A Golden Age for Card Game Sickos

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Besties – "A Golden Age for Card Game Sickos"

Release Date: June 6, 2025

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1. Opening Antics and Episode Introduction

The episode kicks off with a humorous mishap involving Griffin McElroy and the newly released Nintendo Switch 2. Griffin shares his exaggerated tale of unboxing the console with a katana, resulting in the box being cut in half—a playful nod to the hosts' camaraderie and light-hearted banter.

• Griffin McElroy [00:00]: "Damn it, guys. Damn it. Yeah. Shit. It happened again. I got the Switch 2 in my hot little hands."

The hosts introduce the episode's focus on various card-based games, setting the stage for in-depth discussions.

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2. Monster Train 2 Review

Overview: The Besties delve into Monster Train 2, a sequel in the deck-building roguelike genre, likening its complexity and mechanics to beloved titles like Slay the Spire. The hosts discuss the game's multi-tiered defense system, strategic depth, and increased mechanical density compared to its predecessor.

Key Discussion Points:

• Game Mechanics:

  • Russ Frushtick [04:55]: "I played the original. I did probably like 10 runs of the original, so I know the basic structure of it."
  • The game features a four-tiered train that players must defend from waves of enemies using units, spells, and equipment.
  • The sequel introduces more factions (10 in total) and a broader array of strategies, making gameplay more intricate.

• Strategic Depth:

  • Griffin McElroy [08:50]: "Strategies that are pretty universal and make a lot of sense..."
  • Emphasis on positioning units across different train levels to create effective defenses against increasingly challenging bosses.

• Personal Experience:

  • Griffin McElroy [10:36]: "It is not an easy game. I have done like probably close to a dozen Runs or so..."
  • Despite its difficulty, Griffin expresses enjoyment and a sense of continuous learning and improvement.

Notable Quote:

• Griffin McElroy [07:20]: "It is kind of balls in your court. And I love that feeling of like, of control and that every choice that I am making has some sort of impact."

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3. Starvaders Review

Overview: Transitioning to another card-based game, the hosts explore Starvaders, a unique blend of card mechanics and tactical gameplay reminiscent of Into the Breach. They examine how the game differentiates itself through its grid-based combat system and resource management involving "heat."

Key Discussion Points:

• Gameplay Mechanics:

  • Christopher Thomas Plant [15:10]: "There is a 5x9 grid and the look and the feel of the game is imagine Space Invaders."
  • Players use cards to move, attack, and manage a heat gauge, adding layers of strategy and risk-reward decisions.

• Complexity and Strategy:

  • Russ Frushtick [19:06]: "It is way more in control of the situation."
  • The game demands precise planning and adaptability, with mechanics like "overheating" introducing high-stakes choices.

• Personal Impressions:

  • Christopher Thomas Plant [17:24]: "I finished my first run beating it by the skin of my teeth and felt amazing and immediately hopped right back in."
  • Highlighting the game's addictive nature and the satisfaction derived from mastering its systems.

Notable Quote:

• Russ Frushtick [19:53]: "It is gang, the most exciting poker video I have ever watched in my entire life. It fucking rules."

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4. Elden Ring Night Rain Review

Overview: The discussion shifts to Elden Ring Night Rain, a cooperative game set in the Elden Ring universe. The hosts compare its gameplay mechanics to Fortnite, focusing on its fast-paced, death-storm-like structure and cooperative challenges.

Key Discussion Points:

• Gameplay Structure:

  • Russ Frushtick [26:13]: "Elden Ring Night Rain is a co-op centric game... it's Fortnite Death Storm."
  • Players team up to survive increasingly difficult boss fights as the playable area shrinks.

• Multiplayer Challenges:

  • Griffin McElroy [33:07]: "It's still fucking hard as shit and doesn't feel designed to be played with one player."
  • The game is designed primarily for three-player teams, posing challenges for solo players despite post-launch balancing efforts.

• Comparison to Original:

  • Russ Frushtick [27:30]: "Everything that I love about Elden Ring is not this."
  • While aesthetically similar, the game's rapid pace and cooperative focus mark a departure from the exploration-driven experience of the original.

Notable Quote:

• Griffin McElroy [31:23]: "It's longer than a Fortnite match and even Fortnite matches are kind of a commitment."

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5. Cauldron Review

Overview: Cauldron is presented as an intricate idle incremental game with multiple mini-games and resource management systems. The hosts discuss its compelling gameplay loop and the addictive nature of its multi-faceted mechanics.

Key Discussion Points:

• Game Mechanics:

  • Griffin McElroy [38:02]: "The five games are totally different... There's like a sort of Space Invader style shooter."
  • Players engage with five distinct idle games to collect resources that feed into a central cauldron, enhancing character strength for turn-based battles.

• Addictive Gameplay Loop:

  • Christopher Thomas Plant [40:14]: "And the worst part, the games. Looking at this, you know when you're flipping through TikTok..."
  • The seamless integration of multiple mini-games creates a "Hellraiser-like" hook, making it difficult to disengage.

• Strategic Depth and Automation:

  • Griffin McElroy [41:33]: "I'll cash all this shit in the cauldron... and the auto computer will just smash through it."
  • The ability to automate certain aspects allows players to progress without micromanaging every detail, catering to diverse playstyles.

Notable Quote:

• Christopher Thomas Plant [42:06]: "It's a deeply, deeply compelling experience that is genuinely tough to put down."

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6. Honorable Mentions

Murderbot: Russ recommends Murderbot, praising its production quality, acting, and faithful adaptation from the source material. He highlights it as a concise, entertaining watch at approximately 25 minutes per episode.

• Russ Frushtick [43:43]: "It's a lovely show... really well produced and the acting is dynamite."

John Mulaney's "Everybody's Live": Christopher endorses John Mulaney's Everybody's Live, noting its refreshing take on the traditional late-night format. He appreciates the show's creative freedom, lack of commercial obligations, and genuine humor.

• Christopher Thomas Plant [45:30]: "It's a show that is comfortable knowing that, like, I don't know, maybe a third of its stuff can totally bomb."

Sniper Hold' Em: Griffin introduces Sniper Hold' Em, a thrilling twist on Texas Hold' Em poker infused with high-stakes gameplay mechanics inspired by Korean reality competition shows. The game emphasizes prediction and strategic calling, making it a standout addition to the hosts' gaming repertoire.

• Griffin McElroy [49:26]: "It is gang, the most exciting poker video I have ever watched in my entire life. It fucking rules."

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7. Closing Remarks and Upcoming Content

The episode wraps up with the hosts teasing next week's content, which includes the release of the Nintendo Switch 2 and participation in Summer Game Fest. They also mention a temporary absence due to a medical appointment and extend gratitude to their Patreon supporters.

• Griffin McElroy [54:36]: "Next week, Switch 2 and Summer Game Fest... Shouldn't the world's best friends play the world's best games?"

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Conclusion: In "A Golden Age for Card Game Sickos," The Besties provide an engaging and comprehensive exploration of several intricate card-based games. Through their expert analyses, personal anecdotes, and signature humor, they offer listeners insightful perspectives on how these games innovate within their genres. The episode not only reviews the mechanics and strategies of each game but also conveys the hosts' genuine enthusiasm and occasional frustrations, making it a valuable listen for gaming enthusiasts seeking in-depth discussions.

Transcript

[Griffin Macker]

Damn it, guys. Damn it. Yeah. Shit. It happened again. I got the Switch 2 in my hot little hands.

[Russ Freshik]

Oh, you got it.

[Griffin Macker]

Yeah. Delivered fresh and hot this morning from Kmart. And I got out my katana and was unboxing it. Cut the damn thing in half.

[Russ Freshik]

No.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Damn.

[Russ Freshik]

Yeah, because they have a picture on the outside of the box that says no katanas.

[Griffin Macker]

Yeah, they. Yeah. So I actually had the box upside down because I was sort of beauty blogging it, and I cut the whole thing. I cut it in half. And Kmart won't take it back. And so I'm gonna have to give this1 a0 out of 10 because it couldn't withstand a single strike from my blade.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I mean, this is why. I get it. I know that you love to sharpen your blade every night before you go to bed. In theory, it's important, but when you have a blade that is so sharp that you merely drop the box on it and it slices directly through everything.

[Griffin Macker]

Oh, no. I used it in a distinct chopping motion. There was a certain amount of user error because I was trying to get it. Like the bamboo that I go after.

[Russ Freshik]

It was a Fruit Ninja.

[Griffin Macker]

It was a Fruit Ninja. Only a $550 game of fruit Ninja.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Damn.

[Russ Freshik]

That's. We should mention we were recording this early, so, like, we don't know.

[Griffin Macker]

Yeah, I don't have a fucking.

[Russ Freshik]

Fucking anything.

[Griffin Macker]

I don't have anything, dude.

[Russ Freshik]

But it came out today, so if you're listening to this, guess what? There's a new Nintendo console and we'll be talking about it next week. But we don't have anything right now, do we?

[Griffin Macker]

We never do what you're doing right now.

[Russ Freshik]

Well, we don't acknowledge.

[Griffin Macker]

Open for promotional. This is supposed to be a safe place where we can just kind of goof off. And you did business here, and it feels fucking.

[Russ Freshik]

You did reality here.

[Griffin Macker]

It feels weird.

[Russ Freshik]

You brought reality into the fun zone.

[Griffin Macker]

Yeah, but not. But you understand that we keep those two things pretty separate.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I do want to note that Griffin does not have a katana that cut a man in half.

[Griffin Macker]

Thank you, Chris.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I just want to let. I. I want to let everyone know.

[Griffin Macker]

Is that what I sound like just now? Yeah. My name is Griffin Macker. I know the best game of the week.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

My name is Christopher Thomas Plant, and I know the best game of the week.

[Russ Freshik]

My name is Russ Freshik. I know the best game of the week.

[Griffin Macker]

Justin's in the toilet. He texted me, says, peeing.

[Russ Freshik]

It's a long pee.

[Griffin Macker]

He said it won't Stop coming out.

[Russ Freshik]

Yeah, it just keeps coming.

[Griffin Macker]

So it's just the three of us this week and we're gonna be talking about so many games. We're talking about hot, hot deck builders like Monster Train 2 and Star Vaders. We're gonna be talking about Elden Ring night rain. The universally beloved Russ just put his.

[Russ Freshik]

Forehead to his palm.

[Griffin Macker]

Sorry, that was unre grimace of pain from Russ Freshstick. We're gonna be talking about a lot of games, but first we're gonna take a quick break, so stay with us.

[Russ Freshik]

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[Griffin Macker]

Let's start things off on a high note by talking about Monster Train 2. I hope that's not presumptive of me that that's going to be.

[Russ Freshik]

Actually might be, but we'll go.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Okay.

[Griffin Macker]

How familiar are you guys with the original?

[Russ Freshik]

I played the original. I did probably like 10 runs of the original, so I know the basic structure of it.

[Griffin Macker]

Yes. If you're not familiar listeners at home, Monster Train is a deck builder, roguelike in the vein of a slay the spire. You have cards that represent units and spells and equipment and you play them to defend a four tiered train from waves of oncoming enemies.

[Russ Freshik]

Terrible way to design a train, by the way.

[Griffin Macker]

Yeah, the train's usually not an up and down situation. Yeah, typically we're talking about forward, backwards and that's basically it here you have a few levels to defend by placing down your units and casting spells and equipping those units with stuff.

[Russ Freshik]

It should be an elevator. Why is it not an elevator?

[Griffin Macker]

Monster Elevator doesn't actually. That is a kick ass game.

[Russ Freshik]

You can shorten it. Monster Vator.

[Griffin Macker]

Yeah, Monster Vader. You've lost it. And yeah, I mean it sort of iterates on that Slay the Spire format with this almost like it's not quite tower defense, but you are building up multiple levels of defenses because after you finish all the waves of enemies, there's a boss and that boss will just keep hitting whatever level it is on until it kills everything on it. And so you have to have built a strong enough defense before that happens. That's the basic premise. Add on, you know you're going through different tracks to choose. Oh, I'm gonna pick up some weapon upgrades or I'm going to go down this track that gives me spell upgrades or heals my pyre, which is the thing you have at the top of your train that if enemies reach it, they'll deal damage.

[Russ Freshik]

The middle game of it feels much closer to I think most of the like the Slay the Spires of the world.

[Griffin Macker]

Very, very much so. Insofar as there's a little thing at the top of the screen that shows you all your artifacts that you have. And those are like permanent kind of modifiers that that go over everything. There are I believe 10 different factions. And when you start playing, you choose two and you can choose a special unit that's free to play that becomes kind of a cornerstone of whatever your build ends up being. And that hero unit will get stronger and stronger too. There are different ways you can upgrade your pyre permanently to weird little modifiers on it. There's so much shit.

[Russ Freshik]

It's unbelievable because I feel like a Slay the Spire run. You start pretty small and then it kind of grows and this within two waves of enemies. You're like balancing a lot.

[Griffin Macker]

Yes, it is definitely more mechanically dense than Slay the Spire. And there's probably a lot of people listening to that who played Slay the Spire and are thinking like, well, fuck, Slay the Spire is already pretty mechanically intense.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

That's my question. I didn't play the original game. I found this game extremely overwhelming.

[Griffin Macker]

Sure.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

The metaphor that kept coming to my head was 3D chess. Is it 4D chess? However, it's like where it's like I'm playing multiple games at once and it felt like I was especially in Learning the game, having to learn how to play a lot of systems all at the exact same time.

[Griffin Macker]

It does kind of ask that of you. I will say that it is. There are some strategies that are pretty universally good. Right. Like you have three floors basically to work with that you are customizing by putting units on them and then like, you know, modifying those units with your spells and equipment and everything. And strategies basically kind of boil down to like, okay, I'll use that first floor to weaken the enemy or buff my other units. And then the second floor I'll be able to, you know, sweep all the little guys out. And then my third floor, that's where my fucking juggernauts are. That's where no one's gonna get past that line. And by the time they reach there, they're weakened. So there's strategies that are pretty universal and make a lot of sense and.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Kind of your tower defense strategies.

[Griffin Macker]

Yeah, sort of. Right. It is kind of fulfilling that role a little bit. What the game does that I really appreciate and I think makes all of these hundred systems pretty easily parsable is before you end your turn, you can see a preview of exactly how the next round is going to shake out. Which is important because like, you know, on a boss round you're going to exchange 40 attacks back and forth. It doesn't get into the nitty gritty of that. It will just show you like an X on the boss. Which means like you will kill the boss if you just hit in turn and go about it as you are now. And that is so good and so important and necessary because otherwise the game would be just fucking impossible.

[Russ Freshik]

Yeah. As. As someone that played the original, it does feel like the sequel is in a lot of ways like designed for people that played the Everlove, ever loving fuck out of the original.

[Griffin Macker]

Sure.

[Russ Freshik]

And it does. I, I did some like reading through the forums and things like that. It seems like people are excited about the fact that like the original had tried and true tested strategies of like always put your strongest guys at on the third tier. Right. Et cetera, et cetera. And it sounds like this game forces you to like mix things up a little bit more.

[Griffin Macker]

Yeah. You will hit bosses that if you do have that strategy of, okay, I'm just going to wait and have my heaviest hitters on the final tier. The game eventually will start to throw stuff at you that will directly counter that and that's that it does shake things up a bit. It is not an easy game. I have done like probably close to a dozen Runs or so. And the runs last a long fucking time and have only cleared it once. And the rest of the time I just have been getting my ass absolutely kicked. But that said, I've really been enjoying it because there's.

[Russ Freshik]

What do you see as like. Yeah, what do you see as, like, the big improvements that justify the sequel?

[Griffin Macker]

Okay, so the game that I have the most experience in this genre is Slay the Spire. So if it's okay, I'll use that as kind of like a baseline Slave Aspire. There's obviously like four or five different characters, and there's like different ways you can kind of build them depending on, like, how your early cards and relics play out, right? But then you start to get into this place where it's like, damn, I was going for this, you know, poison exponential multiplication strategy and the cards just ain't hitting. Yeah, it ain't there. And it's taken too long to get my engines up and running. I feel like Monster Train 2 throws so much shit at you all the time that you really have no excuse for having something not come together. Your strategy may not be what was correct to get you through. It may not be the most optimal strategy, but you are constantly making choices. Every road that you choose to go down will have a shop on it, and those shops allow you to add up to two modifiers to, like, your units or your spells, and they completely crack the game wide open. You can take any unit in the game, and if you put the right modifiers on it, all of a sudden it is a beast, right? So like, with that much flexibility and that much customization, like, and opportunity to seize those things, like, it is kind of balls in your court. And I love that feeling of like, of control and that every choice that I am making has some sort of impact and, you know, learning new things about what strategies work best with which factions based on, like, sort of the mechanics that they focus on. I am also pretty overwhelmed by it. Like, I definitely don't feel like I understand it 100% of the time, but I also feel like it is doing a good enough job, you know, kind of like leading me by the nose and showing me, like, what the results of things are going to be before I do them that I don't know. I just feel like I am constantly learning and getting better and just having a really, really, really good time.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

What do you think of the look and the vibe of the whole thing?

[Griffin Macker]

Eh, yeah, eh. It's fine. That's fine. It's a lot of demons, angels and they're on a train and it's pretty basic. I don't know.

[Russ Freshik]

It feels a little like flashy, right? Like a little bit flash game.

[Griffin Macker]

Ish. It's interesting. I mean, it looks like Monster Train 1. And to that extent they have, as far as I can tell, included all the stuff from. It's sort of like an Evil Dead 2 situation where pretty much most of Monster Train 1 is in Monster Train 2. So, yeah, I don't know. That shit's not really that important to me for a game like this. Maybe it should be, but I don't know. I played a million hours of Slay the Spire and that was a lightly animated experience.

[Russ Freshik]

There is a whale, though.

[Griffin Macker]

There is a big whale and the whale kicks ass. Yeah, I think it's great. And I have other stuff going on right now that I can't surrender myself to the grind of Monster Train 2. So I'm having to forcibly kind of put it to the side now that I've played it enough to talk about it here. Because once I get back into that game, I'm worried it's going to get me for a while.

[Russ Freshik]

I mean, it'll come out on mobile eventually. Theoretically, right?

[Griffin Macker]

Jesus. That I don't think would work. There's too much shit.

[Russ Freshik]

I played the first one on mobile and it was playable.

[Griffin Macker]

Okay. It's just so much shit, man. I have been playing it on for what it's worth, my rog Ally. The controller controls are great and very intuitive so you don't have to, you know, mouse and keyboard it. But yeah, if you played Monster Train 1, Monster Train 2 is like 10 times more sort of dense. And if you liked Monster Train 1, that probably sounds good to you. So.

[Russ Freshik]

So this is actually a good comparison to another game that we were talking about today that is also a card based game called Starvaders.

[Griffin Macker]

Hell yeah. Do you want to lead the charge on this one, Chris? Did you play it too, Rust?

[Russ Freshik]

I played it as well.

[Griffin Macker]

Okay, cool.

[Russ Freshik]

Plant, you can. Why don't you give the rundown?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah, I'll take a stab at it. So Starvaders is another card game. In theory, it's weird to call any of these things card games because they've gotten so far away from cards. Anything other than the attacks or moves that you're playing. But There is a 5x9 grid and the look and the feel of the game is imagine Space Invaders. But instead of you firing up manually, you're using cards to move around the playfield and like fire bombs or actions and you take turns dealing out all of your damage and then the enemy getting its turn where it cascades down that 5x9 field. Right. So that's the basics. It starts to get more complicated by how you use those cards. So you have a thing called heat, and each card cost a certain amount of heat. So say you want to move that'll cost you a piece of heat, and you'll use the card. Also, you want to fire a special move that'll cost you two heat, and suddenly you've maxed out your heat gauge. And then you have an option to still spend one more thing and go overheating. And this comes with a risk reward where if you overheat a card, you can use it, but the turn immediately ends after that, and then it goes into the deck and it's now burnt. So if it ever gets shuffled back in sudden, you have this card that's effectively worthless.

[Griffin Macker]

Yeah.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Making you have fewer cards the more times that you spend this. But as with all of these games, what makes the game really special is how it complicates that. With rules that change over the course of, like, a really long roguelike style run, you could have a thing where, oh, yet you're burning a ton of cards. You, in theory, don't have anything, but then you get two abilities. You get an ability that allows you to reshuffle your deck back in, which in theory, would be bad.

[Griffin Macker]

Right?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Like, you don't want those burn cards, but you also get the ability that, like, Ultra powers your. The attacks you do have by however many burned cards you're carrying. Yeah. So it's.

[Griffin Macker]

I have not gotten that tactic to work out for me quite yet, as sick as it sounds.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

So, like, that was. That was one that I think our friends into the Aether had. The ones that I had that was just absolutely killer, was I got moves where I could fire bombs on the field, right? And then I would get a random aerial volley of three bombs, and I had a multiplier that whenever I used bombs while I was in the safe space, it would repeat that move, and then I had a double repeat on it, and then I had a thing that only made it. So I got one heat for, like, anything. So basically, each move, I was just firebombing the entire map and ended up beating the game, which doesn't mean much. It is a game that's meant to be beat many, many times. On my very first run, and that was the difference between this and Monster Chain is Monster Train, I was wildly overwhelmed, but I Have a feeling it's maybe a deeper game in this. I was, I finished my first run beating it by the skin of my teeth and felt amazing and immediately hopped right back in.

[Griffin Macker]

There's not like insane damage numbers you're tracking, right. Like most of the time if you shoot an unarmored enemy, they explode.

[Russ Freshik]

Yeah.

[Griffin Macker]

And that. That is it. So it's very tactile and very easy to tell like what is going to happen when you use this gun card into the breach.

[Russ Freshik]

I think is a good analogy for that because you have these very low health enemies and you know what the next turn is going to result in. And can you maneuver with your cards and your heat and use all those resources to get out of it by dealing some damage but also avoiding damage yourself?

[Griffin Macker]

Yes. It is also like into the breach in that if the enemies reach the bottom three rows of the field, you accrue doom. And once you have five doom across your whole campaign, it's game over instantly.

[Russ Freshik]

Yeah, doom is bad. I found this to be like way more tactile than Monster Train. Like way more. I know the impacts that I'm making don't feel as like weirdly ephemeral as they do in a game. Even like slay the spire. Like it just feels like to some extent, numbers going up. And here I'm like, oh, I'm moving my ship out of the range of this explosion to go over here. And it just felt like I was way more in control of the situation. Even though again, like you're obviously making all the decisions in Monster Train. It's just like a different style.

[Griffin Macker]

It's a totally different thing.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah. This is where the card misnomer thing comes into play. I mean, by all intents you could frame this as a action, a tactical action game.

[Russ Freshik]

Yeah.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Where you're not literally dishing out cards because you, like you said, you see the enemy's attack coming at you. You literally move around the battlefield and you dish out different attacks. You just happen to do all that with cards that you were randomly assigned? Yeah, I found it extremely compelling. It has a very cutesy kind of retro art style.

[Russ Freshik]

It reminded me of mega. This is kind of a deep cut. There was a PSP remake of the original Mega man called Mega Man Powered up, which had like Chibi Mega man running around.

[Griffin Macker]

See, I thought more Advanced wars, but.

[Russ Freshik]

Then, yeah, I can see Advanced wars as well.

[Griffin Macker]

That's shit. That's true. Yeah. It's fun to do both of these games because they're both amazing deck building, roguelike Games that could not be more different from each other. Whereas, like, this one also has synergies and strategies that, when they come together, are really great. I had one using the bomber character, where I had a card that would shoot a bullet straight up from any bomb I had on the field. And then I had one that turned me into a bomb so that anytime I took damage, I would explode. But I would also, when I shot this shot, I would shoot two bullets up, because now I'm also technically a bomb. Like, that stuff is very, very satisfying. It is not, as you don't feel like you're breaking the shit wide open as much as, like in Monster Train, you get some synergy where you're buffing up your hero character permanently every. Every game, like it's it. But again, like, that's a totally different thing, right? That is a totally different genre, basically.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah. And I'm curious, as you play this more and more, if that changes because you. It is a rogue light or whatever. We want roguelite genre.

[Griffin Macker]

Yeah.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

No, rogue.

[Griffin Macker]

You're unlocking shit.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Unlocking stuff. Yeah. And there's a lot of, like, different difficulty settings, different character types, different cards that you're acquiring. And the game is evolving, and I wonder how, just how powerful you can become by the end of it. One question I have for you, Griffin, because I believe you're a Mega Man Battle Network person.

[Griffin Macker]

Oh, gosh. I've played a couple of them a long time ago.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Is this much like it? I've seen that mentioned a lot with this game. Yes.

[Griffin Macker]

Now that you say that, I do believe so. You had. That was like a horizontal grid, and you would have enemies on one side and Mega man on the other. And then I think you had randomly selected moves that you. God, I don't know, man. That sounds right. But it has been ever since I played one of those games.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah. It made me want to actually go back and play those games because I've had them on my list forever and was so charmed by this. But again with this one, really, for anybody interested in playing it, play through it once. It's a long session. It does have the ability to save in the middle of it, which is important because a run for me was like 45 minutes to an hour beginning to end. But also, really allow yourself to have fun with it. Like, I was kind of almost stressing out the first run. It was great, really exciting, but I was weary of playing it again just because it felt like it was asking a lot of me.

[Griffin Macker]

Yeah.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

And then the second run, I was like, well, I don't care this time. I just want to see what absolute bonkers shit I can pull off.

[Griffin Macker]

Yeah. And it does reward that.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It wants you to be trying to find silly ways to break it.

[Griffin Macker]

Card freaks Eating good this week. Should we take a quick break and then talk about Elden Ring Night Rain?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Let's do it. This episode is sponsored in part by Trade Coffee. Trade coffee is exactly what I need right now as we are barreling into the summer season because listener it is getting hot outside and I am craving cold brew basically every minute of the day. But if I go to a cafe and I buy it every minute of the day, I will go broke. Trade coffee has a very helpful and very easy solution which is order some trade coffee, get it in the mail and I just make the cold brew myself. It is so easy. You scoop the coffee, you add the water, you chill overnight and voila, it's waiting for you. I personally like to save my caffeine for a little bit later when it's nice and warm out like 2 or 3pm Just open the fridge and it's right there. No having to get the kitchen keys and go to a cafe and spend a ridiculous amount of money on something that you know I just have waiting for me in the fridge. It is delicious coffee. So if you are something of a connoisseur, you have that handled. It's all roasted to order. They curate all the equipment that you could need. So if you want to get started, they got that covered for you too. Like I said, easy peasy. I really enjoy having these just shipped right to my house and I love having that sweet cold coffee waiting for me whenever I need it throughout the summer. And I think you will too. For a limited time, Trade is giving away a free Hario cold brewer when you sign up for a cold brew subscription. When you go to drinktrade.com besties that is drinktrade.com forward slash besties B E S T I E S to get your free cold brew maker with select cold brew subscriptions. That's drinktrade.com forward/besties.

[Griffin Macker]

I mean Russ is the only one of us. I've been on tour and we we did not get.

[Russ Freshik]

You could have been a local area networking some Night rain over there.

[Griffin Macker]

I guess I could have been having my own personal hotel based land party Elden Ring Night Rain lan party. I will be honest, when I got home yesterday afternoon I did not race to my computer to download Elden Ring Night Rain. Can you lead the charge on this, Russ.

[Russ Freshik]

Sure. Happy to. Elden Ring Night Rain is a co op centric game set in the Elden Ring universe, whose closest analog is probably Fortnite, because you basically fly in with a team of two other people. It's max of three players, and there's a big ring that closes in on a giant Elden Ringy map.

[Griffin Macker]

The Elden Ring.

[Russ Freshik]

Oh, is it? I don't think it is.

[Griffin Macker]

That's what it is. Finally we know it's the Fortnite Death Storm.

[Russ Freshik]

Now we know. So you land on this map and you very quickly try to level up and get better gear in the end of. As the circle closes it closer and closer in. Eventually, once the circle is very tiny, you do a boss fight. And then the cycle repeats itself. Assuming you actually survive that boss fight and you do that two more times. And that's like a full run. And what you get out of runs is like you get some cosmetic upgrade things, you get some permanent, like, buffable upgrade things, and then you do multiple runs because there's different bosses and different map layouts and things like that. The big difference, there's so many differences from the original Elden Ring. Elden Ring is, I think, to all of us, very fond. I probably like it maybe more than everyone here. I don't know. It's close.

[Griffin Macker]

I adore Elder Ring.

[Russ Freshik]

This is so, just from an experience standpoint, vastly different. Which is weird because artistically, like, the graphics are identical. You're fighting almost all familiar bosses and enemies, although occasionally they'll throw in like a fun Dark Souls cameo, which is cute.

[Griffin Macker]

And it seems like the character classes themselves have some fun mechanics.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah.

[Russ Freshik]

So that's, I would say, like, outside of the ring aspect, the, like, actual gameplay loop, the character classes themselves are the most different part of this. So instead of generating your own character and starting from scratch, you are picking identities. There's like a bird guy and there's like a samurai person and whatever, there's like a bunch of them. And each of those identities have very, very unique abilities that they can use in the world. So for example, the, like, what I feel like is kind of the default all rounder kind of guy has a grappling hook that you can use to like latch on to enemies and pull them towards you. Or for bigger enemies, you'll like, zip towards them. That's like the most basic. Some of them are much more involved. So you'll have one of the characters, like, uses like Sekiro parrying for all of your, like, special attacks. You have to like utilize that sort of timing. I played as the bird guy a bunch of times. I don't remember what the bird guy is called, but the bird guy has the ability. You can't dodge as the bird guy. I guess birds can't dodge. You can fly fittingly and the bird guy can do these like giant, like dive bomb attacks. You can also revive people as the bird guy much faster than other people. So each of the classes really does have like specific utility. Some are going to be much more focused on ranged attacks. Some are way more like tanky. So you really do need to have like a team comp that's going to be able to cover a lot of bases in that. So all that stuff is cool. Like, I like the idea of it. Here's the issue. Everything that I love about Elden Ring is not this. I love slowly creeping my ass through a cave and oh, no, a giant boulder shows up and can I dodge the boulder? And oh, behind the boulder was a chest. And oh, I'm like looking at all my inventory to see if this sword that I just picked out of this chest is better than the sword that I had. And I'm going to upgrade this sword and feel really proud of this sword. No, this is a complete reversion of that. Like, just like a total. I wouldn't even say reversion. It's just like a different direction entirely. Because you have to move so fucking quickly to succeed in this game. Every single second you are in the world, you should be spent either leveling up or finding better gear or upgrading your flasks or fighting like field bosses that give you a bunch of experience and drops. It's just like a fucking. Like someone was like Elden Ring, but let's take meth first and see what happens. That's.

[Griffin Macker]

I really like how in every gameplay video or people streaming it that I see, inevitably whenever a character stops at the not bonfire, whatever they're called, bonfire substitute the menuing happens. Like, then they are immediately running away every single time. I've never seen a streamer spend more than like a quarter second, like, okay, level up, level and I'm gone.

[Russ Freshik]

Well, right, because you're not even picking stats. It's just like you're just leveling up the number to get more powerful. People are like realizing like, oh, you don't even need to stop sprinting as you like sprint past one of the bonfires. You can level up in that process. So it is incredibly that. And it makes sense because it's like you are trying to maximize the power that you will eventually have to use to beat the final boss. Which can be really fucking hard.

[Griffin Macker]

Right.

[Russ Freshik]

I think my immediate question when I first heard about this game was can I have a good time playing as a solo player? Certainly not at launch. I tried playing it at launch. It was basically impossible as a solo player.

[Griffin Macker]

They have just for balancing reasons or.

[Russ Freshik]

Yeah, so they may. They. They did offer some balancing changes. Specifically you were a little more powerful. You got more runes since then. Because I think the blowback was pretty immediate. They've given you other things. Like for example, if you're a solo player, you get a revive once. Once a day. It'll just like auto revive you. If you die previously. You only have one life and you'll not.

[Griffin Macker]

That's crazy. That's crazy that they can launch a balance change that quickly and have it not be something that was flagged for them ahead of time.

[Russ Freshik]

Well they already had items in the game that could do that. So presumably it's just like almost like just grant everyone playing solo.

[Griffin Macker]

I'm not complaining. It's great that they listened to the feedback and changed it. But if the feedback is. It's so impossibly hard to play this solo that they added this free instant revive to that experience. That just seems like the kind of thing that would have been caught with enough sort of like.

[Russ Freshik]

I mean they play tested it I guess.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I wonder if you have post launch plans for a game like this. Like if the feedback is the game is too difficult in this mode. Here is a series of things that we will change to adjust for player feedback or if it truly is like they're winging it.

[Russ Freshik]

Under normal circumstances I would agree with you. But they had effectively a public beta where I'm sure that feedback was heard. Yeah. Yeah. It's an interesting.

[Griffin Macker]

The people who played the beta were like really good.

[Russ Freshik]

Yeah, that could have been. I. It's interesting because it's just like yeah as you said that how. How quickly that change came about. But even with that change, like I've played it since it's definitely a little easier. It's still fucking hard as shit and doesn't feel designed to be played with one player. There's a lot of. A lot of boss fights in the game that just like you know you have to get around shields and there's like two bosses you're fighting at once and it's just like not.

[Griffin Macker]

Do you get spirit summons or anything like that if you play there are like.

[Russ Freshik]

There are like items you can get that'll like allow you to do similar sort of things, but they're random drops. It's not like a guaranteed thing. And some of the. Some of the characters do have something similar as well. But again, none of that is like the intention. It's very clear that the intention is a three player Elden Ring experience. It's not even two players. You actually can't play as two players. If you. If you queue as two players, it'll drop a random in with you, which is weird. They say they're working on it. All that is to say, like, as a person that adores Elden Ring and Basically everything that FromSoft has made, it's really fucking hard for me to get into this in the same way that like I didn't do a ton of PvP or multiplayer stuff when I play through any of their games. I do it occasionally if I need help, but otherwise no. And I like taking my time and I like going slowly.

[Griffin Macker]

The idea of playing a FromSoft game without that constant progression hook is so unappealing to me that it makes me kind of reevaluate my relationship with FromSoftware games where if you take away the fact that I'm leveling up a guy and finding all this stuff through exploration and customizing them and having that be something that I do over the run of a 100 hour long campaign, if you strip that away, it seems so bad. Like, oh man, then it's not fun. I'm only doing it to get tough and buff.

[Russ Freshik]

Not to be an armchair developer, but I'm gonna do it anyway. Just for shits and giggles. If this game allowed me to play solo and didn't have the like intense time limit aspects and was just like kind of a randomly generated Elden Ring game, I. I'd be in like. That sounds fun. I'm not saying it's balanced for that. It obviously isn't. And I'm not saying it's easy to do something like that. It's a very big.

[Griffin Macker]

I mean. But you're describing Elden Ring kind of.

[Russ Freshik]

But like a little bit faster. You're right, you're right. Well, let me just. Speaking of the length, another issue specifically for me is if you do a full run, it's about 45 minutes and it's as with all Elden Ring, whatever, all that stuff, like you can't pause. And in this case, if you want to finish your run with two other people, you better be there for 45 minutes. And it's a commitment that's like a big fucking commitment.

[Griffin Macker]

It's.

[Russ Freshik]

It's longer than a fortnight match and even Fortnite matches are kind of a commitment. So that's. And. And like, not to mention, like, there's no in game voice chat. You have to use like, Discord. There's very minimal, like, directions that you can give. Like, there's no. No, really. There's a pinging system, but the pinging system isn't great. It just feels like someone had a wacky hair. How could we get an Elden Ring game out in like, shorter amount of time than it would take, like a full sequel? And they had a wacky idea for it and it is, like, very ambitious from a design standpoint, like super ambitious. It's just not necessarily a game I really want to play as a fan of Elden Ring, which is a total fucking drag. And it gives me real worries about the Duskbloods, which is also multiplayer centric. We don't know what structure it is. It doesn't appear to have a ring or whatever the fuck. But you know, when you. When you hear like, multiplayer centric, that tells me that single player is not the priority and you won't have that experience that you.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I mean, can you imagine though, that all of the stuff that you're talking about and it is on Nintendo's online functionality?

[Russ Freshik]

Well, we don't know best.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I mean, you have to play it on the Switch.

[Russ Freshik]

No, I know, but we don't know what the Switch 2's online functionality is.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah, you're right. No, it's probably gonna be great. It's probably gonna be.

[Russ Freshik]

You can look at people's faces while they die.

[Griffin Macker]

It's out right now and we're fucking grooving on that C button.

[Russ Freshik]

I'm playing Duskbloods right now.

[Griffin Macker]

I'm playing Duskbloods also. We got super duper duper early.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Katana's back.

[Russ Freshik]

Oh, shit. I'm a Weir doctor and he's got one of those bird masks on. It's.

[Griffin Macker]

Love it. Bloodborne guys in there, even though they won't say that it's Dudborn. So.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Did you say Doug Bourne?

[Russ Freshik]

I said Dudborn.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Anyway, I'm Doug Bourne.

[Griffin Macker]

I'm Doug Bourne. This is my Caneblade. Do we have Mailbag or do we want to go to honorable mentions?

[Russ Freshik]

Well, there was one game you wanted to talk about. One more game. We've had so many games.

[Griffin Macker]

Yeah. Oh, I guess I was thinking I would save it for honorable mentions, but I can do it now. Originally, I Was going to put it in here because Justin recommended it to me while we were on the road and it hooked me real hard. Obviously Juice is not here right now, so I'll carry the weight. I've been playing a game called Cauldron and I've been playing it a lot and it's a real problem. It is a new idle incremental game. Only it's also a lot of other things too. The game starts out, you're this little witch in a clearing surrounded by a shadow. And if you run up to one of those shadows, you can interact with it and you'll do a little turn based battle. Do a little turn based battle against the enemy. And the further you get from your little home base, the harder the fights get. If you want to get stronger, you have to put ingredients into a cauldron. How do you get those ingredients? By playing a little idle game. And it's not just one idol game. There's five. There's five different idol games. And so you'll go and you'll collect some apples in this idle game. And then you start generating apples for free based on the average of your five highest runs on the apple game. And then you unlock some specific talents for the apple game that make it better at collecting apples. But then you decide, I'm going to take a break from that. I'm going to go play the fishing game for a bit. And then you go over and you play the fishing game. You get five good scores, start generating some free fish. You go back to the apple game. You've got so many apples that you got from the Idle process. You dip into that, you come back, the fish have been racking up, you get some free fish upgrades, you go down, you check out the Minecart game. It's. It's insidious.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I am one. I just had the trailer on.

[Griffin Macker]

It's diabolical.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

It's disgusting. The chemicals that were oozing out of my brain as it'll fuck you up. That image. It's just numbers. They're just numbers and flashing things.

[Griffin Macker]

So many nodes and it looks so cute. It's very cute. And then, you know, you go around, you basically play these five different idle games to make it so that you're earning idle currencies of these five different types. And then you feed those in your cauldron. You do that, it makes all your characters stronger for the turn based battle component. You're going out in the world, you're expanding what you can explore, unlocking new characters and finding New mini games.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

And the worst part, the games. Looking at this, you know when you're flipping through TikTok and you see a commercial for some iOS game and the whole design of it is like, I don't know how to solve this puzzle. And you're like, I do. Let me solve it.

[Griffin Macker]

Yeah.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Like looking at these little games, I'm like, I know how to collect all those apples.

[Griffin Macker]

The five games are totally. The five games are totally different. There's like a sort of Space Invader style shooter. There is. There's a full ass Vampire Survivors in here and it's really good and I've gotten very, very deeply into that one. There's like a ridiculous fishing style game. The five games are really great and you can seriously just spend a lot of time doing five good runs to bump up your average so that the amount you earn incrementally goes up and unlock some new talents and you hit these break points where now all of a sudden you're going twice as far in that game than you did before and oh shit. I haven't gone and played the Vampire Survivors game in a bit. I'll go down and check that out. Whoa. I have so much currency saved up. I can unlock all these upgr like it's just. It is like Hellraiser in how many hooks it will embed within you and just keep you.

[Russ Freshik]

Does the idle part work when the game is off?

[Griffin Macker]

I don't know. I haven't.

[Russ Freshik]

Haven't turned the game off.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Okay.

[Griffin Macker]

I've been sort of scared too. I got it just kind of open here ready for me to. And boys, I'm looking at some of the numbers I racked up. As soon as I get off this call, I'm about to blow my shit.

[Russ Freshik]

Apple the fuck out sky high.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I the Steam reviews incredible experience from start to finish. Oh cool. This person finished it. What does that look like? 104 hours?

[Russ Freshik]

Oh my God.

[Griffin Macker]

Yeah. But then when you finish it, you unlock new upgrades for all the different idle games when you play a different mode. Guys, it's called Cauldron.

[Russ Freshik]

How did you know that?

[Griffin Macker]

Huh?

[Russ Freshik]

Have you finished it?

[Griffin Macker]

I'm getting close. Pretty close. I keep like slacking on the turn base. I'll be straight. I don't enjoy the turn based combat side of things that much because the battles will become like 8 on 24 and it's just so. But you can automate that side of things. You can automate, you know, the upgrade selections if you don't want feel like fucking with that. It lets you pick the stuff that you are into and I'm into these five different Idle games. And then I'll go and I'll cash all this shit in the cauldron. I'll go around to all these fights that I was having trouble with earlier and the auto computer will just smash through it. And it's so sad and satisfying. It's great, guys. It's very, very, very good. I'm not joking. It's treated like a venomous asp because it is a. It is a deeply, deeply compelling experience that is genuinely tough to put down.

[Russ Freshik]

Fucking yikes.

[Griffin Macker]

Yeah.

[Russ Freshik]

It's not a good time for a game like that.

[Griffin Macker]

It's a bad time for.

[Russ Freshik]

It's a bad time. There's a new console coming out. We've got a lot going on.

[Griffin Macker]

I tell myself, like, you know what, I'll just let it idle. But then I'll start letting it idle and be like, damn, I got a lot of apples. If I could probably afford that one upgrade that increases my apple damage.

[Russ Freshik]

It needs an Apple watch app.

[Griffin Macker]

Yes, right. It needs a cage that will only unlock every six hours so you can dip in to see how things are going.

[Russ Freshik]

I think I'm good at that. I have a lot of willpower.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I can't download this. This would ruin me right now.

[Griffin Macker]

What else are we talking about today?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

You got any honorable mentions fresh?

[Russ Freshik]

I watched Murderbot, which I know we've been talking about, but I started watching it and it's a lovely show. They did a great job on this show. I don't think the season has ended. I'm caught up with all the episodes and it's just I. I never watched. I never read the original source material, but I imagine it is pretty consistent with what that was. And I find it very funny and interesting and really well produced and the acting is dynamite. And if you're looking, yeah, again, it's like a light 25 minute show which I am like really hungering for these days. So it's been really nice.

[Griffin Macker]

I still really want to check that out sometimes. I have shows that I feel like, oh, I bet I could get Rachel into that. And then I'll hold off on watching it until this beautiful imaginary day comes where we actually watch that instead of one of the four shows that we watch every night. It hasn't happened yet. I might just have to break and watch all of it. Have you watched Andor yet, you weirdo?

[Russ Freshik]

No, I'm planning. Okay, I'm planning on watching it. Like, that's like a flight and like, spare time during sgf, because it's not a show that my wife is gonna watch. Speaking of show. So I've been saving it for that trip.

[Griffin Macker]

I see.

[Russ Freshik]

So that is my intention and I will make probably a lot of progress. I'm very excited.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I watched this full season of John Mulaney's Everybody's Live.

[Russ Freshik]

That is very interesting because you don't watch TV regularly, like, with any sort of consistency.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

No, I don't. And I'm not really sure. Well, I think I know how. We saw him do a prep set for this in la, I don't know, a couple months ago, and then we ended up watching the show. But what a really cool and interesting show.

[Griffin Macker]

Yeah.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Because it is a late night talk show in the very literal sense, but without any of the obligations that make late night talk shows suck. By that, I mean late night talk show has to go forever. It has to air every night in the week, and it largely has to have, like, act as a money making device for, like, network tv. So that means it has to be cheap to make. It has to promote a whole bunch of, like, random shit and then hopefully draw in ads from all the stuff it's promoting. And this show runs for, like, I don't know, eight or ten weeks in once a week. And they never even mention any of the stuff that people are promoting when they are there for it. And every skit is just, I think the show is very, very, very funny. It is a show that is comfortable knowing that, like, I don't know, maybe a third of its stuff can totally bomb.

[Russ Freshik]

Yeah, they were taking swings.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yes. It would rather take the shot than bomb. And that all builds up to a finale in which John Mulaney fights three teenage boys.

[Griffin Macker]

Yeah.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

And the whole season they keep saying this, and he seems pretty okay with it. And there's a moment, maybe five minutes before it happens where you can, for the first time, really see the fear in his face of, have I really put myself in the dumbest crappiest corner ever?

[Russ Freshik]

Because you could get really hurt.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Well, not just get hurt, but, like, is this just stupid? Like, is this not gonna be funny?

[Russ Freshik]

Right.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

And it is really cool to watch somebody who is at a point in their kind of life and career, or, like, this is clearly what the juice is for him as a woman.

[Griffin Macker]

It is aspirational comedy in the truest sense of, like, fuck, man. That's somebody just doing it, doing whatever tickles their fancy and they have outrageous support to do. So. That's great. Yeah.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Good for him no idea how Netflix decides to fund it or if he will keep doing it.

[Russ Freshik]

Yeah, I think that's the larger question. It's like, I'm sure a lot of the motivator was like, they want to maintain their relationship with John Mulaney, who obviously brings in for his standup specials quite a lot of attention. I know Netflix is fending off Hulu, which has been, like, hosting a lot of, like, major comedy specials lately. So this feels like, you know, Richard Kyne's probably not asking for too much. This feels like a relatively cheap way to maintain a relationship with relatively little amounts of harm. And if he does some fun stuff, I mean, I watch the clips on YouTube. Some of the clips on YouTube, it's. Some of his stuff is very, very funny.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You can tell that the writer's room literally will design a sketch only to make the person who happens to be on the show that week laugh. Yeah, so Pete Davison is on at one point and they do an entire sketch about, like, one of the, like, I think its name's Butterball from Hellraiser series, being his, like, pizza delivery man. And no one in the audience is laughing at all, but Pete Davidson is, like, literally hyperventilating. And it's that shit. I just, I live for it.

[Russ Freshik]

I really.it feels like the sort of show that's gonna get canceled after one season and, like, for 10 years hence, video essays on YouTube will just be obsessed with it.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Griffin Macker]

That may be the best way to consume it. All things considered, I'm still watching Devil's Plant season two, which I still thoroughly recommend to everyone. I'm not gonna give the hard sell on the whole show, but they did play a game that I wanted to talk about because it's such a good game that I feel like I would just watch a show just about this one game. It was one of the, like, deathmatch rounds where one player gets eliminated no matter what at the end of it. And it's called Sniper hold' Em. And it was just Texas hold' Em, like the poker game. You know, you put. You have two cards face down.

[Russ Freshik]

Don't describe how Texas Hold Em.

[Griffin Macker]

I'm not gonna describe how Texas hold' Em works. But most folks know what is different is there's no face cards. Okay. And there's only four community cards instead of five. But otherwise it's the same thing, right? You're trying to put together a hand using your two face down cards and the four community cards. The only difference and the Whole time you're like placing bets like in Texas hold' Em and there were only a certain amount of chips to go around. Once you hit 75 chips, you're free from the game.

[Russ Freshik]

Got it.

[Griffin Macker]

You get to leave and you're safe. Right?

[Russ Freshik]

Yeah.

[Griffin Macker]

That was the whole thing of the game. What the big twist is and what makes it sniper hold em is after, you know, you get your face down. Cards, community cards. There's a round of betting, two more community cards, and then after all the betting is concluded at the point of the game where usually in traditional poker, you would then reveal to see who has what. Every player who is still in gets to take a shot. And you call a specific type of hand and that type of hand is neutralized. And if someone else has that hand, they are out. So if you, if there's shit on the table and you're like, I bet you somebody has a full house of aces, like they have three aces or not aces because there aren't face cards but like a full house of eights. Right. They have three eights and a pair of something else. And you say, I call full house of eights. And if you get it right, they're out. They can't win the hand. So it is a way of playing poker where if you are actually doing the math and can predict what the other player has, you, you can win with like a shitty high card.

[Russ Freshik]

Yeah.

[Griffin Macker]

As long as your hand doesn't also get sniped. And it is gang, the most exciting poker video I have ever watched in my entire life. There are huge swings back and forth, huge like miracle shots like that, reverse fortunes on these enormous pots. It fucking rules. And it like adds this element of excitement to poker. A game that is a billion, billion years old, that has been played a billion times. And like it exists in the middle of this as one challenge in this Korean reality competition show.

[Russ Freshik]

So just for argument's sake, if there's four spades in the community thing.

[Griffin Macker]

Yeah.

[Russ Freshik]

And someone.

[Griffin Macker]

There's no colors or suits, it's just numbers one through ten. And so when you call something out, you are just calling like, you know, straight to the eight or three of a kind, nines. You have to be very specific about the hand that you call. You can't just say flush.

[Russ Freshik]

That makes sense.

[Griffin Macker]

You have to specify the hand and the number associated with that.

[Russ Freshik]

That's crazy.

[Griffin Macker]

And so you'll have like pocket pairs. Right. Like pocket nines. And then no one's going to call that. No one has any way of knowing that you have these pocket nines. So maybe your two pair will win out because people don't know that you have this secret shit in reserve. It's really, really, really, really good stuff. All season have been rad. I'm watching. The challenge we're watching right now is a variation of Mancala where you're earning three distinct pools of points. It's the Monster Train 2 of Korean reality competition shows.

[Russ Freshik]

That's on Netflix or where is that?

[Griffin Macker]

It's on Netflix.

[Russ Freshik]

Yeah.

[Griffin Macker]

Both seasons absolutely kick ass.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

So spin off of a thought with Mindcalla, but Griffin, did you see the New York Times officially endorsed KUB this week?

[Griffin Macker]

No.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yes.

[Griffin Macker]

To what extent can the man Wirecutter did a.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

The game that you should be playing this summer is kub. And they are right.

[Griffin Macker]

I love kub. I'm. I don't know if we've talked about KUB on this show. I think I did a whole wonderful segment about it though.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah.

[Russ Freshik]

How do you spell kub? Just for the people that K, K.

[Griffin Macker]

U U, B. I mean, do we have time? Do you want to give a brief KUB rundown? Yeah.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I mean, sure.

[Russ Freshik]

Kub.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I don't know. It's from Norway or somewhere like that. Vikings played it. You throw sticks at other sticks and there's a big pylon in the middle. And I guess the like lore is that they used to be bones and skulls. But it is fantastic. Explaining the rules is not fun, actually. Just watching someone play it once and then playing it is a blast. It is a game. It is that perfect type of game that can last five minutes or five hours depending on if you get into the thick of it.

[Griffin Macker]

It's a momentum game where you are constantly like, yeah.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

And it is also a one handed game so you can play it while having a beverage.

[Griffin Macker]

It is also a. There's this king piece that has to be the last thing you knock over. So it has that eight ball rule where someone can also end the game drunkenly at any time with a single wayward toss.

[Russ Freshik]

Tension. I like that.

[Griffin Macker]

Very, very exciting. It's my favorite yard game by a country mile. Fucking rules. All right. That's it. That was so much stuff. You guys really got your money's worth.

[Russ Freshik]

Busy this week.

[Griffin Macker]

If you thought this week was busy, next week's gonna be even wilder. Cause The Nintendo Switch 2 is out the day that you're listening to this probably. And hopefully all of our different retail partners will come through for us. We will all have Switch two.

[Russ Freshik]

I've actually. So in theory, I May be getting a Switch 2 on launch day, but I'm gonna also be flying to Summer Game Fest that very same day. And I'm terrified to move my pre order to another address. So probably all of the impressions that I provide about Switch 2 next week will be on Jason Schreier's Switch 2. Here's hoping.

[Griffin Macker]

You know he's gonna have overclocked it.

[Russ Freshik]

Yes.

[Griffin Macker]

And modded it and tweaked it.

[Russ Freshik]

He's gonna be fucking king booing all over that game.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Also, I'm just gonna let people know up front I won't be here next week. I know you like how it is because I'm getting a colonoscopy and if you're over the age of 50, which I'm not. Yeah, do take care of yourself. That's what I'm gonna say.

[Griffin Macker]

Keep your head on a swivel. We will have a different Chris with us, though.

[Russ Freshik]

Oh, yeah, that's true.

[Griffin Macker]

Chris for Chris. Swap out with Chris Grant. Very excited for that. So, yes, a lot to do next week. Please, if you enjoy our show, consider joining our [e-mail] thebesties Russ, you wanna read off some friends who've been supporting us?

[Russ Freshik]

We have some recent members of the Patreon. Thank you again for everyone's support. But here's some recent ones. We have Defiant. We have Stefan or Stefan, Daniel and Gabby. Thank y' all. We really appreciate you. It's a huge fucking help. A huge help.

[Griffin Macker]

Next week, Switch 2 and Summer Game Fest. Are they gonna announce that Persona 4 remake that has my TikTok algorithm ablaze. Ablaze with rumor mongering? Christ, I hope so. You'll find out before us and then we'll talk about it next Friday on the Besties. So join us then because shouldn't the world's best friends play the world's best games? Besties.