Too Many Games? Not a Problem!

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Besties – Episode: Too Many Games? Not a Problem! Release Date: September 20, 2024

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Introduction

In this episode of The Besties, hosts Chris Plante, Griffin McElroy, Justin McElroy, and Russ Frushtick delve into their favorite video games, discuss the challenges of game discovery in an oversaturated market, and explore the intersection of gaming with physical exercise. Despite Russ being absent for this episode, the camaraderie among the hosts remains palpable as they navigate through various gaming topics.

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Featured Games

Timestamp references are included throughout the summary to highlight notable quotes and discussions.

1. Children of Morta (5:52 - 13:48)

Justin McElroy introduces Children of Morta, a narrative-driven RPG centered around the Bergson family, defenders of Mount Morta against a pervasive corruption.

• Gameplay Mechanics:

  • Each family member possesses unique abilities, making each run distinct. For example, Lily, the daughter, can fire fireballs but only when stationary ([06:17]).
  • The game features an evolving skill system where leveling one character can unlock abilities for others. Justin states: “It's really run-based, but the way you approach each level varies a lot depending on which family member you're using” ([07:31]).

• Art and Story:

  • The art style is likened to a mix of "Saturday morning cartoons" with high animation and low detail, reminiscent of Dead Cells ([10:52]).
  • The story unfolds through beautifully narrated and animated cutscenes after each run, enhancing the emotional depth and engagement ([09:42]).

• Publisher Insight:

  • Published by 11 bit studios, known for titles like Frostpunk and The War of Mine, adding credibility to the game's narrative strength ([11:08]).

Justin enthusiastically remarks:

“It's a lot of fun figuring out how each of these different characters play and which ones you kind of click with” ([13:48]).

2. Core Keeper (14:07 - 20:08)

Griffin McElroy discusses his experience with Core Keeper, a top-down survival sandbox game inspired by Terraria.

• Gameplay Experience:

  • Emphasizes resource collection, crafting, and base building. Griffin describes: “You start out in this underground world... and it's up to you to start digging around, collecting resources, building new things” ([14:23]).
  • The 1.0 update introduced a perimeter to the world, increased density, and added fast travel waypoints, enhancing exploration ([17:52]).

• Skill System and Progression:

  • Skills improve through activities, encouraging players to engage in diverse tasks. Griffin notes: “You can look at your skills and see which ones are at zero and be like, oh, should I be messing around more with like cooking because my cooking skill is really low” ([17:52]).
  • The update also revealed deeper layers of the game’s world, making progression more satisfying ([18:22]).

• Community and Early Access Challenges:

  • Justin comments on the complexity for new players:

    “I found it a little overwhelming. It feels like it could have a better ramp up on resources and the things you discover” ([19:20]).

3. Grapple Dogs Cosmic Canines (23:17 - 26:36)

Christopher Thomas Plant shares his enthusiasm for Grapple Dogs Cosmic Canines, a charming 2D platformer featuring adorable dog protagonists.

• Gameplay and Design:

  • Combines classic platforming elements reminiscent of Mario and Sonic with modern twists like grappling hooks ([23:17]).
  • The sequel introduces Shadow, a dog with a gun, adding variety to the gameplay ([25:29]).

• Market Saturation Concerns:

  • Despite its quality, the game struggles to gain visibility due to the overwhelming number of releases on platforms like Nintendo Switch. Christopher laments:

    “This is a really, really solid, really polished 2D platformer with a lot of charm... 57 reviews in a week feels like a death sentence for this game” ([26:27]).

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Market Saturation and Discovery Challenges (26:27 - 33:16)

The hosts engage in a candid discussion about the inundation of video games in the market, particularly on platforms like Nintendo Switch and Steam. They express frustration over the difficulty of discovering standout indie titles amidst a flood of releases.

• Overwhelming Volume:

  • Christopher highlights:

    “There are just too many fucking games. The audience is going to help us beta test them... but you end up making the most hardcore version of the game” ([26:27]).

• Limited Media Solutions:

  • Discussion about how traditional media and platforms like Steam storefront provide only partial solutions for game discovery. Griffin suggests:

    “There's no solution for discovery that I think is consistent enough on the press side” ([32:53]).

• Potential Solutions:

  • Christopher proposes curation by media outlets as a possible way to sift through the noise, though acknowledging its limitations due to the sheer volume of releases ([29:39]).

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Gaming and Exercise (36:48 - 44:32)

The conversation shifts to integrating gaming with physical exercise, exploring how certain games can enhance workout routines.

• Griffin’s Experience:

  • Uses World of Warcraft on a Steam Deck attached to an exercise bike, creating an immersive workout experience. Griffin explains:

    “I sit down on my bike and... I will bike for an hour or more just because I completely lose myself in the wonderful world of Azeroth” ([37:42]).

• Justin’s Approach:

  • Prefers run-based games like Children of Morta and Deep Rock Galactic Survivor that match the optimal exercise duration without requiring extensive downtime for narratives ([40:38]).
  • Justin notes:

    “One, your typical run is about as long as I'd like to be exercising in a stretch... and there's very little downtime in terms of narrative” ([40:38]).

• Christopher’s Take:

  • Enjoys open-world games like Assassin's Creed Odyssey and even Death Stranding while exercising, appreciating the seamless integration of grind and narrative ([41:19]).

• Benefits and Challenges:

  • Hosts discuss how integrating gaming with exercise can make workouts more enjoyable and engaging, though acknowledging the complexities of multitasking.

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Honorable Mentions and Recommendations (45:40 - 65:46)

The hosts share additional game and media recommendations, offering insights into movies and TV shows that resonate with their interests.

1. Movie Recommendations:

• Perfect Days (45:40 - 48:25):

  • A contemplative film about a Japanese man living a solitary life, praised for its beautiful cinematography and emotional depth.
  • Griffin describes:

    “It's absolutely breathtakingly beautiful... it hit me with that airplane movie, like, full blown weeping at one part of the film” ([46:08]).

• Little Shop of Horrors (52:00 - 59:34):

  • Christopher recommends this classic musical for its enduring influence on Disney musicals of the '90s. Highlights include Steve Martin's performance and the film’s stop-motion destruction scenes.
  • Justin enthusiastically shares:

    “Every second of it is an absolute delight” ([58:01]).

• From (48:30 - 56:36):

  • Justin introduces From, a gripping TV series about families trapped in a mysterious town. The show’s intricate plot and character dynamics are highlighted.
  • Justin explains:

    “You have to decide if you want to live in town or in Colony House... it's absolutely stunningly beautiful” ([51:02]).

2. Subscription and Production Acknowledgements:

• The hosts thank their Patreon supporters and briefly discuss upcoming content available to patrons, including exclusive game recommendations and behind-the-scenes insights.

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Conclusion and Future Previews (61:55 - 65:46)

• Upcoming Content:

  • Justin Teases:

    “Next week, we'll be talking about UFO 50, a game I seriously never thought would actually be released” ([65:19]).

• Final Remarks:

  • Hosts encourage listeners to engage with their Patreon for additional content and express excitement for future episodes where they will continue to explore and review standout games.

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Notable Quotes

• Justin McElroy on game discovery challenges:

  “Discovery is so hard. It feels almost random at this point” ([28:14]).

• Griffin McElroy on integrating gaming with exercise:

  “I sit down on my bike and... I will bike for an hour or more just because I completely lose myself in the wonderful world of Azeroth” ([37:42]).

• Christopher Thomas Plant on market saturation:

  “There are just too many fucking games... it feels like a mountain that cannot be climbed” ([26:27]).

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Final Thoughts

The Besties successfully navigates the complexities of the modern gaming landscape, offering insightful reviews and candid discussions. This episode not only highlights beloved titles like Children of Morta and Core Keeper but also critically examines the overwhelming abundance of games and the resultant discovery challenges faced by gamers and developers alike. Additionally, the integration of gaming with physical exercise presents an innovative approach to enhancing both mental and physical well-being. As the hosts continue to dissect and celebrate the world of gaming, listeners are treated to a blend of expert opinions, heartfelt recommendations, and engaging banter that encapsulates why The Besties remain a go-to podcast for gaming enthusiasts.

Transcript

[Justin McElroy]

I was pretty excited that Russ wasn't going to be here today for obvious reasons.

[Griffin McElroy]

But a wild thing to say.

[Justin McElroy]

I was looking forward to rolling in a little late because he's always the taskmaster. Yeah. But I don't understand how they shook out because Griffin and I showed up right on time.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

And plant was several minutes late. And it started to make me miss Russ in a very weird sort of way. Like, is Russ the one who's sort of keeping plant. Keeping the plant trains running? You know what I mean? Like, is your fear of Russ the only thing keeping the plant.

[Griffin McElroy]

This podcast is very much a fox, chicken, bag of grain situation.

[Justin McElroy]

If that puzzle could be a psychosexual melange.

[Griffin McElroy]

Right.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Sure. Yeah.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

Like, video games and, like, tension. Like, that is the best.

[Griffin McElroy]

I think I'm the fox. No. Russ is the fox, which is crazy.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Griffin McElroy]

Which I guess makes Chris is the. Chris would then be the chicken. And either me or. What do you think? Juice, Bag of grain.

[Justin McElroy]

I'm the boat baby. I'm carrying all of you.

[Griffin McElroy]

You could be the farmer. You could be the diligent farmer making sure that none of these three. Hey, can I ask a question?

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Griffin McElroy]

How come the fuck the farmer's responsible for the fox at all?

[Justin McElroy]

Here, I'll solve the puzzle for you.

[Griffin McElroy]

Farmer gets on the boat, takes chicken and bag of grain, leaves fox behind. Leaves fox behind. Because who? Why? Like, why do you care about the fox? You're not in charge of transporting. Are you gonna get it? Are you gonna take it home to harvest its fox milk?

[Justin McElroy]

What about the one trip the farmer has to make with the fox solo? I bet he's not wild about that.

[Griffin McElroy]

Probably not.

[Justin McElroy]

Probably not.

[Griffin McElroy]

No one's loving that arrangement. I'll tell you another thing. Those solve for the puzzles. Of course, you take the chicken across first because the fox is left alone with a bag of grain. If I'm the fox, I'm gonna look at that bag of grain and be like, I'll try. I'll try it.

[Justin McElroy]

I'll try Grain.

[Griffin McElroy]

Let me eat. You come back, the grain's gone.

[Justin McElroy]

The fuck fox. I start rolling it into the water. Like, hey, turn around right now. Or the grain goes.

[Griffin McElroy]

I just made the puzzle way easier for me. For you, farmer. Take me across so I can eat your fucking chicken.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Do you think a long time ago, society tried all the different milks and then they just decided they weren't good? Or are we, like, kind of sitting on a big of exotic milks, like a fox milk? You mention it now, I'm just. I'm sorry.

[Griffin McElroy]

No. So talking. You stepped on right on Justin's Meet the Fockers joke and I need him to be able to celebrate.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Oh, please, go ahead.

[Justin McElroy]

I got nipples. Foxer, could you milk me?

[Griffin McElroy]

What happened to this show? Rustling oh, okay.

[Justin McElroy]

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

[Griffin McElroy]

My name is Griffin 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.

[Justin McElroy]

I will remember you.

[Griffin McElroy]

He's not.

[Justin McElroy]

Russ is just not passed away this week. Russ Fresh Dig is out on assignment, so he's very missed. But this week we are going to take a moment without Russ to just do a little bit of a grab bag and see what everybody's been enjoying lately but Chris Plant. What?

[Griffin McElroy]

What's a grab bag?

[Justin McElroy]

What's a video game?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

There's just so many of them and they've come a long way since Pac Man. We're talking about three that I don't think have been mentioned on the show at all or maybe were mentioned only in like, kind of early access form. Sure. And I think all three kind of speak about different like, hey, what is. Where are video games at these days? How are they doing? Yeah. And I can't wait to talk about them. That's too much it.

[Justin McElroy]

Let's do it right after this. Let's go. Follow me. We are officially there. We're there in the gift giving season. We're in that special gift giving time. You don't want to hear about it because it's stressful. Well, good news. How about I just fix all the stress for you right now? No problem with aura frames. Every time you give an aura frame, it's going to feel like a hand picked personal gift. Why? Because you're going to digitally fill it with an incredible number of memories that you and the person you're giving the gift to can share. You want your grandma to see what's going on with your kids. You want to see your brother to know what your dogs are up to, whatever. Then buy them an aura frame. You set it up on their wi fi. You can do it ahead of time if you want to. And then with just a couple of button presses on your phone or whatever, you can upload photos to that person's phone. It's a really good way of staying in contact. It's a wonderful gift. It's easy to set up. We've got. We've gotten them for quite a few people in our lives. And we have never had anything but a thrilled reaction. And I think that you should really give it a shot. For a limited time, visit auraframes.com and get $45 off Aura's best selling Carver Matte frames by using promo code besties at checkout. That's a U R A frames.com promo code besties. This exclusive Black Friday Cyber Monday deal is their best of the year. So don't miss out. Terms and conditions apply. Hi. Welcome. You got through the commercials. I had no doubt. I wanted to talk about these three games. Can I talk about my game first because please do. Fun.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah. Is yours. Was yours updated recently or you just kind of come into it a little?

[Justin McElroy]

Mine was not updated recently. I just haven't played it before. And it is one of those that has been sitting on my Steam deck for a long time. And I got a recommendation. I don't even remember.

[Griffin McElroy]

I think I own it on Switch and I've never. I have not. I downloaded.

[Justin McElroy]

You never played. Right. Can I tell you guys how good this game is?

[Griffin McElroy]

Yes, please do.

[Justin McElroy]

It's really good.

[Griffin McElroy]

What's it called? What's the name of it?

[Justin McElroy]

Children of Morta is what it is called. And it is about a family called the Bergsons. They are the defenders of this area that they live in. They're the custodians of Mount Morta. And they are protecting this incredible ancient, powerful mountain, which is sort of like the source of all life and magic in this world from this thing called the corruption. And this family is sort of like the last line of defense against the corruption. And it's a very. The story is almost sort of like eternal and cyclical of this family, like trying to defend this mountain. And each member of the family is a different class of fighters. So there is one member that wields a huge hammer. And the daughter, Lily, fires fireballs, but only when she's stationary. And there's one.

[Griffin McElroy]

It's like. They're incredible.

[Justin McElroy]

It's like a monk. Yes, exactly. Right. So the way it plays out from a gameplay perspective though is something akin to like Vampire Survivor or Dead Cells or that sort of.

[Griffin McElroy]

I was looking at it because I had a hankering. I had a hankering for Hammer Watch after Hammer Watch 2 came out. It didn't really scratch the edge for me. That kind of like Gauntlet RPG sort of style thing. Is it. Is it in that. In that vein?

[Justin McElroy]

It's closer to like a. I would say like Hades.

[Griffin McElroy]

Okay.

[Justin McElroy]

Gauntlet. Like a Hades Gauntlet kind of thing where it is like, it's very run based, but the way you approach each level and like the way you play it varies a lot depending on which family member you're using. So every run feels like really, really different. And you don't unlock all of them at first and they all independently level. So you start with one family member, the dad, or the sort of like one of the dads in the family. It's multigenerational, but he's just like a basic warrior. And he has got a shield on the left bumper and then he's got a sword in the other hand and then his wife is the next one you unlock and she has like bow and arrow and she's doing all ranged attacks and stuff like that. So every time you play is like, it feels very different. What's really neat about it is each of the characters is leveling individually and as you play through, you buy new talents, let them have more abilities, whatever. But as you develop and level up each member of the family, it also unlocks abilities for everybody in the family that they teach them.

[Griffin McElroy]

Oh, cool.

[Justin McElroy]

So if you raise up like for instance, if you raise the abilities of like the knife wielding little brother Kevin.

[Griffin McElroy]

If you level up Kevin a bunch.

[Justin McElroy]

I think it's Kevin. I'm pretty sure it's Kevin.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

You have to scream it every time you say it.

[Justin McElroy]

If you level up Kevin enough, it'll start increasing your critical damage. And then as you get more powerful, you unlock better things. Like if you get surrounded by a bunch of enemies, for example, Kevin will appear and like help them. Right? So Kevin will just bomb into it.

[Griffin McElroy]

But hey guys, it's botman420 here talking about the new Kevin Spec in Children of Mortal. You're going to go deep into Kevin.

[Justin McElroy]

What's so cool is that like there is a ongoing, really beautifully narrated and animated story that is played out a little bit after almost every run. And it's a story about how this family is like bringing new people in and making room for new people. Like for example, I mentioned Lily, who is like the fire mage that has to stand stationary. You see her in several cutscenes, like as it builds to that reveal, where like you see her training with other members of the family and you see her like. And then eventually you get a cutscene that's just like, finally Lily was ready. And then at that moment you can then take Lily on a run. They also have if any one family member goes in too many times, they build up corruption, which basically means you should use a different character. For a while to level them up because keeping them in a sort of parody is kind of helpful because you do have all these different abilities that you're unlocking as you level up each individual character.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Tell me, tell me a little bit about this art style because I haven't seen anything quite like this. It looks almost like a mix of Saturday morning cartoons meets the COVID of Children of Mana. And that is extraordinarily specific. I know.

[Justin McElroy]

So it's. Yeah, I hate talking about how games look because I feel like I'm genuinely so bad at it. It's. It looks, it's very. There's a lot of animate. You know what kind of reminds me of like sword and Sorcery ep like over animated but like low on the detail. Like low detail, high animation, if that is anything. I don't know. Dead Cells is another sort of like I think aesthetic touch point. But the story is genuinely really engrossing and well told and there's like really high stakes throughout it. And it really does like you are re excited to play certain characters again because of things that have happened in the story. Like it would make sense to take this character out and use them at this point. And all of the characters feel very different. Like there's a big change for each one. There is one who is a monk who only uses his hands. And basically you're always controlling the movement with the left stick. Right stick is usually a directional attack, so you can do the attacks in whatever direction you're facing. You can also use X to just like attack in the direction you're going. But usually it makes sense to just use both of the sticks. But the monk, when you push the stick in the direction of the enemy, he'll sort of like close the distance between the two of them with a kick. So it's sort of like moving quickly between the enemies and like finishing the combos. And I think he is one where the more attacks he does successfully in, in, in a row he like builds up more armor. So each time you're approaching it, it like feels very different. And it's also got the other like the kind of run based things where you're getting different sort of sub weapons each time you go in and those are on their own refreshes. And you also have like, you know, you're leveling up different boons that you will collect throughout your run that change the feel of it. But none of it is as substantial as sort of like which character you picked to.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, that sounds great.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I realize this is 11 bit studios was the publisher of this too. And I'm like, dang, I should have given it a try right when it came out. Because this publisher, they are best known for, I think they're also the developer on Frostpunk in, I think this war of mine. But in terms of publishing, they put out the Thaumaturge in Indica, in the Invincible, a bunch of stuff that we've been really interested in. Moonlighter.

[Griffin McElroy]

Oh yeah.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Cool. Like how consistent they have been as a publisher.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah. And this is really like, it's narrative and well told, but it's really about the, the fun of figuring out how each of these different characters play and which ones you kind of click with and which ones are better for certain situations or whatever. But it's a lot of fun.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Cool.

[Griffin McElroy]

Nice.

[Justin McElroy]

I love James. I liked it. I mentioned Vampire Survivors, but it's not.

[Griffin McElroy]

It'S not an auto shooter.

[Justin McElroy]

It's not an auto shooter in that.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Sense, but I dig it. Griffin, what have you been playing?

[Griffin McElroy]

So I have been playing a game called Core Keeper, which I don't know if we talked about on the show. Probably we have because it's been in early access since March 2022 and it's so like explicitly mine and I think specifically Russ's shit, that I would be surprised if it hasn't showed up on the show. But it just came out in 1.0 at the very end of August and I tried playing the game before this 1.0 update like maybe a year ago or so and it did not really click with me then, but it has really got its hooks in me now. It is a top down sort of Bird's eye view survival sandbox game. I know that comparisons between games of the same genre are pretty derivative sometimes, but it has such huge terraria inspirations that if you think of terraria and then kind of lay it down flat. So it's a top down game instead of a sort of side scrolling platformer. You are very much in the right space if you haven't played it before. You start out in this underground world in front of this massive unpowered machine and then it is sort of up to you to start digging around, collecting resources, building new things in the survival sandbox style of like, well, I got some wood, I'm gonna build a crafting table and oh, I got some copper. So I'll upgrade my crafting table and I'll build a furnace. And now I can smelt this and now I can make a stronger pickaxe to help me go out into the world. But then from those sort of familiar trappings, it starts to do the terraria thing of like, okay, well, I've started to find some pretty good stuff for a mage build, so I'm gonna see if I can't focus in on that. There's lots and lots of different pieces of armor and accessories that you can find that all synergize with each other. There's like armor sets where it's like, okay, if you get this set that is all sort of summoner based, then when you use these items that summon monsters to help you fight now, you can summon more of them and they attack faster and they're strong. Which was sort of my favorite part about Terraria is that idea of like, well, I'm going to go with a range build and try that out and really focus all my efforts and like maximizing that you have skill points also that you just sort of accumulate naturally by doing stuff. Like there's a running skill that as you just run around is constantly sort of leveling up, which such a sucker.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

For that sort of thing. It's like, congratulations, you existed, you did the things.

[Justin McElroy]

Well, it does it.

[Griffin McElroy]

Justin's been playing.

[Justin McElroy]

It's very generous about it too, where like, for instance, you can get a huge pile of wood or a huge pile of dirt and just make them into floor tiles. You just sit there and like make them into floor tiles. And as you're crafting floor tiles, your crafting skills going up, you're like, this is good.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, I like this.

[Justin McElroy]

I can do this all day.

[Griffin McElroy]

It's awesome.

[Justin McElroy]

I have 300 floor tiles now. It feels good.

[Griffin McElroy]

It's also nice to the base. Building is really great. You can go full fucking factorio at a certain point. Like you get an electronics workbench and an automation workbench and you can like build structures to like automatically farm and harvest wood for you. So you can build like a bunch of minecart tracks that you can use to suddenly crisscross across this massive world a lot faster. Also, the skill system, what's great about it is you can look at your skills and see which ones are at zero and be like, oh, should I be messing around? I should be messing around more with like cooking because my cooking skill is really low. And you do that more and it makes you better at that.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Question for you, in terms of playing this alone versus with friends, I know you can play it single player. Is it one of those games where I'd be like, I would be having a lot more fun if I was.

[Griffin McElroy]

Playing with this probably, but again, like Terraria, it does the thing where it separates world progress from character progress. So I'm playing in a single player world. I would love to play multiplayer, but I don't feel like I'm wasting my time. I don't feel torn, like, should I wait on this until I have friends to play with? Because my character's leveling up and I can take them to whatever world that I want them to be in.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Cool.

[Griffin McElroy]

Which is fucking rad. Which is like such a smart. This game does a lot of really, really smart stuff that a lot of sort of like quality of life stuff. The 1.0 update that just came out expands the world pretty dramatically. It also, I think original Core Keeper, the world was like infinite. It stretched out infinitely in 1.0, it changed that to where it has a perimeter and it has made things much more dense, which is, I think, honestly one of the biggest reasons why I'm enjoying it more now is that I am constantly finding stuff, constantly finding new stuff, constantly finding weird shit on the map. They also added fast travel waypoints for the first time, which. Yeah, absolutely. So I have this base that I've just been building nonstop around this central core machine that you're kind of working to power up at the beginning of the game. And then as I go out, I will find a waypoint and be like, well, shit, awesome. Now whenever I want to go out on an expedition, I can start here instead of having to, you know, make this long trek every single time.

[Justin McElroy]

I will say, I will say that it does feel that sort of like density that Griffin is talking about. For somebody who has not played it prior to this, I will say that it got pretty overwhelming for me pretty quickly. I think that this feels like a 1.0 release that's very much for the people who've been playing for a while. Like when I went to go look for like videos about like, where can I find 10? Or whatever. Yeah, some of those videos are from two fucking years ago. Yeah, I mean, it's like, yeah, it's. It is not super duper. I found it a little overwhelming. I feel like it could. It could have a little bit better of a ramp up on resources and the things you discover. So it doesn't feel like I have. I have so many different kinds of resources and as a new player, I don't know what any of it is for. Right.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

This, this is the strange side effect of early Access games where I feel like originally early Access games, where we're going to put them out. The audience is going to kind of help us beta test them to some degree and then we're going to smooth it out so that when we do the 1.0, it's great for everybody, right?

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

And I think now there's this thing where I think that's still part of it. And that sounds like what some of the decisions were for this game. But then unintentionally, you do have the, oh, wow. Our most hardcore fans are giving us feedback for years before the game comes out. And then you end up making the most hardcore version of the game, which isn't bad. I don't think that's necessarily negative, but I do think it is a kind of a classic medium is the message thing, where the medium is shaping games now in ways that I don't think even developers maybe necessarily see at times.

[Griffin McElroy]

It could use more sort of like quick tip tutorial stuff. Terraria did a great thing where there was just a guy there when you spawned and you could talk to him and be like, so, what should I do next? Right. As far as I know, this game doesn't have. I think actually you can interact with the core machine and it can maybe give you some advice sometimes. I fully, fully recommend watching a beginner's guide to the video because the way you progress through the game is not particularly obvious. Very much in the same way that when Russ and I got into Terraria a few years ago, the guides would be like, okay, so then you have to go and find this temple. When you find it, you are looking for the blood sacrifice altar. You can only blow it up with this, and when you throw it in the lava, it spawn the next world boss, which moves you into hardcore mode. It's so wild. I don't think Core Keeper is quite that abstract, but it is very, very helpful to understand what progress in the game looks like, because that is sort of not inherently apparent. Once you get there, though, once it gets its hooks in you, I am finding the progression hooks and the exploration of the game just really, really, really satisfying. And it also just did a great thing where I've beaten a few bosses now and I thought, I'm getting close to the end of the game. And then it reveals, actually, this is the great plateau of Breath of the Wild. You're actually just starting the game and there's a lot more to discover. And I think a lot of that stuff came in the 1.0 update too. So I'm fucking loving it. It's great on Steam Deck. I think it's out on PS5 and Xbox now or two, and then it's coming to Switch, I think, later. Or maybe it's on Switch now and it's getting a physical release later this year, but can't recommend it enough. If you played it and tried it and bounced off it, I would give it another shot because it's. I don't know, man. It feels really, really, really good. Looks great, Sounds great. Like, combat is really fun. The boss fights are really take a lot of sort of strategy. It's some of the most fun I've had playing a game like this in a long time. That's awesome. Chris, I'm curious about your game because I had my phone open to Slack when Henry was sitting next to me and you messaged, and he saw it and he was like, I want that. He saw this. Just saw the, like, thumbnail image. It was like, get me that. Get me that game, please.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah, I hope more kids see it and have that reaction, because right now this game has 57 reviews on Steam and that bums me out because Grapple Dogs, Cosmic Canines is a delight. You play as adorable a pair of adorable dogs in a beautiful cartoon universe, and it's just a classic 2D platformer with the thing every game needs. Grappling Hook feels good.

[Griffin McElroy]

I thought you were going to say dogs.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Well, the dogs. I mean, they don't hurt. You can't really pet the dogs because you are the dogs. But grappling Hook games, especially classic platformers, they're just fantastic. And I think this one in particular is kind of blending a little bit of the old school. Mario, Sonic, honestly, Alex Kidd, like, that sort of platformer era.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah. Is it worth mentioning that you and Russ both do have a sweet penchant for, like, grappling hook games. Grappling hook games that are actually quite bad and grappling hooks.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.

[Justin McElroy]

Do not. The failing of your character do not blend.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

We are not the same person. He is fox. I am the mere chicken, here to bring you good games.

[Justin McElroy]

The chicken like that Moss game, right?

[Griffin McElroy]

No, that was very much a fox join.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

That was the fox. The fox is like, oh, do you know you can break it and you can jump 5,000ft and you're like, meanwhile, over here, you can't jump five feet because it's broken. No, this is a good.

[Griffin McElroy]

This looks good. It looks like it reminds me not in terms of art style, but in terms of, like, kinetic kind of motion. It reminds me of Pepper Grinder that came out earlier this year. There's just a million things happening on screen all the time.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yes. And it has a nice build up. There are two different characters who are slightly different. There is a normal dog who can, like, jump on enemies, Mario style, give him a bop. They can punch through things and they can do kind of a upper downward stomp. And then there's Shadow the Hedgehog Dog, who is the lady dog who has a gun. And that's how you can tell this is a sequel. Because they're like, you know, we need the second dog with the gun.

[Griffin McElroy]

Oh, is it a sequel?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yes.

[Griffin McElroy]

Okay. I was looking at the Steam page and one of the bullet points is the Return of Pablo, which I guess is the right.

[Justin McElroy]

So I didn't mess up on this one. I actually play Grapple Dog.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

You play the original?

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah, the original Grapple Dog. So.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

And you beat it too, right? You played all the original Grapple Dogs?

[Justin McElroy]

I played about an hour of Grapple Dog and I will give you my brief review. Oh, cute.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Okay. Yeah, this is better. I would assume in every possible way. The original Grapple Dog came out in 2022.

[Griffin McElroy]

A lifetime ago.

[Justin McElroy]

Speaking of which. Fell away. The Children of Mordor came out in 2019. I have no idea why I missed it for five years. I'm glad I played it. It's fun. I have no idea why.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Okay. Right now, this is kind of the topic around Grapple Dog that I am curious about, which is, dear goodness, there are just too many fucking games.

[Justin McElroy]

Oh, man.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

The. I got a PR email for the Nintendo Switch release last, like, Thursday for the release of all the games that come out every week. Right.

[Griffin McElroy]

Those emails are always completely insane.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I don't know. It was upsetting. It was like 50 or 60 games coming out on the Switch. This is in like, the Switch. You know, they have some boundaries. They aren't Steam. They're not just putting up everything. And you want to know why you haven't heard about a game that came out a few years ago? Because this is every single week. And I don't know what to make of what indie games can find success anymore. And I look at Grapple Dogs, I look at especially this sequel. And this is a really, really solid, really polished 2D platformer with a lot of charm, great level design. 57 reviews in a week feels like a death sentence for this game. It is bleak. And the only reason I happen to see it is scrolling through random Steam games to think of like, hey, what do I want to talk about seeing a trailer and be like, yeah, I guess that's what I'm going to talk about. Playing it and being like, well, shit, this is one of the better games I've played in the past few months.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah, this is tough, man. This is a problem that I feel like. Feels unsolvable in a lot of ways. Like, you look at what we could do, right? We could do this episode every week. We could every week say, like, we're all bringing a different game. We all found that. But, like, even trying that, it doesn't scale. Cause how do I know what are the decent guys? I don't have time to go play 20 games and find one good thing. Like, discovery is so hard. Yeah, it feels almost random at this point.

[Griffin McElroy]

Nintendo should send out two of these new announcements. They do it every Thursday. They send out an email called Nintendo Download. And it's all the games that come out. And there's not a joke. I mean, there's probably about 60 games on here, but they should do one that's like, okay, look, we know that in the original one we included such titles as Hell City Demolition man and Just One Minute Memory Test with Masterpieces and Goobin Balloons dx. But here's what, here's. Here's the good stuff. Here's the Cream of the Crop, man. I say that I feel like I'm gonna have to go play Goobin Balloons DX now. Just so I feel like, not guilty.

[Justin McElroy]

Joystick Podcast. We used to do Spot the Real Weird DS game because we would do this in the Eshop. We would read the list of all the. All the games and try to come up with the ones that actually existed. Because when you have an open marketplace where people can shove whatever they want to under there, it is. It's going to continue to be an issue to separate the wheat from the chaff. And what's frustrating is you see companies like, even Apple hasn't found a good way of solving this problem and they have a ton of money and resources to try to attack it. And you see the solutions that they've tried to come up with. And like, this is not a better problem over there. It's maybe worse.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah. The answer, in theory is, like, us and like the media, right? Like, curation can be a media solution. Like, we can be the solution for it. But the problem is it is. It's completely. It's a mountain that cannot be climbed. It feels like. And the example I give is even streamers who. Their entire goal is, I'm going to go out, I'm going to find something new. I'm going to find something original. I'm going to kind of like make my name off of that and that's going to help also make my star rise. Don't find a game like this. And there are so many games that don't get found. There's a certain survival bias or Survivor's bias for the stuff that does get through but does not account for the tons of games that do just like, kind of flop. And I yesterday I was listening to a friend of the show, Simon Parkin, who does My Perfect Console, I think is its name, but it's a podcast where he interviews game devs and other kind of people associated with the games industry. But games really matter to them. And he was talking to Derek Yu, who we're going to talk about next week with UFO 50 and about, you know, when the original Spelunky came out and how you could find success as an indie game developer at that time if you had the ability to just make the game and put it out because people were craving new original ideas. And now I think of like a game like even the original Spelunky, like, does it find its audience in the same way if it is released on Steam today from a developer start to.

[Justin McElroy]

Feel like maybe a bunch of these smaller indies.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

Should look at each other and be like, hey, guys, if we all work together, we could make a real video game.

[Griffin McElroy]

Well, that's a.

[Justin McElroy]

We get all perspective. Like, if we got together, we could make a real AAA video game they could sell right in Walmart. A real.

[Griffin McElroy]

A real Walmart game.

[Justin McElroy]

A real.

[Griffin McElroy]

Talk about real Walmart games. Oh my.

[Justin McElroy]

I wish this was my job, but this is the vicious cycle of this. Right? I. We talked about this. We've had this conversation. Like if in games media, we've had this for 20 years. Because it's not like you can watch. You can watch 10 movies in a day. Like you could. It would suck. It would suck, but you could do it. Like, you could do. You could do that. You could watch every movie that comes out. Like, realistically, the games take too long to play and to get a sense of you can't do it.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

And the thing is, when you do find the small things that you want to elevate, it never performs as well as people reading about real video games at Walmart. Real Walmart video games. Like, it just. The audience doesn't know to look for the coverage. So it's.

[Griffin McElroy]

There's just no, there's no solution for discovery that I think is consistent enough on the press side, I think honestly the best discovery system now, and even it is not, like, amazing, is like the Steam storefront. Like, what's. What are people. What are people playing? What are people talking about?

[Justin McElroy]

The only thing my, my discovery mechanism does not scale because it's emails to the besties account that are like, hey, you guys would like this one. Check this out.

[Griffin McElroy]

I mean, personally speaking, like, I mean, I'm eating good over here.

[Justin McElroy]

No, no, no. I'm just saying, like, not everybody can make a podcast, right. Where they in depth explain their taste.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

And then wait as the recommendations roll in.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

It's true. It's true.

[Griffin McElroy]

Let's say, let's, let's. Let's take a break. We could opine about this.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I feel like, yeah, it sounds literal hours.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah. But we got more show for everyone. Us gamers got a game and there's nothing that can stop us. Even a subscription fee for the game that we're playing. But sometimes we move on to a new game and forget about that subscription fee for a long, long time, and it's just chewing away at our bank account like so many termites. Well, good news. Rocket Money is here to help you find those subscriptions that you have forgotten about and help you cancel them so that you can save a whole bunch of money. I've used Rocket Money a lot in the past to catch some subscriptions for games. MMOs specifically that I hadn't been playing, or apps specifically for my kids on the iPad that I'd subscribed to and forgotten about. And I cannot even fathom how much money it has saved me because of those subscriptions that it caught. Rocket Money is a personal finance app that helps you find and cancels unwanted subscriptions. It also monitors your spending and helps lower your bills so you can grow your savings. Rocket Money has over 5 million users and has saved a total of $500 million in canceled subscriptions, saving members up to 740 bucks a year when using all the app's features. Stop wasting money on things you don't use. Cancel your unwanted subscriptions by going to Rocketmoney.combesties. that's Rocketmoney.combesties one last time. Rocketmoney.combesties.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

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[Griffin McElroy]

I have been on a sort of start stop journey to improve my physical form, to create strength inside of me that I can harness. A deep strength to what?

[Justin McElroy]

A deep strength?

[Griffin McElroy]

A deep strength. Well, a reservoir of power that I can use mostly when my kids try to kill me just by the rough play. Rough play. And so I got a new exercise bike, which is usually my kind of go to jam for getting some cardio in. And I set off looking for a good workout game, which is what I want to talk about in this block. I think it's something we've talked about in the past, but I figured it would be good to kind of like check in on. I downloaded World of Warcraft.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Wow.

[Griffin McElroy]

Realizing that you can play it on controller. There's like a lot of controller support for that game. And guys, let me tell you, if you want to turn off your fucking gourd, I will sit down on my bike. Be like, time for 30 minutes of bike time. And then I'll.

[Justin McElroy]

You're gonna activate something in me that's gonna make me do this. And I don't want it.

[Griffin McElroy]

I don't want it.

[Justin McElroy]

Okay.

[Griffin McElroy]

I won't go too deep down into it.

[Justin McElroy]

Something. But no, man, it's like the Idea. That is pretty good. Maybe I could get. Maybe I could get really fit. I only feel.

[Griffin McElroy]

I only feel comfortable talking about this because I thought that this, the viral nature of my condition would not spread. I did not think that would find purchase in the hearts and minds.

[Justin McElroy]

You got a guild?

[Griffin McElroy]

I don't have a guild, no. I'm playing it very solo. I'm playing it on the same server as a friend who's still into the game. This new expansion came out. I haven't even gotten.

[Justin McElroy]

Text me the name, Griffin. Text me the name.

[Griffin McElroy]

I will ask Joel Naroob if you want to pop on. I'm not trying to recreate Peacecraft, but maybe I am. It is. It's a much different game now. I feel like they have streamlined a lot of the bullshit out of it that sort of characterized the last few expansions where you had nine different things you had to manage in order to get stronger. Now it's very much like level up and get better gear and shit. But I will sit down on my bike and I will turn that game on. I have it on my Steam deck, so I just dock it right onto my TV and I will sit down and be like, time for a half hour bike ride. And I will bike for an hour or more just because I will completely lose myself and the wonderful world of Azeroth and the Dragon Isles and beyond.

[Justin McElroy]

Now, inventory management on a controller while riding a stationary bike. How's that working?

[Griffin McElroy]

I mean, it's all pretty automated now. They have systems where you have your different bags and then you can set different types of items.

[Justin McElroy]

Different bags. God, that sounds like a good system.

[Griffin McElroy]

Okay, man.

[Justin McElroy]

Thank you. 2024.

[Griffin McElroy]

You can set those bags to immediately sort different types of items. So you can say, this is my equipment bag. This is. This is my junk bag that will automatically sell as soon as I go talk to a. The mod is called consoleport and it's really fucking great. And I play it on my Steam deck. Connected bluetooth to a PS5 controller and you can use the touchpad for any mouse sort of interactions that you may need to do. But yeah, I've also been doing a lot of Core Keeper on the bike too, because I find that that sort of genre of game is really great for it. Things like Destiny and Twitchy. Really twitchy stuff I find not particularly conducive. It activates a certain, I don't know, reflex in me that is hard to do while doing another sort of laborious physical activity. But I know you guys have also fucked around with Gaming while exercising. And I was curious what your most recent fascinations have been.

[Justin McElroy]

These types of games like Children of Mordo that I talked about, these sorts of like run based games are really great for this sorts of thing. One, your typical run is typically about as long as I'd like to be exercising in a stretch. You know, that 20 to 30 minute sweet spot where you can have a good, good time, but you're not going to be like absolutely in the middle of something when you have to wrap up. So that's pretty good. Uh, I also can't have any like, or at least very little downtime in terms of narrative, like story and stuff. If I'm having to watch a cut scene and ride a bike at the same time, that's asking too much.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah, I did a lot of this when I was in Austin because I found the heat made it impossible to go exercise outside. And for me, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Open world games in general were perfect because I could, yes, there would be cutscenes, but I could avoid them if I wanted to, or save them for a different time. And I could do a lot of the grind. I found that this is probably only reinforced my obsession with becoming extremely overpowered in open world games before I go about the story and then just like bashing through the rest of the game. Odyssey was also just fantastic because it's just a series of islands. So I felt like every other time I was biking I was just in a new setting, so it felt like a reward. I always wanted to get back on the bike because I wanted to see what new place was I going to go to this time. Weirdly, I played almost the entirety of Death Stranding on Exercise bike.

[Griffin McElroy]

Totally for sure. I get that.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah. And the cutscenes would seem to contradict that. But two things. One, when you're actually playing the game, there's something that connects brain wavelength wise with the grind of I'm going to climb mountains over and over and over again with no particular goal. And I am going to be on my exercise bike and put it on max settings and see what I can do.

[Griffin McElroy]

You are Jack Bridger or whatever the fuck that guy's name is. You are on your bike, you are taking, you know, baby pods from one.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Outpost to another, taking Mommy President Corpse to the burnery. Also the cutscenes, I don't know if I felt like, hey, you know, I'm knocking out two birds with one stone. I'm getting this cutscene out of the way and I'm getting my exercise out of the way. What a win.

[Justin McElroy]

So it's like two bad things at once.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Like, this is good. I also think, you know, you get that thing where when you're like really pushing yourself, you kind of enter a little bit of a hallucinatory state.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

And I think that that was a real good match for some of those cutscenes. Especially as I got deeper into Die Hardman's backstory.

[Justin McElroy]

There are games that I find addictive but not necessarily enriching, that I often deny myself in my day to day life. Things that I could get very lost in. Well, World of Warcraft is an excellent example. I could at any point just do that again, you know what I mean? Like, I could just be that.

[Griffin McElroy]

Which is scary, which is terrifying actually.

[Justin McElroy]

Griffin. But there's games that, like, I don't let myself get too deep into that. I do will. You will like tie to exercise. So it's like, hey, this is like absolute brain candy. Like nothing. But it's okay for like, it's good for this because it's like you're just sort of you. It is positive. It's a positive way of spending your time. So those games that I get like really fixated on and really lost in, I will sometimes save for that. Another good example of that for me was Deep Rock Galactic Survivor. Survivor. Yeah. That's a very much, very rewarding.

[Griffin McElroy]

I have sort of reverse engineered it where I don't. I don't play wow. Unless I am exercising and I'm exactly. I'm very much enjoying it and I feel myself getting into it and like, the game has done a lot of very cool stuff that makes it more fun to play. And so I find myself wanting to play it. But I also say, like, well, if I'm gonna take some time out of my day, if I have like a free hour in my day to like, do I. And I want to play. Wow. Like, I have to get on. I have to get on the bike if I want to do that.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

So funny. Because it explains why you look like a character from Triplets of Belleville. Now.

[Griffin McElroy]

I don't know what that means.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

You got that? You got those. Well, never mind. You got giant cycling legs. I'll put an image.

[Justin McElroy]

I liked it.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I'm gonna put an image to this in the newsletter and people are gonna see it. They're gonna be like, that is what.

[Griffin McElroy]

They're crying.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

They're gonna be like. That was the fucking funniest thing I've ever heard.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Griffin McElroy]

I don't know that they're gonna say that. I don't know that people are gonna say that.

[Justin McElroy]

I think they're gonna bust up. In hindsight.

[Griffin McElroy]

Do we have any mail or. We wanna go to honorable mentions.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Let's go to honorable mentions. We can save questions for when Fresh is here. I wanna make sure he's part of the group.

[Justin McElroy]

Good.

[Griffin McElroy]

Oh, I did want to say, Chris, your recommendation on our most recent flight, a flight home from Portland at like 6 in the morning that I took a couple weeks ago. I downloaded, I watched Perfect Days and that shit goes down real smooth, my man.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah. Do you want to tell people kind of what it is?

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah. I would be surprised if you have not talked about it on the show before. But it is a movie about a Japanese man living in Tokyo who his job is. He cleans public toilets. And he has a very solitary, very ritualistic life where he does the same things every day. He goes and gets dinner at the same spot and he eats lunch under the same tree that he takes pictures of with the same old camera. And he listens to the same cassettes in his van as he drives around and has like a very ordered, lonesome sort of existence. And the movie is just like about a week in his life where it shows you kind of like the patterns he is in and his sort of, like, philosophies and then starts to sort of disrupt that as other characters kind of like hove into his life. At one point, his niece comes to stay with him after running away from home for a little while and he kind of like shows her the ropes a little bit. Very, very, very vibey, quiet movie with very little dialogue in it. But if you are in the mood for that, it is absolutely breathtakingly beautiful. It hit me with that airplane movie, like, full blown weeping at one part of the film.

[Justin McElroy]

What is it Kermit Mayer called it? Altitude Induced lachrymosity syndrome.

[Griffin McElroy]

Exactly. Beautifully acted and shot. And it's. It is. I don't know how one makes space for this. It was per the circumstance in which I watched the movie, I think was perfect. I can't imagine making space for a movie this kind of like slow and quiet and contemplative in my normal kind of like day to day, but yeah, man, it is a gorgeous movie. That doesn't do a ton, but the stuff it does do, I think hits so, so, so, so hard.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

A perfect, perfect landing. Just a beautiful final shot that is such a payoff to everything.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah. Oh, my God. Yeah. Absolutely. Some tremendous face acting from the star of this movie. Whose name I do not know off the top of my head. But yeah, Perfect days. It's great.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Fantastic. Hoops, how about you.

[Justin McElroy]

Man? I started watching this show called From. Okay, you guys know about From?

[Griffin McElroy]

Is it Monster? Is it got Monsters?

[Justin McElroy]

Okay. So I don't know why I'm watching From. Okay, so don't even ask.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Cool. Okay.

[Justin McElroy]

But a ad pop up on Amazon prime and it's like, have you checked out the MGM plus exclusive from.

[Griffin McElroy]

What is that platform? I've never heard about that.

[Justin McElroy]

What are you talking about? But it was Amazon prime telling me that I should check out from. From.

[Griffin McElroy]

From.

[Justin McElroy]

From. From. From. From MGM plus. And I'm like, what are you talking about? But I. I saw it had three seasons so I'm like, wow, three seasons of a show called From. It must be doing something right. So I start watching this show called From. It started coming out in 2022. It stars Harold Perroneau from.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Oh shit, yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

Where are you from, Harold? Yeah, I'll tell you where he's been. He's been from. So he was on the island.

[Griffin McElroy]

He got lost on Lost Island. And he was there for Wikipedia.

[Justin McElroy]

So there's an image from. From the planet here. Here's the deal by From.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

What's going on here? This can't be.

[Justin McElroy]

You're driving. You're driving through the episode starts. The pilot episode starts with his family. The It's a wife and a husband and they're having marital problems. They have their two kids with them. They're driving in an rv, taking one last cross country trip before they tell their kids that they are getting a divorce. When they pull into this town, their car breaks down and they are told by the inhabitants of the town that they can never leave. So they try to drive out. And as they try to drive out, they drive through the woods for a bit and then they realize they're back in the town. And they are in this town where everyone had a similar experience. But they all arrived from different. From places. From different places. So they're completely isolated. They're cut off. There are food and supplies that arrive for them at different times. And if they're out at night, then monstrous people come out and murder them. And they are only protected in their homes because they have mysterious talismans Harold Perrineau found that helped them realize that if they put those in their houses, the monsters wouldn't come in at night and kill them.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Cool.

[Justin McElroy]

And they're from. And then this family shows up. And let me tell you guys what happens after that is A whole lot of different things happen. A whole lot.

[Griffin McElroy]

I love when shows do that.

[Justin McElroy]

Hey, man. So much stuff happens and every episode something else happens.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

What is the most surprising stuff that has happened?

[Justin McElroy]

No, that's what's happening. Like one punishment of the town. They only have one punishment in town and it's called the box. And the box was invented by Harold Perrineau and this guy allowed his family to be killed because he didn't put their talisman up because he was off drinking. So he had to be punished. And the way the box works is you get in the box and then you stay in the box all night. And when they come back the next day, the monsters killed you because that's what they do. So that's how the box works.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Oh, okay.

[Justin McElroy]

That's the whole thing.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Just a plate. You are.

[Justin McElroy]

Wait, that you. The monsters come and eat you. Okay. People are doing some things on this show that I don't know why they're doing them.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

And the reasons for that are getting more and more mysterious. Let me it to you this way. They are doing so many different things. You won't even believe it. On from this thing's been going for three seasons and it looks like a pornography movie. Nobody on it acts like people. Nobody on it does anything that makes any sense at all. There's a kid who gets an arrow shot through his leg and later on that day he's on a crutch, but he's on like a weird Victorian Tiny Tim crutch that makes that looks like it's made out of everything. Like just wood and twigs and cloth and stuff.

[Griffin McElroy]

Well, they can't go to the fucking crutch store, Justin. They're stuck in the from town. Oops.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I googled from that boy with the.

[Justin McElroy]

Arrow in his leg is sees the same mysterious ghost boy that Victor, the grown man with a disco lunchbox who walks around town with a going on what he calls quests. Hey guys. You would not believe how much happens in from it's really. What? Oh, did I mention? There's a Silicon Valley billionaire who just sold his company and he believes the entire thing is an A.I. there was a 10 minute scene last night's episode. Seven episodes in 10 minute scene where two characters ruled out the possibility that they were dead by like writing a flow chart on the wall. They're like. They do have to rule it out for the viewer because at home you're watching it like you're all dead. Right. They have to sit there with a chart and be like, here's why we can't be dead.

[Griffin McElroy]

Does it make sense at one point, does Harold Perrineau turn towards the camera and be like, hey, guys, you might remember me from Lost, and in that show, we told you a lot that we were not dead, guaranteed. And that didn't end up being entirely factual. But this is. Take me, I'm an actor. Harold Peranot is a different show. I'm a different character in this one.

[Justin McElroy]

This is all very questionable.

[Griffin McElroy]

You get the Harold Perineau guarantee. We are not dead. I wouldn't do that to you again.

[Justin McElroy]

I promise you. I promise. Harold Perineau.

[Griffin McElroy]

I fucked you bad Last time on Lost with this. Not on from different show. Four letter name. Monosyllabic. Yes, but that's in my contract. That's the only kind of show I'm in.

[Justin McElroy]

When you arrive in town, you have to decide if you want to live in town or in Colony House. Colony House is all about trying to find a way out. In town are people that have decided that they are. That they're staying put. And when the family arrives, the daughter says she's going to Colony House instead of in town. So they live in different places. Now, did I mention that Harold Perrineau has a son that does not enjoy him that lives in Colony House? Did I mention Harold Perrino is the sheriff? He is.

[Griffin McElroy]

I'm gonna watch this freaking show, man.

[Justin McElroy]

Griffin, watch this fucking show. You will not believe how many different scenes every episode has.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I do recommend you join the subreddits, plural, because there are at least three of them. A fourth one got deleted, but now it sounds like two new ones might have sprung up. There is a hot conversation around from.

[Justin McElroy]

Can'T keep from down from feels like. This is what from feels like to me. From feels like that. These companies are trying to make it seem like they have more of a selection by artificially generating logos of shows that don't exist. But I fucked up because I was stoned on tour and looking for something to watch in my hotel room, and I clicked on one of those things that no one has intended to click on. And now I think the algorithm is building the show scene by scene. As I'm watching it, like, anywhere I'm not looking. The show is like, I don't know, maybe the devil made her write something on her arm. So hard to do this.

[Griffin McElroy]

Harold and the gang are like, oh, shit, someone clicked. Okay, you go over there, you're a vampire.

[Justin McElroy]

Wait, did you. Did I mention the vampires? Because I shouldn't have mentioned the vampires. That's A big spoiler. I already met. Did I blow that?

[Griffin McElroy]

You didn't. I just guessed. I just guessed.

[Justin McElroy]

I'm kidding. I don't actually know. There's vampires.

[Griffin McElroy]

Amazing.

[Justin McElroy]

It's unclear right now.

[Griffin McElroy]

What do you got, Chris?

[Justin McElroy]

I'm gonna watch every episode, at least two thirds of the scenes.

[Griffin McElroy]

Hell, yeah.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

We're in spooky season. So I'm going to recommend Little Shop of Horrors to start things off for most people who are getting into it. I went and saw it the other night at the movie theater, and as with so many old movies, seeing it with an audience who does not know the movie, a real treat. People being absolutely stunned to see Steve Martin show up as a sadomasochistic dentist. And Bill Murray is his biggest fan. Just wonderful. People are really into it. It's also a great movie in that there's a director's cut of it now that ends with 15 minutes of pure giant stop motion destruction. And when you go see it at a movie theater, you don't know which one you're gonna get. So the whole movie, you're like, am I gonna get a happy ending or am I gonna get 15 minutes of total chaos? And we got the chaos, and I was happy about it. But really, either version is wonderful. And if you've never seen it before, basically, we wouldn't have all of the great Disney musicals of the 90s if not for this musical. So if you like those, you will definitely like this because it's kind of the ur text of things like Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast.

[Griffin McElroy]

I've never seen this movie.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Really?

[Justin McElroy]

You should watch it. It's incredibly entertaining.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

You.

[Justin McElroy]

Every second of it is an absolute delight.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, okay.

[Justin McElroy]

By the way, I showed Sidney the thing for the first time last night.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Oh, how'd that go?

[Griffin McElroy]

Dude, that's my favorite. That's my favorite horror movie probably ever made.

[Justin McElroy]

Within the first five minutes, she was like, why are they trying to blow up a dog? I'm like, oh, my God, this is gonna be the best night of my life. I'm so excited to watch this thing. Okay, but wait. If you haven't seen the thing, wait till you see why they're trying to blow up a dog.

[Griffin McElroy]

If you haven't seen the thing, there's a very good. I get it. People are very sensitive about dogs. There's a very good reason why they're trying to blow up this dog. Fully justified. Fully justified.

[Justin McElroy]

If you've never watched the thing that. Oh, I've watched it probably three times in the past. In the past year. It's so good. It's really, really good.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Have you ever seen the Clay Mated version of the thing?

[Justin McElroy]

No.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Okay. I'm gonna include this in the newsletter too. I think you're gonna enjoy this a lot if you want to see little cute Claymission cats.

[Justin McElroy]

I think it's better than Halloween, personally.

[Griffin McElroy]

Oh yeah, man.

[Justin McElroy]

Oh, okay, good. I thought this was more Halloween, I.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Think is significant because it kind of sets up a genre. It's an important movie. Right.

[Griffin McElroy]

It's culturally significant. The Thing is a kick ass action horror mystery. A kick ass action horror sci fi mystery. And it does all those things really, really, really fucking well.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

And it's also just so decadent. It feels like everybody involved getting to.

[Griffin McElroy]

Go going full ham out, full brimley, like. Yeah.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

So talk about also stop motion in that movie. Some truly grotesque.

[Griffin McElroy]

The best ever. Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

So good. Has a great thing that I've never noticed where there's so many times you get Keith David or Kurt Russell absolutely torching a monster and you want them to say something cool while they're doing it. And they never do until the very end when Kurt Russell has the biggest throwaway, whatever. But it hits so good because they haven't been saying cool flame throw lines for the entire movie.

[Griffin McElroy]

Did either of you see the new Alien movie?

[Justin McElroy]

It was good, right? It was supposed to be good.

[Griffin McElroy]

I didn't see it. I'm asking because I was curious of your opinions if you'd seen it.

[Justin McElroy]

No, I saw Deadpool twice.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Really? Tell me about that decision.

[Griffin McElroy]

I mean, I saw it with Juice the first time. It kicks ass.

[Justin McElroy]

Wildly entertaining movie. Whips ass.

[Griffin McElroy]

This is a lot of fun.

[Justin McElroy]

Wildly entertaining. And I didn't see it with Griffin, but it was really entertaining.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Now I want to see it. I feel like I've been misguided by people now.

[Justin McElroy]

Anybody who says that it's not an absolute triumph has really no heart inside of them. Yeah, they are a mean person if they didn't like that.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

All I know is a spoiler about a certain Cajun character.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, of course. That's been pretty spoiler.

[Justin McElroy]

It's like. It is a very. I think it's really interesting. And if you like movies and you're interested in movies, I think that it's.

[Griffin McElroy]

If you have any nostalgia, any at all, for the Fox universe of Marvel films, this film was made for you. Chris Plant.

[Justin McElroy]

I will say for me it was a fascinating exercise in watching how to watch someone excise a property from a reality and attempt to like tastefully graft it into another reality while isolating the parts of the reality that they didn't want to keep. And also there's, like, lawyers watching the entire thing as it speaks and still make that a narratively satisfying film. I think that's fascinating. Yeah.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yes, That's. I think that was my fear is that last part would be the first thing to suffer in such adventure.

[Justin McElroy]

No, it's about it.

[Griffin McElroy]

It's about the thing.

[Justin McElroy]

It's about it.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I'm going to watch it and I will report back. I'm excited.

[Justin McElroy]

Please do next week, will you?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Next week?

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah. You have seven days to go watch.

[Justin McElroy]

Seven days to watch. I mean, you've actually.

[Griffin McElroy]

Or you'll die if you don't. You have Deadpool climb out of the TV screen and he's like, hey, Chungas.

[Justin McElroy]

Just. Okay. I know that we're trying to wrap up super quick because I think it'll hit with a lot of people. Shudder is doing a new docu series which is about. It's one of those, like, I'm such a sucker for.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

Compilations that are talking head compilations about horror movies where you see, like 100 horror movies just to have something on in the background. This is like a sort of walkthrough of, like, the first episode is about tropes. So you have all these, like, heavy hitters talking about, like, why certain tropes exist, whatever, but they get into more interesting areas. Like there was an episode we watched last two nights ago that was just Japanese horror. So it's just like going through that subgenre and talking about some of, like, the high water marks and the history of it and stuff like that. If you're interested in. If you want to watch something like seasonal that's not necessarily, like, terrifying.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah, it's.

[Justin McElroy]

I love stuff like that.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

What's the name of that. That series? Well, I'll get it from you later and we can add it because it's not the. They did the hundred and one scariest movies of all.

[Justin McElroy]

No, it's similar. I'll find the name.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. We'll get it. Hey, did we. Did we do a show? Oh, I should. I want to. I want to thank some people really quick. I just want to thank some patrons for joining. We have Sam EL Horstman, five. Nicholas, Erica, Zachary. All these wonderful people. Farines, Pink Navel. I mean, so many wonderful, kind people who are checking out our Patreon. We appreciate you so much. We have so much good stuff on the Patreon right now. We have a great besties bracket that we did. We have Fresh Nye talking about a variety of indie games I think y'all will really want to check out, including, honestly, an evolution of Stardew Valley that I find personally much more appealing than the original Stardew Valley. It has really stuck with me, and I am.

[Griffin McElroy]

Fields of Mystery. Yeah. Sorry, were you trying to keep it a secret to like.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

No, it's not a Field of Mystery.

[Justin McElroy]

Horror's Greatest was the name of that shutter series. Horror's Greatest Horrors Greatest.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

People couldn't see it because it's an audio show, but when I said Field of Mystery, Griffin was fucking greatest, I recoiled. He was.

[Griffin McElroy]

I recoiled as if I had seen an asp on my desk. Games this week talked about children, Immortal Core Keeper, Grapple Dogs, Cosmic Canines. I talked about some exercise, but not Grapple Dogs.

[Justin McElroy]

Don't waste your time.

[Griffin McElroy]

Original Grapple Dogs.

[Justin McElroy]

World of War Crime. No, sorry, singular.

[Griffin McElroy]

We talked about other exercise jams. We talked about. I forget, man. We didn't write any of this stuff down in the notes. This is really Russ's job. Russ is so good. When we say something, he write it down.

[Justin McElroy]

We talked about from. And that's the only thing about from quite a bit.

[Griffin McElroy]

And perfect days.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah.

[Griffin McElroy]

I'll be honest, Chris. I forgot.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Little Shop of Horrors. Yeah. Remember, you're gonna watch it.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah. Yeah. And you're gonna.

[Justin McElroy]

We all have homework this week.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I'm gonna watch the. The Deadpool, the Ring mashup. It's gonna be great.

[Justin McElroy]

I'm gonna tell you all that next week. We're gonna be talking about UFO 50, a game I seriously never thought would actually be released.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Games.

[Justin McElroy]

15 games collection.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah. How am I gonna have time to watch a movie when I'm playing 50 video games?

[Justin McElroy]

50? Well, none of them are real Walmart games. That's why.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah.

[Griffin McElroy]

If you combine the 50 games.

[Justin McElroy]

If you combine the 50 games.

[Griffin McElroy]

It's a Walmart game.

[Justin McElroy]

That's gonna do it for us this week on the best teams. Be sure to join us again next week, cuz soon the world's best friends pick the world's best.