Fire Escape Cast #107

Hello, everybody, Welcome back to the fire Escape Cast. It is episode one hundred and seven. I'm Mike Mahardy here as always. Unfortunately, once again, we're not altogether. I've got some subs here. I've got Ben Hansen from min Max.

Hi. Yeah, yeah, Ben, how's it going? Oh good? Yeah, it's good. I can't do this. I don't even know. I'm in my head trying to. Like, I've heard that man talk more than most people in my life, and I cannot place a Yeah, I don't know how.

He sounds like he's always smiling you while you're listening to three podcasts and wonder how.

Did they make this?

Do you hear that?

Do you hear the story about Kajima? Apparently uh just refuses to use toilets. It's crazy. As my first try at Ben Hanson.

Yeah, I'm also here, and I'm not pretending to be better Hansen.

I'm just regularly here.

But this is so exciting because this is the first time the three of us have been together in several episodes. Because we have been so busy with travel and corporo life and like crazy stuff that's been going on, we haven't had time to just be together.

About four episodes.

I think last time it was me Mary Drew and then Dan the Blake club Boys, and then me Mary Collie Fadoms. Jeez.

Yeah, it's been It's been a lot of stuff going on. I say, we don't really have much to catch up. Yeah it's not Mary this week, and I guess we didn't really talk about it.

Mary.

Yeah, I got some stuff going on at work.

I have so many cute videos of you. I have like really funny videos of like asking Dan to dance in a nightclub and he did this like car racing maneuver.

It was very fun. I have never been more out of my I was out of my element when I went to clubs like twice in my life in my twenties and immediately hated it and left boy at forty with a bunch of influencers, I am out of it. I guess technically, you know, I'm in that same world, that same orbit influencer. Yeah, I feel like my version of that is very different than the people at this party. For you, baby boy, you just walked into a world

Now I'm see what's your title?

Chief content officer. Wait, can you run us through all right?

For like the maybe three percent of listeners who don't know what we're referencing, can you get what? In two sentences, Max tld explain what happened.

We bought Giant Bomb. Yes, I'm a co owner of Giant Bomb now. Yes, and it's independent. Yes, it is completely independent, null funded by fans, fully funded by fans. There's no secret shady money above us. There's no you know, investor company or venture whatever.

No.

Literally, it's just fans. That's it. I mean, well, we'll do ads and stuff for sure, but yeah, fans and subscriptions, giant bomb, dot com, slash join are the backbone of this operation. And you're a chief content officer. What is what is Jeff Backlar? Uh? Jeff Backler? Okay, well this is a wrestling reference. He is Eric Bischoff. We decided this. I know what that means now, I watched Netflix stock Yeah he is. Okay, So the names we decided on

He's gonna be your social media manager because that's just what they do with the scraps.

Well, I mean, he's the one that's gonna happen anyway, because he's the guy that needs Disney adults. Every fucking comment he always reads. He's in every Breddit thread, every YouTube comment. So he's the guy doing that anyway. He's the one cleaning that. Shut up. Oh god, Mike, save yourself. He's there anyway, Chief Yeah.

Dick, Yeah, so I think it's great.

It's a creative officer. I'm a fish joke whatever, whatever.

D you know, it's fucking made up and no one gives a show.

Card.

I have not told you this news myself in on error. I'm officially assemblier.

Now. How much does that piss you off? Me? It doesn't off Yeah right, I'm not my dad, I'm not anything. What are you talking about? Yeah, I figured it out now that I can, I have said that to you.

I'm gonna quit, but I just wanted to be able to one day say that and mean it.

But yeah, it's official. You are officially now.

Yes, not full time at all, obviously, I'm still still in games full time.

But I see pictures of you on Instagram of you serving wine and holding it in a fancy way, and yeah.

Oh gotcha, yeah, oh yeah. A few friends stop by the other day when I was helping out. That's fun.

Nice spend, spend, spend quite a lot.

Congrats you guys both have achieved monumental things I have.

Well, now we can announce Mary's news. She founded a dodgeball league in Portland.

Wow, but I something Mary would do though. I joined the bowling league and I the same thing.

I got a new high score one nine.

Oh, Mary, I want to bowling at you. It's in a while. Three, that's correct, that is the total. I'm proud.

I don't know. I should assume you guys know a lot about bowling, but like.

I literally that was the one class in college I went to is bowling. I can I can score by hand us. I used to be in the league. I love bowling. Bowling's fantastic. My fingers keep breaking now, so I don't know, Like the two fingers that I would put in the holes are like breaking now, so that would hurt, but maybe.

You could use different fingers. Holes doesn't really matter if you use like other holes.

The guy that does cradle, there's the guy that does the cradle, and like, like, you know, I've always wanted to be that guy.

Ic I've recognized because when we did this, everybody has their own private balls. They don't use the house balls, which is what I use, but everybody has custom balls and a lot of them. The fingers don't go all the way in the holes. They only go to the first knuckle, which is.

Yeah, which is really it's a good technique. Yeah.

And some people just hold the ball like they palm it and kind of just you know, toss it.

And that's checking for lumps? What what? What pounded are we working with here?

I do an eleven, but I've been told I need to go up if I want to increase my score because apparently a heavier ball knocks down more pins. But eleven is where I'm at.

I think I've been like a twelve or fourteen guy. It's been yeah forever, though it's hard, twenty three, I think we're gamers, you know. I like I like bullying. It's fun, bullings awesome, Well, great, I'm not confused bowling with dodgeball.

I would dodge you would get killed.

I've watched it.

I yeah. So I got my new high score and on the system they said like most improved, Mary, and I got a coupon for free bowling, so they rewarded me for being the best bowler that evening with additional bowling. Your team, it's a four persons team. Were the Pinzi low Hands?

Nice?

Yeah, we were almost the Michael Bolton's But I googled it and somebody else had already thought of that, and I wanted an original one.

Where's the bull? Yeah? I was like, you're sure you didn't mean Bullpens.

No, you know the name of the sport, the Chicago. Oh that's a good.

Yeah.

I was thinking I was about being the Beastie bowls. Uh, but yeah, we were. We were chucking a lot of names and Mike one of the ones. I said. Everybody said, no, that's actually like really not cool and we absolutely won't have to be the name. I was like, Mike would have appreciated this. Yeah, full penetration that they.

Didn't like that. He did yourself a new team, Mary, I was waiting for you, Mike, would like it. I thought it was gonna be the bowl Cosby's.

Okay, matter of time before they came out.

It's the first time we're hanging out.

Wow, I'm sick of seeing you. Guys watched mcgruber together.

When we did, we did, we replaced you with uh with Seth Macy from my GN so you know Jackson, veteran of Yeah. Well actually Jake, this is his first time doing the whole thing, so yeah, he finished up. Seth Macy was with us. Grub also a veteran of the Late Night Travel mcgroober. But yeah, yeah, we we were thinking about you.

Yeah, because he fell asleep. We even talked about how Dan picked.

Your nose while you fell asleep for like thirty seconds.

Yeah. Who maybe I was awake and just enjoyed it. I got bowling ball deep in his nostril.

Yeah, the first knuckle. Yeah, you could have lifted them up like a fourteen founder the lane.

It's like a fatality. It's jacas in the whole thing now. Yeah, it was.

Good to have everybody together. It was like a nice way to also socially disconnect. Something that I always tell it's a lot, right, packs is a lot being around a lot of people is a lot. It is wonderful to reconnect with old friends, see fans, or just people who love games as.

Much as you.

That is a joy to me. But I have a I have a I have a running clock on my in my system, and it's usually about four hours. And after about four hours of interacting with people and talking and chatting it up and drinking, I gotta get out of there.

Yeah, Like my social stalmina is usually almost infinite, Like I'm the one who will always want to shut down the bar and all that stuff.

Yeah.

Machine. But after after the path, it was this was the night of the packs panel ours and oh that was just there was the whole day of like planning it together, you know, putting it together, and then like the excitement of the hour on stage and stuff. And afterwards it's like everyone was back at the at the hotel, like you know, there's probably like one hundred people I want to talk to there, but I just kind of the squirrel away, you know, responded to text and stuff

And I was like, yes, yes, yeah, I'm glad that that was the right move because that felt good to me too. I'm also a lot of people misconstru or assume like extroverted people can just do that all the time, but because I burned the candle at both ends, I usually can't do it for very long. So I'm very excited and very happy, and then at one point I'll

They were like, yes, yes, let's do it. Yeah, because I was coming straight from Montreal to PACs and originally I was supposed to be in Poland right now. I was supposed to go right from pas to Poland. And then that was before the you know, the giant bump thing happened, and it's like, well, our first week of content, I cannot be gone for a week, so I had to cancel that one. But yeah, yeah, Montreal was fun.

Meh, you're probably spent. You were probably spent, and we've all been busy. I mean there's no question, especially with all our travel and stuff like that, we have a lot going on. And I think that's cool and it shows that we're booked and busy, which you love to see. But it's important that we're able to also play games and just hang out with each other. And I'm really grateful that we were able to find time to be together for this episode because it's important to catch up

Yeah, they're all universally positive for sure. Dan. Have you found your cat? Yeah? Oh you did. I had the message Maharty this morning because we were in the laying in bed and the cat like was like coming up to say hi, which you know, we got Boss the cat like a week ago basically, and you know, he he got to the point bank was giving me updates every day while I was at packed, like, oh well, you know, Boss just kind of like sauntered in, came into the room. Oh, Boss is on the couch with me.

My So Dan messaged me, He's like, are cats like especially adept at hiding.

I was like, yeah, it's like their favorite thing to do.

I just this morning couldn't find Scarlet and we have an apartment like a quarter of the size of Dan's house. Yeah, like they find spots. They do not abide by the laws of nature. But I was about to say sometimes they do get up, like from under couches, so be careful with like your mechanical reclining couches.

Yes, we decide we're not going to like put those down unless we have like visual confirmation cat.

Yeah, yeah, because they love getting up there. He's like Danny DeVito coming out of the couch in the Christmas Special if it's always sunny.

Yes, Mike, are your cats? Are they all gone and hiding right now? I haven't seen any.

Oh yeah, Daisy's definitely not jumping up the moment she sees me talking.

So it's like a tail in your cameras.

Yeah, she she she walked across the screen during work today and it gave me like a like a musstadache.

No, yeah, oh that's good.

Yeah, reminds me of Nixon. No, no, he didn't have a mustache, did he. He would have looked nod was hot with a mustache.

The heck.

Yeah.

Nixon was always hiding in the folds of the couch.

He was so good at it.

But everybody, everybody in the White House was like, don't open the reclining chair unless we have eyes on Nixon.

If you play a video of a bunch of baby Nixon's, he'll come out of hiding. Yeah.

Yeah, she's she Yeah, cats are Cats are weird.

Yeah, they're very different than dogs. But I like, because you got one.

I'm amazed that you have. You have, you have two dogs. You have a full house in my opinion of action and animal. So the motivation to get a cat surprised me because I never really thought of you as a cat guy.

And Bank also did not. She didn't grow up with cats, but she was just looking up ragged all cats. And there's this one available that he was a former sex worker. I think I mentioned that here who had his penis cut off and now lives with us. So I'm still not sure if it's penis cut off or balls cut off or neither, but got neutered and got into LIVI y his penis, believe it or not. He needs to pee still, well, there'd be a hole there all right, Like if I cut off my dick with scissors, I

So because you need the muscles, the muscle this episode of Phantom Limb, Yeah, cuts off his dick.

This is a huge giant bomb. You tear for that.

Yeah, the same medical knowledge as like a twelve year old boy. That's like how come. It doesn't just fall out of girls.

How babies are made? You pee? And the woman? Yeah, I heard that. That'd be a sick Patreon page. It's like eight dollars a month.

You get your name mentioned in the credits of each episode twelve, you get to come to our hangouts in this city.

Fourteen dollars. I will cut my tickoff. One person subscribe to the fourteen dollars. Yeah, and I tell dick Off some teenager found change in his couch and he's like, I got it. Let me bring this up at the next board meeting. We'll see h tell Baklar it was my idea. He'll he'll yeah, He'll go for it. Boy, it is. It is good we have Backlar. He is u.

Yeah, that's exactly how I suspect those first meetings are going where you're just like, we got to figure out taxes and payment plans and health insurance, and San is like he just like he's got like doom written down and he's like yellow taxi go room and he's just like, I'm booked.

Sorry, guys, I have for Fight Club.

Yes, I swear right if he had hair, it all would have fallen out at Packs because you know, we're keeping this all a secret and everything. And I've been told this before, but I always forget is that my voice carries And so we'd just be walking around the pack show floor with lots of people that know us in earshot, and I'd just be like like, oh, yeah, so we're about to be in business together, like oh,

I think you're a terrible secret keeper. And I also I could not imagine, don't bring the embargos. Don't bring up the embargos.

I think that you know, not the embargos.

I think I think Dan keeps other people's secrets secret.

Yeah, someone tells me if I've got if I've got an exciting thing bruined, Well, here's the thing.

Walk into my apartment, Like I can see it that he's holding something in.

Fun personal news. I'm gonna say it, but I'm not gonna get anyone else in that water.

I think it's funny how often And you were like, no one can know.

This, Yeah, yeah, absolutely, And I'm just talking loudly in a crowd at a convention where most people know you, Hey, but no one knew it was a surprise to everyone get spoiled.

It did not get spoiled. I think it was to be honest with you. The thing too, is like I just think it's so unbelievable. I think you kind of needed the press release because if you had just said that you did it, I would have been like, shut the fuck up.

Well, there are a bunch of like Reddit and stuff after, like, you know, the stuff at the last company was you know, clearly something was about to hit the fan, and you would just see that stuff on Reddit like, oh, I wonder if they bought it and they could make it independent, And everyone was like that's not realistic.

It's just like literally, it's so impossible, and so many people have tried to do what you're doing.

Wait, Reddit was wrong about a potential business deal stories. I love Reddit. I never said a single bad thing.

I know.

If I'm ready, I'm not.

There's no no safety guidelines on this show. I think they're a bunch of babies. I think they don't understand how the world works. I don't give a fuck.

I think they're the salt of the earth and they're placing me alive. Yes, fine, I'll find that myself. There's like twelve annoying people on there, and the rest are just gems. I mean, uh, Tolkodo sucks. But no, everyone likes Mike. Mike's kind of in a bad way.

Yeah, just to clarify, because I am really pro eating ass. But that guy does it wrong.

Yeah yeah, yeah, technique is terrible. Yeah, he's no good. Yeah, I'm excited for you guys.

Sounds like it'll be it'll be uh a challenging endeavor, but nothing worthwhile is.

Yeah, you're in it now. You're gonna like have to deal with a bunch of shit, But I think that you overwhelmingly, this is gonna be so much better, not just for you, but for people who listen to video game content. It's also inspiring. I mean, so many of us have been just hunkered down and weighted down by the corporate shackles of investments and the rules and the laws of what you can and can't say, and you're

Dude, Like, You're going to be so much happier.

I'm already feeling it, because it's just like you know, with any company. I've worked for a lot of big companies and GameStop ANDWNE and all this stuff and CBS, and there's always going to be meetings that aren't directly about the stuff you're making. And like, basically all of our stuff already has just been like, Okay, what's some

So do you think it will change the way you spend money? Because when you go out, it's not really a corporate card in the same sense anymore. It is like literally like yeah, Ryn, that's like yours to share with everybody else.

I love taking money from corporations, like you know when that was when it was two Oh. If I was traveling with the company, I would just be like I'd first stop in town, go to a seven eleven, load up on like thirty dollars worth of Twizzlers, like you know,

I love that if you were in my shoes, you would have already felt this when you did fire Escape. When we do fire Escape, because this is how I feel when I have our corporate card for like we don't we don't go like it sound like you go to seven eleven and go balls out with like the fire Escape card.

Now, I've never used.

The fire it's been buying Twizzlers on the fire Escape account for like two years.

Down Super Nibszlers, you're just the nibs, but they're super. They're the best thing I've ever had. I'll be in Montreal tomorrow so you get some super Nibs nips. I don't think i've ever used the fire Escape card. I don't think I've ever spent.

No, it's it's when we're when we're all in town for the thing. It's like, I'm we've never actually gotten to a point where, of course where it's like, okay, now we'd all we should taper off, like in terms of spending money. But I was just like I usually am the back of art and that situation.

I say, yeah, yeah, I mean, you're the one that knows how much we've gotten in the war chest and stuff like that. We'll do the one. You just don't look. I don't know how the fuck it we all have access to do money. I'm just the one.

How does it work?

Do a bank account? Yes, you have access? You have the card? Oh god, I should with a card. I should have embrace.

There's gonna be the same way giant bomb. Do we have enough money for like an inflatable giant Twizzler for a bit?

And they're just like, you have access to all of this.

Huh, Like what are these? What are these? What is this charge for three forty nine thirty times? Like, oh, just those are nibs we're in.

It's my monthly nibs budget. What's our nibs budget?

At this company, our CEO needs it to brainstorm.

He can't thank about them. Yeah, I although I'm gonna lean on. Look, I got a lot of friends in the industry. I'm gonna lean up people that can't expense things. And perhaps someone on this podcast was the inaugural buying me dinner first and then it was very nice. It's it's Mary.

Yes, it's a business dinner. You guys stream on Twitch. Yeah, I think it's fine. My joy for going to conventions is someone who who works for a streaming site. Is everyone I am talking to is a content creator. They're all content creators. So it is completely justified for me to buy someone a drink and say, how's your content going, how can we help you? Et cetera, et cetera. Everything can become a business conversation like that. So it is my pleasure to be able to walk around at a

It came out Twatch dot TV taken twat That could have been bad dot TV no watch.

I don't know what happened.

I was thinking of packs.

And that was our dinner right before we right before the panel, So yeah, got us right right there at the big moment.

I got an insider look at like how you guys worked together, which was also really nice. You guys have a good dynamic, and I think even though you are silly and stuff on videos, I think you respect each other a lot.

And it was pretty obvious at.

That dinner that I think you guys are a really good group. I think you care about each other and you're you're all very passionate about making this work. And so it was kind of fun getting that behind the scenes view of you guys. And I also really appreciate you giving me credit for taking the photo yep on the on what you called the grassy knol.

The grassy knole covered in rabbit shit. That's it was the first official announcement of us as a group.

So much shit on that grassynol.

And then we ate nine hundred pounds of meat we went and announced our futures.

Yeah, you need a lot of meat when you're under high stress. I learned that from Glengarry Glenn Ross. Just you know, yeah, lots of protein get those rookie numbers up, you know.

Uh, Sell, I'm surprised too, because, like I used to like pax panels and stuff, any kind of public speaking would be like a number one anxiety trigger. Like I would worry for months before I did one. And I don't know what happened in the last year or so. Actually I started the medication that might be it about a year ago. But I mean that explains it directly. I have on and off over the years. But I started a telegram last summer. Since then, it's it's a selexa. It's just the generator.

I don't know what that is.

Yeah, that's a necessry. I'm gonna like a low dose of it. And like I just I.

Don't know, I don't it's an anti depressed, anti anxiety kind of.

Yeah, okay, yeah, sorry, I don't know.

Oh, very's fine in the heads only Dan and I need to take pills.

Sorry.

Owner typical, well.

Typical cool. How's your cookie cutter life going, Marry? How's your pussy? Nice?

That's how I get my stress out. I hurl a twelve pound bowling ball at piece.

That's just my therapy. Is you crushed some man his head? But yeah, I like before the panels. Now I'm just like completely calm. I like fly to and from Tokyo twice in the last six months, stone cold, sober, no real issues, Like it's a it's the moments like that that I really realized it. Like, Oh, I think I'm in a pretty good spot with that stuff now.

Yeah, growing, I think you're developing as a person. You've already written a lot of stuff on anxiety, so I feel like you understand it well. But I think, like, what's so crazy is like, remember that story I told you guys about the Minecraft stream and like how stressful

Do next a fucking cake walk.

And I just think you've been through so much, You've just you've tempered yourself in so much shit that a regular stressful day is really not as big of a deal as it used to be.

That stuff really does help, like when you just kind of raise the stakes on that because like I remember when I was about to take the job at W DOWE and this was back in a very different era

Was a wild time for you. I think you handled that with a lot of grace maybe.

For maybe to you, but yeah, in the quiet moments of the night, I did I don't know what talking about, but yeah, it was it was.

It was also Covid. I think it felt normal to work that much the time. Business strategy of Quibby was very good. I think everyone agrees.

The time it wouldn't have been good if it wasn't for COVID, and COVID definitely hurt because no one was commuting anymore, which is the only hope and a prayer.

That they had. I should say no at all, I will never be like.

Love that pandemic.

But there was there was no Yeah, there was no It was no better time to work at a streaming company than that moment.

Yeah, it probably was pretty good, Yeah it was.

It was crazy like everybody was staying home and obviously find entertainment and socialization at their computer, and so our our streaming numbers really skyrocketed during that time, and everybody was like all right, aw yayh that's like the bummer. But I mean it was a crazy time to be at Twitch because it was just like it felt unstoppable during those moments.

That's that's when I started streaming on Twitch. I never did a single like I guess I did the like one and then PlayStation four where you could do it from the box, but I never used OBS or anything before. And yeah, Mike told me like, yeah, you should talk to Mary. They got really good tools for showing me how much money you can make. And I was like, oh money, you say. And then I talked to Mary and she told me how to set up stream labs.

Told you how monetization works.

Yeah, yeah, and I was like, I think I like this and then I just went nuts with it.

But it's cool though, because before you actually had like never touched streaming software at all, and you were like kind of like, that's not my thing.

I play the games.

You guys helped put the stream together, but you were learning obs, you were learning alerts. You had. Actually, when we do our Game of the Year streams, usually you are the one who technically sets it up. And it is quite technical. It's like four cameras, multiple sorry, multiple mics, multiple camera setups.

I mean it's a big ordeal that.

You put it all together, unique alerts and everything, and you've figured it out.

Well. I think it's intimidating at first, because no, we need just kidding. I think it helped that, Like, you know, I did have a video production background and like editing and shooting and stuff like that, so, like just knowing the general language helps, but like streaming and OBS is a different thing. But like OBS is kind of awesome. I like it. It's got it spinicky stuff. But wait, you can do a lot with OBS. So yeah, yeah, yeah, but no credit. Both of you was getting me into it.

Yeah, you weren't alone. It was a lot of people and it was a crazy time. But I saw like a lot of people like really freaking out, and I was the only one that was like, I feel good. I feel completely fine. Little did I know that company's going to company. But I still have enjoyed my ride where I am and it's been like really fascinating to observe just the culture of people talking about games evolve

I think there was a real flashpoint for that a couple of weeks ago. Obviously what happened to us happened, and then Polygon was it was just a masker there like that.

That must have been hard for you.

Yeah, I mean it was hard to see for sure.

I reached out to a bunch of people, especially going to fucking veil net like vox Media, selling them to like I. You know, I'm sure there's good people working a screen rat and game rant, but I can't recall two sites that made me want to throw my phone more than those two in terms of clickbait and add servable.

But like, no.

From porn Hub that my experience there and opinions about Fantom do not represent the rest of the cast. But yeah, the sites that vel net owns are close second to ones I really fucking hate using.

So uh yeah, I feel for Polygon for sure.

I still like have that muscle memory of going to type in like pol and then I was like, oh fuck, I don't. I mean, there's still some good people doing There's still some good people there for sure, but they're not going to be allowed to do the really cool stuff that they want to do.

Uh.

From what I understand of the the deal, the restructure.

Tackled down by corporate ding dongs once again, and you have a you have truly escaped like such a wild place, Dan, I mean, it just seems crazy, especially considering how little you did to help.

To help, uh in what circumstance.

I think backlar and grubbed in a lot of the heavy lifting.

It's all say, I did some good stuff that behind the scenes. Maybe don't know about all the good stuff I do behind the scenes about it. But the pulling together, Look, I know people, I maybe pulling together some sponsorships. It might be person certain.

Stuff anti corporation suddenly wants to corporate sponsorship.

No, I will totally I will take the corporate money all day. I will absolutely do that. I got Twizzler's nips to buy.

Nips should sponsor you.

Guys, Mister hand super naps.

He thinks he's helping.

I will take so much money from corporation.

Back Alard Grub, We're probably like covered in sweat and room like looking at a computer. And Dan was like looking out the window with a Twizzler in his mouth and was like, is it happening or not?

When do we own it? Hurry up, guys, that was taking something. The lawyers take so long. Don't hurry give them money and then get it. And Simard.

Dan Dance a guy who watches like a football games, like just run into the end zone and get more points the other team.

It's fucking ship.

Catch the ball, throw it.

Run that way. Go the guy who's an integral cog in the machine, you.

Were You're a backup cog in case one of the main cogs breaks.

Just to corporate Marionette, we they can't work without content and you need someone to chiefly officer it. Meet the new Meet the new CEO.

Same as the old CCO, ready to see, ready to ready to ready to sill out as long as you give him beers and nibs.

Oh yeah, will work for nibs.

Yes, and six foot long subs.

And you can just hand people in a hotel lobby.

You can see more of that shit. Yeah, I'm waiting to see what you come up with next. Dude, No, that sounds expensive. You can't do that. Six foot longs after like forty bucks six fts. Oh my god, they were like one hundred and fifty each. Oh god, we spent over one thousand dollars on subs, Miss Jo.

Suddenly mister Corporate's missing his sandwich artisan slopping him together along its.

Six foot sub money coming from you guys. Stop it, stop it with these six foot subs.

We're scrappy now. I can't be buying six foot subs.

Corporate America's got its hand in everybody's pockets, even the White Night Dan Riker. It's the same old song, same lyrics, just a different melody.

I don't even know what you're saying about.

Yeah, the game is the same, but the plan is different.

The players are the same.

I think I'm starting to like this guy, I said, that recently, like in like in the actual context, and it felt great.

Oh yeah, I still hate you. Oh my god, you're wearing a bullet professor. It's awesome, all right. Uh, you guys wanna talk about video games?

Yes?

Yeah, okay, we believe it or not.

I've not all been on the same episode since Blue Prince's review Embargo went out.

That is so wild, so nineteen ninety seven.

Yeah, it feels like it. Wow, And we've all been playing it in our own world and at no point have we ever had the time to just sit and talk to each other playing. And we're also I think at completely different levels. Like well, when I when I talk to you about it, you really hadn't played it. You'd have only played like a couple days.

Yeah, I had.

I told you in college that I really it was not grabbing me. I think I expected to grab me right away. Yes, but I have since played more. I want to say, I'm still only like day twenty or twenty. I'm in the twenties somewhere. However, it has definitely started to I've had that like those Eureka moments where I kind of see the bigger picture and the game has not been out super super long, so I don't want

Farther than I am.

But there are those moments where Mary, you mentioned the Witness as a comparison on last episode, and I get that now. It's like, oh, I didn't even realize that this part of the game was a bigger picture puzzle and seeing how that fits together. Also, the farther you get in, the more you're actually having to worry about your foots, your steps, your energy. You're learning what different

That's an interesting but the dark Board.

Puzzle, Like I figured out the dark Board puzzle by myself, but it took me a bit, but then I found a note about it later. The there's some like resident evil level puzzles going on with like the fuse box. When I finally did the fuse box kind of stuff like have you the pump room no?

Yea yeah yeah, hyeah.

Yeah, fucking pump room pisses me off. That's like the only one where I like really struggled with it because it did not I like don't understand like how some tubes don't want to go up or down, And that one was frustrating for me. But it was really fun the very first time I drained the fountain, and I was just like, that's such an eye opener to be able to do stuff like that. And so it's been really have you, Mike, have you been able to get to the garage or have you had luck with the garage?

Trying to figure out how to say.

This, I'm trying to say this in a delicate way. You don't know what's going.

The game is bigger than I thought it was, and I have discovered some other stuff going on, And there's stuff like in the distance through windows and like hah, that seems like it might be a thing later. But then there's also stuff where it's like why would I want to set up an experiment? And I don't actually know this not being coy, I'm still figuring out why

Why would you?

Yeah, So like there's still like quite a lot of mystery going on. I discovered the sprint, Like everybody's gone to the rapture.

I didn't know the sprinting so funny. It's not like a super no, but it's still I don't not use it though, like all the time. Yeah.

Yeah, But there's there's also like really tense moments too where I find terminal or something that's like oh fuck, I missed a key somewhere. I don't know where it was, and I don't have the metal detectors, So now I need to go through every room with a fine tooth comb.

But I need to backtrack quite a bit.

I have the sneakers, so I'm saving one footstep every few rooms. Yep, uh oh right, there's a bedroom that along that path, so I should go through the bedroom. But then I'm getting toward I think it's in this room, and I'm almost running out of steps, so and then it gets tense, like are the sneakers going to work before I get to that room, which then has the key, which then I can, you know, hopefully make my way back.

So yeah, I would keep unfolding and unfolding, and like it's the point where it's like I did stop at a certain point, but you know, I played sixty hours, seventy hours something like that, and I could still see that, like, oh boy, there is way more I could do if I want to dive all the way in like I feel like there must have been thirty percent of the game left, but I did stop playing just because it's like it would require a crazy amount of further investment,

Know, I understand. I think I'm also there. So I had the flight to Boston for packs, and so I had five hours to kill both ways, and I played a good amount of Blueprints again just to see, like what the late game has to offer. I'm still trying to figure out. There's like a power room that gives you like is it a boiler room, but it gives you power and you can route to another room. Yes,

Do you can you say without it being too spoilery, what the thing is you're trying to do.

I'm trying to power the science room.

Okay, that one took me. That was frustrating for me too, because like you specifically need like and there are things you can do where it's like, oh, if I do this thing, it'll make it so mechanical rooms pop up more often and things like that, but like there's nobody's like guarantee it still beholden.

The only thing that's like happened to me that's been really beneficial is I've like now I'm consistently getting those reroll dye and like that gives me better odds, but even still I'm screwed all the time. I've also been trying to get all of the classrooms, and I almost always around, like cause I think I think there's eight classrooms and around four or five. I just they just

You're trying to do the eight classrooms thing, are you doing the thing that bitch? There is something that you can do that really helps with that. I mean, you would. This is not like a crazy spoiler. I don't think, No, don't, I don't.

I don't even know about the classroom thing, so don't for a second take care. But I also think it might be a spoiler for people listening because there's a lot of room types I don't even know about that.

It's a spoil.

Take off your head.

And if you need to listener the shelter, there's a thing you can do if you somebody if it's like a classroom adjacent thing, and it adds like eight classrooms to deck. So don't even try for the classroom thing unless you do the shelter first. Fine, we told the listeners the mute as well. I guess I just.

Don't know what I don't know. And this reminds me of animal Well, which seems like a weird game to compare this too, but Animal Well was also the same where it was like, we're not going to tell you shit, figure it out. And there were times in Animal Well where I was like, I can't believe that the disc is rideable and that this is like a travel thing and like the yo yo is so it does does all these other things. That is really fun to become

This game was designed.

I think what I'm trying to say is like it is intentional what they have done, and I think they've made an intentionally great game, But I think you have to have extraordinary patience, and I don't always have the patience that this game requires. So it's not a game problem,

Yeah, yeah, like I still know anyone for everyone I know that loves this game, and it's most people that have played it that I know. I don't know anyone that's been like, yep, did all this stuff? Like, I think there is going to be that point for everyone, regardless of how much you like it.

Yeah, it's like with something like Haites or Dead Cells, the action oriented games, those are easier to forgive when things aren't going your way because the moment to moment gameplay is still so like enticing and fast paced, whereas this is like a literal can be a like plotting pace through the mansion that you're building.

Yeah, I think it's RNG is great, and I think the game is expertly designed, so it's not it's not a ding on the game. It's just more of like, am I in the mood to try for something and never have it happened to me after six hours?

That is something you have to be in the mood for.

And I would almost even also say like that's compar Oh my god, I can't speak today. Comparable to Blatro. I tried to say, compare in Bolotro, and I said compar whereas like, you can have an excellent run in Blatro, but if you get a blind that's a real motherfucker.

Your run's over.

Like yeah, and once you go further in it too, like you know, Bank was trying to get all the gold steaks and then oh yeah, like and at that point, like she says, she knows within a couple like anties that like, Okay, this is not gonna be the run. You have to like be perfect from the beginning, you know.

Yeah, that's true.

So it's that's why I say that, because I think Blatro is brilliant. I think it's like perfectly sculpted, but it will frustrate you if you were if you think you're in a good way, the game RNG will get you.

Yep. Well it's probably a good segue because Doom the Dark Age seems very similar to Blueprints, like similar the same. Yeah, once you get once you get the gun that crushes up all the skulls and blueprints, it really a lot of stuff that's.

A real game changer. Yeah, take that, Rampa.

Yeah, the shield saw once it's up greater than Blueprints is fucking sweet. This is Babbage.

The boss fight is pretty pretty gnarly. It can be pretty How's dark ages?

You played it like itking it? Yeah?

With that shield dash Mary, that is that feat every time?

It's crazy like they they knew the juice that it was gonna make me freak out. I I literally I tweeted this and I and I mean it. In the first three chapters, I said fuck yeah a dozen times. I said it out loud. And it's it's not just the mechanics that they really nailed. It's the environment and the feeling that they want the player to have. They nailed it.

They knew that.

When you were at the top of like, uh, like a hill and you're about to drop down, you know that there's gonna be a bunch of ship that's gonna hit the fan. And as soon as you're dropping, they just increase and pump the metal music like crazy, so that you feel the rush of murdering and destroying demons with your bare fucking hands.

It feels fucking good.

And then on top of that, the evolution of this game is really interesting too, where they were like, we're gonna put crazy shit in the background, like giant mech looking devils, like huge beings in the background and they're competing and fighting with each other, And was so sick.

I couldn't believe it.

When I was like in the middle of a fight and I look in the background and there's like two giant beasts like killing each other in the background, stomping on little players my size in the back.

It was awesome, like I they nailed it.

Or when it's like it puts you in the uh. It was at the Atlan the mech and you are suddenly like Kaiju size, and there's just bridges of like tons of enemies that if you were dude size then they would be terrible. But you're just walking through it, and you get that super gun that gets like super charge if you get a perfect dodge, and you're just monsters that you're shooting with this turret basically, and chunks of meat are just flying off whatever part you're shooting.

It isster It's so satisfying. And they have the death animations just like the previous one.

So if you liked the last Doom.

They do that thing where like if they're purple or if they're like shiny, a certain way you can hit a finish your button and then that they play a finishing animation and the finishing animations and doom or exactly as you would expect. They open up the mouth, they vomit into their throats, and then they rip them apart, like it's gross, it's fucking cool. It looks so sick. They they knew their audience, they knew exactly what they were going for, and they went for it on this one.

Like it is just it's just everything that you want.

I do have a couple of gripes with it, but I'm loving it and I and I am really looking forward to playing more. And I've also enjoyed the upgrade system, which Dan you were talking about, like upgrading your shield so you can have like more dashes. I've upgraded certain guns that they have, like flame bullets and things like that.

It's been fun well and it's smart too that like you know, it's got the radio weaponmanu, and it just kind of puts like, okay, here's like the energy weapons here. So you've got to couple like blue kind of plasma weapons and you can just hit X on the fly to like it almost feels like an alternate buyer, even if it's a different yeam. So it's like the shotgun. You hit X, it turns into the super shotgun and it doesn't get overwhelming the way that Doom Maternal did.

Already got a hammer. You don't need six more ways to hit a nail into something.

Yeah, that's the good way to put it. Where It's like I want enough stuff to where I feel like I can switch between a bunch of weapons on the fly and kill a whole arena full of bad guys. But I don't want to constantly be having to think of like, Okay, I should do this now and I'll switch to this, but then like it's it got to be a little overwhelming an Eternal, I think they have found a sweet spot in this one.

I think so too. I think they also opened it up. Some of my problems with The Eternal was that they would put you in these pretty thin corridors where you would have to face these shield enemies from a very specific direction, the front, and that's really annoying because it means you had to approach them in a very specific way. You had to be able to parry and then shoot them to get rid of the shield. It's fine, that's

So I can just play it my way this time.

Yeah, And it's like groups. So like you'll go into a group with a shield dash and that'll decimate everyone in a certain radius. So fine. And then there are these guys that have different shields that they have shields where it's like, okay, if they have an energy shield, if I use an energy weapon on that blue thing and you can see it from far away, you can

Yeah, I've been not thinking it through. I've been doing the opposite of probably what the game has been trying to get me to learn.

I like running around.

I've been dashing around in the little spaces and just shooting them in the head, mostly with my like little sniper rifle thing that I've just enjoyed. I just think it's fun to use, it's easy. And when I run out of those bullets, I go to Faithful shotgun and I just bop them with my shield and shoot them in the head until they're dead. And I don't have to think about it that much. I feel very strongly. You were kind of alluding to this earlier, but I

But the visual language is also really good where it's like it teaches you early that like if you see a bright green thing come in your way, hit lt to parry, parry shield and that cares you know. There's dragon levels, there's mech levels and on foot levels, and that language stays the same throughout where it's like if they're throwing orange energy at you block it or get out of the way if it's green pariot, and that might put them in like a stagger sat and you can.

Go in reflex Yeah, reflex brain, I would say, like one of the things that they tried to do that I wasn't as stoked about is that there's like these mini bosses at the end of chapters that I think are a bit inspired by Returnal.

There they just throw a lot.

Of balls at you and a bullet hell. Yeah, it is.

Very bullet hell.

I just think that when you're doing something that is quite similar to Returnal. The reality is is that these boss fights aren't even nearly on the level of Returnal. And so when I was experienced them, I was like, I feel like there was inspiration here, but you cannot pull off what Returnal was doing.

And a party was like Eternal was doing stuff like that before Returnal or sorry, the first Doom was doing stuff like that too. It got pretty bullet helly with some mini bosses. But to your point, Returnal definitely did it better than that day.

They just did that is what like Housemark does is they make like really sweet Bullet Hill type game. Sure, yeah, Doom was never on the level of that with Bullet Hill specifically, Yeah, I.

Think it's like put it on another level. I think they're simplified versions of it still, right, these are mini boss fights. They're not like meant to be crazy powerhouses, but they are much more difficult enemies with a lot more health, and they're shooting lots of balls at you, and most of the time in these fights, the only way to win is to parry the green balls. Like that's the only way you're actually going to knock their health down with any efficiency. So I got adjusted to

I don't care for I think if they did it too much, I would not like it. But you know, I'm eight nine chapters in and it's only one chapter has been a Dragon one.

There's only been one Dragon chapter.

Yeah yeah, yeah, so I'm sure there will be another one or two by the end. And I liked it. Like even in the Dragon one, you will like do a little bit of dragon combat stuff and then you will land, you'll get off and then you know, you'll go around to the dude. Yeah, and then big ending and you fly through the air and land on the dragon again. Like it was just a vehicle kind of getting from thing to the thing.

You're right, it is a vehicle, and I think in that sense, like I'm fine with it. I think when it ended, I remember saying to myself like I didn't care for the dragon, which is such an amazing thing to say, because the first time they gave me the option to get in a dragon, I was like, you're you're crazy that they made this. It's so awesome that they added a level where you're riding a freaking dragon. It's like, hats off to them, But ultimately, it's just

Have you got the grenade launcher? Oh? Yes, that is a cool looking grenade launcher, Like the balls themselves like, yeah.

This game and its balls, they knew what they.

Were doing, oh ooh category best Balls of the year. Okay, all right, okay, yep oka, I think we have the doc Yeah, okay, great.

Yeah, I love that stuff.

I just think it's important that when you're evolving, and obviously when they were making this game, they were thinking, like, what how do we make this better than the last one. We're not making the same game. We have to like think about how we're evolving it. And I think they did think about some inspirational things.

The mechs are.

Sick like, the dragons are really cool evolutionary concept. I do think they came up with brand new gun designs and brand new ways for you to kill people, and generally, like all of these have been excellent decisions they have. They have done a good job with this game, and everyone is going to love it, like Doom is good and even like.

The look of it. I was, I was like, is it going to be too like fantasy?

You know?

Yeah, and it's it's a doom game. It's you've just got tons of guns and stuff like, yeah, sure there's some castles and dragons, but even those are like very doomified. So no, if you if you like Doom, this has the tone of a doom game. I agree, good stuff. What a Shotgun cop Man?

Oh Dan and I both played this, which I think is really funny. I don't know this is a Devolver Spech.

The developer of my friend Pedro the Banana game.

Yeah, that's right, which is also a pretty interesting game. I believe this is a solo dev and it's very unassuming visually. This is like kind of garbage looking like you're like this little look.

I think it.

Yeah, And they have funny animations, like the very first thing that happens because you are Shotgun cop Man, your job is to go to Hell and arrest Satan. And the very first thing that happens when you get dropped off in the game is Satan shows up and you go, I'm taking you in, Satan, and Satan goes, fuck you shock Shotgun cop Man, and then he runs away, and then you have to go through these levels.

I'm really curious, Dan, what you think.

I think where this game really shines is it the mechanics are very simple. The shotgun is also your boost. There's no jump, so you have to shotgun to move quickly and efficiently, and you also have to kill things in the area. You want to do three things. You want to kill everything, you want to beat it with a certain amount of time, and you want to take no damage. And if you do those three things, you get like an all in one check mark, which is

Yeah, I think the platforming and the way it works is really like you describe the shotgun, but like you could shotgun, you'll you'll get a shotgun in one hand and like pistols in the other, and so you'll do like one big blast to shoot yourself into the air, and then you can like pop up Pup Pup Papa

I think, Yeah, I was comparing it to Down Well because sure, I think in many ways as well. In later levels there's lots of spikes and there's move componed. I don't know how far you aren't it. I actually it's really hard to gauge how far you are because the map system isn't like you're on level twelve, Like, I have no idea how far I am in this game. I want to say maybe I'm halfway, but that is

You to be very delicate with your character.

I think this game is well crafted so that you can maneuver yourself with two guns for jet packs essentially without getting hurt.

And to me that was very down Well.

I used to always use the jet pack boots in down Well. It gives you just a little bit of elevation, which is very important and down Well in this game, you just need that little bit of elevation and to do that, you shoot your shotgun or you shoot your gu on a couple times to get through. I also think it has the down Well magic of like random gun drops. In this game, you do not know the gun that's actually going to be your next gun.

It's orang.

It could be a submachine gun, it could be a rifle. You never know. It could be like a pistol, and that will change the way you're able to navigate the space. So it is different each time you play a level.

Yep, yep. I'm not being as meticulous as you with, like, you know, getting the full all in one thing every time. I'm just trying to like kind of get through it. And like you said, it does get pretty hard and you really have to learn when to like kind of feather these shots. You know, how not to send yourself into a spike above your head. And yeah, it's just it's one of those very bite sized level games that, like, you know, put it on a Steam deck, bring it

Yeah, I've really like I think this is a sleeper. I feel like people aren't going to talk about this game because it visually doesn't look amazing, and even when you do get hands on it, like if there's like a demo or something, you might be like, this is a bit simple. But I actually think this game has

Yeah, that's the spoilers kish tonight.

No, I'm just kidding.

That sounds rad. My backlog is getting unwieldy almost, But I'm getting there. I'll get there eventually.

Uh.

I will not, however, be playing Destreating two for a while. But Dan you, I don't know if you heard I went to Koji muf Production Productions.

Yeah, do you hear about that? I was at Cochi Munt Productions for a while.

Why no? Because I was under a rock with my fingers in my ears, trying my best not to know.

I forgot what we were talking about so much, and I was just saying it, not as a brag. I was saying it as a The reason I can't respond right away is because I'm at Kadima Productions and we're not allowed to use our phones if we're not in the relaxation area. So that was just me saying sorry at Kadima. That's why I'm not responding museum times.

You can't fucking a photo in there, just bragging.

No, Why were you in Japan recently? I went to Coach Munt Productions. Oh nice?

How was dest eRating two seeming so far? How much did you play? Did you just play straight from the beginning or was it a rom.

The beginning and I played thirty hours? So you played as much as most people. Many people would play when they buy the game. I mean, yeah, but they said it was thirty to forty percent under the game, gotcha. So it's a big fucking game, and I like it a lot more than the first one, which you know, I did come around on. You know, I think we could give a Game of the Year, So yeah, I came around on it for sure.

When does this game come out June this year?

Yeah?

Man, that means I have to quit the podcast.

So soon.

I don't know if it's gonna be getting Look, we got a Mario Kart and a Donkey Kong and who knows what else this year. I don't I don't know if I'm fighting for Game of the Year for it's what's new in two it's just does things. It's way less of a pain in the ass in terms of all of like the management you have to do. Like in thirty hours, I think I soothed the baby twice. You know, the cargo stuff, like there may be two times three times that I fell down and like, oh,

I think it'd be nice if you could get their pouch and then like GTA like commandeer them and then you tell them where to hop because you're in their pouch.

There's no room for ridiculous stuff in deest training too. This is serious. Yeah, So like doll Man, you see the ha of a man got in included in the ka of a puppet, and that's why he's a puppet that talks to you. And he explains to you that. He's like, hey, Sam, do you want to know how I stay so young? And I was like yes, because

I just saw getting realistic. I play games for escapism. I don't want science and realism in my games.

Oh my god, it's just I don't know many things like that that are just incredible. And it's genuinely just very funny. It it's into it so much quicker, the action's better, man, It's it's really really solid. I didn't know if I would play another thirty hour like because then you know, are saved and carry over whatever, so I'm just gonna do it all again. But I had so much fun playing it that I will absolutely do it again. Cool. Where did you play it? How'd you

Oh yeah, you're just being Keeley.

Now. He was there. I was sitting next to him. He was at the station next to me. This puppet thing this city gets.

Did he get a computer bigger than you? Was it like in the number one spot?

No? No, had the exact same setup, although his his build was kind of weird because the prompts wouldn't show up so like the square, it would just have like a nothing button there. So that was that was a whole chaotic thing for the first day or so. So yeah, I had the better station than Keeley.

Just for dah, where's my prompt? You know, like Daddy Keeley's got to have his prompts. He kept calling himself Daddy Keeley. It was weird. Yeah, Daddy Keeley doesn't know what button to press. Daddy Keeley needs his prompt.

Well, I didn't know you were also, could you have a productions with us?

Welcome to the seventeenth Annual Game Awards. This is Daddy Keeley and I am promptless. I'm going free bird tonight, raw Dog and all you sounds a bit just tuning in to see the hottest announcements the greatest awards. Now for our next guest, it is Yosa Fares. They know each other, I guess. So someone told me that you finished Guns. What's Guns of Fury?

Guns of Fury was a game I told you It was about a month ago. I think I've already been playing it. But it's the one where it's a side scroller metroid Vania that kind of feels like lots of explosions and you're shooting a lot of people. But it is a Metroidvania. And Dan, I told you I thought you would.

Like I tried it.

Yeah, yeah, I rolled credits on it. It's pretty fun down to the last boss fight. It's such a slog to get to the final boss fight, just because in classic it's just in classic metroid vania style. Like there were many times where I was like, where the fuck am I going? And it's because I didn't have the right boots with the spikes that so I could do a double jump onto the thingy and I didn't know that, so I was going into areas where I really didn't

That Metal slug, you know stuff.

Very metal slug.

I think it. I think it appeals to a certain user, and so I was. I was glad to finally finish it. But yeah, it took it. Took time to get through that boss, but I was doing it on the flight and uh, my flight was two hours delayed out of Boston. There was a mechanical issue with the plane. And so I sat there just burning through this game. And you can tell people after two hours of delay, people are heated on a This is a five hour flight. So this flight has gone from five hours to seven hours.

So nice. Yeah, I downloaded it. I played a little bit and see what you're talking about, but didn't get too far. And it's like, all right, once there's a little more time specific stuff, Once I'm done with that. That seems like a good playing game.

Yeah, it's a good plane game. And I think the thing though that can happen and might happen with you is like once you get stuck and you're like, I don't actually know where to go next, that could be like a forty five minute trip for you, like walking around being like where what am I missing? And once you figure it out, it's fine. But yeah, it can get to you a little bit.

I mean yeah, but I've played something the Night Hollow Night like and had those experiences in those games. As long as I enjoy at the moment moment I'm accruing something, whether it's XPE or currency or something, then it doesn't bother me too much.

Well, then probably what will happen is that you will, you know, hate the game and talk a bunch of shit about it and then do like this crazy turn and change of hearts six months later and then fight for it like you actually as a person.

Grow as a person. Yeah, flip flop, no personal growth. Just look, I own a concert. I can't be a silly person who flip flops.

You can, and you are, and you.

Do to be silly anymore, Mary.

Bad people own companies all the time.

That's not true.

There are so many evil men.

No wait, I'm evil now, i I'm just.

Saying you can't.

You can't use your company owning as like something that absolves you of anything. There's like so many badness.

I'm a serious person.

No, no you're not.

You're just this little slapheaded ding dong that got handed the keys to the castle and somehow like they allowed you in and I'm happy for you.

Yeah. Hump dirt, Yeah, truck fucker clothes. I get a mic, Yeah, hump dirt, humpters. We own, we own fire Escape, yes we do.

Dan's got his Dan's got his hands and everybody owned multiple companies.

Yes, a lot of cookie jars.

That guy, I love cookies.

Yeah, he's got his hands and a lot of nib jars. What can I say?

Boy boy needs his nib money. That's right. What is Bionic Bay go? Oh geez? Wow? This today? It's like a limbo or like an inside like really cool look to it. A lot of physics puzzles, a lot of like uh kind of puzzle. It's a puzzle platformer and and both parts of it are very very good. If you look up how the game looks, it's it's got a hell of a aesthetic going on. Fantastic Steam deck game. So when I was flying out to Japan. This is the main thing I played, and not cool, very very fun.

I'm gonna look it up. This seems like right up my alley, like I could see you doing.

It quite a bit. Yes, all this stuff studio? What else they make? Yeah?

Well yeah, tell me tell me their background. Oh, I'm gonna seeze.

They are Kepler funded by the Royal Saudi family. Oh. Interesting, why. It's a very plausible lot in the game industry. I know that. I think this looks like their first game. Okay, nice, It's a very good one. I would definitely recommend checking it out.

Is exciting.

Thanks for the the tip.

I'm excited. I'm going to give this a try.

Mm hmm, all right.

I've been playing Warhammer with Vinnie. That's going super well Warhammer. Yeah new for me, huh. I think Vinnie's hooked, Reanna. I don't want to put words in his mouth, but I think he's hooked. I think a lot of people have been watching it. It's getting fun. My my one campaign is I'm commanding a bunch of dinosaurs and he's this high elf prince who's got a sexual thing for dragons. So that's making it weird to work with a bunch of lizards and reptiles because I feel like he's coming on to me.

But I'm helping a game. Oh yeah, yeah no, not not in not like Death Stranding too or Mario Party. But it's right, it's got some yeah, okay.

And then my other campaign, I'm a vampire zombie pirates and he's what is he He's uh, he's the skull taker who's just collecting skulls for his cape.

Very doom. That dude, it's fun going, well, we gotta do a We got into a few big battles.

People see what I think people are starting to see why, Well, Mikey likes this game.

Yeah, mm hmmm, that sounds pretty fun.

Yeah. It required someone with an open mind as opposed to you. You. If you would have just recommended it, I would have given it a shot.

I don't mind.

Yeah, I'm not recommending it. I never once told thought either of you would have would be any There's just something, there's this artistic edge to the game. I don't think you'd get uh huh going, well, it's fun. Uh.

That's in our off weeks here and then the other campaign is on next Slander.

If you're not subscriber over there, you want to talk about do you want to talk about emails? Concept? Concept? I want to talk about.

Okay, as usual, you can ride into firescape cast at gmail dot com if you have questions, comments, concerns, or quizzes. We've not done a quiz in a long time, but our friend Alex from Australia sent in a good one tonight that I'm gonna be quiz master for. It was specifically tailored to Dan and Mary's interests and knowledge, so I won't mess with that.

But yeah, escape, yeah, a little bit. There's a few, there's a van cross, there's a crossover. Yeah, mccari.

Beer drunk, so many things that we both love.

Mcgruber with beer, drawn, hollow night bars.

Yeah, bars, dogs, Yeah, soon, cats, when I start slipping cats into Mary's house under cover of darkness, I'm not a.

Yeah, No, you'll evolve. You'll evolve at some point. Okay, let us do this quiz. This is from Alex in Australia. There are three questions for each of you. So six total, and then at the end we could just tail it tally up how well each of you did. If for some reason there's a tiebreaker. There is no tie breaker in the email. I will just kind of off the cuff make up a tiebreaker question.

It'll be fine.

Okay, uh Mary, this question is for you specifically, and you can you either get it correctly or you don't.

What are There's no multiple choice?

No? What are three growable crops in Stardow Valley? Just three.

Growable crops?

Yep?

Okay, you can grow? Is like time for that? I'm like panicking now.

You take too long? Yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna start shouting this game.

Yeah, I know this game really really well.

I know I'm panicking.

Let me double check that. Yes there's horn, Yes there just one.

More uh uh.

Uh uh seconds cauliflower. Yes, correct.

I had a panic attack, and I know that game very well.

I know.

Well, you have me, you have me guys in there, all right, Dan, your first question, what is the exact day and date Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps was born thirty seconds.

March third, nineteen eighty eight.

No, it's the June thirtieth, nineteen eighty five. You have zero points, Mary, Mary. Question two, name the main character of the video game Duck Detective.

It's the duck.

What is his name? Um?

His name is uh quacks detective Quaxworth.

No, do you want a second try?

Uh, it's got quack in the name.

Yeah, but no, it's not it. All right, it's Eugene mcquacklin. Damn, that's wrong, all right, Dan?

Question two? Yeah.

Known as the Gumby of the Pool, Michael Phelps also won several Olympic gold medals. How many exactly did he win?

Eight? The correct answer is twenty three.

All right, Mary, you are up one. You have one of two. Dan has zero of two Mary. Question three. Internationally known as a good Boy. What is the name of your dog?

I know this. His name is Simon full name Simon Kish and we also sometimes call him Chug.

Yes, that's correct. Mary is two of three. Dan. You don't have a chance to tie it.

This is just to save face before having to flee international authorities for threatening to beat up the Pope. Michael Phelps held several world records. What was his time at the two thousand and six Pan Pacific championships in the two hundred meters butterfly.

You know this, Dan, forty six seconds.

The correct answer is one minute, fifty three seconds and eighty ever tense of a second. Uh, Mary, you have won this quiz. Thank you for Alex, He says, Long live the bomb, speaking of beating up the pope. I watched you watched Conclave? Have you guys seen Conclave yet?

I missed a question dedicated for me.

I think you should lose the whole thing now, Dan, did you know the name of the duck? Uh? No, I wouldn't it had.

Quack in it. I knew that it was like quacks you know, McGillicuddy, quacken Shire, but like I couldn't think of it Quacksworth, Quackley.

Detective Eugene mcquachlan mcquachlin, Yeah, detective Detective mcquachlin, Yeah, mcquacklin.

That's funny. That was really funny. I mean, I think it only like helps determine that I am smart. And you know Dan is here.

You know I can't argue with the results score bomb. Okay.

I got a couple of email questions as well. We can this person sending a lot of nice stuff about each of us, but I think we don't have to toot our own horn like that. I can delete that said here. No, no, no, it was all extremely nice. This is Cameron from Baltimore.

Thank you. They know what they wrote, appreciate it, but it's just it would be a long read.

I will read it, yeah, Mary read it. Yeah, it's in our inbox. Mary, do you want to read this one? Cameron from Baltimore.

Yes, Hey, Fire Escape Gang. I've been listening since the first episode, but never took the time to sit down an email. With the death of Giant Bomb and Polygon this week, I've been pretty sad but still excited for everybody has next. Bet you didn't expect that when you wrote this email, huf Cameron from Baltimore is crazy. I know this is long, but you guys still like with a question. Oh we cut out the middle part. Yea.

What is your dream matchup of game and person?

For example, I personally think it's hilarious to go through an entirety of Kingdom Hearts with Hideo Kajima. I think he'd outwardly hate it, but secretly have fun, thanks for everything you do, and kicking ass in the video game world. Cameron from Baltimore. That's a good question. I thought I didn't think like celebrities and like, you know, like when they're like who would you have dinner with?

It could be a person who's dead.

Like that's a total game changer. I genuinely have always felt that playing Resident Evil with Mike has been like such an awesome combo because he knows those games quite well, but we have a really silly connection when we play them together, and it's been really fun for me having the experience for the first time so realistically always able to at all never it's always been beautiful.

No one's ever tried to five Wonders for our relationship, but my.

Dream matchup in reality was me and Mike playing Right Evil. I really enjoyed playing that series with you and I and I have really good memories doing it, and it's really special to me.

Now fantasy, that's a whole new thing.

I have one go ahead, I would love to play Golden Eye with fom K Johnson.

I have another one.

I dare you use this to be a pervert.

I would love to play Death Stranding with fom Ka Johnson. Oh wait, I got I would love to play Terraria.

Know you want to play a game that's like four hundred hours to finish it so that you just get lots of time.

I have one. I would love to play Ninja Guid in Black two with fom Kay Johnson. These are good answers, Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, these are the dream situation.

I do wish there were more like being serious, not that I wasn't serious, but I do wish there were more developers like I enjoy what you Know IGN and even like what I Know what the show that Lucy had been doing a game spot where like developers you know, commentate on stuff. I wish there were more avenues for developers to do, like full playthroughs and just comments on

Sure, what about you, Dan? What do you think?

I say this because conceptually it sounds funny, but it'd probably be more infuriating. But making my dad play through all of Metal Year sounds pretty funny. I did watch him watch some of it when Kayla was playing four and uh yeah, that was not penetrating his head at all. Yeah, is this a shooting game? Is this is to shoot him up? Yeah? Dest stranding with my gram would be fun.

That would be fun. That's a sweet one.

Wait, why what about your grandma? Why would she She was just afraid of everything. She's afraid of being confused by everything in the world and definitely does not take in anything like that. And I would just like to see how she reacts to that.

Okay, gotcha In a dream where I could play with anyone, I think it'll be really fun to play most game series with Conan O'Brien, and I think I would pick GTA because I think he would have a lot of fun experiencing GTA and the storylines and the different things that you go through. I think he would. I think he would just be so fun to play that with and so throwing it out there into the ether that I would literally play any game with Conan O'Brien and

Honestly, oh Man, I'd love to hear. What's his name, Daniel Danielson? What's the Norwegian dude?

Damn? At the Comedy Seller? I forget, but he was great. Yeah, the autistic Norwegian dude. He'd be fun to play games with. He was hilarious. Yeah, Hey, anybody but into the bank? I do you I've married? Do you know who that is?

Hold on, let me look up his name because now Daniel uh Norwegian comedian.

H Daniel Simonson. Oh, he gets up on stage.

The first time I ever saw him, I was with Dan at the Comedy Seller and just clearly was immediately being awkward. But he's just his jokes are all about like how awkward he is, which I usually don't find funny, but he just was nailing it. He's like, I've been really working on just, you know, my small talk lately. So next time I go to the barbecue, people are gonna be loo, look out here comes Daniel, and I'm gonna be like, hey, anybody been to the bank.

That's his idea of I'm not doing justice. Daniel Simonson.

Watch watch, go, watch go watch some clips of him. Okay, didn't mean to minimize that. Dan, You want to read this last one. Uh, this is thank you camera from Baltimore.

Who is this from? Let me look Matt, Matt from Massachusetts, Matt B.

From Massachusetts. Wait a minute, Oh, never mind.

Okay.

They were asking about whether the new season of the rehearsal is sucking up your newfound confidence with flying.

Oh no, no, that's it's I never worry about the plane crashing or anything like that.

No, got cha, What do you worry about when you're have anxiety?

It's just anxiety. It's just the fear of fear in panic attacks. And it's for people that don't really have this, it's almost impossible to explain. It's just like the fear of having a panic attack and not having control over it. And yeah, but I mean it never happens, you know. It's just the idea of like, oh, I'm locked in this thing for you know, twelve hours, and am I just gonna be doomed to have this panic attack a

Oh that's so sweet. I do not know if this is the same person. But while Mike thinks of the answer, I just want to say that post the panel, everybody was kind of gathering around you guys and giving you congrats and cheersing you, and you were kind of just hanging out with everybody. And I was hanging out in the corner quietly and a person came up to me. They did not tell me their name, and they said, Hey, I just want to let you know I always rock

People love that banana yellow.

Oh god, imagine if if someone actually wore fire Escape merch to the met Gala, they would actually probably be seen as cool and avant garde the fire Escape.

Listen up, celebrities that go to the met galo that listen to fire Escape, You too could be the bell of the ball if you want to wear a banana yellow T shirt to the Metal and if.

You're free, if you're a celebrity of enough statue, yeah.

No you can pay for it. You're rich, but like, don't be a little bitch. Pay for them shirt and wear it.

Speaking of which, I don't know if you guys talked about this, but you guys talk about the fact like right after your panel Jeff got kicked out.

Oh god, I forgot about that. Backalre no Grub wait deal like they were telling us all to like move Yeah, well he heard two different stories from enforcers. We were like sitting there doing meet and greets with fans, and understandably, you know, the packs enforcers were like, hey, come on, move, we got to clear this area.

Cletely reasonable, which is reasonable.

We kept moving down. We kept moving down, and they kept being like, we'll move more, move more, and we kept moving more, and one packs enforcer took his badge and said it was because he wasn't moving down enough. But then wasn't. Another one saying because he had alcohol.

So the the panelist before this is what I heard. The panelists before us, I guess had like.

A fifth of they did. I brought a glass on stage, yeah.

And they gave to you guys and so but you didn't bring it in. But it was contraband and I just think Grub wasn't thinking and just put the fifth of whiskey in his back pocket visible and when the enforcer saw it, he was like, you can't have that, You're out of here, and confiscated his badge and kicked him out.

Incredible, you bought giant bomb then got kicked out.

Of packs, Jeff grub It's already going to his head being whatever that title is.

So funny anyway, a funny side story of getting kicked out of packs.

But hopefully that brought you time to think about our wines.

I didn't need time. I got it. Uh Dan, I always see Dan.

I think a lot of people see him as this big, boisterous personality with a booming voice that carries as we talked about earlier, but there's some nuance once you get to know him. But I think I think at the end of the day, he's a very very reliable friend and someone that like even if I even if I'm like going farther afield and trying out new stuff all over the world, I think he's like a Rutherford Cab.

Mary, I would say you're more like a Barolo or a barber.

Esco both Nebiolo made from Nebiola. I think you start off like I think when you're first getting to know Mary, she could be extremely tannic and uh and can be maybe a bit like have an edge to her, especially if you're a mom.

From Jersey to say annoying.

No no no no no no, not like that.

You can be fiery, and you can be like, you can be abrasive at first if you're a mom from Jersey, you know, like just rubbing you the wrong way. But over time, as you like you start to breathe and whatnot, you become very very ethereal, and you can be very very alluring and uh and very uh you know, like just generally very memorable to be around. Yeah, that's that's that's what I think you guys are.

I think that's and I accept that.

I would always say I had a friend who was like a lot like high high energy, and I used to always say I take them in doses, meaning like I could totally hang out with them for like two maybe three hours, but then I need a break because they're like way too intense. And I think for how intense I am. There are some like there were like more city people who are like, listen, I got like two to three hours with that girl, and I need

Oh thank you, Yes, that's yes, that's a good way to put it.

Water down, red with some ice in it.

Thank you, Matt b and thank you for keeping those hallways clear of Jeff Grubbs shenanigans at packs. He's already been a prima donna. After what a week A giant bombs chame on it. Well, that's our episode. It's been a while since we've all been together. Got a lot more travel coming up, but will you know, knock on wood. I think we're planning on all being here for the next one, so that'd be fun.

Try and do it come hell or high water. This is very important to us and we appreciate your support and thank you so much for the support of fire Escape over the years. It's really meaningful, and if anything, this is just a reminder to always support local support at like the micro level, support at the.

Human level, where you can.

Who knows when Giant Bomb will just become corporate again, Like you know, I can see it. Dan, Dan's going to like start wearing suits and he's going to start worrying about the numbers, and you know, worry.

About the numbers. But yeah, no suits on the horizon.

Do you even own a suit?

You own a suit?

Yeah? I bought a bunch when I got hired at Devnade, but then the pandemic it and I didn't have to wear any of them. So I was literally looking at them today and be like, god, damn it. Spent like probably a couple thousand dollars in all these suits and haven't worn them once because yeah, the pandemic it. Yeah, great suits you could wear.

You look nice in a suit. Nobody cleans up like Mike. He's always you.

Have to because you're moments, But I thank you.

I don't do it like without nothing.

But I'm just saying I think you have to because your wife's so smoking hot. If you were like dressed for the nines, yeah, she'll she'll find someone else. You gotta like keep it up. You gotta like you gotta keep going real, keep it at the highest bar.

Plus like this is me as well. You just wouldn't know that that helps.

Oh yeah, is that a penis thing? Yeah, it's huge.

It's always really hard walking around and you got to twelve foot python in your pants.

Four Yeah, So why I say them, It's fun to hear them.

Yeah that Mary. What do you have going on outside of the fire escape?

Yeah?

I usually say the same thing, but I will also say that because uh uh, I'm limiting my VODs on Twitch. I put everything on my YouTube. So if you ever want to watch an old stream of mine or even my new streams, I'm putting all of the VODs on YouTube. It's the same name, Emmy Ryki say, so you can watch everything on YouTube. I will also say, like, I have found that my social media of choice as of

Cool Dan? What about you? I mean I think we talked about it, but blue Sky and Instagram for socials and.

What have you been up to?

Yeah? What do you want to?

What do you want to if you want to plug anything, this is the point.

I was gonna plug something. I would plug giant bomb dot com, which I have plugged for a long time now, but especially proud of it. Right now, we're gonna be making some fun stuff and giant bomb dot com slash Join. This thing is alive now because of people that support us, So yes, check us out for free if you can, but if you can support monetarily, giant bomb dot com slash join and it's gonna be very very fun cool.

And I'm playing Total War Warhammer three two co op campaigns with Anny Caravella of Nextlander.

We're doing one campaign here. You're on fire Escape.

If you're not subscribed, you want to see that, do that for our video tier. And then if you're not subscribing next Lander, you want to see our Evil campaign. We're playing different factions and different parts of the huge map that's over on next Lander. Go subscribe to their top tier as well. That's every other week. It's our off week. We publish our good campaign and then the Evil will publish a new one. Would have published today.

If you're listening to this episode right now on day one, all right, that's our.

Episode we'll be back, yeah, in a couple of weeks. Good to see both of you again.

While too, it's been nice. It's nice to catch up, and especially with such good news. Everybody's so successful. Somoliers co owners.

One hundred and fifty nine points. I think I forgot about that.

That's why you're my best ye, yeah.

I remember one hundred and fifty nine. I mean, if you don't bump those rookie numbers up, then we won't be besties. But I still think it was kind of impressive to begin with. All Right, everybody will see you in a couple of weeks.

Fah,