of kids on a gamescast. They're gonna be talking about...one weird game unlike any other..."
  — Tim Gettys on the importance of gifting oddball games [24:53]
• "Be the friend that has the opportunity to change your buddy's life."
  — Blessing on picking mind-opening gifts [35:19]
• "If tomorrow they came and said hey we need the...review units back, I would say I will gladly go off and buy this..."
  — Greg on the ROG Ally X [43:41]
• "The amount of times people ask me, 'Tim, you love home theaters...what are the must haves?' — must have number one: OLED TV, must have number two: Apple TV 4K, in that order."
  — Tim on living room essentials [68:40]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [08:02] – Gift guide categories introduction (Blessing)
• [09:01] – Games for <13: discussion & picks
• [28:22] – Games for >13: discussion & picks
• [40:56] – Gaming Hardware: discussion & picks
• [58:10] – Accessories: discussion & picks
• [66:44] – Miscellaneous/fun gifts: discussion & picks
• [79:49] – Super/Community Chat Gift Ideas & wrap-up

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Tone & Energy

• Banter-heavy, inclusive, and enthusiastic.
• Occasional “deep cut” references, in-jokes, and lively debate whenever disagreeing/preferences arise.
• Each pick is personal and often tied to a memory or practical experience.
• Focus on community—many suggestions for meaningful, creative, or indie gifts.

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Summary Takeaway

The 2025 Kinda Funny Gamescast Holiday Gift Giving Guide delivers a run-through of every meaningful category for gaming gifts this year, weighted heavily by each host's personal tastes, nostalgia, and practical experience. The show champions the joy of surprising people with thoughtfully chosen games and gaming gear, encourages fostering new experiences for others, and keeps a pulse on both cutting-edge and heart-warming options for every gamer (or non-gamer) on your holiday list.

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For More Gift Ideas:

Check out the comment section, where the community will be posting additional suggestions and wish lists!

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Transcript

[Commercial Narrator]

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[Greg Miller]

Hey.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Still got my hoodie?

[Commercial Narrator]

Nope. But I've got tonight's dinner paid for. Start selling on Depop, where taste recognizes taste list. Now with no selling fees, payment processing fees and boosting fees still apply. See website for details.

[Greg Miller]

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[Tim Gettys]

Britain this episode's brought to you by Stormlancers. Fight together. Rise together. Storm Lancers is available this week on PC and Nintendo Switch 2.

[Mike Mahardy]

What's up?

[Tim Gettys]

And welcome to the Kind of Funny Games cast for Monday, December 8, 2025. Of course. I am your host, Tim Yetis. I'm joined today by a stacked crew of amazing gentlemen. We have blessing. Adio. Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

Junior.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Good day, Tim.

[Tim Gettys]

Greg Miller.

[Greg Miller]

I haven't been on content all day, and I'm stoked. Let's go.

[Tim Gettys]

Like that sweater a lot.

[Greg Miller]

Thank you. It's my only Black Friday purchase.

[Tim Gettys]

Okay.

[Greg Miller]

Vanessa Carlton put it up on Instagram. Hey, there's a. Here's a code for Black Friday. I said, you know what, Vanessa? I'll do it. I'll do it. She's going on tour soon. Should come back to San Francisco. All right. Best concert of my life. Had a hot date. Gia Harris. All right. Took her to this thing. We enjoyed the shit out of this. Why you got to sit down, order a meal?

[Tim Gettys]

It was lovely.

[Andy Cortez]

It was lovely.

[Tim Gettys]

Start contract.

[Greg Miller]

A couple months later, Michelle Branch came slims, wasn't it?

[Tim Gettys]

It was Michelle Branch, me, g, Greg, Jen. We're there for 20 minutes, and Greg and Jenner like, we can't do this. Let's go.

[Greg Miller]

I was like, I've waited for this concert. My entire life. I love Michelle Branch, right? And I get there and it's just fucking. We didn't get there early. So like it's in this slam thing. Like she's playing a garage show.

[Tim Gettys]

Like she's 20.

[Greg Miller]

I'm like, I'm out of here. This sucks here. We couldn't even hear. And she started doing some record stuff. Wreckers. Not Wreckers, Wreckers. You know, her country. Her country. And it was like. But the mic was bad. I was like, this fucking sucks back. Vanessa Carlton.

[Tim Gettys]

Bring back, bring back, bring back Stacey a Rico Joey. You know what I'm talking about? Snow. Mike. Mike, how are you?

[Andy Cortez]

You.

[Tim Gettys]

Hi, Tim.

[Mike Mahardy]

It's great to see you.

[Tim Gettys]

Great to see you. And rounding out the group today we have Andy Cortez.

[Andy Cortez]

Hello, Tim.

[Tim Gettys]

Hello, Andy. This is the kind of Funny Games cast. Each and every weekday we get together to talk about the biggest reviews, previews and topics here in video games live on YouTube, Twitch and podcast services around the globe. If you love what we do, please support us with the Kind of Funny membership. You can get it on Patreon, you can get it on Spotify, you can get it on Apple Podcast. You get all of our shows ad free and a daily exclusive show for a chance to be part of this show, YouTube Super Chat. We want your Hull holiday gift guide suggestions. What are presents that you're thinking about buying people? Gaming related, tech related. Whatever you want to talk about, go for it. Remember, we're an 11 person business all about live talk shows. We already did one Kind of Funny Games Daily chronicling the Paramount Skydance launching a hostile bid for Warner Brothers discovery just days after the Netflix agreement. This. No way. This ends horribly for everybody. No way.

[Greg Miller]

Remember on Friday when I was like, I pulled out that comment, it was like, oh, this, this is, you know, worst case scenario. I'm like, no, no. Worst case scenario. Would Saudi Arabia being involved. Here we go.

[Tim Gettys]

Here we.

[Greg Miller]

Here we go. Jared Kushner again too. They're like, oh, y' all want to talk? You want to talk about ea? We'll buy everything and it up.

[Tim Gettys]

After this we're doing the kind of Funny podcast and after that we're doing a highly requested stream. Nick's going to play Dispatch. Yeah, that's fun. We thinking he's going to like it?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Oh, for sure.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think so. Good.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah, I think he'll be real with you, Tim.

[Andy Cortez]

He won't.

[Greg Miller]

Why won't he?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

He likes Aaron Paul.

[Mike Mahardy]

He has a very small attention span and this game takes a little Bit of time.

[Greg Miller]

This game's sexy.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

You know what I mean?

[Andy Cortez]

It's crazy to say that when he's around me that, that I have like the second worst adhd. It's real bad.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I can't say his attention span is like so bad that he can't watch a cartoon. That's basically what this is.

[Mike Mahardy]

He watches in that room and he gets uncomfortable. You know what I mean? Like he. If Call of Duty is not on the screen, that shot is he doing out the room.

[Greg Miller]

What does he do here?

[Tim Gettys]

See what he does later today.

[Andy Cortez]

Five seconds in, Mike, it's going to be looking at his phone, looking at chat. And while you're watching the screen, like there's some real important stuff happening. There's good stuff happening right here on the screen.

[Tim Gettys]

Right, right here.

[Greg Miller]

You guys have the power in there.

[Andy Cortez]

That is true.

[Mike Mahardy]

He's the eldest in the room. You're not allowed.

[Greg Miller]

No, no.

[Tim Gettys]

You can do it.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

If I can make a confession. There was a. A choice in dispatch. I had to reroll like four times because I kept missing it. Cuz I kept looking at my phone.

[Tim Gettys]

God, I was like a.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Let me roll a checkpoint. Now look at my ph up and like I missed it. Gotta keep doing it.

[Tim Gettys]

We need y' all to support Nick, okay? Try to keep him on track when he's looking at the chat. I need y' all to be like eyes on the prize. Eyes on the prize.

[Greg Miller]

What's the most boring thing the chat could talk about that Nick wouldn't want to engage with?

[Andy Cortez]

Wrestling.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

Everyone just say Hulk Hogan.

[Tim Gettys]

Oh, you see this turn bad. We get it, Nick. Hey, if you're a kind of funny member, today's Greg Way is going to be Greg reacting to the Monster Hunter showcase.

[Greg Miller]

That's right. They're doing one at two o'.

[Tim Gettys]

Clock.

[Greg Miller]

I figured I would do it there.

[Tim Gettys]

Fun.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah. The way you said fun didn't sound.

[Tim Gettys]

No, well, fun. I mean, just fun for you.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, yeah. The show's called Greg Way. You know what I mean?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

It's true. And it's not called Tim Way.

[Greg Miller]

Exactly.

[Tim Gettys]

Thank you to our Patreon producers, Carl Jacobs, Omega Buster and Delaney. This psalm twining for now. Let's start with the topic of the show. It's Kind of Funny's 2025 holiday gift giving guide. The Super Chat question of the day. What is your pick for a good holiday gift this year? And you can't say aura frames. Okay? That'd be ste. Happy stealing. Although real talk, we are sponsored by them. We love them. They are amazing gifts. And, like, have who here's giving out or frame as a gift. That's. There we go. There we go.

[Greg Miller]

Every single person.

[Mike Mahardy]

I mean, so perfect gift for mom. You know what I mean?

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

I use that promo code. Here's the thing. I didn't tell my mom I got it for her. So for the longest time, she was like, I don't. I was like, oh, did you get that picture? She's like, I. You didn't tell me you sent that to me. And this whole time, we were like, whose is this? And, yeah, but they set it up there. They.

[Greg Miller]

There's the IRL one I sent today. You just keep a wide Barrett of the shot I sent. Oh, that was wide enough. I apologize. Anyways, it's my message to Jen, but every so often on my. Or a frame at my desk, something really cute of Ben or Jen comes around, I take a photo of it, and then I send that to Jen. I'm like, I love you guys.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

So nice.

[Tim Gettys]

I love it because ours have. I get auto updates.

[Greg Miller]

We're not sponsored today by them, are we?

[Tim Gettys]

Maybe, maybe not.

[Andy Cortez]

I'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure we are.

[Tim Gettys]

It'll.

[Greg Miller]

This isn't part of it. We really love Aura.

[Tim Gettys]

It pulls pictures from of my dogs, and it just. It kind of does the AI Thing, which just like, pulls all. Every white, fluffy dog picture and the amount of, like, memes of other Pomeranians that aren't our Pomeranians. Or whenever I see somebody like, oh,

[Greg Miller]

I see what you do.

[Tim Gettys]

Roger's base on. On YouTube, like, he has a Pomeranian that looks like if Toretto and Moose were, like, combined.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

And I'll, like, save pictures and send it to her. So it's like every once in a while, just random dogs show up.

[Greg Miller]

See, I highly curate mine. Yeah, I. I definitely go through. I make a big production not sending it because I send it to myself, my dad, and my mom. Then.

[Tim Gettys]

I mean, wow, that order frame's best answer. But we're getting into a bunch of very specific things.

[Greg Miller]

I was gonna say Blessing went out of his way with this idea to go through and give us categories. So bless. Give the categories to the audience so they can start percolating.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah, of course. And so, of course, this is kind of funny. 2025 holiday gift giving Guide. Kind of explain it there. I. I basically narrowed this down to five different categories, so we have one game for ages under 13. So you're giving a gift to a kid. You want to get them. Get them a New game that's the first one. Second one game for ages over 13 your buddy who you know is into video games you want to put them on third one gaming hardware console PC, handheld. What's a big gift you can get for somebody in that regard? 4th 1 gaming accessory controller the pillow that Andy likes you know what is something that you can get to somebody

[Greg Miller]

pillow he sleeps with and then the

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

fifth and final one I have here just a miscellaneous could be a membership could be a nerdy non gaming thing could be any fun gift.

[Tim Gettys]

I love it and we're going to get into it. Remember you all can super chat in kebabs Already did said I'll give Mike $100 in Concord's microtransaction currency.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I don't think that game had microtransactions the full price game.

[Tim Gettys]

Let's start with games for people under 13 years old and I think the best place to start is with Greg Milner.

[Greg Miller]

Hello.

[Tim Gettys]

He has a four year old child.

[Greg Miller]

That's true. Timothy, how are you?

[Tim Gettys]

I'm good, how are you?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I'm excellent.

[Greg Miller]

What I will do is take you back to Thursday. All right. It's 2:30 in the afternoon and I send a text message to the one, the only Hayes. Kyle Hayes has been heard a lot of lately on this show because of course he's the man who played Metroid prime back in college that I watched okay So I sent him and I was like hey Hayes, did you know that Metroid prime he's a. He's an actuary in St. Louis a dad of two girls. He's very busy. Did you know that Metroid Prime 4 is out today? Would you even care anymore? I've mentioned you know less than five times this week on content because every time prime comes up my only connection is you watching it on GameCube playing the new one. I see why you dug it because I love Metroid Prime 4 and I say miss you. He responds back that I in the right and we're going through and he goes I hope I can I hope he's talking about his daughters obviously right. I hope and get them into it. We got the girls a nex for an nex a next for Christmas instead of a switch to I didn't know a switch to existed until last week and I, I the text goes this is concerning the text comes in and I'm like okay cool. He clearly the kids wanted a PS5.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I learned about this the other day because it was the third highest selling console of the year.

[Greg Miller]

Let me do my whole business. Jesus Christ. And I finally go, I'm waiting for the bubbles. I'm waiting for the bubbles of him to explain what the fuck NEX is. And I go, what's a nex? And he sends me blows my mind by sending me the Amazon link to NEX Playground Active Family fun for it with interactive games. He goes, I think it's a motion based system, no controllers. Then he sends me a subreddit games post that's Matt Piscatella explaining the fact that NEX is destroying right now. If you didn't know, you can go to any of Matt Piscatell his latest tweets to hear about it. But here's one from December 3rd US best selling hardware SKUs for the week ending November 22nd ranked on units sold. Number one, Nintendo Switch 2 Mario Kart World bundle number two Nex Playground interactive gaming system number three PlayStation 5 digital one terabyte. So that's neat. And he's been continuing to go on. There's one BS and I like underneath Rebecca Valentine going the what? Because again, who the fuck has heard of the nex? Matt Piscatell had his own. He goes the Disco Stew Disco record sales chart. But instead of NEX Playground, instead it's NEX Playground sales over the past three weeks. This is a Simpsons reference. Of course Disco Stu doesn't advertise and he has a chart of just disco. It's a very detailed dialed in Simpsons reference that you need to get in the same way you need to fucking go. Know what? The NEX playgr. And he responds with Matt Piscatella whose job it is to track the industry. Me trying to predict the industry. Pedro Pascal freaking out. So what if I told you, Tim, the Kinect is back everybody.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah, it is.

[Greg Miller]

Hell yeah. As a subscription based box for children that you're recommending. I mean I. Here's my thing about it.

[Tim Gettys]

This is quite the leap, Greg.

[Greg Miller]

Which part?

[Tim Gettys]

I'll just jump in a holiday gift giving behind. Here's the thing you don't know about.

[Greg Miller]

I mean I've gone oh no. But this is my whole thing is I've jumped in then and done research, haven't played it or whatever. And more than anything, I think it's the that we are the kind of funny games cast. We talk about video games. This is the number two selling hardware two weeks in a row or two months in a row, whatever it was. Matt has another up there that we've never talked about. So yes, I'm a bit abusing the Title here of saying, I recommend it when I haven't touched it. But it's more, we need to talk about it. And it is more the fact that I did my due diligence of hearing it from a parent. And then I went and watched several YouTube reviews of it. And if I was in a different spot, I think mainly with the layout of my house, I would buy it for Ben because it doesn't seem like trash. I think you look at it and it could easily be considered trash. But here's what happens. Every weekend, we're going to find out.

[Andy Cortez]

This thing watches your kids or some shit.

[Greg Miller]

They're very clear. They're very clear description that it doesn't. And it doesn't do that and it doesn't store it. But if we want to be horrible to go for it. Anyways, every weekend, we start Saturday and Sunday and we have our little. Me and Jen have our coffee. Ben has his milk, we watch a cartoon, we play with the game, we do whatever, and. And then we go, okay, what are we doing today? And then on a weekend, there's several different things to do, right? Obviously, video games are there. Then, of course, there's doing a chore for the house that Ben has to help with. But another big one is move your bodies. Like, we have to get out of the house. You have to do something. Ben has too much energy. We need to burn this motherfucker out. You understand? He's too tired. He's too crazy. And so looking at this, I watched several reviews on YouTube today about it.

[Tim Gettys]

This little eyepatch.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, right. To cover your camera. Well, here's something you like about it. We all like about it to a degree, right? The one of their big pitches for it, which I understand, right, is up the alley of a gamecube, where it is the idea that, yeah, you go online to download the games, but you can play offline. So it is that. Cover the lens, toss it in your bag, take it to your sleepover, take it to Grandma's for Thanksgiving, whatever it is, so everybody else can get up and play. Obviously not having had hands on it. I can't tell you how good the games are or how well they control versus the shitty motion games we've all played and all seen.

[Tim Gettys]

This is a group stream, y'. All.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

This is so smart, by the way. They got this of a business proposition.

[Mike Mahardy]

Next Pet puppy, they got Bluey, they got Peppa Pig.

[Greg Miller]

Like you can all laugh at me for not having done it. I wanted to bring something outside the box especially for As a parent who would be looking for something outside of

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

the box for my kids, my sister asked me over Thanksgiving. My sister has three kids. She's like, do they still make the Wii? And I'm like, no, it's the Switch now. But they do have like she has a Switches. Like, yeah, but she's still. She's not in the gaming ecosystem. So she's like, oh, is there something motion essentially? And I'm like, well they do have Switch Sports. Like they had Wii Sports is basically the same thing. But it's so it was such an interesting conversation to have because I couldn't really sell her on it. Like there wasn't an easy way to talk about it. This would be the replacement for that.

[Greg Miller]

Christopher Drink from the Game business. Had a newsletter go out, I think maybe even today. Might have been yesterday though. And it's basically NEX Playground, or I'm going to keep calling it Next. But NEX Playground reminds us of the importance of living room based games. Over Black Friday week in the U.S. the Nex playground accounted for 14% of all console sales ahead of the Xbox series S and X. According to Sarkana, the family focused camera based video game system was behind Nintendo Switch 2 and PS5. In the UK, PS5 accounted for 62% of the sales, followed by the Switch and Xbox according to Nielsen. Blah, blah, blah. And it goes on. NAX isn't even available in the UK right now. It is that idea. We all talk about video games and how much we love video games and how yes, I originally took this thing and started like, all right, well what is Ben playing? What game would I recommend? It is that idea of the fact that this has infiltrated Hayes's house and Hayes hasn't even paid attention enough to know that there's a Nintendo Switch 2. I wanted to make sure I brought it to the table here so we could all have a conversation.

[Tim Gettys]

It's out of stock at Amazon.

[Greg Miller]

It's.

[Tim Gettys]

This thing's flying.

[Mike Mahardy]

I'm on the website.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

It's out of sight on the website and that's what.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, I was seeing too. I don't if you're a. Actually again, I'm cheating a bit because I wanted to talk about this thing and we have no other real avenue for it. I imagine if you're a parent you already have heard about it and know about it to some degree. And if you aren't, you probably look at this and go, what a bunch of shit games. Because again, I look at this, not only do I not think I have the house set up for it. Like I just don't have a TV where I could put the box, that box in front of it that way. I also love Ben playing real games. I want him to play real games. But I love the Trojan horse of this, of let's get a small, very simple. We showed the video but right it's USB C and an HDMI to the back of it. Let's get a small, simple device into people's home so they can play games and kids can find games again. And as much as Kinect and PlayStation Move weren't for us, I do think there is an avenue for good games that are out there. And so for them to have licenses like Sesame street, which of course back in the day on Kinect, you know, Double vine made a Sesame street game. I remember they came on up at noon to talk about that, to see that there to see Bluey there, to see Peppa Pig there, to see just interesting enough looking games to get people going. I, I think it's a neat idea and I would like to actually touch it.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Just, it's. Yeah, it's such a brilliant thing. I think just on the business side again because even, even when you talk about who the parents are today, like the new parents started coming up or people that grew up with the Wii, like I think back to even as a kid having the generic console that had like 8 bit, 16 bit NES inspired games that were just generic games. We had that growing up where I would go to somebody's house or I go to like a school thing where they would have that because they're not gonna buy a Super Nintendo or whatever and parents like it because oh, we played like games like this growing up. I'm sure the majority of people that see this, the majority of adults with kids that see this are like, oh man, let me show you what it was like to play Wii Sports like non stop when I was young.

[Tim Gettys]

$250, $50 for a three month pass, $90 for a 12 month pass.

[Greg Miller]

That is the downside. Yeah, well, I mean there's probably more than that and again connect. But I think there's a fascinating conversation for us as the enthusiast game people, right. Of the fact that yeah, Hayes is ready to throw down 250 and a subscription. He is getting a subscription. I followed up today when I was, I'm looking learning and trying to figure it all. Like they're willing to throw that much in there where they would scoff at the price of maybe a switch to maybe a Place for sure. A PlayStation 5, et cetera and so on. Right. The fact that this is able to get people through the door that way it comes with five games bundled in. So I mean there's like whatever and yes over here chat saying subscriptions are everywhere. Yeah, I think it seems like they are feeding this. I watched one guy's one parent, you know, dad, parent reviewer and then I watched his year long follow up a year later and he was like yeah, I agree. It's. If it's followed up it's done all this stuff. So it's an interesting thing that I think we. I wanted people to be aware of. And yeah, if you see it on the shelves, I guess buy it.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah, I'm sending the link to my sister right now.

[Tim Gettys]

Andy Cortez, what do you got for children under 13?

[Andy Cortez]

First of all I want to say we need, we need less Trojan horses. Like there's already Roblox of Fortnite and it seems like a good Trojan horses aren't seeing their way through. They're staying in there. We need less chosen horses. Mine is a little cute ass game called Wild Woods. Oh, Wild woods is a kind of four player co op thing where you're like, you're all little. You and your homies are just sort of moving this payload along and it's top down and the art style is adorable but it's also kind of roguelitish. It's has like a. It came out in early Access in December of last year and it was a. I think it's sitting on like the most recent reviews because it is an Early Access tile. The most recent reviews are overwhelmingly positive. They're like 95 score on Steam and it's just you and your homies kind of playing a. You know, moving this payload along, gathering little resources to keep the payload working and then battling enemies together. And I think that the, the shared kind of. I have actually I haven't checked if this is a couch co op but I just really dig the. That it's like baby's first versions of a lot of different games in terms of. When we talk about games like you know, Hades 2 and you know, the more adult style Roguelites because it's feel like it's a bit tougher to find games for kids that are diet versions of what you get nowadays, you know. So I just really, really enjoyed the. The vibe of it and the tone of it. It's got you know, really cute controls in terms of how everything operates and yeah, I just really really dug the Vibe of it.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, that looks cool. Bless. What do you got?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I'm bringing here Split Fiction. It's game that of course, we all know about. A lot of us play split fiction. A lot of us really enjoy Split Fiction. But it's my pick because I go back to the last Christmas where I was in my, I was at my sister's place in Houston. I. We put up, we poked up the Xbox that my nephews had and went on Xbox Game Pass. And I went on the games they already had downloaded. And they already had It Takes Two downloaded. And it was a thing of like, oh man. Even for y' all who are, I think at the time, I want to say maybe five years old and nine years old, they were already at an advanced gaming place enough to where they could play this together, enjoy this together. And I think when you're talking about games that you can play in the living room co op, right, have that shared puzzle solving, trying to get to the next thing kind of experience, I still think nobody does this like Hazelight. Right. And I think Split Fiction is a good one for how much variety there is in there, even compared to something like It Takes Two Split Fiction, having these different genres, sci fi, you're playing as these different creatures or whatever you're doing moment to moment. I think it's just a good one that could work for kids under 13.

[Tim Gettys]

Oh yeah, I back that too. Mike, what about you?

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah, Tim, you know, me and the kids this holiday season are really excited to gather around the entertainment center, get in the living room and have some fun. And I, I like to bring it back to my days as a kid.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Right.

[Mike Mahardy]

And I think of mom and dad getting us the N64 Gauntlet Legends. Right? How special that was, that fun couch call. And so I'm going to recommend Lego Party.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Nice.

[Mike Mahardy]

I love Lego Party and I think the kiddos this holiday season will love it as well. It is a fun, cooperative, slash competitive game where you're going to be screaming and laughing the whole entire time. I think we showed during our stream that SMG Studios really delivered on this one.

[Tim Gettys]

Right.

[Mike Mahardy]

Like they, we all kind of said, oh, no way, they can't compete with Mario Party. And they did. They brought an alternative to it on every console and platform. And it brings the fun from the mini games that will have you laughing and trying to compete against each other to just being on the map following the guy trying to get that golden Lego block and seeing who will come out on top. I think Lego Parties are perfect family friendly game to Jump in with.

[Greg Miller]

I still haven't started Lego Party. I missed the stream. You guys did I forget why is it. Could I bring Ben into it now?

[Tim Gettys]

Yes, 100% okay.

[Greg Miller]

I didn't know how.

[Andy Cortez]

There has never been a better time.

[Greg Miller]

I didn't know. I didn't know how complicated minigames are and stuff to that nature.

[Mike Mahardy]

No, I think this will be an all timer. I, I truly believe like when we talk about the Mario parties and how fun and you can go back to any one of those with you and your friends and just play them. That's Lego Party. It doesn't matter what time it is, it doesn't matter where you are. You can just turn this on and have a great afternoon. The matches were small, short, Right. We played one. It didn't take that long. It didn't feel like it's a two hour investment. You can get in and out pretty quick. I think one is like 20 to 30 minutes and then after that you go higher. But like that's what I'm looking for out of a quick afternoon with the kids. Get them locked in, maybe have it end and let's try to get outside. But that's my recommendation.

[Andy Cortez]

And there weren't any changes in it that made me say I like this in Mario Party better. Like every change that it was making, I enjoyed more than what Mario Party was doing.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, yeah. This was definitely the game I've had the most fun playing with other people this year. Oh wow. That stream, I like keep thinking of it like, man, I wish we could just, just play that.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

We gotta get back.

[Andy Cortez]

So much fun.

[Tim Gettys]

And like all the mini games were like either inspired or great takes on classic ideas that we've seen before. Yeah, it is definitely one of the bigger surprises because when we first saw the game revealed I was like, this is going to be absolute trash.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

And it was not even just the choice of putting the. What you play the minigame and then based off your placement in the minigame, I believe that determines turn order for the next turn, which is just a really smart, you know, thing. Also, you start off with the mini game, right? So it kind of like puts the mini games before the turns, I think. Yeah. All the changes they made just felt like smart changes, game design wise for Mario Party.

[Andy Cortez]

Timmy Buddy through the Twitch chat says you can play Lego Party through Netflix and you use a phone or tablet as the controller.

[Greg Miller]

Nice. We won't be doing this trash.

[Tim Gettys]

I don't know about that. That sounds. I don't know if I'd stand by the Control schemes of that. Because even playing that game with a controller, some of those minigames were kind of difficult.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah, the little like, I mean, for y'.

[Tim Gettys]

All, for some of them. For y' all down here with that rocket ship I was locked in.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Give me an asteroids like game. I'll destroy it.

[Greg Miller]

It breaking news right now. Monster Hunter tweets. In light of the recent tsunami warning issue due to an earthquake off the coast of Japan, we've decided to postpone the Monster Hunter showcase broadcast which was scheduled for today. We'll share a new broadcast date with you as soon as it's decided. Everybody stay safe out there.

[Tim Gettys]

Peace. My suggestion for kids under 13 is Kirby Air Riders.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Hell yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

And for one specific reason. We gotta the kids up now.

[Greg Miller]

Whoa.

[Tim Gettys]

We gotta create the next generation of kids on a games cast they're gonna be talking about. Back in my day, we played this one weird game that was unlike any other game you've ever played. It might look like games you played. It doesn't play like those games. It plays differently. Kirby Air Riders is the exact definition of a holiday gift. You give this to a kid and they are going to be like, what the hell? And they're going to get transfixed. They're going to just play this thing over and over. And all of a sudden it becomes their personality. And that is how we breed talent, people. That is how we get the next generation of sickos.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Kirby Air Riders is the kind of game that you don't ask for.

[Tim Gettys]

You're 100%.

[Greg Miller]

You're giving Uncle Timothy. You need to give it to Ben. I gave away the codes I got for this where I was like, I don't want to play this. But here's what happened. We went to the Nintendo store this weekend after making a joke about how much I go to the Nintendo store on the last gamescast. Went to the Nintendo store this weekend. Ben was walking around with me and guess who he fucking saw. Meta Knight.

[Tim Gettys]

Oh, yeah.

[Greg Miller]

And he was. And he's like, who is this? I'm like, it's Meta Knight. And like we. We left and he could not shake fucking caring about Meta Knight. And on the goddamn bag. On the fucking bag. Been there, I have this. We've all been there with. I bought this Samus Amiibo. It's got this sick color scheme. It's got a motorcycle. I'm like, ben, look at this. He's like. And he looks at the bag.

[Tim Gettys]

He goes,

[Andy Cortez]

what about this?

[Greg Miller]

You want a met? You want the Meta Night plush? Like, yeah, I'm Like, I'll put it on the list for Santa, but.

[Mike Mahardy]

All right.

[Tim Gettys]

God, that is. Look at our boy.

[Andy Cortez]

I met a. When I went to Denver for the.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

For my family reunion thing, I met a cousin of mine for the first time who's like, I think about six or seven favorite game, Kirby and the Forgotten Land. And I think the kids are ready for a Kirby takeover. This generation. I love that last thing I saw that. I feel like in 50 years they're going to, like, do studies and like, in the same way where they say, like, oh, this family and these kids were exposed to nuclear radiation back in the day. Like, these kids were exposed to Kirby Air Riders. Their eyes, like, perceive things way better now.

[Tim Gettys]

Real talk, though, it's like, I've said this so many times, but the way that Sakurai are excavated games is unlike anyone else. And I do think that there is like, a childlike wonder to playing this game before you know what a game's supposed to be, quote, unquote.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

That allows you to just kind of think differently about video games and about the fun that they have. And the fact that we have this game with as much polish and budget as was put into it in 2025 on the switch to the first year the switch 2 is out is absolutely insane. I want to keep up the GameCube energy that Nintendo's been having recently. And I think that this is the definition of a game that you do not buy for yourself. You get gifted and it might become your thing.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

And it's a single button game. You know, it's an easy game to play if you're. If you're trying to give it to a child. And then also, like, it's a game that has a high difficulty curve, which I think is good because, like, you get in and you can. You can play it, you can have fun, but also you can evolve in it, like, over years. I remember the games I played as a kid where I'm like, damn, this is hard. But, like, you know, you play Super Mario Brothers and you're playing World one over and over and over again. And it wasn't until I got a few years older to where it's like, like, all right, I'm in World 52 and I'm doing it right now. I'm in World 67 now.

[Mike Mahardy]

I'm in.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah, I think there's. There's space for that.

[Tim Gettys]

I love that. Six, seven, you. But it's just like, it's not even a world twice.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Five minutes plus. Come on, man.

[Tim Gettys]

You inspired Me, Barrett, you inspired me as well. You know what else inspires me? Games for kids over 13.

[Andy Cortez]

Because that's us in my time codes I have it. Games for big kids.

[Tim Gettys]

Big kids, everybody.

[Greg Miller]

Those big beautiful kids.

[Tim Gettys]

Let's start with Greg.

[Greg Miller]

Hi.

[Tim Gettys]

What you getting them big kids?

[Greg Miller]

You know, these are the questions usually that I hate where it's such an open ended like what would you give someone over there? I mean I would have a million fucking follow ups to anybody if they wanted me to recommend them a video game. But for 2025 just not knowing who I'm talking to and just shooting something. Luminesce arise. You know I think Luminesce is such a great puzzle game. Obviously no game is for everybody, but I think this is such a great game, such a visual treat, such an audio delight. If I was saying just do a blanket statement of like I want to buy somebody a gift of a game and I don't know what to get them, I'd say pick up Luminous. Like what I mean it's a puzzle game I've loved for years and years and years and years and years and this one does it incredibly well. It doesn't reinvent the wheel by any stretch of the imagination but it's great, it's beautiful. It's got a bunch of cool tracks in there. Why not?

[Tim Gettys]

Andy?

[Andy Cortez]

I chose a game called RV there yet and this is almost gonna be the game that I put for the kids on a 13. But you could smoke cigarettes and it's illegal to do it it under the age but at 13 is when you can smart. Got it. Cigarettes. We streamed are we there yet? Several months ago and it's a multiplayer game I've been wanting to return to ever since. It is such a fun co op goofy ass journey with the prox chat happening with the amount of just silly physics things that can happen in the world. It's you and it's three other players and you're doing your best to get the RV over to the next spot. The RV is very breakable and if you bump up against the wall you might sort of break the side of it and you need to hopefully have parts to then repair the rv. And yeah, there's snakes, there's animals, there's you know the wi. You gotta like connect the winch to a tree so that you could maybe get yourself out of a, a muddy area. There is a, an insane moment where I had, you know I like dived in or dove into a chasm and I was just stuck down there. I Was like, how the do I get out of here? And Kevin was like, andy, oh my gosh, dude, I've been. He's been. He was the winch guy. So he was the one like controlling the winch anytime we needed, like, you know, bring ourselves towards a tree or whatever. He said, andy, I'm gonna connect the winch to myself. I'm gonna dive down there. And then you could pick up your homies. And he was like, and then I'll bring us back up. I was like, like, yeah, dude. And I see, I see him just, just up in the light, like with the sun behind him. It was like such a heroic moment for him. And he dives into this chasm with me with the winch connected to him and he lands and he starts laughing maniacally as he's like diving. And I thought it was just cuz it looked funny, like the whole jumping animation. And he said, oh my God, I left the remote control in the rv. And so Kevin's just hanging there with this thing while I'm in this cast, like, and he's trying to like swing towards me and it's just a disaster. This game is like filled with hilarious ass moments. I think it's like one of my co op games of the year.

[Tim Gettys]

That is awesome.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

It's really funny, Mike.

[Mike Mahardy]

That makes me happy.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

I'm so happy you weren't here that day.

[Mike Mahardy]

God, Yeah, I took a shot. I was glad that you guys played it without me. It's great.

[Andy Cortez]

Call of Duty.

[Mike Mahardy]

What do I want to get the big old beautiful kids?

[Tim Gettys]

Tim, he's got props.

[Mike Mahardy]

Props. I want to introduce them to Magic the Gathering.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Mike Mahardy]

There's no better time to jump into Magic the Gathering, especially with all the fun universes beyond collabs. You know that over the past year now we have really celebrated and played a lot of magic here in the office. Thanks to Blessing and Greg teaching me, I am back on the magic grind and I can't get enough of it. And I think with what they've done with Magic the Gathering foundations being a new way to introduce new players. Having a foundational set that is like, hey, this is going to kind of touch everything, but also be focused on you learning and being able to play. They also now have the Magic the Gathering Avatar, the last airbender set that also has a beginner box that I think does a fantastic job in introducing new players. Right?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

That's what I'm gifting my friend Sara, who loves Avatar but hasn't gotten that deep into magic yet.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yes. And so these packages include everything you need. Right, right. They have 10 themed jump start decks that are half decks that you would combine together. So you start to dip into the multicolored decks of magic that will really show a player how to go. You get two game board play play mats. You get two how to play guides, two reference cards, two spin down health dice. They have everything in these packages ready to go for anyone to learn and you can teach. We saw that with Greg and Bless. We literally sat here on a stream, read the rules, and they went card by card, went straight down the book and were able to at least learn the very basics and then be able to bounce off of that. That's what I thought was amazing.

[Greg Miller]

That box is what started the journey for Bless. It started the love for me, but I have not the time to go play and get good. Like Bless has me obsessed because you're on another level.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

But water's still warm.

[Greg Miller]

I'm coming. Don't worry. As soon, especially when you get Ben to where he like we today, he got from the elves a pack of playing cards that had Superman on them. I taught him go fish. And it was that idea like, like when we get to a point where I can start introducing this kind of stuff, I'll be all about it.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Oh, hell yeah.

[Greg Miller]

And there's a shop in the neighborhood that does like, it's a kid. It's a game shop where you could go play magic, but they do kid nights or whatever. Anyways, back to this. One of my favorite stream moments is that you and me sitting down, not knowing how to play magic, learning through this foundations box and there's like, I forget what it is anymore. But there's a moment where something happens and we both go, ah. And like you see us lean in and like it clicks and we get it. And it was like, like, I would love to get back to magic.

[Mike Mahardy]

As a kid that grew up with a lot of sports Tim, but also had a lot of friends in different groups. Right. I had the theater group that I was very close with. I had friends that were just all about. I enjoy going to the local game shop and seeing the kids come in, whether they be with their parents or it's just like they're in their like pre teen teenage years and them being exposed to like, hey, there are other kids that are out here playing the game. You're building this bond with this community that I think it's just the coolest around. Right. Down in Palo Alto, they have Gamelandia that does kid Centric nights where they play commander and have fun. And that place is packed with pre teens to teens laughing and having fun and building this group of others that they might not ever meet. And so I think Magic has really set me off on this path of like, expanding my kind of friend group and beyond. And I love that. And so, yeah, I have to recommend and Magic the Gathering for, like, that preteen to teenager, I think really would go far with this kind of stuff and hopefully put them on a cool path to meet new people and play a really great game.

[Tim Gettys]

Love that. Bless.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah. So of course, for this category, you're talking about games for ages over 13, and that could be teenager. That could also be adult. Right. And I think my mantra for this one, for my pick is be the cool friend. Be the friend that has the opportunity to change your buddy's life. Because we all have a friend that likes, like, kind of plays video games or is into video games. But you might be the nerdy one in your friend group if you're listening to this podcast.

[Greg Miller]

You definitely are.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah, you definitely are the nerdy one of your friend. You'll be listening podcast. Addison might be. Yeah, no, Addison might be the nerdy friend. Be somebody's Addison, is what I'm saying. And gift them the gift of Claire Obscure Expedition 33. You know, somebody that hasn't played Expedition 33, and they will thank you for it. Like, you can change somebody's life going forward. That's my pitch.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah. I mean, I love that. That I was going to put that one down for the exact same reason. And the reason that I didn't is because I already did that to all of my friends. And that has been my year already of gifting them that and them being like, oh, my God, this is amazing. Seeing snow. Mike. Mike, play through the amount that I've watched you, bro, it's so good. I saw your epilogue yesterday. Oh, my God. So good. But, yeah, I could not second that any anymore. But I wanted to go with a different one, and that is Hades 2. Because I feel like Hades 2 is be the cool friend all of that. I feel like we're getting to the point that Hades is a quote unquote, household name, but really it's not right when we're talking about getting just a little bit outside of the gamer spheres, I feel like this is still something that maybe they've heard of before, but I don't think people quite understand how good it is. And don't talk to them about roguelites or roguelikes. Or just be like just play this game. It is essentially free like whether you're playing Hades 1 or 2, but obviously start with 2. Now if you have a Switch 2, you're looking for things to play. If you have a PC, if you it's. You do not need a crazy PC to run this. Any handheld can run this thing so well. It is just such an easy recommendation because I feel like it is the type of game that's just like I don't need to tell you anything, just jump in, just commit to playing for an hour and you'll see if it's for you and chances are it's going to be. And yeah, I just love this game so much and it's just so cool looking that even if you don't understand the gameplay and it's overwhelming because it kind of is like when you jump into this for the first time, sure there's so many currencies, there's so many systems, there's so many things that you don't understand. You learn all of them just by playing it and that becomes fun.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

So yeah, I think to both our picks, right, like these are the games that you can give to your normie friends and they'll fall in love with, right? If they like video games, they play video games at all. Like they will get obsessed with Hades too.

[Tim Gettys]

They'll get obsessed with clear, obscure Mikey Mog super chats in saying I just finished Expedition 33 five minutes ago and yeah, everyone needs to play this game. This is my game of the year. We're going to be right back with a couple more categories for holiday gift giving right after a word from our sponsors. This episode's brought to you by Storm Lancers. If you're looking for your next great co op obsession, check out Storm Lancers, a retro inspired roguelite with anime energy and chaotic action. In Storm Lancers, you and a friend crash land on a dying alien planet charged with unstable magic. It's fast, fluid and the action is non stop. But this Roguelite isn't about flawless runs. The devs call it Crash out cold because the real fun comes from those chaotic party moments like messing up, reviving your partner at the last second and carving up enemy hordes with your newly unlocked powers. Invite a friend for old school couch co op or team up online on PC and Nintendo Switch 2. Only one of you needs to own the game. Steam's remote play together and Switch 2's gameshare lets you hop online with a friend instantly. One copy, two players Storm Lancers hits PC and Nintendo Switch 2 on December 9th so wish list now this episode is brought to you by Shady Rays. Let's talk gifts. Not the kind that get tossed in a drawer, but the kind that actually get used and appreciated. The holidays are coming up fast and Shady Ray sunglasses are an easy win. Every pair is polarized, durable and lightweight. They've got a ton of great looking high performance styles, styles that hold up no matter what you throw at them and the price way less than you'd expect for the quality. And here's what sets them apart. If you lose or break your shades, Shady Rays has your back with their lost and broken protection. So whether you're picking up a pair for someone on your list or grabbing one for yourself, Shady Rays makes gifting simple, quality built looks great and actually worth it. Start your holiday gifting early and head to shadyrays.com using code funny for 35% off polarized sunglasses glasses try for yourself the shades rated five stars by over 300000 people. Go to shadyrays.com use code funny for 35 off polarized sunglasses. Again, that's shadyrays.com use Code funny for 35 off polarized sunglasses this episode's brought to you by Aura Frames. If you are a last minute shopper, don't worry at all. I have the perfect gift that solves all the problems you might be having. No lie. Aura frames are undeniably the best best gift I've ever given and I'm gonna be sad when I run out of people to give it to because I'll never give a gift this great again. Families, friends, partners, everyone loves being able to have beautiful frames showing off their loved ones and all of their favorite memories. And also it's so easy to add the photos using the Aura app. It's set up to go right out of the box. There's unlimited storage so you can add as many photos and videos as you can find. Just download the Aura app and connect to WI fi with no no hidden fees for a limited time. Save on the perfect gift by visiting auraframes.com to get 35 off Aura's best selling car for matte frames named number one by Wirecutter by using promo code Kinda Funny at checkout. That's a U R A frames.com promo code kinda Funny. This deal is exclusive to listeners and frames sell out fast so order yours now to get it in time for the holidays. Support our show by mentioning I at checkout. Terms and conditions apply and we are back with gaming hardware console, PC or handheld. For this 2025 holiday gift guide, let's

[Greg Miller]

start with Gregory Me again. I've started category. Just going right down the order. Yeah, I think probably shocking no. 1 for me this year I'm recommending the Rog Xbox Ally X. You just want to call it the Xbox Ally, but there's too much, too much going on there. I know all the. I wasn't on the review back in the day. I agreed with everything you guys said though. Totally got where you were coming from. As somebody who was already using the Ally X as my dedicated PC handheld, this one is better than it in every way. I love the grips, I love the tech inside of it. As you all know, I am a big idiot. I only started playing PCs when PCs became hey, this is good enough to just be awesome out of the box.

[Tim Gettys]

Great.

[Greg Miller]

Thank you so much. The amount of times I've seen in our Slack channel, hey, we got this game. People dive in and go oh hey. Actually it doesn't run on Steam Deck. And the fact that that hasn't been an issue for me on the Ally X, both with my old Ally X and this one where it just is able to be a better PC and run those experiences for it. Again, what I had said before, both Allies have come in for review. But after that taste of the original Xbox or I'm sorry, the original Ally X when they announced this, when I said if they took away the original Ally X I would throw them thousand dollars at them to get this and that remains true to this day. If tomorrow they came and said hey we need the Xbox review units back, I would say I will gladly go off and buy this on my own because I've had that much fun and it's been that transformative for me this year. Again, we've talked about this on a number of different shows, but this has been the year of me playing PC as my number one platform. Like my trophies on PlayStation are embarrassing. Most of them are from Ben playing other things and going into it. It's the ease of use of this. It is for me personally. I know so many people are off put by the Windows nist even of this Ally or the Ally before it. Both of them have been great and I love how easy it is to swipe up on this one, go into the desktop experience, do whatever I need. Even before then the Xbox button to the thing my Bluetooth. I was so worried pre launch that getting this to do another Bluetooth controller or headphones would be booting. Windows would be doing this they have simplified it where that box or just the Xbox button to the things gets in there. It works. It doesn't pull me out of the experience. Even when I do pull out of the experience, it's fine. I'm able to go do what I want to do. You know, I want to review horses. Okay, where do I get it? I got to go to Humble. Okay. I buy Humble, you know, via the laptop I was on. But then I'm easily able to go here, get it to the desktop. Like, I love the Ally X. I understand why people don't. The buttons are way too fucking loud. I have talked about this at length. Tim talked about it in the review. You can ask my wife who's thrown me out of the bedroom while I was reviewing Octopath Travelers here and was like, as long as you're reviewing this game, you are not allowed to do it in bed. She's so stoked that I'm back on the switch kick now. But no, I love this damn thing.

[Tim Gettys]

Hell yeah. Let's go then to

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[Mike Mahardy]

ready for Marvel Studios Thunderbolts the New Avengers now streaming on Disney plus.

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[Tim Gettys]

I guess me with the Steam Deck OLED and this is a weird one. I really, I love the Steam Deck OLED. I feel like it's the type of product that is so rare in tech, period, where it is a game changer. Like it is such a. And it's been for years, but it changes the way you play games and changes the way you interact with video games. And specifically, to me, you would not be surprised, it's the OLED that makes the difference. I really am blown away by the quality of the screen and how well it works for so many different use cases. And I think the bigger pitch for me on the holiday gift guide side of things is, is the Steam Deck OLED is what I put down, but really my answer is a device for cloud gaming. And I feel like whatever your specific use cases are, like, that's such a great present for somebody else or for yourself, like a great gift to kind of enhance your gaming. And even if you don't think that it's for you or that you have use cases for it, I think you might be surprised at how much it might kind of shift or change the way that you are able to play games. So. So if you're in the PlayStation ecosystem despite it not being OLED, I think the Portal is a great entry point. I think that everybody that I know that has gotten one, surprisingly has been so happy with it for just the amount of times it allows them to sneak in a little gaming that they wouldn't be able to otherwise. But I think that overall, if you have the money for it, the Steam Deck OLED is the best overall bang for your buck in quality experience because you get the best of cloud streaming for all the different systems. But then you also get standalone being able to play Steam games, so. And the price isn't outrageously expensive for, for what it is. But yeah, whatever cloud based system you're looking for or cloud based hardware, I think you're gonna have a good time. Now, if you want something a little smaller and if you're a fan of the like PlayStation Vita kind of size and shape, the retroid pocket 5 I think is a great option because that also has an incredible OLED screen. It is light as hell and it can run all the cloud services so you can play all the PC games, all your PlayStation games, like everything on this thing and it's awesome. And that's like $220, something like that. But yeah, that's my pick.

[Andy Cortez]

Andy, I was originally going to talk about the X Real after my wonderful weekend where you lent me your X reels, but Mike has it on his list.

[Mike Mahardy]

So I'll let you double team it right now.

[Andy Cortez]

All right.

[Mike Mahardy]

Let's just talk about how great they are. Are. They're a true believer. I, I can't get enough of this. And I'm having so much fun going to friends houses, bringing my pair to them and being like, let's play around with it and being like, press that button now press this button up on the sides and we're plugging it into my Xbox Rog Ally. We're plugging it into my Steam deck. It is so plugging into the phone. It is awesome. It is amazing.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, it's. I now I'm at the point where it's like, I don't want to have a long flight without them now. Like, I, I did get sort of very spoiled to that point because I've not. I've never really enjoyed the neck down looking at the, at the handheld thing anyway. I've never been a huge fan of that. And there have been times in the past where like certain backs of seats on airplanes have like enough slots to where I have like a little mount, foldable mount thing that I bought on Amazon many, many years ago that I would like try to slot into where the books go.

[Greg Miller]

Your barf bag is.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah. And like, and it's a lot harder to do that now without, you know, a lot of flights will have screens or whatever, but also try to like find a way because I, I hate how much like how annoying my, my neck discomfort gets. But yeah, these things, having them on that flight and then being in the hotel room was like so great because I was just looking up at the ceiling playing Absolum on like Nvidia GeForce Now. It was crazy. Like the, yeah, the X reels. I've become like a true believer in holy. I, I now need to get this. After Tim lent them to me and my life hasn't really been the same.

[Tim Gettys]

I didn't put them as my pick because during the production meeting you said like, you were joking, I guess, but you're just like, oh, Tim, I got dibs on putting it out on the gift guy. And so I didn't. But like, yeah, without question, xreal are the thing that I would recommend. Like, obviously they can get kind of pricey. I would recommend getting the xrail one. The. The, the line that's called X Real one. So there's the ones and then there's the one pros. Either of those or like, like they. It's just worth the investment for every reason Andy just said. But like I Use them so frequently, whether it's for traveling, I will not fly without them. Like that is such a game changer. But it is just laying in bed when she's asleep and I have an amazing screen in front of me with like I'm holding a controller comfortably. Like it's such a game changer.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I want them so bad.

[Andy Cortez]

It's. It's a hard thing to, to me, it's like trying to tell somebody about a VR game. You don't know it unless you're looking and experiencing it. Where. When you try to sell somebody on like the Magic of Half Life Alex or something, it's like you don't really know unless you're there. And anytime I'd see advertisers for these things, they just. I couldn't really see how good that that experience would be until you actually put them on.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, you got to put on your face because I think there's so many things like, all right, well, does it hurt my eyes? Does it do this thing? Is there really that much better? Am I like. I have borrowed. I borrowed Tim's for the Ghost of Yote thing where I was trying to make it work on a plane with a PlayStation 5.

[Tim Gettys]

I got close, which is insane, but like it almost worked.

[Greg Miller]

I need that low power mode. I could get it on, I could get. I was watching, but anytime I'd launch the game, that's when the whole thing would draw too much power and crash out. But then, yeah, when I was doing Octopath review, I had a couple flights or maybe just one and tossed them in with the Rog ally and it was like, I will not be able to go back on a long haul flight for this because yeah, I've never thought about the. You know, I'm. I'm huge. I'm uncomfortable on a plane no matter what. So I never really thought about the head down nature of it or bringing it up and doing whatever. And I had the switch where I would try to do whatever, but once I had this and had it, it was like, oh, and not only that, then having the equivalent to an 80 inch theater screen, whatever. Seeing the amount of detail in the game that I don't. I. I had been ignoring for hours because I was playing primarily handheld. It was like, fuck, this is awesome.

[Mike Mahardy]

I've never felt so bad for Tim because Andy had his pair and Tim and I had to go to Seattle together. And I walked down the aisle and Tim was hunched over with his switch, looking at Hades all uptight and like, that's Me is right, Tim. Like I am. I have my phone that I watch all my movies on the TV screen on the United app. Just play something just to have something on it.

[Andy Cortez]

Right.

[Mike Mahardy]

And it's like, like I'm looking down on my phone, I'm trying to hold my phone up. These things have changed everything for me and I'm so thankful because it is amazing.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

And for, for audio listeners don't know what it is. It's there. It's not like this big ass Apple Vision Pro thing that is a massive VR looking headset. It is. They look like Wayfarer glasses. They, they, they go on your face and you wear them and they're. Yeah, they're, they're awesome.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Somebody in chat asks are the, are they good for glasses wearers? And for me as a glasses wear, the one time I've gone to check them out, they work perfectly. I was surprised by how good the vis was, honestly.

[Tim Gettys]

But you had another pick, Andy?

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. The other pick I have is a purchase I made early in the year which is the retroid pocket flip 2.

[Greg Miller]

Not the pillow for all of.

[Andy Cortez]

Well that's, that was going to be in the gaming accessory and I, I've talked, I mean I talked a pillow to death. Like, you know, it's a brand called Mechanism but this is the Retroid Pocket Flip 2 which is on sale right now probably for the holidays. It is a DS looking clamshell device, great emulation device and with the strides that people have been making with like hey, download this Android app and connect your Steam library to it that has really kind of changed the game even more where it's at first. This was originally just going to be the emulation device and the OLED screen is fucking fantastic on this little handheld. It is 229 originally but it's weird. Bear just brought that up the price of it. But like on one of the other screens it says that it's 1 79. So I'm wondering if that's just like a different color. Maybe it's on sale. But the, yeah, the strides that we've been making where there's an Android app called Game Hub, another one called Game Native I believe by a different kind of company that you access your Steam library and it like does this virtualization that, that where those games normally wouldn't run on an ARM chip or whatever like they are able to do so in a really weird way and you're just, you're connecting your Steam library so it's, it knows that you own these games and you are able to play smaller indie titles because Roger brought up a great point to me many, many months ago, right before this stuff started kind of coming around where he's like, I love my Steam deck. It's just too chunky for a device that like, well I just want to play silksong or Hades. I, I, this device is like too big.

[Tim Gettys]

Why?

[Andy Cortez]

I just want to run the really small indie titles and this, the way the tech is advancing to get those indie titles to run on Android emulators is really, really crazy. But yeah, I love this little device. Haven't had a whole lot of of a chance to play it recently just because of all the games that have been out, but I played through a ton of Vagrant Story on it as well as like Link to the Past and Final Fantasy 6 and all sorts of stuff like that. It's awesome.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, there's so many great products. Like I think that there's like a sweet spot of about $200 right now that it's going to get you something with an amazing OLED screen in whatever form factor you prefer, whether it's more vertical or horizontal. And like all of that stuff that allows cloud gaming, allows emulation and is now starting to allow this like more semi native Steam. It's incredible.

[Andy Cortez]

Cloud gaming GeForce now as well. Like crazy. It looks so damn good on the again, it was always such a tragedy when the Switch 2 comes out. I'm like oh man, my retroid screen looks so much better than this dude.

[Tim Gettys]

Bless.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah, I originally was also going to go with the Steam deck oled not because I have one, but because I would like to be gifted one

[Mike Mahardy]

and

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I was mainly going to go with that because my original pick was all sold out. The analog 3D has been out of stock for a while and that's one that I've recommended to friends to get people that they know that have nostalgia for the N64. But as of today, good news. They announced a new analog 3D skew the colors.

[Mike Mahardy]

They have all the, all the colors, yes.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

So they call them the Funtastic limited editions. They have 1, 2, 3, 4, about eight different colors here being they got the fancy names for them. Jungle, Ice, Watermelon Fire, just, you know, fun colors. Right. So the one we're looking at right now is the Jungle which is green of course, like the fire one is orange, the grape one is purple.

[Andy Cortez]

Shipping in 2029.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Well that's the other thing to it is that that they say here on the website Guaranteed Christmas delivery.

[Greg Miller]

No way.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yes. And so if you're somebody who is trying to find something novel to get somebody that you know for Christmas. Right. This will ship by Christmas and highly recommend it if you have somebody that has nostalgia for it in their life. Right. I was kind of surprised honestly when I posted some Instagram stories of mine when it came in. Also I should shout out this 300 pictures of mine when it came in where I got so many responses from people who are, are of course gamers, but then people who are non gamers that saw the N64 cartridge and went oh, what is this? Like there was so much fascination around it. If you don't know what the analog 3D is, of course the company Analog is known for making a lot of retro style devices. The 3D is the N64. And it's not just, it's not emulating N64. Like it is a recreation of the N64 that allows you to play those games on 4K devices. Right. And I, I don't know exactly how the technology works, but essentially like, like you know, it is. Stretching isn't even the word for it, but it's upscaling. Yes, thank you. Upscaling it to that 4K screen to actually make it work and make it look nice and, and not requiring you

[Andy Cortez]

to have the composite, you know, the yellow, red and white or the, or the component, whatever. It's like it's all modernized.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah, all modernized using hdmi. They also have an original controller for it that is made by 8 bit though. That is I think a very, very great modernization of the N64 controller.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Like it's so crazy holding this thing and being like ah, this actually feels nice.

[Andy Cortez]

This is how it should have been.

[Greg Miller]

This is how it should have been.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

We got to go back in time and change it. Like this is actually very fantastic. And so the one, the one thing that I wish they did have was just like the regular color of it back in stock. It seems like that's still not the case. But if you were somebody that grew up with the colorful ass and fours like many of us did, I think it's such a great option for Christmas. Christmas.

[Mike Mahardy]

I'm going to buy this.

[Greg Miller]

What color?

[Tim Gettys]

I'm.

[Mike Mahardy]

I mean I'll go for the jungle green cuz I had that. But I have a box of N64 games. I probably have 50 to 75 N64 games that just sit the entire library. And it is my, I mean it, my childhood, it's all I ever think about. It's when I smile, I think of nostalgia. I think of those moments. It's like when bless put that up there. It's like, I have to get this. So I'll be buying this right away.

[Tim Gettys]

Hell yeah. Let's move on then to gaming accessory once again. Greg, let's start with you.

[Greg Miller]

Hello everyone. It'll start off boring and then get maybe more interesting. If you've ever followed me for any of my handhelds, I always talk about SFBags.com and the city Slickers, of course. The My Vita had one, My Switch had one. Everyone. My Steam Deck had one. My Rog originally had one. Then they made a gigantic one for the bit. And this is Switch two in here right now. And then, yeah, they made a big one recently for the Xbox Rog, Ally I again, whatever handheld you have, if you need a nice case, the City Slicker is the one that I've always gone with and loved the most. So again, SF Bags I talk about all the time. Congratulations. Yeah, you're like, greg, that's boring. It's the same thing as ever. I recently though with the Xbox rug, right, was like, it's so large that I was like, I feel. Not that the City Slicker is not good enough for it, but when I'm really banging around there, like my bag's tight. I feel like the Rogs being so big makes my bag tight. Tighter with the. The grips than it did even the one before it, right Then I was looking at it and I went and got the. How do you even say the? J Osc. What? How do you say it? JS OX Yeah. J, S A U, X. They've been around forever, right? But they made a hard top one bigger one, this double decker one that I had them send over or whatever, right? So on the top you can put in the ally, right? Lock it down that way, protect the screen that way, have a hard top on top of it. But then even beyond that, that underneath it you could put in the plug, you could put in the stand. I carry my, you know, battery pack and a USB C in there or whatever. Just more for it.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

There's a chat from that says those bags are great for splunking and looking for agent.

[Greg Miller]

So yeah, I had two options there. Of course. SF Bags I would live and die by. They've been great to us. I still use their backpack all the time. The one I reviewed on here when I. Whatever. So they're fantastic. But if you're looking for a little bit more heft, this one in general too Feeling a little bit more bullet point proof for my big bag.

[Tim Gettys]

That's cool, love that.

[Andy Cortez]

Andy, let's go to you my recommendation for little accessories aside from the mechanism gaming pillow which is one that I've talked about ad nauseam throughout the year. The recommendation I'll go with is the game sir controller. It is a control that I've been, it's been my daily driver. I've been using this one the most this year. Second most is probably the Scuff Valor Pro which is also a very very good controller. This is a wired or wireless controller and they normally retail around 80 bucks. You can like there's some couple of special editions you see there that are like 100 because they have different visuals to them. But it's the best feeling controller so far for me this year. I it has the best of all. Like I can point to a lot of things for on other controllers that like oh, I don't love the way this feels. I don't love the grip here. I don't love the way that the back buttons feel. This one in, in like in totality is like my favorite one. I highly recommend this one. You could, it comes with a little like charging dock which I don't really use a whole lot. But the most important thing for you know I normally would recommend a lot of eight Bitdos because they're normally like $20 to $10 cheaper. But I hate having to remap buttons with those games like whenever I'm or with those controllers rather whenever I'm gaming and I need to switch to Hades where Dash is on the A button. I can easily do it here on the hardware without having to open a third party software on my computer. Or if you're playing on Xbox you don't have to then go to your computer and plug it in or whatever. It's all just hardware based remapping which is. I hope that 8bitdo does that in the future because then I would go right back to 8bitdo but I love these controllers, they rule. Yeah, I've bought a couple. Only problem is the, the gray nub thumbsticks or whatever stain really easily if you're a Hot Cheetos. Easy. Yeah. Be careful

[Tim Gettys]

user.

[Andy Cortez]

Hot Cheetos.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

Eater.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

But when you put that Hot Cheetos dust in the Y button does it still work or what?

[Andy Cortez]

I don't like this. I don't like.

[Tim Gettys]

I'm gonna stick with the controller talk here. I am going to recommend the Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller six months in to the Switch 2 being a thing. I feel like there was a question early on of like, do I really need to upgrade to the two if I are have the one? And the more experience that I've had with the two and the few times I've had to use the one, I'm like wow. It really, really is a hefty but worthy investment. I think the HD rumble 2 goes such a long way as we've experienced now through multiple games. Whether it's Kirby Air Riders or Metroid prime or Mario Kart World and all of that. Like it feels so much better. We talked about this on a recent show, but the actual premium feel of the plastic is silky. It's a silky magic that I just don't understand how they figured it out, like how it just feels so good to hold. Having the back paddles integrated is awesome. The gyro stuff on this is a dream for playing games like Metroid Prime 4 recently. But even going back to like the splatoons and all of that, like this is such a fantastic Nintendo controller. The analog sticks are just so buttery smooth. Like it is such an easy recommendation that I feel like is worth the upgrade. If you have been putting it off and you're like I don't think I need it. I think you do and it's a great gift. I think this is the, it's the perfect gift. Cuz there's going to be people that are like I don't want to spend that much. But you'll make someone really happy when they don't need to spend it and they have this nice bless.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah. To keep with the controller talk, mine is the dual sense edge you can get right now for $170. I think that's like a discounted price. On their website I believe it's $200 usually MSRP. It's my favorite of the modern PlayStation accessory lineup that they have. Where I love how the like grip feels on the controller, the texture of it. I love the paddles on the back.

[Mike Mahardy]

Right?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Like this is one of those ones where when I'm at work because I keep my dual sense edge at home. When I'm at work and I'm on a stream or I'm playing games on my desk, it just doesn't feel right because I'm using the regular. It makes the regular DualSense which is expensive as hell, feel cheap to me because I'm so locked into using my DualSense Edge controller. And so if you have somebody that's like really, really into PlayStation and you know, that's their main platform of choice. I cannot recommend it enough.

[Tim Gettys]

It's my favorite controller, period. I use this on, on every system that I possibly can, like whenever I can. It's very, very high quality.

[Mike Mahardy]

Mike, Tim, Andy, There's a saying that you and I both know, look good, play good. When I look good, I feel good. And when I feel good, I play good. And Tim, you know, ever since I started here, kind of funny, I've always said as a kid, I always wish there was more gaming clothing, right? I always wanted cool PlayStation T shirts, Xbox T shirts, and they just didn't have that back then. And now we live in a world world where Andy can rock this dope Dark Souls T shirt from the Tick Tock shop and beyond, right? There's so many cool gaming apparel brands now. And so for me, I went to Culture Kings because you've seen me rock the Culture Kings clothing before. It's kind of big in boxing, but I think they have some really cool video game collabs if we scroll through this that like video game players, kids would really vibe with, right? You have Master Chief, you have Skyrim here, you have Starcraft over there, There you have Blizzard games like Diablo and Warcraft. We go into Star Wars Battlefront 2. And like, these T shirts are just so cool looking, right? And so if I could rewind time, if I was back in high school, college, even today, I still wear them. I just love a cool video game piece of apparel. And I don't think we get enough. And I always want to highlight brands that I think are doing a good job, right? Maybe they're not for you or maybe you see yourself, yourself or somebody, you know that would want something like this. I think they have all the games you could ever ask for and more. So it's really, really dope if you keep loading this. Kingdom Hearts on that. They have it all.

[Tim Gettys]

So here's the thing.

[Mike Mahardy]

They've done a great job with that.

[Tim Gettys]

We grew up in an era that didn't have the video game shirts. And if we did, it was a freaking triforce, okay? You know what I mean? That was it. That was all that we were gonna get. But we also grew up with a bunch of uncles and father figures and all this stuff, and they're wearing all their. The band shirts that they grew up with. This is just the band shirts for our era, right? We're going to just see a bunch of old motherfuckers like us wearing a bunch of simple and clean Kingdom Heart shirts. And, you know What? That's just. That's it. That's the wave. We're doing it. We're changing things. I love this pick, Mike.

[Mike Mahardy]

Thank you, homie. Thank you.

[Tim Gettys]

Now we're getting into the miscellaneous gift giving category here with memberships, nerdy, non gaming things, or any just fun gift you want to talk about Greg? What do you want to talk about?

[Greg Miller]

This Vanessa Carlton. No, I'm kidding. On Greg Way. I talked about it a while back. It wasn't like a full blown. It was just a question that got tossed out there. But I'm gonna toss out the Super Note Nomad. It is this digital notebook I have. I am notoriously hard to shop for because whenever there's something I want, I just usually buy it, right? Because I'm an adult. And so this year when I actually ran into a review on IGN of them reviewing the Super Nomad, right? Which is just a digital notebook so you can go in and write, draw, whatever. And I read their review and I liked it so much. And it was that like, oh, man, I kind of missed it. Journaling the Dragon Age journal I did when I was playing that. And I was like, I'd love to do that for more video games. And I was like, you know what? I'd love to journal in general or have a notepad with me at all times to jot stuff down. And there's plenty of notepads. I have real physical ones, but, you know, they're too floppy. They gotta ride on my knee. I gotta do this. And it just wasn't the vibe I wanted. And so I read the IGN review, went and looked at the price. I don't have it in front of me right now, but it's on the product page. And I was like, you know what?

[Mike Mahardy]

What?

[Greg Miller]

No, I'm not going to do it. I'm going to walk away from it. Walked away from it. And months later was still thinking about the damn thing. So I was finally like, you know what, Jen? This is what I want for Christmas. And she said, okay, great, thanks. You never have anything. I was like, fantastic. And then she didn't give it to me right away. And I was like, what? Can I have it? She's like, you got this for Christmas. I know, but it's like I'd be using it right now for stuff. She's like, all right. So she wrapped it up and gave it to me. And so I've been running around with this guy, jotting down notes I write. I find it a better way to like, I don't it's not that I hate texting or I hate emails or anything else, but I want another thing. So, like I write people letters now. Like not real letters. Like I write the thing out and then I just send the screenshots or the PDFs or the images to people if I want to do that. Like if I like on a plane or whatever. Like I'm loving having a creative outlet to just doodle and do whatever I need to.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, love that. Very cool. I like the look of it. Yep. Sick. Mine is what I consider an excellent example for this prompt, which is this is a great gift for people because a lot of people are going to fight it because they hear it. They're like, I don't need that, I don't want that. But I'm telling you, it's going to change your life. It's the Apple TV 4K. The amount of times people ask me, tim, you love home theaters, you love all that stuff. Like what are the must haves, must have number one OLED TV, must have number two Apple TV 4K in that order. You then can start getting more and more crazy. But here's the pitch. Don't think about it as an Apple device. People get so caught up in, I don't like Apple, I don't care about Apple. It's not about that. It's about the absolute greatest way to get to your streaming apps with zero ads, with beautiful animations. It is fluid as hell. And you might be like, my smart TV has all those things. Your smart TV also has ads. Your smart TV also has shitty looking UIs half the time. It also has stutters, it also has horrible animations. Everything is just a little bit worse. This is the perfect gift for somebody to make their life just a little bit better each and every day. And I have not been wrong about this. Every single person I've put on loves it.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

To add on to you, Tim, right, I believe it was last year where Gary woulda gave me one of these for Christmas. And I have, I have it in my living room, in my bedroom tv. I have the Amazon fire stick. And I don't want to talk shit about the Amazon fire stick, but I do want to talk about it.

[Andy Cortez]

It's got me through some tough times.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

It's got me through some tough times. Let me tell you mean, it did keep me from finishing Stranger Things last night because it was stuttering.

[Andy Cortez]

But that's a whole different thing.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

When I tell you that, Tim, you are 1000% spot on. On how better of a Streaming device. This is than anything else that's out there. It is so snappy. It is so nice. Even the controller, or the controller, the remote control feels pristine. Like, it feels like a premium product. I absolutely love this thing.

[Mike Mahardy]

It's funny because Nick gave me one of these for the holidays as well. And I love this. It is the center of my. My living room.

[Andy Cortez]

Where's everybody getting.

[Mike Mahardy]

Nick loves me.

[Tim Gettys]

What's funny about this, I do think there's. That Gary and I are. Gary and I. So whenever they put out a new one, we upgrade and then we have ones to give out. So I do think that there's kind of this hand because guess where Nick got that one. I don't think he bought it, I'll tell you that.

[Mike Mahardy]

And so yes, I. I love this. It is the center of everything for me. I use it all the time, Tim. And I love that it's connected all of my apps into one place. Place. It's easy to navigate. I am surfing all the time. I jump from YouTube over to Apple TV. I jump over to Peacock. I'm over on Paramount. I have Fox Sports. I have every app on that and I can jump back and forth at an instant. It's awesome.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

And like, I'm not an Apple person, so I, And I never would have gotten this right. Like, I remember it was a conversation that me and Gary had when I. He mentioned Apple tv and I was like, oh, whatever. And he gave. He like, gifted, gifted it to me as like a proof of, hey, like, take this, you're gonna want this. And for me, as somebody who does not touch Apple shit, period, like, I'm an Android boy for life. I fucking love this thing.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

I also don't know if it's a. An update thing that I'm about to complain about or something, but when I was back home and with my parents at their house in the RGB where we don't play no games, and we were watching through Severance for the first time and we were using the. We were largely using the Apple TV app on the LG oled, right? And then I. We were like, oh, let's get this like, Google Chrome thing, Google Chrome TV thing. Like the newer version of Google TV. Yeah, Google TV is a newer version of it. And the Apple TV app was not outputting in 4K. Everything else is doing 4K, but severance was 1080p, lower res, bit rate. And I don't know if that's just an update thing or whatever, but I don't know if Apple is being like, no, no, you come to us for 4K or you don't get our 4K on the competitor's device or whatever. And that did kind of suck. But in that moment we went back to the. To the LG app and, you know, things were a little bit better. But you're so right, Tim, where anytime, my anytime there's an issue with an app, it's always because the TV apps just don't get like the quickest amount of love. They're always kind of on the back burner for updates, it feels like. And there will be like shitty bugs or weird issues with them that they're always crashing on my. On my Dad's more recent LG C3, I forget which one it is. But yeah, the Apple tv, it feels like they get priority for updates and stuff.

[Tim Gettys]

It's like the Steam deck, right? Yeah, like where it's like they. It gets the priority because like that it is a device that people have and it is a nice metric. So yeah, you're getting the fastest updates. Like even the things like YouTube and Twitch, like their apps are glorious to look at. There's also a whole bunch of other things that are very, very great about the system where. Where the amount of game support is absolutely insane. Like the amount of cloud streaming things you can even just get on Apple TV. GeForce now is not there yet. That's gonna be the game changer of when GeForce now is available native on the Apple TV. It's gonna be the easiest recommendation I could ever make to somebody. But check it out for sure. Bless. What do you got?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah, so Dropout is probably the best entertainment subscription that I've made in the last few years. And it continues to be the gift that keeps on giving thing. So much so that if you're coming to the friends or to the whatchamacallit, the favorite Things party that we're throwing on Saturday and you're watching this. Turn this off. Where I'm doing a favorite things party this Saturday, right? Which is a party where people. It's like a white elephant, except every single person brings three of the same thing. And there are rounds of, you know, people go up and they take what they like or whatever. And so you're leaving the three gifts. But ideally it's the favorite. It's your favorite thing that you've gotten this year under the price of like $15 dollars. The thing that I'm probably bringing is a 15 dropout membership because you can gift memberships to people on their website. $15 gets you about two months a year for Dropout, I believe, I believe is about like $70. And when I tell you that so many people in my life with the Dropout content and really enjoy the dropout content, if you're somebody who's into DND or curious about getting into D and D, they got it. If you like game shows, if you like Game Showdown, the they have shows like Game Changers and I'm actually probably seeing clips of that. Those shows are phenomenal. Right. Like there is a lot of comedy content, a lot of improv content and like I cannot recommend them as a comedy group enough. I think Dropout is absolutely fantastic. And yeah, like I think a gift of a dropout membership could go a long way if you're trying to put your friends on.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, I second this entirely. Like it is one that I've gotten so much value out of from the content. And even when there's a month that goes by where, where just because of life, I don't have time to watch new stuff, I still keep the subscription because I'm just like, not only do they deserve the money, but like I know I'm going to be back and I know that it's going to like have a ton of new stuff that's worth watching. So good call. Love that.

[Andy Cortez]

That's true. Yeah, a lot of people calling out the full profit share stuff, which is really, really awesome.

[Mike Mahardy]

Yep.

[Tim Gettys]

Andy.

[Andy Cortez]

Oh, my recommendation would be a Humble Bundle membership. You can pay 14.99amonth to get a really cool bundle of a bunch of different indie games on Steam and some portions go to charities they have raised so far. They have raised $274 million for charity and they've supported 34,000 different charities so far. This month's is Save the Children where conflict erupts or disaster strikes, children lose the most their homes, their schools are sent to save time, safety and it's just a really cool way to support stuff while also getting really good games. Like this month's Humble Bundle has nine souls in it, which is one of our faves from last year and Streets of Rage 4. Like a Dragon guiding the man who erase his name. And there's always like random cool games. So I, I, I recently was kind of, I've obviously known about Humble Bundle for a long ass time, but just was never something that I ever looked into until I was doing a recent kind of like giveaway code thing where I was like, hey, if you have codes to give away, you know, times are tough right now. Let's try to give away some games to people. And many games I got were from people's hello models going like, oh yeah, I pay like 15 bucks a month and here's they give me 20 codes. So here's random games that are like really good from like, oh, they have this game which was a banger that came out three years ago. It's a lot of different games like that. And so. So yeah, I would recommend that 14.99amonth. And the other recommendation I had was Nvidia GeForce now, which is just really kind of changed the way that I feel about cloud gaming.

[Tim Gettys]

Hell yeah. Mike, close this out.

[Mike Mahardy]

Tim, I got two fun ones for you. I'll put out a good one right now. Recently I've been on a been big pin kick. I asked Blessing when he went to Magicon to give me a Magicon pin. And I also bought a Sailor Moon pin collection from our local local game store. And I wanted to shout out a kind of funny best friend. I think it's very cool. I always say that all of you are so talented and amazing. I'm just some random jabroni and I love seeing what you guys put out there. And so if you're looking for a fun stocking stuffer, something small but thoughtful, I want to point you over to a kind of funny best friend. Ginger Pins Shop over here has all of the cool pins that you could ever ask for from some of your favorite video games like Kirby Expedition 33, One Piece Pirates. I think they're cute. I think they're fun. She is pretty awesome and is in the community. I think it's just a great way to highlight a lot of you out there that do awesome and incredible things. And so if you're looking for cute pins, there's earrings here, even desk mats and mouse pads. You can go check out Ginger Pins Shop for some cute stuff there. I just wanted to highlight a cool best friend. And then to finish, I want to get a little selfish, okay. Because it's all about you guys and the gifts you're giving. But what about the gifts you're giving big to me? Snow bike Mike. And so there's one gift that I would like this year. Andy, write this down. Okay, let's go to the next one. What is the gift that Snowbike Mike wants the Most? It is Dr.

[Andy Cortez]

Recommendation.

[Mike Mahardy]

The world of Warcraft box set collection. From vanilla to of course, the very latest. I want every single.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, this link.

[Mike Mahardy]

World of Warcraft. It's the question mark.

[Andy Cortez]

No, you put in the wrong link. So it just went to this again.

[Mike Mahardy]

Assets right now, man, I'm putting in assets for a quick.

[Tim Gettys]

I wanted it to be the jersey so bad.

[Andy Cortez]

I thought that was like a funny one. Too much.

[Mike Mahardy]

I'm debating on if I can pull that jersey off. I don't know if I can pull that jersey off. I want this World of Warcraft box set because, Tim, World of Warcraft means a lot to me. And those boxes are iconic. They're special. The PC boxes that just stand out. You think of walking down that PC aisle in the early 2000s at Target, you're like, man, these boxes are so cool. But that cool Jabroni out in Europe has sick. And I want all of these. I want to start and create the ultimate World of Warcraft box collection. I'm going to put them up on the walls. That's what I want.

[Andy Cortez]

That's fire as hell.

[Mike Mahardy]

Think about it, think about it. Think about it.

[Tim Gettys]

Think about it.

[Andy Cortez]

Think about it.

[Tim Gettys]

Oh man, I love it.

[Andy Cortez]

What are you going to get me?

[Greg Miller]

We eliminate Mike from the thing. That's 10 of us. We each give 20 bucks. There you go.

[Tim Gettys]

I want to get to some super chats to close out the show here. Mac and awesome says I just bought a mechanism gaming pillow as a gift. Also, thank you all for getting me through some of the absolute worst times of my life. Big love shout out to you. Hopefully things are going better and hopefully they enjoy the gift.

[Andy Cortez]

You a normal pillow just like under your head, right? And you just got it on your lap and it's just like, oh, weight free. Oh, it's so good. You just game for hours.

[Tim Gettys]

Let's see, the other laser says late birthday tax. It was yesterday. Happy birthday. Enjoying all my free foods for from restaurants. Video game art books are my go to. What do y' all think's the best one? I think that's a great gift suggestion actually. Like the answer right now is the Expedition 33, but it's only in French right now, so you might need to wait a little bit for the english version.

[Mike Mahardy]

Crash bandicoot 4. Love the colors. I love Crash. I love any gaming art book. Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

If you have a souls fan in your life, obviously it's really awesome to get the art books which are great but the one and only Vati video. Oh you. If you have. If you follow any souls content, you may have been algorithm already where the ad pops up and he goes, I'm writing a book and it is a book through Tune and Fairweather. Tune and Fairweather's been doing all of these sort of indie collabs with a lot of different creators out there and it is essentially like a collection of a bunch of the different scripts he's written for all of his souls videos with like, you know, annotated stuff and images and all sorts of fun stuff. But the quality of it also looks. Looks really, really fantastic because they I've bought. I've bought a lot of different things from Tune In Fairweather. I'm going to put it into assets right now. Barrett but this thing looks so damn cool and they just put so much love into the physical look of these books. I bought a couple different ones from like the, the, the bloodborne versions that they have from different from different authors throughout the the Souls community like Smowtown and stuff. There's a of lot of really, really awesome creators out there.

[Tim Gettys]

Alec Bobco says I got an 8 inch small horizontal monitor as a third screen for a permanent Discord SL YouTube music screen. Great addition to a setup without taking up much space. Yeah, y' all might not know the prices of these little screens are like it's like $30. Like you can get like these nice little things just for whatever weird use case you have. So definitely look into that.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, that is a good call. I have a 1080p like 8 inch monitor that I because I was so tired of moving around YouTube TV to like every monitor when I'm trying to like render or whatever. So I just ended up getting this monitor, putting it below my monitor and it's just a little tiny screen and it's up there and it's great.

[Tim Gettys]

And then last one I got for you is a great one. Jose Cortez says or hear me out. Send a letter. As a mailman, it's cool to see handwritten letters come through. It's rare to see, but such a treat. I like that.

[Greg Miller]

A little bias. That's biased. You just want. You want to make sure you're jumping worse. Worthless.

[Tim Gettys]

Well everybody let us know in the comments below what gifts you would suggest people get. And hey, what are you hoping you get this year? I'd love to hear that as well. We're about to do the kind of funny podcast and then after that we are doing the fun stream. That is going to be Nick playing Dispatch. So check that out Till next time. Love you all. Goodbye.

[Mike Mahardy]

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[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

So if you've been living in the

[Mike Mahardy]

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[Greg Miller]

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[Andy Cortez]

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[Andy Cortez]

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[Mike Mahardy]

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[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

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Too many to say here.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

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[Andy Cortez]

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