Pragmata Is Like Dead Space with Optimism

Summary

The Besties – "Pragmata Is Like Dead Space with Optimism"

Date: April 17, 2026
Hosts: Russ Frushtick, Chris Plante, Griffin McElroy, Justin McElroy
Guest: Andy Cortez

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Episode Overview

In this characteristically irreverent and insightful episode of The Besties, the crew is joined by Andy Cortez (Kind of Funny, Twitch) to dissect Capcom’s long-awaited sci-fi shooter Pragmata. The episode dives deep into the game's mechanics, narrative, and development, juxtaposing it with classics like Dead Space and Mega Man, while also waxing lovingly about backlogs, recent indie gems, and plenty of signature digressions.

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Main Discussion: Pragmata

[06:55] Introduction & Guest

• Andy Cortez is welcomed as a longtime Besties listener and gaming personality, known for his work at Kind of Funny and his Twitch channel.
• Andy plugs his content, mentioning the preponderance of layoff news in the industry but also the "sprinkles" of good news (07:35).

[08:12] What is Pragmata?

• Andy: "Pragmata is a third person action shooter game... the older father figure with the daughter... battling through a space station... A lot of 3D printing all over the place."
• Ross: The game walks a tightrope: "Very pro and anti 3D printing at the same time" (08:44).

[09:19] Notable Mechanic: Pipe Dream Hacking

• The combat intersperses third-person shooting with real-time, grid-based "Pipe Dream style" hacking mini-games.

• Ross: "When you aim... a grid shows up... to hack the enemy you have to push [buttons] through these nodes and eventually land on an endpoint..." (09:31).

• Chris: "It's closer to a maze than a puzzle... nodes could slow down, hack multiple enemies, or put blue pustules on them..." (10:16).

  • Memorable Moment:
    • Ross: "I never want to hear you say the word 'pustule' again."
      Andy: "Man, that's in my—like, that's a word I'm constantly going to." (10:45–10:55)

[11:07] The Dead Space Comparison

• Chris: "The story... you're literally in space, a big bulky space marine, picking up random audio diaries... [but] tonally, very, very different." (11:07–14:23)
• Less horror/gore, more optimistic and "humanist" than its inspirations.

[14:23] Themes & Narrative

• Chris: Appreciates the game’s directness: "[It's] a game about adoption... actually said what it wanted to be about." (14:23–15:50)
• Andy: Praises deviation from the "grizzled dude" trope but finds some writing inconsistent: "He warms up to the idea... in about 20 minutes." (15:50–16:29)
• Ross: Notes the dialogue as "incredibly wooden," but still finds Diana (the child AI) very endearing: "They give you collect... slides and crayons... She's very charming." (17:34)

[18:27] World & Level Design

• Discusses Pragmata’s hub-and-spoke "shelter" system:
  • Upgrade weapons, do training missions (VR/Metal Gear style), return to tackle new areas (18:39–20:14).
  • Light Metroidvania elements—acquire powers to unlock earlier areas, some "God of War 2018" vibes (20:02–21:03).
• Andy: Enjoys the variety and side content:
  • "I wasn't expecting to want to sort of chase these training missions... I'm really enjoying that part of it." (21:03)

[23:31] The Mega Man & Capcom DNA

• The little girl’s design, blue coat, glowing arm, and the platforming evoke Mega Man.
• Chris: "There was a lot of hullabaloo... Is this game a Mega Man game?" (23:59)
• Team jokes about names: "Her character's name is me... Make this into a Mega man game, it's free, right?" (24:30–24:52)

[25:23] Pacing & Gameplay Evolution

• Chris: Praises the escalating complexity: "It has a hell of a build... By the end, the combat is truly absurd... movie Tremors, but with robots." (25:23)
• Pragmata lauded as a rare, big-budget, non-sequel IP.

[26:39] Capcom’s Evolution

• Ross: "Capcom... [kept up] Monster Hunter, Resident Evil... Ace Attorney... very well... I thought [they] would go the way of Konami." (26:39)

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[27:18] Critique: Writing & Dialogue

• Andy: Wishes the story reached the gameplay’s heights, sharing a clunky example:
  "She says... 'remember when you got hit by lightning... That was pretty shocking.' And Hugh replies: 'Well, you know what they say about lightning, right? Next time it'll be the bots that get zapped.'... Nope. Nobody says that." (28:23)
• Ross: "I will say turn on the Japanese and turn off subtitles and you’re set." (29:28)

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[29:55] Mega Man April Fools & DLC Jokes

• Andy describes Capcom’s April Fools video of Hugh in a Mega Man suit: "That'll for sure get released as DLC..." (29:55–30:23)
• Chris: "You do not make a Mega Man costume and then refuse to sell it to us." (30:26)

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Additional Topics & Recommendations

[32:37] What Else Has Andy Played Lately?

• Mouse PI for Hire – Cuphead-style visuals, doom-like gameplay. Andy: "I thought it was fine." (33:12)
• Crimson Desert – MMO-turned-open world, currently hoping for post-launch improvements.
  "Maybe after a bunch of patches... I’m still wanting to see the magic..." (34:52)
• Nier Automata & Witcher 3 – Finally finished both, calls them "probably my two favorite games that I’ve played this year" (37:51):
  • Nier Automata: "Blown away by the whole experience…[does] Kojima-isms... fourth wall."
  • Witcher 3: "Combat... totally fine. Not a non-issue…writing and branching paths are hitting as hard as they do. I was just so blown away." (39:39)

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[46:17] Mailbag, Recommendations, and Tangents

• From (TV show):
  • Justin: "If you ever didn’t watch From, here’s 30 seconds: It’s a town, a village somewhere in a nowhere place... no one knows why they’re there..."
  • "It is unbelievably stupid, but it is there." (44:09)
• Baby Steps Devs React Video: The Besties recommend the 7-minute speedrun rewatch for Baby Steps (46:17).
• Omelet, You Cook: Deckbuilder roguelike focused on omelettes. "Sounds like a Justin game." (47:49)
• Shattered Pixel Dungeon – "Great on iOS... kind of scratches that Binding of Isaac itch... pick up and put down." (52:28)
• Exit 8 (game and movie):
  • Chris explains the loop-based horror indie and its surprisingly faithful, if not amazing, film adaptation.
  • "It is one of the most loyal adaptations of the experience of playing a video game..." (55:35)
• The King is Watching:
  • Andy: "A super fun roguelite... five by five grid... king’s gaze... strategically click around..."
  • "I want this game to keep having updates because every one they put out...reinvents the loop." (58:20)

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• Chris [14:44]: "I admired that the writing had the gumption for him to be like, hey, I. I was an orphan and I had a very similar experience to you... Instead of this usual lone wolf and cub stoic man child relationship..."
• Andy [28:23]: "She says…'Remember when you got hit by lightning Hugh. That was pretty shocking.' And…Hugh replies: 'Well, you know what they say about lightning, right? Next time it'll be the bots that get zapped.'…Hugh, Nope. Nobody says that."
• Chris [25:23]: "By the end, the combat in the game is truly absurd. You have seven or eight robots...firing giant missile loads at you and you're hacking all of it all at once… it's absurd..."
• Ross [26:39]: "Capcom... for sure I thought was gonna go the way of Konami and just sell pachinko machines... It's kind of crazy."

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 06:55 – Andy Cortez introduction
• 08:12 – What is Pragmata? Core gameplay loop
• 09:19–11:02 – Pipe Dream minigame/hacking mechanic
• 11:07–14:23 – Dead Space comparisons, narrative structure
• 14:23–18:27 – Themes of adoption, tone, and character critique
• 18:27–23:16 – Level/hub design, Metroidvania and Mega Man influences
• 23:59–25:23 – Mega Man controversy, gameplay evolution
• 27:18–29:02 – Writing, dialogue, and localization
• 32:37 – Andy’s other recent games: Mouse PI for Hire, Crimson Desert, Nier Automata, Witcher 3
• 46:17 – Mailbag: From (TV series), Baby Steps, Omelet You Cook
• 52:28 – Mini-game & app recommendations: Shattered Pixel Dungeon, Exit 8, The King Is Watching

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Episode Tone and Style

• The Besties' signature mix of comedic banter, honesty, and deep knowledge of games abounds—expect playful ribbing, obscure references, and well-earned tangents.
• Technical topics are explained in friendly, accessible language, with the hosts ensuring complex mechanisms are clear even to casual listeners.

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Final Thoughts & Recommendations

• Pragmata is a bold, inventive, and somewhat flawed new IP from Capcom. Praised for its optimism and creativity but dinged for stilted writing, it’s contrasted throughout with recent and classic games for context.
• The episode rounds out with a flurry of game and show recommendations, reinforcing The Besties’ reputation as both insightful critics and inexhaustible sources for your pop culture backlog.

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For more from The Besties:
Check out their Patreon for bonus episodes, bracket specials (see: Space Jamming a franchise), and community shout-outs!

Transcript

[Ross Rushnik]

What are y' all doing with Easter?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

What do you mean what are we doing with Easter? Easter's done.

[Justin McElroy]

He just a cold open man. This is a bonus episode. I cannot believe. Yes, tell me everything. What are you, if you will, Russ, tell me all your thoughts on God.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

What are you?

[Ross Rushnik]

So I am. I am a middle aged man and

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I had my very middle aged Jewish man.

[Ross Rushnik]

Middle aged Jewish man, it should be noted.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Okay.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Ross Rushnik]

And I had my very, very first Easter egg hunting experience. And what the fuck are you guys doing to these children?

[Justin McElroy]

Okay, let me stop you here. You said it's your first Easter egg hunting experience. Have you hunted eggs in like a completely agnostic context? No.

[Ross Rushnik]

That's a fair question. No, I haven't. So I guess it.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Second question before that. You said you are a 40 year old middle aged man and you participated in an Easter egg hunt, presumably with children. Do you think maybe what was. What was kind of weird about it

[Ross Rushnik]

specifically there, Chris Plain. I wasn't actually stealing eggs from kids. Although there was a moment when it started where I was like, am I supposed to take the eggs?

[Andy Cortez]

You are.

[Ross Rushnik]

Genuinely. I didn't know. I mean, all these people are running around.

[Justin McElroy]

The wild thing about eggs is there is. I mean, to your credit, Russ, absolutely zero consistency. Some of these bad boys you could peel and eat.

[Ross Rushnik]

Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

Some are plastic with candy. Some are plastic and empty. Some are plastic with coupons for hugs. Some are chocolate.

[Andy Cortez]

Right.

[Justin McElroy]

They're just foil wrapped big chunks of chocolate. Some are. And this is. The wild ones used to be real, then are filled with confetti and you're supposed to smash those on your head. I mean, there's just no rhyme or reason.

[Andy Cortez]

Flower as well sometimes. Flower. Yeah, those prank. Those are the prank ones.

[Justin McElroy]

Prank ones. Prank ones.

[Ross Rushnik]

And, and is there. Shouldn't you give the kids like a quota? Like, shouldn't the kids be like, five is enough and then let the other kids have some? Because right now seems like unfettered capitalism.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

No, no, no, no. Andy and I do want to hear here because we did bring you on.

[Justin McElroy]

Yes. For expertise as a fan of the cloth.

[Andy Cortez]

You know, I'm not trying to, you know, push my beliefs on anybody, guys. Okay. I can't recall the quote I'm looking for.

[Justin McElroy]

Andy's the rare guest that will push his religious beliefs on people before he's been introduced.

[Ross Rushnik]

There was a moment as we were waiting in line. I was waiting in line and the line was long and we were nowhere near the front of it and there was a couple of parents right behind me that whispered to themselves, if we miss this, they will never forgive us. And then proceeded to find ways to cut the line. And that is not a very well spirited event. That is a stressful nightmare of an event that you're teaching children from an early age. No defense. You all agree that this is a bad idea.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I'll be honest, I didn't hear anything you just said because I was googling Ecclesiastes Easter egg quote just to see if there was.

[Andy Cortez]

Is that how you pronounce the word? I think I said something different.

[Justin McElroy]

I'm pretty sure you've been in Ecclesiastes.

[Ross Rushnik]

It counts. It counts.

[Justin McElroy]

One of the Gnostic gospels. Bad boys.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah. That was in the book of the

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

book of Job and right after the book of Thomas. When were the Jesus blinds? Dude. Just because he can.

[Andy Cortez]

King James 1. He's going for another title this year, guys.

[Ross Rushnik]

Oh, hell yeah.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

And now we're back to gay.

[Andy Cortez]

Here we go.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

You know.

[Justin McElroy]

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

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

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

[Ross Rushnik]

My name is Ross Rushnik. I know the best game of the week. Andy, get in there.

[Andy Cortez]

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

[Ross Rushnik]

Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

Welcome to the Besties, where we talk about the latest and the greatest in home interactive entertainment. It's a video game club and just by listening you just become a member. Just like that. This week, talking about pragmat. Tata. What is that?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Six years ago, Capcom announced that it's going to make another game, which means this game has been in development for seven or eight years. Imagine dead space. But a little bit more humanist, a little more anti AI and a little more Mega Man. What?

[Justin McElroy]

Well, we'll hear about that and so much more right after this,

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

y'.

[Justin McElroy]

All.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

A few days ago at 4 in the morning, my son woke my wife and I up by presenting us with a sandwich he made. And it was real nice of him. Unfortunately, it was inspired by Looney Tunes. So it was two slices of bread with an entire rotisserie chicken right in the middle. A knife going through all of it, which a little dangerous and intimidating at 4am Even though I wholly trust him as a chef. What I'm saying is I took a picture right away because it was the cutest thing I'd ever seen. Terrifying but super cute. And then I uploaded it to our two aura frames because we are those people in this house. Aura frame. It is the perfect Mother's Day gift. To capture the chaos that all of us have put my wife through and that I have put my mother through. It's my way of saying, yes, I'm a little stinker, but also I'm adorable and so is my son. Aura frames have meticulously calibrated high resolution displays. Unless you look really closely or see photo transitions, you'd never know what the screen. You can change photos, view details like photos and more with a simple tap or swipe on the edge of the frame and you can keep your display smudge free. And like I said earlier, you can upload images from the app. It's incredible whether that is in your house or for my mom, half a country away, named Number one by Wirecutter, you can save on the gifts moms love by visiting auraframes.com for a limited time. Listeners can get $25 off their best selling Carver mat frame with code BESTIES, that is auraframes.com promo code BESTIES support the show by mentioning us at checkout. Terms and conditions apply.

[Ross Rushnik]

Before we start this segment, I want to introduce our very special guest who is joining us. It's Andy Cortez. Thank you for joining us, Andy.

[Andy Cortez]

Hi. Hello everybody. I've been listening to the bestie since 2012. I think I'm the oldest guest to have ever been on a show.

[Justin McElroy]

Wow. Yeah, for us, I guess.

[Ross Rushnik]

Yeah.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Huge.

[Andy Cortez]

For us it's massive.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

You don't look since 60, but you look like a solid like 28, 29.

[Andy Cortez]

It was. It was college time. It was college time 2012. Yeah. It's a good time.

[Ross Rushnik]

While we're holding it down. We appreciate it. People can experience Andy's magic on Kind of Funny. You also have a very good Twitch channel. You want to direct people to the Twitch channel?

[Andy Cortez]

Sure. Andy Cortez on Twitch. And then we do kind of funny games every day. We talk about industry news. It's usually unfortunately layoff news for the past couple years. But there's always some good news sprinkled through out there. So kind of Funny Games daily for all of the gaming news and gaming reviews.

[Ross Rushnik]

Well, thank you, Andy. We have a very special game that as plan alluded to, was long delayed and comes from the team over at Capcom. It is Pragmata. Andy, you want to take a stab at summarizing what the fuck this thing is?

[Justin McElroy]

Sure.

[Andy Cortez]

Pragmata is a third person action shooter game. You know, it's got similar story tropes to what, you know, it's the older father figure with the daughter who, you know, maybe he doesn't really care for her at the start, but then he warms up to her and you're just sort of battling through a space station that has been kind of in disarray. And there's a lot of 3D printing all over the place.

[Ross Rushnik]

It is very Pro and anti 3D printing at the same time. It's kind of impressive that they walk that line. I think it is most notable at a glance for being the game where as you're shooting 3D printed creatures, you're also doing Pipe dream style minigames.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah. Wow.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

That is a poll that I think no one but our oldest listener, Andy, would know the reference to.

[Justin McElroy]

What a tragedy that he doesn't get to listen to this one episode, Sam.

[Andy Cortez]

Unfortunate. He's gonna be bummed out about it when I tell him.

[Ross Rushnik]

When I saw that feature, I was like, oh, Justin, this is not a game. Justin's gonna be able to play, like, physically not. And I think that was. Ended up being true. Correct.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Justin, can you describe the Pipe Dream a little bit more for people?

[Ross Rushnik]

Yeah. So imagine like a Gears of War over the shoulder third person shooter. And then when you aim at something, a grid shows up. Imagine two dimensional grid. Yeah, like an 8x8 grid. And in that grid there are, like nodes. And the idea is to hack the enemy. You have to push face buttons or whatever you're using to abxy. Yeah. To move through these nodes and eventually land on like an end point, which in turn hacks the enemy, leaves them susceptible to damage, might stun them, might do a variety of other things to them. So it's not like a puzzle. I mean, it is in the lightest sense of the word, like you can. You can finish them in two seconds. But it is interesting to have to juggle that while you're in combat.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

It's closer to a maze than a puzzle and that you're navigating this 2D space, getting from point A to point B. But even on a maze, you can, for the most part, go wherever you want. It's like, do you want to build up the nodes on the way to the end point? So these nodes also have special capabilities that could maybe slow down an enemy or hack multiple enemies at once or put little blue pustules on them that make them take even more damage.

[Ross Rushnik]

I never want to hear you say the word pustule again. If you could just.

[Andy Cortez]

Man, that's in my. Like, that's a word I'm constantly going to.

[Ross Rushnik]

Oh, no.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah, kind of like damp towelette pustule.

[Andy Cortez]

It's definitely like a vocal tick of mine. I'm always saying.

[Ross Rushnik]

Pustule, man, you picked the wrong guest.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

So the comparison to like dead space that I made up top I think holds true in two ways. One is the game. It's like the story. You are literally in space. You are a big bulky dude, space marine type. And you need to find out what happened to this colony that is like now basically abandoned. So story wise, it's playing with a lot of the same ideas. You're picking up random audio diaries or written diaries, little holograms and even like so many diaries.

[Ross Rushnik]

Dead Space style. Like those projected diaries which is used in dead space as well.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

The other comparison is the shooting itself builds off of something that I think kind of got abandoned post Dead Space. I wish more games do, which is we want you to think about shooting as strategy, not just like aim for the head. And dead space I think conceals this pretty well. But if you go back and think about it, the goal is to delimb the enemies right. That you want to cut them off in certain ways. And there is a strategy on top of the usual shoot for the head here. And because of that the enemies move slower. Here a similar thing is happening. The enemies move slower or you're incentivized to find ways to get them to move slower so that you can both shoot them and do a secondary thing. And I'm kind of surprised there just hasn't been more games like this. I was trying to think, were there other games that kind of did this? Hey, we want your brain to do two things at once. Shooters.

[Ross Rushnik]

I can't. I don't know, man. Andy Justin.

[Andy Cortez]

I mean aside from just the hacking. Mini games in Nier Automata.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

Where you are actively. I can just be hacking and slashing all these dudes or I could as the character go into your mainframe and do the little. Which is another arcade thing because the hacking here always. It reminds me of Snake. And in your Automata you're just kind of playing Asteroids or whatever. So I. But that's not a simultaneous thing. So it's kind of a. I don't know. I don't really know of another comparison to be honest.

[Ross Rushnik]

I think BioShock 2 had like when you're hacking like the turrets and things like that. It was like real time, like timing, mini games and things like that. Or even like you look at Gears of War though, like active reload is somewhat of this, which is Helldivers has

[Andy Cortez]

the little beep boop beep boop. Things that you don't. Yeah, the airstrike things.

[Ross Rushnik]

Yeah, that's true. Yeah. No, it. It's interesting.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I'm curious what y' all thought of the story. Because the. The story is coherent. I will say that it's also fast.

[Ross Rushnik]

It's. When I started playing this, I was like, oh, boy. I'm in. This might be a situation where I have to play five hours before anything happens or I get to control the game. It starts really quickly and, like gives you the controls really quickly, which I did appreciate. Narratively, you mentioned Dead Space. Totally different from a tone standpoint than Dead Space. I think it's important to realize that this is a much brighter and more optimistic tone. It doesn't have the gore elements of Dead Space in it. Thematically, obviously has ties, but tonally, very, very different.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, for me, it rang as like a game about adoption, which is not what I expected and, well, that's a surprise. And it's not so like you. Yes.

[Ross Rushnik]

It's just funny. I laugh only because the writing in this game is so ham handed that he multiple times is like, I was adopted. You know what that means?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

So I don't think it's ham handed for that reason. I was so happy to have a game where it actually said what it wanted to be about instead of just being the kind of metaphor that doesn't quite work. I think there's a worse version of this game where they're like, it's about adoption, because you get it, he's a space Marine and then he finds this little girl and then he takes her on the way. And we never pointed out, but you kind of know what it is. But if you actually unpack the metaphor, it doesn't work at all. It's incomplete. And I admired that the writing had the gumption for him to be like, hey, I. I was an orphan and I had a very similar experience to you. And now we as characters are coming together. Instead of this kind of usual, like, lone wolf and cub stoic man child relationship. It's like, hey, we actually have just a lot in common. And I'm learning from you, you're learning from me. Which I think is just. It's a twist on this formula that it's that extra step that I didn't expect to get from it.

[Andy Cortez]

I think they could have gone the super cliche route and made it the grizzled, you know, angry dude who is pissed off about having to be in this experience, because who wouldn't be? I. I think it is kind of nice that they didn't go that cliche route, but then parts of me kind of wish they did just for better storytelling, period. Because the, the, like this Hugh guy, like, he. He really warms up to the fact that. That you have now kind of pseudo adopted this robot girl. He warms up to the idea of that in about 20 minutes.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

And he's just like it.

[Justin McElroy]

He just.

[Andy Cortez]

I keep on making the comment to my co workers that like, Hugh feels like a. Like a 10 year old in this game. There's just so many moments where little Diana, who is a robot child, you'll experience an action sequence or just, I don't know, something will happen in the game and she'll go, wow, that was really fun. And he will respond with something like, yeah, that was awesome. Right? And like, he just doesn't. He just feels so tonally weird to me.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

And he has kind of like. I like ice cream too.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, he's. He's. He's seeing the world through a. Through a child's eyes as well sometimes. And it's like, you know, overall it's really good for the positivity of the story because I feel like this is very. A very, like, hopeful thing and you never really feel a whole lot of dread in this. This isn't like the Last of Us where you just always feel like garbage. But he just. I don't know, man. I. I wish I could just like be in the room with him as they were doing writing passes on Hugh and just like, I don't know, let's switch this up. But then there are really endearing moments too. So it's. It's kind of a mixed bag for me.

[Ross Rushnik]

It's mostly just the dialogue for me is just like incredibly wooden and not real. Like, I mean, I'm fine with them being like upbeat and fun, but like, it's written like we're gonna tell and not show every single story beat in this game. That being said, I did, despite that wooden writing, like almost immediately, like feel a lot of connection to Diana with a little AI girl. And like, she's very charming. They give you collect fucking slides and crayons and various other things for her to hang out in your secret base in. And she's playing on them and asking questions about them. And that stuff is very endearing. I don't have a problem with the story. I just found it a little bit funny how. How we get there. Yeah, it was just blunt.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

There is the other half of the story, which is that they're building New York on the moon. So we should probably talk about, like, the level design. Can you explain kind of like, how the game works structurally?

[Ross Rushnik]

Sure. You have a. It's like a hub and spoke. So you have a main base. It's called the Shelter. And back in the shelter, you can do things you would expect. You can upgrade weapons, you can add new gear. All the collectibles you find live in the Shelter. You eventually can unlock, like, training missions, things like that. And then from the Shelter, you go out to these different areas where you have objectives, like, oh, rescue or some character, or unlock these doors to activate a radio to the Earth, whatever it is. In each of those areas, the levels are like. It doesn't quite feel like dead space, which I think dead space feels like a very organic, almost grounded portrayal of what a space station would be. This feels a little bit closer, like, almost like portal in a way that it is very intentionally designed as, like, a puzzle environment. But they do take big swings where, like, one of the environments is, like, they 3D printed New York City. And it's like, in parts of it are, like, sideways, like, weird Inception style, or one of them is, like, forest that they generated on this space station. So there's that. But it. I think it's. It feels more like color to the actual level design, which tends to be pretty boxy for the sake of, like, again, solving puzzles and opening doors, things like that. Yeah.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Would you. Would you call the level design Metroidvania Light? Like, I don't know how to describe this. Like, it's like these mini worlds where you're going to be kind of, in some ways, looping back. You're going.

[Ross Rushnik]

There are. There are elements of that where you have to, like, unlock powers to access

[Justin McElroy]

that one. This. The Siege. Was that what it was called? There was a sequel to it.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah. The Surge.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Ross Rushnik]

Oh, yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

Word had similar idea where, like, sort of, like factory biomes that you would, like, unlock with different skill sets as you. As you went on.

[Ross Rushnik]

Yeah. And there is an element also where you'll, like, get the ability to, like, decrease the amount of, like, moon filament that's in the middle of a hallway, and that'll allow you in an earlier area. Yeah. This is a video game that'll allow you. That'll allow you to access, like, a chest that you couldn't get before. It has, like, God of war 2018 kind of vibes in that as well,

[Andy Cortez]

where there is backtracking and super helpful to kind of show you the map with your completion percentage and say, oh, I got a red key for that red dangerous zone. That's kind of a challenge room. Let me go back and backtrack and see what the treasure there was. And I've been really enjoying a lot of the side stuff. Like, weirdly, I wasn't expecting to want to sort of chase these training missions that are back in the hub, in the hub world to then unlock cosmetics and things like that. I'm really enjoying that part of it.

[Ross Rushnik]

Yeah, they make it very easy.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

The training missions are called training and I guess they are teaching you how to be better at the game. But I think the closer comparison is the kind of VR missions in Metal Gear where it's like, yeah, we want a slow story to exist in this game, but we want a space where you can really. Video game ass, video game it. Like, Andy, what were some of the ones that stood out to you that got you to keep doing? Because there's like 20, 30 of them.

[Andy Cortez]

I mean, there are all sort of different varieties. I think you start off super easy with just platforming ones. And you have your jump and your float and your air dashes hue and you move so swiftly for a big guy. Like, you're just a big man and you're moving through really quickly with your kind of cool aerial boosters or whatever. And so some of them will just be a bunch of floating cubes and you're trying, you jump over the gap and then they kind of progressively get tougher where there might be another large block that is kind of an obstacle get, you know, moving in the way of yourself. And if you fall off and that counts as a death. And maybe part of the challenge to three Star, that mission is to not fall off or not to get damage. And so every one of these missions has. You could just do the mission. But there will also be the three sort of meta challenges within the challenge of, well, you also got to the goal and you also shot the six boxes and you also did it within 20 seconds or whatever. And all of that just kind of, you know, it just sort of. It looks at me and it challenged me from across the room and it says, can you do this? And the unlockables are fun and I want to get more cosmetics for the characters. So I've been kind of really incentivized to go back into it.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah, it's kind of like a floor is lava game design where it's like you could just walk around this room, but what if the floor was lava and you didn't want to touch it and you're like, ah, damn. You know, I don't want to touch the floor, even though I definitely can.

[Ross Rushnik]

It's in that area that I think plants earlier comparison to Mega man is most obvious. Like it really feels like a 3D Mega Man X vibe, especially when you're mixing the air dashing with the floating with the jumping with the whatever. Obviously the combat itself is very different. But like Capcom is bringing Mega man back for a reason and it's kind of interesting to see them also tackling this like 3D approach. Not saying it's an official Mega man game or anything, but design wise, let's,

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

let's teach the controversy here. You know, like there was a lot of hubaloo. Hullabaloo. Is that the right phrase before this game came out? Hubbub, hubbub. There we go. Of is this game a Mega man game? Because the little girl looks Mega man esque. She's wearing a big puffy blue coat that is like the Mega man color. She has a glowing arm that has a magical technological power that looks.

[Justin McElroy]

And her character's name is me. I didn't play very.

[Ross Rushnik]

That was so weird.

[Justin McElroy]

So that's a guess, but.

[Ross Rushnik]

I had no idea what that was, by the way.

[Justin McElroy]

P.S. by the way, just make this into a Megan game. It's free, right? Like swap it. Like easy.

[Ross Rushnik]

It's so close. Her eyes do need to be bigger, but probably they could figure we'll get that in post.

[Justin McElroy]

That's dlc.

[Andy Cortez]

When the game was. When the game was being revealed and the man's name was revealed to be Hugh. And all of us at kind of funny are just trying to like force to really force this into a mega

[Justin McElroy]

something and we're just Wiley Hugh Lights.

[Andy Cortez]

Dr. Like if we were just like

[Justin McElroy]

we were really going for it and huge disappointment.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I'm ultimately glad it's not like I'm glad that they. They have made their own thing. And it very much feels like this is the future of something. The game. It's plenty enjoyable at the beginning, but it has a hell of a build. It feels like kind of a slow use a pistol puzzle shooter for the first hour. It feels like that Metroidvania light God of war contemporary comparison that fresh mentioned after that. And by the end, the combat in the game is truly absurd. You have seven or eight robots of varying sizes, some flying some tank like on a screen firing giant missile loads at you and you're hacking all of it all at once. It's absurd. At one point the game becomes basically the movie Tremors, but with robots, it goes for it. And I, I'm happy to see just a new, a new AAA style video game that's doing its own thing that doesn't have the number two or further beyond that coming after it. It feels like a minor miracle.

[Ross Rushnik]

I mean Capcom as a company feels like a minor miracle. Just the fact that they've been able to keep up the cadence that they have with like a large back. Like they've got Monster Hunter, they've got Resident Evil, they've got this now, which we don't know if it's gonna be a success from a monetary standpoint, but critically, certainly a success. Fucking ace attorney. What else? You know, they're doing very well for a company that for sure I thought was gonna go the way of Konami and like just sell pachinko machines for 20 years, which is kind of crazy.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Konami's back, baby. You know, and they are back.

[Ross Rushnik]

They are making actual games again. So good, good on Konami. They realize there are limits to what those balls can do.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Before we wrap up the section, Andy, do you have any other final thoughts on the game?

[Andy Cortez]

I mean I, I still think that this game would be so much more easy to recommend. I, first of all, I think the, the gameplay is a lot of fun and I do enjoy the action and I like the way it's been evolving. I think that if I could look at anybody and say like yeah, but the writing and the story is like actually super awesome. I, I wish we were in that spot. I, I think that it really falls short in a lot of different ways. Like there's a, there's a, there's a quote that I wrote down at a certain moment where you're dealing with a bad guy and Diana, the little girl, because again her name is like I'm model number dia, whatever the hell, you know, and D I A, N A, I'll call you Diana, call you Diana, you know, and they deal with like a enemy that's doing lightning and electric electricity. And she says, hey, I had to write this down. She says, hey, remember when you get got hit by lightning Hue. That was pretty shocking. And it's a, it's a cute pun, whatever.

[Ross Rushnik]

And then playing with puns for the first time and just gained sentience.

[Andy Cortez]

And then Hugh. But here's the part where Hugh seems more like a non human and his reply was, well, you know what they say about lightning, right? Next time it'll be the bots that get zapped I was like Hugh. Nope. What? Nobody says that. First off, like, I don't know what, what do you mean by you know what they say? They don't say that.

[Ross Rushnik]

I think the implication is that, you know, nothing gets hit by lightning the same time, like twice. So the implication is if he already got shocked. Certainly it's a lot of work next time.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

It happens to a lot of work.

[Ross Rushnik]

Look, I'm trying to be generous.

[Andy Cortez]

A lot of inferring here for little robot Diana meeting her first human.

[Ross Rushnik]

Oh my. How do you feel just in hearing about it? Is this the sort of game that appeals to you or is it?

[Justin McElroy]

I have a long list of things that I will return to. I do like games like this and I'm always a sucker for compelling single player experience. The dialogue does not fill me with a lot of confidence.

[Ross Rushnik]

I will say turn on the Japanese and turn off subtitles and you're set.

[Justin McElroy]

Let me map my kids faces onto the girl and then I will be into it because then the kids would love that. The kids would love that if they were sitting on the guy's shoulder blasting people. Let me do that for 10 bucks as DLC.

[Ross Rushnik]

Andy, you have just before we wrap the segment, pulled up a truly horrifying video of what looks like a mod maybe.

[Justin McElroy]

No.

[Ross Rushnik]

What is this?

[Andy Cortez]

This was Pragmata's. Pragmata. Sorry. This was their April Fool's post and they say Pragmata is a Mega man game April Fools. And it's Hugh, but he's in a very like lifelike proportion sized Mega man suit instead of his big astronaut suit.

[Ross Rushnik]

That's funny.

[Andy Cortez]

And his mask is Mega Man's face. And then that kind of goes up and reveals the real tiny face of Hugh in the helmet.

[Ross Rushnik]

I mean, that'll for sure get released as DLC or whatever.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Absolutely. You do not make a Mega man costume and then refuse to sell it to us. That is. That is some horse armor shit. They're gonna be like, you want this for $20, you swine? And I'll be like, oink, oink, give it to me.

[Ross Rushnik]

Okay, let's take a break and talk about more games with Andy. This episode of the Besties is sponsored by Reddit. Literally. It's Reddit is the sponsor of this episode. I'm sure you've heard of it before, but maybe you haven't used it in the way that I've used it, which is to do like incredibly deep dives on mechanics and lore of the games I love and strategy and just to find like a new community to talk about the game. There are over 47 million members on R gaming and Reddit is the front page for gaming news, updates, rumors, leaks, all discussed in real time by people who actually play. There are subs for every game genre, niche, MMOs, shooters, RPGs, speedruns, modding, lore. Every single thing there is a subreddit for. It's real players sharing, real tips, fixes and discoveries. I will speak for myself. Two subreddits I use all the time are SBC Gaming, which is a subreddit dedicated to handheld gaming, the sorts of handhelds we talk about all the time here. Very, very cool subreddit. Also, the R Elden Ring subreddit is also excellent, has very cool deep dive lore things if you're into Elden Ring, if you're into soulsborne games, things like that. So really anything you can think of, there's probably a dedicated subreddit for you. And if all that sounds good, Reddit is the place to go for gaming deep dives. Download the Reddit app and dive into R sbcgaming or R eldenring for the latest gaming updates or whatever you want to learn about. Download the Reddit app today. Andy, I think you play more games than any of us, which doesn't seem possible because we feel like we play a lot of games. And yet you do streaming. You do Kind of funny. I think your cadence is more than ours and I'm sure there are games that you've played this year that we haven't. Is there anything recent that you've played that you would call out as a

[Andy Cortez]

special release for 2026 games? Let me go through the old Steam

[Ross Rushnik]

library because I know you are currently going through your backlog to better inform yourself for the forthcoming kind of funny 100 best games of All Time list. Was there anything recent before we get into that?

[Andy Cortez]

As far as brand new games go, I did just beat Mouse PI for hire.

[Ross Rushnik]

That was the first person uses like old timey cartoon style, like cuphead style graphics, but doom gameplay.

[Andy Cortez]

Yes, yes, that's a boomer shooter. Looks like a 1920s 1930s Disney Animation hopefully.

[Ross Rushnik]

Hopefully not exactly like one.

[Andy Cortez]

Well Steamboat Willie is fine, we can hit that area and so that game we I played recently, that's about a 1918 hour ish video game and that I thought it was fine. I thought it was still lacking in a lot of different other spots and that so that's one that I did recently.

[Ross Rushnik]

I think that is the difference between you and I is if you're oh I Guess you were reviewing it. But if I'm playing something, that's fine. There is no way I'm spending 20 hours on it.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah. And, and that's the thing is that you would be hit with really neat moments and I would say, oh, cool, okay, maybe we're, we're getting even better here. Right. And honestly we're, we're very similar at kind of funny. And that's one of the things that they would always bring up is, you know, back at ign, you would have to play this. And now we have the freedom of saying, I am not digging this enough to continue on. Which was kind of a lot of everybody's experiences with Crimson Desert where they said you have to play 10 hours for it to get good. Sorry, man. Like maybe after a bunch of, you know, patches and things like that. But Crimson Desert's another one that I'm about, you know, 12 hours in and I'm kind of momentarily going back to it just in hopes that there are more patches and in hopes that it feels better. And it's, it's slowly getting there. But I, I'm still needing to. I still want to see the magic that everybody on the Internet is claiming, like this is some truly like generational type shit. And I just don't. I'm not seeing it quite yet.

[Ross Rushnik]

We had a question, a reader mail question a few weeks ago about whether the game Crimson Desert could be saved with patches in the way that Cyberpunk was. Do you think there's a shot of that level of like resurrection?

[Andy Cortez]

I mean, if you ask 80% of people, the game doesn't need saving. Like to them it's, it's already an amazing video game. And a lot of that I think is just an amalgamation of just a buttload of mechanics and cool looking things with amazing visuals. But you know, mission structure wise, I think it's like one of the weakest things I've ever experienced. And that's because they made Black Desert online and they're just like an MMO sort of studio. So there's not, you know, playing Crimson Desert after beating the Witcher 3 for the first time was a massive like shock to the system.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Not ideal timing.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, yeah. But I mean, gameplay wise it's so deep and there's just so many wild things you could pull off. It really is like that Breath of the wild. Tears of the kingdom. Check this out. Look what I just did here that I. Figure it out or look at this cool discovery I made and I'm hoping to get there one day. But at the. At the rate that they're putting out updates, I feel like it will inevitably get to a point that everybody says, all right, now's the time to hop in, because movement is better. And because now I can button remap. And they've, you know, made a decision.

[Ross Rushnik]

Sorry, there's something very funny of now I can button remap.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

In the movement, it works.

[Andy Cortez]

And the thing is, button. You know, it's not only just button remapping, it's the fact that the controls are so obtuse.

[Ross Rushnik]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

And there's no button remapping. Like, the things that they have you do in this game are just really odd. And it's one of those where you go, all right, I applaud you for doing something different. But was it the right choice? You know, and. But PC mods have been helping out a lot with. For me, like, I immediately installed the unlimited stamina outside of battle, which is like. I feel like every game should have that.

[Ross Rushnik]

Yeah, no kidding.

[Andy Cortez]

And so I installed that mod. I installed a couple of different mods that help out with the camera angle. But, I mean, they're putting out. They've put out, like, four updates or three updates since it launched, and they are. They know that this game could be a better experience, and it's pretty obvious by what they're fixing. So button remapping is already in the works, and that should be here probably within the next couple weeks or so.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Do you think that they've considered making it a Mega man game instead?

[Andy Cortez]

They would have been better off, honestly.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Just a bold idea would have been so much better. Especially not owning the property would have been very bold.

[Andy Cortez]

I mean, what the game is just, you know, it. Why not throw another IP in there? Because the game has so many other influences that, like, yeah, sure, throw in a Mega man in there as well.

[Justin McElroy]

Gotta take big swings, you know.

[Ross Rushnik]

That's right.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

What is the best thing that you've played this year so far?

[Andy Cortez]

Oh, it's so. Because of the backlog and me finally looking at all these blind spots and empty spots in my gaming history and knowing that I want to do them justice. Because we have A big top 100 thing coming up this year where all of us are going to submit our top 100 games, and then we're going to add them all up, add up all the points, and then do our own kind of big event that we've always wanted to do, and finally you're like, all right, let's freaking do it this year. And so this Year has been just me looking at my backlog and saying, well, I beat the first playthrough of Nier Automata when the game came out. And then I put it down like many people and everybody said, you got to go back. I'm like, I know. So this year I finally did all of the main endings. And yeah, that and the Witcher 3 are probably my two favorite games that I've played this year. I think they, like, I was just so even mechanically. For anybody who is worried about combat and the way that the Witcher 3 might feel, I think that's one of the biggest things that everybody. While I was. While I would let them know I'm playing the Witcher League, they go, oh, how does the combat feel? Because I'm. I'm such a. I'm such a souls, like, action RPG type dude. And I think it's like, totally fine. It's. It's not. It was kind of a non issue for me. Of course I would love it to feel like Lies of P does or like any of the Souls games do, but it's totally serviceable enough when the story and the writing and the branching paths are hitting as hard as they do. I was just so blown away by the Witcher 3.

[Ross Rushnik]

Yeah, it's. It's pretty staggering that I mean that. And then eventually, like, Cyberpunk, in my opinion, got pretty damn close to that level as well. Like, that game is fantastic. So, you know, I think that studio has a future.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, they're doing. They're doing all right. But yeah, Near Automata was definitely one that. That blew me away as well. I was just so. I was just so overtaken by the whole experience and it's just so my. And the fact that I waited that long, I felt kind of embarrassed. But like, I'm so glad that I got back to it because I just really enjoyed the story and where it goes and the. The. The things that I would call like the Kojima isms that Yoko Taro does with all of the breaking of the fourth wall and all of those little things that I just like. I love this shit, man. This is like. This is why I could have watched the movie, but I'd prefer to do this because this is so like, this is a video game, you know? Like, I love that shit.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Well, the good thing is now you have to watch the movie and the Animated Series, eight of the plays. You have to find the story that is locked in the Gotcha games.

[Ross Rushnik]

And Justin has good tips on the fishing in the first game.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

You ever want to walk through on that?

[Andy Cortez]

Okay, yeah, I'll have to. I'll have to hit you up for that. But I definitely will be going to the, the orchestra that's coming back on tour. I'm pumped for that because that was one where I'm like, as soon as I beat it, I was like, I have to go watch this like, symphony thing, which I only ever really do for games. Like, I never really, like, seek out concerts, but I love for the big gaming experiences. Like the final. Final Fantasy 7. Rebirth was super sick. And then everybody's like, dude, you just missed it on tour, man. It just kind of like ended. But it's coming back in a couple of months and I'm pretty pumped for that.

[Justin McElroy]

This isn't actually a problem for, for near because I'm me and I'm on this show. But it always so frustrating when you find a game like that and it's all you want to talk about. And everybody talked about it two years ago. It's like, hold on, wait. No, no, no, listen. See there, there's different ending you like, so it's like you do them all. It's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

And the second one, you think it's going to be Lion King 1.5, where you're playing as. As Timon and Pumbaa during the Lion King one. But it's so much different, man. Like, and honestly, the reason I quit back in the day was, you know, I was like, all right, that's. That's neat. But I don't want to play as the dude for another 20 hours. Like I just did. And then another gameplay would be another 20 hours, right? And they're like. And everybody's like, no, just do it. Just do it. And luckily it's not that. So. So for anybody who's been ever discouraged of saying, well, one playthrough is about 20ish hours times five. That's a hundred hour game. It's not that every game, every next like playthrough, quote unquote, is much shorter and they do different things with it

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

to keep it fresh. I do want you to let me play as Timon in Pumbaa in Nier Autumn.

[Ross Rushnik]

That'd be fun.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Once. Once you put that in my head, you can't just take it away from me.

[Andy Cortez]

What are they doing in those moments?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

It's so true. Roasting Pants and Guildenstern Fresh. You want to. You want to dig into the mailbag?

[Ross Rushnik]

Yeah, we have a bunch of reader mail. This one's for Justin From. John, season four of from is almost here. My girlfriend and I are rewatching this crazy show for that good, good Harold Perrineau face. You know what I'm talking about? How do you feel about From, Justin?

[Justin McElroy]

It's so good, man. I actually just. We stopped watching from midway through season three. And the only reason. The only reason is that it was a bad show and not worth watching, but it got. It did that thing where it started popping back up in the. In the algorithm, and you start thinking, oh, is there something in the air? Are we gonna get another season of From? And then, you know, there's nothing that makes a show more appealing to me than knowing there's more of it. So it's like, you know what? We gotta get back in. See what all the. It is an absolute. If you ever watched from, or if you ever didn't watch from, here's 30 seconds. It's a town, a village somewhere in a nowhere place where when you're driving through the woods, you accidentally teleport there and you can't get out. And everyone is stuck in the little village and no one knows why they're there or how they got there. There's time travel. There are. The wires are hooked up to appliances, but the other end doesn't go anywhere. They just, like go into the walls. There's a woman that digs a hole so deep in her house that her house collapses. It's nonsense. The biggest star on the show is Harold Perrineau from Lost.

[Ross Rushnik]

Do you think is it better experienced as a YouTube best moments of from, or do you actually have to watch it?

[Justin McElroy]

No, no, no. Because it's like you have to get into the internal logic of it. Because if you take something out of context, you will watch and think, well, I'm sure that makes more sense in context. You need to earn. Having watched all of from, you need to earn the right to with your chest, 10 toes and say, this does not make any goddamn sense. And that is, and let me say into season three, it really picks up to what Andy says. Crimson desert. Yeah, 100 hours in both from and Crimson Desert really pick up. No, the third season. If you ever watch from, finish the third season or it clarifies what is happening in from. The central mystery of from is revealed. It is unbelievably stupid, but it is there. And there's a whole other season that they have to reckon with it. It's a really wild show, truly. The fact that this has gone on. It's one of those shows that I feel like I forgot to cancel, you know, like I should have canceled it. Someone should have. But it's still going. I love it.

[Andy Cortez]

I do appreciate you looking at and discovering more episodes and saying they didn't give up on it. Why should I?

[Justin McElroy]

Andy, there's not even a joke in what you're saying. It's 100% like, hey listen, if they're gonna meet me halfway, I'll keep watching their stupid ass show. I'm pretty drunk. Anyway.

[Andy Cortez]

It's common courtesy.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah, it's like the dignity. They got me through a lot of nights with season one and season two. I owe them, you know what I mean? Sure. I already paid my $7.99 for fucking MGM. I swear to God.

[Ross Rushnik]

I swear to God.

[Andy Cortez]

That's not real.

[Justin McElroy]

That's the only show on it, I think.

[Ross Rushnik]

Incredible. I'm so happy from exists.

[Justin McElroy]

Maybe I'll watch it literally took a year long gap. Came back took a gap year from came back stolen, saw the world, you

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

know, live some life.

[Ross Rushnik]

This next letter comes from Bing Bong Bing Bong Eggsteam and it is calling out the Baby steps developers react 7 minute speedrun video which is on IGN's YouTube page. I don't even want to necessarily tell you what happens in this video apart from saying Gabe Kazillo and Bennett Foddy, the two creators of Baby Steps, also the voice actors that appear throughout Baby Steps do a seven minute speedrun like rewatch like devs react, rewatch video and if you like the tone and weirdness of Baby Steps as a project, highly recommend you watching this Baby Steps Devs React because it is one of the best things I've seen in recent memory.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

It is so funny. It's so funny and so it's smart in a way that you. Every 15 seconds you're like, is this smart or is this dumb? What high wire act are these brilliant people doing?

[Ross Rushnik]

It was great.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

What a masterpiece.

[Ross Rushnik]

Highly recommend it. We'll drop it in the newsletter if you want to watch it. This next letter comes from Jack. I appreciate your commentary on Ratcoin, a game I've been curious about for a while. I highly recommend you check out Omelet yout Cook. It's the best thing I've seen come out in response to Balatro. It's incredibly silly but serves a big challenge. You can make the most unappetizing omelette and get a ton of points for it. Plus there's a real time option for your turns, which I've never seen. A roguelike deck builder before and I really enjoyed it and I appreciate this option. So that's a good. I haven't heard of that.

[Justin McElroy]

That sounds like video game. Yeah, Omelet, you cook?

[Ross Rushnik]

Omelet, you cook.

[Justin McElroy]

How's it? That sounds good.

[Ross Rushnik]

And no commas in there, so.

[Justin McElroy]

Even better.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah, sounds like a Justin game.

[Ross Rushnik]

Do we have any honorable mentions that people want to call out? Anything you've seen, anything you've watched?

[Justin McElroy]

Let me tell you what I've been doing lately. Listen, Windows. Microsoft stopped supporting Windows 10 with security updates. I don't know if you knew this, but Windows 10 no longer getting security updates. There's a lot of hardware that will not run Windows 11 that will no longer get security updates. And I want to encourage you, my friend, if I could, to put Linux on it.

[Ross Rushnik]

I'm so surprised.

[Justin McElroy]

Here's what I wanted to say. I just wanted to mention, if you

[Andy Cortez]

had a Kalsheet bet.

[Justin McElroy]

Listen, if you had a Kalsheet bet about. First of all, I'm rich because I always bet on me bringing up Linux. I'm just saying it doesn't have to be for dorks. I'm the only cool person over here in the Linux world and I really need more cool people to think about it. If you go, here's what I want you to do. Get a USB drive, search for Linux Mint, go there, follow the instructions, put Linux Mint on the thumb drive, put that thumb drive into some old hardware, load the BIOS, load from that thumb drive, install Linux, you got a whole new operating system. You don't like Linux Mint? Fuck you. Fine, put a different Linux on top of it.

[Andy Cortez]

Who cares?

[Justin McElroy]

Put a bunch of. You know what I did? I did one on a really old laptop my kids had and it was a distribution called Endless os. It's a Linux distribution that is designed to, in part, work offline. So there's like 23 gigs of encyclopedias and information and coding tools and programming for kids. And kids like games, stuff like that, which would be an amazing resource. And it runs great even on old hardware that has been, you know, as part of planned obsolescence, sort of like made useless. A lot of these distributions, the lightweight ones, still run really easily on it. So experiment today. Go get Linux Mint, put it on a thumb drive, put that on some old hardware, have fun.

[Ross Rushnik]

Do you remember when I was talking about how excited I was about Linux and you asked me what distribution I was on and I said bazzite and you made fun of me for 20 minutes, right?

[Justin McElroy]

Yes, that's true.

[Andy Cortez]

Yes, we're past that.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah. I had 20 minutes.

[Ross Rushnik]

Maybe not 20.

[Justin McElroy]

Oh, to be a young man again. I no longer have the vim and vigor.

[Ross Rushnik]

I have a couple that I wanted to call out. The first one is, and let me be very clear, this is not the new Mario movie, which I still haven't seen. I know you guys talked about it last week. I'm talking about the original Super Mario Brothers movie. But I have a caveat for you. Watch that movie on mute. No audio. You can watch the subtitles if you want. I wouldn't recommend it. Watch it on mute. I think that movie as a, just a visual storytelling medium when you're not listening to the pretty weak ass script works way better just as like a experience the visuals of it than it does when you're listening to the actual narrative.

[Justin McElroy]

There's got to be an album. There's got to be an album or a podcast or something that would sync up perfectly.

[Ross Rushnik]

That is the dream. The reason I've discovered this is because my son was watching it on the airplane when we were on vacation and we didn't have headphones that would plug into the screen and he was like fine with it. So he watched the whole thing on mute. And I was just watching over his shoulder and he had a fucking blast. And he's never seen the movie before.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I read some sort of like medical study about how you are more likely to emotionally connect with movies on airplanes because you're in this like very vulnerable place and that's why people cry at movies on airplanes. Or you can like find.

[Ross Rushnik]

Well, you also get watched over some.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

That was it. That's probably why you like it so much that.

[Ross Rushnik]

Oh yeah, he was pretty wasted. Yeah, that's true.

[Andy Cortez]

I mean, yeah, visually the movie, it looks so much like the, like the Running man and other 80s sci fi movies. So like when we, when we all watched it for work, it was like, man, if you just made the characters not named Mario and Luigi, like this would just be an 80s action sci fi movie. And if you just remove the, the IP from it all the, the set design is crazy in that movie.

[Ross Rushnik]

Yeah. And the storytelling, like you know what's going on in every single scene of the movie without knowing the actual words

[Justin McElroy]

that are being said, you know what's going on. You just don't care what the next thing that happens.

[Andy Cortez]

It's just not good.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

Just irrelevant to you in your life.

[Ross Rushnik]

The other thing I wanted to call out is a game called Shattered Pixel Dungeon on iOS. This game has been out for like several years. But I spent a lot of time playing slice and dice on my phone and fell kind of totally in love with it. It's a great RPG with dice in it. And I was looking for games that were similar and Shattered Pixel Dungeon is basically in the style of rogue or games of that spirit, but in my opinion, has been. Is much more welcoming to learning the mechanics. I've never gotten into one of those games where you move and they move at the same time. Whatever that. I guess it's the rogue genre. And this is the first time that I've had one kind of click for me a little bit. It's great on iOS, if you're playing on, like Steam, you would definitely need a mouse because it doesn't work great with a controller. But on mobile devices with touch, it's perfect. And the sort of game, you look at the reviews, people have like thousands of hours logged in this game. It had. It kind of scratches that binding of Isaac itch to some extent. But again, it's turn based, so it makes it really good to pick up and put down. So Shattered Pixel Dungeon is a title that I keep forgetting, but that is indeed the title of the game.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Nice. Mine is Exit 8, the movie. Y' all familiar with this?

[Ross Rushnik]

No.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah, yeah. Andy. I had a feeling you were Andy. I assume you played the game.

[Andy Cortez]

I just know that it's like very backrooms adjacent.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yes, yes. So the way Exit 8 the game works, which came out in 2023, is you are in a Japanese subway station and you are hoping to get out, but you are caught in a loop that is basically one big hallway. It's kind of like a Z shape if you think about it. Like you turn left, you go down a hallway, you turn left again, and then suddenly you're looping.

[Ross Rushnik]

I was about to reference pt, but it's a game that literally no one can play right now and has been out for 10 years. So I don't know that I could reference PT.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

It would be the more recognizable game at this point. Yes. So the way that you get out is as you go down this hallway, you look for anomalies, and if you see an anomaly, then that means that you should turn back. And if you go backwards, you basically reset the hallway, but you upgrade your number. So it's like, oh, you've gotten through this. Can you get through this eight times, either recognizing anomalies or seeing that there are no anomalies, in which case go forward and then go through the loop again. The game is like four bucks and it's a solid entry point into the whole backrooms phenomenon of these. Like, what if the very mundane parts of our world became horror in their mundanity. The movie is really interesting. I will not say it's great. It is in fact not great. It is good. But it is one of the most loyal adaptations of the experience of playing a video game of like literally the source material. To the point that it almost feels like somewhere between a movie and a let's play of this game. It is not animated, it's shot in real life. But you are hopping basically into the shoes. The first 5, 10 minutes is first person of this character of why are they in this world? So what are they going through emotionally where they need to process? Silent hillside of this spot. Yes, it is like they are. I mean this is not a spoiler. Is the very first thing you hear in the movie. Their ex girlfriend is pregnant and at the hospital and it's like, is this guy ready to be a father basically? Or is he going to be a kid forever and over the course of his journey through the platform he's going to learn about himself. What it does that's very clever. Is at a certain point you see that there are other perspectives to being in this hallway. Much like there are different people playing the game. Which I think is a reflection of. If you watch this game on streams, you can watch people stream these sorts of games. And there are people who are like, this is the scariest thing. I'm taking it very seriously. There are people who are playing it and laughing. There are people who are playing it and not talking at all. It is weird how much the movie is a version of the game and I've never seen anything quite like it. It's in theaters right now. I don't think, like it's a must for the theater experience, but it's certainly not bad. And with a good crowd, I think you definitely would enjoy it.

[Ross Rushnik]

Andy, you got anything?

[Andy Cortez]

I've just been setting up the Ol a y n Thor set that up over the weekend. Downloaded like some themes and some icons. And then I was like, I don't like this. So then I just started photoshopping a bunch of icons for myself and yeah, really digging it so far kind of. I think I've played through the intro of Link to the past about 1200 times. So I'm. I'm further than that again because I haven't beat the game since I was like a kid or whatever. So I'm through like the second dungeon on that. That's a pretty cool video game link to the past.

[Ross Rushnik]

Yeah, they figured that one out.

[Andy Cortez]

I've been, oh, gosh, in the off time, a lot of like marathon has been awesome. I've been one that I will always sing the praises of. That I recommend is a super fun roguelite called the King is Watching. And it kind of like just came out of nowhere last year for me and I fell absolutely in love with it. And they've had like three major releases since then.

[Ross Rushnik]

Oh yeah, I remember. I think we talked a little bit about this. This was the one where you have to like the mouse cursor is determining what's being productive at any given time. Is that right?

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, yeah. You essentially have like a five by five grid that is your kingdom that you're kind of putting up different things to produce, I don't know, logs or water or stone or whatever to make your castle stronger and defense better. And the king's gaze is like just a. Whatever you're focused on are the things that are working on the grid. And you just kind of had to strategically click around there. And that's a game that has kind of been one that I revisit all of the time. It. It's not the best on Steam Deck because it's definitely more of a mouse game. But I've. I got it working to where like the buttons, you know, I use my finger to just kind of like be the mouse cursor and what was that called again? The King is Watching.

[Justin McElroy]

Sounds cool.

[Andy Cortez]

It's really, really damn good. And it's one that I'm just like. I want this game to just keep on having updates because everyone, they put out, they find a new way to kind of reinvent the loop and the gameplay of it while still being. The King Is Watching. And it is just so much fun. I really, really dig it.

[Ross Rushnik]

Yeah.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Cool.

[Ross Rushnik]

Good lineup. I wanted to shout out the patreon. [e-mail] thebesties we have two bonus episodes up for the month of April. I did want to call out the bracket episode that I don't think that we did last week and drop in a clip. It was one of our more fun. We've done a lot of fun ones, but this one was particularly fun. This was, if I recall, about Space Jamming a franchise which was. Which was quite enjoyable. Here is a clip from that episode in. In addition to defense. And we're talking right now about basically any ghost Pokemon, but I'm gonna go with Haunter because he doesn't have feet. So there's really nothing to worry about. Tripping on.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

What's the point? Passimian is.

[Ross Rushnik]

He's speed point guard.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Passimian, which.

[Justin McElroy]

I mean, which Pokemon does the most

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

or which basketball player does the most passing?

[Justin McElroy]

I don't know much about the different

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

basketball positions, but it seems like Passimian is.

[Ross Rushnik]

I mean, Chris Mullen.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Who?

[Ross Rushnik]

The Chris Moen of the team.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

The Chris Mullen of the team.

[Justin McElroy]

Maybe if you guys could throw out famous players that have played these positions, then maybe that would help. Because I don't know who's, like, the best center ever?

[Ross Rushnik]

Best center. Dikembe Mutombo is a big center.

[Justin McElroy]

Dikembe Mutombo is awesome, man. I loved his video game, the Old Spice one. Did you guys play that?

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

That was a good game.

[Justin McElroy]

It's good.

[Ross Rushnik]

And if we're gonna look at the tallest Pokemon, that would be eternatus. He is 66ft tall.

[Justin McElroy]

Now, is that eternal? Get up. It's time to sleep.

[Ross Rushnik]

No, that's standard. And yeah, we also have a new Restes in addition. That's up. We talked about a very strange game called Robot Robotu. Is that. What was it called? Plant?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Rubato.

[Ross Rushnik]

Rubato. Thank you. About a frog. It is. And not about a frog.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

It is. Yeah. It is a platformer. That is not a platformer. About halfway through. I don't know. It's a very different game than whatever you think it is.

[Ross Rushnik]

Yes. Thank you to everyone who's been backing the Patreon. Thank you to new members. We greatly appreciate it. Here's some members that are currently joined. We have Kevin L. We have Eric A. We have Ben R. And Moss L. Thank you for being members. We greatly appreciate you. We also greatly appreciate Mr. Andy Cortez for joining us and spending time with us.

[Andy Cortez]

Of course. It's an honor. Yeah. I've been fans for such a long time, and it's really cool to be on the show for the first time and experience it in its grandeur.

[Ross Rushnik]

Well, I sincerely hope it won't be the last, but you know what? It is. I'm telling you right now, it's the last.

[Andy Cortez]

That's fair.

[Ross Rushnik]

Sorry, Budo.

[Justin McElroy]

It.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

You're back, baby.

[Andy Cortez]

Was it the Bible references?

[Ross Rushnik]

It was the Bible. The Bible did it for me.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Ecclesiastes.

[Justin McElroy]

That's gonna do it for us for this week on the Besties. Be sure to join us again next time on the Besties because should the world's best friends pick the world's best games. Sa.