Fire Escape Cast #117

What's happening Billy crapping in? Welcome back to the regular You can't keep doing that. Welcome back to the Firescape Cast. This is episode one hundred and seventeen. I'm Mike Maharty here as always with Daniel Reikert.

Was one seventeen The Halo Guy. The spark spark was that it?

Yeah, Master Chief Spartan one one seven.

Guilty spark was guilty Sparks who I'm thinking of?

That was the monitor from You Meet in the Swamp episode. Uh. The Guilty three four three Guilty Spark was the episode where you go into the You Meet the Flood for the first time. That's right, this is too early to talk about video games.

Mary's being quiet. Mary.

This is a comedy podcast. This isn't about video games. Uh. We're not here with Mary. She's gallivanting around Japan, knocking down restaurant walls, probably desecrating temples we brought in. Uh. Jesse Vittelli, explain yourself?

Who are you? Explain yours?

Uh?

Okay, I'm Jesse Vitelli. I'm an associate editor at restart Run. I'd like to play video games. I review him, I run social media. I do I do a lot of things. Honestly. I usually get a lot of random discord messages from Dan that's like, we're gonna throw you in an almost suit, and then we're gonna like make you We're gonna throw you into a volcano.

We're gonna put you behind a wall. We're gonna do.

All these things. And I'm the guy that just goes, yeah, sure, that sounds great.

Cut behind the walls. It's like the intro to Sakario and you're threatening him as a cartel may.

I was thinking more of a cask of a Montalado situation of a literary man.

That's not the pronunciation.

I got great wine. Just go behind this wall. We're gonna brick you up. It's fine, don't worry about it.

It's funny because like I like to pull that reference out as a joke of like, wow, Dan knows the literary thing. But then I accidentally still sound stupid in my smart guy reference because everyone always says I say it wrong. Is it a Monteado correct? Yes, a Mantiado type of sherry. Do you want to talk about sherry for a bout? I could talk about Jesse Shery, Jesse.

I appreciate that you do.

Sherry was wine.

I appreciate that you knew sherry is wine. Though that's nice. Not everybody knows that.

I didn't say that. I didn't say I knew that.

You just said you try to side stuff anytime he talks about wine, So you knew him anex you know. Oh yeah, no, Sherry's kind of wine. But I won't get into that unless you want me to. It's okay.

My neighbor downstairs is a somalier, and so like Chris right now, we could bring him up.

Chris, where does he work? I have no idea. I know that he's a somalier. It'd be funny if it was Chris, who I work with on the weekends. Speaking of which, really quick, I'm gonna plug it up top because I'm excited about it. October twentieth I mentioned last time it is fully concrete. Now I'm hosting a smash Bros. Tournament, thirty two person tournament, three stock. It's smash Bro's ultimate

Would they host a if we ever did another New York City fire Escape meetup? Would they be willing to have a full group of fire escape yahoos in the place?

Yeah? I think so. I can't, like, say, with the utmost certainty, but we can always just go there and hang out. It depends on how much how many people? How many people do we have at the Churchill one, and I would.

Guess about fifty. I think that sounds that right, sounds it? Yeah?

You made me drink catnip m hmm.

Yeah, Jesse before the meetup, was this even apropos of anything, or that it could be funny.

We were going to get breakfast or something that morning, and we walked by that pet shop that my wife and I like, and you said it be you wondered if eating catnip would get a human high. Yes, and then you said Mike could be a guinea pig for it. And then you secretly all bought catnip that you then put in a like a high ball of whiskey later that night and had me drink it. Yes, you take although I didn't get really weirded out after because you told me before I drank it, you're like, no, I

It's fun.

No, it was fine, though, But yeah, I know, like fifty something people people came in from Connecticut, Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania. It was very fun. So October twenty at the Company Center Street, I'll be there. But yeah, we were talking about oh yeah wine smash Uh. Mary's off in Tokyo, or at least she's still in Japan. She went to TGS. You both have you have either of you done a DAN You've done a TGS.

Did one TGS event in Japan four times?

Yeah, down Japan, Japan zero times, Okay, which feels weird in this line of work.

I feel like at some point I should have been in Japan.

It was like so much more like first of that like travel type stuff I feel like happened way more back then. I mean it happens now, but it's always like an event in LA and event in New York. They're always just kind of the same events at like an event space or on the twentieth floor of a hotel in Manhattan or something. You guys missed the Heyday. I mean, Mike, you got a little taste of it from your game in former time. You didn't travel, but you missed a lot of I got like.

A solid two years to travel. And also Jake and I j for what it's worth, just left New York Monday. He was here all weekend.

I can oh. I mean, like, gee, a Game Informer, you weren't you were an intro. Oh I see, I thought you're talking about you did. Yeah.

Sure, No, I didn't travel it all for Game Former, but I definitely I think I mentioned on a couple of episodes ago my first cover story I had joined for was Lego Marvel and I that would have been England T T games.

Yeah, travelers, I get those mixed up.

But no, I never traveled for a game Former, but I definitely did for a game Spot a little bit, and twice for Osaka.

That was the thing too, is like there were more like dedicated maybe this was just a Game Informer thing, but like since they did the cover stories every month, it was like, okay, it's just Game Informer going out, so it's like you and a couple of colleagues, you know,

I think there's also and living in New York, a lot of them happen here. So I don't go anywhere because it's like, yeah, I just get on a three dollars subway and go uptown.

Like.

Uh, Pokemon recently just did one where they flew a bunch of people out to France and they played Pokemon in the Eiffel Tower. Meanwhile, I'm getting shipped on by a pigeon on my way to some random penthouse in Manhattan to play Pokemon for an hour, and I'm like, I couldn't you couldn't take me, send me to France.

Was at the glass House in Chelsea.

No, it was some like random like warehouse penthouse type deal.

Yeah.

I know they do a lot of stuff at the Glasshouse. I just I say that as this as if it's this like Macca. I've been only a few times, and I it's not my favorite, but yeah, no, I Uh. Jake Decker was at the Paris thing as well, and he always every time he's in Paris, which is weirdly often compared like especially, he'll message me like, hey, have you seen this? And then he'll take a photo of the Eiffel Tower and messes me it's my favorite bit.

I love it. Yeah, yeah, good bit. Jesse did travel to Minneapolis recently. I hung out with him here, and I did. I took him to the Vegas Lounge with Mike. You you ever heard of Vegas Lounge? Yep?

I showed him very quickly about that place.

Yes, it's there's no way yeah, spring Street tavern. Yeah, we walked from Spring Street Tavern to Vegas Lounge. I showed them the spot on the sidewalk where you ate shit and got a bunch of gravel stuck in your knee.

That's true.

Yeah. But then yeah, full Vegas Lounge night with everything that goes along with that. And I'm glad that place, uh still got it. I'm not there nearly as much these days now that I don't live across the street and I'm not twenty five anymore. But uh pussy, yeah, yeah, you're right, that's what Jesse kept saying.

That place rules.

Yeah, that's great.

You we did put you in a trunk and drive you over there, so like you did get a little taste of the youth, you know.

Yeah, I rode in the trunk. I do always prefer like I like riding in the trunk on a bar night. That was my go to in college. Was just like everyone said, Oh, we're gonna pitt eyone the car. Its like, noh, get in the trunk. It's like I have like anti claustrophobia, I think where it's just like oh yeah, I'm just I feel like cozy and nights I take it like

It's like a sedan trunk or like a hatchback like an suv.

Uh is this today? I'm just like a normal car fully.

Enclosed, as opposed to like, oh, yeah you black pitch I'm were with, Yeah, I've done that a few times.

I didn't like it.

But I do often sit in the trunk or I used to sit in the trunk for with like in a jeep or oh that's or something. I wish we still had station wagons with the leather benches in the back facing backward.

There was a new game there between the door and the bar. It's a bonus hole. Is the new game they have there? Played it, Jesse. I think we just stood around the bonus.

Hole just kind of pointed and laughed at it.

Yeah. I took pictures of the bonus hole. This is one of those bullshit coin. It's like that rat coin game that's coming out, you know where it's like you put a quarter in there and you hope untold riches spill into your lap, and it never does.

I learned about poll tabs. That was a big one. I learned how to gamble yes. And the old woman smoking a cigarette and yeah, I handed her twenty dollars in singles.

That sounds like a good Vegas lounge night. You'd like learn every vice in a ten minute stretch and like you realize what your true like weakness is. Well, yeah, a.

Meat raffle would have got me, but there was no meat raffle that night.

That's in the mornings on the weekends. Yeah, as Jesse was doing the poll tabs, that's when we had our first taste of there was that woman in the back porch that was just being real weird. I remember she was hovering over your shoulder during the poll tabs, and then what happened. She was like hitting on every guy at the bar, and then as we were waiting for our like uber afterwards in the parking lot, she was like, Oh, my husband's gonna be upset about this.

Yeah, so here's.

Don't short dudle, don't do it. Maybe this this this.

Girl was like kind of hovering around us, and we were like engaging in conversation, trying to bring her and her friend into the group because we were a big group of people. And then she gave me money to go get poll tabs because she learned that I had never done pole tabs before. And then only one of the like ten that I got was like a five dollars winner or something, and I gave it to her and I was like, oh, this was partially your money.

Here, you take it. Go get your money.

And then they disappeared, and I was like, I think this was the girl just trying to get people to get poll tabs, like I think we just got got would.

Can you explain pole tabs for the non Minnesotans out there.

It's a square piece of cardboard that you just you you buy them for like a doubt. The woman was like pick a number and a color and then put her hand in a box like a like dune and then just handed me like a just a bunch of cardboard things and then you just like rip off the cardboard and then it's kind of like a slot machine. And it's like you're like you're like looking for matches, I think is.

What it was.

Slot machine. It's like cymbals and cherries and bells and stuff, and it's it's like a scratch cracticket needs a slot machine. Basically when you scord of.

Whole tabs, I thought you were talking about scratch offs.

Oh, it was very different. I thought you're saying the Vegas Lounge had old school beer cans that were pull tabs. Still, oh wait, what poll tabs are? No, they sound like scratch offs though.

Yeah, it's but it's weird because it's like I think it's a legal thing where they can't just sell it at the bar because most like dive bars you go to in Minneapolis, they'll have the people work in the bar and then they will have like a dedicated poll tabs employee, and like Jesse said, usually an older lady that has smoked eight million cigarettes. And then you just buy Like that's all they do all night, and like

I don't think I've experienced that. The Vegas Lounge.

Yeah, I mean it was there the whole time, Like it was a whole corner of the place and you probably never even saw it. It's weird.

Oh shit, it's Oh it's its own little like counter. Yeah, it's like a key where I know the Vegas Lounge.

Like if you're facing the karaoke stand, yeah, to the rock deck out back behind it, to the right, it's like in the back corner, it's like the door that goes out to the dumpsters. It's like next to that, it's like there's a blind spot there. It's insane.

Yeah, I just remember my I think my most vivid memory of the Vegas Lounge was It would have been toward the end of my internship and I had to go pee, and then we had requested no easy way out by Edward Tepper and you Ben Reeves, and I want to say Tim Turry went up and there were four mics, but you were looking for me. I think it was Ben Reeves started sprinting around the perimeter of the bar trying to find me, thinking I had gone out for I don't know, to get on the phone

Yeah, Jesse, are you?

Are you a rocky guy? I Rocky's fine? Okay, you know what? You know? What here?

I take? What's that? Yeah?

All movies should be forty five minutes no longer?

Oh okay? Is this the thing with the kids today, Jesse? Because you're you're twenty one next week. Look anyone more than two years younger than me as a kid, including Mike. There's a weird I don't know if it's this industry or what. But there is a weird anti movie thing going on with the youths. I think I've heard this.

This is a me problem.

No, I've heard this recently from Jordan Middler, who's a youngster in games media, Mike Manatti, who he's not a youngster. He's a Disney child though, so that he might as well be a year.

On years old.

Yeah about Disney movies are longer than forty five minutes.

I know, but every Disney is just a different Like you know, he he's afraid of fruit, but he he'll eat a dull whip at Disney because that's get about his he is on it. Then all the rules go out the window, you know, gotcha? Yeah, yeah, that's all to say that, Like, yes, there are many younger people in the games industry now that are either fully anti the filmic arts or like Jesse just said, here, uh, forty five minutes longer. You you don't think, what's the longest movie that you love?

Did have I seen what? No?

After?

I actually do want to see.

That that's like three hours long?

I still I couldn't hear you either time?

What movie? One battle after another? It's great I.

Mean, I've seen The Lord of the Rings extended editions like multiple times, like those are long as how I love Pans Labyrinth. That's like not a short film by any measure. Like I have seen plenty of long movies. I simply think that some movies, most movies in fact, are too fucking long.

But isn't Rocky for like an hour to twenty rock three rock? I gotta watch three Rockies to get there, though I've only seen the first one.

Okay, here's the thing, Jesse, I want to give you. Listen, you watch fucking Furry Vengeance with me last weekend?

All right, no, no, no, no no, don't say it like, don't say it like I was gong ho. You held me hostage and then texted me multiple times to make sure I was into that Twitch chat with you, and then made me check in with you at least every fifteen minutes.

That is true. That is true, Mike. Furry Vengeance is Brendan Fraser twenty ten. Him and Brookshields move into a house in the woods and they're they're haunted by c GI animals for an hour and a half. But I don't want to get distracted from Rocky yet all right, Jesse, Rocky one and Rocky two are films like Capital F films. You know, it was like Oscar Camera.

Rocky one Runs Up the Stairs one one got nominated.

Yeah, yeah, right, those are those are films.

Drinks the Rug, Yeah, absolutely, I'm familiar.

Rocky four is a movie. It is the most bullshit dumb ass. But I don't mean to say it's like, oh, it's this ironic, it's so bad, it's good. Do you like say it's not a fury vengeance situation. It is genuinely one of the most exciting things I have seen in my life. Every single time I watch it, It's an hour and a half long, and I feel like it's been going for twenty minutes and then it's like the final fight has started. It is the fastest moving,

Yeah, it's not just a final fight. It's a metaphor for the Cold War and like just you know, like the post World War two tensions and how that wrought havoc across the world.

It's just like that movie.

Also, that movie is like people give Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan credit for bringing an anime vibe to the Creed trilogy, especially Creed three, which Michael B. Jordan was his directorial debut. Good movie, not my favorite. But Rocky four was all ready in anime, basically with two jacked, very hot men punching each other over and over and over and the one guy.

Oh god, there's a lot. There's sly Apollo and talk.

Oh wait, what do you mean you said too? Who's don't want to spoil anything about one? Fight is decidedly unhot unless you're into.

Don't spoil it, produce.

That's why I didn't want to. You just brought it up. So you got to watch Rocky two, and then you got to watch Rocky three, and get this, you gotta watch Rocky four.

So this isn't an hour and a half endeavor anymore.

SI, Yeah, you don't need.

To watch There was a lot of there's such a just emotion to four if you've seen the three leading up to it.

I would say, especially one and two. Uh A man and I last year, two years ago, I showed her the entire series, and by that I mean I clockwork oranged her to the couch and we skipped three, and I think for still we were both creaming our jeans the whole time.

I don't love three. It definitely has some great moments. I was, I was thinking of the Mickey arc is important. Yeah, that's good. I was watching the dirtier cut of Dirty Work with some friends a couple of nights ago. Here, you know, they put out the dirtier cut this this week. And Norm's talking to Chevy Chase, who's the doctor who's got the gambling habit, and he's explaining why he needs

Yeah I got Rocky for us.

Still good?

And then Creed one? So have you seen Creed one and two or three?

No?

I felt like I needed to see all of the Rockies before I could see Creed.

Yeah, that's true.

So what's the last movie saw in the theaters?

Oh you don't want to know, man, you really don't want to Yeah, mean curious, what does that mean?

The last time I was okay?

Wait? Is it because it's been so long or because you think the movie?

Really it's I think the last time I was in the theater was twenty twenty three. Maybe okay, I thought, maybe something. I mean, no, no, no, But it's been like years, literal years.

So what what gets you? Like? What is okay? In the last like five or six years? Which movies got you out to the theaters?

The Batman? Definitely? That?

Do you like that?

I liked it a lot.

Actually, I really really liked that movie.

Not the long one, just three hour.

Yes it is a long one, but that I made a day of it. Was like I went in the morning, I went to the Nighthawk by me. It was very nice. Had breakfast there after.

Col Bruise, so you're by the night Hawk. The night hooks awesome. They used to do a like nineties movie brunch, a boozy brunch things. So I saw like Speed and eight brunch and had cocktails and stuff. Yeah, it's so nice, it's great. Gold And I and yeah, it's awesome.

So I saw that.

Honestly, it's a lot of like whenever my friends want to go to the movies and they asked me to go. So it's like normally a lot of Marvel, it's a lot of like video game like Sonic three. Like it's things that I'm like, I'm not gonna go to the movies myself most of the time. But if like my crew is like, hey, we're going to the movies today, you want to come, I'm like, yeah, sure, why not? It just doesn't happen often. What was the hardest scene, like a real movie in a theater in a long time?

What was the last movie you saw before the pandemic and then the first one you saw after.

I think the last movie I saw in theaters was Birds of Prey because that was like right before everything shut down.

That was that, Zack Snyder, I think, so I.

Don't remember it was, Yeah, it was like the Harley Quinn.

Twenty shutdown. And then do you remember the first one.

After first one might have been.

That's tough. I actually don't, just fine, I remember both. My last one was Parasite and like four blocks Away when we still have a movie theater. I remember it even more because that movie theater closed to the Pandemic. My first one after was Top On Maverick, which to this like is still one of the most fun in

Go check it out.

And my my crowd was amazing. We were They were cheering and laughing at all the right spots.

It was great.

They were smart about that pandemic was what peels might believe before. Yeah, okay was it because almost.

I remember, I think it's post pandemic. Yeah, then that was the first movie I saw back.

Oh wow, okay saw that in the theaters. Yeah.

Yeah, So Top com Maverick was definitely not right after I took a bit.

It was like twenty two, but it was done like it was like ready to be released, like near the beginning of the pandemic. And I think like Cruise and those guys were like so adamant, like this is a movie theater movie, so like they just sat on that for like a year or two or whatever it was. And like that was a smart call because like that movies, it's not like it's gonna age. I mean, like all the effects that were like a lot of it was real. It wasn't even like CG.

You know, Oh it's not gonna age. I see what you're saying. I thought you're saying it's not gonna age. Well no, no, that's what I'm saying. I think it's like a pretty evergreen thing. It doesn't rely on like CG that's going to be like, you know, look shitty in a few years or anything.

Like the themes or anything are pretty evergreen. So yeah, that was totally the right call on that, which I think a lot of studios would not have had the patience for that, but in those crazy circumstances, it was the right call. Yeah, agreed.

I that was also the first movie Amanda heead every Sea in the drive Through. We d then drive in Thank You. Yeah, And we went into a drive in summer of twenty two and we'd already seen Maverick in the Spring or whatever it was, and then we looked up the drive in drive Through, Drive In It's not Fast Food. The trailer d it's one of like the last one hundred or so drive ins in the country, and it was playing Top Gun. So we had the rental car trunk popped at beach chairs out nice bottle

I've done two now, the one with you in the backyard and then one of my brother in law last summer. Nice.

Wait, you're like, this is like a new thing for you.

Yeah, Mike taught me. I was like probably thirty. Mike was when you were an interne. You were thirteen or fourteen, right, Mike. Yeah, And we were at a party and Yeah, taught me at a shotgun beer. I think I was always freaked out of the idea of shotgunning a just because, like, first of all, like I did a decent amount of beer bongs in college. He moved a lot too, right,

Yeah, it's the same concept as how beer cans used to need to be opened in like the sixties or whatever. You had the Have you ever seen old number old beer or old can openers.

At the heart the sixties?

Think, I no, I know, but the design of the can opener lasted a while and there probably are still some out there. But you know, like now, I think pan openers all have the crank. There were the ones before it where it was just the pointed like the point, and in order to open beer cans back in the day, you needed to basically poke two holes in the top.

So I find it difficult to understand things that you can't see.

No, I get it. I know it's weird. But like if you like you ever had, you know, when you have a water bottle, a plastic water bottle, and you put your entire mouth around the neck and you just suck, you know how, like you get suction to the water bottle, a water bottle, but that no, that's this is designed you like a plastic like a plastic screw hole in spring. You've probably done it, you know how. You suck it and actually the bottle like shrivels up like a scrotum.

So the then the hole is too. What if that was metal, the metal wouldn't like collapse on itself.

No, then metal things still share you with your shotgun. But like the shotgun thing, you I showed you how to tip it over, and you you lean it in such a way. Say this is upside down beer can, you lean it. This is the where you find the bubble with your can or with your keys of knife. Sure you puke the bubble. You make a big enough hole, and you make sure you're only You're not like pulling metal out. You make sure you keep it pushed in. You make a big enough hole you could shot on

A way that they got the big mouths now.

Yeah, but like there's enough, there's oxygen getting in the around the sides of your mouth, so you don't need that extra hole.

Like next time you have a coffee, I put my I put my mouth around the entire like circular lid up top. That's how during soda beer, it's the whole can get like like you just hold the whole can the whole I wrap it around. Yeah, yeah, cool thing, full circumference. Yeah, I see it.

Poor, it's off putting on a hinge my jeologus snake. Yeah, but no, I'm glad. I I haven't shot on a beer since then.

I don't think. What don't you understand?

Just in life? Yeah, what's what's the biggest thing that keeps you awake?

You got questions?

Oh? I on the oh, I had a lot of questions.

I know, I have a lot of.

Questions in like, yeah, the things I don't understand big ones are sinkholes. I just don't understand them. I don't want I don't know if I want to understand.

Them, like in streets or sinks.

Oh, but the land ones.

Yeah, I guess I don't even I've never even thought of them.

I think a lot about falling through the earth, just dreams.

Do you have dreams of falling through Is this?

You have dreams in general?

No dreams about falling through things?

No, but I do think about it a lot. It's like when I'm walking and I see a pothole, I'm like, is that? Could that be a sinkhole? I don't know, Should I walk around that?

Where does it go?

When I was when I was in elementary school, I was probably like fifth grade or so, there's a kid on my block. I we'll say his name was Larry, and he we were at the park one day and he threw a piece of glass at my face. We found some glass on the ground in the sand, and he threw it in my face and it sliced my cheek open, bleeding everywhere. And went home, got cleaned up, got patched up in everything. And it might have been

I heard this story.

I don't think Jesse yet.

And this is a wiley coyote response to a.

Thing when I was like ten or eleven or whatever, and so I dug it deep. I'd say, if I had to guess right now, two to three feet. Maybe it was less. But as a kid, I remember thinking like, that's a big hole, and so I dug it. Let's say three foot by three foot or so, maybe two foot by two foot. And then I broke off a bunch of branches from trees and I chris crossed them. I went home. I got some paper high v bags.

I imagine like that cartoon thing where they're running and then they realized there's a hole beneath them, but their legs are still going.

Oh yeah, yeah, held that said yikes or yep or whatever.

Yeah, but like, what in the cartoon ass fucking trap did you you make for this guy?

Yeah?

They do that in heavyweight. Why did you do that?

I mean, if I wasn't a fighter, uh, you know, I'm not gonna go challenge the man to a fistfight, but I'll use my wits.

Yeah, no, it' that's a good man. You're solid. Did you go up to the edge of the hole and laugh? I did.

Yeah, that's actually exactly what happened. He was pissed off, and I think it was maybe just an unsaid thing of like, okay, we're even you know.

Was it deep enough though where his entire body disappeared? In my again we're talking over checking you just in your memory?

Was in my memory? I remember him there's a blat and like not being visible and then me walking up and seeing him.

It's way funnier if he actually just like vanished than if he tripped into like two feet Yeah, funny, I'm not again, But in my head, I remember how I thought back then, and I definitely would have thought that, like I want to see this guy fall into a hole, and it's because that's a big hole.

I don't remember, but like I was looking five step, my mind is something I always made sure to do it right.

You know what. I remember the story. I thought about it during Ghost of Yota. Have you gotten to that part yet where that guy is digging all those I'm there, Okay, Sorry that the sacrifice. Guys, they put me an infamous and I told him you're gonna get to that point in the game and you're gonna fucking lose your mind laughing because I brought that up. I'm sorry to jump the gun on that one.

Many people at school called me Burry Samurai like they called Youtsu. The audience was the Ghost of Holy Trinity. There's the father son, the Holy Ghost, and then the real ghost.

Oh my god, I can't wait for Ghost of Yote sequel. Ghost of Fucking Kansas City.

Me and Leannexa, Kansas in nineteen ninety.

Five, Ghost of sitting next to the hole with a shami, just like bathing in a fucking jacuzzi. Reflecting on Looney Tunes, it probably wasn't inspiration. I did love Looney Tunes. Speaking of do you want to talk about video games? No? Sure, yeah, all right, A couple of big games have come out since we last recorded. I guess second episode in a row where we've all been playing a lot Ghosts of Yote. I want to jump it too right away. Is there anything we need to clean up first? Jesse? Quick, I'm

I think Hollow nighte Silk Song is diabolical in the best ways.

Okay, that's a great sentence. You have one sentence to describe that game. That is a plus.

Jesse, thank you, it's good work. What other game did we talked about last time.

Uh uh uh, let me scroll down. Let me scroll down. It's basically a silk song. I Racing crossworld I was the one.

Yeah, I refuse to learn anything about the Sonic franchise, and I played forty five minutes of Sonic Racing Cross Worlds and still don't know anything about the Sonic franchise.

To like this guy, all right, I like I like Rapid Fire, but Telly Corner.

Borderlands four is specifically the guy you knew in high school that never got out of his hometown but then did and learned a little bit about his life and has now come back with a fresh perspective.

Oh okay, I know, I know something like that. All right? You want to go to go to Yote?

Oh? Sure?

Or do you have any more Rapid Fire?

I can go all day Cloverpit.

I don't know what the hell that is?

Uh Oceanobi, I haven't played it, but it looks sick as hell.

The Minnesota State pair never been but would like to go middle your solid Delta.

I think the original is better, and I don't think that's a hot take.

The Legend of Zelda, Breath of the Wild.

The Legend of Delta.

Breath of the Wild is a masterclass in design, in letting you do whatever the fuck you want to do.

What's your favorite game of all time?

It's a toss up any day between two games. It's either Outer Wilds or Luigi's Mansion for the game cube.

Wow, okay, that's yeah, I mean Outer wild You had me let me wait, Can I give you my pitch on Luigi's Mansion? Please do so.

One of the reasons I love the Resident Evil franchise specifically, like the early games, is mastery over a space, learning a space and figuring out the best ways to maneuver around it and use it the systems at your disposal to give yourself the advantage. Luigi's Mansion is a Resident Evil game and everything, but name if you really think about it, it is mastery over that space and.

So specific like being in a mansion, and you know.

Yeah, if you want to take it like at face value, absolutely, yeah. But I do think there is that progression that you get in Luigi's Mansion that you get in a Resident Evil game.

We've talked about this before, and I feel like maybe you could relate. I didn't know you were super into Resident Evil because I am. My favorite video games and movies often take place in a very confined setting. It's almost like a stage play, like Resident Evil. Like to your point, you're mastering a space. It's like this one set that you're kind of like getting to know intimately, as opposed to this like Globe trotting Adventure Residu. Yeah,

I love that.

Yeah.

The bad thing about Resident Evils they always have to end up in like a lab or like a new space by the year. It's like, no, let me just stay in the old space like it's cool, Like.

The village is the coolest, and then the castle is less cool, and then the island sucks. Island is the world I use podcast that we talked about this reason. Mary and I just recently finished up for a remake for CANEVL and yes, I like the remake. Not only did it not improved, it reinforced how bad the last

Gamed at the castle, and just be like, what would be like a ten hour game at that point.

Something like that, Yeah, because then it becomes sixteen eighteen with the fucking it's not just military island zombies with guns an armor, sure, whatever, it's that the island has. Like they're all like at the button for the garage door, They're like, oh and then it's opening closing, and like, I don't that that I don't need and I didn't want and I still don't want the remake, all right, but yeah, Ghost of Yote. Are we all played it, all three of us.

Yeah, I'm like ten hours in now, Okay, I'm far h Okay, it's people know, Okay, we.

Say this a lot. Okay, let me let me say this. Let me say this. And I'm not the first one to mention this. It is very very funny to me how similar the premises for Assassin's Creed Shadows and Ghost of Yota are also the vibes spaghetti western like music like any of Morricone kill Bill set in Japan. A certain number of asked enemies kills people important to you, and you're you set off on this revenge tale Assassinae

I had that feeling imediately too, especially when it does the big kind of like tidle card sequence and stuff, kind of after the prologue that test things up in You're on your horse and just you're just seeing these mountains and.

Still the Kira Krasaua stuff. You're following the wind currents you are riding through. There's certain colors of flowers that speed you up more. But immediately it's like it's that kind of like Breath of the Wild in the Distance had that water color facade to the background. Breath of the Wild like, technically speaking, is not that good looking

Yeah, mine is very like a tumnol right now. Right now, it's all just kind of like red and yellow leaves. Okay, cool.

So they do do a Zelda thing at some point where they're like, Okay, you can go to this part of the map to hunt this person. You can go to that part of the map to hunt that person. So I have been asking people where they're going. First sounds like I went to a different one than you.

So that's the thing is like I you know, obviously Breath the Wild gets every game gets compared to it now, but like I couldn't help but think of it here, because I feel like Sushima was more kind of that old open world style game of like you know, Gtao, you can get to this next island when the bridges get fixed. You know, it's like, oh, you get to this defined point in the story and then this other part of the map opens up. Whereas this makes me

Itself, is like, yeah, it's all hand drawn off off of where you've explored, similar to weirdly, Civilization six did that thing when you had the fog of war? Is a hand drawn map when you haven't actually revealed. It reminds me of that Weirdly.

It's a lot of like ink blots and lines and things like that. And you will get these cards basically like okay, so I'm looking at the cards now that are clearly main story, like they're yellow, these are the people from the Ota six. But then there's the ones where it's just straight up bounties you pulled off a board. Here's myths about the area where it's just like, oh, legend tells that this thing is over here.

Yo, kai make weird noises in these woods over here.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, So like it's so conducive to just like getting on your horse or running around and just finding a thread and following that and like you will inevit. Like it doesn't feel like empty space, even though it is a lot of fields and things like that. Like I do feel like if I ride in any direction for a couple of minutes, I'm gonna pick up on

Yeah, And I I still think and I don't know how you would avoid this in a game like this, but like I think I'm twenty five hours in and there's a point in which it does start feeling repetitive and a bit rope where you're like, Okay, I'll go do the Okay, there's a hot spring there, I'll go do it so I can rank up my max health. Okay, there's a bamboo thing, which I still find these mini

In our quick look. But I think this does it better. Yeah. Yeah.

And it's like at a certain point, at the point of at the game, I am starting to be a bit fatigued with the side stuff and that's unavoidable, and it's still it's gonna be there, and it's up to me to engage with it or not. It is hard for me for the yellow bird to come down and not follow it, and then all of a sudden it's like, oh, it's it's a it's a fox. Then, so I'm gonna follow this fox for a bit and I'll get a charm.

Breathe every time, though like that is a setting too. You can have it set too like every time. Oh I never heard or I think the default is like some of the time. So in fact, we were recording the quick Look today or yesterday for this, and I wanted to show Grub the like blowing into the microphone on the controller stuff and everything, and you know you could do that.

I always did the R two blowing.

Well, the thing is, I had to figure that out because, like I looked, the accessibility options are kind of craziness. You can like turn off the golden bird, you all sorts of little tweaks and stuff like that. But I couldn't get the blowing into the microphone thing in the work. And then I realized, I don't think I've ever had my PS five microphone unmuted. I just had to unmute it with that button and then you just blow into it.

Lowering the controller, and then you're what else are you doing? You are when you're painting the doing like the watercolor paintings you're just tracing lines and whatnot, and those things do kind of force you to slow down. But I did find myself getting into a routine where I was trying the story. I actually, really, really, I think this open world story is incredible. It does it builds momentum

Yeah, you mentioned that, like wanting to role play as her, and that's something I kind of learned with Red Dead two. And maybe one of the reasons I didn't love it the first time around is like, I don't know, I just started that game and was like, all right, my Arthur is going to be this rooting tutin lose Cannon cowboy.

So I played Sushima all the way through some one of those games where I enjoyed it at the time and I cleared the map, like I did everything I could possibly do in that game, and then I never really thought about it again. And I don't mean that as like a slight It was just I had my fun with it, and I kind of moved on. And when they announced the OTA, I was like, Yep, that makes sense. I totally understand why they would make another

Yeah.

They they've switched up some things too. From Sushima Sushi me I was very much about his his stance in the weapons, like the combats aret. Now you actually get different weapon types. And I will say another thing I love about this game there is some sort of lower backstory like large sorry like wider context to almost every weapon or armor set you collect. Very seldom do you actually just like find a random armor set in a chest in the middle of nowhere. Often it's this very

Mm hmm.

They're doing one that's very fucking hard during the training sequence for a weapon. Yeah, And I was like, I noticed, Oh, it's all on my left hand on the controller, which is very rare. And I was like, are they assuming I'm right handed because most people are gonna be and they're making it hard. So then of course you try that, and then the next day you wake up and it has gotten a bit easier and you're using your right

Is so montage just through the button prompt.

Yes, yeah, it becomes like a rocky movie at a certain point in this game set to like again, any of Morricone's esque soundtrack with like a kill Bill character or Ahi character. It's fucking like that.

I don't know.

That gave us so many clever things storytell wise, like as it ties into the gameplay that I'm like this, this is all rad and I'm very like there's a propulsion to the story and and it within the context of the open world that I don't know the last time I felt that in a in a while.

Yeah, And some of the things like do feel I guess gimmicky, but I don't ever really say that in a bad way for sure, where it's like a lot of times you just go to a menu and it's like I have X of X, I have enough to press X and upgrade my sword and this one like you do it. But then it's like you're at your father's forge and you're literally taking the dual sense and you're like like the heated sword you're banging down and you gotta press a button to reheat it, observing to

Word it's a gimmick put to good use because again, like when you're cooking, you're you are supposed to I think kind of be like men you're when you're camping and cooking. I do think it's supposed to be like

It's it's like maybe the best photo mode I've ever seen. Yeah, Like both in terms of like the game is so conducive to it because it's so gorgeous, but also the level of like, Okay, I went burning embers in the sky and there's Aurora Borealis behind me, and you know, the usual expression stuff and all that stuff, but like it just looks unbelievable.

Yep, it's really good. I like you'll take you quite a bit. Yeah, Jesse, if you if you get the chance to play it, play it. I'm excited.

And I thought I'd be burned after finishing Assassin's Cree Shadows because I'm like, I feel like I just did this.

Oh you know, yeah, did you like was that?

Are you a completionist or did you really? Were you just liking that game quite a bit?

I was freelancing guides for it, and so I had to finish it.

I have the option, was that the option, see I should have meted.

So not only that, but it was going up and down the map making sure I've seen every icon doing most of them.

Us and I like that game, to be clear. I liked Shadows for what it was worth, but Yote just ties it all together so much, quite a bit better.

Yeah, Jesse, We've never, like I think, dove deep on this or anything, but like I have, I've always been fascinating because like guides, I mean you came from Prima and guides writing. Uh, that isn't an aspect of games

It really depends it depends on a lot of factors, and like it's kind of a cop out answer, but depends on the game. It depends on the team you're working with, because like I've I've worked with my team when I was at Prima for my team at Restart a freelance where I'm just like a small part of a bigger puzzle. Like IGN's got a whole different operation going on over there, because they've got a lot of people on these projects.

But I mean, it's.

It's intensive because you're taking notes on everything because a lot of the times you don't know if something's important or not, because like there are a lot of quest lines in Silk Song right, or like like elden Ring was a big one where it's like I talked to this NPC, this might be important ten hours from now.

I don't know nothing at all.

Yeah, there's no because when you're the one writing the guides, you can't consult guides because they don't exist yet. So you're playing these games in a vacuum where if you get stuck you can maybe ask the developer maybe, but really you can't. And so it's a lot of like it's very collaborative in that regard because it has to be because people are exchanging information with one another, because that's all you've got.

Were you ever on the you know, because premium. When I think at PREMI I think by the old you know, just old big chunky strategy guides. We tried to sell it funkal Land back in the day, you know, like were you doing print ever or was it more like dedicated like okay, so this is a URL for how to find every one of these and this is this and how many were comprehensive walkthroughs that you were doing?

So we did one print guide while I was there. I co wrote it with my buddy Lucas White, who was also there at the time for axiom Verge one end two.

So it's what it was. One package.

It was package's limited run. It was like a pre order like pre order, only it was the last physical Prima Guide to ever exist, probably will be the last

Do you remember I came if it was a prima, But do you remember the story of like Mortal Kombat was at nine, the reboot one. It was after the DC Universe thing, and they sent out the strategy guide again. I can't remem if it was premium or not, but it had everything is you know, oh the fatality inputs and stage fatalities and all this very specific like here's

That was back during the time.

I mean, obviously I wasn't around for that, but that was back during the time where people from Prema would actually go to studios and get like a day with the game and just do whatever they wanted to do for you know, a handful of hours able to take their notes, screenshots, get all their stuff, and then they'd leave and they'd be like put in like a room and they'd be like, Okay, here's your you know build.

And then you'd have here, you.

Have eight hours like get all the information you want essentially, So I think Mortal Kombat was one of those cases like a lot of the like Narudo Ninja Storm game stuff like that, but like modern Day Guides is a lot of like SEO targeted stuff, so it's like what are people specifically googling? And how do we title a game or title an article specifically?

Like that?

So it is a lot of like what does the F in Silent Hill f mean? You know, like like you're that's the kind of stuff you know.

A certain when that build?

Yeah exactly? Yeah? Or yeah, Like certainly, game like Silk Song, more than anything I've seen in probably a few years, is the most like I found myself going to a lot of like all right, how do I unlock Act three? What do I do? Like what does this NPC do? Like that was so conducive because the game itself is so not pointing you towards things that like at a certain point, it's like, I'm just gonna look this up. So there's so many fucking silks on guides right now.

Yeah, it's it's everything I did like comprehensive Monster Hunter guides for wilds of like weapons, so it was like cataloging all the weapon weapon details, materials, how to get them, putting them in tables like guides. Work is all over the place, like it really depends on the game. But yeah, so I did that for Shadows, and that's how I ended up playing not only all of the main story, but all of the side content screen shadows.

That's not the you put into Shadows close to one hundred Okay, maybe just like mainlining the story, like playing it at a standard pace? What is that like a fifty hour game?

I think about half that I would say, okay.

It makes sense. Yeah, yeah, I played a fair amount of it and I like it.

But I've also started Hades two and I'm committed to finishing. But uh, I've played enough of Haites two to uh get the ball rolling. But I think both of you probably played more than I have. I'm like three hours in Jesse.

How about you. Where are you at?

I am on the route for the true ending. It's a little bit more of a grind than I had anticipated.

But so I wonder I think you might be past me then, So I'll speak somewhat generally here, Yeah, don't.

Spoil this game, because have you seen credits?

I have not.

Then you were okay, then okay, But but I'll.

Say I feel like I'm close to something resembling credits, Like, so, Mike, I don't.

I don't think it's a spoiler. Like when you walk to go Out, you see that there's a go up right, So in the in the from her the camp basically yes, yes, from.

The hubs rules. So I beat the final boss of Going Out, and this morning I beat the final boss or you know, going up, at least the final boss as I can see it now. So there's a big boss fight after going up. And so like obviously I haven't seen credits, there's still talk of like okay, well that guy when you go down is still around, you know, so like what do I need to do to finish

You have you have quite a few runs ahead of you, Okay, Like that it is and I don't think it's suppiled to say it's kind of operates similar to the way that the first game does, where like sure it is a set number of completions that helps push that that final chunk along. So you have to do a handful of more runs down there, you have to do a handfle more runs up there, and then you'll have to do some stuff around the hub and then you'll you'll you'll know when it's it's.

I assume it would be a little different each time, like now that I beat that, Now this is different over here, Like it seems like that's kind of.

The narrative, will like push along and you'll know you'll.

Do it does feel like it's it's done by any means, But it feels like I've definitely like knocked down a couple of big obstacles on the way.

Yeah, and there's a lot there, Like the crossroads is so expansive, so I'm interested, did you start.

Playing one point? Oh? Where were you playing? Early access?

So when it first came out in one point zero and people because I was adamant about like, I'm not touching this until it's one point because that's how I did the first one, I was happy I did it that way. I would much rather play the kind of complete thing than you know, a bunch of stuff along the way. And people are like, oh, you know, the two is even in the like early version early access

That's what I wish I did, and I told myself I was going to do. And then they dropped one point oh, and i'ment.

Oh, I'll just I'll just boot it up. I'll just see what it looks like.

When they did the first early access launch, it's like, I'll just poot it up, I'll see what's going on. And then I blinked in like thirty hours went by and I was like, oh, I made the mistake I said I wasn't going to and then I was like, okay, no more, no more, not until one point oh. And then they dropped the next update, and same thing happened.

What were they acting along the way? Like? Was it missing boss fights? Was a missing whole section snap like along the way?

You know.

So Early Access launched with the entire underworld fleshed. It fleshed out like final Boss was there like everything, but the upper world only had two zones of the multiple that are in there now and it didn't have it. So they added like two bosses. They added zones, They added a new weapon, They added a bunch of other stuff, like a bunch of the upgrades around the crossroads, only a handful of them were in. They added that there

I hate a skull on my you it'll probably but like they they show me the ones I have not unlocked yet, but there's definitely like two two I don't even see in the unlocked or locked options or it's like the second to last one. I think, yeah, you have to pick.

Up when you first see the weapon options, there's six circles. Yeah on the menu, I only even see four. So like they have not added so I was worried. I was still in like a past build, but I just used whatever.

No, I think it's just a thing of like as you haven't Yeah, yeah, I've used that skull. The skull definitely has I've read briefly that that plays. I've only used the sister blades and the staff so far.

Yeah, yeah, I do. My mains are the Sister Blades and the Axe, and like the axe is like okay, the only real downside to it for me is that like it's slow, so you know, you boost the attack speed on that. And I've also gotten boons where like it basically makes it like a three sixty swing around you, so you can make some broken builds in the best

Yeah, which we will spoil, but is wild.

Truly, it's pretty cool wild, which in the same ways that the first hades, Like the last weapon you get in that game is is the the rail like that the gun like it's wild.

Yeah, it's got the artillery shot for its special yeah, then the machine gun for like so yeah.

You were you were mentioning the first one and how that worked, and like I totally forgot we were talking about on the BombCast where it's like I forgot the cast was just that diamond thing.

Yeah, you should the diamond to get them back.

Yeah, I totally forgot that's how that works. But then you mentioned the charge, like the omega attacks and stuff that did the first one have the omega attacks?

No?

Okay, because you didn't have a magic The magic meter is new, just.

As straight up MP is new. Yeah. So that, yeah, strategic, Like you're talking about Mollinaa having more like strategy to her. Like I think about every time I start to fight with the Sirens, and it's all right, I dashed between the main lady in the shell and the drummer drop down a cast where it's like, you know, I got lightning or whatever they're and then I'm going over there, I'm beat the fuck out of the guitarist, and so like, there is totally a strategy that I go into with

Gonna ask, like I'm not that far in and I'm asking this more to play Devil's Advocate. I don't think every sequel needs to like fucking completely upend its predecessor. I so far, it feels like more Haites to me, and like she plays extremely differently for sure, And I don't think that's a bad thing, because that's kind of

It's a lot of variation. I think there are expansions

Throughout your run.

Like all of that is still there. Like the foundation is the same, and honestly, the I think the theming of the story is also pretty similar. Obviously, the stakes have been escalated tremendously from the first game, where the first one is like about like reuniting your family and figuring out like what's going on, but like the second one is like, shit's bad man, like everything, we have to figure this out, and it's kind of on Melina

So I do appreciate that about it.

Yeah, yeah, I feel like it's if somebody just didn't like with the first one at all as far as just the format and how it all works and the tone and the story and everything. Like I don't think that there's such a huge change with two that's like, well you're gonna love this one. Like there definitely are those sequels where it's like, oh yeah, this is totally different, this is similar. I think it's better. I think it

Yeah, it hooked me hard in the first couple hours, Like that's the only thing that's really like pulled me away from Ghosts of Yote and again, I want to I'm gonna finish Goes to Yota. But like Haities two is I knew I shouldn't have started it, but I played a few hours just so I could talk about it at least in the intro tonight. No, yeah, it feels amazing. I'm already very I'm very like intrigued by

So yeah, I'm I'm thinking the game. I just gotta you know, I want to keep playing more.

And it's completely fine if it's not revolutionizing the ideas in the first game, because I don't think it needed to. I think if it needed if it's a refinement of the best game of twenty twenty, then that's a pretty good start. Yeah.

Maybe the best Rogue Light of all time. Yeah, it's yeah, Jesse.

I don't know if you know the we literally for twenty twenty. That was when we started fire Escape and for our Game of the Year discussion, which we did remotely. I think since then we've done every Game of the year in person, but I believe that was our only remote one, and I think we did two maybe two, and and Haites won one Game of the Year for us, and we literally I don't think said the name Hades until the very end when we announced it, and we.

Didn't get a whole order of the list, and everything, and it's like we didn't say hades. We didn't go over it. It's just like, okay, so I think this is a good number ten, and our this is this will go up, this to go down. And then we got to one and we're like, oh fuck, we haven't said hades yet. It was just such, it was just assumed.

Kind of clear. Yeah, but yeah, no, I mean, I yeah, Hades. I'm liking it so much so far. I'm I'm I do think very very like at this point, I'm just nitpicking. Of course, I do think the home base in Haites one was so much more readable up front, Like the space two there's so much and it's gorgeous. And two there's there's so many little corners that I didn't realize I could even walk into. It's a bit overwhelming at first, Like the first one was just like, oh, a few

I do think that part of the Crossroads readability issue is that it is outside. It is not clearly defined, yeah, like rooms of a house are. And it does I don't know if it ever gets better, because you kind of just keep adding stuff to the Crossroads as you do more, as you brew more of the incantations, and you know, more characters show up and whatever. But it does get at least you're like, Okay, I know nothing is going on over there. Nothing has ever going one over the walk.

I've gone up the pool path a million times in which.

Nothing could be nothing.

Ever. Yeah, so that's nice and then you eventually do get to decorate it. As you start do more runs, you'll get more stuff to decorate, kind of like the first game, and the customization options are like pretty good. I like a lot of the this. It feels like a worthwhile reward for your efforts times like, yeah, I actually do want to hang these string lights. These look really nice and like I kind of vibe with it. The one big thing that kind of bugs me about eighties two,

Do I need this? What do I do with these?

Yeah?

And it'll tell you, luckily, now in the when you go to recycle, it'll say like, uh, when you're highlighted over something that's important, it'll say like important resource, like you still need this basically, And there are other ones that won't say that. And it's like you can get rid of these, but.

Because I unlock the recycling, Yeah, all the fish, I've always saw.

You there's rubbers, nothing to do with them.

Okay, also recycling things where yeah, there's the rubbish stuff that the arrest throws out, and I always crash that. But then everything else in that menu I've been afraid to use because it's like, am I going to need this for an incantation or an aspect of a weapon or something like that.

Yeah, So, and it's it's always it's hard to tell because you have the book, which is great. The book will tell you like here's how you get this material, here's where you get it. Sometimes it don't even tell you what it might be used for. So I use the book all the time. But when you have like I think like twenty five to thirty different materials at any given places, it's like we go like six right now, Yeah, in between that, and like the fish and like some

Do I have the olives?

Did I get the moper fish?

Maybe we didn't need all of.

This, right, I can see that. Yeah, it's not something that actively like impedes my enjoyment of it moment to moment, But like I can't argue that, like there's a good reason why we have this.

Yeah, it's a little silly, but I think all the characters in that game are great.

It's tremendous. It's gonna be you know. I think about it a lot like Game of the Year type stuff like it I cannot wait to see what these discussions are like, because there are so many fucking games that could have a real shot at like near the top.

Remember my last year, I think around this time of year, and we'll I think later this episode we'll talk about timing of Game of the Year again. But I told Amanda what I thought would win Game of the Year, so she knew, but like I wasn't so she could then tell me like she could then claim that I was right or wrong last year.

Like writing on a piece of paper, yea, yeah.

And what was our game of the year, Like I think I.

Forgot oh last year? Last year was I never remember?

Probably it was balatro and yeah, I told that was just a guess that was most.

I wouldn't have gotten Astrobot the game of the year, so I assume no, Yeah, I was.

Correct last year, but I think all of us kind of expected that. But this year there are several I could see it being Yeah.

I think there's probably like four I could.

Say, yeah, yeah, especially no, I don't want to Uh, I'm not gonna without marry here. I'm not gonna dog on any games. Dan, you played MEGABONK yes, so three d okay? It's three D Vampire Survivors, like an accurate yeah description.

That's definitely the first thing you would think of when you see it. That's the literal first thing I thought of. I love the way I was introduced this game. I'm sitting on the couch next to Bank my wife. Her name is Bianca. We call her Bonk, and we're both you know, we do a lot of sitting next to each other playing Steam decks and switches, and we.

Do a lot of sitting next to each other. It's such a romantic.

Thing, you know, wild, Yeah, sit next to someone on all you want. And she's scrolling through a Steam looking for something to download, and she just chuckles and she's like, look at this. Look at the name of this game and the little megabonk and it was like, oh yeah, it's like your name, Bunk. And then she's like, wait a minute, overwhelmingly positive. And I was like, oh, okay, what's this And She's gonna show me pictures of it and stuff, and I'm like, okay, I'm curious. So I downloaded.

Mike Mahartyah, it like bumps a coke.

I don't need to find so come on, man, we're gonna get kicked off these platforms. What do you talk?

I think you've been some before, Dan, my goodness, sucking lame o Dan over here.

Yeah, geez, not a bump before, you, little bitch. I have not, actually, so imagine me on cocaine. Can you imagine that's not a good time for one?

No, that's a valid point, man, It would be a good.

Time for me.

You've all been around me a lot. You've all drank with me a lot.

I don't need cocaine, no one needs it, but that would be fun.

No, Jesse, I don't think you think you might like to see it.

I think it'd be a real thing that I want to see it. I know, I know I want to see you. I want to see it. Also, Oh you we both do. Yeah.

I've done harder than weed three times, and it's like, well, you fuckers better be ready to babysit.

Shirt three times like psychedelics.

Yeah, I did shrooms twice and Morning Glorious needs once all when I was eighteen, all in dorms, and every time is like everyone cancer, you're playing for the night. You got to just make sure I just don't lose my mind in this bunk bed. For you know, eight hours.

Harder than weed is just a funny phrase for Dan.

I think it's like even weed is like I am the most lightweight with weed ever because I could sew up up in my head and everything. So it's just like, yeah, me on coke, I can't even fucking imagine what that's like.

What if you were just really what if you were actually just really cool on coke? It mellows you like cac Man or like nuclear Gandhi and civilization back to normal and the bottom end.

Yeah, it's I took the crayon out of Homer's nose. You're not going to get that reference. Yeah, I get it.

I watched that episode. It was one of the ones you recommended.

No you didn't, No, I don't know, boy. I mean, there's a cure. In a groundhog day situation where nothing matters and I'm just going to wake up the next day and everything's back to normal. I would do everything because I'm curious.

That that brings holy shit. I don't remember how we got in this. It was my fault, I think. But I asked Amanda that last time we watched Palm Springs, and we watched that movie like three times a year now. I asked that. I was like, would that with the next day reset any of your addictions.

You might have been building up? Yeah? I think so, right, but your memory is.

Up building, like you lose the hangover because the body stuff.

If there's a chemical dependency, I think I think that would be flushed.

Your memory is not flushed out. Well, PTSD wouldn't go away. But he's not the horror he witnessed. He does a lot of drugs, he says all the time. Him and JK. Simmons do the We are the ship in the bathtubs. Like I had wondered, like, could you build up a chemical dependency over time in this?

So I think flushes out that'd be fun. Yeah, it's like loading a save state.

Yeah, that'd be nice, megabo but megabonk Yeah, so it might as well be a little Palm Springs groundhog Day kind of.

I mean, it is absolutely just like doing every trick video games have learned over the last forty years of making the chemicals in your brain just fireworks go off, you know it is. I am not gonna say it's better him than eighties. I'm certainly not gonna say it's better anything we're talking about here. Uh. It's just something I can't stop playing. And that is in spite of the fact that it is the most lousy with internet humor game I may have ever played. And that is

For that reason. I'm out a.

Testament to how fun the game is that I can look at this stuff that I think is the lamest ship ever and I can be like, Okay, it's still worth playing, but it's it's it's it goes hard into that.

Would you say that megabunk is certifiably harder than weed?

Now that they're both legal I think they might be in unequal planes, unless you live in a state where weeds now legal, in which case weed is harder.

All right, good to know, yuh Jesse, speaking of harder than weed. Tell me about Digimon's story Time Stranger.

Beautiful.

So you know, we were just talking about eighties two and how it's a story about the Greek pantheon and you have.

All these great characters.

What if I told you digitmon story Time Stranger is also that story is also like, imagine.

Who's the Zeus of Digimon?

But no, but actually I don't know who Zeus is, Like who like no, no, no, no, no, no, the analog for Digitimon.

But what I will say is like, think about Apollo. Right, did you just start explaining Zeus is to him?

He said, who was guy? Yeah?

But I meant in the digit ready to rock with the with the Light version of Zeus.

Sorry.

So it is a time travel story based on the you know, based on the name. You are in the digital world of Iliad and there's a character named Homerus and you get to hang out with characters like Apollo Mon. So what was there a rocky I wish? Okay, So here's the thing. I actually think the story of this game is pretty good because when you're looking at other games in the genre, like like other Monster Teamer games, is the genre okay, like like Pokemon, Pokemon is. It's

I knew what Digimon was, but the way the title is structured, I thought it might be like a graphic novel based.

No, that's super valid because I realized, like I've just been playing this game for seventy hours and I'm just like, yeah, obviously everyone knows what Digimon's story time strange, but not us. No, cruually not affair shit. So yeah, so it's a it's an RPG, you know in all names. You know, it's you collect monsters, you battle them, You're trying to save the world. It's anime as fuck. It starts off at like very like Slice of Life sort of. You're just

Did Youmond ever committed suicide?

You should play digitmon stories Stranger? Oh okay, But the thing I was learning about Digitmon is I watched the show growing up, and I was like, yeah, okay, it's digimon, Like, I don't know, they're just monsters, not as good as Pokemon is kind of think the sentiment around the town. But then when you play the games and you learn about all the other freakos that are in this game, Like,

Nice. Okay, I don't get don't don't get that. I don't either.

Forty one I'm going to I'm not gonna that's definitely this dude, Jesse. Don't you didn't tell me his body is a revolver.

That was the first thing I said, you just and he's no, no, no.

No, no, I wasn't done. His body's a revolver and he's dual wielding revolvers, a cowboy hat and cowboy.

Yeah, his his horse, I was a revolver. But the rest of him is still just like a badass cowboy and he looks like a heartless from Kingdom hearts.

But now let me tell you. Okay, So there's that guy right like the evolutionist attribute. Sorry, sorry to go for it.

I'm on, I'm on dis fandoms digimon Dan, are you looking at this too? Look at his character at the top of his wiki Pasi and his attribute is vaccine.

What his family is virus pro. He's very pro vaccine.

His size is just twenty g. It's like his Wait, his next form is superstar on. Let's look at superstar. Click on his next.

Form superstar on.

It's just a fucking batas star with sunglasses.

And box Holy shit, he's got like wrestler boots and tassels.

This is just this is like just the baseline, Like this game is four hundred and fifty of this.

So it's Pokemon, but the base Pokemon is.

Hang on, Like there are.

Like normal like baby creature looking digimon, but then there's also a digitmon that's literally just like a construction crane with eyes. I think it's called break dramon. Like it's just like, did Youimon have like a really weird evolution path where it's like creature to like just a machine gun.

Wondering what is the weirdest digimon you know?

Hang on, Okay, it's looking. Prior forms of Deputy Moon are Star Moon and superstar On. So wait, is it that he was a star with sunglasses and he evolved into being a deputy like a sheriff star like a badge? Is that the connection?

Sometimes there is no connection, especially in the games, because there's branching evolution lines. You get to kind of pick and choose where you want to go. So the games like really break away from like the anime where there's this like set like like Pikachu evolves into Ryo Chew. It's like not like that or set. Digimon is all over the place.

I'm looking at golf man right now, Jesse, this is dangerous that you introduced me to deputy.

Look up, look up gun dram on just on g U N d r A m O N. This guy was in my party the entire game once.

I that's a lot of it's a fucking guy another but every appendage and more is revolvers.

Is this dick a revolver? It kind of looks like his guns on him.

I don't see a dick.

I see one. No, it's not a no, I see one.

Okay, I is digimon cool.

I need to teach you the other half of digitmon, where where I think we're going to get Dan out of digitmon, because this is where digitmon gets really confusing, because what you're looking at right now is certifiably just a mode weird weird thing that exists.

Now.

Look up bel b e E L storm on one word.

Okay, okay, it's like on the top with a lot of bullets flying around her.

Talking like bett.

Just a woman, you know what I mean?

Right, But like there's a head that's like a cool shark head floating around and then it looks like a shoot shark head.

Which one you're looking at because.

He's in a like a Zanya outfit. We're looking at the same thing.

I think.

Okay, so the thing that's above are you looking at the fandom.

I'm looking so that.

Yeah, like it's it's.

The thing above her and like those are just bullets like otherwise it's like just a woman with two revolvers and like a mask.

Okay, I don't think I see the woman and that is going to get Dan out of digimon.

Well so I was.

It's it's less interesting when a lot of digitmon are also just like humans wearing gotcha like like it starts as a creature and then it becomes just like a human.

Like in a mech.

Yeah, I'm looking at Mitos Simon Bee now and he's just like a vampire guy, Like he just looks like a guy.

Yeah.

So there's a lot of those, But then there's also a lot of your like deputy moons, right, like I think break like I said, break Tramonts just like a crane. Like, there's a lot of volcanessman or whatever. It's like a dude inside of like a suit that loves action figures. Like there's a lot of weird things going on all

There's more fun terms like I don't know how deep you go here? Can you tell me about the Digi Egg of Miracles?

I can tell you about the digit Egg of sincerity?

This is.

Please do please do no.

I actually like all I know about the eggs is that they are used to digivolve certain digimon. I don't I'm sure there's like a lower reason for it. Okay, I don't know what that is. Okay, I know I can go to a vendor in the game and buy them, and that's about all I know about them.

Is this like what it feels like when I talk about wine. This is cool as possible.

I'm gonna show myself getting I could see myself getting into digimon more than I could see myself getting into Like I like wine. You've made me a wine, like I enjoy a nice night with a bottle of wine. But I could if you showed me this shit when I was nine, I would never I would have multiple digitmon tattoos. At this point, I think, well.

Yeah, I don't think a nine year old get into wine.

Regardless.

I'm not trying to just saying what it's I was.

Like, I'm just that Revolver Man did something. Yeah, that was very cool. Oh I felt it. Wow.

Yes, imagine playing sixty hours of that and then having to come out the other side and like, yeah, I'm I'm I'm good, Like everything's fine, everything's cool because it's it's a lot, But I do like him comes out on Friday.

It's cool.

If you like RPG's, I think it's a good one of those. If you've got time for sixty hours of a game in your life.

Who's avenge Kidmon?

I think Dan, you're more into the idea of Digimon than you would be into playing this game.

Yeah. I play it for ten minutes and be like, I think that's been generous. I think it's just the gun guy really got me going on that.

The dialogue is cheesy and very exposition heavy, like no one really talks like that. Okay, ever, but when it gets to its heart, it has like an emotional core to it that I appreciate. Okay, I just like making the weirdest guy I can.

Is it a big thing now, because like Pokemon is still a big thing? Is did you mind? Like when I feel like I was hearing about the most it was like the maybe early mid two thousands. Is it still a thing? Is it a force?

I think it's it's got it's like core audience that shows up for games like this. So Digitmon story Cyber Sleuth was the last Digitmon story game, and that was about a decade ago, and that one only got localized and brought over here because there was such like a fan outcry for it because it was only released in Japan, and then they did like a very low budget localization and brought it over alongside his DLC. I think it

I understand.

Totally cool.

Yeah, but well, what's it.

On PlayStation Xbox PC? I think it's coming to switch. Don't quote me on that. Okay, I played it on PlayStation.

It ran fine, nice, right, Dan, I know a lot more about digitmand than I did before.

Then you play Baby Steps.

I played a little bit idy Foddy. Yeah. I think this is one of those rare games that I would watch more than I would play because I am not particularly patient. I appreciate the like, you know, I'm a

Fair enough, I'm right there with you. I don't even want to watch it. I'm sure Jeff Grub's dedicated and very skilled at it, but I don't.

He's both those things. Yeah, you get to really this guy gets a real sweaty ass and people live. I saw the chat say that he's kicked up.

Oh yeah, Jeff Grubb or the character.

I think they've been referring to the character. He wears a onesie and he gets the real sweaty ass.

I thought you're talking about it.

Grub Yeah, I don't know rub butt some grubbs butt really now. But yeah, Nate the character and baby steps caked up as they say. But no, it seems like a great game for what it's doing. I don't want to play it.

Yeah, that whole subgenre is not up my alley.

No, all the like going up or even the old Ben and fotty stuff and everything like, yeah, I love the idea, just cannot do it. I don't even like the idea. I respect the idea.

I beat getting over it, and I was like, okay, cool, I never have to play one of these games ever again. Like I had my sense of accomplishment, have fun.

Yeah that that that's oh man, I'm I'm gonna piss people off with this one. With that kind of game, I feel like once you grasp it, Dan, I feel like you have a sane approach to it. Once you get it, you're like, okay, I don't this is not where I want to find sand. Yeah. I I think I think video games are a great use of time. I think I think that they can provide a lot of entertainment. They can they can be up doingies for growth.

No, I think there's a right amount of it, like for me, And again it's personal preference, like Grub seems to be loving it.

If you're enjoying it, that's all that matters. Like I who am I to say like you're not, you shouldn't enjoy that. If you're enjoying something, then obviously that's worth the time.

But I mean compared to something like Hades two, where it's like what are you doing in Hades two or any rogue light but doing the same thing over and over and trying to get better at it? And yeah sure. The difference though to me is that something like a Hades too is like the rogue light element where it's like, Okay, I am getting actual tangible things that are helping me progress here, Like this acts, I've upgraded a little more

And you could argue that you're making like intangible progress in baby Steps in the sense that you are learning more like in a Oh, then in Early Dark Souls or something where it's like you're not actually progressing because you didn't upgrade anything, but you're still getting knowledge, like yeah, yeah, yeah, and out of wilds I get, but I'm still getting

So a perfect example of that is the Man Breaker. That mountain they very much show you when you go up there, there is a winding staircase that goes all the way to the top, and it's not like necessarily easy. You still got to kind of wrestle with the goofy controls to get up to the top, but like it is probably again I have not gotten that bar, but it seems like that's the easy route, and it seems to be put there specifically to be like it seems

People love that that kind of game, So like, I get that there's I'm not the audience, but I also sometimes I'm like, oh man, maybe it's because it in Haites that there's like such immediate quick feedback loop and run to run or something like that. So yeah, totally all right, I get it.

It's a cool thing. I'm very glad it exists. Yeah, I think it's doing the thing it's set out to do perfectly right.

Uh, do you guys want to talk about emails the concept?

Yea, yeah, let's do it.

Okay, as usual, you can ride into firescape cast at gmail dot com. That is, Fireescape cast at gmail dot com. Questions that you want to be read on the show, Dan, do you want to read this? First one? From Darien?

Sure? I remember back in the odds there were articles and stuff going around about how boss fights were bad and always bad, and that no game should have boss fights. Now they're a cornerstone of some of the most loved franchises in the world. Can you think of any similar opinions that didn't really hold up? Cheers Daring from Toronto.

All hell yeah banana phone or hello fuck. It was one of my favorite early videos. Do you know what I'm talking about?

No, but it sounds like something that's just a.

Guy I hung over. I think he was hungover. He woke up and his phones ring in somewhere in a like really messy dorm room and he keeps picking up random item and saying hello. Fuck when he realized was on the phone, and he did like.

Oh, it's your whole bit with the barbecue ribs, and yeah, I've seen the whole that up.

Yeah, but this was like he was pissed off that it wasn't a phone every time he picked up a shoe or a dildo or I don't know. Yeah, this just was self serving because I think I talked about this recently, I since I first played a Banjo Kazui and Tooey. This isn't really like a discourse that I think was a bad opinion. This is more something I have. It takes a big man to admit that you know, he was mistaken. It takes a really brave person to like,

It's laborious. I did not play those games until like the pandemic and I streamed him and I one hundred percent of Banjo Kazuei, and I was like, this is fucking great. I really missed out back then. And then I started toohey with all the enthusiasm of the world, and very quickly I was like, oh no, they they their eyes are bigger than their stomach. You know, they tried too much.

Heart was in the right place, because it's like, oh, well, okay, well, if you put this hungry, crying, throwing a tantrum kid in a mind cart in the theme park, he's going to go off into this tunnel and you're like, all right, where do you go? You find out that he it's like the three worlds later you find them. But in order to go back and complete the quest, you need to go back and there's no fast travel, there's there there's really annoying things to move around the world. I

The game kind of shows a tan though, because that game's opening moves at a glacial pace like it is. It is a long intro for that game, and then by the time you get into it, you're like, yeah, now we're in it. Now we're gonna we're gonna we're gonna be doing banjo Kazooi things, We're gonna be cooking. And then you're like, oh no. The whole game kind of moves like this, Okay, they're trying to do too much here and it's not exactly where it needs to be.

You know, the Grant Kirk Hope was just listening at Scott when he.

Was just he was just yeah, it's like, so you put Real big Fish in that soundtrack, and it's like, yeah, this is Banjo Kazui.

I got this.

I know what. I know what's up?

Okay, I see it.

Next time you play Banjo Kazu, we put some ska on and you'll you'll know what I'm talking about.

I don't like you say that like it's that simple. It really is like put skat.

On Scott on Spotify, just like, yeah, just ska.

Man is real big Fish to go to? No.

It was my math teacher's sons band in ninth grade. Apparently they blew up a bit for Syracuse standards and.

I went to a gold Finger. I went to a gold Finger and Real big Fish concert once. And I've been to a Warp tour.

Just like Banjo KAZUOI exactly, it's like living the game what other what other video game opinions are bad that we like, Yeah, discourse.

The thing is there is a billion that are just like one dumb ass on Twitter or Blue Sky. I want I want something like agreed upon. Yeah, oh that's interesting. There's so many stupid things that came and went like do.

One or or pick one person and then take an opinion of theirs. Ben Hanson, what's an opinion? Ben Hanson's had that was just stupid?

Tank Tank Tank was the best game of the WU launch. That's so stupid, which again not a great launch, but there was new Super Mario Brothers you which you know, it's one of those new Super Mario Brothers games. It's it's an objectively good game, not one of the best Mario games by any means, but like better than Tank Tank Tank. Ben Hansson has a lot of weird takes over the years.

Yeah, I don't want to actually fan those flames. Jesse, what is your We've asked this, people have asked us this before. What's your like, what's a what's a what's a video game? Take the It would piss us off that you have and you believe Yeah, no.

One that I hold deer currently. I don't know if this would piss you too off. But like, I think Death Riding two is actually a very bad video game, ently like way worse than the first one in almost every I think it's a I think it's a mediocre game.

Well, I guess you and I talked a little bit pre released about this, and I can tell you weren't quite as hot on it as me.

No, I mean open world game with really cool tools.

Yeah, it's it feels like they learned all the wrong lessons from the director's cut and then made a sequel and it was like where's the friction? Where's like where's that like that you you want to just climb that mountain? You want it to be this like perilous journey, and there's like, now here's the truck. We give you like ten hours in like you just that truck can get you anywhere you want.

Sounds like steps in a lot of ways.

I do want baby steps, but I also want baby steps with all.

The Kajima bullshit.

That's fair, understand.

I want I want you're talking to you're talking to the two who argued for Death Raining one, but uh, somebody we know thought it wasn't eligible.

In twenty twenty three, or whatever.

It was because director is not on the podcast was eligible apparently, you know what I think.

I think Silk Songs not that great. Wonder what the consensus is going to be by the end of the year.

I think Silk Songs fucking blown up. But I think Team Cherry is not nearly as smart as we all think they are. I think Team Cherry is actually not that great at developing video games. Jesse, you're going all out, Yeah, so silk so legitimately the Silk Song defender. No, No, I like Marry like Silk Song quite a bit. I think Silk Song's.

Not that great.

Oh god, Jesse's going to be interesting. No, no, no, no, I think I I literally said my piece in the last episode. I was like, I think Silk Song is incredible at certain moments, but I think those moments the payoff makes you forgive a lot of bad game design leading up to it, and then we kind of think, oh, Team Cherry, it was intentional all along, these indie developers toiling away obscure. No, I'm just I'm We're getting ahead

I do have another maybe hot video game do it. I think the boss fights are the worst parts of Soul's Lakes, Like, I inherently think they're the least interesting part of that entire franchise structurally.

I think I might agree with you because I think the games are at their most brilliant in between and also when you're like connecting the world via the checkpoints and whatnot. Not that that's what you're saying, but that's kind of where I'm coming from.

No, that's that's also where I'm coming from. I think the world design is like way more interesting, and I'd rather run around that world than get stuck on a boss for five hours and then be like, I don't get to enjoy the interesting parts of this game anymore. Now, I just have to do like a pattern recognition check.

Jesse. I think I'm with you because I think about this slight. Here's maybe my hot take. I think maybe the whole from format a little overrated. I think it's maybe not like everyone looks at it as like, oh, this is the new trailblazer for a game genre here outside of elden Ring, which I do. I will give elden Ring all the credit in the world. I think

Yeah. No, I totally agree with that. You lost me because I love a lot. Bloodborn is one of my favorite games of all time, But like, yeah, I think, I think a lot of what they're doing gets kind of wrung out by the time they do it for the fifth time. Now now I'm mapped up.

What else do I fucking want to? What else do I hate video games?

It's something I disliked that a lot of people liked.

I mean, I've always said that about Assassin's Creed, but I don't think that's a hot take anymore because I think at this point so many people are tired of Assassin's Creeds.

Is the first I think my hot take is I'm still in love with Assassin's Creed. Like I still like that series. Okay, I didn't have to play it for guides granted, but like, I still I.

Still like Shadows, Like even despite all of that, Like I think, oh, I think that game is a hell of a game. It's my one problem with Shadows, not to go in too much of a tangent, is there's too much foliage. Like when you're running through trees for like ten minutes, you can't see anything.

Maybe we didn't need this.

It looks great, but like this is kind of just bad.

Like that's that's the world apart. But it doesn't make for good gameplay when you're trying, Like you can escape into the woods initially, which is fun, but then after that it's like, oh, they're actually like separating the individual settlements with just dense trees, which makes sense for the setting, but also they've been toying with the setting for since ac one.

Yeah, I don't know if this is more of a hot take or an old man take or both, but it's the kids today, and I think when I start that way, it probably goes in the kids old man mode. When you think about them aging and thinking about games. They are playing Roadblocks, they are playing Fortnite, they were playing these kind of platform based, online, ever changing experiences.

And that's the thing where it's like it's one of those things where they grew up so differently than us than I don't think it will even compute with them how special it was for us to be able to do that. For them, No, there will be some sort of nostalgia for them in a way that we don't even understand yet.

Like they will talk about it, and they will like they will sit around in their dorm rooms and be like, oh, remember you know Roeblogs when we were in like third grade, when this would happened.

That's like currently happening.

It's the reason fortnite OG exists, right, is like you'd all these people being like, oh, remember Fortnite Season three, Like that's back when it was peak, and like they're talking about it and it's like a it's a bygone era because you can't play that version of that game anymore. And then Fortnite OG comes back and they're like sure, oh, but it's like not really what I remember it to be.

Yeah, And there's an aspect of like I do wonder how they're going to preserve it in a way that someone might be able to go back play their favorite Roadblocks experience in fifteen years. I don't know how long it takes for nostalgia to kick in, or I don't know how long it takes for an experience to become more nostalgia than an actual, like recent memory.

But I feel like when for like, look, you're not going to recreate the like you know, pulling a CRT in an Xbox and getting sixteen friends in a room and playing Blood Gold, Capture of the Flag, Halo or whatever.

Right, and that's amazing.

They can make the master Chief collection and you can play that game online everything. You can't recreate those actual childhood memories. But like, yeah, I don't even think you can do that with a Roadblock or something, you know, like just a weird obscure, just you know, user created maps and stuff like that. I just I don't know if that's a lost.

Private servers baby, that'd be fun though, actually doing a system link for Halo two at some point like physically setting one up again.

Oh sure, it was amazing in our dorms, Like it was before the three sixty came out. It was Halo one. You could fucking plug the Ethernet accord or whatever it was from the Xbox into your dorm room wall.

Yeah, that the local area network. It.

Yes, it wasn't just the dorm I lived in. It was all five dorms on the hill and got Ku and then even ones further away, and all of it was on the same network. So that was for that was before Xbox Live. That was for any of that. And you could just play Halo one with anyone in any dorm in the city, and like that was just such an interesting like this is before way before iPhones

Did you ever develop like a rivalry with a specific dorm.

Or it was more just like dorms had their certain reputations. Oh, Naysmith is the rich kid. Dorms I lived in Hashingar, which is like the weird art kid dorm. Yeah, so like this is like kind of the future frack.

I've always called you when you weren't, you know, behind your back.

I did. I kind of hated it, just a bunch of very preticulous, Like every time I walked into the dorm past five pm there were like three guys with shaggy hair, like playing acoustic guitars.

And is the guy leans in your doorways like local Area Network purports to be about connection, but really it's just all isolation and then he goes to bed.

That's not even an exaggeration.

In drug rugs, playing hacky sack like just.

Yes, yes, yeah, but yeah, team Cherry needs design lessons, all right, next to Emil, all right, this is kind of a rapid fire. It's a few questions in one from Jeff all right, sup FBC, long time, first time here. Love the show, love the opinions, and I pretty much buy video games based on what's talked about on the podcast because of different facets, your own personalities and likes dislikes that match mine. You make it too easy anyway.

Video games, yes, uh, because that can really help because, like you know, you're not necessarily like hearing everything they say as you drive from point to point, and it's good to see that. Movies, I don't. I don't do it with movies video games. It's a special case because, like I'm streaming them so often with work and everything that like it's better for the viewer to have the subtitles on. So I do default to turn those on. But I'll never do it for movie, never do it

Gonna say, I've come around and watching subtitles for like long form TV because you can miss so things so easily that like last time we watched we rewatched The Wire, We're now rewatching The Wire again. That show. I mean, there are so many different dialects in that show, because I think the great thing about that show is that they're covering so many different sects of the city that people are speaking differently within their different bubbles. And also

I feel like that's the thing. Like I keep getting asked that in like comments like you're playing this or this night, I'm just doing English voices English subtitle.

I kind of wish I did, and here's why. And when I'm when given that choice, I almost always pick whatever is diegetic to the setting, like I'll pick oh yeah, And I don't regret it when during cutscenes Gusta Yote and I should have mentioned this earlier in the episode, that's not I don't think it's a knock on it. I think it's just a knock on me not speaking Japanese. They there's some dialogue during fights or while I'm riding my horse trying to aim for the flowers, where there's

Also a weird thing where it's like in Ghost of Yota, the the melee stuff, it's got to like blue glint, a red glen, yellow glen stuff, and that's clearer how to respond to that. But the way they dealt with the range guys, like the guns and the bon and arrows, like they just yell before it, and so it's like ah and then throw and it's.

Like the friends yeah and they fucking yeah. This doesn't feel really realistic. I don't. Yeah, I don't think Lego Loos was like here it comes gunn yeah, get ready.

Yeah.

I can't like fault them fully for trying to find some way that doesn't just clutter it even more visually.

It's a video game. Yeah.

I use subtitles for most things, games, especially because most of the time I'm playing games usually on Discord with friends, and so if I don't have subtitles on it, I miss something. I'm like, I can't do two things so much with the subtitles. A second, like read some some dial or something.

But just that's something I keep hearing about now, is like people just like hanging out in like Discord voice servers, and like I I think I probably know a bunch of the guys you're talking about that you're in these things with, and I've never done that. Piece of ship Carson.

Yeah, my message right now is Mike says, fuck you, Okay, I love that guy.

Yeah, It's like are are we're talking about? Like there's like six people playing video games and you all have just open mics and you're all playing different stuff and chatting. I mean that sounds fun. I just that seems like such a It.

Doesn't sound like you think it sounds fun, danced because like you're doing that's amazing. But like.

Because I'm thinking about like a lot of times, like I was talking about, like being Beyonca, well be sitting down both playing our steam deck games, or.

You're sitting next to each other when you're separate.

Yeah, we're talking and stuff, but it seems like maybe that type of thing, right, Yeah.

Well it's this idea, right, like how many times have you like gone to a friend's house or had a friend over when you were younger and one of you is just playing a single player game or the other person is like, well, what do I do? I guess I just watch you play. This is like everyone gets their screen time. Everybody's in their enclosure, everyone's in their

No?

But I have them up and it's like this nice communal night that we're all having where you know, we might be quiet for twenty minutes and then we might go off the rails for thirty five minutes and then we all go back to play in our games.

That sounds fun, it's a good time.

It's very like a.

More recent thing, like I don't think that really was happening ten years ago.

No, No, not at all, but it is the reason I have to put subtitles on when I play a game, and because if like I said, like if I have six people blaring Discord soundboards in my ear and I'm trying to watch a Ghost of Yota cut scene, like it's I gotta be able to read what's happening with movies. Though It's like I don't really have subtitles. My roommates like subtitles a lot, so like it really is just based on like if they're watching with me or not.

I'm also very much like a visual learner, like that's my that's how I build my memory lexicon. Seeing names helped a lot with shows like that or again, like the Wire, same thing. There's so many characters. I'm like, all right, this is okay. I got to know Bunk

Deadwood is another one, oh yeah, where it's a really dense dialogue and a bunch of characters and stuff, and it does just kind of help with that, so it is kind of like a show by show basis.

Then Deadwood's really good, Deadwood's fuck, it's good. Russ Frushtick convinced me to rewatch. I started it back in the day and then uh, when I came to Pobaly gond rushed it is like it's a slow burn, but it's got one of the best several payoffs in like TV history, and I rewatched it. I'm like, oh my god, it's it's.

The three times now I have watched the show and I had a poster that show in my fucking college department. I love it, but I every time I get to two or three episodes in the season three and I fall off, and not because it's bad. It all seems good. I cannot explain it, but i've I didn't and Bianc had not seen it, and so a few years ago it's like, Okay, I'm gonna do this. It was around the time the movie was coming out on HBO, which

Yes, I like it quite a bit. It's not my favorite of the show, but it's definitely good.

We did that with A Wire or two, where we watched because I've seen The Wires several times and probably the best show ever, and we got through. We watched the first four seasons pretty quickly, and then I think we watched like the first one of season five and then fell off five five. There's moments in five.

Yeah, five's like rightfully criticized being self indulgent on Simon's part. He was, you know, a Baltimore Sun reporter, and then the fifth season was about journalists.

Yeah.

I do think the media was integral to the story they were telling. I just think it got a bit too in the weeds. I didn't mind because that like I came up watching that show and be like, oh, yeah, I want to be a you know, a journalist. This is awesome, Like.

I don't.

I think that's one of the weaker seasons. Rewatching the show, I think season two is actually way better than I ever gave it credit for.

And I always liked season two. Iat.

I get why people initially were like what the fuck are they doing before they saw what they were actually going forward with the whole thing, but like this is.

Totally different, but like I think it's it's they were looking at several different aspects of the city and crime and it and like what an interesting take on like just the docs And for.

The first like two episodes, you're like, why the fuck do we care about these Steve it or doc workers like and of course, and again initially the show is like, why the fuck do we care about what all these like white Baltimore dudes are doing? Like I was watching like I was watching these like like you know, these characters that I had gotten to love and like they were their whole thing was like playing the game with

Okay?

So so he said no sound, I think he means music.

He's saying no sound, but he said, I've.

Never heard the in game soundtrack after Tears of the.

King either way, Like you know what this this track, this goes right into a previous question about bad takes, and I remember, I think it was Stephen Tatillo had a thing around the first Red Dead Redemption saying that like he did he listened to podcasts or you never listened to like the music and return the music off and red dipdemption, and he got a lot of shit for it because it's like, oh my god, like you know Red Dead Redemption, those musical moments, like you know,

Yeah, when you're crossing into Mexico, the yeah, yeah.

Like those are the things some of the things I remember the most about that game. And two two did the same thing, unshaking yeah, yeah, yeah, And I remember he got a lot of ship for that back in the day. And the thing is, I don't even want to say that age poorly because I think at the time he got a ton of shit for it. But I guess it is a personal preference thing, like what Jeff is saying here, But like it's kind of crazy to me, you know, that's the part that's a huge

You wanna so, yeah, Jesse, like I I that's when you were saying that you have like several streams up and you're talking to your friends. That's where I'm I got to a point where I'm like, okay, interesting, That's where I might have fallen off if that was something I was into, Because turning soundtrack off is one thing. If you want to tellor your experience to be like as immersive to you as you can make it, and if turning the soundtrack off helps that for you, go

So I'm very first of all, so when I'm watching like other people streams, like when I'm playing my game, like I'll normally turn their streams off, like the volume because it is more of just like a oh, just seeing what they're up to what they're playing, and then like I'm playing my thing with my volume on, so I'll have people talking like over voice obviously at me, but like I still have my sound like cranked, like I'm still say But I'm also like very particular about

Yeah. Yeah, like tough. Yeah, it goes out saying it's like obviously if any of us are playing something for work, then we're giving it our full attention. Yeah, Like it's like, yeah, what game was I recently playing? Like Ghost of Yote,

Yeah, like Brett the Wild is, I think it's a game by game thing. Like Brett the Wild was never a podcast game for me. But like Jesse was saying, like, hey, thees, Yeah, after a certain amount of like you know, I played these runs million times, it's I feel okay, you know, watching something or listening to something. And then there's things like MEGABONK where it's like I played it a lot,

Yeah, I don't need the sound and risk of Rain two, even though I fucking love that game. And I also don't need the sound in Tower Dominion, even though it's one of my favorite games this year. Like I don't need the sound like.

But you over and over again that are designed to be heard over and over again, is like yeah, now it's the time. Like I think of curated experiences a lot, where like death Strending is a very curated experience when it comes to his music, right you're cresting over a hill,

I thought it was neat well. Also, yeah, Insomnia, like Insomnia can't get the rights to Wu Tang clans, so like you're gonna make it way better.

If you do.

Yeah, No, I totally get that for sure, But I definitely if if Jeff's saying he turns the sound off, but that's I don't have kids. I'm sure like there's there are people who do that are like I just literally want quiet. I can sort of get that penn ultimate question, not finishing video games. The reason I'm playing Tears that king him again is to finally finish it. I'm notorious for not finishing games, not getting to the end,

No, not at all.

It was a turning point for me when I decided I do not need to finish every fucking game I start. I that was like ten years ago, maybe fifteen at this point. Obviously, again keeping in mind at fall three of us are playing something for work. We're going to see it through and like make sure we give it our full attention and you know, meet it more than

That was something reason Jesse we're talking about off the air tonight, where it's like, if you're writing reviews for a game, like you know, that's all I was doing from like oh five to maybe twenty fourteen, is like you, it's a scored review. You need to beat it. You need to be able to talk to the entire of the game. But it was a thing once I shifted to Giant Bomb, and it was like, okay, it's podcast discussion.

Yeah, but that means in my free time, I dropped games all the time. Yeah, I when I learned learned it like it was like a skill, but like truly I broke the habit of being like I paid for this game, or I got this game and I'm going to see it through, Like oh my god. There's nothing like the rush of dropping a game you're just not enjoying or not vibing with, or you play ten hours of and you understand. It's like I love that feeling

What's the feeling of like having something like socially that you need to do, like a party or something. Yeah, and then like for some reason it's like, oh, you have a great excuse to not go or it gets canceled.

The rush of canceling.

I just don't have to do that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I Like I said, Yota is the first game in a while and my free time that I'm like, I'm going to finish this because I really do just truly, and that's not I'm not like pushing myself to finish it. The game's good enough where it's pulling me toward the finish, but like it's been a while since I thought, Okay, I'm actually going to see this through for sure. And then last question from Jess shower beers, Yes or no? I'm not a shower beer WI used to be.

I mean, I've cut back my drinking pretty significantly over like the last year. But if I'm on vacation and like the vibes are right, a shower beer Hell yeah, man.

I was a shower beer guy before the bars. You know, take a shower, get clean, take get a little pre drink going on. Now I'm an older man, I'm a sauna beer guy. Do you have a sauna? I just got one from Costco. This has been a saga for the last week or two on Giant Bomb. I've talked about so I got. I'm probably gonna start preheating it right after this podcast. I'll probably do a run a Hades while it's heating up to one fifty, and then I'll have a couple of beers in the shower or

That's my new thing where I'm trying to like like.

In the bathroom, the macaroni cheese bathroom.

Oh wait, no, I've seen it. It's like the that like.

No, no, no, no, no no, not the steamroom closet. That's the older that was the old model. I bought a full on wooden, big ass like sauna thing.

How many people can it fit? Is it just a one person sna or can it fit two person?

It's a two person in your back. Go in there. It's got bluetooth, it's got fucking like it is hotter. It's a dry sauna situation. Like the audio listeners won't see it. But that's that's the guy there it is.

That's from control. Yeah, yeah, that's the oldest house man. Yes, that's in your back. I've been doing that every single night for the last two weeks. And I will usually have some beers in there, and that's Uh. I've been reading. I've been reading, uh a mic or a literary man. I've been reading Breakfast of Champions and drinking beers and uh, just.

Ben Handsome recommend that to you.

No, That'shouse five. And I enjoyed it, and I was like reading Signs of Titan. That's my favorite. I might be back on the Maharty book suggestion train, because okay, I was doing that if we.

Talked about it a few episodes ago. When you're done with those and you want like a book that's actually gonna like fucking change your life. One hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez one of the most right now. Enjoy It's it's it's it's literary as fuck, but it's also like Enjoyable's hell page turner, So like, don't let the the the way this situation to turre you.

I love that book. No I read I look, I got nothing to do in that thing. I'm in that thing for thirty minutes. I I'd love to have a book to read. Oh yeah, I was thinking about like physical books because I like physical books. But like I'm sweating a lot in there. I don't want them to get.

All well, I don't know if that's the spot for that.

Yeah, I'm just doing the Kindle in there. So that's sauna beers and yeah.

Can the kindle handle it too? Is it like not too hot?

I looked it up. It's not like recommended, but like if it gets to a bad point, it'll be like, hey, it's fucking hot, what are you doing? And but you know I usually do like, you know, fifteen minutes of reading and I'll put it down on the ground where it's less hot and it's going to sweat out the rest.

All right, Yeah, I don't, I don't. I don't remember the last time at a shower beer as a joke. A man, it brought me like a shower red wine, like a last year or something. I don't, but it's not like something I do on purpose. All right, Well, thank you, Jeff. That's all our emails. Excellent again for next episode. Restock that in box. That's Firescape cast at gmail dot com. Appreciate all the questions you send in marriably back next episode. Jesse, thank you so much for joining us.

Thanks for having it was to have you plug things.

Yeah, yeah, what do you have going on that we should know about currently? I don't have a whole lot going on.

But if you go to restart dot run, or you go to you type my name Jesse Vitelli into any social media, you'll find me there Blue Sky, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, whatever you want, whatever your social media choices. I just put out a Digitmond review if you want to read more about the wacky world of Deputymon that went up today.

Yeah.

I don't really have anything major going on, but.

You might see me around other places. Who knows, Dan, what about you?

Giant bomb dot com, that's that's the place. I just started playing my Blake Club game. I'm playing a Darkest of Days. Have either of you heard of this?

Yes, Darkest of Days?

Now it's my Blake Club. I have to dress up like a Civil War soldier and which side time cops. That's the thing. I learned what the game was on the air, and I had to dress up and instead a Union soldier outfit, and it's that's the north. Okay, we're good, but it's the idea of a time traveling soldier time cop situation where it's like, oh, you're getting rocket launchers and shit in the Civil War in World War One and stuff like that. So it's not good.

Cool. I'm just here and then I guess said October twentieth, go to our Patreon page for tickets to that Smash Bros.

Tournament.

If you can be in New York on October twentieth, whether you live here, whether you're nearby, come in, hang out, wear fire, skip gear. Love to see it. Also, we do officially now have fire Skate Merch dot Com. I saw to that. I know the bit with Mary and I was fun, but just now Fire skate Merch dot Com should go to fourth Wall.

I hit enter.

Look at that some of our merch. Yeah, there we are. Yeah yeah, fire fire Skate Merch. There's still there's a lot you can get. We actually just restocked the stainless steel water bottles because people were buying those even when we didn't have the domain name. So go buy stuff there. We like quite a lot of it. We do have some new stuff on the way soon. We're finalizing some of that to get ready for our Game of the Year stream and Game of the Year season as we

Yeah, it's in tentative. Obviously, it's tough with all of its having jobs and me also having to do a game of yer stuff with my day job and everything. But we are looking at early December. Yeah, it is kind of what we're looking at now. Saturday, there's the TGAs, there's holidays and stuff. So just will update you once it's for sure, but like, we're looking at December right now. Yep.

Subby fire skate merch dot com, get prep for that. We still have our dorky Christmas sweaters there if you want to rock those. I might bring mine in Minneapolis this year. We will be back at Dan Studio for that. Outside of that, I think that's it. Uh, Jesse, thank you so much again for joining and Dan. I don't know, I don't really I'm here. I don't have anything to thank you for that much beer? Sauna, Yeah, got your sauna and read your fucking book, your fucking geek. Yeah, like your sauna beer?

Yeah, beer, Well read Shotgun, your shotgun, the beer in the sauna.

I'm gonna read Kurt Vonnegat. Will I drink a beer this on?

I mean, what does that not sound?

Okay, that sounds amazing to me. All right, thank you, I'm next. Next, Next, I'm gonna read Infinite Jests. Well, I drink some wine.

I started Infinite Jests. It seems like a lot recently. No, a few years ago.

I was gonna say, yeah, I don't do that. It's Dan gets into infinite Just jesus.

It seems like a whole lot nobody.

Here's another hot take of mine. Nobody should ever read Infinite Jest. I don't give a fuck what those intermittent chapters add to the book. It's in the same way nobody should ever fully read Moby Dick, which I did.

Wait a minute, no, no, no, wait, I think I'm sucked up here because I was just I'm thinking of Inherent Vice very.

Very very differently. But you can see that, you can see the similar exemp. The name Thomas Pinsion. I like that book Infinite Jess David Thomas Anderson.

One that's the one I tried to read the book though that's in hair advice.

That's your advice, infinite just is like the stereotypical, like ponytail college bro, like performing, who is that performative?

Now? Like uh, David Foster Wallace before I know, no, no, I have not and like.

There's there's a half it's about tennis, because he thought like, yeah, yeah, I don't know.

No, Mike. The last time I altogether is you. You tried to make me read a book about surfing and I quit reading books for like six years.

Barbarian Days by William Finnigan Jake Deckers this Year's Weekend and agrees it's amazing.

I couldn't do it. I couldn't do it. I'm back.

I'm back on the book the fucking needs you to do it. That was nonfiction. Now you're back on Kurt Fonnigod. I'm I'm Ben Hanson. I'm just reading Kurt Fonniicain in the Sun. I've never heard been handsome. Oh he's talked about Breakfast Champions, Yes, Slaughterhouse five Tires Are Titan is my favorite one.

I have a few here, Okay, hey consider me open to suggestions. Now I got sonic time.

Now you mean you don't want to read Native Wine Grapes of Italy.

Not again.

You don't want to read Seller Rat. You don't want to read Making Sense of Burgundy by Matt Kramer.

God, my dad's waking up in a cold sweat and doesn't know why.

You don't want to read the New French Wine Volume one, the History or Volume two?

The Producers? Are most of those books wine books? Behind you? Yeah, the whole this whole room.

Wait, I don't want to read wine Grapes.

It's so big, Jess, you can the call anytime you want to know. This is great.

I'm learning so much. That's a big book.

Infinite just too many grapes.

Wait, wait, do you think I would like infinite jest? Or that book that you're holding more this book that I'm holding more? Infinite?

You actually learn? Yeah, you'd actually be better person for it, and not just a douchebag who look at the section on Pino noir just keeps going, Oh now we're talking. Uh, it's not done yet. Fucking the party, all right, thank you everybody for joining Episode one seventeen. We will be back in a couple of weeks. And we'll be starting to solidify our game of the year plans. It's been a blast, it's been a good year so far. None of you please ruin it or please don't ruin it.