← The Besties
The Besties
Splatoon Raiders Might be the Most Fun Switch 2 Game Yet
00:54:57
The guys are back again to talk about the magic and wonder of Splatoon Raiders, a game that finally made us all agree that Splatoon is really kinda awesome. We've also got some reader mail to dive into and whether we can actually find someone who inverts their horizontal axis.
Loading summary
Transcript278 lines
- [00:01]
Russ
I think I have a pretty good case against Christopher Nolan and his cronies.
- [00:07]
Griffin McElroy
Oh, boy.
- [00:08]
Chris
No.
- [00:08]
Russ
Okay.
- [00:09]
Griffin McElroy
Oh, boy. I was really waiting for you to weigh in on this for us. I can't wait to hear your thoughts.
- [00:16]
Russ
Those crumb bums over at Warner Brothers, or whoever made that movie, did something that is unforgivable in my opinion.
- [00:24]
Griffin McElroy
Wow. All right, dude, my butthole is cliched. So tight. In absolute terror right now, but. What? What is it?
- [00:32]
Russ
Somehow, and I don't know how they did it, they seem to have fully body scanned my nude body and put it in their film as the body of the Cyclops in the Odyssey. Because that's my body. I've seen enough of my body to know that's my body.
- [00:49]
Griffin McElroy
God. Christ. Sadly, me too.
- [00:52]
Russ
Yeah.
- [00:52]
Griffin McElroy
Can I tell you a fun story? And this is like, I don't know if you know this about our relationship, Russ, but. But yesterday I was upstairs in my house, and my phone was downstairs. And so I got a notification on my phone. You got a text message from Russ Freshdig. And it includes a photo. And I couldn't see the photo on my watch. Cause my phone was downstairs. And do you like. I was scared, man. I was scared. Cause what if it's like, a picture of, like, your huge, nasty toes that, like, a bee stung? Or what if it's like a picture of some sort of goiter that you've got? Or it could be a screenshot of blueprints, like, where you're at in the game, that is.
- [01:36]
Russ
But it does make me think that maybe all of those pictures that I've been sending, really, out of the kindness of my heart to both of you have been scanned, have somehow. And we're gonna have to look at the bank records. Vanished and arrived at Chrissy Nolan's doorstep, and poof, there's my naked body in the Odyssey.
- [01:57]
Griffin McElroy
And they can take. I mean, technology is, as such, AI is just so powerful these days that they can take photos of your gnarled puppies.
- [02:05]
Russ
Yes.
- [02:05]
Griffin McElroy
Of your disgusting feet. And then it can extrapolate from there what a nude Cyclops version of yourself would look like.
- [02:14]
Christopher Thomas Plant
What I'm trying to figure out is, like, have you had Christopher Nolan over for dinner or anything lately? Because now that you mention it, I can see how he would be inspired. And having been to your house, you do tend to just be exclusively in the nude.
- [02:27]
Russ
Yeah.
- [02:28]
Christopher Thomas Plant
You grab onto random animals, bite their heads off you kind of asking for a God to kill you.
- [02:34]
Russ
Yeah, it did come up. But I did. I Do want to say, when he was here, I did mention that I know the difference between hay and sheep hair. Like, I made clear. That was like.
- [02:45]
Griffin McElroy
So you said, don't fuck me. I know the difference between these two. Don't embarrass me. In film. I know the difference between these two things.
- [02:52]
Russ
And I'm so method that there would be no way to fake it, really.
- [02:56]
Griffin McElroy
Right, sure.
- [02:57]
Russ
Even modern technology couldn't allow for my performance to imply that I wouldn't know the difference.
- [03:02]
Christopher Thomas Plant
So they had to go with someone else is what you're saying.
- [03:04]
Russ
But clearly they didn't. Clearly they went with someone's face that wasn't my face.
- [03:10]
Christopher Thomas Plant
Oh, I see. Kind of like a Mark Hamill's face put on a younger body sort of thing.
- [03:16]
Griffin McElroy
Right. Makes me so exhausted whenever I have Chris Nolan staying with me as a house guest. And I'm like, all right, Chris, I'm gonna go take a shower. I'll be in the shower for, like, the next 10 minutes.
- [03:26]
Chris
Chris.
- [03:26]
Griffin McElroy
Just so you know exactly where I'm gonna be. And he's like, okay, okay. And I'm like, don't walk. Don't come into the bathroom.
- [03:32]
Russ
Chris. Chris. Chris. What is that noise? That sounds like an IMAX camera. I know. They're very loud. It sounds like it.
- [03:38]
Griffin McElroy
It sounds like an IMAX camera in my. I'm gonna go use the toilet. Chris. Chris, please, man. Oops. Oh, I didn't know you were.
- [03:47]
Russ
Yeah, you did.
- [03:48]
Griffin McElroy
Christopher. I told you I was in here. Don't. Don't fucking. Don't green screen me, dude. My name is Griffin McElroy, and I know the best game of the week.
- [04:17]
Christopher Thomas Plant
My name is Christopher Thomas Plant, and I feel pretty confident that I know the best game of the week.
- [04:21]
Russ
My name is Wes Rushnick. I know the best game of the week.
- [04:24]
Griffin McElroy
Welcome to the Besties, where we talk about the latest and greatest in home interactive entertainment. It's a Game of the Year club. And just by listening, you have become a member of the club called the Besties. This week we are Talking about a Switch 2 exclusive first party title from the Nintendo Entertainment Company, and it is called Splatoon Raiders. Chris, what the hell is that?
- [04:46]
Christopher Thomas Plant
Splatoon is back, but you are mostly familiar with those multiplayer games. This time they're back with a looter shooter of sorts. Not quite Borderlands, not open world, more of one quest after another. And it's pretty delightful.
- [05:01]
Russ
Can we call Schluter. Can we say Schluter?
- [05:04]
Griffin McElroy
We can call it a Schluter Splatoon.
- [05:07]
Christopher Thomas Plant
Schluter.
- [05:08]
Griffin McElroy
No one's here to tell us not to call it a schluter. And you, the listener might be yelling that at your radio, but we can't hear you.
- [05:15]
Russ
It's locked in.
- [05:16]
Griffin McElroy
Let's take a brief break and then we'll talk about Splatoon Raiders. And what makes it just such a delight.
- [05:24]
Chris
Alienware's back to school event is a perfect time to score top gaming gear with incredible features and Intel Core processors to go beyond performance, save big on gaming desktops, laptops and more. Start your Alienware journey with the Alienware 15 gaming laptop featuring intel core processors smoothly game live stream and multitask for hours on end. Plus play through every game exactly how you want with customizable Alien FX lighting across your Alienware ecosystem, creating your very own gaming profile and more. Finally, pair your incredibly smooth gaming experience with immersive visuals and sound with by saving on sleek Alienware monitors, headsets and more. This limited time sale awaits you now@alienware.com deals. That's alienware.com deals.
- [06:27]
Russ
I think I have always been like, man, I really want to get into Splatoon, but I have no interest in playing PvP paint shooting.
- [06:35]
Griffin McElroy
Yeah, it's been an interesting franchise for me where like the aesthetic of it is off the chain.
- [06:41]
Russ
Amazing.
- [06:42]
Griffin McElroy
Crazy. I'm crazy about this aesthetic. These little squid kids and they're running around and you can. They're all about, you know, dressing up in their gear and their fashions and they live in, you know, kind of a sort of fish world, Shibuya sort
- [06:59]
Russ
of animal like yo Tokyo kind of vibe.
- [07:01]
Griffin McElroy
Love it, love the vibe. And just the feel of the game is great. The weapons, when they shoot their little ink out, that's great stuff, man. That was a really good. That was a really, really good sound of paint coming in.
- [07:13]
Russ
Yeah, it was good.
- [07:14]
Griffin McElroy
I didn't know I had that in me. That was really exciting. But yeah, I find the sort of turf war model of ink as much of the stage as possible. I don't know, it's hard to feel like you know how good a job you are doing.
- [07:29]
Russ
It's just stressful to me. I feel like I'm playing an rts, which is not my genre at all. Yeah, sure, they have teased, tried to do and you've talked about this before. They've done non pvp modes. Like they had the salmon run, things like that.
- [07:44]
Griffin McElroy
They had salmon run and I forget which one. There was Splatoon side order and then there was all like the single player campaign style Things that they've had in, I think all the games at this point, which received varying degrees of attention and work that went into them. This is, I would say, by far the most sort of fleshed out single player focused with. You can also do multiplayer in it, like cooperative multiplayer. There is no PvP side of Splatoon Raiders. It is just you versus the salmonids and you're going into missions and you're blasting a bunch of guys and you're collecting loot and you're upgrading your stuff between missions. That's pretty much the whole sort of setup of the game.
- [08:30]
Christopher Thomas Plant
The way that you do these missions too is really clever because it avoids the looter shooter problem that I have in a lot of open world games where you do spend a lot of time just wandering between things to do. And I say that as somebody who generally likes open world games here. These missions are anywhere between like two to maybe six or seven minutes. The longer ones, the multi layer ones.
- [08:57]
Griffin McElroy
Yeah.
- [08:57]
Christopher Thomas Plant
And what they're doing with the design is each stage has either a unique kind of geography or it has a unique way that it hammers you with the enemies. So you might have a stage that is kind of like a mini level like you would have in a Mario game, where you're going from point A to point B over a long area and you're shooting different types of enemies and you're doing a bit of platforming. And then you might have a stage that is kind of like a horde mode, but where you are doing three layers and you are just in the middle of a field and enemies are coming at you from different spots. And then you might have a stage that looks like a bowling alley almost and there's just waves and waves of enemies coming up from one end toward you. And what's really smart about this is one, each just feels different. There's like actual design happening. Two, it gets you to learn the different enemies enemy types and like what they specialize in. If you have a hundred of a UFO enemy that you have to kind of hop on top of using this special jump maneuver, you're going to have a different experience in. Three, it gets you to actually use all those different weapons from the multiplayer game, which I was very curious how they would figure out because the weapons in multiplayer are meant for covering the arena in paint. Like there's a paint roller that is not a great offensive weapon at times, but is really good for covering tons of the ground with paint. Here it turns out it's also really good against large horses. Swords of weak enemies, but is quite poor against one really big enemy. So it just. They designed it in a way that really uses every part of the Splatoon formula in a single player experience.
- [10:39]
Russ
Yeah, I'm pretty impressed by the structure of it, mostly because I never thought of Splatoon as like a build crafting game.
- [10:46]
Griffin McElroy
Right.
- [10:46]
Russ
Again, I haven't gotten so deep in the multiplayer that maybe that gets introduced at some point. But this is fully like, you know, in the Ballpark of Destiny where you have three classes. One of them is like a strategic, like dropping bots and things like that. One of them is more like a tanky class, and one of them's like a ranged class. So you have three classes driven by your backpack. And each of those has special abilities that you can equip. And those special abilities can be customized with mods that like, increase the damage or the range or recharge time, things like that. And so all of these things are combining to the point where you are fully customizing your capabilities at any given moment. And oftentimes you do have to make a new build if you're up against guys that you have to attack from the back, otherwise they won't take any damage. Like, you're constantly re evaluating things in
- [11:35]
Griffin McElroy
a really cool way. It also, it gets very interesting. You're like leveling these different kind of class backpacks up between like the speed and the melee sort of close range 1 and the strategic one. And after a certain point, you will level them up to a point where you can start hybridizing them. I don't know if you guys have gotten to that point yet, but once you've leveled up a pack to a certain point, you can start equipping gear from the other classes and make more of a hybrid one, which, I don't know, man, it's really cool. It's really, really cool. And you will find yourself like the loot you're finding in the levels, right? You're finding resources that you were using back at home base to usually like craft new upgrades for your gadgets or otherwise, like upgrading your weapons a certain amount. Just sort of like numeric statistical upgrades or like expanding parts of your base. That part of the game isn't like super fleshed out. I was a little disappointed in that. You have this like floating base and they've talked a lot about how you'll be kind of like upgrading it as you go. And that's like a big focus of the gear. But really, like, I don't know, it's like Five or six different facilities and it's like now you've unlocked weapon upgrading, now you've unlocked gadget upgrading and then you don't ever like, there is very, very, very little to the, to the game in that.
- [12:57]
Russ
I like that there's a hub area that you can go back to and kind of fuck around in and you can test out weapons. There's like a training course so you could like try out weapons, things like that. But yeah, the like actual customization of the area. You're not like deciding what furniture shows up and things like that, right?
- [13:12]
Griffin McElroy
Yeah, exactly. And you know, I don't know that that game necessarily needs that, but it is. I really love this game. I love it a lot. I've been playing, I'm almost finished with it. Like I've really been burning through it and from what I understand, there is like a post game sort of like mode that I'm really excited to dig into because I have become like pretty, pretty diesel. Like I found a weapon that is really, really insane. They have like different rarities and once you get up into the higher rarities, then they start to have like special properties. So the one I have now has like a freeze debuff.
- [13:44]
Russ
Oh, cool.
- [13:45]
Griffin McElroy
That it procs sometimes, but it also has like a burning debuff that it can proc.
- [13:48]
Russ
Also.
- [13:49]
Griffin McElroy
And it's also just like ungodly strong. I'm like automatically dropping down turrets and like vacuum blades and these like orbiting satellite ink blasters. Like, it's just like absolute nonstop chaos. And I'm excited to like maybe get to a part of the game that can be a little bit challenging again. Because I've. I've. I don't know, for the past, I don't know, one third of my time with the game. It has been a real cakewalk is
- [14:17]
Russ
that even with like going back because you can replay old missions with the higher.
- [14:20]
Griffin McElroy
Yeah, so yeah, there's different difficulty. So there's three difficulty settings. The game, which I do appreciate because it has made it more accessible to my son Henry, who loves Splatoon, but for the same reasons we kind of have outlined. Like, never really got into the competitive side of it, gets very stressed out by the super duper tough side, order levels and stuff like that. Being able to have an easier mode that you can turn into is good. But then also once you beat a mission, you can go back and play a spicy version of it that spawns in way harder enemies and gives you like way more loot. So there really is like There really is a lot to the game,
- [15:01]
Chris
I
- [15:01]
Griffin McElroy
would say the multiplayer aspect of it is. It kind of follows, I think, Nintendo's track record of not being so. So great. So, like, fleshed out, especially compared to really any of its peers in this space. Uh, you can play with friends online, easy. You can play with friends local, sort of local co op, easy. I don't think there's split screen.
- [15:26]
Russ
Well, we should clarify. So it does not have split screen. You're right. And if you're doing local co op, it needs to be two Nintendo Switches with two copies of the game.
- [15:37]
Griffin McElroy
Yes. It does not support.
- [15:39]
Russ
Which is.
- [15:39]
Griffin McElroy
Which is a heartbreaking.
- [15:40]
Russ
Yeah, really a bummer. I kind of. I kind of get it because it's like there's a lot of stuff going on screen and they would have to render a lot. But it's also like, that's also true
- [15:49]
Griffin McElroy
of Procopia, which does gameshare to a Switch one. This technology is so dope. It's really, really great when it works and I think is a huge sort of selling point of the hardware. And it just seems like such a huge missed opportunity to not have it. To not have it here.
- [16:07]
Russ
Definitely a disappointment.
- [16:08]
Griffin McElroy
Also, the online multiplayer is. It is weird how they handle that, right? You can play with friends, no problem. If you have like a bunch of friends who have the game, you're going to have a great time. For matchmaking purposes, there is a call for help setting that you can do almost sort of like monster hunter style, where, like, you can press a button and then it will call for help. And then if there's other players who are like, volunteering their help in like a, you know, waiting room lobby, then they can hop in and you guys can do a mission together. But you, as someone volunteering, you don't have any input on, like, what you're gonna do, what you're gonna play. It's just wherever you are, you do
- [16:43]
Russ
get rewards, though, if you help someone,
- [16:44]
Griffin McElroy
you do get rewards for going in, for helping. But, like, if I wanted to do. I don't know. It's a weird limitation of matchmaking. I think I've not done a ton of the multiplayer because it doesn't feel very like you have a ton of control.
- [16:59]
Russ
My understanding is if you're doing the. I want to help other people, it will only give you the missions that you've done previously. So that's a way to again, not have people see content that they haven't seen before.
- [17:12]
Griffin McElroy
Right.
- [17:12]
Russ
But I, I like the fact that it's There, because I've definitely used it. Like, when I go up on a hard mission and I'm struggling, I can call for help and we, like, fucking smoke the mission. I think it's also on a timer, because they don't.
- [17:26]
Griffin McElroy
A lot of the missions are on. No, no, not all the missions.
- [17:28]
Russ
When you call for help, if you try to call for help, like in subsequent missions, there's a cooldown on it, so you can't constantly do it.
- [17:36]
Griffin McElroy
There's also a weird thing where if you go in to help someone and you don't succeed on the mission, you don't get any loot at all. Whereas if you're just playing sing and you try a mission and you get some cool stuff to drop, but you fail the mission, you get to keep that stuff. It's just. I don't know, man. It just seems weird. It just seems like a weird. Just like, give me a. Just let me pick a level and just say, play online. Like, why all the rigmarole? I don't understand it.
- [18:01]
Christopher Thomas Plant
I want to run back to the hub world stuff really quick. Just because this is my one big bummer of the game. The appeal for people who are not into the multiplayer side of a multiplayer game in Splatoon 1, 2 and 3 was the hub worlds, was these Neo Tokyos was the fact that there were other players walking around and you were sharing, like, little bits of art and there were just a bunch of characters, and it was very beautiful. And this ship, I think I know what they're going for and that they want it to be a more solitary, if not like, lonely experience. That you are the only person.
- [18:39]
Russ
I mean, narratively, you're in the middle of the ocean, basically.
- [18:43]
Christopher Thomas Plant
Yes. And, like, you have, like, two buds, and then you have your little Manta Ray or whatever who's hanging out with you.
- [18:49]
Russ
He's also a bud.
- [18:50]
Griffin McElroy
He's also a bud. His name is Big man. And my son is obsessed.
- [18:53]
Russ
Yeah, mine too.
- [18:55]
Christopher Thomas Plant
But it's definitely smaller. It is all just the one ship, and even as it grows, it just doesn't feel nearly as extravagant as that stuff had in the past. The game is so much about style and, like, the clothes that you wear and you just kind of unlock clothes.
- [19:13]
Russ
Yeah. This was my biggest failing, was the closed customization.
- [19:16]
Griffin McElroy
The closed customization is also. Yeah, it is weird because you get things basically as achievements, Right. So it's like upgrade a level plus five for the first time. You get this outfit. Max out your friendship level with Big man, and you get this outfit. But there's not. The way that Splatoon handles that stuff is like, all the clothes have different properties, different upgrades, different things that they do for your character. And that is not that. It's just purely aesthetic, which I would
- [19:44]
Russ
have been fine if it was purely aesthetic. But it's a huge downgrade from Splatoon 3, where if you look at the like, I am deeply motivated by character customization that's just cosmetic. And in Splatoon 3, you could change the goggles, the hat, the shirt, the pants, the shoes. Every aspect was kind of bespoke. And here you're basically locked into very simple outfits that have palette swaps. And you do unlock a little bit.
- [20:10]
Griffin McElroy
They have palette swaps, but they are all. They almost all, with very few exceptions, do look like an ensemble that perhaps like a fly girl dancer on In Living Color would wear. Like, it's pretty much all. It's pretty much all bare midriff and,
- [20:26]
Russ
like, barracks, which my son is very pro bear midget.
- [20:29]
Griffin McElroy
Huge baggy pants. No, it's a dope look. Just give me some fucking options, dude.
- [20:33]
Russ
Yeah. And the really sad thing is there are three outfits that I'm dying to use, but they are all locked behind the Amiibo. Fucking amiibos.
- [20:41]
Griffin McElroy
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm about to bust out the old flippers. I cannot find. I want those Amiibos. I just can't find them anywhere. As is always the case with Amiibos.
- [20:50]
Christopher Thomas Plant
A word of warning for anybody who is watching footage or gameplay of this game. The game's feel is infinitely better than.
- [20:58]
Griffin McElroy
It's so good.
- [20:59]
Christopher Thomas Plant
This is one of those games I. I mentioned that kind of bowling alley level. There is a. This level where you're just going down a path and enemies are coming up at you up this hill. And the first time I played it, I had the wrong weapon. A click. I had. I had just, like, a little splatter gun. Completely underwhelmed or overwhelmed by the enemies. Next round, I put on that big paint roller, and I just zip through it. I am literally just laying the paint down over these enemies. Feels so good. You describe it. It is tedious. You watch it. It's even more like, what is going on here? But when you play it and you feel that, oh, I figured it out. That aha moment. And then you just start popping these. It feels like bubble wrap going through these bad guys.
- [21:41]
Russ
It's scratching the, like, vampire survivors. Itch of, like. Oh, you get that.
- [21:44]
Griffin McElroy
Oh, definitely.
- [21:45]
Chris
Yes.
- [21:46]
Griffin McElroy
Yeah. I mean, especially once you get strong. Especially Once you get these gadgets that, that can really put the work in sort of for you, it really does become just like enemies exploding constantly dropping their big beautiful power eggs. Yeah, that looks, it looks great. It sounds amazing. Like Chris is right. We have, I feel like spent a lot of time kind of registering our qualms with the game. For me they are completely overshadowed by the fact that it's just fucking fun to play. It is so much fun to play. And all of my hang ups with the game involve like, I don't know, I wish it could be fun to play like at the same time as like playing it with my son, but that's not really doable unless we buy another Switch. I wish it was quicker to play online. I wish I had a little bit more control over who I play with online. I was looking to see if I was missing something with the online multiplayer and I found that you can punch in a code almost like a dodo code in Animal Crossing where if someone has this code they can find you. So people are trying to popularize the codes that a lot of online players are using. So it's like there's no matchmaking in the game. But if you use JP513 or whatever, that's not actually the real one then, then that's actually where all the real players. I actually, I just want to grab Nintendo and shake them and be like, do you see what they're fucking do? Do you see what they're doing? Just put it in the game.
- [23:17]
Russ
This is relevant because I have a reader mail. We'll jump ahead very briefly to reader mail from Sammy writes folks playing Splatoon Raiders. Set that multiplayer keyword to besties and you would be simple as that. Yeah, I guess it's simple as that. You and then you'll be matched with besties people. I'm certainly going to do that. Maybe you'll stumble upon me and my pals in the paint world before we wrap this section.
- [23:38]
Christopher Thomas Plant
Can I. I've been cooking up a hot take for you.
- [23:40]
Griffin McElroy
Oh, I can't wait to hear it.
- [23:42]
Chris
Yeah, please.
- [23:43]
Christopher Thomas Plant
Might not be the flashiest, might not be the even best designed, but this is the most fun Switch 2 exclusive that I've played yet. Even more than Donkey Kong, even more than Mario Kart. This is the one like has really got me in the gut.
- [23:59]
Griffin McElroy
I, I, I might agree with that, man.
- [24:02]
Russ
It's, I agree for my, it's definitely down to Donkey Kong and this and I would agree it is, it is close. I think Donkey Kong is a More interesting game overall to me. But from a minute to minute standpoint, this game is so much fucking fun.
- [24:17]
Griffin McElroy
I want to return to this, maybe even just next. Next episode. Once I've gotten to sort of like the. The post game stuff, right? Because I think that this genre for me kind of lives and dies by the length of its tail. And if it doesn't have a lot going on, if I just kind of finish the campaign and then that's it, that's fine. But I think this game has promised to be something more than that. I don't think it's gonna be destiny.
- [24:47]
Christopher Thomas Plant
I'd like to do that because I'd like to talk a little bit more about multiplayer and about the boss fights in. The boss fights are great stuff. So I think, yeah, having a little bit more time with it in the next, whether that's next week or coming up would be a good idea.
- [25:00]
Russ
It's also worth considering that like of all of Nintendo's properties, Splatoon might be the most well supported in terms of post release content.
- [25:07]
Griffin McElroy
Yeah, yeah, that is true.
- [25:09]
Russ
They go generally like a full year, if not more of like, forget the just like which do you like pizza or salad battles. They also like do actual like content drops and new levels and new stuff like that. So I definitely plan on keeping this installed for a very long time.
- [25:25]
Griffin McElroy
Yeah, yeah, I'm super optimistic and I've heard really good things about the end game sort of mode and so I'm eager to check that out as well. But yeah, man, Splatoon Raiders. It's a good freaking time, man.
- [25:41]
Russ
Nintendo's doing, putting out some good stuff.
- [25:43]
Christopher Thomas Plant
Just keep doing it. Everybody else is just collapsing and Nintendo's like, I don't know, you want another great game?
- [25:50]
Griffin McElroy
It's really wild, man. But it's also the. I mean this year has been kind of weird for Nintendo. Like the games have been good like Pocopia and this, but it's like rhythm Heaven. Rhythm Heaven, yeah, sure. But there's not like a, you know, a Zelda or like.
- [26:05]
Christopher Thomas Plant
There will be.
- [26:06]
Griffin McElroy
There will be. Yeah, I mean, I guess it's a remake, but yeah, it's still weird to me that that's coming out this year.
- [26:13]
Russ
Oh, and Fire Emblem is closing in.
- [26:15]
Chris
That is true.
- [26:16]
Russ
So excited about Fire Emblem, man.
- [26:17]
Griffin McElroy
Yeah, me too.
- [26:19]
Christopher Thomas Plant
I just want to give a number on that really quick though. The new Tomodachi Life has sold over 3.8 million units. So the weird thing about Nintendo right now is even when they put out the weird small game, they're like blowing past everyone else.
- [26:38]
Russ
Yeah.
- [26:38]
Griffin McElroy
Which is.
- [26:39]
Russ
It also helps.
- [26:40]
Christopher Thomas Plant
It's like, I get it. Yeah. Mario Kart will sell, like, 59. Some astounding number. But. Yeah.
- [26:44]
Russ
Well, it also helps. That title was Tomodachi was Crossing Generation. So it also came out on Switch 1, which definitely helps on sales.
- [26:52]
Griffin McElroy
Let's take a brief break, and then, Russ, I believe you want to.
- [26:57]
Russ
Yeah, I have no way to set this up, so we'll talk about it when we come back.
- [27:01]
Griffin McElroy
Kick ass. All right. We'll be right back.
- [27:04]
Chris
My dog's name is Pastable.
- [27:06]
Christopher Thomas Plant
She is kind of like an Ewok, and I would literally pull the Odyssey on her behalf, which I know is
- [27:17]
Chris
not the point of the Odyssey, but I am absolutely obsessed with her. Why am I telling you this? Because today's episode is sponsored by the ASPCA Pet Health Insurance Program. If you have ever found yourself awake at 2am as I have phone in hand googling things like, is this normal for dogs? Or do I need to call the vet right now?
- [27:42]
Christopher Thomas Plant
You are not alone.
- [27:43]
Chris
Those unexpected moments are part of having a pet. Which is exactly why ASPCA Pet Health Insurance exists. It helps take some of the financial stress out of vet care so that you can focus more on your pet and less on the cost. The ASPCA Pet Health Insurance Program offers customizable accident and illness plans that can fit your budget, your lifestyle, and even your pet's particular quirks. To Explore coverage, visit aspcapetinsurance.combesties that is aspcapetinsurance.Combesties Again, that's aspcapetinsurance.COMbesties this is a paid advertisement. Insurance is underwritten by either Independence American Insurance Company or United States Fire Insurance Company and produced by PTZ Insurance Agency limited. The ASPCA is not an insurer and does not engage in the business of insurance. Alienware's back to school event is a perfect time to score top gaming gear with incredible features and Intel Core processors. To go beyond performance, save big on gaming desktops, laptops and more. Start your Alienware journey with the Alienware 15 gaming laptop featuring Intel Core processors. Smoothly game live stream and multitask for hours on end. Plus play through every game exactly how you want with customizable Alien FX lighting across your Alienware ecosystem system, creating your very own gaming profile and more. Finally, pair your incredibly smooth gaming experience with immersive visuals and sound by saving on sleek Alienware monitors, headsets and more. This limited time sale awaits you now@alienware.com deals that's alienware.com deals.
- [29:58]
Russ
I do want to start by talking about the way some of the changes that like I think we make to controllers by default depending on like the genres and things that we play. Okay. So while I was playing Splatoon Raiders, the very first thing that I did, and I'm curious if you guys did the same, was I turned off motion aiming. I know a lot of people like it, but I really don't because it makes me feel like I'm constantly having to like hold my hand steady. Do you guys turn that off?
- [30:26]
Griffin McElroy
I pretty much exclusively play Switch games in handheld mode. And it is for that reason I don't love it because I don't want to be moving the screen I'm looking at. I think that's a pretty reasonable thing. I don't want to be moving the screen I'm looking at around. And it's selectively. I do like it in the ocarina of time, Majora's mask, 3DS remakes, lining up bow shots with that level of detail. That's great. I never liked it in Splatoon in a competitive environment. I just couldn't get the feel for it.
- [31:00]
Russ
But it does give you a huge advantage if you're using that. But I don't like using it. But yeah, it does.
- [31:05]
Griffin McElroy
I mean, I think that the common sort of agreement is that it is the more effective way of aiming and stuff in that game. I tried it for a little while in this one, but yeah, I just.
- [31:19]
Russ
You turned it up.
- [31:20]
Griffin McElroy
Doing the aiming and shooting and platforming on the controller that is attached to the screen I'm looking at was just not my. Not my favorite five hours of this
- [31:29]
Christopher Thomas Plant
game on a plane. And it would be unacceptable to have left that on on the plane. You know, I think people would gotten pretty annoyed with me.
- [31:37]
Russ
The reason I mention it is because there are a couple things that I do to my control settings that are like pretty uniform across certain genres. And the biggest one that jumps to mind that I don't think I've heard anyone ever do. But I kind of love it. If you're playing a side scrolling Metroidvania search action game, which I do very frequently, I remap the right bumper to attack to main attack. So Castlevania or anything like that started like Dark Souls, Dark Souls style fashion. The reason is because a lot of these games have like jump attacking being a crucial element of it.
- [32:12]
Chris
Yes.
- [32:13]
Russ
And for me doing a jump attack where I'm hitting a and then maybe X or whatever's on that left side doesn't feel as satisfying. It doesn't feel great as much as it does jump with my thumb and then use my index for attacking. So that is like something that I do for every search action game now. And it's been a huge help. I did it for Mio, for Silksong. Every search action game, I do that. And it is inspired by Dark Souls. Really.
- [32:37]
Griffin McElroy
It makes sense to me. I don't know that I do it necessarily for that genre, but any game where, you know, jumping is a heavy concern and also you're going to be attacking a lot, I don't want to be using the same thumb to do that stuff. I think that makes sense.
- [32:52]
Russ
And ditto for, like, dodging. I almost always try to put dodge on a trigger, like in Hades or anything like that, because I don't want to have to move my thumb from attacking to dodge and back again.
- [33:03]
Griffin McElroy
Yeah, sure. So I think the craziest I ever got was when I was playing Destiny. I definitely reached a kind of cap on what I was able to do on controller. And I have the, you know, the Xbox Elite controller that has the back paddles on it. And I read a lot of people saying, like, you know, bind jump to one of those. And then now all of a sudden you can move with the left stick, aim with the right stick, and be jumping at the same time as opposed to moving with the left stick and then moving your thumb between jumping and aiming, basically.
- [33:34]
Russ
Bumper jumper. Right?
- [33:35]
Griffin McElroy
Bumper jumper, Right, Yeah. I mean, kind of bumper jumper. Technically, I think you're supposed to use the actual shoulder buttons, is the hist. Usage of that phrase.
- [33:44]
Russ
They didn't have as many buttons back then, so they had to.
- [33:46]
Griffin McElroy
But I went buckwild and I put like, reload back there and I put switch weapon back there. And now all of a sudden, like, I don't have to hit the face buttons really at all. I bound all of them to the back paddles. And it truly made a huge difference. Specifically for the PvP side of the game where, like, jumping and moving and aiming, you know, all at the same time is pretty imperative. And I think I did that for a long, long time. I played that way for a long, long time until I realized, like, I should just be. I should finally just bite the bullet and learn mouse and keyboard. And so I did eventually switch over to doing mouse and keyboard for that. And I tend to do that now for shooters Destiny and Sea of Thieves. I was playing Sea of Thieves with some people who gave me a hard time for being on controller. And I did find. Yeah, actually being on mouse and keyboard does make an enormous difference for that game. I'll tell you another big one for me is any open world survival craft game like a, you know, like a Rust or anything along those lines where Valheim or Enshrouded or Dragon Wilds or like any of those palworld. Anything where you're running around and picking up a bunch of shit off the ground. I do not want to do that. Like with my thumb that I have to also aim with. If I'm using a controller, I will always put that on a shoulder button or a back paddle button because it's just a thing you're gonna be doing a million billion times. And so I just. I don't know.
- [35:17]
Russ
Assassin's Creed actually has a setting in accessibility where you can like mass pick up every item in your area with one button press, which is like, fucking bring it. I did that a lot inject that in my veins.
- [35:28]
Griffin McElroy
Yeah.
- [35:28]
Christopher Thomas Plant
That was especially helpful during the Far Cry era where you would have to go through an individual animation for every pickup. And it was like, just let me have the things.
- [35:37]
Russ
I think Horizon introduced a skill unlock where it's like fast pickup and now you just don't have the animation. It's like, go fuck yourselves. Just give us the good stuff plan. I know you're an inverter, but beyond that, I don't know if.
- [35:50]
Christopher Thomas Plant
No, I'm not.
- [35:51]
Russ
Oh, you trained yourself out of it. That's right.
- [35:53]
Christopher Thomas Plant
Untrained myself after having my son.
- [35:55]
Chris
Yeah.
- [35:55]
Christopher Thomas Plant
I realized after handing him the controller and realizing I don't want to.
- [36:00]
Russ
You can't spread that trauma to another generation.
- [36:04]
Chris
Yes.
- [36:04]
Christopher Thomas Plant
And it really is about a year of being completely confused. And the most confounding thing now is when I will start a game like Ace Combat or something that has the natural inversion. So it's just there from the beginning and my brain's like, what's happened? Like it kind of makes sense with familiar and unfamiliar at the same time.
- [36:24]
Russ
Yeah. With plane games it kind of makes sense. Like you're. It's supposed to be like a flight yoke.
- [36:29]
Christopher Thomas Plant
Yeah. But it's like I kind of can't even go back to that now because my brain, it will disorient me for this sounds ridiculous, but for a half hour if I play it, because then my brain is trying to remember which version of the me I should do. I have done a lot more of what Griffin has said about the Xbox Elite controller, but I use that for things like screen Capture or video capture. Being able to have those extra buttons that allow you to do those things that again previously were limited to your. Your keyboard, like hitting. I think it's F12 or something for Steam is great. I guess there was actually like a way to capture screenshots on some consoles, but now it seems so much more difficult to do with like the Xbox controller and Xbox console specifically.
- [37:22]
Russ
No, you can still do it. There's a button dedicated for it, a share button.
- [37:26]
Christopher Thomas Plant
Is it if you press it, you put the.
- [37:27]
Russ
Yeah, you just press the button and it. Screenshots or you hold it down for a second.
- [37:31]
Christopher Thomas Plant
So much easier just to just tap that little back of the controller. Feels so good.
- [37:34]
Russ
I know.
- [37:34]
Griffin McElroy
Does feel good. Yeah. I don't think I do any other weird shit other than that. I think that the rise of back paddles on controllers, the like, I don't know, I feel like those have become so ubiquitous is really just such a. I mean an accessibility victory and also like a customization sort of victory as well.
- [37:56]
Christopher Thomas Plant
Griffin, there is one version of weird shit that you do which is you do play one video game with three people spreading the controller out.
- [38:04]
Griffin McElroy
Oh sure, yeah. I mean we do six thumbs, one heart. We're doing Dark Souls now, which has required us to play with mouse and keyboard because there's not a great way of doing that with like, you know, splitting up an actual physical controller over three sort of different. Different sort of users. And man, playing Dark Souls on mouse and keyboard is a trip, y'.
- [38:27]
Christopher Thomas Plant
All.
- [38:27]
Griffin McElroy
I would not recommend it. It's crazy, dude. Would not. Do not recommend.
- [38:32]
Russ
Yeah.
- [38:33]
Christopher Thomas Plant
Did either of you ever do the thing of playing a game with the Guitar Hero controller or like the DDR controller?
- [38:39]
Russ
I would watch those videos. It's very impressive. But you know, I got time, I got things to do, right. I do want to know if anyone has any listeners have like things that they do on the regular for certain games or genres or anything, let us know. I've definitely been making more like custom Steam controller profiles. Like I set something up for Escape from Duck off, which is a keyboard and mouse only game, a parody of Escape from Tarkov that allows me to play on a controller. So like I use those Steam custom controller layouts all the time. They're great.
- [39:14]
Griffin McElroy
I usually just grab them.
- [39:15]
Christopher Thomas Plant
Also, if there's anyone listening to the show who inverts horizontal, please let us know.
- [39:19]
Russ
Oh, that's a great question about that experience because it's always there.
- [39:24]
Chris
It's there.
- [39:24]
Russ
Always have the option for invert horizontal and I'VE never met anyone that does that. So please, yeah, share the. Share the knowledge. I'm very curious. Yeah, we have some reader mail we mentioned the one from Sammy regarding the besties keyword for splatoon raiders. I haven't even messed with the keyword option, but that's cool that it's there. This next letter comes from Winky. What EQ server. Are folks on anyone down to spend three hours making their UI and key bindings functional tonight?
- [39:56]
Griffin McElroy
Okay, I'm on. I believe it's pronounced Quaynos or Kainos, Q Y, N E O S, which from what I understand is the Pacific time sort of server, whereas Freeport is the eastern time. Despite that, like, I don't know the people I know who play the game started on Kainos and I wanted to be okay.
- [40:16]
Russ
So Griffin the other day I was like, Griffin seems really hot on this Everquest Legends thing. Like maybe it's something that I should check out.
- [40:23]
Griffin McElroy
Ooh, I can't wait to hear the next sentence.
- [40:25]
Russ
And I went to everquestlegends.com and I was like, let me take a look at some of these screenshots here, just to see if it's my kind of jam.
- [40:32]
Griffin McElroy
And it looks fucking great. You're right. Yeah, no, I agree. It looks amazing.
- [40:34]
Russ
I mean, I'm sure it's very, very faithful to the. But holy cow, is it faithful to the original? It is.
- [40:41]
Griffin McElroy
I mean, if you can't rock with
- [40:42]
Russ
that, that's a you problem.
- [40:44]
Griffin McElroy
That's a personal failing. I'm obsessed with the aesthetic of EverQuest.
- [40:49]
Russ
It's very charming.
- [40:50]
Christopher Thomas Plant
The website itself also appears to have transcended time and space.
- [40:55]
Griffin McElroy
Yeah. Yes. No, it's definitely a relic.
- [40:58]
Russ
Props to them. That dragon made of 16 polygons is just like Molte Benedict.
- [41:05]
Chris
So good.
- [41:08]
Russ
Oh, we have another letter. This one comes from Matthew. It's worth noting that the devs of TR49 explicitly cited type help an early version of Gallery House as an inspiration. So it's funny to hear that Galley House was now being compared to TR49. So that's cool. All of these games are like doing like early releases on Itch IO, which is cool to see. It's like continues to be a really cool testing ground and eventually just. Just an alternative release platform than Steam on PC for making like cool ass shit.
- [41:40]
Griffin McElroy
Yeah.
- [41:42]
Russ
Last letter comes from Andrew. Sorry to be contrarian. If anything, I feel more vehemently anti Microsoft right now than the show. But will this same sentiment regarding Microsoft apply to the pending Ocarina remake? That is basically Nintendo reheating the old hits of this year with Star Fox and Ocarina of Time. Is it just the layoffs that make this bad or is it otherwise like a fine. I mean, I thought the game was fine, but I guess we're kind of.
- [42:11]
Christopher Thomas Plant
I'm happy to take this one.
- [42:12]
Russ
Yeah, go for it.
- [42:13]
Christopher Thomas Plant
I think it really depends on what the Ocarina remake looks like. And we talked about this a little bit with the Halo RE make remastery thing. But there is a huge gap between this Halo remake and what Capcom is doing with its remakes. Right. Like, those are very original experiences, very much inspired by the original games, but going on and doing their own thing. And there's a difference in terms of quality, there's a difference in terms of ambition.
- [42:43]
Chris
And
- [42:46]
Christopher Thomas Plant
we'll see with basically what Nintendo does. Are they going to do kind of the Star Fox thing where it's really similar but very beautiful and an emphasis on the spectacle? I wouldn't be surprised if they changed the game design a little bit here because the game design of Ocarina is fantastic, but very of its time. There's a lot of opportunity there. And I think expectations are different for that sort of a game. So it's tough to say what it is, but I think the Halo thing was specifically tough. And I know that I saw some comments too where people wish we had talked even more about the game, but there really isn't that much more to say about the game than what we said, which is it's very, very similar to the original thing, except they have made some areas that were too dull and repetitive. They've simplified them and they have given you more either weapons or kind of like buffs to make it easier to get through. And it looks pretty, but otherwise it's. It's the game. Like they remade the game. And I think that is where kind of our again, like you said, fresh. It's not a bad game. It's just. It's a fine game that also represents a kind of commitment to that, to kind of averageness, to not, you know, offend anyone.
- [44:09]
Russ
It would be really hard for me to recommend that game to anyone that isn't just a hardcore. I remember playing the original Halo on Xbox and I want replay it again with my friends in the best possible graphics. Like anyone new. I would never recommend that game. I'd recommend Halo Infinite certainly before I'd recommend that. And we've seen a number of remakes recently, like the Assassin's Creed Black Flag remake. That's A game that I would recommend to anyone, regardless of, if you know anything about Assassin's Creed. Because in addition to the remake being good, the game itself feels like a modern game.
- [44:38]
Griffin McElroy
It's also a thing like one. Remakes are not inherently, like, creatively bankrupt. There's so many different ways of doing it. So many different. Like, it's such a sliding scale of how much has been fixed, how much new stuff has been added, how much has been preserved. Right. I think Halo does an okay job with that, but you also look at, like, the legacy of the franchise itself, and I think that they've. The Zelda games that have come out in the last decade have been fucking incredible, and so they want to return to Ocarina of Time. Like, cool. That's one of my favorite games ever made. I hope that they put a lot of care into it. I really liked the Grezzo remakes of the N64 era games for the 3DS, but also, like, has Halo. Has Microsoft been as good of a steward of Halo in the last 10 years? I don't fucking think so. I don't think it's even remotely comparable. I think these are two wildly different situations.
- [45:40]
Russ
And I think you also just need to look at the. The release cadence, the overall context of. If you're comparing Microsoft and Nintendo, because Nintendo is still, like, we've talked about a bunch of them putting out unique, interesting titles this year that are exclusive to the platform, and we're just not seeing that. I know there are a number of titles in the works for Microsoft, but a number of those titles also got canceled or shifted out because those studios are now independent. So it's just, I think in a very different place. Those two companies were. Nintendo feels very confident and is willing to take risks outside of its remakes, whereas Microsoft feels like it is shifted into a very safe place.
- [46:22]
Griffin McElroy
Yeah. And I just, I. We can't. I think it's unreasonable to, like, think about these things in a vacuum, truly. Because, you know, Nintendo is certainly not faultless as a. As a company, but they. They have not been acquiring talent, acquiring studios at breakneck pace, and then fucking shuttering them or failing them in a way that leads to their erasure from the timeline. And it's tough not to look at Halo as a. This is what we're getting instead, to see it as a symptom of a much, much, much bigger thing. I don't know. It's tough not to hold that against old Master Chief and his buddies. Also, the new stuff in the Halo remake stinks. It's very bad. So, like, if Ocarina of Time comes out and they're like, yeah, we got a new. A whole bunch of new dungeons in it. And the dungeon is like, you know, Tingle's family reunion or something.
- [47:28]
Russ
Oh, man, that sounds fucking awesome.
- [47:29]
Griffin McElroy
I mean, that actually sounds incredible. And I take back what I said. Yeah, no, it's. It's. It's a. It's a different thing.
- [47:36]
Russ
Yeah, it's. It's nuanced. Speaking of nuance, I've been playing a game called Blue Prince, which is a game set in a house. You explore it.
- [47:45]
Griffin McElroy
Interesting. You sent me a screenshot of some shit last night that I did not know that I did not see.
- [47:51]
Russ
What did I send you?
- [47:52]
Griffin McElroy
You sent me a screenshot of like a letter you had gotten. Oh, a fucked up thing you had done.
- [47:57]
Russ
Yeah, I broke the houses. You broke the game so much that I was like, oh, no. Did I literally break the game permanently? I. It involves summoning a room in a place where you probably shouldn't summon it. And I asked around the number of people that know these things, and they were like, I don't know what you do. And then a couple of days in, the game actually knew that I had broken it and sent an in universe letter saying, being like, you broke the house, dog. You might need this item, which is dynamite. So, yeah. So cool and awesome that game rules. I just got over another hump and the game once again has sprawled out before me in a pretty fascinating way. So. Christ, how does that game keep throwing haymakers and not ending is amazing. Anyone else? Honorable mentions?
- [48:44]
Griffin McElroy
I mean, EQ Legends launched yesterday. I'll probably talk more about it next week. I don't know that I've spent enough time with it to have any new thoughts.
- [48:51]
Russ
What class are you playing?
- [48:52]
Griffin McElroy
As I have settled on. So it's a triple class thing, right? You pick three classes and then you kind of have to to figure out how they all kind of combine. I am playing a warrior Monk, Shaman. Warrior and monk, both melee focused, have some cool AoE melee attacks. And then shaman's just sort of about buffing and healing. So I can just run into a room and try and kill all the stuff in it. It's a very straightforward way of doing it. If you wanted to, you could be an enchanter, magician, bard, and just be all about charming different NPCs and making them fight each other. There's a lot of different ways to go about. That's kind of how I'm starting. But what's cool is they're doing The Final Fantasy 14 thing where if anytime I want to switch, I can just switch and level up other classes alongside the ones that I've been doing. It's been tough to get in on launch day specifically.
- [49:46]
Russ
Hey, that's a throwback too.
- [49:47]
Griffin McElroy
Slam jammed. Yeah, dude. It really took me back being in a 35 minute long queue to get into play. EverQuest was a trip, but it seems like the game's doing very, very well.
- [49:57]
Christopher Thomas Plant
That's great, y'.
- [49:59]
Russ
All.
- [49:59]
Christopher Thomas Plant
It is summertime, which means I'm respecting a great interdiction of watching the Mummy by director Stephen Sommers. It is one of the great summertime movies ever made.
- [50:11]
Russ
That's the Tom Cruise one.
- [50:14]
Griffin McElroy
Yeah.
- [50:14]
Christopher Thomas Plant
Actually, no, it's the new. The new New Mummy remake because they just keep trying. It is. It's just such a great movie, y'. All. Everyone in it is impossibly beautiful. There is CG that is kind of tacky, but it's always paired with actual effects or real places or real actors. And I yearn for those days. Same thing with Jurassic park, right where the CG was. It was the spice that got sprinkled over the practical effects. And there are just so many stunts in this movie that I forgot about. There is a stunt where they light an actual boat on fire and they are like fighting through the flames. Fire is rippling over the ceilings of the boat. People are jumping off. Just incredible old school stuff. That is a delight.
- [51:05]
Russ
Yeah. Is that the one with the sand mouth that you like, see the Mummy?
- [51:08]
Christopher Thomas Plant
Well, the sand mouth is like trying to swallow a real plane. So good is flying through the dunes.
- [51:13]
Griffin McElroy
It's great sequence.
- [51:15]
Russ
So cool.
- [51:16]
Griffin McElroy
Yeah, I haven't really been playing too too much else. I've been watching the new season of Married at First Sight, but I don't think anyone really wants to hear about that.
- [51:25]
Russ
I want to know about Married at First Sight.
- [51:27]
Griffin McElroy
It's on Peacock. Now the thing about, okay, I watch a lot of reality television and Married at First Sight to this point has been on the Lifetime network and it's been really. It's not a watch that I enjoy a great deal, but I do enjoy the, I don't know, the kind of roughshod nature of it compared to a Netflix reality show that is like one like pretty cookie cutter at this point. All of the love is blind. Too out to handle the perfect match. Like all those shows look and feel and sound exactly the same. And now Married at First Sight feels like a Netflix show as well, it used to feel like just like a shit. Like a shitty show. Like, things would just be blurry. Like, entire scenes would just be, like, out of focus, and it's like, whoa, holy shit. You never really see that on television. The casting was like, I don't know. A lot of these folks are not really ready for primetime, and that's, like, I kind of enjoy that. I do kind of enjoy a little bit of a little shaggy nature to my reality television shows.
- [52:36]
Russ
What is. I don't actually know what is. Like, what do they do before they meet?
- [52:41]
Griffin McElroy
Nothing. They get married at first sight. They show up at the altar, and then they get married.
- [52:45]
Russ
So they don't know anything about the other person?
- [52:47]
Griffin McElroy
No, man. They get married at first sight. This show doesn't fuck around like a Love is Blind, where it's like, let's date over the pods, and we'll talk. We'll get to know each other, and then we'll see each other, and then we'll get engaged, and then we'll decide whether or not we want to get married. You know, six weeks down the line, this one's like, you're fucking married now.
- [53:02]
Russ
How do they match them up? Is it for.
- [53:05]
Griffin McElroy
With a really. With an expert process. This season is, like, all new, like, matchmakers and shit. And, like, I don't know. It's a colossal thing. Failure, I think, from a. From a actual romance point of view.
- [53:18]
Russ
But isn't that intentional? Aren't they, like, doing bad matches?
- [53:21]
Griffin McElroy
I think so, yeah. I mean, some of these dudes, man. Some of these dudes, man. There's a dude guys whose whole life. There's a dude whose whole life is jet skis.
- [53:35]
Russ
Sure.
- [53:36]
Griffin McElroy
His whole world is jet skis.
- [53:38]
Russ
Yeah.
- [53:38]
Griffin McElroy
And, like, the Kawasaki.
- [53:41]
Russ
What are we talking?
- [53:41]
Griffin McElroy
Couples? I don't know, man, but the couples send each other little gifts before they like me. Oh, so this, like, a present knew
- [53:49]
Russ
the woman knew that he was into jet skis?
- [53:52]
Griffin McElroy
Yeah. Because the present he sent her was a. Like a. Like a tether that you put your jet ski key on so it doesn't go flying off your wrist. What's it called? A kill switch bracelet. Enjoy. She rolls up to his cabin, like, by the water, where he keeps his jet skis, and goes it to his bedroom. He's, like, giving her the tour, and he has two, like, climbing ice pick pickaxes, like, stuck into the wood ceiling, and she's like, that's fucking terrifying, man. You got to get rid of that. He plays the piano at. At their wedding reception, they're like, play some music. And he's like, okay, I'll play some music at my own wedding reception. He sits at the piano, gang. He plays Furry Lease. He plays Fur Elise. And it's like, everyone get ready for this one. Fur Elise, the first song that you learn to play whenever you learn to play piano.
- [54:46]
Russ
Spent a lot of time mastering it for Fur Elise.
- [54:48]
Griffin McElroy
And then he's like, you know, he plays all of Fur Elise. And then he's like, all right, and now I'm going to play just another one. And he plays like a Beethoven track or something. And everyone's like, oh, my God. One of the bride's friends is just head in her hands, just laughing, while her other brides are just like, stop. You have to stop laughing at the fact that the groom is playing Fur Elise. And it's just like, it's still not a great show, and it's still largely pretty gross, and it's hugely uncomfortable television a lot of the time. But still, man, you can't get moments like that really anywhere else. You really can't. You simply can't. I watch a lot of good reality tv, too, but this is still. This is still really a one of a kind kind of experience. It's on Peacock now. I think there's probably a different company making it, and I think it has lost a lot of its charm in like, not being as just openly visibly shitty all the time. But, yeah, that's merit at first sight. I can't believe I talked about it on this program.
- [55:50]
Russ
Thank God. Thank God you did. Okay, Plant, you want to recap the games we talked about?
- [55:55]
Christopher Thomas Plant
Here is what we talked about today. We talked a lot about Splatoon Raiders. We also Talked about more EverQuest, which is coming back to us A Vengeance, and Everquest Legends. We talked about the Mummy, the 1990s version with Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weiss. We talked about Blueprints because it's an episode of the Besties. And we talked about Married at First Sight because it's an episode of the Besties.
- [56:23]
Griffin McElroy
I don't know that that's. I don't know that that it's. That needs to be a Besties sort of trademark.
- [56:28]
Russ
Yeah, probably not.
- [56:30]
Griffin McElroy
We'll probably never talk about that program again. It's just the only other sort of thing I've been wanting that. And Friday Night Lights. If you guys want me to go deep on that, I love that show.
- [56:39]
Russ
I love Peter Berg.
- [56:42]
Griffin McElroy
Hey, thank you so much for listening and thanks also to our patrons. You can go to patreon.com thebesties to get bonus bracket battle episodes every month and also weekly episodes of the Resties where Russ and Plant talk about the games that we don't play here on
- [56:56]
Russ
the twice a month. We do Resties and. And we do one a month for the bracket battles. And we have actually a new bracket battle coming up right soon with this very special guest.
- [57:08]
Griffin McElroy
Yes. Can you thank maybe some of our patrons?
- [57:10]
Russ
I would love to thank some of our patrons. We have vgr, we have Michael S. We have Dale, and we have Ryan H. Thank you for being patrons. I also want to say thank you to everyone else. Tickets are selling very well for our live show which is happening in October of this year if you're interested. It's happening in New York City. You can go to besties fan. We have a post pinned all up there which has all the details on where and when to buy tickets. So I would recommend doing that if you're interested in coming. We'd love to have you. It's going to be very fun.
- [57:41]
Christopher Thomas Plant
You will not believe the stuff that we have planned for you. Initially. I did have a 15 minute breakdance set. I was vetoed on that. But we do have other stuff that we think is going to be pretty great.
- [57:53]
Russ
Special guest.
- [57:53]
Griffin McElroy
No, you know what? I changed my mind, Chris. I want to see that 15 minutes
- [57:57]
Russ
enough is the real question.
- [57:58]
Griffin McElroy
Yeah, that was my issue is I need at least 30 to finish. So that's it for this week, this episode of the Bessies. Next week we're going to be talking about Beast of Reincarnation, Game Freak's latest Pokemon title that I can't wait to discuss more at length. And so join us again next week for that discussion and join us every week here on the Besties because shouldn't the world's best friends play the world's best games? Besties.