# Giant Bombcast 955: Smash or Pass

An episode of [Giant Bombcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/274450056), 26 Aug 2026, 2 h 05 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/74689687/giant_bombcast_955.mp3

This week we're starting with the NEWS because Opening Night Live just happened and we're gonna recap it! We get into all of the other big news stories like the ongoing GTA VI leaks, PlayStation hammering home console exclusivity, and more! We also chat about the Duskbloods network test, Marvel Snap, Twisted Towers, and Blood Dungeon. Speaking of Blood Dungeon, for the first 50 NEW subcribers to Giant Bomb Premium, YOU get a Steam code for Blood Dungeon! Support us directly and get new episodes ad-free by signing up for Giant Bomb Premium at https://www.giantbomb.com/join -------------------- This episode is brought to you by Video Game Town, a truly indie website that is constantly striving to employ and pay some of your favorite writers to build a new community for smart and fun gaming coverage. Check them out at videogame.town for daily pieces! You can directly support them on Patreon at patreon.com/videogametown for exclusive articles and podcasts. -------------------- Timestamps (note, timestamps on this free version may vary greatly depending on how many ads you receive): 0:00:00 Intro 0:26:07 Gamescom News Roundup 0:48:31 The GTA 6 Leaker War Is Getting Weirder 0:52:56 Switch 2 Mario Kart World bundle returns at a higher price 0:55:13 Sony Is Saying “Only On PS5” Again 0:58:31 Microsoft Stops Giving Circana Its Digital Sales Data 1:02:56 Marvel Snap Draft League 1:06:15 Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls 1:09:21 Twisted Tower 1:12:54 The Duskbloods 1:20:42 Blood Dungeon 1:27:43 EMAILS! 1:47:46 YouTube Super Chats 2:00:23 Outro

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Aliens Fireteam Elite 2 launches on August 25th on PS5, Xbox, Steam,
[0:06] Speaker 1: and the Epic Games Store. On LV-558. Your squads have
[0:10] Speaker 1: grown to up to four players, so enemies and encounters
[0:13] Speaker 1: have grown in scale. But don't worry, you and your
[0:16] Speaker 1: squad can use the elements to stop Xenomorphs and synths.
[0:19] Speaker 1: You and your squad can use the elements to take
[0:21] Speaker 1: on the Xenomorphs. Burn or freeze Xenomorphs in their tracks?
[0:24] Speaker 1: Electricity may not help, but electricity can help with other
[0:27] Speaker 1: baddies instead. And it is even easier to get a
[0:30] Speaker 1: team going because the game is cross-platform at launch. Not
[0:34] Speaker 1: only can you expect an overhauled experience from the original game,
[0:38] Speaker 1: but you and your team can engage with a story
[0:42] Speaker 1: with heavy stakes. But that's not it, y'all, because you
[0:45] Speaker 1: and your squad can partake in a new horde mode
[0:48] Speaker 1: to take on waves and waves of xenomorphs, synths, and
[0:51] Speaker 1: who knows what else. See ya on LV 558. Hey everybody,
[1:24] Speaker 1: it's Tuesday, August 25th, 2026. Welcome to the Giant Bombcast,
[1:30] Speaker 1: presented by our friends over at Video Game Town. Love
[1:36] Speaker 1: to have other indie places supporting other indie places.
[1:42] Speaker 2: I'm your host, Jan Ochoa.
[1:44] Speaker 1: Joining me, co-captain of the ship, Jeff Grubb. Hey Jan,
[1:48] Speaker 1: how's it going? I'm a little tired, not gonna lie.
[1:52] Speaker 2: Yeah, we're gonna get through this together, man.
[1:54] Speaker 1: Speaking about getting through this together, I wouldn't have it
[1:56] Speaker 1: any other way without him, Jeff Bacalar.
[2:01] Speaker 2: Hey, Jan, what's up? How you doing? You look great.
[2:05] Speaker 1: I'm tired, too. Good night. Fantastic. Well, we have the
[2:09] Speaker 1: bundle of energy, the bundle of nerves. He's the Cleveland streamer.
[2:14] Speaker 2: The boy of games media, Mike Minotti. Yeah, it's all fine.
[2:21] Speaker 1: I'm doing all right. I'm doing good. You're not sad
[2:24] Speaker 1: about any celebrity deaths?
[2:27] Speaker 2: He's happy.
[2:29] Speaker 3: Way to turn that against me, actually.
[2:32] Speaker 1: Brutal.
[2:33] Speaker 2: Yeah, against you.
[2:34] Speaker 4: Yeah.
[2:35] Speaker 2: My bad.
[2:35] Speaker 1: My bad. Folks, it's been a little bit of a
[2:38] Speaker 1: long day over here at GBHQ. Dan Reichert is out
[2:41] Speaker 1: on assignment, as well as Will Crosby, over at Gamescom.
[2:47] Speaker 1: If you're listening to the Giant Bombcast right now, Maybe
[2:50] Speaker 1: get into your ear holes a little later. But that's
[2:53] Speaker 1: because we talked over opening night live. And if that
[2:55] Speaker 1: is your flavor of entertainment, that is up on YouTube
[2:59] Speaker 1: and the website right now for your viewing and listening pleasure.
[3:04] Speaker 1: Go support us. Give that a view. Give that a like.
[3:07] Speaker 1: But Jeff Grubb, how else can folks support us?
[3:11] Speaker 2: By going to giantbomb.com slash join. If you become a
[3:16] Speaker 2: member by doing that and signing up and going through
[3:18] Speaker 2: the whole rigmarole, you're going to be supporting Independent Games Media.
[3:22] Speaker 2: We're going to keep doing things our way, the way
[3:23] Speaker 2: we like to do it, with your help. We really
[3:26] Speaker 2: appreciate everyone who does support us. Thank you so, so much.
[3:29] Speaker 2: We see the people signing up. It enables us to
[3:32] Speaker 2: go back to our meetings and be like, hey, we
[3:34] Speaker 2: should do even more for all these cool people. And
[3:36] Speaker 2: that's exactly the plan going forward. So go to giantbomb.com
[3:39] Speaker 2: slash join. Gets you ad-free versions of our shows. Gets
[3:41] Speaker 2: you premium exclusive shows like..
[3:44] Speaker 1: Well, Jeff Greb, we just started a new series, a
[3:49] Speaker 1: premium series of a premium season of the Blight Club
[3:52] Speaker 1: starring Jeff Bacalar. Meow.
[3:56] Speaker 2: That's me. Meow.
[3:57] Speaker 1: That's right.
[3:58] Speaker 4: It's the best game ever. Thank you, voters. Thank you,
[4:01] Speaker 4: all the voters.
[4:03] Speaker 2: You did it.
[4:03] Speaker 4: You gave me the best game. I'm having a blast
[4:06] Speaker 4: with everyone playing it.
[4:07] Speaker 2: Not fair.
[4:09] Speaker 4: I'm serious.
[4:10] Speaker 2: I didn't know what Bly.
[4:11] Speaker 4: Club was before I started playing this game.
[4:14] Speaker 1: I do believe that.
[4:15] Speaker 4: And you guys were like, oh, we play bad games
[4:19] Speaker 4: and they're bad. And I'm just like, no, that's the
[4:22] Speaker 4: opposite experience that I'm having. It's hilarious, and I get
[4:26] Speaker 4: to dress in a costume that makes my wife love
[4:29] Speaker 4: me again. So guess what? Joke's on you, dummies.
[4:34] Speaker 1: Me, yeah. Not only can you go watch Cat Jerfman
[4:38] Speaker 1: dropping Mondays every week, we have Nine Lives of Mr. Mistoffelees,
[4:43] Speaker 1: Sewer Shark, This is the Run, which is not a
[4:45] Speaker 1: covert Blight Club season, which I've been told.
[4:48] Speaker 2: It's not. That game's good.
[4:49] Speaker 1: I like that game.
[4:50] Speaker 2: I still like that game.
[4:52] Speaker 1: You can also go watch all of the Portal Pals,
[4:54] Speaker 1: all of Mirami Tomodachi, as well as the whole vault
[4:57] Speaker 1: of premium content that we got there.
[4:59] Speaker 2: Also, this Friday, 6 p.m. Eastern, we're going to travel
[5:03] Speaker 2: back in time. We're going to do a 1990s N64
[5:07] Speaker 2: game rental night. I'm going to the giant bomb video
[5:11] Speaker 2: rental store in the sky. No, that sounds like we're dying.
[5:15] Speaker 2: Out of time. And we're going to play a bunch
[5:17] Speaker 2: of games that maybe never actually got released. I've... sent
[5:20] Speaker 2: some jolt cola to my friends and we're gonna hang
[5:23] Speaker 2: out and have a real good time lovely lovely i've
[5:25] Speaker 2: never had jolt cola uh either but tell me thank
[5:28] Speaker 2: you everyone just think you only have to take a
[5:31] Speaker 2: sip you don't have to drink the whole thing.
[5:32] Speaker 4: I'm doing a whole one i'm going okay no mikey
[5:36] Speaker 4: listen to me i'm going to the looting bin dad
[5:38] Speaker 4: you need to micro dose jolt cola okay.
[5:43] Speaker 2: I'm afraid he'll become too powerful yeah exactly.
[5:47] Speaker 1: But, folks, you can go support us for signing up
[5:49] Speaker 1: for Giant Bomb Premium YouTube memberships. But, hey, we got
[5:53] Speaker 1: something for y'all real quick. Because for the next 50
[5:59] Speaker 1: new subscribers to GiantBomb.com, premium subscribers, you will be getting
[6:05] Speaker 1: a code for Blood Dungeon.
[6:09] Speaker 2: We really like the game a lot.
[6:12] Speaker 1: So, you know, hey, support us. And then we'll give
[6:17] Speaker 1: us a little kickback over there for doing that. 50
[6:20] Speaker 1: new subscribers.
[6:22] Speaker 3: Yes, 50s are our Steam codes, everybody, for Blood Dungeon,
[6:26] Speaker 3: which is that new really fun kind of 2D auto
[6:29] Speaker 3: battler game. The game is out on Steam, PS5, Switch 2,
[6:34] Speaker 3: and Xbox. If you aren't just interested in one of
[6:36] Speaker 3: our codes, it's only $ 10 right now with a 15%
[6:38] Speaker 3: launch discount. We've been playing it. We're going to talk
[6:41] Speaker 3: about it. later ourselves. But yes, giantbomb.com slash join. First
[6:46] Speaker 3: 50 people starting now will get one of these Steam
[6:49] Speaker 3: codes for Blood Dungeon. You better do it, or else
[6:54] Speaker 3: the dungeon's not the only thing that's going to be bloodied.
[6:57] Speaker 4: Whoa.
[6:58] Speaker 2: Mike, I would love for you to record..
[7:02] Speaker 4: The fast-talking fine print guy voice.
[7:05] Speaker 2: Oh, the micromachine guy?
[7:06] Speaker 4: Oh, the micromachine guy. I would love for you to
[7:08] Speaker 4: do that just to say like, oh, new subscribers only. Oh,
[7:12] Speaker 4: there is a purchase necessary.
[7:13] Speaker 2: I don't know. We'll come up with more stuff for you.
[7:14] Speaker 2: I'm surprised that guy didn't become president.
[7:16] Speaker 4: Yeah, at this rate, president of Earth.
[7:20] Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. Right? Yeah, yeah. Boys, it's been a long day.
[7:25] Speaker 1: This may be a shorter show for folks listening at
[7:28] Speaker 1: home just because we talked over A two and a
[7:30] Speaker 1: half hour long show just now, opening night live. But
[7:35] Speaker 1: how's everyone doing?
[7:37] Speaker 2: I'm still alive, so I'm doing great.
[7:39] Speaker 1: There we go. There we go. Mr. Bacalar, you came
[7:42] Speaker 1: back from vacay.
[7:43] Speaker 4: Yeah, man, I had about 90 minutes into the ONL,
[7:49] Speaker 4: I was like, we should not have come back today.
[7:54] Speaker 4: We should have stayed tonight and then back tomorrow. And
[7:57] Speaker 4: I regretted a lot because I drove for two and
[8:00] Speaker 4: a half hours and then. Just jumped right in this chair. So, yeah,
[8:06] Speaker 4: I did.
[8:07] Speaker 2: Oh, gosh, guys.
[8:09] Speaker 4: I think this is the worst four days of eating
[8:13] Speaker 4: I've ever done.
[8:14] Speaker 1: Oh, really? Good, good. Wow.
[8:15] Speaker 2: Hell yeah. Do you have a piece of bread or something?
[8:18] Speaker 2: Piece of bread. Okay, can I guess? He doesn't know
[8:21] Speaker 2: about the bullying we did while he was gone. No, no,
[8:24] Speaker 2: no bullying. Mike, we had a code of honor on
[8:27] Speaker 2: that podcast. What's your problem, Mike? There was a very
[8:30] Speaker 2: mean voicemail about you.
[8:32] Speaker 1: We thought it was funny. What?
[8:34] Speaker 2: It's the new theme song we've decided.
[8:36] Speaker 4: About bread?
[8:38] Speaker 1: What about bread?
[8:40] Speaker 2: I love bread.
[8:41] Speaker 1: What's the problem?
[8:42] Speaker 2: You have to take it up with the caller. We
[8:45] Speaker 2: didn't say it.
[8:46] Speaker 1: We just laughed.
[8:47] Speaker 4: Where I was wasn't like a bread. It wasn't bread heavy,
[8:50] Speaker 4: although I did have a lot of pizza. The pizza
[8:53] Speaker 4: down there is amazing. I had like a funnel cake.
[8:56] Speaker 4: I had lobster rolls. I had like, I had a,
[9:00] Speaker 4: Stace and I split up a big ass lobster stuff
[9:03] Speaker 4: with crab.
[9:04] Speaker 2: It was. Oh shit.
[9:05] Speaker 1: It was, it was nuts.
[9:07] Speaker 4: And just like every day is just like ice cream
[9:09] Speaker 4: and fucking bullshit. And man, it just felt so good
[9:13] Speaker 4: to be. And then I come home and I weigh myself.
[9:16] Speaker 4: And I'm not even, nothing changed.
[9:18] Speaker 2: What happened? Maybe it's because I did 20,000 steps every day.
[9:21] Speaker 1: You were probably walking a lot.
[9:22] Speaker 4: Yeah. Because it's a huge ass boardwalk. But yeah, anyway,
[9:26] Speaker 4: I did that for four days and I feel like
[9:30] Speaker 4: I need to detox. And man, and eat bread apparently.
[9:34] Speaker 2: I'm going to eat a bunch of bread. Bread and chicken.
[9:37] Speaker 2: I'm Mr.
[9:37] Speaker 1: Bagels.
[9:38] Speaker 4: What do you mean bread? What's the problem?
[9:40] Speaker 1: Hey. Don't take it up with us. That was a caller, right?
[9:46] Speaker 2: What's happening?
[9:48] Speaker 4: I'm gone for four days and something happens on the
[9:52] Speaker 4: dump truck?
[9:53] Speaker 1: Yes, for sure.
[9:54] Speaker 3: We turned it against you.
[9:55] Speaker 1: Well, I mean, that's what the dump truck is for.
[9:57] Speaker 1: We'll catch you up on Thursday.
[10:00] Speaker 4: I also spent, I'm not joking guys I spent four
[10:03] Speaker 4: days in the sun And this is what I look
[10:05] Speaker 4: like So.
[10:07] Speaker 2: That is like A big hat, is it just like Slathered,
[10:11] Speaker 2: like what was the move? Is the sun different on
[10:13] Speaker 2: the east coast?
[10:15] Speaker 4: No, same star, same star, same exact star in our
[10:19] Speaker 4: solar system. Just, uh, no, it's, um, I just, uh,
[10:24] Speaker 4: I just, I'm like, I'm just super vigilant. I'm just like,
[10:27] Speaker 4: I cannot, uh, it's a lot of umbrellas on the beach,
[10:30] Speaker 4: long sleeve, like.
[10:31] Speaker 2: Beach shirts, beach shirt. I do have like.
[10:34] Speaker 4: One of those, like, yeah, hoodies, long sleeve thing I wear.
[10:38] Speaker 4: I did see someone walking on the boardwalk yesterday that
[10:41] Speaker 4: made me look like a noob. It made me look
[10:44] Speaker 4: like an amateur sun-dodging bitch, I gotta say.
[10:47] Speaker 2: Oh, wow. This guy had the parasail. Like an army
[10:50] Speaker 2: of drones above them blotting out the sun? Yeah, for sure.
[10:54] Speaker 4: And I think I got moonburned. I think I got
[10:57] Speaker 4: a touch of moonburn.
[10:59] Speaker 2: He's inventing new kinds of whiteness. Does the moon hurt you?
[11:02] Speaker 2: That's how pale you are?
[11:04] Speaker 1: Yes, Mike.
[11:04] Speaker 4: That's the joke.
[11:05] Speaker 2: That's a problem.
[11:07] Speaker 4: This dude had a parasol, like the umbrella. He was
[11:10] Speaker 4: covered head to toe. I could not see skin. He
[11:14] Speaker 4: had gloves, the whole thing. Did you see Dracula? No,
[11:18] Speaker 4: he might have had a medical condition.
[11:21] Speaker 2: Was he dressed up like the leper from Kingdom of Heaven?
[11:24] Speaker 2: Was he Dr.
[11:25] Speaker 1: Moreau?
[11:26] Speaker 4: That reference is lost on me. But this dude made me...
[11:31] Speaker 4: I was embarrassed to be in his presence. I'm like, oh,
[11:34] Speaker 4: you're the master.
[11:35] Speaker 2: I'm just like a disciple.
[11:38] Speaker 1: Was it the monk from the Da Vinci Code?
[11:41] Speaker 4: No.
[11:43] Speaker 2: Maybe.
[11:44] Speaker 4: I actually don't know because no skin was visible on
[11:47] Speaker 4: this man. But anyway, it was a great time. A
[11:49] Speaker 4: lot of arcadey stuff. I also got to say, holy shit. Uh,
[11:55] Speaker 4: the boardwalk, you know, usually is like a, is like
[11:57] Speaker 4: a good indicator of like what the trend is, right?
[12:00] Speaker 2: Like what's your trend, right?
[12:01] Speaker 1: Right.
[12:02] Speaker 2: Like what's the thing you can like, like put on
[12:04] Speaker 2: a shelf that will get a bunch of kids begging
[12:06] Speaker 2: their mom and dad. Oh, right.
[12:08] Speaker 1: You were talking about those squeezy thingies before, right?
[12:10] Speaker 4: That's right.
[12:11] Speaker 5: Right.
[12:11] Speaker 4: Yeah.
[12:11] Speaker 2: The Nitos or whatever.
[12:12] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[12:13] Speaker 4: So Nitos were everywhere. The mostly fake ones.
[12:16] Speaker 2: I imagine.
[12:16] Speaker 1: Of course.
[12:17] Speaker 4: Um, and uh but but can you guys guess like
[12:20] Speaker 4: what they were printing on shirts this year like what
[12:22] Speaker 4: was that thing it's it's not like uh you it's
[12:27] Speaker 4: it's not it's uninspired it's just like it's a rehash
[12:30] Speaker 4: of his mom donnie or something no i will that'd
[12:33] Speaker 4: be hilarious.
[12:34] Speaker 3: Is it shrek again don't bully me i'll come that's
[12:39] Speaker 3: another good boardwalk shirt Yeah, well, you'd be surprised.
[12:43] Speaker 1: Okay.
[12:43] Speaker 4: Don't bully me or I'll come.
[12:46] Speaker 2: Is Big Dog back? Yeah. Yeah, that's right. Big Dog t-shirts. Nope. Nope.
[12:51] Speaker 4: No co-ed naked. No Big Johnsons.
[12:54] Speaker 1: Nope.
[12:55] Speaker 2: Just LeBron.
[12:56] Speaker 1: Wow.
[12:57] Speaker 4: It's just LeBron again.
[12:58] Speaker 2: It's just LeBron? Are they expecting, like, are they, like,
[13:01] Speaker 2: I guess the boardwalk would probably get people from Philly, right?
[13:03] Speaker 1: Oh, wait.
[13:04] Speaker 2: That's why. Yes, there you go.
[13:07] Speaker 4: Oh, I'm an idiot.
[13:08] Speaker 2: Yeah, where I go to the shore.
[13:11] Speaker 4: Is just like extreme eastern Philadelphia.
[13:14] Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what it is.
[13:16] Speaker 4: Yeah, it's south enough because the New York sport, it's
[13:18] Speaker 4: not a thing. You're right, it's still not inspired, though. No,
[13:21] Speaker 4: it's bullshit. Yeah, but it's just, yeah, I didn't get it.
[13:24] Speaker 4: I mean, everyone's got like Phillies and Flyers shit. and
[13:27] Speaker 4: eagles birds i feel like finnelli finnelli would just be
[13:30] Speaker 4: in heaven down there man right oh.
[13:32] Speaker 2: My god just every go birds answered by another go birds.
[13:37] Speaker 4: Just like every flag is just birds bird it's just
[13:40] Speaker 4: so insane everyone is just so mentally ill over these
[13:43] Speaker 4: three teams it's just like god uh and then another
[13:47] Speaker 4: theme on the boar walk which was uh uh more
[13:50] Speaker 4: repulsive um The amount of like, we gave our menu
[13:55] Speaker 4: to AI and then printed.
[13:57] Speaker 2: It out for you to see.
[13:59] Speaker 4: Everything looks the fucking same.
[14:01] Speaker 1: You boomer ass morons.
[14:03] Speaker 2: It is so upsetting. It's fucking terrible.
[14:07] Speaker 3: How much the small business restaurants have gone to this.
[14:09] Speaker 1: Oh, every fucking.
[14:11] Speaker 4: HVAC asshole on the planet is like, I'd rather spend
[14:15] Speaker 4: zero dollars than like a hundred to give a local
[14:18] Speaker 4: artist some work. It's so dumb. I know you're full
[14:21] Speaker 4: of shit. The second you show me your AI, they
[14:24] Speaker 4: all look the same. They all have the font and
[14:26] Speaker 4: the text angled the same direction. They're all like curved
[14:29] Speaker 4: in a dumb way. The same bullet point like set up.
[14:31] Speaker 2: Yeah. It's It's so obvious. It's such a self-report. It's
[14:34] Speaker 2: so stupid. You are all so stupid.
[14:37] Speaker 1: The crazy thing is that some of them get exported
[14:40] Speaker 1: at such a low DPI that when they get printed out,
[14:43] Speaker 1: it's like just super pixelated.
[14:45] Speaker 2: It's so great.
[14:47] Speaker 4: Oh, and look, maybe the bar shouldn't be as high
[14:50] Speaker 4: for the boardwalk. I get it.
[14:52] Speaker 1: I get it.
[14:53] Speaker 2: It's the boardwalk. They were never trying.
[14:56] Speaker 4: You were just frying shit. I understand.
[14:58] Speaker 2: But still.
[14:59] Speaker 1: Come on. It's upsetting.
[15:00] Speaker 2: It's sad. It's sad. It's just like you make often
[15:04] Speaker 2: it's restaurants and it's like you're making my food. And
[15:06] Speaker 2: I just want to believe like you think that's an
[15:08] Speaker 2: art worth cherishing.
[15:09] Speaker 1: Right.
[15:10] Speaker 2: And it's something about like that AI menu makes me think, oh,
[15:13] Speaker 2: you this is all just a scheme for you.
[15:17] Speaker 4: Yes, it totally. And it bothers me that these people
[15:21] Speaker 4: must think that they're like pulling one over.
[15:24] Speaker 2: I got a robot.
[15:26] Speaker 4: To do this for me.
[15:27] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[15:28] Speaker 2: You know, it's just insane.
[15:29] Speaker 4: Um, and then like, you know, when you check into
[15:32] Speaker 4: like a hotel or a Gary B or whatever it is,
[15:33] Speaker 4: you get like the menu, like the coupon book and
[15:36] Speaker 4: all the.
[15:36] Speaker 2: Coupons look exactly the same.
[15:39] Speaker 4: It's just, I don't get it anymore, man.
[15:41] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[15:43] Speaker 2: Anyway, it was a great vacation.
[15:44] Speaker 1: Cool.
[15:44] Speaker 2: I'm glad you had a good time. Well, was it, um,
[15:47] Speaker 2: was it long enough? Cause it was a pretty quick one.
[15:49] Speaker 2: You guys kind of straddled the weekend a little bit.
[15:51] Speaker 2: I wondered like, is that enough for you? Like when
[15:54] Speaker 2: you go through the effort, I guess it's not that far,
[15:56] Speaker 2: but you guys did make an effort. Was it enough?
[15:59] Speaker 4: Um, in honesty, no, I don't think I.
[16:02] Speaker 2: Feel the same. Yeah.
[16:04] Speaker 1: Right.
[16:04] Speaker 4: Like, I think, um, I, you know, I w I'm
[16:07] Speaker 4: able to kind of just turn it off and relax
[16:09] Speaker 4: and do our thing.
[16:10] Speaker 2: But I, I do think like, uh.
[16:12] Speaker 4: Especially this morning was like, man, I wish we, I
[16:14] Speaker 4: wish we like figured out some more time here, but
[16:17] Speaker 4: we'll squeeze in another thing here or there, but you know,
[16:20] Speaker 4: this has got to get back.
[16:20] Speaker 2: Who's going to hockey starting.
[16:22] Speaker 1: So yeah, there we go.
[16:23] Speaker 2: That's it.
[16:24] Speaker 4: He's practicing right now.
[16:25] Speaker 2: So yeah.
[16:26] Speaker 1: Um, Grub, Mikey, how y'all doing before we get on.
[16:30] Speaker 2: With the show? I just, real quick, I have a
[16:32] Speaker 2: quick one, Mike. I was reading a book recently that
[16:35] Speaker 2: Dan Brown, kind of cheesy stuff, but sometimes I'm in
[16:38] Speaker 2: the mood for him. He had a new one last year,
[16:40] Speaker 2: The Secret of Secrets. I put it down for a
[16:41] Speaker 2: while and I picked it back up and I'm glad
[16:43] Speaker 2: I did because I think I made a joke on
[16:46] Speaker 2: maybe Blue Sky last year. I can't find it about...
[16:49] Speaker 2: Like Dan Brown will be like, oh, the main character is,
[16:52] Speaker 2: he encountered a copy of Battle Tanks or something. And
[16:56] Speaker 2: I remember one of my students showing me that. And
[16:59] Speaker 2: then that scene almost happens exactly like that in that book.
[17:03] Speaker 2: I kept reading. It's like. I saw Halo and like,
[17:06] Speaker 2: he's like dealing with religious stuff like always. And he said,
[17:09] Speaker 2: but this wasn't the Halo I'm used to. This is
[17:11] Speaker 2: for the Xbox. And my students told me about that.
[17:14] Speaker 2: Of course, it does have a lot of Christian themes,
[17:16] Speaker 2: you know, with Halo and the Covenant. And I'm like, oh,
[17:19] Speaker 2: my God, I did never put two and two together.
[17:22] Speaker 2: That Halo actually does draw on a lot of like
[17:24] Speaker 2: Christian vocabulary. Phoenix down, right?
[17:28] Speaker 1: Yes.
[17:28] Speaker 2: It was a Phoenix down moment for me. Oh, yeah.
[17:32] Speaker 1: Well, then what's the flood?
[17:34] Speaker 2: The flood.
[17:34] Speaker 1: The flood.
[17:36] Speaker 2: Mike, the ark?
[17:41] Speaker 1: Yes.
[17:42] Speaker 2: It's Cortana and Angel. I'm surprised.
[17:46] Speaker 4: If this was Dan talking, I'd be like, I'm surprised
[17:49] Speaker 4: that you grew up.
[17:50] Speaker 2: It's a covenant. I know. Yeah, no, I know. It
[17:52] Speaker 2: was like such like, right. I cannot believe that it
[17:55] Speaker 2: never occurred to me.
[17:56] Speaker 1: I would very much.
[17:57] Speaker 2: It's so obvious now. I never thought. I didn't know
[18:00] Speaker 2: Halo had it in it. I didn't think. Yeah, that's
[18:02] Speaker 2: what it was. I didn't know Halo had it in it.
[18:04] Speaker 2: Much thought put into Halo. Well, apparently John 117 is
[18:09] Speaker 2: like a biblical verse.
[18:10] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[18:12] Speaker 4: I mean, if you rearrange the letters in the Virgin Mary,
[18:16] Speaker 4: that does spell Cortana.
[18:18] Speaker 2: Yeah, it does.
[18:19] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[18:19] Speaker 2: It's three, four, three, like a Bible. It's a Bible.
[18:23] Speaker 2: It's just a Bible.
[18:24] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[18:25] Speaker 2: But yeah, that was definitely one of those ones where
[18:26] Speaker 2: I'm like using a power tool, working in my laundry
[18:30] Speaker 2: room still. And that happens like, oh, what the fuck?
[18:32] Speaker 1: Really?
[18:33] Speaker 2: Oh, that's another thing that's happened this weekend is I'm
[18:35] Speaker 2: at a point where. I'm looking for reasons to use
[18:37] Speaker 2: these tools I bought. Hell yeah. Any sort of reason
[18:40] Speaker 2: to get the nail gun out. Yes, 100% I'm doing that.
[18:43] Speaker 1: Hell yeah.
[18:44] Speaker 2: I needed to get the, I had a glue, or yes,
[18:47] Speaker 2: I had a glue thing. I had to get the,
[18:48] Speaker 2: you know, the rubber tip needed to be cut off.
[18:50] Speaker 2: Didn't get scissors. I used the oscillating multi-tool and just
[18:53] Speaker 2: like chipped away at it.
[18:55] Speaker 1: Really?
[18:55] Speaker 4: Yes. That's a bit overkill, but I respect it.
[18:58] Speaker 2: I'm like, this is so fucking stupid as I was
[19:00] Speaker 2: pressing the button and going to do it. But I'm just, yeah,
[19:03] Speaker 2: I'm that guy now. I need to play with these things.
[19:05] Speaker 4: I'm no better. I'm the guy using a miter saw
[19:08] Speaker 4: to cut a hockey stick.
[19:09] Speaker 2: Yes, 100%. I'm like, hold on.
[19:14] Speaker 4: Can you take an inch off this?
[19:15] Speaker 2: I'm like, hold on.
[19:15] Speaker 5: I have to put safety goggles on.
[19:20] Speaker 4: I'll be back in 10 minutes.
[19:22] Speaker 1: Hold on.
[19:23] Speaker 2: Yeah. But that's, that's been my weekend.
[19:24] Speaker 1: Lovely.
[19:25] Speaker 4: I just want to throw out one other thing. If
[19:27] Speaker 4: you humor me, I just like, when I go to
[19:29] Speaker 4: the boardwalk, it's a lot of people watching and it's
[19:31] Speaker 4: a lot of like understanding where the culture is. And
[19:33] Speaker 4: when I say culture, I mean like just white suburban boomers,
[19:38] Speaker 4: like what they're up to, what they're.
[19:39] Speaker 2: Doing, what they're thinking. These motherfuckers got to go shopping. Okay.
[19:43] Speaker 4: You got to go back shopping. You got to go
[19:45] Speaker 4: to the stores. You got to go shopping because your
[19:47] Speaker 4: entire wardrobe can't just be the american flag like you
[19:51] Speaker 4: can't just.
[19:52] Speaker 1: It's all they know man just.
[19:54] Speaker 4: Wear like everything everyone wears it says the same version
[20:00] Speaker 4: of freedom or bravery or war is awesome and You
[20:04] Speaker 4: know what else it says? These motherfuckers, these pricks, they
[20:07] Speaker 4: walk around and they got a shirt that says 250
[20:10] Speaker 4: years of freedom.
[20:12] Speaker 2: Not for everybody, motherfucker. What do you mean? What do
[20:15] Speaker 2: you mean? There should be an asterisk there for sure.
[20:19] Speaker 2: Who the fuck for?
[20:21] Speaker 4: Imagine walking around being like, yeah, that's right, 250 years
[20:23] Speaker 4: of freedom for everybody except every minority that's ever walked
[20:27] Speaker 4: the goddamn earth. How brain dead could you be wearing
[20:32] Speaker 4: that seriously?
[20:33] Speaker 2: Did you did you see the news story over the
[20:35] Speaker 2: weekend about the couple that got interviewed about like why
[20:38] Speaker 2: they were down with Donnie, even though they voted for
[20:40] Speaker 2: Trump a bunch of times? They're like, well, first, he's
[20:42] Speaker 2: Italian because his name ends in an I. Oh, my God.
[20:48] Speaker 2: He's obviously not a socialist because he talks about like
[20:51] Speaker 2: making things cheaper and socialists only talk about making things
[20:53] Speaker 2: more expensive.
[20:54] Speaker 1: And it's like, oh, how do these people let's go live? It's.
[21:01] Speaker 2: This is the way, though, apparently. All right. Just nominate
[21:04] Speaker 2: more Italians. Yeah, exactly. Totally.
[21:08] Speaker 1: Oh, boy. Oh, boy. Oh, boy.
[21:11] Speaker 3: Well, I had to watch six hours of children's soccer
[21:15] Speaker 3: on Saturday.
[21:16] Speaker 2: I want to say you looked fucked up on Saturday.
[21:21] Speaker 3: Well, it started at 8 a.m. I did not get
[21:24] Speaker 3: much sleep the night before. And it was like four
[21:27] Speaker 3: kids with four games, like 30 minute breaks in between them.
[21:31] Speaker 2: The sun was beating me.
[21:32] Speaker 3: I got burned on my head because I forgot my hat.
[21:35] Speaker 3: So I ran out there, you know, different. I think
[21:38] Speaker 3: like the youngest is like four or something. And that
[21:41] Speaker 3: was like, you know, basically just chickens running around the
[21:44] Speaker 3: field with the soccer balls.
[21:45] Speaker 2: It's funny. It's funny.
[21:49] Speaker 3: It was a lot of children's soccer. But we went
[21:52] Speaker 3: to Ikea and Costco afterwards, although. this kind of there's
[21:56] Speaker 3: like a weird incident at the at the costco where
[21:58] Speaker 3: we were leaving i've never been to a costco i
[22:00] Speaker 3: was very excited oh really and i've heard about this
[22:03] Speaker 3: chicken bake thing okay time we're leaving i'm like oh
[22:06] Speaker 3: guys i'm gonna get a chicken bake and like my
[22:09] Speaker 3: dad and my brother just didn't want to have anything
[22:11] Speaker 3: to do with like no no we gotta go we
[22:12] Speaker 3: gotta go i'm like there's no why i can't do
[22:14] Speaker 3: it we're gonna go sit down somewhere I'm like, okay.
[22:17] Speaker 2: Then we leave.
[22:17] Speaker 1: I'm like, where are we going to go to eat? Like, well,
[22:19] Speaker 1: we're not going to go anywhere. We're just going to Ikea.
[22:21] Speaker 2: Mike, this is awful.
[22:22] Speaker 1: Can you believe it?
[22:23] Speaker 2: No, I can't. They did not care. They did not
[22:26] Speaker 2: care at all. Literally, Steph just went to Costco yesterday
[22:30] Speaker 2: and got the whole family a pizza and some chicken.
[22:32] Speaker 2: And everyone in this whole family was so excited. It's
[22:35] Speaker 2: always so good. I'm sorry that this happened to you.
[22:38] Speaker 1: I'm so sorry.
[22:39] Speaker 3: I did get some meatballs at Ikea, at least. That
[22:42] Speaker 3: was pretty good.
[22:43] Speaker 2: That makes up for it.
[22:43] Speaker 1: That's good, at least.
[22:44] Speaker 3: The other store food, yes. The other store food. The
[22:47] Speaker 3: two stores that also have surprisingly good food options as
[22:51] Speaker 3: well in there. So it all worked out. I bought
[22:54] Speaker 3: one of those glass display case thingies at the Ikea
[22:57] Speaker 3: I got to put together. Now I'm going to put
[22:58] Speaker 3: some of my rare games in that. So I'll have
[23:00] Speaker 3: a whole shelf just for Cubivore, right?
[23:02] Speaker 2: Stuff like that.
[23:04] Speaker 1: Okay.
[23:07] Speaker 2: Wait, the mattress Yes, I got a Costco mattress You've
[23:11] Speaker 2: not opened this yet, right?
[23:12] Speaker 3: I've not opened it yet, it's still rolled up in
[23:13] Speaker 3: my living room I guess I know to get rid
[23:17] Speaker 3: of the old mattress I think I have to call people,
[23:19] Speaker 3: I can't just put it on the curb It.
[23:21] Speaker 2: Depends, call your waste people Sometimes they don't care, sometimes
[23:24] Speaker 2: they're like No, throw that shit out there, we'll take
[23:25] Speaker 2: it And sometimes you have to make a special delivery
[23:27] Speaker 2: Sometimes when you get a mattress delivered They'll take the
[23:30] Speaker 2: old one away Sometimes Your town might have a bulk
[23:35] Speaker 2: pickup Yeah, bulk pickup.
[23:37] Speaker 3: I'll look into it. I'm excited for the new mattress, though.
[23:39] Speaker 3: It's got memory foam, so it'll remember my body, I think. Whoa.
[23:43] Speaker 2: Lucky mattress. Right. Remember me.
[23:47] Speaker 1: I certainly remember that this is a video game podcast,
[23:50] Speaker 1: but real quick, I know last week, Jeff Backler, you
[23:52] Speaker 1: were talking about easing up on the bevs and everything. Yeah.
[23:58] Speaker 1: A very admirable thing. I forwarded you an email that
[24:00] Speaker 1: someone had sent in saying how much they appreciated you
[24:03] Speaker 1: sharing that.
[24:04] Speaker 3: Oh.
[24:05] Speaker 1: And I'm going to take a left turn and talk
[24:07] Speaker 1: about some deviancy that I participated in.
[24:10] Speaker 2: Hell yeah, brother.
[24:11] Speaker 1: All right. I know.
[24:13] Speaker 2: I don't want to anger our Argentinian friends out there.
[24:16] Speaker 1: Okay.
[24:16] Speaker 2: All right. Not this again. You got me in trouble
[24:19] Speaker 2: last time. I got lectured. No joke. I got lectured.
[24:22] Speaker 2: I know. I know. All right.
[24:23] Speaker 1: But here, at least in the Bay Area, Fernette is
[24:27] Speaker 1: a common drink amongst service industry people. So, you know.
[24:32] Speaker 1: I go to a bar, restaurant, and then I see
[24:36] Speaker 1: on the cheekies, portion of the menu cheekies, another fun
[24:40] Speaker 1: word for shot, they have a Ferrari. And a Ferrari
[24:44] Speaker 1: is half Fernet, half Campari.
[24:46] Speaker 2: Oh, that's cute. It's cute.
[24:49] Speaker 1: I order it with the person I'm with, and then
[24:53] Speaker 1: the bartender was like, oh, y'all want Ferraris? I'll take
[24:59] Speaker 1: one with you right now. Um, and then she proceeded
[25:02] Speaker 1: to bring three. We took them. And then, uh, 10 minutes,
[25:06] Speaker 1: maybe 20 minutes later, after we had some food, I
[25:08] Speaker 1: was like, you want to do another round? Um, and
[25:12] Speaker 1: we did another round. And then our bartender again was like, Oh,
[25:16] Speaker 1: y'all trying to go fast tonight, huh? We're going, we're
[25:20] Speaker 1: going turbo mode. Uh, and then she brought out three
[25:26] Speaker 1: more and took some, uh, another one with us. And then,
[25:29] Speaker 1: I was thinking, like, oh, man, like, you know, I
[25:31] Speaker 1: don't mind buying a bartender a shot because, like, they're
[25:34] Speaker 1: cool and everything. I look at the menu, gang. I
[25:37] Speaker 1: look at the menu. Or not the menu. I look
[25:39] Speaker 1: at the receipt. None of those shots were there. She
[25:41] Speaker 1: didn't charge us.
[25:42] Speaker 2: Wow. Oh, whoa. Ghost Ferraris.
[25:45] Speaker 1: Ghost Ferraris. But anyways, we were trying to keep it
[25:50] Speaker 1: as short a show, and we're already 30 minutes in
[25:52] Speaker 1: without talking about any type of video games.
[25:54] Speaker 2: So let's talk about the news.
[25:55] Speaker 4: News.
[26:00] Speaker 3: This is the news instead of the game segment first.
[26:03] Speaker 2: No panic. I guess there was news. Jeff Grah. Yeah,
[26:07] Speaker 2: so we're throwing the news up front just because opening
[26:10] Speaker 2: night live just happened. So let's wrap that up for everybody.
[26:14] Speaker 2: We'll hit some of the big games. I'll mention every
[26:17] Speaker 2: game by name at least, but some of them were
[26:18] Speaker 2: probably just passed by pretty quickly. The big headline one
[26:21] Speaker 2: certainly was The Witcher 3 Songs of the Past. Although
[26:25] Speaker 2: that wasn't the only Witcher 3 news. They also basically
[26:29] Speaker 2: talked about, hey, Witcher remastered. They kind of really put
[26:32] Speaker 2: a long list of improvements. But that is out soon.
[26:37] Speaker 2: I believe that's out, I want to say September. I
[26:39] Speaker 2: did write it down here, but it looks like I
[26:40] Speaker 2: copied over it. September 29th, 2026. You have written down there? Okay, yes,
[26:44] Speaker 2: thank you. There it is. Songs of the Past is
[26:47] Speaker 2: due out in 2027. That is, as a reminder... A
[26:51] Speaker 2: full new expansion coming to Witcher 3. And as part
[26:56] Speaker 2: of this, they announced that they were making the previous
[26:59] Speaker 2: expansions free for anyone who owns The Witcher 3. So
[27:02] Speaker 2: they're kind of just like really reminding people, hey, you
[27:05] Speaker 2: like The Witcher 3. Here's a bunch of cool stuff
[27:08] Speaker 2: happening with it. And that all makes sense because just
[27:11] Speaker 2: in this past week, they talked about The Witcher 4
[27:13] Speaker 2: and how it is targeting 2028 and they have 500
[27:16] Speaker 2: people working on it. So they are full sprint now
[27:20] Speaker 2: to that next game.
[27:21] Speaker 1: Do you know if I were to buy The Witcher
[27:23] Speaker 1: 3 now, would I get the DLC for free or
[27:25] Speaker 1: is that for existing customers only?
[27:28] Speaker 2: I don't know if you know. No, I'm pretty certain
[27:31] Speaker 2: that they were meaning to say that if you buy
[27:34] Speaker 2: that now or already have it, you are getting.
[27:36] Speaker 1: It for free. Yeah.
[27:38] Speaker 3: So, yeah, I think it's just a bundle deal for
[27:40] Speaker 3: now and forever with The Witcher. You don't buy that
[27:43] Speaker 3: game without its expansions now.
[27:44] Speaker 1: Oh, OK.
[27:46] Speaker 2: Yeah, there was one expansion, that Liberty expansion for Cyberpunk.
[27:50] Speaker 2: And I think they'll probably do the same thing eventually there.
[27:52] Speaker 2: I think the whole thing with them is they support
[27:55] Speaker 2: their games long term. They do add a ton of content.
[27:58] Speaker 2: And I think they're adding sort of this addendum here.
[28:00] Speaker 2: And it's like, hey, we recognize it's been so long
[28:03] Speaker 2: and anyone who was likely to buy this has already
[28:05] Speaker 2: bought it. Now, here's a new reason if you've never
[28:07] Speaker 2: been into The Witcher before to go back and check
[28:10] Speaker 2: this thing out. A lot of people are speculating that
[28:12] Speaker 2: this effort for The Witcher 3, both the remaster and
[28:17] Speaker 2: the expansion, is part of a process of getting them
[28:20] Speaker 2: skilled up so that they can really parlay that work
[28:23] Speaker 2: into The Witcher 1 remaster remake that is happening still.
[28:28] Speaker 2: But also, of course, this will help them with Witcher
[28:30] Speaker 2: 4 as people get very familiar with that world. Although
[28:33] Speaker 2: Witcher 4, a little bit different, being made in Unreal Engine,
[28:36] Speaker 2: that's not the engine they used previously. So some of
[28:39] Speaker 2: that stuff.
[28:39] Speaker 1: Will be a little different. That's a lot of game. Yes.
[28:42] Speaker 2: A lot of Witcher.
[28:43] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[28:43] Speaker 2: Too bad that show crapped out, huh?
[28:45] Speaker 1: Right?
[28:45] Speaker 2: No one likes that anymore?
[28:47] Speaker 4: Yeah.
[28:48] Speaker 1: Do people not like it?
[28:50] Speaker 2: I think they don't like it. Didn't what's-his-name get replaced
[28:53] Speaker 2: after Henry Cavill got replaced? They weren't as into it.
[28:55] Speaker 2: That was my read, but I never watched the show,
[28:57] Speaker 2: so I am not the right person to ask about that.
[29:00] Speaker 1: Neither am I.
[29:02] Speaker 2: All right, let's see here. Final Fantasy VII Revelation. This
[29:06] Speaker 2: was another big one. Shout out to IGN, who I
[29:09] Speaker 2: got this from. A new look at Final Fantasy VII Revelation,
[29:12] Speaker 2: the final entry in the Final Fantasy VII Remake Trilogy.
[29:16] Speaker 2: Naoki Hamaguchi went up on stage and talked about it
[29:19] Speaker 2: a lot. Spring 2027 is the release window. It kind
[29:22] Speaker 2: of showed off some weapon stuff in this trailer.
[29:25] Speaker 1: I don't know.
[29:25] Speaker 2: You guys were looking at this.
[29:27] Speaker 3: So the weapons are those big Godzilla monsters. And that
[29:29] Speaker 3: was a big focus of this. And it seems like
[29:31] Speaker 3: a big kind of part of the game. And maybe
[29:33] Speaker 3: even the open world design is that these different weapons
[29:35] Speaker 3: are attacking different parts of uh the game world you're
[29:38] Speaker 3: gonna go tackle them down it looks cool we did
[29:41] Speaker 3: see like a lot new here i was maybe hoping
[29:43] Speaker 3: to see some more of these kind of like costume
[29:46] Speaker 3: job switch things right you know like that um but
[29:50] Speaker 3: still the game looks really good i am definitely excited
[29:53] Speaker 3: for it but yeah this wasn't like some intense new
[29:55] Speaker 3: trailer or anything.
[29:57] Speaker 2: A couple more here that I wanted to bring up.
[30:00] Speaker 2: Lego Skylines. The City Skylines people are making a Lego
[30:04] Speaker 2: city builder. Hell yeah. Called Lego Skylines. Looks very cool.
[30:08] Speaker 2: No date yet on that one. And then, Mike, your
[30:13] Speaker 2: wish came true. You wished upon a star. And Mega
[30:15] Speaker 2: Man Dual Overdrive got a new gameplay feature. sort of
[30:19] Speaker 2: reveal a game still scheduled for 2027 Mega Man crossover
[30:23] Speaker 2: cosmetics are also coming to Pragmata we saw that as
[30:27] Speaker 2: an April Fool's joke and now that is actually happening
[30:29] Speaker 2: but what did you make of Dual Overdrive and what
[30:31] Speaker 2: they showed off here I know you have some things
[30:33] Speaker 2: that have been rattling around in your.
[30:34] Speaker 3: Brain I can't stop thinking about Astro Man because Astro
[30:37] Speaker 3: Man showed up And it's interesting because that's a Mega
[30:41] Speaker 3: Man 8 Robot Master originally, but also showed up in
[30:44] Speaker 3: Mega Man and Base on the Super Nintendo, which kind
[30:47] Speaker 3: of reused a lot of Mega Man 8 assets. But
[30:50] Speaker 3: it's a bit unusual to see an old Mega Man
[30:52] Speaker 3: boss like that return. It has happened before. So I
[30:55] Speaker 3: wonder if he just shows up like the first level
[30:57] Speaker 3: as a callback or if he is one of the eight.
[30:59] Speaker 3: We did see another new boss. It was a Twinkle Girl.
[31:03] Speaker 2: Or something like that. Yes, Twinkle Girl. That looks cool.
[31:07] Speaker 3: You know, my big takeaway is like, boy, this looks
[31:10] Speaker 3: really nice. Like the 2D aesthetic looks like a big
[31:13] Speaker 3: upgrade from Mega Man 11. I like that they are
[31:16] Speaker 3: still keeping the thing from Mega Man 11 where Mega
[31:18] Speaker 3: Man doesn't just change his kind of colors based on
[31:20] Speaker 3: what power he has. He even kind of is his
[31:22] Speaker 3: suit reflects it a little bit like he has some
[31:25] Speaker 3: kind of jet power. It looks like he kind of
[31:27] Speaker 3: looked like a little airplane a little bit.
[31:29] Speaker 1: I did not like when his head opened, though.
[31:32] Speaker 2: That was kind of weird. That's strange.
[31:33] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[31:34] Speaker 2: That was deeply unfortunate.
[31:36] Speaker 4: I hope they take that out. That was no, no.
[31:38] Speaker 3: There's some kind of chip customization thing where you could
[31:41] Speaker 3: put these chips on his arms and augment his abilities
[31:44] Speaker 3: a bit.
[31:44] Speaker 2: So it looks like there is stuff going on.
[31:46] Speaker 3: As a big Mega Man fan, I am very excited,
[31:49] Speaker 3: very pleased with what I saw.
[31:50] Speaker 1: Hell yeah.
[31:52] Speaker 2: And you always like that last Mega Man game. Does
[31:55] Speaker 2: this look like a straight up follow up to that
[31:57] Speaker 2: or just like, no, it's another Mega Man?
[31:59] Speaker 3: I mean, it looks, it has its similarities to Mega
[32:02] Speaker 3: Man 11 for sure. But I mean, you know, that
[32:06] Speaker 3: can't just share so much you need with what is
[32:07] Speaker 3: classic Mega Man anyways, right? So it's like, you know,
[32:10] Speaker 3: this is clearly the next one of those. I don't
[32:12] Speaker 3: think it's like a Mega Man 11 2.
[32:13] Speaker 1: Got it. All right.
[32:16] Speaker 2: Then some other games. If there's anything here you guys
[32:18] Speaker 2: want to stop and talk about, let me know. I
[32:20] Speaker 2: have a few notes for each one or some of these,
[32:23] Speaker 2: I should say. Notice Fall. I think that was the
[32:26] Speaker 2: first one. That's a notice. N-O-D-U-S, not notice.
[32:31] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[32:31] Speaker 2: I don't remember that one, actually. I think it opened
[32:33] Speaker 2: the show and I don't remember it. I remember we
[32:35] Speaker 2: hated the name. Yes. There was a lot of those
[32:38] Speaker 2: at the beginning of the show. I don't remember this now.
[32:40] Speaker 2: Was that one of the Ho-Yo-Verse ones? I don't think
[32:42] Speaker 2: it was, actually. Wait, I think it was, actually. I
[32:45] Speaker 2: think this is..
[32:45] Speaker 1: Was it? Oh, this is the Elden Ring.
[32:48] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[32:48] Speaker 1: Oh, yeah. Okay, yeah.
[32:49] Speaker 2: You know what? All right, cool. Look, they're going to
[32:53] Speaker 2: do their thing where they're going to just, hey, that
[32:54] Speaker 2: game is popular. We should make ours in our way.
[32:58] Speaker 1: Go for it.
[32:59] Speaker 2: I want to see what this looks like.
[33:00] Speaker 4: Yeah. I'm just... I'm just baffled at like it making
[33:05] Speaker 4: its way all the way through and not one dissenting
[33:09] Speaker 4: voice being like, we.
[33:11] Speaker 2: Can't call it.
[33:12] Speaker 4: We cannot call.
[33:15] Speaker 1: It.
[33:15] Speaker 2: I never heard them once.
[33:16] Speaker 1: You said it on the stream, Grub. Like people just
[33:19] Speaker 1: don't care about names anymore.
[33:22] Speaker 4: I guess, but like, fair, fair. gotta matter a little
[33:26] Speaker 4: bit also i'm with mike it doesn't matter a little
[33:28] Speaker 4: bit because like at some point like i i have
[33:31] Speaker 4: maybe i have an irrational reaction to certain names of
[33:34] Speaker 4: things where like i'm like oh my god this is
[33:36] Speaker 4: so not revolting but it's such a turnoff that i
[33:39] Speaker 4: like i don't want to engage with it right like
[33:42] Speaker 4: i agree you know what i mean yeah i don't
[33:44] Speaker 4: know yeah uh gears for ed got a another trailer
[33:47] Speaker 4: for that uh That's out in.
[33:50] Speaker 2: A little bit, right? That's this year? God, that's this year.
[33:52] Speaker 1: Yeah, it's very soon.
[33:53] Speaker 2: Stage Tour, which is the Guitar Hero-like game, is coming
[33:58] Speaker 2: out near Mike's birthday on December 10th. Ananta? Another one
[34:04] Speaker 2: of those?
[34:05] Speaker 1: This is like the GTA, the Clippy anime.
[34:06] Speaker 4: A million games.
[34:08] Speaker 3: The very Clippy funny girl in your party or something.
[34:13] Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
[34:14] Speaker 2: Silent Hill Townfall, more about that, as well as Metro
[34:18] Speaker 2: 2039 and Control Resonant. Game of Thrones War for Westeros
[34:22] Speaker 2: is a sort of a strategy game. Like we get
[34:26] Speaker 2: these for these franchises every once in a while. Hey,
[34:29] Speaker 2: let's we can get this license and put it on
[34:32] Speaker 2: an RTS. And that's what this looked like. The Blood
[34:36] Speaker 2: of Dawn Walker. That game is out next month. We
[34:38] Speaker 2: saw a little bit more from that. Exodus, which is
[34:40] Speaker 2: the Matthew McConaughey produced game. That's coming out April 7th, 2027.
[34:45] Speaker 2: All right. All right. All right.
[34:47] Speaker 1: All right. God damn it.
[34:48] Speaker 2: There you go. We got to see new footage for that.
[34:51] Speaker 2: That included a talking octopus named Saul. Didn't just talk.
[34:55] Speaker 2: It got in a mech suit and was out there battling.
[34:57] Speaker 2: This came apparently from one of the producers on Mass
[35:00] Speaker 2: Effect 1 and 2. Mm-hmm.
[35:02] Speaker 3: And the combat looks very Mass Effect-y.
[35:05] Speaker 2: Yes, it's very, very reminiscent of that.
[35:07] Speaker 1: I am all for that. Give me more of that, please. Same.
[35:11] Speaker 2: I was super into what I saw here. I hope
[35:13] Speaker 2: it delivers, but I love this idea of this talking
[35:17] Speaker 2: octopus teammate, squadmate, that actually gets in a mech suit
[35:21] Speaker 2: and fights. That is a cool idea for a character.
[35:23] Speaker 1: There was a little too much tension with the octopus thing.
[35:28] Speaker 2: I could stand for some more, personally. They know what
[35:33] Speaker 2: they're doing. They know what they're doing. Let's see here. Warlock,
[35:37] Speaker 2: Dungeons and Dragons. Another standout one for me. Third person
[35:41] Speaker 2: D & D action game out 2027. This is, you know,
[35:46] Speaker 2: it's not Baldur's Gate 3. It's not presenting itself in
[35:50] Speaker 2: any way like that. Of course, it is going to
[35:52] Speaker 2: be very much like, hey, explore a world as this
[35:55] Speaker 2: warlock class character. from Dungeons & Dragons, and showed off
[36:00] Speaker 2: some of the magic system that would go along with
[36:02] Speaker 2: having a Warlock character, and that looked pretty cool. I
[36:05] Speaker 2: think a lot of this is going to hinge on
[36:06] Speaker 2: how interesting is that world to explore. That will kind
[36:09] Speaker 2: of be the make or break for me.
[36:10] Speaker 3: World and characters, because that's a big deal with Borderlands 3.
[36:13] Speaker 3: People liked those characters so much, right? They got to
[36:16] Speaker 3: make that connection.
[36:17] Speaker 1: I think they're in a tough spot in a way
[36:20] Speaker 1: to properly show off this game. I think the way
[36:22] Speaker 1: that it was... shown off is kind of like the
[36:25] Speaker 1: presentation style versus how someone would actually play it.
[36:29] Speaker 2: Right. Good point.
[36:30] Speaker 1: Yes.
[36:30] Speaker 2: And you can never really be sure if like, oh,
[36:33] Speaker 2: what is this actually going to feel like to play?
[36:34] Speaker 2: It's probably not going to be like what this looks
[36:36] Speaker 2: like in that trailer.
[36:37] Speaker 3: Looks spiffy, though. I thought it was a looker. You know,
[36:41] Speaker 3: I think it's ambitious to kind of make your own
[36:43] Speaker 3: Witcher style game, which seems to be what they're going for.
[36:46] Speaker 1: So I'm curious. Yeah.
[36:48] Speaker 2: I mean, a lot of that will hinge on what
[36:49] Speaker 2: are those quests like? Are they as in-depth as Witcher,
[36:52] Speaker 2: which They could be. We really don't know yet.
[36:56] Speaker 1: All right.
[36:56] Speaker 2: So Snoop Dogg is everywhere. So that means he had
[37:00] Speaker 2: to be in this. And that means he's also in
[37:02] Speaker 2: Hitman as a new elusive target. Excuse me. Yeah. Oh, yeah.
[37:08] Speaker 2: I did skip Rainbow Six Tactics. Thank you very much.
[37:10] Speaker 2: Rainbow Six Tactics is another one that was that's a
[37:13] Speaker 2: fully newly announced game. I don't think we knew about
[37:16] Speaker 2: this at all before. It is from Ubisoft Paris.com. That
[37:20] Speaker 2: is the team that did co-develop Mario plus Rabbids.
[37:23] Speaker 1: I fucking knew it.
[37:25] Speaker 2: This is a tactics game as well. It's coming out
[37:28] Speaker 2: in 2027 for PS5, Xbox Series, and PC. You play
[37:32] Speaker 2: as Six, commanding four-person squads drawn from 15 seed operators.
[37:36] Speaker 2: You play as a person named Six? I think so.
[37:39] Speaker 1: That's what they're saying.
[37:39] Speaker 2: Is his last name, is his first name Rainbow? Yeah,
[37:42] Speaker 2: Rainbow Six.
[37:43] Speaker 1: I mean, excuse me, it's Rain, and then his middle,
[37:46] Speaker 1: his or her or their middle name is Bow.
[37:49] Speaker 2: Rain 6. You can play as one of them, and
[37:51] Speaker 2: then you draw from 15 Siege operators. I wonder if
[37:54] Speaker 2: those are just straight up from Rainbow Six. That'd be cool. Yeah,
[37:56] Speaker 2: I guess it must be from Siege. So they're going
[37:59] Speaker 2: to have probably their abilities just translated to this genre.
[38:03] Speaker 1: I would legitimately buy this game in a heartbeat if
[38:07] Speaker 1: I was promised Rabid DLC.
[38:11] Speaker 3: This is also going to have a Rayman expansion.
[38:13] Speaker 1: Yeah, you're going to follow around a Roomba.
[38:17] Speaker 2: All through the levels like in Mario plus Rabbids. I'm
[38:21] Speaker 2: down for all that. Crazy Taxi World Tour showed off multiplayer, which, Mike,
[38:25] Speaker 2: you said, hey, what do you get out of that
[38:29] Speaker 2: from a Crazy Taxi game? What makes you say that?
[38:32] Speaker 3: I mean, Crazy Taxi is kind of about, it's about
[38:35] Speaker 3: you and the timer more than anything else in the world, right?
[38:38] Speaker 3: I just don't understand what the dynamic kind of element
[38:41] Speaker 3: would be by having other players doing that, I guess.
[38:44] Speaker 3: Maybe they're running you off the road.
[38:45] Speaker 2: Maybe it's not that. Maybe it's more of a race competition,
[38:48] Speaker 2: I suppose. I wonder if there's even collision, right?
[38:50] Speaker 3: Because, like, I don't know if I want to be
[38:51] Speaker 3: bumping into these people constantly while I'm trying to do
[38:54] Speaker 3: my own thing in a crazy taxi.
[38:56] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[38:56] Speaker 2: Yep. Heroes of Might and Magic 3 Remake got announced,
[39:01] Speaker 2: and it looked real spiffy. I've... If I've played one
[39:05] Speaker 2: of these games, I've only ever played a spinoff.
[39:07] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[39:07] Speaker 2: So I am going to make a point of trying
[39:10] Speaker 2: this one out. It looked really nice. And I apparently...
[39:13] Speaker 2: One of the more beloved entries in the series as well.
[39:16] Speaker 2: Path of Exile 2 1.0 is out in December on
[39:20] Speaker 2: December 11th. I've got a good look at that. Aliens
[39:23] Speaker 2: Fireteam Elite 2, which you can go buy now. Got
[39:26] Speaker 2: another trailer. They might have got my friend, which was unfortunate.
[39:30] Speaker 1: Yeah, hate to see it.
[39:32] Speaker 2: Turok Origins. This was a cinematic trailer. Didn't do anything
[39:36] Speaker 2: for me.
[39:36] Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a weird one to even make a cinematic
[39:39] Speaker 3: trailer for, honestly. But yeah, there it is.
[39:44] Speaker 4: A lot of hit and missing, you know?
[39:46] Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely. Where it's like, you know, I'm sure they
[39:49] Speaker 2: have their marketing plan laid out for them by some
[39:52] Speaker 2: third party consultant company. And one of the like, there's
[39:55] Speaker 2: always like cinematic trailer beat. We can just place that
[39:58] Speaker 2: here and opening night live. And it's like, I don't
[40:00] Speaker 2: know if you guys should be so slavish to that.
[40:02] Speaker 2: Kind of just show me everything that makes this game
[40:04] Speaker 2: cool every time you show it, because I'm not always
[40:06] Speaker 2: going to be paying attention. So yeah, whatever.
[40:08] Speaker 4: There is, there is like a sort of like, assumption
[40:12] Speaker 4: of self-importance that some of these games have that totally
[40:15] Speaker 4: lands flat. I really think it's plagued a lot of games.
[40:20] Speaker 4: I don't know. Maybe that's just like an ONL thing
[40:22] Speaker 4: that's starting to develop a pattern that's forming. I'm sorry, O-L-N.
[40:28] Speaker 2: No, ONL.
[40:29] Speaker 3: Get it right or pay the price.
[40:31] Speaker 4: I'm sorry.
[40:32] Speaker 2: Can I share my... Never mind. Yeah, go ahead.
[40:34] Speaker 1: I was going to say, can I share my maybe
[40:37] Speaker 1: crude joke? Oh, please.
[40:42] Speaker 2: Now you have to. Go ahead, be crass.
[40:44] Speaker 1: Hey, what did you call ONL, Backlar? You said ONL, right?
[40:50] Speaker 2: Oh, sure, yeah.
[40:51] Speaker 1: Hey, are you into ONL?
[40:52] Speaker 2: Yeah. No, I'm glad you told us.
[40:55] Speaker 4: I'm glad, too, and I'm glad I'm here to say that, like,
[40:58] Speaker 4: maybe we didn't enjoy Ono this year.
[41:01] Speaker 2: Maybe, like, you know.
[41:03] Speaker 1: Sometimes, you know, you gotta ask.
[41:04] Speaker 2: You gotta check in.
[41:05] Speaker 1: Yeah, Ono was rough.
[41:06] Speaker 2: Are you saying Ono was full of shit?
[41:11] Speaker 4: I think this was a very back-to-back, mid-ass Ono's.
[41:16] Speaker 2: Okay.
[41:17] Speaker 1: At mid.
[41:17] Speaker 2: And that's where it goes. Yeah. 1666, Amsterdam's early access
[41:22] Speaker 2: starts today. That game is one of those that's like,
[41:26] Speaker 2: I believe... People are saying that the creator, who used
[41:29] Speaker 2: to be at Ubisoft, he made the monkey game where
[41:33] Speaker 2: you go swing around as a monkey and you evolve
[41:34] Speaker 2: over time. Anyway, he was talking about this game and
[41:37] Speaker 2: using AI, and he's like, well, we couldn't tell you
[41:39] Speaker 2: what is and isn't AI. We've used so much of
[41:41] Speaker 2: it here that we can't even tell it apart anymore.
[41:44] Speaker 4: Wow.
[41:44] Speaker 2: Good answer. That's what this game's going to be known for.
[41:46] Speaker 1: Cool. Good answer.
[41:49] Speaker 2: Afterworld is a new Paradox strategy game, Humankind 2. They
[41:53] Speaker 2: showed off that with the trailer. I looked a bit suspicious, Mike.
[41:56] Speaker 3: So apparently there's been some reporting on that because it
[41:59] Speaker 3: opened with this kind of live action trailer with a
[42:02] Speaker 3: bunch of different time periods.
[42:04] Speaker 1: Yes.
[42:04] Speaker 2: And it was like so much.
[42:05] Speaker 3: I think everyone's like, well, did these people really film
[42:07] Speaker 3: this many actors in this many sets to do this?
[42:11] Speaker 3: The official Humankind X account released a statement saying that
[42:15] Speaker 3: it was filmed at the Muboyana Film Studios in Sofia.
[42:18] Speaker 3: Real actors were used on practical set, but custom-made props.
[42:23] Speaker 3: So they are saying not AI.
[42:25] Speaker 2: I mean, look..
[42:27] Speaker 4: That's, yeah, I mean, I also think you can do
[42:30] Speaker 4: a lot. You can do an incredible amount with the
[42:33] Speaker 4: right posthouse and that sort of stuff.
[42:36] Speaker 2: And also, like, looking at it, it didn't set off
[42:39] Speaker 2: alarm bells other than the scale. That's what threw me off.
[42:42] Speaker 2: I was like, did they really? Yeah, the scale is
[42:45] Speaker 2: exactly what threw me off, right? And then the last
[42:48] Speaker 2: thing I have here is Mugenics is coming to consoles
[42:50] Speaker 2: on September 8th.
[42:52] Speaker 1: Cool.
[42:52] Speaker 3: So that was on really well on like switch.
[42:54] Speaker 1: Do you guys remember any standouts from the pre-show at all? Right.
[43:00] Speaker 2: Was that Elta before? Yeah, I think it was before.
[43:03] Speaker 2: Let me see. Let me see if I can get.
[43:05] Speaker 1: The pre-show stuff for you guys real quick.
[43:07] Speaker 3: I think that Castlevania looking game, Mariachi.
[43:10] Speaker 1: Mariachi.
[43:12] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[43:12] Speaker 4: Mariachi Legends. That's April of next year.
[43:14] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[43:14] Speaker 3: There was a Worms Tactics game.
[43:17] Speaker 1: Yeah. As well, right?
[43:19] Speaker 4: And that, I think that Valor, Valor, what is it,
[43:22] Speaker 4: Valor Mortis?
[43:23] Speaker 1: Valor Mortis, yeah.
[43:24] Speaker 4: I think that looks all right.
[43:25] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[43:25] Speaker 2: That looks cool.
[43:27] Speaker 3: There's a new Roller Coaster Tycoon, Roller Coaster Tycoon Wonderworks,
[43:30] Speaker 3: which maybe I'm hoping they stick the landing with that.
[43:33] Speaker 3: That'd be a lot of fun. There was, what's the
[43:36] Speaker 3: name of that weird open world, almost Yakuza-looking game where
[43:39] Speaker 3: a girl was attacking people in America?
[43:41] Speaker 1: Showa America. Yes, Showa.
[43:42] Speaker 2: America's Story or something, yeah. That was interesting.
[43:46] Speaker 3: That one was like, first of all, this looks awful,
[43:48] Speaker 3: and then it looked so awful that I was back
[43:50] Speaker 3: into it.
[43:51] Speaker 2: Yeah, they did the Macarena during Rayman Legends. There was
[43:55] Speaker 2: PUBG Dead.net. God. That was rough, actually. That was rough.
[44:01] Speaker 2: I didn't like that at all. Very painful. Absolutely.
[44:07] Speaker 1: Apparently that 1666 game was not the only game heavily
[44:11] Speaker 1: using AI. At O'Neill I'm 100% sure that's true That
[44:18] Speaker 1: K-pop Looking PUBG The game that looked like the finals
[44:24] Speaker 1: Like or.
[44:24] Speaker 3: Die Like or Die That is not super shocking To hear.
[44:30] Speaker 2: That There was that Petite Planet Which is Hoya vs.
[44:34] Speaker 2: Animal Crossing Right I'm pretty sure it's their Animal Crossing
[44:39] Speaker 2: But I also couldn't quite get my finger on what
[44:42] Speaker 2: that game is exactly.
[44:43] Speaker 1: It was weird.
[44:44] Speaker 2: Yeah, that definitely showed placing furniture and stuff like that.
[44:48] Speaker 4: Right when I sat down, that Perceptum game. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[44:54] Speaker 4: Pocket Mirror game.
[44:55] Speaker 2: Yeah. Oh, yeah.
[44:56] Speaker 1: A little flashing behind you.
[44:59] Speaker 2: Pony Island 2, which Chuck was into, and I thought
[45:02] Speaker 2: that looked good. Oh, yeah, Zoo Punk?
[45:05] Speaker 1: Yeah, Zoo Punk. No, I was wowed, and I was
[45:08] Speaker 1: swayed by that.
[45:10] Speaker 4: Did we talk about on toast on toast whatever.
[45:12] Speaker 2: That is i don't remember what is on toast i
[45:14] Speaker 2: can't remember that one avocados on toast oh well that's
[45:17] Speaker 2: that's why you can't afford a house.
[45:19] Speaker 4: Oh god i don't know who to slap uh i
[45:25] Speaker 4: don't i don't remember i just this is like the
[45:27] Speaker 4: second it's the soma people yeah right is that all
[45:30] Speaker 4: right too is that the same people right yeah yeah
[45:34] Speaker 4: that's like the uh The dude who's getting, like, things
[45:37] Speaker 4: pulled out of his brain and all the rats, right?
[45:40] Speaker 1: The Scarsguard game, right?
[45:42] Speaker 2: Right.
[45:42] Speaker 4: Then that Laugh Song.
[45:45] Speaker 2: Yeah, Laugh Song. Laugh Song, yeah.
[45:48] Speaker 4: Yes. And that's, I'm trying to think of the other
[45:50] Speaker 4: ones I wrote down.
[45:51] Speaker 1: Murals?
[45:53] Speaker 2: Yeah, Murals.
[45:54] Speaker 4: I remember that.
[45:55] Speaker 2: That's from D.
[45:56] Speaker 1: La La.
[45:57] Speaker 4: That Thousand and One game... kind of had me intrigued
[46:02] Speaker 4: a little bit i think that was right after the
[46:04] Speaker 4: dnd game.
[46:06] Speaker 1: Yeah the uh gin game right yes oh.
[46:10] Speaker 3: Right about like the arabian nights thing.
[46:12] Speaker 2: Right yeah uh but yeah um yeah i mean i
[46:17] Speaker 2: mentioned that after world but that's the one that kind
[46:18] Speaker 2: of looked like mad max for a while they kind
[46:21] Speaker 2: of were like what is this that's right Yeah.
[46:24] Speaker 1: Okay.
[46:24] Speaker 2: Either way, a lot of games, opening night live is
[46:27] Speaker 2: two hours long, so they can fit in a lot
[46:29] Speaker 2: of games. There is a half an hour pre-show. I
[46:33] Speaker 2: think we kind of said it during the thing, but
[46:35] Speaker 2: it feels like third place out of three shows from
[46:38] Speaker 2: Jeff Keighley. This is what you get for when you
[46:41] Speaker 2: have three of these a year, and the other people
[46:44] Speaker 2: with money and sort of prestige are like, let's go
[46:46] Speaker 2: into the Game Awards or let's go into Summer Game Fest.
[46:49] Speaker 2: Those seem it do seem to be more important although
[46:52] Speaker 2: it's not like a lot of people aren't watching this
[46:54] Speaker 2: so I'm sure it still commands a high price which
[46:56] Speaker 2: is why you get sort of companies like Hoyo verse
[46:58] Speaker 2: being like hey we'll go in there we have the
[46:59] Speaker 2: money to spend on this and they had three games
[47:02] Speaker 2: in here you Hoyo verse it felt like more to
[47:05] Speaker 2: be honest honestly it might have been more for real
[47:08] Speaker 2: yeah I don't know what was your guys's final word.
[47:10] Speaker 3: On on this before we move on yeah I guess
[47:14] Speaker 3: I was mostly like again expectations are low for this
[47:16] Speaker 3: show in particular I um and i saw some things
[47:20] Speaker 3: that look kind of neat i saw a lot of
[47:21] Speaker 3: things i was interested in i think it was fine
[47:23] Speaker 3: like five out of ten right like this is such
[47:26] Speaker 3: a like up this is what it could be at
[47:28] Speaker 3: maybe a baseline i suppose i don't know if baseline
[47:30] Speaker 3: is the word look megaman did a lot of lifting
[47:33] Speaker 3: for me i suppose right so i had that at
[47:36] Speaker 3: least but like nothing there's there was no like crazy
[47:39] Speaker 3: big announcements even it was a lot of stuff we
[47:41] Speaker 3: had seen before there's no like long dormant franchise announced
[47:46] Speaker 3: as coming back.
[47:47] Speaker 2: They didn't even get Peter Molyneux out here this time.
[47:50] Speaker 1: Right.
[47:50] Speaker 4: I know.
[47:50] Speaker 1: Right. No celebrity friends this time around. Um, I don't know.
[47:54] Speaker 1: I is similar to last year where I think I
[47:56] Speaker 1: enjoyed the things announced during the pre-show more than the
[48:00] Speaker 1: proper show. Uh, just cause I think the same spotlight
[48:04] Speaker 1: being put on those indie games are just a little
[48:06] Speaker 1: bit more entertaining, a little bit more up my alley
[48:08] Speaker 1: versus the, multitude of mihoyo verse games or games that
[48:13] Speaker 1: look like they're exactly the same as each.
[48:15] Speaker 2: Other also right well oh yeah go ahead grab i.
[48:19] Speaker 1: Can't believe you you skipped over this in the pre-show
[48:22] Speaker 1: there was a bubsy sighting.
[48:24] Speaker 3: That's right and raw coaster take good yeah no exciting
[48:29] Speaker 3: no terrible what.
[48:31] Speaker 2: Uh all right the new the gta6 leaker uh is
[48:35] Speaker 2: it's getting weird uh the cyber leak which is the
[48:38] Speaker 2: person's been leaking basically something Once a day, almost. I
[48:42] Speaker 2: think they confirmed that there's going to be dongs in
[48:44] Speaker 2: the game. Like, they got a lot of penises in
[48:46] Speaker 2: one of these clips or something like that. That's not shocking.
[48:49] Speaker 1: Cool.
[48:50] Speaker 2: And they also, I think, are probably showing off the other,
[48:54] Speaker 2: the second character today, although I haven't seen that week yet. Anyway,
[48:59] Speaker 2: this person says they're just going to keep doing it. Apparently,
[49:01] Speaker 2: they also have threatened that they have a dead man switch.
[49:04] Speaker 2: So if they get arrested, a build of the game
[49:07] Speaker 2: will be posted online for people to play. So it's like,
[49:12] Speaker 2: come and get me if you want, Rockstar. So Rockstar
[49:16] Speaker 2: is trying to go get them. They've subpoenaed, or at
[49:19] Speaker 2: least they claim to have subpoenaed, Microsoft and Discord. Although
[49:23] Speaker 2: Discord was asked about this, like, we haven't gotten anything yet.
[49:25] Speaker 2: So who knows? And they're going to try to find
[49:28] Speaker 2: this person. Subpoenaed the internet. Yeah.
[49:31] Speaker 1: Right.
[49:31] Speaker 2: Exactly. Look, they... They usually find people that do this
[49:35] Speaker 2: sort of thing, but that feels like, okay, they are
[49:38] Speaker 2: starting from scratch. I think Jason Schreier might report they
[49:41] Speaker 2: have no idea who's doing this. They don't know actually
[49:44] Speaker 2: where to begin looking. And they can't figure out, right?
[49:47] Speaker 4: They can't even figure out how.
[49:48] Speaker 2: It could have. Yes, they don't know because when the
[49:51] Speaker 2: last leaked for Abbott for GTA 6 years and years ago,
[49:54] Speaker 2: they did a big security lockdown. And this seems to
[49:57] Speaker 2: have happened since that. So, yeah, they are very confused
[50:00] Speaker 2: about what happened here. Either way, the person is still
[50:04] Speaker 2: like holding votes for how like what people want to
[50:07] Speaker 2: like see leaked next and stuff like that. It's it's
[50:10] Speaker 2: very bizarre.
[50:11] Speaker 1: Insane.
[50:14] Speaker 3: I kind of can't help but just the. Grab the
[50:16] Speaker 3: popcorn and watch, I suppose. I'm just like, what is
[50:19] Speaker 3: the actual.
[50:20] Speaker 2: Harm done here? Right, yeah, the game's going to be fine. Yes.
[50:23] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[50:26] Speaker 4: Yeah. There's definitely..
[50:27] Speaker 1: Yeah, go ahead, Jan. Sorry. The greater audience that has
[50:30] Speaker 1: been clamoring for GTA 6, right? They're not going to...
[50:34] Speaker 1: I don't believe they are the type of people to
[50:37] Speaker 1: go out and... download a leaked cracked copy of GTA
[50:42] Speaker 1: 6 ahead of time they're waiting to play that on
[50:45] Speaker 1: a console at home.
[50:46] Speaker 2: I mean, if it becomes very simple, maybe. But it's like,
[50:49] Speaker 2: I don't think this leaked footage is actually getting out
[50:52] Speaker 2: in front of a lot of normal people. The people
[50:54] Speaker 2: who want to track this stuff down. I think the
[50:56] Speaker 2: people who want to track this stuff down are. And
[50:58] Speaker 2: if you're in a Discord with friends, that stuff's getting
[51:00] Speaker 2: sent out to you. But I don't think people are
[51:02] Speaker 2: seeing every single thing. They probably saw one or two
[51:05] Speaker 2: clips so far. It popped up.
[51:07] Speaker 1: This leaker dude popped up on my TikTok feed. And
[51:11] Speaker 1: there was maybe a million likes on it. And, you know,
[51:15] Speaker 1: grand scheme of things like that, that could also just
[51:18] Speaker 1: be a bunch of bots that this guy is also
[51:20] Speaker 1: paying for.
[51:20] Speaker 2: Well, I mean, people are interested, for sure. And some
[51:24] Speaker 2: of these things are going to get an audience. But
[51:25] Speaker 2: it's just, I think, like, yeah, people in chat are saying, like,
[51:27] Speaker 2: I haven't seen it at all. Like, I have to, like,
[51:29] Speaker 2: go searching for this stuff. It's not like.
[51:31] Speaker 1: It's just popping up in front of me. Yeah, exactly.
[51:35] Speaker 2: So, yeah, I think it'll probably kind of maintain that
[51:38] Speaker 2: sort of level. Unless the game does... If a playable
[51:42] Speaker 2: build leaks, that feels very different. That's much different. Yes,
[51:45] Speaker 2: that's a very different thing, exactly. We'll see if we
[51:48] Speaker 2: get there. It is insane, right?
[51:51] Speaker 4: But, like, at the same time, our increasingly broken world, like,
[51:56] Speaker 4: has me not moved in any emotional way, you know,
[52:00] Speaker 4: one way, left, right, up, or down. So I'm kind
[52:04] Speaker 4: of with you, Mike, on that front.
[52:06] Speaker 2: Right, like, I would be quick.
[52:08] Speaker 4: It's a crime yeah oh for sure i'm not i'm
[52:11] Speaker 4: not rooting this on i think i'm on.
[52:14] Speaker 3: His side right yeah of course i don't care it's.
[52:17] Speaker 4: But like i think we've i've just become like desensitized
[52:20] Speaker 4: to this in the worst way possible where it's just
[52:22] Speaker 4: like oh yeah sure uh a person is holding the
[52:28] Speaker 4: the world's most popular game hostage.
[52:30] Speaker 1: Hostage that's uh that's yeah that's you know yeah Yeah.
[52:35] Speaker 2: As a reminder, they were like claiming to have those commandments.
[52:38] Speaker 2: And we talked about that a bit last week. The commandments. Yeah.
[52:43] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[52:43] Speaker 2: That did a lot of my. How seriously can I
[52:45] Speaker 2: take this person's.
[52:46] Speaker 4: Yeah.
[52:47] Speaker 2: A million percent. Yeah.
[52:49] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[52:49] Speaker 2: We'll see how this continues to develop. We'll see if
[52:52] Speaker 2: a leaked build actually does get out there. I guess
[52:54] Speaker 2: we'll know the person got arrested if that happens. Switch
[52:57] Speaker 2: to Mario Kart World Bundle is back and it's fifty
[53:00] Speaker 2: dollars more expensive. Big surprise. This is so September 1st.
[53:05] Speaker 2: We've known for a long time now the price of
[53:07] Speaker 2: the switch to will go up from 450 to five
[53:09] Speaker 2: hundred dollars. Well, as part of like prepping for that.
[53:13] Speaker 2: Nintendo today announced the Mario Kart World Bundle will return
[53:18] Speaker 2: at $ 550. This time it will include 90 days of NSO.
[53:23] Speaker 2: So that's something like, I want to say, yeah. And
[53:26] Speaker 2: is that really $ 8 still for just three months? Something
[53:29] Speaker 2: like that? I guess it would be because the whole.
[53:31] Speaker 2: for like a whole year, you can get it for
[53:33] Speaker 2: 50 or 60 bucks. Um, so yeah, they're, they're giving
[53:36] Speaker 2: you a small little thing on top there to sweeten
[53:38] Speaker 2: the deal a little bit. There's also a Nintendo switch
[53:41] Speaker 2: sports resort bundle coming out for $ 530. So yeah, that's sure.
[53:47] Speaker 1: Sure. I want so much more.
[53:50] Speaker 2: Um, that's not more. It's less. It's wrong.
[53:54] Speaker 1: You're right. You're right. I get it. Okay.
[53:56] Speaker 2: Um, So yeah, that is the kind of thing where like, oh,
[54:01] Speaker 2: they always knew this is something they might have to do,
[54:02] Speaker 2: which I kind of calling back to when this thing
[54:04] Speaker 2: was originally coming out. I was like, hey, there's a
[54:06] Speaker 2: reason their same Mario Kart is a limited time bundle
[54:09] Speaker 2: because that gives them a hatch where they can just
[54:12] Speaker 2: let the bottom drop out, get rid of that thing
[54:14] Speaker 2: for a little bit, mess around with the prices and
[54:16] Speaker 2: then reintroduce it and get the price up to 550.
[54:19] Speaker 2: And here we are, this was always part of the plan.
[54:22] Speaker 2: Problem is, is like, You know, the reason they had
[54:25] Speaker 2: that in place, tariffs and just rising costs on some
[54:29] Speaker 2: normal stuff really got overran by the cost of RAM
[54:33] Speaker 2: and memory and all that stuff. And now potentially the
[54:36] Speaker 2: chips that they are using that are getting printed by
[54:38] Speaker 2: Samsung there this week, there is reports. that Samsung is
[54:43] Speaker 2: charging 10% more for the eight nanometer node of the
[54:46] Speaker 2: process that Nintendo actually uses for the Switch to Nintendo
[54:49] Speaker 2: and Nvidia. Although Nintendo probably locked in their price with
[54:54] Speaker 2: Samsung a long time ago on that. So maybe it
[54:56] Speaker 2: won't affect them, but it's not like anything is getting
[54:59] Speaker 2: cheaper across the board. All the technology is getting more expensive.
[55:02] Speaker 2: So this helps for now, although it's unlikely that this
[55:06] Speaker 2: covers all of the cost that they are accumulating by
[55:10] Speaker 2: continuing to be in this business. All right. Sony has
[55:15] Speaker 2: begun kind of saying only on PS5 again. So they're
[55:18] Speaker 2: going pretty hard on the exclusivity marketing. They just released
[55:24] Speaker 2: a new ad that is literally called only on PS5,
[55:28] Speaker 2: and they're using PlayStation 5 exclusive language for games like
[55:31] Speaker 2: Marvel's Wolverine, Ghost of Yotay, Soros, Astro Bot, God of War, Laufey,
[55:36] Speaker 2: and Gran Turismo 7, a game that never did get
[55:38] Speaker 2: ported to PC. So Those games that, you know, eventually, hey,
[55:43] Speaker 2: when does this, when does Ghost of Yotei come to
[55:44] Speaker 2: the PC? And then we heard those reports, like, that
[55:46] Speaker 2: one might be one of the first ones that never
[55:48] Speaker 2: comes to the PC because they're going to stop doing that. Well,
[55:50] Speaker 2: now they are emphasizing that they are not doing that. Well, yeah,
[55:53] Speaker 2: definitely not happening. And, Grubb, I just wanted to ask
[55:56] Speaker 2: you to confirm this. No Connection.
[55:58] Speaker 3: Between Astro Bot and Astro Man from Mega Man Duel Override, right?
[56:05] Speaker 2: I don't want to speak out of turn, Mike. Let
[56:07] Speaker 2: me do a little bit more digging and see if
[56:09] Speaker 2: I can get back to you on that, all right?
[56:10] Speaker 3: Just really thinking about Astro Man a lot lately.
[56:15] Speaker 2: Yeah, so this is Sony setting themselves up for PS6.
[56:19] Speaker 2: This continues to be part of that, where the exclusives
[56:22] Speaker 2: are the one lever they have, they're going to pull it.
[56:24] Speaker 1: This just makes me disinterested from playing PlayStation games. Uh,
[56:28] Speaker 1: like I don't want to bust out, dig out my
[56:30] Speaker 1: PS five.
[56:31] Speaker 2: I got used to playing them on PC. I absolutely did. Like, yeah, right.
[56:34] Speaker 2: It's kind of the worst way to do is like
[56:36] Speaker 2: to do it for a bit and be like, nevermind. Yeah.
[56:39] Speaker 1: Like I'm, I am excited for Marvel's Wolverine. I do
[56:42] Speaker 1: want to check it out. But at this point, if like,
[56:46] Speaker 1: I don't know if I, my PS5 is like right
[56:48] Speaker 1: over there. It's like five feet away from me, but
[56:50] Speaker 1: just going through the whole rigmarole of setting that up
[56:53] Speaker 1: and like unplugging some other things. I just can't be bothered.
[56:57] Speaker 2: And like, I know that mine's plugged in and I
[56:58] Speaker 2: feel like that way. Mine's right there plugged in and
[57:01] Speaker 2: I'm like, eh, nah.
[57:03] Speaker 3: Because I don't have a PlayStation 5 Pro, I know
[57:05] Speaker 3: that I'm not getting the best versions of these games, right?
[57:07] Speaker 2: And I'm not going to go buy a PlayStation 5 Pro.
[57:10] Speaker 1: $ 900?
[57:10] Speaker 2: No, not right now.
[57:12] Speaker 3: So it's just something about the only way to play
[57:14] Speaker 3: these games is on this kind of old now hardware.
[57:18] Speaker 1: It's just not that appealing to me.
[57:22] Speaker 2: But yeah, so they're going to kind of keep this
[57:24] Speaker 2: messaging at least through the launch of the PS6 whenever
[57:27] Speaker 2: that is, whatever that looks like. Because again, they just
[57:30] Speaker 2: don't have a lot of other things they can... say
[57:32] Speaker 2: to like make you feel a need to, they got
[57:34] Speaker 2: to give you FOMO. They got to give, they have
[57:35] Speaker 2: to have planned obsolescence. They have to do that. That's
[57:38] Speaker 2: how this has always worked. And previously it was like,
[57:41] Speaker 2: look at this game. You could never get this on
[57:42] Speaker 2: your last system.
[57:43] Speaker 1: That's gone.
[57:44] Speaker 2: PS5 is going to be around and viable for a
[57:46] Speaker 2: very long time. Yeah. So starting with only on PS5, well,
[57:49] Speaker 2: that kind of gets you back in the ecosystem at
[57:51] Speaker 2: the very least. And they're going to keep selling you
[57:52] Speaker 2: games on PS5. They'll be happy if you at least
[57:54] Speaker 2: get a PS5 because of Grand Theft Auto and Wolverine
[57:57] Speaker 2: this year. but then they're going to need people to
[58:00] Speaker 2: upgrade to PS6 eventually, and so exclusives are all they have.
[58:03] Speaker 1: My interest in God of War Lofay was already kind
[58:07] Speaker 1: of middling, but now if it's not going to head
[58:10] Speaker 1: to PC, it's a similar story where I'm not incentivized
[58:14] Speaker 1: to check it out.
[58:14] Speaker 2: These games are going to have to be reported as
[58:18] Speaker 2: being very, very good maybe for me to check them out,
[58:21] Speaker 2: and that goes obviously for Xbox where it's like, am
[58:24] Speaker 2: I going to turn that thing on ever again? Probably not.
[58:28] Speaker 2: I really doubt it. All right.
[58:32] Speaker 1: Let's see.
[58:32] Speaker 2: And then speaking of Microsoft, which, okay, I'm bringing this
[58:35] Speaker 2: story because I want to bring this to you guys
[58:36] Speaker 2: and just tell me what you think. Microsoft stops giving
[58:39] Speaker 2: Circana its digital sales data. It also stopped giving sales
[58:41] Speaker 2: data to the equivalent in Europe, the GSD charts. It
[58:49] Speaker 2: really does feel like this is another thing to me
[58:51] Speaker 2: in the multi-step process of sort of making sure that
[58:56] Speaker 2: there's no bad news about Xbox and that they can
[58:59] Speaker 2: emphasize the good news because they are trying to offload
[59:02] Speaker 2: this thing. Like, am I making too much of a
[59:06] Speaker 2: leap here? No, I think you're on the money.
[59:09] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[59:10] Speaker 2: It sounds right.
[59:10] Speaker 3: I mean, Serkana, can't they just do it? Don't they
[59:13] Speaker 3: for Nintendo just project it anyway?
[59:15] Speaker 2: So will they just do that here?
[59:17] Speaker 3: Although I guess you have to project it based off
[59:20] Speaker 3: of physical sales and there are just so few of
[59:22] Speaker 3: those for Xbox games anyways, right? So how do you
[59:26] Speaker 3: even do that projection? Now, if you don't have this data,
[59:28] Speaker 3: it's got to be difficult.
[59:30] Speaker 2: Yeah, it's the kind of thing where their long-term planning
[59:35] Speaker 2: for supporting the system feels nebulous at best. I think
[59:38] Speaker 2: that's the kind way of putting it. And then when
[59:41] Speaker 2: they do talk about things, like, you know, I may
[59:43] Speaker 2: have been going back to my feelings about that Summer
[59:45] Speaker 2: Game Fest show where, man, they were firing on all
[59:48] Speaker 2: cylinders and getting people excited about stuff and it seemed
[59:51] Speaker 2: to work. And then four days later, we were talking
[59:53] Speaker 2: about there is going to be massive layoffs and it's
[59:56] Speaker 2: going to affect a lot of those games that were
[59:59] Speaker 2: at that show. And they're going to actually cut some
[1:00:01] Speaker 2: of those studios and sell them or look for other
[1:00:04] Speaker 2: people to publish them instead. And it's like, yeah, they
[1:00:07] Speaker 2: speak out of both sides of their mouth. And what, like,
[1:00:08] Speaker 2: what is the thinking there? And obviously cutting costs is
[1:00:11] Speaker 2: one thing, but I think the reason to cut costs
[1:00:13] Speaker 2: is to slim down and make this thing make sense
[1:00:16] Speaker 2: to sell to somebody. Of course, the question is like,
[1:00:18] Speaker 2: who's going to buy this? But I, I, I don't
[1:00:20] Speaker 2: think that they are. And they're like, eventually someone will
[1:00:23] Speaker 2: come through and buy it. And they don't know who
[1:00:24] Speaker 2: that is yet.
[1:00:26] Speaker 4: It's tough to us. Like, I don't know. After a while,
[1:00:29] Speaker 4: you start thinking, oh, these are coincidences, and you sort
[1:00:33] Speaker 4: of hear what they are saying. This is what they
[1:00:36] Speaker 4: are saying with their action. So I don't think it's
[1:00:41] Speaker 4: unreasonable at all to presume that's what's going on with
[1:00:46] Speaker 4: all these moves. Yeah.
[1:00:48] Speaker 2: I mean, at least it's one way that I keep
[1:00:51] Speaker 2: reading this stuff. Or at least when things like this happen,
[1:00:54] Speaker 2: it's like, oh, and that feels like another thing that
[1:00:55] Speaker 2: makes sense, but Who knows? Could be drawing a faulty
[1:00:58] Speaker 2: conclusion here.
[1:01:00] Speaker 1: All right.
[1:01:00] Speaker 2: That does it for the news. Let's go ahead and
[1:01:02] Speaker 2: hand this show back over to Janicella.
[1:01:05] Speaker 1: Folks, we're going to take a quick, bricky break, and
[1:01:07] Speaker 1: we're going to hear from our lovely friends over at
[1:01:10] Speaker 1: Video Game Town. If you want to go read and
[1:01:14] Speaker 1: peruse some fun gaming coverage, go check out VideoGame.Town. We'll
[1:01:20] Speaker 1: hear from them in just a second. This episode is
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[1:02:28] Speaker 1: Video game town.
[1:02:29] Speaker 2: Video game town. Video game town. Video game town. Video
[1:02:31] Speaker 2: game town. Video game town.
[1:02:32] Speaker 1: Video game town.
[1:02:38] Speaker 2: Holy moly. Don't get discombobulated, folks.
[1:02:41] Speaker 1: Games, second segment today. Just because it's a different show today.
[1:02:47] Speaker 1: We're running by, we're flying by the seat of our pants.
[1:02:50] Speaker 1: Shouts out again to our friends over at Video Game Town.
[1:02:56] Speaker 1: I don't want to cause any friction here, gang. I
[1:03:00] Speaker 1: don't mean to alarm anyone with this, okay? But this
[1:03:06] Speaker 1: was put onto my radar, and I've re-downloaded it, and
[1:03:12] Speaker 1: I have a sickness, and that sickness is Marvel Snap.
[1:03:19] Speaker 2: I'm back on it. Should I fire up the van?
[1:03:23] Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. Do it, because they have just added a
[1:03:27] Speaker 1: draft league, everybody.
[1:03:29] Speaker 2: Oh, fine. Just now they've had a draft, okay.
[1:03:33] Speaker 1: Yes. Grub, you were also tagged in this on Blue Sky.
[1:03:36] Speaker 1: They added a draft league where you draft up to
[1:03:39] Speaker 1: 10 cards, and then as you win, you can draft more.
[1:03:43] Speaker 1: If you lose, I'm not 100% sure what happens. I
[1:03:46] Speaker 1: just bring it up because I don't think I've played
[1:03:49] Speaker 1: Marvel Snap since maybe..
[1:03:53] Speaker 2: Two years ago.
[1:03:57] Speaker 1: Like last gamescom or two gamescoms ago and there's a
[1:04:02] Speaker 1: whole slew of cards I have no idea what they
[1:04:05] Speaker 1: do but.
[1:04:06] Speaker 2: Your boy still pulled out a win.
[1:04:10] Speaker 1: And I just felt the toxicity coming back out of
[1:04:13] Speaker 1: me and I think I might need to put it
[1:04:15] Speaker 1: away like roguelike yes roguelike because if you lose you
[1:04:21] Speaker 1: have to redraft a whole new deck Got it.
[1:04:24] Speaker 2: Understood. But are you still playing against other human players?
[1:04:26] Speaker 1: You're still playing against other human players. Yes. Got it.
[1:04:28] Speaker 1: From my understanding. And then there's like a little bit
[1:04:30] Speaker 1: more jazz to some of the cards. Like some of
[1:04:32] Speaker 1: the cards will have like an additional power versus their
[1:04:37] Speaker 1: like base effects and everything.
[1:04:42] Speaker 2: So what was the percentage of new cards versus familiar cards, Jan?
[1:04:47] Speaker 1: Oh, there was a lot of new cards. I mean,
[1:04:48] Speaker 1: like I'm familiar with the characters on them. Um, but,
[1:04:51] Speaker 1: but a lot of them, like, uh, I had never
[1:04:53] Speaker 1: seen a Gilgamesh card or, um, uh, I don't even
[1:04:59] Speaker 1: remember if there was a Johnny storm card when I
[1:05:01] Speaker 1: was originally playing, um, just a bunch of newer characters,
[1:05:05] Speaker 1: new obscure characters, but like a miscellaneous different effects. Um,
[1:05:09] Speaker 1: but Marvel snap now having it now has a draft
[1:05:13] Speaker 1: league for folks interested in that. Uh, I'll get out.
[1:05:17] Speaker 2: Do you foresee yourself playing quite a bit more of
[1:05:19] Speaker 2: this over the next little bit, or was it just
[1:05:21] Speaker 2: nice to dip back in a little bit here and there?
[1:05:23] Speaker 1: It was nice to dip back in for a little bit.
[1:05:26] Speaker 1: I don't think I have the bandwidth, especially with the
[1:05:29] Speaker 1: delusion of games that are coming out every day in
[1:05:34] Speaker 1: late August to September. I don't think I have the
[1:05:37] Speaker 1: bandwidth to continue playing and staying on top of that.
[1:05:41] Speaker 1: But it was nice to see a distraction. Maybe I'll
[1:05:43] Speaker 1: play it out until I lose... and would have to
[1:05:48] Speaker 1: draft a new deck entirely.
[1:05:51] Speaker 2: Is it really limited time? Two weeks? Next two weeks?
[1:05:53] Speaker 2: Did you mention that?
[1:05:54] Speaker 1: I did not mention that, yeah. It is only around
[1:05:57] Speaker 1: for two weeks, but I don't think I will be
[1:05:59] Speaker 1: able to last the two weeks. Just leave your keys
[1:06:03] Speaker 1: at home. I'll sit in the driveway.
[1:06:05] Speaker 2: Can we compromise? I'll sit in the driveway.
[1:06:07] Speaker 1: All right, all right.
[1:06:08] Speaker 2: You got to put the AC on.
[1:06:10] Speaker 4: I mean, come on.
[1:06:10] Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
[1:06:11] Speaker 1: Roll the window down. Yeah, yeah.
[1:06:12] Speaker 2: Okay. Winded in my hair.
[1:06:15] Speaker 1: But that is not the only Marvel game floating around, gang.
[1:06:19] Speaker 1: Mike Minotti, you and I have been playing Marvel Tocon
[1:06:22] Speaker 1: Fighting Souls.
[1:06:24] Speaker 3: Yeah, I had a lot of fun when we were
[1:06:25] Speaker 3: messing around with that in UPF, right? I've been doing
[1:06:29] Speaker 3: a little bit of ranked matches, and it hasn't gone
[1:06:33] Speaker 3: absolutely terribly. I have enough of a grasp on the gameplay.
[1:06:36] Speaker 3: And I'm able to just make, you know, play as
[1:06:38] Speaker 3: Captain America, use the other people for assists, not for tagging.
[1:06:41] Speaker 3: It's not like the most optimal way to play the game,
[1:06:43] Speaker 3: but it's good enough for now.
[1:06:44] Speaker 1: But it's not like such a lesser way of playing
[1:06:46] Speaker 1: the game.
[1:06:46] Speaker 2: Right. Exactly.
[1:06:47] Speaker 3: Because it's just the one health bar that every character shares.
[1:06:49] Speaker 3: It's not like the Marvel's Capcom style where each character
[1:06:51] Speaker 3: has their own health bar. You want to tag them
[1:06:53] Speaker 3: out so they can regenerate some of their health and,
[1:06:55] Speaker 3: you know, things like that.
[1:06:56] Speaker 1: Right.
[1:06:57] Speaker 2: Um, But I've been enjoying it quite a bit.
[1:07:00] Speaker 3: I know, Jan, you're a bit more kind of a
[1:07:02] Speaker 3: newcomer to fighting games. So what have you been thinking?
[1:07:07] Speaker 1: This has definitely been more approachable. I know that the
[1:07:10] Speaker 1: whole auto combo system isn't exactly new to fighting games.
[1:07:16] Speaker 1: But I think having the Marvel trappings has been enough
[1:07:19] Speaker 1: to get me in the door, at least. And then
[1:07:23] Speaker 1: that tutorial is pretty... pretty extensive where it runs you
[1:07:27] Speaker 1: through how to do like get into the super moves
[1:07:30] Speaker 1: and like if you just keep mashing on this button
[1:07:33] Speaker 1: combo you'll get to xyz um it doesn't quite explain
[1:07:37] Speaker 1: like how to handle different situations or at least the
[1:07:41] Speaker 1: the base tutorial that you start the game with but
[1:07:43] Speaker 1: i'm having some fun i'm getting absolutely stomped whenever i
[1:07:46] Speaker 1: pop up online um but.
[1:07:48] Speaker 2: That's just playing these games online that's just.
[1:07:50] Speaker 1: Playing those games online so i'm not uh, butting my
[1:07:53] Speaker 1: head up against it, or I'm not getting too frustrated
[1:07:55] Speaker 1: with it. Um, I am having fun. The game guys, it's,
[1:07:59] Speaker 1: I mean, it's Arxis. Uh, it's absolutely gorgeous. I like the, uh,
[1:08:03] Speaker 1: looking game, the different, uh, character designs, like the little
[1:08:07] Speaker 1: bit of tweaks that they've done to some of the
[1:08:10] Speaker 1: Marvel characters. Like during UPF, I think we've mentioned Iron
[1:08:14] Speaker 1: Man looking like a Gundam is pretty cool, but also
[1:08:17] Speaker 1: someone like, um, Ms. Marvel, she kind of looks very, like, anime, like, kawaii. Like,
[1:08:24] Speaker 1: her eyes are definitely bigger than how they are in
[1:08:27] Speaker 1: the comic books. I think it's a fun little touch.
[1:08:31] Speaker 1: I have been liking Marvel, Tokon, Fighting Souls so much.
[1:08:35] Speaker 3: I haven't tried the actual story mode stuff yet, which, like,
[1:08:37] Speaker 3: I don't know. Like, part of me is I don't
[1:08:39] Speaker 3: know how interested I am in it. Like, Dragon Ball FighterZ,
[1:08:42] Speaker 3: I did not like that story mode when I tried it.
[1:08:44] Speaker 3: It was just kind of a lot of, like, text
[1:08:46] Speaker 3: dialogue and things like that.
[1:08:47] Speaker 1: So I don't know.
[1:08:48] Speaker 2: Maybe I should give it a shot, though.
[1:08:49] Speaker 1: I did, however, because I was enjoying it so much.
[1:08:52] Speaker 2: Oh, you got it?
[1:08:53] Speaker 1: I did buy. Oh, shit.
[1:08:55] Speaker 4: Wow.
[1:08:56] Speaker 1: The 8Bidoo arcade controller. This is like the hit stick,
[1:09:01] Speaker 1: or not hit stick, button. What is it called? Hit box.
[1:09:05] Speaker 1: Hit box thing that 8Bidoo makes. I have yet to
[1:09:08] Speaker 1: bust it out.
[1:09:09] Speaker 2: It's a keyboard.
[1:09:09] Speaker 1: It's a little keyboard.
[1:09:11] Speaker 2: Keyboard what looks like a joystick. Yeah.
[1:09:13] Speaker 1: Yeah. There's 10 keys on that. I'm excited for that,
[1:09:15] Speaker 1: Jimmy Jam, to.
[1:09:16] Speaker 2: Eventually try it out. 10 key folds is what we
[1:09:18] Speaker 2: call it. There you go.
[1:09:20] Speaker 1: Let's see. Jeff Grubb, you've been playing Twisted Tower.
[1:09:24] Speaker 2: Yeah. So this is a new one. The easiest way
[1:09:28] Speaker 2: to explain this is when I booted up the game,
[1:09:30] Speaker 2: which is a first person shooter. And a couple of,
[1:09:33] Speaker 2: you know, the studios, the publisher kind of comes by,
[1:09:35] Speaker 2: and one of them was 3D Realms. I was like, oh, oh, okay,
[1:09:39] Speaker 2: that's right. So 3D Realms, kind of the throwback, first-person boomer, shooter, publisher, developer.
[1:09:46] Speaker 2: This is definitely in that boomer, shooter genre, but it's
[1:09:49] Speaker 2: not one that's like... hey, let's do it in a
[1:09:52] Speaker 2: way where the visuals are low fidelity. It's like, no,
[1:09:56] Speaker 2: we'll make it look like a modern game. And it
[1:09:58] Speaker 2: has a haunted house, haunted circus sort of vibe to it.
[1:10:01] Speaker 2: There's a lot of masked enemies who are, you know,
[1:10:04] Speaker 2: they'll run at you once a like a huggy bear
[1:10:07] Speaker 2: is his name. He's meant to look like a carnival
[1:10:10] Speaker 2: creature or whatever. And then another one's a guy with
[1:10:12] Speaker 2: a giraffe mask. And there's several of these enemies. One
[1:10:15] Speaker 2: is like one of those little toy phones that you
[1:10:18] Speaker 2: could like pull behind you and the eyes would like
[1:10:20] Speaker 2: spin or whatever. And those things will come and bite
[1:10:23] Speaker 2: your ankles. And I, there's another one that's like a
[1:10:27] Speaker 2: guy in a mask and he just kind of does
[1:10:28] Speaker 2: a weird dance and he's your friend. So it's got,
[1:10:30] Speaker 2: you know, fun sort of weird vibe to it. I
[1:10:34] Speaker 2: think it, plays really nice it's really cool it has
[1:10:37] Speaker 2: a has a pretty good um it tries to take
[1:10:41] Speaker 2: some flavor from bioshock just a little bit of flavor
[1:10:44] Speaker 2: it's not a bioshock like but it takes a little
[1:10:46] Speaker 2: bit of flavor to make the world kind of feel
[1:10:48] Speaker 2: a little bit similar like one of the things that
[1:10:51] Speaker 2: made me think that is like one of the first
[1:10:53] Speaker 2: things you'll come across in one of these creepier rooms
[1:10:55] Speaker 2: is a um like a baby's carriage or whatever. And
[1:10:58] Speaker 2: that's like always like to me, it's like, Oh yeah,
[1:11:00] Speaker 2: that reminds me of the very beginning of Bioshock. That's right.
[1:11:03] Speaker 2: And I think they were trying to like convey that.
[1:11:05] Speaker 2: But again, it's not playing exactly like Bioshock. It's not
[1:11:07] Speaker 2: like you got magic in one hand, you're going to
[1:11:09] Speaker 2: have your gun and then you can flip through with
[1:11:11] Speaker 2: the mouse wheel or the number buttons to your hammer.
[1:11:14] Speaker 2: So when you run out of ammo, which is frequent,
[1:11:16] Speaker 2: that's one thing you're going to have to manage a
[1:11:17] Speaker 2: lot in this game is your ammo. Just go to
[1:11:19] Speaker 2: your hammer and then you got to get in there
[1:11:20] Speaker 2: and melee the guys. And that feels pretty good. So
[1:11:22] Speaker 2: it's like one of these first person shooters where the
[1:11:24] Speaker 2: melee is completely competent. Um, But yeah, I'm running around.
[1:11:28] Speaker 2: I'm finding keys. I'm going into a room. I'm coming
[1:11:31] Speaker 2: back later with the key into that room and I'm
[1:11:33] Speaker 2: fighting another wave of enemies. And every time I do that,
[1:11:36] Speaker 2: I'm having a pretty good time. It's not some... wave-based
[1:11:39] Speaker 2: shooter though. So it's not like Serious Sam where you're
[1:11:42] Speaker 2: fighting down or you're mowing down 50 guys at a time.
[1:11:45] Speaker 2: Like when the door opens up and a couple of
[1:11:47] Speaker 2: guys come out, it's going to be a few guys, three,
[1:11:49] Speaker 2: four guys that you have to fight. And I kind
[1:11:52] Speaker 2: of think that they nailed the balance of that where
[1:11:54] Speaker 2: they're dangerous enough where you feel under threat, but it's
[1:11:57] Speaker 2: like a quick, you know, 30 to 90 second battle.
[1:12:00] Speaker 2: And then you're moving on with the game and feel
[1:12:02] Speaker 2: like you're progressing really fast and you're seeing the next
[1:12:04] Speaker 2: cool room. And what does that look like? And is
[1:12:06] Speaker 2: it a kid's ball pit that's haunted or whatever?
[1:12:08] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[1:12:10] Speaker 2: It's well done. I think it's got a cool sort
[1:12:12] Speaker 2: of tone. Really one of these good ones where it's like, hey,
[1:12:15] Speaker 2: maybe you're someone who wants to get into the Halloween
[1:12:18] Speaker 2: spooky vibe, but survival horror games aren't your scene. I
[1:12:21] Speaker 2: think this one really kind of fits in that notch
[1:12:23] Speaker 2: really well, where it's going to have all of that
[1:12:25] Speaker 2: spooky stuff to it. But it's not one that's going
[1:12:28] Speaker 2: to be overwhelmingly scary or anything like that. So, yeah,
[1:12:32] Speaker 2: I'm recommending this one quite, quite eminently.
[1:12:35] Speaker 4: Am I supposed to do this?
[1:12:37] Speaker 2: I think, I think, so I definitely was playing it.
[1:12:38] Speaker 2: And I started, I think, right as you left, I
[1:12:40] Speaker 2: booted it up, Jerf. And I was like, oh, man,
[1:12:42] Speaker 2: I kind of wish I could just call up Jerf
[1:12:44] Speaker 2: and get him on a quick look with this. Maybe
[1:12:45] Speaker 2: we could do one this week. You can check this
[1:12:48] Speaker 2: game out with me. And then you kind of see
[1:12:50] Speaker 2: for yourself. But I think you would be down on
[1:12:52] Speaker 2: this one for sure.
[1:12:53] Speaker 1: Hell yeah. Hell yeah. Speaking about spooky games, there was
[1:12:57] Speaker 1: a network test happening over the weekend for the Duskbloods.
[1:13:03] Speaker 1: And Mike Minotti, you were able to get in there.
[1:13:06] Speaker 2: Was I the only one who checked this thing out?
[1:13:09] Speaker 2: I tried about... Eight times to get in. It never,
[1:13:14] Speaker 2: ever worked for me. No dice for me.
[1:13:15] Speaker 4: Too much pressure, Mike? What's the problem?
[1:13:17] Speaker 3: Well, it's because I don't like it, and I know.
[1:13:20] Speaker 2: A lot of people do. You're not siloed in this opinion, Mike.
[1:13:23] Speaker 2: I've heard this from a lot of people who are like,
[1:13:25] Speaker 2: a lot of my fears have been confirmed, so represent.
[1:13:28] Speaker 3: I guess just going into it, I was thinking, boy,
[1:13:32] Speaker 3: I don't really like being rushed through a Souls-like experience,
[1:13:36] Speaker 3: and I've never cared for the PvP aspect of these games.
[1:13:40] Speaker 3: I feel like that's just going to immediately make it
[1:13:42] Speaker 3: difficult to enjoy this.
[1:13:43] Speaker 2: And it disqualifies you from enjoying this game, yeah.
[1:13:46] Speaker 3: That's the case. There is a lot to like. The
[1:13:50] Speaker 3: vibe is great. It definitely has that sort of Bloodborne aesthetic.
[1:13:54] Speaker 3: going on these you know weird looking characters i love
[1:13:56] Speaker 3: like the different people you can play as you know
[1:13:58] Speaker 3: zork right.
[1:13:59] Speaker 2: We all love we do love zork i'm in the
[1:14:01] Speaker 2: game apparently yeah you're no zork but you're there there's one.
[1:14:07] Speaker 3: Guy who just has like the gun right like a
[1:14:09] Speaker 3: gun it's like very everybody has a gun but this
[1:14:11] Speaker 3: one person like has like a sniper rifle and is
[1:14:13] Speaker 3: very focused on using the gun But, you know, like
[1:14:15] Speaker 3: playing the game, it is you're kind of running around
[1:14:18] Speaker 3: during these different rounds trying to just get points. I
[1:14:20] Speaker 3: think it's called Valor. And you can get it in
[1:14:23] Speaker 3: a bunch of different ways. It's not just from killing people, sure,
[1:14:27] Speaker 3: but there's always the risk of somebody coming up and
[1:14:29] Speaker 3: killing you or third-partying you while you're doing something else.
[1:14:32] Speaker 3: And the thing that I really like about these games,
[1:14:34] Speaker 3: which is fighting these big bosses, that is just not
[1:14:38] Speaker 3: that much of a focus here. When that happens, I
[1:14:41] Speaker 3: usually get this weird summon message, and I join this
[1:14:43] Speaker 3: fight with a bunch of other people.
[1:14:45] Speaker 2: There's five of us fighting this big boss, and it's
[1:14:47] Speaker 2: kind of just..
[1:14:48] Speaker 3: All right, so I'll attack the boss when it's attacking
[1:14:50] Speaker 3: somebody else, and if the boss is attacking me, now
[1:14:53] Speaker 3: I'm dodging the boss for a bit, and then we'll
[1:14:56] Speaker 3: all get our points from that.
[1:14:57] Speaker 2: You know, so you do that kind of thing. Go ahead, Jan.
[1:15:00] Speaker 1: Mike, I'm sorry. I'm not 100% familiar with the term third-partied.
[1:15:05] Speaker 3: Third party, so it would be, like, I'm fighting you, right?
[1:15:07] Speaker 3: So me and you are fighting somebody. And now here
[1:15:10] Speaker 3: comes Jeff Grubb noticing that. Noticing that you have, like,
[1:15:12] Speaker 3: I'm sticking in the room and be a little stinker, yeah.
[1:15:14] Speaker 3: He's going to take advantage of the fact that we
[1:15:15] Speaker 3: are already, like, low health, engaged with each other.
[1:15:18] Speaker 1: Got it.
[1:15:18] Speaker 2: And he's going to take us out.
[1:15:19] Speaker 3: I mean, it's especially a problem in the last round
[1:15:22] Speaker 3: of this, because then I think, you know, I got
[1:15:23] Speaker 3: to the last round one time, and there's sort of
[1:15:26] Speaker 3: different rounds, and at each time it's like, okay, we're
[1:15:28] Speaker 3: cutting off this many people from the bottom who don't
[1:15:30] Speaker 3: have enough points. Then like the top three are put
[1:15:33] Speaker 3: in together in an arena. But there's three of them.
[1:15:36] Speaker 3: So it's like, all right, which two people are going
[1:15:37] Speaker 3: to start fighting? And then the third person can kind
[1:15:39] Speaker 3: of pick one off. I just don't think the Souls-like
[1:15:43] Speaker 3: PvP is all that interesting anyways of dodge rolling and
[1:15:46] Speaker 3: hoping that your iframes match up to not getting sort
[1:15:48] Speaker 3: of stun locked by attacks.
[1:15:50] Speaker 2: I don't know.
[1:15:51] Speaker 3: I bet there's a lot more complexity to it that
[1:15:53] Speaker 3: I could get into. if i uh care to but
[1:15:57] Speaker 3: i just don't know if i care to this uh
[1:15:59] Speaker 3: even like more so than a night rain where night
[1:16:02] Speaker 3: rain i have that same issue with the whole i
[1:16:05] Speaker 3: don't want to be rushed through a game like this
[1:16:07] Speaker 3: i don't like the idea of this fortnight circle but
[1:16:09] Speaker 3: at least that was just like cool boss fight after
[1:16:11] Speaker 3: cool boss right that's yeah exactly it is a focus
[1:16:14] Speaker 3: on that elements of the game i just don't really
[1:16:17] Speaker 3: care that much about PvP and these things.
[1:16:21] Speaker 1: Can you party up in this game? I haven't been
[1:16:24] Speaker 1: following it up.
[1:16:24] Speaker 2: Apparently there's duos.
[1:16:25] Speaker 3: There's like, I don't know, you can kind of enter
[1:16:30] Speaker 3: contracts with players, so you can kind of make allies,
[1:16:33] Speaker 3: things like that. And again, I bet there's some interesting
[1:16:36] Speaker 3: things there. I am kind of curious, like, how many
[1:16:38] Speaker 3: of these maps are there going to be? Because even, like,
[1:16:41] Speaker 3: you know, I did three rounds in this one map,
[1:16:44] Speaker 3: and I'm like, okay, I've seen a lot of this stuff.
[1:16:47] Speaker 3: I don't know how dynamic it gets. And I worry,
[1:16:50] Speaker 3: and this is just a worry, like, kind of like
[1:16:52] Speaker 3: with Night Rain, where when I got back into it
[1:16:54] Speaker 3: and really wanted to be good, it was sort of like, well,
[1:16:55] Speaker 3: you need to go to this place, then go to
[1:16:57] Speaker 3: this place, then go to this place.
[1:16:59] Speaker 4: Right.
[1:16:59] Speaker 3: And I'm like, well, I feel like people are going
[1:17:01] Speaker 3: to just really have a pretty good idea of what
[1:17:03] Speaker 3: they need to be prioritizing in order to be good
[1:17:06] Speaker 3: at this kind of game. You're going to get to
[1:17:07] Speaker 3: a point where the person in first place has like
[1:17:10] Speaker 3: 40 Val.
[1:17:11] Speaker 2: Or whatever it is.
[1:17:11] Speaker 3: And the person in the bottom has like eight virtue.
[1:17:14] Speaker 2: That's it. Virtue. So it's going to be this big golf.
[1:17:16] Speaker 2: I don't know. Here's my take on what has happened here.
[1:17:21] Speaker 2: They got done with Elden Ring, and Miyazaki was like,
[1:17:25] Speaker 2: holy shit, we can't just follow that up with something
[1:17:28] Speaker 2: that is going to be compared to Elden Ring.
[1:17:30] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[1:17:30] Speaker 2: Also, I want to try something different. What can we do?
[1:17:34] Speaker 2: And they kind of were like, hey, let's stretch our
[1:17:36] Speaker 2: legs in a different direction and work with Nintendo on something.
[1:17:40] Speaker 2: So we kind of have a partner on this that
[1:17:42] Speaker 2: makes some sense and feels like, oh, that can be
[1:17:45] Speaker 2: very different.
[1:17:45] Speaker 4: Yeah.
[1:17:46] Speaker 2: It feels like trying to follow up something massive and
[1:17:49] Speaker 2: for as absurd as it is, a breakout hit for FromSoft,
[1:17:53] Speaker 2: a company that's had a lot of hits, has sold
[1:17:55] Speaker 2: a lot, done very well. Eldering was certainly a breakout
[1:17:58] Speaker 2: hit for them that made them a mainstream thing that
[1:18:00] Speaker 2: was like, if you were talking about that game on TikTok,
[1:18:03] Speaker 2: you were getting millions of views because everyone was into
[1:18:06] Speaker 2: Elden Ring. And I felt like, hey, let's just sort
[1:18:08] Speaker 2: of make a clean break from that and follow it
[1:18:10] Speaker 2: up so we don't have a sophomore slump. Again, that's
[1:18:14] Speaker 2: a misnomer, but it does feel like they just wanted
[1:18:16] Speaker 2: to do something that was different so they didn't have
[1:18:18] Speaker 2: to like immediately do Elden Ring again. And so people
[1:18:23] Speaker 2: going into this looking for anything that's like what they've
[1:18:25] Speaker 2: done before, I think there's a strong chance a lot
[1:18:28] Speaker 2: of people are going.
[1:18:28] Speaker 1: To be disappointed. I wonder... Go ahead, Mike.
[1:18:31] Speaker 2: Sorry. That's how I feel, too.
[1:18:33] Speaker 3: But I also thought that with Nightwing, when I played
[1:18:35] Speaker 3: that before it came out, I was like, are people going.
[1:18:36] Speaker 2: To like this?
[1:18:37] Speaker 3: And I don't know what that's, but I see a
[1:18:39] Speaker 3: lot of people testing the rhythm. But I've also seen
[1:18:41] Speaker 3: a lot of people say that. If I was a
[1:18:44] Speaker 3: betting man, I bet this is going to still do
[1:18:46] Speaker 3: pretty well.
[1:18:47] Speaker 2: I think it's going to. Yeah, I'm just trying to
[1:18:49] Speaker 2: think about their thinking at Ubisoft, for sure. I think
[1:18:52] Speaker 2: people very well could end up liking this. Go ahead, Jan, sorry.
[1:18:56] Speaker 1: I think there's just been such a strong appetite for
[1:18:59] Speaker 1: anything Bloodborne-related or Bloodborne-seeming, so I feel like that audience
[1:19:04] Speaker 1: might show up for this. The multiplayer aspect, that's kind
[1:19:08] Speaker 1: of throwing me off. I did see someone in our
[1:19:11] Speaker 1: chat describe it as the city mode in Kirby's Air Ride.
[1:19:16] Speaker 1: City Trials.
[1:19:16] Speaker 2: City Trials. City Trials.
[1:19:18] Speaker 3: Because, like, you're not just getting points, you're trying to
[1:19:20] Speaker 3: level up as well, so you want to take out
[1:19:22] Speaker 3: bosses and just enemies and do that stuff too. So
[1:19:25] Speaker 3: it is kind of like, get as strong as you
[1:19:26] Speaker 3: can for the actual match at the end of the game.
[1:19:29] Speaker 2: And, like, City Trials also has, like, events that will, like,
[1:19:32] Speaker 2: take you out of the map for a little bit
[1:19:33] Speaker 2: and you'll go do, like, a little thing and then
[1:19:35] Speaker 2: you'll come back with, like, some buff and... Yeah.
[1:19:38] Speaker 3: Kind of like how City Trials is a mode in
[1:19:39] Speaker 3: Kirby Air Riders. It's almost like, is there something Xbox
[1:19:43] Speaker 3: 360 about this where this feels like it would be
[1:19:46] Speaker 3: the multiplayer mode for a proper FromSoftware game, right? Like
[1:19:52] Speaker 3: there's something Bioshock 2 multiplayer about this to me.
[1:19:57] Speaker 2: And maybe FromSoft is the one studio that can make
[1:19:59] Speaker 2: that work. And I believe that that's possible. But yeah,
[1:20:04] Speaker 2: that's not what everyone's looking for. I..
[1:20:07] Speaker 1: I think this is still going to be hit with
[1:20:09] Speaker 1: those sickos over there. Parentheses positive sickos.
[1:20:14] Speaker 2: I hope so. I want to be clear that I
[1:20:16] Speaker 2: mostly think that's fine. They have different reasons. I can
[1:20:18] Speaker 2: see why people like it.
[1:20:19] Speaker 3: The sneaker part of me is like, if this game was.
[1:20:22] Speaker 2: Called God of War Duskblood or whatever, I don't think
[1:20:27] Speaker 2: people would give it the time of day. Yeah, at
[1:20:30] Speaker 2: the same time, if you go to the Soulsborne subreddits,
[1:20:33] Speaker 2: they're all complaining about this game being multiplayer only and
[1:20:37] Speaker 2: on Switch 2. They're mad about this. There's no pleasing
[1:20:40] Speaker 2: these fans one way or the other.
[1:20:41] Speaker 1: No, there's no pleasing anyone on the internet. But you
[1:20:45] Speaker 1: know what it is? What is pleasing is Blood Dungeon.
[1:20:50] Speaker 1: We've talked about this in the past. This game is
[1:20:52] Speaker 1: now out. We did a quick look with the dev
[1:20:57] Speaker 1: that is now out on the website. Mike Minotti and Grubb,
[1:21:01] Speaker 1: you two sat down with Mess Off Games to chat
[1:21:05] Speaker 1: about Blood Dungeon and see a naked dude. Yeah, Mark's a...
[1:21:09] Speaker 1: And woman.
[1:21:10] Speaker 2: He's awesome. Yeah, there's a naked woman. She does a
[1:21:12] Speaker 2: handstand the whole time, but she's naked. Yeah, Mark's a very,
[1:21:16] Speaker 2: very humble guy. So that quick look is fun. Just
[1:21:18] Speaker 2: see him like kind of talk about it. I don't
[1:21:20] Speaker 2: want to kind of fart this game out. And we're
[1:21:22] Speaker 2: all like obsessed with it. I really like this game.
[1:21:26] Speaker 2: It's kind of it's hitting all my quadrants or whatever.
[1:21:28] Speaker 2: I think, Mike, you've had an interesting history with like
[1:21:32] Speaker 2: sort of these auto shooters or whatever we call them,
[1:21:35] Speaker 2: where it's like you didn't really get you until Terratech.
[1:21:37] Speaker 2: And now this one is kind of right there below Terratech,
[1:21:40] Speaker 2: but you're still into it. Yeah, I think that's exactly right.
[1:21:42] Speaker 3: It's not hitting quite as strong for me as a Terratech,
[1:21:44] Speaker 3: but I have been enjoying it. You know, it's unlocking
[1:21:48] Speaker 3: a lot of stuff pretty quickly. And I like that, like,
[1:21:51] Speaker 3: some of the reward, like, pretty early on, like, the
[1:21:53] Speaker 3: meta progression stuff, like, oh, do this much more damage.
[1:21:56] Speaker 1: Blah, blah, blah.
[1:21:57] Speaker 3: Then eventually it's like, jump higher. That costs a lot more.
[1:22:00] Speaker 3: Then there's more weapon slots, because that's the start. You
[1:22:02] Speaker 3: can only have two weapons, right?
[1:22:04] Speaker 1: I'm like, ooh.
[1:22:05] Speaker 3: So chasing that stuff is a bit fun, even though
[1:22:07] Speaker 3: I'm still, like, a little bit, because I haven't seen
[1:22:10] Speaker 3: the end of any of these levels. I don't know
[1:22:11] Speaker 3: if there's any one. I've never done better than kill
[1:22:14] Speaker 3: two bosses on one of them.
[1:22:15] Speaker 2: So part of me..
[1:22:15] Speaker 1: There's three bosses.
[1:22:16] Speaker 3: Okay, so that's kind of, like, something I just almost
[1:22:18] Speaker 3: wanted to know, where... Because with Terratech, I kind of
[1:22:21] Speaker 3: like that I know what I need to do to
[1:22:23] Speaker 3: beat this, and I can put in my mind to
[1:22:25] Speaker 3: beat this. In this game, I was a little bit unsure.
[1:22:27] Speaker 3: There's a score I'm chasing. There's that element, which is neat,
[1:22:30] Speaker 3: but what's my end game?
[1:22:31] Speaker 2: You kind of can't compete in the score unless you
[1:22:33] Speaker 2: kill that final boss. That makes sense. That is the leaderboard.
[1:22:36] Speaker 2: The leaderboard is going to be that extra 100,000 bonus
[1:22:39] Speaker 2: points at the end makes a huge difference. But then
[1:22:41] Speaker 2: you do that, you're like, wait, how did this person
[1:22:43] Speaker 2: score 100,000 more than me before that?
[1:22:44] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[1:22:45] Speaker 2: When we got killed at the same time, because it's
[1:22:47] Speaker 2: not as soon as you beat that third boss, it's over.
[1:22:49] Speaker 2: The stage is done. Like, you don't even you don't die.
[1:22:51] Speaker 2: It's not like they send out some like unkillable boss
[1:22:53] Speaker 2: that will come in now to clean up the room.
[1:22:56] Speaker 2: It just ends. So it is a stage. And then
[1:22:59] Speaker 2: when you do that, you unlock more stuff. And I'll
[1:23:01] Speaker 2: tell you what, that progression stuff works pretty well in
[1:23:04] Speaker 2: terms of I am trying to get better at this
[1:23:07] Speaker 2: game because I do want to be on the leaderboards.
[1:23:09] Speaker 2: I want to be competing with my friends. But then
[1:23:10] Speaker 2: there's all this like every time I do that, I'm
[1:23:13] Speaker 2: working towards getting more bones I could spend in the
[1:23:16] Speaker 2: shop to have that meta progression or I'm unlocking new
[1:23:19] Speaker 2: levels that you know, the way that these games usually work,
[1:23:21] Speaker 2: it's like this one is a long skinny one, or
[1:23:24] Speaker 2: it's a vertical one that goes all up and down
[1:23:26] Speaker 2: and they always a loop. And this one's kind of
[1:23:28] Speaker 2: like a bigger box or a more contained box that
[1:23:30] Speaker 2: is a little bit harder to navigate. So it's kind
[1:23:32] Speaker 2: of just changes things slightly, but they are all worth
[1:23:34] Speaker 2: exploring for their own reasons and having slightly different bosses. Um,
[1:23:39] Speaker 2: I just think it has a really strong voice, very
[1:23:42] Speaker 2: strong vibe. Um, The way it looks is, you know,
[1:23:46] Speaker 2: with like kind of the, oh, it's placeholder visuals or whatever.
[1:23:49] Speaker 2: It's like, nah, that stuff just, it sings in like
[1:23:51] Speaker 2: a punk rock sort of way.
[1:23:53] Speaker 4: It's fun.
[1:23:54] Speaker 2: Yeah, it's fun. And kind of makes it feel, I
[1:23:57] Speaker 2: don't know what it makes it feel like, but I
[1:23:58] Speaker 2: am attached to it. I really just want to keep
[1:24:00] Speaker 2: playing that even as I have other games I should
[1:24:02] Speaker 2: be playing.
[1:24:03] Speaker 1: It's so visually distinct that I am just like enraptured
[1:24:07] Speaker 1: looking at it and just staring at this game being
[1:24:09] Speaker 1: played and in motion because like, oh, that's an ugly baby.
[1:24:13] Speaker 1: Like that dude looks gross. It looks like a messed
[1:24:17] Speaker 1: up Nickelodeon show, but like a low budget Nickelodeon show.
[1:24:21] Speaker 1: And I say that.
[1:24:22] Speaker 3: It got some Klasky Kupo, uh, vibe to it or whatever.
[1:24:25] Speaker 1: I'm always saying real monsters. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
[1:24:29] Speaker 1: A hundred percent. Um, and folks at home, you too
[1:24:33] Speaker 1: can get a steam code for blood dungeon. If you
[1:24:37] Speaker 1: are a new subscriber to giant bomb premium, that's right.
[1:24:40] Speaker 1: The first, uh, The first 50 new subscribers to Giant
[1:24:46] Speaker 1: Bomb Premium. We just started this today, so they should
[1:24:48] Speaker 1: still be there for a little bit. Those Jimmy Jams
[1:24:51] Speaker 1: should still be there. You can get a Steam code
[1:24:53] Speaker 1: for Blood Dungeon.
[1:24:56] Speaker 3: That's right, everybody. Giantbomb.com slash join. You get an email
[1:25:00] Speaker 3: from me with your Steam code. Don't tell me you
[1:25:02] Speaker 3: don't want it or already have it.
[1:25:04] Speaker 2: It's your code.
[1:25:04] Speaker 3: You give it to somebody else. Stop giving more work
[1:25:07] Speaker 3: to me. Giantbomb.com slash join. What are you joining?
[1:25:13] Speaker 2: Fun. Oh, that's what it is.
[1:25:16] Speaker 4: Yeah, we're joining fun. We have a strict no backseas policy.
[1:25:20] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[1:25:21] Speaker 2: Actually, we have a strict, don't upset Mikey. Come on.
[1:25:24] Speaker 2: Mikey ain't happy. Ain't nobody happy.
[1:25:27] Speaker 1: Yeah, that's why.
[1:25:28] Speaker 2: Sign up, get that code, and then hang out with
[1:25:29] Speaker 2: us on that Friday premium only stream, everybody, 6 p.m.
[1:25:32] Speaker 2: We're going to be doing cool stuff then. So, yeah,
[1:25:34] Speaker 2: make that happen.
[1:25:35] Speaker 1: I mean, you heard the whole spiel at the tippy
[1:25:37] Speaker 1: top about all the new premium shows or previous premium shows,
[1:25:40] Speaker 1: but we got a lot of stuff we're working on constantly. Constantly.
[1:25:43] Speaker 1: Around the clock.
[1:25:46] Speaker 2: Yes, but go check out that Blood Dungeon. Quick look.
[1:25:49] Speaker 2: And yeah, that's definitely a game worth playing. I just
[1:25:52] Speaker 2: think if you have any offense, like even like Vampire Survivors, right?
[1:25:56] Speaker 2: Wasn't your thing. I think people are going to find
[1:25:59] Speaker 2: one of these games that does click with them, whether
[1:26:00] Speaker 2: it is the Terratech. Or this one. If you are
[1:26:03] Speaker 2: a side-scroller kind of person, this is, oh, one of
[1:26:06] Speaker 2: these as a side-scroller, and your ability to be good
[1:26:09] Speaker 2: at platforming does factor in here, and that's where it's
[1:26:11] Speaker 2: really working for me.
[1:26:12] Speaker 1: I was going to say, I don't think this would
[1:26:15] Speaker 1: scratch the Spelunky itch for some people, but I feel
[1:26:18] Speaker 1: like it'll... It would leave a familiar taste, if anything.
[1:26:24] Speaker 2: That one level is kind of Spelunky. Yeah, if you
[1:26:27] Speaker 2: like moving around Spelunky, the movement is a little bit similar,
[1:26:29] Speaker 2: for sure.
[1:26:30] Speaker 1: Yeah, so Blood Dungeon is out now. Boys, anything else
[1:26:34] Speaker 1: you want to talk about video game-wise? We are playing
[1:26:37] Speaker 1: a bunch of other stuff, but..
[1:26:38] Speaker 2: Playing a bunch of stuff we can't talk about yet,
[1:26:40] Speaker 2: a couple games that are massive, yeah.
[1:26:42] Speaker 3: You might have seen there's a lot of video games
[1:26:44] Speaker 3: coming out.
[1:26:45] Speaker 1: Yes, yes.
[1:26:46] Speaker 2: Embargoes that don't line up naturally with the bomb cast, unfortunately,
[1:26:49] Speaker 2: but yeah. There's always next week's episode.
[1:26:51] Speaker 1: Yes, yes. A ton. We'll actually be able to talk
[1:26:54] Speaker 1: about a couple big games on next week's show. Boys,
[1:26:59] Speaker 1: we're going to take another quick, bricky break, and we'll
[1:27:01] Speaker 1: be back with emails. Oh, I guess we can mention this.
[1:27:07] Speaker 1: A Star Wars Zero Company quick look is hitting the
[1:27:11] Speaker 1: internet giant bomb channels tomorrow.
[1:27:14] Speaker 2: Tomorrow. Yep, tomorrow. Chuck showed me and Jan that, and
[1:27:18] Speaker 2: we've been playing it. So you'll hear our thoughts on
[1:27:20] Speaker 2: that once that embargo's up.
[1:27:22] Speaker 1: Yeah. It is a beefy quick look, folks.
[1:27:24] Speaker 2: Thursday? It's Thursday? We're putting out Thursday? I thought the
[1:27:26] Speaker 2: quick look was Wednesday. All right, never mind.
[1:27:28] Speaker 1: Thursday.
[1:27:28] Speaker 2: Thursday. Chuck's yelling at us in chat. Thursday, Thursday, Thursday.
[1:27:33] Speaker 1: Well, you'll see it then. It's a beefy boy. And
[1:27:36] Speaker 1: I will see you right after this bricky break with
[1:27:38] Speaker 1: some emails and YouTube super chats. these are the emails
[1:27:48] Speaker 1: for the show emails bombcast the giant bomb.com is the
[1:27:53] Speaker 1: email address send your emails to you can write in
[1:27:55] Speaker 1: about any and everything we're gonna try and zip through
[1:28:00] Speaker 1: these this week but thank you for everyone for writing
[1:28:04] Speaker 1: in if you have something nice to say i try
[1:28:06] Speaker 1: and pass that along to someone on the crew if
[1:28:08] Speaker 1: it's to someone specific.
[1:28:10] Speaker 2: I've never gotten one.
[1:28:12] Speaker 1: I meant just the.
[1:28:13] Speaker 2: One you sent. It was touching.
[1:28:15] Speaker 1: It's nice.
[1:28:15] Speaker 4: Thank you.
[1:28:16] Speaker 1: First email comes from Seth from Loveland. Hey, y'all. Just
[1:28:19] Speaker 1: finished Perfect Dark on the 64 for the first time.
[1:28:22] Speaker 1: I definitely can appreciate the game for what it is
[1:28:25] Speaker 1: and had a good time playing through it. But what
[1:28:27] Speaker 1: the hell was that story? I know I have heard
[1:28:32] Speaker 1: a few of you talk about liking the game. Curious
[1:28:35] Speaker 1: if you all have gone back to play it recently.
[1:28:37] Speaker 1: Also would love to hear your 30-second Kayla-style story story
[1:28:41] Speaker 1: summary to help make sense of it. Love you bunches.
[1:28:43] Speaker 1: Seth from Loveland.
[1:28:45] Speaker 2: Well, three years ago, because it takes place in 2023.
[1:28:48] Speaker 1: Oh.
[1:28:51] Speaker 2: I don't remember. I played through the story mode, certainly,
[1:28:56] Speaker 2: but I played it like the week it came out
[1:28:58] Speaker 2: and then played a ton of multiplayer and never really
[1:29:00] Speaker 2: thought about the story other than Elvis ever again. Right,
[1:29:03] Speaker 2: like that's the thing.
[1:29:03] Speaker 3: It's one of those like surprise sci-fi plots, which like
[1:29:07] Speaker 3: I think is still divisive with the perfect dark people.
[1:29:09] Speaker 2: Or surprise like space alien sci-fi, right? Right, like it
[1:29:12] Speaker 2: was always like Blade Runner-y looking, right?
[1:29:15] Speaker 3: And it's like, well, here's an alien that looks like
[1:29:17] Speaker 3: the most generic, like, Roswell kind of alien you can imagine, right?
[1:29:21] Speaker 2: Yes.
[1:29:21] Speaker 3: I think that, and his name's Elvis.
[1:29:23] Speaker 2: It's so, like, once you start getting to that, it's like,
[1:29:26] Speaker 2: of course, this is a rare game. Like, it's so,
[1:29:28] Speaker 2: the story is so rare limited. But yeah, I don't
[1:29:32] Speaker 2: remember the exact plot details at all.
[1:29:37] Speaker 3: I'm going to play through it for the first time
[1:29:39] Speaker 3: relatively soon, is my plan. I have a copy here.
[1:29:42] Speaker 3: I did GoldenEye, finally, not too long ago, so this
[1:29:46] Speaker 3: is on my to-do list.
[1:29:48] Speaker 2: Maybe Friday night we'll play some GoldenEye 2.
[1:29:49] Speaker 1: Ooh. GoldenEye. Right, right.
[1:29:52] Speaker 3: I have to pick a game for you for your
[1:29:54] Speaker 3: Delight Club tomorrow, so, okay, get on with it.
[1:29:57] Speaker 1: All right. Also from Loveland, Mike writes in, Bang, bang, bomb, gang.
[1:30:03] Speaker 1: What game made you feel like you were living in
[1:30:05] Speaker 1: the future? I think a key example of a game
[1:30:07] Speaker 1: like this for me was Scribblenauts. That game would have
[1:30:10] Speaker 1: seemed like actual magic to me if i had been
[1:30:13] Speaker 1: a kid when it came out bonus question for backlar
[1:30:16] Speaker 1: are there any pinball features or mechs that would have
[1:30:19] Speaker 1: blown your young mind as someone who was alive when
[1:30:23] Speaker 1: the mafia controlled when the mafia controlled the pinball trade
[1:30:26] Speaker 1: i feel like tables have come a really long way
[1:30:29] Speaker 1: love the show love you all mike from loveland.
[1:30:32] Speaker 4: Email or how old are you That's that's crazy. That's
[1:30:39] Speaker 4: like unless I've got my dates wrong. Happy to have
[1:30:43] Speaker 4: you here, friend.
[1:30:45] Speaker 2: What would for as long as you're going to be
[1:30:47] Speaker 2: alive still? I mean, I was the war. What's the war?
[1:30:53] Speaker 4: Pinball features are mechs that would have blown your young mind.
[1:30:57] Speaker 4: What is pinball doing now that really would have impressed
[1:31:00] Speaker 4: me as a child?
[1:31:01] Speaker 3: That Megatron does shoot a pinball out of his cannon, right?
[1:31:05] Speaker 2: Yeah. That's cool.
[1:31:07] Speaker 1: I guess that's just a.
[1:31:08] Speaker 4: Canon yeah i i think i think the light shows
[1:31:11] Speaker 4: honestly i think like the screens and the led uh
[1:31:15] Speaker 4: light shows have really advanced in a way yeah.
[1:31:18] Speaker 2: To me the uh the screen on the uh phantom
[1:31:21] Speaker 2: menace pinball machine is still new and exciting than that
[1:31:24] Speaker 2: yeah so.
[1:31:25] Speaker 4: Yeah i mean i think that i mean quite frankly
[1:31:28] Speaker 4: when you look at like the last 40 years of
[1:31:29] Speaker 4: pinball like the biggest things are the leds and the
[1:31:32] Speaker 4: lcds right like that is like the big thing um
[1:31:36] Speaker 4: And some interesting mechanical choices with moving rails and stuff
[1:31:42] Speaker 4: like that. People are taking full advantage of that cubic
[1:31:46] Speaker 4: area under the glass.
[1:31:48] Speaker 3: In terms of video games, nothing ever felt more like
[1:31:53] Speaker 3: that than playing Super Mario 64 in a demo kiosk
[1:31:56] Speaker 3: at Ontario Place for the first time.
[1:31:58] Speaker 2: Just couldn't believe it. That really felt just... I just
[1:32:04] Speaker 2: couldn't believe it. Because I think for a while there,
[1:32:06] Speaker 2: we were expecting, all right, it'll be like Donkey Kong Country,
[1:32:09] Speaker 2: but even better for the next Mario game on the
[1:32:11] Speaker 2: Nintendo 64. And then you saw magazines, it was going
[1:32:14] Speaker 2: to be 3D, and then you got to play it.
[1:32:15] Speaker 2: It's like, oh my God, it's better than they even said.
[1:32:17] Speaker 1: Wow.
[1:32:19] Speaker 4: Yeah, I want to hear you, Jan, and then I
[1:32:20] Speaker 4: have something.
[1:32:21] Speaker 1: Ratchet and Clank, the original one, when that came out.
[1:32:24] Speaker 1: Because it just felt like, oh, I'm playing a cartoon
[1:32:27] Speaker 1: as I'm going through this. It just blew my little mind.
[1:32:30] Speaker 4: That..
[1:32:31] Speaker 1: I guess that whole trio of platformers around early PS2
[1:32:35] Speaker 1: of Ratchet and Clank, Jak and Daxter, Sly Cooper, just
[1:32:39] Speaker 1: felt like, wow, graphics have come so far. Right.
[1:32:46] Speaker 2: You're young. Super Mario World, for me, seeing World was crazy.
[1:32:55] Speaker 4: I just remember being like, this, well, you know, so
[1:32:59] Speaker 4: many more colors. Yeah.
[1:33:00] Speaker 2: You couldn't explain it.
[1:33:01] Speaker 4: You're just like, it's just, it's so smooth now. What, what,
[1:33:04] Speaker 4: what they found, they found something inside the TV to use.
[1:33:08] Speaker 3: Like, I remember that was actually like a plot point
[1:33:10] Speaker 3: in console wars, the book, you know, where it was
[1:33:12] Speaker 3: like the Sega people like imported this, the super famicom,
[1:33:16] Speaker 3: it plays for Mario world. The guy, like their top
[1:33:18] Speaker 3: guy play it. He came back like, Good news, everybody.
[1:33:21] Speaker 3: It's kind of nothing.
[1:33:22] Speaker 1: It's not.
[1:33:23] Speaker 2: I'm like, I want to be clear. Nobody reacted that way.
[1:33:27] Speaker 1: Super Mario World.
[1:33:28] Speaker 2: We were all very impressed. Yes, absolutely.
[1:33:31] Speaker 4: And then more contemporary, even though incredibly old, Half-Life 2.
[1:33:37] Speaker 1: I feel like.
[1:33:37] Speaker 3: Half-Life 2 was like a big.
[1:33:40] Speaker 4: Like, oh, you can emulate the physics around us inside us.
[1:33:48] Speaker 4: A video game.
[1:33:49] Speaker 3: The moment that guy knocked the can off the trash can,
[1:33:52] Speaker 3: he had to pick it up and throw it away again.
[1:33:54] Speaker 4: That was amazing. You're just like, wait a second. Nothing's
[1:33:58] Speaker 4: predetermined now. What's going on? I have a gravity gun. Yeah,
[1:34:03] Speaker 4: that stuff for me, some of those early puzzles where
[1:34:05] Speaker 4: you're like placing cinder blocks on seesaws and stuff like that.
[1:34:09] Speaker 2: It's super rudimentary.
[1:34:10] Speaker 4: But like thinking about it back then, you're like, oh,
[1:34:13] Speaker 4: my God, like this is.
[1:34:14] Speaker 2: This seems important. It was in that moment.
[1:34:17] Speaker 1: It was physics.
[1:34:18] Speaker 2: I remember having the same feeling about like 1080 and
[1:34:20] Speaker 2: wave race where it's like, man, this I've done these
[1:34:22] Speaker 2: things in real life and the way that they've translated
[1:34:25] Speaker 2: that into this game. feels so truthful to actual real
[1:34:30] Speaker 2: world physics. We are like playing in a completely different realm.
[1:34:32] Speaker 2: Their ability to capture that blew me away. There was
[1:34:35] Speaker 2: one more. This is like Mark McDonald's review from EGM
[1:34:38] Speaker 2: always stuck with me about Metroid Prime. It was like,
[1:34:41] Speaker 2: it feels like the best game from five years in
[1:34:44] Speaker 2: the future came back and was released today. And I
[1:34:46] Speaker 2: was like, yeah, that was Metroid Prime in that moment.
[1:34:49] Speaker 2: It's like, this game is just so much better than
[1:34:50] Speaker 2: anything else that's out that year. Yeah, definitely felt very futuristic.
[1:34:54] Speaker 4: Whenever I do this exercise, I always think of, like,
[1:34:59] Speaker 4: a game that also, like, fucked me up a little bit.
[1:35:02] Speaker 1: Okay.
[1:35:03] Speaker 4: And that was Soldier of Fortune 2 Double Helix.
[1:35:07] Speaker 2: Oh, the one you can shoot the dick?
[1:35:10] Speaker 4: No, that's... That's the sniper game. That's, like, Sniper, right?
[1:35:14] Speaker 2: Sniper Elite, right?
[1:35:15] Speaker 1: Sniper Elite.
[1:35:15] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[1:35:16] Speaker 4: This was a game with just, like, I guess for
[1:35:19] Speaker 4: its time, like, gore in a way that I was
[1:35:21] Speaker 4: not expecting.
[1:35:22] Speaker 1: Right, all the gifs. You would just see, like..
[1:35:24] Speaker 4: You would just see like people's like, you know, guts
[1:35:27] Speaker 4: after you shot them. And I was like, Oh my God,
[1:35:29] Speaker 4: I'm just a, I'm just an 18 year old boy.
[1:35:31] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[1:35:32] Speaker 5: Right.
[1:35:32] Speaker 2: Like what's happening right now?
[1:35:34] Speaker 1: It, uh, it a similar way. I remember what it was.
[1:35:37] Speaker 1: It must've been a target, a Kmart, maybe a toys
[1:35:40] Speaker 1: or us just walking around the game section. And then
[1:35:43] Speaker 1: just seeing, um, DOA beach volleyball playing on one of
[1:35:47] Speaker 1: the screens. Oh yeah.
[1:35:49] Speaker 2: And just standing there. That's my future when I'm old enough.
[1:35:52] Speaker 2: Just like, Wow, look at that.
[1:35:56] Speaker 1: Yeah. And then my mom closing my eyes and then
[1:36:00] Speaker 1: pulling me away.
[1:36:00] Speaker 3: Who's your Dead or Alive beach volleyball waifu, Jan?
[1:36:05] Speaker 1: I don't know their names. Oh, me neither. You should
[1:36:11] Speaker 1: get that cough checked out, dog.
[1:36:14] Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks.
[1:36:16] Speaker 1: Next email comes from John from Richland, Washington.
[1:36:20] Speaker 2: Hey, guys.
[1:36:21] Speaker 1: You brought up a fun topic a couple weeks ago.
[1:36:23] Speaker 1: It was about renting games and getting games for Christmas
[1:36:26] Speaker 1: and justifying spending money or enjoying something you may not
[1:36:29] Speaker 1: have otherwise. So what games has someone rented for you
[1:36:33] Speaker 1: or games you receive for Christmas that you thought you
[1:36:36] Speaker 1: wouldn't enjoy initially and ended up having a blast with?
[1:36:39] Speaker 1: I really wanted Killer Instinct the year it came out,
[1:36:42] Speaker 1: and my parents got me Donkey Kong Country instead. Not
[1:36:45] Speaker 1: a huge disappointment, and of course, I had a great
[1:36:46] Speaker 1: time with it, but I really wanted Killer Instinct. Also,
[1:36:49] Speaker 1: my grandma let me pick up my birthday gift one year,
[1:36:52] Speaker 1: and I picked up Total Carnage on the Super Nintendo,
[1:36:55] Speaker 1: mostly because of the red cartridge. I never made it
[1:36:57] Speaker 1: past the second level, and really had buyer's remorse on
[1:37:00] Speaker 1: that one. Anyway, loved the show and had a great
[1:37:02] Speaker 1: time at Mysterium and Double Dragon in Portland. You all
[1:37:05] Speaker 1: signed my copy of Bloodborne, and I've almost got it finished.
[1:37:08] Speaker 1: You guys rock.
[1:37:10] Speaker 2: Awesome. Thanks, John.
[1:37:11] Speaker 4: Yeah, thank you. I, uh..
[1:37:14] Speaker 3: I always knew so much more about video games than
[1:37:17] Speaker 3: my parents that I would just tell them what games
[1:37:19] Speaker 3: I want. I don't know if they ever surprised me
[1:37:22] Speaker 3: with something that I didn't know about or already wanted
[1:37:25] Speaker 3: from the rental store or from like, yeah, for Christmas
[1:37:28] Speaker 3: or something like that. I think I was very direct
[1:37:29] Speaker 3: about which ones.
[1:37:31] Speaker 4: That is a fun visual to kind of like put
[1:37:33] Speaker 4: together in your head of like your, your, uh, 60
[1:37:35] Speaker 4: year old aunt just going to Toys R Us and
[1:37:38] Speaker 4: being like one video game, please.
[1:37:41] Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly.
[1:37:44] Speaker 4: Like hit me up with that. Uh, cause that happened
[1:37:46] Speaker 4: to me a few times. I got it. I remember
[1:37:48] Speaker 4: getting games from them like, uh, Hellfire on Genesis.
[1:37:54] Speaker 1: Hellfire.
[1:37:54] Speaker 4: That was like a shooter-y like left to right shooter,
[1:37:57] Speaker 4: spacey shooter thing. I always get weird games from them
[1:38:00] Speaker 4: that I never asked for, and I'm like, okay, I
[1:38:02] Speaker 4: guess I'll just put this in the Genesis and see
[1:38:04] Speaker 4: what happens.
[1:38:05] Speaker 2: I definitely had that a couple years after I had
[1:38:08] Speaker 2: the Super Nintendo, which I got kind of late because
[1:38:11] Speaker 2: it's hard to convince parents to buy stuff back then
[1:38:13] Speaker 2: when I was a kid. For a birthday, a friend...
[1:38:18] Speaker 2: Whose family I think did have like money. They did
[1:38:20] Speaker 2: get me a video game, but it was an NES game.
[1:38:21] Speaker 2: It was Vice Project Doom. Oh, shit. And I had
[1:38:24] Speaker 2: never heard of it. And I was like super disappointed
[1:38:26] Speaker 2: because it's like an NES game. I'm on the Super Nintendo.
[1:38:29] Speaker 2: I don't play old games. anymore and then finally years
[1:38:32] Speaker 2: later I did put it in and played it and
[1:38:34] Speaker 2: was like oh this game rules it was a late
[1:38:38] Speaker 2: release and was really well done I had a lot
[1:38:40] Speaker 2: more cool stuff going on than I was expecting. Now
[1:38:42] Speaker 2: I know it's kind of a beloved game.
[1:38:44] Speaker 1: No one's really gifted me video games, but I did
[1:38:48] Speaker 1: suddenly get brain blasted just now. My first girlfriend in
[1:38:53] Speaker 1: the sixth grade got me Tony Hawk's Underground. And then
[1:38:57] Speaker 1: when she broke up with me, I was like, I
[1:39:04] Speaker 1: could still keep the game, right? Like, that's fine.
[1:39:07] Speaker 2: Thug for a thug. Absolutely.
[1:39:09] Speaker 1: It's hard out here for a thug.
[1:39:10] Speaker 2: Thug life.
[1:39:11] Speaker 1: She let you keep it? She just hand waved at
[1:39:14] Speaker 1: me and she's.
[1:39:15] Speaker 2: Like, whatever. Leave me alone. That's what you're thinking about.
[1:39:19] Speaker 2: It was, dude. Absolutely. Almost always.
[1:39:24] Speaker 4: I needed to meet Eric Sparrow. I only used to
[1:39:27] Speaker 4: date for the game gifts. Let's be honest, right?
[1:39:32] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[1:39:32] Speaker 4: They dated, dated people just to get game gifts. It
[1:39:34] Speaker 4: makes sense.
[1:39:35] Speaker 2: Uh, good. When we were dating early, Steph got me, uh, uh, the,
[1:39:39] Speaker 2: I think she's the one that got me my, uh,
[1:39:41] Speaker 2: Zelda Majora's mask 3ds.
[1:39:43] Speaker 1: Oh, wow. That's very nice.
[1:39:45] Speaker 2: She was always proud of getting me, uh, good gaming gifts.
[1:39:49] Speaker 1: Okay. Two more emails here. Uh, Travis and Fargo writes
[1:39:54] Speaker 1: in Travis writes in five questions. I choose one. Travis
[1:39:57] Speaker 1: writes in, Be honest. Do you think of yourself as
[1:40:01] Speaker 1: a cool person? Why or why not?
[1:40:07] Speaker 3: I think, you know, there's like different contexts. I think
[1:40:09] Speaker 3: I do in the sense that I do well in
[1:40:11] Speaker 3: social situations and I tend to seem to be popular
[1:40:16] Speaker 3: in those. So I'm like, all right, that's that's kind
[1:40:18] Speaker 3: of what cool is.
[1:40:19] Speaker 1: Right. So sure.
[1:40:21] Speaker 2: I'm cool as fuck, boy.
[1:40:23] Speaker 4: Yeah, Jan's cool. I don't have to worry about Jan
[1:40:25] Speaker 4: being cool.
[1:40:26] Speaker 1: You know, because it's just because I got swag, because
[1:40:30] Speaker 1: swag is something we Asians got. Yeah. I think I.
[1:40:36] Speaker 2: Actively try to be like, if I am trying to
[1:40:39] Speaker 2: assess my coolness, I'm going to instead remove myself from
[1:40:42] Speaker 2: this situation. So, no.
[1:40:47] Speaker 4: This is way more layered and complex than I think
[1:40:49] Speaker 4: you guys think.
[1:40:51] Speaker 2: I think you're cool. Well, thank you, Jan.
[1:40:53] Speaker 4: That means a lot coming from you.
[1:40:55] Speaker 2: And only you, quite frankly. You're definitely a cool dad. Like,
[1:40:57] Speaker 2: that's clear. Thank you.
[1:40:59] Speaker 1: Right.
[1:40:59] Speaker 2: Again, means a lot.
[1:41:00] Speaker 4: Again, even if this is charitable, I appreciate all the- You.
[1:41:03] Speaker 2: Make dragons for your son. Yeah, cool shit.
[1:41:06] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[1:41:06] Speaker 2: That's cool. Thank you.
[1:41:08] Speaker 4: I think the reason I have a complicated relationship with
[1:41:12] Speaker 4: this question is because I- Cool killed your family.
[1:41:15] Speaker 1: Yeah, it's Mr.
[1:41:16] Speaker 2: Cool.
[1:41:17] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[1:41:19] Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know.
[1:41:20] Speaker 4: Like, I always worry that, like, I think I have
[1:41:23] Speaker 4: a thing where I meet new people and my brain's like, listen,
[1:41:27] Speaker 4: it doesn't matter what happens tonight. You got to get
[1:41:30] Speaker 4: these people to like you instantly. And I hate that
[1:41:37] Speaker 4: that's a characteristic I possess.
[1:41:41] Speaker 1: Sure, I get that. Yeah, sure. Definitely.
[1:41:44] Speaker 4: And I feel like I go on autopilot when this happens.
[1:41:49] Speaker 4: And then I like enter a place of like self-awareness
[1:41:52] Speaker 4: where I'm just like doing the fucking thing again.
[1:41:56] Speaker 2: Right.
[1:41:56] Speaker 4: You know, people please are, you know, and then I
[1:42:01] Speaker 4: always worry like, is my son thing? Does he think
[1:42:03] Speaker 4: I'm cool?
[1:42:04] Speaker 2: You know, that's all.
[1:42:06] Speaker 1: Thank you.
[1:42:07] Speaker 2: Nothing to do about that.
[1:42:08] Speaker 4: I know. Thanks for, um, thanks for this therapy session, uh, emailer.
[1:42:12] Speaker 2: Appreciate it.
[1:42:14] Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, it's interesting.
[1:42:16] Speaker 4: We'll just sit with that.
[1:42:17] Speaker 1: Because I feel like whenever I leave or I'm not
[1:42:20] Speaker 1: in a games space and I'm like with quote unquote
[1:42:25] Speaker 1: normal people, it takes a second to kind of like
[1:42:27] Speaker 1: recalibrate and find my footing of like, wait, what do
[1:42:31] Speaker 1: you guys talk about? Okay, you're not constantly angry on
[1:42:34] Speaker 1: the internet? Sick, cool, sick, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. Yeah,
[1:42:38] Speaker 1: just go touch Grass Gang.
[1:42:39] Speaker 2: It's sick.
[1:42:40] Speaker 1: It's cool. Go do that.
[1:42:41] Speaker 2: Be alphabetical.
[1:42:44] Speaker 1: Read more.
[1:42:46] Speaker 2: That's what that means? Wait, what?
[1:42:48] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[1:42:49] Speaker 2: Alphabetical?
[1:42:50] Speaker 1: Yeah. You say alphabetical?
[1:42:52] Speaker 2: Alphabetical, as in, no, you're not.
[1:42:56] Speaker 1: Don't worry. Sorry.
[1:42:56] Speaker 2: I remember seeing Nacho the Cross-Eyed Cat again. The old
[1:43:01] Speaker 2: Flash cartoon from 2005. You just ignore me. I've had
[1:43:06] Speaker 2: that tab open for like two weeks and I've not
[1:43:08] Speaker 2: watched it still. You should watch it. I kind of
[1:43:10] Speaker 2: feel like it's better if I don't because then I'll
[1:43:12] Speaker 2: start getting these jokes and ruin all the moments.
[1:43:16] Speaker 1: The thing is, Mikey has like like gone full circle
[1:43:20] Speaker 1: and reverse to wind up at cool at this point.
[1:43:23] Speaker 2: I know.
[1:43:23] Speaker 1: He always does this. He always does this.
[1:43:26] Speaker 3: I love what I do so that I look over
[1:43:28] Speaker 3: the chat and it's just scrolling by so fast.
[1:43:30] Speaker 2: Everyone's like, is there a gas leak? Is he okay?
[1:43:33] Speaker 1: Yeah. Explain it.
[1:43:35] Speaker 2: Yes and no.
[1:43:38] Speaker 1: All right. Last email. A little bit of a correction here.
[1:43:42] Speaker 1: This comes from Mitchell from Michigan. Oh, that's fun.
[1:43:45] Speaker 2: Hey, dooders.
[1:43:46] Speaker 1: Last week, Jeff Snackalar used the phrase bricked up to
[1:43:50] Speaker 1: describe having to take a shit really bad.
[1:43:52] Speaker 2: No.
[1:43:54] Speaker 1: No.
[1:43:55] Speaker 2: That's what happens to him. He should know. No, I
[1:43:58] Speaker 2: actually know what..
[1:44:00] Speaker 4: Okay, go on.
[1:44:01] Speaker 2: Let's hear it.
[1:44:02] Speaker 1: Mitchell continues. He should know that bricked up means having
[1:44:05] Speaker 1: a boner.
[1:44:06] Speaker 2: Thanks for all the years.
[1:44:07] Speaker 1: Right. Right.
[1:44:09] Speaker 4: And I know this..
[1:44:10] Speaker 1: All right.
[1:44:11] Speaker 2: Two things. Can't shit without being fully erect.
[1:44:13] Speaker 4: First of all, it's impossible. First of all, first of all, I'll,
[1:44:17] Speaker 4: I'll posit this.
[1:44:18] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[1:44:19] Speaker 4: It could go both ways. If you really wanted to
[1:44:21] Speaker 4: like disassemble that, like that makes.
[1:44:24] Speaker 1: Okay.
[1:44:25] Speaker 2: It could go both ways. Okay. Cause when you, when
[1:44:27] Speaker 2: you're bricked up, you're right. I understand.
[1:44:30] Speaker 4: Now I know what this means more recently because remember
[1:44:34] Speaker 4: I said, did came home from camp and he was
[1:44:36] Speaker 4: like a, not a totally different person, but he's like,
[1:44:39] Speaker 4: certainly a bit of a different person.
[1:44:40] Speaker 2: Uh-huh.
[1:44:41] Speaker 4: He said bricked up.
[1:44:43] Speaker 2: Wait, what? Yeah. Yeah.
[1:44:46] Speaker 4: And then I'm like, do you know what that means?
[1:44:49] Speaker 4: And then he was just like, yeah, you got like, you,
[1:44:51] Speaker 4: you're trying to like feel things for somebody. And I
[1:44:54] Speaker 4: was like, Oh, okay.
[1:44:56] Speaker 2: That's, that is, that's incorrect.
[1:45:00] Speaker 4: Look, I didn't know what he felt comfortable saying to me.
[1:45:03] Speaker 2: Sure.
[1:45:04] Speaker 4: Also, and look, I left that out and I left
[1:45:08] Speaker 4: another thing out that he said, right? I came home
[1:45:10] Speaker 4: and I said, oh, he's just saying facts and stuff.
[1:45:11] Speaker 4: He is saying that, but he's also saying, on the
[1:45:16] Speaker 4: fucking ride home from camp.
[1:45:19] Speaker 1: Oh no.
[1:45:22] Speaker 4: We're driving down the road, the highway, And he's, you know,
[1:45:26] Speaker 4: he's like, he's living the dream. He's like, oh, I
[1:45:29] Speaker 4: miss being with you guys. I miss being in the car, right?
[1:45:32] Speaker 2: And then he's like, dad. What's that? Should I brace myself?
[1:45:35] Speaker 2: I'm not sure if I'm ready for what he's saying.
[1:45:36] Speaker 1: Did he call out to a non-existent chat in front
[1:45:39] Speaker 1: of you two?
[1:45:40] Speaker 4: No, but he doesn't do that. But I saw a
[1:45:43] Speaker 4: kid the other day do it, one of his friends,
[1:45:44] Speaker 4: and it bothered me. So he goes, dad, in the
[1:45:50] Speaker 4: Jeep on the left, the girl in the front seat
[1:45:52] Speaker 4: smashed her pants.
[1:45:54] Speaker 1: Ha ha ha! What?
[1:46:03] Speaker 2: You can't ask your dad that. He doesn't know what
[1:46:06] Speaker 2: that means.
[1:46:06] Speaker 3: He doesn't know what smash means.
[1:46:08] Speaker 2: He's got to think it means you like her. Or
[1:46:12] Speaker 2: do you think she's pretty? Smash that like button or something?
[1:46:17] Speaker 2: I don't know. I'm driving. What are we smashing?
[1:46:23] Speaker 1: I'm driving.
[1:46:24] Speaker 4: I'm just like, I look to Stacy and she's like,
[1:46:27] Speaker 4: She gives me one of these looks like, huh?
[1:46:29] Speaker 1: Okay.
[1:46:29] Speaker 4: And then I go, and I looked at her and
[1:46:32] Speaker 4: I was like, oh, all right. And then I looked
[1:46:33] Speaker 4: and I'm like, well, well smash, but that's not what
[1:46:37] Speaker 4: we're talking about.
[1:46:41] Speaker 2: Where did you learn that? What do you mean?
[1:46:43] Speaker 4: You don't know what smashing is.
[1:46:45] Speaker 2: Oh, God. For him, smashing is just like, you're.
[1:46:49] Speaker 4: Going to hold her hand.
[1:46:50] Speaker 1: Yes.
[1:46:51] Speaker 2: Smashing the digits together.
[1:46:55] Speaker 4: Or like French kissing, which is now like a very
[1:46:57] Speaker 4: taboo menu item.
[1:47:00] Speaker 1: So is reading to the kids as well.
[1:47:02] Speaker 4: Yeah. This is something. I mean, and he just answered
[1:47:07] Speaker 4: so casually, like, what's your favorite ice cream flavor? He
[1:47:09] Speaker 4: was just like, hey, Dad, if you're on the Jeep,
[1:47:12] Speaker 4: smash your pants.
[1:47:15] Speaker 1: Man, I can't wait to go to the next PAX
[1:47:18] Speaker 1: East and walk around with Dib.
[1:47:20] Speaker 4: I know.
[1:47:20] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[1:47:20] Speaker 2: He's going to be in charge. He's going to be
[1:47:22] Speaker 2: the boss.
[1:47:22] Speaker 1: He's going to be wearing sunglasses, have a toothpick in
[1:47:25] Speaker 1: his mouth. I mean, Jerf, you already have a toothpick
[1:47:28] Speaker 1: in your mouth most of the time.
[1:47:29] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[1:47:30] Speaker 4: He's just, you know, it's going a lot quicker now,
[1:47:35] Speaker 4: I feel like.
[1:47:36] Speaker 2: Uh-huh.
[1:47:37] Speaker 4: Seems to be on fast forward at the moment.
[1:47:40] Speaker 2: Uh-huh. Yeah.
[1:47:41] Speaker 4: Anyway.
[1:47:42] Speaker 1: Okay. Well... Jesus Christ. That doesn't for emails. Mikey hit
[1:47:46] Speaker 1: me with some super chats. Yeah.
[1:47:48] Speaker 3: I guess there, uh, yeah, I'm ready for that.
[1:47:52] Speaker 2: That's for sure.
[1:47:53] Speaker 3: Uh, next, first up here is from, uh, Vivian Toga says,
[1:47:57] Speaker 3: remember reminder to all rich matchster. Tokoto still refuses to
[1:48:02] Speaker 3: put his face on all your asses. Justice has to
[1:48:05] Speaker 3: be served. Mike, get in the store.
[1:48:08] Speaker 2: Oh, Nintendo. Sorry about that.
[1:48:10] Speaker 1: I'll work on that.
[1:48:11] Speaker 3: Everybody, uh, Zombie porn says, regarding the Halo talk, is
[1:48:15] Speaker 3: Grub becoming a Dan? This was way back when me
[1:48:18] Speaker 3: and you both found out. about the religious undertones of
[1:48:22] Speaker 3: Halo we didn't know about.
[1:48:23] Speaker 1: That was today, wasn't it? Way back when.
[1:48:26] Speaker 2: I forgot what he was referencing, for sure, so I'm
[1:48:28] Speaker 2: glad Mike reminded me. I knew you forgot.
[1:48:30] Speaker 3: I was like, I reminded you there, but don't worry,
[1:48:32] Speaker 3: I got you.
[1:48:32] Speaker 2: Definitely not proud, but yeah, I just never thought about it,
[1:48:35] Speaker 2: which is something Dan would say. Yeah. Yeah. uh, makes,
[1:48:40] Speaker 2: he says, Jeff grub.
[1:48:42] Speaker 3: Did you watch Jeff Gerspen play blues brothers 2000 last week?
[1:48:47] Speaker 2: I definitely had to check in and, and, uh, I
[1:48:50] Speaker 2: was like worried that he would not appreciate how bad
[1:48:53] Speaker 2: it was. So very relieved to see that it was
[1:48:57] Speaker 2: the lowest ranked game he's played so far. The worst
[1:49:00] Speaker 2: Nintendo 64 game, according to science so far. So I
[1:49:05] Speaker 2: can say, hey, I have taken a look at the
[1:49:09] Speaker 2: science he's done and I approve. Like, yeah, nothing wrong
[1:49:12] Speaker 2: with it so far.
[1:49:13] Speaker 3: All right, look, I don't know how to say this word.
[1:49:15] Speaker 3: I'm writing our chat right now. I don't want to
[1:49:16] Speaker 3: hear it from people. I don't know how to say
[1:49:18] Speaker 3: this one. It's a word I've only read, I feel like,
[1:49:21] Speaker 3: all the time. How do I say that, guys?
[1:49:23] Speaker 1: What? Hang on.
[1:49:25] Speaker 2: I just put in crew talk right here.
[1:49:26] Speaker 4: Oh, okay.
[1:49:27] Speaker 2: Hang on. Let me take a look here. Shot employed.
[1:49:30] Speaker 3: Schadenfreude it's how it's how it's how it looks all right.
[1:49:34] Speaker 2: Schadenfreude yeah the co-lock the co-lock.
[1:49:41] Speaker 5: That's collective oh the the collective schadenfreude we will get
[1:49:50] Speaker 5: to have when the ai bubble bursts its society finally moves.
[1:49:54] Speaker 3: On though uh but also holy shit halo my head
[1:49:58] Speaker 3: exploding um Boy, I don't know. I'm like so like
[1:50:02] Speaker 3: depressed about that stuff. The part of me is like,
[1:50:05] Speaker 3: maybe it won't happen. Maybe it's just, life's just going.
[1:50:07] Speaker 2: To suck forever with AI.
[1:50:09] Speaker 1: I don't know.
[1:50:10] Speaker 2: At least it's got to reach some sort of equilibrium.
[1:50:13] Speaker 2: It hasn't done that. Yeah, we're not there yet.
[1:50:16] Speaker 4: And I do think there will be a bit of a,
[1:50:18] Speaker 4: maybe I'm, look.
[1:50:19] Speaker 2: There'll be a correction. There's always a correction.
[1:50:22] Speaker 4: Of course there is. And I'm not known to be
[1:50:23] Speaker 4: an overly optimistic person. Okay, so take it for what
[1:50:29] Speaker 4: it's worth.
[1:50:29] Speaker 1: I know, Jan.
[1:50:30] Speaker 2: It's shocking to many. Smash or pass. Yeah, smash or
[1:50:33] Speaker 2: pass is right. This is getting me all bricked up.
[1:50:36] Speaker 2: Smash or pass is collective schadenfreude. Collective... No, like, yeah.
[1:50:41] Speaker 4: Look, I have an ongoing friendly argument with someone who...
[1:50:50] Speaker 4: It's very in my group of group of friends who
[1:50:53] Speaker 4: was like very, very pro AI, obviously not like, but
[1:51:00] Speaker 4: more not in the replacement of creative, you know, creativity, right?
[1:51:05] Speaker 4: More in just like, how do we cure cancer kind
[1:51:08] Speaker 4: of stuff, which we cure cancer. I will.
[1:51:12] Speaker 2: Be very happy. Let's be clear. Machine learning was already
[1:51:15] Speaker 2: on that, was already hunting that thing.
[1:51:17] Speaker 3: Of course.
[1:51:17] Speaker 2: Long before we got this fucking general AI shit. PlayStation
[1:51:20] Speaker 2: 3 with this. Yeah. Folding at home. Folding at home.
[1:51:24] Speaker 4: But oftentimes when we have this conversation, I feel like
[1:51:28] Speaker 4: we are not We are not meeting in the middle.
[1:51:32] Speaker 4: We are talking past each other where I will be like,
[1:51:35] Speaker 4: I hear what you're saying. I'm more upset with massive
[1:51:38] Speaker 4: cognitive offload. Right. And maybe that's not like that. Maybe
[1:51:43] Speaker 4: that's not like sticking the landing.
[1:51:45] Speaker 1: But anyway.
[1:51:46] Speaker 4: It's all good natured and we all want the best
[1:51:48] Speaker 4: for the future.
[1:51:49] Speaker 2: But anyway, I understand. I agree with you, Grubb.
[1:51:52] Speaker 4: A correction has to happen at some point.
[1:51:54] Speaker 1: I have started to see people dogpiling on people that
[1:51:57] Speaker 1: are openly like.
[1:51:59] Speaker 2: I fucking love AI.
[1:52:00] Speaker 1: Or like, I used AI to make this and generate this.
[1:52:03] Speaker 2: It's deeply unpopular.
[1:52:05] Speaker 1: I'm seeing more and more people just be calling that
[1:52:08] Speaker 1: shit out and say, hey, you're kind of a loser.
[1:52:12] Speaker 1: There's this one Instagram person. I used to enjoy his work.
[1:52:18] Speaker 1: He went through a period of saying, yeah, man, I
[1:52:21] Speaker 1: love shooting on 16mm film. You can't copy this. You
[1:52:26] Speaker 1: can't do this anywhere else. Two months later, he's shilling
[1:52:29] Speaker 1: for an AI generation video software.
[1:52:32] Speaker 2: Wow.
[1:52:32] Speaker 1: Fucking dork.
[1:52:34] Speaker 2: Anyone who gets..
[1:52:40] Speaker 4: Overly obsessed to a cringe level becomes the most annoying person,
[1:52:44] Speaker 4: you know, anyway, it doesn't matter what it is, whatever
[1:52:47] Speaker 4: they're hawking.
[1:52:47] Speaker 1: Right.
[1:52:48] Speaker 4: So it's like, there's that element of it too. And
[1:52:50] Speaker 4: I do think there is without a doubt, a pendulum
[1:52:53] Speaker 4: swing in the opposite direction, right? Like you put a
[1:52:55] Speaker 4: jam of like people who are just like, you know,
[1:52:57] Speaker 4: this kind of sucks and it's kind of uninspired and
[1:52:59] Speaker 4: it all looks the same and it's stupid. Um, you know, Uh,
[1:53:03] Speaker 4: kids now say, uh, no, the kids don't say Photoshop anymore.
[1:53:06] Speaker 4: They say that's a, uh, right.
[1:53:09] Speaker 2: And that sucks. Cause like bad Photoshop is such a
[1:53:11] Speaker 2: good art.
[1:53:12] Speaker 1: It's funny.
[1:53:13] Speaker 2: Yeah. You guys will get my bad Photoshop's in the
[1:53:15] Speaker 2: mail here very soon. So, um, but yeah, yeah. I
[1:53:20] Speaker 2: heard a really good succinct joke the other day that
[1:53:22] Speaker 2: I appreciate where it was like, um, Don't get mad
[1:53:25] Speaker 2: at people who do AI art. They didn't do anything.
[1:53:29] Speaker 1: Oh, okay. Yeah. Well, okay.
[1:53:31] Speaker 2: That's pretty good.
[1:53:32] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[1:53:33] Speaker 3: Dad Party also said, also, also, get them, jerf. I
[1:53:37] Speaker 3: don't know what this was a reference to, but I'm
[1:53:38] Speaker 3: sure you got us.
[1:53:39] Speaker 1: I'm sure you got us.
[1:53:41] Speaker 3: Migsy says, really like the business turbo Jan persona.
[1:53:46] Speaker 1: Nothing business about this. I still have like 40 ties left.
[1:53:49] Speaker 1: All right.
[1:53:50] Speaker 3: We got to get through them all. Fancy Feet says,
[1:53:53] Speaker 3: this has been the best week. It's been great seeing
[1:53:55] Speaker 3: you guys go live more often. Keep killing it.
[1:53:57] Speaker 2: Thank you. It's only Tuesday. Oh, my God. We had
[1:54:01] Speaker 2: that bonus 32X stream yesterday.
[1:54:03] Speaker 1: Yeah, that was fun.
[1:54:05] Speaker 2: It was fun. Calibri.
[1:54:07] Speaker 3: Grubbs Legion of Handheld says, with Grubb and Jan watching
[1:54:10] Speaker 3: Mike play Myst and Chuck play Skyrim, are Grubb and
[1:54:12] Speaker 3: Jan the announcers or JR and Jerry the King Lawler
[1:54:16] Speaker 3: of Giant Bomb?
[1:54:17] Speaker 2: I'm not Jerry. I'm not Jerry.
[1:54:18] Speaker 1: Damn it.
[1:54:19] Speaker 2: I'm talking about Jerry.
[1:54:22] Speaker 1: I'm just going to start talking about puppies.
[1:54:26] Speaker 3: Mariah Carey says, let's hear it one time for the
[1:54:29] Speaker 3: big dog, Ken Burns. I got scared and had to
[1:54:31] Speaker 3: look it up. Ken Burns did not die.
[1:54:33] Speaker 1: Oh, thank God. Oh, boy.
[1:54:34] Speaker 2: I couldn't handle it. Not before he makes the video
[1:54:37] Speaker 2: game documentary, please. I was like, sure.
[1:54:39] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[1:54:39] Speaker 2: Ken Burns. Was he okay?
[1:54:41] Speaker 3: Why are we giving up right now?
[1:54:42] Speaker 1: All right. It's fine.
[1:54:44] Speaker 3: Zacy, Zacy, Zacy says, I want to apologize for spreading
[1:54:47] Speaker 3: Pachinko misinformation on UPF.
[1:54:50] Speaker 2: I didn't know. Ball. Yeah, there was a Pachinko Plinko
[1:54:53] Speaker 2: incident that happened on UPF.
[1:54:55] Speaker 1: It's okay, buddy. It's okay.
[1:54:56] Speaker 2: We got it clarified. It's all good now.
[1:55:00] Speaker 3: Rojano says, Halo, were you stabbed the space pope on
[1:55:04] Speaker 3: his chair?
[1:55:04] Speaker 4: Oh.
[1:55:07] Speaker 1: Right.
[1:55:08] Speaker 2: Interesting.
[1:55:08] Speaker 1: Is he arbiter or anything?
[1:55:11] Speaker 2: I think arbiter is a religious term as well, I think. Yeah.
[1:55:15] Speaker 1: I know it's like arbitration and stuff.
[1:55:17] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[1:55:17] Speaker 1: Right.
[1:55:18] Speaker 2: I mean, lots of things have arbiters.
[1:55:20] Speaker 4: Yeah.
[1:55:21] Speaker 2: Yeah, courts have arbiters, right?
[1:55:22] Speaker 1: I don't know.
[1:55:23] Speaker 2: Yeah, there's an arbiter in the Bible. Okay.
[1:55:26] Speaker 3: And then Zombie Point says, Bacalar, why do insurance commercials
[1:55:30] Speaker 3: have lore?
[1:55:32] Speaker 4: Why am I the fucking authority on that?
[1:55:33] Speaker 2: Well, they asked you, so you better answer off. I
[1:55:36] Speaker 2: guess there is... True, in a weird way. Flo ain't
[1:55:40] Speaker 2: into the commercials anymore, y'all.
[1:55:42] Speaker 1: Have you seen this?
[1:55:42] Speaker 2: What?
[1:55:43] Speaker 1: Is she expensive? Is she too expensive?
[1:55:44] Speaker 4: She retired with her gajillion dollars.
[1:55:46] Speaker 1: She is. That's one of the richest people alive.
[1:55:49] Speaker 2: Oh, I hope so.
[1:55:49] Speaker 3: She better still be showing up at Progressive Field. We
[1:55:52] Speaker 3: like seeing her, but not in person, but we like
[1:55:54] Speaker 3: the pictures of her there.
[1:55:56] Speaker 2: I do. Yeah, it is interesting.
[1:55:57] Speaker 4: As much as the entire business model of insurance is
[1:56:01] Speaker 4: a Ponzi scheme, they do have good commercials.
[1:56:08] Speaker 2: That Tracy Morgan Show The fall and rise of Reggie
[1:56:15] Speaker 2: Dinkins Had a really good joke about He wasn't working
[1:56:18] Speaker 2: on a Monday And he was watching TV and he's
[1:56:20] Speaker 2: like This is my favorite Sky Rizzy commercial And it
[1:56:23] Speaker 2: reminded me of my friend.
[1:56:24] Speaker 3: Mike Minotti Oh yeah I.
[1:56:27] Speaker 1: Love Tracy Morgan And his unique way of speaking.
[1:56:31] Speaker 3: Yeah he's One of a kind My favorite insurance commercial
[1:56:36] Speaker 3: lore was, remember, e-shirts? They had Aaron e-shirts. It was
[1:56:40] Speaker 3: like a cartoon girl doing things.
[1:56:42] Speaker 2: Pink hair?
[1:56:44] Speaker 1: Yeah, pink hair.
[1:56:44] Speaker 2: People made so much.
[1:56:45] Speaker 3: Porn of Aaron e-shirts that when you Googled e-shirts, the
[1:56:48] Speaker 3: porn was coming up before the insurance company.
[1:56:51] Speaker 2: Wow.
[1:56:52] Speaker 3: So they had to retire the character.
[1:56:54] Speaker 2: She was like the cat burglar, right?
[1:56:57] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[1:56:57] Speaker 2: She was like a secret agent on their side, I believe. Oh, boy.
[1:57:02] Speaker 1: Breaking into places.
[1:57:03] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[1:57:04] Speaker 1: For good. I did the Dan Blue Sky test. Scroll
[1:57:07] Speaker 1: down once. And there it is.
[1:57:09] Speaker 2: There it is. Yes.
[1:57:12] Speaker 1: Very popular.
[1:57:14] Speaker 4: Yeah. Like, you know, you got what's his face?
[1:57:17] Speaker 1: Jake from State Farm.
[1:57:19] Speaker 2: I like the danger. The guy in trouble.
[1:57:21] Speaker 1: Mayhem.
[1:57:22] Speaker 2: Mayhem.
[1:57:23] Speaker 3: There was a good one of those movies recently where
[1:57:26] Speaker 3: he's like on a speed chase. There's an explosion.
[1:57:29] Speaker 2: Those are almost all winners. Almost every single one of those.
[1:57:33] Speaker 1: Oh, yeah.
[1:57:35] Speaker 2: We are.
[1:57:36] Speaker 3: How do I like so many insurance commercials? They have
[1:57:40] Speaker 3: four different things going on at any time. They got
[1:57:42] Speaker 3: the Costco. They got the caveman. They got two other things.
[1:57:45] Speaker 2: People in other countries got to think we're so pathetic
[1:57:48] Speaker 2: for this shit, but I really.
[1:57:49] Speaker 1: Do like these commercials. I, I used to like desire
[1:57:53] Speaker 1: and like, nah, to an extent want to be like
[1:57:56] Speaker 1: a series regular on some sitcom that like plays five
[1:58:00] Speaker 1: times a day on TBS want that. But now I
[1:58:04] Speaker 1: want to be an insurance commercial guy.
[1:58:06] Speaker 2: You absolutely.
[1:58:08] Speaker 4: Dean Winters is a, I bet you how many millions
[1:58:12] Speaker 4: of dollars like that. He went from Oz 30 rock
[1:58:15] Speaker 4: to this.
[1:58:16] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[1:58:16] Speaker 2: Like he's probably just getting paid in stock too. He's like, man,
[1:58:18] Speaker 2: I got enough money. Just pay me.
[1:58:20] Speaker 4: Just like, yeah, it's crazy.
[1:58:22] Speaker 1: Executive producer on these commercials.
[1:58:24] Speaker 4: I mean, and they probably, it's probably like a one
[1:58:27] Speaker 4: day shoot. Most, you know, and it's just like cha-ching.
[1:58:32] Speaker 3: I really admire how the general, like they, they had
[1:58:35] Speaker 3: to swap it up and they did a good job.
[1:58:37] Speaker 3: Cause it was for the best car rates insurance in town. Uh,
[1:58:42] Speaker 3: Call the general now, right? 1-800-GENERAL-NOW, right?
[1:58:45] Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, there it is.
[1:58:46] Speaker 3: And now they're like, well, for the best car rates
[1:58:47] Speaker 3: and insurance online, go to the general and save some time.
[1:58:50] Speaker 1: Save some time.
[1:58:52] Speaker 2: Do you have the Liberty insurance? Liberty, Liberty?
[1:58:54] Speaker 1: Yeah, the Liberty. Lemu? Lemu, Lemu?
[1:58:56] Speaker 2: I don't know about that Lemu. Actually, I don't know
[1:58:57] Speaker 2: about that. What do you mean you don't know about
[1:58:59] Speaker 2: that fucking?
[1:59:00] Speaker 1: I don't know.
[1:59:00] Speaker 2: I like this Lemu.
[1:59:01] Speaker 1: What do you mean?
[1:59:01] Speaker 2: I think this is a little forced.
[1:59:03] Speaker 1: Okay, okay, but can you imagine?
[1:59:05] Speaker 2: Mike, I think I'm with you. They play that commercial
[1:59:07] Speaker 2: a lot during hockey. They do.
[1:59:10] Speaker 4: Maybe that's why I've been completely... I mean, Dib likes it.
[1:59:13] Speaker 4: Dib's just like, oh, there's that fucking bird again.
[1:59:14] Speaker 2: I'm like, yeah, it's cool. The kids do like the lemu-emu, yeah.
[1:59:17] Speaker 4: Yeah, the kids like it.
[1:59:18] Speaker 1: Can you guys imagine?
[1:59:20] Speaker 2: And Doug, and Doug, and they're like fucking, you know. Right,
[1:59:23] Speaker 2: it's a buddy cop show.
[1:59:24] Speaker 1: Yeah. Can you guys imagine the identity crisis that Jake
[1:59:29] Speaker 1: from State Farm must go through? where like he's in
[1:59:32] Speaker 1: video games he's referenced by rappers and his real name
[1:59:36] Speaker 1: is kevin and that is like that.
[1:59:39] Speaker 2: Is also like a real culture war thing but there
[1:59:41] Speaker 2: are legitimately dudes out there that they made uh a
[1:59:43] Speaker 2: jake from state farm black like he used to be
[1:59:45] Speaker 2: white and they are mad about that.
[1:59:47] Speaker 4: That is nice wow wow that's where i'm playing my
[1:59:51] Speaker 4: flag you.
[1:59:52] Speaker 3: Know We got one more super chat in. It says,
[1:59:55] Speaker 3: can you bring back Power Bombcast?
[1:59:58] Speaker 1: All in is Sunday.
[1:59:58] Speaker 3: A lot of us aren't really watching wrestling very much now.
[2:00:01] Speaker 3: Or ever. I am.
[2:00:04] Speaker 2: Just I don't watch WWE anymore.
[2:00:06] Speaker 1: Right.
[2:00:07] Speaker 2: Our friends are going to be there. Maybe when they
[2:00:08] Speaker 2: get back, we'll ask them if they want to talk
[2:00:10] Speaker 2: about that experience.
[2:00:11] Speaker 3: This might be the first one I watch in a while, honestly.
[2:00:13] Speaker 3: I've been out of it for a month, but I'm
[2:00:15] Speaker 3: interested in all in.
[2:00:16] Speaker 2: I am saving a lot of time by not watching wrestling.
[2:00:18] Speaker 1: Yeah, it's true. It's true. It's true.
[2:00:21] Speaker 2: And that's it for the Super Chats. Thank you, everybody.
[2:00:23] Speaker 1: And that's it for the show this week. Gentlemen, we
[2:00:26] Speaker 1: already have had a busy, packed, and stacked weekend. It's
[2:00:31] Speaker 1: only Tuesday. Oh, my God. We got a lot of
[2:00:35] Speaker 1: stuff going on. If you missed it on Monday, episode
[2:00:38] Speaker 1: two of Cat Jerfman, the Premium Blight Club season. rolled
[2:00:43] Speaker 1: out later today or right now, maybe. Episode 14 of
[2:00:48] Speaker 1: Nine Lives of Mr. Mustafa Fleas is out. Y'all can't eat,
[2:00:51] Speaker 1: like Grub and I are lost in a time distillation,
[2:00:54] Speaker 1: making jokes, referencing things we don't know if y'all have seen,
[2:00:58] Speaker 1: but go buy the boy salad shirt, store.giantbomb.com. There was
[2:01:02] Speaker 1: also a 32X stream. We hung out yesterday, played some
[2:01:07] Speaker 1: 32X games. Mikey, I'm with you about Sonic Chaotix. Thank you.
[2:01:12] Speaker 3: My God, Sonic.
[2:01:13] Speaker 1: Knuckles Chaotix. Knuckles Chaotix. I'm with you there. Let's see.
[2:01:19] Speaker 1: No Blight Club tomorrow because Dan is over in Gamescom.
[2:01:22] Speaker 1: So instead, Grub and Mikey will be having a little
[2:01:25] Speaker 1: D-Light Club. Boys, you know what you got on the
[2:01:27] Speaker 1: menu yet?
[2:01:29] Speaker 2: I was thinking.
[2:01:30] Speaker 3: About maybe having Grubb play through some of the better-liked
[2:01:35] Speaker 3: PS2 shmups.
[2:01:36] Speaker 1: Maybe that'll be good. Okay.
[2:01:39] Speaker 3: Raiden 3, maybe R-Type Final, Gradius 5. Let's see what's
[2:01:42] Speaker 3: up with these.
[2:01:45] Speaker 1: Sean, I have played Knuckles Chaotix. I emulated it once.
[2:01:50] Speaker 1: Let's see. Schedule change, kind of, or schedule update on
[2:01:56] Speaker 1: Thursday is on the voicemail dump truck, we got a
[2:01:59] Speaker 1: special guest. Backlar, we have a guest for the dump truck. Oh.
[2:02:03] Speaker 1: And that guest is our dear friend, our own portal pal,
[2:02:06] Speaker 1: Mary Kish.
[2:02:07] Speaker 2: Is joining us once again.
[2:02:10] Speaker 1: Yay.
[2:02:10] Speaker 4: Yay.
[2:02:10] Speaker 2: Shouts out to Mary. Hell yeah.
[2:02:14] Speaker 1: Let's see. Friday, we have the finale. Let's just say
[2:02:17] Speaker 1: season finale of Pokemon Day Night Combat. That's right. Pokemon
[2:02:22] Speaker 1: Worlds is this weekend over in San Francisco.
[2:02:25] Speaker 2: Let your boy in.
[2:02:27] Speaker 1: So, Sean and I are going to have one last
[2:02:30] Speaker 1: shindig and fight whoever shows.
[2:02:32] Speaker 2: Up to the gym.
[2:02:33] Speaker 1: Later that day, we'll have Unprofessional Fridays as well. But later,
[2:02:37] Speaker 1: later that day, Jeff Grubb, what can folks expect? Our
[2:02:40] Speaker 1: premium people.
[2:02:42] Speaker 2: At 6 p.m. Eastern, we'll be opening up the Giant
[2:02:45] Speaker 2: Bomb Video Home Rental Store, and I will be picking
[2:02:49] Speaker 2: out some games that maybe only exist out of time
[2:02:52] Speaker 2: and out of this universe, and we will be sitting
[2:02:54] Speaker 2: down and having a Friday night weekend rental hangout where
[2:02:58] Speaker 2: we're just going to play these games together, most of
[2:03:01] Speaker 2: them multiplayer. In fact, I think all of them our multiplayer.
[2:03:05] Speaker 2: I've sent out some goodies to these guys so that
[2:03:07] Speaker 2: they can be a part of it. It's, it's going
[2:03:09] Speaker 2: to be a cool hangout stream where we're going to
[2:03:11] Speaker 2: be going for some throwback vibes there. So come be
[2:03:14] Speaker 2: part of the weekend rental club, everybody.
[2:03:16] Speaker 1: Hell yes. To quote our dear friend, the windbag, nothing
[2:03:21] Speaker 1: bad can happen on a Friday night. That's right.
[2:03:24] Speaker 2: MS. Dunkaroos. It's going to be real good.
[2:03:26] Speaker 1: Gamest Morning's popping off Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, right, Grubb?
[2:03:30] Speaker 2: That's absolutely right.
[2:03:31] Speaker 1: I believe that is the week. Once again, for folks
[2:03:34] Speaker 1: that may have missed it, we did talk over opening
[2:03:36] Speaker 1: night live earlier today. There's going to be a couple
[2:03:40] Speaker 1: of videos popping out, dropping throughout the week, a little
[2:03:43] Speaker 1: into next week. This is the run. Sewer Shark Saturday
[2:03:47] Speaker 1: is popping off on Saturday. But folks at home, once again, giantbomb.com
[2:03:51] Speaker 1: slash join. The first 50 new subscribers will get a
[2:03:56] Speaker 1: code for Blood Dungeon. Gang, I think that might do
[2:04:01] Speaker 1: it for the show.
[2:04:02] Speaker 2: I think that's it.
[2:04:04] Speaker 1: Yeah, well done, boys.
[2:04:05] Speaker 2: We did it.
[2:04:06] Speaker 1: Very packed day. Once again, shouts out to our dear
[2:04:09] Speaker 1: friends over at Video Game Town. Go to videogame.town. Go
[2:04:14] Speaker 1: check out some indie fun stuff. video game coverage. You'll
[2:04:18] Speaker 1: see a bunch of familiar faces you've seen on this
[2:04:20] Speaker 1: website and across the internet. People we adore and enjoy.
[2:04:23] Speaker 1: And speaking about enjoying, we're going to enjoy ending this
[2:04:27] Speaker 1: show and we'll enjoy seeing you next week for another
[2:04:29] Speaker 1: episode of The Giant Bobcast. He's been Jeff, he's been Jeff,
[2:04:32] Speaker 1: he's been Mike. Shouts out to Dan, shouts out to Will,
[2:04:34] Speaker 1: shouts out to Chuck, shouts out.
[2:04:35] Speaker 2: To Sean for editing and producing the show. We'll see
[2:04:38] Speaker 2: you next week for another episode of The Giant Bobcast.
[2:04:41] Speaker 2: Until then, goodbye!

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