Doom: The Dark Ages is a (Shotgun) Blast

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Besties – Episode: "Doom: The Dark Ages is a (Shotgun) Blast"

Release Date: May 23, 2025

Hosts: Chris Plant, Griffin McElroy, Justin McElroy, Russ Frushtick

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Introduction to "Doom: The Dark Ages"

In this episode of The Besties, the hosts delve deep into the highly anticipated video game "Doom: The Dark Ages." They explore its mechanics, compare it to previous installments, and discuss its storyline and technical aspects. The conversation is enriched with personal insights and engaging banter, making it accessible and informative for both avid gamers and casual listeners.

Game Mechanics and Innovations

The discussion kicks off with an exploration of the game's core mechanics, particularly the introduction of parrying and shield mechanics.

Ross Frostchuk shares his initial skepticism about the changes, stating:

"Big open spaces and you're gonna parry a lot. And I was like, that seems like a terrible idea. And then it turns out it was a brilliant idea." ([05:44])

Griffin McElroy adds his surprise at the forgiving nature of the parry system:

"How insanely forgiving it is just...within a good, like, second and a half long window of a green projectile getting even remotely close to each." ([07:01])

Justin McElroy emphasizes the versatility introduced by these mechanics:

"There are so many different, like, ways you could approach any given situation... you have one of eight different ways I could deal with this situation." ([07:39])

The hosts debate whether these new mechanics enhance or detract from the traditional fast-paced Doom gameplay. Griffin mentions:

"Do you not feel like the game feels a bit slower than especially Eternal?" ([10:04])

Comparison to Previous Doom Titles

A significant portion of the conversation centers around how "Doom: The Dark Ages" stacks up against its predecessors, Doom (2016) and Doom Eternal.

Chris Plant provides a historical perspective:

"The first game was like sprinting through hallways, ripping heads off. The second added traversal like air dashes and double jumps... This game adds a shield and exotic mechanics." ([08:32])

Ross Frostchuk compares the difficulty and gameplay styles:

"Eternal was use all weapons and cycle through everything... This game is more about solving specific problems with the right weapon." ([17:05])

Storyline and Plot Analysis

The hosts delve into the narrative aspects of the game, expressing mixed feelings about its coherence and depth.

Griffin McElroy expresses confusion about the protagonist's origins:

"Maybe there's flashbacks and shit later in the game. I should state again that I didn't play it through." ([22:40])

Chris Plant criticizes the storyline's complexity:

"The plot of this game makes no fucking sense to me... I don't know who the organizations are that are working or against the Doom God." ([23:09])

Technical Performance and Platform Issues

Technical performance, especially on various platforms, is another key topic.

Justin McElroy shares his struggles with running the game on his Rog Ally X:

"I downloaded it on my Rog Ally X... it crashed consistently." ([26:02])

Chris Plant defends the game's optimization:

"I'm running it on my mid-range gaming PC... it's a steady 60fps." ([26:16])

Ross Frostchuk speculates about the game's requirements:

"They went all in on the ray tracing for the lighting of this game... that’s why it’s not gonna work on anything." ([26:07])

Listener Emails and Recommendations

The hosts engage with listener emails, offering game recommendations and sharing personal experiences.

Griffin McElroy highlights "Unbeatable", a rhythm-based RPG:

"Have a demo for Unbeatable on Steam right now. It's a rhythm-based RPG about a punk band in a world where music is banned." ([35:05])

Justin McElroy discusses his experience with "Murderbot":

"It's about a security robot that hacks its programming and works for itself... Alexander Skarsgard gives a really nuanced, funny performance." ([50:00])

Other Media and Personal Updates

Beyond gaming, the hosts touch upon other shows and personal ventures.

Chris Plant briefly mentions watching "Andor Season 2":

"It's incredibly good and so nuanced... I can't talk about it at all because I have only watched the first half of the first episode." ([47:08])

Justin McElroy shares his woodworking endeavors:

"I picked up an old craftsman wood lathe for around $150... I'm trying to learn how to use it." ([37:00])

Conclusion and Wrap-Up

As the episode winds down, the hosts maintain their signature humor and camaraderie, teasing upcoming content and encouraging listeners to stay engaged.

Ross Frostchuk announces his new show, "Post Games":

"I launched a new show, you can listen to it at patreon.com/postgames." ([58:24])

Justin McElroy wraps up with a humorous nod to their ongoing antics:

"Be sure to join us again next week for the besties because shouldn't the world's best friends eat the world's best beef?" ([57:52])

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Ross Frostchuk: "That seems like a terrible idea. And then it turns out it was a brilliant idea." ([05:44])
• Griffin McElroy: "How insanely forgiving it is just..." ([07:01])
• Justin McElroy: "There are so many different, like, ways you could approach any given situation." ([07:39])
• Griffin McElroy: "Do you not feel like the game feels a bit slower than especially Eternal?" ([10:04])
• Griffin McElroy: "Maybe there's flashbacks and shit later in the game." ([22:40])
• Chris Plant: "The plot of this game makes no fucking sense to me." ([23:09])
• Justin McElroy: "I downloaded it on my Rog Ally X... it crashed consistently." ([26:02])
• Griffin McElroy: "Have a demo for Unbeatable on Steam right now." ([35:05])
• Justin McElroy: "It's about a security robot that hacks its programming and works for itself." ([50:00])
• Ross Frostchuk: "I launched a new show, you can listen to it at patreon.com/postgames." ([58:24])

Final Thoughts

This episode offers a comprehensive examination of "Doom: The Dark Ages," blending critical analysis with entertaining dialogue. The hosts' diverse perspectives provide listeners with a nuanced understanding of the game's strengths and areas for improvement. Whether you're a die-hard Doom fan or new to the series, this discussion offers valuable insights that enhance your gaming experience.

Transcript

[Justin McElroy]

So he's not the Doom guy. He's the Doom Slayer. Or the Slayer.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yes.

[Justin McElroy]

Okay. But he's not ever Dr. Doom.

[Griffin McElroy]

That's true. Speak on that.

[Justin McElroy]

I just feel like if you can earn a doctorate for kicking ass, then he should be, at this point, Dr. Doom.

[Chris Plant]

Oh, so you think he studied Doom so extensively that people would come to him?

[Justin McElroy]

It's an honorary. Whatever he's doing.

[Ross Frostchuk]

Yeah, I think he probably has. He just doesn't want to be, like, a jerk about it.

[Justin McElroy]

He doesn't want to be, like, honorary, like, after every. Like, honorary. Sorry. Honorary doctor. Sorry.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, yeah.

[Ross Frostchuk]

Like, it's like, you know, you have a doctorate in world history, but if you say that you're Dr. World History, it seems a little.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, this is a good point, is you don't typically. When you become a doctor, and you should know this because you're married, you don't. You typically just append Doctor to the beginning of your name. And I don't think his name is Doom, as cool as that would be if it would be like, what is his name?

[Ross Frostchuk]

Dr. Slayer.

[Chris Plant]

No, I think it's Greg. Didn't. It wasn't in one of the. I don't normally read them, but I think I read one that said Greg.

[Justin McElroy]

Dr. Greg Duman Schmirtz.

[Chris Plant]

Can you become a doctor of stuff you kill?

[Griffin McElroy]

Yes, if you kill himself.

[Justin McElroy]

He's not a doctor in that.

[Griffin McElroy]

What do you think?

[Justin McElroy]

He's a doctor in the killing of them.

[Griffin McElroy]

Have you not seen a fisherman?

[Justin McElroy]

A doctor fisherman. A doctor of fishing. Can't get in there and, like, dissect a fish and bring it back to life. You know what I mean? He's just expert in hunting the fish.

[Griffin McElroy]

Like, you know, in the Marvel movies, there's Dr. America who kills everyone who's not like, an American. You see that? You see? You've seen these movies.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah, yeah, I've seen him.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah. He's a problematic, problematic fave doctor.

[Chris Plant]

You would have to kill everyone in America for to be Dr. America under that premise. Because Doom guy is killing everyone in Doom. Oh, wait, they're just demons. They're not really.

[Justin McElroy]

It's not called Doom. What do you mean?

[Chris Plant]

The planet Doom, maybe.

[Justin McElroy]

No, not maybe. It's like, it's Mars.

[Griffin McElroy]

Definitively not playing Doom. Yeah, maybe that's.

[Chris Plant]

That's the cold. Oh, that's like how they. After the credits, they reveal.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Chris Plant]

There's a sign. It pulls back.

[Justin McElroy]

I'll tell you what it is.

[Griffin McElroy]

You've been killing dudes on Doom. And then the Doom. And then the doctor Doom winks.

[Chris Plant]

Yep.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah. Cool. What a cool game in a cool world. Thanks for letting us live in it and play around in it.

[Ross Frostchuk]

Oh, shit. I just looked at the Wikipedia and.

[Griffin McElroy]

He'S a lawyer, God damn it. Dr. Doom, Attorney at Law.

[Justin McElroy]

My name is Justin McElroy and I know the best game of the week.

[Griffin McElroy]

My name is Griff McIlroy and I have the best game of the week.

[Ross Frostchuk]

My name is Chris Plant and I know the best rock song about a Doom Lord game.

[Justin McElroy]

What? All right.

[Griffin McElroy]

About a Doom Lord game.

[Chris Plant]

My name is Ross Frostchuk. I know the best game of the week.

[Justin McElroy]

Welcome to the Besties, where we talk about the latest and greatest in home interactive entertainment. It's a video game club and just by listening, you have become a member. This week we're going to be talking about Doom the Middle Ages. Chris Plant, what is that? Doom, the Middle Age. Doom, the Dark Age. Doom the Dark Age.

[Chris Plant]

Middle Ages coming next. We haven't seen it. You just broke a huge NDA. Yeah, that's okay. Dark Ages. Yes. What is this?

[Justin McElroy]

The Dark Ages.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah.

[Ross Frostchuk]

Doom is back. The new doom. The Doom 2016 is back for a second sequel to Doom 2016. The this isn't a sequel to Doom. It's a sequel to the sequel to doom 2016. And this time you are standing and fighting. The last time you were running and sprinting and now you're standing and guarding.

[Chris Plant]

You know, when you said new Doom, I kind of want to play that game.

[Griffin McElroy]

Nude Doom.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah, Nude Doom.

[Griffin McElroy]

Computer, can you generate a nude Doom?

[Justin McElroy]

We'll talk about that and so much more right after this.

[Chris Plant]

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[Ross Frostchuk]

Y' all. Can I just tell you right up front two things? Love this game. Was really prepared to hate this game. The previous two. I love the Modern Doom series. And it was on the trajectory that was so my speed. It was, let's do Doom as fast as possible, where you were sprinting across the room like Tony Hawk with a shotgun and a chainsaw, and you're just killing everything you're getting in there. And then they're like, hey, you know what we're gonna do for the next one? Big open spaces and you're gonna parry a lot. And I was like, that seems like a terrible idea. And then it turns out it was a brilliant idea.

[Griffin McElroy]

Is 2025 the year of the parry? I think we probably need a new Sekiro if that was going to be the case.

[Justin McElroy]

July 11, Perry White gonna work at the Daily Planet.

[Griffin McElroy]

I mean, I've began. I've. I've just spent a lot of this year parrying so far. And this game.

[Ross Frostchuk]

That's right.

[Griffin McElroy]

I wasn't expecting it.

[Chris Plant]

What other parry games have we done?

[Griffin McElroy]

Fucking Expedition 33 is the parryingest game I've ever played.

[Chris Plant]

Is there another parry game? I think it needs to be a three for it to be a three.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, we'll get Sekiro 2 in here.

[Ross Frostchuk]

It'll happen. You know what I like about the parry in this game, though?

[Griffin McElroy]

How insanely forgiving it is just.

[Ross Frostchuk]

It's basically just hitting the shield button.

[Griffin McElroy]

You know, within a good, like, second and a half long window of a green projectile getting even remotely close to each. Shocking how forgiving it is.

[Justin McElroy]

It's not shocking if you think about it in a sword game or another melee focused game where pairing would be an ever present thought. It's one of, you know, three or four tools in your toolbox. Right. And this. There are so many different, like, ways you could approach any given situation. I think that you need more time to flash through. You're like, okay, there's something coming at me. There's one of eight different ways I could deal with this situation.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

And, like, you got to pull up parrying. Right? Like, it. It takes a little while.

[Griffin McElroy]

I guess that's true. I think it's also a considerate. I'm not a huge Doom guy.

[Chris Plant]

Well, definitely not looking at you.

[Griffin McElroy]

All right, man. Jesus. I'm not like a huge Doom player, but I was not ready for the number of huge kind of enemy filled arenas I would be fighting in as opposed to you walk into a room and kind of have an idea of where the demons are. I think one of the reasons why the pairing is so forgiving is that you're going to be getting shot in a full 360 degree radius at all times. And so maybe they need it to be a little bit easier for you to block shots you see gimming eye.

[Chris Plant]

I think we might be getting a little ahead of ourselves.

[Justin McElroy]

Okay.

[Chris Plant]

Because we're talking about a very specific aspect to a game that has many specific aspects. And I think that we should take a step back and reframe exactly where the first two games landed and how we think this one differs. So the first, first game was like, we're going to bring Doom back. You're going to sprint through these hallways, you're going to kill guys using mostly traditional Doom mechanics, but you're also going to rip their heads off. And it's going to feel really, really good.

[Ross Frostchuk]

Second game, Melee, feeds into you getting the ammo and the health that you need. So you have.

[Justin McElroy]

It's not a fallback, it's part of the loop.

[Chris Plant]

It's like a combat flow thing.

[Ross Frostchuk]

Yes.

[Chris Plant]

The second game had a lot of that stuff, most of it, but it also added traversal stuff. So air dash, double jump, swinging from rafters, doing fucking crazy grapple swings, shit like that. So that I think mostly typifies the second game. Also you're fighting angels.

[Ross Frostchuk]

Yes. It's much more skate park platformy stuff.

[Chris Plant]

This game adds. We've sort of talked about it a little bit. It adds a shield. It adds, it feels like a number of like new, almost exotic mechanics to those previous two games. Because I think.

[Justin McElroy]

How do you mean by exotic?

[Chris Plant]

Like vastly different from anything that we experienced in the previous two games. Giant mech robots, the dragon that we've talked a little bit.

[Ross Frostchuk]

Tentacles that are like the size of skyscrapers.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah. This feels. It feels like it has the spirit of Doom, but it doesn't feel like a almost half step sequel that I think Doom Eternal did.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, it's so funny because I feel like those last two Doom games were so were championed and were promoted as being fast fucking Doom. Like fast nasty Doom. And this game is still definitely very nasty. But it feels like Doom guy is. I mean it's a prequel, so maybe he just hasn't hit the cross. He is fairly fast, but there's such a heft to it. One of the first mechanics that the game doesn't Even really tell you about it. Tutorializes all this stuff, right. Like, you have a melee attack and you have this shield, and you can do a shield dash with the shield, and then you can throw the shield. And, like, all that stuff is cool. It doesn't tell you that you're such a big fucking beefy boy that if you jump and land from a high enough height, you will obliterate everything around you when you land. And that's cool and great that he does that, but I was just surprised because. Do you not feel like the game feels a bit slower than Especially eternal?

[Justin McElroy]

I don't feel like it. I mean, obviously it's slower, but I think the pace is like. I think it's less mobile. Yeah. But I think that the thing you are probably being asked to think a bit more quickly. I think because there are so many different ways to approach, like, the given situations, it, for me felt. I think there was such focus on, like, the dash attack and the throwing of the shield. And it's weird how I really would oftentimes, like, kind of forget about the gun. Like, I would forget that I had a gun to shoot people with, which isn't bad to make, like, a gun part of the, like, overall tool set that you're using. But it did feel I was a little less focused on the overall loop, I think, because I was. The different tactics that you had other than using your gun were so varied.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah. So you've got the gun, you've got the shield, as we mentioned, and you can do a shield dash with that, where you, like, lock onto a guy and just, like, fly straight at him.

[Griffin McElroy]

Which you can do from about a million billion dollars is insane.

[Chris Plant]

You've also got the ability to throw your shield like Captain America, and you can, like, stick it in, guys. And while it's, like, grinding up inside, up inside of them, they're having a good time, but they're also taking damage.

[Griffin McElroy]

That sentence was the most erotically charged sentence you've ever said out loud on this show.

[Chris Plant]

You've also got guns, which obviously you have guns, but that is the thing. It's like, if you got this melee, you've got this shield, can do all these sorts of things, and you're basically switching between, like, let's say two guns at any given time. Like, there are so many variables that I kind of found myself leaning on the consistencies of, oh, I've got this melee combo attack, I'm gonna upgrade that, or, oh, I've got this shield, and I always have the shield. So I'm gonna keep upgrading that.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Chris Plant]

Where I felt like, yeah, the guns did feel a little de Emphasized in that way.

[Ross Frostchuk]

I think it's a game about the mid range. Right. So like if the first one is about, you know, getting in and back out over and over again. So much of this game is about projectiles like both towards you and away from you. So you mentioned the shield, but that dash move works best. Again, like at a mid range. The throw move, when you throw the shield, it will stick into characters, basically like freezing them. So if there's one character that you're like, I just can't worry about this one right now. You can throw it at them and it'll stay there for a good long while unless you recall the shield. But then on the opposite end, yeah, there are like, the parry is kind of a weird system because you do have characters who do melee attacks. But a lot of what is coming at you is these green projectiles, which.

[Chris Plant]

I couldn't see by the way. Just a heads up.

[Ross Frostchuk]

Is it not a colorblind mode?

[Chris Plant]

There is one. I did find it in the settings, but by default I had no fucking clue which things were parryable.

[Griffin McElroy]

That's.

[Chris Plant]

And unfortunately it does put like a full on filter over all of the graphics. Not just like the one thing you can parry. They just picked very bad colors to delineate. Anyway, there is a colorblind mode, so that helped.

[Ross Frostchuk]

But when these are coming at you, it's closer to. I think Ikaruga is the one that does it. Of the shmups where it's about like changing the color that you're in so you're matching a color. So if you think about it less like Perry and more like, oh, when I see a green one, I actually want to run at those projectiles and. And then shield into them.

[Justin McElroy]

It's like a resource. Almost like it's like half damage, half like pickup. Kind of like.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah, yeah. Most of the boss fights revolve entirely around that. That's the only way to say it's.

[Ross Frostchuk]

Wild how much a good offense is a strong defense in this game and that it's still fun. Like, I don't associate defense with being fun. And in this game they make it very, very active to do these defensive maneuvers.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah, I think of any franchise there aren't too many that make like the gunplay. And this has been true since the reboot feel as fucking good. Like it's like Destiny and Doom are kind of the like leading the charge.

[Griffin McElroy]

Like every, like every gun, like Some of the guns are not as purposeful. Like they don't have as many use cases. I don't think like you get the auto fire like sort of machine gun gun like second or something like that. And it just doesn't. When you have a gun, a shotgun, shotgun that can hit from you know, 60 yards away and absolutely obliterates every. Like it doesn't feel like you need to use the other one.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah, some of that is like they get more utility as they get upgraded. But you're right, like from the jump I'm focusing on, there's anything that is like high damage, single shot seems like way more fitting for this game.

[Griffin McElroy]

I was curious because you all have played more of this game than I have. I've only had time to play a few hours. But like how do the kind of like core combat mechanics improve as you start getting the upgrades? Because I was not particularly wowed by the melee combat in the game. It's based on charges and you can use all your charges to do a combo. But one, it's kind of slow and it makes you stop for a while and then you have to keep track of how many charges you have before you try to go in for one of these combos.

[Justin McElroy]

It's combo by default map pressing R3 which feels kind of weird like to do melee combos by pressing the thumb.

[Griffin McElroy]

Stick repeatedly E on mouse and keyboard, which is also kind of a strange button for melee.

[Chris Plant]

But like clicking in the mouse, isn't that the default. Like that's how you do melee in most games.

[Justin McElroy]

So. Right. But like okay, if you're doing it three times, you're doing it three times is what I'm saying. Like a three hit combo feels bad.

[Ross Frostchuk]

And you'll do it even more later in the game.

[Griffin McElroy]

But like does stuff like that kind of a lot of the stuff works for me. The shield I think rules and the guns feel great. But like then there's like one or two parts of this loop that they have designed that don't really do it for me that I tried more or less to just sort of avoid wherever I could, which wasn't especially fruitful because it really feels like they want you to use this like melee combo stuff.

[Ross Frostchuk]

So I'll hold back just a little bit but I'll get to answer that. Which is comparing this with like Doom Eternal, which Doom Eternal was use all. We're going to give you a ton of weapons and a ton of different enemies and we want you to use all of these weapons and you are like Cycling through all the weapons to make sure you're using every bit of ammo to go through everything. And I think that's where people who didn't like the game really bounced off of it. Because you could actually spend quite a bit of time in the radial menu just zipping through. Right. In this game, it's more like there are problems to be solved when you face the enemies. So there are these enemies that carry shields and if you pump enough ammo into them, the shield starts to heat up. And once the shield is heat and it's glowing orange, you throw your shield at it and it makes it all explode and it will blow up a ton of stuff around it. There are ones who have plasma shields and there's a weapon for that. So it's all about kind of matching a weapon to the scenario. But. And this gets to your question about the melee Griffin. As you upgrade other the various weapons and stuff, they start to solve different problems for you. So for me, I have the shield I throw now is so powerful that I can just take out any plasma characters without even using a plasma weapon. And it bounces and hits like 20 enemies. Or when I see a character go into that destabilized stance, that kind of like pseudo unconscious stance. I don't even have to go in with R3 anymore. I just do that shield charge and zip to them and take them out. That's not a defense of like, you're right. Depressing R3 four times in a row does not feel good. But there are like more options for how you go about solving the problem.

[Griffin McElroy]

It becomes more possible to avoid using this one element of the game that I don't.

[Ross Frostchuk]

And same thing with like the radial menu. If you really want to use every weapon to solve every different like scenario, you can do that. But if you. For me, I was like, I'm pretty cool having like three weapons that I really like and then just using the shield to solve everything else.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, that.

[Ross Frostchuk]

That is available.

[Justin McElroy]

To what extent do you have enough ability to upgrade where like, does that feel like a build that you are working towards or is that like an overall power arc that like anybody would. Was sort of.

[Ross Frostchuk]

That was a build I very intentionally worked towards because I didn't like using the plasma weapons. I didn't. That felt like I was like having to really pull out of the type of game I was playing. I mostly use the like, there's a super shotgun that feels so meaty. We didn't even mention that, like you blow pieces of muscle off.

[Justin McElroy]

It's cool, man. You don't think you're a gross kid anymore until you take a shot with a shotgun. It blows a demon ass off and you're like, ah, cool. I love that.

[Ross Frostchuk]

I mean, and it kind of has almost match type of clay ness to the way things just glob off. Yeah, I like my build is very. Get in there. Really, really strong, heavy stuff. And then everything at range I do with my shield. And that felt like a really conscious decision. And when I look at like the other ways that you could go about it, there are charge builds where you're using the like rapid fire weapons, but it gets like higher and higher power as you charge things up. It feels like there are quite a few different builds that you could approach the game with. I think the flip side of that and complaints that I've seen about the game is it is a lot easier than Doom Eternal, which I don't think is bad at all. But if you are the sort of person who is playing these games because he liked the difficulty, it feels to me like they switched the difficulty for like the creativity, which is cool.

[Justin McElroy]

What does that mean though in a game that has like a bajillion different difficulty settings, right?

[Chris Plant]

Like if you're playing on the highest difficulty, they're saying it's still too easy.

[Ross Frostchuk]

I mean, the complaints I have do not spend a lot of times in these YouTube circles, but the complaints I've seen is that the game is just much, much easier. But the complaints with Eternal is that it was too difficult. So I think that's more.

[Griffin McElroy]

Just can't win.

[Chris Plant]

I play, I don't play every game on easy, but every Doom game I play on easy because it's super fucking fun to play it that way. I don't like dying.

[Griffin McElroy]

It's so insulting. How can you do that? There's much so, so mean about it when you pick the easy setting. The easy setting is like I'm a fucking little piss baby and they make you say it out loud.

[Chris Plant]

They fucking called me. That's it.

[Justin McElroy]

I feel like there's a. I'm not a difficulty person who like cares what you played at. I do think with a game like this, I worry sometimes if I set the difficulty too low then there will be meaningful systems that are enjoyable that I just wouldn't engage with.

[Chris Plant]

I. I feel like I'm still engaging with systems and still taking damage and like it doesn't feel like it's just like a walk in the park. It's definitely easy, but it's such a Power fantasy thing. And I want to make sure that I can, like, beat a level in the 20 minutes that I have.

[Justin McElroy]

Be honest, guys, because there's again, no judgment. This aesthetic. Does this still work for. This is like getting kind of heavy metal. Literally, like, not heavy metal. The heavy metal with a capital H, capital M. Like, the music.

[Chris Plant]

I wanted more. And maybe this happens later in the game. Plant, you can maybe speak to this more traditional, very grounded Dark Ages environments versus, like, fucking dragons and shit.

[Justin McElroy]

It feels so spacey, so quick.

[Chris Plant]

And there's something so interesting about the contrast of, like, you have a very normal environment. And fucking Doom guy. Is there, like, ripping demon heads off like that? Like, I want to see him doing a fucking office building. Like, that's interesting to me. More so than just like, yeah, it's like a fucking yes album cover, basically.

[Griffin McElroy]

I get that they. Maybe there's flashbacks and shit later in the game. I should state again that I didn't play it through. But it feels like they missed a trick making a Doom prequel and not having a little bit more at the beginning about, like, who the fuck this dude? Like, what this dude's origin look like? It's like there's these maker alien guys, and they're sort of on your side, and the humans are being attacked by hell. Go, Doom Slayer. Go get him. And it's like there is.

[Chris Plant]

I don't know if you've gone down the rabbit hole of, like, the Doom lore thing. The last game in particular, like, went incredibly far to the point where when this game started, and quite honestly, still the plot of this game makes no fucking sense to me. I don't know who the organizations are that are working or working against or for the Doom God. I know there's Hell and they seem bad. And then there's this other organization that's like a sciency alien Hell. They also seem bad because they've got the Doom Slayer trapped up in his electric thing.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah. I was never sure in the cinematic who. Who I worked for, because everybody seemed pretty down on the Doom Slayer, honestly.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah, I don't. I didn't need it, quite honestly. Like, if you think about when Doom, the reboot's peak happened was you break out of your fucking coffin in level one. You, like, hear a voice message just, like, fucking rip and tear, and that carries you almost the entire game.

[Griffin McElroy]

But I prefer that to kind of what Dark Age offers me too, which is, you are a creation of the Great Maker.

[Chris Plant]

Yes.

[Griffin McElroy]

But you're on loan today for these dudes. And there's Hell Demons.

[Ross Frostchuk]

And we're telling you no story in the gameplay either, so you really can skip it, at least in what I've played so far. The thing that you will see in the game, I guess narrative wise is that there are people you can't shoot and they seem to like you and that's maybe the entire narrative in the gameplay.

[Justin McElroy]

They're like all your friends, those are all your brothers.

[Ross Frostchuk]

Well, the best is like your cousin. There'll be these scenes where there's big hallways where they're all prepared to go fight, which they know that they're not gonna do. They're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, we'll definitely go right once you're done, we'll go first.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah, you get them first, loosen them.

[Ross Frostchuk]

Up and then they're like in a cathedral. They're all gathered and then you run into the room from one corner, jump over them and then just zip out the door and they're like oh man, that was good.

[Justin McElroy]

Thank Christ.

[Ross Frostchuk]

It was getting real close.

[Griffin McElroy]

It is tough to slot this game into my life with it not working on any of the portable gaming computers that are in my possession. Which I know is not the fairest criticism to leverage anything. But this one is especially feels like.

[Ross Frostchuk]

I think we just need that Steam deck too. I'm putting this more on Valve at this point. We need that Steam deck too.

[Chris Plant]

It's their fault.

[Griffin McElroy]

I mean, I guess so. It might. I might be able to get it going on the Rog Ally X. I was just nervous to do so because of how hard it was to get it to work on my computer and how scared I was.

[Justin McElroy]

Anecdotal evidence I downloaded it on my Rog Ally X on the Bazzite stuff side, the Linux side and I got a pretty. It crashed consistently like as it booted pretty much. And not a. And I got like a weird bug report error type thing.

[Ross Frostchuk]

They went all in on the ray tracing for the lighting of this game. Which is always a silly thing to say, but I think that's why it's just not gonna work on anything.

[Chris Plant]

I don't think so because I'm running it on my gaming PC which is mid range to sit.

[Ross Frostchuk]

That was just what the Digital Foundry video said. I'm just going off of them.

[Chris Plant]

It runs really fucking. It's really well optimized for like I've played a lot of PC modern new PC games on that computer that have really struggled and for whatever reason I think this game in particular, I mean I'm running it on much lower settings than I think was intended. But it looks great. It, It's a steady 60fps, which is more than I can say for what it does.

[Griffin McElroy]

It works for me. Now I think I'm conflating it with like our pre, pre launch issues where like I couldn't get this fucking thing to work at all until Nvidia released like one one driver. Like a day before the game was supposed to come out. I did functional.

[Chris Plant]

I did try it on Steam deck because I heard in like a random forum somewhere you can actually run it on low at 30fps just without all the settings low. And I tried it and it was one of the levels where spoiler alert. You control a giant 50 foot Doomguy mech. And there were just the level launched and I guess a cutscene played but there were no graphics. So I can hear those dialogue and like little artifacts of like something in the distance and they're like dodge through the shields. And I was like, I don't see shields. So yeah, unfortunately I don't think that's gonna cut it. Maybe, maybe updates will happen. But again, given the fact that it runs as well as it does on my kind of shitty gaming PC, I have hopes it's gonna run on.

[Ross Frostchuk]

Before we wrap up, I want to talk about just where this game goes and its mid section because the first few levels do feel a bit like the previous Doom. Outside of yes, you can get in a giant mech. They're kind of these closed off corridor mazes. You use a map to go find items. There comes a point where you ride a dragon and it turns in very briefly into a unreal Xbox360 game and you think like yeah, I'm going to ride a dragon, I know what this is. And then from there it opens up and droid humongous open world city in which you fly around as a dragon and then destroy massive battleships and then land inside of battleships and have entire like level explorations in these standalone worlds which then gives way to very, very, very large open worlds. All of which is to say the game might feel like the original first two dooms at first. It is increasingly a different thing as you get deeper and deeper into it.

[Griffin McElroy]

Are you going to stick with it Chris? Do you think it is, do you think it is worth.

[Ross Frostchuk]

I am like really in love with this game. I think it is something special. I also get why some people have like not clicked with it, but I don't know. This is what I. I really hope that this is what more franchises can do. Make a game every four years or whatever and have them be like pretty different like doom, Doom Eternal. This. These are very different games compared to what so many franchises do. The Assassin's Creed route where it's like maybe every 15 years you get a relatively significant change in gameplay. And I like that they like take the risks and that there's creativity in what they're trying to do that each one sets out to feel different. I think that's good.

[Chris Plant]

I want like an 80s neon infused dude.

[Ross Frostchuk]

I mean I think going further with the aesthetic would be nice. Even with this I, I feel like it didn't hoops to your point. It doesn't really go all yes album either like it does. It's not realistic. It's not full heavy metal album. It's somewhere in between and I wish it went yet one.

[Justin McElroy]

It feels like somebody, somebody had a vision at some point that maybe got a little bit. Yeah, pull back our sort of. What's the word? We got a bunch of people putting in there.

[Griffin McElroy]

Jimmy Cook test product test.

[Justin McElroy]

Like testing the product tested. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like maybe they had people like I don't get all the dragons and stuff. Like okay, we'll cut down. Yeah, make a little more bland. I don't know. This is a guess. I don't know.

[Chris Plant]

Can't all be brutal legend.

[Griffin McElroy]

But why not is what I say. Every game should be brutal legend.

[Justin McElroy]

Still waiting for tootle.

[Griffin McElroy]

Let's take a break.

[Ross Frostchuk]

Yes, let's do that. This week's episode is brought to you in part by Cargurus. True story. I moved to California a few years ago and this might surprise you. I need to drive around a lot and I desperately need a car. I have been struggling to figure this out but now Cargurus has me on the right track. I find this website just so much easier to navigate and I'm just feeling like less stressed. So if you are like me and you're making this big purchase and you want to have some confidence in it and you don't want to be lost in at sea, Cargurus is a great and easy and reliable option. Cargurus will connect you with trusted dealerships when you're ready, ensuring a transparent, transparent and hassle free buying process. With over 4 million listings, CarGurus has more car listings than any other major online automotive marketplace in the US and offers the tools, information and data driven deal ratings that you need. It is no wonder similar web estimated traffic data shows Cargurus is the number one most visited car shopping site. So buy or sell your next car today. Use [e-mail] Go to cargurus.com to make sure your big deal is the best deal. That's C A r G u r u s.com cargurus.com.

[Chris Plant]

Okay, we're back. We have a number of emails. A lot of these are in relation to the backlog episode. Sorry, a treasure trove episode that we did last week about things that people are still playing. The first one comes from James. I cleared out room 46 in blueprints, but it still feels like there's so much to do. I only figured out. I only just figured out how the pup room works and I also need to find huge sums of money somehow. Clair Obscura is next on my list, probably. Well, the good news is I could read that and not feel like it's a spoiler because I did see that there was a pump room and I assumed that there was a room 46. But I will play this game eventually.

[Griffin McElroy]

Do we have anything on the latest about when Russ Freshik is gonna get let off the lease?

[Chris Plant]

Let's see if there's any news.

[Justin McElroy]

I can try to speak to this while you are in a general way that might be helpful for people. And then Griffin, because Griffin has gone much farther than me. I'm kind of a middle ground here. And I think that after you finish it, I think you play one more day. See how you feel.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

See what you feel like doing. Because I think you play one more day and if you feel like you've.

[Griffin McElroy]

Had your fill, that's fine.

[Justin McElroy]

Keep on going there, friend. I had my fill after about 40 hours altogether. Saw a lot of really interesting stuff, had a great time, got my fill of it, moved on down the road.

[Griffin McElroy]

But you can be a nasty hog like I was, which is eat up all the stuff that this game has on offer. But I'll warn you, you will reach a point where you're going to keep hogging around looking for more clues, but you'll have found all the clues.

[Justin McElroy]

I'm just saying everyone I know has had a tremendously satisfying experience, no matter how much of it where they tapped out.

[Chris Plant]

Except for me.

[Griffin McElroy]

Except for Russ.

[Justin McElroy]

I'm so sorry, Russ. That's. I think it's. No, I think it's really good to. To keep mentioning it because, I mean. No, I'm serious. Because it is like there's a lot of people. As scary as it is, Russ represents a lot of people who can connect with him in this and I think we should keep mentioning it. Because everybody should be able to play this.

[Chris Plant]

The developer, I think, knows and is aware. And honestly, I'm not a game designer. I don't know how hard it would be to implement some sort of color accuracy thing. And I think Doom is a good example of this huge studio with this huge backing and the best they can come up with was a like a filter that changed some of the colors in the game, but that wouldn't work in for.

[Justin McElroy]

Sometimes I try to think about how blueprints would do it and I get a little. It gets a little.

[Chris Plant]

The only. Here's the only thing that I can think of because I personally have an app on my phone that's called like Color Picker or whatever the fuck it is. And it has an AR mode so I can point my camera at things so when I'm shopping in the store, I know what color the shirt is that I'm buying.

[Griffin McElroy]

Okay.

[Chris Plant]

So theoretically that would be the only implementation I can think of is you would have a pixel reader built into the game and it would tell you what you're playing.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, that's cool. That's a cool idea. Can we do this next one? Austin emailed and said if Griffin loves Rift of the Necrodancer, he should really try the demo for Unbeatable on Steam right now. It's a rhythm based RPG about a punk band in a world where music is banned. And I'm in love with it. It has a whole original soundtrack and every track is incredible. I wanted to read this because somebody messaged me about this game and I watched a trailer and it does look fucking rad. I don't think it's out yet.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah, it looks like it's just a demo.

[Griffin McElroy]

They do have the demo out, so I may wait for it to come out. But the trailer is pretty badass. It does look like exactly my shit.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah, it kind of looks like FLCL is like my.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, that's a really good comparison. I never. Do you guys use like wishlist stuff? Like, do you actually. Is that a feature, you imp. I know I'm really bad about actually doing that. And I think it's partially because I took for granted the fact that when I was more actively working in the games industry, I just kind of knew when shit was coming out.

[Chris Plant]

There's also just way more games now, so it's so hard to remember. Oh, this game came out. Yeah, I think my Instagram ads are largely worthless because everything on there is overpriced and ridiculous. But it has actually helped me from a game Discovery standpoint, just because you'll see gameplay, and I'll just, like, click right through and wish list the game, and then I remember when it actually comes out. So look at that. Saving the world. Instagram. For the first time ever, we have another letter. This comes from Bastoad Bass. Toad. Justin, are you still woodworking? I'm getting my workshop set up, and I picked up an old craftsman wood lathe for around $150. Woodworking is kind of like gaming, if you think about it.

[Griffin McElroy]

Hmm.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah, sure. I guess. I mean, anything is metaphorically, I guess. I have a lathe, and it scared me too much to use it. And I don't know anybody around here that knows how to use a lathe, except for that guy down at Heritage Farm who just sits down there and uses the lathe all day because that's how they did it in pioneer times. And I don't want to go talk to that guy because I don't have a good exfiltration strategy because it's a big open farm. What am I going to do? Act like I got a business meeting? I don't. It's a farm, so lathes are scary.

[Chris Plant]

I still bought a lathe with that. Like, and you're just sitting there, huh? Like, what was your end game when you bought the lathe?

[Justin McElroy]

Is a cheap. It was a very cheap lathe that I hope to learn on. And then when I started watching videos about it, it was like. And I would try to use it. It's just kind of daunting. It's kind of a scary tool. It spins wood really fast, and you don't want to mess it up. I still would work pretty frequently. I. It is more of a. I would say, like, component of stuff that I do. I got to a point where, I don't know, kind of leveled out with the stuff I wanted to learn. I use it a lot during the summer for, like, set construction. So I've got a big build coming up for the shows we're doing this summer. But that's. I. I don't know. Yeah, I guess it was that. The question is just like a personal question about my life.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah, I guess about you. I think probably weird.

[Justin McElroy]

Okay, sure. Yeah.

[Griffin McElroy]

You're a.

[Justin McElroy]

You're.

[Griffin McElroy]

You're a lot of people's idol Juice. Like, oh. And you need to be, like, you know, aware of that. Great. Grateful.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah. You're a wood fluencer.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah, I'm learning about. I got a multimeter, A couple of multimeters. I'm trying to learn how to use those and do some electronics work and solder and learn some of that kind of stuff.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

So that's where I've been focusing lately.

[Griffin McElroy]

This next question really dovetails is our last email. It really dovetails into my honorable mention. Kate says. Have y' all talked about the fact there's a new season of the Devil's Plan? It's called the Devil's Death Room, and it iterates on the first season in some of the best ways. I'm obsessed. I'm 99% sure someone on this show turned me on to the first season, so I really hope you all are checking out the new one. Let's talk about the Devil's Plan Death Room. Did you guys watch Devil's Plan? Because I'm almost certain I talked about it on this show.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah, I think you did a few episodes. I couldn't quite.

[Chris Plant]

Can you give us the elevator pitch just as a reminder?

[Griffin McElroy]

Okay. It is something like 14 or 16 competitors. Usually just really smart people. People who are like, this season, there's like a gaming YouTuber, like a board game player YouTuber. There's an international Go champion. Like, people whose livelihoods are usually related to games or intellectual pursuits or whatever, live in a house together, and they play a series of games. Some of the games add money to a big prize pot that you get to take home if you win. Some of the games are more designed to eliminate players. Everything kind of is built around this currency that you have as the players called pieces, which are these little golden fancy tokens. And as you play the games, there will be opportunities for you to get more pieces or lose pieces. They are ways of bribing fellow players to help you out in a game. But if you run out of pieces, you're eliminated immediately. That's. That's the basic setup. And it's not like the most out there, bold, innovative thing. The thing that makes this show is the nature of the games that they play throughout it. Each one is different, and they are so insanely complex that it is a game about these games, and it is about watching people figure out strategies for these games that probably didn't exist before they started playing them. So you're watching games, people learning about games and on the fly, trying to figure out how to survive them. And it's very, very, very, very cool to watch. It is also a. You know, it is a South Korean reality competition show. I am not super familiar with that language. And so it is an extremely demanding television show for you to watch because the rules Explanations for some of will go on for 20 minutes and you've gotta be pretty dialed in the first game this season, this second season, the Death Room is a hidden roll type game. It is also like, what's that game where there's like a spy and a spy catcher and you're moving around the map and the spy catcher can't see the spy, so it's like moving around spaces trying to see if they've been there or not. It's based on that sort of getaway, hideaway, something like that. And so there's that element. But the police officers are split into three teams. Manhunt sounds right. There's secret corrupt police officers on the officer's team who are feeding their teams, like false information. And like, there's so many different elements. And each game starts with a 20 minute long explanation of like, here's how it's gonna run, here's how it's gonna work. It's hard to follow, but once the games start, you start to see people figure it out and it's just, it's so the games, while extremely complicated, lend themselves to these, like, incredible tense moments of like, strategy and betrayal. And it really condenses down a lot of the shit that I like about these types of reality competition shows into like their most distillate kind of nature.

[Chris Plant]

Would it be helpful if you know how when they're doing like sign language and they have the ASL interpreter over in the corner, would it be helpful if they got Jeff Probst to do that and just explain stuff?

[Griffin McElroy]

I feel like this game is the kind of game that does have a subset of the audience that is like, if you talk about Survivor, they're like, well, if you like Survivor, you've got to check out Dev. It's nothing at all. Nothing at all.

[Justin McElroy]

Nothing like Survivor.

[Griffin McElroy]

Nothing at all like Survivor.

[Justin McElroy]

Here's what Devil's plan is. Okay, I'm going to. I watched it. Here's what it is. If you've ever been at somebody's house and they've got a big thick rule book for a board game they want to play, and they've already got 15 pages in, and then they're like, you know what, we should start playing at this point and we'll pick up the rest as we go. And then someone in the room is like, no, no, no, no, no. I think there's gotta be more of those rules. Keep them coming, brother. And then that guy is the guy who would like Devil's Plan. That's the guy that's the audience. I think it is so statistically unlikely that two people who would enjoy this show would marry each other, that I think Rachel must be trying to assassinate Griffin. That's where I'm at currently.

[Griffin McElroy]

Rachel's very, very deeply into this show, but she does this thing where she will start to try to follow the rules and then at a certain point, just kind of let the explanation of the rules wash over her. Because once you start playing the game and the second you see someone have to make a decision on, like, wait, I think I might be able to get a leg up on this game. There's always, like, a period after they explain the rules for, like a half hour. You can kind of, like, mingle and talk about what your game plan's gonna be. And that's where you see the rubber hit the road of like, hey, actually, I think if we maybe if we alternate rounds that we make these bids, we can maximize our chance not to get in each other's way and not waste all of our current. Like, you see people start to make. And as people work out, like, how they can survive and how they can win, the rules crystallize, like, pretty. They do crystallize fairly quickly.

[Chris Plant]

It's interesting because speaking of Jeff Probst, I have been watching Survivor as, like, the only reality show that I watch, so I'm like, a total noob. But they've been doing ads for season 50, which is coming up. I don't think it's the next season, but in a couple seasons.

[Griffin McElroy]

They're in 47 right now.

[Ross Frostchuk]

Right.

[Chris Plant]

So they've been doing ads for season 50 saying, hey, we want you to get involved and you're gonna vote on, like, the rules, like, the way this all works.

[Griffin McElroy]

Sure.

[Chris Plant]

And one of the most recent ones, they were like, do you want immunity idols or not? Because some people apparently want, like, a.

[Griffin McElroy]

Just relationships, like, no hidden immunity idols.

[Chris Plant]

No mechanics raw, like, just base Survivor. And this seems like the total opposite of that.

[Griffin McElroy]

Of all the things to trim off of the Survivor surprising model, people don't.

[Justin McElroy]

Realize that those it is the mechanics that they're introducing are constantly. That is a back and forth with the audience, I think, and the players too, of like, changing those expectations.

[Chris Plant]

And it keeps things interesting. Like, you're not just rolling into the.

[Griffin McElroy]

Same or it makes things like convoluted and stupid. And those usually don't make it past.

[Chris Plant]

That's what I was thinking. Because the money there was that money season where you're like, you have six.

[Ross Frostchuk]

Redemption Island, Starbucks, whatever.

[Chris Plant]

Survivor Coins.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Chris Plant]

And that was like.

[Ross Frostchuk]

No.

[Justin McElroy]

I like to smash the hourglass to reverse time. Your time rehearsal cubes.

[Griffin McElroy]

Now, that means that you won the last challenge. Congratulations.

[Justin McElroy]

Remember, actually, that team lost. That sucks.

[Griffin McElroy]

I will add, there is a whole other element to Devil's Plan that is there's secret shit hidden throughout the house that they all live. Like, there are little puzzles and opportunities for you to get these pieces that are your lifeblood in the game.

[Chris Plant]

Oh, so it's blueprints. You're just playing. You're watching blueprints kind of, right?

[Griffin McElroy]

Like, you see someone walk into their room, and then they're, like, unpacking. And there's a part where somebody gets out their clock, and they're like, oh, they already have clocks here. And then he looks at the clock for a while and he's like, that clock's not moving. And then he goes over and investigates the clock. And there's some shit. There's, like, some shit going on. Like, that stuff is so, so full of human dookie.

[Justin McElroy]

But inside there's a letter E. What can it mean?

[Griffin McElroy]

If you are able to dial into a game, it is a very rewarding experience watching the show. The first season kicked ass. We're like three games into the second season. And it's the whole death game mechanic this time is like, there's one round where it's like one player gets eliminated for sure. And if you're in prison, you have to play in the death game. There's a prison too, that you get sent to if you're not rich enough. It's very much like life. Anyway, that's Devil's plan to death room. It fucking kicks ass. It's on Netflix. I've also been watching Andor season two, which I want to talk about it, but I've had that for a long time.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah, we can't talk about it at all because I have only watched the first half of the first episode of Andor Season 2, and I incredibly into it. But I'm dying to watch more, and I just don't want to know anything about it.

[Griffin McElroy]

Okay, well, that's the.

[Justin McElroy]

The way you rule this show is, actually. It gets my point.

[Chris Plant]

I'm sure there's people at home that agree with me.

[Justin McElroy]

I get it. I get the refresh stick thing.

[Griffin McElroy]

There's not ways to talk about why it's good without getting into the.

[Chris Plant]

You can talk about the letters that.

[Griffin McElroy]

Are in the title. Things I'm allowed to say about Andor season two.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah, yeah, sure. So you could say how many letters are in the title?

[Ross Frostchuk]

Gurd's writing these down, by the way.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah, you could say, is it about space? Is it about space and how much space is in it versus land stuff?

[Griffin McElroy]

Okay, that's it. I think that's fair. That's fair. It's so. Fuck. It's so good. If you had the moments during season one of Andor where you're like, wow, I can't believe they made a thing this good in the Star wars universe. I promise you that it has escalated dramatically.

[Chris Plant]

It sucks because it is all over the fucking Internet right now. And like, I know that person. Oh, no.

[Griffin McElroy]

I got spoiled pretty, pretty bad by a TikTok.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah, I've been really. Anytime I see any and. Or anything, I'm like, no, no, no.

[Ross Frostchuk]

Yeah, get the fuck out of there.

[Griffin McElroy]

You will? Absolutely.

[Chris Plant]

We'll see.

[Griffin McElroy]

It covers a lot of ground, a lot of territory, and it's just so good and so interesting and so nuanced. And I'm like an episode and a half away from finishing and it's like all I can think about is getting off this fucking stupid podcast and going to finish the episode of Andor that I was on.

[Chris Plant]

Make a movie about what happens next.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah, why?

[Griffin McElroy]

Good idea, man.

[Chris Plant]

Thank you.

[Justin McElroy]

You can watch this at home.

[Chris Plant]

Okay. I've been watching the rehearsal, season two still. Griffin, I'm glad you finally watched the episode that I was alluding to previously regarding Sully Sullenberger. Fucking mind blowingly fantastic episode.

[Griffin McElroy]

Really, really, really good.

[Chris Plant]

Really fucking good. This season has been amazing. I think there were rightful concerns regarding the first season that the impression was such that there was like a. We're a little bit making fun of the subjects of the show.

[Griffin McElroy]

Right.

[Chris Plant]

And I think over time, and this includes like late in the first season and then into this season, I think it's very clear that they are being, I think, more mindful about not only the people that appear in the show, but also like what it means to even produce this show. And so it feels like it's very much like a looking inward Nathan Fielder thing. But it's also unclear, like, I mean, he knows a lot of this stuff, but like he presents himself as. It's just very layered and interesting and again, there's really no analog for it on television right now. So I've been really.

[Griffin McElroy]

I'm behind a couple episodes, so I actually need you to not mention anything about people or pilots or planes. Whether or not there's jokes, any jokes.

[Chris Plant]

I can talk about, whether it's in space or on land. I can do that both.

[Ross Frostchuk]

Hoops. Anything else you're enjoying right now?

[Justin McElroy]

Let's see here. I watched the first two episodes of Murderbot.

[Griffin McElroy]

I was just about to ask about.

[Justin McElroy]

That Apple TV last night with my wife. I had read the first couple of books, or at least the book that this season is based on, and she had not. So we both were coming at it for.

[Griffin McElroy]

Does the season just cover all systems read? Is that the first one?

[Justin McElroy]

I feel like yes, if I had to guess, that's what it feels like. But I don't know because I don't know. All the episodes aren't out, so I don't know.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, sure.

[Justin McElroy]

But that was kind of the vibe with Silo, I think was doing. Did. No, no, no. They split the first. But anyway, anyway, this. This seems on pace to do that, but it is an adaptation. If you don't remember, I talked about the book series a few months backwardly before I knew this was going to be a TV series. So that worked out nicely. But it is about a security robot that hacks his own programming and is basically working for himself, but fears that if it is ever discovered that he has hacked his own programming and is working for himself, that he'll be destroyed. So he has to fake that he is still under the thrall of whoever is renting him to provide security. It's about. He gets hired by a crew of human beings.

[Griffin McElroy]

We should point out you're saying he. Because it's played by Alexander Skarsgrd. Is that right? But I do believe that Murderbot, the character.

[Chris Plant]

Is it. Or they.

[Griffin McElroy]

I don't know.

[Chris Plant]

What do they use in the.

[Justin McElroy]

In the show? Everyone is, well, okay, see, it's tough because it is used. It is being used in a derogatory fashion amongst the crew. So it's kind of. Anyway, this robot who is played by Alexander Skarsgrd, the whole thing is kind of an extended metaphor for, I think for people on the autism spectrum, people who are lots of different neurodiversions, I suppose, and sort of the difficulties of relating to people who may be more typical or neurotypical. And it's using things like he has a armor and a mask that he very rarely removes, which is, I know, pretty on the nose in terms of that. But like, yeah, he has to take off the mask at one point to comfort a crew member. And once they realize that there is a face under the mask, they want Murderbot to keep showing its face constantly, which makes it more uncomfortable and the more intimacy the people of the crew want the less comfortable Murderbot is with it, with the whole situation. So that's the dynamic is sort of Murderbot learning about the crew and the crew learning about it and Murderbot fearing that the crew will discover that it's just kind of doing what it. What it wants to do and not working for anybody. It's really a faithful adaptation from what I could tell. They get the tone really right. It's very fun and funny. Alexander Skarsgard gives a really, I think good, nuanced, funny performance. It really. He sells, I think what they are doing really well. And I really enjoyed it. I look forward to the rest. And Sid really liked it too. So that was.

[Griffin McElroy]

I was wondering if Rachel would enjoy it. She does not usually go for a lot of sci fi. Like we watched all Battlestar together, which I guess is pretty, pretty firm sci fi.

[Justin McElroy]

One hearty recommendation I can get. You know what? I would say it is sci fi, but like only in the sense that like Hitchhiker's Guide is sci fi. Like the first episode is 30. The episodes are 30 minutes long. So it's like it's skewing more action comedy than it is like hard sci fi. There, there. That's much more about the setting. But it is like the fundamental human connections are really relatable and I think come across really, really well.

[Ross Frostchuk]

The actor who was in Suicide Squad and I really enjoy that actor, David Dastmalchian. Do you know this guy?

[Justin McElroy]

I know who you're referring to in the cast because I did not realize his name, but I've seen him in a couple of things too.

[Ross Frostchuk]

And yes, I. Yeah, he was in Ant man and Late Night with Late Night with the Devil.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah, That's a great face. Just a killer.

[Ross Frostchuk]

Yeah, like that guy's great face. Yeah, a really great. That guy.

[Griffin McElroy]

Any other faces of people you want to comment on Chris for being so.

[Justin McElroy]

Both good and bad?

[Ross Frostchuk]

No, that was pretty much the only face. That was like the only face that I really had. Top of mind right now. I finally played some repo.

[Griffin McElroy]

I'm so glad one of us is talking about a video game. I was starting to feel a little self conscious about it.

[Ross Frostchuk]

I get it. I mean, I don't have anything to say that we haven't said already other than it's really nice to play a social game.

[Griffin McElroy]

Oh, I can add this. We've been doing it. Our last time we streamed that game, we installed a bunch of mods suggested by McKay, our merch liaison and mods really make that game fucking Sing, man. There's a lot about Repo I enjoy, except for the playing of it, because of how fucking hard and punishing it is. And I feel like sometimes in a way that feels so hugely unfair that it's not like, I don't know, enjoyable really anymore. And with mods, you can really tweak kind of what. What the game throws at you and what you're able to kind of do in response. And it's pretty easy to get those up and running. So you can also, if you want to preserve the original vision of the game, you can just download aesthetic mods. There's one called Moorhead, which lets you add. You can dress up like Batman or Ash Ketchum or, you know, whatever.

[Ross Frostchuk]

So what are we playing next week?

[Chris Plant]

We're playing to a T. Great.

[Ross Frostchuk]

That is the new game from the what? Creator of Katamari Damacy. A lot of people made that game, but the person known for that game, it looks great. I played a little bit of this at GDC and really, really, really enjoyed it. I will also say, Griffin, if you need a game for the big segment, I know you only have so much time.

[Griffin McElroy]

Jesus.

[Ross Frostchuk]

Do you know that there is a new Fantasy Life out?

[Griffin McElroy]

I'm so sorry. As soon as you started saying the name of whatever game you just said, I clicked to open a trailer for the Tua T page and my ears were blasted at 100,000 times.

[Justin McElroy]

God, the exact same thing just happened. Boo boo boo.

[Griffin McElroy]

Just like there's this game you're gonna love. It's bada ba sca da ba. So what the fuck did you say?

[Ross Frostchuk]

Fantasy Life is back.

[Griffin McElroy]

Oh, is that new Fantasy Life out?

[Ross Frostchuk]

It's out. You can play it right now on Level 5. Has a new game and I am so hyped. You want a slow RPG? You want 14 different jobs. You want to cook and fish, maybe fight a dragon if you have to.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, I have that. I hold that 3ds game fantasy life so dear to my heart. Even though it is not very good, it is extremely, extremely shallow. But the ideas behind it were so, like, promising and neat. So I'm. Is it?

[Ross Frostchuk]

I. I have not started it yet, but it is not almost overwhelmingly positive on Steam as 92% this says it's out tomorrow.

[Griffin McElroy]

What do you. Don't get me. Don't get me all pumped up when it's not out for 20 more hours coming May 21st.

[Ross Frostchuk]

Oh, I see there was a pre release version of it.

[Justin McElroy]

And now, guys, my Arby's is on the front porch.

[Ross Frostchuk]

Oh, that's.

[Griffin McElroy]

I'm so sorry.

[Ross Frostchuk]

That beef.

[Justin McElroy]

Be sure to join us again next week for the besties because shouldn't the world's best friends eat the world's best beef?

[Griffin McElroy]

Well, hold on, because we do usually do some other stuff.

[Chris Plant]

I know you want your Arby's.

[Justin McElroy]

Do you want the Arby's or not? Griffin, do you care or not? Is it an act? Cuz you guys were like, yeah, you got to get your Arby's.

[Chris Plant]

Patreon.com thebesties thank you so much for being supporters of the besties. We really appreciate all of you that have been subscribers and supporters. And we've got new content coming at you, new resties coming at you on Tuesday. We got this month's bracket episode is live. We got another Rusty's about des Pelote and a number of other things. So thank you all.

[Ross Frostchuk]

Real quick plug. I launched a new show, like right now. People can listen to it right now. It's called post games and you can listen to [e-mail] postgames or you can wait till Monday and you can listen to the free version. But, like, you don't want to do that. You want to go, don't do that.

[Chris Plant]

Don't listen to the nice version. Version.

[Ross Frostchuk]

Yeah, it's the nice version. I made it extra good.

[Chris Plant]

All right, cool.

[Justin McElroy]

All right, that's gonna do it for us for this week on the besties. Unless anyone else has anything.

[Chris Plant]

No.

[Ross Frostchuk]

Go get your beef.

[Justin McElroy]

Be sure to join us again next time for beef. Shouldn't the world's best friends pick the world's best games? Sa.