Monster Hunter Wilds is Surprisingly Great in Single-Player

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Besties – "Monster Hunter Wilds is Surprisingly Great in Single-Player"

Episode Information

• Title: Monster Hunter Wilds is Surprisingly Great in Single-Player
• Podcast: The Besties
• Hosts: Chris Plante, Griffin McElroy, Justin McElroy, Russ Frushtick
• Release Date: February 28, 2025

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Introduction

In this episode of The Besties, hosts Chris Plante, Griffin McElroy, Justin McElroy, and Russ Frushtick delve into the intricacies of Monster Hunter Wilds, particularly focusing on its single-player experience. The discussion explores the game's mechanics, accessibility, and how it stands out in the expansive Monster Hunter franchise.

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Monster Hunter Wilds: A Single-Player Perspective

Russ Frostky opens the conversation by providing an overview of Monster Hunter Wilds, describing it as a "long-running multiplayer grindy action RPG" that has evolved from its mobile origins to now thrive on consoles with enhanced features. He emphasizes the game's essence: "You get to kill Big Beast with your buds" (Russ Frostky, 04:30).

Gameplay Mechanics and Combat

Chris Plant challenges the notion of Monster Hunter Wilds being merely a "numbers game," asserting, "the minute to minute of fighting monsters is completely peerless... it recreates what it would feel like to fight a giant chicken" (Chris Plant, 08:13). He praises the fluidity and depth of the combat system, highlighting the unique animations and action sequences that make each battle engaging.

Justin McElroy compares the game to Destiny, noting that while Destiny focuses on straightforward progression, Monster Hunter Wilds "much more rewards preparation and getting ready for a battle" (Justin McElroy, 08:48). This preparation aspect, he believes, adds a layer of strategy that enhances the overall gaming experience.

Story and Design

Griffin McElroy brings up a community theory about the development teams at Capcom, suggesting that Monster Hunter Wilds aligns more closely with Monster Hunter World in its emphasis on story, characters, and ecological depth. He remarks, "Monster Hunter Wilds is much more in the vein of Monster Hunter World... getting down deep dirty with the ecology of this new world" (Griffin McElroy, 06:16).

However, not all feedback is glowing. Both Griffin and Chris express concerns over the game's narrative structure. Griffin notes, "the story is pretty lackluster... I just do not care about" (Griffin McElroy, 15:26), while Chris agrees, pointing out that certain story elements "go in places that are, like, truly insane" (Chris Plant, 16:37).

Accessibility and Learning Curve

A significant portion of the discussion revolves around the game's accessibility for new players. Justin shares his struggles with learning weapon mechanics without external guides: "I couldn't remember how to make the Longsword stuff come together in a way where like a tutorial in 30 seconds to be like, here's the core combos" (Justin McElroy, 18:46).

Griffin echoes this sentiment, highlighting the absence of specialized hunts that previous games offered to teach weapon intricacies. He states, "there are no specialized hunts... which is kind of crazy to me because this game seems so, I don't know, too open for beginners, except for the fact that it doesn't teach you how to use the weapons" (Griffin McElroy, 20:10).

Russ adds that while the game is inherently complex, it does offer some onboarding features like YouTube tutorials acting as the new manuals. He muses, "YouTube tutorials are the new video game manuals" (Russ Frostky, 20:34), suggesting that players are increasingly relying on external resources to navigate the game's depth.

Combat Customization and Features

The hosts appreciate the game's customization features. Chris highlights the wound system, which allows players to perform dynamic actions during combat: "you can see the wound and hit one button and feel like a badass" (Chris Plant, 23:31). This feature not only enhances combat fluidity but also makes the experience more gratifying without needing to master complex combos.

Justin adds, "the wound system... removes that terrible feeling of feeling like you built up to a big payoff of an attack, and they move at the last second" (Justin McElroy, 24:45), noting that it streamlines combat interactions and maintains player engagement.

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Community Feedback and Features

Griffin discusses the open-world aspect of Monster Hunter Wilds, praising its design while acknowledging areas that may still feel cumbersome. He mentions, "My least favorite part of this game is when you're in town... you're riding on sacred back for like a few minutes while they talk about some inane shit" (Griffin McElroy, 28:14), indicating a desire for more streamlined quest interactions.

Justin concurs, expressing confusion over quest completion mechanics and the lack of intuitive teleportation options: "I had this like, weird, like, well, what do I do now?" (Justin McElroy, 29:09).

Despite these issues, the hosts agree that Monster Hunter Wilds represents a significant step towards making the franchise more accessible while retaining its core appeal. Chris concludes, "I just think they're making an extremely good game... I think people are going to really enjoy it" (Chris Plant, 34:20).

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Side Conversations and Additional Topics

Beyond the main discussion on Monster Hunter Wilds, the hosts explore several other topics:

1. Tokyo Extreme Racer Revival

   • Russ Frostky excitedly announces the return of Tokyo Extreme Racer, a niche racing game from the Dreamcast era. He describes its unique combat racing mechanics and nostalgic aesthetic, noting its availability on Steam Deck and the positive community reception (Russ Frostky, 35:47).

2. Netflix Games

   • Listener S. Payne recommends Netflix's gaming library to budget-conscious gamers. The hosts discuss the integration of games like Into the Breach, Dead Cells, and others into Netflix's platform, though Justin expresses confusion over accessing these games through a Netflix subscription (Noah’s Mail, 42:20).

3. Reusing Maps in Games

   • Noah shares his appreciation for games that revisit old maps with new twists, citing examples from Tears of the Kingdom, Zelda II, and Dragon Quest 2. The conversation touches on how this practice enhances nostalgia and provides fresh experiences in familiar settings (Noah’s Mail, 44:15).

4. Personal Updates

   • Justin McElroy shares his journey into learning Linux, emphasizing the importance of open-source computing and taking control away from large corporations. He details his projects, including setting up a Linux-based laptop and smart home systems (Justin McElroy, 47:29).

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Closing Remarks

As the episode wraps up, the hosts thank their patrons, mention upcoming episodes—including a Split Fiction review—and tease future discussions on games like Star of Providence and Slay the Spire. They encourage listeners to join them again for more in-depth gaming conversations and recommendations.

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Notable Quotes

• Justin McElroy on combat fluidity: “It is absolutely another round of smoothing off a lot of rough edges and bringing in a lot of quality of life improvement.” (Justin McElroy, 06:05)

• Chris Plant on single-player strength: “I feel like I'm more productive solo because I am very directed in what I'm doing.” (Chris Plant, 12:30)

• Griffin McElroy on the open-world design: “Monster Hunter wilds is much more in the vein of Monster Hunter World... getting down deep dirty with the ecology of this new world.” (Griffin McElroy, 06:16)

• Justin McElroy on the learning curve: “There’s probably an area that teaches you some of those basics. I know, but not in the way that you need it to get functional.” (Justin McElroy, 18:46)

• Russ Frostky on community reliance on tutorials: “YouTube tutorials are the new video game manuals, like when we were kids.” (Russ Frostky, 20:34)

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Conclusion

This episode of The Besties offers a comprehensive and engaging exploration of Monster Hunter Wilds, highlighting its strengths and areas for improvement in the single-player domain. Through insightful discussions and personal anecdotes, the hosts provide valuable perspectives for both seasoned players and newcomers to the franchise.

Transcript

[Griffin McElroy]

Russ, why don't you tell everyone what you just told Justin right before we started.

[Justin McElroy]

Exactly. Don't put any more mustard on it than it had. Just like, tell me how you told me.

[Chris Plant]

Okay. So, Justin, next week we're doing a game called Split Fiction, which is the game from the team that made It Takes Two. It is a exclusively co op experience. You can only play it with two people. And I know that Gryffon's going to be traveling.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Chris Plant]

So.

[Justin McElroy]

And you're going to be playing with Plant. You explained to me.

[Chris Plant]

And I'm going to be playing.

[Griffin McElroy]

And this was not even, like, not a competition conversation.

[Justin McElroy]

This is not a conversation. I want to be clear with this. Like, Russ is like, I am playing it with Plant, and everyone in town is supposed to be like, yeah, Ops. And then you're like. And then go ahead, Go ahead, Russ. Go ahead with part two.

[Chris Plant]

And then you can play if you want. I guess I.

[Justin McElroy]

No, no, no, no, no, no. And if I want would have been quite the chocolate coating on that bitter pill. There was not a. If I. If you want. Go on.

[Chris Plant]

It's a game anyway.

[Justin McElroy]

You what? Just in what you'll be doing, you.

[Chris Plant]

I think I say you can play the Blendo game that you've been waiting for for.

[Justin McElroy]

Now, is that kind of a one or two player? Because is it kind of like a flexible, like, experience?

[Chris Plant]

Justin, it's very difficult to coordinate multiplayer. No, no, no.

[Justin McElroy]

I'm not that familiar with it, and I just didn't know if it was like, something that people with friends can have their friends over to do, like, a friend activity with or, like, is it something where, like, if you know for sure the person doesn't know anybody that would play a game with them, you would pick this game to give to them.

[Chris Plant]

You're implying that you don't have any. I'm implying that you don't have any friends to play with.

[Griffin McElroy]

I mean, that's one of the, like, five hurtful things.

[Justin McElroy]

There's like, five very hurtful things.

[Griffin McElroy]

I think Russ, you should have to play Split Fiction with Chris and then play it again with Justin. I can also.

[Justin McElroy]

No, no, no, no, no. You guys play Split Fiction. Russ and I are gonna play It Takes Two because that's closer to where we're at. Personally, I think in our relationship, this.

[Chris Plant]

Might have been a moment of pragmatism gone awry.

[Justin McElroy]

Hey, you know what? That should be on your tombstone first. I didn't want to say that. Sorry. It's a really powerful phrase. Want to make sure. It got etched into history. So secondly, I already asked my friend Slice to play it with me and he's gonna come over to my house and we're gonna play it together on my big screen, Russ. And you know what? You're not invited.

[Griffin McElroy]

And they're gonna eat trash can nachos and drink sodas.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah. And you know who else I'm gonna FaceTime while I'm playing the video games with my friend Slice. You know who I'm gonna FaceTime, Russ? I'm gonna FaceTime my personal friend, fucking multi award winner Lin Manuel Miranda. Okay? That's what I'm gonna do, Russ. I'm gonna face. And me and Slice are going to play together. Okay? I'll call some of the other many celebrities that I have by name saved in my phone.

[Russ Frostky]

If we do not have Lynn contributing a guest appearance next week, I do not believe that you are actually friends with one of the greatest musical writers of all.

[Justin McElroy]

Sorry. Okay. I should have been more clear.

[Chris Plant]

I know.

[Justin McElroy]

There's plenty of other evidence I want to be clear. I've been talking about Canadian Lin Manuel Brand. Sorry, I have. My Lin Manuel Brand is in Canada. Yeah, yeah, he's like a Canadian. You guys wouldn't know him. He did like Canadian Hamilton and like that. Yeah, it's like a different. Yeah, but it's like, it's just as good.

[Griffin McElroy]

In Canada, they call it Canadian Bakelton.

[Justin McElroy]

That doesn't make any fucking sense. Hey, if you got to put an A in his name to make him Canadian Lin Emanuel Miranda. Where is it? The funniest, Because I've put it like five different places in my head and it hits every place. My name is Justin McElroy and I know the best game of the week.

[Griffin McElroy]

My name is Griffin McRoy. I know the best game of the week.

[Russ Frostky]

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

[Chris Plant]

My name is Russ Frostky. I have the best game of the week.

[Justin McElroy]

Welcome to Monster Hunter Wilds.

[Griffin McElroy]

Whoa, that's crazy. You usually say the name of the show.

[Justin McElroy]

Hold on, they swapped around. Welcome to the Besties, which is a video game club. It's a show about the many ways in which interactive entertainment interweaves with our day to day lives. But today this one's about Monster Hunter Wilds. Chris Plant. What is that?

[Russ Frostky]

Monster Hunter Wilds is a long running multiplayer grindy action rpg. It was most famously available on mobile platforms a long time ago, but now it's on consoles and it's bigger and better than ever. And you get to kill Big Beast with your buds.

[Chris Plant]

When was it? It started as a PS2 game. What are you talking about? Mobile consoles.

[Russ Frostky]

Yeah, but like its most popular period was when it was on portable and you could go play it outside.

[Griffin McElroy]

But there's never been a better time.

[Russ Frostky]

But there's.

[Justin McElroy]

Is this the one? Let's talk about. Is this the Monster Hunter? We'll talk about it after the break.

[Griffin McElroy]

Unfortunately, the best time to get on board Monster Hunter was Monster Hunter Generations. So you did. You missed your window.

[Justin McElroy]

Hey, I wanted to say plant. I'm not sure what long runting means, but I agree with you that the Monster Hunter franchise is long runting. Whatever it means, it feels very apt for this particular series, which has just been sort of like chugging along. I feel like the story of Monster Hunter isn't always like, is this the point? Is this the accessible one? And I feel like we've had that conversation enough times that it's not really that helpful because that is the trajectory.

[Griffin McElroy]

Right, Sure.

[Justin McElroy]

I think this wilds is absolutely another round of smoothing off a lot of rough edges and bringing in a lot of quality of life improvement.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah. It's interesting. There is this conversation in the Monster Hunter community, this like theory frankly that there are two teams working within Capcom on the Monster Hunter games, one of which makes the mainline series, one of which makes the like, you know, used to make the handheld ones. And so the theory is most recently Worlds was the most recent mainline game and then Monster Hunter Rise, which was on Switch and stuff is from the other team. I don't think that's actually accurate. I think it's a pretty simple way of looking at it. But I think that Monster Hunter wilds is much more in the vein of Monster Hunter World, which is to say like much more about story and characters and really getting down deep dirty with the ecology of this new world. So make of that what you will.

[Russ Frostky]

For people who are new to this series, would you say that the loop is a destiny? Like in that you as the character don't have like various stats and stuff? The whole point of the game is to grind out better and better weapons, better and better materials, and then to before you go into each battle, pick the best weapons and materials that align with the battle that you're going to go into?

[Chris Plant]

I think if like at a very clinical level maybe, but it's not what made me fall in love with Monster Hunter.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Chris Plant]

And I come at this. This is the first time that I've. I'm playing a Monster Hunter game after Being Monster Hunter Pilled, which I was with Monster Hunter Rise. So I. This is a very weird, interesting experience to be from the jump on board.

[Griffin McElroy]

Right.

[Chris Plant]

Versus that like I'm gonna spend 10 hours. Yeah, they're pretty.

[Justin McElroy]

They hit pretty hard when you're ready to accept them into your heart and you're like at prime for it. Like they're. They hit pretty hard.

[Chris Plant]

What I would say to plants point is, is this just like a number go up game. I don't think it is. And here's why. I think the minute to minute of fighting monsters is completely peerless. There is no analog for it anywhere in the video game industry. This series, this game is fucking incredible for the way that it recreates what it would feel like to fight a giant fucking chicken. Yeah. And I don't think. I think it's easy to be like oh well, you get better armor from fighting the chicken and that's why you're doing it. That's not why I'm doing.

[Justin McElroy]

It's a really useful as a. As a starting point for something that's a little bit more like well known. I think structurally it makes a lot of sense. The only way, like the only major difference I would say is the way in which you have to alter your play style to suit the situation where I feel like in Destiny it's much more about like deciding what you're gonna go with and kinda charging through whatever. And I feel like this game much more rewards preparation and getting ready for a battle.

[Griffin McElroy]

But I wanted to say that there is an element of. This is a decent one to jump on board with because it has been my experience I've not had a ton of time with Monster Hunter Wilds. I probably put like seven or eight hours into it, which is I guess a decent amount of time, but not in the grand scheme of how long I've put into other games in the.

[Justin McElroy]

Franchise similar for me I've only done three or four hours. Cause we were traveling in yesterday's serv.

[Griffin McElroy]

Were down and it does not work on Steam Deck. Not fucking even a little bit at all. It is I think a bit easier. I think the difficulty has been smoothed down a little bit. Part of that is because when you're playing in single player you can get AI co op buddies and they're actually fucking good. Like they're really good at killing monsters and warning you when attacks are coming in and helping you figure out what to do. I don't. I push back against the idea of it being a grindy thing. I Think it certainly gets to that point once you reach the end game. But this is way, way more a story campaign focused affair than really any other Monster Hunter game I've played. And so just by doing the story quest, going out, doing a hunt, you come back home, you can make a new weapon, you can make some new armor. I have not once had to go out and be like, well, I gotta go fucking hunt this. Hunt this monkey a few more times.

[Chris Plant]

Or we have to find like three berries before I can do that. You know, to do this side quest to advance the storyline that. That's not in the. The main campaign.

[Justin McElroy]

What they have done narratively too, I think is so smart because I think that. So a lot of times you wander into, like the town of Monster Hunter. There is like an entire ecology, you know, an entire economy, I should say, set up around Monster hunting. And that's like every level of Monster Hunter. So no matter how deep you are in the systems and it can feel so overwhelming. And by putting this on, sort of like a. It's more like a frontier, like you're out, as it says Wilds. Right, Right.

[Griffin McElroy]

It.

[Justin McElroy]

The camp is much more like bare essentials. And I think that makes it easier as a player to kind of understand, like, what you really do need to pay attention to. Right. Like, yeah, it's a big deal when someone like has a fire going and they're. They're the person who can do armor and weapons and it's like very clear to you, like, this is that person.

[Chris Plant]

Everything's within like 30ft.

[Justin McElroy]

Yes, exactly. Right. It's very condensed. It's like, here's all you. There's the Monster Hunter stuff.

[Russ Frostky]

My question for the longtime Monster Hunter players here. Is there a scenario where this is fun for me as a single player experience?

[Chris Plant]

Because you're exclusively played here.

[Griffin McElroy]

Let him.

[Russ Frostky]

Okay. I was going to say, like, my, my experience with this is I bounced off these before. I like them moment to moment. I agree. The combat feels really cool. This one especially just looks beautiful. It is a world that I want to, like, stay in. But my fear as I started to put more and more time into it was okay. I'm now starting to sink hours into this game. I'm going 10 hours, however many more. And I'm going to hit a point where this won't be fun unless I'm playing with friends. And I know my schedule, that's just not going to happen. So I should bounce off. But if you think, like, there's a scenario where I make it to the Credits single player, that here's what I say.

[Chris Plant]

It is maybe the best game for elder millennial dads there is. Or I'm not the gender anyone, but the fact that the game is designed in 20 minute chunks that I played exclusively in single player. I think most people play in single player. I think the multiplayer is like a nice to have and especially when you get to the late, late, late, late, late game. Sure, if you want to fight the strongest monster, it's probably easier with multiple people.

[Russ Frostky]

Yeah.

[Chris Plant]

But playing in single player, you've got like your, your horse which is now like a giant bird. You've got your Palico little cat friend and as Griffin said, you can summon AI guys to help you out. Never at any moment did I feel like I needed people. Quite honestly, I feel like I'm more productive solo because I am like very directed in what I'm doing. It wouldn't. It would be a more social experience. But like from a gameplay standpoint, I think it's a better solo experience.

[Justin McElroy]

I will also say that and I love the experience in a lot of Monster Hunter games, but this one is really hitting it. The way that you can be so fluid in combat and like instantly sort of responding to like you'll ride on your horse past a. Like some sort of like special ammo for your gun and you like whip your whip out and grab the ammo and then put it in your slinger. And the way as you get better at that, it, it's that, that feeling of expertise being more and more pleasurable. Like you're. It's. I always think of it like the fire swamp in Princess Bride. Right?

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, sure.

[Justin McElroy]

The lot. By the end of it, they're like navigating it really easily. There's a pleasure in that. There's a joy to that.

[Chris Plant]

Like, like a spelunky.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah, yeah, right.

[Chris Plant]

Like you learn all the rules and then you know how to react or.

[Justin McElroy]

Knowing that you feel like. And I think that this game is in what I saw is great at that. And Monster Hunter's always good, but like the personality of them and feeling like I know what he's gonna do. I know what this guy's gonna do. He's about to bail. You watch, he's about to run.

[Griffin McElroy]

There is a tempo to the combat that I've played Monster Hunter for a long, long time, but it's been a while. And so starting this one up, I really felt like I was getting my sea legs back under me. But once you get a feel for that tempo and you get in there and you bob and weave and you stick them a few times and then dodge out of the way just in time and give them a big bonk on the head and knock them out like, it's the fucking best. It is the best. I do want to return to Justin's thing about you shoot your whip out to collect items while you're running around on the go. It's never been easier to, like, there's an herb. You just get it. And that is, I think, a contrivance of the fact that the story involves a lot of just kind of following people on horseback. And I think they probably realize this is a little boring. We do need to give them something to do while Anata is like, sharpening.

[Justin McElroy]

Your weapons on horseback is cool. It's great. That is fun to have some activities.

[Griffin McElroy]

I think the story is pretty lackluster. I have gotten to the point now where I just kind of skipped the cutscenes because I have not gotten any. The cool thing about this game is this almost Annihilation esque. Like, we're in a fucked up, like, really, really, really strange landscape. There's a fight that you do. It's like one of the first big fights in this forest against this spider monster that, like, I was met with this moment of, like, holy shit. Like, I'm fighting this already. This is a terrifying, like, thing in a terrifying environment. And it really does feel like you guys are. You are strangers in a strange land. If they had focused entirely on that, I think the game would have benefited from it, because I do not care about.

[Chris Plant]

It does lean in further into the weirdness of it. But I completely agree the story. There are some very cool cutscenes, but anytime anyone is talking, I'm like, skip, skip, skip, skip, skip. I do not care. The story goes in places that are, like, truly insane. There's a character that's like, don't hurt that monster. He's my friend. Shit like that. Which really doesn't jibe with, I've been.

[Griffin McElroy]

Doing this, but I need his jawbone, unfortunately.

[Justin McElroy]

I wish there was a feature in games like this where it's like, hey, we Notice you've skipped 20 lines in a row. And we have to imagine at this point it is gonna be pretty hard for you to get back on board with the story. Do you want us to just skip all of it from now on? We'll give you the very bad guy, good guy stuff, but don't be on that.

[Chris Plant]

The shame of it, and I'm not dragging the game for not running on Steam Deck, because I get it, I'll.

[Griffin McElroy]

Fucking drag it for not playing on Steak. I would play this game a hundred thousand times more than I am now if this game worked on Steam.

[Chris Plant]

But at a certain point, like, I don't think it's fair. You need like, in the same way we can't drag any game for not being on Switch, which is on ancient hardware. So I get it. That being said, the part of the reason that I eventually wrap my head around what Monster Hunter is, is because of Rise being a portable thing that I could pick up and put down and not feel like tethered to it when I was like right in front of a screen. And I do think, even though there have been a lot of strides with this game to make it more accessible, make it more approachable, it's very clear to me that if someone was going in Raw with no information whatsoever, they would have a really tough time. An easier time than past. But you're still dealing with the item box and the loadout and the Bubba.

[Justin McElroy]

This is what I wanted to. I've had kind of an on again, off again relationship with this series. There's some that I've played a lot more and some that I've played less. I've never gotten to, like, where I would say an expert level of with any of these. There are weapons that I've learned before. Right. Like, that's very much Monster Hunter. I learned Longsword. Like, I look at it and I remember that, like about two thirds of it.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

And I'm trying a different weapon and I really wanted to try to go into this without getting on the Internet because I have a terrible habit where I want to min max this.

[Griffin McElroy]

Right.

[Justin McElroy]

And so I'm looking for the best weapon, the best combo, the best this, the best that, and I lose the fun of it. Right. So I got the.

[Griffin McElroy]

So you're.

[Chris Plant]

So you're saying you're not going to look up guides? Is that don't.

[Griffin McElroy]

Because that's the approach you don't have.

[Justin McElroy]

No, I was. I was genuinely trying to see how far into like what that experience would be like.

[Russ Frostky]

Right.

[Justin McElroy]

Because I think that's the metric. Because if you need to go start looking through the Internet to get the most out of the game, it's. It's just not. And for the life of me, man, I couldn't remember how to make the Longsword stuff come together in a way where like a tutorial in 30 seconds to be like, here's the core combos, here's what you need to know. And I don't. There's probably an area that teaches you some of those basics. I know, but not in the way that you need it to get functional.

[Griffin McElroy]

In past games, they have had special hunts that you go on for each weapon that really do a lot to teach you some of the intricacies. Right. Because as a new player, you're not going to probably realize, oh, I need to store energy in the longsword. Once this bar is full, I can chart. In this game, those are not there. There are no specialized hunts. There is a training area that when you have a certain weapon equipped, it shows you some of the basic combos. I play hammer basically exclusively at this point, although this game does let you carry a secondary weapon around on your mount. So if you want to switch in the middle of a hunt, you're able to do that, which is cool. But there's stuff that just doesn't get taught in the training area, which is kind of crazy to me because this game seems so, I don't know, tooled for beginners, except for the fact that it doesn't teach you how to use the weapons. Very good.

[Chris Plant]

I want to hear from Plant because I know he struggled as a newcomer.

[Russ Frostky]

Well, I think this is the challenge with the game, and I have, like, a lot of sympathy for the developers in making this is. The game is just complex. Like, that's just the reality of it. It's just complex. This is like if we played Civilization and I was like, why can't they just finally make it? So I just know Civ in three minutes.

[Justin McElroy]

And like a lot of ancient programs, you're building on structures that have been there for a long time.

[Russ Frostky]

Exactly. And I think the challenge that they run into each of these times is you can't erase the fact that the game itself is complex. Unless you just want to at some point start destroying parts of the game. And I think that is a challenge that they've run into. Here is this version of the game, I think, onboards you much faster than any of them. It gets you in there fast. It gets you doing cool stuff fast. It gets you not just doing the cool stuff in the tutorials, but kind of feeling like you're playing on your own out in the world. It has a lot of tutorial features in the options menu where you can select like, hey, do you want stuff to keep popping up in case you forget some of it? But along the way, it loses the things that Griffin's talking about. And I have just come to the point with a game like this, if you're onboarding, watching a YouTube tutorial is just part of it. I also am starting to feel like YouTube tutorials are the new video game manuals, like when we were kids, and.

[Justin McElroy]

That they're offloading that to someone else.

[Russ Frostky]

And they just assume that you will look at it, because the reality is most players will.

[Chris Plant]

Which I think it just depends on the game. Like, there are obviously a lot of games that, like, you don't need to do that, but certain games are true.

[Griffin McElroy]

But you could think, you know how to use a weapon in this game or in Rise or in World, and then you go to, you know, gaijin Hunter or whatever, like YouTube or RX Gaming, and then you watch a tutorial and you're like, holy shit. This weapon can do 50 things that I did not know about.

[Justin McElroy]

That's interesting. The experience that I had with Dual blades, which I've never played before, so I went in completely, just trying it. I am completing the hunts without any problems, and I can understand all of the basic things that they have laid out with Dual Blades. I know there's got to be more to it because now I'm at a point where I'm bored and I want another level of complexity. And I don't think it has a really good way of walking me into that. Right. It got me into that first thing of, like, having fun, hitting guys with two swords. That's cool. But when it's like, okay, I'm ready for this to be a deeper experience, it's not necessarily great at saying, like, okay, now that you're ready for this complexity, let us, like, walk you into it.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Chris Plant]

They did add something that I think was maybe the smartest thing they added of all. Well, they had two features.

[Justin McElroy]

Can't wait to hear what you say.

[Chris Plant]

So one of them is you can automatic from your radial menu, it'll automatically pick either the best healing item you should use at that given time, or the best, like, support item, like, oh, I have poison. It'll automatically pick an antidote. And previously you had to, like, scroll through your fucking shit and have a radio of, like, nine things. And, oh, I have to. So they made that much easier. The other thing I want to call out kind of goes to Justin's point. The wound system.

[Griffin McElroy]

Oh, fuck. Yeah. It's so good.

[Justin McElroy]

That's cool.

[Chris Plant]

So while you're fighting a monster, these wounds will appear. They. I changed it to colorblind settings so they're, like, bright purple for me, but they're Probably, I guess red. I don't know. Yeah, yeah. And all you have to do is hold down the left trigger and hit one button while pointing at the wound, and you'll do a fucking badass thing. So depending on what weapon you're using, when I'm on Longsword, I'll do, like, a giant slash, slash, anime style, whatever. I know. Insect glaive. You do like a somersault while spinning on your fucking glaive. Things like that. What's so cool about that is, even if you don't know anything and you're just using, like, basic combos, you can see the wound and hit one button and feel like a badass.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Chris Plant]

Rather than having to again watch a YouTube tutorial.

[Griffin McElroy]

Now, it also lets you get, like, monster parts. Every time you destroy a wound, it drops an additional thing. So you are really. I've had times where I've been, you know, a monster's been on its last legs, and then I'll open up that focus sort of left trigger to focus to see all the glowing wounds. It'll have, like, six wounds, and it's like, okay, buddy, I need you to hang in there for a little bit longer until I can stock up on some of your scales.

[Chris Plant]

But that is an approachability feature. Like, that allows people to feel like they're powerful even if they don't know those combos, which is a really.

[Justin McElroy]

It also. It also makes it A lot of the combos. In Monster Hunter, there's, like, it removes that terrible feeling of feeling like you built up to a big payoff of an attack, and they move at the last second, and you just, like, do your big attack to nothing.

[Griffin McElroy]

Well, I mean, that's still very much a thing if you play great sword or hammer.

[Justin McElroy]

No, but I'm saying the. The. The wound, you know, minimizes.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, sure, sure.

[Russ Frostky]

They've also clearly heard the feedback of, hey, this is a game about killing poor animals that just want to chill out by going two directions. There's a lot more. Before a fight of, oh, man, this one animal just happens to be a real piece of shit. Like, all the other animals are pretty nice.

[Justin McElroy]

Normally, these things are pretty nice. This is a real ass.

[Russ Frostky]

And then when you collect materials throughout the game using that grappling hook feature, do you notice that with the animations, you'll, like, take materials off of the animal and then let it go?

[Chris Plant]

Oh, really?

[Russ Frostky]

So there'll be, like a key. Yeah, it'll be like a thing that's covered in goo, and it's like, very slight, but if you look at the animation, you'll like pour, squeeze the goo out into a little jar and then just like flutter the little critter off.

[Griffin McElroy]

It's beautiful. That's not true of the big monsters.

[Russ Frostky]

No, no.

[Griffin McElroy]

Kill, graveyard, dead or capture.

[Russ Frostky]

And then you carve them up.

[Griffin McElroy]

And then carve them up. Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

I feel it still got on my nerves that there were still. There would be things that I knew I could do but then didn't know how to do and that would make me feel like getting around the map is still kind of like a nightmare.

[Griffin McElroy]

Well, it's. We haven't even talked about the fact that it is more open world than the series has ever been.

[Justin McElroy]

It's confusingly open world, though. This is what I'm talking about. This is where it starts to feel that, like, cruft of history, right? Where to give you an example, if you go out into the open world, right, you charge out and you see an animal and, like, you're messing around and eventually you hit it a few times and a quest starts and it's like, why? Why do you need a quest to start for this to be like, I'm just hunting this monster. But the structure of the thing, it only understands in terms of, like, hunts and quests, you know, like, it has to have that because that's how it's built.

[Chris Plant]

The getting around aspect is interesting, though. I don't know if Rise had this and if it did, I just never used the camps. I was going to say the. The fact that the secret, which is your, like, horse thing, right, will just auto run. You hit one button and it will just like run directly to where you mark on your map. So if you want to find a monster, previously, you had to like, oh, there's a footprint. I'm going to smell the dirt and see where the monster is. And you have to do that a bunch of times and then eventually you find the monster and they've like, cut all of that out. And I know that pissed off a lot of hardcore monster hunter people. Guess what? I fucking love it. That stuff is great. It's like, especially the later maps, it gets so hard to navigate if you're not just like auto targeting.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Chris Plant]

But it does take, I guess, some of the, quote, realism out of it.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, I found myself missing the hub and spoke format of pasta.

[Chris Plant]

The main.

[Griffin McElroy]

You have your main area and you do your shit there. And then you go out on a hunt and it launches you automatically into one of a few biomes and like, that Stuff is here insofar as, like, sometimes you'll finish a quest and they'll be like, let's go back to camp. And then the screen will go black and then you'll be back at camp. Like, it's not making you schlep everywhere. There's a system where you can set up pop up camps and then you can use those as fast travel points. You have to spend resources to open them up. But monsters will sometimes find those camps and destroy them. And you'll get a little notification like, hey, your camp's under attack. And you can either go and defeat that monster or you can just spend, you know, 100 license points or whatever back at home base in order to open up that camp. It's neat. But again, like, my least favorite part of this game is when you're in town and they're like, okay, let me know when you're ready to go out on a quest. You're like, okay, let's do it. And then you're riding on sacred back for like a few minutes while they talk about some inane shit. When it's like, man, I would rather just hang glide off of a pterodactyl. And then it's monster time. Like, that's the part of the game that beats absolute ass. And I feel like they can do it.

[Justin McElroy]

I was confused the first time that a quest ended and I didn't go back to camp. I had this like, weird, like, well, what do I do now?

[Griffin McElroy]

I just have all these monster parts.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah. How do I get back to where's camp? I don't know. What do I do? You're supposed to teleport me. Why is there a button to make the quest end? What does that mean? I'm just out here. Like, I killed the monster, I took his back or whatever. Go away or teleport me home. Pick me up, daddy.

[Chris Plant]

For what it's worth, I did finish the campaign, which takes about 10 or 12 hours. Really?

[Griffin McElroy]

How many chap. We'll talk about it after.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah, I don't know how far the chapters are. Not a good rubric for knowing how long the game is. Once you finish it, the game just more or less turns into hunt this. Like, there's no like, lead up. You're just like, in it. There's no slow walking. Talk to Nata, whatever. And that I think turns into the like, much more traditional monster hunter. Oh, I need to kill this monster to get his parts to build the armor, to make the armor set, to get the perks that I Need. Yeah. So if you're looking for that, that does click in pretty dramatically. But I do think the first 10 to 12 hours is, like, more, as plan said, more welcoming than it's been so long as you can overcome the things of, like, oh, I just died, and I need to, like, go in my box and get more potions, because the little cats that follow me around can't just, like, fill my bag up again.

[Griffin McElroy]

But they do do that this time. And you. Anytime you hop on your sacred back, it always. It has a supply pack that you can open up and restock all your stuff.

[Chris Plant]

Right. But it's not like, if I need traps. Yeah, they won't tell me I need to, like, really refill. And it's buried in, like, three different menus. And there's just still stuff that isn't fun in any way, that doesn't really need to be as esoteric as it is.

[Justin McElroy]

A lot of it's. It starts to feel. A lot of it starts to feel, like, perfunctory. Like, in the way that, like, some Christmas traditions are perfunctory. Like, no one's really enjoying this, but if you take it away, it won't feel like Monster Hunter. Like, I think you're already hearing some of those in the community, right, where it's, like, stuff that isn't fun, like, isn't a pleasurable thing, but, like, it's part of the experience. I feel like Monster Hunter has so many of those, and I do feel like they are constantly pressing to see how many of those they can whittle away to make it, like, more accessible.

[Griffin McElroy]

I think. I think and hope they're going to get the message that they've whittled away the Palico cat kitchen, and that is a bridge too far.

[Justin McElroy]

What are you talking about?

[Griffin McElroy]

In Monster Hunter world, you had, like, the Palico chefs that would cook your meals and you'd get those great cutscenes. That system is still in the game, only now you'll get invited to eat at these different villages, or you can cook on a portable barbecue grill. So, like, in some ways, insane.

[Justin McElroy]

What sort of little tyrant is displeased for the game because his cat chefs don't make his meals to his exact specification?

[Griffin McElroy]

So you're so in the wrong right now.

[Justin McElroy]

You sound so vile. You know how hard they worked on this, and you're like, the cats aren't cute enough. Go. I do appreciate.

[Griffin McElroy]

You know what I mean? Like, when you customize your Palica, you do get to choose if you want it to Just meow and grumble. Or if you want it to use human speech and I thoroughly encourage you to go for the former.

[Justin McElroy]

You should have to get into the fucking bios of your system to turn on human Palicote dialogue. It is a nightmare. It should not be. It should be very hot coffee style. You need a game shark to make your palette talk human language.

[Chris Plant]

I do want to mention one other thing that has only gotten better over the years and that's like cosmetic customization. You can fully like basically once you get past the main campaign, any armor set that you craft becomes like a layered armor set. So it acts like a transmog. So you can change any armor piece that applies to armor you're getting for your Palico. And I dress my Palico up like a large farting monkey that carries around a giant banana and that is peerless. Like you cannot match that experience.

[Justin McElroy]

That's art.

[Griffin McElroy]

That's art.

[Justin McElroy]

Mystery Ebert.

[Chris Plant]

I don't know man.

[Justin McElroy]

I can't. I do feel a little bit like we haven't. I don't know that we have. I feel like in the sort of like Madden esque iterative discussion it is very Madden.

[Chris Plant]

I was thinking that same thing. It is like very mad.

[Justin McElroy]

It's a. There is a Madden s feature of like well, if you want these things to be improved, maybe we're going to cut away some of the weapon training stuff because we're working on this other stuff and maybe next time this will be. But like in this sort of like Madden esque iteration, I don't want to lose sight of the fact that like this is still very fun. Yeah, like it's really fun when you go out and the monsters look so stupid and they're walk around. Not stupid, bad stupid. Like you just want to beat them up. Like they're like idiots and angry and like you're flipping around and you got your horse running around and you're. You can like run from a battle and like slingshots and better ammo and then start shooting them with it. And like the environments are very dynamic. Like the landscape really changes the kind of fight you're having, which there is.

[Chris Plant]

Literally a monster that it was clearly inspired by Wario. Like it's a large baboon who farts and then throws his farts at you and then he's got like little baboon friends that also fart and so they're like willingness to be so fucking goofy with something that can like tonally feel very serious. I just, I think they continue to like. I'M just like so happy this franchise exists because I think, again, there's no real analog for it. And for people that love it, I think they're getting everything they want. And I do think eventually this franchise will get to a point where it can welcome new people a bit easier. And it's getting closer and closer to that. Man, this is a very good installment. I think people are going to really enjoy it.

[Justin McElroy]

Yes, it is an extremely good video game.

[Griffin McElroy]

Let's take a break and then what are we gonna do? I don't actually know.

[Russ Frostky]

Oh, I've got a whole thing to tell you about.

[Griffin McElroy]

Fuck it.

[Justin McElroy]

I've got in my notes here, Chris Plant, you have a whole thing to tell us about. That's good. And you put seven O's here. Like crazy good. Yeah, that's. Yeah, I heard it in my head.

[Russ Frostky]

I was at the birthday party and I saw the chips and dip and I was. Put my whole hand in the dip and then put it in my mouth. That's good. I'm telling you about Tokyo Extreme Racer. It is back and you're probably wondering, was it ever gone? What's Tokyo Extreme Racer?

[Chris Plant]

Did it ever exist is what I guarantee.

[Russ Frostky]

That all three of you as true gamers played a Tokyo Extreme Racer game at some point in your life. You were bored, you were at Blockbuster, you had nothing else to do and you rented one of these games for the PlayStation 2 or the Sega Saturn or the SEGA Dreamcast, and you probably really enjoyed it. And then you just forgot about it because it was just another racing game and an age of racing games. But ladies, gentlemen, friends, countrymen, they do not make games like this anymore. This is a racing game truly of a different era.

[Justin McElroy]

I thought that's the whole point that you're making, Chrisplan, is that they do not in fact make games like this. Isn't that what you just said?

[Russ Frostky]

They quite literally do not make this game anymore.

[Justin McElroy]

But now they are making it.

[Russ Frostky]

Now, right now, they're making it. Almost 20 years later, the many members of the original team Genki have come back to make this game. And here's what I mean when I say it is neither Arcade Racer nor like full on simulation. It is a combat racing game. Here's how that you're on a highway in beautiful Japan and you flash your lights at a rival car and they say, okay baby, let's race. I have a need. I have a need for speed. And you start racing and above the screen appears two full health bars, just like as if you were in street Fighter, Right? And as you bump up against each other, boom. Takes a little bit of that health down. If you crash into a wall, boom. Takes a little bit of that health down. But the way that you really win is if you get far enough ahead of the other car, that also starts to deplete their life. So it's not about getting to the finish line. It is about getting as far in front of the racer as you can for as long as possible to deplete their health until it hits zero. The brilliant.

[Chris Plant]

Just like winning a race, though, are you?

[Justin McElroy]

No, no. What Chris Plant is saying is Robin is racing in this one or not.

[Griffin McElroy]

Robin being really far ahead.

[Russ Frostky]

So. But the cool thing about this system is, again, you also deplete life if you wreck. So if you are a player who's going like, I'm gonna go 150 miles per hour to get ahead of you, and then I have a whole bunch of hairpin turns ahead, you could crash and then still lose. So it becomes a game of, okay, I really want to get ahead, but do I want to be a little cautious? We've got these turns coming up. Do I want to give them the chance to catch up on me, or do I want to go all out? Because I got that need. That need for the Fast and the Furious. It is such a cool game. And despite being an Unreal Engine 5, which is just comical overkill, it looks and feels like the rose colored glasses version of a Dreamcast game. Which is to say it has that, you know. You know, that type of reflection that cars had in video games.

[Chris Plant]

Like the reflection thing.

[Russ Frostky]

Yeah, but you're like, everything looks wet. Yeah. And you're like, I can't believe it'll never look better than this. It's so wet. It has that. It has this pulsing jungle beat that is just rolling through the whole thing. And the.

[Chris Plant]

So all the races are just two cars?

[Russ Frostky]

Yeah, it's just two cars. And then it also is set in this Tokyo, like, nighttime Tokyo that I can only describe as Miami Vice, the movie aesthetic that, like, early digital video camera look, where the light just, like, looks really specific. I don't even know a better way of describing it.

[Chris Plant]

Lots of lens flares.

[Russ Frostky]

Yeah, well, kind of. It's like distortions, but it. It's such a specific thing. And speaking of millennial parents who can only fit in, like, 15 minutes of game time, this is that. Plus it runs on Steam Deck, which is even better right now. It's technically in early access. I think there's like 30 hours of gameplay here. So for most people it might as well be full access. But for like the hardcore car nuts, I think the full release will be later this year.

[Chris Plant]

And is the full release gonna add a third car or are they good with two?

[Russ Frostky]

I think. Oh, that's the wild shit about it is there's dozens of cars and they're licensed.

[Justin McElroy]

Huh.

[Chris Plant]

I mean, you need a Nissan Skyline. If it's not. If that's not in there, I don't know what.

[Russ Frostky]

All of the cars that you expect to be in this game are in this game, I assure you. Yeah, it is great. You can also flash your lights at pretty much anybody, so.

[Justin McElroy]

Whoa.

[Russ Frostky]

The goal is to. That's a level of enthusiasm that I appreciate.

[Justin McElroy]

Me too, man. I can do that with my car, no problem.

[Chris Plant]

People love it.

[Russ Frostky]

It's this new advanced feature. You can start a race with just like a crappy little truck and then just shame them for no reason other than wanting to shame a random person on the highway.

[Justin McElroy]

What's the community like for this right now? Because I don't feel like I've hurt anybody but you talk about it ever.

[Russ Frostky]

The community for this game is losing their fucking mind.

[Justin McElroy]

I didn't mean for this game. Just quadruple by you telling us about it, Pris. I'm feeling that way.

[Russ Frostky]

Hoops, how many reviews do you think this game has on Steam? I couldn't even just take any guess. 5000 9353.

[Justin McElroy]

It's not a bad review. Wow. Not a bad countdown.

[Chris Plant]

People care about this game 95% on Steam. That's a good sign.

[Russ Frostky]

I do think this is a game though, where 10,000 people have been waiting for this game for the last 20 years.

[Justin McElroy]

They're all playing it right now.

[Russ Frostky]

Are playing it right now. They all left their reviews. But thank you for letting me talk about it because I just love this shit. I cannot believe they brought back one of these games. It was such a cool game on the Dreamcast and to get to play it again just a little bit better. It's living the dream.

[Chris Plant]

I love it. We have a little bit of reader mail coming at you. This comes from S. Payne. For gamers on a budget, I recommend looking at Netflix again. When I first found out about games on there, it seemed like mostly mobile shovelware, but recently found out that there are quote, real games now. Just finished the sequel to Curse of the Golden Idol and it worked really well on tablet, into the Breach, Civ 6 and other great titles. If you already have a subscription, it's definitely worth Checking out.

[Justin McElroy]

I can't make my brain rat like I have a Netflix subscription and I know I have played Netflix games. I can't make my brain wrap around how one accesses Netflix games. You see the games advertised to you sometimes while you're watching Netflix on television and you can't make that happen. And I know that you can access them, but for some reason I just can't make like I don't. I don't know. It seems like a weird ecosystem.

[Griffin McElroy]

You just download them from the app store. They have a little the Netflix logo sort of on the thumbnail. That's how you know it's a Netflix one. And then when you start playing the game, you have to use your Netflix login. That's it. It's fucking crazy. They have into the breach. They have dead cells. Crazy point.

[Chris Plant]

P the from the makers of download.

[Justin McElroy]

What's irritating is that is probably the most like, that's like the least irritating way of doing it. Right?

[Griffin McElroy]

Right.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

But there is something about it being a Netflix login that my like, that's for movies. J man. And I almost want to hug Gabby's dollhouse.

[Chris Plant]

I almost want to hub for like that where I could just see all of the Netflix games.

[Justin McElroy]

It makes it easier to conceptualize the benefit if you can. One place that might be in the app.

[Chris Plant]

I've never looked.

[Justin McElroy]

There you go. Ted Sarandos. That one's free.

[Chris Plant]

Last note. This comes from Noah. We were talking last week about reusing maps in future games as in Tears of the Kingdom from Noah on the subject of games reusing old maps in areas. Trying to think of examples of this and I realized in almost every case that comes to mind, I actually thought it was really cool. In Tears of the Kingdom I was actually really excited to visit each familiar area to see what was different. I still have a crystal clear memory of realizing the whole Kanto region was in Pokemon gold and silver. Still familiar, but new and different at the same time. It makes those places feel real to come revisit them after time has passed. And then Jaconian wrote ari older maps. I love the inclusion of the original locations in Zelda II and Dragon Quest 2.

[Griffin McElroy]

Is that. Wait, Zelda 2 had the map from Zelda 1?

[Chris Plant]

I think it does have a few familiar like chunks that are analoged to the original game.

[Griffin McElroy]

I didn't know that because that game sucks so bad that I've never been.

[Chris Plant]

Able to spend it great. There is a remake I've been meaning to play like a remaster that someone did that made it good, but I have not done that yet.

[Justin McElroy]

Really?

[Chris Plant]

Yeah. Okay, honorable mentions.

[Griffin McElroy]

I played through a game I think we're going to talk about in two weeks, so I'll sit on that. But I also have been playing a lot of Star of Providence.

[Justin McElroy]

What is that, Griff? I saw it pop up.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, so that is. It's a game that's actually been around for a while. It used to be called Monolith. It is a top down roguelike shooter where you are this ship and you fly through this facility basically going from screen to screen. Every screen is like its own little self contained room with enemies and traps and stuff in it. But there's also a bunch of different ways to get stronger. Each run you find weapons, you find these cartridges that add these modifiers. You can find a skill that adds a bunch of stuff. It is very much a game that by the end of a run you have probably done some stuff that you have not done before in the Binding of Isaac style. It is fast and it feels fucking great to play. I liken it to. And maybe this is just the aesthetic, but down well, like that kind of like pace of the gameplay. If that was sort of converted to a top down twin stick shooter. And then after each run like you will unlock some new stuff that you can purchase. So like weapons that will now start spawning in or skills that will become available for you to choose when you find like a skill upgrade spot. It is, it's just. It's just great. It's just really, really, really fun to play. It's not like the deepest roguelike experience that I've ever had, but it is. I don't know, it's fitting. It is scratching an itch for me right now where I'm not playing other games like this where I can just pick it up and do one really sweaty run for 15 minutes and then go on to something else. And I do like having one of those kind of in the rotation. So it's on Switch and I've been playing it on Steam Deck and it works great and just rules. It's published by Big Mode, which is how I heard about it.

[Russ Frostky]

Yeah, I've been playing more of that too. Frosh talked about it a little bit on the Resties and got into the whole very weird history of the game and how it came to be. But I got to note it here for public record. Frosh on his first time playing it made it three levels deep and I made it five levels deep on my first run. So I do think we Have a new resident best gamer.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah, that's good to let me update.

[Russ Frostky]

I wanted to make sure you gotta update the list in the document. Sure. Hoops, what have you been enjoying?

[Justin McElroy]

Well, I installed Linux on a laptop.

[Griffin McElroy]

Buckle up, Russ and Chris. This was the whole tour. It's just a lot this guy's could turn fucking Linux in such a major way. He's got Covid.

[Chris Plant]

Sorry, this is the penguin one you're talking about.

[Justin McElroy]

What?

[Chris Plant]

This is the penguin one?

[Russ Frostky]

Yeah. Like the one that's tattooed across his neck right now.

[Justin McElroy]

The penguin one. That's why I have the black and white symbolizing. No. Okay, it all goes back to good. Russ. He broke my brain when he came on the show and he opened my world to the fact that I'm a computer man. And I love these digital wonders and I have been interacting with them in a much more meaningful and profound way. I know I've been messing around and a lot of the stuff that you do with the Raspberry PI, it's running on the OS or Raspberry PI is sort of built on a distribution of Linux. And so like with the overlap there I was like I want to know more about this, the Linux os, because I want to understand how to use that. And at some point I just decided, you know, it's been. I've always kind of like appreciated the idea of open source computing and open source like software and all that is like an ideal, but never really did it like resonate with me. And seeing the way things have gone technologically in the past 12 months, 18 months, it became incumbent on me. I feel like there's a real value in understanding computing and not letting it be something that is completely controlled by oligarchs and billionaires. And I feel like that has been a concerted effort to make it something that is controlled by. By people. And I think that as somebody who's always been pretty okay with brands, it's always kind of made sense. And then when you see how quickly people companies make a heel turn, it really reminds you that it's good to take this stuff in your own hands. So I've been trying to learn Linux because it's more based on like open source. There's a community of people who you're relying on rather than, you know, whoever is is running Microsoft or Apple that that week. So it's been really interesting. I got a cheap laptop, the cheapest one I could get, and I found a distribution of. So I don't want to go into this very deeply but anyway I put links on it. I don't want to talk about specifics because, like 95% of the people will be bored.

[Chris Plant]

I'm mostly curious about what the like and what happens at the. Like, what do you do with the laptop after you've done all this stuff?

[Justin McElroy]

So what do I do though?

[Griffin McElroy]

Put it in the garbage?

[Justin McElroy]

I throw it away? No. Part of it is learning, right. I understand a lot better how computers work because I have this computer that I basically, like, put everything onto it.

[Chris Plant]

Sure, yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

And because I have to understand all those parts in a micro, like on a very small system, I feel like I can understand on a larger level how it works. So part of that is the learning process. The other thing is this laptop that I made. I. I was using it on the road, I was using on tour, and it was super stable and run super fast and what cost $200. And it's like, it kicks ass.

[Chris Plant]

And you just like browse the Internet and videos and.

[Justin McElroy]

No, no Russia. No. Okay, so this is the thing. This is. This was my impression, right?

[Chris Plant]

Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

I got Slack, got Spotify, I got Reaper. There are video editing tools, there are analogs, open source analogs to almost every program, like, available. So part of the end goal is like, I am relying on. I am trying to adapt to a community that is self sustaining rather than be in a system where it is like spoon fed and all of it is like owned by corporate interests. So I'm trying to transition as much as I can to take control of that back. Right. So I've been doing it at my house too. Trying to get like, I started trying to do some smart home stuff, and then I realized the first time the Internet went down and the whole thing sucked and I was like, okay, I'm starting over. So I've been putting like zigbee radios anyway, trying to take that out of the cloud. Right. To bring it into my house, to put it into my control. But anyway, that's what I've been doing lately.

[Chris Plant]

Wow, that's really cool.

[Griffin McElroy]

I genuinely think it's a valuable. Even if nothing comes of it. Like a valuable sort of.

[Justin McElroy]

What do you mean nothing comes of it? What is that? This is what I'm saying, Griffin, you heard what I'm saying, how smart I am. I know everything about computers.

[Griffin McElroy]

That's what I'm saying. That's what comes of it.

[Justin McElroy]

So what did you even mean, nothing comes of it? You're being a real Russ right now. And I don't want and not good Russ. I'll just Say I don't want to.

[Griffin McElroy]

I get confused.

[Justin McElroy]

Enough said.

[Griffin McElroy]

We really fucked things up by bringing another Russ on this show.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah, that was a mistake. I've been playing Slay the Spire. I beat it three times with three different characters and I finally got you. I'm really good about it.

[Justin McElroy]

So glad it finally got you. Russ.

[Griffin McElroy]

Wait, is this like your first time?

[Chris Plant]

I mean, I've played Slay the Spire.

[Justin McElroy]

I've played it, but, like, I'm getting texted about it now. It's working.

[Chris Plant]

It's working. I don't feel now that I've won three times and I know there's more I could be doing, I don't necessarily feel a pull to, like, keep doing it.

[Justin McElroy]

Can I ask you, what did you beat it with?

[Chris Plant]

I beat it with the first three characters.

[Justin McElroy]

Like one time with each of the first three.

[Chris Plant]

I know there's more. I know there's like another act and you have to do special stuff, but.

[Justin McElroy]

Like, I mean, if you don't feel the pull. I really got to a point with Slay the Spire, so I understand what you're saying, and I think that is like a completely valid. If you're saying, like, I feel like I've reached my off ramp and I've gotten what I'm going to get, I think that's like.

[Chris Plant]

I just don't. I don't see what the 300 hours. How.

[Justin McElroy]

Honestly, Russ, for me, it was. And I never feel this way about games, but this. It's so robust that every time it was genuinely for the joy of playing it. Yeah, it's genuinely like every time that I would build a new deck and I would feel that feeling of like, it's just so well balanced at being able to, like, pull a working. When you can pull like a working model out of something that was not working, like, it's really. That is the motivation. I. It really is not a. There's no achievement for me. There's nothing I'm chasing. It's just. I like playing it.

[Chris Plant]

And realistically, that's what Binding of Isaac did for me.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah. Yeah, for sure.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah. No, I totally. Yeah. It's a very good game. The mobile interface is. I'm playing on a phone. It feels a little cramped and maybe not the best. I'm sure on an iPad it would be better and probably even better with a mouse keyboard. But from a convenience standpoint, like having it in my pocket and being able to, like, do a hand fucking clutch. Yeah. No, it's good stuff. They should make a sequel. They should make like a follow up to it. I don't know. That seems ambitious.

[Griffin McElroy]

But what about you, Chris?

[Chris Plant]

They're making one.

[Russ Frostky]

I mean, yeah. Star of Providence was my. My big one.

[Griffin McElroy]

And then have you finished it yet? Have you beaten the like. I guess.

[Russ Frostky]

No, no. The only problem with that game, and it's not even a problem, it's just the runs are long. The runs are like 35, 45 minutes.

[Chris Plant]

You can stop at any time. You can like stop.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, it does let you just turn the game off. Next time you turn it on. It's like, do you want to continue your.

[Russ Frostky]

I need to do that. That sounds much better. But yeah, I was really enjoying that. And then there's a movie coming out that I just recommend people check out if it happens to be showing in your area called efus. Have you heard about this?

[Chris Plant]

How do you spell that?

[Russ Frostky]

E, E, P, H, U, S. And it is about a bunch of like older dudes who have been playing a game of baseball forever and ever and ever. This is in like the 1990s and their. Their very small town baseball stadium is about to get demolished so that they can build a local middle school there. And it's basically just a movie about the last game. If you said we want to make a geriatric sandlot, you would be very close to this.

[Chris Plant]

That sounds great.

[Russ Frostky]

Just as charming as that sounds, it is truly weird. Who is in the cast? There's a guy named Frederick Weissman who is a documentarian who is 95 years old. He's one of the most important long feature documentarians alive. Just happens to be in this movie about baseball. I don't fully know why, but yeah, if you like good vibes and just a chill hangout movie, you really can't do much better than this.

[Chris Plant]

I'm looking at a trailer and it looks like a Wes Anderson movie.

[Russ Frostky]

The way it's shot, kind of. It's not quite as composed, but it definitely has. It has that very delicate vibe.

[Justin McElroy]

Do you think if Wes Anderson had never become a filmmaker, the word twee would have fallen into the dustbin at this point? Would we have lost the use of it?

[Chris Plant]

Yeah. Okay, I think we did it. Well done, us. I wanted to thank some patrons [e-mail] thebesties we have a new episode of Resties. As Plant mentioned, we talked more about Star of Providence and kind of went deep on that. As well as a game called Keep Driving, which is very cool. Thank you to new subscribers. We have Sam, we have Aiden, we have Paul, and we have rubber chicken with a Poe in the middle. Thank you for being supporters of the Patreon. We greatly appreciate it. Justin, what are we doing next week?

[Justin McElroy]

Well, we're gonna kind of do like a split, kind of a two tiered thing for friends and others, I guess. Like there's a friends version where they're going to be doing split fiction and then there's like a.

[Chris Plant]

Sounds like you made plans with others.

[Justin McElroy]

Like other before you knew I made up slice. There's no Slice, Russ.

[Griffin McElroy]

Obviously there'd be a person named Slice Russ.

[Chris Plant]

I mean, you go by hoops.

[Justin McElroy]

So we're going to be doing split fiction and some sort of sad painting movie maybe. I don't know. I don't know what I'll do.

[Chris Plant]

Do your computer shit. You'll be fine.

[Justin McElroy]

Oh, man. How can I make other friends when you're already my best one, Russ. It's gonna do it for us on the Besties. Be sure to join us again next week on the Besties. Should the world's best friends pick the world's best.

[Russ Frostky]

Sa.